Focus on the Family

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Focus on the Family's Visitor's Welcome Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The graphic identity of Focus on the Family

Focus on the Family (FOTF, or FotF) is an American evangelical group. The non-profit organization was founded in 1977 by James Dobson, and is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Focus on the Family is one of a number of evangelical parachurch organizations that rose to prominence in the 1980s. A major component of the American Christian right, it is active in promoting interdenominational work for a social conservative public policy. The organization describes itself as "dedicated to nurturing and defending families worldwide" and protecting family values. Some of the core promotional activities of the organization include a daily radio broadcast by Dobson and his colleagues, providing free family counseling and resources, and publishing a variety of magazines, videos, and audio recordings. Focus on the Family reaches 220 million listeners daily, on over 7,000 stations in 160 countries.

The organization also produces specialized programs for targeted audiences, such as Adventures in Odyssey for children, dramas, and Family Minute with James Dobson.

[edit] Leadership

Leadership for the organization was provided by Dobson alone until 2003. In 2003, Donald P. Hodel became president and chief executive officer, tasked with the day-to-day operations. This left Dobson as chairman of the Board of Directors, with chiefly creative and speaking duties.

In March 2005, Hodel retired and Jim Daly, formerly the Vice President in charge of Focus on the Family's International Division, assumed the role of president and chief executive officer.

[edit] Adventures in Odyssey

Main article: Adventures in Odyssey

FOTF also produces a children's radio drama entitled Adventures in Odyssey. It began in 1987 as Family Portraits, starring an elderly Christian gentleman named John Avery Whittaker (aka "Whit"), who runs a popular ice cream shop/"discovery emporium" called Whit's End; and he imparts Christian wisdom to the children of the town of Odyssey. It was renamed "Odyssey USA" in November 1987 and took on its present name, "Adventures in Odyssey" in April 1988. ^[1]

[edit] Radio Theatre

A wall in Whit's End at the visitor's center showing the Adventures in Odyssey voice actors, challenging viewers to match them with the characters.

Focus on The Family Radio Theatre is a series of audio dramas adapting classic literature, mystery mini-series and biographical productions, extending its reach to the mainstream as well as the Christian audience. The endeavor began through the efforts of former Adventures in Odyssey producers Dave Arnold and Paul McCusker, along with casting director Philip Glassborow based in England.

Radio Theatre began with historical biographies of Squanto ("The Legend of Squanto"), Jesus ("The Luke Reports") and Dietrich Bonhoeffer ("Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom"), and in 1996, a 90-minute radio drama based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol was produced and aired as a broadcast special.

In 2003, Focus on the Family Radio Theatre released an audio dramatization of C. S. Lewis' epic novel series The Chronicles of Narnia, with David Suchet providing the voice of Aslan, and over 100 English actors rounding out the cast. Lewis' stepson, Douglas Gresham, serves as host--sharing his personal stories at the beginning of each audio drama.

[edit] Father Gilbert Mysteries

Main article: Father Gilbert Mysteries

Radio Theatre also had a successful original miniseries, the Father Gilbert Mysteries, which tell of the strange spiritual mysteries encountered by Louis Gilbert, a cop-turned-Anglican-priest, who lives in Stonebridge, an English village in the shire of Sussex (ignoring the fact that Sussex is not and never was a shire), and ministers to the people of the town from St. Mark's Church. Nine episodes have been produced in four volumes available on cassette and CD.

[edit] Political positions and activities

The Visitor's Center contains an indoor children's play area that includes a Whit's End, theater, three-story slide, radio facilities and cafe, amongst other amenities.

As a 501(c)(3) corporation, Focus on the Family is not permitted to advocate any individual political candidate. However, in its radio broadcast, it often discusses political issues and current events, usually through a Christian conservative point of view. Dobson is among the Christian conservative leaders who have met with and advised President George W. Bush. Focus on the Family's magazine Citizen is exclusively devoted to politics. The FOF also has an affiliated group, Focus on the Family Action (a.k.a. Focus Action), though the two groups are legally separate. As a 501(c)(4) social welfare group, Focus Action has fewer political lobbying restrictions. FoTF's revenue in 2005 was USD $142M, and that of FoTF Action was $14.7M.^{[2] [3]}

The Administration Building is one of four on the campus.

The group supports the teaching of "traditional family values". It advocates school sponsored prayer and supports corporal punishment.^[4] It strongly opposes abortion, so-called militant feminism, homosexuality, discrimination against people of religion^{[citation needed]}, pornography, and pre-marital and extramarital sexual activity. Focus on the Family also embraces and reflects the wider political agenda of its audience, for instance promoting a religiously-centered conception of American identity and the support of Israel.

