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By Rosemary Pollock
Elder Hardy Speaks to Regional World Congress of Families Meeting
WASHINGTON, DC -- In recent weeks, the World Congress of Families has held
regional meetings in several places, including at the DAR's Consitution Hall
in Washington, DC, where Elder Ralph W. Hardy of The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints addressed the group. Elder Hardy told the group that
changes since September 11th may draw families closer together.
The regional meetings were the first conference of the group since its 1999
major meeting. A similar group meets annually at BYU's J. Reuben Clark Law
School. This past July BYU's World Family Policy center hosted more than
sixty United Nation delegates, ambassadors and religious leaders from around
the world for a three-day conference on the theme, "Making the World Safe
for Children." Attendees worked on United Nation policies that affect the
family, including the 85 'anti-family' initiatives sponsored in the past by
the UN that it has identified.
"In recent years the human family has been ignored and abused, particularly
in certain international assemblies. We are trying to make a positive case,"
said Allan Carlson of the Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society.
"The perception of the family has changed since the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks and many leaders believe it has led to a renewal of the family."
"For some time, certain people have viewed family "ties that bind" as
"bondage," said Elder Ralph W. Hardy, of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, who hosted a gathering at the DAR Constitution Hall, for
one of the many regional meetings. A highlight of the conference was when
Ambassador Mokhtar Lamani of the Organization of the Islamic Conference to
the United Nations clasped hands with Rabbi Daniel Lapin, founder of Toward
Tradition.
"We can only prevail by linking hands," said Richard G. Wilkins, a law
professor and director of the World Family Policy Center at Brigham Young
University. "The breakdown of the family and erosion of morality affect all
cultures and must be confronted," he concluded. Wilkins, who got the idea
for the World Congress of Families after speaking to the 1996 United
Nation's conference in Instanbul on The Proclamation on the Family, has been
one of the organizers of the congress and founder of the World Family Policy
Center.
Source:
'Ties that bind' find fresh strength
Washington Times 28Oct01 N1
See also:
BYU's Annual World Family Policy forum Addresses UN Policies
BYU's World Family Policy Center Cautious About New International Court
Groups Defend the 'Natural Family'
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