Focus on Families ( FOTF or FotF ) is an American Christian conservative organization founded in 1977 in Southern California by psychologist James Dobson, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is active in promoting interdenominational efforts toward his conservative social outlook on public policy. Family focus is one of a number of evangelical parliamentary organizations that became famous in the 1980s. In the year of fiscal year 2015, Focus on the Family declared itself a church.
Focusing on the mission the Family declares is "nurturing and defending the God-ordained family institution and promoting biblical truth throughout the world". It promotes abstinence sexual education only; creationism; adoption by married parents, the opposite sex; school prayer; and traditional gender roles. It opposes abortion; divorce; gambling; LGBT rights, especially LGBT adoption and same-sex marriage; pornography; premarital sex; and substance abuse. Psychologists, psychiatrists and social scientists have criticized Focus on the Family for trying to misinterpret their research to support FOTF's fundamentalist agenda and ideology.
The core promotional activities of the organization include daily radio broadcasts by its president Jim Daly and his colleagues, providing free resources according to focus on the Family view, and publishing magazines, videos and audio recordings. The organization also produces programs for targeted audiences such as Adventures in Odyssey for kids, dramas, and Family Minute .
Video Focus on the Family
History and organization
From 1977 to 2003, James Dobson served as the sole leader of the organization. In 2003, Donald P. Hodel became president and chief executive officer, assigned to day-to-day operations. This left Dobson as chairman of the board, with a particularly creative and talking task. Family focus aims to equip the family "through radio broadcasts, websites, simulcasts, conferences, interactive forums, magazines, books, and counseling."
In March 2005, Hodel retired and Jim Daly, former Vice President in charge of Focus on the International Family Division, took over the role of president and chief executive officer.
In November 2008, the organization announced that it eliminated 202 jobs, representing 18 percent of its workforce. The organization also cut its budget from $ 160 million in fiscal 2008 to $ 138 million for fiscal 2009.
In February 2009, Dobson resigned from his post. He left Focus on the Family in early 2010, and later founded Family Talk as a nonprofit organization and launched a new broadcast that began nationwide on May 3, 2010. He is no longer affiliated with Focus on Family.
On June 23, 2017, Vice President Mike Pence attended the 40th anniversary of the organization; at the event, he praised the founder of James Dobson, stating that President Donald Trump is an ally of the organization, and added that the Trump administration supports its goals (including the abolition of Planned Parenthood). The presence of Pence at the event, together with the Focus on the Family's establishment of LGBT rights, was criticized by the Human Rights Campaign.
In the IRS Form 990 for the 2015 Tax Year, dated October 26, 2017, the Family Focus for the first time declared itself to be "church, church convention or church association", claiming that it is no longer necessary to file an IRS disclosure form and that the source and disposition of the budget $ 89 million is "Not for public inspection." Tax lawyer Gail Harmon, who advises the nonprofit in the tax law, said he found the "shocking" declaration, noting that "" Nothing about them fulfills the traditional definition of what a church is. They have no congregation, they have no rituals from different parts of one's life. "
Maps Focus on the Family
Ministries
Marriage and family
The Family focus sees its primary ministry as helping couples "build a healthy marriage that reflects God's design," based on what he sees as "moral and values ​​based on biblical principles." The group is strongly opposed to same-sex marriage.
Love Won
Focus on Family formed Love Won Out, a former gay service, in 1998 and in 2009, it was sold to Exodus International. However, in June 2013, Exodus discontinued activities and issued a declaration that refused its purpose and apologized for the harm caused to LGBT's pursuit; see Exodus International # Closure .
Wait No More
Focus on family service Wait No More Working with adoption agencies, church leaders and service partners to recruit families to adopt children from foster care. The program sponsors several adoption conferences across the country each year. Since November 2008, more than 2,700 families have started the adoption process through Wait No More. In Colorado, the number of children awaiting adoption drops from about 800 to 350, due in part to Wait No Longer. Focusing on Family efforts to encourage adoption among Christian families is part of a larger effort by Evangelicals to, in their perception, live what they see as a "biblical mandate" to help children. Family focus supports the law to prevent couples from adopting who live outside marriage as well as homosexual couples.
