Contact: Don Feder, 508-405-1337, dfeder@rcn.com; Lisa Youngblood, 815-964-5819, lisa@worldcongress.org; both with World Congress of Families
ROCKFORD, Ill., July 27, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- In a posting on the blog Religion Dispatches, feminist writer Sarah Posner (author of "God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters"), ineptly tries to tie World Congress of Families and those concerned about the worldwide decline of birthrates to the mentality of the man (Anders Behring Breivik) arrested for the murders in Norway.
Posner and Nation writer Kathryn Joyce have been harping on this theme since the first "Demographic Winter" documentary was released in 2008 -- that proponents of demographic winter are racists, and that the issue is a smokescreen for opposition to Muslim immigration into Europe and the perceived Islamization of the continent.
World Congress of Families Managing Director Larry Jacobs noted that one of the speakers at the recent World Congress of Families Moscow Demographic Summit (June 29-30) was Mufti Huzin, representing Russia's Muslim Ummah. "Is the Mufti using demographic winter as a ruse to fight Muslim immigration to Europe?" Jacobs asked. Another speaker was Rabbi Aaron Gurevich, assistant to Chief Rabbi of Russia Berl Lazar. "Is the Rabbi concerned about maintaining the 'Christian character of Europe?" Jacobs inquired.
In the past three years, in conjunction with the Foundation for African Cultural Heritage, World Congress of Families held two international events in Nigeria including "Challenges in Upholding the Rights of Women and Children in Nigeria." Demographic Winter was discussed at both. Was this a clever ploy to maintain the current racial and religious composition of Europe?
Jacobs continued: "There is indeed a conspiracy at work here -- a conspiracy to silence by intimidation those trying to warn about the coming crisis from the precipitous worldwide fall of fertility -- over 50% since the 1960s. In fact, worldwide, there are 6 million fewer children (6 years of age and younger) today than there were in 1990. According to the United Nations Population Division, if current trends continue, by 2050 there will be 248 million fewer children in the world under age 6 than there are today."
Jacobs elaborated: "Because they can't debate on the issue on its merits -- how do you refute an airtight case? -- feminists like Posner and those fighting to promote abortion on demand and population control policies are driven to spurious charges of racism. Posner writes that efforts to alert the public to the dangers of coming de-population (which is a reality in Russia and Europe) somehow 'triggered' Anders Breivik's 'paranoia' that 'anti-Christian forces seek domination over the [European] continent.' This would be laughable if it weren't so slanderous."
Jacobs promised: "We will not be silenced by such tactics, which only discredit Posner and her allies. The feminist left doesn't understand that it's only talking to itself. The public long ago became immune to its baseless charges of racism or patriarchy whenever it seeks to counter pro-family, pro-child, and pro-religion advocacy."
World Congress of Families sponsored the world's first demographic summit, "Moscow Demographic Summit: Family and the Future of Humankind" at the Russian State Social University, (the nation's largest institution of higher learning), June 29-30. The Summit brought together demographers, economists, ethicists, researchers, politicians, and religious leaders to discuss the pending de-population crisis. Click here for more details.
World Congress of Families VI will be in Madrid, May 25-27, 2012. World Congress of Families VII will take place in Sydney in 2013. Demographic Winter will play a prominent role in both.
To schedule an interview with WCF Managing Director Larry Jacobs contact Don Feder at 508-405-1337, dfeder@rcn.com, or Lisa Youngblood at 815-964-5819, lisa@worldcongress.org.
The World Congress of Families (WCF) is an international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, leaders and inter-faith people of goodwill from more than 60 countries that seek to restore the natural family as the fundamental social unit and the 'seedbed' of civil society (as found in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948). The WCF was founded in 1997 by Allan Carlson and is a project of The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society in Rockford, Illinois. To date, there have been five World Congresses of Families -- Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004), Warsaw, Poland (2007) and Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2009). World Congress of Families VI will be held in Madrid, Spain in May 25-27, 2012.
