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 AZUSA STREET
CENTENNIAL: FAMILY TRACK and WORLD CONGRESS
OF FAMILIES IV BRIEFING
“WHY
PEOPLE OF FAITH NEED TO SPEAK UP FOR THE NATURAL FAMILY”
An
Introduction to the World Congress of Families and the International
Pro-Family Movement
This “Family
Track” will focus on educating and motivating people of faith to participate
in the pro-family movement, locally, nationally and globally. Various
speakers will inform participants “why” and “how” to engage their
communities in a positive-way with a pro-family worldview and agenda.
People of faith need to reach out to the culture pro-actively with a
positive message rather than constantly reacting to a modern culture that
undermines the home and promotes homosexuality, same-sex marriage,
pornography, divorce and promiscuity.
The
World Congress of Families is a rallying center for the world's family
systems grounded in religious faith. In response to a militant secular
individualism found in parts of the "post modern" West, the WCF fosters an
international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, and political
organizations that seek to restore
the natural family as the fundamental social unit. The Congress
project affirms and builds a positive united front among family-centered
religious people from around the world. The Congress also seeks to
shift the terms of certain key public debates:
• From
"The family as an obstacle to development" to the "family as the source of
social renewal and progress";
•
From "overpopulation" to "underpopulation" as the demographic problem facing
the 21st
century;
•
From "the small family and voluntary childlessness as good" to "the
celebration of the large family as a special social gift";
•
And from religious orthodoxy as a "threat to progress" to "religious
orthodoxy as the source of humane values and cultural progress."
The values
of the World Congress of Families are ably summarized in the "Geneva
Declaration," crafted at the Second World Congress in 1999 and in
The Mexico City Declaration of 2004.
See also
The Natural Family: A Manifesto,
published in March, 2005
AZUSA
STREET CENTENNIAL: FAMILY TRACK (FIRE, FAITH & FAMILY) and WORLD
CONGRESS OF FAMILIES BRIEFING
DRAFT
SCHEDULE, April 25-26, 2006, Los
Angeles Convention Center, Room#403B
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
FIRST PLENARY SESSION (10:30am to 12:30pm)
10:30 to 10:45am Welcome, Introductions and “Why People of Faith Need to
Speak Up For the Natural Family”– John Vining, Director of Family Ministries
Worldwide, Church of God
10:45 to 11:30am Allan Carlson, President of The Howard Center and Founder of The World Congress of Familes – “What
is the World Congress of Families?”
11:30 to 12:30pm Wade Horn, Assistant Secretary For Children and Families,
Department of Health and Human Services - “The Story of The Family: An
Overview of Family Problems in America”
LUNCH 12:30pm to 1:30pm
SECOND PLENARY SESSION (1:30 to 4:15pm)
1:30 to 2:10pm Pat Fagan, William H. G. FitzGerald Research Fellow in Family
and Cultural Issues, The Heritage Foundation – “Disturbing Data: What’s
Happening to Families Around The World?”
2:10 to 2:50pm Ted Baehr, Founder and Publisher of MOVIEGUIDE® and Chairman
of The Christian Film & Television Commission – “Family, Hollywood and The
Media”
2:50 to 3:30pm Gwen Landolt, REAL Women of Canada, “What’s Happening To Familes: Effects of the Homosexual Agenda in Canada
3:30 to 4:15pm Don Schmierer, Fieldstead & Company, “Preventing
Homosexuality in Families”
WCF Reception, Wilshire Grand Hotel (tentative), 5:45-6:45pm with Wade Horn
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
THIRD PLENARY SESSION (10:30am to 12:30pm)
10:30 to 11:10am Don Feder, President, Jews Against Ant-Christian
Defamation – “Why a Conservative Jew Defends Christian Values”
11:10 to 11:50am Larry Christensen – “A Biblical Vs. Secular Model for
The Human Family”
11:50 to 12:30pm John Vining, Director of Family Ministries Worldwide, Church
of God – “The Pentecostal Family and The World Congress of Familes”
LUNCH 12:30pm to 1:30pm
FOURTH PLENARY SESSION (1:30pm to 4:00pm)
1:30 to 2:45pm Janice Crouse, Senior Fellow, The Beverley LaHaye Institute,
Concerned Women For America, “Feminism and The World Congress of Families”
2:45 to 3:00pm Larry Jacobs, Vice President of the Howard Center for Family,
Religion and Society, “Why Is The World Congress of Families So Important: A
Personal Testimony”
3:00 to 4:00pm Allan Carlson – The World Congress of Families IV in
Warsaw, Poland, 2007: How can you make a difference?
