Focus on the Family today cheered columnist Mark Joseph’s ultimatum to U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Joseph told McCain in an open letter:

Fire up the Straight Talk Express or whatever it’s called and get your tail to Colorado Springs,” he writes. “Evangelicals don’t have popes; they have leaders with names like (Dr.) Dobson, (Chuck) Colson, (Rick) Warren, (Billy) Graham and (Albert) Mohler. Unless you have a death wish, suck it up, fly to Colorado Springs.

Let me be blunt with you: If you don’t do this, you will lose the election. It’s just that simple.

Those words could not have been said more bluntly if they had come directly from the Man himself, Focus chairman James Dobson. Instead, Focus responded with a verbose statement whose tone begins as false gentility and rapidly inflates with megalomania:

Tom Minnery, senior vice president for government and public policy at Focus on the Family Action, said: “Dr. Dobson would gladly open his door to either candidate for a discussion of issues vital to the family.”

While the mainstream media see Dr. Dobson as a “typical televangelist,” Joseph tells CitizenLink he has “always understood Dr. Dobson’s role and influence to be far larger.

“Many moms listen to his show as they car pool their kids around or run errands,” he told CitizenLink. “They trust him on issues of childrearing and want to hear his opinion on other issues, as well.”

Minnery said Joseph accurately describes Dr. Dobson’s influence with millions of American voters. “It’s a deposit of trust built up over 30 years,” he said.

Joseph’s open letter to McCain was paired at FoxNews.com with Joseph’s open letter to Democrat Barack Obama.

Clearly preoccupied with McCain, Focus on the Family had nothing to say today about Joseph’s positive remarks about Obama’s liberal, pro-American, and Christian values.

(Sen. Sam Brownback, Left)

Focus on the Family Admits That Dobson Twists Research, Says TWO

NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out (TWO) today condemned the introduction of a United States Senate resolution to “congratulate” Focus on the Family’s James Dobson for his selection into the Radio Hall of Fame. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) sponsored the controversial measure that says Dobson’s program has “benefited the lives of families and individuals across the United States and around the world.”

“It is disgraceful that Senators would consider congratulating James Dobson for his reprehensible radio broadcasts that damage families and promote discrimination,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “Honoring a man who distorts research and misrepresents facts sends the wrong message to youth who are looking for role models. Do we really want young people to think lying and cheating are acceptable ways to promote a viewpoint?”
(Read More)

(King James Dobson On His Theocratic Throne)

I knew something was up when I received more than a dozen e-mails last night from irate religious fanatics who insulted me in their special “loving” way. To their credit, these zealots were slightly more polite than the despicable people who sent 50+ hate mails following my appearance on The O’Reilly Factor the night before. Most of these lovely folks wished me a painful death from AIDS or an eternity in Hell. While such letters don’t bother me, as it is part of the job - I’m always impressed by conservative manners and morality.

I soon learned that the new batch of e-mails were generated from Focus on the Family, which had launched a sleazy personal attack against me and my integrity on their online tabloid Citizen Link. I’ve often said that a Focus on the Family ad for the website should read: “Citizen Link: For People Who Don’t Think.” Here is what the tabloid said:

It looks like there will be a few uninvited guests when Dr. James Dobson officially is inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in November. Gay activist Wayne Besen, who reportedly preferred Howard Stern to win the popular vote, plans to protest the Chicago event. He’s called Dr. Dobson “an extremist who has built his empire on the backs of gays and lesbians” and “a bigot who distorts scientific research. Gary Schneeberger, vice president for media and public relations (PR) at Focus on the Family, called Besen “a PR pro of the first order.” “He puts words into sentences very colorfully,” Schneeberger said. “And that attracts the media’s attention. Unfortunately, he’s a little less adept at putting truth into sentences.”

The most outrageous lie told in the story was that it was gay activists, not James Dobson, who distorted research. I have written two books and hundreds of press releases and articles, yet I have not once been accused by a scientist of distorting his or her work. Meanwhile, Dobson has been taken to the woodshed by seven scientists in two years for twisting their science to fit his version of Scripture. Talk about spin! Here is what Focus on the Falsehoods had to say:

As for “distorting research,” Schneeberger said it’s the gay activists who are doing the distorting.

In 2006, Dr. Dobson was invited to write an opinion piece for TIME magazine about the benefits of traditional marriage to children and society. In the article, Dr. Dobson pointed to a handful of scientific studies that found mothers and fathers parent differently.

“He never said the scientists agreed with his conclusion that gay marriage is bad for society,” Schneeberger said. “He merely said their data could be used to reach his conclusion — which is 100 percent true, but something the scientists didn’t appreciate because of their ideological leanings.”

Here are the facts: The seven scientists from three countries who said that Dobson distorted their work were not so-called gay activists. Indeed, I have no idea about their political leanings any more than Dobson does. When I cold called each scientist to let them know Dobson bastardized their work, they did not even know who I was. Yet, they were grateful at the opportunity to set the record straight and upbraid Double-Talk Dobson for manipulating their research.

