Leo van Doesburg

We were all shocked today by the terroristic attack in Paris. Two gunmen attacked the offices of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, by killing 12 people including the editor and cartoonists. It was a well-organized attack, the three suspects have not been caught yet at this moment.  This evening at the Luxembourg Square (in front of the European Parliament) as in other European cities, a solidarity gathering was organized in memory of the victims of the terrorist attack in Paris. The square was filled with hundreds of people from all different backgrounds, religions or beliefs, who stayed in silence to reflect and/or pray.   With friends from "For the Voiceless" who organized a solidarity events for the victim of terrorism in Iraq and Syria on December 2014, I distributed free candles. This was very much appreciated.  My most heartful thoughts go to the victims and their families. We must be realistic to the big threat of barbaric religious fu...

There will be terrible times in the last days.   People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy   without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. (..), always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.(..). But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone. You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance” ( 2 Timothy 3: 1-10) The year 2013 is almost finished. The year is characterized by changes. One of the most important changes I saw this year was a growing public awareness of the general public concerning the importance of protecting basic Christian-Democratic values like human dignity...

In spite of pressure, mass demonstrations to preserve marriage are continuing. A new massive demonstration took place on Sunday in Paris, France, against the legislative proposal to legalize marriage and adoption for same-sex couples. While official police statements spoke of an estimated 300,000 protesters, the organizers said that some 1.4 million people took part in the demonstration. Even though the media try to frame the demonstrations in negative ways and the police (under the French Ministry of Internal Affairs) tries to forge the real number of protestors, the French people are determined that the institute of marriage and the children’s rights need to remain protected. (Article by Leo van Doesburg and Jonathan van Tongeren) Please find an analysis about the pressures here :

Hundreds of thousands of people have participated in the massive demonstrations that took place in Paris yesterday against the legalization of same-sex marriage & adoption. Organizers of the manifestation have estimated that around 800.000 people were gathered to ask for the withdrawal of the draft bill and the initiation of a open public debate on the issue. In spite of this demonstration being considered one of the largest in years, however, the French government refuses to take protesters' requests into consideration, has no intention of organizing a referendum and is determined to go ahead with marriage reform in spite of massive opposition. More about the background of the demonstrations you find here --

A law proposal on “marriage for all” (mariage pour tous) is due to go before Parliament for debate by the end of this month. The legalization of gay marriage was a campaign promise by socialist President François Hollande .   However this proposal seems not to have the approval of the majority of the French population. Only in the last three months, 100,000s of people from all across France have participated in several unprecedented manifestations to oppose this bill with determin ation, bec ause t h is proposed law would mean a profound change of the nature of Marriage, Ad option and Filiation and has been promoted as "creating access to parenthood for same sex couples through the "mechanism" of adoption. On the 13th of January the first national massive demo nstration will take place in Paris, where (a ccording to the French media) several hundred thousands people are expected to be gather ed .   (article writ ten by Eunice Vatran , adapted by Leo va...