A Statement by the World Congress of Families

Contact:  World Congress of Families, 815-997-7106, media@worldcongress.org 

ROCKFORD, Ill., May 3, 2016 /Standard Newswire/ -- The World Congress of Families (www.worldcongress.org) released the following statement:

The University of Utah's decision to confer an honorary degree on Lynette Gay has sparked a backlash of criticism labeling her as a hater because of her past association with our organization, the World Congress of Families. The truth is that hatred has nothing to do with her work or ours. We are a worldwide force protecting and promoting the family worldwide, while Lynette is one of the world's great and unsung humanitarians whose compassionate work—breathtaking and inclusive in its scope—is truly a labor of love.

"Facts are stubborn things," stated the brilliant and forthright John Adams, "and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." Here are the stubborn facts about the World Congress of Families (WCF) and Lynette Gay.

Our work at WCF is anchored in truths enshrined in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose opening article declares that "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." WCF upholds the rule of law, condemns violence, and respects the dignity and rights of all regardless of age, race, religion, or sexual orientation.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights also provides the specific touchstone for our work: "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion" (article 18), and "The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State" (article 16(3)). We focus on providing that protection to which the natural family is entitled, while also protecting the right to freedom of conscience and religion. 

To describe our work as anti-anything misses the point entirely. We are, in fact, emphatically pro— profoundly and proactively pro-family, pro-children, and pro-freedom of conscience and religion. We have even been awarded the Pax Urbis Prize for promoting world peace. Our core principles, which we believe form the foundation of civilization, are no secret. We uphold:

• The natural family, based on marriage between a man and a woman, established by the Creator as the "fundamental unit of society," the foundation of civilization, and the best refuge and school for children.
   
• Children's need for a mother and a father in a functional, loving family, and their right "to develop physically, mentally, morally, spiritually and socially in a healthy and normal manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity."
   
• The sanctity and dignity of human life from conception to natural death.
   
• Religious freedom as essential to the flourishing of family and society.

The irresponsibly recycled charges by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Human Rights Campaign that we supported anti-LGBT activities in Uganda and Russia are false, as we made clear last year in A Call for Civil Dialogue and Constructive Engagement. Accompanying that Call was a personal letter inviting constructive dialogue in an atmosphere of civility. There was no response.

But the door remains open, and we still offer to engage in meaningful and respectful dialogue of the kind mentioned in a recent Christian Science Monitor article:

Civility is a virtue of civilization, to use a term that relies on the same root. It allows a politician to call out a lie without naming someone a liar: It treats opponents as worthy of heavenly thoughts rather than destined for "a special place in hell." It opens a door for dialogue rather than shutting it with shouts and slurs.

Meanwhile, WCF continues to exercise its constitutionally protected right of free speech as we work for the benefit of families and children around the world. Our motive is not hate but love, the same impetus for the worldwide humanitarian work of Lynette Gay, whose work we honor.

Lynette is the founder of the Ensign College of Public Health in Kpong, Ghana, and of Engage Now Africa, which makes a remarkable difference in the world's most impoverished and underdeveloped continent. Engage Now Africa provides microcredit, digs wells, builds schools and latrines and health clinics, administers relief to babies born with AIDS and those born with holes in their hearts, rescues children from human trafficking, and provides care for orphans. None of this is for profit or self-aggrandizement; Lynette's service is financially uncompensated and unheralded.

Engage Now Africa is only a tiny fraction of the impact that Lynette, in partnership with her husband, Bob, have on the world. They actively support a number of other organizations operating around the world through microfinance, literacy, orphanages, and humanitarian aid—organizations which have helped raise the standard of living for millions of people at risk.

All this calls to mind what another selfless humanitarian, Mother Teresa, is reported to have said: "We can do no great things, only small things with great love." Lynette Gay's inspiring labor of love inclusively reaches out to the world's needy and suffering, regardless of age, race, religion, or sexual orientation. We at the World Congress of Families applaud her well-deserved honorary recognition by the University of Utah.