Open Season on People of Faith in Eureka Springs

Religious Freedom, , , ,

Eureka Springs may be the toughest place in Arkansas for people who want to practice their Christian faith in the public square. Tuesday’s passage of a so-called “anti-discrimination” ordinance has made it a lot harder for Jews, Christians, Muslims, and anyone else of faith to exercise their religious beliefs. Now, it’s open season on people in those groups.

Rather than preventing bias and discrimination, this ordinance makes discrimination the law in Eureka Springs. People of all faiths have always enjoyed religious freedom in Eureka Springs. Under this ordinance, citizens can be forced to choose between obeying their faith and obeying the City of Eureka Springs.

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New Study Confirms Kids Do Best With a Married Mom and Dad

Homosexuality, , ,

What appears to be the largest study to date  examining the outcomes of children in same-sex households has demonstrated, once again, that children do best with a married mom and dad.

After examining more than 500 children with same-sex parents chosen from an overall sample of more than 200,000 children, the study–which appeared in last month’s British Journal of Education, Society, and Behavioral Research—concluded that emotional problems were more than twice as prevalent among children with same-sex parents as opposed to children with opposite-sex parents.

“At minimum,” Dr. Paul Sullins, the study’s author, writes, “it is no longer accurate to claim that no study has found children in same-sex families to be disadvantaged relative to those in opposite-sex families.”

Among other things, the study found children ages 4 – 17 years with same-sex parents were more likely:

  • To see a mental health professional;
  • To report higher rates of ADHD;
  • To suffer from learning disabilities;
  • To suffer from serious emotional problems.

What is particularly striking about this study is that it also found children with same-sex parents reported being bullied at a rate comparable to that of children with opposite-sex parents. In other words, having same-sex parents does not appear to increase a child’s likelihood of being bullied at school or elsewhere.

Concerning bullying and stigmatization, the author writes,

“In sum, while the experience of peer rejection, abuse or stigmatization is strongly associated with child emotional problems, it appears that the rate of abuse and susceptibility to emotional distress due to stigmatization does not differentiate sharply between children in same-sex and opposite-sex families.”

The study’s author concludes,

“Whether or not same-sex families attain the legal right, as opposite-sex couples now have, to solemnize their relationship in civil marriage, the two family forms will continue to have fundamentally different, even contrasting, effects on the biological component of child wellbeing, to the relative detriment of children in same-sex families. Functionally, opposite-sex marriage is a social practice that, as much as possible, ensures to children the joint care of both biological parents, with the attendant benefits that brings; same-sex marriage ensures the opposite.”

To put those words another way: There simply is no replacement for a married mother and father.

You can download the study here.

You can find further commentary on this study and others here.

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Fayetteville Voters Repeal Contentious Ordinance

1 CommentCurrent Events, , , ,

Yesterday Fayetteville citizens repealed the city’s controversial “nondiscrimination” ordinance by a vote of 52% to 48%, according to KFSM News.

The Fayetteville City Council passed the ordinance last summer in spite of widespread opposition to the measure. Local residents launched a campaign to repeal the ordinance following its passage. Last night, those efforts proved successful.

Duncan Campbell, who helped lead the effort to repeal the ordinance, told reporters,

“We wanted to repeal the ordinance because we didn’t believe it made Fayetteville a fairer city or a freer city. It did just the opposite. It was called the Civil Rights Ordinance, but it was misnamed. It was an ordinance that actually took away civil rights and freedom from people. It criminalized civil behavior. It didn’t accomplish the stated purpose of the ordinance and it was crafted by an outside group, it wasn’t something Fayetteville residents put together.”

The Washington, D.C., based Human Rights Campaign contributed more than $160,000 to keep the ordinance on the books.

Opponents of the Fayetteville ordinance included the local Chamber of Commerce; local ministers and churches; Fayetteville businesses; the editorial staff at Northwest Arkansas Media; area lawmakers; and–clearly–thousands of Fayetteville voters.

We have written repeatedly about the unintended consequences of the ordinance, and I applaud Fayetteville voters for choosing to repeal it.

If you would like to read some of the unintended consequences we found in the ordinance, click here.

Photo Credit: “Old Main from the northwest, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas (autumn)” by Brandonrush – Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported.

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