Focus on the Family

[[File:Fotf-logo.png|thumb|right|Focus on the Family's logo, depicting the battle between loving parents and the evil Big Government that wants to steal their children.]]{{homophobia}}{{Christianity}}

'''Focus on the Family''' is a [[cult]]-like "not-for-profit" [[evangelism|evangelical]] [[Christian]] hate group founded in 1977 by Dr. '''James''' "Show your children your penis in the shower so they don't become gay" '''Dobson'''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://reason.com/blog/2005/08/11/james-dobsons-patented-cure-fo|title=James Dobson's Patented Cure for the Gay}}</ref> {{lived|1936|2025}}. {{wpl|Jim Daly (evangelist)|Jim Daly}} is its current president.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/11/james-dobson-pushed-out-o_n_495022.html|title=James Dobson Was Pushed Out Of Focus On The Family, Says Influential Evangelical}}</ref> It is based in [[Libertarian paradise#Colorado Springs|Colorado Springs]], [[Colorado]]. It specializes in [[Family values|family issues]] approached from a [[fundamentalist]] standpoint, espousing anti-family views like [[homophobia]] and strongly supporting [[corporal punishment]] for children. Its meddling attitude can be summed up by the bumper sticker slogan "Focus on your own Damn Family!". In 2012, the group had an annual budget of $98 million and employed a staff of 655.<ref> Samuel G. Freedman, [https://archive.ph/mb5pE Focus on the Family Works to Change Its Message]. Archived from ''The New York Times'', 8 March 2013.</ref>

==Political advocacy==
Although Focus on the Family itself is technically apolitical (in accordance with federal requirements for a [[tax-exempt]] religious organization), it created a political action committee called Citizen Link, which is utterly committed to ensuring that [[bible|biblical]] values prevail in Washington. These values literally [[Religious right|''always'' line up]] with the [[Republican party]] line, not just on standard Christian issues which have a minute biblical basis ([[abortion]], [[homosexuality]], [[divorce]]) but on things which have no biblical basis ([[health care]] reform, [[tax]]ation, [[labor union]]s). Citizen Link has also been very vocal in the [[Employment Non-Discrimination Act|ENDA]] controversy, arguing constantly for the right of Christians to discriminate against [[gay]]s and [[Muslim]]s. The group has not yet become famous for its ability to find "anti-Christian discrimination" in anything that happens anywhere, but rest assured that this will happen any day now. Focus on the Family has specifically been involved in trying to stop the legislature and the (then) governor of Colorado, Bill Ritter, from signing a bill that would extend non-discrimination protections to LGBT people, using the common scare tactic that men will come into the girls' restroom.<ref>Moreno, Ivan [http://www.denverpost.com/ci_9429743 "Focus on the Family: Law allows men to use women's bathrooms"] in the Denver Post on 30 May 2008.</ref>

Although federal law would seem to require Dobson to limit his political outbursts to Citizen Link-related media, Dobson has, on several occasions, branched out into politics on the Focus on the Family Daily Broadcasts, doing everything from asking radical Republican lawmakers what hate crime legislation is ''really'' about (outlawing disliking homosexuals, obviously) to attempting to rehabilitate [[Tom Delay]]'s image.

Focus on the Family also created a website called "True Tolerance," which is, [[Badger's Law|of course]], dedicated to [[Bigotry|'''''in'''''tolerance]] and also features some of the [[Alliance Defense Fund]]'s typically-idiotic free legal documents.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090413142331/http://www.truetolerance.org/ True Tolerance website.]</ref> In 2009, they crafted "[[War on Christmas|Stand for Christmas]]," which provides shoppers with a list of which retailers are "Pro-Christmas" (the site was very useful, inasmuch as it told a secularist which shops to avoid).<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20091123133106/http://www.citizenlink.org/christmas Stand for Christmas website, which since 2011 has been replaced by a health news blog.]</ref>

