Tag Archives: Group: Institute for American Values

David Blankenhorn and Jonathan Rauch at NY Daily News: Gay marriage is here. It is already part of our social fabric. But don’t savor the moment for too long. There’s much more to marriage equality than gay marriage equality. Marriage today is fracturing along class lines.

Politifact: “I’m pleased with the direction the Institute is taking,” wrote Sears, who has been a board member of the group for several years. “Unlike David, I was never against same-sex marriage. But much like David, I’ve witnessed the fallout from broken families in the past several decades, during which divorce and out-of-wedlock births have skyrocketed, and unstable, serial cohabiting relationships have become the norm for raising children.”

Carol Moynahan at LifeSiteNews: At the same time religious practice and church affiliation are declining. It seems obvious that these twin crises of marriage and faith are related, but what are the dynamics? Did religion decline and then marriage, or did marriage decline and then religious practice? There is research that points both ways. | Does the Shape of Families Shape Faith?

Zenit (links to study): The negative social consequences of divorce are well-known but a new report shows that it also leads to a decline in religious practice. On Wednesday the Institute for American Values published the findings of a group of scholars in a report titled “Does the Shape of Families Shape Faith?: Challenging the Churches to Confront the Impact of Family Change.” Every year about a million children in the United States experience the divorce of their parents, the report pointed out, and overall one-quarter of young adults come from divorced families.

Details available here:

National Catholic Register: “‘The votes of Christians and other people of faith are without question on trial in California,’ said attorney Austin Nimocks of the Alliance Defense Fund, part of the ProtectMarriage.com legal team . . . Meanwhile, the district court trial ‘has wound down in some respects, but it’s not over,’ Nimocks said. ‘There’s still plenty of opportunity for legal fireworks in San Francisco.’”

Washington Times: “Jordan Lorence, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), which helped defend Proposition 8, said factual testimony about the suffering caused by Proposition 8 may be compelling to a committee of elected legislators, or the voters, but it’s irrelevant in a federal legal proceeding — or at least it should be. ‘This trial reminded me more of a legislative hearing than a federal trial,’ said Mr. Lorence . . . Austin Nimocks, who blogged on behalf of the ADF during the trial, asked at one point, ‘[A]s I’m listening to all of the testimony, I keep asking myself this question: Why are we having this debate here?’”

NY Times: “. . . The legal team for the defense includes Brian Raum, Charles J. Cooper, David Thompson, Andrew Pugno, James Campbell, Jordan Lorence, Nicole Moss, Howard C. Nielson Jr. and Peter A. Patterson . . . Early Wednesday, the final defense witness, David Blankenhorn, the founder and president of the Institute for American Values, again locked horns with David Boies, a leading lawyer for the plaintiffs seeking to overturn the ban . . . ”

Divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing cost U.S. taxpayers more than $112 billion a year, according to a study commissioned by four groups advocating more government action to bolster marriages . . .