WORLD CONGRESS OF FAMILIES III SLATED FOR MARCH 2004 IN MEXICO CITY. Center President Allan Carlson announced that the World Congress of Families III will be held at the spacious Centro Banamex convention center in Mexico City, March 29-31, 2004. The Howard Center has previously served as the Secretariat for the Congresses held in Prague (1997) and Geneva (1999). The Center's primary partner for the Third Congress will be Mexico's Red Familia ("Family Network"), which was organized by several Mexican delegates to the 1999 Congress. They returned from Geneva to Mexico and pulled together an alliance of 150 pro-family organizations in their country, with a total membership of 8 million. To join "Family Network," an organization must endorse "The Geneva Declaration" of WCF II. "We are delighted to be working with an organization that, in a real way, is a 'child' of the spirit of Geneva," said Jean Heise, Center Special Events Coordinator. More information will be shared with friends of the Howard Center in the months ahead.

"DAY CARE DECEPTION" PUBLISHED AND PRAISED. August 5 was the publication date for Day Care Deception: What the Child Care Establishment Isn't Telling Us, from Encounter Books in San Francisco. Author Brian Robertson wrote the book while serving as Kohler Fellow in Family Studies at The Howard Center. The volume has already been named a "Main Selection" of the Conservative Book Club, which writes: "Robertson unmasks the unholy alliance between the Left and unscrupulous big business, an alliance dedicated to replacing the traditional family with a business-friendly nanny state. He explores how radical feminism, financial pressures, and the elimination of traditional social supports have led to a skyrocketing need for day care--bringing harm to virtually everyone involved except the day care establishment and the politicians who kowtow in Washington to the day care lobby." The book can be ordered through: www.encounterbooks.com

CHARMAINE YOEST IN RESIDENCE HERE. The Howard Center's 2003 Kohler Fellow in Family Studies, Charmaine Yoest, was in residence at the Center during June. She is a doctoral candidate in political science at the University of Virginia, where her dissertation focuses on the real effects of paid parental leave on the family. She gave talks to Friends of the Center both in Rockford and Chicago.

CARLSON ADDRESSES POLICYMAKERS IN NATION'S CAPITAL. Working in cooperation with the Washington-based Family Research Council, Allan Carlson continued his series of lectures to Federal policymakers. On June 12, he spoke on "Marriage on Trial: Why We Must Privilege and Burden the Traditional Marriage Bond." In this special session held in the U.S. Senate's Dirksen Office Building, he used five images of marriage to point toward new policy initiatives to protect this ancient and necessary human institution from contemporary attacks. Two days earlier, he presented a lecture to the staff of the Office of Population Affairs, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Carlson's subject was "Rethinking American Population Policy for a Depopulating World." In her letter of thanks, Alma Golden, MD (the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs) wrote: "As I'm sure you could tell, your presentation challenged the views of many staff who have devoted their professional lives to implementing policies and services designed to reduce population growth. I believe your remarks caused all of us to ponder and evaluate long held views on population issues." Other recent lectures by Carlson in the nation's capital, all sponsored by the Family Research Council, were: o "The Fertility Gap," April 24, at the FRC Auditorium; o "'Bailey Park' or 'Greater Pottersville'?: The Natural Family in the 21st Century Suburb," March 27, in the FRC Auditorium; o "Ideas for Pro-Family Tax Reform," March 14, at the historic Willard Hotel.

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PROF CITES CENTER'S GLOBAL INFLUENCE. In his new book, Marriage and Modernization: How Globalization Threatens Marriage and What To Do About It (Eerdmans, 2003), University of Chicago Professor Don Browning labels The Howard Center "small but influential," and calls it one of only four organizations offering a distinctive way of "thinking about the worldwide needs of families." The other three are The United Nations, The World Council of Churches, and the Roman Catholic Church. He continues: Although located in the small Midwestern City of Rockford, Illinois, and under the savvy leadership of its president, Allan Carlson, this little-known organization is at the center of an emerging conservative religious and political strategy on families. In its publications, books, and international conferences…, the Howard Center has developed a distinctive position on family issues (p. 211). He adds: "The Howard Center is also pro-natalist. The so-called threat of overpopulation, it believes, has been greatly exaggerated and is rapidly curing itself as birthrights plummet around the world. It holds that quite rapidly the elderly everywhere will outnumber the young, and modern economies will be crushed with the burden of sustaining the aging." The book can be ordered through: www.eerdmans.com

"SOCIETY, FAMILY & PERSON" APPEARS IN RUSSIAN. The Sociology Department of Moscow Lomonosov State University, Russia's premier social research center, published this May a collection of Allan Carlson's essays in the Russian language. Entitled Society, Family & Person, the volume points to The Howard Center as the leading home for "The Alternative School of American Sociology," focused on the importance of traditional families and associated with names such as Carle Zimmerman, Pitirim Sorokin, and Robert Nisbet. Professor Anatoli Antonov, who edited the volume, labels Carlson "a brilliant modern representative of this Alternative School" and calls the collection "profound." He hopes that Russian readers will draw lessons from the volume about "the inconsistent and muddled recent socio-economic reforms in Russia that unfortunately do not focus on the family and the interests of children nor on the defense of the private lives of people."

