World Family Policy Center News
6/3/02
Volume 1, Issue 8
The following excerpts are highlights of current events and do not
necessarily represent the views of the World Family Policy Center or Brigham
Young University.
FROM THE WORLD FAMILY POLICY CENTER
Much of the reading we suggest in this weekly space contains intellectual ammunition for the political battle. This week's recommendation is a recent editorial with some excellent counsel on participation in the public square of dialogue. To defend the family and family values, we need to be well-armed but - equally importantly - also well-skilled and well-prepared. Lists of facts, no matter how accurate, will not persuade anyone if delivered unintelligently, unintelligibly, or unprofessionally. I have yet to see anyone change their mind as a result of losing an argument. I like to say, 'If you're right, there should be no need to yell. Yelling is a sign of either a weak position or weak preparation.' Wendy McElroy has some good advice. It is at least as valuable as anything else we can offer you here in your efforts to defend the family and traditional values. Happy reading.
A. Scott Loveless
Executive Director
World Family Policy Center
TIME TO SPEAK OUT (click
to read the full article)
Tuesday, May 28, 2002
By Wendy McElroy
"All it takes for evil
to triumph is for good men [and women] to do nothing" — Edmund Burke.
Our society is undergoing a cultural change from
political correctness to a respect for true diversity. In this shift,
individuals matter because culture changes one person at a time. Speak out.
Stand up for the values that have been ravaged by PC feminism: freedom of
speech, parental control of children, the rights of men and the ability to rise
through merit alone.
IN THE NEWS
PRO-LIFE GROUP LAUNCHES UNDERCOVER STING (click
to read the full story)
Fox News, May 31, 2002
Life
Dynamics said one of its activists has called more than 800 abortion clinics
nationwide in recent months, pretending to be a 13-year-old girl impregnated by
her 22-year-old boyfriend. What she learned is that more than 90 percent of the
clinic employees handling the calls said they would conceal the information
provided by the caller, according to Life Dynamics president Mark Crutcher.
Such an
action would be a violation of the law in states that require the reporting of
sexual abuse of a minor. A 22-year-old having sex with a 13-year-old is
considered statutory rape in all 50 states.
In several cases, according to Crutcher,
the caller was encouraged to conceal her age or her boyfriend's age or give
false names to lessen the chance that the boyfriend could be charged with
statutory rape.
Clinic operators "have made a conscious decision to conceal the sexual exploitation of children and protect the men who commit these crimes," Crutcher said. He challenged law enforcement authorities to investigate.
FEMINISTS LOBBY FOR U.N. RIGHTS PACT (click to read the full article)
By George Archibald
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Feminist groups calling for U.S. ratification of a U.N. women's rights treaty are stepping up their lobbying as the Senate prepares for hearings on the pact.
A task force of the
National Organization for Women's Legal Defense and Education Fund last week
sent out an "important action alert" to feminist groups nationwide,
urging them to "call the White House switchboard" with a scripted
message calling on President Bush to support the U.N. Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
At issue is U.S. refusal so far to sign and
ratify the 1981 U.N. treaty, which pro-family opponents contend is being used
to force signatory countries to change their laws relating to families,
employment and abortion.
AT THE U.N.
AT BALI TALKS, NEGOTIATORS HAMMER OUT TEXT FOR ADOPTION AT JOHANNESBURG SUMMIT
(Click to read the full news brief)
31 May – Negotiators meeting in Bali, Indonesia, today reported progress in their efforts to hammer out draft final documents for adoption by the World Summit for Sustainable Development, which will convene this August in Johannesburg.
ANNAN APPLAUDS UKRAINE'S EFFORTS TO STOP SPREAD OF HIV/AIDS (click
to read the full news brief)
3
June – The United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan,
today applauded
Ukraine's efforts to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS and pledged the UN's full
support in the country's fight against the epidemic.
“The
fact that President [Leonid] Kuchma has declared 2002 the year of the fight
against AIDS should send a powerful message – both inside your country, and in
other countries of the region,” the Secretary-General said in an address to a
partnership meeting of Ukraine’s Inter-Ministerial AIDS Commission in Kiev. Mr.
Annan said the gathering was an example of the kind of wide-ranging response
needed to succeed in combating the epidemic, which has reached “alarming”
proportions in Ukraine.
Every individual, especially every young person,
must play his or her part in the struggle against AIDS, he stressed, adding
that partnerships would be central to this effort, involving every part of
Government as well as a broad range of civil society groups, including local
organizations, church groups, and people living with HIV/AIDS themselves.
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