Tag Archives: Global: Marriage and Family

Sky News: A six-year-old boy in the care of a Lesbian foster couple was dressed in girl’s clothing and had the pictures posted on Facebook.

The Guardian: An international pressure group is to be launched in Britain on Tuesday to tackle the rise in homophobic violence around the world, with a focus on Africa and the Middle East. The UK’s three main political parties have declared their support for Kaleidoscope . . .

The Globe and Mail: A new study, published in the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, found that students between age five and 10 who were home-schooled with a structured curriculum surpassed the public school peers on standardized tests.

Education News: Supposedly, while impartial and objective, the report displays an underlying distrust and hostility towards independent and Catholic schools and a return to the old class battles and sectarian divide of the past.

VirtueOnline: The big news this week comes from Ireland. A Church of Ireland cleric’s civil partnership could lead to the all-island church splitting along north-south lines, one of its most influential evangelical members has warned. Dermot O’Callaghan, who is seen as the leading evangelical layman in the Church of Ireland, stressed that no one in the church wants a split, but also said that the implications of the Rev. Tom Gordon’s gay partnership could be “fundamental”.

SCO News: The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland has questioned the validity of the Scottish Government’s public consultation on marriage between homosexuals.

LifeSiteNews.com: A member of U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron’s government is calling for a ban on marriages at Christian churches if they refuse to also perform same-sex unions.

LifeSiteNews.com: While surveying the landscape for inroads to push the homosexual agenda into Poland, American embassy officials under the Obama administration complained that the Catholic Church teaching is a major source of “homophobia” in the heavily Catholic country, according to private cables recently published by Wikileaks.

AP: British health officials say they will lift the ban on gay men donating blood – as long as their last sexual contact with another man was more than one year ago.

The court said the law discriminates against unmarried couples, and gave the province one year to change it.

Christian Concern: Controversial measures that would have given unmarried couples the same rights as married couples have now been rejected.

The Christian Institute: People using public services should not have to answer “intrusive” equality questionnaires on subjects like sexual orientation, a government minister has said.

Patrick Parkinson at SMH.com.au: But we need to do more than this. We need to look afresh at the overwhelming evidence that children do best in families with two married parents. It is not the wedding ring that does it. What seems to make the difference is that process of clear decision and public commitment. The promise to commit for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health really matters when the ”worse” happens, when money is tight, and when sickness strikes. Of course it is not a guarantee, but the likelihood that a non-marital relationship with children will break down is many times higher than for marriages.

SCO News: Cardinal Keith O’Brien will tell Scottish politicians this evening that ‘the family and marriage existed before the State and are built on the union between a man and a woman.’

LifeSiteNews.com: According to Bialecka, homosexual activists sent hundreds of e-mail to the medical school demanding the conference be banned from its facilities.
“The conference will take place nearby, but out of concern for the lecturer and the participants, we do not plan to publish the location of the new site,” she said.

Iran Human Rights: Articles 108 and 110 of the Iranian Islamic Penal code are part of the chapter covering the punishment of “Hadd” for “sodomy”. Article 108 says: “Sodomy (or Lavat) is sexual intercourse between men”, and article 110 says:”Punishment for sodomy is killing; the Sharia judge decides on how to carry out the killing”.

SMH.com.au: Spiralling rates of child abuse and neglect, of children being placed in foster care and of teenage mental health problems – including a dramatic rise in hospitalisation for self-harm – are rooted in the rise of one-parent families and de facto couples, violent or unstable relationships and divorce, the report says. Its author, Patrick Parkinson, a Sydney University law professor . . . | More information at Australian Christian Lobby | The Report is titled For Kids’ Sake

The Christian Institute: A public consultation on whether to change the definition of marriage to allow for same-sex marriage in Scotland has been launched today.

LifeNews.com: The UN’s new fertility forecasts could have significant implications for predicting which nations will wield global power in the 21st century, especially predictions about the coming power shift in Asia where Indians will outnumber Chinese by 2025.

The Christian Institute: ffairs are no longer the top reason for couples divorcing, with “falling out of love” replacing it, according to a survey of lawyers.

The Independent: Prostitutes in the German city of Bonn must carry a ticket purchased from a new parking meter-like machine while working the streets or face hefty fines from tax authorities in a scheme launched on last Monday.

LifeSiteNews.com: As trustees at the Toronto Catholic District School Board prepare to pass judgment Wednesday evening on crucial amendments to their controversial equity policy, a pro-family leader is warning of an effort by leadership at the board to “sabotage” the vote after promising it to parents for months.

Christian Concern: igures released by a selection of NHC foundation trusts have shown that almost 1,000 under-16s in their care have been diagnosed with venereal diseases such as herpes, chlamydia and gonorrhoea in the past three years.

LifeSiteNews.com: Dr. Judith Reisman, a researcher on pedophilia and an expert on the insidious effects of pornography, told LSN that she is unsurprised that such a young man would be involved in child pornography. “Our government leaders allow pornography to pollute our once great nations and act surprised that we are breeding inhuman men, women and children unlike any that have existed before,” she said.