Clearly, Dobson is the one lying, not me. By saying otherwise, Focus on the Family is bearing false witness. They are also trying to shoot the messenger (me) because they can’t stand up to the seven scientists who accused Dobson of misrepresenting their studies for political gain.

Memo to Focus - this is not about me, this is about Dobson refusing to address the concerns of these scientists. These esteemed doctors ALL tried to address Focus on the Family and they were met with silence. What is Focus on the Family so afraid of? Why won’t they take the calls or answer the letters from the very scientists that they misquote?

Make no mistake - what Dobson did was lowbrow. He wanted to make the point that gay people are inherently worthless, so he cherry picked work from respected researchers to make it look like their secular, scientific conclusions bolstered his religious opinions. As a former child psychologist, he has the training to splice and dice this legitimate research to make it appear as if it supported his erroneous and unsubstantiated conclusions. Thus, it is fair to conclude that Dobson knew exactly what he was doing and therefore his distortions were likely deliberate.

Dobson should apologize for his outrageously immoral behavior. Notice that in the Citizen Link article, he did not mention that there were SEVEN researchers who took him to task in a period of two years. Notice, that he and his PR puppet Gary Schneeberger did not link to any of Truth Wins Out’s videos.

By withholding such crucial information, Focus on the Family ensured that their members who read the tabloid story were unable to judge the veracity of Dobson’s claims. Leave it to Focus on the Family to give their fans half the story and a quarter of the facts so they are unable to come to their own conclusions. Sometimes, it seems this organization disrespects their own members and donors, even more than the gay community.

Focus on the Family must realize that Truth Wins Out is determined to expand its Respect My Research program in the coming year. We are only going to make lying more difficult for this organization. Dobson and Schneeberger are playing a game they are not going to win - as the Truth is a powerful weapon that can overcome the money-changer amounts of money that flow through their luxurious castle in Colorado Springs.

To Donate to Truth Wins Out CLICK HERE

In its latest defense of untruth, Focus on the Family today falsely portrayed James Dobson as sole founder of Focus on the Family and affirmed Dobson’s distortions of scientific research.
(Read More)

By Wayne Besen

(Jim Adkisson, Conservative Frankenstein, Left)

This week, I attended the Commercial Closet’s Images In Advertising Awards in Manhattan, which honored corporations that produced gay affirming ads. The pro-gay plugs showed genuine progress and highlighted that many leading companies “get it.” The work of Commercial Closet is vital because images matter and repeated exposure to messages shape our views and create positive change in society. The cleverness and creativity in these ads imparts to millions of people that homosexuality is nothing to be feared and that GLBT people are part of the human family.

The awards ceremony was a welcome respite from reality, where there is no shortage of reminders that the world is still a very dangerous place. In Knoxville, Tennessee, a homophobic loser burst into a Unitarian Church where a children’s play was being performed and unleashed a fusillade of gunfire, killing two people and injuring six. According to police, Jim D. Adkisson, “had targeted the church because of its liberal leanings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country.”

The New York Times reports that the killer was raised in strict a Christian home and was openly anti-gay. He may have targeted this particular church because his former wife - who he had threatened to shoot and then commit suicide - had occasionally attended. He may also have been agitated by the church’s affirming stand on GLBT equality.

The far right’s dirty little secret is that they depend on the threat of violence to retard the advancement of the GLBT movement. Without the fear of physical attack, the number of people who are out of the closet would quickly multiply. Gay couples would hold hands in every city in the nation. On each block, from San Francisco to San Antonio, gay and lesbian people would be visibly present. (Read More)

With his career-long trait of unprincipled moral relativism on full display, Focus on the Family chairman James Dobson this week backpedaled on his already-selective moral objections to U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

McCain is distrusted among independent and liberal Americans for his short temper, reckless impulses, adultery, divorce, remarriage to a wealthy benefactor, exaggeration of his Vietnam War heroism, affinity for anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic religious advisers, and waffling on American liberties including the freedom to serve in the Armed Forces and the freedom of religious and sexual minorities to marry.

Few of those broad moral, religious, and political considerations have mattered to Dobson, however — his moral voice in recent years has become so small and self-serving that it now encompasses only two issues: Sex and authoritarianism.

(By declining to offer moral leadership in matters of personal and global finance, charity, community diversity, cooperation, interfaith relations, human rights, and environmental stewardship, Focus on the Family has effectively advocated the very same “anything goes” morality that it falsely attributes to liberals.)

Dobson has objected to McCain — and threatened to lead a national religious-right boycott — for petty reasons: McCain’s lack of photo-op religious zeal, his weak commitment to criminalize women who have abortions, and his weak commitment for government to find new ways to discriminate against, ostracize, and criminalize same-sex-attracted Americans.

