Dream Marriage Conference is Tonight and Saturday

There is still time to sign up for the Dream Marriage Conference, with Jimmy and Karen Evans of MarriageToday, which will be simulcast live tonight, 7 to 9:30 p.m., and again tomorrow morning. The location is Putnam City Baptist Church on N. Rockwell in OKC.

To learn more, click on this link.

Rose Day Snowed Out

Rose Day, scheduled for tomorrow, Feb. 9, has been canceled due to the 6 to 10 inches of snowfall expected in Central Oklahoma overnight.

Today, for the same reason, the state House and Senate passed a resolution of agreement to adjourn until next Monday, Feb. 14.

Doing the Right Thing: Colson Center Producing a DVD Series on Ethics Reform in America

Here's a trailer for a very interesting 6-part DVD series on ethics that will soon be available for your Sunday School or small group.

In the wake of the national financial crisis of 2008, it's an important project that was launched in 2009 by BreakPoint's Chuck Colson, Brit Hume of Fox News, and Princeton Professor Robert George, in cooperation with the John Templeton Foundation.

To learn more, visit www.colsoncenter.org/ethics

See the trailer below:

See ‘The Cartel’ Documentary TONIGHT for Free

The Cartel is an award-winning documentary about the problems in America's educational system. It's received rave reviews nationwide from proponents of excellence in education. You're cordially invited to view a screening of this important documentary tonight, hosted by our good friends with Americans for Prosperity.

Date: Tuesday, Jan. 25
Time:  6 p.m.
Place: Oklahoma Christian University (Davisson American Heritage Building – Auditorium)
2501 E. Memorial Road
Edmond, OK 73013

Viewing the documentary is free, but you must pre-register. To pre-register, please click here.

House Passes Repeal of Abortion-Funding Obamacare

 

(from The Heritage Foundation)

The House of Representatives voted 245-189 Wednesday afternoon to repeal the abortion-funding Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

Obamacare represents a historic departure from the federal government’s traditional stance on abortion funding and provides new avenues to promote elective abortion. Since 1976 the Hyde Amendment, which forbids taxpayer funding of abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or threat to the mother’s life. When negotiations to include the full Hyde Amendment language in the PPACA failed, President Obama signed an Executive Order prohibiting federal funding of abortion. Unless Congress acts to make the application permanent, however, this order is subject to reversal by either executive decision or judicial intervention.

 

PPACA includes at least three problematic provisions with respect to the federal role in subsidizing elective abortion. The law:

1. Facilitates massive federal subsidies for private health care plans that are offered through health insurance exchanges and will cover elective abortions.
2. Leaves the decision whether certain appropriated funds not covered by the Hyde Amendment will be used to subsidize elective abortions to the discretion of the Secretary of HHS.
3. Appropriates money not covered by the Hyde Amendment for community health centers, the grants from which could also be used to fund abortions.

As a result of the defects in PPACA, a federal tax credit will be made available to assist in the purchase of private health plans that cover abortion. Additionally, the limited and loose conscience protections outlined in the law, combined with inadequate guidance on conscience rights, may leave pro-life medical professionals with no protection to live by their personal beliefs.

The battle to ensure permanent restrictions on federal abortion funding witnessed a major step forward yesterday as House Speaker John Boehner and a bipartisan coalition of pro-life legislators introduced the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act." The act would streamline restrictions on abortion-funding by compiling the numerous annual pro-life riders into one permanent piece of legislation, eliminating the annual risk to these provisions on federal funding of abortion. The bill would also better define conscience protections for pro-life medical professionals. Rep. Joe Pitts, Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, also introduced the "Protect Life Act," that would apply Hyde amendment language to the PPACA, prohibiting the use of federal funds for abortions.  

Rep. Lankford Challenges Abortion, Defends Sanctity of Human Life on House Floor

As we approach the 38th anniversary this week of the infamous Roe. v. Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, Oklahoma's new Fifth District Congressman, Rep. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma City), took to the House floor last night to defend the sanctity of unborn human life and to explain how the right-to-abortion is at odds with our core beliefs as Americans.

Correct Link for Os Guinness Speech This Morning

FRC is having some technical difficulties. The link we gave you earlier this morning may not work.

Instead, go to frc.org. Click on the ad at right for Os Guinness and Can Freedom Last Forever?

That should work. After the event, you can also view Dr. Guinness' remarks by going to FRC's home page, click on events, and scroll to find the Guinness speech.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Watch Dr. Os Guinness Discuss ‘Can Freedom Last Forever?’ TODAY at 11 a.m.

You are truly blessed, dear blog reader.

