Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng called into a congressional hearing again yesterday, detailing reported abuse of his relatives and friends in the wake of his escape. When lauded for his courage and tireless advocacy for victims of forced abortion and involuntary sterilization, Chen simply remarked, through translation: “I am not a hero. I’m just doing what my conscience asks me to do. I cannot be silent when facing these evils against women and children.” Chen described to the committee how, shortly after his escape from house arrest last month, local government …
Virginians witnessed an important victory for religious liberty last week. On Monday, Governor Bob McDonnell (R) signed legislation that affirms the conscience rights of the state’s religiously affiliated adoption agencies. The new law protects private adoption agencies from being forced “to perform, assist, counsel, recommend, consent to, refer, or participate in any placement of a child for foster care or adoption when the proposed placement would violate the agency’s written religious or moral convictions or policies.” This “conscience clause” ensures that private, faith-based adoption agencies will be able to continue …
Today, thousands of Americans gathered peacefully at over 140 capitols, government buildings and historical sites across the United States to protest the government’s latest attempt to trample on religious freedom. The Stand up for Religious Freedom rallies seen around the nation today gave individuals in these communities the opportunity to express their opposition to the Obamacare anti-conscience mandate – which is a coercive undermining of religious liberty. In Washington, D.C., hundreds gathered in front of the Department of Health & Human Services, where the offensive rule originated. A line up …
The devastating tornadoes that ripped through the South and Midwest last week left broken homes and shattered lives in their wake. While the wind and rain still blew, churches, ministries, and charitable organizations fanned out across many states to help pick up the pieces. Public policy should respect the vital role these Good Samaritans play and, at the very least, not harm their ability to serve the common good. In southern Indiana, the New Albany Salvation Army set up food canteens to feed survivors. In Missouri, volunteers from Mennonite Disaster …
The greatest tribute to the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., is not to name a street in his honor or celebrate a national holiday. It is to recognize and support those who are working to carry out his vision, those who empower those facing the greatest obstacles through personal relationships that restore the fabric of civil society—without the need for federal government intervention. As former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp once said, “We need an anti-poverty agenda based on democratic capitalism, not socialism and on private ownership, …
When Pam Tebow was counseled to abort her baby to save her own life, the doctor referred to him as a “mass of fetal tissue.” “(M)aybe she just called me that to toughen us up for the names I would be called the first time I played at LSU,” Tim Tebow, who became the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback for the University of Florida, writes in his 2011 book “Through My Eyes.” Now that Tebow is a Denver Bronco and under intense scrutiny in the role of starting quarterback, his congenital instinct …
Many of us will give thanks for family this week. Sadly, more than one hundred thousand children awaiting adoption from the foster care system don’t have a family to be thankful for. More than 400,000 children are in the foster care system, and about a quarter are in circumstances that will prevent them from being reunified with their family of origin. They need adoptive homes. November is National Adoption Month, and this year’s initiative aims to find permanent parents for these 107,000 foster children. That’s a call advocates of limited …
Yesterday, The Heritage Foundation and the Georgia Family Council co-hosted an event in Atlanta illustrating the profoundly negative consequences of social breakdown in the state and offering some promising solutions to restore human flourishing. At “Breakthrough Georgia: Fighting Poverty and Restoring Society,” Heritage senior research fellow Robert Rector presented Georgia-specific research on child poverty and the role that marriage can play in reducing poverty rates. Today, over 45 percent of births in Georgia are to unmarried mothers. The lack of social and financial stability that accompanies those single-parent households greatly …
Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee may have ravaged northeastern Pennsylvania with floodwaters, but displaced people have found aid and comfort in the relief provided by private charities and businesses. A recent New York Times story described affected people’s disillusionment with the federal government’s ability to dispense disaster relief aid through FEMA. “Uprooted and desolate, hard-working people in this part of the country expect a bit more from their government,” the Times reported. The story failed to mention the outpouring of food, furniture and housing repair assistance provided by charities …
