International Family News
Standing with Nations for the Family
E. Douglas Clark
Director of UN and International Policy
When IOF President Brian Brown recently stood alongside Moldovan President Igor Dodon in a joint press conference announcing our coming World Congress of Families in Moldova, it was not the first time a head of state had been associated with a World Congress of Families. It was only a year ago when Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomed us to his beautiful country at our World Congress in Budapest, and only a year earlier when former President George W. Bush sent a message of encouragement to our World Congress in Tbilisi, Georgia: “I commend your efforts to recognize the importance of families in building nations,” he stated. “Your work improves many lives and makes the world better.”
 These wise leaders join the ranks of others throughout history who have recognized the indispensable role of the family as what historian Will Durant called “the ultimate foundation of every civilization known to history.” President Ronald Reagan, for example, acknowledged that “The family is the basic unit of our society, the heart of our free democracy,” and “America’s families are America’s greatest strength.”
Sir Winston Churchill spoke in broader terms when he observed that “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.” And as chronicled in our World Family Declaration, no fewer than 111 national constitutions echo the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in recognizing the family as the natural and fundamental unit of society.
No wonder Pope Francis has warned that “Every threat to the family is a threat to society itself… So protect your families!” Providing such protection is not optional—the family is “entitled to protection by society and the State,” says the Universal Declaration—nor should it be relegated to anything less than highest priority: “The state’s foremost obligation is to respect, defend, and protect the family as an institution,” the UN General Assembly was told by the US representative to the 10th anniversary of the International Year of the Family.
We cordially invite you to join us at our World Congress of Families XII from September 13-16, 2018, in picturesque Moldova, which, as Brian Brown has described, “sits strategically between East and West as a crossroads of civilizations. There has been an increasing push to undermine the family in this country, but under the leadership of President Dodon there has been a rejuvenated spirit in defense of traditional values.
The World Congress of Families XII will be the premier pro-family event in the world this year bringing together hundreds of scholars and experts to meet with thousands of activists and leaders to affirm, celebrate, and defend the natural family as the only fundamental and sustainable unit of society.
”But whether or not you can be there, we invite you to stand with us as we stand with nations around the world in helping them fulfill their foremost obligation and protect what Pope Francis calls their “greatest treasure,” the family.
U.S. Secretary of State Nominee Defends Pro-Marriage Position
Mike Pompeo, the current Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and President Trump’s nominee to become Secretary of State, adroitly defended himself against unseemly attacks from liberal Democrats led by Sen. Cory Booker for being in favor of marriage between one man and one woman. Booker tried to conflate support for biblical marriage with “hate” for lesbians and gays. Pompeo, a highly intelligent leader who graduated first in his class at the West Point Military Academy and later was the editor of the Harvard Law Review while graduating from law school there, told Booker he treated everyone, gay or straight, under him as Director of the CIA and in all his previous positions with dignity and respect. As for his belief in marriage as the union of one man and one woman, Pompeo told Booker, “Senator, I continue to hold that view…It’s the same view.”
Meanwhile. Booker is now under intense scrutiny for appearing to endorse an unconstitutional position of imposing a religious test on nominees for federal office. Booker announced on Facebook that he will oppose Pompeo because his religious beliefs make him unfit to serve. “Sen. Cory Booker questioned Secretary of State-nominee Mike Pompeo for comments he made at his church, comments which reflected long-standing church doctrine regarding homosexual conduct and the biblical definition of marriage,”
Prof. John Eastman, chairman of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) told Breitbart News. “And now Sen. Booker asserts that he will oppose Pompeo for those views. This is essentially imposing a religious test on officers of the United States, something explicitly forbidden by Article VI of the Constitution. ” NOM has launched a petition taking Booker to task.
Read more…here and sign NOM’s petition.
IOF and WCF Congratulate Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Landslide Election Victory
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban led his Fidesz Party to an overwhelming victory in Hungary’s parliamentary elections on April 8, taking 133 of the country’s 199 seats in Parliament. This extraordinary endorsement of the Prime Minister’s policies will allow the Orban government to continue to advocate for strong pro-family positions at home and in international bodies.
The International Organization for the Family and its World Congress of Families sent a congratulatory letter to Prime Minister Orban signed by IOF president Brian Brown and WCF Found Allan Carlson. Orban co-hosted the 2017 Budapest Family Summit with IOF and WCF. The two said in their letter, “This triumph by your colleagues and you is not only a victory for democracy and true liberty in your venerable and important land. It also represents a victory for friends of the Natural Family around the globe. Your Party’s commitments to demographic renewal, the promotion of natural marriage, and the protection of children from sexual radicals are exemplary.” Brown and Carlson also told Prime Minister Orban that his victory was a sign of hope for western nations. “At another level, your victory is also a beam of hope for Western Christian Civilization. Many nations in Europe have grown weary and seek little more than a childless decline and ultimate disappearance. In contrast, you have mobilized the Hungarian people toward rebuilding a family-centered, religiously grounded nation, as a contribution to the renewal of all Europe and the recovery of an authentic Christendom.”
The IOF/WCF letter received media coverage in Hungary and elsewhere.
Read the IOF/WCF letter…
IOF Now Accepts Crypto Currency Donations
The International Organization for the Family (IOF) now accepts donations made in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin cash, Ethereum and Litecoin. Donations can be made anonymously at the link below.
To donate using crypto click here. |
Pro-Family Leaders Step Up . . . and Win: IOF Weekly News
