The Pulpit ~

Archive for the 'Focus on the Family' Tag

« Previous Entries

Focus pursues “a more civil discourse,” spokesman says

January 11th, 2011, 2:31 pm by

Focus on the Family in recent years has made a concerted effort to tone down the fiery rhetoric it became known for through its founder, James Dobson.

Some observers have speculated that Dobson was eased out of the Colorado Springs ministry because his rhetorical flourishes ran counter to the ministry vision of Jim Daly, Focus president and CEO since 2005.

The biggest evidence for this is that Dobson, rather than retire last February from Focus, went on to create Family Talk,a family ministry that ‘s very similar in goals to Focus. The tone of Family Talk is sometimes similar to that of Focus when Dobson was calling the shots. In an October Family Talk newsletter, Dobson went after President Obama, Democrats in general and Muslims with a ferocity not heard from Focus since 2008 in the run-up to national elections.

Today, Focus spokesman Gary Schneeberger acknowledged that Daly has led Focus toward a “more civil discourse.”

“This is a conversation we’ve been having for a few years now,” Schneeberger said today. “In fact, Jim Daly has been recognized by more than one national media outlet as being a leader among the ‘evangelical right’ in calling for a more civil discourse in the public square.”

My interview with Schneeberger today was very interesting. The reason for our chat was my research for my weekend Pulpit column for Gazette.com. I am writing about how last Saturday’s Arizona shootings have caused a dialogue among politicians about whether political rhetoric has gone too far. And I’ll broach the notion in the column that politicians might learn something from the trend among evangelicals and Christian political action committees toward tolerance and civility, which is quite a contrast to only a few years ago.

Below are highlights from my interview with Schneeberger:

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • • • | 25 Comments »

Arizona shootings, a wake-up call to faith leaders, too?

January 9th, 2011, 2:28 pm by

Jared Lee Loughner’s alleged shooting rampage in Arizona Saturday that has taken lives and critically injured Democrat Representative Gabriel Giffords has many calling for a re-assement of the heightened rhetoric of politicians, including quasi religious-political figures like Sarah Palin.

I noted in a previous Pulpit column that faith-based PACS, political action committees, had, for the most part, cut back the divisive rhetoric in the weeks prior to last November’s mid-term elections — quite a change from the 2008 national elections.

Tom Minnery, vice president of Focus on the Family’s advocacy arm CitizenLink, told Christianity Today in October: “We try to stay out of the rank partisanship. We are a Christian ministry here. We need to guard our tone. It is not as harsh. Hopefully, it is not as harsh at all like some of the nasty ads that can be seen everywhere.”

But is it now time for religious leaders to actively call out politicians, be them Democrats or Republicans, who push the envelope too far in provocative partisan rhetoric? After all, if religion has a purpose in society, it is to check the secular impulses,  and one of those would seem to be when partisanship of political leaders becomes dangerous to society.

Religious leaders may also have a duty to call out harsh comments against homosexuals, because such rhetoric can also lead to violence, as Uganda is experiencing.

Noone knows why Loughner reportedly pulled the trigger Saturday. But investigators are saying it appears he held hostile ideas toward the federal government. And he chose to target a Democratic event for his shooting spree rather than, say, a shopping mall.

I’m planning next Sunday’s Pulpit column to be on what the role of religious leaders should be toward politics. Should they speak against bipartisanship rhetoric? Remain silent? Or play the PAC (political action committee) game to, in their view, better society?

Please tell me your thoughts on Saturday’s shooting and the state of American politics.

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • • • • • • • | 8 Comments »

More groups pull out of CPAC due to gay group’s presence

January 7th, 2011, 2:25 pm by

The Heritage Foundation and Media Research Center are two of the latest groups to pull out of the Conservative Political Action Conference in February due to the participation of GOProud, a conservative group of 10,000 members, most if not all of whom are gay.

The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C., that had been a sponsor for years of the event. Spokesman Mike Gonzalez told WorldNetDaily, “We believe in the traditional definition of the family. We believe in defending the family against any threats that come against it. We’re not for gay marriage. We don’t think institutions that have existed for millennia can be done away with at the drop of a hat.”

