Good Morning!
“We can be certain that God will give us the strength and resources we need to live through any situation in life that He ordains,” preached the late Dr. Billy Graham. “The will of God will never take us where the grace of God cannot sustain us.”
We begin with a story of God’s grace leading to a spirit of great conviction:
One of the most powerful anti-abortion organizations calls Colorado home, a state that may soon see a lot more abortions
Focus on the Family’s Robyn Chambers is featured on CPR News:
Robyn Chambers got pregnant when she was 16. It was an accident. Her boyfriend was a freshman in college and she was afraid of what all of it would mean for her future. Would she still have friends? Would she be accepted? She said she understands the impulse to just want it to go away.
“Your immediate thought is ‘My life is over. My life is ruined. How can I fix this?’” she said.
More than 40 years later, Chambers is still married to that boyfriend. She has two children — including the son from her high school pregnancy — and three grandchildren. She’s also the executive director of advocacy for children at Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family.
The group’s fight to ban abortion isn’t the only work done by the evangelical nonprofit. But, it’s this work for which it is most famous, or infamous; an unapologetic pole in one of the most polarizing political debates in the country. It’s the work Chambers oversees.
Earlier this month, thousands tuned into a livestream or packed the organization’s main chapel for the group’s fourth annual “See Life” event. Throughout an evening which felt part Christian rock concert and part political rally, conservative commentators like talk show host Candace Owens and columnist Ben Shapiro tapped into clear enthusiasm for an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court ruling widely expected to overturn the landmark abortion rights case, Roe v. Wade.
“We meet tonight on the verge of the greatest pro-life victory in half a century,” Shapiro told the cheering crowd, “and that’s when the fight truly begins.”
Robyn Chambers started at Focus as a temp worker in its call center in the early 1990s, shortly after the organization moved from its original home in Pomona, California. Nearly three decades later, as one of the nonprofit’s top leaders, she said the potential overturn of Roe gives Focus on the Family an opportunity to expand its scope, especially in the types of support it provides to those who decide to go through with unexpected pregnancies.
“We really want to investigate and research and then implement ways that we can help her find affordable housing, affordable childcare, medical care for her and her child long term. What does that look like?” Chambers said.
She recognized the irony that her organization, one of the nation’s most powerful anti-abortion advocacy groups, resides in a state which just passed some of the most progressive abortion policies in the country. However, she framed that as a positive as well.
“If we don’t want to be known as an abortion sanctuary state, what do we do?” Chambers said. “It’s an opportunity for us to be strong right here in our backyard, and then from there reach out nationally. So, I’m thrilled that Focus on the Family is in Colorado. I believe it is God-ordained that we are here for this time.”
As Disney Champions LGBTQ+ Agenda, Parents Push Back
Focus on the Family’s Adam Holz, interviewed by CBN News:
Long considered the place to turn for family-friendly entertainment, recent moves and statements by the Walt Disney Company indicate a turn toward a cultural agenda that threatens that legacy and possibly its future.
“I grew up with the Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights and you curl up with a blanket with your family and watch a great Disney movie and that that company doesn’t exist anymore,” said Adam Holz, Director of Focus on the Family’s Plugged In.
Holz says in an effort to stay culturally relevant, Disney is losing touch with a large portion of its audience.
“There are parents saying, ‘Wait a minute, why do we have to import a sexual message into kids programming?’ And so even if we talk beyond this specific LGBT agenda, I think there’s concern that why does everything have to be sexualized? Is it possible to just have entertainment that’s innocent, that leaves that for later and doesn’t bring that into everything we’re doing,” Holz questioned.
Daily Citizen exclusive interview with Ben Shapiro: Faith, Family and the Future of America
Video from the Daily Citizen:
In an exclusive on camera interview with the Daily Citizen, founder and editor-in-chief of the Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro, discussed some of the most pressing issues facing parents, families and our nation.
“The substitution of the notion that we are supposed to live in a godly community in which we treat each other well, the movement away from that toward, you know, that person really offends me and I don’t like them and that makes me morally superior for not liking them. That’s a real net negative. There’s a God shaped hole in the American heart and it’s being filled with dislike of our neighbors,” said Shapiro.
Shapiro says this comes from replacing religion with politics.
“Cultish political loyalty is taking the place of church and what seems to be bringing people together is being really, really mad at people we disagree with politically. This is true of left, right and center. The substitution of politics for Godliness is a real negative now.”
