May 2015 – Worldwide Organization for Women

World Congress of Families to hold first-ever U.S. event this fall in Utah

June 13, 2018May 14, 2015 by Richard

Nicholeen Peck part of World Congress of Families

With the aim of encouraging and strengthening the family worldwide, the World Congress of Families will gather for the first time in the U.S. in Salt Lake City on October 27-30.

Civic and religious leaders in Salt Lake City will welcome heads of organizations, parliamentarians, and civic and other leaders from around the world at WCF IX, which is hosted by Sutherland Institute, to discuss the issues facing families today.

“The family is and always will be the most effective means of providing a safety net for the oldest, youngest and most vulnerable among us,” said WCF IX Executive Director Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse at a press conference May 12 in Salt Lake City. “Governments, schools or service organizations cannot duplicate what a loving mother and father can do as they raise and nurture their children.”

WCF co-founder and international secretary Allan Carlson announced the upcoming congress at the media event and gave a short history of the organization. The World Congress of Families was conceived January 1995 in Moscow, and its main goal is to fulfill the call to action in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights statement: “The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the state.”

Since WCF’s inception, members have welcomed people who want to celebrate, support and strengthen the traditional family, joining congresses in the cities of Prague, Geneva, Mexico City, Warsaw, Amsterdam, Madrid and Sydney.

Pamela Atkinson, officially representing Utah Governor Gary Herbert, welcomed WCF IX: “On behalf of the governor and the state of Utah, we say welcome to this conference, this congress that has made such huge strides in educating people all over the world about the value of family. … I’m delighted that it’s coming to Salt Lake City, because Salt Lake City not only has a great deal to teach about the value of family, but has a great deal to learn.”

Some of the organizations that will participate in planning the October conference include the Utah state government; The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society; Sutherland Institute; The Worldwide Organization For Women; and United Families International.

On the Agenda

The events for WCF IX will include musical numbers by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and The Piano Guys, as well as video productions and celebrated speakers representing diverse cultures and religions.

Speakers will include Nick Vujicic, Sheri Dew and Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, with opening statements by a General Authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and several speakers who are among the 100 most influential religious leaders in America.

Click here for a full list of speakers.

The Importance of the Family

WCF IX Director Crouse reminded press conference attendees how people of faith have championed liberty and civil rights throughout history. She called for respectful discourse in the public arena in national and international public squares.

“We join people who, throughout history and across cultures, have supported the natural family as an essential, indispensable component of a civil society,” said Crouse.

Some of the major issues families face today include sex trafficking, teen sex, divorce prevention, lack of abstinence among the unmarried, sexual exploitation, and marriages in need of strengthening — to name just a few. Crouse stated the importance of the traditional family in combating these problems.

“It’s within that secure, familial environment that children find the individualized, personalized haven they need during infancy and childhood,” Crouse said. “That haven is where they can best be trained in the values that will make them competent and confident leaders in the future. That’s where the well-being of individuals is forged and where the essential qualities for strong nations are instilled.”

Involving the Next Generation

Conference organizers said they anticipate an audience of several thousand delegates from approximately 50 nations. Among those delegates will be hundreds ages 18-27 who will have competed for the opportunity to attend via a conference scholarship. There will be some special sessions targeted specifically for them.

The WCF-IX will offer a special track for young people who will learn how to create a strong, united family — and learn how family is a source of future freedom for them, their own families and their societies. WCF IX also will have sessions about family issues of special interest to this demographic.

Religious Leaders Weigh In

Leaders from a variety of religions have spoken out in support of the WCF’s efforts:

“As an evangelical leader in Utah, I’m so impressed that men and women of all faiths, cultures and ethnicities will gather as one powerful voice to affirm the traditional family and the historical values that honor God’s design for families.” ~ the Rev. Gregory Johnson, Standing Together Evangelical Church

“Defenders of the family from about the globe must come together at the World Congress of Families to restore the family as the first social institution and as the center of civilization in all places.” ~ Elder Dallin H. Oaks, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

“Because core issues of life and human relationships are found at their highest expression within the natural institution of the Family, The Holy See considers it very important to speak of the Family, not just to its own Christian members, but also to every person of good will at World Congress of Families events.” ~ Archbishop Paglia, Roman Catholic Church

Why This Author Is Going to Attend

There is power in this statement: “The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the state.” Attending this congress and implementing the principles learned there will help our society progress toward this worthwhile goal.

To register for WCF IX Salt Lake City, visit https://wcf9.org. The event is expected to sell out, so get your tickets soon.

My Mother, My Hero

June 13, 2018May 8, 2015 by Richard

To me, a hero is the person who liberates us from our ignorance or rescues us from bondage by teaching us the truths we need.

There was a time in my life when I didn’t see my mother as my hero. When I was a child, she seemed weak and emotionally fragile. Although I know now that this was a very hard time of her life, I didn’t see that as a child. I only saw a person who seemed emotionally incapable.

