Home ›

World Congress of Families

Printer-friendly version Send to friend

Religious Right Activist Compares California LGBT History Law To Nazism

Submitted by Brian Tashman on August 1, 2011 - 9:22am

With the emergence of the Stop SB 48 Coalition, which seeks to overturn the California law that makes sure textbooks include prominent LGBT historical figures by referendum, Religious Right activists have been stepping up their rhetoric against the new law. Larry Jacobs, the Vice President and Managing Director of the right-wing World Congress of Families, told the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow that the LGBT-inclusive law represents “a Nazi state or a communist type of way of dealing with an issue”:

Larry Jacobs of the World Congress of Families expects Californians to support the ban because lawmakers did not put a vote before the people before they passed the mandate.

"When people have [voted], and Governor Brown knows that he has an issue that would fail when put to a popular vote, of course, they just go around the people," Jacobs explains. "They essentially implement their will. And, of course, in a democracy, that's not the way things are supposed to work. It's certainly something that forces our children to be indoctrinated in a certain way. It's like a Nazi state or a communist type of way of dealing with an issue."

And he contends the bill has enforced the homosexual agenda on children in the state.

"What the homosexual movement has done with ... SB 48 [and] in general, in calling for equality, what they're calling for is special rights," the pro-family group spokesman notes. "We don't have special things in education to teach people to change history based on a particular Christian worldview or Muslim worldview, but they go beyond that."

PFAW
Filed under:

More Right-Wing Fear Mongering About Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal

Submitted by Brian Tashman on March 8, 2011 - 3:59pm

As the military begins to implement the repeal of the discriminatory Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, repeal opponents continue to argue that allowing gay service members to serve openly will bring about the collapse of the military. Don Feder of the ultraconservative World Congress of Families spoke to Jerry Newcombe of Coral Ridge Ministries about how the repeal will devastate the military:

Newcombe: And it’s interesting when you were talking earlier about how sometimes the homosexual activists will engage in intimidation process, I think that same thing’s happened in the military. Where now, the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy has been rescinded and we have yet to see what’s going to happen, but I know this is not going to be good for chaplains, for example, who believe in conservative, traditional values as found in the Bible.

Feder: Well, it’s not just chaplains. Jerry, if you look at people who’ve made a career of the armed forces, they tend to come from conservative backgrounds. They tend to share our values, not just patriotism but right across the board, including family values. I think what you’re going to see is a very quiet, long-term attrition. People aren’t necessarily going to resign but when they’re reenlistment is up, they’re simply going to choose not to reenlist. In fact, in a number of surveys, people who’ve made a career of the armed forces have said just that. Last fall, before all of this went down they said if Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was repealed they’d be far more likely not to reenlist.

However, there is simply no evidence to back up Feder’s assertion. The Defense Department’s own study into the impact of repeal concluded that the “risk of repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to the retention of enlisted personnel is LOW, and the risk to retention of officers is higher, in the range of LOW–MODERATE.” The Palm Center similarly found that retention rates will not be affected if gays are allowed to serve openly. Despite such overwhelming evidence, many right-wing activists continue to employ such scare tactics in order to push the Republican campaign to block implementation of the repeal.

PFAW
Filed under:

GOP Takeover of the House Called “The Best Development for the Family in 2010”

Submitted by Brian Tashman on January 19, 2011 - 1:02pm

The National Organization for Marriage embraced the World Congress of Families’ list of the “10 Best and Worst Developments for the Family in 2010,” which claims that the Republican victory in the midterm election was the "best development for the family" in 2010. The World Congress of Families is a militantly anti-gay organization that has spoken out against the purportedly-gay Teletubby Tinky-Winky and partners with other Religious Right groups such as Concerned Women for America, the Family Research Council, the American Family Association, Focus on the Family, the Alliance Defense Fund, and Peter LaBarbera’s Americans For Truth About Homosexuality. According to the list, the election of a Republican majority in the House of Representatives was the best development for families in 2010, along with moves towards anti-choice laws around the world. The WCF’s worst developments include: “Mexico City institutes same-sex marriage;” “repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell;” and “EU tries for stealth recognition of same-sex marriage,” which the group lumps together with issues such as prostitution and out-of-wedlock birth. Read the full list:

The 10 Best Developments are:

