The Social Conservative Review: July 11, 2013

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Dear Friends,

As our culture struggles, the issues with which we deal not only multiply but become more intense. From the Supreme Court decisions last week on marriage to the acrimonious debate in the Texas legislature about late-term abortion, it is easy for social conservatives to feel not only overwhelmed, but discouraged.

Don't. Either Jesus Christ is Lord or He isn't. And since He is, we need to move forward with confidence in His ultimate victory in time and history. I use the word "ultimate" advisedly, in that between now and then, hardship of a number of types might ensue. But perseverance and faithfulness are vastly more important than any temporal win, however rewarding or sweeping, ever can be.

Thanks for the privilege of continuing to partner with you.

Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice President
Family Research Council

P.S. Be sure to watch a lecture by FRC's Dr. Pat Fagan on "the impact of pornography on college campus life." Register for the event, at no charge, here. Also, download FRC's groundbreaking new summary of religious persecution in the nation's military and watch our launch of the study, with three Members of Congress, yesterday at the U.S. Capitol.

Educational Freedom and Reform
Homeschooling

• "The homeschooling debate," The Barbados Advocate
• "Religious Exemption Homeschoolers Given
  Green Light to Teach Driver's Ed," Home School Legal Defense Association
• "Homeschooling 101: Tips and Tricks of the Trade," Catholic Online

Legislation and Policy Proposals

• "Making Sense of Higher Ed "Innovation"," Education Week
• "The freedom to choose a quality education is a right worth celebrating," Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• "Why it's time for a reset of education reform," The Washington Post
• "On the MOOC Challenge to Traditional Higher Education," Commentary Magazine
• "Charter Schools and Their Enemies," City Journal

College Debt

• "Student loan rate set to double on Monday," American Enterprise Institute
• "Millennials' ball-and-chain: Student loan debt," USA Today
• "College debt is making it tougher for young people to buy starter homes," The Washington Post
• "Young and Well-Educated, but Broke," The Washington Times
• "What's the Problem With Student Loans?," Crosswalk.com

Government Reform
Regulation

• "Rethinking Tax Breaks for Homeowners," U.S. News and World Report
• "The Right Kind of Tax Reform," Commentary Magazine
• "Regulatory Inflation," The American Spectator

Waste/Fraud/Abuse

• "Does Disability Insurance=Welfare?," Accuracy in Academia
• "The Coming Budget Crunch," City Journal
• "Can the Budget Ever Be Cut?," Reason.com

Health Care
Abstinence

• "Christians Are Not Called to Have Amazing Sex," Relevant Magazine
• "Telling Teens to Say No to Drugs is Accepted, Abstinence a Different Story," LifeNews.com

Health care reform: Political and Legislative efforts

• "Obama Administration Ignores Outcries, Finalizes HHS Mandate Targeting Religious Freedom," Liberty Counsel
• "White House Violates Law with ObamaCare Delay," Breitbart.com
• "Obamacare's looming train wreck," The Washington Examiner"Feds will take Billions from Student Loan Program to Pay for ObamaCare," The College Fix
• "Charade Continues with Obamacare's HHS Mandate," National Review Online
• "Final Ruling On HHS Mandate: 'Same Old, Same Old'," The Acton Institute

Homosexuality

• "'Only a partial victory for gay marriage'," The Washington Post
• "Now Come the Consequences of Redefining Marriage," CNSNews.com
• "Federal Recognition of Gay Marriage Means Higher Taxes for Many," Amy Ridenour's National Center Blog
• "Supreme Court Decisions Don't Sway Some Businesses' Refusal To Serve Same-Sex Couples," The Huffington Post
• "How Should Same-Sex Marriage Change the Church's Witness?," Moore to the Point
• "How Pop Culture Changed the Face of the Same-Sex Marriage Debate," Wired

Human Life and Bioethics
Abortion

• "U.S. is Helping Fund China's "One-Child" Policy," Family Research Council
• "Wombs for Rent," National Review Online
• "Abortion Rights Not Synonymous With Women's Health," Townhall.com
• "Washington Insider," The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly
• "Halt arbitrary fetal euthanasia: Opposing view," USA Today
• "A Loving Place, Inside Me," First Things
• "US Supreme Court to Hear Case Against Abortion Buffer Zones," Turtle Bay and Beyond
• ""What about rape?" Caring responses to a hard question," LiveAction News
• "Fighting for their lives," WORLD Magazine
• "The Constitutionality of Protecting Unborn Babies at 20 Weeks," The Public Discourse
• "The Face of Extremism," The Wall Street Journal
• "CBO: 20+ Week Fetuses Aborted at Rate of 30 Per Day; Saves Money for Government-Run Health Care," CNSNews.com

Bioethics and Biotechnology

• "The Materialists' Rapture," First Things
• "Fed Bill to Legalize (and Fund?) Human Cloning," National Review Online
• "The Advent of Three-Parent Designer Babies," The Gospel Coalition
• "Eugenics back in California?," WORLD Magazine

Euthanasia and End of Life Issues

• "Vermont Hospitals Say No to Assisted Suicide," National Review Online
• "Euthanasia only 'limited' for now," OneNewsNow