Ultrasound Option Program
The focus on the Family Ultrasound Option Program (OUP) provides grants for eligible pregnancy crisis centers to cover 80 percent of the cost of ultrasound machines or sonography training. As of October 31, 2014, the program has granted 655 grants to centers in all 50 states and Bucharest, Romania. Focus on Family started OUP in 2004 with the aim of convincing women not to have an abortion. FOTF officials say that ultrasound services help a woman better understand pregnancy and the development of her baby, creating an important "bonding opportunity" between "unborn mothers and children".
The Ultrasound Options program is reported in 2014 that has helped prevent more than 270,000 abortions since 2004. A study released in February 2012 showed that ultrasound has no direct impact on abortion decisions. In 2011, FOTF President Jim Daly announced that while FOTF will continue to fight to undo Roe v. Wade, meanwhile, wants to work with pro-choice groups such as Planned Parenthood who declare that they want to have "safe," legal and rare "abortions toward a common goal of making abortions less common Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) Introducing sonogram bills in 2011 and - quoting Focus on the Family - told Congress that "78 percent of women who see and hear a fetal heart beat choose life." He was later corrected by Focus on the Family, who released a statement saying they did not release the data.
Boundless.org
Boundless.org is the Focus on the Family website for young adults featuring articles, blogs, podcasts, and conferences. This website covers topics such as singleness, dating, relationships, popular culture, career and sex. Boundless.org recommends online dating as a tool for Christian singles to find potential partners.
Day of the Dialogue
The Day of Dialogue is a student-led event that takes place April 16th. The founders described the purpose of the event, which was created in opposition to Anti-bullying and anti-homophobic Day of Silence, as "encouraging honest and respectful conversations among students about God's Design for sexuality." Day of Truth and was established by the Alliance Defense Fund in 2005.
National Prayer Day
The National Day of Prayer Task Force is an evangelical conservative Christian non-profit organization that organizes, coordinates, and leads Evangelical Christian religious celebrations every year on National Day of Prayer. The NDP Task Force website states that "business affairs are separate" from Focus on Families, but also that "between 1990 and 1993 the Focus on Families did provide grants to support the NDP Task Force" and that "Focus on Families is compensated for services provided. " Shirley Dobson, wife of James Dobson, was chairman of the NDP Task Force from 1991 to 2016, until Anne Graham Lotz, evangelist daughter Billy Graham, took over the post.
Other ministries
Family focus has an additional ministry. Many are aimed at specific demographics including teenage boys and girls, children, students, families, young adults, parents, while others are addressed for specific issues, such as sexual, entertainment, and political issues. Many have their own regular publications.
Political position and activity
Focus on the status of 501 (c) (3) Families prevent them from advocating any political candidate. Focus on Family magazine Citizens exclusively devoted to issues of cultural and public policy. FOTF also has an affiliated group, Family Policy Alliance, although both groups are legally separated. As a social welfare group 501 (c) (4), the Family Policy Alliance has fewer restrictions on political lobbying. FOTF revenue in 2012 is USD $ 90.5 million, and from the Family Policy Alliance (formerly CitizenLink) is USD $ 8 million.
Family focus supports teaching about what is considered a traditional "family value". It supports student-led prayer and begins and supports the practice of corporal punishment. It strongly opposes LGBT rights, abortion, pornography, gambling, and pre-marital and extramarital sexual activity. The Family focus also promotes a religious-centered conception of American identity and Israeli support.