The Media Research Center has been part of CPAC for 25 years. “To bring in a gay group is a direct attack on social conservatives, and I can’t participate in that,” center leader Brent Bozell told WorldNetDaily.

Read the WorldNetDaily story here.

Read my Gazette story on other groups that have left or are unhappy with GOProud’s co-sponsorship, including Focus on the Family, here.

Good move by Heritage and Media Research?

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • • | 7 Comments »

Focus, other ministries question their commitment to CPAC

January 4th, 2011, 3:51 pm by

In my story appearing at www.gazette.comtoday, I write about the handful of conservative Christian ministries angry about GOProud, a gay advocacy group, being one of dozens of cosponsors for the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., in February.

Tom Minnery

Read my Pulpit column here for background on Jimmy Salvia, the founder and president of the conservative-leaning GOProud. In a phone interview today, LaSalvia, who is Republican, made some curious points.

On how Americans are more accepting of gays: “Conservatives are no different that anyone else in America. More and more gay people are living openly and honestly. More Americans have gay people in their lives, and they know gay people in their neighborhoods. My experience at CPAC last year was overwhelmingly positive. One after another thanked me for being there.”

On heterosexual and gay marriages:“GOProud believes marriage is a state issue. The federal government should not be involved in marriage and family law.”

On GOProud’s support of Republican platforms:“Our support includes private inheritable accounts. Right now you have to be legally married to get survivor’s benefits. Free market healthcare reform. Put control of health care in hands of individuals. Then a same-sex couple could purchase a healthcare plan across state lines rather than through a domestic partner benefit from an employer.”

“These policies are good for everybody and uniquely benefit gay people. Less government and intrusion in people’s lives are good.”

Tommy Sears is executive director of the Center for Military Readiness in Livonia, Michigan.Sears said the organization is on the fence about whether to boycott CPAC for allowing GOProud to be a cosponsor. “We are in outright conflict (with GOProud) on allowing gays in the military,” Sears told me today.

Mat Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, told me that the organization decided not to be a CPAC cosponsor last year and this year because of GOProud’s cosponsorship.  Staver cited Ronald Reagan’s “three legs” of responsibility — fiscal, national defense and social. GOProud’s support of gay marriage undermines the social, and its support of gays in the military undermines national defense.

Speaking of CPAC, Staver said, “We will not continue to support an organization that undermines our principles.”

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • | 3 Comments »

GOProud to be part of CPAC 2011 … again

January 3rd, 2011, 10:51 am by
YouTube Preview Image

GOProud, a Republican gay advocacy group in Washington, D.C., will again take part in the Conservative Political Action Conference, a Republican-conservative Christian rah rah in anticipation of the 2012 national elections.

Read my Pulpit column here from December 2009, in which Focus on the Family expressed discomfort over GOProuds’ cosponsorship of last year’s CPAC.

GOProud is taking a defiant stance on being part of CPAC. “While we don’t like that some organizations won’t be at CPAC because of GOProud, we certainly appreciate the publicity!”

Family Research Council’s  Tom McClusky said in a statement the ministry will not participate in CPAC 2011. “We have been very involved in CPAC for over a decade,” McClusky wrote in a statement to Fox News. “However, we will no lonhger be involved … because of the movement away from conservative principles.”

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • • • • | 14 Comments »

Apple rejects Christian right iPhone app as “offensive to large groups”

December 28th, 2010, 5:19 pm by

Apple Inc. has twice rejected an iPhone and iPad app by the Christian right. The corporation says it’s because the app is “offensive to large groups of people,” according to a news release.

The app in question was the Manhattan Declaration, a 4,700-word manifesto written in 2009 by James Dobson, Charles Colson, Richard Land and other conservative Christian leaders.

The declaration includes Bible verses on marriage, but also condemns gay marriage and abortion. It was the condemnation of gay marriage that bothered Apple.

The Christian right tweaked the language to try to appease Apple. But on Dec. 23, Apple rejected the new version, the Baptist Press reports.

On its website,  www.manhattandeclaration.org, the Christian is fighting back. There it says: ”Inasmuch as the Manhattan Declaration simply reaffirms the moral teachings of our Christian faith on the sanctity of human life, marriage and sexual morality, and religious freedom and the rights of conscience, Apple’s statement amounts to the charge that our faith is ‘potentially harmful to others.’ It is difficult to see how this is anything other than a statement of animus by a major American corporation against the beliefs of millions of Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox citizens.”

