Dateline Sacramento (2/25/2010)
Dateline Sacramento
News with a View from the California Capitol
February 25, 2010
Generation Next: Who are the Millennials?
Millennials – today’s 18-29 year olds – are so-named because they began coming of age around 2000, the millennium. Currently representing one-quarter of the United States’ population, by 2020 they will make up 40 percent of the public, a sizable voting bloc. Who are they? What do they believe? Politicians, candidates, and grassroots’ organizations – of all political stripes – have taken aim, hoping to harness this energetic group who want to be involved and make a difference. Prior to his election, Pres. Barack Obama tapped into the power of this generation. Utilizing the online social media vehicles which Millennials have made so popular, the President captured 66 percent of the under-30 vote – “making the disparity between young voters and other age groups larger than in any presidential election since exit polling began in 1972.”
The Pew Forum has set out to explore who these twenty-somethings are in a yearlong series of reports covering their behaviors, values, and opinions – and comparing them to past generations. Overall, they are racially and ethnically diverse, politically progressive, and treat as commonplace the explosion of the digital age. They tend to be more supportive of homosexual marriage and believe in the concept of evolution. Past surveys showed Millennials and those over 65 to be strongly pro-life, while those aged 30-64 supported abortion. In 2009, however, this study showed a surprising shift had occurred, with the nation as a whole becoming more pro-life.
Last week, the Pew Forum issued a report from their Millennials’ project that focused on religion among the Millennials. Overall, the report determined that these 18-29 year olds are less religiously active than older Americans, but they are fairly traditional in other ways.
The report, relying on surveys done by Pew Research and other research centers since 1970, found a slide in religious affiliation from generation to generation. All but 5 percent born before 1928 (the Greatest Generation) reported a traditional religious affiliation, but 20 percent of Gen Xers (born from 1965-1980) and 26 percent of Millennials claimed no such religious ties. And yet, Millennials are as convinced of moral absolutes as their elders. More than three-quarters of young adults believe in absolute standards of right and wrong – compared to 77 percent in older age groups.
Generational Divide Missing
When looking at a cross-generational section of religious affiliation, the Pew report found less striking differences. Comparing 18-29 year olds by decade, 77 percent claimed a religious affiliation in the 2000s, 84 percent in the 1990s, and 88 percent in the 1980s and 1970s. Across the generations, only a 5 percent margin separated those young adults attending services with 74 percent in the 1970s and 79 percent in the 2000s. Similarly, close margins also marked frequency of prayer, belief in God, and viewing the Bible as the literal word of God.
Alexander Astin, a professor emeritus at UCLA who has studied college students and their attitudes since 1966, said the Pew findings mirrored his own studies showing a high rate of skepticism in young people. But he noted that evangelical Christians, whose numbers continue to grow, have high levels of belief in God and participation in church activities. Quoted in the Los Angeles Times, Astin concluded, “The nonbelievers have increased, but so have the believers. So the net result of that is probably not a great change in the proportion of people who believe in God.”
The Pew report echoed this, saying that the religious intensity of those young people who are affiliated with a religion has not waned across the decades. More than 37 percent of both Millennials and Gen Xers say they are “strong” members of their faith – comparable to the 31 percent of Baby Boomers who said the same when they were young.
Interesting Anomaly
While past polling data has shown strong support for abortion, except in the youngest and oldest age groups, data for this poll showed a mellowing – evidencing more pro-life views. The views of those aged 30-64 now mirror the pro-life tendencies of the youngest group whose pro-life views remained solid. This lends credence to recent polls showing America is becoming more pro-life, and adds support to comments by Stephen Baldwin and Kevin McCullough last weekend in Washington, D.C., where CPAC (the Conservative Political Action Conference and XPAC (the Xtreme Political Action Conference) gathered 10,000 activists to map out a future course.
Stephen Baldwin, in a Focus Action Update, said XPAC was about “the empowering of the younger people – even the unborn.” Kevin McCullough predicted this generation will overturn Roe v. Wade. Surely, young adults have mastered the concept of life’s sanctity – beginning with the preborn. They are indeed the hope of the future.
Resources:
· Focus on the Family’s new Website aimed at Millennials – www.risingvoice.com – a community in which to connect, to discuss, to learn, and to become empowered to make a difference.
