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All of us at The Family Foundation of Virginia hope that you will spend time with your loved ones and friends this Thanksgiving. It’s a wonderful opportunity for us to reflect on the abundance of grace and mercy that is poured out on each of us each year by our loving God.

In the many battles we face, and in a culture where our values seem to be slipping away, it is often difficult to find joy and thankfulness. Yet, we are incredibly blessed in so many ways. Simply being alive, having the opportunity to serve our God, to live in a land that is free — still — and having family and friends to love are just some of the things we too often take for granted.

This year, we at The Family Foundation have much for which to be thankful. While many will first think of the recent elections where pro-family candidates were victorious, our gratitude goes far beyond those results. For one, we can never express enough how thankful we are for our supporters. This year, despite the difficult economy, donors to The Family Foundation helped make Winning Matters an unquestioned success. Add to that the nearly 1,300 people who attended our Annual Gala with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, and we can truly say that God supplied for our needs in remarkable ways in 2009.

We also are extremely thankful for our army of volunteers, both those who guide or work through our local grassroots networks, and those who help us here in the office or at various events. Incredibly, volunteers sacrificially gave more than 1,000 hours of their time in our headquarters this year! From stuffing envelopes for mailings, helping distribute nearly 900,000 Voter Guides, to making thousands of phone calls, the help given by these volunteers can simply not be measured. We could not have had a successful Winning Matters campaign, nor Gala, without these selfless individuals. The Family Foundation — Board and staff — offer our collective heartfelt thanks.

We also are thankful for the challenges God places in our path. It is only through those hard times that we truly place our trust in Him and mature in our faith. Together, we face many challenges — culturally and politically. But it is for just this time that God has placed us in this Commonwealth. He chose us to be here to fight for our liberties when they are in peril. That is an honor for which we can truly be thankful.

Again, we thank you for your support of The Family Foundation. May God bless you abundantly this Thanksgiving!

It’s a somewhat light day at the News Stand. One item of note is that a challenger has emerged against the incumbent in the 15th House district, according to the Harrisonburg Daily News-Record. Why mention only “incumbent”? Because that’s all the DNR did, which makes for an interesting piece of journalism. The incumbent is, in fact, Delegate Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah).

In news about faith, an Episcopal author has some harsh words for his denomination. In his new book, Mortal Follies: Episcopalians and the Crisis of Mainline Christianity, William Murchison claims that when its presiding bishop is more concerned about education, AIDS and hunger than she is the Gospel, the Episcopal Church is more service organization than faith (see previous comment).

In news about where faith and values meet public policy, it’s wedding bells in Iowa, but not for any good reason; while Kansas Governor and HHS Secretary-nominee Kathleen Sebelius’ veto of a pro-life bill reveals deeper ties than imaginable to abortionist George Tiller. Finally, Vice President Bishop Biden is back in the news, disgracing the Catholic Church once again by accepting an award from a pro-abortion group at a Catholic university. (More on this in the next post.)

News:

Va. House incumbents take early lead in money race (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Challenger Comes Forward In 15th District (Harrisonburg Daily News-Record)

Gubernatorial Trio Have Quickly Tailored Messages to Draw Blacks (Washington Post)

Iowa poised to begin same-sex weddings (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

National News:

‘Brazen allegiance’ to Tiller behind veto by Sebelius (OneNewsNow.com)

Episcopal Church resembles ‘Peace Corps in ecclesiastical drag’  (OneNewsNow.com)

Presbyterians reject homosexual clergy again (OneNewsNow.com)

Pro-Abortion Joe Biden Says There’s ‘No Excuse’ For Violence Against a Child (OneNewsNow.com blog)

Jonathan Falwell was one of the many speakers to address more than 2,000 guests at The Family Research Council Action’s Values Voters Summit. Falwell, the son of the late Jerry Falwell, is definitely not going to back away from engaging in the cultural debate, including the political arena. He challenged the crowd to “not go back in the caves;” that those who paved the way for our movment, like his dad, need the banner to continue to be carried forward. Falwell challenged the crowd to stay in the fight regardless of the popularity of the principles we believe in.

Falwell is definitely part of a new generation of church leaders who are going to look beyond just abortion and marriage. While they will continue to be the core values we fight for, Falwell more than once stated that we must address other issues such as poverty and health care, making it clear that faith based organizations can do a much better job than the government at solving these issues. Those who expect a “mini-me” Jerry Falwell will be disappointed. Jonathan is not about trying to be his dad — and its refreshing. He’s definitely comfortable with who he is. It will be interesting to see how he expands his role in the cultural debate over time.

