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What They’re Saying About World Congress of Families V
 “I want to thank you for the invitation to us to participate in the Congress. We
enjoyed the opportunity to set up our booth and greet the many international
attendees….I was impressed by the great professional job everyone did running
the Congress.”—Dr Wanda Franz, President, National Right to Life Committee.
 “At World Congress of Families V, organizations and policy-makers receive the
academic tools which show that children are the lifeblood and the human capital
needed for a country’s continued growth and prosperity. When nations see
children as a blessing and not as a burden on society then they will value
marriage, motherhood and family and they will once again put into place family
friendly policies that will work to strengthen and fortify the natural family.”
– Steven Smoot. Executive Producer “Demographic Winter” and “The Demographic
Bomb.”
“Thanks again from Fr. Frank Pavone, Janet Morana and the Priests for Life
team for all your help with our Pro-Life Reception at the World Congress of
Families and thanks for all you did to organize such a terrific conference. We
made contacts with pro-life leaders on every continent and are looking forward
to collaborating with them, plus we were able to be instrumental in connecting
the leaders with each other. Let’s keep in touch between now and the next
Congress!” Michele Velasco, Priests for Life.
 “Great job, wonderful conference and I think, great work done. There was a
tremendous amount of networking done. I know I advanced my work more at this
conference than at any other,” Pat Fagan, Family Research Council
 “The Amsterdam WCF was unique in that a couple of high profile local speakers
aired opposing viewpoints that ‘fired up’ those who believe in the natural
family. Thereafter, the audience was enthusiastic in its response to the truth
of the speakers promoting the natural family. It made for a vital and vibrant
conference and for lively, informative debate and discussion in the hallways and
in the Q and As. The Amsterdam WCF was a dynamic and a very important event for
scholars and activists in the fight to preserve the natural family,” Janice Shaw
Crouse, Director and Senior Fellow, The Beverly LaHaye Institute, Concerned
Women for America
 “Seen from the Latin American perspective the World Congress of Families V
was a wonderfully encouraging occasion. Not only were the talks and activities
of exceptionally high quality, but the opportunity to network with the top
leaders of pro-family activities worldwide was very empowering. Together we can
change the way the international agencies are taking the world!” Christine
Vollmer President of ALAFA- Alianza Latinoamericana para la Familia (Latin
American Alliance for the Family)
“On behalf of the Alliance of Romania’s Families, I wish to express gratitude
and delight that we have been able to attend the World Congress of Families in
Amsterdam. We made many friends and established valuable contacts. We were
encouraged to be in the company of like-minded organizations, and trust that we
have been an encouragement to others as well. The Congress was well thought out,
well organized, and well presented. Topics were very informative and catered to
the varied interests of the Congress’s international audience. The Congress was
well received in Romania as well, where the Alliance of Families gave interviews
to the media and has been solicited for additional media comments on the
Congress. I have noticed, to my delight, that Romanian media seemed increasingly
interested in some of the subjects debated at the Congress, particularly
demographic winter. Hope to see you again in 2 years.” Dr. Peter Costea,
President, Alliance of Romania’s Families
“There is no doubt WCF will have a profound impact on the debate in the
Netherlands. The issues raised up till now were almost taboo. Left wing
politicians even tried to prevent our Family Minister from opening the
conference with its ‘despicable views.’ Leading newspapers however took the
other side, defending freedom of speech; but, moreover, acknowledging that, on a
worldwide scale, WCF represented the majority view on a number of these issues.
