Brigham Young University and the LDS Church's Relief Society are major players in an international meeting to be held two weeks designed to help formulate world policies that support the traditional family.
The goal is to marshal broad-based support for such legislation by gathering a slew of influential religious, political and academic leaders from more than 100 nations to talk about moral issues and determine how to frame their arguments.The World Congress of Families II is being co-convened in Geneva, Switzerland, by Brigham Young University's World Family Policy Center (also known as NGO Family Voice), in conjunction with the Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society in Rockford, Ill.
The interfaith gathering will include Catholics, Muslims, Protestants, Jews and Orthodox Christians in nine plenary sessions and 24 breakout sessions discussing a variety of topics, including the "equal but complementary roles of men and women," "the depopulation crisis," "the meaning of marriage as a lifelong covenant," and "bioethical challenges to family well-being."
The 4.8-million member Relief Society is also a contributing sponsor for the event, which organizers expect to draw 2,000 pro-family advocates from 500 organizations -- including some 260 United Nations diplomats and national leaders. General Relief Society President Mary Ellen Smoot will address the assembly, as will Elder Bruce Hafen of the Quorums of the Seventy. Young Women General President Margaret Nadauld will attend, along with a host of BYU faculty members who are scheduled to make presentations.
The meetings, scheduled for Nov. 14-17, are the result of work by a 27-member international inter-faith committee -- including Sister Smoot -- that convened in Rome in 1998, following the United Nations' Habitat II Conference in 1996, where proposals that either neglected or were hostile to the traditional family arose, according to Richard Wilkins, director of the World Family Policy Center at BYU.
Issues of concern to the World Congress include proposed legislation at the United Nations regarding such issues as abortion, same-sex marriage, euthanasia and mandated birth control -- all of which the LDS Church, the Catholic Church and various other religiously affiliated groups oppose.
In preparation for the World Congress, the planning committee prepared a written statement, asking the United Nations to recognize the "natural family" and "to reject proposals that would undermine it as the fundamental institution of society," Wilkins said. The group also formulated a petition, known as a "Call from the Families of the World," that has been translated at BYU into 46 languages.
The document is similar in tone to the LDS Church's own Proclamation to the World on the Family, issued in 1995, which calls on "responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society."
The petition is now being distributed for signatures in 236 countries, according to Alice Turley, special assistant to the World Congress, who is coordinating the efforts of 900 to 1,000 local volunteers seeking signatures. She said hundreds of thousands of signatures have been received, and organizers hope by January to collect "millions of signatures in order to show the U.N. that there is a groundswell of support for the traditional family." Those petitions will be presented to the U.N. Commission on Social Development when it meets again in February.
While The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continues to maintain its political neutrality as a formal entity, church leaders have long encouraged their members to get involved in their communities and to make their views known. During his administration as leader of the church, President Gordon B. Hinckley has repeatedly encouraged such expression.
In 1998, he asked members to "reach out in a duty that stands beyond the requirements of our everyday lives; that is, to stand strong, even to become a leader in speaking up in behalf of those causes which make our civilization shine and which give comfort and peace to our lives."
While the church itself is not sponsoring the World Congress in Geneva, according to church spokesman Mike Otterson, leaders have clearly stated the event is worthy of support by individual citizens.
A letter about the congress was sent to general and local church leaders on Aug. 18 from President Boyd K. Packer, president of the church's Quorum of the Twelve. "We commend the efforts of any responsible group which maintains and strengthens the family as the fundamental unit of society. We note that one of the major activities in preparation for the (World) Congress is the gathering of signatures in support of the family. As a matter of policy, the church does not allow its meetings or facilities to be used for such purposes. We raise no objection to having members as individual citizens support this worthy cause."
Following that letter, Elder Merrill J. Bateman, a member of the church's First Quorum of the Seventy and president of BYU, sent out his own letter to the university's faculty, staff and administrators in September, with an attachment describing the World Congress and urging each to consider support for the "Call from the Families of the World" petition drive "as a private citizen. You will find that the aims of the movement . . . are deserving of widespread support."
The letter also noted that "Because The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has no formal connection with the World Congress of Families II, it would not be appropriate to distribute these materials in church facilities or meetings."
Local grass-roots efforts to publicize the petition included a concert last weekend by the Goodman Family from Sandy, who will perform at the World Congress as part of an entertainment package coordinated by Alan Osmond. Other local participants at the congress will include members of two international lobbying organizations: United Families International and the Worldwide Organization for Women, headquartered in Bountiful and Salt Lake City, respectively.
The relatively heavy participation of Utahns in such an international political event is believed to be unprecedented but not altogether unexpected considering the LDS Church's history of support for strengthening the family.