White House’s Family Program Overlooks Importance of Marriage

Family,

Last February, President Obama announced a new initiative “designed to determine what works to help young people stay on track to reach their full potential.”

The initiative is called “My Brother’s Keeper.” Its stated goal is to create and expand opportunities for young minorities. The president’s memo, talking-points, and official report on the program all identify poverty, poor education, and other issues as problems that need to be addressed.

President Obama wrote,

“Specifically, the Task Force [for My Brother’s Keeper] shall focus on the following issues, among others: access to early childhood supports; grade school literacy; pathways to college and a career, including issues arising from school disciplinary action; access to mentoring services and support networks; and interactions with the criminal justice system and violent crime.”

Despite My Brother’s Keeper being an effort to rebuild communities and strengthen families, we could not find one instance of the word “marriage” being used anywhere in the White House’s documents on the program. The reports talk about parents, children, mothers, and fathers, but not about marriage.

Here is why that is so significant: (more…)

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“Irreplaceable” Family Coming to Theaters May 6

Family,

Focus on the Family has produced a feature-length documentary called “Irreplaceable.”

The film highlights the importance of the traditional family–a mom and dad committed to one another and their children for a lifetime–and opens in 700 theaters nationwide on May 6.

Backlash against the film ahead of its release has been surprisingly sharp. Opponents are denouncing the documentary as “hateful,” and many are pressuring theaters not to show the film.

Eric Metaxas, one of the speakers featured in “Irreplaceable,” has recorded a few comments about the controversy in his Breakpoint segment at the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Listen below.

[audio:http://bit.ly/Se4wvF|titles=”Irreplaceable” Coming to Theaters May 6]

We have also included the trailer for the movie below. Watch it for yourself, and let us know what you think.

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Ark. Supreme Court Ruling Undermines Marriage, Child Welfare

Family, Marriage,

The Arkansas Supreme Court issued a ruling yesterday overturning a lower court’s child custody order that prohibited an Arkansas man from having overnight visitation at home with his son while the man’s live-in boyfriend was in the home.

Up until now, child custody rulings have typically favored married couples over cohabiting couples, because transient boarders in a home can pose an unknown risk to child welfare, and because research demonstrates time and time again that the most stable environment for a child is with a married mom and dad. This court ruling undermines what we know to be good policy for the children of Arkansas. In effect, it says whether a parent is married or not is irrelevant to the child. That’s utter nonsense.

Some people say these situations need to be examined on a case-by-case basis. The fact is when it comes to child custody as well as adoption and foster care, the State of Arkansas has a number of ‘blanket rules’ it uses. These rules are based on what the state believes will contribute the most to child welfare. If we know children fair better in one type of home as opposed to another, why would we put them in anything less than the best home possible?

The Arkansas Supreme Court has effectively said that marriage doesn’t matter, and the real victims are the innocent children caught in the middle of custody disputes.

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