Statehouse Happenings shared from Micah Clark at American Family Association of Indiana.
Parallel Actions on Key Bills
As you know, the Senate has drastically watered-down House Bill 1134 which seeks to protect children from the harmful and divisive concept generally called Critical Race Theory. I am still hopeful that it passes, even though it is hardly more than a policy statement now. With polling as high as 70% opposition to this ideology, something needs to pass.
Running along parallel lines to this is House Bill 1001. This bill concerns vaccine mandates. Here too, the House passed a strong bill protecting the rights of employees. The Senate has now watered this down to the point that the Chamber of Commerce now supports the bill. (The Chamber wants the ability of businesses to mandate vaccines for all employees.)
The House version stated that employers must allow exemptions when employees state in writing they are declining the vaccination because of a “strongly held religious belief.” The Senate changed this to merely allow an employee to file a complaint with the Economic Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) if their request for an exemption is denied. That process can take a year and cost a lot of money in attorney fees. On top of this, in most cases, the employee has also lost the income of their job for their refusal to be vaccinated. (Employees already have this inadequate option, just as parents already have the option to file a complaint to the Dept. of Education regarding CRT.)
The amended version of HB 1001 passed out of committee on an 8-2 vote. Senator Ryan Mishler, an influential and well-respected member of the Republican caucus said that he was concerned that the people the bill was intended to protect are now opposing it. He said he would vote for the bill only to keep it moving, but that he may not vote for it in the end.
Incidentally, here is a very well researched article on HB 1134 from Stanley Kurtz of National Review:
The Great School Divide
There is a new poll from the Trafalgar Group which finds a real worldview political divide that you can see play out in various places including the Indiana General Assembly.
When asked, “Do you believe parents should have greater authority than teachers’ unions in directing education policy in their local school districts?” 73% of Democrats said “no.” For Republicans, 78% said “yes.”
There was also a surprising 22-point gender gap with far more men supporting parents over teachers’ unions (60% – 38%).
A Big Concern Among Parents
Occasionally, the staff of AFA-IN will make calls to our donors to ask if they have any needs or requests for which we can pray. Doing this a few years ago was a real eye-opener for us. Not surprisingly, the number one prayer request concerned health issues. What did surprise us was the second most common request. Second, only to health was a concern for children or grandchildren who are not living out the faith that their parents or grandparents had hope to pass on.
A new study posted by the Institute for Family Studies provides some encouragement for those who share this concern.
America’s religious decline has been well documented. The percentage of people, mostly youth, who are labeled as “nones” meaning having no religious affiliation has grown from 5% in 1990 to 30% today. It seems obvious that we live in an era where each generation now is less religious than the previous one.
But there is some good news too. Research finds that when parents are religiously similar to each other, practice what they preach, are involved in a religious community, and maintain good relationships with their children, they are more likely to pass on their beliefs. Additionally, children of religious conservatives are more religious than others, and more religiously like their parents.
That is not to say that the numbers are great, (our culture is poisonous to traditional values and Christianity) but there is a significant difference offering some hope. For example, children of religious conservatives have a 19% chance of attending worship services at least weekly. This may sound low, but it’s higher than the 15% chance we see in people from moderate or liberal families.
Around one-quarter of children of religious conservatives are predicted to say faith is “extremely important,” while 15% say it isn’t important at all. In contrast, less than a fifth of other young adults say faith is “extremely important,” while an estimated 21% consider it irrelevant to their lives.
Children of religious conservatives are more likely to match the religiosity of their parents, and when they stray, they tend not to stray as far.
The IFS paper’s author, Jesse Smith, has this profound conclusion:
“[M]y study suggests that, on average, the barrier to passing on the faith is not too much religious socialization, but too little. Taking too light a touch with religious parenting comes at a cost. If kids do not receive a clear and consistent message from their parents that religion is important, they are likely to simply conclude that it is not important. In eras past, religion may have been pervasive enough that parents could assume children would receive religious socialization from the surrounding society, from peers or other adults in their lives, or even at school. But in 2022, if they do not encounter religion in a serious way at home, they are not likely to get it anywhere else. While the challenges of passing on the faith remain considerable, religious conservative parents are managing that challenge somewhat better than others, and their secret is simple: when it comes to religious parenting, be hands-on.”
In Their Own Words:
“A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right, and evil doesn’t become good just because it’s accepted by a majority.” – Booker T. Washington
Statehouse Happenings – American Family Association of Indiana
