The Episcopal Church in South Carolina, a group of "continuing Episcopalians" within the Diocese of South Carolina, has embraced a rite that would bless same-sex relationships. Its leaders are involved in a legal battle over property against a diocese that broke away from the denomination.

"Our covenantal life with God is expressed in relationships of commitment and faithfulness, including those of same-sex couples," a document from the group about the rrelatively new rite states. "It is the Church's joy to celebrate these relationships as signs of God's love, to pray for God's grace to support couples in their life together, and to join with these couples in our shared witness to the gospel in the world."

The Rt. Rev. Charles G. vonRosenberg, bishop of The Episcopal Church in South Carolina, sent out a letter Tuesday allowing for priests to perform the rite known as "The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant." more >>

The Benham Brothers have announced that despite their planned show "Flip it Forward" being cancelled by HGTV because of their conservative views on marriage, they have finished renovating the homes they promised to do.

"The people most affected by HGTV's decision to cancel the show were the families that stepped out in faith to flip a house for the show," David Benham said on Tuesday, according to The Daily Caller.

Jason Benham added that the brothers' work is more than just TV material. more >>

When a child first comes out to their parents as either being gay or having same-sex attraction, their initial responses are usually the wrong ones, says Chris Doyle, a psychotherapist who specializes in SSA.

Although the child has probably already told their closest friends and trusted family members about their thoughts and feelings, the parents are often the last ones to know. And in their panicked state, parents sometimes look for someone to blame or even think about how they might change their child.

"What I've discovered is that the first inclination that parents have when their child comes out is typically the exact opposite of what they need to do," Doyle told The Christian Post. more >>

Christian preacher Francis Chan and his wife, Lisa Chan, have written a new book for couples who may be so caught up in trying to have the perfect marriage that they have unwittingly made their union, spouse or children into idols.

"The whole idea behind it is, sometimes couples can get so wrapped up on things here to where they're not focused on the kingdom," explains Mr. Chan in a promotional video for You and Me Forever: Marriage in Light of Eternity.

In the video, Lisa Chan suggests that marriages are about a mission, and not "about how satisfied and happy are we with one another." Her husband points to 1 Corinthians 7, where the Apostle Paul discusses marriage as a potential distraction. Mr. Chan notes that "he was saying how we want to secure undistracted or undivided devotion to the Lord." more >>

Several liberal media organizations are reporting the results of a new same-sex parenting study which suggests that gay parents do a better job of raising children than the general population. There are four imporant points to understand about that study, however.

Here are a few of the headlines:

CBS News: "Children of same-sex couples healthy, well-adjusted, study finds" more >>

Over at the Power Line blog, my former AEI colleague Steve Hayward notes that the first same-sex divorce in the state of Indiana occurred a couple of weeks ago. Will gay couples end up divorcing at higher rates than straight couples? Steve justifiably wonders whether American social scientists will be willing to study the durability of same-sex relationships, given the witch-hunting of Mark Regnerus and others who have published data that paint such relationships in a negative light.

Since Steve also cites the kerfuffle over my own politically incorrect research (on immigration), I might as well be the one to point to some of the studies on same-sex divorce in northern Europe, where gay unions have been legally recognized for much longer than here in the U.S. Although the research is preliminary, the general finding is that, yes, same-sex couples are more likely to divorce than opposite-sex couples.

The best study I've seen focused on Scandinavia, where same-sex civil unions - essentially marriages in everything but name - have been legal for about two decades. The authors had access to population-level administrative data that generated a sample size of over 1,500 same-sex unions. After controlling for age, region, country of birth, education, and duration of the partnership, male couples in Sweden were 35 percent more likely to divorce than heterosexual couples, and lesbian partners were over 200 percent more likely to divorce. Whether the couples had children made little difference in the relative rates. more >>