BACKGROUND
INFORMATION OF THE WORLD CONGRESS OF FAMILIES PROJECT: IMPACTS AND
EFFECTIVENESS
…TESTIMONY FROM "THE OTHER SIDE"
The
secular, "post family" left has expressed deep "concern" about the World
Congress of Families project, which might be seen as the highest form
of flattery. For example, the leftist newspaper in London, England--The
Guardian--had this to say about the Geneva event:
…[T]he
congress is the most important manifestation to date of this new form of
interdoctrinal collaboration based on the deeply conservative values which
unite the most reactionary believers of different faiths--in particular
fundamentalist Christians and Muslims.
The Fall
2004 issue of Ms. Magazine, America’s premier feminist
journal, reports that the World Congress of Families project has “brought
together the leadership of an increasing trenchant and powerful wing of the
international conservative movement.” The Mexico City Congress “was
teeming with crowds that reflected the organization’s growing luster,” a
venue where “for the first time, the U.S. government gave its explicit
endorsement of the so-called pro-family agenda.”
In a report
prepared for the left-leaning Global Policy Forum, analyst Jennifer Butler
wrote:
[The]
World Congress of Families…began efforts to organize an interfaith lobby of
pro-family NGO's and governments….[This] pro-family coalition trains and
exhorts its members to overcome 'bigotry and prejudice' to work together on
a common cause. This represents a radical realignment of religious
and political interests….
The
momentum in this coalition has been building over the past few years, as
demonstrated by the relationships built through the World Congress of
Families gatherings….The [World Family Policy Center] and Howard Center are
planning [a] World Congress of Families for 2002 and four regional meetings
leading up to the Congress. ("300 Religious Right Participants Attend
Beijing Prep Com," June 1, 2000)
The journal
Foreign Policy in Focus recently featured the article,
“Unilateralism: The Christian Right’s Influence and How to Counter It,” by
Duane Oldfield. He makes frequent references to the World Congress of
Families, including:
…The
most notable institutional embodiment of this [social conservative] alliance
is the World Congress of Families, uniting groups of various faiths in
defense of the ‘natural family.’ As this social conservative alliance
has made its voice heard at UN forums and resisted UN initiatives, it has
often used a strangely progressive language, defending third world autonomy
against the meddling of first world feminists and the international
institutions that they allegedly control….
Indeed, a
whole book has recently appeared analyzing the World Congress of
Families project. Entitled
Globalizing Family Values: The Christian Right in International Politics
(2003), the book is published by The University of Minnesota Press, a
leading academic house. The authors, Doris Buss and Didi Hermann,
teach law—respectively—at Carleton University in Canada and Keele University
in England. Both openly write with feminist and “gay/lesbian”
sympathies. One (Hermann) actually attended our WCF II in Geneva (sort
of undercover, it appears). A long chapter of the book is entitled:
“In Defense of the Natural Family: Doctrine, Disputes, and Devotion at The
World Congress of Family II Conference.” And yet, this book
does more-or-less tell our story honestly. Some quotes:
In the
final days of the twentieth century, a remarkable conference took
place in Geneva, Switzerland…. This conference, World Congress of Families
II, brought together conservative religious activists representing the three
monotheistic faiths from around the world,…[part of] an unfolding effort to
build a global alliance of orthodox faiths to counter
the perceived liberal dominance of ‘the international legal and political
arena’. [opening sentence and paragraph of the book, p. xiii]
The WCF
II represented a new sophistication on the part of American activists: the
recognition that conservative social change, at the global level,
requires a networked alliance of orthodoxies.
[p. xiv]
[D]riving
much of the [Christian Right at the United Nations]’s intellectual energy
are organizations such as the Howard Center, modeled as think tanks.
The ‘intellectualization’ of the CR [Christian Right]…is therefore another
theme that we explore. [p. xxxiii].
This
concept of the natural family constitutes one of the pillars of CR
[Christian Right] global politics….Allan Carlson, a leading CR
intellectual light, uses the biblical injunction ‘be fruitful and
multiply’ (Genesis I) to support his argument that ‘any significant
departure from the family rooted in stable marriage…makes us in a way less
‘human’. (p.3)
A
notable example of this potent mix of devotion and data is the work
embraced and produced by the Howard Center, a leading CR organization
domestically and internationally. (p.7)
In the
United States, CR activists such as David Blankenhorn, Bryce Christensen,
Wade Horn, and Allan Carlson have all produced a secularized,
professional discourse on ‘the family’ that has achieved a wide
impact and is rarely associated with their conservative Christian
politics. (p.140)
The Sexual
Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), the voice
of the “sexual revolution” in America recently reported that “groups
[opposed to our agenda] continue to claim that marriage benefits
individuals, children and society… Arguably the most prominent
international meeting of opposition forces is the World Congress of
Families, held in 1997, 1999, and 2004.”
