Ten Reasons to Support the Institute

1. Our most recent report, Hardwired to Connect, is changing the way people think about children's need for moral and spiritual meaning. 

``A real wake-up call for America's parents…"
— Diane Sawyer, Good Morning America, 9/9/03

``A fascinating new report…"
— George F. Will, Washington Post, 9/21/03

``A major report…"
— William Raspberry, Washington Post, 9/22/03

``An important new study…warrants serious attention by policy makers and everyone con-cerned about the future of our youth."
— Chris McGillion, Australia's Sydney Morning Herald, 10/28/03

``This report brings together neuroscience, developmental psychology, the psychology and sociology of religion, theories of civil society, and moral and political philosophy in ways that will forever change our thinking about the needs of the young and how society must address them."
— Don Browning, University of Chicago

In Hardwired to Connect, a panel of 33 leading children's doctors, neuroscientists, research scholars and youth service professionals show that children are biologically primed (``hardwired") for enduring connections to others and for moral and spiritual meaning. The report describes the ten essential traits across social institutions that produce better outcomes for children.

The report is now in its second printing. We are also discovering creative ways to get the word out to millions of Americans. One example: Partnering with the YMCA of the USA, we are launching a national tour, in which the report's authors will visit ten communities around the country to discuss the report face-to-face with youth workers, clergy, scholars and educators, and local media. Another example: Partnering with the National Council of Churches, we are developing a parish primer — four one-hour Sunday School or Wednesday night lessons focusing on what the report's findings mean for churches and other community groups — to be made available through the NCC to its 140,000 member congregations. One more example: With our partners, we are planning a demonstration project, in which we would match our words with actions, actually implementing the recommendations of the report in one or more communities with high numbers of children at risk.

An op-ed in the New York Post (9/16/03) calls Hardwired to Connect ``a stunning, must-read report."


2. Our new Council on Family Law is challenging the idea of eliminating legal supports for marriage.

Some prominent family law scholars, as well as some influential organizations such as the American Law Institute, are calling today for reducing or eliminating altogether the legal distinctions between married and unmarried couples. Their goal — a breathtakingly radical one — is to promote family diversity by getting rid of all or most legal supports for marriage. Such a change would be a devastating blow to marriage as a social institution. 

Our newly formed Council on Family Law, chaired by Mary Ann Glendon of Harvard Law School, one of the nation's most respected family law scholars, will critique this proposed change and offer a positive alternative to it — an alternative in which family law seeks to support, rather than undermine, the marriage commitment.

The Council will produce three documents. First, an in-depth report assessing the intellectual foundations of current proposals to de-legalize marriage. Second, a book of scholarly essays, intended primarily to influence the academic debate. And third, a jointly authored public appeal, to be signed by family law scholars, judges, and legal professionals from around the country. The public appeal will be aggressively promoted to the national media and to appropriate legal and state legislative organizations.

``Rarely has there been such a coalescing of forces challenging legal supports for marriage as the one we face today. Our capacity as a society to weather this Perfect Storm will depend heavily on the support that family law scholars can give to marriage, and that's the goal of our Council on Family Law."
— Robin Fretwell Wilson, University of South Carolina School of Law

3. Our upcoming publication, What Next for the Marriage Movement?, will bring to-gether key marriage leaders and scholars to spell out the agenda of the marriage renewal movement.

For a decade, the Institute has taken the lead in shaping the public arguments, conducting and disseminating the scholarly research, incubating the key books and articles, convening the leaders, and launching the initiatives that have helped to change public opinion and stimulate grass-roots action on the social importance of marriage. What Next for the Marriage Movement? will be the next example of that leadership.

``The Institute for American Values is the intellectual engine that powers the marriage move-ment. They do the crucial work of identifying both the next targets and the most rational, research-based strategies. They supply the vision and set the course and keep us not only on the cutting edge, but also on the high road. Without the Institute, we'd never have gotten this far."
— Diane Sollee, Executive Director, CMFCE and organizer of the ``Smart Marriages" conference
 

4. Our new Islam/West Council is creatively engaging Muslim scholars and opinion leaders. 

In partnership with Ijtihad, a private civil society think tank in Lebanon, and others we are forming a new international council for dialogue and deliberation. Our purpose is to reach out to leading Muslim intellectuals in an effort to seek common ground. Our major goal is a jointly authored appeal, for world release, on the human person, civil society, and religion in public life. 

The Islam/West Council is made possible by What We're Fighting For, the Institute's trailblazing exchange of letters with Muslim and European intellectuals in 2002. The exchange led to scores of articles in the world press, television appearances on Al Jazeera, Al-Mustakillah, and other stations, and a formal reply to us from Al Qaeda, purportedly written by bin Laden. It also led to Saudi government officials banning from the country an issue of the newspaper Al-Hayat that contained, in Arabic, the text of one of our letters. (Of course, the ban increased the letter's notoriety and influence.) We are also completing a book — What We're Fighting For: The International Debate — scheduled to be published in 2004, in Arabic and English.

