This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Diocese of Lake Charles
LAKE CHARLES — A former “fake-news” journalist for Cosmopolitan, a urologist expelled for defending the integrity of the medical profession, and an attorney devoted to promoting the dignity of the human person were all honored on July 17 for their efforts to promote family values.
The third annual Ruth Institute awards dinner was part of a two-day Summit for Survivors of the Sexual Revolution held July 17-18 at Treasures of Marilyn’s. The Ruth Institute provides decades of research to support individuals and families harmed by divorce, the hook-up culture, and other forms of family breakdown.
This year's recipient of the Public Witness of the Year Award is Sue Ellen Browder for her courageous expose in her book, Subverted: How I Helped the Sexual Revolution Hijack the Women’s Movement. As the dinner’s keynote speaker via video, Browder shared details of how she helped invent the “Cosmo Girl” during her two decades of writing for Cosmopolitan magazine after she was hired in 1971.
While Browder, who grew up in the small town of New Hampton, Iowa, did not live the lifestyle that she was soft selling to other women, she said she honestly believed that people knew the stories she was writing about casual sex, contraception and abortion as a woman’s path to personal fulfillment were all a fantasy.
“It wasn’t until I became a Catholic at the age of 57, after I had been away from Cosmo for many years, that I could look back at what I had been doing and see the damage it had done to the culture,” she said. That’s when she knew she had to come clean and seek forgiveness.
The propaganda that was used to sell the sex revolution’s false values to American women were stories that were made up to make it seem as if single women were having these happy-go-lucky sex lives, said Browder.
“Propaganda is the language of the serpent. It contains some truth, but it is twisted,” she said. “Modern propaganda is far more subtle and sophisticated than a straight-out lie. It is purposely designed not just to change what you think, but also to change how you act.”
Browder said God was never mentioned in Cosmopolitan. She also said that telling the truth about contraception, abortion, the sexual revolution and anything that is sold by Cosmo advertisers is considered an attack.
“What made me most miserable in my life was having an abortion when I was 27,” Browder said upon reflecting on her conversion experience in 2003. “What made me happiest was my beautiful 40-year marriage. Today, what has healed the pains of my past and brought me the deepest joy I have ever known is my relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
Receiving the Professional Integrity Award was Dr. Paul Church, a practicing urologist for more than 35 years and an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School in Boston before his retirement from clinical practice in 2017.
Dr. Church was fired, and his medical license nearly revoked when he challenged hospital superiors to be more truthful about the health consequences of high risk LGBTQIA+ sexual behavior. Met with increasing efforts to silence his concerns, he was eventually expelled from the medical staff in December 2015. Two other hospitals where Dr. Church held appointments expelled him as well, and a fourth hospital revoked their staff position offer fearing repercussions from the LGBT community.
In his acceptance of the award via a video message, Dr. Church said in its decision to expel him, it was evident the medical center had chosen the path of political correctness and promotion of a social agenda unrelated to a practice of medicine or the advancement of healthcare.
“It’s easy to become discouraged in this climate of political correctness and censorship and rejection of the truth,” he said. “We aren’t winning many battles, but we must continue to fight the good fight and support prayerfully and financially those organizations on the frontlines like the Ruth Institute.”
The Public Activist Award was presented in person to Cathy Cleaver Ruse, whose professional experience spans the fields of communication, public policy and law.
The “condescending” attitude of the Fairfax County School Board in Virginia is all it took to light a fire under Ruse when she learned her local school board voted to allow transgender bathrooms.
Even though her children attend Catholic schools, when she heard there was only one “no” vote for the policy, she decided to attend a board meeting so she could meet the person who cast the lone vote.
“A woman named Elizabeth Schultz was my new hero,” said Ruse. “I thanked her and told her I wanted to help. I have been singularly focused about five years now. It was if God anointed me to go fight for this.”
Ruse serves as Family Research Council’s Senior Fellow for Legal Studies and Legal Supervisor for Ave Maria School of Law/Culture of Life Foundation Washington Externship Program.
Live-streaming and online programs during the Summit were available on topics including: Surviving Childhood Sexual Abuse, Clergy Sex Abuse By the Numbers, Pornography as a Public Health Crisis, Medical Issues in the LGBT Subculture, Reporting on the Transgender Movement, and Protecting Your Family from Pornography. Each topic concluded with a Q&A discussion panel.
•••••••••
The Ruth Institute, founded by Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse in San Diego in 2008, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. It has since relocated to Lake Charles in 2015. For more information, visit www.ruthinstitute.org or call 760-295-9278. To learn more about Sue Ellen Browder's conversion story, click here.
