MercatorNet - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz Catholic News New Zealand Mon, 08 Apr 2013 21:47:47 +0000 en-NZ hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://cathnews.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/cropped-cathnewsfavicon-32x32.jpg MercatorNet - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz 32 32 70145804 Coping with cyber-bullying https://cathnews.co.nz/2013/04/09/coping-with-cyber-bullying/ Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:12:48 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=42475

What can be more painful to a parent than losing a child to suicide? The problem of cyberbullying was brought to national attention several years ago by the passing of 13-year-old Megan Meier, who committed suicide subsequent to cyberbullying by Lori Drew, the mother of another girl. Despite years of public campaigns and passage of Read more

Coping with cyber-bullying... Read more]]> What can be more painful to a parent than losing a child to suicide?

The problem of cyberbullying was brought to national attention several years ago by the passing of 13-year-old Megan Meier, who committed suicide subsequent to cyberbullying by Lori Drew, the mother of another girl.

Despite years of public campaigns and passage of laws against cyberbullying, the phenomenon is becoming increasingly common and children continue to suffer, with too may of them tragically taking their own lives.

What can you do to protect your children from the ravages of cyberbullying?

The advice we usually get from experts is that adults need to increase their supervision of children, to inform the school and the legal authorities when cyberbullying is discovered, and to fight for increasingly tough anti-bullying laws.

While such efforts may be helpful and are sometimes necessary, if you are depending upon them as the ultimate solution for your children, you are likely to be disappointed.

It would be wonderful if we could solve social problems simply by passing laws against them, but bullying has been an escalating problem despite passage of intensive anti-bullying laws. Getting the authorities involved against other people's children usually escalates hostilities, as their parents are likely to take their own kids' sides against yours, and the kids will hate your child for trying to get them in trouble.

Many bullied children who have taken their own lives did so after the authorities got involved. And as much as you may wish to, you can never fully supervise your children's use of cell phones and computers or you'll have no time for anything else. Furthermore, if you try to deprive them of all privacy, they are likely resent you.

If you truly wish to help your children avoid the pain of cyberbullying, it helps to take a different attitude towards the problem.

Would you give your children a car and let them drive it without having learned how to use it properly and how to avoid the dangers of the road? Continue reading

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Coping with cyber-bullying]]> 42475 What is marriage? https://cathnews.co.nz/2012/12/14/what-is-marriage/ Thu, 13 Dec 2012 18:30:57 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=37824

American gay rights activist and radio host Michaelangelo Signorile recently wrote triumphantly of what lies around the corner for a country that just re-elected its "First Gay President" — as a Newsweek cover last year dubbed Obama. Claiming an early victory for his movement in the Huffington Post Signorile proclaimed that "[n]o longer will politicians — or Read more

What is marriage?... Read more]]> American gay rights activist and radio host Michaelangelo Signorile recently wrote triumphantly of what lies around the corner for a country that just re-elected its "First Gay President" — as a Newsweek cover last year dubbed Obama. Claiming an early victory for his movement in the Huffington Post Signorile proclaimed that "[n]o longer will politicians — or anyone — be able to credibly claim to be supportive of gays, and to love and honor their supposed gay friends and family, while still being opposed to basic and fundamental rights like marriage". Like many other same-sex marriage advocates, Signorile believes the re-election of Barack Obama is a harbinger of nationwide same-sex marriage legislation.

Few can deny that the movement is on the march. At the time of the election four states moved in favour of same-sex marriage and other states are quickly gathering momentum on the issue. Disturbingly, the thought embedded in Signorile's spiel is that even polite disagreement and opposition to the claims of same-sex marriage advocates amounts to wholesale bigotry and intolerance. Heterosexual marriage supporters vehemently deny this, but many people now think that principled opposition to same-sex marriage is a delusion.

One reason why supporters of traditional marriage are losing elections is that they are losing the war for intellectual credibility. They are too often mired in facile arguments about "tradition", Bible passages, and bleeding heart litanies about children. Supporters of gay marriage have succeeded in ridiculing these fumbling attempts at a rationale as ignorant and homophobic.

So a robust intellectual defence of the traditional view of marriage by a group of authors which includes Princeton law professor Robert P George is a welcome addition to the debate. Labelled by the New York Times as "America's most influential conservative Christian thinker", George, a convert from the ranks of the Democrats, is responsible for the interdenominational manifesto The Manhattan Declaration signed by a number of Christian leaders in support of traditional marriage, sanctity of life and religious liberty. Sherif Girgis is a Ph.D. student in philosophy at Princeton and a J.D. candidate at Yale Law School. Ryan T. Anderson, who is William E. Simon Fellow at the Heritage Foundation and editor of the Witherspoon Institute's journal Public Discourse, is a Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University and a Ph.D. candidate in political philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. Altogether a formidable team. Continue reading

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What is marriage?]]> 37824