· TrueU, a project of the Truth Project, aimed at college students and college-bound teens to help “solidify their Christian faith with foundational apologetics training.” CFC will be presenting the seminar, TRUE-U: "A Fusion of Fact and Faith" in Fresno this Saturday, February 27.
www.PornHarms.com - New Web Site Creates Coalition
Illegal hardcore adult pornography is flooding our society. It is on the Internet, cable/satellite TV, in hotels/motels, in convenience stores and is readily available to children and adults. This pandemic is causing widespread harm to children and adults resulting in addiction, sexual abuse and violence, broken families and divorce, job loss and financial ruin, and destroyed lives. Pornography on the Internet and elsewhere has been convincingly shown to contribute to the sexual exploitation of children.
It is also no secret that a significant portion of this illegal hardcore adult pornography is produced and distributed right here in California.
Patrick Trueman, the former chief of the U.S. Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Criminal Division, has joined Morality in Media to head a coalition of groups and individuals to petition Congress and the White House to enforce obscenity laws through the FBI and Department of Justice. Trueman served in the Reagan and Bush I administrations and during that time over 130 obscenity indictments were obtained, with 126 convictions brought against individuals and corporations.
Trueman recently wrote concerning this issue: “Since the advent of the Internet, illegal hardcore adult pornography has flooded homes, businesses, public libraries, and even schools. The results have been devastating to the social and family fabric of America. For nearly two decades, a large segment of America’s children have had ready access to hardcore internet pornography. In the latest trend, called “sexting,” children are producing and distributing cell phone child pornography. This phenomenon may well be an outgrowth of the viewing of hardcore internet pornography over long periods of time by children who have diminished their natural inhibitions against such activity.”
The goal of this newly formed coalition is to increase the number and quality of Federal obscenity (illegal hardcore pornography) prosecutions by waging a war on illegal pornography. This goal will be accomplished through numerous national, state and local organizations and individuals. “A War on Illegal Pornography must necessarily be multifaceted and include more than just federal prosecutions,” said Trueman. “All efforts against illegal pornography are appreciated and should be encouraged. In fact, there are numerous leaders and groups that have kept up a steady fight against the scourge of pornography for many years and with good success. However, the prosecution of the major producers and distributors of obscenity must be the main goal that every group and individual joining this Coalition works to advance, regardless of other anti-pornography efforts.”
Expected results from the coalition’s effort include prosecuting major producer/distributors of illegal adult pornography – the ones responsible for 80-95% of all domestically produced hardcore pornography. “Causing the Department of Justice to prosecute even eight to ten quality prosecutions each year would produce major progress in the War on Illegal Pornography.”
California Family Council will continue to track and report the work of Morality in Media and the coalition to educate the California public regarding the societal and individual harms caused by pornography.
To join the Coalition or for more information concerning the fight against illegal hard-core adult pornography visit the website: www.pornharms.com
Amid Voter Dissatisfaction, Legislators Introduce over 1300 Bills
In last week’s Dateline Sacramento, we discussed the Legislature’s dysfunction and its potential impact on California families. We noted in the article that Californians would pay the price for the legislative partisanship and special interest bias displayed in recent weeks. As California’s economy continues to struggle, citizens are becoming increasingly disillusioned and untrusting of their elected representatives.
A recent poll affirmed California’s frustration and dissatisfaction with Governor Schwarzenegger and the Democrat-controlled Legislature, finding that 52% of all respondents believe every member of the Legislature should be voted out of office. The Datamer poll’s conclusions further illustrate the grim condition into which the state has descended. Without new leadership that is focused on addressing California’s fiscal and economic problems, the future of the state is at risk.
As legislators continue efforts to resolve California’s estimated $20 billion deficit and address an estimated 1500 bills introduced last week, growing public anger may cause a change in their recent course of antics. However, efforts to circumvent the two-thirds vote requirement to raise taxes, and to exclude Republicans in addressing part of the budget deficit is not a good sign. Still, potential opportunities remain for bipartisanship as policy committees gear up to consider new bill proposals.
Over the next month, legislative committees, staff, special interests groups and citizens will pour over bills introduced in the 2010 session to ascertain their impact. CFC staff will be reviewing measures that potentially affect California families, keeping you informed as the bills move through the process. Following is a look at some of the bills introduced this year:
SB 906 (Leno) – Creates a new classification of marriage – “civil marriage” – which will be used to incrementally circumvent California’s constitutional definition of marriage.
AB 1841 (Buchanan) – Prevents a public agency from continuing to provide special education or related services to a child whose parents have withdrawn their consent in writing.
AB 1933 (Brownley) – Allows a foster student to continue at the school of origin of the foster child’s initial placement, allowing for the continuity of educational services.
