Ruth Institute – Dr. J's Blog

Rosary Around the Lake Wrap-up Video

What can we do to strengthen our families and our faith in the wake of so much sin, scandal, and hurt? Pray, draw strength from your community, and act to bring healing. The Ruth Institute was the local organizer of the Rosary Coast to Coast event sponsored by Fr. Richard Heilman. (Fr. Heilman is the proprietor of the Roman Catholic Man site. Highly recommended.)

We called our event, “Rosary Around the Lake.” Here is a short video of our event. Sign up for information about next year’s event! Go to www.ruthrosarynewsletter.com.

Did you see the enthusiasm? We are so blessed to be in this great community. Over 800 people turned out for this prayer event!

We encouraged people to purchase t-shirts in groups of 10. But 10 blue shirts, get one gold shirt free. Then we lined up as if we were a Rosary, a REALLY BIG ROSARY! Some people missed the deadline for t-shirt purchases. Not to worry. We had chosed the colors of McNeese State University, the local university. Lots of people have “McNeese blue and gold” in their drawers already. So they wore those shirts.

One group even made their own shirts! The mom pictured here gathered a bunch of her daughters’ friends together. They made their own shirts!

If you participated, please share this with your friends! And sign up for next year. Go to www.ruthrosarynewsletter.com.

CA “You Must Stay Gay” bill withdrawn

The Christian Post reports that California State Assemblyman Evan Low has withdrawn his controversial gay “conversion therapy ban” bill, citing fears that it would not pass constitutional muster.

Curtis Schube, legal counsel with the Pennsylvania Family Institute:

“We are grateful that the California legislature has tabled this bill. Not only would a ban on counseling violate the constitutional rights of Californians, it would have been bad policy to limit individuals from obtaining services that they would find beneficial to their own lives,” Schube said in a statement to The Christian Post on Friday.

Continue reading “CA “You Must Stay Gay” bill withdrawn”

The Ruth Institute’s Statement on the SPLC “Hate Map”

For immediate release, August 23, 2017.

The Ruth Institute’s primary focus is family breakdown and its impact on children: understanding it, healing it, ending it. If this makes us a “hate group,” so be it.

Once again, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “Hate Map” is in the news, this time due to CNN publishing it in the wake of the events in Charlottesville. The Ruth Institute is listed on that map as an “anti-LGBT” group. In fact, The Ruth Institute is a global non-profit organization creating a mass social movement to end family breakdown by energizing the Survivors of the Sexual Revolution.

We were first listed on that map in 2013. At that time, no one from the SPLC contacted us about the possibility of being included on their “hate map.” They made no effort to understand our mission, then or now. No one outside the SPLC knows how organizations come to be included on the list. No one knows how to get off the list. The SPLC sets itself up as judge, jury and enforcer of the charge of “hate.”

People who cannot defend their positions using reason and evidence resort to name-calling to change the subject away from their anemic arguments. The “hate group” label is a club such people invented to bludgeon their political opponents.

The Ruth Institute’s primary focus is family breakdown, and its impact on children: understanding it, healing it, ending it. If this makes us a “hate group,” so be it.

We have assembled a few of the materials that some have found hateful on our page called Where’s the Hate? The Ruth Institute invites the public to review these items and decide for themselves who is “hate-filled.”

The Ruth Institute categorically condemns white supremacy, racism, Nazism, and all violent totalitarian political movements. However, under the circumstances, the Ruth Institute is honored by the “hate group” label, pinned upon us by people who show no capacity for reasoned argument.

To schedule an interview with Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, Founder and President of the Ruth Institute, please email us at info@ruthinstitute.org.

This statement was originally published at The Ruth Institute, August 23, 2017.

Help for Annulments, both for and against

I have had several posts about the Catholic controversies over divorce and remarriage. Here, here and here. This seems a good time to refer my friends and readers to resources that may be helpful to you.

If you are a Catholic, and believe your attempted marriage was not in fact a valid marriage, Rose Sweet’s material can help you through the annulment process. (Actually, Rose’s stuff helps a lot of people through alot of post-divorce healing.)

bai-macfarlane — Bai Macfarlane, foundress of Mary’s Advocates

If you are Catholic, and your spouse wants a divorce, and you believe your marriage is valid, Mary’s Advocates has a wealth of material for you. Bai Macfarlane has done a prodigious amount of labor, compiling information about canon law and Church teaching. She includes a sample petition for you to use to your bishop to ask him to try to intervene to stop a break-up. Mary’s Advocates provides a template petition containing this plea. I do not know what your bishop will do or say. I do believe however, that no harm can come from asking. children-and-divorce

The Ruth Institute, the organization I founded, has a whole page for the Reluctantly Divorced (a term we coined) and a page for the Children of Divorce. We even created a brochure, summarizing the elevated risks that children of divorce face over their lifetimes.

Finally, you may wish to consider sharing your story with our readers. Our ruth-carousel-tell-your-story Tell Ruth the Truth blog provides an outlet for you, and solidarity for others in similar situations. I find that many people feel alone when they are dealing with family breakdown. Nothing could be further from the truth. You are absolutely not alone. Pretty much every family in America has some form of family breakdown, somewhere in their family tree. Let’s help each other.

Your friend,

Dr. J