A version of my family values rant ran in the Detroit Free Press this morning:
http://www.freep.com/voices/columnists/ebierma8_20020508.htm

Here's the lengthier piece from my student newspaper, Chimes:
http://clubs.calvin.edu/chimes/2002.04.26/per4.html

And, once again, the relevant paragraph from Peter Perl's profile of Tom DeLay in Washington Post Magazine:

For all of Tom DeLay's public espousal of Christian values, particularly his deep commitment to family, he privately has nursed a terrible estrangement from his own mother and three siblings. After the 1988 death of his father and the rise of his career in Washington, DeLay cut off contact with all three siblings, and seven years ago he stopped attending DeLay family gatherings. He has not seen or talked to his mother, Maxine, in two years, even though she lives about 10 miles away from Sugar Land; or did he invite any of them to his daughter's 1999 wedding or even mention his mother in the published wedding announcement.

I spoke with Perl by phone yesterday. He keeps in regular contact with DeLay's siblings, and says nothing has changed in the year since his piece appeared.