Winter 2010 Pornography Seen and Unseen Consequences ncfamily.org WinterSchool 2009 Violence Prevention Act • The Silent Killer • Supporting the Life Choice • Votes 1 Leader Training Events in North Carolina Visit ncfamily.org for our complete 2010 schedule. January 9 February 6 Wake Forest Charlotte North Wake Church Christ Covenant Church February 27 March 20 Boone Leland Mount Vernon Baptist Church First Baptist Church April 17 June 5 Jacksonville Elizabeth City First Free Will Baptist Church Evangelical Methodist Church If you are interested in attending The Truth Project training in your area, please visit the North Carolina Family Policy Council website at ncfamily.org, call us at (919) 807-0800 or email [email protected] FNC | contents feature 22 The Effects of Pornography on Individuals, Marriage, Family and Community In a condensed version of a new study released jointly by the Family Research Council and the North Carolina Family Policy Council, Patrick Fagan, Ph.D., provides an in-depth look at the effects of pornography on marriages, children, communities, and individual happiness. Dr. Fagan shows that pornography wreaks havoc on society by distorting the nature of conjugal relations and, thereby, altering sexual at- titudes and behavior. articles departments 8 The School Violence numbers 4 Prevention Act Family facts of interest Alysse ElHage details what the controversial “Bullying at issue 5 Bill” does and does not require school districts to include in their updated Anti-Bullying Policies beginning in About this magazine 2010, and how to avoid the promotion of homosexuality. comment 6 13 The Silent Killer Observations from our Mary Summa unveils the calculated efforts of the president Euthanasia Movement to justify, promote, and legalize etcetera the abhorrent practice of killing both the willing and 7 unwilling using an utilitarian valuation of human life. Quotes, quips and other items of interest Interview: Timothy George, Ph.D. 17 at the fold 20 NCFPC president, Bill Brooks talks with Dr. Timothy George, dean of Samford University’s Beeson Valuable resources for you Divinity School, and one of the three authors of the landmark Manhattan Declaration that addresses the foundational Biblical principles of the sanctity of life, marriage, and religious liberty. 29 Supporting the Life Choice Dr. Matt Lytle explores the often overlooked option of adoption as an alternative to the difficult life of young unwed single motherhood or the tragedy of abortion in the face of an unplanned pregnancy. 33 General Assembly Votes This valuable resource highlights important votes by the General Assembly during the 2009 legislative session. Every current Senate and House member’s votes on these issues are printed at the back of this issue. Expanded versions can be found at ncfamily.org. FNC | numbers Polling North Carolinians Support among North Carolinians for inclusion of abortion coverage in proposed health care reform January/March 2010 Strongly Agree 7% Vol. 5, No.1 56% ISSN 1935-7761 12% Somewhat Agree ISBN 0-9785025-1-5 Somewhat Oppose 12% Editor Brittany Farrell Strongly Oppose 13% Associate Editor Not Sure Alysse ElHage Circulation Eileen Brown John W. Pope Civitas Institute Poll, December 7, 2009 Design Courtney Volker Contributors Risk Behaviors by Dorm Living Arrangements Alysse ElHage, Patrick Fagan, Brittany Farrell, R. Matthew Lytle, Jere Royall, No sexual partners in 63.2% Mary Summa the last year 44.3% President Bill Brooks 3 or more sexual 4.9% partners in the last year 12.6% Family North Carolina Students in Gender is published quarterly by the Specific Housing North Carolina Family Approval of 26.5% Policy Council. casual sex 44.1% Students in Co-Ed Housing The North Carolina Family Policy Council is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit research and education organization organized in 1992 and recognized for tax-deductible giving by the Carol, Dr. Jason and Dr. Brian Willoughby, “The Impact of Living in Co-ed federal government. “Family North Carolina” is a Resident Halls on Risk-taking Among College Students,” Journal of American registered trademark of the North Carolina Family Policy Council. Copyright © North Carolina Family College Health, Nov/Dec 2009. Policy Council. All rights reserved. Internet North Carolina School District Visit us on the internet at ncfamily.org, where you can read selected stories from this issue, includ- Parent-friendliness Grades ing endnotes. Publication of website addresses of other organizations featured in our stories does A not constitute endorsement by the North Carolina 0 Family Policy Council of those groups or the Letter grade B contents of those sites. earned 17 Subscriptions C 75 If you do not already receive Family North Carolina, a one-year subscription is available D for a suggested donation of $16. Write the North 19 Carolina Family Policy Council at: PO. Box 20607, Raleigh, NC 27619. To use your credit card visit F us online at ncfamily.org or call 919-807-0800. 