Yesterday in Beijing, China’s National Bureau of Statistics held a press conference where they reported that the country’s population growth has seen a serious decline since the last census, in 2000.  Specifically, overall population growth has slowed from 11.7% in 2000 to 5.8% in 2010. Moreover, the country’s fertility rate has fallen below 1.5 children per couple.

Interestingly the government agency responsible for implementation of China’s infamous one-child policy has reported much higher fertility rates — between 1.7 and 1.8. In the words of Mara Hvistendahl writing for Science, “Some scholars believe that the agency [China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission] deliberately inflates the fertility rate to justify continuing the birth targets.”

While China’s overall population growth decreases, even more startling is the gender imbalance that continues to increase due to sex selection abortion, or, what many are calling, “gendercide”. In 2000, for every 100 girls born in China, there were 116.9 boys born. By 2010, that gap had widened to 118.1 boys born for every one hundred girls born.

With this new data there is some talk of change in the one-child policy and its inhumane pressures on families in China. However earlier this week, China’s President Hu Jintao stated that China will “stick to and improve its current family-planning policy and maintain a low birth rate.”

The WSJ reports that “under China’s one-child policy, many…couples who have more than one child face fines of several month’s salary and can lose their jobs if they work for the state. The program has also led to some forced abortion and sterilizations.”

View here a powerful real-life story (a short youtube clip) of one woman who made heroic choices against the Chinese government so that her unborn daughter could live.

You will also at this link ways you can personally help to fight this devastating human rights battle in China.

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In a 2-1 decision, a federal Appeals Court has ruled that federal taxpayer funding can continue for human embryonic stem cell research. The decision vacated a preliminary injunction that had been issued by Judge Lamberth of the U.S. District Court in August 2010; that preliminary injunction had been put on hold with a temporary stay last Fall. Today’s split decision by the appeals panel to vacate the preliminary injunction was made after considering arguments from both sides, given in December 2010.

The opinion on the appeal as well as the dissenting opinion are available online.

Judge Lamberth has yet to issue a decision on the merits of the original lawsuit, so today’s decision by the appeals court is only one aspect of the overall case. And according to an updated story from Nature, attorneys for Drs. Sherley & Deisher are “considering asking the Court of Appeals to reconsider the preliminary injunction’s merits en banc, meaning that all 13 judges on the court would consider it.”

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Could there have been a better way to showcase marriage than today’s Royal Wedding?

We had every bit of splendor—er, splendour—as two billion people around the world watched. Hats and horns. Red carpet. We had a gargoyle’s-eye view of the handsome young Royal Couple as they marched down the center aisle of the thousand-year old Westminster Abbey.

More important than any of the royal state and pomp was the authority and majesty of the Word of God on marriage. The Bishop of London intoned from Scripture and from the Book of Common Prayer the purposes of marriage. For the increase of mankind. For the fear and worship of God. For the nurturing and guidance of children. Marriage, he reminded us is a “holy estate.” A man and his wife forsake all others.

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Click here to subscribe to The Social Conservative Review.

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the one-year anniversary edition of The Social Conservative Review! Over the past 12 months, our twice-monthly compilation of the articles most relevant to faith, family, and freedom has grown into a reliable, and relied-upon, source of news and information for social conservatives across the country.

One of our recurrent concerns is one that affects every American: Religious liberty. In a letter to a congregation in New York City shortly after the British surrender at Yorktown in 1783, General Washington wrote, “The establishment of Civil and Religious Liberty was the Motive which induced me to the Field; the object is attained, and it now remains to be my earnest wish and prayer, that the Citizens of the United States would make a wise and virtuous use of the blessings placed before them.”

Family Research Council remains committed to these principles, which is why we are coordinating a nationwide support effort for the State of Utah in the case Davenport v. American Atheists, one of the most important religious liberty cases to be offered to the U.S. Supreme Court in decades.

The State of Utah permits the Utah Highway Patrol Association (UHPA) to commemorate patrolmen who die in the line of duty by erecting a roadside cross at the site of the tragedy with the patrolman’s name and badge number. A militant atheist organization, American Atheists, Inc., sued the State of Utah in federal court for allowing UHPA to erect these crosses.

If successful, this suit could require not only the removal of religious symbols on public buildings and lands but even that crosses and Stars of David be excised from the headstones at Arlington Cemetery. We are supporting legal efforts to overturn a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit that held any stand-alone cross on public land is automatically an unconstitutional endorsement of Christianity in violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.

