The Social Conservative Review: May 9, 2013

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Dear Friend,

It's human nature to wish every victory could be final and decisive. For example, when we defeated Nazi Germany, it was a complete win. Clean, neat, done.

The battle for our culture is not like that. We can win heartening pro-life victories at the state level even as legislatures legalize same-sex "marriage." The pregnancy care center movement is growing, even as abortion providers get federal money.

Two steps forward, one step - and sometimes two - back. So why do we keep fighting? Because the lives of the unborn and those of their mothers have value. Because without strong families, we unleash chaos and brokenness. Because without religious liberty, all other liberties are in jeopardy.

"Vindicate the weak and fatherless," commands the God of the Bible. "Do justice to the afflicted and destitute" (Psalm 82:3-4). This is not a recommendation. It is a demand from our Creator and Redeemer. Thank you for helping FRC obey it.

Sincerely,

Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice President
Family Research Council

P.S. Download (at no cost) Dr. Wayne Grudem's valuable new booklet, "Why Christians Should Seek to Influence Government for Good."

Educational Freedom and Reform
Homeschooling

• "Texas Senate passes bill to allow home-school students to participate in UIL sports," Dallas Morning News
• "New Changes to Military Enlistment for Homeschool Graduates," Home School Legal Defense Association
• "How Can I Prepare My Kids for Standardized Testing?," Crosswalk

Legislation and Policy Proposals

• "A Nation at Risk" 30 Years Later: The State of American Education," Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• "Yes, Experience Matters, but Great Teaching Matters Most," Education Week
• "Choice in Schools or Choice in Education?," The Acton Institute

College Debt

• "Poll: 41% of College Graduates Underemployed," Breitbart.com
• "Duke Raises Student Fees to Pay for Sex Change Surgery," The College Fix
• "How Student Debt Affects Women, Minorities," U.S. News and World Report

Government Reform
Regulation

• "Privatize almost everything," The Washington Times
• "What Has Small Government to do with Conservatism?," Intercollegiate Review
• "Is Obama Really Reducing Regulatory Burdens?," The FedSoc Blog

Waste/Fraud/Abuse

• "Transparency Delayed, Transparency Denied," The Washington Free Beacon
• "Driving toward bankruptcy," The Washington Times
• "Entitlements: What Difference Does it Make?," American Thinker

Health Care
Abstinence

• "The End of Meaningless Sex," The Public Discourse
• "The Good Lessons I Learned From Abstinence Education," The Atlantic

Health care reform: Political and Legislative efforts

• "Laying bare your finances to apply for health care," Associated Press
• "Would Congress have the nerve to exempt itself from ObamaCare?," The Galen Institute
• "The Medicaid-Expansion Distraction," National Review Online
• "Streamlined Obamacare Application Leaves Program Open To Insurance Fraud," Forbes
• "Unravel Obamacare and You Get a Train Wreck," The Fiscal Times
• "What Health Insurance Doesn't Do," New York Times
• "The Depressing Future of American Health Care," Reason.com

Homosexuality

• "Is Gay Marriage a Moral Issue or a Civil Liberties Issue?," Charisma Magazine
• "Archbishop Cordileone states case against gay marriage," USA Today
• "Letter to Catholics on the Approval of "Same-Sex Marriage" in RI," The Diocese of Providence
• "ESPN's Chris Broussard sparks uproar with Jason Collins remarks," The Los Angeles Times
• "Broussard, Bigotry, and the NBA," Denny Burk
• "Update: Columbus Diocese Remains Resolute, Lesbian Teacher Basks in Spotlight," Catholic Vote

Human Life and Bioethics
Abortion

• "Plan B and the Demise of Parental Rights," Family Research Council
• "The President, Planned Parenthood, and "Quality Health Care"," The Public Discourse
• "So you think Kermit Gosnell is a one-off?," Denny Burk
• "WashPost Actually Covers LiveAction Sting Video Where Abortionist Admits He'd Let Baby Die on Table," NewsBusters
• "The Right to a Dead Baby," CatholicVote
• "Poll: 55% of Americans Don't Know Planned Parenthood Does Abortions," LifeNews.com
• "U.S. to Defend Age Limits on Morning-After Pill Sales," New York Times
• "Whispers of Doom," Touchstone Magazine
• "The Coercive Freedom of Choice," First Things
• "Revisit the Born-Alive Act," The Weekly Standard
• "The Gosnell Case and My Heart For Tiny Babies," Christianity Today
• "Obama admin. surrenders in abortion pill mandate case," Alliance Defending Freedom
• "Abortion--The Looming Crisis in the Black Community (Research)," The Minority Republican
• "President Obama and the Primitivism of Planned Parenthood," Crisis Magazine

Bioethics and Biotechnology

• "Multiple Sclerosis Management Revolutionized With New Treatments: Cure Soon?," iTech Post
• "Bioethics Hates the Light," National Review Online
• "Judges, Journalists, and Activists Re-Inventing Science," Turtle Bay and Beyond
• "Made to Order Embryo Commodities Market," Center for Bioethics and Culture

Euthanasia and End of Life Issues

• "Total Brain Death: Valid Criterion of Death," The Public Discourse
• "Poor NHS Care Drives Assisted Suicide Support," National Review Online

Stem Cell Research
To read about the latest advances in ethical adult stem cell research, keep up with leading-edge reports from FRC's Dr. David Prentice, click here.