Focus on the Family maintains a strong pro-life stand against abortion, and provides grant funding and medical training to assist crisis pregnancy centers (also known as pregnancy resource centers) in obtaining ultrasound machines. According to the organization, this funding, which has allowed CPCs to provide pregnant women with live sonogram images of the developing fetus, has led directly to the birth of over 1500 babies who would have otherwise been aborted.[5][6]

Focus on the Family also maintains a strong stand against gay marriage, the Matthew Shepard Act or any other movement it perceives to be a part of "The Gay Agenda". Focus on the Family's Love Won Out is involved in the ex-gay movement in cooperation with Exodus International & NARTH.

Focus on the Family also supports prohibition of all gambling in America. This position has created some controversy within the Christian community, as gambling is not prohibited in the Bible^[5]. This schism is evidenced by the fact that many churches hold gambling contests, especially bingo, to raise funds. Focus’ insistence on this position, as a result, has been interpreted as “extra-Biblical doctrine” that was created by some within the Christian Right who are personally opposed to gambling. At the November 14, 2007 House Judiciary Committee hearing entitled “Hearing on Establishing Consistent Enforcement Policies in the Context of Online Wagers”^[6], Family Research Council Vice President Tom McClusky testified that his organization favored banning Internet poker in the United States. When questioned further by Steve Cohen [D-TN] on how much gambling FRC advocated banning, McClusky testified that FRC wished to ban all gambling in America, including even poker^[7]. Upon hearing this, Rep. Cohen incredulously asked "is there any fun you are for?", leading many in the blogosphere to nickname FoF “Foes of Fun”^[8].

Focus on the Family broadcasts a national talk radio program of the same name hosted by Dobson or his aides. The program has a range of themes, such as Christian-oriented assistance for victims of rape or child abuse; parenting difficulties; child adoption; husband/wife roles; family history and traditions; struggles with gambling, pornography, alcohol, and drugs; and many other themes. When programs deal with civic issues, listeners often respond to these programs by contacting political leaders.

Focus on the Family has been a prominent supporter of intelligent design, publishing pro-intelligent design articles in its Citizen magazine and selling intelligent design videos on its website.^[9][10] Focus on the Family co-published the intelligent design videotape Unlocking the Mystery of Life with the Discovery Institute, hub of the intelligent design movement.^[11] Focus on the Family employee Mark Hartwig is also a fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, a connection which has helped to publicize intelligent design extensively; James Dobson often features intelligent design proponents on his Focus on the Family radio program. Focus on the Family's Family.org is a significant online resource for intelligent design articles.^[12][13]

[edit] Love Won Out

FOTF's bookstore at their headquarters contain a variety of material on Christian living, Bibles and religious paraphernalia.

Focus on the Family's Love Won Out ministry's mission is to exhort and equip the church to respond in what they claim is a Christ-like way to the "condition" of (non-biological) homosexuality from, "a biblical point of view." They work with Exodus International and NARTH to work with people with an ego-dystonic homosexual orientation to be healed and those who have participated in homosexual behavior to achieve forgiveness for what they consider a sin.^[14] It teaches that "The foundation of society for the family is marriage of a man and a woman for life" and that "Scripture is very clear in its condemnation of homosexual conduct, for such sin is a deviation from God's creation and design."^[15]

They are against same-sex marriage, gay-affirming curricula taught in schools, and other aspects of the gay agenda that they believe is normalizing destructive and "unhealthy" abnormal behavior.^[16] They have stated

homosexuals are entitled to the same basic rights as other citizens. Focus on the Family stands against any movement to deny them rights, persecute them, deprive them of employment or housing or harass them in any way. Nevertheless, Focus does take strong exception to the activist movement that seeks to gain special privileges and protected minority status for the homosexual community. There is no evidence that homosexuals as a class are discriminated against in the present society. They are not like African-Americans, Hispanics or other historically disadvantaged groups, for their identity is based on changeable behavior, not on unchangeable skin color or ethnic status. Additionally, homosexuals have far higher average incomes, education that most Americans, along with a significant political influence.^[17]

[edit] Controversy and Criticisms of Love Won Out

"The American Psychological Association, for instance, declared in 2006: 'There is simply no sufficiently scientifically sound evidence that sexual orientation can be changed. Our further concern is that the positions espoused by NARTH [the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality] and Focus on the Family create an environment in which prejudice and discrimination can flourish.'" ^[18]