4 Number of School Districts John Locke Foundation report by Terry Stoops, November 30, 2009 FNC | at issue A Desire for Truth This issue of Family North explains how parents and schools can avoid being Winter 2010 Carolina is heading to press forced to promote or accept homosexuality and as we reflect on a year full of transgenderism in their schools. “Tolerance” at all excitement—some good, some costs has already won many battles in the war for disappointing, but all in God’s minds. Many of those battles are being waged in plan. You will be reading this as our children’s classrooms. Parents and teachers must we embark on a new year—full of be on guard and must be actively dressing their potential and opportunity. children in the armor of truth. As seniors in high school, Not so long ago, murder was unequivocally con- my classmates and I were given sidered evil. In 1973, the Supreme Court granted the task of choosing a yearbook cover to those who would murder children simply quote—one that would outlive because they could not be seen. Today, the centuries- Pornography our time as seniors, and possibly old Euthanasia Movement is again making progress. Seen and Unseen our time on earth. I took the Mary Summa relays where this battle has been, Consequences assignment very seriously and where it is, and where it is trying to go. The devalu- finally settled on one from the ation of human life to a purely utilitarian calculation ncfamily.org great President Abraham Lincoln. has crept into the human psyche to the point that “I have an irrepressible desire to we have now begun to accept the murder of even the WinterSchool 2009 Violence Prevention Act • The Silent Killer • Supporting the Life Choice • Votes 1 live ‘til I can be assured that the unarguably living members of our families whom we world is a better place for my see and touch and with whom we speak. Our editors having lived in it.” Shortly after I have all been moved by her compelling story. arrived at the North Carolina Family Policy Coun- One of the many real challengess imposed by cil, the newly appointed Archbishop of Vancouver, J. a breakdown of sexual morals and marriage in Michael Miller, took the motto “Veritati Servire”— our society is out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Women To Serve the Truth—which I have adopted for my facing unexpected pregnancies often mistakenly own work. Both of these commands, from President believe they only have two options: the difficult written by: Lincoln and Archbishop Miller, get to the heart of life of young unwed single motherhood, or the what we are about here at the NCFPC. This issue tragic choice of abortion. Matt Lytle—himself an Brittany of Family North Carolina is a testament to that. It adoptive parent—argues for the third and often Farrell touches on difficult subjects and seeks to unveil the overlooked choice of adoption, which offers a much light of truth in a world of darkness. We are here better option for mother and child. He urges society to make a lasting difference on policy in North to encourage adoption, and families to open their Carolina, so as to make the world a better place for homes and hearts to adopting children as an alter- the generations that will come after us. native to abortion. We are privileged to co-release our feature on the This year, we have included the annual “Votes harms of pornography with Dr. Patrick Fagan and Paper” in this issue of Family North Carolina. We the Family Research Council. This report seeks to selected some of the most important and interesting bring light to the corners of this dark and creep- votes from the 2009 Legislative Session to give you a ing sin. While pornography is a sin of individual sense of the activity down on Jones Street. The “Y”s choice, its destruction is borne by marriages, chil- and “N”s in those charts only tell part of the story. dren, families, and communities. The oft-repeated Much of the pro-family legislation that is introduced argument that the production and consumption of is buried in committees by legislative leaders, who pornographic material is a private individual matter, refuse to even allow members to consider—let alone protected by the First Amendment, withers under vote on—bills related to the sanctity of life, charter the sunny sanitation of truth. Pornography is bad schools, and the protection of marriage. for women, bad for men, bad for marriages, bad for We at the NCFPC are preparing for another year children, and bad for society. Dr. Fagan’s research of service to policymakers and citizens across North leaves little room for debate. Carolina. What will you do to spread truth in the One of the most controversial pieces of legisla- New Year? Are you assured that your life will leave tion passed by the General Assembly in the last the world a better place? v decade—the pro-homosexual “Bullying Bill”—goes into effect in 2010.