SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

The Case For Marriage

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Book Review by Kerrie Allen

THE CASE FOR MARRIAGE: Why Married People are Happier, Healthier, and Better off Financially.
by Linda J. Waite and Maggie Gallagher
(Broadway Books, 2000, 260pp, $29.90.Available from AD Books)

image The Case for Marriage provides the solid research facts about why marriage is a social good, more than just sex – and why sex is better in marriage – and why marriage is good for men and women, as it is for children. The authors examine one of the most powerful myths in society today that marriage is good for men but bad for women. This myth, promulgated by feminists since as far back as the 1960s, and still rife in our universities today, is that marriage is crippling and destructive to women.The overwhelming evidence today, after allowing for the many variables, shows the contrary: marriage is good for women’s health and also good for their emotional, sexual, physical and economic health. And it is the same for married men. The old adage that women care more about marriage than men is also debunked. Researchers using a measure for personal dedication found men and women equally valued their spouse as the most important person in their lives and were both willing to sacrifice, invest and strive for their spouse’s well-being. While sex is a very important part of marriage, it is not (as with cohabitators) the defining characteristic of the relationship. When it comes to sex, rather than marriage being a “ball and chain” that dampens or ends one’s sex life, married men and women report greater sexual satisfaction than cohabitating couples and singles. [Read more…]

Society Raises Concerns Over Dissemination of Objectionable Internet Content

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Media Release 13/08/07

On Thursday night last week The Australian Prime Minister John Howard announced a A$189 million package to deal with the growing problems of internet porn and dissemination of, and availability of, objectionable content to minors via Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The tough measures adopted by the Howard government to stamp out two evils – accessibility to hardcore porn and alcohol abuse in Northern Aboriginal communities – because of their injurious effect on the “public good” and links to child abuse, has been matched by his latest measures. Every Australian public library as well as individual family will be provided with free software to filter internet content to prevent children downloading pornography and other offensive material, service providers will work alongside the government to filter pornography at its source, a ‘black list’ of pornographic sites will be established, and privacy laws will be altered so that sex offenders cannot ‘hide’ on the internet and chatroom sex predators will be rigorously hunted down and prosecuted. In addition a seven-day-a-week hotline will help parents put filters on their computers to block material that is passed on to home computers via ISPs.

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Public Address: Lessons From the Life of William Wilberforce (1759 – 1833)

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Public Address:

Friday Evening 15 June, 2007

Delivered by Society Executive Director David Lane

The Grand Hall at Parliament, Parliament Buildings, Wellington

“Let us Now Praise Famous Men” Ecclesiasticus 44:1

This year marks the bicentennial of the abolition of the slave trade in Britain and all its colonies. 200 years ago on the 25th March 1807, William Wilberforce MP, a committed evangelical Christian who had first introduced his bill to abolish the slave trade in 1788, witnessed the British parliament enact the Slave Trade Act. He bowed his head and wept for joy when the result of the vote was announced in the House. For 18 years he had persisted in introducing anti-slavery motions before parliament without success, enduring sustained apathy, derision and insult from his many opponents. In fact, at one point he was referred to as the “most hated man in England”. At first, he stood almost alone. However, Methodist evangelist John Wesley and Rev. John Newton, former slave-ship owner and author of the enduring hymn, “Amazing Grace”, both encouraged him, along with many other evangelical Christians. Newton told him: “The Lord has raised you up to the good of His church and for the good of the nation”.

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MPS Fail to address Family Planning Association disaster

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Press Release 5 April 2007

The results of the Youth Sexual Health report that was made public yesterday shows that years of tax-payer funded sex education classes organised by the Family Planning Association (FPA) and other like-minded groups have utterly failed to achieve any significant reduction in the high rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. The Society is not surprised that New Zealand now has the second highest rate of teenage pregnancy among OECD countries, second only to the United States.

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Legal Opinion by QC Shows How Good Parents Will Be Criminalised by Bradford’s anti-smacking Bill

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United Future MP Gordon Copeland has recently received a legal opinion he commissioned from Peter McKenzie QC, dealing with the effect of Green MP Sue Bradford’s private member’s bill, on the actions of parents who remove their kids using “reasonable force”, against their will, to “time-out zones” for disruptive and defiant behaviour. He concluded that under the current amendments to the bill, parents would be committing an act of criminal assault for such actions, for which there would be no defence in law when an element of correction was involved. The current law does allow for a defence for parents for the use of “reasonable force” in such situations where they face a charge of “asault”, but only if their actions specifically involve disciplinary correction of the child. This defence would be removed if Bradford’s bill becomes law. Mr Mckenzie’s legal opinion is set out below in full.

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