Brain Trust - Janice Shaw Crouse

Janice Shaw Crouse is a columnist and senior fellow for the Beverly LaHaye Institute. She joined the Brain Trust segment to share her perspective on Mississippi's failed Personhood Amendment. Below are the "CliffsNotes" of her interview.

What did we learn from the Personhood Initiative?

I think we learned that there are not many good political solutions to problems like this. Our major challenge is to change attitudes, and I think we are winning in that department.

We do have a long way to go. We still have a lot of people who aren't comfortable with the legal realities of abortion. We've got to win the public over more before we can make any legal headway.

The general public doesn't see the numbers. They don't see the problem as big as it is. We've got a big job ahead of us to bring that home and help people see that as it really is.

It's about how you perceive things. We've got to have an understanding in this country that this is a matter of human rights; this is a matter of decency. It's not something people can be blase about.

We have to recognize that the comfort level is there, and work to make people understand the severity of the problem, that it is a life-or-death issue.

Quite frankly, I can't tell you how many people want to keep it there in case their children or grandchildren need it.

We've made it quite easy to be a Christian these days. The standards aren't very high. We've got our work cut out for us to convince people that your beliefs touch your behavior.

In spite of the defeat, I think we are winning this war. We lost that battle, but in the overall war, we are winning.

Brain Trust - Janice Shaw Crouse

Janice Shaw Crouse, columnist and senior fellow for the Beverly LaHaye Institute, joined the Brain Trust segment to share her perspective on marriage and Herman Cain. Below are the "CliffsNotes" of her interview.

You say you can pinpoint three things that harm marriage. What are they?

Well, there are three major things, and I imagine your listeners have come into contact with one or all of them.

The first is promiscuity, which is so prevalent in our culture, beginning at very young ages.

That cultural trend is very harmful to marriage, because our kids are with so many people before marriage that they don't know how to establish a lasting relationship.

The second is cohabitation. So many of our young people think that little slip of paper doesn't matter.

What they don't understand is that cohabiting relationships don't work very well at all. Cohabitation is also a recipe for divorce.

And then we all know of the threat that same-sex marriage is. A very small portion of our population is trying to dilute the tradition of marriage.

A stable mom and dad, married for life, is the best way for a couple to thrive together and for their kids to become productive citizens.

Are you encouraged or discouraged about the progress of these issues?

I think we're making headway.

The only places that same-sex marriage is legal are where judges have forced it through. All 31 states where this has come up, the people have voted to keep marriage between one man and one woman.

What's your perspective on the allegations against Herman Cain?

I hope it's not true. I suspect it's probably a "high-tech lynching", and I also suspect Herman Cain has not seen the end of these attacks. For some reason, the liberals cannot stand the thought of a black conservative.

This is something in our culture that I find very reprehensible and disgusting. I hope that these allegations are untrue.

Will the liberals who defended Bill Clinton defend Cain?

Oh, heavens, no. In your dreams. That is so laughable. It's so ironic and so disappointing that you can laugh at a question like that, because everybody knows they will not.

Are you encouraged about the Republican prospects?

I think we have some fabulous candidates in the GOP lineup. I find it very encouraging to see the opposition to the liberal agenda.

We do need a change in November, and I think there are some great options out there to choose from.

Brain Trust - Janice Shaw Crouse

Janice Shaw Crouse, columnist and senior fellow for the Beverly LaHaye Institute, joined the Brain Trust segment to share her perspective on recent cultural and political issues. Below are the "CliffsNotes" of her interview.

A new study says that evangelical youth are having sex almost as much as non-Christians. Has the Church done something wrong?

I think it's very obvious that we have. This goes hand in hand with the fact that we're losing our young people when they go to college.

It's absolutely appalling how difficult it is in college for Christian young people to do anything socially. Oftentimes the Christian groups are very shy; the meetings are not announced; it's just a small group of people who meet in the background. The prospects of a social life without sex are very dismal.

How do you hand your values down to your kids?

I think primarily parents do try to pass their values along to their kids. But what they don't understand is the overwhelming peer pressure, and the loneliness when you have to leave a party because you don't approve of the conduct there. Even in the classroom, they're getting professors who are making fun of their beliefs.

Young people face an uphill battle, and they've got to have support from their family. Many young people have gotten into situations that they are ill-prepared to handle.

What's your opinion on the presidential candidates?

Don't we have a really good slate of candidates? Everyone of them is pro-life, and against same-sex marriage. They all take the same stand publicly. That's a very unusual thing. I think we've got a number of great people on the GOP field.

It's going to be very interesting, because the race is really going to tighten up.

