A Wedding Isn’t Just a Party: Guest Column

Marriage, , ,

Recent debates about whether Christians should go to so-called same-sex “weddings” have revealed a lot, and not just about how normalized homosexuality has become. Some of those who argued Christians should attend asked, “Why turn down an invitation to a wedding when we’re fine eating with, working with, or being friends with people who call themselves gay?”  

But this assumes that weddings are just another social event, a time for people to express their feelings and celebrate their happiness. In a Christian view, they’re much more than that. They’re a public act inseparably joining two lives and creating a family—a God-ordained covenant with a purpose that goes back to creation and symbolism that reaches into New Creation, whether those getting married realize it or not. Those who go don’t merely attend, they participate as witnesses. 

We have a serious failure of catechesis if Christians don’t understand how marriage ceremonies are fundamentally different than a party. For today’s confusion, Christians need to know what marriage is, not just what it isn’t. 

Copyright 2024 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.

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Lawsuit Filed to Block Arkansas Law Protecting Students From CRT, Explicit Sexual Material

Legislation,

A federal lawsuit filed Monday would block the State of Arkansas from enforcing a section of the 2023 LEARNS Act protecting public school students from Critical Race Theory and explicit sexual material at school.

Act 237 of 2023 is a comprehensive education law by Sen. Breanne Davis (R – Russellville) and Rep. Keith Brooks (R – Little Rock) titled “The LEARNS Act.”

The law deals with issues such as Critical Race Theory, teacher salaries, public school employment, early childhood care, and protecting elementary school children from inappropriate sexual material at school.

It also provides a blueprint for implementing a voluntary school choice program that would make it possible for students to receive a publicly-funded education at a public or private school or at home.

The federal lawsuit filed Monday specifically challenges Section 16 of the LEARNS Act, which does the following:

  • Section 16 requires the Arkansas Secretary of Education to review all policies to be sure that indoctrination — including critical race theory — is prohibited and that no public school employee or public school student is required to attend training or orientation that is based on Critical Race Theory or other prohibited indoctrination.
  • Section 16 requires each public school to implement a child sex abuse and human trafficking prevention program that is age appropriate and complies with Arkansas Department of Education standards.
  • Section 16 prohibits sexual material in classroom instruction before fifth grade. This includes instruction regarding sexual intercourse, sexual reproduction, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

You can download a copy of Section 16 here.

Under Section 16 of the LEARNS Act, sex education is prohibited in Kindergarten and early elementary school. In later grades, sex education must be conducted according to other state laws—including other Arkansas laws that prohibit explicit, “comprehensive” sex education. Altogether, Section 16 makes significant improvements to Arkansas sex education laws.

The lawsuit focuses on the LEARNS Act’s effect on AP African American Studies at Central High School in Little Rock.

However, the lawsuit asks the federal court to declare Section 16 of the LEARNS Act unconstitutional and block the State of Arkansas from enforcing it.

If a federal court blocked all of Section 16 as the lawsuit requests, that presumably would include the parts of the law protecting public school students from explicit sexual material in the classroom.

You Can Download a Copy of the Lawsuit Here.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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FDA’s Abortion Drug Policies Put Women “at Far Greater Risk” of Deadly Complication

Abortion, , ,

Abortion drugs like RU-486 are on the rise in America, and the FDA has taken steps to relax its safety policies regarding the drugs — putting women and unborn children at risk.

When the FDA first approved RU-486 in 2000, a woman seeking a drug-induced abortion was required to visit the doctor three times — which included an initial medical evaluation and follow-up appointments to ensure that the woman did not experience health complications.

In 2016, that number of visits was reduced from three to one.

Then in 2021, the FDA removed the in-person visit with a doctor altogether — making it possible to obtain RU-486 at a pharmacy or through the mail without a medical exam or sonogram.

The FDA now faces lawsuits arguing the administration’s abortion drug policies have undermined public health and safety.

In a recent editorial to the Wall Street Journal, Dr. Christina Francis from the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists notes that, “Under the FDA’s relaxed protocols, women are at far greater risk of a deadly ectopic pregnancy.”

Dr. Francis describes risk as a federal courts weigh the FDA’s policy changes, writing,

The FDA, whose principal purview is safety, discounted the need to check for ectopic pregnancies when it revised its protocols for dispensing mifepristone, the primary drug used in a chemical abortion. Why should this matter? Because when a woman has an ectopic pregnancy but mistakes its symptoms for normal drug side effects, she will spend precious minutes or hours at home, which could be the difference between life and death. . . .

A woman today can acquire mifepristone with no screening for an ectopic pregnancy, and she may not even realize she has one until it is a full-blown medical emergency. During oral arguments before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the lawyer representing the FDA was asked how ectopic pregnancy could be ruled out without any kind of medical examination. She replied that you can ask questions like, ‘Are you experiencing shoulder pain?’ If a woman with an ectopic pregnancy is experiencing shoulder pain, she belongs on an operating table and may be within an hour from death.

This simply further goes to show that while abortion drugs end the lives of unborn children, they also carry serious health risks for women.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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