Recommended Resource!! The Social Conservative Review

Dear Friends,

Recently in Bekasi, Indonesia, "a mob of 300 Islamic extremists threw bags of urine and ditchwater, rotten eggs, stones and dirt" at Christians trying to hold an Ascension Day service. In places as diverse as northern Nigeria, Vietnam, North Korea, Egypt, and China, believers arepersecuted daily for proclaiming their belief in Jesus.

Could such persecution ever happen here in the U.S.? As far-fetched as this might seem, it's not too much of a leap to ask if the seeds for such oppression are not being sewn. From the Obama Administration's contraception mandate to the recent New Mexico court ruling that a local photographer be fined for refusing to photograph a same-sex "wedding," violations of our cherished religious liberty are becoming increasingly widespread and, thereby, increasingly dangerous.

Last week, FRC Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell gave an eloquent address at a major Washington, D.C. conference on the growing threats to America's "first freedom." As Ken noted, many of the battles for religious liberty are taking place at the state level. Contact your local elected representatives to learn what's being done either to threaten or strengthen the freedom of religion in your home state - and get primed to engage, graciously but firmly, in the struggle for it.

Sincerely,

Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice-President
Family Research Council

P.S. Student debt in the U.S. is roughly $1 trillion - an incredible burden for young Americans. FRC is committed to helping students find better ways to obtain a college education than indebting themselves so early and so greatly. That's why we've launched a new web site,http://www.savemefromcollegedebt.com/. Visit the site to learn about this fiscal and family crisis and what you can do about it.

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Educational Freedom and Reform
Homeschooling

• "Should you homeschool your children?," Ime Morales, GMA News
• "For Senate candidate Todd Akin, home schooling is a personal issue," Jake Wagman,St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• "Adjusting Educational Approaches," Jenny Williams, Wired
• "New Law Cures "Curriculum Description" Headache," Home School Legal Defense Association

Legislation and Policy Proposals

• "Great Teaching," Raj Chetty, John N. Friedman, and Jonah E. Rockoff, Education Next
• "Latest NCLB Waiver List Heavy on Race to Top States," Andrew Ujifusa, Education Week
• "Making the grade," Frederick M. Hess, American Enterprise Institute
• "Eighty-five Percent of Texas Republicans Approve School Choice Proposition," Joy Pullman, The Heartland Institute

College Debt

• "Insult to Injury: Rise in People with Student Loan Debt-and No College Degree," Brad Tuttle, Time
• "The State of Student Loans: More Debt, More Defaults, More Problems," PBS NewsHour
• "College students slammed with fees," Daniel Wagner, The Washington Times

Government Reform
Regulation

• "Homelessness: How Government Policy Makes It Worse," Dr. Tracy C. Miller, The Center for Vision and Values
• "Why We Need Principles-Based Regulation," Arnold Kling, The American
• "Deregulating Occupations: Is Michigan Leading the Way?," Thomas A. Hemphill, The American

Waste/Fraud/Abuse

• "Outrageous Corporate Earmarks Stage a Comeback," Merrill Goozner, The Fiscal Times
• "Officials waste more than $2 million in taxpayer money in May," Christopher Butler,Tennessee Watchdog
• "When States Go Broke," Michael S. Greve, Library of Law and Liberty

Health Care
Abstinence

• "Why Sexual Integrity Isn't Out-of-Date," Nathaniel Peters, The Public Discourse
• "Lolo Jones and Tim Tebow Linked by Abstinence Vows," Daniel Blake, The Christian Post
• "Message to the College of Physicians: the safest sex is monogamous sex," The Iona Institute

Conscience Protection

• "U.S. Bishops: Catholics should prepare for civil disobedience to HHS mandate," Christine Dhanagom, LifeSiteNews
• "An Unconscionable Mandate," Ed Feulner, Patriot Post
• "What's Behind the HHS Mandate?," Gerard V. Bradley, The Public Discourse

Health care reform: Political and Legislative efforts

• "Why Small Businesses Aren't Using the Health Insurance Tax Credit," Scott Shane, The American
• "Obamacare diagnosed as quackery," Sally C. Pipes, Pacific Research Institute
• "New Regulation Forces Private Insurers to Advertise Obamacare," Alyene Senger, The Heritage Foundation
• "Once the Supreme Court Rules on Obamacare, Who Benefits?," Ben Domenech,Ricochet