…TESTIMONY FROM LONG-TIME OBSERVERS
Don
Browning, Professor of Religion at the University of Chicago, is the
author of Marriage and Modernization: How Globalization Threatens
Marriage and What to Do About It
(Eerdmans, 2003). In this book, he labels The Howard Center “small but
influential” and calls it one of only four organizations offering a
distinctive way of “thinking about the worldwide needs of families.”
The other three are: The United Nations, The World Council of Churches, and
the Roman Catholic Church. He continues:
Although
located in the small Midwestern city of Rockford, Illinois, and under the
savvy leadership of its president, Allan Carlson, this little known
organization is at the center of an emerging conservative religious and
political strategy on families. In its publications, books, and
international conferences…the Howard Center has developed a distinctive
position on family issues.
Paul
Weyrich, President of The Free Congress Foundation and arguably the
"founder" of the American Pro-Family movement in the 1970's, offered the
following commentary on national television:
[U]ntil
recently, the forces who uphold the traditional family…have been splintered.
They have not sung from the same sheet of music…What has changed all of
that is basically one man, with the help of God and lots of his
colleagues. His name is Allan Carlson,…the soft spoken but powerfully
effective intellectual who now has successfully put together two World
Congresses of Families….[T]hey have now set up an international operation
with the ability to combat the forces of darkness wherever they show
themselves in whatever part of the world.
The
distinguished Hungarian-American historian, Thomas Molnar, wrote this about
the Prague WCF meeting: "Superbly organized….Part mature
discipline, part Christian fervor."
Comments on
the Geneva Congress include:
The
conference was a huge and very significant event. You have
started something we were all in need of -- alliances across the globe.
-- Patrick
Fagan The Heritage Foundation
I found
the papers read and the panel discussions to be quite stimulating….I do
want…to encourage you to continue the wonderful work you are doing.
-- Dr.
Dorothy K. (Mrs. Paige) Patterson
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
What is
perhaps most striking about the efforts of The Howard Center is the degree
to which this Western and Christian organization has succeeded in involving
Muslims in its efforts. -- Antony
Sullivan Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies The University
of Michigan
…THE
RIPPLE EFFECT
The World
Congress of Families has had many secondary effects, as well.
Regional Congresses have been held in Manila, The Philippines (1999),
Melbourne, Australia (1999), Calgary, Alberta (2000), Northern Arizona
(2000), Sacramento, California (2000), Virginia (2001), Phoenix (2001),
Washington, DC (2000 and 2004), and Australia (2002 and 2004). In
addition, the synergistic effects of the Congress process have proven to be
great. Consequences
flowing just from the Geneva Congress include:
In
Ireland, WCF II delegates returned home to create NEART [a Gaelic
word meaning "strength in unity"], an umbrella organization for all
pro-family groups in the land.
In
Russia, scholars at Moscow Lomonosov State University produced a new
book, The Fate of the Family in Russia in the 21st Century,
which "includes many speeches, quotations and materials from WCF II."
In 2004, a group in Vladivostok, inspired by the WCF, organized a think tank
called “Revival and Care of the Family.”
In
Canada, WCF II delegates returned home to organize Youth for Action,
a group of tradition-minded young people who will become advocates at UN
assemblies and in the Canadian Millennium Youth Assembly.
In
The Philippines, a Catholic Diocese organized a "Family and Life
Jubilee Congress," one designed to "echo the Geneva event."
In
Qatar, the royal family used the WCF model to organize an
Intercultural Dialogue on the Family, held in Doha November 29-30, 2004.
In
Argentina, WCF II delegates affiliated with The Institute of Family
Sciences of Southern University returned home to organize a major project,
"The Family Faces The 21st
Century." They conducted a national opinion poll; produced a
documentary film; and convened a major Congress in Buenos Aires in December
2001.
In
The United States, PBS televsion-affiliate KBYU produced a six-part,
three-hour documentary, "In Favor of the Family," featuring speakers
and themes from the WCF III; released in summer 2000, it has been broadcast
on dozens of public and independent stations.
In
Mexico, WCF II delegates returned home to create Red Familia,
or “Family Network,” embracing over 100 pro-family organizations and 10
million persons; gained President Vincente Fox’s endorsement of The Geneva
Declaration; and went on to initiate The World Congress of Families III.
In
the Czech Republic, WCF I sessions on “home-schooling” as a family
building strategy led to the formation of home schools in that country and
to a change in the Czech education law in 2004 legalizing their status.
And
Globally, an impromptu meeting in Geneva of 30 members of
Parliaments (from Canada, France, Poland, Slovakia, the Philippines,
Nicaragua, the United States, and the Middle East) is coalescing into a "pro
family union" of Parliamentarians, now developing a common agenda. In
summer 2004, members of parliament from six East European nations issued The
Family First Declaration, which calls for rebuilding a “pro-family” and
“pro-life” Europe on the basis of the WCF.
Even
the language has changed, as the WCF – promoted term, “natural
family,” is being widely adopted by pro-family groups. |