The scope of the debate has broadened.” Peter Cuyvers, family expert, the Dutch
Christian Democratic Party |
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Amsterdam – More Media Coverage Than Any Previous Congress 
 World Congress of Families V was covered by 61 registered journalists -- the
most extensive coverage of any Congress to date. Spurred by the controversy
regarding Deputy Prime-Minster Andre Rouvoet’s participation and demonstrations
by the anti-family left, the Congress was front-page news in every major
newspaper in the Netherlands. Television coverage was provided by the
Netherlands’ largest TV network and news station on every nightly newscast
following the Congress’s opening on August 10. Two weeks prior to the event, the
leftist Dutch political parties demanded that Rouvoet not participate in what
they called an ultra-conservative, Christian fundamentalist event. Rouvoet’s
refusal to dissociate himself from the Congress was discussed and debated in all
of the Dutch newspapers. That the offices of the WCF conference organizer were
vandalized twice in the days leading up to the Congress (10 days and 4 days
prior to the opening session) further piqued the media’s interest and occasioned
a lively debate regarding The Congress’s position on marriage, divorce,
abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, etc.
 Additional coverage was generated by the erroneous charge that Congress
speaker Anna Zaborska, MEP from Slovakia, had made certain homophobic
statements. Again, there were calls for Rouvet to withdraw. This resulted in a
backlash. Many of the editors who had formerly opposed the Congress began
defending our right to meet in Amsterdam. During the month of August, WCF V was
covered in 143 news articles in the Netherlands and over 60 in the United
States. Newspaper editorials and debates continue on family issues such as
single parents, demography, same-sex marriage, homosexuality and abortion. Many
of these issues hadn’t been debated in the Netherlands for 20 years or more.
There was also extensive radio coverage. Following the Congress, WCF Managing
Director Larry Jacobs did more radio interviews, including: CrossTalk on
Christian stations in the US and a conservative political program in Canada. The
BBC interviewed WCF International Secretary Allan Carlson on the weekend of
September 4 for a TV special on falling fertility rates and families who choose
to have more children. Allan was also quoted in a September 24 article in the
National Catholic Register on attempts to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. |
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NC Register Gives
High-Profile Coverage To “Demographic Winter”
 In a front-page story in its October 4-10 edition (“Where Are The Children?
World Is ‘Running Out of People,’ Documentary Warns”), The National Catholic
Register gave high-profile coverage to “Demographic Winter” and its sequel,
“Demographic Bomb.”
The article notes the worldwide impact of rapidly falling birth rates:
• “Russia … could lose a third of its population within 40 years. And Moscow
is now concerned enough to offer $9,000 to mothers for each child after the
first.”
• “Likewise, Portugal’s government is considering charging higher pension
payments to those who have fewer than two children. Japan, which has the world’s
lowest birth rate outside Europe, has a whole ministry devoted to reversing its
decline.”
• “As for the United States, its population continues to grow only because of
immigration or the higher fertility of recent immigrants from Mexico. Native
American fertility rates have been falling for decades and according to the
film, the impact has already been felt economically.”
The Register calls an interview with economist Harry Dent one of the most
telling in “Demographic Winter.” Dent predicted the current recession and
collapse of the U.S. real estate market, when the Baby Boom generation passed
its peak spending years. The story notes, “Falling populations mean less
consumption, a shrinking economy and a shrinking tax base.”
This demographic reality hasn’t taken the steam out of the international
population control movement. The Register reports, “A British group that wants
the United Kingdom’s population cut by twothirds is recommending family planning
as the best way to reduce global warming.”
National Catholic Register is one of the most prominent and influential
Catholic periodicals in America. The Register has a special appeal for Catholic
opinion-makers.
World Congress of Families pioneered the issue of declining fertility rates.
The topic was discussed at World Congress of Families II in Geneva, 1999, and at
each subsequent Congress.
The Amsterdam Congress included a plenary session speech by demographer
Phillip Longman (“Demography And The Family: Lessons for Developing Nations”),also featured in Demographic Winter, and a panel discussion (“Family
And Demography) which included presentations by John Mueller of the Ethics and
Public Policy Center, Steve Mosher of the Population Research Institute, Pierre
Hernalesteen of the Flemish Association for Natural Family Planning and WCF
Communications Director Don Feder. It was chaired by Steven Smoot of the Family
First Foundation.