Homosexuality

• "Same-Sex Marriage Becomes Constitutional Right in California Unless SCOTUS Takes Case," Ken Klukowski, Breitbart.com
• "Opponents Block Washington State Same-Sex Marriage," Associated Press
• "Black Americans on Gay Marriage: Is Obama Changing Opinion?," Tobin Grant,Christianity Today
• "The Church and Homosexuality: Ten Commitments," Kevin DeYoung, The Christian Post

Human Life and Bioethics
Abortion

• "Notes from the PRENDA Debate," Jeanne Monahan, Family Research Council
• "The Origins of Forced Abortion in China," Chris Gacek, Family Research Council
• "FRC Releases New Policy Publication on RU-486," Krystle Weeks, Family Research Council
• "Looking the other way on sex-selection abortion," Jared Bridges, Family Research Council
• "The Times's Convolution of Facts on Abortifacients," Donna Harrison, National Review Online
• "National Pro-Life Group's Computers Seized," Ben Johnson, LifeSiteNews
• "Fifteen years later and silent no more...," The Crescat
• "What if the Population Replacement Rate Drops to 2.0. Then What?," David Shedlock,Caffeinated Thoughts
• "Guttmacher Institute Wrong About Maternal Mortality, Abortion," Paul Stark,LifeNews.com
• "Sex-Selective Abortions and the Twisting of Souls," Hadley Arkes, The Catholic Thing
• "Abortion and the Limits of Philosophy," Jon Shields, The Public Discourse

Bioethics and Biotechnology

• "Great-tasting choice," Daniel James Devine, WORLD Magazine
• "A Crisis of Faith in Science?," Rebecca Oas, First Things
• "Bionic Brains and Beyond," Daniel H. Wilson, The Wall Street Journal

Euthanasia and End of Life Issues

• "Why Facebook Removed Photos of a Baby," Karen Swallow Prior, Christianity Today
• "One Human Heart: Wordsworth's Old Cumberland Beggar and the Sweetness of Being Human," Anthony Esolen, The Public Discourse
• "A Partisan Look at U.S. Science Policy," Jeffrey Mervis, Science

Stem Cell Research
To read about the latest advances in ethical adult stem cell research, keep up with leading-edge reports from FRC's Dr. David Prentice, click here.

• "Adult Stem Cell Treatments Move Ahead, Embryonic Stem Cells Fall Farther Behind," David Prentice, National Right to Life News
• "Did the California stem cell program promise miracle cures?," Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times

Human Trafficking

• "Unavoidable Destiny | Legally a Criminal, Legally a Victim: The Plight of the Bottom," Shared Hope International
• "A Permanent Evil," James L. Dold, The Polaris Project
• "More penalties for Calif. human traffickers," Becky Yeh, OneNewsNow

Women's Health

• "The real war on women," U.S. Rep. Christopher Smith, The Washington Post
• "Obama Ad Deceives About Birth Control," Wesley J. Smith, Secondhand Smoke
• "Chilean Study Exposes Fundamental Flaws in Maternal Health Research," Susan Yoshihara, Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute

Marriage and Family
Adoption

• "Wisconsin Student 'Censored, Punished' by School for Gay Adoption Beliefs," Ravelle Mohammed, The Christian Post
• "Virginia Senate Passes 'Conscience Clause' Restricting Gay Adoption," Paul Stanley,The Christian Post
• "Gay couples no longer banned from adopting a child in Florida," Martin E. Segal, The Miami Herald

Family Economics

• "On the Morality of Capitalism," Joe Carter, The Acton Institute
• "Marital Parenthood and American Prosperity: As Goes the Middle-Class Family, So Goes the Nation," Ryan C. McPherson, The Family in America
• "Do Tax Credits Encourage Work?," Casey B. Mulligan, New York Times
• "Number of the Week: Half of U.S. Lives in Household Getting Benefits," Phil Izzo, The Wall Street Journal

Family Structure

• ""Where Are the Dads?" How Richmond, VA - and FRC - Are Working to Restore the Family," Rob Schwarzwalder, Family Research Council
• "And Just When You Thought the Seventies Were Over. . . ," Glenn T. Stanton, National Review Online
• "Parenting Adults Intentionally," Susan Card, The Examined Life
• "What Makes a Relationship?," Kaitlyn Elisabet Bonsell, BreakPoint
• "20 years later, it turns out Dan Quayle was right about Murphy Brown and unmarried moms," Isabel Sawhill, The Washington Post

