Arkansas’ Longest Married Couple Reception

LITTLE ROCK, AR – For the first time ever, Arkansas Family Council is launching a search for Arkansas’ Longest Married Couple. We want couples to share their stories of a lifetime commitment to marriage and family. Family Council will be honoring the longest married couple and their family at a dessert reception at the Governor’s Mansion with Governor Asa Hutchinson and First Lady Susan Hutchinson on Tuesday, February 20, 2018.

“Sharing these couples’ lifetime stories of commitment and faithfulness to each other encourages the next generation that ‘married happily ever after’ still exists. We are blessed and honored to be able to share these stories of forever love,” Jerry Cox, president of Family Council, said. “In today’s society we are surrounded by naysayers of marriage but the married couples we find will prove them all wrong and show that marriage can last a lifetime.

“Marriage is a sacred covenant between a man and a woman,” Cox said. “It is not every day that you meet a couple married over 70 years, but when you do, there is truly something special about that relationship.”

Entries for couples married over 70 years can still be submitted by Friday, February 2, 2018, by sending contact information and marriage date to ken@familycouncil.org. For more information, please call the Family Council office at 501-375-7000.

Family Council is a conservative education and research organization based in Little Rock with a mission of promoting, protecting, and strengthening traditional family values.

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Photo Credit: By Jeff Belmonte from Cuiabá, Brazil (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Group Files Free Speech Lawsuit Against ASU

Last week attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom filed a lawsuit in federal court against Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.

According to ADF, the school has tried to limit free speech on campus to sanctioned “free speech” zones. When a student recently tried to set up a table outside the student union to generate interest in forming a chapter of the group Turning Point USA on campus, a school administrator stopped her, citing the university’s speech policy.

The question is, how is free speech “free” if it is limited to certain areas of campus and has to be approved by the university first?

The case at ASU is similar to a lawsuit filed in Ohio last month against a university that tried to restrict speech by a pro-life student group.

College campuses used to be places where students could freely exchange ideas. However, we are increasingly seeing attempts by school administrators to restrict speech on campus — especially speech by conservative and pro-life students.

Alliance Defending Freedom has an excellent track record litigating cases like this one in Jonesboro. Given that history, it seems likely the courts will rule against the school’s anti-speech policies in the months to come.

U.S. Recognizes Jerusalem as Capital of Israel

Today President Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Below is a statement from our friends at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) about this historic event:

Today is a historic day for the U.S.-Israel relationship. For the first time, the United States officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

AIPAC has always supported American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital city, and we commend President Trump’s momentous announcement and decision to initiate relocating the U.S. embassy there.

This recognition is a long-overdue step to implement U.S. law. The Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 declared that Jerusalem “should remain an undivided city,” and “the United States Embassy in Israel should be established in Jerusalem.” AIPAC strongly supported passage of that act, which Congress overwhelmingly adopted on a bipartisan basis.

Importantly, relocating the embassy to Jerusalem does not in any way prejudge the outcome of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, to include establishing two states for two peoples and resolving Palestinian claims to the eastern portion of the city and the disposition of holy places. Rather, this announcement acknowledges that Jerusalem will continue to be Israel’s capital as part of any conceivable final status agreement.

The Jewish people have maintained a constant presence in Jerusalem, their holiest city, for more than 3,000 years. Israel declared the city its capital following its reestablishment in 1948. When the United States ultimately relocates its embassy to Jerusalem, it will treat Israel as it does every other country with which we have diplomatic relations.

Today’s action by President Trump is an important, historic step for which we are grateful. We urge the president to quickly relocate our embassy to Israel’s capital.

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