Divorce Rates Declining?

Credit: LOREY SEBASTIAN/KRT/Newscom

Credit: LOREY SEBASTIAN/KRT/Newscom

”Divorce is on the rise.” At least, that’s the story Americans often hear, as New York Times reporter Claire Cain Miller explained earlier this month. But what does the data say?

Divorce rate data is far from perfect, but the general consensus among researchers is that divorce actually has declined since the 1980s, as this chart from Heritage’s 2014 Index of Culture and Opportunity shows. Divorce rates peaked in the early 1980s, after which they began trending downward. And researchers suggest that the lifetime probability of divorce is somewhere between 40 percent and 50 percent.

It’s also important to remember that many factors decrease the likelihood of divorce significantly. For example, couples who attended religious services frequently were about 2.5 times less likely to divorce compared to couples who never attended church. Having a college education decreases the likelihood of divorce by 25 percent, and waiting to have children until after marriage drops the likelihood of divorce by about the same amount.

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Heritage: 17 Political Books and Movies That Would Make Great Christmas Gifts

Credit - Newscom

Credit – Newscom

Christmas is just around the corner. If you’re still searching for the perfect gift, take a look at what’s on our Christmas list:

1. “America: Imagine the World Without Her”

Dinesh D’Souza’s latest film, based on his New York Times bestselling book, refutes several attempts to portray America as the great purveyor of injustice—a perfect gift for high-schoolers studying U.S. history.

2. “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”

In this classic 1939 film, Jimmy Stewart portrays Jefferson Smith, a patriotic leader of the Boy Rangers who is suddenly appointed a senator. The naïve Smith must confront the corruption he finds in Washington and in his childhood hero. “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” is a great gift for patriots and movie buffs alike.

3. “Witness” by Whittaker Chambers

William F. Buckley once described Chambers as “the most important American defector from communism.” This compelling autobiography by the former Soviet spy makes a great gift for Cold War junkies.

Photo: Amazon Product Image, ‘Saving Private Ryan’

4. “Saving Private Ryan”

Based on the devastating invasion of Normandy during World War II, this film was named the “best war film of all time” in a 2009 poll of movie fans.

5. “America’s Way Back” by Donald Devine

This book reveals the insight of President Reagan’s former director of the Office of Personnel Management who the New York Times once referred to as “the Grinch.”

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Angelina Jolie Prays for and Receives Miracle on Set of 'Unbroken'

Newsbuster

Newsbuster

The media are covering Angelina Jolie’s “Unbroken” – but will they admit the film’s influence on her faith?

Opening in theaters on Christmas, “Unbroken” tells the story of Olympic runner and World War II prisoner of war Louis Zamperini. His story – and Christian faith – inspired Jolie to kneel and “pray for a miracle” as she ran into problems directing the war drama.

During a Dec. 5 press conference in New York, Zamperini’s daughter Cynthia Garris told the story of Jolie’s turn to prayer. While Jolie directed filming in New South Wales, Australia, she encountered severe weather. Garris explained:

She was not a person of faith and had never prayed before but she found herself at the very last scene of the movie … they needed sunlight to shoot this very important scene and there had been a storm that had been going for a while.

In response, Jolie begged God for help:

Angelina] said ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do so I’ll do what Louie would do.’ She got on her knees and she prayed for a miracle … everybody saw it … It stopped raining. The sun came out, a rainbow came out, she said, ‘let’s get this take’ [and] they shot the take. When she said ‘cut,’ it started to rain again.

Read more from this story HERE.

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No Thanks Michelle Obama: Seven School Districts Drop Lunch Rules

Photo Credit: EAG News

Photo Credit: EAG News

You know it’s bad when the school employees admit even they wouldn’t eat the food they’re serving to students.

Wyoming’s Sheridan County District One business manager Jeremy Smith says his district dropped out of the National School Lunch Program “because there were just too many complaints,” according to Wyoming Public Media.

“Universally, it was, ‘We are starving. We are hungry. This isn’t enough food for us.’ But we couldn’t blame them, because I looked at that school lunch and said, ‘I wouldn’t eat it either,’” Smith says.

The district saw a 20 percent spike in sales this school year after it dropped the federal rules championed by First Lady Michelle Obama.

The district increased participation, but increased prices, too, to offer bigger portions to growing students.

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Thanks Michelle Obama: GOP Pushes For School Lunch Exemptions

Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

Michelle Obama has been a champion of increased health standards for school lunches in her time as First Lady. As part of her Let’s Move! program and the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, there have been new nutrition standards for public schools. Republicans say that the standards are unnecessary, intrusive, trample on local school perogatives, and is too expensive. Congress is making moves to relax these new guidelines:

Some school nutrition directors have lobbied for a break, saying the rules have proven to be costly and restrictive. House Republicans have said they are an overreach, and have pushed a one-year waiver that would allow schools to opt out of the standards for the next school year if they lost money on meal programs over a six-month period.