To help us, please join our effort to send a message to the U.S. Supreme Court that they need to hear the Utah case and make clear America’s allegiance to the public expressions of faith which are an essential part of our birthright.

George Washington would be proud to stand with you for our God-given rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” as we are here at FRC.

Sincerely,
Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice President
Family Research Council

Educational Freedom and Reform

Homeschooling

• “From School Choice to Educational Choice,” Frederick M. Hess, Olivia Meeks, Bruno V. Manno, American Enterprise Institute
• “Teaching the Trivium,” Mollie Hemingway, Get Religion
• “A Star Is Born,” James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal

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Last week, the journal Pediatrics published a study designed to bolster the political case for pro-homosexual policies in schools.

The Associated Press described the findings this way: “Suicide attempts by gay teens — and even straight kids — are more common in politically conservative areas where schools don’t have programs supporting gay rights.”

The study’s author, Mark Hatzenbuehler of Columbia University, called his findings “a call to action in providing a roadmap for how we can begin to reduce suicide in LGB youth.”

Enact anti-discrimination policies that include “sexual orientation” as a protected category, adopt anti-bullying policies that give special protections to homosexuals instead of protecting everyone equally, and form pro-homosexual “gay-straight alliances” in the schools, and you will save lives, he appears to be saying. (Oh, and it also helps to have more homosexual couples and registered Democrats living in your county.)

Those five variables were used as a measure of the “social environment.” The study, based on self-reports in a survey of young people across Oregon, found:

Among LGB [lesbian, gay, bisexual] youth, the risk of attempting suicide was 20% greater in negative environments compared with positive environments (25.47% of LGB living in negative environments attempted suicide at least once [in the last year] versus 20.37% in positive environments).

But to focus on the results this way is to ignore the study’s most significant finding. Reuters did a much better job than AP in identifying it, beginning its story this way:

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An overwhelming majority of Americans oppose using taxpayer money to fund abortion.  When asked specifically if they supported or opposed the use of public funds to provide coverage for abortion in health insurance plans created by Obamacare, 72% of Americans were in opposition!  Only 23% percent supported publicly funded abortion coverage in insurance plans, and 5% did not know (Quinnipiac 2009).

In an effort to reflect the will of the people, 9 state governments have passed laws (and at least 16 more have pending legislation) prohibiting the coverage of abortion in any of the state insurance exchange programs instituted by Obamacare.

Several states have gone beyond this and restricted or proposed legislation restricting abortion coverage in all health insurance plans (public and private) except through the optional purchase of a rider.

In addition, several states which have not completely restricted abortion coverage in all insurance plans have restricted it in state-funded (read: taxpayer-funded) insurance plans.

The following map will give you a clear picture of the state of abortion coverage in insurance across the states:

=  AL (SB183, SB202 and HB 558), AR (SB113), FL (H97 and S1414), GA (SB4 and SB29), IA (HF576, HSB57, and SF38), IN (SB116), KS (HB2292, HB2377), MI (HB4143 and HB4147), (MT SB176), NE (LB22 and LB132), NJ (A3085), OH (HB79), OR (HB3600), PA (SB3), SC (H3406 and S102), TX (HB552, HB636, HB1816, HB3112, HB3419 and SB404)

= AL (SB201, SB281 and HB557), IN (SB241), KS (HB2292, HB2377), MI (HB4143 and HB4147),  MN (Only state-funded insurance: HF201, SF103), NE (LB22), OR (HB3600), SC (H3406), TX (SB404)

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Many pro-family groups have been urging the Obama Justice Department to ask the United States Supreme Court to review a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) indecency regulations.  Well, we have some good news for a change.  The Acting Solicitor General of the United States, Neal Katyal, submitted such a request (a petition for a writ of certiorari) last week on April 21.  The Court is being asked to consider whether the FCC’s “context-based approach to determining indecency is unconstitutionally vague….”  It will need to do this with regard to sanctions that were handed down by the FCC regarding broadcasts that included scenes with nudity and the use of expletives.  For more on the case read this story.

