An April 12 Wall Street Journal article noted the emergence of militant atheism in Europe, in a response to Moslem immigration and “fears that religion is making a comeback.”
Larry Jacobs, vice president of the World Congress of Families, responded: “Religion should be celebrated, not feared. Faith is the ally of democracy, social progress and the family.”
World Congress of Families IV, which will soon convene in Warsaw, reflects this belief, as well as highlighting the religious diversity of the pro-family movement.
Jacobs attends a non-denominational evangelical church. Allan Carlson, founder and international secretary of the World Congress of Families, is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. WCF Communications Director Don Feder is Jewish.
The Congress’s religious diversity is also evident from the speakers, who include:
Bruce Hafen – President, European Central Area, LDS Church
Archbishop Majdanski – Dachau survivor and founder of the Polish Institute for Studies of the Family
Tom Minnery – Senior Vice President, Focus on the Family
Paige Patterson – former President, Southern Baptist Convention
Austin Ruse – President, Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute
Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo – Pontifical Council for the Family
John Vining – Director of the Center for Family Ministries, Church of God (world’s fastest-growing Pentecostal church)
Jacobs emphasized that the World Congress of Families is not an “ecumenical” effort to blur doctrinal lines. “Rather, it is an alliance of orthodox believers, based on their commitment to Judeo-Christian values and the natural family,” Jacobs observed.
For more information on World Congress of Families IV (Warsaw, May 11-13), including past press releases, go to
www.worldcongress.org. To schedule an interview with Larry Jacobs, contact Don Feder at (508) 405-1337.
The Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society located in Rockford, Illinois is an independent, non-profit research and education center that strives to be the leading source of fresh ideas and new strategies for affirmation and defense of the natural family, both nationally and globally. The Howard Center is also the organizer of the World Congress of Families project which unites people of goodwill who recognize that the family is the fundamental unit of society and coordinates the efforts of pro-family groups from more than 60 countries worldwide.
The World Congress of Families (WCF) is an international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, and leaders that seeks to restore the natural family as the fundamental social unit and the ‘seedbed’ of civil society. The WCF was founded in 1997 by Allan Carlson, president of The Howard Center. To date, there have been three World Congresses of Families – Prague (1997), Geneva (1999) and Mexico City (2004). WCF IV will be in Warsaw, Poland, May 11-13, 2007.