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World Congress of Families IX

Last week I attended one day of the World Congress of Families IX held in Salt Lake City.  I felt like I should go so I bought a ticket and went on Friday.  It was held in the Grand America Hotel and many of the sessions were in the main ballroom, a very large room.


My impressions were that it was more openly religious than I expected, especially more openly Christian.  And it felt a little like a revival!  I enjoyed all of it but here are a few highlights:

I arrived late and heard the very end of Stephanie Nielson's talk.  I'm sure it was good  but I missed most of it.


This guy talked about how we need to become better at telling stories that promote the family through movies, TV shows, etc.

I enjoyed the performance of the Salt Lake City Mass Choir.  I guess I don't get out much because this was a unique performance to me--it seemed very evangelical.  They sang "I Want More of You, Jesus" which I think is a song you can buy on iTunes.  They wore shirts that said "Making God Famous".  It was fun.



I also enjoyed listening to the session with the guy who founded Fight the New Drug, the attorney general of Utah--Sean Reyes, and Tim Ballard who founded Operation Underground Railroad.  Their focus is on stopping pornography and child sex trafficking.  The topics are depressing but I found it quite educational.


The man from Fight the New Drug showed a video of a woman who had been in the porn industry.  They've done a number of videos of these women.  She had a great childhood and family but she got involved with porn after she was raped and felt like her life had no value besides what she could do with her body.  She said that one time the guy on top of her was sweating all over her, and she realized that the only difference between that and rape was the money she was getting paid.  She attempted suicide and was heavily involved with drugs and alcohol until she finally decided to get help.  She has overcome her addictions and gotten out of the porn industry and is a much happier person.  FTND asserts that no woman in the porn industry is really fully consenting to what she is involved with.

One of the goals of FTND is to educate people so that in popular culture, pornography becomes like smoking.  People recognize that smoking is very harmful to your health and it has become much less socially acceptable.  Pornography is very harmful and needs to be recognized by our culture as such.

Operation Underground Railroad is trying to eradicate child sex trafficking in countries all over the world.  They do sting operations in cooperation with foreign governments.  They pose as buyers and do the deal, then the local police come in and bust everyone before the children get hurt.  They are able to return the children to their homes or to a safe environment if home is not safe.

I really admire these people involved in such important work.

I'm glad I could attend for the day and hope that somehow someday I can add my voice to advocating for the family.




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