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"Jennifer, you are a one woman dynamo. And you certainly are a special and very talented lady. You do an excellent job in getting the word out to all of us. Keep up the good work."

-Yvonne S. 

Are you a Marriage Champion? Tell us what you or your organization is doing to promote marriage where you live. Or, let us know how the Ruth Institute is helping or inspiring you to support traditional marriage!

What is the Essential Purpose of Marriage? Dr. J, while on the NOM Summer Marriage Tour, delivered this talk in Augusta, Maine. Listen to find out what really is the essential purpose of marriage. (Click the POD icon.)

ALSO, Check out This Video:

Dr. J's commentary on last week's Prop 8 decision.

Talking Point: By the time Judge Walker and his ilk are done redefining marriage, there will be nothing left of marriage but a government registry of friendships. (Get more talking points from Dr. J's Prop 8 decision commentary.) 

Action Item: The National Organization for Marriage's Summer Bus Tour is going for only a few days more! See the schedule of stops below. If you live nearby, be sure to come to the rally and show your support for traditional marriage. Those opposed will most certainly be there!

Hi everyone! ITAF 2009 Alum, Mike Contreras defended his thesis at Rice University on August 6. Say a little prayer that it went well for him!

AND

Thomas Alvord, another 2009 ITAF Alum, is getting married soon! Congrats, Thomas. Best wishes to you and your new bride for a lifelong marriage!

Any other news, alumni? Let us know, so we can share it here! 

Lutheran Public Radio: Dr. J is usually on live on Tuesdays from 2-2:15 p.m. Pacific Time (Click the link to listen live or find a station near you.)

Now - August 15: Bus Tour for Marriage, sponsored by the National Organization for Marriage.

August 10: Raleigh, NC
Noon-1:00 PM State Capitol, South Side

August 11: Charleston, WV. Noon-1:00 PM at the State Capitol

August 13: Harrisburg, PA. Noon-1:00 PM at the State Capitol

August 15: LAST STOP Washington, DC. 2:00-3:00 PM, Capitol Steps. As this is the last rally, and it's at our nation's capital, it ought to be the biggest! Here's your chance; if you can make it to this rally, GO! Our country needs to see now, more than ever, that we support Tradional Marriage!

Please visit marriagetour2010.com for the complete tour schedule and information, as well as the latest updates including tour photos, video footage, and more.

August 12: Los Angeles, California, It Takes a Family Gala event with Dr. Miriam Grossman, author of Unprotected and You're Teaching My Child What?: A Physician Exposes the Lies of S*x Ed and How They Harm Your Child. She will speak on "Truths That Cannot be Told: How ideology trumps biology in sex education."

October 2: COLFS Dinner and Gala (Culture of Life Family Services) San Diego, CA.

Where Dr. J will be: More details to follow. Mark your calendars!

September 8, Sacramento
September 18, Oakland
September 22-23, Effingham, IL (St. Louis area)
September 24, Boston
October 12, Phoenix
October 16, Grand Rapids

Miss an issue of the newsletter? Check out the archives here.

Do you need advice on how to improve your marriage or relationship, or on how to find the right person for you? Expert Dr. J is here for you. Click here to ask your question, which may be featured anonymously in this newsletter for the benefit of all.

Read past questions and answers here.

Need help with your marriage? You can also check out Dr. J's "101 Tips for a Happier Marriage!"

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Last week we got reports of this newsletter being blocked by SPAM filters due to the medical terminology in our feature article. To ensure this doesn't happen again, we are resending this newsletter but with strategically placed asterisks! Enjoy!

Teach my child that, and you’ll be sorry

by Dr. Miriam Grossman (Dr. Grossman will be the keynote speaker at the It takes a Family Gala dinner August 12 in Los Angeles. Limited seating is available. Register here to attend.) This article was originally published at Mercatornet.com, July 30th, 2010.

It is not what you would want to read before breakfast, but it’s the s*x menu they are serving up to children.

S*x education for tots is in the headlines. Last month it was a policy in Provincetown, Massachusetts, making condoms available to first graders. Student requests were to be kept secret and parents’ objections ignored.

Now the news is from Montana. If the Helena school district has its way, kindergarteners will learn about “reproductive body parts”: the p*nis, v*gina, breast, n*pples, test*cles, scr*tum, and uterus. Ten year olds will be taught that “s*xual intercourse includes but is not limited to v*ginal, oral, or anal penetration”. Two years later they will discover this may involve “the p*nis, fingers, tongue or objects”.

Have these people lost their minds? To the contrary. All these maneuvers are entirely consistent with the s*x education programs supported by President Obama. Moreover, the administration would like taxpayers to fund their export to the rest of the world.

