World Congress of Families Decries Attack on Pro-Family Restaurant Chain by Homosexual Groups
MEDIA ADVISORY, Jan. 31, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- World Congress of Families Managing Director Larry Jacobs noted that the attack on the restaurant chain Chick-fil-A by "gay" activists is another attempt to crush dissent from the LGBT movement's agenda. "Every year, corporate America pours hundreds of millions of dollars into organizations seeking to advance anti-child and anti-biblical messages such as same-sex marriage, coercive sexual orientation laws and forced transgender "special rights" in the workplace, and it's treated as a 'progressive' business practice," Jacobs observed. "But let one restaurant chain support the strengthening of the institution of marriage and the natural family, and it becomes end-of-the-world news in The New York Times." Ironically, these so-called "controversial" family values about the importance of healthy marriages and the importance of fathers and mothers to children, are the same values vital to a healthy and prosperous society. President Obama spoke of these foundational values and the natural family when he said, "[We] need families to raise our children. We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child - it's the courage to raise one. We need to help all the mothers out there who are raising these kids by themselves; the mothers who drop them off at school, go to work, pick up them up in the afternoon, work another shift, get dinner, make lunches, pay the bills, fix the house, and all the other things it takes both parents to do. So many of these women are doing a heroic job, but they need support. They need another parent. Their children need another parent. That's what keeps their foundation strong. It's what keeps the foundation of our country strong." In a January 29th story (click here to read), The New York Times reported on an online petition calling on Chick-fil-A to "stop supporting groups perceived as anti-gay, including Focus on the Family." Apparently, said rampant bigotry includes Chick-fil-A providing sandwiches and brownies to a February seminar called, "The Art of Marriage: Getting to the Heart of God's Design," sponsored by the Pennsylvania Family Institute. "This is only part of the good work to help children and build a healthy society that Chick-fil-A does," Jacobs commented. "I wish other corporations did half as much for the natural family, as Chick-fil-A, which promotes pro-family values through its WinShape Foundation, including helping orphans and sponsoring seminars that help people strengthen their marriages and become better parents." "Those advancing a radical homosexual agenda must not be allowed to win through intimidation. Because they fear an open debate on their agenda and discussion of the importance of natural marriage, they invariably seek to silence dissenting voices," Jacobs said. "We call on the pro-family and marriage movement to join us in defending the right of any courageous corporation, acting in the very best interests of the community it serves, to stand for the natural family, society's irreplaceable institution," Jacobs stated. "The rights and importance of marriage and the natural family are even stated in the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948)." In Article 16 of UDHR it says, "Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family...The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State." Again, I will quote President Obama to share the reasons why it is important to strengthen marriages particularly among minority groups. In his 2008 speech on the importance of fathers and mothers, the President said, "Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family is the most important. And we are called to recognize and honor how critical every father is to that foundation...We know that more than half of all black children live in single-parent households, a number that has doubled - doubled - since we were children. We know the statistics - that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and twenty times more likely to end up in prison. They are more likely to have behavioral problems, or run away from home, or become teenage parents themselves. And the foundations of our community are weaker because of it." The World Congress of Families ( www.worldcongress.org) strengthens and encourages the natural family and holds international Congresses every 2-3 years (the last, WCF V, was in Amsterdam in 2009). This year, WCF will hold regional events in Riga (Latvia), London, Moscow - a first-ever Demographic Summit - and Lagos (Nigeria). Spain, India, Australia and Russia have submitted bids for the next World Congress of Families VI (2012) or VII (2013). For more information on World Congress of Families, visit www.worldcongress.org. To schedule an interview with Larry Jacobs, contact Don Feder at 508-405-1337 or 815-222-2490. The World Congress of Families (WCF) is an international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, leaders and people of goodwill from more than 60 countries that seek to restore the natural family as the fundamental social unit and the 'seedbed' of civil society (as found in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948). The WCF was founded in 1997 by Allan Carlson and is a project of The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society in Rockford, Illinois. To date, there have been five World Congresses of Families - Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004) and Warsaw, Poland (2007). The World Congress of Families V was held in Amsterdam, Netherlands, August 10-12, 2009 (www.worldcongress.org).
