PUBLIC CONVERSATION

See the most recent event held in our Center for Public Conversation:

Our Call to Civil Society

Watch the video of one of the nation's most prominent public intellectuals and Institute Board Chair, Jean Bethke Elshtain (the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics, Divinity School, The University of Chicago) discuss the state of American political life and culture with David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values.
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MARRIAGE AND FAMILIES

Why Cohabitation is Worse Than Divorce for Kids

W. Bradford Wilcox, Washington Post blog Conversations, September 9, 2011

"Given that cohabitation is about as risky for kids as is divorce, and given that cohabitation is now more common than parental divorce, the Why Marriage Matters authors concluded that the nation's ongoing cohabitation revolution now poses a greater threat to the welfare of America's kids than does the divorce revolution that was launched in the 1970s."

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Why Cohabiting is a Bad Idea for Some

Vicki Larson, Huffington Post, September 23, 2011

"I am about to say something that many might consider blasphemous -- I don't think couples should live together. Now, before you cast me as some pro-marriage, uber-conservative who has been reading one too many National Marriage Project (NMP) studies, be assured I am not. At the risk of sounding somewhat Orwellian, let me clarify: Living together is OK for some couples and not for others."

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When Marriage is for the Well-Off, What Does That Mean for Our Nation?

Editors, Battle Creek Enquirer, September 9, 2011

"[Institute senior fellow W. Bradford] Wilcox recently noted in a column in The New York Times, 'What looks to be an increasingly 'separate and unequal' future for marriage in America cannot be good for the future of the nation.'"

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Governor Studies Ideas for a Marriage Initiative

Tim Carpenter, Topeka Capital-Journal, September 9, 2011

"The event was moderated by David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values in New York City. He was responsible for inviting more than a dozen of the people who joined [Governor Sam Brownback] for the lengthy conversation on marriage."

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Report Inconclusive on Whether State Benefit Programs Discourage Marriage

Brent D. Winstrom, The Wichita Eagle, September 28, 2011

"The legislative audit was spurred in part by a 2008 Institute for American Values study that estimates that failed marriages and unwed childbirths cost Kansas $389 million via programs such as Medicaid and the State Child Health Insurance Program, court costs and forgone tax revenue."

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Governor's Plan Aims to Solidify Families, Cut Poverty

Julian Walker, The Virginian-Pilot, September 26, 2011

"'Other research suggests stronger families benefit government,' said Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia. When families fail, he added, 'the state has to pick up the pieces, both in terms of spending more money and expanding more services.'"

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Humiliating the Lost Generation

Rod Dreher, The American Conservative, September 7, 2011

"In a national study of the American family released late last year [by the Institute for American Values], the sociologist [and Institute senior fellow] W. Bradford Wilcox wrote that among 'Middle Americans'--people with a high-school diploma but not a college degree--an array of signals of family dysfunction have begun to blink red. 'The family lives of today's moderately educated Americans,' which in the 1970s closely resembled those of college graduates, now 'increasingly resemble those of high-school dropouts, too often burdened by financial stress, partner conflict, single parenting, and troubled children.'"

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Panel Discussion on Marriage Attracts Protestors

John Wagner, Hudson Valley Your News Now, September 26, 2011

"'I asked myself will I be able to go into a place like the Bardavon Theater with a thousand people and say mothers and fathers matter for kids,' said Elizabeth Marquardt, Director at the Center for Marriage and Families, 'or will that be considered discriminatory speech?' 'This is a very heartfelt, emotional issue for everybody on both sides,' added Marquardt. 'The fact that people were able to come together and have a conversation that can be hard to have is a good sign.'"

Watch the Newscast | And read at Poughkeepsie Journal | And watch the video of the full panel discussion

Prop 8 Broadway Play Readies for Debut

Mark Kennedy, Huffington Post, September 15, 2011

"Rob Reiner will be playing David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values, who was one of two witnesses called by the opponents of gay marriage."

Read the Article | And read at the Wall Street Journal

Prop 8: The Broadway Show

Alison Frankel, Thomson Reuters blog On the Case, September 20, 2011

"'It is an interesting play of ideas and I wanted to see it,' [Maggie] Gallagher told me, adding that she had not come to protest. I asked if she thought it was a fair portrayal, Gallagher said she thought the writers quoted her accurately, and that they had tried to represent the views of her side. However, Gallagher thought the play did not fairly portray [David] Blankenhorn's views. 'He believes in all sincerity that gay love should be respected, but that marriage is between a husband and a wife.'"

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Marriage Activists Use Beyonce's Pregnancy to Send Message to Single Moms

Jeneba Ghatt, Washington Times, September 1, 2011

"Prominent marriage advocates like blogger Christelyn Karazin of the 'No Wedding No Womb' initiative that encourages in-wedlock births in the black community also addressed Justin Combs' tweet in a post on the Family Scholars website, 'Can Beyonce and Jay-Z make marriage cool?' 'To have a prominent young person--a member of hip hop royalty by birth--be nervy enough to distribute this message to over 200,000 followers is earth shaking,' Karazin wrote. 'Especially when this kid is the son of a man with multiple baby mommas. Perhaps there's hope after all.'"

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Are the Lyrics on The Sing-Off Too Violent?

Amy Ziettlow, Huffington Post, September 25, 2011

"'Now I love joyfully bopping around to Mars' 'Just the Way You Are,' but when you slow down and clearly enunciate the lyrics to 'Grenade' your mind is filled with disturbing and violent imagery. . . . Do we really want our young people to believe that love means threatening to do violence to your body and brain until the person reciprocates your level of emotion?"

