Contact: Don Feder, Communications Director,
World Congress of Families,
508-405-1337,
dfeder@worldcongress.org; The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society at
815-964-5819,
media@worldcongress.orgROCKFORD, Ill., Aug. 22, 2014 /
Christian Newswire/
-- World Congress of Families Managing Director Larry Jacobs praised
those leaders who signed an International Pro-Family Leadership Open
Letter to the People of Australia in support of the August 30th "Life,
Family and Freedom Conference" in Melbourne.
"We are thankful and
humbled by the support of the 80 leaders from Romania, Italy, the Czech
Republic, Spain, Venezuela, the Philippines, Canada, France, South
Africa, the Republic of Georgia, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Russia,
Poland, Colombia, Jamaica, Trinidad, the Netherlands, Chile, Serbia, and
the United States for standing with us against attacks on the Melbourne
Conference and the international pro-family movement," Jacobs declared.
The
petition notes that sexual radicals and extremists have launched a
smear campaign alleging that to promote positive ideas regarding the
natural family somehow "shames" others, including single-parent
families, the divorced and homosexual couples.
"That's absurd,"
Jacobs countered, "As a child raised in a loving home by divorced,
single parents, I would never advocate for policies that would promote
hate or shame mothers and fathers. The real truth is that our natural
family solutions to the social crisis help all parents and children by
reducing poverty, improving education, maximizing mental and physical
health, and saving lives. A wealth of social science data demonstrates
conclusively and unequivocally that children do best in married families
with a mother and a father in the home. To state that simple truth
does not demonstrate a lack of compassions for those in different
circumstances. Just as saying that marriage is a social good doesn't
'stigmatize' or 'shame' the unmarried."
The Petition/Open Letter
notes: "The natural-family philosophy was set forth in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948,
which observes that 'men and women of full age...
have
the right to marry and found a family' and that the family is 'the
natural and fundamental group unit of society' and, as such, is
'entitled to protection by society and the state.' This language is
repeated in the constitutions of more than 100 nations around the
world."
Moreover: "For the past 3,000 years, in every culture,
this definition of the family (a man and women united by faith and
tradition, raising their children in a loving environment) has been
considered beyond dispute. Only in the past few decades have competing
'models' of the family been offered as the new norm. The natural family
is also affirmed by every major religion."
Jacobs said: "Attacks
on proponents of the natural family and marriage are part of a cynical
campaign by sexual radicals to avoid an honest discussion by labeling
those who disagree with them 'hateful.'"
Jacobs concluded: "If
you want to see 'hate' in action, look at efforts to deconstruct human
dignity, re-define marriage, and marginalize the natural
family which, if successful, will result in untold human suffering especially for children."
In
the words of Winston Churchill: "It is around the family and the home
that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues, of human
society are created, strengthened and maintained."