==Children's ministry==
Focus on the Family has a long-running children's adventure series ''[http://www.whitsend.org/ Adventures in Odyssey]'' which is broadcast by radio, published on audio cassettes and CDs (often given away for free in kids' meals at Chick-Fil-A since 1990<ref>"Fast meals with kid frills". Houston Chronicle. September 21, 1990. p. 1.</ref><ref>[http://www.aiowiki.com/wiki/Chick-fil-A_samplers "Chick-fil-A Samplers"] on Adventures in Odyssey Wiki</ref>), and available online (an animated TV series is also available on DVD). It mostly takes place in the fantasy of every fundamentalist, a small American town full of almost exclusively deeply religious people who never got the notice that the 1950s ended. Wacky hijinks inevitably lead the one new kid in town who isn't a [[No true Scotsman|Real True Christian]] to a saving knowledge of his Lord and Saviour. In the words of a pastor's testimonial on their website, "The stories provided a much-needed balance to the 'critical' method of approaching faith that I was being taught in the classroom." Who needs critical thinking when the cartoon that came with your 8-piece chicken nugget meal (with a small Coke<sup>®</sup> and fries) answers all the fundamental questions of the universe? In addition, the series has a Very Special Collection called "For [[God]] and Country" which teaches a... unique perspective on American history.

And surprisingly, despite being a product of Focus on the Family, ''Adventures in Odyssey'' is actually pretty good and has gained a huge cult following even among Focus on the Family's detractors, likely owing to co-creator Phil Lollar's claim that the show's goal is not to be "a preaching program" but to be an "entertaining program". There's also the fact that, as Focus on the Family's core entertainment line, it runs the gamut of genres: drama, comedy, adventure, science fiction, and even as close to fantasy as Christian fundamentalists are willing to get.

Focus on the Family also put out a series of teen novels that re-imagined [[Old Testament]] events as steampunk, giving the lunatics Jesus and God had to deal with on a regular basis access to 1800s technology and (white, very white) European sophistication. Like with ''Odyssey'', they were actually quite good, as it turns out that whitewashing the tale of [[King David]] to make him not seem like a homicidal maniac, while ''also'' giving him a [[gun]], vastly improves the original story.

==Ted Bundy==
In 1989, Dobson interviewed notorious serial killer Ted Bundy shortly before Bundy was executed for murdering dozens of women. Rather than trying to persuade Bundy to confess to all his crimes and give the families of his victims some closure, all Dobson was interested in doing was promoting his evangelical [[porn|anti-pornography]] campaign.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191229105710/https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2016/10/16/its-not-surprising-that-evangelical-james-dobson-is-still-supporting-a-sex-offender-for-president/|author=Rachel Whetsone|title=It's not surprising that evangelical James Dobson is still supporting a sex offender for president|work=Patheos|date=October 16, 2016|quote=Specifically, [Dobson] believes that men, especially 'baby Christians' like [[Donald Trump|Trump]], are often pushed and pulled by external influences, and sometimes they just can’t help themselves. Sex is an addiction, and women are a drug. For more insight into this mindset, we can look at Dobson’s famous interview with another 'baby Christian,' serial killer Ted Bundy.}}</ref>

{{quotebox|"Dr. Dobson wanted someone to testify against booze and pornography, and Ted wanted to leave us all talking about him. He wanted to blame someone else for his crimes, and by saying it was us who left all those bad magazines on the racks, he became innocent in his own mind".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.deseret.com/1989/9/12/18823450/last-bundy-interview-called-con-game|title=Last Bundy Interview Called 'Con Game'|work=Deseret News|date=12 September 1989}}</ref>}}

"I’m not blaming pornography,"<ref>{{cite web|author=Elizabeth Garber-Paul|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/flashback-ted-bundy-says-porn-fueled-him-in-bizarre-last-interview-129458/|title=Flashback: Ted Bundy Says Porn ‘Fueled’ Him in Bizarre Last Interview|work=Rolling Stone|date=3 October 2016}}</ref> Bundy stated, before going on to blame pornography.

