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Focus on the Family (FOF) ads stinking up dailies everywhere, featuring this lovey-dovey parental unit, sound innocent enough. But they’re just bait luring readers into a darker, more surreal world of fire and brimstone where self-righteous foes of gays throw around millions of bucks to terrorize us into believing Armageddon is nigh.
What the ad says
“We believe in mom and dad. We believe in marriage.”
The gospel according to FOF
While FOF is careful not to sound overtly homophobic (unlike some of its other anti-gay partners who regard homosexuality as a “domestic al Qaeda”), the Colorado-based Christian advocacy group has been active in dozens of anti-gay ballot campaigns and believes that homosexuality is a “perversion” that’s “treatable” and “preventable.”
FOF regularly promotes the idea that there is a “homosexual agenda” and opposes the inclusion of sexual orientation in non-discrimination and anti-hate laws, as well as safe schools initiatives aimed at stopping harassment of gay youth.
In the U.S., the group lobbied against compensation benefits for gay survivors of the victims of 9/11, saying it “diluted the definition of family.” Nice.
The group claimed in a January 2004 Boston Globe ad that same-sex marriage advocates “are asking our nation to enter a massive, untested social experiment with coming generations of children.”
Its Canadian arm has lobbied hard against books depicting same-sex families in BC schools, opposed Criminal Code restrictions on spanking children, and against Bill C-250, which adds sexual orientation to the list of identifiable groups protected from hate crimes. “Rights and freedoms of everyday Christians are being viciously assaulted…. If we don’t do something tangible about it, we will find our way of life changing for the worse,” says its March 2004 newsletter.
What the ad says
“The family is a schoolroom for life, and lasting lessons come from a man and a woman – a father and a mother.”
The gospel according to FOF
According to FOF, gay and lesbian families are more likely to break up and their children more susceptible to violent abuse. An August 2003 briefing paper distributed by FOF states: “Same-sex parenting situations make it impossible for a child to live with both biological parents, thus increasing their risk of abuse.”
FOF also asserts that “married women… are less likely to be abused than their single, divorced or common-law counterparts… Children born and raised in two-parent families benefit even more on virtually every measure of human well-being. And communities characterized by strong stable marriages also benefit from significantly lower crime rates.”
What the ad says
“We believe in mom and dad. Their marital commitment to each other and their parental commitment to their children is the foundation of our society.”
The gospel according to FOF
FOF founder James Dobson writes in the group’s April 2004 newsletter, In Defending Marriage – Take The Offensive, that “the homosexual activist movement has sought to implement a master plan that has had as its centrepiece the utter destruction of the family. Barring a miracle, the family as it has been known for more than five millennia will crumble, presaging the fall of Western civilization itself. Future generations hang in the balance.”
What the ad says
“Focus on the Family is a non- partisan registered charitable organization that promotes the principles of healthy family living. We do not endorse or oppose any particular political candidate or party.”
The gospel according to FOF
FOF is more business than church, boasting an annual budget of $128 million, 3,000 radio stations in North America and 2.3 million subscribers to 10 monthly magazines. They’re so big they have their own Zip code – literally.
FOF’s lobby arm in the U.S., the Family Research Council, among the most influential on Capitol Hill. Bush’s promise to enshrine the traditional definition of marriage in the U.S. Constitution didn’t come out of nowhere.
FOF’s Canadian arm is no slouch either. It raised almost $8.3 million in charitable donations in 2002. The full-page ads the group has been running in the Globe (and other dailies) practically every day since Mother’s Day go for $56,000 a pop.