Click here to read, “Where Are the Children,” in the National Catholic
Register.
Click here to view trailers for “Demographic Bomb” and
“Demographic Winter,”
as well as to order DVDs of the documentaries. |
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Two Important Books By WCF
Leaders
 “Children at Risk: The Precarious State of Children’s Well-Being in America” by
Dr Janice Shaw Crouse
World Congress of Families Management Committee Member Dr. Janice Shaw
Crouse, Ph.D., has just published, “Children at Risk: The Precarious State of
Children’s Well-Being in America,” by Transaction Publishers.
Crouse contends that without morals, children are very much at risk. Moral
boundaries, not moral relativism, provide a safe haven for children by
preserving their innocence and protecting them from predators and pedophiles.
When authentic religious faith has been quashed, children are no longer safe.
When the underlying values are wrong, when there are no common values unifying a
people, even the best programs and the most honorable of intentions are doomed
to failure.
WCF International Secretary Dr. Allan Carlson says: “Janice Shaw Crouse’s
‘Children at Risk’ mobilizes a mass of research to show that public policy
efforts to sustain families without fatherhood and marriage have failed, with
children left the victims.”
Dr. Crouse is senior fellow at the Beverly LaHaye Institute and served as an
official U.S. delegate to the United Nations in 2002 and 2003. She is an expert
on international trafficking in women and children.
Click here to order her book. At World Congress of Families V, Crouse was
co-chair of the panel on Migration and Family Life. |
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 “Stand for the Family: A Call to Responsible Citizens Everywhere” by Sharon
Slater
“Stand for the Family” is based on Sharon Slater’s work at the United
Nations, over the past decade, fighting anti-family policies and building
pro-family coalitions.
Chapters include: Witnessing the Assault on the Family at the UN; How UN
Policies Trickle Down to the National and Local Levels, Negatively Impacting the
Family; The Case for the Traditional Family; Debunking the Myth of Sexual
Determinism; The Assault on Motherhood; The Sexual Assault on Our Children; The
Assault on Parental Rights; Who’s Against The Family And Why; How To Defend
Traditional Marriage; and Immunizing Your Family Against All of The Assaults.
WCF Communications Director Don Feder says, “’Stand for the Family’ is not
for the faint of heart. It exposes covert threats to the family that we all need
to understand.” WCF International Secretary Allan Carlson calls “Stand for the
Family,” “A gripping and compelling story. I highly recommend it to all who want
both to protect their own families and to defend the natural family in the
public square.”
Click here to order “Stand for the Family.”
Click here to learn how activists can obtain a free electronic version of the
book by collecting signatures on the I Stand for the Family petition.
Sharon Slater is the president of Family Watch International. She was cochair
of the HIV/AIDS and the Family panel at World Congress of Family V. |
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Focus On The Family
Produces Video Report On Amsterdam
 On August 19, Focus on the Family (a WCF Partner) broadcast a video-report on
the importance of World Congress of Families V.
In it, Focus Senior Vice President of Government and Public Policy Tom
Minnery, who led two sessions at WCF V, discussed the overall significance of
Amsterdam in the context of United Nations’ pressure on developing countries to
adopt “pro-abortion and pro-homosexual policies.”
Tom
noted that 63 nations sent representatives to Amsterdam, and said he was
“surprised but gratified by the growing presence of pro-family activists from
the Third World” at Congresses.
Tom explained that WCF “brings together pro-family activists from around the
world to affirm the natural family” as the union of one man and one woman.
Minnery also observed that delegates expressed growing concern over declining
birth rates. “I predict the next issue of the pro-family movement will be
families having more children,” Minnery declared.
