The Weekly is a highlight of the work the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission is doing to strengthen you and our churches for God’s glory.

Explainer: Planned Parenthood to lose 10s of millions in taxpayer funding

What just happened?

Last Friday the Department of Health and Human Services issued a new final rule to reinstate Title X regulations that separate taxpayer dollars from funding abortion. The new rule shifts funding from abortion providers—such as Planned Parenthood—and steers some of it toward faith-based care providers.

What is the Title X funding program?

Title X or Title X Family Planning is the common name for Public Law 91-572—the “Family Planning Services and Population Research Act of 1970.” Title X is a federal grant program “dedicated solely to providing individuals with comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services.” The funds—currently $286.5 million a year—are given to the individual states who, based on federal rules and regulations, disperse it to qualified Title X clinics.

The statute prohibits this money from being used to support abortion as a method of family planning. According to the law, “[n]one of the funds appropriated under this subchapter shall be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning.”

This Week at the ERLC

• This week, Russell Moore delivered the Norton Lectures on the campus of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and preached in chapel.
   

• Travis Wussow was quoted in this Christianity Today article about a Supreme Court case involving the display of a cross.
   

• Dan Darling writes at Core Christianity about why love is greater than faith and hope. You can read his article here.

What You Need to Know

• Why are millennial moms struggling with burnout? Jenna Fleming responds to a recent article and gives several reasons why this might be the case. Check out her article here.

Feeling overwhelmed lately? Do small, tedious tasks seem insurmountable like a two-story tidal wave rushing upon the shore of life? Does anxiety rear its ugly head in the balancing act of work and home? If so, then you may be a millennial.

• February was Black History Month, and Alex Ward helps us remember all the ways our brothers and sisters in Africa helped shape Christianity. Read his article here.

It is impossible to separate the story of Christianity from the history of Africa. The early theologians of the church were from Africa, and some of the oldest communities of Christianity began in Africa. In honor of African-American history month, I am highlighting some individuals that you may not know who have been influential in the story of Christianity.

• A historic decision was handed down this week at a gathering of United Methodist Church delegates from around the world. Joe Carter explains the decision to retain the ban on homosexual clergy and same-sex weddings and why it matters for us. Read his full article here.

By voting to uphold the biblical view of sexuality, the LGBTQ faction in the denomination will almost assuredly split from the General Conference and thus disassociate from the other conferences and other local churches within the UMC. Local churches and clergy have until the end of April 2020 to decide whether they will remain in the denomination or leave and join a self-governing body.

News From Capitol Hill

• On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in The American Legion v. American Humanist Association, a religious liberty case centered on a 93-year-old cross-shaped memorial to the fallen of World War I in Maryland.
  
  In support of the petitioners, the ERLC submitted an amicus brief with other religious denominations and institutions authored by Kirton | McConkie and Schaerr | Jaffe LLP. The diverse coalition behind the brief represents more than 55 million Americans.
  
  The Southern Baptist Convention has a vested interest in this case because, "the Court’s interpretation of the Establishment Clause is of enormous importance." As the brief explains in detail, “the solution—for issues not already specifically resolved by binding precedent—is to embrace the Establishment Clause’s text, as understood when it was adopted.”

“The Supreme Court should see through this attempt to amend the Establishment Clause to mean what Madison did not write. A judiciary that finds an illusory pathway in the Constitution to establish a secularized state hostile to faith is dangerous. As we submitted in our brief to the Court, maintaining a nearly century-old memorial is hardly an official declaration in law for Christianity.” – Russell Moore

• For more, read What’s at the heart of the Bladensburg Cross Supreme Court case by Jeremy Dys, Esq., who serves as Deputy General Counsel for First Liberty.

Featured Podcasts

From The Public Square

New poll finds "dramatic shift" on abortion attitudes
Alayna Treene, Axios

The recent debate over "late-term abortion," fueled by state measures in New York and Virginia that loosened, or sought to loosen, abortion restrictions toward the end of a woman's pregnancy, has caused "a dramatic shift" in public attitudes toward abortion policy, according to Barbara Carvalho who directed a new Marist poll, commissioned by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic organization.

Cuban Christians Unite Against New Constitution
Griffin Paul Jackson, Christianity Today

Before the vote passed, evangelicals flexed unprecedented political might in a controversial campaign opposing a new definition of marriage and other national reforms.

Cohabitation Doesn’t Compare: Marriage, Cohabitation, and Relationship Quality
W. Bradford Wilcox, Jeffrey Dew, and Alysse ElHage, Institute for Family Studies

Despite common myths about cohabitation, when it comes to the relationship quality measures that count—like commitment, satisfaction, and stability—marriage is still the best choice for a strong and stable union, per new research.

Norwegian Clinical Psychologists Reveal The Complexities Involved In Working With Children And Teens Experiencing Gender Dysphoria
Jesse Singal, British Psychological Society

Kids who are gender nonconforming often make adults uncomfortable, and in some cases one way adults attempt to dispel this discomfort is to push for transition.