Why Is Marriage Important to Children with Strong Faith?

Successful marriages and families are built upon principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ, according to “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.” Therefore, strong families, strong communities, and strong nations grow in atmospheres of freedom of religion and faith in God.

In her article in the Deseret News, Lois M. Collins reported on the results of “The Nationwide Study on Faith and Relationships.” She summarized the survey as saying that “as men disappear from living with their children and couples stop marrying or they divorce, Christianity in the U.S. takes a major hit.” She wrote that researchers found: “Family decline appears to fuel faith decline.” Some statistics from the study show that “marriage rates have fallen more than 30% since 2000 and a whopping 61% since 1970.” They also found that “less than half of young adults under 30 grew up in homes with married parents.” 

Per the study, 80% of all Sunday church attendees in the U.S. grew up in homes with biological parents who were married to each other. Now, that’s increasingly unusual. But the finding was true across all age groups, including those under 30. And it was true of 80% of never-married Sunday church attendees ages 25-29, while fewer than half of the general population that age grew up with continuously married biological parents.

So boys who grew up in homes with married parents are “considerably more likely to attend church regularly as adults,” according to the survey. By 2021, 4 in 10 births were to unmarried women, driving up the share of nonresidential fathers. The report says in the last decade, “fewer than half of all 17-year-olds are in homes with their two biological, continuously married parents.”

This study supports many other studies that show the value of children growing up in a home with their biological parents. Adults are messing up the lives of children in many ways. Therefore, parents will bless their children by staying married and living the gospel of Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus Christ is critical to strong families, and strong families strengthen their communities and nations. 

Why Does Biden Want to Link Funding to Ukraine, Israel, and Gaza?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns funding wars that have no plan to end. President Joe Biden continues to link funding for the war in Ukraine to supporting Israel in their fight against terrorists. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives continue to say “no” to linking the two efforts, but Senators are joining the effort.

Mary Margaret Olohan published a story in The Daily Signal about the “Nine Republican senators” who “warned against the inclusion of any Ukraine funding in the aid package” for Israel. 

“We know there will no doubt be efforts to attach any funding to Israel to more aid to Ukraine, in excess of the already $113 billion Congress has provided to Ukraine,” the senators said in a Thursday letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “These are two separate conflicts and it would be wrong to leverage support of aid to Israel in attempt to get additional aid for Ukraine across the finish line.”

“Furthermore,” they added, “it would be irresponsible and we should not risk a government shutdown by bundling these priorities together and thus complicating the process and lessening the likelihood of a funding package.” …

“We urge you to keep separate attempts to provide military aid to Israel from additional funds to Ukraine or other matters,” the senators said.

According to Olohan, the senators involved are Mike Braun (Indiana), Mike Lee (Utah), Ron Johnson (Wisconsin), Rick Scott (Florida), Cynthia Lummis (Wyoming), Roger Marshall (Kansas), JD Vance (Ohio), Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee), and Josh Hawley (Missouri).

Biden not only wants to link more funding for Ukraine with assistance to Israel, but he wants to give humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Any funding to Gaza will more than likely be used to fight against Israeli, so the United States would actually be funding both sides of the war between Israel and Hamas. I am grateful for Representatives and Senators are saying “no” to linking any funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Gaza.

Why Is Biden in Israel?

Afghanistan, Ukraine, Israel – how many more disasters will hit America will understand that we have a disaster for a President? We are now standing at the precipice of World War III – all because Joe Biden is the President of the United States. Just a reminder, Biden has brought America to the brink of war twice in less than three years, while America went FOUR YEARS without a war under the direction of Donald Trump.

Daniel Horowitz wrote a power article about the war between Israel and Hamas. In it, he accused Biden of “coddling Iran and its allies.” How did bumbling, brain-dead Biden travel to Israel for such a short time? Could he have been acting to “prevent the Israeli Defense Forces from stopping the Hamas terror” as the “ultimate political human shield for Hamas?” 

Biden promises “weapons and resources” to Israel to fight this war, but then he pressures Israel to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians. How does Israel fight Hamas while also feeding Palestinians? Does Biden’s promise come with handcuffs? Does Biden really understand that Israel has the right to defend itself – or is he just saying words to appease Americans who support Israel?

What Is the Purpose for Moral Equivalence?

Leftists use moral equivalence to make evil look comparable to good, and they are working to make the Hamas terrorists’ massacre of Israelis equal to the Israeli attempt to rid the world of the terrorists. Dennis Prager wrote about moral equivalence in The Daily Signal.