The Family focus maintains a strong attitude toward abortion, and provides grants and medical training to help the crisis pregnancy center (CPC, also known as the source of pregnancy) in obtaining ultrasound machines. According to the organization, this funding, which has enabled BPK to provide images of the developing fetus's live sonogram to pregnant women, has led directly to the birth of more than 1,500 infants who otherwise would have been disqualified. Organizations have been firmly opposed to public funding for elective abortion.
Focus on Family broadcast eponymous national talk radio program. The program has various themes, such as Christian-oriented fundamentalist assistance for victims of rape or child abuse; parenting difficulties; adoption of children; the role of husband/wife; family history and tradition; struggling with gambling, pornography, alcohol, and drugs.
Focus on Family has been a major proponent of pseudosain intelligent design, publishes pro-intelligent design articles in Citizen magazine and sells smart design videos on its website. The Family focus together publishes the intelligent design video recording Unlocking the Mystery of Life with the Discovery Institute, the center of the intelligent design movement.
President 2008 campaign
In the 2008 US presidential election, Focus on the Family shifted from supporting Mike Huckabee, to not supporting any candidate, to finally receiving Republican tickets once Sarah Palin was added to the ticket. Before the election, television and mail campaigns were launched to predict terrorist attacks in four US cities and equate the United States with Nazi Germany. This publicity is condemned by the Anti Pollution League. In the month before the election, Focus on the Family began distributing a 16-page letter entitled "Letter from 2012 at Obama's America", which describes America's future in which "much of our freedom has been taken away by the liberal Supreme Court The United States and the Democratic majority both in the House of Representatives and the Senate. "According to USA Today , the letter" is part of the escalation of rhetoric of the Christian rightist "who seeks to paint Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in light negative.
Focus on Family Action supported Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) In his victory on December 2, 2008, the victory of runoff election. The organization, by Colorado Independent , contributed $ 35,310 in radio advertising to the Chambliss runoff campaign. As an Independent report, Focus-sponsored ads are shown around a dozen Georgian markets. The ads were produced within a few weeks after Focus laid off 202 employees - about 20 percent of its workforce - due to the national economic crisis.
Opposition to same-sex marriage
The Family focus works to preserve his interpretations of the idealism of marriage and Bible parents, taking a strong stance on LGBT rights, including same-sex marriage. Dobson expressed grave concern about the institution of marriage in a 2003 letter to the Christian community. In relation to same-sex marriage, Dobson said that the institution of marriage, "will descend into a state of turmoil unlike any other in human history." Focus on Families believes that marriage should be defined as only between men and women. Dobson supports the failed Federal Marriage Amendment, which would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, preventing state courts and legislatures from challenging this definition.
In the same letter, Dobson says that traditional marriage is the cornerstone of society, and he states that the goal of the gay and lesbian movement is not to redefine marriage but to destroy the institution itself. "Most gays and lesbians do not want to marry each other... the intention here is to destroy marriage altogether." Dobson argues that, without the institution of marriage, everyone will enjoy the benefits of marriage without limiting the number of couples or their sexes. Focusing on the Family view allows same-sex marriage as "... a stepping stone on the road to eliminate all social restrictions on marriage and sexuality."
Family focus confirms that the Bible describes the right plan for marriage and family. Dobson said that "God created Eve to equip Adam physically, spiritually, and emotionally." Dobson also uses Paul's biblical figure to affirm his view of marriage. He states that Paul maintains that men and women complement each other, and to exchange "natural relationships for unnatural is sin".
Regarding same-sex marriage and same-sex couples with children, Dobson states, "same-sex relations undermine the understanding of future generations of the basic principles of marriage, parents, and gender." He also stated that the alleged destruction of what is considered a traditional family by allowing same-sex marriages would lead to "unstable homes for children".
The Family focus became more active in the same-sex marriage opposition movement after the Supreme Court of Canada declared that restricting marriage to the opposite sex was a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Rights in 2003.
