Good Morning!
“Children are the world’s most valuable resource,” said President John F. Kennedy. “And they’re our best hope for the future.”
The Wall Street Journal agrees:
- Children Are Priceless
From The Wall Street Journal:
The Brookings Institution is making a media splash with its estimate that it now costs more than $300,000 to raise a child through high school, an estimate first shared with our news colleagues at the Journal. Others are picking up the figure as if it’s a shocker. We don’t dispute the number, but that isn’t the way to look at it.
No doubt it takes money to feed, clothe and educate a family these days, and inflation isn’t helping. But children aren’t merely cost centers. Even ignoring human affection and thinking in the most utilitarian terms, children are assets—to the families who raise them, to the nation in which they are born, and to the world to which they will contribute across their lifetimes.
A bizarre idea we sometimes hear is that young people don’t want to have children for fear of climate change. Have children, or don’t, that’s your choice. But bringing another person into the world isn’t going to matter in the slightest to global temperatures. That is, unless your child becomes the adult who finds a solution to battery storage, or some other technological or business breakthrough that enhances the human condition.
A real cause for concern is the declining U.S. birth rate that is falling below the replacement rate. Without immigration, the U.S. population would begin to shrink. This is nothing to cheer. Whatever children cost to raise, they are a priceless vote of confidence in the future.
A real cause for concern is the declining U.S. birth rate that is falling below the replacement rate. Without immigration, the U.S. population would begin to shrink. This is nothing to cheer. Whatever children cost to raise, they are a priceless vote of confidence in the future.
RELATED:
How the Sexual Revolution Has Hurt Women
From the Wall Street Journal:
Today’s sexual culture however, prefers to understand people as freewheeling, atomized individuals, all looking out for number one and all up for a good time. It assumes that if all sexual taboos were removed, we would all be liberated and capable of making entirely free choices about our sexual lives, sampling from a menu of delightful options made newly available by the sexual revolution.
When sex before marriage is expected, and when almost all of the other women participating in my particular sexual market are willing to have sex on a first or second date, then not being willing to do the same becomes a competitive disadvantage. The abstinent young woman must either be tremendously attractive, in order to out-compete her more permissive peers, or she must be content to restrict her dating pool to those men who are as unusual as she is. Being eccentric carries costs.
A society that prioritizes the desires of the highly sociosexual is necessarily one that prioritizes the desires of men, given the natural distribution of this trait, and those men then need to call on other people—mostly young women—to satisfy their desires. The sexual playing field is not even, but it suits the interests of the powerful to pretend that it is. When we strip back all sexual morality to the bare bones, leaving only the principle of consent, we leave the way clear for some particularly predatory pikes.
The word “chivalry” is now deeply unfashionable, but it describes something of what we need. As the feminist theorist Mary Harrington writes: “‘Chivalrous’ social codes that encourage male protectiveness toward women are routinely read from an egalitarian perspective as condescending and sexist. But…the cross-culturally well-documented greater male physical strength and propensity for violence makes such codes of chivalry overwhelmingly advantageous to women, and their abolition in the name of feminism deeply unwise.”
- Walmart Expands Abortion Coverage
From CNBC:
Effective immediately, Walmart’s health-care plans will cover abortion “when there is a health risk to the mother, rape or incest, ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage or lack of fetal viability,” according to the memo to employees, which was reviewed by CNBC.
Employees and their family members who are insured through Walmart will also have travel costs covered, if they cannot access a legal abortion within 100 miles of their location, according to the email, which was sent by Walmart’s chief people officer, Donna Morris.
Walmart is the nation’s largest private employer with about 1.6 million employees and is headquartered in Arkansas, where strict abortion limits have already gone into effect. The company’s health-care expansion comes months after Target, Apple and others broadened or reaffirmed abortion coverage. Still, Walmart’s policy decision is symbolic: The retailer’s more than 4,700 stores are located in small towns and larger cities alike, with about 90% of Americans living within 10 miles of a location.
Last month, the company’s CEO, Doug McMillon, sent an employee-wide email saying that Walmart was “working thoughtfully and diligently to figure out the best path forward” after the Supreme Court decision. Walmart at the time didn’t say what changes the company was considering.
The retailer previously offered more limited abortion coverage. According to the company’s employee handbook, charges for “procedures, services, drugs and supplies related to abortions or termination of pregnancy are not covered, except when the health of the mother would be in danger if the fetus were carried to term, the fetus could not survive the birthing process, or death would be imminent after birth.”
- Planned Parenthood Set to Spend $50 Million to Influence Midterm Elections
From The Daily Citizen:
The political arm of our nation’s largest abortion seller is set to spend a breathtaking amount of money to influence this year’s midterm elections and elect pro-abortion candidates across the country.
Planned Parenthood Votes, the political arm of Planned Parenthood, revealed this week that it will be spending $50 million to elect pro-abortion candidates in gubernatorial and other down ballot races for November’s midterms.
Planned Parenthood Votes and its political allies said they are “launching our largest-ever midterm electoral program, in support of candidates up and down the ballot across the country who champion our right to reproductive freedom.”
“Abortion rights are going to play a huge role in this election,” Jenny Lawson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes, told The Washington Post. “The stakes have truly, truly never been higher.”
The group will initially target its money to nine different states – Georgia, Nevada, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Arizona, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Michigan and Wisconsin.
- Catholic group launches $1 million ad campaign slamming Biden’s response to church attacks
From The Christian Post:
A Catholic advocacy group has launched a $1 million ad campaign calling on the Biden administration to condemn pro-choice activists’ violent attacks and vandalism of Catholic churches.
CatholicVote announced the launch of a $1 million ad campaign on Tuesday, saying in a statement that its ad will air in battleground states, including Arizona and Wisconsin, both of which feature competitive gubernatorial races and U.S. Senate contests.