Click here to watch this video-report (Focus Action Update). |
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Click on video below to
watch:
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UN Human Rights Council
Adopts Resolution Calling For Respect For Traditional Values
 During its 12th session, the United Nations Human Rights Commission passed a
resolution sponsored by the Russian Federation calling on the U.N. to “promote
human rights and fundamental freedoms through a better understanding of
traditional values of humankind.” The vote was 26 in favor and 15 against, with
6 abstentions. Not surprisingly, the U.S. delegation, reflecting the views of
President Barack Obama, opposed the measure.
Proponents cited the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
which supports the natural, or traditional, family.
Feminists were beside themselves, charging the resolution will encourage such
hideous practices as genital mutilation and honor killings—as if these were
actually traditional values. In reality, the anti-family left, which usually
dominates UN proceedings, fears any move which would seek to undermine the
international drive for abortion and homosexuality.
The resolution also calls for a United Nations forum in 2010 to facilitate an
exchange of views on how to achieve a better understanding of the way in which
the “traditional values of humankind” provide the underpinnings for human rights
everywhere. Both governments and NGOs are called on to make submissions on how
natural law supports human rights. |
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World Congress of Families:
Profiles in Leadership
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This continues our regular feature celebrating the women and men
who have contributed to the growing success of the international pro-family
movement.
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Richard Land
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 Dr. Richard Land is president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission,
the Southern Baptist Convention’s official entity assigned to address social,
moral, and ethical concerns, with particular attention to their impact on
American families and their faith. He has served in this position since October
1988. Prior to becoming The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s President,
Dr. Land served as The Criswell College’s Vice- President for Academic Affairs
from 1980 to 1988. He had taught as Professor of Theology and Church History at
that institution since 1975. Dr. Land graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree
(magna cum laude) from Princeton University and with the Doctor of Philosophy
degree from Oxford University in England. He also received a Master of Theology
(Honors Program) degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary where he
served as student body president and received the Broadman Seminarian Award as
the outstanding graduating student. While on leave of absence from The Criswell
College, Dr. Land served from January 1987 to May 1988 as Administrative
Assistant to the Honorable William P. Clements, Jr., Governor of Texas. Dr. Land
was the Governor’s senior advisor on church-state issues and areas relating to
“traditional family values” as well as anti-drug, anti-pornography and
anti-abortion legislation. In addition to these issues, Dr. Land had senior
staff responsibility in the areas of public higher education, mental health and
retardation, the physically handicapped, and AIDS.
Dr. Land is currently serving his fourth term with the U.S. Commission on
International Religious Freedom. Former President Bush selected Dr. Land for his
first two terms at the Commission (September 2001 to September 2004). He was
then reappointed by former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in 2005 and Senator
Mitch McConnell in 2007. In February 2005, Land was featured in Time Magazine as
one of “The Twenty-five Most Influential Evangelicals in America.”
In May 2004, Land was recognized by the prestigious National Journal as one
of the ten top church-state experts “politicians will call on when they get
serious about addressing an important public policy issue.”
Dr. Land has spoken on college campuses, in churches and in other forums
across America on the crucial issues facing the American family in the
twenty-first century. From 1980 to 1988, Dr. Land hosted a syndicated weekly
radio program, Issues of the Eighties, which generated an enthusiastic response
among listeners in many cities.
He currently co-hosts a 30-minute nationally syndicated weekday radio talk
show, For Faith & Family, as well as a daily radio commentary, For Faith &
Family Insight, sponsored by The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the
Southern Baptist Convention. His radio presence is carried on over 600 radio
stations and on the web each week. Dr. Land also hosts a syndicated live, 3-hour
radio program, Richard Land Live! On the program, heard every Saturday on the
Salem Radio Network, he deals with current issues from a Biblical perspective.
Dr. Land’s latest book, “The Divided States of America? What Liberals and
Conservatives are Missing in the God-and- Country Shouting Match!” is published
by Thomas Nelson.