THE FAMILY AND BIOETHICS. Jean Heise and Associate Editor Karl Shields represented The Howard Center at the 10th annual conference on bioethics, Remaking Humanity?: Biotech Challenges for Healthcare, Science and the Church, held on the campus of Trinity International University, Deerfield, IL. This prestigious conference is hosted by organizations such as the Christian Medical and Dental Society, Americans United for Life, The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, the Christian Legal Society, and Trinity International University. Karl Shields presented a paper in a breakout session entitled, "The Family's Stake in Bioethics." The Center's newly refurbished convention display was well visited.

JOHN HOWARD SPEAKS TO BRADLEY INSTITUTE. Senior Fellow John Howard spoke March 4 on "The Family: America's Hope" at the Bradley Institute of Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, North Carolina. Dr. Howard told the audience that "the natural family is the indispensable institution of a free society," although one now under assault by "the cultural relativists and the forces of sexual revolution." Americans who grasp "that self discipline is the foundation rock of the free society" need to be mobilized in defense of the family, he concluded.

CARLSON ENTERS "MOTHERS AT WAR" FRAY. With young American women killed and captured in the early days of the Iraq War, Allan Carlson authored "Mothers at War: The American Way?" for World Net Daily (April 11). He argued that it was morally inappropriate and militarily unnecessary to put the mothers of young children at risk of capture and death. Carlson blamed the situation on a policy shift made during the Clinton administration. The article generated wide attention, including an interview by Judy Woodruff on CNN-TV (April 25) and radio appearances on WAVA (Washington, DC), The Salem Radio Network, WROL (Boston), WMUZ (Detroit), KEYS (Corpus Christi, TX), The Jason Jarvis Show (syndicated), KFMB (San Diego), and WNWC (Madison, WI).

"THE FAMILY IN AMERICA" APPEARS FROM TRANSACTION. A book authored by Center President Allan Carlson, The Family in America: Searching for Social Harmony in the Industrial Age, appears this August from Transaction Publishers, the social science press at Rutgers University. It is a new edition, with a new introduction by the author, of From Cottage to Work Station, first published ten years ago by Ignatius Press and out of print since 1998. The book offers a fresh interpretation of American social history, emphasizing the vital role of the family and household autonomy and the threats to both posed by industrial organization and the state. The book can be ordered through: www.transactionpub.com

BRIEFLY MENTIONED 

• "Sexuality: The Litmus Test of Culture" was the title of the 2003 American Studies Lecture at Hillsdale College, Michigan, presented April 10 by Center President Allan Carlson.

• The Howard Center co-sponsored the 2003 Chicago Conservative Conference at The Palmer House Hotel in downtown Chicago. Sessions focused primarily on state level issues, including taxation and the family.

• On April 5, Allan Carlson spoke to the members of the Illinois Chapter of the National Association of Scholars, meeting at Loyola University in Chicago. His subject was "World Population Trends and the Retreat from Marriage."

• In late April, Center President Allan Carlson was elected First Vice President of the Philadelphia Society, a national association of conservative academics, journalists, and leaders.

• In late May, Family in America Associate Editor Bryce Christensen and Allan Carlson served as consultants to the Sutherland Institute, a Utah-based think tank now drafting a guide to pro-family initiatives at the state level.

• KXAM Radio (Phoenix, AZ) interviewed Allan Carlson on June 11 regarding the threatened status of marriage in America.

• Meeting June 19-21 at the historic Emerson Inn in Rockport, MA, "The History Team" of the Pew Foundation/Woodrow Wilson Center's investigation into the Nature of the Human Person concluded its work. The group heard a presentation by Team Member Allan Carlson on "Wendell Berry and the Agrarian Recovery of The Human Person." A book including this paper is planned.

• "Children's Needs and the Ironies of Development" was the topic of Allan Carlson's July 15 address to the Fifth Annual World Family Policy Forum, held at the J. Rueben Clark School of Law at Brigham Young University. Legislators and Diplomats from 50 nations attended the session.

• Appearing in the July 14 issue of National Review, Catesby Leigh's article, "It Takes a (Well-Planned) Village" cites Allan Carlson's book, From Cottage to Work Station.

• Allan Carlson's article, "Household Freedom and Home Education: New Agrarian Dreams for the Twenty- First Century" appears in the Lent 2003 issue of The Cresset: A Review of Literature, The Arts, and Public Affairs, published at Valparaiso University.

• In his column for the July 21 issue of Forbes magazine, Editor-in-Chief Steve Forbes highlights Allan Carlson's proposal to ease the burden of student loan debt now keeping many young adults from marrying and having children. "The Bush Administration says it is pro-family," Mr. Forbes notes. "The White House should run with Carlson's idea."

• The August-September issue of the Polish magazine Voice for Life carries a translation of The Family in America article, "Swedish Sagas."

• In late July and early August, Allan Carlson served on the faculty at the Undergraduate Honors Fellowship Program-Intercollegiate Studies Institute, held at Oriel College, Oxford University, England. He gave a special lecture on "Individualism and Its Discontents."