Great choice! I’ve expressed before that our out of control national debt is the single greatest threat to the future of our republic and that Romney did not have a strong enough record or positions on fiscal conservatism. The Ryan selection is a huge step forward for Romney on this critical topic. See past posts re Ryan here, here, here and here.
The Dawkins Delusion
Categories
The Gospel
Over at The Corner today, Charles C.W. Cooke took issue with British police arresting an English teenager who broadcast insensitive Tweets about the Brit’s failure to medal in men’s synchronized diving. Apparently, the teenager posted to Tom Daly that Mr. Daly’s father would be disappointed. Mr. Daly’s father died earlier this year. Mr. Cooke notes:
Britain is now a country in which you can be arrested for writing racist tweets, for criticizing your local government on the Internet, for telling a policeman that his horse is “gay,” for shouting offensive things on a bus, for issuing leaflets condemning homosexuality, for evangelizing for Christianity on the street, for issuing leaflets evangelizing for atheism in an airport, and so on and so forth. And the press, as ever, is silent.
This should come as no surprise. When the State takes on the role of primary caregiver and nanny to the population, it will act as such, to include parenting basic thoughts and speech. Even in the United States, if you’re a nanny state totalitarian politician, you see it as a responsibility to punish businesses that do not adhere to your moral code, which code happens to be the current dogma of the secular humanist “intellectuals.” How long until we start building re-education camps in the West?
Speaking of which, tomorrow August 1st is EAT AT CHICK FIL A DAY! Make sure to order an extra-fatty delicious peach shake, while they last. 
In a recent prayer letter to his supporters, Billy Graham explained the heavy burden he feels for the United States:
Some years ago, my wife, Ruth, was reading the draft of a book I was writing. When she finished a section describing the terrible downward spiral of our nation’s moral standards and the idolatry of worshiping false gods such as technology and sex, she startled me by exclaiming, “If God doesn’t punish America, He’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”
She was probably thinking of a passage in Ezekiel where God tells why He brought those cities to ruin. “Now this was the sin of … Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen” (Ezekiel 16:49–50, NIV).
I wonder what Ruth would think of America if she were alive today. In the years since she made that remark, millions of babies have been aborted and our nation seems largely unconcerned. Self-centered indulgence, pride, and a lack of shame over sin are now emblems of the American lifestyle.
Just a few weeks ago in a prominent city in the South, Christian chaplains who serve the police department were ordered to no longer mention the Name of Jesus in prayer. It was reported that during a recent police-sponsored event, the only person allowed to pray was someone who addressed “the being in the room.” Similar scenarios are now commonplace in towns across America. Our society strives to avoid any possibility of offending anyone—except God.
Yet the farther we get from God, the more the world spirals out of control.
My heart aches for America and its deceived people. The wonderful news is that our Lord is a God of mercy, and He responds to repentance. …
Read the rest of this excellent letter and what Dr. Graham and his son Franklin are doing in response here.
The best things in life are always blessings from God, and so many of God’s best blessings are the simple things in life, the ones we easily overlook and take for granted — blessings like life, love, fellowship, laughter, good food, and interesting conversation. Some people seem particularly adept at recognizing and enjoying and celebrating such blessings. One such person is the Triangle’s celebrity chef Elise Johnson, whose persona and culinary expertise (and recipes) are known to many throughout this area through her TV cooking segments “Cooking With Elise”, her blogging at www.CookingWithElise.com and through her service as Chef Spokesperson for BJ’s Wholesale Club. Chef Elise recently published the following article and graciously consented to my re-posting it here. Bon appetit!
The Importance of Your Family Table
by Elise Johnson
I have been so happy and honored to welcome so many of you into my home for adult and children’s cooking classes over the years. I have been honored that you have entrusted your children in my care. I hope I have encouraged your family in some way and made a difference in your lives. I have been blessed to meet so many wonderful families over the years.
Many people do not realize (because I have made up for it over the years.smile) that I did not speak with ease until I was about seventeen years old. A terrible speech impediment (stuttering) caused me great anxiety and made even saying my own name nearly impossible. It was in my grandmother’s kitchen that I found a safe haven. This is one reason why I am so passionate about cooking with family and friends. As many of you know, my mission has always been to inspire families to connect in their kitchens and around their tables. In my own experience, cooking and eating together strengthens and nurtures relationships quicker and stronger than any other way.
