Three decades ago, co-founder Gil Alexander-Moegerle intended Focus on the Family to help strengthen Christian couples and parents. But his associate James Dobson had other ideas.
Beneath a thin non-profit veneer of cozy advice for conservative Christian couples, Dobson built a book-and-video empire devoted to antigay bigotry and phony antiabortion rhetoric.
Timothy Kincaid of Box Turtle Bulletin has discovered that Focus now admits its focus is no longer the Christian family.
Sonja Swiatkiewicz, Focus’ director of issues response, spoke with Everyday Christian:
She said gay marriage issue is now one of the largest for Focus.
“I would not consider gay marriage as something we are just keeping an eye on,” Swiatkiewicz said. “Protecting the institution of marriage as between a man and a woman is one of our primary goals. We receive about 250,000 communications a month from folks who have very deep hurts on this issue and request resources. We know the impact it has on the breakdown of the relationship between men, women and children.
“We work to protect or restore marriages as closely as we do on the sanctity of life beginning at conception and protecting religious liberties.”
James Dobson is no longer the leader of Focus on the Family; he has been succeeded by Jim Daly as president and CEO, and by retired Air Force officer Patrick Caruana as chairman. (Caruana, interestingly, is an investor and executive for space- and land-based war contractors.)
Yet Dobson’s spirit — not “God’s will” — lives on in the organization’s devotion to hurting faithful gay couples while doing nothing to strengthen the conservative Christian evangelical family.
Wow, you really have some false ideas about Focus and their founder. I saw a news article recently where Jim Daly said that something like 6% of their funds are devoted to policy efforts, meaning the other 94% is aimed at helping moms and dads be better parents, counseling services they provide (and from which I’ve benefited), and conferences to help marriages thrive.
Sounds like they’re focusing on the family now more than ever before.
What kind of counselling services, John?
They provide a one-time consultation over the phone (stress & job related in my case) and then recommend a counselor closer to where I live if I want to follow up further. Many of their counselors deal with marriage issues, though, it seems.
John, Focus does not count most of its antigay activity as being policy-related.
Its antigay activism is divided among Focus on the Family, Focus on the Family Action, state councils, and joint ventures with groups such as Exodus. The 6 percent is barely enough to cover Focus’ FOTF Action budget, not the anti-gay-marriage, anti-gay-Christian, and pro-exgay campaigns, books, videos, and radio programs of FOTF’s “gender issues” and Love Won Out offices.
“Pro-family” is such an oxymoron when it comes to these groups.
I am thankful that the Focus on the family monthly editorial comes to our home. It’s enlightening, inspiring and most of all I never have to worry about a title on the cover as the words are clean, factual and not used to catch one’s eye with a sensationalistic phrase in order to sell.
Thank goodness for the Focus on the Family organization.