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We
assemble in this World Congress, from many national, ethnic,
cultural, social and religious communities, to affirm that the
natural human family is established by the Creator and essential to
good society. We address ourselves to all people of good will who,
with the majority of the world's people, value the natural family.
Ideologies of statism, individualism and sexual revolution, today
challenge the family's very legitimacy as an institution. Associated
with this challenge are the problems of divorce, devaluation of
parenting, declining family time, morally relativistic public
education, confusions over sexual identity, promiscuity, sexually
transmitted diseases, abortion, poverty, human trafficking, violence
against women, child abuse, isolation of the elderly, excessive
taxation and below-replacement fertility. To defend the family and
to guide public policy and cultural norms, this Declaration asserts
principles that respect and uphold the vital roles that the family
plays in society.
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The
"Natural" Family and Society: |
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The
natural family is the fundamental social unit, inscribed in human
nature, and centered on the voluntary union of a man and a woman in
the lifelong covenant of marriage. The natural family is defined by
marriage, procreation and, in some cultures, adoption. Free, secure
and stable families that welcome children are necessary for healthy
society. The society that abandons the natural family as the norm is
destined for chaos and suffering. The loving family reaches out in
love and service to their communities and those in need. All social
and cultural institutions should respect and uphold the rights and
responsibilities of the family.
 The Natural
Family
Why Things
Went Wrong: The Decline of the Family Carlson
A History of
'The Family' in the United Nations Carlson
From
Cottage to Work Station...And Back Again Carlson
Feminism and the Family (wcf3)
Crouse
The Natural Family (wcf1)
Fleming
The
cornerstone of healthy family life, marriage brings security,
contentment, meaning, joy and spiritual maturity to the man and
woman who enter this lifelong covenant with unselfish commitment. In
marriage, both husband and wife commit to a life of mutual love,
respect, support and compassion. Spousal conflicts that can arise in
marriage are opportunities for personal and marital growth, not, as
modern cultures encourage, reasons to break the covenant. Divorce is
destructive to families and society. Society and public policy
should discourage divorce, while taking legal or other appropriate
action in cases of intransigently abusive relationships. Steadfast
commitment in marriage provides the security in family life that
children need. Children also need and are entitled to the
complementary parental love and attention of both father and mother,
which marriage provides. Communities and religious institutions
should care for families and households whose circumstances fall
short of these ideals. Social policies should not promote
single-parenting.
A
Lifelong Covenant of Marriage (wcf2)
Andrews
Rebuilding a Culture of
Marriage (wcf1) Andrews
Rebuilding a Marriage
Culture (wcf1) Mattox
The
natural family provides the optimal environment for the healthy
development of children. Healthy family life fulfills the basic
human need to belong and satisfies the longings of the human heart
to give and receive love. The family informs the human person's
original attitude toward such fundamental matters as identity,
security, responsibility, love, morality and religion. In personal
and intimate ways that no self-defining entity could, the natural
family cares for its children and provides for their spiritual,
physical, psychological and moral growth. Policy should promote the
definition and permanence in family relationships that create the
stability and security in family life children need.
Towards
a new paradigm: Searching for New Development Actions (wcf3)
Vollmer
The
Importance of the Family to the Protection of the Child (wcf2) Ammitzboell
Combating the Myth that Parents Don’t
Matter (wcf2)
Hart
The
complementary natures of men and women are physically and
psychologically self-evident. These differences are created and
natural, not primarily socially constructed. Sexuality is ordered
for the procreation of children and the expression of love between
husband and wife in the covenant of marriage. Marriage between a man
and a woman forms the sole moral context for natural sexual union.
Whether through pornography, promiscuity, incest or homosexuality,
deviations from these created sexual norms cannot truly satisfy the
human spirit. They lead to obsession, remorse, alienation, and
disease. Child molesters harm children and no valid legal,
psychological or moral justification can be offered for the odious
crime of pedophilia. Culture and society should encourage standards
of sexual morality that support and enhance family life.
Pornography: Breaking the International
Network (wcf3)
Manion
Telling
kids It's OK to play around with sex—if they use a condom” is
medical misinformation (wcf2) Griffin
How Should We Understand Human Sexuality in the
Postmodern Age?
(wcf1) Puig
The
intrinsic worth, right to life and sanctity of life of every human
person exists throughout the continuum of life, from fertilization
until natural death.
Every
human life is a gift to the person, the family and society. Loving
families cherish and serve all their members, including the weak,
aged and handicapped. Taking innocent human life through abortion
and euthanasia is wrong; respect for human life demands that we
choose the life-protecting options of adoption and palliative care.
The destruction of embryonic human beings, lethal human embryo
experimentation and abortifacients also involve wrongful takings of
human life. All experimentation and research on human beings should
be beneficial to the particular human subject. Trafficking in the
organs and limbs of aborted children and other human beings, cloning
humans and human-genetic engineering treat human life as a commodity
and should not be allowed. Animal-human genetic experimentation is a
crime against humanity. Policy should respect the inherent dignity
of human life.
The
Bioethical Challenge: A Political and Social Overview (wcf3)
Colchester
Abortion
Breast Cancer Issue (wcf2) Brind
Human
society depends on the renewal of the human population; the true
population problem is depopulation, not overpopulation. Many nations
are experiencing below-replacement fertility, arising from
widespread abortion, birth control, lack of interest in marriage and
declining family sizes. People are living longer, increasing the
size of elderly populations, while there are proportionally
decreasing numbers of taxpayers to support their elders' retirement
incomes and health care. Because just governments and creative human
enterprise and charity offer the best hope for addressing the
problems of poverty, hunger and disease, no country should be
coerced to accept policies of "population control." Efforts to
assist developing countries should focus on promoting family
self-sufficiency, not dependency.
