After teaching college for a few years I’ve realized two things: (1) how young adults sincerely want to make their parents proud, and (2) how parents communicate, directly or indirectly, that their children are failures. A previous generation of parents was happy having kids who simply were “good,” but today’s parents want kids who are good and “successful.” And students who have grown up in conservative evangelical churches are not immune from this parental pressure.

The Utah Supreme Court has ruled against a Virginia father who is seeking to overturn the adoption of his daughter by a Utah couple. The ruling, handed down on Tuesday, stated that John M. Wyatt had not asserted his parental rights in time to stop the adoption.

The case is part of an ongoing legal battle waged by Wyatt, 22, who is trying to get his daughter back after she was put up for adoption by her biological mother two years ago.

When Susan Lawrence sent away for a complimentary copy of Home School Digest three years ago, she never expected a life-altering shove toward activism. But an advertisement in the magazine for flexible nylon spanking rods propelled the Massachusetts mother to launch a full-on campaign against corporal punishment.