The Social Conservative Review: February 13, 2014

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Dear Friends,

Joergen Kristiansen likely is not a familiar name. Maybe it should be.

Mr. Kristiansen is the deputy mayor of a community called Krisitansand (yes, I know, the alliterative possibilities are endless). He is also a courageous man who posted a "picture on Facebook showing him holding a plastic doll that is a likeness of an unborn baby at 12 weeks of pregnancy to make a point about how abortion takes the life of a tiny baby."

The inception of life remains a beautiful and profound source of wonder. FRC's Dr. David Prentice, recognized as one of the world's leading cell biologists, recently wrote that "Since the first umbilical cord blood stem cell transplant over 25 years ago, over 600,000 cord blood units have been stored away around the globe for future lifesaving transplants." Cord blood stem cells have been used to treat myriad patients, from tiny children to ailing adults.

Joergen Kristiansen and David Prentice speak different languages, have different backgrounds, and even live on different continents. But they stand as one in the battle for the sanctity for life. I hope you will join all of us at FRC in standing with them.

Sincerely,

Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice President
Family Research Council

P.S. Be sure to watch FRC's Dr. Pat Fagan discuss his fourth annual "Index of Belonging and Rejection," a compelling study of marriage and family in the U.S., here.

Educational Freedom and Reform
Homeschooling

• "Bill Would Restrict Homeschooling to "Exceptional Circumstances"," Home School Legal Defense Association
• "So You're Thinking of Homeschooling...," Patheos.com
• "Home Schooling: Who Controls Our Children's Future?," The Christian Post

Legislation and Policy Proposals

• "My Common-Core Classroom," Education Week
• "The Trouble With Tiger Culture," The Chronicle of Higher Education
• "How Private Schools Adapt to Vouchers: Youngstown Christian School," EducationNext
• "School choice and accountability: Finding the right balance," Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• "Mr. President, Why Do You Oppose School Choice?," The Foundry
• "How Common Core Devalues Great Literature," Crisis Magazine

College Debt

• "Should college be free for everyone?," AEIdeas.org
• "Why Students Have No Idea How Much College Costs," Fox Business
• "Obama's 'gainful employment' regulations make college less attainable for low-income students," The Daily Caller
• "Sallie Mae: Fueling $1 Trillion Federal Student Loan Crisis," Human Events

Government Reform
Regulation

• "Reputation vs. regulation -- free people should be able to eat without government regulation," Fox News
• "California's Chicken Law and the Commerce Clause," The American
• "Are Politics and Government Regulation Still Weighing on the Recovery?," Wall Street Cheat Sheet

Waste/Fraud/Abuse

• "The 10 Most Outrageous Government Boondoggles I Ever Saw," Politico
• "US Government to Spend $30M on Forest Restoration," ABC News
• "The Efficiency of a Carbon Tax: Broadly Accepted and Broadly Wrong," The American

Health Care
Abstinence

• "Kansas school in furor over poster encouraging anal sex, grinding, 'touching each other's genitals'," LifeSiteNews
• "Teen birth rates down, but more work remains," The Times and Democrat
• "True Love Waits relaunched, refocused as True Love Project," Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission

Health care reform: ACA/Obamacare

• "CBO's ACA report bodes ill for work," AEIdeas.org
• "The Jobless Care Act," The Wall Street Journal
• "Watch: Employees in Pennsylvania Company Learn of Increased Health Costs Due to Obamacare," The Weekly Standard
• "How The GOP Will Replace ObamaCare," The Galen Institute
• "Texas Doctor Writes Epic Letter Breaking Up With Insurance Company: I Will Not Comply," Independent Journal Review
• "Contractor hired to fix Healthcare.gov reportedly has history of problems," Fox News
• "Some Second Thoughts on the Benefits of Obamacare to Virginia's Economy," Bearing Drift

Homosexuality

• "Justice to extend protections to married gay couples," The Washington Post
• "States should retain power to define marriage," The Salt Lake Tribune
• "This Map Shows The Global Divide On Homosexuality," Business Insider
• "Glum for gays," The Economist
• "Methodists in crisis over gay marriage, church law," Associated Press
• "Russia, gay rights and the protection of children," MercatorNet

Abortion

• "On Abortion Rates: Good News and Cause for Reflection," The Public Discourse
• "For Planned Parenthood the perfect gift for Valentine's Day is Abortion," National Right to Life News
• "A front-row seat to abortion horrors in Norway," Live Action News
• "Federal judge blocks most restrictive abortion law in the country," NBC News
• "Abortion's Downward Trend?," National Review Online
• "Group: Abortion Death Settlement 'Hush Money'," CBN News
• "A Peaceful Death," Slate
• "Girl Scouts USA in bed with big abortion," LifeSiteNews
• "Declining Abortions Indicates More Women Choosing Life," Turtle Bay and Beyond
• "UNESCO Report Promotes Abortion and Same-Sex Narrative," C-FAM
• "Birth of Twins Highlights Evil of Abortion," Crisis Magazine
• "Eleanor McCullen's Day at the Court," The Catholic Thing

Bioethics and Biotechnology

• "Ethics Questions Arise as Genetic Testing of Embryos Increases," New York Times
• "A Pediatrician's Argument for Vaccines," National Review Online
• "Bioethics Requires Respect for Human Dignity, Professor Argues," Cardinal Newman Society
• "Most medical research is flawed, says leading medical editor," MercatorNet

Euthanasia and End-of-Life Issues

• "Child euthanasia law expected this week in Belgium," BioEdge
• "Our Pro Suicide Culture: Extolling Joint Suicides," National Review Online
• "Preventing (Some) Suicides," First Things

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.