AB 1943 (Fletcher) – Requires the Department of Social Services to provide each county welfare department with health and education information of the foster children within their jurisdiction.
AB 2020 (Fletcher) – Provides that a judgment of paternity by another man does not remove a court’s previous paternity findings as it relates to child support. The measure relates to the action of terminating parental rights.
AB 2229 (Brownley) – Requires health practitioners or medical social workers who are mandated to report child abuse to also disclose all known health needs of a child, including the child’s exposure to HIV.
AB 2319 (Swanson) – Defines as human trafficking the act of depriving or violating the liberty of a minor under the age of 16 for the purpose of any lewd or lascivious act, or the purchasing of a minor in order to create material depicting sexual conduct.
AB 2416 (Cook) – Protects parents serving in the military from losing their custodial or visitation rights while they are on active duty.
AB 2700 (Ma) – Authorizes registered domestic partners who are also “married” to one another to petition the court to dissolve both their domestic partnership and their marriage in one proceeding.
AB 2735 (de Leon) – Provides that co-owners of a residence in which both owners live, may transfer ownership of the residence without a tax reassessment upon the death of one of the owners to the surviving owner/tenant. This benefit is currently extended exclusively to married couples.
SB 1064 (Alquist) – Reorganizes the Independent Citizen’s Oversight Committee, which oversees the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) and requires CIRM to create a succession and transition plan to allow the stem cell research program to continue when current bond funding runs out.
SB 1202 (DeSaulnier) – Requires initiative committees, such as the Proposition 8 committee, to provide to the Secretary of State the names of the 5 highest contributors to the initiative’s qualification efforts and the total contributions made by each contributor. The measure further requires the Secretary of State to disclose this information in the voter guide.
SB 1204 (Runner) – Prohibits a registered sex offender from opening or participating in an online social networking account, such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.
Local Links
SAN DIEGO – The Love Won Out conference is coming to San Diego on March 6, 2010. Originally launched by Focus on the Family in 1998, the one day conference is now sponsored by Exodus International and addresses biblical sexuality, particularly same-sex attraction, with truth and grace. The event has a tremendous reputation for providing help and hope to those who struggle with same-sex attraction, as well as their families, friends, and pastors. Learn more at LoveWonOut.com.
VENTURA COUNTY – The Ventura High School newspaper may have broken state law when they distributed to students a survey on sexual behavior – without parental knowledge or parental consent. Read more at the Standard Newswire.
LOS ANGELES – Financially strapped Los Angeles Unified School District is facing a lawsuit because they have been forced to layoff teachers. The lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) claims the layoffs deprive inner-city children of their right to a quality education. Read more in the Sacramento Bee.
SAN DIEGO – An administrative law judge in San Diego has refused to pull a physician’s medical license despite accusations that the doctor violated a court order forbidding him from performing surgeries after an abortion patient’s death. Read more at the San Diego News Network
Coming Events
“True-U – A Fusion of Fact and Faith” Coming to Fresno on Saturday, February 27th.
Recent studies show that nearly 70% of teens walk away from their faith during the college years. Why? What’s happening? How can we help them?
You’re invited to attend a free and informative three-hour event, “True-U a Fusion of Fact and Faith” presented by California Family Council and hosted by Northeast Assembly of God Church in Fresno. Come and hear from college students, experience content from the True-U DVD series, and find out how we can help students be prepared for the challenges they will face in college. Refreshments will be served.
Attendees will have the opportunity to purchase the True-U DVD series “Does God Exist?” at a specially discounted price good only on February 27th at this event.
Click here to register. Walk-ups welcome. Pre-registration requested.
Saturday, February 27, 2010 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Host Church: Northeast Assembly of God Church
4386 North Chestnut Avenue
Fresno, CA 93726-2999)
4386 North Chestnut Avenue
Fresno, CA 93726-2999)
Truth Project Opportunities
RIVERSIDE – California Family Council continues to expand its offerings of the acclaimed Truth Project group leader training seminars. Training in biblical worldview is a prerequisite to living out authentic Christianity in today’s postmodern culture, with its subjective claims of truth.
Saturday, May 1, 2010 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Host Church: Big Valley Grace Community Church
4040 Tully Road
Modesto, CA 95356 (San Joaquin Valley)
Saturday, June 5, 2010 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Host Church: Big Valley Grace Community Church
4040 Tully Road
Modesto, CA 95356 (San Joaquin Valley)
For more information on attending or hosting a seminar, call the California Family Council at 951.354.8362 and ask for Trudy. Register online for seminars at: www.californiafamily.org.
