Family issues

ALBANY, Ga. – After much anticipation, the makers of runaway hits “Fireproof” and “Facing the Giants” announced Sunday night that their next film project will be about the need for godly fathers.

“Courageous,” the fourth film by movie-making church ministry Sherwood Pictures, will follow four police officers as they wrestle to make different decisions that will impact the lives of their families. The four men will go through a tragedy together that will challenge them to fulfill the role of fathers as God intended it to be.

“We believe God is calling us as a church family and through a movie to call men to rise up to spiritual leadership in their families,” announced Stephen Kendrick, co-screenwriter of “Courageous,” to about 1,300 people gathered at Sherwood Church in Albany, Ga. more >>

WASHINGTON – A D.C. Council Committee passed a bill Tuesday that would legalize same-sex marriage in the federal district while also providing an exemption for religious groups.

In a 4-1 vote, the D.C. Council Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary passed the “Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009,” which provides exemption to religious organizations – including churches, schools and nonprofits – to deny “services, accommodations, facilities, or goods for a purpose related to the solemnization or celebration of a same-sex marriage.”

On Nov. 17, the bill, 18-482, will go to the Committee of the Whole, where it will be put on the agenda for the full council to debate in early December. more >>

Is the fact that fertility is falling around the world good news? You would certainly think so if you agree with the analysis cheerily offered by The Economist. That very respected journal of economic analysis recently offered a cover story that celebrated falling human fertility as "changing the world for the better."

"Sometime in the next few years (if it hasn't happened already) the world will reach a milestone," the magazine predicts, adding that "half of humanity will be having only enough children to replace itself." In other words, for half of the world the fertility rate will have dropped to 2.1, considered the replacement rate for couples. This milestone, the magazine declares, "is one of the most dramatic social changes in history."

Predictions about falling fertility rates have become commonplace. In much of Europe, falling fertility has been a fact of life for decades. In many countries on the continent, falling fertility is already leading to social pressures as the workforce ages quickly and schools see falling enrollments. In Russia, the army fears that it will be unable to deploy adequate troops in coming years -- there are simply not enough boys to become the next generation's soldiers. In Japan, falling fertility rates point to dramatic changes in the society. As one observer noted, the nation is on its way to becoming a giant geriatric ward with fewer and fewer young people. more >>

Thousands of students at the world’s largest evangelical university on Wednesday kicked off a week filled with high-profile speakers, including “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade, to celebrate pro-life week.

The Pro-Life Conference, sponsored by Liberty University Student Government Association, began Wednesday morning with an address by Mathew Staver, dean of Liberty University School of Law, to more than 10,000 people in Lynchburg, Va.

Staver will also hold a lecture with a question and answer session on abortion and the courts later in the afternoon in the Supreme Courtroom at the School of Law. The school has the nation’s only replica of the U.S. Supreme Court’s nine-member bench. more >>

Churches across the nation this Sunday will raise awareness of the world’s 143 million orphans as part of a concerted effort to promote adoption among believers in the pews.

"Orphan Sunday is an opportunity for believers all across America to speak for those unspoken for; those the world has forgotten,” says Vicki Mullins, director of Orphan Ministry for East-West Ministries International, in her endorsement of the annual event. “There are millions of orphans in the world. It is clear in Scripture that Jesus loved and cared for these children – how can we do any less?

Through a network of more than fifty state volunteer coordinators, the coalition behind the Orphan Sunday campaign has been helping churches, organizations and lay-leaders across the nation organize their own distinctive local events – ranging from sermons, Sunday School classes and prayer gatherings to concerts and service projects – to highlight the call to “defend the cause of the fatherless” and what ordinary Christians can do in response. more >>