The Social Conservative Review: October 3, 2013

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Dear Friends,

The partial shutdown of the federal government and the potential default on America's debt obligations are all the talk in Washington.

Well they should be, in one sense: The nation's fiscal house and the operations of government agencies and services must be taken seriously. Yet they are not the only stories worth noting. Here are a few others:

• "Last year... Dr. Angela McCaskill, a senior university official at Gallaudet University ... was suspended because she had signed a ballot petition supporting Maryland voters having the right to vote on marriage ... Only after the election was over did the University move to quietly reinstate her, apparently in an effort to limit exposure in an expected lawsuit and pacify Dr. McCaskill's persistent supporters. (On Tuesday), we learned that Dr. McCaskill followed through on that lawsuit." Read more of FRC President Tony Perkins' take on this extraordinary case here.
• Implementation of the President's health care overhaul has begun, but there are alternatives that offer targeted, effective, and affordable change. One of them is U.S. Rep. Phil Roe's plan; Rep. Roe (R-TN), a physician, brings both extensive experience and common sense to the debate. He will be discussing his proposal at FRC on October 23; you can register to attend or watch online (both at no cost) here.
• FRC is urging Congress to support H.R.3133, the "Marriage and Religious Freedom Act" introduced by Congressman Raul Labrador (R-ID) on September 19. As FRC's David Christensen notes, "This bill affirms that a person's religious belief in the importance of natural marriage should be treated with tolerance and respect by the federal government." Click here to listen to Tony's interview with Rep. Labrador.

The crises of today, however serious, do not erase the profound and long-term issues with which our country is dealing. At FRC, we're committed to helping you know what those issues are, and how you can make a difference.

Sincerely,

Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice President
Family Research Council

Educational Freedom and Reform
Homeschooling

• "Wunderlich Children Returned on Condition of School Attendance," Home School Legal Defense Association
• "Homeschooling changes benefit students, families," The Press-Citizen
• "Homeschooling is a Human Right, but That Doesn't Make it Immune to Regulation," Homeschoolers Anonymous

Legislation and Policy Proposals

• "An Unfair Attack on Education Reform," U.S. News and World Report
• "Aiming to simply do better than failure is not an option," Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• "When School Reform Falls Flat," Education Week
• "The Missing Half of School Reform," National Affairs
• "A higher bar for higher ed," AEIdeas.org
• "Why Tough Teachers Get Good Results," The Wall Street Journal

College Debt

• "The Unspoken Cause Of The Student Loan Crisis," Forbes
• "Is Less College Debt Always Better?," The Huffington Post
• "4 Ways to Help College Student Stay Out of Debt," Fox Business
• "The Decline of College," National Review Online

Government Reform
Regulation

• "Limited Government and Human Nature," Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics
• "No, Government Doesn't Create The Free Market," Doublethink
• "The Regulatory Improvement Act: A 'Least-Best' Solution for Regulatory Inefficiency," The American
• "Tesla Motors and the Folly of Government Intervention," Reason.com
• "More regs, more problems," The Hill

Waste/Fraud/Abuse

• "The Battle in Congress on Spending and Debt," New York Times
• "Americans Aren't Bound To Pay the Government's Debts," Reason.com
• "Frank Fesses Up: Gov't Shares Blame For Financial Crisis," The FedSoc Blog

Health Care
Abstinence

• "Texas spends $1.2 million on teen abstinence website," UPI
• "Fewer babies but not necessarily less sex for teens," WORLD Magazine

Health care reform: ACA/Obamacare

• "How to Make Obamacare Obsolete," The American Thinker
• "Warning: Government-Run Healthcare Is Very Hazardous to Your Health," International Liberty
• "Obamacare Workers Offering Help Also Threaten Identity Theft," The Galen Institute
• "Obamacare: Destined to Flop? Part I," The American
• "GOP adds 'conscience clause' to spending bill," CNN
• "The HHS Mandate, Hosanna-Tabor, and the Question of Religious Organizations," The Public Discourse
• "If You Loathed HMOs, You're Not Going to Like Obamacare," Real Clear Markets
• "Feds to give U. of Georgia $1.25 million to promote Obamacare," CampusReform.org

Homosexuality

• "A church divided," WORLD Magazine
• "Momlessness and Dadlessness as a Way of Life," The American Thinker
• "Lawyers Olson and Boies want Virginia as same-sex marriage test case," The Washington Post
• "Group challenges W.Va.'s same-sex marriage ban," Associated Press
• "The Transgender Culture Wars," Crisis Magazine

Human Life and Bioethics
Abortion

• "Ability Should Not Determine Worth," Family Research Council
• "From Sanger to Gosnell: Bad ideas have horrible consequences," The Daily Caller
• "World Contraception Day: No Celebrating, Please," The Acton Institute
• "Planned Parenthood Releases Poll on 20 Week- Abortion Ban," Catholic Vote
• "Cline symposium: Another correction of the abortion distortion coming?," SCOTUSBlog
• "Thomas More Society Will Petition the U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Autocam's Obamacare Case," Thomas More Society
• "A daughter's death and a father's abortion pill battle," MercatorNet
• "Multi-State Health Plans: A Potential Avenue to Tens of Thousands of Publicly Subsidized Abortions," Charlotte Lozier Institute
• "USAID, Gates, Planned Parenthood Push Dangerous Contraceptive on Poor Black and Latina Women," Turtle Bay and Beyond

Bioethics and Biotechnology

• "The Coming Fertility Bounceback?," National Review Online
• "A blessing, not a commodity," WORLD Magazine
• "Human exceptionalism in the grocery cart," The Daily Caller
• "NYTimes reverts to using vague labels in Texas science war," GetReligion

Euthanasia and End of Life Issues

• "Euthanasia Activists Employing Celebrities to Push Legalizing Assisted Suicide," LifeNews.com
• "Quebec's Proposed Euthanasia Bill Poses Conscience Concerns for Doctors," Charlotte Lozier Institute

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.

