The Social Conservative Review: June 20, 2013

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Dear Friends,

Should homeschooling be illegal?

That's what seems to be its status in Germany. Could it ever happen in the U.S.?

To answer that question, on June 26th FRC's DC lecture series will continue with Michael Donnelly, the Home School Legal Defense Association's (HSLDA) director of international affairs, and Daniel Blomberg, legal counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, discussing, "Should the State Be Raising Your Kids?"

Many of FRC's friends and supporters teach their children at home, which is why the case of the Romeike family of Germany is so troubling. Here's the background:

The Romeike's were "granted asylum by a U.S. judge due to the persecution they had experienced for homeschooling their children in Germany ...The family believes that the school system in Germany does not teach what they as Christians believe should be taught to their children, so they wish to teach their children in an environment where their convictions are honored - their home ... Recently, the U.S. government has denied the Romeike's request for asylum from this type of oppression in Germany. The family has appealed and is awaiting a final decision on their status. Will America be a land of refuge or will we close our doors to those who wish to direct the upbringing of their children?"

Liberties we cherish and have long taken for granted are being eroded. Join us in person here at our Washington headquarters or watch online, at no charge, by registering here.

Sincerely,

Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice President
Family Research Council

P.S. For more on the education front, learn what you can do to prevent college debt, by visiting, "Save Me from College Debt."

Educational Freedom and Reform
Homeschooling

• "Homeschooling and Charter Schools Growing, Give Families Options," The Christian Post
• "Diving Into The Public Schooling Vs. Home Schooling Issue," Christ and Pop Culture
• "Homeschool enrollment explodes," The American Thinker
• "Tim Hawkins - Homeschooling Is Something to Laugh About," Crosswalk.com

Legislation and Policy Proposals

• "The Common Core Conflation Syndrome: Standards & Curriculum," EducationNext
• "Kline and Rokita Unveil Rewrite of No Child Left Behind," The Heritage Foundation
• "What College Students "Read"," Education Week
• "U.S. education still failing, despite federal improvement programs," WORLD Magazine
• "Perspectives on Our Children's Education: Going Public," The Gospel Coalition

College Debt

• "Is college worth the money?," AEIdeas.org
• "Student loan debt has nearly doubled in last five years, report says," MarketWatch
• "Color of Money: A depressing lesson on student loans," The Buffalo News
• "Want a Summer Home on the Beach? Work at NYU," Via Meadia

Government Reform
Regulation

• "Whither Suburbia?," The American Spectator
• "Cass Sunstein on how government regulations could be a lot simpler," The Washington Post
• "Reform of the Tax Code-Becker," The Becker-Posner Blog

Waste/Fraud/Abuse

• "'Obama phones' given to people promising to sell them for drugs, money," The Daily Caller
• "On IRS and wasted stimulus dollars, the buck stops nowhere," The Baltimore Sun
• "Disability benefits program for federal workers reported rife with waste," Fox News
• "More Evidence of Abuse from the IRS," Townhall.com

Health Care
Abstinence

• "'The Bachelor' Sean Lowe and his fiancee talk about their abstinence on Good Morning America," Dallas Morning News
• "HuffPo Helps Woman Scapegoat Abstinence for Bad Marriage," NewsBusters

Health care reform: Political and Legislative efforts

• "What EEOC gets and HHS doesn't," The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
• "Autocam Takes Battle Against HHS Mandate to the Sixth Circuit," The Acton Institute
• "Small-business exchanges draw few insurers," Politico
• "Local Governments Reeling Under ObamaCare Costs," Investor's Business Daily

Homosexuality

• "Theological Reflections on Homosexuality as We Await the Supreme Court's Decisions," Religion Today
• "Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Freedom, Fundamentally At Odds," The Public Discourse
• "Another bakery sued for not making same-sex wedding cakes," WORLD Magazine
• "Most Americans Say States Should Decide on Same-Sex Marriage, Poll Finds" The Christian Post
• "New Study Finds Media Bias in Gay Marriage Coverage" Townhall.com

