The World Congress of Families IX, 2015, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA has come and gone, but impressions will linger a while. The event can only be described as awesome from opening ceremonies to the closing concert. Four full days of mingling with like-hearted and concerned individuals and organizations that love and uphold the natural family as the first institution of society was wonderful. Their knowledge and understanding of the consequences for society, when the family falls into widespread decline and is not supported and protected, was a very enlightening and informative. The waterfall of scholarly research presented at the Congress leaves one wondering what more evidence could policy and law makers need to better interpret and construct law that supports and protects the natural family. In answer, it just illustrates how much more ground work we as Individuals and organizations have to accomplish. Thanks to the Congress, we have much more practical information to apply and disseminate.
Here is a small sampling of some of our takeaways:
“Wednesday’s afternoon plenary panel on solutions to “Reversing the Crisis of the American Family” talked about false measures local and Federal governments use to assess outcomes of social programs. They measure success of most social programs based on number of individuals served by any particular program to justify program existence, rather than measuring social improvements from the program. This was an “aha” moment for me having witnessed firsthand the promotion by social workers of many programs such as food stamps for college students (my own daughter approached by social services), an frenzied counting of the homeless in my county by the director, a school’s obsessive count and recruitment of “Head Start” students and social workers going door to door in underserved neighborhoods. The solution was to make aware of these poor measurements and devising more accurate methods and measures.
I loved Dr. Dorothy Patterson’s wording of her “magnificent obsession,” her family. Her wit, humor and truth spoke to both heart and mind.
Glenn Stanton’s, “New Findings in Gender Differences” presentation gave researched facts that refute “gender construction theory” a topic that so many are confused about. I have purchased his book.
Dr. Miriam Grossman’s mission is to get the truth about intimacy, gender, and family out to children and parents and combat the systematic indoctrination taking place in classrooms mainly through Comprehensive Sex Education. I have purchased her book as well.
Sharon Slater held an all-day Leadership Summit the day before World Congress on the topic of Comprehensive Sex Education at the International, National, and local level. She provided all the attendees a resource with United Nation’s agreed upon language and documents that can be used with local school boards to fight this. This is such a valuable resource.”
~Yvonne
“It was reassuring to know that some in the movie industry have taken an interest in strengthening families. Actors and producers from Pure Flix shared statistics on the increase of Christian-based themes in movies since 1991. They will be producing many more next year.
Tim Ballard shared his experiences and involvement in breaking up child human trafficking rings around the world. This effort is also increasing to hopefully eradicate this despicable trend.
It was wonderful to see how many people and organizations around the world are working tirelessly to support the natural family and, therefore, the future of a successful, enduring society.”
~Leeann
“Attending the WCF conference was a great experience for me. I felt that there are many more people in the world who care about the family. In the media you don’t often see the family valued. I learned so much from the people that I got to know and hear from. Listening to Nick Vujicic was truly inspiring. Human life is so valuable; we must not let ourselves believe in our own arrogance that it is not or that we have to have everything perfect for it to have value. Often times it is those imperfections we experience in life that help us to become perfect beings. Perfecting the imperfect parts of our life make us better, more compassionate people and therefore a greater force for good in society. I came away uplifted and grateful for my life and the people around me that I love so dearly.”
~Dana
WOW will continue to share more detailed information on these topics. To see video on specific talks from the conference click here: https://wcf9.org/schedule/ . Also check out their YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOTR5yh4SftXaUhokHNbwVA