{{quotebox|"Pornography made me do it" is the essence of Ted Bundy's last interview.<ref>{{cite news|author=Al Goldstein|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/18/opinion/ted-bundys-last-lie.html|title=Ted Bundy's Last Lie|work=The New York Times|date=18 February 1989}}</ref>}}

Of course, as with everyone else who met him, Bundy was simply manipulating Dobson.

{{quotebox|[Bundy] noted in a letter in 1977 that he almost never looked at porn magazines, telling future biographer Ann Rule, "Who in the world reads these publications? ... I have never purchased such a magazine, and [on only] two or three occasions have I ever picked one up."<ref>{{cite book|author=Zed Simpson|title=Ted Bundy: The Life and Crimes of One of America's Most Notorious Serial Killers|publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform|date=16 February 2016|isbn=1530071321}}</ref>}}

The very same day that Dobson interviewed him, Bundy assured two other researchers "that pornography was in no way the prime causal factor"<ref>{{cite book|author=Stephen G. Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth|title=The Only Living Witness: The True Story of Serial Sex Killer Ted Bundy|publisher=Authorlink|year=1999|isbn=1928704115|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rO5IdAhFw_YC&pg=PA20&dq=inauthor:Hugh+Aynesworth+bundy+pornography&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwis9cK6qqiCAxUSEFkFHUePB_wQ6AF6BAgJEAI#v=onepage&q=inauthor%3AHugh%20Aynesworth%20bundy%20pornography&f=false}}</ref> for his crimes.

Using a brutal psychopath's manipulative ramblings to promote your own moral crusade? Not a good look.

==Scandals==
===Child sex scandal===
In 2009, Focus employee Juan Ovalle was arrested on two felony accounts of soliciting sex with a child via the internet. Ovalle was arrested when he drove to Lakewood, Colorado, to meet a 15-year-old girl who he had cybered with online — the "girl" turned out to be an undercover police detective.<ref name=bucknaked>[http://bucknakedpolitics.typepad.com/buck_naked_politics/2009/04/via-memeorandum-the-colorado-independent-reportsa-colorado-springs-man-who-narrates-the-bible-in-spanish-on-cds-and--works.html "Focus on Family" Employee Allegedly Sought Sex with Teenager]. ''Buck Naked Politics'', 7 April 2009.</ref><ref>Howard Pankratz, [http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_13601491 Ex-Focus worker sentenced in Internet child luring]. ''Denver Post'', 20 October 2009.</ref> Ovalle worked in Focus's Spanish broadcasting department and was FOTF's Spanish-language narrator of their Bible in Spanish CDs and their "Adventures in Odyssey" radio show. However, no other employees are known to have done anything similar or tried to excuse his offenses, so this is more of a statement of the failings of an employee, rather than the organization.

===Defender of Trump and Moore===
During accused sexual predator [[Roy Moore]]'s campaign for the US Senate, Dobson spoke out in defense of both [[Donald Trump|Trump]] and Moore in a radio ad:
{{quotebox|You know, last November I believe God gave America another chance with the election of Donald J. Trump. But he now needs the presence and leadership of Judge Roy Moore to make America great again.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20171129232747/http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2017/11/james-dobson-releases-radio-ad-endorsing-roy-moore/ James Dobson Releases Radio Ad Endorsing Roy Moore] by Michael Stone (November 27, 2017) ''Patheos''.</ref>}}

===Jack Abramoff casino scheme involvement===
In 2006, [[Media Matters]] reported:

{{quotebox|On the February 17 broadcast of his radio program, Focus on the Family president James C. Dobson and Tom Minnery, the organization's vice president of public policy, sought to fend off questions arising from reports of their alleged collusion with convicted felon and former gambling industry lobbyist [[Jack Abramoff]] in a scheme to shut down competition to his [Abramoff's] clients' casinos.