The Times of India: The Union government’s decision to drop the proposal for a separate Sikh Marriage Act has come under severe criticism from various political as well as religious quarters in Punjab. If Akal Takht jathedar on Tuesday exhorted Sikhs to put pressure on UPA government to revoke the decision, ruling SAD (B) slammed the Centre for its “anti-Sikh posture”.

LifeSiteNews.com: Over 100 teachers, principals and trustees from the Ottawa public school board joined about 1,600 homosexual marchers in this year’s “pride” parade held in the nation’s capital on Sunday.

The Times of India: t said that couples who cohabited before marriage were 45 per cent more likely to split than those who waited until after the wedding.

Perth Now: The homework given to 14 and 15-year-olds at Armadale Christian College, also also points them to bible quotes describing homosexuality as an “abomination”, and describes “coming out of the closet” as “open sinning”.

Education News: Bad parenting at the age of 16 made children more than eight times more likely to become binge drinkers at that age and twice as likely to drink excessively when they reached the age of 34, independent think tank Demos found.

Eugene Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy: On August 21st, Greek Newspapers reported that new Family Law reforms jettison the practice of allowing Sharía Law to govern family matters for a Muslim enclave of over 110,000 living in Western Thrace.

AP: Presbyterians in Mexico are breaking ties with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) because of differences over homosexuality.

CSMonitor.com: In an effort to combat gender stereotypes, a government-funded preschool in Stockholm has eliminated the use of gendered pronouns.

BBC News: Islamic police in the Indonesian province of Aceh have forced two women to have their marriage annulled and sign an agreement to separate.

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): A survey of residents in Bundaberg and the Fraser Coast in southern Queensland has revealed almost 98 per cent of people are against same-sex marriage.

Star Online: Only 31 out of the 150 Members of the House of representatives have reported back to the Parliament on their consultations with constituents on same-sex marriage.

The Border Mail: To this point just over 80 per cent are indicating they are against legalising same-sex marriage.

North West Star: QUEENSLAND federal MPs have overwhelmingly voiced their opposition to same-sex marriage, buoying conservative Christian lobbyists ahead of today’s discussion of the issue in the House of Representatives.

Christian Concern: The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has changed the frequency with which figures are published concerning children born outside of wedlock.
Critics say that the changes are part of continued efforts to marginalise marriage as an institution.

The Christian Institute: A ‘sex box’ for primary school aged children which includes a wooden penis and a fabric vagina has sparked a storm of controversy in Switzerland. The box is to be used as part of a radical new sex education programme for primary school aged kids in Basel.

BBC News: he number of people involved in forced marriages in the Bristol area has risen “significantly”, police have said.

ABC: Some Federal MPs spent today reporting back to Parliament about their constituents’ views on same sex marriage. Of the 30 MPs who took part in the debate, only five said that they would like same sex couples to be allowed to marry, and one other reported community support for a change to the Marriage Act . . .

The Australian: LABOR’S factional leaders are poised to strike a deal to declare the vexed issue of same-sex marriage a conscience vote in order to defuse a potential brawl on the floor of December’s national conference.

The Australian: MORE than 50 church leaders have directly appealed to all 226 federal MPs not to change the Marriage Act, kicking off a campaign to defeat moves by Labor and the Greens to allow same-sex marriage.

Telegraph: Chang Xueli, 26, a graphic designer in Beijing, will marry her 28-year-old husband Xie Zi at the end of the year, even though he does not have a house.

The Christian Institute: David Cameron has hit out at a “slow-motion moral collapse” and said family and parenting is the place to start to fix society.

Brisbane Times: Queensland federal MPs have overwhelmingly voiced their opposition to same-sex marriage, buoying conservative Christian lobbyists ahead of tomorrow’s discussion of the issue in the House of Representatives.

Jonathan Sacks at WSJ.com (via Google): It was the Judeo-Christian heritage that gave the West its restless pursuit of a tomorrow that would be better than today. The Chinese have learned the lesson. Fifty years after Chairman Mao declared China a religion-free zone, there are now more Chinese Christians than there are members of the Communist Party.

China has learned the lesson. The question is: Will we?

WorldNetDaily: Harrold-Claeson has been involved in some of the most notorious child-custody cases, including the case of Domenic Johansson in Sweden. Her involvement so alarmed local judicial officials that they ordered the Johansson family to be represented by an attorney of the court’s choosing instead of Harrold-Claeson. That case is pending before the European Court of Human Rights, where the Home School Legal Defense Association and the Alliance Defense Fund, an international civil and religious rights organization, are arguing Domenic needs to be returned to his parents.

David Quinn at the Independent.ie: It is simply amazing that there are people who refuse to believe that lacking a father can have negative effects. No sensible person would deny that a child benefits from having a mother who loves them. Why are there so many people who deny that a child benefits from having a loving father as well?

The Australian has this report on marriage politics and polls down under.

NZ Herald News: Spanish police have foiled plans by 100 gays and lesbians to stage a kiss-in on the route the visiting Pope Benedict XVI took through Madrid, blocking the protesters before they could meet up.

What’s it like to have a child with someone who’s a friend but not a lover? More and more people are doing just that, to satisfy their broodiness.

