Angry participants pulling out, questions being asked in Parliament and vandalism. The fifth World Congress of Families, in Amsterdam this week, is unleashing a lot of emotions.

After earlier World Family Congresses in Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004) and Warsaw (2007), Amsterdam is a strange choice. After all the Netherlands is known for its liberal policies while many of the participants are religious conservatives, from countries such as the United States, Pakistan and Italy.

The congress is organised by The Howard Center, a thinktank which believes that the “natural human family is founded by the Creator, and is essential for a good society”.
 
Anti-gay
Shortly before the congress, five Dutch participants withdrew: author Christien Brinkgreve, midwife Beatrijs Smulders, bio-psychologist Martine F. Delfos, researcher Erna Hooghiemstra and Nell Coumans, who is a member of the European Large Families Confederation (ELFAC) for the Netherlands.
 
Ms Coumans explains that they are angry because the organisation did not keep its promise not to include gay marriage on the agenda.
 
"As homosexuality is seriously frowned on in America, we decided not to add gay rights to the agenda. Not because they do not interest us, but they are too big an issue for a three-day congress. If the organisation then puts an anti-gay organisation on the agenda without telling anyone, then I lose my faith in it."
 
The anti-gay organisation which Ms Coumans is referring to is the New Generation Church, which has meanwhile been scrapped from the list of participants.
 
Video message
The congress has also caused commotion in The Hague. Youth and Family Minister André Rouvoet is due to open the congress by video message, but Boris van der Ham, MP for the democrat party D66, apparently has little confidence that the minister will represent Dutch values.
 
Mr Van der Ham wants Mr Rouvoet to stress that in the Netherlands single parents and gay couples are “valued forms of the family”. A spokesperson for Mr Rouvoet says that it will be clear in the video message that the minister is “in favour of all families, regardless of their form”.
 
Reactions in radical circles are even stronger. For several days religious websites and left-wing weblogs have been full of messages about feminist counter-demonstrations and plans to sabotage the congress. The offices of the Dutch organisation behind the congress has already been attacked with paint bombs.
 
The managing director of The Howard Center, Larry Jacobs, has an explanation for this: "It is clear that the left is shocked by the family congress because it brings a pro-family message to a city which they claim as their own territory." 
 
Correctional smack
In principle, Nell Coumans is in favour of an open dialogue with religious groups about Dutch emancipation policies. Nevertheless she understands the fears of some left-wing Dutch people, she says.
 
"The Howard Center is quite a conservative organisation, with quite different values. For example they are astonished by the idea of banning of correctional smacking. They say: how else are we supposed to teach our children? Well, it is quite possible to do that without smacking!"
 
Even though Ms Coumans has withdrawn from the congress, she thinks that the Netherlands should not allow itself to be put on the defensive. "We wanted to show that Dutch policy is good, that emancipation is good for the family and that that is why our children score the highest on the happiness scale."
 
She says she will follow the congress “ with interest”.

The fifth World Congress of Families takes place in Amsterdam between 10-12 August 2009.

World Congress of Families website

Photo by :mrMark: at flickr under Creative Commons Licence