I have been asked to say a few words about the work of The World Congress of Families.  Three major Congresses have been held: in Prague, the Czech Republic, in 1997; in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1999; and in Mexico City in 2004.  These photos come from the Mexico City event.  Another dozen regional Congresses have also convened.

One way to understand their purpose and influence is to consider how our opponents describe the World Congress of Families.  For example, in a report prepared for the left-leaning Global Policy Forum, analyst Jennifer Butler wrote:

“[The] World Congress of Families…began efforts to organize an interfaith lobby of pro-family NGO's and governments….[This] pro-family coalition trains and exhorts its members to overcome 'bigotry and prejudice' to work together on a common cause.  This represents a radical realignment of religious and political interests….

     “The momentum in this coalition has been building over the past few years, as demonstrated by the relationships built through the World Congress of Families gatherings.”  ("300 Religious Right Participants Attend Beijing Prep Com," June 1, 2000)

Last year, the journal Foreign Policy in Focus  featured the article, “Unilateralism: The Christian Right’s Influence and How to Counter It,” by Duane Oldfield.  He makes frequent references to the World Congress of Families, including:

“…The most notable institutional embodiment of this [social conservative] alliance is the World Congress of Families, uniting groups of various faiths in defense of the ‘natural family.’  As this social conservative alliance has made its voice heard at UN forums and resisted UN initiatives, it has often used a strangely progressive language, defending third world autonomy against the meddling of first world feminists and the international institutions that they allegedly control….”  (Duane Oldfield, Foreign Policy in Focus, 2003).

Indeed, a whole book has recently appeared analyzing the World Congress of Families project.  Entitled Globalizing Family Values: The Christian Right in International Politics (2003), the book is published by The University of Minnesota Press.  The authors, Doris Buss and Didi Hermann, teach law—respectively—at Carleton University in Canada and Keele University in England.  Both openly write with feminist and “gay/lesbian” sympathies.  And yet, this book does more-or-less tell the story honestly.  Some quotes:

“In the final days of the twentieth century, a remarkable conference took place in Geneva, Switzerland…. This conference, World Congress of Families II, brought together conservative religious activists representing the three monotheistic faiths from around the world,…[part of] an unfolding effort to build a global alliance of orthodox faiths to counter the perceived liberal dominance of ‘the international legal and political arena’.” [opening sentence and paragraph of the book, p. xiii]

“The WCF II represented a new sophistication on the part of American activists: the recognition that conservative social change, at the global level, requires a networked alliance of orthodoxies.”  [p. xiv]

 “[D]riving much of the [World Congress of Family’s] intellectual energy are organizations such as the Howard Center, modeled as think tanks.  The ‘intellectualization’ of the CR [Christian Right]…is therefore another theme that we explore.”  [p. xxxiii].

This past Autumn, the feminist journal, Ms. Magazine, reported extensively on our 2004 Mexico City Congress; and again, they understood the event pretty well:

“Such sentiments were repeated throughout the three-day World Congress of Families (WCF), a late-March gathering that drew more than 3,300 delegates.  This was the third Congress held in the past seven years, all of which have brought together the leadership of an increasingly trenchant and powerful wing of the international conservative movement.”  (“A Family Affair,” Ms., Fall 2004).

“[In 1997] Allan Carlson began planning the World Congress of Families.  Its guiding idea was to try and reshape the international political landscape around issues of family and sexuality by forming an international coalition of right-wing secular and religious organizations.”  (“A Family Affair,” Ms., Fall 2004).

“It took five years to stage this third Congress, the numbers doubling yet again, and the Centro Banamex was teeming with crowds that reflected the organization’s growing luster.”  (“A Family Affair,” Ms., Fall 2004).

“At this year’s World Congress of Families, for the first time, the U.S. government gave its explicit endorsement of the so-called pro-family agenda.”  (“A Family Affair,” Ms., Fall 2004).

England’s hard-left newspaper, The Guardian, has also warned the world that:

“…[The World Congress of Families] is the most important manifestation to date of this new form of interdoctrinal collaboration based on the deeply conservative values which unite the most reactionary believers of different faiths—in particular fundamentalist Christians and Muslims.”  (Editorial, The Guardian, Nov. 29, 1999).

So we’re both “reactionary” and “strangely progressive.”  We are an “alliance of orthodoxies” this is also full of “intellectual energy.”  We successfully battle “bigotry and prejudice” and exhibit a “new sophistication.”  Increasingly “trenchant and powerful,” showing “growing luster,” and “teeming” with crowds, we are crafting “a radical realignment of religious and political interests” around the globe.  That says it pretty well.  Indeed, I am tempted to conclude that with enemies like these, who needs friends. 

In my own words, The World Congress of Families is a rallying center for the world’s family systems grounded in religious faith.  In response to a militant secular individualism found in parts of the “post modern” West, the WCF fosters an international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, and policy organizations that seek to restore the natural family as the fundamental social unit.  The Congress project affirms and builds a positive united front among the family-centered religious peoples, including Christians, Jews, and Muslims.  The Congress also seeks to shift the terms of certain key public debates:

• From "The family as an obstacle to development" to the "family as the source of social renewal and progress";

• From "overpopulation" to "underpopulation" as the demographic problem facing the 21st century;

• From "the small family and voluntary childlessness as good" to "the celebration of the large family as a special social gift";

• And from religious orthodoxy as a "threat to progress" to "religious orthodoxy as the source of humane values and cultural progress."

The values of the World Congress of Families are ably summarized in the "Geneva Declaration," crafted at the Second World Congress in 1999, and in The Mexico City Declaration of 2004.  I close with a photo of Martha Sahagun de Fox, First Lady of Mexico, speaking to our Third Congress.  And I look forward to your questions.