Please consider the following:
Family Meals 5 or more times per week spells S-U-C-C-E-S-S. 80% of families value family mealtime, but only 1 in 3 achieve success
S = Safe, secure place to belong
U= Unlikely to smoke, drink, do drugs, and engage in premarital sex. Psychologists compare the family meal to a vaccination protecting kids from harm. Children who eat with their families 5 or more days a week also avoid fights, and are less likely to be depressed and contemplate suicide.
C= Courteous and Conversational. The family table is a natural training ground. Children learn social skills and manners. Children learn how to have pleasant conversations and how to talk things through. Children learn a better vocabulary. Learn to behave properly, learn how to not interrupt, take turns, learn how to share, and how be polite. Children learn how to listen. Children learn how to entertain guests which is a great lesson for life. Children who are nurtured learn how to care for others.
C= Connected and Committed. Stronger family ties. Place to belong – a place of refuge. Greater sense of identity. Children learn how to commit and keep a schedule.
E- Eat Better. Children who eat as family 4 to 5 days per week do better in school; get better grades. Test higher than children who eat only 1 to 2 times a week. Eat better. Eat more fresh fruits , vegetables, grains, protein, iron and fiber; less intake of soft drinks and sugar. Are less likely to suffer from eating disorders; have better weight control
S= Self Esteem. Mealtime conversation brings the family together, promotes positive self-esteem in children and starts a lasting and positive relationship with food and family. Families learn how to share the responsibilities of preparing and cleaning up meals before, during and after the meal.
S= Success in School. Children who eat 4 to 5 times a week together as a family do much better in school. They receive better grades, achieve higher achievement test scores ; have improved vocabulary and reading skills.
We recently welcomed my literary agent, David, from Oregon to our home. He told our family of his time at a homeschooling convention. The speaker from Focus on the Family asked the hundreds of families present to raise their hands if they cook and eat together at their family table more than three times a week. David was shocked to see only a few hands raise. It is stories like these that made me write my new cookbook, YOU NEVER COOK ALONE. You Never Cook Alone is much more than a cookbook however. This is one review on Amazon:
“”You Never Cook Alone” is not your average, “cookie-cutter” cookbook. Elise Johnson has written a cookbook that is true to its subtitle, “Stirring Memories, Feeding Souls and Building Legacies”. The pages are not only filled with delicious, mouth-watering recipes, cooking tips, and activity suggestions, but they are also overflowing with stories that will warm your heart with joy and laughter, and may even bring a tear to your eye.” You can read the book description and editorial review here.
My family has had the blessing of traveling the country this summer on a book tour. On my tour I have been interviewed by television stations, newspapers and national radio. I always speak about the importance of the family table, how families connect in the kitchen and if spending time in the kitchen and around the table with my family helped me speak, imagine what it can do for other families!
On Sunday, July 15th at 3:00 pm, I will be signing books at Quail Ridge Books & Music. Enjoy a Sunday afternoon book signing and taste samples of the recipes in my book, meet our family and be encouraged! I’d love the opportunity to share my story with you! You Never Cook Alone is also written from a Christian perspective! I have been thrilled to share my faith on national platforms. If you are unable to join our family, you can purchase my book on Amazon. It is also available at some Barnes and Nobles and of course at Quail Ridge Books. Even more important than purchasing my book, please pray for our family and all the people who pick up my book. It is my deepest desire to glorify God in all I do!
Enjoy your summer! May you make many memories in the kitchen and around the table together!
If there’s one thing the atheist sophisticates know that they know, it’s there’s simply nothing worthwhile at the Creation Museum. Just a bunch of rednecks and rubes clinging to their Bibles, and of course, it’s the lair of their arch bogeyman – the Bible apologist par excellence Ken Ham. Of course, according to this same crowd, the Smithsonian is everything the Creation Museum is not — worldly, sophisticated, and relevant. While this atheistic dogma is unfounded – the Creation Museum is nothing if not sophisticated, world-class, and full of dogma-challenging formation – the atheist’s prejudice made for some humorous theater this weekend.