Unto the Least of These My Brethren: U.S. Population
Control Policy
(wcf3) Mosher
Depopulation
and the New World Social Order
World
Population in the 21st Century: Last One Out Turn off the
Lights? (wcf2)
Eberstadt
The
Family and Population Control
(wcf2)
Tadad
Reclaiming the Large Family
Ideal (wcf1) Farris
Parents uniquely possess the authority and
responsibility to direct the upbringing and education of their
children. By its nature, education is not only technical and
practical, but also moral and spiritual. The family is the child's
first school, parents the first and most important teachers. Love of
community and loyalty to nation begin in the family. The state
usurps the parental role when it monopolizes and mandates the
educational system, and deprives parents of their intrinsic
authority over their children's education. Nor should government
schools or health clinics treat minor children's health without
parental approval.
School
curricula should not undermine the right of parents to teach their
children moral and spiritual values. Parents have a duty to their
children and to society to provide their children an adequate
education. Parents should be free to spend their education
resources, including tax money, on the schools of their choice, such
as sending them to a religious school or educating their children
themselves in the home.
The One-House Schoolroom The Extraordinary Influence
of Family Life on Student Learning (wcf2) Mattox
History,
Research and Common Sense for Great Families and Schools (wcf2)
Moore
The
Family and Education (wcf2) Morrison
Economic policy,
both corporate and governmental, should be crafted to allow the
family economy to flourish; what is good for families is good for
the economy.
Family economy
centers on the pursuit of meaningful employment to fulfill one's
personal vocation and to provide for the present and future needs,
obligations, and desires of the family -- such as food, shelter,
education, health care, charity, recreation, retirement income,
taxes and the intergenerational family estate.
Healthy families produce good citizens and workers,
competent consumers and innovative entrepreneurs. Employers should
allow workers flexible family and maternity leave. Corporate
philanthropy and national and international funding for economic
development should strengthen the natural family. Such funds should
not be used to support organizations whose programs harm the family.
Commerce in products that appeal to addictions, such as harmful
drugs, gambling and violent and pornographic media, undermine the
family and should be opposed.
Third Ways,
Middle Ways and the Family Way: The Quest For The Virtuous
Economy
Carlson
The
Power of the Home Economy (wcf2)
Bahr
Family,
Economics, and the Information Society: How Are They Affecting Each
Other? (wcf2)
Aguirre
The Effect of Economics on the U.S. Family (wcf2) Hartman
The Economic Assault of the Welfare State on the
Traditional Family (wcf1) Hartman
How Do We Build a Family-Centered
Economy? (wcf1)
Santamaria
Government should
protect and support the family, and not usurp the vital roles it
plays in society.
When
the state or its agent attempts to exercise a right or
responsibility that belongs to the family, albeit with good
intentions to address a vexing social problem, its effect is to
undermine and displace the family and make matters worse. Government
policies should not create pressure for mothers to enter the
workplace when they would prefer to care for their families full
time. Government should secure an orderly, lawful and just society
that allows families freely and responsibly to: form in the covenant
of marriage and bear children, pursue meaningful work, provide for
their material and health needs, direct the education and upbringing
of their children, participate in charitable, civic and recreational
activities, care for elderly family members, build estates for their
present and future generations, and practice their religion.
Keeping Family in the UN’s Agenda (wcf3)
Landolt
Principles of Family Policy (wcf2) Olson
Family
Policies That Work (wcf2) Andrews
What's at Stake in the Family Debate? Family Autonomy
and the Civil Good (wcf2)
Elshtain
The
Communist Assault or the Family: A Czech Perspective
(wcf2) Freiova
The
Family, Civil Society, and the State
(wcf2)
Horn)
Parents have the right to teach their religious and
moral beliefs to their children and to raise them according to their
religious precepts. Based on, and consistent with, the human right
to religious liberty, families have the right to believe, practice
and express their religious views in love. Religious institutions
should not accommodate cultural trends that undermine the created
nature of the family. One need not hold religious views to recognize
that the family is part of human nature and the fundamental social
unit. Religious institutions have the crucial cultural-leadership
role of affirming that: the natural human family is established in
creation and is essential to a good society; life and sexuality are
gifts from the Creator, to be enjoyed respectfully and wholesomely;
the family is sacred and has the unique authority, responsibility
and capacity to provide for its members' education, health care and
welfare; and all social institutions should respect and uphold the
institution of the family.
The
Role of the Family in Christianity (wcf2) Berthoud
Faithful
Fathering: How Religion Fosters Responsible and Meaningful
Father Involvement (wcf2)
Dollahite
Family:
A Spiritual Guide (wcf2)
Gold
We
exhort all persons, families, social organizations and governments
throughout the world to respect and uphold the institution of the
natural human family, in accordance with the principles of this
Declaration, for the good of present and future generations.
Why Are We Here?
(WCF3)
Carlson
Protecting Children by Respecting
Parents (WCF2) Miller
A
Judge Which Feared Not God, Neither Regarded Man (R&S)
Brown
Intolerable "Intolerance"
(R&S)
Brown
The Trojan Horse of Child Care Carlson
Touching the Third Rail: The Bizarre World of Day Care
Research (FIA)
Robertson
Breeding Little Monsters: How Day Care Is Exposing
America’s Children to Unnatural Plagues (FIA)
Christensen | 