The work of the Austin Institute and Mark Regnerus, contributing editor to The Witherspoon Institute’s online journal, Public Discourse, and professor of sociology at UT-Austin, continue to pay dividends in the social science of sex and sexuality. You may be aware that it was Mark’s efforts that led to the retraction of a study about the harmful influence of antigay stigma on the mortality of sexual minorities. Robert P. George wrote about it in the WSJ a year ago. We recently learned that Mark has aided in yet another victory–a “correction” just issued in the American Journal of Psychiatry that tempers the overreaching claims about the mental health benefits of surgery performed on patients with gender dysphoria. He spotted the problems first, late last year in Public Discourse. Other critics followed, offering their complaints to the journal editor, who in turn asked the study’s authors to re-analyze their data. In the end, the surgical benefits vanished, and the surgery even prompted greater anxiety in such patients. This is obvious evidence of how a small number of committed scholars, keeping up pressure on a massive group of pro-LGBT activists, researchers, and journal gatekeepers, continue to yield fruit beyond their numbers.
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Read Sen. Josh Hawley’s Remarks on the Conservative Movement and the Supreme Court in Public Discourse
Josh Hawley (R), United States Senator from Missouri, published his floor speech delivered on June 15, 2020, in Public Discourse. He responds to the recent Supreme Court decision on Bostock vs. Clayton County, Georgia and its implications for the approach of the conservative movement.
CanaVox’s 2nd Edition of Tips for Talking to Your Kids About Sex is Available on Amazon
The second edition of CanaVox’s booklet, Tips for Talking to Your Kids About Sex, is available on Amazon in English and Spanish. It includes practical advice and word-for-word conversation suggestions, reflecting the collective wisdom of CanaVox’s state and international leaders who have been there, done that, and lived to tell about it!
Sen. Marco Rubio Writes for Public Discourse on Death of George Floyd and Racism in America
Sen. Marco Rubio published a piece in the Witherspoon Institute’s online journal, Public Discourse, observing,
The murder of Mr. Floyd at the hands of law enforcement officers was an outrageous crime that has shocked this nation. But it would be a mistake to conclude that the unrest of the last two weeks is only about his death or relations with the police.
At its core, this unrest is about the question of what kind of society we are, and what kind of society we want to be.
Read the whole article here.
Public Discourse Welcomes Its New Contributing Editor, Andrew T. Walker
Andrew T. Walker, Associate Professor of Christian Ethics and Apologetics at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Executive Director and Fellow of the Carl F. H. Henry Institute for Evangelical Engagement, has joined The Witherspoon Institute’s online journal, Public Discourse, as its new contributing editor.
Dr. Walker researches, writes, and speaks about the intersection of Christian ethics and public theology with particular focus in the areas of anthropology, natural law, and church-state studies.
The editor-in-chief of Public Discourse, Ryan T. Anderson, recently interviewed Dr. Walker on how the publication has formed him over the years and his hopes for the future. Read their discussion here!
Can Health Care Providers Discriminate Against COVID-19 Patients on Basis of Age or Disability?
Robert P. George, Director of the James Madison Program at Princeton University and senior fellow of The Witherspoon Institute, Dr. Jacqueline Rivers, sociologist at Harvard University, Dr. Charles Camosy, bioethicist at Fordham University, attorneys representing the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund and the Thomas More Society have published a memorandum “detailing the tenets of federal law and explaining that federal civil rights statutes prohibit discrimination – including discriminatory policies established by state health officials – based on age or disability.”
“Thomas More Society Vice President and Senior Counsel Peter Breen explained, ‘We’re reading the unthinkable – the Seattle Times reported that Washington state and hospital officials have been meeting to consider how to decide who lives and dies. In our nation’s capital, the Washington Post is running editorials about the ‘nightmare’ of rationing health care, as is the National Review in the hard-hit state of New York. The horrific idea of withholding care from someone because they are elderly or disabled, is untenable and represents a giant step in the devaluation of each and every human life in America.'”
See the full Press Release here.
Read the Full Memorandum here.
