It has been all over the news lately—John Edwards, former Democratic presidential candidate (2008), was just served divorce papers by his wife of 33 years. Following a 2 ½ year affair that played out on the pages of major newspapers and tabloids alike, the incredible moral failings that became the everyday life of John Edwards were too much for even his wife to bear.

John Edwards married Elizabeth in 1977.  Having four children and facing a bright future, John pursued a promising career path as he became involved in both law and politics. Fast forward to 2010, where the Public Policy Polling (PPP) group just announced that John Edwards only has a 15% favorable opinion in his home state of North Carolina, the lowest finding of any PPP poll ever.

Why the dramatic decline? How could somebody with so much potential fall so fast and so far from the graces of the public? Two words: Rielle Hunter. John met Ms. Hunter on the campaign trail as he attempted to secure the Democratic presidential nomination for 2008. Originally hiring Ms. Hunter to produce promotional videos for the campaign, John began having an extra-marital relationship with her soon after.

Living like nobody knew his secret, John continued to campaign as hard as ever to be the leader of his party and receive the nomination for President of the United States. However, there was a pesky team of journalists from a less than scrupulous news agency named The National Enquirer who pursued a news tip that led them to break the news of this affair to the world.

As the world would soon find out, John fathered a child with his mistress, lied about it continually and had been cheating on his wife for several years.

Thus began the steady, dramatic decline of John Edwards as a politician but also, and more importantly, as a man. The allure of potential greatness and unlimited power corrupted the decision-making processes of John’s mind, which led him to a place of self-confusion brought on by self-convincing. John thought he was above the laws, standards and expectations that he had promoted during his tenure in the US Senate.

Now John Edwards faces a broken marriage, destroyed lives and a young child caught in the middle. It’s story that is as old as time, yet one that is repeated far too often in the halls of congress.. Every year there seems to be a new sexual scandal that blows the covers off of public servants. From Republicans to Democrats to Independents alike, what America needs is a revolution of personal integrity that positively impacts the lives of public servants, living as if everybody was watching, even when nobody is there.

Remember, it doesn’t matter how well you do what you do do, if you don’t do what you should do.

Join the Reveloution.

On Tuesday, January 19, Youth Revolution sponsored its first annual Hill Day at the capitol in Olympia. Bringing down a group of high school students from Cedar Park Christian School, Youth Revolution coordinated with elected officials, legislative employees and policy experts to teach and train on the subject of Christian civic engagement.

Hearing about upcoming important legislation, understanding how a bill is created and passed,  and learning about our mandate to impact culture, Hill Day turned out to be a great event for all who attended. After our training session had ended, Youth Revolution joined a record crowd of over 6,000 participants at Olympia’s largest rally for the pro-life movement.

The March for Life brought together concerned citizens from all across our state who wanted to send a message to state legislators about the sanctity of human life. Youth Revolution was able to partner with March for Life participants and provide free coffee and hot chocolate to hundreds of people.

A common theme throughout our day at the state capitol was a focus on two dangerous bills moving through the House and Senate that would essential fine and/or shut down crisis pregnancy centers. HB 2837 and SB 6452 would force religious pregnancy centers that offer adoption services, counseling and prayer, to offer positive information about abortion, thus violating their personal beliefs.

On January 27, 2010, the Senate Committee on Health & Long-Term Care will have a hearing on this bill at 8:00 AM. The Senate Committee will allow testimony from the public. If you are interested in coming to Olympia to support the crisis pregnancy centers and reject attempts by Planned Parenthood to force pro-life groups to give abortion information, then contact Youth Revolution today.

If you can’t come to Olympia, call the legislative hotline at 1.800.562.6000 and leave a message for your elected officials, telling them to vote NO on SB 6452 and HB 2837.

“Safe School” czar Kevin Jennings has been making the news lately as details of his previous organization, GLSEN, (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network), have come to light. Kevin Jennings both founded and currently serves as the Executive Director of the GLSEN. Starting in 1990, the GLSEN has worked primarily in public schools to promote the homosexual lifestyle while educating children about the merits of a gay, lesbian or transgender lifestyle.

If this wasn’t enough to concern parents and lawmakers from all walks of life, news outlets began to discover some of the “methods” the Jennings and other members of the GLSEN would use to promote their worldview within the classroom. In one of the many books that Jennings authored about the social values and benefits of the homosexual lifestyle, he included a quiz about heterosexuality. Question 5 of Jennings self-proclaimed “"Heterosexism Questionnaire” that appeared in his book “Becoming Visible” asked:

If you have never slept with someone of the same sex, how do you know you wouldn't prefer that? Is it possible you merely need a good gay experience?

Although something like this would concern a vast majority of parents and students alike, the current administration looked past these indiscretions and allowed “safe school” czar Kevin Jennings to retain his position within the White House. Although the above excerpt from Jennings’ book is not appropriate for school age children, what would be uncovered next would be inappropriate for people everywhere and at any age.

After further research, new outlets would discover a list of “recommended reading”, targeting 6^th and 7^th graders, from the GLSEN that featured pornographic images, stories of rape, molestation and abuse, coupled with narratives aimed at promoting casual sex between older males and underage boys.

It is clear that Kevin Jennings is only interested in one thing: promoting the homosexual lifestyle at the expense of tax-payer dollars, without any thought given to the concern of parents, teachers or children.

If you have time, check out this excellent article, written by the Family Research Council, detailing 7 reasons why Jennings is unfit to be a “safe school” czar.

A little over a month ago, noted Atheist and liberal columnist Allison Kilkenny wrote an article on the left-wing news site huffingtonpost.com accusing Youth Revolution of funneling $200,000 into the Referendum 71 (R-71) battle in WA State (which would have been illegal). R-71 started as a signature drive by the residents of WA State petitioning the government to let the people vote on whether or not to accept the recently passed gay marriage law in our state. Youth Revolution was uninvolved in contributing financially to the campaign. What YR did in the 2009 election season was produce a voter guide that showed which candidates had been endorsed by which organizations.

Since 2009 was an “off-year” election, many of the contested races were technically non-partisan. YR spent weeks researching candidate positions and endorsements and then complied the data on an easy to read voter guide and distributed them throughout the state. YR produced and delivered around 75,000 voter guides and also posted them online in several locations. We believe that this voter guide provided people with the most current information regarding the candidates running in their local area.

Anyways…. back to the Huffington Post. Not only did Allison Kilkenny fail to do her homework (or attempt to be objective, or espouse even a shred of journalistic integrity) but she also failed to do any research, which would have clearly shown that Youth Revolution was not financially involved in the R-71 campaign.

Using the terms “intolerant” and “hatred” to describe our voter guide, Kilkenny again failed to do any basic research, which would of shows the great steps we took to ensure that each candidate was correctly listed under the endorsing organization.

Then again, as it applies to journalism today… facts just really aren’t that important. My advice to Kilkenny and her friends at the Huffington Post… keep up the hate, it only builds our ranks.