focus on the family

Chris Knight's avatar

I still can’t believe that I almost went to work for this guy…

James Dobson of Focus on the Family is telling his radio listeners that there is now “utter evil” coming out of Congress. What scares Dobson, he claims, is so-called “hate crimes” legislation: the proponents of which want tougher penalties for those convicted of criminal acts committed against others because of “sexual orientation”.

Now folks, I’m against “hate crimes” legislation myself. Because in my mind there is no such thing as a “hate” crime. Does the motive honestly matter why somebody chooses to hurt another, if the end result is the same as any other circumstance? I have as much sympathy for a victim of a criminal act as I will for any other… but I’m not gonna consider one victim to be any more “special” than someone else because of alleged precipitating criteria. So as far as ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Focus on the Family is going broke. The ministry ummm… “organization” is being forced to lay off 202 employees, supposedly after campaigning for Proposition 8 (the “gay marriage” ban) in California cleansed its coffers of over half a million dollars. It still has 950 employees though.

(What does any outfit like Focus on the Family need with more than a thousand employees?! I know of a few others who get by with much less overhead.)

Maybe if Focus on the Family was more responsible with its own house, it might have some legitimate clout. That’s been pissed-away though, and a lot of it has to do with silly stunts like “boycotting” businesses that don’t use the word “Christmas” enough (read Kevin Bussey’s thoughts on that, which I agree with him on most things anyway but on this point I especially have to concur.)

I’ve written about ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

A few days ago on this blog I wrote about how conservative Christians bore much of the blame for the election of Barack Obama. That they had let their pursuit of power blind them so much that they failed to see Christ and what He stood for anymore.

And now, writing in Jewish World Review (a very good publication, I might add), Cal Thomas doesn’t just echo those same sentiments, he articulates them far better than I could.

From his essay “The Religious Right, R.I.P.”…

Thirty years of trying to use government to stop abortion, preserve opposite-sex marriage, improve television and movie content and transform culture into the conservative Evangelical image has failed. The question now becomes: should conservative Christians redouble their efforts, contributing more millions to radio and TV preachers and activists, or would they be wise to try something else?

I opt for trying something else…

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Chris Knight's avatar

I originally had much more to say about this, but I’m going to dispense with the flowery rhetoric and cut to the heart of the matter…

The so-called “evangelical conservative Christians” had damned well better look in a mirror if they want to see who is most responsible for Barack Obama winning the race for President on Tuesday.

And now there is no reason to be angry, and no rationale for “blaming God” for Obama’s victory, as I have seen too many Christians seriously doing. God had nothing to do with Obama winning. If anything, He let the people of America have what they wanted… and He absolutely played fair with many of those who profess Him as Lord.

“Christian conservatives” paved the way to Obama’s historic win because they sold out their values for sake of worldly power.

People like James Dobson and the Focus on the Family crowd: ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

I’ll admit, it’s so ironic you have to wonder if there’s some karma at work here.

A few weeks ago one of James Dobson’s cronies made a video and posted it on the Focus on the Family website. In the clip Stuart Shepard, who does a lot of multimedia production for the “ministry”, asks Christians to pray for “abundant rain, torrential rain… flood-advisory rain” in the Denver area on the night of Barack Obama’s open-air acceptance speech at the Democrat National Convention.

Here’s Shepard’s video, which he claimed was done for humor (but I can’t find anything funny about it at all)…

As anyone who caught his speech will know, Obama enjoyed terrific weather for his address, which aired to what some are saying is one of the record highs for political speeches before a televised audience.

But if Shepard’s cry to Heaven was echoed by his fellow evangelicals, they’re ...

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According to The New York Times:

Alarmed at the chance that the Republican party might pick Rudolph Giuliani as its presidential nominee despite his support for abortion rights, a coalition of influential Christian conservatives is threatening to back a third-party candidate in an attempt to stop him.

The group making the threat, which came together Saturday in Salt Lake City during a break-away gathering during a meeting of the secretive Council for National Policy, includes Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, who is perhaps the most influential of the group, as well as Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, the direct mail pioneer Richard Viguerie and dozens of other politically-oriented conservative Christians, participants said. Almost everyone present expressed support for a written resolution that “if the Republican Party nominates a pro-abortion candidate we will consider running a third party candidate.”

After reading the story, I had ...

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A lady named Shirley Skidmore, who is apparently from somewhere in east Texas, sent me the following e-mail. This must be in reference to my recent post about Focus on the Family disapproving of Transformers. Here’s Shirley’s letter…

Subject: What Are You Transformed By?

Chris, Chris, Chris!

You have to be dead to the things of Christ to approve of this filtly liscensious movie. The teen starlet was dressed as a whore . Every move, every direction, every word on her account was conformed to the gutteral nature of a Godless culture. You areyond believabilty to deny that lust was the drawing card for much of the film. Pornographic techniques were used to the max here. The lanquage in both subject and vanacular was Godless. It transformed eveyone who watched it to a place farther from Christ’s standard.

Only blind and naked Christians could possibly support this film

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Chris Knight's avatar

I’ve mentioned this once or twice before on this blog. I’ll do it again right now: I almost went to work for Focus on the Family.

It was several years ago. And I was a Christian still young in the faith, full of “spice and vinegar” as they say and eager to use whatever talents I have for the service of the Lord.

My my my, the myriad of ways in which we spiritually grow.

People who know me have said that my faith has come a very, very long way. But along the journey I’ve become a lot more disillusioned with many of the things that we perceive as “properly Christian”. If we are going to follow Christ, then let us follow Christ for His sake, and not because we want a measure of political power out of the deal.

The Chris Knight of 1999 would have gladly gone ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

James Dobson is saying that possible presidential candidate Fred Thompson is not a Christian:

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson appeared to throw cold water on a possible presidential bid by former Sen. Fred Thompson while praising former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is also weighing a presidential run, in a phone interview Tuesday.

“Everyone knows he’s conservative and has come out strongly for the things that the pro-family movement stands for,” Dobson said of Thompson. “[But] I don’t think he’s a Christian; at least that’s my impression,” Dobson added, saying that such an impression would make it difficult for Thompson to connect with the Republican Party’s conservative Christian base and win the GOP nomination.

Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Thompson, took issue with Dobson’s characterization of the former Tennessee senator. “Thompson is indeed a Christian,” he said. “He was baptized into the Church of Christ.”

In a

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