Recently, Falwell hosted a luncheon for The Family Foundation’s Pastors For Family Values at his church in Lynchburg. Falwell will also address “Watchmen on the Wall,” a pastor’s conference hosted by The Family Research Council and TFF on September 23. 

Today in Washington, D.C., there is a meeting of the vast right wing conspiracy. Big surprise, The Family Foundation is in the midst. Although the left might prefer we were the only ones in the room, we are not. The Values Voter Summit hosted by the Family Research Council Action has drawn more than 2,000 people to the historic Washington Hilton. Speaking to this energized crowd is quite a line up of thinkers and doers including CNN host Lou Dobbs, Joe Gibbs, Newt Gingrich, Michael Medved, Stephen Baldwin, Alveda King, Michael Steele, Star Parker, Dr. Bill Bennett, Laura Ingram, Ben Stein, Chuck Colson and many more. 

Casual conversations with folks indicate that they really wish Governor Sarah Palin was joining us but they respect the fact that she is in Alaska deploying her son and since she just drew 23,000 people in Farfax this week, they’ll cut her some slack. Michael Steele told us what he has told the media this past week, “I know Sarah Palin and you don’t want to mess with Sarah Palin. She shoots moose, what do you think she is going to do to a donkey?” 

The leadership of all of the family policy councils around the country have been here much of the week pow-wowing about marriage amendments on the ballots in Ariz., Calif., and Fla., and much more. A smaller segment of the group is discussing not just issues, but tactics. In particular, a conclusion has been reached by those of us that aren’t 50+ year old white men (no offense to those that are) that our movement has not yet grabbed the tools and terminology needed to reach the ever important 18-29 year old voting block. While we don’t have all the solutions, I’ve heard that the first step is acknolwledging the problem. 

Lou Dobbs encouraged conservatives in the room to diversity our issues. Although his comments were aimed at the fiscal issues, closed door meetings have discussed not allowing the left to claim the issues of poverty and social justice. Indeed the greatest efforts toward giving every citizen a shot at the American dream are those that go straight to the root problem — solutions that secure and stablize a nuclear family. A bunch of brainiacs shared some embargoed research with a small group of us yesterday and it continues to be clear that if we want men, women and children to succeed in any way (financial, education, etc.), we must stop the out of wedlock births, cohabitation and divorce. If we want our young men to grow up and not end up on the street or in our prison system, they need their dads! That’s not a moral opinion, its a social science fact. Clearly, we need to be a part of making sure we love our neighbor by making sure they know where their next meal comes from, but working to solve poverty runs so much deeper than a bunch of government programs. 

Interestingly, Dobbs acknowledged that FRC President Tony Perkins has been instrumental in his “conversation” to believing that values voters matter and need to have a voice in the public square. Dobbs hasn’t always believed that way and said he was used to pursuading people to his point of view, but Tony turned the tables on him.

One thing is for sure, the energy level among values voters has received a monumental shot of adreneline with Sarah Palin joining the Republican ticket. These people are ready to go home across the nation and go to work. That impact will no doubt be felt election day.

We all hear stories from parents, grandparents and seniors about how tough things were in their day. We know we’re getting old when we hear ourselves telling our younger colleagues what they missed in our youth.

There’s always a degree of hyperbole associated with recollection. Still, there’s more to it than the charm of a good yarn. So when we read in the Richmond Times-Dispatch yesterday that Shady Grove School in Louisa County has been saved — it’s always a good day when a historic building is spared — we were happy (click here for entire article). It was a one-room school house with one teacher for grades one through seven. It was for black children. All had obstacles to overcome, but all did, and the school taught and instilled in them the values that gave them the tools to conquer life’s troubles. Some who attended are those working the restoration and speak of the importance of what they learned there.

It is being saved by the combined efforts of a black Baptist church — Shady Grove Baptist — and Gum Spring United Methodist Church, a predominantly white congregation, two churches doing their share to end Sunday segregation. Shady Grove is the property owner. Its pastor, the Rev. Reginald Cleveland, gets right to the point about why the building is being saved and what it will be used for:

It will be a museum of values. When you point to this building, you are going to talk about the values of the past . . . so we can instill them in the present and future. Times change, but values and principles don’t. (Click here to see a narrarated slide show of the restoration.)

Too many historic buildings are demolished for “redevelopment” projects; those saved but adapted for other purposes often lose their soul because their context is lost in the remodeling. The Shady Grove School museum will preserve its historic value because it will perpetuate its values, those universal truths it imparted to those who attended that school, the same values that made Virginia and America great; not the unfortunately transient themes so widely disseminated today in schools and in the broader culture. This is one development we are happy to hear about and one re-development we look forward to seeing and visiting. We encourage others to as well.