This year's gathering is supported by Religious Right organizations such as the Howard Center for Family, Religion, & Society, the National Organization for Marriage, and Alliance Defending Freedom. Among WCF X's organizers is the Georgian Demographic Society XXI, a right-wing group created to address the "extremely grave demographic situation" in Georgia. The organization seeks to increase Georgia's population by encouraging "traditional marriage and strong family propaganda" through the promotion of "a large family and anti-abortion agenda."
The Georgian Demographic Society's founder, Levan Vasadze, has a history of right-wing activism. Vasadze's name appeared on a 2013 open letter decrying homosexuality as "depravity" that flies in the face of "Christian morality". In a 2013 commentary piece, Tabula Magazine accused Vasadze of anti-western sentiment. (Hat tip to Bartholomew's Notes on Religion.)
Prior WCF conferences have shown us exactly what to expect from these gatherings: anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ, anti-feminist rhetoric. Attendees can look forward to retrograde workshops and speeches such as these:
- Gender theory and sexuality education and how they undermine the family and parental authority
- Anti-family indoctrination in education
- Civilization at the Crossroads: The Natural Family as The Bulwark of Freedom and Human Values
- Culture of Live vs. Culture of Death: Family and Marriage Issues; The role of religion
- Culture of Live vs. Culture of Death: Demographic Winter; Abortion, euthanasia, surrogacy and other life issues
- Parental rights to guide children's education: Homeschooling
Workshops will focus on topics such as "marriage deconstruction in the name of equality", "demographic winter", and "the sexual revolution and cultural Marxism".
The American Religious Right continues to network with its international counterparts to challenge LGBTQ equality, reproductive freedom, and gender equality. The Tbilisi conference will also allow Georgia’s right-wing voices to make global allies and draw international supporters to its cause. Will enlightened Georgians stand for these messages at WCF X?
Apparently, the Georgian Orthodox Church still holds a lot of influence. They have some upcoming elections that should be interesting. The ruling party says they will be "free and fair" this time. Okay then.
ReplyDeleteJono -- I knew that the Orthodox church held a lot of sway in places like Russia, but I didn't know it had a lot of power in Georgia too.
DeleteYour comment about the elections made me curious, so I looked around the internet. Apparently VP Biden met with the Georgian Prime Minister about reforms.
http://www.voanews.com/content/biden-lauds-georgian-push-for-western-reforms/3303959.html
Honestly, between work and other projects I can hardly keep up with my own private life. I can't imagine how the Religious Right finds the time, let alone the energy, to obsess about the private lives of other people. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. Don't they have lives of their own? Jobs??
ReplyDeleteAgi Tater -- For some reason, they aren't at peace if people who are different from them exist. They'll expend endless money and energy trying to enforce conformity on others.
DeleteIt blows my mind that Religion still seems to think that can get away with their bigotry without anyone noticing. Perhaps this is why these conferences keep going to smaller less known countries (no offense to Georgia), it allows them to practice their bigotry on a less well known stage. So thank you for exposing their horrors.
ReplyDeleteChristian -- They can try to network quietly, but news outlets and blogs often find out what they're up to anyway. I hope we see coverage of the Georgia WCF conference -- one of our best weapons against bigotry is sunlight.
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