Apparently having missed the memo about there being nothing to see at the Creation Museum, the Smithsonian is featuring one of the Creation Museum’s dinosaurs as the centerpiece of a Smithsonian IMAX marketing campaign. This was recently discovered by a young girl visiting the Smithsonian who pointed out to her father that the Smithsonian’s prominent marketing display of a dinosaurs was none other than one of the raptors from the Creation Museum – museum sleuth and Creation Museum raptor (and Smithsonian specimen):
Ken Ham reported on his blog this weekend:
That phenomenally sculpted dinosaur was designed and built at the Creation Museum by AiG sculptors and designers. We can understand why the Smithsonian … chose this photo of the dinosaur—the dinosaur is so well done. … [W]e would be happy to give permission to the Smithsonian to use this photo if they request it, but I’m sure once the word is out that this photo is of a dinosaur at the Creation Museum—well, I wonder what they will do? … Now, we are prepared to offer the Smithsonian a license for free, though it would require our copyright notice near the dinosaurs. Regardless, we are not asking the Smithsonian to throw out all their brochures with our dinosaur on them.
I’m not sure what the Smithsonian thinks of this, but the militant atheists are already “sighing” and gnashing their teeth over the implicit recognition of the quality of Creation Museum displays from an institution they respect and hold dear. I think Ken ought to offer the Smithsonian a KEN HAM signatured copy of the raptor for them to use on all Smithsonian marketing, free of charge.
What a uniting presidential address sounds like …
Categories
The Father’s Reflection
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. 2 Cor. 3:18
Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned … Titus 2:7
I am my father’s son. His blood runs in my veins and his lessons from childhood and from how he lives his life play a substantial role in who I am. In turn, as a father, each year I more clearly see the impact I have on the lives, beliefs, and worldviews of my children. In truth, it wasn’t until I had children that I better understood my relationship with my father and what a blessing it was and remains to have a good man for a father. See tribute here.
Research substantiates the significant impact fathers have in the raising (or not) of their children. The pathology of fatherless homes in the country is staggering. Children in father-absent homes are five times more likely to be poor. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states, “Fatherless children are at a dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse.” See fathers.com. There is an overwhelming connection between young men raised in fatherless homes and violent crime. Dr. Loren Moshen of the Nat’l Inst. of Mental Health analyzed US census figures and found the absence of a father to be stronger factor than poverty in contributing to juvenile delinquency. A group of Yale behavioral scientists studied delinquency in forty-eight cultures around the world and found that crime rates were highest among adults who as children had been raised solely by women. Dr. Martin Deutsch found that the father’s presence and conversation stimulates higher performance at school. John Hopkins researchers found that young white teenage girls living in fatherless families were 60 percent more likely to have premarital sex. Dr. Armand Nicholi’s research found that an emotionally or physically absent father contributes to a child’s low motivation for achievement, inability to defer immediate gratification for later rewards, low self-esteem, and susceptibility to group influence and to juvenile delinquency. The loving father’s investment in the wise nurturing of his children’s spiritual, physical, mental and emotional wellbeing pays dividends for generations.
As important as our earthly fathers are, they can only help us temporally. God the Father also invests in the nurturing of his children, in the nurturing of those that have put their faith in His son Jesus Christ. Gal. 3:26. God’s investment in our wellbeing, however, pays dividends, not just now, but for eternity. He equips us and gives us hope for eternity. He also wonderfully provides for us in the here and now. Through God’s provisioning, through his Spirit, I can be the father and husband my family deserves.
The best I can do for the wellbeing of my children is to draw closer to and know my heavenly Father more, every day. Through His grace and guidance, I can be the man God created me to be, to include being the father God intended to the children he’s entrusted to me and my wife, and to further including being the husband to my wife in manner pleasing to God. Through Christ’s strength and through His wisdom I can guide and instruct my children, and more importantly, live, in the Spirit as I model my life before them. We teach what we know, but we recreate who we are. This fathers day, I recommit to drawing closer to the ageless and eternal One so that I may better live by and walk with the Spirit.
Happy Fathers Day!
Given my involvement with and support for Answers in Genesis (“AiG”) and the Creation Museum, Christian friends occasionally ask me whether young-earth creationism is really so important. Does it really matter?
In the ultimate sense, the eternal sense, the answer is “no.” One’s belief on precisely how humanity came into existence is not going to open the doors of heaven or close the gates of hell for a person on the day of judgment. Of course, ultimately, only one thing matters for us. In the ultimate sense, the only question that really matters is whether one has accepted Jesus Christ as his or her Lord and personal savior.