Human Life and Bioethics
Abortion

• "House Committee Approves 20-Week Abortion Ban" The Daily Caller
• "Whose War On Women?," Family Research Council
• "The Lesson of Kermit Gosnell," The Weekly Standard
• "Request Denied: Philadelphia Won't Let Church Bury Gosnell Babies," National Catholic Register
• "Rush Limbaugh: abortion is at the heart of American society's ills," Live Action News
• "IRS Pro-Life Victim Testified Before Ways and Means Committee Today "So It Won't Happen to Others"," Thomas More Society
• "When Men Want to Talk About Abortion," The Atlantic
• "Practicing Catholic" Nancy Pelosi Calls Late Term Abortion "Sacred Ground," Townhall.com
• "A Pro-Abortion Reversal of Roe?," First Things
• "Purpose of IPPF: Keeping Money Flowing," Turtle Bay and Beyond
• "Orlando Abortion Clinic Raided to Satisfy Multi-million Dollar Malpractice Judgment," Liberty Counsel
• "When Reporters Roll Their Eyes at an Abortion Bill," The Gospel Coalition

Bioethics and Biotechnology

• "Genetic Database and Genetic Privacy," The Point
• "Patenting Genes Is Like Patenting Sunlight," Christ and Pop Culture
• "Supreme Court nixes human gene patents," Baptist Press
• "Japan experts to OK animal-human embryos test: reports," Physorg
• "Human Right to Science" For "The Scientists"," National Review
• "The Bleak New World of Prenatal Genetics," The Wall Street Journal

Euthanasia and End of Life Issues

• "Belgium looks at euthanasia for minors, Alzheimer's sufferers," AFP
• "Culling Our Species?," Touchstone Magazine
• "A New Moral Treatment," City Journal
• "Death wish: Following in Belgium's footsteps," WORLD Magazine

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.

• "Researchers Demonstrate Use of Stem Cells to Analyze Causes, Treatment of Diabetes," ScienceDaily
• "Your Stem Cells Are Here to Stay," Pacific Standard
• "Stem Cell Discovery Could Help Regrow Fingers," Discovery News

Human Trafficking

• "You're Pretty--You Could Make Some Money," Washingtonian
• "A decade of action needed to end human trafficking," CNN
• "From Nepal, a Push to End Human Trafficking," New York Times
• "States tackling Google on human trafficking, drugs," PC World
• "When It Comes to Sex Trafficking, Tech Is Far From Neutral," Wired
• "In 'The New Abolitionist Movement' to Stop Sex Trafficking, Christians Are Still Key Players," The Christian Post

Marriage and Family
Adoption

• "Who's Afraid of Adoption?" Townhall.com
• "Documentary Puts Russian Adoption Ban in Perspective" The Christian Post
• "Russia's parliament votes to ban adoption by same-sex couples," Fox News

Family Economics

• "Thinking About Money? You Dirty, Rotten Scoundrel," The Acton Institute
• "The Jewish Approach to Welfare and Unemployment," The Huffington Post
• "Thirty Is Not the New Twenty," Values & Capitalism
• "Putting the Debt in Context," The American
• "Five Tools for Applying Faith, Work, & Economics to Your Life," Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics
• "Generation Dropout: Millennials Joining the Workforce Are Less Educated Than Retiring Boomers," The Atlantic
• "The Socialized (Housing) Republic of America," The Library of Law and Liberty

Family Structure

• "The Distinct, Positive Impact of a Good Dad," The Atlantic
• "Children Need Our Marriage Tradition," The Public Discourse
• "What a Father Taught Me," The American
• "Sponsoring A Child Feels Great, But Does It Work?," Christ and Pop Culture
• "Courageous Fatherhood Requires Marriage" Townhall.com
• "Is Fatherhood Fading Out?" Christianity Today
• "Marriage Rate Dives to New Lows, But More Weddings Predicted," Crosswalk.com