He also addressed the need to provide a shelter for parents and kids who are dealing with a culture void of many long held moral standards – following up on the recent announcement that the Daily Wire announced a $100M investment in children’s entertainment.
“So what we want to do is actually create a safe space for people who need a safe space, namely children. We’ve decided in our society to create safe space for adults and dangerous areas for children, and we want to reverse that polarity.”
The Washington Post’ Reveals How Texas Heartbeat Bill Saved Lives of Two Twin Babies
From the Daily Citizen:
This week, The Washington Post published a very lengthy exposé examining the real word impact of the Texas Heartbeat Bill, which took effect September 1, 2021.
It probably wasn’t The Post’s intention to reveal the positive pro-life impact of the law, which effectively outlawed abortion in the state after a preborn baby is six weeks old. But that’s what the article accomplishes.
The article tells the story of the law’s impact through the eyes of Brooke Alexander, an 18-year-old who recently gave birth to twins.
Brooke’s mom, dad and boyfriend all encouraged her, at least initially, to get an abortion.
5. Louisiana Strengthens Abortion ‘Trigger Law,’ Bans Mail-Order Abortion Pills
From the Daily Citizen:
Louisiana’s pro-life, Democrat Governor John Bel Edwards has signed two new bills into law that take significant steps toward strengthening that state’s pro-life culture, especially so if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade in its upcoming decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Senate Bill 342 (SB 342), the Reaffirmation of the Human Life Protection Act, bolsters the state’s abortion “trigger law” that bans all abortions (with certain exceptions) when the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade or a human life amendment is added to the U.S. Constitution. It also increases criminal penalties for those abortionists who violate its terms. It does not impose penalties on women receiving an illegal abortion.
The new law contains exceptions for abortions performed to save the life of the mother or in cases of medical futility and ectopic pregnancies. “Medical futility” exists when a preborn baby has “a profound and irremediable congenital or chromosomal anomaly that is incompatible with sustaining life after birth.” Cases involving medical futility require the certification of two qualified physicians and the abortion must be performed in a licensed ambulatory surgical center or hospital.
6. The surprising case for marrying young
Dr. Brad Wilcox in the Deseret News:
This past summer, Joey and Samantha Paris did something that shocked many of the New York friends they had made working on Wall Street and Broadway: They married at the age of 24. Their decision to marry in their twenties surprised their peers for three reasons.
First, there’s a common perception that the twenties aren’t for marriage, they are for fun. Most of Joey’s colleagues in finance thought that “the twenties are your time to enjoy and have fun and go out,” he says, adding, their view is that now “is the time to be young and free and independent (and …) you can’t have this fun, free lifestyle while still being married.”
Second, by marrying in her twenties, Samantha broke the cardinal rule for ambitious, professional women in New York. That rule, as feminist Jill Filipovic recently advised her readers, is that “women (ought) not to get married before 30.” This ensures women have the opportunity to successfully launch their careers and fully actualize themselves before merging with an equally successful partner and having the requisite one or two children. Marriage is supposed to be a capstone to a successful life, signaling you have arrived professionally and personally as an individual, not a cornerstone designed to launch your common life together as a family.
Finally, and most importantly, the “conventional wisdom” holds, as sociologist Philip Cohen notes, “that early marriage increases the risk of divorce.” The idea is that it’s best to marry around 30 or later to lower your odds of landing in divorce court. After all, the notion is that young adults don’t have the maturity until they are about 30 to forge a strong and stable marriage.
But when I caught up with Joey and Samantha in Dallas, where they had recently moved, 20-something marriage seemed no obstacle to fun, professional success or a stable marriage. They sat close and comfortable on a sofa, laughing and finishing one another’s sentences. They were happy with new jobs and they were bullish about their family future. Based on new research Lyman Stone and I conducted for the Institute for Family Studies, Joey and Samantha’s faith in their family future seems merited. Our analyses indicate that religious men and women who married in their twenties without cohabiting first — a pattern which describes Joey and Samantha’s path to the altar to a “T” — have the lowest odds of divorce in America today.
Where Have All The Good Men Gone?
More Dr. Brad Wilcox, writing for the Institute for Family Studies:
It’s a recurring lament we hear from women at the University of Virginia: Where are the good guys? The guys interested in commitment, and the guys who have drive, ambition, and purpose?