Again, the creation-evolution-old earth-young earth debate is not even the most important issue directly facing the church today. Related to the first issue, the most important issue facing the church today is reaching the current generations with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Also of great importance is teaching the current and next generation about the truth and authority of scripture – to include its culturally unpopular teachings on the depravity of man, reality of an eternal hell and judgment, and the exclusivity of Christ. Also related directly to the authority of scripture is the importance of the church governing itself and its members according to the clear guidelines in the New Testament. In my opinion, these are all “more important” issues than the age of the Earth.
Yet, as the temporal church literally rests on the Earth, the above issues rest entirely on the authority of scripture. From where I sit, the church, at least in the West, is failing to reach the current generations with the truths of Jesus Christ because the church has lost confidence in the authority of scripture. The western church lacks the courage of its convictions that scripture is the inerrant word of God because the church is losing its convictions in that regard. And there is no more obvious and glaring example of this over the last fifty years than in what the church has been doing with the first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis, and in particular with the first two chapters of Genesis regarding creation and related creation passages.
Regarding creation, far too many in our churches and seminaries have invested countless hours and effort trying to figure out ever more clever ways to “fit” billions of years and evolutionary processes into the Bible’s revelation concerning God’s creation of the world and everything in it. As I’ve pointed out before, this is entirely unnecessary given the threadbare nature of evolutionary theory. See e.g. here and here. Regardless, the ongoing compromise is fact, in fact, it’s the dominant position within the western church. Sadly, as AiG discovered through its survey evidence published in Already Compromised, our theologians much more than our Christian scientists lead the charge with this unnecessary compromise. As Ken Ham repeats and repeats and repeats, this compromise of God’s word is not just a compromise, it also undermines fundamental doctrines of our faith. Most importantly, it undermines the foundations of the gospel. Not surprisingly and as a direct result, it undermines the faith of our children, again as researched and written about by AiG in Already Gone.
All of this is background for a recent and unplanned debate this past May 31 between Ken Ham, the face of AiG and the Creation Museum, and Dr. Hugh Ross, perhaps the most well-known old-earth creationist.
TBN invited these two men, as well as Ray Comfort, Dr. John A. Bloom, Sean McDowell, and Eric Hovind to be “interviewed” by host Matt Crouch. TBN said it was not a debate. Two minutes before the show started, Mr. Crouch announced to these guests that they’d all be interviewed “together” on the show. In making this decision, the disarming and charming Mr. Crouch set the groundwork for a great debate. In fact, that’s exactly what happened. With this background information, the first twenty minutes or so of the “interview” is amusing as these guests try to get their bearings and figure out what’s going on. Likely due to intelligent design and not blind chance, the guests were evenly divided between young earth (Ham, Comfort, Hovind) and old earth (Ross, Bloom, McDowell). After about a half-hour, the guests settled in for the exchange of conflicting ideas and the debate was thereafter fairly dominated by Ham and Ross, which is a good thing for the audience as each man is firmly in command of his beliefs and able to communicate them well. They’ve debated several times and it shows as they parry back and forth regarding what scripture reveals regarding how God created and its implications for believers.
This surprise debate has turned into a surprise hit. As of this posting, there have been over 35,000 views already on TBN’s website, and they haven’t yet released it to Youtube. Like the “surprise” debate itself, viewing it lures you in and doesn’t let you go. It’s the most engaging theological debate of recent memory.
Ken Ham states:
Many viewers have found that this debate has turned into a great teaching tool to help Christians understand how to defend the Christian faith, and to get them to realize that the age of the earth issue is not a side issue, but one that really is an authority issue about the Bible—a battle between the authority of the Word of God and the beliefs of fallible, sinful humans. I have heard of professors using this debate to teach students the real foundational issue over a lack of accepting biblical authority that is so destructive to the church and culture.
Pastor Don Landis, who serves as AiG’s chairman of the board and is the founder of Jackson Hole Bible College, recently explained that while the creation debate within the church is about the authority of scripture, it is also about the character and nature of Jesus Christ. The old-earth compromisers invariably have Christ as the author of death and disease, well before the fall of mankind. This has substantial theological implications.
If you are a Christian who takes the word of God seriously, please take the time to watch the debate, here. Please also listen to Pastor Landis’ important analysis here: 2012-06-08 Don Landis. You will be blessed by these messages.
God Bless!