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Woman Delivers Newborn, Leaves Hospital and Jumps Off Cliff Killing Herself and Her Baby

charlottebevanAccording to the American Psychological Organization, 41% of women struggle with post-partum depression. The condition is characterized by intense feelings of sadness, despair, anxiety and irritability after giving birth; and the symptoms are long lasting and may occur anytime within the first year.

It sometimes even affects a woman’s ability to function, and without medical attention, the symptoms may be sever. However, in the case of a 30-year-old British mother, her depression may have caused her to kill herself and her baby.

Charlotte Tiana vanished from the Bristol Maternity Hospital in the United Kingdom after giving birth to her daughter, Zaani. Authorities later found Charlotte’s body at the bottom of a cliff and her newborn’s body was discovered nearby. Although there is speculation that Charlotte had issues with depression in the past, her boyfriend mentioned that she had been treated for schizophrenia and was severely sleep deprived. When Charlotte exited the hospital she was only wearing slippers and no coat.

“A member of the public was walking along the cliff edge along the cliff path and noticed those distinctive white slippers, similar to the ones Charlotte was wearing, and the multi coloured blanket, which was also distinctive.

‘Unfortunately that led us to finding the body of a woman which has since been formally identified as Charlotte Bevan.

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14 Years After Receiving Shoebox Gift, Filipino Girl Marries Boy Who Sent it

Tyrel-and-Joana-Wolfe-SamaritansPurse-shoeboxesWhen a young Filipino girl received a Christmas gift-filled shoebox in 2000, she couldn’t have imagined that one day she would meet the 7-year-old boy from Idaho who packed the box in a small town 7000 miles away.

And, she never dreamed that she would marry the American boy, now grown up, 14 years later.

This month Joana and her new husband Tyrel Wolfe dropped off their own gift shoeboxes at Samaritan’s Purse headquarters in North Carolina, where Operation Christmas Child is run, and told their remarkable story.

SamaritansPurse-Philipines-shoebox-girl-giftA Lost Letter

Joana received the shoebox at a vacation bible school in Quezon City, a suburb of Manila. Included in the box was a small photo of a little boy in a cowboy shirt holding a lariat. The boy had included his name and address.

She wanted to write and tell him how the box had impacted her. Although Joana mailed the young blonde boy a letter, he never received it.

Read more from this story HERE.

Premature Baby Survives Being Buried Alive After Parents Thought She Was Stillborn

yeluIn China, a newborn girl miraculously survived being buried alive after her parents thought she was stillborn. Lu Xiaoyun was having severe stomach pains at home when she called her husband, Mr. Ye, to tell him something was wrong.

He rushed home to find his wife in pool of blood waiting for assistance. Tragically, once the ambulance arrived Mr. Ye mistakenly thought his daughter was dead and told emergency workers there was no point in taking their baby in to be examined. However, the couple did go to the hospital so that Ms. Lu could be checked out.

Upon arrival, doctors questioned the couple and encouraged them to have their baby properly examined to make sure she was dead. But while they were at the hospital, Ms. Lu’s mother buried the baby under a tree in their yard.

The couple was shocked but rushed into the yard to dig up their baby. Amazingly, they discovered she was still breathing and immediately left their farm and went to the hospital.

Read more from this story HERE.

HHS Faces Fallout From Controversial Study That Put Babies at Risk

Photo Credit: Thinkstock

Photo Credit: Thinkstock

A federal agency has taken controversial new steps to marginalize its own ethics body, according to new information revealed by the watchdog group Public Citizen. That after the federal ethics body criticized a government study that resulted in the deaths of some premature babies.

The government-backed study in question was called “SUPPORT.” It was conducted from 2006 to 2009 on 1,316 extremely premature infants at 23 academic institutions under the National Institutes of Health, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Controversy surfaced in March 2013 when the government’s own ethics body, the Office of Human Research Protections, dropped a bombshell.

The ethics office found the federal study’s consent forms violated government rules designed to protect human research subjects. According to OHRP, the consent forms “failed to describe the reasonably foreseeable risks of blindness, neurological damage and death” to babies in the study.

More than a year and a half later, the federal government has yet to take enforcement action or make changes to address the shortfalls. Instead, critics say it has pressured and marginalized the ethics office that made the critical findings.

Read more from this story HERE.

Why Did Disney Block God?

Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

It turns out you can give thanks for a lot of different folks on the Disney Channel website – but you can’t thank God.

I received a Facebook message on Sunday from Julie Anderson, of Angier, North Carolina, a town located about 30 miles from Raleigh. Julie was writing to tell me about her daughter, Lilly.

Lilly celebrated her 10th birthday on Sunday. After church and a delicious lunch at the Golden Corral, the Andersons headed home – and Lilly made a beeline for the computer.

Now, Lilly loves the Disney Channel – and as she was browsing the channel’s website she noticed a question. The Disney Channel wanted to know what she was thankful for. So Lilly typed in her answer.

“God, my family, my church and my friends,” the 10-year-old wrote. Lilly pressed the return key and waited for her answer to appear on the website. But her response did not appear. Instead, a message written in red popped up on the screen.

“Please be nice!” the message read.

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