CWA Sounds Alarm Over New Anti-Family Strategy Gearing Up

by Jody Brown
August 1, 2006

(AgapePress) - - A prominent family advocacy group is trying to shine the light on a coalition of left-wing groups it says has "launched a new strategy" in the assault on families. Part of the strategy, says the group, involves making changes in the language used to make it more palatable to the public.

According to Concerned Women for America, advocates of same-sex "marriage" wish to expand the marriage debate to include such issues as divorce laws, abstinence education, and marriage promotion efforts -- and to involve in the effort proponents of "diversity" concerns (sexual orientation, gender identity, class distinctions, citizenship status). Their ultimate goal? Same-sex marriage and the mainstreaming of "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered" (LGBT) persons, says CWA.

Dr. Janice Crouse is senior fellow at CWA's Beverly LaHaye Institute. She says a common denominator among those in the alliance is the desire to gain economic benefits.

"Having failed in most of their attempts thus far to get state legislation passed for homosexual marriages, leftist groups have joined together to broaden their agenda ...," Crouse says. "They want to tear down all the norms and eliminate all barriers, [and] they declare that traditional marriage should not be legally and economically privileged over all other forms of 'family.'"

The goals of the coalition are many, says CWA: separation of church and state in all matters pertaining to relationships, households, and families; access to government support programs regardless of marital or citizenship status; and lobbying efforts to prevent state regulations from adversely affecting individuals' "sexual lives and gender choices, identities, and expression."

According to Crouse, the alliance will try to achieve those goals by appealing with "social justice rhetoric" to groups where traditional marriage is not an issue -- e.g., single parents, senior citizens, caregivers of adults, and cohabiters. She says the coalition "hopes to establish policies and alternative legal statuses that will carry over and benefit same-sex couples and lead to legal recognition of such unions."

While not identifying the groups signing onto this "new strategic vision," CWA says they are groups that "support the GLBT goals and 'dare to dream' about a world that 'has room for all.'" And Crouse sounds a somber warning to family advocates around the country, saying that the coalition's "soft" rhetoric "covers a hard wrecking ball capable of destroying those things that are the foundation of strong communities and nations."