World Congress of Families

Dr. Patrick Fagan, Senior Fellow at the Family Research Council in Washington D.C.
Farming analogy: The quality of the seed (children) sown is dependent on the quality of the farmers (parents). The family is the future of the world. The woman in the home raising children is of greater value than the husband in the marketplace. Divorce alone creates 1/6 drop in the economy each year in the USA. Key: Chastity and monogamy. The restoration of chastity is essential!

William B. May, USA “Getting the Marriage Conversation Right” : There is a campaign of intimidation and silence. The victims are our children. We need new ideas, new ways of thinking and opening up a new front so that we are on the offence and not the defense. The battle for marriage is in our home and we need to learn ways to teach it so our children can speak and defend it without fear. How can we do this?

1. Learn better ways of communicating our values to our children.
2. Research: Get well versed in research on the need for mothers and fathers. Religious sermons are wonderful but we need to be able to talk about marriage from a non-religious perspective as well because this is what will ultimately cut right to the heart of the matter with non-religious people.
3. Identify false premises that are being taught in the media. We need to speak truth: Marriage unites a man and a woman with each other and any children born from their union.

The #1 thing to remember is that marriage is worth fighting for! The dominant elitist left would want you to think you are losing so you won’t fight. But remember: History is not written yet.

Peter Westmore: A child needs a model of each sex. It is the optimal configuration since time began. We all hear the argument that same sex marriage is inevitable. However, if we listen to this argument, we just might believe it. But 90% of the world’s countries are against same sex marriage, only 13 have allowed it. That means 90% of the population don’t want it. Not one country in Asia wants it. Not one country in the Islamic world wants it. And note that these are all non-Christian countries. The countries that have legalized gay marriage have abolished a child’s birthright and children have been/will be subject to an uncontrolled social experiment. No government should allow laws legalizing and normalizing a motherless or fatherless situation.

Jose Ureta, France: Marriage for All, the French Experience: This was a fascinating presentation!
1.5 million French citizens marched on Paris against gay marriage, making it the largest rally in all of French history. This movement interestingly enough was driven by the younger 20-30 something aged generation. Why? They have seen the result of their parents’ generation which was rife with divorce and moral relativism, and they have had enough. There is an awakening of faith filled youth in France! The younger generation are more conservative than their parents. They are rising and ready to fight for family values. They are rejecting moral liberalism.
*The neatest thing happened in this session! I was sitting by the young man (probably in his mid 20’s) who was one of the top rally leaders against gay marriage in France. Someone started cheering in the audience for the courage of these French young people, and then they started, one by one, singing La Marsailles, the French anthem. The whole auditorium started clapping and everyone who knew the words started singing. It was incredible and inspiring!!

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Janice Crouse, UN Delegate on Commission for Women, Presidential Speech Writer, etc.

• The family is under attack in numerous and unprecedented ways. It is imperative for each of us to understand social science and use this evidence to teach the future generations.
• When we deviate from the norm, fixing the broken pieces of the family is extremely complex and difficult.
• Every child needs an adult who is absolutely crazy about him/her.
• Children are the only future the family and any nation has.

Q&A Panel of Experts – John Anderson:

• Western Society is doing to ourselves voluntarily what communism did to the world (i.e. erase God, religion and morals from society).
• Let’s understand that we have not equipped our children with the framework or moral vocabulary to combat moral relativism. What we need to do asap: 1) Get our own houses in order and humbly extend our examples of family life and religious belief to others; 2) Get ready for battle. We’re fighting for our children and the future of the world.
• Live a life that is worthy of our children to follow.
• We need to be courageous, we cannot afford to be complacent.
• It is UNBELIEVABLY important for our children to have a mother and a father. Yes, there will be single parents and often they will feel offended or feel sensitivity to this issue. But truth is truth and we must still teach the ideal and show the research of how important it is that children have a married mother and father. But it must be taught with sensitivity and kindness and gently work through the issue and research in a supportive way.

You can read short biographies of all the presenters and speakers here.