1. The U.S. elects a pro-family House of Representatives

2. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev begins discussion of his nation's demographic crisis

3. California voters reject marijuana legalization

4. Canadians refuse to legalize euthanasia

5. Spain holds huge pro-life rallies challenging expansion of abortion

6. U.K. plans to block children's access to Internet porn

7. Developing nation reject E.U. "sexual orientation" mandate

8. Regarding abortion, Europe preserves right of conscience for medical professionals

9. Hungary's new government considers pro-life/pro-marriage constitution and

10. U.N. members reject special rapporteur's recommendations on sexuality education.

Here are The 10 Worst Developments for the Family:

1. Ontario court tries to legalize prostitution in Canada

2. Mexico City institutes same-sex marriage

3. New Kenyan Constitution undermines right to life

4. Ted Turner calls for worldwide one-child policy

5. Hollywood is sexualizing teen girls

6. In U.S., high levels of out-of-wedlock birth among less educated

7. Repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell

8. Planned Parenthood says abortion and contraception are economic stimulus

9. Growing anti-Christian bigotry in Europe and

10. EU tries for stealth recognition of same-sex marriage.

PFAW
Filed under:

World Congress of Families Welcomes Peter LaBarbera To the Family

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on June 17, 2010 - 1:40pm

On his website today, Peter LaBarbera announced that his Americans for Truth About Homosexuality has joined the World Congress of Families as a "partner" organization:

Americans For Truth About Homosexuality is proud to join the World Congress of Families as a “Partner” organization. World Congress is the undisputed leader of the international pro-family movement. It is a distinct honor to be part of their growing network, which actively assists and unites pro-family and pro-life advocates the world over who are struggling against social leftism. WCF’s stated purpose is “to affirm that the natural human family is established by the Creator and essential to good society.” To accomplish its mission, WCF holds biennial international pro-family Congresses as well as more frequent regional conferences in major cities worldwide. To contact WCF, go HERE; to donate to The Howard Center/WCF, go HERE.

World Congress was launched by The Howard Center, based in Rockford, Illinois, a leading conservative, pro-family research institute under the guidance of the esteemed Dr. Allan Carlson. (If you are not reading The Howard Center’s publication, “The Family in America,” you are missing out.) AFTAH greatly appreciates and benefits from the tremendous work that Dr. Carlson, The Howard Center’s able staff, and the World Congress of Families do, and we look forward to working with them for years and decades to come.

Along with LaBarbera's AFT, it was announced that the Western Center for Journalism, founded by WorldNetDaily's Joseph Farah would also be joining the more than two dozen other right-wing groups already established as WCF partners: 

American Family Association
Alliance Defense Fund
Alliance for the Family
Americans United for Life
Associazione per la Difesa Dei Valori Cristiani – Luci sull’Est, Italy
Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute
Concerned Women for America
Ethics and Public Policy Center
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Family First Foundation
Family Watch International
Family Research Council
Father Peter Skarga Institute (Poland)
Fellowship of St. James
Focus on The Family
Grasstops USA
HazteOir.org
His Servants
Home School Legal Defense Association
Human Life International
Media Research Center
Parents Forum Switzerland
Population Research Institute
Real Women of Canada
Red Familia (Mexico)
Tradition, Family, & Property
United Families International

You may recall a few years ago when the WCF held its meeting in Poland over the objections of the European Parliamentary Working Group on Separation of Religion and Politics on the grounds that the "extremist and intolerant views ... toward foreigners, people from other religions [and] homosexuals" of WCF members clashed with the values set out by the United Nations and the European Union.

So adding LaBarbera to the mix ought to really help with that.

PFAW
Filed under:

Religious Right Now Exporting Its Anti-Marriage Equality Abroad

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on February 25, 2010 - 4:44pm

By now, we are all used to out-of-state Religious Right groups descending on places like Maine, Washington, DC, and elsewhere in order to set up shop in their nonstop effort to fight marriage equality ... but I have to admit that I never expected them to start exporting their efforts abroad.

But here they are, setting their sights on now fighting marriage equality in Mexico:

In response to a move to institute same-sex marriage in the Federal District which includes Mexico City (on March 4), more than 120 pro-family/pro-life leaders from 35 countries have signed the "World Congress of Families Leadership Petition To Save Marriage In Mexico City."