Dr. Land has also recently authored “Imagine! A God- Blessed America” (Broadman
& Holman, 2005) and “Real Homeland Security” (Broadman & Holman, 2004). His
other books include: “For Faith & Family,” “The Earth Is The Lord’s,” “Life At
Risk,” “Citizen Christians”, and “Christians In The Public Square.” Dr. Land is
a Southern Baptist minister, having been ordained since 1969. He has pastored
Baptist churches in Texas, Louisiana and England, and is listed in “Who’s Who in
America” and “Who’s Who in Religion.”
Dr. Land is a native Houstonian and a sixth-generation Texan. His record as a
pro-family advocate is capped by his proudest accomplishment—his over 35-year
marriage to his wife Dr. Rebekah Land (a psychotherapist in private practice)
and his personal investment with her in the lives of their three adult children,
Jennifer, Richard, Jr., and Rachel.
Dr. Richard Land spoke at World Congress of Families V on “The Role of Faith
and Churches in Keeping Families Together”
Click here to read Dr. Land’s speech to WCF V. Click here to order “The
Divided States of America?” |
Elder Russell M. Nelson
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 Elder Russell M. Nelson was called as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 7, 1984.
An internationally renowned surgeon and medical researcher, Dr. Nelson
received his B.A. and M.D. degrees from the University of Utah (1945, 1947).
Honorary scholastic societies include Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha. He
served his residency in surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and
at the University of Minnesota, where he was awarded his Ph.D. Degree in 1954.
He also received honorary degrees of Doctor of Science from Brigham Young
University in 1970, Doctor of Medical Science from Utah State University in
1989, and Doctor of Humane Letters from Snow College in 1994.
His professional work included the positions of research professor of surgery
and director of the Thoracic Surgery Residency at the University of Utah and
chairman of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City.
Author of numerous publications and chapters in medical textbooks, Elder
Nelson lectured and visited professionally throughout the United States and in
many other nations prior to his call as a General Authority. A host of awards
and honors have come to him, including the Distinguished Alumni Award,
University of Utah; the Heart of Gold Award from the American Heart Association;
a citation for International Service from the American Heart Association; and
the Golden Plate Award, presented by the American Academy of Achievement. He has
been awarded honorary professorships from three universities in the People’s
Republic of China.
Dr. Nelson has served as president of the Society for Vascular Surgery, a
director of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery, chairman of the Council on
Cardiovascular Surgery for the American Heart Association, and president of the
Utah State Medical Association.
He is listed in Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in
Science and Engineering, and Who’s Who in Religion.
Elder Nelson has held numerous positions of responsibility in the Church. He
served as stake president of the Bonneville stake from 1964 to June 1971, when
he was called as general president of the Sunday School. Prior to his call to
the Quorum of the Twelve, he was serving as a regional representative assigned
to the Kearns Utah Region. He had previously served as regional representative
for Brigham Young University.
Born September 9, 1924, Elder Nelson is the son of Marion C. and Edna
Anderson Nelson. He and his wife, the former Dantzel White, have ten children,
57 grandchildren and 38 greatgrandchildren. Sister Nelson passed away in
February 2005. On 6 April 2006, he married Wendy L. Watson.
Along with his wife, Wendy, Elder Nelson spoke at World Congress of Families
V on “The Family: The Hope for the Future of Nations.”
Click here to read his speech to the Amsterdam Congress. |
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Feder Was
Master-Of-Ceremonies At Annual Boston “Respect Life Walk”
  World Congress of Families Communications Director Don Feder was the master of
ceremonies at a rally preceding the annual “Massachusetts Citizens for Life
Respect Life Walk to Aid Mothers and Children” on The Boston Common on October
4. Feder has MCed the event for the past six years.
Thousands attended the march to support crisis pregnancy centers across the
state. The keynote speaker was Jim Sedlak, vice president of American Life
League, who spoke of
 the effort to de-fund Planned Parenthood, the nation’s
largest abortion provider.
