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Dobson, others sign declaration as “call of Christian conscience”

November 20th, 2009, 5:25 pm by Mark Barna

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, 15 Roman Catholic bishops, and other Christian leaders have signed a declaration today that underscores their being against gay marriage and abortion, the Associated Press reports.

The declaration also takes shots at the Obama Administration and the federal healthcare proposal.

The document is called “The Manhattan Declaration: A Call to Christian Conscience.”

Predictably, President Barack Obama gets hammered in the declaration. “The present administration is led and staffed by those who want to make abortions legal at any stage of fetal development, and who want to provide abortions at tax payers expense,” AP reports the declaration saying.

These Christian conservative declarations have become somewhat commonplace. Do you think they make any real difference to anyone? Is this preaching to the choir? Please explain below.

Posted in: Uncategorized • "The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience" • Focus on the Family • James Dobson | 1 Comment »

Jim Daly post: All goodness, including from unbelievers, is from God

November 3rd, 2009, 12:54 pm by Mark Barna

Jim Daly, Focus on the Family president and CEO, responds to some interesting questions as a panelist for the The Washington Post’s “On

Jim Daly

Faith” online site. This week’s question was as follows: Is there good without God? Can people be good without God? How can people be good, in the moral and ethical sense, without being grounded in some sort of belief in a being which is greater than they are? Where do concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, come from if not from religion? From where do you get your sense of good and evil, right and wrong?

Click here to read Daly’s response.

Please post your response to this question below.

Posted in: Uncategorized • Focus on the Family • Jim Daly • Washington Post's On Faith | 2 Comments »

Focus on the Family banned from Australian schools

November 2nd, 2009, 11:46 am by Mark Barna

Focus on the Family has been accused of evangelizing in certain Australian schools.

The Colorado Springs family group has been banned due to its negativity toward homosexuality and preaching Christianity without first getting parental consent, according to ABC News.

You can read the full story here.

Posted in: Uncategorized • Focus on the Family • gays • James Dobson | 1 Comment »

Focus Action spends $400,000 impugning health care proposal

October 28th, 2009, 3:25 pm by Mark Barna

Focus on the Family Action, the political arm of the Colorado Springs family group, has spent more than $400,000 fighting the Obama

Tom Minnery

Administration’s federal health care proposal, according to Focus Action senior vice president Tom Minnery.

Focus Action says the proposal subsidizes abortion, will ration health care for the elderly and will create a huge tax burden.

Here are some of the results Focus Action has had by reaching out to the general public through various media campaigns that impugn Obama’s health care proposal, according to a Focus Action news letter released today:

* Generated 52,000 phone calls into the offices of 10 key senators

* Generated 43,000 phone calls into the offices of 10 key congressmen.

* Online phone-a-thon in which thousands of Focus supporters called their senators, congressman and the White House.

* In late October, Focus Action delivered about 150,000 petitions to Capitol Hill.

Is this money well spent? Please comment below.

Posted in: Uncategorized • federal health care proposal • Focus on the Family • Focus on the Family Action • Tom Minnery | 2 Comments »

Focus: Gay education in schools is “radical homosexual activism”

October 21st, 2009, 9:56 am by Mark Barna

On Monday, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) began Ally Week, designed to help school students better understand people with same-sex attraction in hopes of lessening misconceptions and hate toward them.

Focus on the Family believes the program is dangerous.

“This is really dangerous for schools to open their doors to gay activist groups that will then be emailing students information pushing radical homosexual activism, all without their parents’ knowledge,” said Focus education analyst Candi Cushman.

Cushman calls GLSEN’s program “Orwellian.”

Do you think educating students about same-sex lifestyles is dangerous? Please comment below.

Posted in: Uncategorized • Focus on the Family • gay marriage • Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) • The Gay | 5 Comments »

Dobson: Only Republican leadership “can save America from national disaster”

October 9th, 2009, 10:17 am by Mark Barna

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson recently gave a frightening vision of America’s future under the leadership of President Barack Obama, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today. The occasion was the Council for National Policy, a social conservative event in Austin.

Dobson said only Rebuplicans can “save America from national disaster,” and with Obama leading the country, America is in “greater danger than at any time since the Civil War.”

See Dobson’s address above.

Posted in: Uncategorized • Focus on the Family • James Dobson | 3 Comments »

Jim Daly: civil discourse on health care is needed

September 17th, 2009, 3:01 pm by Mark Barna

Focus CEO and president Jim Daly made an interesting post on the Washington Post’s “On Faith” blog today. In response to the fighting among politicians, religious leaders and others over the federal healthcare proposal, Daly calls for calmness and respect.

Jim Daly

He brings up the Golden Rule and quotes Proverbs 15:1 — “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” — in his post.

Daly also seems to say that Focus and other pro-life groups sometimes haven’t given ”a soft answer” when it was needed.

“Every human being deserves dignity and respect; that’s the point we’ve been making as a pro-life community for decades,” Daly writes. ”Unfortunately, we haven’t always lived it out in our interactions with those who disagree with us. We have to remember that we all — liberal or conservative — are more than the sum of our positions on policy issues.”

You can read Daly’s entire message here.