Dr. Os Guinness , the well-known author, philosopher, and founder of The Trinity Forum, is speaking this morning at Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., and worldwide via simulcast, and you now know about it ahead of time!

His important topic: Can Freedom Last Forever? -- the Founders' Forgotten Question, and Where the U.S. is Today.

To view the FRC Web-cast LIVE, please click on this link at 11 a.m. CST today.

Outstanding Free Marriage Conference to be Offered in OKC on Jan. 21

A free marriage conference will be offered to couples on Friday, January 21, hosted by Metropolitan Baptist Church.

Dr. Rod Cooper, professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, was originally scheduled to be the speaker. However, according to the church, he is unable to attend and is being replaced by Dr. Tim Kimmel, left, executive director of Family Matters in Phoenix, Ariz.

This free marriage conference will be held at Metropolitan Baptist Church, 7201 W. Britton Road, Oklahoma City, on Friday, January 21, 2011, 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The event is open to the public and childcare is provided by reservation; however registration for attendance is not necessary. For more information, or to reserve childcare, please contact the church at 405-722-2550.

For more information about Dr. Kimmel, please click here

New Year Brings New Opportunities for Many!

Happy New Year! Change is in the air in both the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., and in Oklahoma City.

A new Congress takes over in Washington, D.C., and Oklahoma's new 5th District Congressman, Rep. James Lankford, will be sworn in as Republicans take hold of the reigns of power in the House. Will the mistakes of 1994's take-over be repeated, or will the GOP faithfully discharge their duties under the watchful eye of the American people?

In OKC, members of the House and Senate will meet briefly at noon -- following a voluntary joint prayer service -- to officially elect their leadership and rules for the upcoming Session, which begins on Feb. 7.

As Gov. Brad Henry prepares to leave office after eight years, a new bespeckled bust of the Governor will be unveiled at the state Capitol.

Then, next Monday, Gov.-Elect Mary Fallin will make history as she becomes the Sooner State's first woman governor, following a weekend of inaugural celebrations across Oklahoma.

While politicians discharge their duties, we citizens also have important roles to play in this Republic. We must oversee our legislators to ensure that spending is reduced, continued borrowing is stopped, incentives for economic growth are enacted, and important social issues are advanced to help create a moral and just society and to live up to our nation's founding ideals. While we know we can't ever create heaven on earth, we do believe we can do much good work while we're here to impact many lives positively and to leave this earth much better than we found it.

Oklahoma Family Policy Council invites you to join with us in 2011 as we make our voices and views known to our elected officials both in Washington, D.C., and in Oklahoma City.

Aside from the work of politics, there is important work to do in the culture, as well. Families and marriages need to be strengthened within churches, and young people in the public schools -- many from dysfunctional family backgrounds -- need to be loved and taught the life-saving message of sexual abstinence until marriage.

Won't we join with us? The family policy council is here for you. Thank you for your support and prayers as we move forward together in 2011 to meet the new challenges.

Excellent Conservative News Sources Available for Tulsans

As many Tulsans know, they really don't have to rely on the liberal editorial and news viewpoints expressed in the city's major flagship newspaper, the Tulsa World.

Other excellent news choices include the Tulsa Beacon, a print newspaper published by our good friend, Charley Biggs, and Tulsa Today, an online news source published since 1996 by our new friend, David Arnett, who also has a local radio show Saturday afternoons on KRMG 740 AM.

 Check out these two sources for reliable local news and help support local businesses that are serving the citizens of Tulsa well. I know they would appreciate hearing from you. Check-out their Web-sites and give them a call to encourage them, subscribe to their publications and patronize their advertisers.

OFPC's New Cookbook Available for Christmas Gift-Giving

Oklahoma Family Policy Council's great new cookbook, CAPITOL COOKS, is now available just in time for all your Christmas gift-giving! It's an inexpensive and "taste-full" gift all your friends and family will love!

CAPITOL COOKS features time-tested favorite recipes from current and former Oklahoma elected officials, 2010 candidates, their families and staff. OFPC families have added delicious recipes, too. Categories include: Appetizers & Beverages, Soups & Salads, Vegetables & Side Dishes, Main Dishes, Breads & Rolls, Desserts, Cookies & Candy, and This & That. This durable, hardback cookbook has a comb-binding, and will give you years of use.

CAPITOL COOKS from the Oklahoma Family Policy Council costs just $15.00 per cookbook and is available for pick-up during business hours at OFPC's office in downtown Bethany, 3908 N. Peniel Ave., Suite 100, inside the Bethany Bank Tower (FYI, Peniel is the first traffic light west of MacArthur, our building is immediately behind the First Bethany Bank & Trust). For an additional $3.50, we can ship the cookbook to you, or whomever you wish, in the continental U.S. (we must receive your order by Dec. 15 for probable Christmas delivery).