Moral equivalence has two purposes. One is to enable the morally confused to hide their confusion. The other is to enable the immoral to hide their immorality.

Here are two examples as applied to the Israeli-Arab conflict:

One is the assertion we hear regarding the latest Israel-Hamas war by members of the Western Left, by Muslim supporters of the Palestinians and even by a few individuals on the Right: “Palestinian babies are as precious as Israeli babies.”

Professor Cornel West, a lifelong progressive running for president as a Democrat: “As I have said for the past 50 years, a precious Palestinian child has the same value as a precious Israeli child.”

David Cronin, an editor at Electronic Intifada, a large pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel website:

 “Palestinian babies are just as precious as my new daughter.”

A second example is to avoid condemning Hamas for the wars they start by instead condemning the “cycle of violence.”

Prager then analyzed his two statements. No one has ever said that the lives of Palestinian children are less precious than Israeli children. He continued by saying that the statement is a “meaningless” statement that is “a nice-sounding way to attack Israel and its supporters.” He then made a great comparison: What if America had made the same type of comparison between American children and children in Japan or Germany? Would America have dropped bombs on Japan or Germany and ended the Nazi aggression?

The fact is that most Americans living during World War II would have recognized such statements as pro-Japanese or pro-German. The reason that “America, Britain, and Canada dropped bombs on Germany” and that “America dropped bombs on Japan” was to stop the war and to save lives. Germany and Japan were attacking Allied Nations. We had no other choice than to drop bombs on them.

Israel is fighting the Hamas terrorist by land, sea, and air because they have no other choice. If they do not destroy the terrorists and their organization, the terrorists will attack Israel once again as soon as they can regroup.

The fact is that there would be peace in Israel if the terrorists and Palestinian people wanted peace with Israel. Instead of peace, they want all Jews dead. They are evil!

Who Is Jim Jordan?

My VIP for this week is Jim Jordan, the Republican nominee for Speaker of the U.S. House of Representative. Jordan (R-Ohio) is currently the House Judiciary Chairman, but he threw his hat into the ring for Speaker when Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted and again when Representative Steve Scalise declined running. 

Jordan had more support than Scalise, but he was still short many positive votes. One of his greatest opposers was Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Alabama). Last Friday, Rogers said that there was nothing that Jordan could do to win his vote, but he now has agreed to vote for Jordan after the two discussed the situation twice.

“We agreed on the need for Congress to pass a strong [National Defense Authorization Act], appropriations to fund our government’s vital functions and other important legislation like the Farm Bill,” Rogers wrote. “As a result, I have decided to support Jim Jordan for Speaker of the House on the floor.”

Jordan still needs 217 members to vote for him, and the Republicans hold only a slim majority. However, both McCarthy and Scalese are supporting Jordan. Maybe, just maybe, the supporters of McCarthy, Scalese, and Rogers will also support Jordan. We know that Rep. Ken Calvert (R-California) announced that Jordan would have his vote on the floor.

This battle for Speaker of the House is a battle between the entrenched elites and the newer conservative members of the House. However, former Representative Liz Cheney has declared that electing Jordan as Speaker would cause Republicans to lose the House in 2024. The fact that Cheney is against Jordan tells me that he is an excellent choice for the leadership position.

Is School Choice Good for Democracy?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns the freedom to choose where your children will go to school – school choice. According to Jason Bedrick at The Heritage Foundation, state after state is embracing “policies to empower parents with more options in K-12 education.” As in most leftist arguments, opponents of school choice are using the usual slogan of saying that it is a “threat to democracy.” 

In reality, it is leaving our children under the control of public education that is threatening the future of the American democratic republic that our Founders created. Bedrick noted, that “school choice is better for democracy than government-run schooling.”

Bedrick also reminded his readers that liberals claim that school choice is “an existential threat to public education.” He continued with the following statement:

This talking point has long been a staple of the teachers’ unions, even though states that have adopted robust school-choice policies have seen their district schools improve and still have democratic institutions. Earlier this year, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, alleged that school choice would “destroy public education as we know it,” and is therefore “bad for … democracy.”

Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association (NEA), similarly claimed: “Public education is the foundation of our democracy,” adding “we must defend [public education] from those who would underfund, politicize, or dismantle it.” Although Pringle says she doesn’t want public education politicized, the NEA spent nearly $42 million in one year on political activism causes while spending less -- $38 million – to fulfill its tasked role of protecting union members.

