Page 551 – Family Council

A Lack of Productivity Could Point to a Lack of Meaning

Oct 4, 2022John StonestreetEconomicsChristianity, Economics, Economy

“In the first quarter of 2022,”  The Wall Street Journal reported, “U.S. worker productivity fell in the steepest drop in 74 years.”

That statistic speaks not just to how much work is getting done these days, but how much workers think their work matters.

According to one expert, prosperity for the whole country depends on worker productivity.  And in a world where many struggle with the meaning of it all, many also struggle to find true meaning and significance in their work. 

There are two ways to miss the meaning of work: one way is to idolize a job, thinking it will fulfill us completely. The other is to reduce work to something we all must suffer through with minimal effort.

Christians have the unique perspective that our work is a way of participating with God in His creation, working toward the flourishing of everything and everyone else. Articulating and living that truth can make a big difference.

Craighead County to Vote on Reducing Millage for Library that Features Sexually Explicit Children’s Books

Oct 3, 2022Jerry CoxDecency, LibraryDecency, Jonesboro, Library, Obscenity, Pornography

This November voters in Craighead County will decide whether to reduce the millage for the public library in Jonesboro.

The Jonesboro public library has been at the center of multiple controversies for nearly a year and a half — such as inappropriately hosting an LGBT Pride display in its children’s library, placing books with sexually-explicit images in its children’s section, and failing to adopt a policy that separates sexual material from children’s content.

Some of these books — such as Gender Queer and l8tr, g8tr — contain explicit images or descriptions of teens engaged in sexual acts.

Library officials have stood by their decision to share sexual material with children — even posting on Facebook that it isn’t the library’s responsibility to protect kids from obscenity.

The Jonesboro Sun reports that this November voters in Craighead County will decide whether or not to reduce the library’s millage from two mills to one mill.

Under Amendment 30 and Amendment 38 to the Arkansas Constitution, voters can circulate petitions to place a measure on the local ballot assessing a form of property tax — or “millage” — to provide funding for city and county libraries.

In Jonesboro’s case, property taxes for the library are currently two mills — or 0.002%. The ballot proposal would reduce the rate to one mill — or 0.001%.

Library officials in Jonesboro have said the tax cut would “devastate” the library and could force it to close, but news reports indicate the library has enjoyed a budget surplus of more than a million dollars for the past three years, and documents from the Craighead County Clerk’s Office show the millage tax provided more than $3.1 million in revenue for the library last year.

Even if the library were not spending public tax dollars on obscene children’s books, reducing the millage in Craighead County arguably would help balance the library’s budget and provide relief for taxpayers.

It’s ridiculous to think that a library isn’t to blame if a child finds pornographic or obscene material in the library’s children’s section.

Public libraries are supposed to be for everyone.

Families should be able to take their children to the library without worrying what their children might see.

Taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize graphic novels that depict explicit images of minors engaged in sexual acts.

Unfortunately, many libraries in Arkansas don’t seem to understand that.

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

Planned Parenthood’s New Revenue Stream Is Not a New Direction

Oct 3, 2022John StonestreetGender Dysphoria, TransgenderGender Dysphoria, Transgender

The Planned Parenthood organization has been built, from its founding, on destruction of lives, especially preborn ones. Now, even as legalities and access shift in the wake of the Dobbs decision, America’s largest provider and promoter of abortion has added another revenue stream. This one also promises to destroy lives, albeit in a new and subtler way. This one also promises to help women but is, in actuality, built on ideas that deny the existence of women.

A new documentary from the Center for Bioethics and Culture tells the stories of three young women who believed they were not women and that they could become young men, only to regret it. The Detransition Diaries: Saving Our Sisters chronicles the experiences of Cat Cattinson, Helena Kerschner, and Grace Lidinsky-Smith, two of whom received hormone therapy at Planned Parenthood clinics. Though activists and media outlets pretend they do not exist, these are just three stories of a growing number of people once sure they were born in the wrong bodies but now know differently.

To believe patients who say they were born in the wrong bodies is a sort of dogma, especially among healthcare professionals who would never handle any other medical condition this same way. Only in the case of gender dysphoria are no questions to be asked. Trans activists call questioning someone’s self-identification and assessing their mental health “gatekeeping.” This dogma has turned transgender “medicine” into the only kind of medicine in which patients approach a doctor with their diagnosis and preferred treatment.

Planned Parenthood has now jumped into this business with both feet. On its website, the organization claims that if a child or young adult is “insistent, consistent, and persistent” about their trans identity, then they should be medically “affirmed.” That word “affirm” is code for pumping those patients, even if minors, full of mind-altering ideas and body-altering hormones and puberty blockers. The treatment aims toward surgeries to amputate healthy body parts and perpetuate wounds, surgeries that are lucrative for providers.

Recently, The National Catholic Register revealed how rapidly Planned Parenthood has ramped up its gender transition services. In 2015, the abortion giant offered hormone therapy in 16 states and 65 locations. Today, it offers hormones in 41 states and 200 locations. To date, Planned Parenthood has “treated” an estimated 35,000 people.

The young women featured in The Detransition Diaries found it shockingly easy to get life-altering hormones and surgery referrals at Planned Parenthood. Cat and Helena describe how the so-called “informed consent” process they went through involved no psychological evaluations, no waiting period, and no tests. Cattinson claims to have received testosterone injections after just a 30-minute phone call with Planned Parenthood, and a letter to have her breasts removed without ever talking with a doctor in person. Thankfully, she had second thoughts about surgery after the hormones made her sick.

According to Kerschner, who told her story earlier this year in a harrowing Substack post, the initial appointment with Planned Parenthood took only an hour. After waiving any blood tests or labs, they gave her quadruple the recommended dose of testosterone, just because she asked. At the time, she was 18.

As another de-transitioner on YouTube chillingly put it, Planned Parenthood is “handing out hormones like candy to anyone who walks in the door…” Hormones, we should add, whose side effects include permanent infertility. Yet as the Register notes, Planned Parenthood openly advertises its new life-destroying business, touting quick appointments, same-day prescriptions, and even promising not to require a letter from a mental health provider.

It’s essential that these stories and others like them are told. They represent a growing group of people who aren’t supposed to exist—people who were “insistent, consistent, and persistent” about their trans identity, only to reverse course and deeply regret what was done to their bodies. Planned Parenthood long escaped real media coverage and scrutiny in its abortion business, despite credible accusations of illegal activity. Thanks to years of undercover sting operations, Planned Parenthood was finally exposed for past abuses like its willingness to abet human trafficking and illegally market fetal body parts. Even then, they received a pass from serious media coverage. Instead, many outlets chose to attack anyone who criticized them.

Today, the organization is hawking gender transitions to vulnerable women and men, even children, and misinforming them of the consequences. These patients deserve to hear stories of de-transitioners, stories of heart-wrenching regret from people who aren’t supposed to exist. And Planned Parenthood deserves to answer for its dangerous practices and yet a new assault on human lives and bodies. Come to breakpoint.org, click on this commentary, and we’ll tell you how you can watch The Detransition Diaries: Saving Our Sisters.