Please comment below on what you think of Daly’s post.

Posted in: Uncategorized • Focus on the Family • Healthcare debate • Jim Daly | Post a Comment »

Who should lead the Christian right?

September 17th, 2009, 2:27 pm by Mark Barna

The Christian right has been galvanized by the debate over universal health care. Christian conservatives are raising objections to the proposal, such as saying it includes coverage for abortions and illegal aliens.

Glenn Beck

Yes, the Christian right has an important cause to rally around. But who will lead it?

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson continues to lead the charge against gay marriage (though now more from his armchair given his diminished role at Focus), but his voice is rarely heard regarding Obamacare.

So far, no other person has emerged to lead the Christian right, but below I offer some possibilities.

1. Sarah Palin, currently in seclusion working on her autobiography, may emerge to take up the task. On thing for sure is that she would be embraced, perhaps universally, by Christian conservatives.

2. Mike Huckabee, currently hosting a Fox News show, would have the religious and political acumen to take the Obamacare debate to a new level.

3. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a Christian conservative lobbying group, has been on the periphery within the Christian right for years and may be ready to lead.

4. Glenn Beck, another Fox News host, has shown ability to motivate Christian conservatives to act.

Please comment below on the merits of my candidates list, and feel free to nominate your own.

Posted in: Uncategorized • Christian Right • Focus on the Family • gay marriage • Glenn Beck • James Dobson • Mike Huckabee • Sarah Palin • Sean Hannity • Tony Perkins | 1 Comment »

Christian right: Boo to gay-friendly bill and repeal

September 11th, 2009, 12:49 pm by Mark Barna

Christian conservative groups like Focus on the Family Action, the political arm of Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, and the Alliance Defense Fund are gearing up to combat two political maneuvers affecting gays and lesbians in America.

1. Employment Non-Discrimination Act, introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). This would make it illegal for an employer to discriminate against someone because of their sexual preference.

2. A repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which declares that the definition of marriage is between a man and a woman.

Also, these folks don’t much like President Barack Obama’s recognition of gays, lesbians and transgenders.

“(Obama) declared June to be ‘Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month,’” Focus federal policy analyst Ashley Horne said in a news release, “and then proceeded to extend federal employee benefits to homosexual couples. It’s no wonder that anti-family lawmakers and activists are chomping at the bit to get their so-called gay-rights bills … to the president’s desk.”

Do you think there’s too much talk about creating an anti-discrimination law for gays, lesbians and transgenders?

Please comment below.

Posted in: Uncategorized • Alliance Defense Fund • Focus on the Family • Focus on the Family Action • gay marriage • gay sex • James Dobson | Post a Comment »

Report: James Dobson visited White House 24 times during part of Bush administration

September 4th, 2009, 2:18 pm by Mark Barna

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson visited George W. Bush regularly during

Dobson

his presidency, White House records show.

Between April 2001 and June 2006, Dobson visited the White House 24 times, and 10 of those times he met directly with Bush.

The information was obtained after Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) in Washington, D.C., requested the White House visitors records of leading conservative Christian leaders, according to a news release from CREW.

Besides Dobson, visitors records were obtained for Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition; Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America; Gary Bauer, president of American Values; the late Jerry Falwell; Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council; Louis Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition; the late Paul Weyrick, founder of Free Congress foundation; and Donald Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association.

Both Wildmon and Perkins have worked closely with Focus on the Family Action, the political arm of the Colorado Springs organization.

While Dobson sat down with Bush more times than any of the other Christian leaders, the person who visited the White House most often was Lafferty — a whopping 50 times.

Below is a summary of the White House visits of the Christian leaders:

· For the period April 2001 through June 2006, Focus on the Family Founder and Chairman Emeritus James Dobson visited the White House 24 times; 10 of those visits were to President Bush.

· Andrea Lafferty, Executive Director of the Traditional Values Coalition, made an astonishing 50 visits to the White House starting on February 1, 2001, and continuing through March 16, 2008. Six of those visits were to President Bush.

· Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America, made 43 visits to the White House between May 2001 and August 2006. Four of those visits were to President Bush.

· Gary Bauer, President of American Values, made 10 visits to the White House, starting with a January 6, 2003 visit to Vice President Cheney and ending with a July 20, 2006 visit to President Bush.

· The late Jerry Falwell, of Jerry Falwell Ministries, made eight visits to the White House between May 2001 and September 2004. Three of those visits were to President Bush.

· Tony Perkins, President of Family Research Council, visited the White House 14 times between February 2001 and June 2006, including two visits to President Bush.

· Louis Sheldon, Chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, made 19 visits to the White House between March 2001 and September 2006, including two visits to President Bush.

· The late Paul Weyrich, the Founder of Free Congress foundation, made 17 visits to the White House between May 2001 and July 2005, including six visits to President Bush and one to Karl Rove.

· Donald Wildmon, Founder of the American Family Association, made three visits to the White House between July 2001 and March 2003, including one visit to President Bush.

What do you think Bush and the Christian leaders talked about?

Posted in: Uncategorized • Focus on the Family • Focus on the Family Action • George W. Bush • James Dobson | 14 Comments »