While both Dobson and Minnery deny working with Abramoff, email exchanges between Abramoff and associates Ralph Reed and Michael Scanlon appear to contradict Dobson and Minnery's claim that Focus on the Family's activities in opposition to the expansion of a Louisiana casino had nothing to do with requests from Abramoff or Reed.<ref name=bucknaked />}}

==Guns don't kill people, gay marriage and abortion do!==
According to Dobson, the [[Sandy Hook massacre]] was caused by [[abortion]] and [[same-sex marriage]].<ref>[http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/dobson-connecticut-shooting-was-god-allowing-judgment-fall-upon-us-turning-our-back-him Dobson: Connecticut Shooting was God Allowing 'Judgment to Fall Upon Us' for Turning Our Back on Him], Right Wing Watch</ref> Because, [[Jonanism|of course]], [[Scapegoat|everything bad is caused by them.]]

==Related organizations==
===Nebraska Family Alliance===
The '''Nebraska Family Alliance''' is a conservative lobbying shop that seeks to make Evangelical Christianity into the law of Nebraska. When it was founded in 1988, it was just a bunch of local busybodies worried that people were getting divorced too often, but these days it is a state branch of Focus on the Family.<ref>[https://nefamilyalliance.org/ Nebraska Family Alliance]</ref>

===Women's Liberation Front (WoLF)===
As well as founding Focus on the Family, Dobson was also responsible for funding Women's Liberation Front (WoLF), a [[TERF]] [[astroturf]] site disguised as a "feminist" organization — one that has little apparent interest in women's issues unrelated to transgender people somehow causing problems just by ''existing''.<ref>[https://www.transadvocate.com/fake-radical-feminist-group-actually-paid-political-front-for-anti-lgbt-james-dobson-organization_n_20207.htm Fake “Radical Feminist” Group Actually Paid Political Front For Anti-LGBT James Dobson Organization]. ''TransAdvocate''.</ref><ref>Rani Baker (April 12, 2017). [https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2017/04/fake-radical-feminist-group-paid-political-front-anti-lgbt-organization/ "Fake 'radical feminist' group a paid political front for anti-LGBT organization"]. ''LGBTQ Nation''.</ref> Considering how hurting transgender persons has become "the way" for the Religious Right following the legalization of gay marriage in the United States, this should hardly come as a surprise. Such is their fixation on trans people, that WoLF opposes the [[Equal Rights Amendment]].<ref>WoLF (March 17, 2021). [https://twitter.com/WomensLibFront/status/1372303898665443331 "The Equality Act will end female-only sports and accommodations. The ERA is likely to end freedom of association for women. The Violence Against Women Act will put men in women's shelters and prisons."] Twitter.</ref><ref>WoLF (October 7, 2022). [https://xcancel.com/WomensLibFront/status/1578393177865822209 "The Feminist Argument Against the #EqualRightsAmendment - What is the ERA, and why is it bad for women and girls?"]. Twitter.</ref> This was a shift — which suddenly came once the ERA looked like it had a chance at recognition by Congress — from their previous pro-ERA position, after they saw that pro-trans activists were also in favor of the ERA.<ref>WoLF (March 16, 2021). [https://xcancel.com/WomensLibFront/status/1372002668718260225 "Apart from its other proponents, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) has two non-feminist groups who express enthusiastic support for its passing which should give women serious pause: extremist factions of the men’s rights movement, and the gender identity activists."] Twitter.</ref><ref>Circa 2018–2019, they had spoken in support of the ERA. Examples are [https://xcancel.com/WomensLibFront/status/1002042582598217729 here], [https://xcancel.com/WomensLibFront/status/1044841861842710528 here], and [https://xcancel.com/WomensLibFront/status/1110560026710544384 here].</ref><ref>Carrie N. Baker (February 10, 2022). [https://msmagazine.com/2022/02/10/equal-rights-amendment-ratified/ "Fifty Years Later, the Equal Rights Amendment Is Ratified. Now What?"]. ''Ms.'' Quote: "The House of Representatives has twice passed a joint resolution declaring the ERA validly ratified—in February 2020 and March 2021—but Republicans have used the filibuster to block the measure in the Senate."</ref>

