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Education Freedom Meets Religious Freedom

The court has just heard Mahmoud v. Taylor, in which families from a variety of faiths—Muslims, Jews, Christians—are fighting imposition by the Board of Education in Montgomery County, Maryland, requirements that children learn material about gender ideology. As reported by the Becket Fund: “These parents are simply asking to be notified when the books will be read to their children and to be given an opportunity to opt out.”

Despite Grade Inflation, Family Still Matters For Student Performance

The last quarter century has seen a dramatic increase in grade inflation on student report cards in elementary, middle, and high schools throughout the United States. When it comes to student achievement and adjustment, the advantage of being raised by married birth parents has actually increased over the last quarter century. Students raised in unmarried and disrupted families are more likely to have their parents contacted by schools for conduct or grade issues than those raised by their married birth parents. Despite the ballooning number of students getting stellar grades, those being raised by their married birth parents are still more likely to get mostly A’s than those in other family forms.

Church land may be next as India tightens control over Muslim religious assets

India’s Christian minority fears that the central government might be planning to bring their institutions under state control, following a series of recent developments that suggest the administration and its ideological affiliates are preparing to target church-owned properties. Rahul Gandhi, a senior leader in India’s main opposition party, the left-of-center Indian National Congress, warned that the Waqf law has set a precedent for state interference in minority-run institutions. He said the focus on Christian landholdings appears to be a continuation of an agenda to weaken the autonomy of religious minorities.

UK surrogacy business accused of ‘unethical’ practices in Mexico

UK surrogacy business accused of ‘unethical’ practices in Mexico

Advocacy groups in the United Kingdom (UK) are calling on the government to tighten laws surrounding commercial surrogacy due to a surrogacy business’s alleged unethical practices. A British business stands accused of setting up an overseas office in Mexico to take advantage of poverty-stricken women more likely to accept a reduced fee to act as surrogates.

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She kept her abortion secret for 15 years. Then she realized she needed healing.

She kept her abortion secret for 15 years. Then she realized she needed healing.

To create a safe space for men and women hurt by abortion to come together and heal, Brown launched a social media ministry she named Living UnderNeath Abortion (“LUNA”) which provides resources on Instagram and Facebook channels. She advises women facing unplanned pregnancies to slow down and carefully consider their options. “Get counseling from someone who isn’t going to benefit from your abortion,” Brown said. “I have not yet met a single woman who regretted giving birth to their child — even those who placed their babies for adoption — but I have met many women who have suffered greatly from the pain of abortion.”

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Ballerina Farm, Homesteading, and the Revival of the Family Economy

Ballerina Farm, Homesteading, and the Revival of the Family Economy

It can be easy to dismiss online trends as fads, but the online movement to homestead appears more lasting than that. It is based on a natural desire to have a family economy that represents a mutual effort between man and woman or adult and child to build and nurture a home. There’s something about a son feeding and watering a chicken that the dad butchers and the mom cooks that’s about more than aesthetic farmhouse photos on Instagram. It’s about each member of the family having a direct stake in the economic collaboration of home life.

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Cohabitation is Popular, But It’s Still No Replacement for Marriage

Cohabitation is Popular, But It’s Still No Replacement for Marriage

Marriage rates continue to decline, with every succeeding generation seeing lower marriage rates than the previous one. In a new report by Delano Squires and myself, Crossroads: American Family Life at the Intersection of Tradition and Modernity, we note that marriage used to be a common part of young adulthood, but that is no longer the case. Given the trends, researchers project that roughly one-third of Gen Zers will have never married by age 45 and may never marry at all.

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Discord ‘misled’ parents, exposing kids to predators and explicit content: New Jersey lawsuit

Discord ‘misled’ parents, exposing kids to predators and explicit content: New Jersey lawsuit

Platkin claimed that Discord has engaged in “unlawful practices that expose NJ kids to violent, sexual content and online child predators.” He further accused the platform of “deceptive and unconscionable business practices.”

‘Discord markets itself as a safe space for children, despite being fully aware that the application’s misleading safety settings and lax oversight has made it a prime hunting ground for online predators seeking easy access to children.’

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