Media
Pornography

• "Sexual Assaults in the Military: Porn is Part of the Problem," The Public Discourse
• "Military Sexual Assaults & Pornography," The American Conservative
• "Launching a 'Hardcore Battle Plan'," Baptist Press
• "The Truth About Men, Women, Love, and Porn (In 2 Minutes and 37 Seconds)," CatholicVote.org

Internet

• "Frequent Twitter and Facebook Users: You Might Be Narcissists," Mashable

Religion and Public Policy
Religious Liberty

• "School Violated U.S. Constitution, Texas Law by Censoring Christian Valedictorian," Breitbart.com
• "A Political Scientist Warns of the Gathering Storm: Same-Sex Marriage Will Threaten Religious Liberty," CatholicVote.org
• "Obama Administration Strongly Objects to Soldiers' Free Speech," Touchstone Magazine
• "Chaplain Endorsers: Obama Admin. Opposition to Religious Freedom in Military 'Chilling'," Alliance Defending Freedom
• "Religious freedom and the need to wake up," CatholicPhilly.com
• "Geneva College wins temporary shelter from contraceptive mandate," WORLD Magazine
• "Liberty Institute: EEOC Discriminates Against People of Faith," Liberty Institute
• "Supreme Court Won't Reconsider Ban on 'Gruesome' Church Protest" Christianity Today
• "Obama 'Strongly Objects' to Religious Liberty Amendment" Townhall.com

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.

• "Everyday Christianity: A Faith Free From The Accidental Pharisaism of Missional, Radical, Crazy and Other Superlatives," The Acton Institute
• "Pastors Are Not Interchangeable Parts," First Things
• "Is it ever ok to lie?," The Cripplegate
• "Further Reflections of Faith and Love," Patheos.com
• "How Should Christians React to More Profanity in TV, Media?," The Christian Post

Secularism

• "Where are the honest atheists?," The Week
• "Removing Church Pews for Muslim Prayer Mats in the Name of Religious Tolerance," The Christian Post
• "Boy Scouts fell victim to creeping secularism, says Christian apologist," OneNewsNow

International
Israel

• "White House Fiddles, Middle East Burns: Will Obama Make W Look Like a Bismarck?," Via Meadia
• "Happy Israel" Townhall.com
• "Palestinians Can Resolve Israeli Debate," Commentary
• "Oil brings us to a better place," CarolineGlick.com

International Economy and Family

• "Don't Cry for Me, America: Comparing Argentina and the United States," The Center for Vision and Values
• "Sweden's "Good Socialism:" Not So Good for Young People," Values & Capitalism
• "The cheapest thing going is gone," The Economist
• "A Better World for Kids" Christianity Today

Religious Persecution

• "Iran convicts six Christian converts," World Watch Monitor
• "Indonesian Gov't Fails to Prevent Violent Acts Towards Christians," Persecution.org
• "Sri Lanka Christians Facing More Persecution" Townhall.com
• "China's Atrocities Don't Interest Americans," Commentary
• "Focus on the Philippines," The Gospel Coalition

The Courts
Constitutional Issues

• "A Conservative Case for Prison Reform," The Acton Institute
• "Supreme Court Strikes Down Arizona Voting Law," The FedSoc Blog
• "What's at Stake," National Review Online
• "Kennedy's Inflated Jurisprudence and Us," The Library of Law and Liberty

Other News of Note

• "The Contagious Dynamism of Tim Tebow," Acculturated
• "Staying Alive in the Rural South," The Atlantic
• "The NSA's Impossible Position," National Review Online
• "What Is the Purpose of Law," The Catholic Thing

Book reviews

• "Moving Miss Peggy Resonates With Readers," Crosswalk
• "Marshall Law," Claremont Review of Books
• "How the West Really Lost God," The Gospel Coalition
• "Not By Sight," Challies.com
• "Quiet novel goes global," Commonweal Magazine