In 2009, I attended a conference of the African-American Healthy Marriage Initiative in North Carolina. Of the hundreds of attendees, I was one of perhaps five white people there. I was warmly received; I never felt unwelcome, nor was I treated as an outsider, even though that conference wasn’t “for me.” I suppose that I could have seen the conference as exclusionary. That’s one perspective. But being there, it was clear that this gathering wasn’t “anti-white marriage.” It was about focusing on the needs, strengths, and challenges of a specific community and a shared culture.

As I prepared for last week’s World Congress of Families in Salt Lake City, I wondered if I’d have a similar experience or if this global gathering of Judeo-Christian traditionalists was actually some sort of hate group as the Human Rights Campaign has claimed. As someone who’s passionate about faith and family — as well as fairness for the LGBT community — I worried whether a balance could be found in this, the first WCF conference to be held in the United States.

Read the article “World Congress of Families: Anything but a Hate Group” on ldsmag.com.