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“Citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief. No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion. The state protects normal religious activities. No one may make use of religion to engage in activities that disrupt public order, impair the health of citizens or interfere with the educational system of the state. Religious bodies and religious affairs are not subject to any foreign domination.” — Article 36, Constitution of the People’s Republic of China

Nice words, but sadly only that. Just yesterday, 40 members of a large Chinese house church were detained while holding an Easter service. Another 500 were placed under house arrest. Yesterday’s actions were only the latest outrage against Chinese Christians by their government; as the Voice of America reports:

“In the past five years, every year, the degree of persecution increased, from the perspective of how many church’s were persecuted, how many Christians were arrested, sentenced, abused or tortured. So it’s a national phenomenon; it’s a common phenomenon. Every year is like this,” he said. Members of the Shouwang Church say more than 500 members of the congregation were also put under house arrest. It’s unclear, however, whether any of those detained or under house arrest will face formal charges. Mark Shan says the crackdown is not limited to Beijing. “From Henan, Shandong province this month, even Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, the crackdown has never stopped and it is more serious than last year,” he said.

This news comes as no real surprise. Earlier this month, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton noted that, “In China, we’ve seen negative trends that are appearing to worsen in the first part of 2011.”

Why? Perhaps the story is in the numbers:

According to the Pew Research Center, between 50 million and 70 million Chinese worship in house churches, and more than 25 million worship in state-sanctioned Catholic and Protestant churches. The Communist Party, by comparison, has around 60 million members.

If the Chinese government believes it can quell faith in Jesus through a public crackdown, they would do well to contemplate what historian Herbert Schlossberg and journalist Marvin Olasky have called “the fragrance of oppression.” Persecution was the lot of the early church – the New Testament is full of accounts of the oppression of the early church and encouragements to both anticipate it and stand firm through it. The early believers, brutalized in every way, would not bend or break. In the words of Paul to the church at Corinth, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body” (II Corinthians 4:8-10).

The life of Jesus is manifest in a suffering church, just as a rose is most aromatic as it is crushed to the ground. If the Chinese leadership believes that it can crush the growing church in its midst by attacking it, it is pursuing a strategy that has never worked. To the contrary, in the economy of God’s kingdom, persecution leads to purity and beauty, which together lead to faith in the One Who sustains – to the wonder of a watching world – those who remain faithful to Him in the midst of their pain.

The Chinese pastor Yuan (Allen) Xiangchen was first imprisoned by the Communist Chinese in 1958 for preaching the Gospel. Here’s what he said about his experience:

During those years in prison my wife suffered untold hardships in bringing up the children. I was sent to near the Russian border doing farm work, growing rice. Wang Ming Dao [a fellow pastor also sentenced to the camp] and I thought we would die martyrs there … In the labour camp it was very cold … food was bad, and the work was hard, but in 22 years I never once got sick. I was thin and wore glasses, but I came back alive; many did not. I also had no Bible for the 22 years and there were no other Protestant Christians there. I met only four Catholic priests. They were in the same situation I was in; they refused to join the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.

Pastor Yuan finally was released in 1979. He immediately went back to preaching the Gospel.

Chinese President Hu Jintao, who with his peers evidently is alarmed by the growth of Christianity in his country, might consider Pastor Yuan’s example – and change his policy of oppression. It should also be our prayer that President Obama, Secretary Clinton, and longtime defenders of the persecuted like U.S. Reps. Frank Wolf (R-VA), Chris Smith (R-NJ), and Trent Franks (R-AZ) will take whatever public or private steps necessary to work to protect Christian believers who live so bravely behind the Bamboo Curtain.

For up-to-the-minute reports on Christian persecution in China, go to www.chinaaid.org or www.persecution.org.

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Simply put, he is a liberal Democrat.  And that fact accounts for the recent failure of many Republican-backed pro-life and pro-family bills despite the Republican majorities in both the House and Senate.

One individual’s “vote” can make all the difference in the world, especially when that individual is the governor of a state.  This point can be illustrated by looking at two states in particular: Arizona and Kansas.  Both of their former governors, staunch democrats Janet Napolitano and Kathleen Sebelius respectively, were appointed to positions by President Barack Obama.  Both states now have Republican governors: Jan Brewer in Arizona, and Sam Brownback in Kansas.  In recent weeks several pro-life bills have been sent to those governors’ desks such as a bill prohibiting abortion after 22 weeks based on fetal pain in KS and a bill strengthening abortion clinic regulations in AZ.  These and other similar bills would have been met with a ready veto a few years ago, but instead governors Brownback and Brewer were happy to agree with their legislatures and celebrate the bills’ passage.

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Yesterday, there were several important developments in the ongoing struggle to protect the Defense of Marriage Act.  Two were brought about by the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Boehner.  The third flowed from one of his decisions.  The Washington Times carried a story by Cheryl Wetzstein describing these developments today.  Go to Scotusblog here for more information.  Here are is a description of these developments:

First, Speaker Boehner sent House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi a letter reiterating that the House was going to take appropriate steps to defend the constitutionality of DoMA.  Additionally, DoJ accounts are going to debited to reimburse the cost of the litigation efforts needed to defend the statute.

