Executive Summary In recent years, marriage has weakened, with serious negative consequences for society as a whole. Four developments are especially troubling: divorce, illegitimacy, cohabitation, and same-sex marriage. The purpose of this document is to make a substantial new contribution to the public debate over marriage. Too often, the rational case for marriage is not made at all or not made very well. As scholars, we are persuaded that the case for marriage can be made and won at the level of reason.Marriage protects children, men and women, and the common good. The health of marriage is particularly important in a free society, which depends upon citizens to govern their private lives and rear their children responsibly, so as to limit the scope, size, and power of the state. The nation's retreat from marriage has been particularly consequential for our society's most vulnerable communities: minorities and the poor pay a disproportionately heavy price when marriage declines in their communities. Marriage also offers men and women as spouses a good they can have in no other way: a mutual and complete giving of the self. Thus, marriage understood as the enduring union of husband and wife is both a good in itself and also advances the public interest.

Marriage and the Public Good: Ten Principles

Self-Help

Relationships

The Witherspoon Institute

Since the beginning of the internet age, pornography has been consumed in greater quantities than ever before in human history, and its content has grown more graphic. Recent research suggests that pornography consumption - especially consumption of a more hard-core or violent sort - has negative effects on individuals and society. More studies are necessary, but a growing body of research strongly suggests that for some users pornography can be psychologically addictive, and can negatively affect the quality of interpersonal relationships, sexual health and performance, and social expectations about sexual behavior. Widespread pornography consumption appears to pose a serious challenge to public health and to personal and familial well-being. With concerted action from legislators, the therapeutic community, educators, policymakers, and responsible corporate leaders, however, some of the negative effects of pornography consumption can be combated. This monograph, The Social Costs of Pornography: A Statement of Findings and Recommendations, is the fruit of an inquiry begun at a consultation held in Princeton, New Jersey, in December 2008, sponsored by the Witherspoon Institute and cosponsored by the Institute for the Psychological Sciences. This consultation, which sought to estimate the social costs of pornography, was the first multifaceted, multidisciplinary, scholarly exploration in the internet age of a subject that is critically important to the health and well-being of many Americans: the hidden but real social toll of the current consumption of pornography - especially internet pornography - on an unprecedented scale.

The Social Costs of Pornography: A Statement of Findings and Recommendations

Politics & Social Sciences

Mary Anne Layden

Social Sciences

Embryo: A Defense of Human Life

Robert P. George

Philosophy

National debates over embryonic-stem-cell research have divided citizens and lawmakers alike, as we seek a reasoned approach to these issues that honors our highest scientific and moral ideals. In this timely consideration of the nature and rights of human embryos, George and Tollefsen make a compelling case that we as a society should neither condone nor publicly fund research that kills or harms human beings at any stage of development including the embryonic stage. By looking rigorously at the science of embryological development and the moral norms that underwrite a just treatment of human beings, the authors make a purely scientific and philosophical case that the human embryo from the very beginning is a human being, entitled to all the moral and political rights inherent in that status. Just as none of us should be excluded from moral and legal protections based on race, sex, religion, or ethnicity, none should be excluded on the basis of age, size, or stage of biological development. George and Tollefsen forthrightly address the political, scientific, and cultural dimensions of the debate about embryo-destructive research and offer a summary of scientific alternatives to research that destroys or harms embryos. They conclude that the state has an ethical and moral obligation to protect embryonic human beings in just the same manner in which it protects human beings at later developmental stages. This revised, second edition includes an afterword addressing recent advances in stem-cell technology and appendix containing an exchange between the authors and William Saletan, who reviewed Embryo for the New York Times Sunday Book Review. Throughout, George and Tollefsen strive for the highest standards of analytical rigor and civil discourse in discussing this bitterly contested issue.

Religious freedom is under sustained pressure today around the world. In some places, it is fair to say that religious freedom is under siege. This book is a response to that sobering fact. Although scant attention is paid by governments, the academy, or the media, the implications of this crisis—and we contend that it is a crisis—are quite serious. A worldwide erosion of religious freedom is causing large-scale human suffering, grave injustice, and significant threats to international peace and security. Outside the West, tens of millions of human beings are subject to violent persecution because of their religious beliefs, or those of their tormentors. Scores of millions more are subject to serious restrictions on their religious freedom. In the West itself, including the United States, religious freedom is also under various pressures. Where intellectual and political leaders treat religious freedom with skepticism or indifference, it is not surprising to find encroaching thr

Religious Freedom Why Now?: Defending an Embattled Human Right

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Timothy Samuel Shah

Mystery

No Differences? How Children in Same-Sex Households Fare is an anthology of scholarly papers examining the latest data and scholarly literature on the social well-being of children raised in same-sex households. In 2005, the American Psychological Association (APA) declared that there was "not a single study" showing that children of gay or lesbian parents were disadvantaged compared to children from mother-father homes. This declaration became a milestone in the dramatic and unprecedented shift of popular opinion on same-sex parenting. This anthology presents social science research essays that strongly challenge the APA claim and provide evidence for the opposite claim, that children do best in married mother-father homes. Published in leading, peer-reviewed journals and supplemented by easy-to-read summaries of each academic article, the essays in this volume help clarify crucial points of debate regarding the "no differences" claim, including the weaknesses of the gay-parenting studies affirming the children are doing just fine; the comparative strengths of the academic research that finds the opposite; the actual setbacks children from same-sex homes suffer; and hypotheses as to why the children experience the negative outcomes. Ultimately, the researchers argue that the instability in same-sex parented homes, the loss of one or more biological parents; and the unequal gender distribution of the parents are among the likely channels by which children from these homes suffer harm. For those who are interested in the academic debate but desire summaries that make the language easier for the non-specialist to understand, No Differences? will be a helpful resource for examining the role that family structures play in the well-being and flourishing of children.

No Differences? How Children in Same-Sex Households Fare

Between the scylla of utopia and the charybdis of despair, the authors of these essays consider how modern society and its various institutions might be guided so that those who inhabit them might flourish. From a variety of perspectives and with diverse expertise, the essayists in The Thriving Society discuss foundational issues, institutional challenges, and controversial policies, from market freedom to family stability, from university culture to foreign affairs and public health. They neither supply a handbook for reform nor pen an apology for the past or the present. Instead, they launch citizens on a path to understanding how contemporary social practices sometimes facilitate and sometimes threaten human happiness--and so encourage citizens to think and act in responsible and innovative ways. "The scholars of the Witherspoon Institute have dedicated their careers to holding our nation accountable to its ideals. In The Thiving Society they consider the future of our culture; for those invested in our nation, its institutions, and their fellow man, it is essential reading." Arthur Brooks President American Enterprise Institute "Our social and cultural debates too often take the prerequisites for a thriving society for granted. But it is precisely those prerequisites that are now at risk in American life. Securing them against those risks is the defining challenge of our time-a challenge that goes beyond politics, beyond culture, to the deepest human truths. This volume of essays offers wise, profound reflections on those preconditions for flourishing. It is an essential handbook for anyone concerned for the future of American life." Yuval Levin Hertog Fellow Ethics and Public Policy Center

The Thriving Society: On the Social Conditions of Human Flourishing

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Books by The Witherspoon Institute

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the The Witherspoon Institute publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Marriage and the Public Good: Ten Principles

The Social Costs of Pornography: A Statement of Findings and Recommendations

Embryo: A Defense of Human Life

Embryo: A Defense of Human Life

Religious Freedom Why Now?: Defending an Embattled Human Right

No Differences? How Children in Same-Sex Households Fare

The Thriving Society: On the Social Conditions of Human Flourishing