Dobson spoke in a 2004 rally against a gay marriage called Mayday for Marriage. This is the first time he has supported a presidential candidate, George W. Bush. Here he denounces a Supreme Court ruling that supports gay rights, and he urges rally participants to come out and vote so that battles against gay rights can be won in the Senate.
In an interview with Christianity Today magazine Dobson also explained that he does not support civil unions. He stated that civil unions are same-sex marriages of different names. The main priority of the opposite sex marriage movement is to define marriage at the federal level such as between men and women and combat the passage of later civil unions.
Civil rights advocacy groups identify Focus on Families as the main opposite of gay rights. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights and hate groups monitoring organization, described Focus on the Family as one of "dozens of large groups that helped push the right anti-gay struggle of religion." SPLC does not include Focus on the Family as a group of hate, however, because it opposes homosexuality "on a strictly biblical basis".
The Focus on the Family is a member of ProtectMarriage.com, a coalition set up to sponsor California Proposition 8, a voting initiative to limit marriage to opposite sex couples, passed in 2008, but was later beaten as unconstitutional by a federal court in Perry v. Schwarzenegger .
Incorrect representation of research
Social scientists have criticized Focus on the Family for misrepresenting their research to strengthen their own perspectives. Researcher Judith Stacey whose work Focus on the Family used to claim that gays and lesbians did not make good parents, said the claim was "a direct description of the research." He explains, "Whenever you hear Focus on the Family, legislators or lawyers say, 'Studies prove that children are better off in families with mothers and fathers,' they refer to a study comparing heterosexual households to parents of two parents "The FOTF claims that Stacey's allegations are unfounded and that their position is that the best interests of the children are served when there are fathers and mothers. "We have not said anything about sexual orientation," says Glenn Stanton.
James Dobson cites the research of Kyle Pruett and Carol Gilligan in the Guest Magazine's Time Magazine article in the service of claims that two women can not raise a child; after learning that his work had been used in this way, Gilligan wrote a letter to Dobson asking him to apologize and stop and quit from citing his work, describing himself as "ashamed to know that you have interfered with my work... No You just took my research at out of context, you do it without my knowledge to support a discriminatory goal that I disagree with... nothing in my research will lead you to draw conclusions that you stated in the Time article. "Pruett wrote a letter that where he said that Dobson "chose a phrase to sustain a very (in my view) discriminatory goal.This practice was condemned in real science, general though it may be in a pseudo-science circle.There is nothing in my longitudinal study or my writing to support conclusion like that, "and requested that FOTF not quote it again without permission.
After Elizabeth Saewyc's research on teen suicide was used by Focus on the Family to promote conversion therapy, she said that "research has been hijacked for one's political purpose or ideological purpose and that is worrying", and that research actually connects suicide rates among LGBT. teenagers to harassment, discrimination, and cabinets. Other scientists who have criticized Focus on the Family for misrepresenting their findings include Robert Spitzer, Gary Remafedi, and Angela Phillips.
Football ads
In 2010, Focus on the Family bought advertising time during Super Bowl XLIV to deliver ads featuring the winner of the Heisman Trophy Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam. In the advertisement, Pam described Tim as a "miracle baby" who "barely made it into the world", and further explained that "with all our families gone through, we must be tough" (after which Pam was handled by Tim). Ads redirect the audience to the organization's website.
Women's rights groups asked CBS not to broadcast unseen advertisements, arguing that it was divisive. Planned Parenthood released a video response from its own NFL player featuring Sean James. The claim that the Tebow family chose not to have an abortion was also widely criticized; critics feel that the claim is unreasonable because it is impossible for doctors to recommend the procedure because abortion is illegal in the Philippines. CBS's decision to run ads was also criticized for deviating from previous policies to reject advocacy type adverts during the Super Bowl, including ads by left-leaning groups such as PETA, MoveOn.org and United Church of Christ (who wanted to run same-sex pro-marriage ads ). However, CBS stated that "we have for some time moderated our approach to advocacy submissions after it became clear that our attitude does not reflect public sentiment or industry norms on this issue."