Around this time, I started looking outside of my home for a hero to follow. I looked at teachers and women in the neighborhood. I looked to the media and to my father. I found some good mentors, but also some confusing and morally damaging ones as well. In fact, some of my social connections I made started to work more and more against my having a good relationship with my mother. I became selfish, fighting with my mother on a regular basis.

In my teen years, I finally learned an important lesson that helped repair my relationship with my mother. I adopted the habit of saying “OK” and then following through anytime my mother asked me to do something. My respect and love for her grew once more, which has been a tremendous blessing in my life.

I didn’t truly realize how much of a hero my mother was until years later, when I found myself experiencing post-traumatic stress after the birth of my fourth child. I learned from that experience that a hero is someone who conquers their fears and problems along a difficult journey, then turns around and helps you along the way. My mother had walked the hero’s path when I was a child. I didn’t recognize it then, but I did during this hard time in my life.

After the complicated birth of my fourth child, my brain started to play tricks on me. Never had I been more afraid in my life. I thought I was broken and I didn’t know how to get myself back to normal. I was filled with panic attacks and racing thoughts. My body and mind wouldn’t rest, my senses were acutely aware of everything. After 24 hours of this, and in the middle of a panic attack, I picked up the phone and called my mother. I simply said, “I need help,” then hung up the phone.

Never in my life had I asked my mother for help like this or made such a short phone call, but my words literally wouldn’t form in the panic attack.

My hero-mother jumped in her car and rushed to my house. She ran in the door, took one look at me, and instantly recognized the problem. She told me, “I know what’s wrong. I’ve had this happen to me. We are going to the doctor now, because you’re not going to put up with this like I did for all those years.” She told me how after the birth of her last child — which also had lots of complications — she ended up in my same condition and battled through it for many, many years.

Then my mother said the sweetest, most heroic thing I’ve ever had anyone say to me. She said, “Nicholeen, I would go through all that again so that you don’t have to. Now I know why I had to have that awful experience. It was to save you from having the same problem. I can finally say I’m glad I went through all that.”

I had judged my mother. I had thought she was weak. Now I knew she was stronger than anyone. She kept mothering, kept loving, and kept serving, even through her darkest days. That is the journey a hero makes.

Motherhood is hard — it is the work of heroes. It’s also the greatest gift a woman ever receives.

Thank you Mom! You are my hero and my friend! Happy Mothers’ Day!

Here is a free video to help mother’s make their homes more blissful.

Mothers: The Next Generation’s Hope for the Future

June 13, 2018May 7, 2015 by Richard

This is Lydia Sigourney’s message in her beautifully intelligent 1838 treatise on Motherhood, “Letters to Mothers”. Each page inspires one to recognize the noble and glorious work of Mother, while instructing in a gentle manner through story, anecdote, and practical wisdom. Her work brings energy to the soul, and will strengthen your resolve as a Mom. A few of her notions for a woman’s place will seem starkly Victorian, but her message to mothers remains a timeless model worth emulation.

“Let Mothers mingle their teachings with smiles, and the dialect of love. It is surprising how soon an infant learns to read the countenance, how it deciphers the charm of a cheerful spirit, how it longs to be loved.”

“….the strength of a nation, especially of a republican nation is in the intelligent and well-ordered homes of the people. And in proportion as the discipline of families is relaxed, will the happy organization of communities be affected, and national character becomes vagrant, turbulent, or ripe for revolution.”

“Do you ask, when shall we begin to teach our children religion ? As soon as you see them.As soon as they are laid upon your breast. As soon as you feel the pure breath issuing from thatwondrous tissue of air vessels which God has wreathed around the heart. The religion of a new-born babe, is…” (Infancy)

The above are quotes from Lydia, Christian wife, mother, and the American poetess of the Victorian era, known as the “Sweet Singer of Hartford” and the “Female Milton”. Her popular wisdom inspired many 19th century female Lyceum Societies to be named after her. It is a shame her work has quietly gone into the dust bin of History, but old can be new again. Give yourself, your family, and society a gift this Mother’s Day and share , “Letters to Mothers”. You can find her work free online at : https://archive.org/details/letterstomother00sigogoo

A Republic or a Democracy – What’s the Difference? (Does It Matter?!?)

June 13, 2018May 1, 2015 by Richard

Identity Determines Destiny

I have a friend who was raised on a farm. One day she and her siblings were given the opportunity to raise a calf. They separated the calf from the other cows in the field and brought it to their home in order to care for it. The calf lived in their yard along with the farm dogs. It slept with the farm dogs, it ate with the farm dogs, and it played with the farm dogs. It wasn’t long before the calf began to act like a dog. It would even chase the school bus with the dogs! The kids thought it was funny and harmless until the calf grew bigger and it was time to put it back into the herd with the other cows. Once in the pasture with the other cows, he mooed incessantly at the gate to be back at the house with the dogs. What do you do with a grown cow that believes it’s a dog? They ended up selling him. One can only imagine his fate. Identity determined that cow’s destiny!

