Consequence of redefining marriage -- loss of religious liberties

Here's a story which highlights the consequences of legalizing same sex marriage or giving marriage-like legal status for same sex couples - loss of freedoms for religious-based foster care providers which believe placing children in households headed up by a married man and woman is in the best interest of children.

Since Illinois passed a law creating same-sex civil unions this year, faith-based groups that place children into foster care homes have increasingly found themselves left out in the cold.

Last week, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) informed the Evangelical Child and Family Agency (ECFA) — a 61-year-old group that has been contracting with the state to place foster children in homes since 1965 — that its contract will not be renewed in the new fiscal year, since the agency won’t place kids with same-sex couples.

ECFA is one of several faith-based groups that have had to make such a choice this year. Like Lutheran Child and Family Services, ECFA’s policy is to only place foster children with married couples; another group announced this summer it would change its policy in order to continue contracting with the state. Catholic Charities has chosen to fight the matter in court, but has not met with success so far. The civil unions law took effect on June 1.

“They’re saying all agencies that contract with DCFS need to be an ‘agent of the state,’” said ECFA Executive Director Ken Withrow. “Til now, the understanding was that we would be partners with the state — in our case,recruiting evangelicals to become foster care parents.”

Though DCFS cited the state’s civil unions law to ECFA, Withrow said it’s just a cover.

“We tend to disagree with that, because the act says nothing in it will
interfere with religious organizations. They prefer only to contract with
secular agencies,” he explained.

Yes, there would be significant ramifications to redefining marriage in Minnesota.

New study points out importance of fathers being involved with kids - it benefits dads and society.

A recent news story on testosterone levels points to the impact of parenting in the lives of children.

Testosterone, that most male of hormones, takes a dive after a man becomes a parent. And the more he gets involved in caring for his children - changing diapers, jiggling the kid on his knee, reading "Goodnight Moon" for the umpteenth time - the lower his testosterone drops.

So says the first large study measuring testosterone in men when they were single and childless and several years after they had children. Experts say the research has implications for understanding the biology of fatherhood, hormone roles in men and even health issues like prostate cancer.

"The real take-home message," said Peter Ellison, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard not involved in the study, is that "male parental care is important. It's important enough that it's actually shaped the physiology of men."

"Unfortunately," he added, "I think American males have been brainwashed" to believe lower testosterone means that "maybe you're a wimp, that it's because you're not really a man. My hope would be that this kind of research has an impact on the American male. It would make them realize that we're meant to be active fathers and participate in the care of our offspring."....

"This is part of the guy being invested in the "This is part of the guy being invested in the marriage," said Carol Worthman, an anthropologist at Emory University in Atlanta who also was not involved in the study. Lower testosterone, she said, is the father's way of saying, " 'I'm here,I'm not looking around, I'm really toning things down so I can have good relationships.' What's great about this study is it lays it on the table that more is not always better. Faster, bigger, stronger - no, not always."

This study reminds me of George Gilder's book, "Men and Marriage" which talks of the civilizing influence of marriage and family in the lives of males. When those influences aren't present we get the fall out of males without responsibility in their lives. They're listless, directionless, and often drift into activities which aren't helpful for society.

More evidence on the importance of men being and staying married.

Marriage played important role in defeat of NYC democrat who supported same-sex "marriage"

Here's an interesting article showing the importance of the marriage issue in the defeat of the democrat congressional candidate in NYC. If it can impact the outcome of a race in NYC, it could have an even greater impact in more conservative legislative districts.

To win in a Democratic district, Turner needed Democratic votes. The two issues that seem to have helped drive some of the district's traditionally Democratic voters to cast their ballots for Turner were Obama's Israel policy and Weprin's vote for same-sex marriage. Former Democratic New York City mayor Ed Koch endorsed Turner primarily to send a message to Obama on
Israel. Democratic state senator Ruben Diaz backed Turner because of Weprin's vote on marriage. Democratic state assemblyman Dov Hikind says both issues, as well as dissatisfaction with Obama's failed economic policies, were "overriding" factors that led him to support Turner.

"This is an underlying issue that is an extremely powerful issue," Hikind says of Weprin's vote for same-sex marriage. Weprin didn't merely vote for the bill. He got on the floor of the assembly and compared voting against same-sex marriage to "outlawing marriages between Jews and non-Jews or interracial marriages.”

"The fundamental message was 'I'm an orthodox Jew and gay marriage is perfectly fine,'" Hikind says of his Democratic colleague's speech. "To me, when he did that, he crossed every single line." Forty orthodox rabbis declared that orthodox Jews could not support Weprin.

"I can tell you this is a real serious issue among Jews, among orthodox Jews, among Catholics," Hikind says. A PPP poll from last week showed that 29% of voters in the district said marriage is "very important," and a plurality (45% to 41%) said same-sex marriage should be "illegal."

Good news and bad news on marriage.

The good news on marriage as Chuck Colson points out is divorce rates are down. The bad news is cohabitation rates are up. Why is that bad news? Because cohabitation is now the alternative in the minds of many to the lifelong commitment of marriage.

And what's wrong with cohabitation? The relationships are less stable and less healthy not only for the couple but also children living in a household headed up by cohabiting parents.

The health and well-being of individuals and society is dependent on the well-being of marriages.

Marriage Amendment on 2012 ballot in North Carolina

The North Carolina state Senate followed the action of their state House by voting to put on their statewide ballot in May of 2012 a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

Minnesotans will be voting in November 2012 on a state constitutional marriage amendment. The action in North Carolina is another indication that there strong support for protecting marriage in various states. A Opinion Strategies poll in North Carolina found 61% of people "definitely for" the marriage amendment while only 23% were "definitely against" the amendment.

Passage of the amendments in Minnesota and North Carolina would bring the nationwide total to 32 states with state constitutional protections for marriage.