My favorite book was wrote about
A man that died to save my soul
And my favorite thing to hear is
Daddy, I’m so glad your home
And my favorite woman is 5’3”
With long black brown hair and green brown eyes
Yeah I live a simple life.
– Ricky Skaggs
(AJB revis.)
Categories
“Beyond Human Comprehension …”
We remember those that served and gave their lives for our country, or served with the promise to do so if called. We remember because we know the utter miracle and incredible value of each life. Each life, each one of us, is a remarkable temple — a miracle — testifying to the power and beauty of the living God. There is no greater sacrifice for one to give to another or to a country.
In this video courtesy of TED.com, artist-mathematician-computer scientists Alexander Tsiaras provides a brief but visually stunning review of our origins:
“The cause of sexual freedom, meaning the legalization of same-sex marriage, abortion on demand, and unlimited access to contraceptives, is advanced under a single overriding principle, that individuals should be free to do whatever they want with whomever they want so long as all participants are consenting adults. If that’s not freedom, what is? It might be the opposite of freedom actually.” Janie B. Cheaney, Bedroom Politics
We see an inverse relationship in the last 50 years, particularly in the West — as the institution of family weakens, the need for and intrusion of government – welfare and criminal – increases.
Robert George reminds us, “Liberty is valuable not so much for its own sake as for the sake of something larger, namely, human excellence or human flourishing. And … liberty is sustained—if it is sustained at all—by virtues that themselves must be transmitted by healthy institutions of civil society, beginning with the marriage-based family and communities of religious faith.”
Marriage is a civil right and a civil institution. The State’s interest in it is and always has been promoting the creation and nurturing of the next generation. See here. Jennifer Roback Morse explains in Privatizing Marriage Is Impossible:
Marriage is society’s primary institutional arrangement that defines parenthood. Marriage attaches mothers and fathers to their children and to one another. A woman’s husband is presumed to be the father of any children she bears during the life of their union. These two people are the legally recognized parents of this child, and no one else is. The grandparents are not; the former boyfriend is not; the nanny who spends all day with the kids is not. These two hold their parental rights against all other competing claimants. This is an intrinsically social, public function of marriage that cannot be privatized.
You might reply, “Dr. Morse, your understanding of marriage is all about parenthood, and not about marriage itself. Not every marriage has children, after all.” And it is perfectly true: not every marriage has children. But every child has parents. This objection stands marriage on its head by looking at it purely from the adult’s perspective, instead of the child’s. The fact that this objection is so common shows how far we have strayed from understanding the public purpose of marriage, as opposed to the many private reasons that people have for getting married.
If no children were ever involved, adult sexual relationships simply wouldn’t be any of the state’s business. What we now call marriage would be nothing more than a government registry of friendships. If that’s all there were to marriage, privatizing it wouldn’t be a big deal. But if there were literally nothing more to marriage than a government registry of friendships, we would not observe an institution like marriage in every known society.
God created a man and a woman to create and sustain new life — not two women or two men. Two moms don’t equal two dads. If you don’t believe in God, substitute “evolution”. Either way, it’s not by happenstance that it takes one male and one female to create a child. It also takes one male and one female to have the best opportunity to raise a happy and productive child. The state should not incentivize adults to deliberately create a child for purposes of raising the child without a father or without a mother. Those parts aren’t interchangeable. Children, particularly boys, need fathers. This isn’t just a point of theology or natural law, but is also demonstrable.
The pathology of fatherless homes in the country is staggering. Beyond poverty, there is an overwhelming connection between young men raised in fatherless homes and violent crime. Dr. Loren Moshen of the Nat’l Inst. of Mental Health analyzed US census figures and found the absence of a father to be stronger factor than poverty in contributing to juvenile delinquency. A group of Yale behavioral scientists studied delinquency in forty-eight cultures around the world and found that crime rates were highest among adults who as children had been raised solely by women. Dr. Martin Deutsch found that the father’s presence and conversation stimulates higher performance at school. John Hopkins researchers found that young white teenage girls living in fatherless families were 60 percent more likely to have premarital sex. Dr. Armand Nicholi’s research found that an emotionally or physically absent father contributes to a child’s low motivation for achievement, inability to defer immediate gratification for later rewards, low self-esteem, and susceptibility to group influence and to juvenile delinquency. We should be doing everything in our power to make sure children are raised by a mother AND a father.