This is not to say that such men are entirely absent at U.Va., where we teach and attend school; they are just in short supply relative to the women with a clear focus on their future and interested in a serious relationship. Take Cece, a rising senior:
The majority of the guys I’ve encountered at U.Va. don’t want to commit to an actual relationship. They haven’t grown up. They want to hook up with girls, but that’s it. Many of my friends and I are frustrated with the lack of maturity our guy friends exemplify. My parents met in college, which was common among their generation, and are about to celebrate their 30th anniversary. Meanwhile, I have one year left at U.Va. and don’t foresee myself dating anyone.
The relationship frustrations of women like these are rooted in a broader problem: They do not have a ready pool of good young men to date, partly because many of our nation’s young men are floundering as they make the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. This problem is visible in our schools, colleges and universities, and today’s marketplace. Young men are increasingly less likely than women to enroll in college and less likely than women to apply themselves even if they land in college; a growing number of them are also idle or underemployed as they move through their 20s.
Our “young men problem” is rooted in a range of factors — the rise of electronic opiates, which distract young men from education and work and have come to replace traditional avenues of social relations; the absence of models of pro-social masculinity that furnish norms for male engagement in school, work, and relationships as they move into adulthood; a culture that discounts commitment; and biological differences in rates of male and female maturation.
But a new report from the Institute for Family Studies, “Life Without Father,” suggests that another issue is in play. Too many boys have grown up in homes without engaged or present fathers, which has left them especially unprepared to navigate school, work, and relationships successfully.
8. A young man’s life without his father
From the Washington Examiner:
“The percentage of boys living apart from their biological father has almost doubled since 1960 — from about 17% to 32% today,” according to the Institute for Family Studies.
Now, let’s be clear, parents are not perfect. Even the fathers that are most involved in their children’s lives will still, in some way, negatively affect them. This research is merely an observation that young men with absent biological fathers are being negatively affected, leading to unproductive lives.
“Even though not all fathers play a positive role in their children’s lives, on average, boys benefit from having a present and involved father,” the article states.
Warren Farrell, author of The Boy Crisis, says “Boys with dad-deprivation often experience a volcano of festering anger … And with boys’ much greater tendency to act out, the boys who hurt will be the ones most likely to hurt us.”
Farrell found that those who grew up in fatherless homes were twice as likely as those with their biological father present to be arrested or incarcerated by age 30.
It’s no coincidence that young men without fathers are living different lives than those with one. The problems we see with young men today are a direct result of the torn nuclear family. It’s clear to see that young men need their fathers to function in society. It is a key component for them to be successful human beings.
9. Women’s sports grapples with transgender athletes as Title IX turns 50
From the Washington Times:
Congress enacted Title IX with virtually no debate over who qualified as a female athlete. How times have changed.
The landmark anti-discrimination law marks its 50th anniversary Thursday caught in a legal and political tug of war over the future of scholastic sports as transgender athletes increasingly apply to compete in the girls’ and women’s arena. The dilemma: Does progress on transgender rights threaten five decades of gains for female sports?
“Title IX has promised women so much: a fair chance to compete, opportunities to excel at college, and skills that apply to all areas of life,” said Christiana Kiefer, senior counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom. “But all of this is being threatened by the unscientific idea that a man can be a woman.”
RELATED:
Tom Cotton, Jim Banks Unveil Bill to Make Medical Providers Liable for Minor Gender-Transition Damages
From National Review:
Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) and the Republican Study Committee, a House caucus led by Representative Jim Banks (R., Ind.), announced on Wednesday that they would be introducing the Protecting Minors from Medical Malpractice Act in both chambers of Congress this session.
The bill responds to growing concerns over the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures to alter minors’ physiology and outward appearance. Once signed into law, the bill would allow victims and legal guardians to sue surgeons who perform gender-transition surgeries on minors — or doctors who prescribe them hormone treatments — up to 30 years after the subjects reach the age of majority.
Other provisions would clarify “that federal law cannot be construed to force medical practitioners to offer such procedures” and prevent “federal health funds from going to states that force medical practitioners to perform gender-transition procedures.”
A Doctor Said to Abort Their Quintuplets, but They Trusted God – Now This Couple Has a Full House and a Guinness Record
From CBN:
A man who recently made headlines with a Guinness World Record is opening up about the real value of human life.
After five years of marriage, Chad and Amy Kempel were ready to grow their family and fill their home with the laughter of little ones, but they didn’t expect the heartache that was ahead.
The couple, who now have seven children, experienced a loss in between each birth.
“We have seven on earth and seven in heaven,” Chad told CBN News.
Through it all, he says there was a “spiritual connection” that carried them through each pregnancy, including the most painful ones.
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