The Petition notes that "Mexico's Constitution defines marriage as between a man and a woman." Further, that all social ills begin with the decline of the family. Also "marriage substitutes ... undermine marriage and the family." The Petition observes that "children need both a mother and a father" and that those raised by two men or two women are "psychologically and socially disadvantaged."

The Petition calls on the government of Mexico City to refrain from implementing same-sex marriage and demands that the issue be decided at the national level, "with due regard to the nation's religious traditions, the wishes of the Mexican people and the needs of children and families, and consistent with Mexico's Constitution." Click here (www.worldcongress.org/special/wcf.mexpetsig.1002.pdf) to access the full Petition along with a list of signers.

U.S. signers (signing as individuals) include: Gary Bauer (American Values), Allan Carlson (World Congress of Families), Tom DeLay (former Majority Leader, U.S. House of Representatives), Joseph Meaney (Human Life International), Tony Perkins (Family Research Council), Michele Velasco (Priests for Life), Don Wildmon (American Family Association), Wendy Wright (Concerned Women for America), Maggie Gallagher (National Organization for Marriage), Dr. Paige Patterson (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary),Yuri Mantilla (Focus on the Family) and Dr. Jerry Newcombe (Coral Ridge Ministries).

PFAW
Filed under:

The World Congress of Families Chooses Its Destination

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on August 6, 2008 - 8:49am

Every few years, right-wingers from all over the globe gather for the World Congress of Families in order to “affirm that the natural human family is established by the Creator and essential to good society,” share strategy, and urge their governments to adopt policies that “protect and support the family, and not usurp the vital roles it plays in society.”  Not surprisingly, high on their list of priorities is the protection of marriage and families against “pornography, promiscuity, incest or homosexuality”: 

The complementary natures of men and women are physically and psychologically self-evident. These differences are created and natural, not primarily socially constructed. Sexuality is ordered for the procreation of children and the expression of love between husband and wife in the covenant of marriage. Marriage between a man and a woman forms the sole moral context for natural sexual union. Whether through pornography, promiscuity, incest or homosexuality, deviations from these created sexual norms cannot truly satisfy the human spirit. They lead to obsession, remorse, alienation, and disease. Child molesters harm children and no valid legal, psychological or moral justification can be offered for the odious crime of pedophilia. Culture and society should encourage standards of sexual morality that support and enhance family life.

So where is the next World Congress of Families going to be held, you ask?  Of all places, Amsterdam:

Last week, the Selection Committee for World Congress of Families V met in Washington, D.C. and unanimously recommended Amsterdam as the site for the next Congress. Their recommendation was accepted by the WCF Management Committee.

If the World Congress of Families sounds like some sort of international version of the sorts of “values voters” events put on in this country by right-wing political groups, that probably has something to do with the fact that many of those same groups are members of the WCF’s various steering committees, with groups like Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, and Concerned Women for America all playing a role:

The 16-member Selection Committee was composed of: Ignacio Arsuaga (HazteOir.org, Spain), Chuck Donovan (Family Research Council), Don Feder (World Congress of Families), Farooq Hassan (Pakistan Family Forum), Jesus Hernandez (The Family Network, Mexico), Marie-Claire Hernandez (Family & Society, Mexico), Randy Hicks (Georgia Family Council), Robert Knight (Culture and Media Institute, Media Research Center), Ewa Kowalewska (Human Life International,  Europe), Gwendolyn Landolt (REAL Women of Canada), Yuri Mantilla (Focus on the Family), Dorothy Patterson (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary), Austin Ruse (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute), Mary Ellen Smoot, Jennifer Swim (GFC Foundation) and Father Jaroslaw Szymczak (Institute of Family Studies, Poland). The meeting was chaired by Gwen Landolt (Real Women of Canada).

...

The Management Committee, which has ultimate oversight of the Congress, consists of Carlson, Janice Crouse (Senior Fellow, Beverly LaHaye Institute, Concerned Women for America), Paul Mero (President, Sutherland Institute), William Saunders (Senior Fellow & Human Rights Counsel, Family Research Council) and Christine Vollmer (President, Latin American Alliance for Families).

When the event was held last year in Poland, members of the European Parliamentary Working Group on Separation of Religion and Politics were not particularly jazzed that right-wing advocates were preparing to use the nation as a staging ground for saving Europe and the rest of the world from the “demographic winter and … the secularists.”