For more information, or to order by credit card, please call the Oklahoma Family Policy Council at (405) 787-7744.

Who Needs Marriage? Everyone. By Mike McManus

 [Editor's Note: Mike McManus, co-founder with his wife, Harriet, of the nonprofit, Marriage Savers, responds to the recent TIME article about the declining state of marriage in America.]


TIME’s Nov. 29, 2010, cover story, above, asks, "Who Needs Marriage?"

A surprising 39% of Americans say that marriage is becoming “obsolete,” according to a poll by TIME and Pew Research Center.  Two-thirds of cohabiting couples agreed, as well as 42% of conservatives, who are alarmed by the trend, and 44% of Americans under age 30.

“It is no small thing when nearly four-in-ten Americans agree that the world’s most enduring social institution is becoming obsolete,” said Pew.  However, “becoming obsolete” is not the same as “obsolete.”  When the World Values Survey framed a similar question in 2006: “Marriage is an outdated institution -- agree or disagree?” --  just 13% of Americans agreed.

In fact, only 5% of adults under 30 do NOT want to get married. That’s evidence that, despite the opinion of many, marriage is not becoming obsolete. In fact, even two-thirds of cohabiting people want to marry. But after five years only 16% had done so, and only 20% of the couples were still living together, according to a Princeton/Columbia “Fragile Families” study.

What’s disturbing about this is that 41% of all births are to unwed parents -- eight times the 5% of 1960.  Half of unwed births are to those who are cohabiting.  This is in spite of statistics showing that two-thirds of Americans think the trend of single women having children is “bad for society,” and that 61% believe a child needs both a mother and father “to grow up happily.”

The fact remains that only half of all adults are married today vs. 72% in 1960.
 

And of all the transformations our family structures have undergone in the past 50 years, perhaps the most profound is the marriage differential that has opened between the rich and the poor. In 1960 the median household income of married adults was 12% higher than that of single adults, after adjusting for household size. By 2008 this gap had grown to 41%. In other words, the richer and more educated you are, the more likely you are to marry, or to be married -- or, conversely, if you're married, you're more likely to be well off.

As the aforementioned passage in TIME Magazine asserts, a particularly disturbing trend is how marriage seems to be disappearing for those with less education. While 64% of college grads are married, only 48% of those with a high school education now marry. In 1960 both groups were equally likely to marry: 72% of high school vs. 76% of college grads. Reasonably well-paying manufacturing jobs that high schoolers could get, for instance, have largely disappeared. “The college-educated wait until they're finished with their education and their careers are launched,” says TIME. “The less-educated wait until they feel comfortable financially."

The problem is, for more and more adults, arriving at that financial comfort level has become far more elusive.
In 1960 two-thirds of those in their 20s were already married. But in 2008 only 26% were married. Why? A partial answer is that the average age of marriage has risen three years to 28 for men and 26 for women.  Dr. W. Bradford Wilcox, Director of the National Marriage Project says the sexual revolution is another key factor. “People have access to sex outside of marriage, and are less likely to have a commitment orientation.”

Yet why are so many are cohabiting, rather than marrying?

“Today’s couples in their twenties and thirties distrust marriage,” my wife and I write in our book, Living Together: Myths, Risks & Answers. Since 1970, 43 million people have experienced their parent’s divorce. “The Buster Generation, children of Baby Boomers, have lived the horrors of divorce and are wary of marriage for a good reason.”

It should come as no surprise, then, that of 7.5 million cohabiting this year only 1.4 million will marry, while 80% will ultimately break up.

TIME asserts that “couples who cohabit before marrying don’t divorce any less often.” Not true. A Penn State study by Paul Amato [consultant to Oklahoma Marriage Initiative] reports such couples are 61% more likely to divorce than those who remained apart prior to marriage.

“The way America marries is making the American Dream unreachable for many of its people,” lamented TIME.  “Yet marriage is still the best avenue most people have for making their dreams come true.” However, neither TIME nor Pew provides evidence to support the institution.

Ten years ago Maggie Gallagher and Linda Waite wrote The Case for Marriage: Why Married People Are Happier, Healthier and Better Off Financially. It cited hundreds of studies with evidence.

For example, they report that when a Gallup Poll asked couples to grade their marriage, 68% gave it an A; 23% a B. True, 6% gave it a C, and 1% a D, 1%, F.  “Nor do unhappy marriages stay that way: 86% of those who rated their marriage as unhappy in the late eighties and who were still married five years later, said their marriage had become happier,” they reveal.

