Catholic Bishops Letter on Marriage

The Bishops recently published a letter on marriage: its definition, what marriage means to the Church and how it calls us to live!

We encourage people of all faiths to take a look at this holistic view of the human person seen through the vocation of marriage! We all have something to learn from their in-depth anaylsis of marriage and the family!

http://ncrnews.org/documents/marriage_divine_plan.pdf

No Surprise: Coed Dorms Fuel Sex and Drinking

Taken from LiveScience.com livescience Stafflivescience.com – Tue Nov 17, 8:35 am ET

It's no secret to students that coed dorms are more fun than same-sex dorms. But they can also fuel very unhealthy behavior that might otherwise be moderated.
A new study finds university students in coed housing are 2.5 times more likely to binge drink every week. And no surprise, they're also likely to have more sexual partners, the study found. Also, pornography use was higher among students in coed dorms.
Some 90 percent of U.S. college dorms are now coed.
More than 500 students from five college campuses around the country participated in the study. Among the results:
42 percent of students in coed housing reported binge drinking on a weekly basis.
18 percent of students in gender-specific housing reported binge drinking weekly.

Read the rest>>

Fathers Gain Respect from Experts (and Mothers)

First found in the NYTimes, November 2009: This is a must read for all young adults hoping to be good parents one day. Being a good parents means having a good marriage, research shows! In particular, when couples have "positive relationship traits like willingness to compromise, expressing affection or love for their partner, encouraging or helping partners to do things that were important to them, and having an absence of insults and criticism, the father was significantly more likely to be engaged with his children."


by Laurie Tarkin
But since the couple attended a parenting course — to save their relationship, which had become overwhelmed by arguments about rearing their children — Ms. Calapini has had a change of heart. Now she encourages the father-daughter car talk. “Daddy’s bonding time with his girls is working on cars,” said Ms. Calapini, of Olivehurst, Calif. “He has his own way of communicating with them, and that’s O.K.” As much as mothers want their partners to be involved with their children, experts say they often unintentionally discourage men from doing so. Because mothering is their realm, some women micromanage fathers and expect them to do things their way, said Marsha Kline Pruett, a professor at the Smith College School for Social Work at Smith College and a co-author of the new book “Partnership Parenting,” with her husband, the child psychiatrist Dr. Kyle Pruett (Da Capo Press). Read the rest of this article....

Michigan Speaker says legalizing SSM will help stimulate the MI economy

Speaker Byrnes is using Same Sex Marriage in the hopes to increase Michigans poor economy. Young people want to live in progressive cities that allow Same Sex Marriage. Her platform: it will be best for Michigan’s economy to legalize Same Sex marriage so that young people will move Michigan cities!

This article found at Detriot New.com

Speaker Pro Tempore Pam Byrnes, D-Lyndon Township, introduced a resolution to amend the state constitution to allow same-sex marriage. Voters instituted the ban in 2004, when they approved Proposal 2. read the rest of this article here...

ITAF Alumni Kendal Christensen writes on Same Sex Unions

In August the Ruth Institute held its first student conference, where students came from schools all over the United States and Mexico to participate in a long weekend of lectures and discussion. Kendal Christensen, BYU undergrad, was one of these students. Read his well thought out argument for traditional marriage! Bravo Kendal!!!!!

This article first appears on the Love and Fidelity blog here: http://www.loveandfidelity.org/blog/
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“Though I agree with proponents of gay marriage that “our nation was founded on the principle that all people should be treated equally,”[1] I profoundly disagree that extending the word “marriage” to include gay couples is only about “equality, freedom, and fairness, for all.”[2] The implications surrounding a redefinition of marriage go much deeper than merely “extending freedom” to everyone. The reasons I support the institution of marriage as only an association between one man and one woman—are (1) the intrinsic one-sidedness to redefining marriage and (2) the far-reaching consequences of such a redefinition. read the rest of this article...