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Noteworthy News Notes
September 19, 2008
Hallmark Embraces
Homosexual “Marriage”
Most states don’t recognize same-sex “marriage”—but
now Hallmark does. The nation’s largest greeting card company is rolling
out homosexual wedding cards—featuring two tuxedos, overlapping hearts
or intertwined flowers, with best wishes inside. “Two hearts, One
promise,” one says.
Hallmark added the cards after California joined
Massachusetts as the only U.S. states with legal homosexual marriage. A
handful of other states have recognized same-sex civil unions. The
language inside the cards is neutral, with no mention of wedding or
marriage, making them also suitable for a commitment ceremony. Hallmark
says the move is a response to consumer demand, not any political
pressure. “It’s our goal to be as relevant as possible to as many people
as we can,” Hallmark spokeswoman Sarah Gronberg Kolell said.
Hallmark’s largest competitor, American Greetings
Corp., has no plans to enter the market, saying its current offerings
are general enough to speak to a lot of different relationships.
Hallmark started offering “coming out” cards last
year, and the four designs of same-sex marriage cards are being
gradually released this summer and will be widely available by next
year.…
The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law
estimates that more than 85,000 same-sex couples in the United States
have entered into a legal relationship since 1997, when Hawaii started
offering some legal benefits to same-sex partners. It estimates nearly
120,000 more couples will marry in California during the next three
years—and that means millions of potential dollars for all sorts of
wedding-industry businesses.
Hallmark…has added a wider variety lately. It now
offers cards for “difficulty getting pregnant” or “going through
rehab.”…
Hallmark says all of its stores can choose whether
they want to add the latest offerings.
—OneNewsNow.com
EDITOR’S COMMENTS: Many of these companies are
convinced that they can do whatever they please and we will all go
along. I suggest we surprise them by spending our nickel elsewhere or
not at all!
College Presidents
Urge Lowering of Drinking Age
One hundred college and university presidents
believe there would be less binge drinking if the drinking age was
lowered to 18 years—but the group Mothers Against Drunk Driving strongly
disagrees.
—OneNewsNow.com
Traditional Views of
Sex on TV Rare
Broadcast television by far depicts sex in the
context of marriage as either “nonexistent or burdensome” while
portraying adultery and pre-marital sex as acceptable and desirable, a
new study by the Parents Television Council [PTC] says.
“Today’s prime time television programming is not
merely indifferent to the institution of marriage and the stabilizing
role it places in our society; it seems to be actively seeking to
undermine marriage by consistently painting it in a negative light,” PTC
said in the August 5 report titled “Happily Never After: How Hollywood
Favors Adultery and Promiscuity Over Marital Intimacy on Prime Time
Broadcast Television.”
Verbal references to non-marital sex “outnumbered
references to marital sex by a ratio of nearly 3 to 1,” PTC said, and
scenes “depicting or implying sex between non-married partners”
outnumbered similar scenes between married couples by nearly 4 to 1.
“Even more troubling than the marginalization of
marriage and glorification of non-marital sex on television is TV’s
recent obsession with outré sexual expression,” Tim Winters, president
of PTC, said. “Children and teens are now exposed to a host of sexual
behaviors that less than a generation ago would have been considered off
limits for broadcast television.
“Behaviors that were once seen as fringe, immoral
or socially destructive have been given the stamp of approval by the
television industry. And recent studies show that children are
influenced by those messages,” Winters added.
—Erin Roach for Baptist press
Indian Tribe
Recognizes “Gay Marriage”
In a move that could be a first, an Indian tribe in
Oregon has legalized “gay marriage.” The Coquille Indian tribe passed
the new law after a lesbian couple requested that their relationship be
legally recognized.
The situation is unique not only because it’s an
Indian tribe, but also because the Oregon constitution prohibits “gay
marriage.” The Coquilles, though, are a federally recognized sovereign
tribe and are not bound by Oregon law, the Oregonian newspaper
reported.…
At least two Indian tribes, the Cherokees and the
Navajos, ban “gay marriage.”
—Michael Foust, an assistant editor for Baptist
Press
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