``It is hard to find an intellectual in the Middle East who is not aware of the exchange of letters on terrorism and Islam/West relations initiated by the Institute for American Values. The whole exchange has had a tremendous impact and is a model for the dialogue that must take place."
— Hassan I. Mneimneh, Director, Iraq Research and Documentation Project

``Of all the millions of words written about September 11 and the war against terrorism, What We're Fighting For has been the only statement to initiate an authentic and honest exchange of views across the Atlantic and between intellectuals in the U.S. and the Middle East. Its appearance was a moral watershed that defined the debate that has only just begun and is likely to continue for generations."
— Carl Gershman, President, National Endowment for Democracy

5. Our Children of Divorce project is changing the way people think about the impact of divorce on children.

The centerpiece of this effort is a pioneering, three-year original research project investigating the inner lives of the young adult children of divorce. The first study of its kind, it will produce two major scholarly articles and what we believe will be a debate-changing book by Institute affiliate scholar Elizabeth Marquardt, to be published in 2004, The Split Inner Lives of Children of Divorce: How Divorce Turns Childhood Inside Out. A New National Study.  

``A brilliant study of young adults from divorced and intact families that breaks new ground in showing how the child's stable identity and sense of order in the world is tied to the stable two parent family. This promises to be a pathbreaking book."
— Judith Wallerstein, author and founder of the Center for the Family in Transition  

6. Our Family Structure Research Project is challenging — and improving — how today's scholars look at marriage and families.

Led by University of Texas professor Norval Glenn and Institute affiliate scholar Tom Sylvester, this original research project summarizes and critiques 25 years of research findings and scholarly arguments published in the Journal of Marriage and the Family, the leading journal in the field, on the connection between family structure and child outcomes. The publication of these findings next year promises to have a major impact on the academic discussion of family issues.


7. We are doing a lot of other things too.

A major study of the values and attitudes of U.S. mothers, led by Institute Board member Enola Aird...publicizing our new book, Black Fathers in Contemporary American Society (Russell Sage, July 2003)...putting the finishing touches on a new report, Marriage and Public Policy, by Maggie Gallagher, to be released early next year...doing a comprehensive scholarly literature review and report on the status and future of African American marriages…planning a study on the economic costs of divorce…running a daily blog (weblog) for the marriage movement, updated 24/7 (www.marriagemovement.org)…putting the final touches on a book of scholarly essays, Does Christianity Teach Male Headship? The Equal Regard Marriage and Its Critics (forthcoming, Eerdmans, 2004)…doing lots of public speaking on fatherhood, marriage, and civil society…supporting The Marriage Moment, a book on the marriage movement being written by David Blankenhorn…and finishing two books which wrestle with the question of personhood — What Is a Person? An Introduction, a book of essays, and Who Are We? Finding Identity in Today's World, by Paul Vitz and Melanie O'Hara. 


8. For those who like name-calling and political labels, we are a constant headache.

Our critics would like to label us, but they can't, since we bring together scholars from across the political spectrum and work hard to transcend left-right differences. They would like to scoff at our credentials, but they can't, since nearly 100 of the most distinguished scholars in the country are involved in our work. They would like to pigeonhole us, but they can't, since we constantly push ourselves in fresh directions in order to stay true to our mission. They would like to ignore us, but they can't, since we are constantly making waves in the media and in the public debate. Mostly, they have to settle for complaining about our productivity and our ability to attract public attention to our work.

``During the past decade the Institute for American Values has waged a vigorous, influential polit-ical campaign for neoconservative `family values' while successfully representing itself as `nonpartisan'…[The Institute's] publicists enjoy a direct pipeline to the nation's elite opinion-shaping apparatus, securing habitual prime-time appearances on PBS, CNN, commercial broadcast news and talk shows, and continual coverage of their views in the mainstream print media."
— Judith Stacey, one of our most vocal critics, writing in the journal, Footnotes.

9. We do a lot with a little.

We do this work with a staff of six and an annual budget of about $1 million. (Our secret weapon is the unpaid work donated to the Institute by many of the top scholars in the country.)


10. In our areas of expertise, we do some of the best and most influential scholarly work in the country. 

``The Institute is premised on the idea that values count in public policy, and has quietly brought together an incredible network of heavy hitters on the subjects of family, culture, and values to enlighten the public debate."
— Francis Fukuyama, Johns Hopkins University

``For more than a decade, the Institute for American Values has tackled some of the toughest issues facing our country, at home and abroad. Working across partisan lines and with a deep respect for solid evidence and civil argument, the Institute has helped enlighten public opin-ion and shape public policy on matters ranging from marriage and the family to the Bush doctrine and America's relations with the Islamic world."
— William A. Galston, University of Maryland

``Almost everything that is important to a decent society depends on the family, and no group does a better job of documenting its strengths and finding cures for its faults than the Institute for American Values. The Institute does more than complain or celebrate: It pub-lishes important research and offers constructive ideas."
— James Q. Wilson, UCLA (Emeritus)

``For years the Institute for American Values has quietly but consistently been at the forefront of the most incisive observation, meticulous research, and intellectually honest analysis being done today regarding family life and civil society."
— Linda Jessup, Founder, The Parent Encouragement Program

``The Institute has become the site of the nation's most creative thinking on family and civil society."
— Mary Ann Glendon, Harvard Law School

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