The Economist: A lot of Asians are not marrying later. They are not marrying at all. Almost a third of Japanese women in their early 30s are unmarried; probably half of those will always be. Over one-fifth of Taiwanese women in their late 30s are single; most will never marry. In some places, rates of non-marriage are especially striking: in Bangkok, 20% of 40-44-year old women are not married; in Tokyo, 21%; among university graduates of that age in Singapore, 27%. So far, the trend has not affected Asia’s two giants, China and India

Telegraph: The survey of 4,000 women in the continent’s five largest countries found that 76 per cent of Italian housewives were dissatisfied with their lives . . . half of Italian women said they regretted getting married and two-thirds regretted having children.

The Denver Post: In 2007, the ACLU filed the case with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a seven-member panel that issues opinions and recommendations, but has no legal authority to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision.

Telegraph: Italy could recover billions of pounds in taxes by legalising prostitution and setting up licensed brothels, a member of Silvio Berlusconi’s party has proposed.

Humanosphere: This year, the Girl Up campaign says it has mobilized 150,000 American teens around the issue of child brides. Organizers say the disturbing prospect of 100 million child brides in the next decade has galvanized American teenage girls, who are demanding action on behalf of their young counterparts around the world.

WorldNetDaily: More than 100 children from Malawi’s southern district of Nsanje have been forced at gunpoint to receive measles vaccinations, according to a report from the southern African nation. And the partner in the forced medication program? The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, according to Natural News.

Independent.ie:
MANY children from broken homes are born “losers” and so deprived of love that they grow up to be dysfunctional adults, according to a Catholic bishop. Bishop of Elphin Christopher Jones said that during his 17 years working in social services in Sligo he had seen the damage wrought on children as a result of marriage breakdown.

LifeSiteNews.com: The city council of São José dos Campos (Saint Joseph of the Fields) in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, has passed an ordinance imposing a fine equivalent to 620 USD on anyone distributing materials designed to induce children to become homosexuals, according to Brazilian media sources.

Guardian.co.uk: Only recognised orphanages in China will be able to offer infants for adoption to prevent demand for abducted children.

LifeSiteNews.com: inance Minister Jim Flaherty told a group of policy consultants at a meeting in Wakefield, Que. last week that “Canada’s rapidly aging workforce” is a problem that is beginning to impact the federal government now, and cannot be relegated to the backburner to be dealt with sometime in the future.

Fox News Latino: A year after Argentina became the first Latin American country to pass legislation to legalize homosexual civil unions, the gay marriage debate has heated up, as several countries consider similar bills.

The Christian Institute: Researchers have revealed that more than one in five 15 and 16-year-old girls who drink at least once a week have had drunken sex which they have later regretted.
The report also revealed that more than 15 per cent of boys have similar regrets. The report, compiled by the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University . . .

Czech Leader Is Isolated in Opposing Gay Parade – NYTimes.com: President Vaclav Klaus is known for frankly voicing his opinions, and finding popular support. But the latest furor — over Prague’s first gay-pride festival — has left him more isolated than usual, roundly opposed by many in the Czech establishment and publicly at odds with the American ambassador.

AP: The city government says in a statement that about 6 percent of those getting married in same-sex weddings in the city are foreigners.

AP: Britain must confront a culture of laziness, irresponsibility and selfishness that fueled four days of riots which left five people dead, thousands facing criminal charges and hundreds of millions in damages, Prime Minister David Cameron acknowledged Monday.

The Christian Institute: A Labour MP and a prominent national newspaper columnist have warned that an absence of fathers is a key factor in the riots which have blighted English cities this week.

IRIN Africa: Authorities in Kano, Nigeria, recently announced people would be jailed or fined for refusing to immunize their children against polio, as cases increase in the northern state, but it is unclear whether this approach is working.

And countless studies have shown that, the more polygamous a society, the more aggressive its males. Polygamous hunter-gather societies are absurdly violent. Why?

Catholic Culture: An Australian Catholic bishop has decried the decision of national census officials to count some homosexual couples as “married,” despite the fact that same-sex marriages are not legally recognized in Australia.

LifeSiteNews.com: Amidst the heavy backlash from parents over Ontario’s controversial equity and inclusive education strategy, a grade 9 religion class at a Kitchener Catholic high school was given a test this year on homosexuality requiring them to define terms such as “coming out” and “bi-sexual,” and answer true or false to complex statements such as “Homosexuality is a disease” or “The Church is against homosexual people.”

LifeSiteNews.com: The survey, conducted by the Brazilian polling agency Ibope, revealed that 55 percent of respondents opposed the Tribunal’s decision, and 45% favored it.

This has ultimately been sanctioned by Parliament, which refuses to accept, for instance, that children are more likely to prosper with two parents than with one, and that the dependency culture is a tragedy for those who receive something for nothing.

National Review Online: The deeper cause of the violence, then, seems to be a generalized anarchy, that special lawlessness which is the hallmark of poorly socialized young males. Neither parents nor teachers have taught these “hoodies” to know any better. They have grown up outside restraints of conscience or manners, and without any fear of discipline, never mind punishment.