This Week’s Featured Article

Marriage/Family

Only 18% Of American Households Are Families With Married Parents.

Children need a mother and a father — a context that more American youth than ever are lacking.

Among the 130 million households in the United States, only 17.8% feature married parents with children — down from over 40% in 1970, according to the Census Bureau. Read more

Why marriage has ‘lost its luster’ among young people.

Simply put, more than three-quarters of partnered but unmarried Canadian young adults do not tie the knot because they lack faith in the institution, they have financial considerations or they’re happy coasting in their current relationship.

There is nothing uniquely Canadian about this phenomenon. Across the world, from South Korea and Australia to Bolivia and Italy, people are spurning marriage in droves. The global marriage crunch is reshaping the landscape of child rearing and family stability as policymakers are rushing to understand the downstream effects of cohabitation and solo living. Read more

Three Harmful Ideas Weakening My Generation.

It’s a tough time for Generation Z. Mental health problems, specifically mood disorders such as depression and anxiety, are skyrocketing. Gen Z is the least likely to report good or excellent mental health and the most likely to report poor or fair mental health. Suicide rates for U.S. teens and young adults are the highest ever. Read more

Parenting/Parental Rights

All European Union Nations Must Legally Recognize Same-Sex Parents, Court Rules.

The ruling determined children have a legal guarantee of free movement between countries, a key right for European Union citizens. The right was used as the basis for the new requirement that all member nations must acknowledge the family relationship, rather than allowing individual nations the right to the decision. Read more

Illinois Parents Fight to Ban Sexually Explicit Book From Schools.

Parent advocate Newsome said he was not against books that depict teenagers who identify with uncommon gender identities. He said he was just not comfortable with the sexual scenes in the books.

When Kim Pakowski, the library chairperson at D99’s Downers Grove South High School, told Newsome she had no formal definition of child pornography, Newsome showed her a printout of a Merriam-Wester definition he had prepared.

Pakowski then focused on the intention of author. She said the intent of pornography was to provide sexual excitement, but this book’s intent was different—it was to show the author’s unique experiences and journey. Read more

8 ways parents can teach and get respect.

Respect is the basis of all healthy human relationships. Parents (like teachers) deserve — and need — a special kind of respect because of their position of authority and responsibility. Read more

Sanctity of Life

Guatemala’s president declares his country will become Latin America’s pro-life capital.

Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei announced his intention to make Guatemala Latin America’s pro-life capital during a speech at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., last week. Giammattei delivered remarks at an event hosted by the Institute for Women’s Health, a pro-life organization founded by former Trump administration Department of Health and Human Services official Valerie Huber, and the International Human Rights Group. Read more

‘Systemic Ageism’ Blamed for Excess Pandemic Deaths, Ignored with Euthanasia.

The media will often report in detail and with righteous indignation about varied failings and abuses in health-care systems — such as the drumbeat of criticism often seen against HMOs in the states. But these crucial questions are often forgotten once the subject turns to euthanasia.

I call this phenomenon “Euthanasia Land,” a magical realm of chirping birds and butterflies, where systemic failures in health-care and social policy disappear and life terminations happen only under the most rigorous protective guidelines and by the most deeply caring and compassionate medical personnel. Read more

Senators grill FDA Commissioner nominee Robert Califf on his history of expanding abortion pill use.

In 2016, Califf’s FDA modified the REMS safety protocols to allow the deadly drug to be used on babies at 10 weeks (70 days), three weeks past the 49 days (7 weeks) for which the drug was approved in 2000. These changes prompted several lawmakers to express deep “disappointment” in a letter to Commissioner Califf, calling the drug’s approval process “extremely controversial.” Read more

Religion

Atheists Take Out Full-Page NY Times Ad Tweaking the ‘Nativity,’ Warning of ‘Capture of the Supreme Court by Christian Nationalist Forces’.

An atheist activist group placed a full-page ad in The New York Times Wednesday, warning about “the capture of the Supreme Court by Christian nationalist forces,” former President Donald Trump’s influence over the high court, and an imperiled “right to abortion,” among other issues. Read more

Pope Francis likens European efforts to ‘cancel Christmas’ to dictatorship.

Pope Francis pushed back against the European Commission’s internal guidelines, which have drawn fire for trying to “cancel Christmas,” likening these efforts to dictatorships as he warned against “ideological colonization.”

Internal communications of the European Commission were leaked last week by the Italian daily Il Giornale. The 30-page document, titled “Union of Equality,” advised members to “avoid assuming that everyone is Christian,” especially during the winter holidays. It suggested members of the commission avoid using the word “Christmas” in favor of “holidays.” Read more

Over 500 UK church leaders prepared to face criminal charges if conversion therapy is banned.

In the letter, they say that they will “continue to do our duty to God” even if the proposed ban comes into force.

“It should not be a criminal offence for us to instruct our children that God made them male and female, in his image, and has reserved sex for the marriage of one man and one woman. Yet this seems to be the likely outcome of the proposed legislation,” they write. Read more

Sexuality

BBC includes two men in list of 100 ‘most inspiring’ women of 2021.

The BBC has just released its list of 100 “most inspiring and influential” women of the year. Because it is 2021, that list includes two men — or, as the Daily Mail put it, “at least two trans women.” For those having a hard time keeping up, a “transgender woman” is a man who identifies as a woman, and may or may not have gotten various body bits cut off or sewed on to “pass” as the other sex. Read more

Horrifying Details Emerge From Charges Against Top CNN Producer Accused Of Child Sex Crimes.

According to the indictment, from April to July of 2020, Griffin utilized the messaging applications Kik and Google Hangouts to communicate with people purporting to be parents of minor daughters, conveying to them, among other ideas, that a “woman is a woman regardless of her age,” and that women should be sexually subservient and inferior to men. On these communication platforms, Griffin sought to persuade parents to allow him to train their daughters to be sexually submissive. Read more

‘It’s Very Fake’: Female UPenn Swimmers Speak Out Over Trans Teammate.

Prior to competing on the women’s team, Thomas was an accomplished athlete on the men’s team, even earning second-team, All-Ivy League in the 2018-2019 season. Now, Thomas is effortlessly breaking women’s swim records. Read more