Joshua Mercer, communications director for CatholicVote, said in the statement that the ad will also air in Washington, D.C., so that the Department of Justice and other political leaders will see it.
“The American people are disgusted by the inaction of our Justice Department,” he added. “This ad sends an important message, calling on our lawmakers to demand action against this vicious campaign of targeted violence against Catholics.”
- Boston Children’s Hospital Under Fire for ‘Transgender’ Interventions That Damage and Disfigure Children
From The Daily Citizen:
Boston Children’s Hospital is under fire for posting a series of videos touting its “Gender Multispecialty Services” (GeMS), a clinic that provides experimental medical interventions that can permanently disfigure and damage children’s bodies and harm their minds.
In 2007, the hospital was the first in the nation to open a clinic to “transition” children with sexual identity confusion into living as the opposite sex.
At one point, the hospital had more than 90 videos promoting “gender transitions” for children, adolescents, teens and young adults. But after exposure by activists who want to protect children from these destructive procedures, the hospital quickly and quietly removed the videos.
- Transgender kids will be allowed to compete against biological girls after court reverses ban
From The Washington Examiner:
Transgender teen athletes will be able to compete against girls in Utah after a court stunningly reversed a previously implemented ban.
The decision, which goes against the will of most Americans according to a new Washington Examiner-YouGov poll, was made just ahead of the school year resuming in the state. A ban was passed by Republicans earlier this year, however, the reversal now gives transgender athletes a path to competing against girls. A new commission will rule on a case-by-case basis whether or not a trans student is allowed to compete against biological girls.
7. It’s tough out there for singles. What can churches do to help?
From the Deseret News:
The dating market has never been more difficult to navigate, after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted relationship norms already roughed up by the rise of dating apps.
American singles are getting toyed with, lied to and ghosted — that is, if they’re finding dates at all.
Amid these depressing trends, and in recognition of the fact that even partnered Americans are waiting longer to get married, Lifeway Research surveyed Protestant pastors on how their churches are serving single adults over age 30.
The survey found that most Protestant congregations look for ways to empower singles to get involved in church programs. More than 9 in 10 pastors said that single adults are encouraged to either serve in leadership (92%) or volunteer (91%) roles.
“Clearly, pastors want single adults integrated into the life and ministry of their churches,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, in a statement.
- U.S. Marines Win Class Protection from Vaccine Mandate
From The Daily Citizen:
The U.S. Marines have won a class action lawsuit to prevent the Department of Defense (DoD) from enforcing its COVID-19 vaccine mandate on thousands of Marines and punishing those Marines who have religious objections to receiving the shots.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday issued a preliminary injunction for all soldiers who are in active or reserve service in the United States Marine Crops.
The judge wrote that 3,733 Marines have requested a religious accommodation to the Department of Defense’s vaccine mandate, which they requested under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).
Of those thousands of requests, the Marine Corps has granted just 11 requests, or less than three-tenths of a percent (0.295%). However, the Corps has only granted the requests of those who are close to retirement.
“The record presents no successful applicant other than a few who are due for retirement and prompt separation,” Judge Merryday wrote.
“Because the record reveals the substantial likelihood of a systemic failure by the Marine Corps to discharge the obligations established by RFRA, a classwide preliminary injunction is warranted,” the judge added (emphasis added).
9. Do men really die sooner? Study finds married and educated men often outlive women
From Study Finds:
The new study challenges the conventional wisdom that men simply don’t live as long as women. This perception comes from the observations of many different populations throughout the world throughout time. However, researchers say many of the studies looking at gender differences in survival compare life expectancy, rather than the actual number of years someone lives.
To see what a man’s actual chances are of living longer than a female peer, the team examined the “outsurvival” statistic — a study of sex differences at death among 199 global populations over the last two centuries. The statistic measures the odds that someone from a population with a high death rate will live longer than someone from a population with a low death rate.
Study authors also used information from the Human Mortality Database, which covers 41 countries, and separate data from Germany and the United Kingdom. Additionally, the team looked at data from the World Population Prospects 2019, which gives scientists sex-specific life tables from 199 countries at five-year interval, starting from 1950-54 and ending in 2015-19.
- Remembering the One Woman Whose Ministry Helped Lead Countless Millions to Jesus Christ
From the Daily Citizen:
One day can make all the difference.
And sometimes not just for you – but for millions of people, too.
You’ve likely never heard of the Reverend Stuart MacLennan. But just over a hundred years ago, he was pastor of Hollywood Presbyterian Church in Southern California. At the time of his arrival to the corner of Gower and Carlos Streets, the congregation numbered just over 651 members.
But California was growing – and so was his church.
Accepting speaking engagements around the country, presumably to not only share the Gospel but also make people aware of Hollywood Pres’ burgeoning ministry, Reverend MacLennan found himself speaking one Sunday at a small church in Minneapolis.
There’s no way he could have imagined that one sermon would wind up changing the face and trajectory of American Christianity.
He never would have thought that one message would eventually lead to tens of thousands more – that would lead to millions of conversions to Christianity for the next century.
But that’s exactly what happened.
In the audience that day was 30-something Henrietta Mears, a single, bookish woman with poor eyesight. Born in Fargo, N.D., Mears was a high school principal who lived with her sister and who was extremely devoted to Christian education at their local church. Henrietta was happy and fulfilled, not just in her full-time job, but was also organizing and teaching Sunday school classes, as well as putting on choir productions.
Reverend MacLennan’s message so inspired Mears that day she invited the preacher back to their home for lunch, where they visited for three more hours. Impressed with the young women’s fervent faith and ideas, MacLennan invited the Mears’ sisters to someday visit his church back in California. At the time, he may as well have invited them on a rocket ship to the moon.
Keep reading for the rest of the story.