Weakening the family inexorable leads to greater poverty, more crime, and poorer education. These pathologies in turn lead to more government. While it seems counterintuitive, the more the state supports and encourages strong families, the less prone we will be to larger and more intrusive government.
On Monday night, I participated in a debate with Pastor Patrick Wooden, Professor Maxine Eichnor and State Rep. Deborah Ross on the NC Marriage Amendment. The forum was sponsored by Tom Campbell of NC Spin. Pastor Wooden and I spoke in favor of the amendment, the other two opposed. Mr Campbell did a good job controlling the debate and moving the topics along. WRAL recorded the entire debate and has it on their website here. We each had four minutes for an opening statement and were to have one minute for closing statements, with the better part of two hours of debate and Q&A between. We ran late, so our closing statements were 30 seconds — what follows is what I prepared in advance for the opening and closing:
Durham Debate
April 30, 2012
Marriage is a complex subject. It is a legal term, a religious term, a civil institution, and a personal commitment.
The Marriage Amendment presently before voters addresses the legal and civil institution of marriage. This is not a vote on private religious ceremonies, or about making homosexuality legal or illegal.
Civil institutions like marriage exist to serve a public purpose. Civil institutions exist to influence behavior, to encourage or discourage human conduct.
Since its existence as a colony some 350 years ago, the institution of marriage in North Carolina has been the legal union of one man to one woman for the purpose of having a family. Marriage provides an incentive and protection for a man and a woman to bond for the purpose of creating and raising the next generation in a secure environment.
The State’s interest in marriage is the generation of the next generation. The reproduction and healthy upbringing of the next generation is the most fundamental of social functions. It is that fundamental and foundation function which warrants government incentives and protection of marriage.
Since the 1960s, we’ve been redefining the purpose of sex, to be less about procreation and more about recreation. Starting in the 1970s, we began redefining marriage to be less about the commitment to raising a family and more about adult liberty and satisfaction.
The results of this so-called sexual revolution and it’s cousin the no-fault divorce have not been good for families or for children. Homosexual marriage takes society further down the road of redefining the most fundamental of institutions to be about the liberty interests of adults and not about one man and one woman raising a family.
The western liberal democracies have been engaged in redefining sex and marriage away from procreation since the 1960s. The results have been catastrophic, with most of our liberal democracies suffering skyrocketing rates of single parenthood and collapsed fertility rates. The data is unambiguous. The West is committing demographic suicide.
Homosexual marriage is not the answer. Same sex marriage converts marriage from being child centric to being adult centric. Marriage must be about encouraging men and women to create children and stick it out through good and bad to raise those children together as a father and mother team.
Children raised by their mother and father is the gold standard. Regardless of how much two homosexuals might love each other, two men do not replicate a child’s mother. Similarly, two women do not replicate a child’s father. There is no public purpose served in incentivizing homosexual unions and the state should not incentivize homosexual parenting, nor should the state incentivize polygamous or polyamorous parenting or any other substitute for one man and one women raising their children. Keep in mind that we’re talking about incentivizing behavior through a civil institution. This is about government incentives, this is not about making relationships legal or illegal.
The homosexual lobby has conducted a public relations scare campaign to convince voters about the Marriage Amendment. The homosexual lobby has tried the same tactics in dozens of prior campaigns across the United States. In 30 out of 30 earlier votes, the voters knew better. And in 30 out of those 30 prior amendments, no such harms have come to pass. The arguments are legally frivolous and often outright false.
The homosexual lobby claims that the NC language is radical or somehow vague or mysterious. These claims are utterly false. Please read the Marriage Clauses in the Constitutions of Virginia and South Carolina. Look at Idaho’s also. It’s Amendment is six years old and nearly identical to NC’s. Please also check Black’s Law dictionary, the Federal DOMA, and about a dozen other State’s already passed marriage amendments. North Carolina’s amendment is very well written and would leave the decision of whether to redefine marriage in the hands of the citizens, and not radical lawyers, judges or politicians.
CLOSING REMARKS
Rob Agnelli recently said,
Because marriage has such a profound effect on society as a whole, the state has a compelling interest in it. … Marriage as a social institution possesses certain qualities that offer an irreplaceable benefit to society. Through the lifelong commitment of the spouses, the most stable conditions for raising children are created. Through sexual differences parents provide their children the full range of human love that comes by being raised by their mother and father. Marriage binds parents and children together and thus serves the common good. No other relationship involving parents and children can adequately substitute for these natural ones.