But now Dobson — who seems unwilling to offer a single specific objection to Democrat Barack Obama’s pro-family and national-security policies — finds himself on the political sidelines, demonizing Obama with misleading insults in order to buy back lost influence among the GOP:

(Read More)

Dr. Gary Remafedi Says ‘Ex-Gay’ Group Manipulated His Study And Should Immediately Take The Distortions Off Its Website

NEW YORK – TruthWinsOut.org published exclusive comments today by Gary Remafedi, M.D., M.P.H., a professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota, who claimed the “ex-gay” organization PFOX distorted his research findings.

On its website, PFOX expressed its displeasure with The Washington Post for publishing what it called “a sympathetic article about a 15-year-old boy named Saro who described his homosexual feelings and how Gay Straight Alliance student clubs help such gay teens to deal with discrimination and bullying in high school and middle school.”

“What the article failed to describe,” said PFOX Executive Director Regina Griggs, “is the danger of young sexually confused teens self-identifying as gays at an early age. Research has shown that the risk of suicide decreases by 20% each year that a person delays homosexual or bisexual self-labeling.* Early self-identification is dangerous to kids.”

Dr. Remafedi’s study was the one cited by PFOX to back their unfounded conclusions. Today, Dr. Reamafedi released the following comments to Truth Wins Out:

“My work has been cited by PFOX in response to a Washington Post article on gay-straight alliances (GSA),” wrote Dr. Remafedi. “PFOX misuses one of my studies on suicide attempts in gay youth to argue that people should not identify their sexual orientation at young ages. Our findings do not support the contention that young people choose their identity or the timing of events in identity formation. Nor is there any evidence that the availability of GSAs influences those developmental processes.” (Read More)

Extremism Won Out With Demagogue to Be Honored, Says TWO

NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out (TWO) assailed The Museum of Broadcast Communications today for announcing they would induct right wing extremist James Dobson into its Radio Hall of Fame. TWO vowed to protest the annual awards dinner, the second Saturday in November, to inform the world of Dobson’s shameful and bigoted record.

“It is an affront for the Radio Hall of Fame to honor James Dobson, a right wing demagogue, who built his radio empire on the backs of gay and lesbian people,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “We vow to stand up and protest this outrageous insult and let the world know that Dobson is a dishonest, hatemongering ideologue.”

Dobson told The Daily Oklahoman on Oct. 23, 2004, “Homosexuals are not monogamous. They want to destroy the institution of marriage. It will destroy marriage. It will destroy the Earth.”

In the past two years, at least seven researchers have accused Dobson of manipulating or cherry picking their results to back his anti-gay teachings. Letters and videos documenting the concerns of these respected professors can be viewed at TruthWinsOut.org and RespectMyResearch.org.

Dobson also profits from intolerance. He founded a ministry, Love Won Out, that promises to “cure” homosexuals – even though the so-called “ex-gay” leader of Love Won Out, John Paulk, was photographed in a gay bar. Dobson also continues to promote dishonest psychological theories about gay people that are rejected by every respected medical and mental health association in America, including the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association.

Focus on the Family leader James Dobson released his attack dogs today, viciously smearing me because I have shown him to be dishonest and distort research. In a screed on the group’s website it referred to me as an, “infamous homosexual activist” and urged his listeners to vote for him, so he could be in the Radio Hall of Fame:

“This attack is yet more evidence of why Dr. Dobson deserves a spot in the Radio Hall of Fame,” said Gary Schneeberger, vice president of media and public relations at Focus on the Family.”For 32 years, he has been willing to take the unfriendly fire of the Wayne Besens of the world because that is the price to be paid for championing family values and defending biblical principles in the public square.”

What I found interesting is that Focus on the Family failed to mention the seven respected scientists who accused Dobson of distorting their work - which is the main reason Truth Wins Out launched its campaign in the first place. It seems that Dobson and his henchmen rather smear the messenger than legitimately answer why Dobson has distorted research and cherry picked the results to suit his political agenda.

Please vote against James Dobson today and SIGN OUR PETITION.

Also please consider a tax-deductible contribution for Truth Wins Out. Help us fight right wing propaganda and the “ex-gay” myth. Our work - the research, media advocacy and videos below cost money. We can’t do this without your help. We hope you will join our work by contributing today.

In just two days, hundreds of Americans have signed onto Truth Wins Out’s letter to keep Focus on the Family leader James Dobson out of the Radio Hall of Fame. The Chicago Sun Times, Sirius Out Q and the Howard Stern Show has covered the story, as well as leading GLBT blogs and news sources:

Page One Q

Daily Kos

Pam’s House Blend

Good As You

The Bilerico Project

Box Turtle Bulletin

Queerty

TowleRoad.com

Minnesota Atheists

The Tucson Observer

Planet Out/Gay.com

The Advocate

The Christian Post

To fight back, TWO strongly urges fair-minded people to take three actions.

1) Sign TWO’s formal request to have James Dobson removed from consideration.

2) Contact Museum of Broadcast Communications CEO Bruce DuMont directly, brucedumont@museum.tv, to express your displeasure.

3) As an option, vote for nominees other than James Dobson or Laura Schlessinger (the general public may vote, and the other nominees are Bob Costas and Howard Stern).

It is urgent to act now, as voting comes to a close on July 15