[edit] International Associate and Regional Offices

• Australia: Focus on the Family Australia, Clayton, Victoria
• Canada: Focus on the Family Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia
• Latin America Region: Enfoque a la Familia, San José, Costa Rica
• Middle East Region: Focus on the Family Middle East, Cairo, Egypt
• Ireland: Focus on the Family Ireland, Dublin
• Korea: Open Family Korea, Seoul
• Malaysia: Focus on the Family Malaysia, Selangor
• New Zealand: Focus on the Family New Zealand, Auckland
• Singapore: Focus on the Family Singapore
• Africa Region: Focus on the Family Africa, Hillcrest, KwaZulu-Natal
• Taiwan: Focus on the Family Taiwan, Taipei[7]

[edit] Controversy and criticism

The Christian flag flies alongside the organization's flag outside the Administration Building.

On July 17, 2006, Soulforce, a gay rights group, "accused Focus on the Family founder James Dobson of manipulating research data to say gays and lesbians are not good parents ... [but a] Focus on the Family official denied the allegation."^[19] Judith Stacey, a sociologist at New York University, said Focus on the Family "manipulated" her work "in an attempt to show gays and lesbians do not make good parents."^[19] Focus on the Family officially denied the allegation.^[19]

In December 2006, two more scientists alleged that Dobson misrepresented their research. In a guest column published in Time Magazine titled Two Mommies is One Too Many, Dobson argued that same-sex couples are unsuitable parents, citing research by New York University educational psychologist Carol Gilligan, Ph.D, and Kyle Pruett, M.D. of the Yale School of Medicine.^[20] After the article's publication, Gilligan accused Dobson of "twisting" and "distorting" her research.^[21] Pruett also disagreed with Dobson's representation of his work, saying in a letter to Dobson, "You cherry-picked a phrase to shore up highly (in my view) discriminatory purposes...This practice is condemned in real science, common though it may be in pseudo-science circles. There is nothing in my longitudinal research or any of my writings to support such conclusions."^[21] It was reported that Pruett's work suggests the opposite of Dobson's assertions.^[21] Truth Wins Out called on Time magazine to renounce Dobson's article. Gilligan asked Focus on the Family to never quote from her work again, and to issue an apology.^[22] Pruett requested that Focus on the Family seek his permission before using his work in the future.^[23] Dobson has defended his usage of the research.^[24]

On August 11, 2006, James Dobson publicly defended Mel Gibson after Gibson made anti-Semitic remarks to police officers during a DUI traffic stop.[8] In a statement, Dobson announced he supported "Mel Gibson and his film, The Passion of the Christ," saying Gibson's anti-Semitic remarks had nothing to do with "one of the finest films of this era." He explained further that "we certainly do not condone that racially insensitive outburst," but added, "Mel has apologized profusely for the incident and there the matter should rest." On the movie, "Our endorsement of it stands as originally stated. We did not believe it was anti-Semitic in 2004, and our views have not changed," Dobson said.

Perhaps the most frequent controversy surrounding Dobson is that despite his assertion that he is not a partisan, he has often advised President Bush and advocated for conservative policies. Liberal critics accuse him of using his position to advance a right-wing agenda. Writing in Slate magazine in 2004, Michael Crowley said that Dobson "...proselytized hard for Bush this last year, organizing huge stadium rallies and using his radio program to warn his 7 million American listeners that not to vote would be a sin. Dobson may have delivered Bush his victories in Ohio and Florida." [9] There are also numerous examples of Dobson openly advocating on behalf of Republican candidates. (See for example the New York Times article by David Kirkpatrick, 13 May 2004, "Warily, a Religious Leader Lifts His Voice in Politics.")

In May 2008, the American Psychiatric Association was forced to cancel a workshop on religion and homosexuality during its annual conference "after gay activists campaigned against the two evangelicals slated to appear on the panel ... of the symposium, 'Homosexuality and Therapy: The Religious Dimension....'" FOTF was accused by "the openly gay New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson" of "us[ing] this event to draw credibility to the so-called reparative therapy movement...." The Bishop suddenly backed out of his scheduled appearance, essentially killing the symposium. "'It was a way to have a balanced discussion about religion and how it influences therapy,' said David Scasta, a former AGLP, (Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists,) president and a gay psychiatrist in charge of assembling the panel. 'We wanted to talk rationally, calmly and respectfully to each other, but the external forces made it into a divisive debate it never intended to be.'" [10]

[edit] See also

• Culture war
• Focus on the Family Action
• Focus on the Family Canada
• Focus on the Family Institute
• Family Research Council
• Love Won Out
• Christian Right
• James Dobson
• Traditionalist world view (American)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• FOTF Programs via Streaming Audio
• FOTF Commentary info on ABC Radio