Brain Trust: Janice Shaw Crouse

Janice Shaw Crouse, columnist, senior fellow for the Beverly LaHaye Institute, and former Bush speechwriter, shares her perspective on various national and international issues.


Will the recent attack in Afghanistan that resulted in 30 American deaths affect popular support for the war in Afghanistan?

I don't think so.

It breaks my heart every time I see the pictures of those guys.

There has been widespread rioting all across England. Do you see something like that happening in America if the economy continues to spiral downward?

I really do.

It's quite scary, I think, because we have a whole generation of young people....born out of wedlock.

Those children have very predictable risks. One of those risks is deep-seated anger.

I think there's a whole cadre of young men in particular...that are very scary to the population in general.

I pray that doesn't happen, but I think it's a very real possibility.

That kind of thing is not unheard of here. We've had riots in Philadelphia recently.

We certainly had our share of it here, and I fear for the future if we don't clean up our act here.

On Saturday, Rick Perry will likely be announcing, at least unofficially, his candidacy for the presidency on Saturday. How will this affect the race?

Well, I think it changes it very dramatically.

Here's a man who's said publicly that he felt called to preach.

I think that Christians across the country will feel a real sense of pride and a real sense of relief and sighing when they see a man like that throw his hat into the ring.

He may not be the person, but he certainly embodies the characteristics of the men who've led this country with a strong leadership core.

I think he stands in that tradition, and I think most people would be very happy to throw his hat in the ring.

That even on Saturday at Reliant stadium. Does that help Perry or hurt him, with with establishment Republicans?

They are laughing at him and making fun, and outraged at the same time.

They don't understand the power of prayer...they don't understand that this is a strong part of our nation's history.

I think they are the ones who are out of step.

The Ames straw poll will be held Saturday as well. Who's going to win, and will it matter?

It won't matter at all.

I think Michele Bachmann has a good chance. After the Newsweek cover that made her look crazy, I think there will be a backlash against that.

Gallup pegs Obama's approval rating at 40%. Can the president win in 2012, if that rating doesn't improve?

Definitely not.

However, he's capable of pulling some pretty underhanded things.

And he has the Chicago mafia behind, so you can never say never.

He stubbed his toe pretty stupendously over the last couple of things.

He can't blame anybody but himself.

People in his own party are comparing him to Jimmy Carter at this point.

It will take some pretty miraculous things to turn it around.

When people in your own party start saying "we need someone to run against this guy," you have problems.

He's losing support among liberals, too.

Now suddenly no one's cheering.

It's amazing to me to see how quickly he has fallen. And how quickly he has lost the support of the Left.

Brain Trust - Janice Crouse

Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, former Bush speechwriter, columnist, and Senior Fellow at the Beverly LaHaye Institute, was featured on the Matt Friedeman Show's Brain Trust segment. Dr. Crouse talked about the recent "slutwalks" that have been going on in dozens of cities.


What in the world are slutwalks?

Several months ago in Toronto, a policeman was talking to a group of students, and said they should watch how they dressed, because it could cause rape.

So they started what they called a "slutwalk".

It spread to 75, and then a 100, cities around the world are holding these demonstrations.

Feminists are using this as their new mantra.

Well my article says, no. It's not blaming the victim to say to young people that you have to be careful and not put yourself in harm's way.

I think that's good advice for all people. That doesn't mean it's a victim's fault if she's raped.

Do feminists even care about our pornifying and oversexualizing culture?

Well there's a whole group of them who do.

Any time you're sexifying, pornifying our culture, you're objectifying women.

I think a lot of people today, Matt, don't understand today's pornography.

The pornography today is not playboy and simple nudity.

Pornography today is way beyond Playboy, it's way beyond Cosmo.

Our young people right now are getting a lot of confused messages.

Anthony Weiner should resign.

He was so arrogant, he was so condescending to a reporter.

When I first came to Washington, my boss lied to me.

I just stood there astounded, because I couldn't believe he was lying, knowing that I knew he was lying.

When you have a guy like a congressman carrying on the kind of dirty talk he was carrying on.....for a congressman to carry on like that with someone....it's beyond believable.

For him to lie about it, he's lost the trust of the public.

If you're a real feminist, you think you'd stand up to this guy.

This is the thing that's so contradictory about the far Left.

Nancy Pelosi is no friend of women. Secretary Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama talk the talk, but they don't walk the walk when it comes to protecting women.

Have feminists lost all credibility?

Young college women do not want to be identified with the feminist movement, even though they have absorbed the feminist values.

We had a huge conference of feminists not long ago....they were all older.

In contrast you go to the March for Life and find that the overwhelming majority of the people there are young people.