But the group soldiered on, despite the opposition. As Robert Knight of the Media Research Center put it: 

This is a nation that has suffered enormously over many decades. First from Nazism and then communism. They're a tough bunch of people who appear to have the strength to resist especially the homosexual agenda. If you've been victim of communists and Nazis, you're not going to run in fright from the forces from San Francisco.

PFAW
Filed under:

Tinky-Winky Controversy Revived in Poland

Submitted by Anonymous on June 1, 2007 - 4:55pm

Many scoffed in 1999 when the late Jerry Falwell’s magazine proposed that Tinky-Winky, a character on the “Teletubbies” children’s show, was intended as a gay role model, but recently the Polish government’s advocate for children said that she would be looking into the possibility of “hidden homosexual undertones” in the form of the character’s handbag. Ewa Sowinska backed away from the warning this week, but at least one American religious-right activist is defending her proposed investigation as a “legitimate inquiry.”

Allen Carlson of the Howard Center said, “I don't think anyone doubts that the creators of Tinky Winky intentionally were using stereotypes regarding homosexuality in creating this character.” Carlson praised Poland for “erring on the side of protecting children from harmful propaganda generated by the sexual revolution.”

Carlson support for reactionary anti-gay policies from the Polish government should be no surprise. Last month, Carlson organized the so-called World Congress of Families in Warsaw, where he and other speakers – including a U.S. State Department official – praised the Polish government for its efforts, in the words of the country’s education minister, to combat the “propagation of homosexual culture.”

As Robert Knight of the Media Research Center declared of a Poland standing alone in Europe,

This is a nation that has suffered enormously over many decades. First from Nazism and then communism. They're a tough bunch of people who appear to have the strength to resist especially the homosexual agenda. If you've been victim of communists and Nazis, you're not going to run in fright from the forces from San Francisco.

From communism to Nazism to “the forces from San Francisco” – and now to Tinky Winky.

PFAW
Filed under:

U.S. Religious Right Groups Not So Welcome in Europe

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on April 18, 2007 - 2:48pm

The “world’s largest conference of pro-family leaders and grass-roots activists” is slated to take place next month in Warsaw Poland. Known as the World Congress of Families, the event is backed by various right-wing groups such as The Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, Concerned Women For America, The Heritage Foundation, and others.  

The year’s event, entitled “The Natural Family – Springtime For Europe and the World” is being held in Poland because apparently it alone is last hope for saving Europe and the rest of the world from the “demographic winter and … the secularists”:

Europe is almost lost; to a demographic winter and to the secularists.  If Europe goes much of the world will go with it.  Almost alone, Poland has maintained strong faith and strong families, though even Poland comes under severe pressure to change.  Poland has saved Europe before.  It is likely she will save Europe again.  On family and population questions, Europe is the battleground in the early years of the 21st Century, and Poland is the pivot point.   It makes abundant sense that The World Congress of Families IV meet among the brave people of Poland.

Among those who have reportedly agreed to attend is US Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Ellen Sauerbrey – and members of the European Parliamentary Working Group on Separation of Religion and Politics are not particularly understanding about the Bush Administration’s willingness to lend the “official U.S. government stamp of approval to [the] extremist and intolerant views” that will surely be espoused at this conference: 

We urge you to withdraw from this conference because your participation provides an official U.S. government stamp of approval to extremist and intolerant views held by some participants and attendees. These extremist and intolerant views include prejudiced attitudes toward foreigners, people from other religions, homosexuals, and the inclusive vision of what represents a family unit that has been developed by the United Nations and the European Union.

…

The United States rightly prides itself on supporting and spreading religious tolerance, pluralism and inclusion. This conference, and many who will be attending, reject that ethos outright. We have no problem with people expressing beliefs and convictions that we do not share. In a free society, that is right and just. However, we do object when foreign government officials lend support to such views, especially when platforms are used to denigrate and attack those with whom they disagree.

We’re not sure if any of those parliamentarians have been paying attention to American politics for the past six years, but it doesn’t seem very likely that concerns over religious tolerance, gay rights, and xenophobia would cause Sauerbrey to withdraw from a conference put together by a still-loyal group of the Bush administration’s ever-dwindling political supporters.

PFAW
Filed under:
Syndicate content