The more marriage ceases to be about the life long commitment of a man and a woman to raise a family, the less marriage produces life long commitment, and the less it produces family and children.
All citizens of North Carolina, gay and straight, are respected and welcomed and they have the right to private commitment ceremonies as they choose. But, they do not have the right to redefine marriage for our State and demand that the state incentivize and promote homosexual unions through the institution of marriage.
Marriage is the foundation institution for creating, sustaining and raising the next generation. The Marriage Amendment leaves it in the hands of North Carolinians, and not attorneys, to keep it that way.
Authors: Patrick F. Fagan, Andrew J. Kidd and Henry Potrykus
Executive Summary
The economic well-being of the United States is strongly related to marriage, which is a choice about how we channel our sexuality. The implications of sexual choices are apparent when comparing family structures across basic economic measures such as employment, income, net worth, poverty, receipt of welfare, and child economic well-being. In all of these the stable, intact married family outperforms other sexual partnering structures; hence the economy rises with the former and encounters more difficulties and inefficiencies as it diverges from it.
Family Structures and Economic Outcomes:
- Employment and Income. Married-couple families generate the most income, on average. Young married men are more likely to be in the labor force, employed, and working a full-time job than their nonmarried counterparts. Cohabiting men have less stable employment histories than single and married men. Married families generally earn higher incomes than stepfamilies, cohabiting families, divorced families, separated families, and single-parent families. According to one study, married couples had a median household income twice that of divorced households and four times the household income of separated households.
- Net Worth. Intact, married families have the greatest net worth. A family’s net worth is the value of all its assets minus any liabilities it holds. Married households’ net worth is attributable to more than simply having two adults in the household: a longer-term economic outlook, thrift, and greater head-of-household earning ability (the marriage premium) all contribute to greater household net worth.
- Poverty and Welfare. Poverty rates are significantly higher among cohabiting families and single-parent families than among married families. Over one third of single mothers live in poverty. Nearly 60 percent of non-teenage single mothers rely on food stamps or cash welfare payments.
- Child Economic Mobility and Well-Being. Children in married, two-parent families enjoy more economic well-being than children in any other family structure. Children in cohabiting families enjoy less economic well-being than children in married families, but more than children in single-parent families. The children of married parents also enjoy relatively strong upward mobility. By contrast, divorce is correlated with downward mobility. A non-intact family background increases by over 50 percent a boy’s odds of ending up in the lowest socioeconomic level.
Married Families:
Married men enjoy an income increase called the “marriage premium.” Married families also tend to save more, have higher net worth, and enjoy greater net worth growth from year to year. Furthermore, the presence of both parents at home is strongly beneficial for children, giving both parents myriad more options in devising their income and parenting strategies, resulting in increased economic well-being.
Remarried Families:
Remarriage may improve women’s incomes after divorce, though men who remarry after divorce have, on average, less net worth than continuously-married men. Many remarried spouses choose to keep money in separate accounts rather than pooling all their resources. Poverty is reduced by 66 percent among children whose divorced mothers remarry.
Divorced Families:
The income decline that follows divorce, particularly among women, is well documented. Divorcing or separating mothers are 2.83 times more likely to be in poverty than those who remain married. Following a divorce, the parent with custody of the children experiences a 52 percent drop in his or her family income. The children of divorced mothers are less likely to earn incomes in the top third of the income distribution, regardless of where in the income distribution their parents’ income fell.
Single-Parent Families:
Single parents have a particularly difficult economic situation. Single mothers over age 20 more closely resemble teenage single mothers than they resemble married mothers their own age when their children are born. Single mothers have less net worth than married parents, single fathers, and stepfamilies; their net worth is comparable only to cohabiting couples. Over one third of single mothers live in poverty. Children in singleparent households have less family income and are more likely to be poor than children in married-parent households.
Cohabiting Families:
Cohabiting households generally have larger incomes than single-parent households but smaller incomes than married-parent households. Cohabiting women work more hours as their partner’s income increases because they deliberately avoid an agreement to totally pool their incomes. Cohabitors who live together for less than four years are not likely to pool their incomes. Older cohabitors who have never been married have, on average, 78 percent less net worth than those in intact families. Furthermore, cohabiters have the lowest net worth growth of all family structures, comparable to that of widows and widowers.
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