Family Watch International carries out petition drive at World Congress on the Family

by Michael Ireland
May 22, 2007

WARSAW, POLAND (ANS) -- At the recent World Congress of Families in Warsaw, Poland, an organization devoted to protecting the family worked towards its goal of gathering a million signatures form those standing for family values.

Peter Wooding, senior news editor of United Christian Broadcasters (UCB) caught up with Sharon Slater, the president of The Family Watch International (www.Familyinternationalwatch.org).

Slater told Wooding: "We work on family issues. We work to protect the family as a fundamental unit of society. We work for the protection of life, of marriage between a man and a woman, religious freedom and the rights of parents to direct the up bringing of their children."

She added: "We are launching at the World Congress of Families the I Stand For The Family petition. We're working to gather a million signatures of people across the world that stand for these family values."

Wooding asked what kind of response she has received to her petition drive?

Slater replied: "Oh incredible, we're running out of brochures to have the thing that you sign. People just want to show that they stand for these issues and they want their voices to be heard because the family is under assault across the world, and I think that's what all of us have in common at this point at this conference is our concern about the family."

Wooding wanted to know what are Slater's your greatest concerns to the threat to family values?

"I think the greatest threat today is marriage, the threat to marriage. If marriage is the glue that cements the family together and if we redefine marriage and make it seem like any family structure will serve children and raise them the way they need to be raised I think we start to spread more family fragmentation and that's at the root of a lot of problems in our world the weakening of marriage."

Wooding also asked Slater:"What are the greatest challenges in your work as you're trying to achieve this?"

"Probably apathy because I think that the people that belief the strongest in the family have families and they're busy with their families so they may not understand the threats until it's too late," said Slater.

"You know I'm a mother and I find in my children's own school this curriculum that promotes anti-family ideologies promoting homosexuality, sexual perversions, and if we're not even aware looking at what our children are learning through our own schools and then trying to stop those kind of things at the upper policy level, we're going to perpetuate this problem through our apathy."

Does she think people should be praying about these issues?

"Oh I think people should be praying regularly for our government leaders first of all so that they can understand the importance of the family and of establishing policies that strengthen the family, that strengthen marriage and promote family values," said Slater.

Slater was asked for her thoughts on the event?

"Well, actually, I came to the World Congress of Families in Geneva, Switzerland and that is how I became introduced to the whole pro-family cause. I think it is essential that people across the world from different religions, from different nations, from different backgrounds come together and share their experiences and their expertise on how the family can be protected and create this international community. As a matter of fact this petition that we're running is also meant to do that because as people sign it they get into our database and we are able to educate them across the world and organize people to act wherever the family is threatened."

What was she hoping the congress would achieve?

"I'm hoping it will convert more people, like I was converted, to protecting the family and it will create alliances and networks and coalitions where everyone can be more effective in protecting the family."

© 2007 ASSIST News Service, used with permission.