Gestational Surrogacy; Trial of Sudanese Mother begins; Radical Islam in UK Schools...more

Why the Millennials are Doing So Poorly
...The conclusion is neatly summed up in the subtitle: "Detached from Institutions, Networked with Friends." Overall, it found, 18-33-year-olds in America are less connected to political parties, churches, local associations, and their own country than are older Americans. They are solidly liberal, but their values seem more derived from social attitudes than from political policies, supporting same-sex marriage and "lead[ing] all generations in the share of out-of-wedlock births." They favor an "activist government," understood as maintaining entitlements and benefits, not as a political or economic outlook.

In other words, they judge politics by how it affects them, and we see that personal-only perspective in their social focus. They are much more connected to friends and peers than their elders are, with fully 81 percent of Millennials having Facebook accounts, and the "median friend count is 250"! They "are also distinctive in how they place themselves at the center of self-created digital networks," for example, posting "selfies" at higher rates.

There you have the equation. More peer stuff means less civic sense. While 75 percent of Baby Boomers and 81 percent of the Silent Generation believe the phrase "A patriotic person" fits them "very well," only 49 percent of Millennials do. Half of them, that is, have little appreciation of their country and fidelity to its traditions. They don't much care about civics and politics and history, and they don't know much about it, either... Don't miss this!
Why Half of Today's 20-year-olds will never get married

The Troubling Rise of Thoughtcrime on College Campuses
...The Class of 2014's attempted censorship of nearly everything they disagree with has troubling implications, for liberalism has no monopoly on truth, and twenty-year-old college students certainly don't either. Universities are increasingly becoming places where "thoughtcrime" is so palpable as to stifle academic dissent. Juxtaposed beside the open and diverse atmosphere these institutions profess to strive for, that is incredibly ironic.

Class of 2014: You may have graduated, but you still need to grow up...

The Brave New World of Gestation Surrogacy
...Gestational surrogacy is a messy business. There are many kinds: gestational surrogacy and egg donation, gestational surrogacy and sperm donation, gestational surrogacy and embryo donation, and others.

Consider this definition of gestational surrogacy and embryo donation: “A surrogate is inseminated using donor embryo. Such embryos may be available when others undergoing IVF have embryos left over, which they opt to donate to others. With this method, the resulting child is genetically unrelated to the intended parents and genetically unrelated to the surrogate.”

That’s right. The closest this lucky kid ever gets to blood relatives is never. And they do this deliberately in order to please adults. No other reason...

Appeals Court Begins Trial of Sudanese Mother Sentenced to Death for Christian Faith
...The young mother was convicted on April 30, and was given three days to recant her Christian faith on May 11. "The court has sentenced you to be hanged till you are dead," Judge Abaas Al Khalifa finally told her on May 15 after she refused to forsake Christianity.

Ibrahim, who was accused by her Muslim relatives, has been kept at the Omdurman Federal Women's Prison in North Khartoum with her son since Feb. 17.

Ibrahim's father was a Sudanese Muslim who left her when she was just 6 years old. She was raised by her mother, an Ethiopian Orthodox. However, Sudan's Islamic law recognized her as a Muslim because her father was one. It also considers her relationship with her Christian husband as "illicit."...

Claim: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Does Not Fund Abortion, Melinda Reveals
Philanthropist Melinda Gates revealed that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the most charitable private foundations in the world, does not fund abortion.

"I understand why there is so much emotion, but conflating these issues will slow down progress for tens of millions of women. That is why when I get asked about my views on abortion, I say that, like everyone, I struggle with the issue, but I've decided not to engage on it publicly – and the Gates Foundation has decided not to fund abortion," Gates wrote earlier this week, reflecting on a recent overseas trip...

UK: Radical Islam in secular schools-now the shocking truth emerges
"Students' understanding of the arts, different cultures and other beliefs are limited." That's one of the complaints about Birmingham schools made by Ofsted in their leaked report. It sounds like a relatively mild criticism.

Not so. What the Trojan Horse scandal has revealed is that leaders of the Muslim community in Birmingham have been creating a Wahhabi-inspired counterculture in secular, not faith, schools.

Put simply, the interpretation of Islam that's sweeping through the Muslim world, thanks to Saudi money, seeks to deprive children of any exposure to the arts, which it condemns as idolatrous. Even listening to music is haram, forbidden. The underlying teaching is that the arts, by seeking to create beauty, blaspheme by detracting attention from the only source of true beauty, Allah, which can be appreciated only in the natural world he created.

The imposition of this ideology on Muslim cultures is a tragedy – for them. But secular state schools in Birmingham are not part of Muslim culture, and their ghettoisation under the years of Labour government is a scandal...

9 Fascinating Facts About People Who Attend Megachurches