In a recent column for the San Francisco Chronicle, Colson wrote, “If the Manhattan Declaration’s positions are offensive, (then) so are those of mainstream Christianity for the past 2,000 years.”

Did Apple, a corporation known for taking a liberal stand on social issues, drop the ball on this one?

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • • • • • • | 67 Comments »

Colorado Springs religion, a look to 2011

December 27th, 2010, 4:02 pm by

The early part of 2011 has quite a few happenings pertaining to religion in Colorado Springs.

Colorado Springs

New Life Church, as part of a coalition of businesses and other ministries, plans to launch its most ambitious community outreach: Dream Centers.

The first Dream Center, a free medical clinic, is scheduled to open in January at 4360 Montebello Drive.

After that, four other free Springs services — a drug rehab center, a safe house for women rescued from sex trafficking, a counsel center for single moms, and a treatment facility for military people suffering from post traumatic stress disorder — will be rolled out during the year.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • • • • • • • • • • • | 17 Comments »

Excerpts from Bush on “Focus on the Family” radio

December 14th, 2010, 9:59 am by

Today and tomorrow on “Focus on the Family” radio, George W. Bush is interviewed by Focus leader Jim Daly.

 Check out the interviews at focusonthefamily.com and click “Today’s Broadcast.”

Below is the Focus news release:

Former President George W. Bush acknowledges in an exclusive interview airing today and Wednesday on Focus on the Family that the strident tone of some on the political right is not conducive to passing pro-family public policy.

Bush, in a conversation with Focus President Jim Daly about his new memoir “Decision Points,” says that “there are people throughout the political spectrum who like to demonize somebody they don’t agree with.”

“I don’t believe you can lead by demonizing somebody. I believe you lead by convincing somebody,” he says. “And in my case, I was unable to convince (some people) on different issues. I understood that. And I hope that people who read the book at least come to an understanding as to why I made the decisions that I did.”

Daly’s interview with Bush, the first the 43rd president has granted to Christian media, covers a wide variety of topics, including the death of his sister Robin when he was 7; his love affair with his wife, Laura; his feelings in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks; his relationship with his parents and daughters; the emotion of his meetings with the loved ones of armed forces members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan; and how to return civility to the public square.

Bush also talks in detail about his struggles with alcohol and the growth of his Christian faith, saying it was only through “the intervention of the Almighty” — promoted by a heart-to-heart with the Rev. Billy Graham — that he was able to give up drinking. What he discovered, he said, is that “religion is not a course in self-improvement.”

  Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • | 4 Comments »

Is the gay movement making us self-conscious about same-sex friendship?

December 14th, 2010, 8:36 am by

Jeff Johnston of Focus on the Family has written an interesting essay posted on CitizenLink.com, Focus’ political arm.

Let’s face it, one look at the blog postings on gazette.com on story about gays  reveals a lot of homophobia. Cruel jokes abound by posters. As Johnston points out, the gay movement and the push back by conservatives seems to have made us suspicious of same-sex friendships. Johnston points out how Oprah Winfrey had to defend her close friendship with a woman in an interview with Barbara Walters.

Years ago, two unmarried men or women could go camping together, and not a word was said. Now, it creates a buzz about whether they are gay. This is an unfortunate consequence of today’s dialogue.

You can read Johnston’s essay here.

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • • • | 5 Comments »

Is Glenn Beck positioning himself to be a religious leader?

December 10th, 2010, 3:34 pm by

… Bill Maher thinks so. Check out this interesting interview that aired recently on CNN, in which Maher says Beck is moving away from being a political commentator to embrace being a religious leader. Maher quips that there is more money in the move, at the very least.

Bill Maher

If Maher is right, Beck isn’t the first. Remember, James Dobson once was a professor of child psychology at UCLA before, Dobson says, God called him to start Focus on the Family. Also, L. Ron Hubbard  was a writer of science fiction before founding the Church of Scientology.

Here’s the link, far below …

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2010/12/05/gps.maher.beck.cnn?iref=allsearch

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • • • • • • | 6 Comments »

« Previous Entries