• “Married couples live longer,” they write. “Being unmarried chops almost ten years off a man’s life.”  Similarly, unmarried women will live fewer years than married women with cancer or those living in poverty.
  
• “Married couples are wealthier... Married men earn between 10 and 40 percent more than do single men with similar education and job histories.”
  
• “Married people have more and better sex than singles,” they assert. Two-fifths of married couples, in fact, enjoy marital intimacy at least twice a week compared to 20%-25% of singles.

Who needs marriage? Everyone.

“The Lord God said, “It is not good for man to be alone” (Gen. 2:15).

Copyright © 2010 Michael J. McManus

D'Souza Fans: D'Souza DVDs to be Available Next Week!

Did you miss Dinesh D'Souza's appearance at O.U. earlier this week? Well, not to worry.

A professionally produced DVD recording of The God Decision: Delusion, Confusion or Truth?, which was the title of Dinesh D'Souza's powerful talk at the University of Oklahoma on Dec. 1 will be available next week from Oklahoma Family Policy Council. The cost per DVD is just $18,50, which includes shipping & handling. This would make a great stocking stuffer or Christmas gift!

Our D'Souza DVD includes about 2 hours of Dinesh D'Souza's razor-sharp wit and keen mind at its best. Over an hour, the best-selling author and president of The King's College in New York City makes a strong intellectual case for the reasonableness of orthodox Christian faith and seriously challenges the sometimes intolerant New Atheism, which is increasingly prevalent on campuses--including at O.U.--and in the popular culture. Then, he tackles a hour's worth of questions from the interested Univ. of Oklahoma audience.

To request this DVD, please mail your check or money order for $18.50 (suggested donation) to OFPC, 3908 N. Peniel Ave., Ste. 100, Bethany, OK 73008. Please include a shipping address.

Dinesh D'Souza in Edmond, Norman Today

Dinesh D'Souza, author, speaker, scholar, public intellectural, and president of The King's College in New York City, will be in central Oklahoma today.

He'll first be visiting the Credo House, 109 N.W. 142nd Street, Edmond from 3 to 4 p.m. for a tour, book signing and Podcast. Then, later, at 8 p.m., D'Souza will speak to students, faculty, and the general public at the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Memorial Union Ballroom, 900 Asp Ave. The title of D'Souza's talk is: The God Decision: Delusion, Confusion or Truth?

Both events are free-of-charge. We hope you will attend either or both events.

Real Economic Wisdom from The Gipper

"... Some will say our mission is to save free enterprise. Well, I say we must free enterprise so that together we can save America...."

—President Ronald Reagan
State of the Union Address to a Joint Session of Congress
January 26, 1982

Glenn Beck to Put Spotlight on Billionaire Leftist George Soros

Be sure to watch or DVR Glenn Beck's TV program today on the Fox News Channel. Additional segments will also air on Wednesday and Thursday. Tell all your friends and family to watch.

Beck will be highlighting billionaire George Soros and the leftist agenda he is pursuing for America and the world with his billions. Learn what is going on behind the scenes to destroy America.

The Beck program airs at 4 p.m. on Cox Cable Channel 44 in Oklahoma City.

Katy Abram's Question to Sen. Arlen Specter

U.S. citizen and lover of this beloved, God-blessed Nation: Remember before you vote!!

Oklahomans 4 Family Fun Run and 5K Run/Walk is THIS Saturday Morning

Please support the family and Oklahoma Family Policy Council by running/walking in either the 1-mile fun run or 5K run this Saturday morniing, Oct. 30 at Lake Hefner's Stars & Stripes Park. This is a great family event (and a good way to burn extra calories before you eat all the Halloween candy later that night!).

Whether you can personally participate or not, please ask people to visit the Oklahomans 4 Family Facebook Page to learn more. Thank you for helping us to promote this first annual Oklahomans 4 Family 5K Run/Walk!

A big thanks also to all our corporate sponsors: Bott Radio Network (KQCV), The Runner, Signature Realty LLC Fine Homes & Property Management, Edmond4Rent.com, The Gospel Station Network, Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., Johnny Carino's Italian Grill, Chick-fil-A (NW Expy & Rockwell), Metro Family Magazine, Jersey Mike's Subs, Partners HR, Leo Goes Grr Music, Sports Clips, and Impact Fireworks (Edmond).

Please Buy and Read Glenn Beck's New Book, BROKE

Between now and Thanksgiving Day, please read Glenn Beck's excellent new book, BROKE, and find out what's really going on in America. To order, simply click on the link below and type Broke in the book search feature. Your discounted purchase from Amazon.com will also benefit Oklahoma Family Policy Council's family-strengthening work. Thanks.

Click on this link