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THRIFT AND GENEROSITY

From Pennsylvania, A Cautionary Tale of Casino Profits Trailed by Corruption

Noah Bierman, Boston Globe, September 25, 2011

"As Massachusetts lawmakers prepare to embrace the riches that gambling venues can bring, the Pennsylvania experience could serve as a cautionary tale . . . a lesson that resonates in a state with its own rich history of public corruption. . . . 'The notion that somehow Massachusetts is going to do [casino gambling] differently is naive, and it's not based in reality,' said Les Bernal, [Institute partner and] executive director of the Stop Predatory Gambling Foundation, which opposes the state's casino legislation. Bernal points out that many of the casino operators in Pennsylvania have shown active interest in opening casinos in Massachusetts.

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Someone's Gotta Lose: Does the Mass. Lottery Target Poor People?

Tom Benner, Spare Change News, September 22, 2011

"Earlier this year, the state Lottery Commission set an aggressive $1 billion goal in profits with a plans for an array of raffle-style games and electronic vending machines to allow players to buy tickets for big jackpot drawings. Said Nathaniel Beaudoin of [Institute partner] Stop Predatory Gambling: 'In order to do that, they're going to have to create more addicts and more indebted families, because that's their base. That's just an unsustainable policy. They should be promoting policies that are encouraging people to save money to create real financial prosperity, instead of continuing policies that encourage working class families to go deeper into debt.'"

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Sugarhouse Casinos Plan to Expand

Ada Kulesza, Philadelphia Weekly blog Philadelphia Now, September 21, 2011

"Everything seemed pretty hunky dory until Paul Boni, an attorney and board member of [Institute partner] Stop Predatory Gambling, took the floor and said, 'The city is now actively promoting casinos in this town.' A large percentage of casino patrons visit more than three times a week, he says. The Sugarhouse Casino uses the same model and the same machines 'that are based on gambling addiction,' he said. 'To me I think that's evidence suggesting a massive amount of gambling addiction.' He added that most of the casino's revenues come from addicts."

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Gambling Foes Ready to Roll Dice with Anti-Casino Lawsuit

Thomas Grillo, Boston Herald, September 13, 2011

"The state's political leaders may have stacked the deck in favor of expanded gambling, but casino opponents say they're ready to go to court to stop the spinning roulette wheel."

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The Big Federal Gamble

Andrew Ramonas, The National Law Journal, September 9, 2011

"'We think government needs to get out of the predatory gambling business because the evidence is overwhelming that it is a failed public policy,' said Les Bernal, [Institute partner and] executive director of Stop Predatory Gambling, a nonprofit raising awareness about what it calls the failed government policy of profiting from casinos and state lotteries."

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Governor, Legislative Leadership Announce Casino Bill

Christine M. Williams, The Boston Pilot, September 2, 2011

"'Casinos represent the most predatory business in America today because they are based on pushing people into deeper debt,' Les Bernal, executive director of [Institute partner] Stop Predatory Gambling, said. 'Government needs to get out of the predatory gambling business.'"

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Problem-gambling Council Backs Casino Plan Safeguards

Kyle Cheney, Taunton Daily Gazette, August 30, 2011

"[Institute partner] Les Bernal of Stop Predatory Gambling ripped expanded gambling as dependent on revenue derived from gambling addicts and he suggested that the relationship between compulsive gambling councils and state governments have caused the councils to remain muted. 'You have a lot of well-intended people like problem gambling councils who are dependent on the revenue for treatment and it's completely changed the debate,' he said."

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"Thrift and Thriving in America"

Patrick J. Deneen, Front Porch Republic, September 26, 2011

"'Thrift and Thriving in America' is the title of a new multi-author volume and edited by Joshua J. Yates and James Davison Hunter of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. I was one of the initial reviewers of the book, and found it to be a rich, vital and essential exploration of the idea, history, and practice of thrift in America."

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CENTER FOR GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT

What Have We Learned?

David Blankenhorn, National Review Online, September 10, 2011

"September 11 impressed on us that there are organized networks in the world who aim to kill us for ideological reasons--and sometimes they succeed. That's certainly important. Beyond that, I'm not sure how much we've learned from 9/11."

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On Religious Freedom and Religious Extremism

Jean Bethke Elshtain, Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs

"The remembrance of 9/11 tells a story of heroism and self-sacrifice, a story of extremism and mass murder, a story of horror, pity, sorrow, and rage. The mind overflows with stunned memories: initial disbelief, anger, grief, determination. Much of this is difficult to put into precise words. There is so much and words often seem inadequate to the task."

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UPCOMING EVENTS

September 30, 2011, "Three Views of Oman," St. Antony's College, Oxford, England

The opening of a photography exhibit about society and religion in Oman, 1945-2006. The exhibit is curated by Institute Executive Vice President Raina Sacks Blankenhorn. Photographs are by Wilfred Thesinger, Charles Butt, and Edward Grazda.

View the Details

October 21, 2011, "Second Chances: A Proposal to Reduce Unnecessary Divorce," Washington, DC

Panelists include William J. Doherty, "Second Chances" co-author and professor in the Department of Family Social Science and director of the Citizen Professional Center at the University of Minnesota; Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears (retired), "Second Chances" co-author and William Thomas Sears Distinguished Fellow in Family Law at the Institute for American Values; Robert Rector, Senior Research Fellow, Heritage Foundation; Theodora Ooms, senior consultant, National Healthy Marriage Resource Center; discussion moderated by William A. Galston, Ezra K. Zilkha Chair in Governance Studies, Brooki