Announcing the Coalition for Family Values
Report from Washington
Yesterday the Coalition for Family Values announced itself to the world with a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington DC. The press conference was surprisingly well attended for a pro-family event with most of the 30 seats in the Zenger Room filled. As expected, several of the “journalists” represented homosexual and far left political organizations (such as “RightWingWatch“), but there were legitimate news organizations as well, ABC News and Mother Jones magazine were among them, but we unfortunately did not identify most of the news organizations in attendance.
Attending the conference on behalf of the CFV was me, representing Defend the Family International; Peter LaBarbera, representing Americans for Truth about Homosexuality; Greg Quinlan, representing Living Free Ministries (ex-”gays”); and Diane Gramley, representing American Family Association of Pennsylvania.
As the press conference we released our statement (below) praising the Russian Federation for passing pro-family laws and encouraging other nations to follow suit. Our target audience for this message was not primarily American, so we were pleased that a European news service was in attendance as well as Voice of America.
The conference was briefly disrupted when three LGBT activists (one of them a non-English-speaking Russian) stood up to try to read a statement. We did not allow them to control the room, and asked the National Press Club security to remove them, which they did. Upon realizing that they would not be allowed to stay, the leader of the trio, Ellen Sturtz (self-described as an“Angry Old Lesbian“ on her business card) began screaming “I’m a Homo-Fascist!” and tossed a wad of leaflets in the air. They turned out to be flyers with the title “Lively is Deadly” attempting to convey the message that I am a dangerous person who wants to harm homosexuals around the world.
The trio waited on the sidewalk outside the building for an hour and a half waiting for the event to end. I then engaged in a conversation with Ellen for about ten minutes. Amusingly, she asked for a picture with me, and I agreed.
The “hateful” and “dangerous” Scott Lively with Lesbian Accusers
We got lots of coverage from the event, and I believe we accomplished our objective which was to bring awareness to the world that the pro-family movement in the U.S., Canada, UK, and other “pro-gay” countries is happy to see the Russian Federation standing up for family values. We think this will encourage other nations to follow their example.
A big “Thank You!” to everyone who made this event possible, and those who signed our statement. Most of those who wanted to sign were not able to be added because they came in after out final draft was printed to the conference.
Following is the statement of the Coalition for Family Values, and then my statement on behalf of Defend the Family International, the international arm of Abiding Truth Ministries, followed by a list of news links related to the press conference.
CFV Statement in Support of the Russian Pro-Family Laws of 2013 and 2014
The Coalition for Family Values is a U.S. based international network of loosely-affiliated independent pro-family organizations. We serve the global pro-family movement by encouraging and facilitating cooperation and coordination among pro-family strategists and activists. While geographically, ethnically and methodologically diverse, we share a Biblical worldview, and a commitment to speak the plain truth about the LGBT agenda and its destructive influence on society. Our goal is to promote and protect the natural family as the essential foundation of civilization, and family values as the source and guide to mainstream culture in every society, while advocating reasonable tolerance to those who choose to live discretely outside of the mainstream.
As the 2014 Winter Olympic Games come to a close in Sochi, Russia, we want to praise the Russian Federation for providing much-needed leadership in restoring family values in public policy, and to encourage the governments of the world to follow the excellent example that the Russian government has set in 2013 and 2014 by banning LGBT propaganda to children and limiting the adoption of children to natural families only. By taking these steps in the face of intense criticism and hostility by some Western governments and NGOs, the Russians have demonstrated the high value that they place on their children and the natural family model of society. We believe that God will bless the Russian people for their faith and courage.
The Coalition for Family Values will be encouraging our current and future affiliates throughout the world to lobby their own governments to follow the Russian example. While the LGBT agenda has seemed like an unstoppable political juggernaut in North America and Europe, the vast majority of the people of the world do not accept the notion that sexual deviance should be normalized. It is time that these voices are heard on the world stage before the so-called elites of the Western powers impose their inverted morality on everyone through the manipulation of international law, which they clearly intend to do.
The LGBT agenda has already gone too far, but it is still advancing. We are asking the family-friendly nations of the world to erect a barrier to that agenda in their own countries and in the international community, which can perhaps strengthen and embolden the pro-family movement in the Western nations to roll back that agenda in our own countries.
The future of the natural family is the future of humanity itself. We must not allow the culture of desolation to supplant the culture of life in our societies. Let us pray for healing for those who choose the LGBT path, and (within reason) respect their right to be wrong in their private lives. But let us not allow the LGBT political movement to transform the world in its own distorted image.