A few weeks ago, I was rifling through the collection of notes I had taken from monthly State Board of Education meetings I had attended over the past four years. Just for kicks, I decided to skim through the notes of one of my first state board meetings in April 2011. The following is a quote someone said in that meeting:

“The state legislature couldn’t decide during the past legislative session whether we are a representative democracy or a constitutional republic.”

“Wow!” I thought to myself. “I know the answer!” However, I was immediately concerned. “Wait a minute… My state senators and representatives couldn’t decide back then what form of government we have?” I wondered, “Do my current state leaders know? Does it really matter if my elected leaders – and the rest of us – don’t know our nation’s form of government?”

What do you think? Does it matter?

YES – absolutely! It most certainly does matter! Just like the cow who lost its true identity because it thought it was a dog, what we think we are determines what we eventually become. Understanding what form of government we have and its proper role in our lives is imperative if we want to continue to enjoy the freedoms that our form of government protects. If we believe our form of government is something different than what it is, we can easily lose the freedoms that we have as a result. Therefore, if we want to preserve freedom for ourselves and our posterity, each of us needs to know what form of government we have and especially why we have it so that we can make sure we preserve it! To believe it doesn’t matter or to believe we are something we are not could be fatal to our freedom. And if we lose freedom in America, what other sparsely populated continent is left to which we can flee?

So what are we exactly? A Republic? A Democracy? A Representative Democracy? A Constitutional Republic?

“The Rules” of our nation – the U.S. Constitution – state quite clearly, “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government…” (U.S. Constitution, Article 4, Section 4) America has a Republican Form of Government which means that America is a Republic! So why do we hear all the time that we are a Democracy? And why did the state legislature in Utah wonder whether we are a Representative Democracy or a Constitutional Republic?

There are three important elements of a Republican Form of Government:

In the United States of America, our Republican Form of Government consists of the combination of three important elements: Democracy, Representatives, and a written Constitution.

Democracy = the people rule or govern
Representatives = the people elect someone to be their voice at local, state and national levels of government
Constitution = the rules written and ratified by the people which hold the power of each representative “in check” while they serve in office

A Republic is a form of government where the people rule or govern themselves through the voting process (Democracy) and elect someone to represent them at various levels of government (Representatives). James Madison, fourth President of the United States of America summarized a Republic best when he said:

“A Republic…a Government in which the scheme of representation takes place,…the delegation of the Government,…to a small number of citizens elected by the rest.” (The Federalist Papers, The Federalist #10)

Remember this simple and easy formula:

Democracy + Representatives = a Republic

Or, in other words, a Republic = “Representative Democracy”

Because it is human nature for those elected to positions of power to want more power often at the expense of the people who elected them, the power of each representative is held in check by a written Constitution, or the rules, which every representative takes an oath to support, obey, and defend before they serve in office. Therefore, if we add “U.S. Constitution” to the simple and easy formula above, we have:

Democracy + Representatives + U.S. Constitution = Constitutional “Representative Democracy“

Or, a Constitutional “Republic” for short!

We the people choose representatives whose power is held in check by a written constitution!

Hopefully, you can now discover for yourself the humor in my state’s 2011 legislative session debate between those who believed we are a representative democracy and those who believed we are a constitutional republic. BOTH are technically correct with Constitutional Republic or Constitutional Representative Democracy being the most accurate definitions of our form of government!

What’s the Harm in Believing and Teaching We Are a Democracy? Or a Constitutional Democracy?

All three elements of our Republican form of government are critical to keep and protect if we are to safeguard our freedoms. For example, if we believe we are a Democracy, which important two key elements have we left out?

Without representatives to represent us whom we choose through the voting process, how can we the people have a voice in our government? How would having no voice in our government affect our freedom?
Without our written constitution or “the rules” by which we the people commit to follow, a Democracy or “the people rule or self-govern” can easily turn into mob-rule, anarchy (no rules / no ruler), and/or a few people assuming power and subjecting us to their rules (a dictatorship or monarchy) . How could this affect our freedom?

Some are believing and teaching that we are a Constitutional Democracy. Which of the important three elements of our Republican form of government is left out in a Constitutional Democracy?

Again, without our elected representatives, we the people would have no voice in our government
In addition, without representatives a Democracy would turn into majority rule – for example: if the majority of the people (51%) in a Democracy did not like someone’s race, religion, or political views, what could happen to the currently and equally protected rights of the minority (49%)?

It is imperative that we remember these three key elements of our Republican form of government that safeguard our freedoms – Democracy, Representatives, and our U.S. Constitution – and do our part to protect and preserve them.

Identity: We are a Constitutional Republic! Destiny: Preservation of Freedom!

Unlike the cow who thought it was a dog, we must remember our true identity. The United States of America is a Constitutional Republic or, if you like saying the longer version, a Constitutional Representative Democracy. This is our identity as Americans, and to preserve the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity is our responsibility and destiny!