• "Swedish Researcher Says Culture Matters for Innovation," The Acton Institute
• "Why Easy Stem Cells Raise Hard Ethical Questions," The Public Discourse
• "Stress gives cells a 'second childhood'," Phys.org
• "Stunning discovery creates ethical stem cells," BioEdge

Human Trafficking

• "How Do We Eradicate Sex Trafficking?," The Christian Post
• "Is "Sex Worker" a Legitimate Phrase?," The Public Discourse
• "The Super Bowl and Sex Trafficking," New York Times
• "Rights group: Egypt turns blind eye to human trafficking in Sinai," Los Angeles Times

Marriage and Family
Adoption

• "Ukraine Is America's New Adoption Mecca," The Daily Beast
• "In Adoption, Does Race Matter?," New York Times
• "Modern day orphans in foster care need families: Might that be yours?," Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission

Family Economics

• "Don't Work, Just 'Dream'," Religion Today
• "Income Mobility Tied to Marriage," The Foundry
• "In defense of the official poverty measure," AEIdeas.org
• "Explainer: What You Should Know About the Jobs Report," The Acton Institute
• "Why Extreme Poverty Will Not Always Be with Us," Institute of Faith, Work, & Economics
• "Minimum-Wage Mistakes," City Journal

Family Structure

• "5 Reasons Marriage Is Your Future," Alliance Defending Freedom
• "Why Fight For Marriage?," The Public Discourse
• "I Wasn't Ready For Marriage," The Huffington Post
• "9 Things You Should Know About Marriage in America," The Gospel Coalition
• "An Olympic Lesson for Husbands and Wives," Desiring God
• "Better marriage through marketing not coercion," The Center for Vision and Values
• "Marriage 101: There are no soul mates," The Atlantic
• "Men and Miscarriage," Christianity Today
• "The Lost Boy," The Catholic Thing
• "The Latest Sham Science on Gay Parenting," Crisis Magazine

Media
Pornography

• "DOCUMENTARY: Porn On The Brain," PornHarms.com
• "Mormon College Declares War on Pornography With Combat-Themed Video," The Christian Post
• "The End of Sex," National Review Online
• "The Moral Poison of Pornography," Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission

Religion and Public Policy
Religious Liberty

• "Religious liberty should trump HHS mandate," USA Today
• "The Green Family, the HHS Mandate, and Religious Freedom," Townhall.com
• "Religious Liberty Lip Service," RealClearReligion
• "Hobby Lobby Supreme Court Brief Counters Government "Divide and Conquer" Attempt to Violate Business Owners' Religious Rights," The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
• "Stand Up for Religious Freedom," Christian Worldview Journal
• "U.N. Overreaches, Tramples Religious Freedom," National Review Online
• "Obama highlights religious freedom in National Prayer Breakfast speech," Religion News Service
• "Extreme Religious Liberty Rights," First Things
• "The Bible and Civil Rights," Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission
• "What's Behind the UN Attack on the Church?," Crisis Magazine
• "How Much Money is Hobby Lobby's Morality Worth?," The Atlantic

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 Faith of Ronald Reagan," Townhall.com
• "Ducking the Issue," Decision Magazine
• "Going to Samaria," Leadership Journal
• "Americans Read Facebook More than the Bible On a Daily Basis," Time
• "Cameron Franks, A Modern-Day Hero of the Christian Faith," Touchstone Magazine
• "Mississippi Most Religious State, Vermont Least Religious," Gallup

Secularism

• "Conversion: an enigma to paganism and secularism," Catholic News Agency
• "Sam Harris Won't Change His Mind. But Neither Will Most of the Rest of Us.," Commentary Magazine

International
Israel

• "AIPAC and Iran's war against America," CarolineGlick.com
• "Will Israel be able to peacefully draft the ultra-Orthodox?," Haaretz
• "Presbyterian Church Group: Zionism is the Problem," Times of Israel

International Economy and Family

• "Sweden's Swing toward a Free Market," The American
• "Global poverty is falling dramatically and so is global inequality, so why the obsession about inequality?," AEIdeas.org
• "The Picture of America," The Weekly Standard
• "Iran's demographic collapse," MercatorNet

Religious Persecution

• "Pew Study: Christians Are The World's Most Oppressed Religious Group," CNSNews.com
• "Christian Persecution, Sexual Assaults and Mob Attacks Going Unpunished in India, ADF Testifies Before House," The Christian Post
• "Pakistan's blasphemy laws create open season for Christian persecution," WORLD Magazine

The Courts
Constitutional Issues

• "Constitutional silence does not necessarily justify federal action," The Journal Express
• "Why Natural Law Arguments Are Necessary," The Acton Institute
• "Against Reinterpreting the Constitution," National Review Online
• "Falling Down on the Job," The Weekly Standard
• "A Case of Faculty Discrimination," The Hoover Institution

Other Issues

• "Reagan the wise," The Daily Caller
• "Freedom's Just Another Word For Nothing Left To Do," Human Events
• "The Robots That Saved Pittsburgh," Politico
• "Meretricious Meets Meddlesome," City Journal
• "War on Error," Foreign Policy

Book Reviews

• "Blessed," The Gospel Coalition
• "Monument Valley," Claremont Review of Books
• "Hollow Men and the Search for a Workable Pluralism," The University Bookman
• "'Defiant' Portrays Heroism on Every Page," The Acton Institute