Second, it was announced that former Solicitor General of the United States Paul Clement would oversee the defense of DoMA in various court actions around the country.  Clement is one of the most talented lawyers in the United States, and his participation ensures that the statute will receive the best defense possible when the issue finally reaches the Supreme Court.

And, third, Clement acted quickly to file a motion asking that the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the House be allowed to intervene in Windsor v. United States, a DoMA case that is now docketed in federal court in New York City.  Here are the motion to intervene and the accompanying legal memorandum that were filed.  It is expected that a similar request to intervene will be filed in a similar case in Connecticut (Pederson).

On February 23^rd when the Holder DoJ bailed out on DoMA it was not clear whether the House would take effective action.  At this time, however, it appears that Speaker Boehner has put the people in place to effectively defend the statute.  The DoJ cost offset is completely appropriate, but even if there were no offset it is pretty funny to see Nancy Pelosi complaining about the cost of anything the government does.

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Since the Adjournment of Idaho’s 2011 legislative session on April 7^th, a wide spectrum of adjectives have been used to describe this year’s proceedings.  Governor Otter called it “very succesful,” while Senate Democrats called the session “the worst in their collective memories.”  Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis said it was “a difficult session among some of the worst economic times in memory” and Representative Erik Simpson summed it up by quoting Charles Dickens: “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.”

From a pro-life and pro-family perspective it is easy to agree with the Governor and call Idaho’s 2011 session very successful indeed.  According to Julie Lynde, Executive director at Cornerstone Family Council, Governor Otter signed every piece of pro-life legislation that crossed his desk.  And many of those measures were quite significant.

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To an eclectic group of religious leaders[1], President Obama spoke movingly today at the White House about the meaning of Easter:

The humility of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet.  His slow march up that hill, and the pain and the scorn and the shame of the cross. And we’re reminded that in that moment, he took on the sins of the world — past, present and future — and he extended to us that unfathomable gift of grace and salvation through his death and resurrection. In the words of the book Isaiah:  “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities:  the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” This magnificent grace, this expansive grace, this “Amazing Grace” calls me to reflect.  And it calls me to pray.  It calls me to ask God for forgiveness for the times that I’ve not shown grace to others, those times that I’ve fallen short.  It calls me to praise God for the gift of … His Son and our Savior.

Remarkable: A pretty clear presentation of the Gospel from a man who arguably is America’s first post-modern President.  He even quotes from Isaiah 53, a prophetic passage that describes vividly the suffering of the coming Messiah.

Here’s what he said about the Bible:

… in the middle of critical national debates, in the middle of our busy lives, we must always make sure that we are keeping things in perspective.  Children help do that.  A strong spouse helps do that.  But nothing beats Scripture and the reminder of the eternal.

He’s right.  Yet Mr. Obama’s reading of Scripture seems highly selective.  In a speech to the Evangelical Leftist Jim Wallis’ “Call to Renewal” conference in 2006, here’s what then-Sen. Obama said:

Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is ok and that eating shellfish is abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount – a passage that is so radical that it’s doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application? So before we get carried away, let’s read our Bibles. Folks haven’t been reading their Bibles.

This statement trivializes serious biblical interpretation. Mr. Obama’s apparent philosophy of exposition is that no one can ever say with any real authority “thus saith the Lord” since, one is left to assume, the Lord said so many obscure, grim, and evidently impracticable things.  The Bible according to Mr. Obama becomes a Rorschach blot to which we each bring our own meaning.  This is particularly troubling in a President who frequently invokes the Bible in his speeches, often to justify his political stances.

The reality, of course, is that the Old Testament civil code was intended only for theocratic Israel.  The ceremonial rituals of Israel’s religious worship were representative, and fulfilled in Christ.  The moral law, however, is constant from Genesis through Revelation.  The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ intensification of the Law of Moses, intended to demonstrate both the way His followers should treat others and the inability of fallen men to practice perfectly God’s standards – which is why they need the Savior.

President Obama persistently refuses to acknowledge the personhood of the unborn child.  He is the strongest advocate for the homosexual agenda ever to work in the Oval Office.  His position on religious liberty is captured by the notion that faith is best expressed within the walls of a church, but is taken outside those walls only at the legal peril of the faithful (and if the Employment Non-Discrimination Act were enacted into law, profound intrusions by the state within those four walls would happen, as well).