• "2-year-old girl gets windpipe made from stem cells," Associated Press
• "Adult Cells Transformed Into Early-Stage Nerve Cells, Bypassing the Pluripotent Stem Cell Stage," Science Daily
• "April Legislation Promotes Life in Kansas," National Catholic Register
• "Brownback: Divert bioscience money to stem cell center," Kansas City Business Journal

Human Trafficking

• "Human trafficking is happening right here," Rare
• "Technology to Fight Modern Slavery," The Huffington Post
• "Pols push to end child sex trafficking," Politico
• "The Slave Next Door," The Washington Free Beacon
• "Communist Vietnam -- Human Trafficker Extraordinaire," American Thinker
• "Hearing: Local and Private Sector Initiatives to Combat International Human Trafficking," House Committee on Foreign Affairs

Marriage and Family
Adoption

• "The Good Heart of the Adoption Movement," Christianity Today
• "Remember the Infertile on Mother's Day," Crosswalk
• "Paul Ryan Regrets Voting for Gay Adoption Ban," The Christian Post

Family Economics

• "Increasing Distortions and Feeding Leviathan: The Internet Sales Tax," The American
• "America's entrepreneurial culture may be dying," AEIdeas.org
• "Millennials: A Generation With Unrealistic Expectations," The Pacific Standard
• "Meeting Needs In Unexpected Places," Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics
• "The Idled Young Americans," New York Times

Family Structure

• "Relationship Contracts Growing In Popularity With Married And Unmarried Couples," CBS New York
• "Emotional Manipulators," No Greater Joy
• "The Polygamy Slippery Slope," The Christian Post
• "Our Open Marriage," The Hipster Conservative
• "Flesh of My Flesh: Responding to Anthony Esolen on the Boy Scouts," Mere Orthodoxy
• "Tony Campolo's 'Compromise' on Marriage," Touchstone Magazine
• "What Forgiveness Isn't," Recovering Grace
• "Marriage: You've Got Questions, We've Got Answers," Alliance Defending Freedom
• "The Sex Lives of Unmarried Evangelicals," Christianity Today
• "Do You Want to Be a Burden to Your Children?," Moore to the Point
• "Something Rotten in the Boy Scouts," Crisis Magazine
• "Baby, You're the Greatest," National Review Online

Media
Pornography

• "8 Reasons You Don't Want to Look at Pornography," Catholic Vote
• "Parents' group fights FCC bid to loosen indecency rules," PornHarms

Internet

• "Me, myself, and my selfie," WORLD Magazine
• "When We Hate What We Love," Challies.com
• "Facebook Rhetoric," First Things

Religion and Public Policy
Religious Liberty

• "Everywhere but in foxholes," The Washington Times
• "Pentagon Defends Unconstitutional Policy Against Soldiers Sharing Faith," Family Research Council
• "A Response to "Why Tolerate Religion?"," Family Research Council
• "Religious Freedom Around the World," The Acton Institute
• "Prayer - It's Needed, It's Right And It's Legal!," Alliance Defending Freedom
• "Muslims, Monasteries, Jews, Sikhs, and Scholars Urge Supreme Court to Hear Landmark Religious Liberty Appeal," The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
• "The New Era of Religious Liberty," The Catholic Thing
• "Michigan City Apologizes to Christian Missionaries Arrested in 2010 at Arab Festival," The Christian Post

Religion in America
Check out Dr. Kenyn Cureton's feature on Watchmen Pastors called "The Lost Episodes," featuring how religion has had an impact on our Founding Fathers.

• "The rest of the story," WORLD Magazine
• "How do Markets Handle Sin and Human Nature?," Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics
• "Proud vs. Broken People," FeedingOnChrist
• "Viewpoint: In the War Over Christianity, Orthodoxy Is Winning," Time
• "When Christians become a 'hated minority'," CNN
• "High School Track Team Disqualified for Pointing to God," Ricochet

Secularism

• "Ties that bind," The Economist
• "Why I Don't Believe in Atheism," Crosswalk

International
Israel

• "An Irrelevant Middle East," National Review Online
• "Change: The Establishment Cools Toward Obama's Middle East Policy," Via Meadia
• "The FAQs: Red Lines, Israeli Airstrikes, and Civil War in Syria," The Gospel Coalition

International Economy and Family

• "Spain Is Beyond Doomed: The 2 Scariest Unemployment Charts Ever," The Atlantic
• "Broken transmission," The Economist
• "Pocketing the keys to prosperity," The Washington Times
• "The British Evasion," City Journal

Religious Persecution

• "Iran moves American Christian into solitary confinement over prayer protest," Fox News
• "Christian Growth and Persecution in China," Juicy Ecumenism

The Courts
Constitutional Issues

• "Proposition 8 and Discrimination: Marriage on Trial at the Supreme Court," The Public Discourse
• "The Supreme Court vs. Freedom of Information," Reason.com
• "Justice Scalia Echoes Lord Acton's Warning on Corrupting Power," The Acton Institute

Other News of Note

• "American Carriers Victim of Government Cronyism," Townhall.com
• "Who's to blame for the GOP's Golden failure?," Campaigns and Elections
• "Capitalism and Conservatism," First Things
• "Life, Like Baseball, Demands Order," Crisis Magazine

Book reviews

• ""The Terrible Speed of Mercy: A Spiritual Biography of Flannery O'Connor" reviewed by Ralph C. Wood," Touchstone Magazine
• "Adoption Horror Stories Aren't the Whole Story," Christianity Today
• "Blood Work," Challies.com
• "Upon Further Review: A CRB Discussion of Theodore Roosevelt," Claremont Review of Books
• "Humble Orthodoxy," The Gospel Coalition
• "Free Speech on Campus and the Spirit of Louis Brandeis," The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law