2023 SIU
Sexuality, Integrity, and the University
National Collegiate Conference
2023 Speakers’ Talks
BRAD WILCOX
Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization
America is in crisis. Trust is falling, crime and economic inequality are soaring, and loneliness and aimlessness are rising. The problems are visible to us all, but the solution is right before our eyes: Get married.
Americans who get married and have children today typically enjoy the kind of companionship and financial stability that result in more meaningful, happy, and prosperous lives than men and women who are single and childless. In fact, nothing predicts happiness in life better than a good marriage. And kids and communities are much more likely to flourish when marriage is strong,
Wilcox refutes the anti-family messages and policies coming out of Hollywood, Washington, the media, academia, and corporate America. He shows that the benefits of the American Dream are still there for the taking for every American willing to take the plunge, settle down, and say yes to a family-centered way of life. Doing so will not only save them and their children from downward mobility, instability, and aimlessness; it will save America from ruin —one marriage at a time.
RACHAEL KILLACKEY
Symptoms of a Porn-Addicted Culture
Pornography is increasingly becoming a global scourge on both men and women–over 90% of men and 60% of women admit to regularly accessing it. In a world where we make the excuse that our sexual behaviors only affect us, we must examine the catastrophic effects of pornography addiction on our culture. Using Dr. Gerald May’s five hallmarks of addiction, I will show not only how sexual addiction occurs personally, but how the same symptoms show up in our wider society—and how healing that society begins with our own healing.
CARRIE GRESS
The End of Woman: How Smashing the Patriarchy Has Destroyed Us
Feminism, the ideology dedicated to “smashing the patriarchy,” has instead made male lives the norm for everyone. Fifty years of radical feminism have solidified the primacy of the traditionally male sphere of life and devalued the attributes, virtues, and strengths of women. The carefree binge of self-absorption has left women exploited, unhappy, dependent on the state, and at war with men.
Only a rediscovery of true womanhood—and motherhood—can pull our society back from the brink. And happiness is possible only if women are open to making peace with men, with children, with God, and—no less difficult—with themselves.
JASON CARROLL
The Myth of Sexual Experience: Why Sexual Inexperienced Dating Couples Actually Go On to Have Stronger Marriages
For many young adults, single life in American culture has become synonymous with sexual experimentation in both committed romantic relationships and casual sexual hook-ups. However, most single adults in the United States today still desire to one day have a successful, lifelong marriage. Are these patterns of pursuing sexual experience in dating during the single years compatible with the desire to later have a loving and lasting marriage? Does having multiple sexual partners in dating help you make a better choice when it comes time to select a spouse? Does “true love wait” for the lasting relationship or should you “test drive” relationships before saying I do?
In this talk, Dr. Carroll will discuss a new report from the Wheatley Institute that shows that these beliefs are in fact myths and that having multiple sex partners before marriage leads to lower quality relationships and higher divorce rates in future marriages. In fact, the number of sex partners a person has prior to marriage is one of the strongest predictors of divorce in social science research. Dr. Carroll will also discuss a series of recent studies using several different national datasets that find similar trends; as well as show how other forms of sexual experience before marriage such as cohabitation and pornography also harm marriage prospects. The talk will conclude with a discussion of how patterns of sexual integrity are beneficial to a couple’s development and why chastity promotes sexual wholeness in later marriage.
EMMA WATERS
Chinese Surrogacy & American Citizenship
Permissive laws governing commercial surrogacy in the United States are responsible for a new, and far more pervasive, form of birth tourism. This morally abhorrent practice harms the women and children involved and makes a mockery of what it means to be an American. It’s estimated that 40%-50% of surrogacy contracts in the United States are from foreign nationals, often from countries like China and France where surrogacy is illegal. Given birthright citizenship, these surrogate-born children of foreign nationals gain and maintain the full rights of citizenship, even though they are raised in another country. Legally, the only difference between a legitimate surrogacy contract and baby selling is the timing of the contract. Thus, the promotion of this international surrogacy regime is responsible for the commodification of children and an increase in national security concerns as unknown children and their parents have access to American citizenship.