It is good to read the President’s expression of Christian faith.  Now if he would search the Scriptures and apply them, as appropriate, to public policy, many believers would sing “Amazing Grace” with even greater gratitude this coming Resurrection day.

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Last week on the day that the House and Senate were set to take a vote on defunding Planned Parenthood, Christianity Today writer Tobin Grant authored a “fact checking” piece on the debate over tax funding for America’s primary abortion provider. The author dedicated much of the article to “fact checking” one of Family Research Council’s pieces about the abortion giant.

Grant quoted a recent alert (the alert was actually from Family Research Council’s sister organization FRC Action) that stated “Income from abortions constitutes 37 percent of [Planned Parenthood’s] total profit” Grant wrote that this statement was “false.”

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In case you missed this dubious milestone, student loan debt exceeded credit card debt for the first time  last year according to a recent New York Times story.  CNN has also reported on this topic.

It appears that student load debt will top 1 trillion dollars this year — an enormous sum.   As Lauren Asher, president of the Institute for College Access and Success, noted, “Things like buying a home, starting a family, starting a business, saving for their own kids’ education may not be options for people who are paying off a lot of student debt.”

The current system is unsustainable as tuition increases continue to rocket upward faster than the rate of inflation.

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The work of the former D.C. School Superintendent, Michelle Rhee, has been under concerted attack since she left office.  Rhee antagonized the teacher unions and created powerful institutional and ideological enemies.  A couple of recent studies have attacked her tenure in office.  Paul Peterson, director of Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance, released a report for Education Next whose results were summarized in a Washington Times article he authored.

Peterson presents the following paragraphs of analyses:

In my report … I put to one side data from the District’s own assessments now subject to cheating allegations. Instead, I consider the performance of District students on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a low-stakes test for which incentives to cheat are minimal, as the performance of no student, teacher or school is identified and about which no cheating allegations have been raised.

….

Gains are not enormous in any one year, but over time, they add up. In 2000, the gap between the District and the nation in fourth-grade math was 34 points. Had students gained as much every year between 2000 and 2009 as they did during the Rhee era, that gap would have been just 7 points in 2009. Three more years of Rhee-like progress and the gap would have been closed. In eighth-grade math, the gap in 2000 was 38 points. Had Rhee-like progress been made over the next nine years, the gap in 2009 would have been just 14 points, with near closure in 2012. In fourth-grade reading, the gap was 30 points in 2003; if Rhee-like gains had taken place over the next six years, the gap in 2009 would have been cut in half.

There is more valuable analysis by Peterson that makes the entire article worth reading.  It points to the critical fact that true educational reform will be difficult and met with considerable opposition by entrenched interests.

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I was furiously scribbling notes as author James Swanson lectured last night at the Lincoln Cottage. He was speaking about his wonderful new book, Bloody Crimes: The he Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln’s Corpse. The room was filled with listeners paying rapt attention as the sun set over the home where Abraham Lincoln drafted the Emancipation Proclamation. Last night was the anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination in 1865. One year ago, I was at the Newseum, also taking notes as James Swanson lectured on his earlier book, Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer.

It should be clear I am a great admirer of this writer’s work. But in his lecture, Swanson offered an observation that stunned me as much as if he had fired John Wilkes Booth’s bulldog derringer above our heads:

He said: I regard Thomas Jefferson as the biggest hypocrite in American History.

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Author James L. Swanson could not have chosen a better place, a better time to discuss his wonderful book, Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln’s Corpse. He appeared last night on the anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination at the Lincoln Cottage, located on the grounds of Washington’s Soldiers’ Home. This beautifully restored Victorian summer home was a refuge for Abraham, Mary, and Tad Lincoln for three summers—1862, 1863, and 1864—while they occupied the White House. They first sought quiet and solitude there following the death of their beloved 11-year old son, Willie.

James Swanson’s book is a gem. He takes us on the long, last mournful way of the Lincoln Funeral Train throughout its 1,600-mile journey from Washington to Springfield.

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Dear Friends,

In 2009, Barack Obama appointed then-Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. This was a troubling pick for conservatives, given her support for abortion-on-demand and support from abortion giant Planned Parenthood. Since her appointment, Sec. Sebelius has justified these concerns, as she has advocated for federal funding of abortion, abortifacient drugs and stem cell research using human embryos.

Yet there is a significant bright side to Sec. Sebelius’ departure from Topeka: Former Senator Sam Brownback, a champion for life, is now Governor of Kansas. And what a difference that has made.