Caveat: This statement is not to be construed as a blanket endorsement of the Russian Federation, but an acknowledgement that its policies regarding family values are trending in the right direction. The great lesson of Christianity is that repentance brings renewal, and every person or nation which turns from sin receives the blessing of God. We praise Russia not because it has achieved perfection in all things, but because it has turned from the evil of communism and is beginning to embrace Christian values once again. By encouraging the good, we hope to see further positive changes.
Comments of Dr. Scott Lively, speaking as President of Defend the Family International, an affiliate of the Coalition for Family Values.
“What we want is for the LGBT movement to stop trying to legitimize alternate sexual lifestyles in mainstream society and go back to being a sub-culture. At the beginning of their movement in the 1950s Dale Jennings of the Mattachine Society said what they wanted was “the right to be left alone” (which was basic tolerance). Personally, I have always supported that goal. But with the Stonewall Riots in 1968 they abandoned that reasonable objective and adopted the hard-core militant strategies of the Frankfort School of Cultural Marxists. Since that time their agenda has been about the replacement of Christian sexual ethics with sexual anarchy. In just 40 years they have defeated every secular institution that has stood in their way, starting with the American Psychiatric Association in 1973 and conquering the very last one, the Boy Scouts of American, in 2013. The only barrier left standing is the church, a sizable part of which is running scared from the fight.
The Coalition for Family Values is calling the church to unity and action on Biblical truth as a last stand against the overthrow of Christian civilization in the western world. Russia’s example is very encouraging.
People are afraid of Russia because of memories of the Soviet Union, which was truly an evil empire. It was evil because it was communist and therefore Godless. Communism in Russia and most of the Soviet bloc was defeated in 1991 with the collapse of the USSR. Then came a period of great chaos and criminality as a people with atheistic values struggled in a grand survival-of-the-fittest. In the mid to late 1990s a wave of Christian missionaries flooded Russia and began to remind the people of their Christian heritage, while the Russian Orthodox Church and other traditional denominations also experienced a resurgence.
Today, Russia has stabilized on still-shaky legs, largely through the leadership of Vladimir Putin. If our own intelligence services are to be believed (and that’s a big “if” these days) Putin is a power-hungry despot cynically exploiting conservative values for his own political ends. But that does not seem true to me. I did a 50-city tour of the former Soviet Union in 2006-2007 and believe me, the Russian people are overwhelmingly opposed to homosexuality. Whether or not he personally shares them, Putin is implementing real Russian values, not imposing them on an unwilling populace (like Obama is here in the U.S.).
I was also in Moscow last October for the planning committee of the World Conference of Families VIII which will take place there in September 2014. I met personally with high level representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, including Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov, the Patriarch’s man on family issues, who had me as a guest on his national television program. I can attest to the absolute sincerity of these mens’ Christianity and their deep concern for their people and nation, especially the disastrous population decline they have suffered as the result of un-Biblical sexual lifestyles and abortion. I also observed what appears to be a revival in the Orthodox denomination, which appears to have resumed its place as the Russian State Church — not as it was under the Soviets (when all the priests were KGB agents) but as it was during the time of the Czars.
Indeed, it seems pretty clear to me that Putin sees himself in the mold of the Czars, and not in the mold of the Soviets, and that is a good thing for family values in the Eastern Bloc, if not such a good thing for the Western Powers who are competing with him for lands and markets of the former soviet states, such as Ukraine. (Frankly, with the E.U having become a sort-of “gay” Soviet Union, fully embracing cultural Marxism and persecuting Christians, I think the Ukrainians would be better off in the Russian Federation.) I don’t think Putin is being cynical, but it really doesn’t matter because his comments on Christian values reflect the will of his people.
As for the question of human rights, we do not want to see anyone suffer violence for exercising their freedom of speech, including their self-identification as homosexuals. Russia has an obligation to preserve peace and security for all of its citizens.
That is not to say that it has an obligation to recognize homosexuality and related behaviors as a human right. Homosexuality has never been considered a human right in 4000 years of human rights jurisprudence. Human rights status for homosexuality is an invention of cultural Marxists in the late 20th century, and is recognized as such only at the expense of the genuine human rights of religious freedom and family values.
But while we’re measuring Russia by our American standard of human rights, we should consider whether the disenfranchisement of a few punk music band members on the streets of Sochi (as wrong as that is) comes anywhere close to the to the disentrancement of millions of pro-family American voters by left-wing ideological federal judges, who are now cynically striking down Defense of Marriage laws state by state. How does it compare as a human right outage to the criminalization of voluntary therapy for minors who want to overcome same-sex attraction?
Who are the real totalitarians here? In Russia, the people’s values are being honored by their government. In America, dictatorial powers are imposing their own twisted version of morality on the people.
I think the U.S. is the bigger culprit of the two.”
Media Stories Related to the Press Conference
