The Ruth Institute is a global non-profit organization
dedicated to creating a lasting and Christ-like mass social movement to end the agony and injustice of family breakdown.
Founded by world-renowned author, speaker and academic Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, the Ruth Institute’s Resource
Center provides decades of research and educational tools to support individuals and families harmed by divorce,
the hook-up culture and other forms of family breakdown.
Our Ruth Refuge and Tell Ruth the Truth blog offers a safe community for people to share their life stories with
others online as a means for healing and preventing the cycle of divorce.
The Ruth Institute believes that:
Every person has the right to know his or her cultural heritage and genetic identity.
Every child has a right to a relationship with their natural mother and father except for an unavoidable tragedy.
The Ruth Institute rejects the idea that a child is a problem to solve if you don’t want one and an object to purchase
if you do want one.
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A Brief History of the Ruth Institute
Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse founded the Ruth Institute in the summer of 2008 because she has a passion for helping
young people avoid the poisonous personal consequences of the Sexual Revolution. She saw the connection between
the crazy behaviors encouraged on campuses, young people’s unwillingness to get married and ultimately, our cultural
inability to stay married.
Dr. Morse’s formidable body of knowledge led to her
being invited to be part of various campaigns to strengthen the legal definition of marriage as the union of one
man and one woman. That political and educational activity has been associated with the public’s image of the Ruth
Institute. She is widely respected by many leaders of the family movement, including State Family Policy Councils
and leaders in many religious organizations.
For the first five years of its existence, the Ruth Institute operated under the National Organization for Marriage
Education Fund (NOMEF). Ruth’s primary mission was to promote lifelong married love to college students by creating
an intellectual and social climate favorable to marriage. The Ruth Institute pursued this mission through conferences,
lectures and publications, aimed at college students and those who work with them. The students who participated
in these programs continue to have an impact on their campuses, and beyond.
In the summer of 2013, the Supreme Court’s decisions in the DOMA and Proposition 8 cases signaled a new level of
governmental commitment to the Sexual Revolution. Dr. Morse and the team at the Ruth Institute concluded that the
opponents of natural marriage hold a commanding position on the legal and political fronts. At that time, the Ruth
Institute made a strategic decision to enter into the cultural and social fray in a new way.
With Ruth’s renewed focus on the social and cultural arenas (as opposed to the political and legal arenas), Ruth
and NOMEF concluded that their continued association was no longer mutually beneficial. As of November 1, 2013,
the Ruth Institute has operated as an independent California corporation, and is now tax exempt (in the USA) with
its own 501( c )( 3 ) status.
Cultural conservatives have allowed themselves to be out-maneuvered by the Sexual Revolutionaries. The Sexual Revolutionaries
have defined the terms of the debate. They have largely dictated the cultural narrative about sex, marriage and
family. Yet the full story of the harms of the Sexual Revolution has never been honestly and completely told.
The Ruth Institute is working to create a new story, a new narrative. The Victims of the Sexual Revolution are
largely invisible in society and voiceless in the cultural conversation. The Ruth Institute is dedicated to inspiring
the Victims of the Sexual Revolution, to become Survivors and ultimately Advocates for Positive Change. We believe
giving voice to the Victims of the Sexual Revolution is due to them as a matter of justice. We also believe that
their voices have unique potential to change the cultural narrative around family, marriage and human sexuality.
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