Lawmakers File Over 450 Bills in One Day

Legislature, ,

capitol3-1Yesterday Arkansas’ lawmakers filed over 450 pieces of legislation ahead of the filing deadline.

Many of these bills were what we call “shell bills.” These are bills with little more than a title, like, “A Bill to Improve Public Education.” These bills may be amended later to flesh them out; we will keep an eye on them to see how they are amended.

However, several complete bills were filed. Below are a few you may want to know about.

A Bill Making Sexual-Orientation and Gender-Identity Protected Classes

Twenty-two years ago, the Arkansas Legislature passed the Arkansas Civil Rights Act of 1993. Over the years we have fought to make sure Arkansas’ civil rights and hate crimes laws are not used to promote a homosexual agenda.

House Bill 1950 by Rep. Leding makes sexual-orientation and gender-identity protected classes in the Arkansas Civil Rights Act of 1993—right alongside race, religion, national origin, gender, and disability.

(more…)

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What Religious Liberty at Home Has to Do With Persecution Overseas

Current Events, ,

Many people in American–both Christians and non-Christians–have asserted Christians should not complain about infringements of religious liberty in America, because Christians in places like Syria or Iraq are being persecuted so mercilessly.

John Stonestreet at the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview has recorded a short, compelling commentary on why religious liberty here in America goes hand-in-hand with ending the persecution Christians face from groups like ISIS.

Stonestreet writes,

“What’s at work here is a kind of false dilemma that one of my colleagues refers to as the Starving-Children-In-Africa fallacy. ‘There are problems in the world worse than yours,” goes the fallacy, “so your problems are not worth caring about or solving.’

“What this false dilemma misses is that the actor most capable of addressing the persecution faced by our brothers and sisters overseas is the United States. And if the United States takes the lead in addressing the issue, it’s in large measure because of religious voices in the public square that are calling for action and seeking to influence public opinion. And without religious liberty, religious voices will be dismissed from the public square, and will be unheard.”

You can listen to Stonestreet’s entire commentary below or read it here.

[audio:http://bit.ly/1BYSHN7|Titles=The bogus argument]

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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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