Marriage & Family
As a conservative writer in Rhode Island, I find it difficult to know where to begin a reaction to the apparent, likely, or maybe only as-yet possible decision of the United States Supreme Court to reverse Roe v. Wade this session. The place to start, I suppose, is with the biggest and most-obvious point. Unless our…
Providence middle school teacher Ramona Bessinger shared on her Facebook page a Planned Parenthood poster that she was “encouraged to post” in her classroom last school year. Here’s the main body of the text: Beyond the Birds and the Bees is a sexuality education program for high schoolers that is science-based, sex-positive, and affirming to…
As my opening question hints, the support for legislation making Rhode Island the fifth state in the country to ban child marriage earlier this month was so uniform that it couldn’t help but excite my contrarian nature. Writing in Forbes, Ryan Sasse of UNICEF’s praise was particularly profuse: With the enactment of H5387/S398 on June 7,…
Politicians always have time to figure out new ways to restrict explicit rights, like the right to bear arms guaranteed in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. They spend considerably less time (if any at all) addressing the changes in our society that actually might reduce violence. Consider the following, from an Epoch Times commentary…
A recent Zogby Poll found that 61% of American business leaders agreed “that progressive ideas on race, gender, post-colonialism and ‘cancel culture’ were undermining society and were not necessary.” One suspects that the other 39% are not being honest with the pollsters or with themselves. Consider the latest development on sexual identity undermining marriage: “platonic…
John Rosemond’s parenting advice, in The Valley Breeze, offers wisdom of much broader applicability than just raising your kids: Just as children must learn to behave correctly, they must also learn to think and emote correctly. Contrary to contemporary psychological propaganda, not all feelings are valid or deserving of exploration. “I have a right to feel like…
From Jon Brown, on the Daily Wire,” Advocates Push For Consensual Incest To Be Decriminalized, Laugh Off ‘Grooming’ Allegations.” However, I won’t hold my breath waiting for progressive activists to come to the defense of what remains of the institution of marriage for two reasons. First, this development was obvious back then, based simply on the…
Three same-sex marriage bills have been posted for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on this Tuesday, S0038 and H5015A which would authorize same sex marriage by statute, and S0708 which calls for a referendum on the issue. One or more of them could reach the Senate floor by Thursday (see item #7 from Ian Donnis).…
This afternoon, the Rhode Island Senate Judiciary Committee will hear two same-sex marriage bills, S0708 which would put the question to a Constitutional voter referendum in 2014, and S0038 which would directly authorize same-sex marriage by statute. In terms of the guarantees of “protection of religious freedom in marriage”, the bills are polar opposites. The…
(This essay appears in the January 25, 2013, Providence Journal.) For two years in a row now, The Journal’s article about the first baby born in the new year has contained no mention whatsoever of a father. Studies on the subject are clear that fatherlessness will be a disadvantage to these children, even if they…