Yesterday, Gov. Brownback signed legislation that “strictly limits abortions after 22 weeks based on the fact that fetuses can feel pain beginning after the 21st week of pregnancy” and another measure, “the Abortion Reporting Accuracy and Parental Rights Act,” which “requires minors who seek abortions to obtain consent from both parents and places certain prohibitions on late-term and partial birth abortions.”

Kathleen Sebelius would have fought these bills from their introduction. Sam Brownback not only signed but celebrated them.

To those who say that Christians should withdraw from political engagement and concentrate on private acts of charity or work solely with church or ministry groups, consider Sam Brownback and his allies in the Kansas Legislature.

These bills are part of a larger legislative mosaic that is building, gradually but steadily, a culture where the personhood of the unborn child is being recognized in law and in the American conscience.

Does political engagement bring complete resolution of every problem? No. But political action can make a decisive, if incremental, difference in a host of areas — most importantly those involving the sanctity of life from conception until natural death, the dignity of marriage, and the centrality of religious liberty to American public life.

Elections matter. Just ask Sam Brownback — and, in years to come, the children whose lives are saved through the bills he just signed into law.

Sincerely,
Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice-President
Family Research Council

P.S. Be sure to read FRC President Tony Perkins’ Daily Caller op-ed on the budget crisis, Planned Parenthood, and the effects of abortion. To learn more about Planned Parenthood’s assault on the American family, read, “Planned Parenthood–What Every Parent, Teacher, Woman, Community Leader and Elected Official Needs to Know,” by FRC’s Director of the Center for Human Dignity, Jeanne Monahan.

Educational Freedom and Reform

Homeschooling

• “HSLDA Arrives; Superintendent Does 180,” Home School Legal Defense Association
• “The Heroism of Motherhood,” Gretel Deem, Crosswalk

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Mark Twain famously said “a lie can go halfway `round the world before truth gets its pants on.” Maybe it’s time for truth to get out of bed. Novelist Gore Vidal created a minor stir twenty years ago with his claim that President James Buchanan was “a same-sexer.” Vidal has only been capable of minor stirs. Serious students of American history might be tempted to toss Old Public Functionary to the wolves. After all, poor Buchanan, the only bachelor president, is almost universally regarded as our worst president.

But what was ridiculous twenty years ago becomes a serious problem when the Internet explodes with salacious gossip about our U.S. presidents. Pornographer Larry Flynt unburdened himself to the trashy British tabloid, The Daily Mirror, promising to tell all about American presidents who were less than faithful to their marital vows. Britain’s “gutter press” loves nothing better than a sex scandal, unless it’s a sex scandal that reflects badly on the Yankees.

This perpetual muckraking is intended to do one thing: De-legitimize America in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of her own people. It’s just one more way for the left to show that America is not exceptional, not all that special after all.

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In 2009, Barack Obama appointed then-Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.  This was a troubling pick for conservatives, given her support for abortion-on-demand and support from abortion giant Planned Parenthood.  As an advocate for federal funding of abortion, abortifacient drugs and embryonic stem cell research, among other things, Sec. Sebelius has justified these concerns.

Yet there is a significant bright side to Sec. Sebelius’ departure from Topeka: Former Senator Sam Brownback, a champion for life, is now Governor of Kansas.  And what a difference that has made.

Yesterday, Gov. Brownback signed legislation that “strictly limits abortions after 22 weeks based on the fact that fetuses can feel pain beginning after the 21st week of pregnancy” and another measure, “the Abortion Reporting Accuracy and Parental Rights Act,” which “requires minors who seek abortions to obtain consent from both parents and places certain prohibitions on late-term and partial birth abortions.”

Kathleen Sebelius would have fought these bills from their introduction.  Sam Brownback not only signed but celebrated them.

To those who say that Christians should withdraw from political engagement and concentrate on private acts of charity or work solely with church or ministry groups, consider Sam Brownback and his allies in the Kansas Legislature.  Were these bills the final word in the battle for life?  No.  They are part of a larger legislative mosaic that is building, gradually but steadily, a culture where the personhood of the unborn child increasingly is being recognized in law and in the American conscience.  For the children whose lives will be saved through these measures, they are nothing less than critical.

Does political engagement bring complete resolution of every problem?  No.  But political action can make a decisive, if incremental, difference in a host of areas — most importantly those involving the sanctity of life, the dignity of marriage, and the centrality of religious liberty to American public life.

Elections matter.  Just ask Sam Brownback.

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