Ruth Institute

Inspiring the Survivors of the Sexual Revolution

The mission of the Ruth Institute is to educate religiously serious young adults, including college students and seminarians, on the social benefits of a marriage culture and the personal benefits of lifelong married love.

Why Our Mission Matters

The Sexual Revolution promised freedom and fun by separating sex and childbearing from marriage. Instead, the Sexual Revolution has made people miserable and increased the size and scope of the state. The Ruth Institute provides an affirming and positive message that counters all aspects of the Sexual Revolution.

We think our target audience of religiously serious young adults aged 18–30 holds strategic value for these reasons:

• When young people become sexually active, they are highly likely to abandon the practice of their faith. We share with them the very good reasons why it's a very bad idea to become sexually active outside of marriage. Keeping them on the side of natural marriage instead of losing them to the culture needs to be someone's job.

• Religiously serious college-educated young people have the best chance of having a positive influence on their peers.

• Today's college-educated young adults will eventually hold positions of leadership in all aspects of society.

Our Programs

The Ruth Institute currently pursues it mission through two main programs:

• We produce the highly successful student conference, "It Takes a Family to Raise a Village." This conference is comparable to conferences put on by the Acton Institute for seminarians and the Alliance Defending Freedom for law students.  We measure the success of the program by the fact that our students are beginning to move into leadership and professional positions.

• Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse is the primary voice of the institute. Dr. Morse develops arguments and rhetorical strategies for defending marriage against the whole of the Sexual Revolution. Her activities include:

—Writing articles;

—Doing media interviews;

—Giving lectures, leading retreats, and doing debates; and,

—Of course, interacting with college students and young adults.

In the wake of the electoral and judicial losses on the marriage issue, the Ruth Institute has been redoubling its efforts to create a culture favorable to marriage. To do this, we are taking on every aspect of the Sexual Revolution. We are also developing strategies for reaching out to the victims of the Sexual Revolution. Victims of past phases of the Sexual Revolution include:

—Children of divorce;

—Reluctantly divorced adults (people who wanted to remain married, but whose marriages were torn apart by the legal system of unilateral divorce); and

—Heartbroken career women (women who focused on their careers to the exclusion of marriage and children, and who are now lonely and disappointed).

We plan to cultivate and educate these groups of people. With perseverance and the grace of God, we may be able to prevent young people from making the same mistakes we made, or the even bigger mistakes that are being presented to them as their "rights." •

Further reading
To Make a Family: An Interview with Jennifer Roback Morse by Marcia Segelstein

From Salvo 27 (Spring 2014)
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