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 challenge long-held assumption of gene expression in embryonic stem cells," Phys.org
• "Generation of Engraftable Hematopoietic Stem Cells From Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells by Way of Teratoma Formation," Nature
• "Stem cells help grow human liver tissue 'buds' in mice," USA Today
• "Why the UK should reject three-parent embryos," MercatorNet

Human Trafficking

• "An Inventory and Evaluation of the Current Shelter and Services Response to Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking," Shared Hope International
• "State Department's Sex Trafficking Scandals," The American Thinker
• "The Economics of Human Trafficking," Foreign News Journal

Marriage and Family
Adoption

• "Good News: Adoption Victory in the Supreme Court," Religion Today
• "What's in a name? For adopted children, rather a lot," The Guardian
• "Documentary of American Adoption of Russian Youth to Tour Russia as Ban Continues," The Christian Post

Family Economics

• "Taxing Marriage: Microeconomic Behavioral Responses to the Marriage Penalty and Reforms for the 21^st Century," The Mercatus Center
• "The conservative case for middle-class tax hikes," AEIdeas.org
• "No, Virginia, Nothing Is Really Risk Free," The American
• "Entrepreneurship in the Bible," The Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics
• "101M Americans Get Food Aid from Federal Gov't; More Than the Number of Private Sector Workers," CNSNews.com
• "Faith in the Free Market," Christianity Today

Family Structure

• "Moving in Together: What I Know Now," Verily Magazine
• "Men and Women Often Expect Different Things When They Move In Together," The Atlantic
• "Same-Sex Parenting: Child Abuse?," The Public Discourse
• "Marriage and Justice Are Wounded, But Not Fatally," First Things
• "Is Marriage a Matter for the Courts--or Democracy?," The American Conservative
• "The Surest Way to Promote God's Good Plan for Marriage," The Gospel Coalition
• "The Blight of Blinged-Out Weddings," National Review Online
• "The Misnomer of 'Motherless' Parenting," New York Times
• "The devaluation of marriage is costing society," The Sydney Morning Herald

Media
Pornography

• "Marriage And Porn: Should You Ban Pornography From Your Relationship?," The Huffington Post
• "Web porn: Just how much is there?," BBC News
• "Porn: crack cocaine for Christian men?," GetReligion

Religion and Public Policy
Religious Liberty

• "Gay marriage fight now becomes a religious liberty fight," The Washington Examiner
• "Threats to Religious Freedom in Europe," The Public Discourse
• "Federal Government Defunds Youth Programs Because of Religious References," Liberty Institute
• "Preacher Arrested for Calling Homosexuality a Sin," Fox News
• "Catholics, Evangelicals, Others Join Forces for Religious Liberty," Juicy Ecumenism
• "'Standing Together For Religious Freedom'," The Acton Institute
• "Three Reasons Freedom of Religion Matters," Thinking Christian

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.

• "Religion, Morality, and Policy: The Danger of Selective Theonomy," Religion Today
• "Suggesting a New Apologetic Advance," Caffeinated Thoughts
• "Should We Tell Children to Love Jesus?," Desiring God
• "Should We Expect Politicians to Act Like Christians?," The Gospel Coalition
• "Christianity, The World's Most Falsifiable Religion," Parchment and Pen
• "Wisdom, Christian Witness, and the Year of Faith," First Things

Secularism

• "Pope Francis: Fight against Secularism Unites Jews and Catholics," The Jewish Press
• "Growth of the Nonreligious," The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
• "Why atheists who pray should still be called atheists," GetReligion

International
Israel

• "Israel's Bicentennial Gift to America," Family Research Council
• "Kerry's Middle East Folly Has a Price," Commentary Magazine
• "Israel's Reviled Strategic Wisdom," The Jerusalem Post

International Economy and Family

• "France Loves its Young People But Not Enough to Give Them Jobs," Reason.com
• "Most Egyptians Oppose U.S. Economic Aid," Gallup

Religious Persecution

• "Christian Persecution Increases amid Protests in Bangladesh," Persecution.org
• "Hindu Nationalists Attack Peaceful Prayer Meeting Under 'Forceful Conversion' Pretense," Christianity Today
• "Islam's great challenge to Christian evangelism," Baptist Press
• "Christians in Egypt Fearful After Five Copts Killed," Religion Today

The Courts
Constitutional Issues

• "Supreme Court Decision on DOMA Raises Serious Questions About the Opinion's Legitimacy," Liberty Counsel
• "Justice Anthony Kennedy's contempt," Politico
• "The Supreme Court, You and Me, and the Future of Marriage," The Public Discourse
• "From Now on Only Lawyers Can Argue in Front of the Supreme Court," The FedSoc Blog
• "Michael McConnell: Obama Suspends the Law," The Wall Street Journal
• "Disabling Democracy," City Journal

Other News of Note

• "John Wise: the man who inspired the Declaration of Independence," Baptist Press
• "America's Birthday: The True Meaning of July 4 (Part 1)," The American
• "The Meaning of Gettysburg," Commentary Magazine
• "Copperhead," The American Spectator

Book reviews

• "A Nation of Takers or a Nation of Creators?," Values & Capitalism
• "Tolerating the Intolerant," Claremont Review of Books
• "The Terrible Speed of Mercy," The Gospel Coalition
• "Gone Girls," New York Times
• "God's Child," Touchstone Magazine
• ""Godly Seed"," MercatorNet