Who came up with the notion that it’s necessary to teach the world’s children about high risk s*x acts their parents never heard of? The usual suspects: Planned Parenthood and the S*xuality Education and Information Council of the United States (SEICUS, a private organization). These groups portray themselves as guardians of our children’s health; they claim to provide students with all the information and skills they need to make smart choices. Their curricula, they declare, are comprehensive, age appropriate, ideologically neutral, and medically accurate. They give children the same message as parents: you’re too young – wait until you’re older.

If only it was so. The priority of this industry is not s*xual health, but s*xual freedom. Their objective is not for students to delay s*xual behavior and remain free of infection, but for them to be open, from a tender age, to just about any form of s*xual activity.

Let’s get this straight. There is no evidence that knowing the anatomy of male and female gen*talia is vital to the well-being of young children. And the “one size fits all” approach, mandating that children learn about intercourse or same s*x attraction at a particular age, is contrary to the principles of child development.

Children are not miniature adults. Introducing them to new information that cannot be easily assimilated can be distressing. A young child has his own theories about where babies come from, based on what he already knows; he may think his sibling came from a store or the hospital, or that his mother consumed some particular food or drink.

There’s nothing wrong with that. “Parents should respond to the needs and curiosity level of their individual child”, says the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, “offering no more or less information than their child is asking for and is able to understand”. In other words, let him be.

The s*x ed oligarchy ignores this wisdom. And while insisting that first graders be taught “human beings can love people of the same gender and people of another gender”, and expecting third graders to “define HIV/AIDS”, these “experts” omit critical biological facts from the one group that actually needs s*x education: adolescents.

Among other things, middle and high school students are not taught that:

* Intimate behavior causes the release of a brain chemical that promotes feelings of attachment and trust, even if you are with a stranger.

* A girl’s immature c*rvix increases her vulnerability to geni*tal infections. HIV aside, girls and women carry 80% of the burden of negative consequences from early s*xual behavior and multiple partners.

* Faeces are filled with dangerous pathogens. Oral-anal contact is associated with serious infectious diseases such as salmonella, shigella, and hepatitis A, B, and C.

* The physiology and anatomy of the an*s is vastly different from the v*gina. Regarding HIV transmission, anal intercourse is at least twenty times more dangerous than v*ginal intercourse.

* As stated on condom wrappers, breakage is more likely to occur during anal intercourse.

How do “comprehensive” sex educators justify the omission of these life-saving facts? How do they boldly claim that their curricula are medically accurate, and their sole priority the health of children? I don’t know about Montana, but where I come from, that’s called chutzpah.

The administration wants to see programs like Helena’s go global. This year, thirty-nine House democrats introduced H.R. 5121, the Global S*xual and Reproductive Health Act of 2010. It calls for comprehensive s*x education in developing countries using US taxpayer funds.

How do we fight this madness? Like hundreds of parents, grandparents, teachers, and clergy in Helena are – by standing up publicly and insisting that s*x education, like all health matters, be based on biological truths, not social agendas. By reminding authorities that this is a war against disease, not social injustice. And by proclaiming loud and clear: “my child’s innocence is precious. You try and take that away, and you’ll be sorry.”

Miriam Grossman, MD is a child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist and the author of You’re Teaching My Child What? A Physician Exposes the Lies of S*x Education and How They Harm Your Child. She is a scholar in residence at World Youth Alliance.

Find this and other articles at the Ruth Institute homepage.

Comment on this article

What I Learned on My Summer Vacation: the opponents of natural marriage do not have arguments.

Jamie and I had the privilege of joining the National Organization for Marriage Summer for Marriage Bus Tour at the end of July. I traveled with the tour for the first week, starting in Augusta, Maine, through New England and the Eastern Seaboard, while Jamie joined the tour through the Midwest. We met a lot of great people and had a wonderful time.  

At each stop, NOM President Brian Brown gave a speech. We always had speeches by local marriage supporters as well, sometimes family policy council presidents, sometimes local clergy. And you know me: I had to turn the tour into a rolling classroom! I gave a different talk at each of the six stops, addressing a different issue surrounding natural marriage. For instance, at my first stop, in Augusta, I answered the question, “What is the Essential Public Purpose of Marriage?” And I closed my time on the tour in Annapolis with a talk called, “It Takes a lot of Faith to Believe in Same Sex Marriage.” You can listen to all my talks, as well as some of the talks by local leaders at the Ruth Institute podcast page.  These talks will be helpful to you in making the case for marriage, whether you are testifying before a legislative committee, talking to your friends and family, or writing a college term paper.

This is how you can tell that the opponents of natural marriage do not have arguments. They came to our rallies to disrupt and obstruct. They did not do themselves any credit. Jamie saw them boo the Roman Catholic bishop of Madison, Wisconsin, while he was leading the people in prayer for the well-being of gays and lesbians! The sex radicals, gay and straight alike, think this is all ok. The vast majority of Americans do not agree.

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