Yet, Pringle, Weingarten, and their political allies abhor parental empowerment through school choice. Instead, they want children held as a captive audience in the government school system, despite its track record of failing to effectively educate children. More children in government schools equals more teachers paying dues to her to funnel into political activism.

Bedrick continued his article by reminding his readers that “Freedom and self-government rely upon an educated citizenry.” Samuel Adams understood this principle in 1779 by declaring that an educated citizenry would “never be enslav’d” but would have “Security.” However, the government-run schools are not producing an educated citizenry, a fact shown by the statistic that “Nearly nine out of 10 adults attended a government-run K-12 school, yet fewer than half of Americans can name the three branches of government – and a quarter can’t name any branch at all.”

These statistics show that “Teaching students a historically accurate understanding of our nation’s founding and the role of government is not a priority” in our government-run schools. Instead they are learning about “social justice, ethnic studies, and Marxist-inspired Critical Race Theory.” Bedrick shared other statistics from the most recent National Assessment for Education Progress as follows:

“40% of eighth grade students are performing below basic proficiency in history, meaning they likely cannot identify simple historical concepts in primary or secondary sources.” Only 13% scored at or above proficient in history.

On the civics exam, students also fared poorly, with only 22% of American eighth grade students scoring at or above the proficient level.

Bedrick emphasizes that the government-run schools are not teaching civic knowledge and values to the rising generations – even as union leaders claim that public schooling is necessary to protect those same values. He wrote that government schools are teaching extremist ideologies, such as Critical Race Theory. He stated that parents are in a much better position to put a check on extremism. “The greatest check on extremism in the classroom is academic transparency and parental choice in education.” Bedrick concluded his article with the following paragraph.

School choice – not the government-run K-12 school monopoly – allows for the will of the people, which is true democracy. Parents have a much better record than government bureaucrats of choosing schools that instill their children with the civic knowledge and values necessary to preserve freedom democracy, and the American way of life.

Where Do You Find Peace?

My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to the books of Philippians and Colossians in a lesson titled “I Can Do All Things through Christ Which Strengtheneth Me.” The lesson was preceded by this bit of wisdom: “When was the last time you read the spiritual impressions you have recorded during your study of the New Testament? It might be helpful to review the promptings you’ve been receiving.” The lesson was introduced in the following paragraph. 

Paul wrote his epistles to the Philippians and Colossians while he was a prisoner in Rome. But these letters don’t have the tone you might expect from someone in prison. Paul spoke more about joy, rejoicing, and thanksgiving than he did about afflictions and trials: “Christ is preached,” he said, “and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice” (Philippians 1:18). And “though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding … the steadfastness of your faith in Christ” (Colossians 2:5). Certainly, “the peace of God” that Paul experienced in his difficult circumstances “passeth all understanding” (Philippians 4:7), but it was nonetheless a reality. In our own trials, we can feel this same peace and “rejoice in the Lord alway” (Philippians 4:4). We can, as Paul did, rely completely upon Jesus Christ, “in whom we have redemption” (Colossians 1:14). We can say, as did Paul, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13; see also Colossians 1:11).

This scripture block contains numerous principles, but I have chosen to focus on only one: “I can find joy in Christ, regardless of my circumstances” (Philippians 4:1-13). The applicable scripture verses are as follows:

1 Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.

2 I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord.

3 And I entreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellowlabourers, whose names are in the book of life.

4 Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.

5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity.

11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Paul’s life vividly illustrated the truth expressed in our day by President Russell M. Nelson: “When the focus of our lives is on … Jesus Christ and His gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening – or not happening – in our lives. Joy comes from and because of Him” (Joy and Spiritual Survival,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2016, 82).

The world is in turmoil with war in Europe and the Middle East, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and other natural disasters, and wickedness in our nations. The only way for us to have peace is to focus our lives on Jesus Christ and His gospel, just as President Nelson said.

Watch for times in your life when you feel peace and note what it was that brought peace. I feel peace when I go to sacrament meeting to partake of the sacrament. I feel peace when I am in the temple. I feel peace when I sing the hymns of Zion, listen to conference talks, or study the scriptures.

I know that we can find peace in our lives by focusing on Jesus Christ, no matter what is happening in the world around us. In today’s world when evil is increasing, we can feel peace by following Paul’s counsel to “think on” things that are pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, or praiseworthy” (Philippians 4:8; see also Articles of Faith 1:13)