A letter was read from Cardinal Sean O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston. Other
speakers included Jaclyn Thomas, a senior at Tufts University, who started a
pro-life group on her campus, and Edie McDaniel, Silent No More regional
coordinator. McDaniel urged the crowd to: “Open your hearts to post-abortive
women. Only they can tell us abortion hurts women. It destroys women.”
Feder has spoken at pro-life conferences in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania,
Illinois and Alabama, as well at addressing the annual convention of the
National Right to Life Committee. |
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Spain’s Family Forum Asks
For International Support On Prolife Petition
 The Spanish pro-family group Foro Espagnol de la Familia (the Spanish Family
Forum) is asking for international support for the “Manifesto – A Defense of
Life, Women and Maternity,” and in opposition to the government’s attempts to
further liberalize the nation’s abortion law.
A bill granting unlimited access to abortion during the first 14 weeks of
pregnancy has been approved by Spain’s Council of State (cabinet). It still must
be voted on by the national Congress and signed by the president. Spain’s ruling
socialist government sponsored the measure.
On October 17, a coalition of pro-life groups, including HatzeOir.org (a
World Congress of Families Partner) and Derecho a Vivir (Right to Live) are
sponsoring a massive demonstration against the legislation in Madrid. This is
expected to be as large as the demonstration on March 29 of this year, which
brought half-a-million people into the streets of Madrid.
Currently, access to abortion in Spain is based on certain criteria,
including “psychological health of the mother.” This hasn’t prevented 100,000
abortions a year in the once solidly Catholic country. Pro-life advocates note
the irony of a program, instituted in 2008 (also by the Zapatero government)
under which Spanish families receive a subsidy of 2,500 Euros for each newborn.
For a family with three or more children, this is increased to 3,500 Euros.
The child-subsidy is intended to counter Spain’s dismal birth rate (one of
the lowest in the world) of 1.1 children for the average woman during her
childbearing years. (A birth rate of 2.13 is needed just to replace current
population.) While it subsidizes births, the government wants to further ease
access to abortion.
You can read the Manifesto online by clicking here.
Click here for the website of HatzeOir.org.
Click here to contact the Spanish Family Forum |
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(With this issue,
we will begin publishing excerpts from speeches delivered at WCF
V in Amsterdam) |
The Value Of Marriage As
The Basis Of Family Life
 By
Glenn Williams
1) Marriage socializes men.
“Anthropologists tell us that a society’s most pressing and original problem
is the unattached male. Either marriage or prisons are the only answers to this
problem. And no, they are not the same thing!
UC Berkeley economist George Akerlof, addressed this topic in a prestigious
lecture just over a decade ago.
He finds that married men are more attached to the labor force, on average
earn higher wages each year they are married, have less substance abuse, commit
less crime and are less likely to be the victims of crime, have better physical
and psychological health, live longer and are less likely to be victims of a
serious accident. Akerlof explains that single men are nearly six times more
likely to go to prison than married men, and are four to five times more likely
to be a victim of crime themselves.”
“He found cohabitation was incapable of providing these benefits. Akerlof
explains this is because, ‘men settle down when they get married and if they
fail to get married, they fail to settle down.’”
2) Marriage regulates sexuality.
“British anthropologist Joseph Daniel Unwin, in studying the connection
between sexual mores and cultural health, found largely the same thing, calling
it an ‘indubitable fact.’ He explained,
‘So close, in fact, is the relation between sexual opportunity and cultural
condition that if we know what sexual regulation a society adopted, we can
prophesy accurately the pattern of its culture.’”
3) Marriage protects women from exploitive males.
“When a culture does not have or fails to enforce a norm of monogamy, women
are likely to become commodities — things to be collected, used and then
discarded.
Marriage also serves to protect women by both socializing men and regulating
sex, thus leveling the sexual playing field between men and women.
A wealth of research, controlling for all the important confounding factors,
shows that abuse of women by either their partners or strangers is lowest (by
significant margins) in married homes and highest in cohabiting and dating
situations.”