Focus on Family generates other ads running during the second quarter of January 14, 2012 The Denver Broncos-New England Patriots AFC playoff division is broadcast on CBS, featuring children reading Bible verses John 3:16. The game, given the previous months of hype and media exposure for Tim Tebow (now playing for the Broncos), was seen by over 30 million viewers, making it the most watched AFC Playoff Division in more than a decade. The ad does not generate nearly the amount of controversy surrounding the Super Bowl ad. It gained national media attention, and president Jim Daly stated in a press release that his goal was to "help everyone understand some numbers more important than those on the scoreboard."
Recognition and rewards
In 2008, Dobson's "Focus on Family" program was nominated for inclusion in the National Radio Hall of Fame. Nominations are made by 157 Hall of Fame members and voting on inductees submitted to the public using online voting. The nomination attracted the outrage of gay rights activists, who launched efforts to remove programs from the nominee list and selected other candidates to prevent the "Family Focus" from victory. However, on July 18, 2008, it was announced that the program had won and would be sworn in to the Radio Hall of Fame in a ceremony on November 8, 2008. Truth Wins Out, a gay rights group, protested the ceremony with more than 300 protesters.
International associations and regional offices
New Zealand
Focus on New Zealand Families is an organization that promotes conservative Christian ideology. It has a similar agenda for Focus on the Family organization in the United States. Family Focus supports the Referendum of Initiated Residents about the revocation of article 59 of the 1961 Criminal Code.
Other countries
- Australia: Focus on Australian Family, Clayton, Victoria
- Canada - Focus on the Canadian Family
- Latin America: Enfoque a la Familia, San José ©, Costa Rica
- Middle East Region: Focus on Middle Eastern Families, Cairo, Egypt
- Indonesia: Focus on Family, Jakarta
- Ireland: Focus on Irish Family, Dublin
- South Korea: Open Korean Family, Seoul
- Malaysia: Focus on Malaysian Family, Selangor
- Singapore: Focus on the Singapore Family
- African Region: Focus on the African Family, Hillcrest, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
- Taiwan: Focus on Taiwan Family, Taipei
Controversy
The FotF Singapore branch began to be criticized in October 2014 on allegations of sexism and promoting gender stereotypes during their workshops in managing relationships for junior students. The workshop received complaints from both Hwa Chong Junior College students, as well as negative feedback from college management as 'ineffective' and will cease by the end of the year.
Headquarters
The Focus on the Family mark is a four-store, 47-acre (19 ha) complex located outside Interstate 25 in North Colorado Springs, Colorado, with its own zip code (80995). The building consists of Administration building, International building, Welcome Center and Building Operations (not currently in use), and a total of 526,070 square feet.
The Family focus was transferred to its current headquarters from Pomona, California, in 1991, with 1,200 employees. In 2002, the number of employees reached 1,400. In September 2011, after years of layoffs, they had 650 employees left. Christopher Ott of Salon said in 1998 that the FOTF campus had "a handsome new brick building, a professional landscape and even its own traffic sign" and that "The building and yard are well maintained and comfortable. striking or corrupt influence here, nowhere to be seen. "
While visiting the Focus on the Family complex, a couple has asked staff whether handling travelers in the main house is a distraction. The staff told the couple that it was a distraction; after which the couple donated $ 4 million to build a welcoming center. A visiting family donated 7 miles (11 km) of wood trim from the family's Pennsylvania family business so the FOTF could build an administration building. In 1998, James Dobson, in his welcoming movie center, compared his decision to build a headquarters in Colorado Springs to establish a temple in Jerusalem.
References
External links
Media related to Family Focus on Wikimedia Commons
- Family Focus
- The FOTF Program via Streaming Audio
- FOTF Comment Info on Radio ABC
- Focus on New Zealand Families
- Unlimited Webzine
- Day of the Dialogue
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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