A Declaration
From The World Congress of Families
To The Governments of the Globe
Adopted by the Delegates to
The World Congress of Families
Prague, The Czech Republic
22 March 1997
WHEREAS we the delegates
at this World Congress of Families place our trust in God and His
Guidance in our deliberations; and
WHEREAS the delegates at
this Congress have come together from all parts of the globe recognizing
the present profound world crisis as is demonstrated by the decline of
families in many countries both as the prime social unit and as the
greatest contributor to the well-being, stability and moral values in
those countries; and
WHEREAS Marxist and
totalitarian regimes have intruded into and diminished family life
preventing its normal operation and functions; and
WHEREAS in many
democratic countries, cultural revolutions, materialism and sexual
permissiveness have resulted in a destruction and denigration of moral
values, thereby producing hedonistic societies in which extra-marital
relationships, adultery and divorce proliferate leading to widespread
abortion, illegitimacy and single-parent children; and
WHEREAS the United
Nations, its N.G.O.s and agents, have pursued dangerous philosophies and
policies that require population control, limitation of family size,
abortion on demand, sterilization of men and women and have sought to
persuade Third World countries to adopt such policies; and
WHEREAS this
world crisis now involves well-recognized demographic implosions which,
if unchecked, will ultimately lead to the extinction of entire nations
and their cultures; and
WHEREAS those policies
of Marxism, neo-Marxism, totalitarian welfare states and economic
consumer capitalism which have forced mothers into the work force, have
thereby deprived children of the proper benefits of full and continuous
maternal care; and
WHEREAS the structures
and family policies of modern societies (including their taxation
systems) tend to weaken family life and discriminate against large
families; and
WHEREAS we recognize and
pay tribute to those developing nations which, despite poverty and
economic hardship, have retained strong family-centered systems; and
WHEREAS we, the
delegates at this Congress, realize that the need to confront these
problems has become a matter of extreme urgency; therefore
WE
DECLARE the family to be a man and woman bound in a lifelong
covenant of marriage, as ordained by God, for the purpose of
-
providing support, protection, love and
companionship for both husband and wife;
-
satisfying of male/female sexuality;
-
welcoming and nurturing of children; and
-
the continuation of the human race; and
WE
DECLARE the natural
family holds fixed characteristics rooted in human nature. The
complementary nature of men and women is rooted in the psychological and
physical differences between the sexes. The love of parents for their
children, also rooted in human nature, uniquely qualifies parents to
rear their own young. Children, for their part, innately long for a
direct bond with their parents in whom they place their trust. Parents
and their children constitute a unique natural community that is
necessary to human spiritual, moral and intellectual development; and
WE
DECLARE that the
family is the first social unit, and it holds primacy over all man made
communities, economic entities and governments; and
WE
DECLARE that the
family is the most important of all social units and holds primacy above
all governments, institutions, the United Nations and other communities
and that political theories and systems which place governments, their
officials, institutions or other communities in a position of supremacy
over the family are to be condemned and opposed. The Universal
Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 (and Amendments) recognize as
inviolable the rights of families, parents and children to protection
from state intrusion; and
WE
DECLARE that all
political theories and systems which elevate "the state" or a
social class or "the collective will" to a position of
supremacy are to be deplored and condemned; and
WE
DECLARE that those
philosophies which elevate the abstract "individual," thereby
encouraging social fragmentation, are to be deplored. Radical
individualism, often thought to expand liberty, has instead resulted in
the consequent loss of liberty; and
WE
DECLARE that many
methods of reproductive bio-technology, such as gene manipulation, in
vitro fertilization and cloning, can threaten marriage, the family,
morality and religion; and
WE
DECLARE that policies
which undermine the family erode the bedrock of society, thereby
undermining the very source of their own authority. Such policies
include:
-
subverting the legal and
religious status of traditional marriage;
-
using population control
and abortion as a vehicle of state policy for any social, economic,
political or other reason;
-
establishing policies
that create gender or generational war, setting husband against
wife, wife against husband or child(ren) against parent(s);
-
maintaining state school
systems that focus education on state ends and neglect or oppose
parental rights and responsibilities;
-
providing state welfare
systems that undermine intact families and discourage the presence
of fathers and imposing coercive tax policies that force both
parents to work full time outside the home;
-
funding and promoting
contraception, abortifacients and sterilization programs that
promote immoral behavior;
-
funding or promoting
those sex education/indoctrination programs that have been shown to
increase promiscuity, sexually-transmitted disease, unwanted
pregnancy, illegitimacy and teen-age pregnancy;
-
creating state policies
that give encouragement to non-marital cohabitation, homosexual
unions and single-parenting as the norm in society .
WE
DECLARE that communities in harmony with human nature exhibit
common traits in custom and law that include:
-
recognition of religion
as a common, necessary foundation of family life;
-
affirmation of marriage
as a lifelong covenant between a man and woman and the only
legitimate province for sexual intimacy;
-
recognition that there is
no profession that has a higher status than motherhood;
-
encouragement of the
extended family as a source of added security and continuity for
humanity;
-
celebration of the
conception and birth of children;
-
welcome of large
families;
-
respect for the dignity
of human life from conception to natural death;
-
respect for the
distinctive traits of manhood and womanhood as biologically
determined and not as socially constructed;
-
respect for the right of
families to ownership of private property, productive land, shelter
and capital;
-
encouragement for family
businesses and enterprises without interference or state intrusion;
-
recognition that husband
and wife have the sole responsibility for deciding the size of their
family using non-abortifacient, natural and morally acceptable
family planning;
-
recognition that a
fundamental biological need of infants and small children is the
full attention of their mothers with fathers also having shared
parental responsibilities;
-
encouragement of an
economic climate and taxation policies in which the family wage may
prevail, thereby allowing parents, especially mothers, to take full
care of their own children;
-
recognition of the social
value of marriage and the value of the presence of dependent
children and aged parents in the home;
-
proscriptions against the
commercialization of sexuality and the promotion of promiscuity and
pornography.
WE
DECLARE that there is
eternal hope arising from the knowledge that the destruction of human
family relationships can never be complete; that love and mutual aid
between family members are among the strongest of innate human motives
and spring up in each generation; and that, while many persons in our
age have been confused or mislead, we can yet celebrate that so many
yearn for the restoration of the family to its central place in natural
and loving communities.
TOWARD THESE ENDS
WE CALL on all
governments and the United Nations to promote policies supportive of the
traditional family. We dedicate ourselves and our organizations to
creating and sustaining communities that will protect and support family
life. We pledge to establish ongoing structures of cooperation and
communication that will defend the entity of the family and all its
members in the millennium ahead.