Of the many influences that shaped the American concept of liberty, the first and most formative was faith. More than anything else, religion formed the backbone of colonial culture and defined its moral horizon. This religious character was largely a product of the fact that many came to the New World in search of religious liberty—to freely practice and spread their faith. As a whole, America’s Founders were strongly religious. Thanksgiving proclamations, as official statements of the American president, underscore the Founders’ faith. Some were more traditional, such as John …
“Optimism is important for anything in life-to realize that our condition is never final.” [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLEJ-HyIMcM[/youtube] With unbridled and infectious optimism, Jack Kemp (1935-2009) championed hope, growth, and enterprise to overcome poverty and social breakdown in America and around the world. In his roles as U.S. Congressman, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and passionate proponent of the free market, Kemp’s efforts highlighted the powerful combination of great ideas joined with the good works of neighborhood leaders. Jeff Kemp, son of the late Jack Kemp and President of Stronger Families, pays tribute …
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8KQnFVuoqQ[/youtube], In his disappointing debut in Shanghai, China, President Obama made every effort to avoid offending those who practice an offensive system that actively represses dissent. Now, as the president visits Beijing, it is even more important that he strongly assert the importance of adhering to the universal principles essential to an open, civil society. This next stop offers a critical opportunity to convey in resolute fashion that, in addition to American security interests and a policy of free trade, individual liberty, equality, and the rule of law are fundamental …
The price of passage of same-sex marriage legislation in the District of Columbia has just risen dramatically. Refusing to include robust religious liberty protections in the bill that has just been approved by a Council subcommittee, the City appears poised to impose requirements that will drastically cut social services for some of the city’s most hard-pressed residents. The impact will be severest on food pantries, health care providers, services for the homeless and adoption and foster care assistance. The conflict focuses on the scope of the religious liberty exemption included …
Is the US merely tagging behind its European neighbors on a road to a thoroughly secular, social democracy? As the Obama Administration stretches its fingers into education, health care and failing companies, the question lingers ominously. But columnist Cheryl Wetzstein notes that, when it comes to faith and family, we’re not quite there yet. She supports her point with research highlighted at our Oct. 29th conference, Religious Practice and the Family. Wetzstein’s column in today’s Washington Times reads: Earlier this year, American Enterprise Institute scholar Charles Murray wrote a warning …
Sometimes the best-known lines of famous speeches are only indicators of the rest of their content. “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” may be the best known excerpt from President Reagan’s speech in Berlin, but the whole is well worth a read. Several paragraphs near the end especially highlight the significance of faith, love, and virtue to free society, and the totalitarian world’s self-destructive antipathy for these. Like that most famous quotation, these prophetic lines show too that successful statesmen must be sober realists about men’s ideals: In a word, …
President Obama signed the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law last month. More precisely, he signed into law the fiscal year 2010 National Defense Authorization Act, which contains the hate crimes measure as a ride-along amendment. Either way it’s viewed, the measure is misnamed with respect to the hate crimes provision, as it neither provides for national defense nor adheres to principles of local law enforcement. Instead, the bill makes a federal matter out of certain violent crimes committed against individuals based on their real or perceived …
Yesterday in a victory that was not as close as the final pre-election polls had suggested, voters in Maine adopted a “people’s veto” to protect the traditional definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The margin was 53-47. The voting was closely watched for several reasons, as each of the other 30 states that have held popular votes on marriage redefinition has seen popular majorities approve the traditional understanding. Even more important, had proponents of same-sex marriage prevailed in Maine, it would have marked the …
Visiting the complicated world of emerging adults (young people between the ages of 18 and 29, with data now available up to age 23), Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker report back with findings that raise challenges for the future of marriage as an institution. Some of their findings, which will appear next year in a volume from the Oxford University Press titled Premarital Sex in America, were presented last week at a Heritage Foundation conference on what scholarly research says about religious practice in America. The good news is that …
Youth violence, substance abuse, homelessness, and deteriorating neighborhoods ravage both low-income communities and prosperous suburbs alike. There is a great need to explore both the root causes of these problems and their effective solutions. The Bob Woodson Show—“What Works and Why”—premiered yesterday with this very aim. Focusing on solutions to some of America’s most troubling societal problems, each week the show provides examples of effective solutions, and special guests provide first-hand testimonies as to how their lives or neighborhoods have been changed for the better. Host Bob Woodson then directs …
