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THE FOURTH WORLD CONGRESS ON FAMILIES. This sounds like something the United Nations might have arranged, one of those long talk sessions where worthies meet. But it isn't quite that. It is a very socially conservative, right-wing meeting of like minds. On the agenda:
Next month's fourth World Congress of Families is to include sessions on "the mother in the home and the new economics," "the attack on marriage as the union of woman and man" and "beyond the contraceptive mentality."Scheduled speakers include representatives of James Dobson's conservative Christian group Focus on the Family and the Discovery Institute, the principal organization behind the promotion of the "intelligent design" concept."We're seeking to be a rallying point for persons who defend what we call the natural family," said Allan C. Carlson, president of the Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society, which organized the conference, "that are concerned about family trends around the world that we think both hurt children and also hurt the prospects of nations to be successful, prosperous and happy places."Guess who else is planning to speak at this conference? Ellen R. Sauerbrey, Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration. She was another of those Bush recess appointments, and she is well known for her socially conservative views. Nineteen members of the European Parliament have asked her to reconsider her plan of speaking at the conference, because
The members of the European Parliamentary Working Group on Separation of Religion and Politics say that several people scheduled to speak at the three-day conference have taken positions that clash with the European Charter of Fundamental Rights.In a letter to Sauerbrey, they point to Roman Catholic Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, head of the Pontifical Council for the Family, who suggested that condoms were of limited use against the spread of HIV - comments that were swiftly condemned by the World Health Organization - and Steven W. Mosher, whose Population Research Institute says that Muslims and other immigrants are contributing to the "demographic destruction" of Europe.The opening address is to be given by Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who has called homosexuals "perverts" and who has been accused by Human Rights Watch of sanctioning "official homophobia."This aspect of the Bush administration's international diplomacy tends to fly under our radar screens most of the time. It shouldn't.
--J. Goodrich