Anti-Christian vandals target World Congress of Families meeting.
AMSTERDAM Netherlands (CNA) – The Amsterdam offices of an organiser for the upcoming World Congress of Families were defaced with paint and vandalised with obscenities and anti-Christian slogans on July 30, prompting the pro-family conference’s leaders to pledge they will not be intimidated by “radical opposition.”
The pamphlet for the August 10-12 World Congress of Families V (WCF V) in Amsterdam at the RAI Centre said it is the world’s largest gathering of pro-family leaders and grass-roots activists. It bills the event as “the most exciting and inspiring international pro-family event of the year.” On July 30, the Amsterdam building of EuroCongress, the professional conference organiser for the event, was defaced by unknown vandals. The Dutch Chairman of WCF V, Simon Polinder, said the congress intends to bring attention to the positive value of the family. “This group evidently disagrees with that goal. Apparently they are not able to enter into a civilised conversation with us,” he said.
The Congress’ managing director Larry Jacobs said it was the first incident in 12 years of international congresses.
Acknowledging that the Congress’ opponents disagree with its stands on issues like marriage, abortion, euthanasia, parental rights, pornography, and prostitution, he said it was “amazing” that “anti-family activists” believe they have a right to engage in vandalism. He characteried the vandalism as an attempt to intimidate Congress attendees and said it wasn’t the first indication we’ve had of radical opposition to WCF V.
The group Autonomous Feminist Action (AFA) has held organising meetings against the Congress, which it characterises as a group of “fundamentalistic” Christians who will “plead for going back to the Christian traditions of traditional relationship between man and woman (sic.).”
AFA had posted a drawing of a stenciled man and a woman with a child and a cross between them. A dotted line goes through the necks of the couple, near whom a pair of scissors is drawn as if ready to cut off their heads.
“We will not be intimidated by these uncivilised, criminal tactics,” Jacobs insisted. “This latest outrage makes it more important than ever to broadcast a positive, hopeful message of the centrality of the natural family to the heart of the European Union.”
While the vandals used anti-Christian slogans, the Congress is inter-religious in nature and includes scholars and leaders from Catholic, Orthodox, Islamic, Protestant and secular backgrounds. The Chief Rabbi of the Netherlands is scheduled to speak at the event.
Many of the WCF speakers do not agree on specific religious practices but share values and principles concerning family, marriage and children. A press release said that the WCF would examine the “critical importance” of the family for human societies.
Participants at the conference include the president of the Pakistan Family Forum, the Archbishop of Utrecht, a representative of the Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow, and a bishop of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia, Mgr Carlos Simón Vazquez, a sub-secretary of the Pontifical Council on the Family; Dr Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission; Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute; president of the Population Research Institute Steven Mosher; and Dr Allan Carlson, WCF founder and president of the Illinois-based Howard Centre for Family, Religion and Society.
– See www.worldcongress.org/