Emails leaked in 2023 also revealed that WoLF's Board Chair, Natasha Chart, collaborated extensively as part of a multi-organizational network of activists promoting anti-trans laws across America. Others involved include people affiliated with the [[Alliance Defending Freedom]] (another Dobson project), the [[American College of Pediatricians]], and [[Liberty Counsel]], for example.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20230308174252/https://maia.crimew.gay/files/Emails.pdf The emails. (PDF download)]</ref><ref>Madison Pauly (March 2023). [https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/03/anti-trans-transgender-health-care-ban-legislation-bill-minors-children-lgbtq/ "Inside the Secret Working Group That Helped Push Anti-Trans Laws Across the Country"]. ''Mother Jones''.</ref> WoLF has also collaborated in the past with [[Concerned Women for America]], the [[Heritage Foundation]], [[Parents of ROGD Kids]], and the Family Policy Alliance (which was founded by Dobbs).<ref>Tim Fitzsimons (January 29, 2019). [https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/conservative-group-hosts-anti-transgender-panel-feminists-left-n964246 "Conservative group hosts anti-transgender panel of feminists 'from the left']. ''NBC Out''. NBC News.</ref><ref>Sian Norris (September 30, 2021). [https://bylinetimes.com/2021/09/30/the-far-right-co-option-of-the-transgender-rights-issue/ "The Far-Right Co-Option of the Transgender Rights Issue]. ''Byline Times''.</ref> There is an overlap between WoLF and [[Women's Declaration International]], another TERF group, with WoLF co-chair Kara Dansky also being President of WDI USA.

===Plugged-In===
'''Plugged-In''' is Focus on the Family's pop culture review site. The site covers movies, music, television shows, and video games from the perspective of an evangelical "think of the children!" prude. The site is like [[Capalert]] without the dodgy clip art and dubious attempts at quantifying every naughty word.

Plugged-In is interesting in the sheer variability of the reviews. Some reviewers will actually manage to understand and show some basic grasp of the meaning of the works they are reviewing, while others will just list the number of swear words and other bits of naughtiness. The usual fallacy of believing that everything depicted or described in a movie or song is an endorsement of that practice crops up a lot.

==See also==
{{div col|2}}
*[[American Family Association]]
*[[Blackwater]]
*[[Concerned Women for America]]
*[[Family Research Council]]
*[[Family values]]
*[[James Bopp]]
*[[Planned Parenthood]] - Their arch-nemesis.
*[[Traditional values]]
{{div col end}}

==External links==
*[http://www.focusonthefamily.com/ Their website]
*[https://www.pluggedin.com/ Plugged In: their media review site]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/201607/http://respectmyresearch.org/ Respect My Research]: Website established by [http://www.truthwinsout.org/ Truth Wins Out (TWO)] that seeks to call attention to Focus on the Family's skewing, misrepresenting or just outright lying about scientific research to fit its [[homophobic]] positions.
*[http://culteducation.com/group/926-focus-on-the-family.html Focus on the Family] information at [[Rick Ross]]'s Cult Education Institute, which classifies them as a [[cult]].

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

[[Category:Christianity]]
[[Category:Cults]]
[[Category:Hate groups]]
[[Category:Homophobia]]
[[Category:Misnomers]]
[[Category:Political action groups]]
[[Category:Pray the gay away]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience promoting organizations]]
[[Category:Purity culture]]
[[Category:Transphobia]]

Categories: Christianity, Cults, Hate groups, Homophobia, Misnomers, Political action groups, Pray the gay away, Pseudoscience promoting organizations, Purity culture, Transphobia