Media
Pornography

• "Veteran memorial used as set for porn movie," Becky Yeh, OneNewsNow
• "Protecting children online," Carolyn Moynihan, MercatorNet
• "This is your brain on porn," Michael Cusick, Relevant Magazine

Internet

• "Up in the air," Daniel James Devine, WORLD Magazine
• "Facebook and the Importance of Being Unimportant," Edward Tenner, The American

Religion and Public Policy
Religious Liberty

• "Remarks on Religious Liberty," Ken Blackwell, Family Research Council
• "End of an empire?," Thomas Kidd, WORLD Magazine
• "Court Says City Can Tax Church Room By Room," Jeremy Weber, Christianity Today
• "'The Bishops & Religious Freedom'," Grant Gallicho, Commonweal Magazine
• "Town Ordered to Find Non-Christians to Lead Invocations," Alan Sears, Alliance Defense Fund

Religion in America
Check out Dr. Kenyn Cureton's feature on Watchmen Pastors called "The Lost Episodes," featuring how religion has had an impact on our Founding Fathers.

• "For Greater Glory," Patrick F. Fagan, MercatorNet
• "Good Religion: In Defense of Ross Douthat," Daniel K. Williams, The Public Discourse
• "Fairfax County changes 'faith-based service policy'," Bob Kellogg, OneNewsNow
• "Pope says family values are key to escaping modern ills," Jean-Louis de la Vaissiere, AFP

Secularism

• "Secular Coalition Creates 'Atheist Lobby' in Virginia," Michael Gryboski, The Christian Post
• "A Secularist Sees The Benedict Option," Rod Dreher, The American Conservative

International
Israel

• "Christian Villages Attempt to Revive Ancient Biblical Language," Haaretz
• "After Toulouse, More Attacks on Jews," Jonathan S. Tobin, Commentary Magazine
• "The reign of the fantasists," Caroline Glick, CarolineGlick.com

International Economy and Family

• "Is It (Finally) Crunch Time in Europe?," Walter Russell Mead, Via Meadia
• "Behind the Mountains," Konrad Muller, The American Interest
• "10 Years After Civil War, No Peace for Sierra Leone's Kids," Greg Campbell, The Atlantic
• "Affirmative Action in China?," Ethel C. Fenig, The American Thinker

Religious Persecution

• "The Fate of Syria's Christian Minority," Ken Blackwell, The American Thinker
• "Another Chinese Activist's Story of Persecution," Chris Gacek, Family Research Council
• "Egyptian Christians Back to Square One Ahead of Election," Jayson Casper, Christianity Today

Sharia law -- U.S., foreign

• "Egypt Likely to Reject Sharia Law," Tawfik Hamid, NewsMax
• "Nigeria's Boko Haram a holy war? Maybe not entirely," Fredrick Nzwili and Ibrahim Garba, Christian Science Monitor

The Courts
Constitutional Issues

• "Is the Ban on Women in Combat Unconstitutional?," Justin Shubow, The FedSoc Blog
• "Reexamining the doctrine of unconstitutional conditions," Brian T. Hodges, Pacific Legal Foundation

Judicial Activism

• "A Result in Search of a Rationale," William C. Duncan, National Review Online
• "First Circuit Rules Against DOMA," Ed Whelan, National Review Online

Other News of Note

• "Walker Walks the Talk, Obama Talks About the Walk," Ken Blackwell, Townhall
• "Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man," Mary Elizabeth Podles, Touchstone Magazine
• "Anyone for Tennis?," Joseph Epstein, The American

Book reviews

• "True entitlement reform will hit upper and middle classes," Alan D. Viard, American Enterprise Institute
• "Young Evangelicals Still at War? A Review of 'A Faith of Our Own'," Matthew Lee Anderson, Christianity Today
• "Markets and Morality," Anthony Domestico, Commonweal Magazine
• "On History Books and Why You Should Care," Lindsay Marshall, The Examined Life
• "Promises, Promises," Charles R. Kesler, Claremont Review of Books
• "How the West was Won," Stephen H. Balch, Claremont Review of Books