The Christofascists Nerve Center: The World Congress of Families

The fruits of WCF's export of hate in Russia

As it commits atrocities and pushes for genocide against those who do not subscribe to its perverted and hated based form of Islam, it claims to be supporting the true pure message of the Koran.  Jump thousands of miles to the west and one finds another organization which makes the promotion of hatred towards targeted groups its main agenda under the guise of furthering "Biblical values."  While not engaging directly in horrifically violence itself - at least not yet - it encourages others to engage in legalistic and physical acts of violence.  The organization?  The World Congress of Families ("WCF"), the main exporter of Christofascist hate across the globe.   The Human Rights Campaign has compiled a report that details the heinous work of WCF and its deadly tentacles extending across the globe.  Here are highlights from HRC's press release announcing the release of the report (the full report can be found here):

Labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and active in several nations across five continents, the Rockford, IL-based World Congress of Families (WCF) has organized large international “pro-family” conventions that bring together the most fringe activists engaged in anti-LGBT extremism since 1997.  In July, WCF announced that its next annual international convention will take place in Salt Lake City, making it the first ever hosted on American soil.

“The World Congress of Families coordinates a dangerous group of activists spreading anti-LGBT rhetoric and promoting laws and policies that criminalize LGBT people and the speech of those who support them,” said Ty Cobb, HRC Foundation’s Director of Global Engagement.  “They praise Vladimir Putin as the standard-bearer for traditional ‘family values’ and honored a Nigerian activist who claims LGBT advocates conspire with the terrorist group Boko Haram with a “Woman of the Year” award.  Their advocacy abroad harms LGBT people from Russia to Nigeria and beyond.  Hate is not an American value, and we must expose and work to stop the World Congress of Families and their extremist allies.”

Uganda, Russia, and Nigeria have enacted horrific anti-LGBT laws within the past year, and LGBT people in those countries have suffered vicious and violent backlashes in their wake. This includes harassment, discrimination, prosecution, public beatings, and murder. WCF and its affiliates are connected to anti-LGBT advocacy in each of the three countries, among many others.

WCF affiliate Scott Lively traveled repeatedly to Uganda claiming that LGBT people are responsible for the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide and the spread of HIV/AIDS.  Some Ugandan officials credit Lively with the idea of introducing new legislation to further criminalize homosexuality in the country, and prominent Ugandan LGBT activists say the "bill is essentially his creation."  WCF also forcefully advocated for the draconian anti-LGBT Russian law, met with the law’s author in the Russian Duma, and released a public letter in support of the measure. WCF has also repeatedly hosted events in Nigeria with “pro-family” activists from Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa.

“Their harmful impact is being felt in nearly every corner of the globe, and we urge all fair-minded Americans to reject the World Congress of Families and their exportation of anti-LGBT hate.”

Not surprisingly, many of WCF's allies comprise a who's who of American Christofascists, the Mormon Church and the hypocrites in the Knights of Columbus who engage in the equivalent of fellatio with high Catholic Church clerics who aided and abetted sexual predators among the Catholic clergy and engaged tome and time again in the obstruction of justice.   Here are a few telling quotes from the report:

WCF describes itself as “an alliance of orthodox believers, based on their commitment to Judeo-Christian values and the natural family.” It has ties to several religious organizations, including the Knights of Columbus, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Russian Orthodox Church. Speakers at WCF meetings have included representatives from the Southern Baptist Convention, the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, and the Center for Family Ministries.

WCF partners are some of the largest and most influential conservative groups in America and throughout the world — including Focus on the Family, Alliance Defending Freedom, American Family Association, Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America and National Right to Life Committee. A 2001 conference in Washington, D.C., was sponsored by, among others, the Family Research Council, the Heritage Foundation, the Beverly LaHaye Institute, the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, Concerned Women for America, the Brigham Young University Management Society and Southern Virginia University.

WCF has done much to fan the flames of this frightening increase in homophobia and Transphobia. According to Mother Jones , “the rise of anti-gay laws in Russia has mirrored, almost perfectly, the rise of WCF’s work in the country.”  Indeed, WCF takes full credit for the rise of anti-choice and anti-LGBT sentiment and legislation in Russia.

WCF has also been working for years to block marriage equality in Australia. Legislative efforts against equality coincide with WCF’s presence in the country. WCF officials have been traveling to Australia since 2008, and the seventh World Congress was held in Sydney, Australia, in May 2013.

Read the whole report.  WCF is an insidious organization.  Worse yet, it and many of its partners parade themselves as tax-exempt charities.   They all need to lose their tax exempt status and be treated as hate groups by decent, moral people.