4) Marriage provides mothers and fathers for children.
“Healthy children
define a healthy society. And marriage is the way we ensure the next generation
grows up with the irreplaceable benefit of their mother and father, which the
U.N. Convention on the Rights of The Child guarantees, as much as possible, to
every child.
A loving and compassionate society always comes to the aid of motherless and
fatherless children, but a compassionate society never, by intention or neglect,
creates such families.
No society has found a better way than marriage to tie those who become
parents to each other in a cooperative way, and that couple to their common
children.
So why have we seen such a historically unprecedented decline to marriage in
nearly every culture around the world?
Of course, this is a very complex and multi-layered question, but I want to
offer three general reasons that serve as a start in answering this important
question.”
1. Marriage has become Optional
“Marriage is no longer an assumed requirement for moving into adulthood,
setting up a household or having children. It is merely one possible life choice
among many.
2. Marriage has become Disposable
For those who do marry, we have lost the ideal ‘til death do us part.’ Too
often, and especially in the US, if our marriages don’t meet our expectations
for happiness and personal fulfillment, we trade them in for one that hopefully
will.
3. Marriage has become Redefinable We are redefining marriage into an
institution to fulfill our own expectations. We redefined it through more
liberal divorce laws, removing the ‘till death do us part’ portion of it. We are
redefining the ‘husband and wife’ part of it. Our consumerist view redefines the
‘I give to you my total self’ portion. Marriage defines and forms us. Not the
other way around. 3 Key policy/community recommendations I want to leave with a
game plan of what we might do to recover this valuable institution: three
recommendations that governments and communities can cooperate in.
1) Government and community cooperation to reduce the divorce, cohabitation
and unmarried child-bearing rates by 25% in 10 years – This is certainly
ambitious, but it should only really be a starting point. One of these leads to
the death of a marriage, while the other two lead to the establishment of family
and domestic life without marriage.”
2) Developing healthy mature men – “A basic requirement for a healthy
marriage is a healthy man. It seems to come easier for women. And if women can’t
find mature, confident men willing and able to provide for a family, women are
far less likely to marry. They either delay it or merely live with the man,
hoping he will become marriage-ready one day. And if the alarm on their
biological clocks rings before their wedding bells, these women are increasingly
choosing the baby before a husband. Our cultures must re-discover how to create
marriageable men.”
3) Intergenerational mentoring – “Related to #2 is the idea of working to
link two very different generations into an important and cooperative effort.
We are witnessing the twilight of an older, wiser generation of grand and
great-grandparents who somehow made their marriages work and succeed.
We are also seeing the dawning of a younger generation that deeply desires to
marry and succeed, but is literally paralyzed by fear at the prospect of failing
at marriage like so many of their parents did.
Why not create cooperative community efforts, to take the matchless and
proven wisdom of the older and download it into the lives and experiences of the
younger.
My friends and co-laborers, let me end with this very serious and challenging
note.
We are on the cusp of losing marriage in a generation! There is no reason –
save for our lack of resolve and willingness to cooperate – that we cannot gain
it back in a generation!
We must.
No less than our collective human thriving depends on it”
Glenn Williams is the chief operating officer of Focus on the Family. As an
Australian psychologist and former pastor, Williams has addressed audiences in
the US, UK, Canada. Asia, the Pacific and Europe on family and parenting issues.
He co-authored the program “How to Drug Proof Your Kids".
Click here to read his full remarks to World Congress of Families V. |
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Thank you to all WCF Co-Sponsors for your
continuing support.
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The
4th. Pro-Life World Congress in Saragossa, Spain (November 6-8) will
honor Human Life International and Congressman Christopher Smith
with its Humanity Award. The International Humanity Award recognizes
distinguished service by institutions and individuals in defense of
human life and the family.
international
conferences and 50 in the United States.