• "Disease-specific human embryonic stem cell lines from King's College London placed on NIH Registry," Phys.org
• "Stem cells may prevent tissue rejection in breast reconstruction surgery," CBS News
• "New center aims to grow hearts from stem cells," The Liberty Vindicator

Human Trafficking

• "What Happens To Kids After They're Rescued From Sex Trafficking?," The Acton Institute
• "Gangs in Northern Virginia increasingly selling children for sex," The Washington Post
• "State AGs unite in effort to curb child trafficking," WORLD Magazine

Marriage and Family
Adoption

• "Dubious Reporting About International Adoptions," Family Research Council
• "Adoption film's political role," Politico
• "Mac Powell Shares Thoughts on Adoption," The Christian Post

Family Economics

• "Keeping the Poor Poor (Until They're Not)," The American Thinker
• "Does Having More Christians Boost a Nation's Credit Rating?," The Acton Institute
• "Why We Need Small Towns," Christianity Today
• "Thomas Aquinas on Helping the Poor," Values & Capitalism
• "Think tanks measure global economic freedom ... the U.S. declines," The Center for Vision and Values
• "What Does It Mean to Help the Poor?," Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics

Family Structure

• "What parents and marriage have to do with resilient faith," Ethics and Religious Liberty Center
• "Millennials and Marriage," The Public Discourse
• "Barilla Pasta Defies Media, Speaks for Children's Rights," First Things
• "Pennsylvania to re-think rule allowing students to play on opposite-gender sports teams," Fox News
• "The Future of Marriage Reconsidered," Crisis Magazine
• "Mothers Are Never Alone When Alone," The Gospel Coalition

Media
Pornography

• "The Moral Structure of Pedophilia," The Public Discourse
• "Addiction Does Not Discriminate: Women and Porn," PornHarms.com
• ""Don Jon," Christians, and Porn," Patheos.com

Religion and Public Policy
Religious Liberty

• "Why the Left Abandoned Religious Freedom," The Acton Institute
• "Religious Freedom in 10 Minutes," The Manhattan Declaration
• "U.S. House OKs religious liberty envoy," Baptist Press
• "Protecting Liberty," Alliance Defending Freedom
• "Religion, Freedom, and the Military -- A Lesson from the Founders," The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty

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.

• "Christian Schools and Racial Realities," Touchstone Magazine
• "Prodigal Love: What to Do When Family or Friends Have Rejected Jesus," Christianity Today
• "Why Carl F. H. Henry (Still) Matters," Moore to the Point
• "Millennials, Culture, and Hope," Touchstone Magazine
• "For Godliness in a Godless Culture," The Bible-Teaching of Charles R. Swindoll

Secularism

• "Jewish secularism on rise, Pew survey finds," Los Angeles Times
• "'It's Really Quite Simple': Being Truthful About Atheism," The Acton Institute
• "Atheism and the Moral Compass Conundrum," The Patriot Post
• "The warning in the atheist pastor story," Get Religion

International
Israel

• "Peace Between Israelis and Palestinians-Really?," Christianity Today
• "Obama's Power and Its Limitations," The Jerusalem Post
• "Why It Matters That Jews Are Standing on the Temple Mount," Christian Science Monitor

International Economy and Family

• "A breakthrough as an official Irish report acknowledges the importance of family structure," The Iona Institute
• "The Perils of Liberal Moralism: On Syria and Thomas More," The Public Discourse
• "Demographics and Divorce in Russia," Turtle Bay and Beyond

Religious Persecution

• "Globe Trot: A 'banner month' for Islamic militants," WORLD Magazine
• "The silence of our friends - the extinction of Christianity in the Middle East," The Spectator
• "Nairobi Westgate mall terrorist attack is part of Kenya's sharp rise in religious hostilities," Pew Research Center
• "Can We Finally Start Talking About The Global Persecution Of Christians?," The Federalist
• "Love the Sojourner: 4 Steps Forward in Refugee Outreach," The Gospel Coalition

The Courts
Constitutional Issues

• "Interpreting Scripture & the U.S. Constitution," Crisis Magazine
• "Symposium: Legislative prayer and judicial review," SCOTUSBlog
• "Now You See Me . . . Wisconsin City Tries to Make First Amendment Disappear," Alliance Defending Freedom
• "DOJ to Sue North Carolina Over New Voter ID Law," The FedSoc Blog
• "The Genius of American Citizenship," Claremont Review of Books

Other Issues

• "MIT: With Loss Of Manufacturing The U.S. Innovation Engine Is No Longer Working," Manufacturing and Technology News
• "Bloomberg's Puppets Turn Their Sites on Ohioans Second Amendment Rights," CNSNews.com
• "Here comes the spoils society," The Washington Post
• "Who Knew Americans Cared So Much About National Parks?," The Atlantic

Book reviews

• "To Rule the World," Claremont Review of Books
• "A Good Story Needs More than Good Answers," Christianity Today
• "The barbarism of reason: John Gray on the Notebooks of Leopardi," The New Statesman
• "The Feminine Mystique at 50," The Gospel Coalition