Focus on the Family

As organizations such as Focus on the Family vigorously work to stop schools from implementing anti-bullying policies that protect gay students, the Minnesota Family Council (MFC) is leading the charge against anti-bullying programs in Minnesota schools. MFC head Tom Prichard previously condemned schools for permitting Gay Straight Alliances, which he says have “kids indoctrinated in homosexuality,” adding that “it’s sad and harmful for kids to celebrate homosexuality when in fact it’s not a healthy lifestyle.” Barb Anderson of the MFC and the Parents Action League recently talked to rabidly anti-gay activist Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality about why she thinks LGBT-rights groups like the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) are actually to blame for the bullying of gay students by promoting “homosexual propaganda” and targeting certain students for indoctrination.

Anderson singled out the Anoka-Hennepin School District for her group’s campaign. In July, a student committed suicide after he was relentlessly bullied for being gay, and his family and other advocates have asked the school district to strengthen their anti-bullying policies to protect LGBT students from pervasive bullying. Anderson accused safe-schools groups such as GLSEN of using the student’s suicide “as a Trojan horse” to instill “pro-gay training” in schools.

Andy Birkey of the Minnesota Independent reports:

[Anderson] said that it was LGBT groups that caused the bullying because more students were coming out of the closet.

“That is one of the tactics that they are using now, to say that by not legitimizing and normalizing homosexuality, we are creating an atmosphere in the schools that is hostile to quote-end-quote gay kids,” she said. “What they are doing is just the opposite themselves. They are creating an environment where these children that are sexually confused suddenly become affirmed as a homosexual or that they are born that way, and then these kids are locked into a lifestyle with their choices limited, and many times this can be disastrous to them as they get into the behavior which leads to disease and death in some cases.”

She added, “So, it’s really… They are the ones that are contributing to an atmosphere that can even increase bullying as more kids get into this kind of a lifestyle.”

Specifically, she said that it was the fault of the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network.

“They are the driving force, really the clearing house for all of the homosexual propaganda that is coming into the schools,” she said. “GLSEN also promotes getting gay themed literature for children to read which in most cases is extremely obscene and pornographic. They are also behind getting the Gay-Straight Alliances into the elementary schools as well.”

She added, “This is a real dangerous organization. They are what I would call a child corruption organization basically.”

She said the group is targeting “creative” and “unique” students in the Anoka-Hennepin School District’s Fred Moore Middle School where a GSA was created this year.

“It’s interesting that they targeted an arts school to begin with because a lot of times your have homosexual teachers in that type of environment working with students,” she said. “So these are students that tend to be sometimes very creative and unique in their personalities so it seems to be an area where they try to get in and get the students involved in gay themed productions as well.”

Anderson said that her group, the Parents Action League, has been pressing the school district to do away with GSAs.

“Because of the Equal Access act they feel that they have to allow this in the schools and they they have not been able to put a stop to it, but there are parents getting organized and trying to plead the case that this really is harmful to students,” she said. “It is not providing them with healthy information. None of this is based on truth or scientific fact, especially if they are telling kids they are born this way.”

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She added, “Really homosexual behavior is one of the most hazardous behaviors that kids could get into and start practicing.”

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“In the wake of that tragedy,” said Anderson, “we have had more of the pro-gay materials flooding into our school district, because they are using that as a Trojan horse, playing on the emotions of the people involved and, of course, this is just a horrendous tragedy for this family.”

Anderson continued, “But they are playing on the fact that we have got to get more of this in the schools so this doesn’t happen to other kids and so that’s where all this pro-gay training is coming in, and it’s making it harder for parents to stop it. It’s really coming in like a tsunami.”

She then praised the school board, “But we do have an outstanding policy. Our sexual orientation policy, which parents can look at on the Parents Action League website, that was written by our school board members and is in place and is the one piece that is keeping these types of pro-gay materials out of the school day.”

• I have to say I am surprised it took WorldNetDaily this long to dust off its "North American Union" conspiracy theory and use it to go after President Obama.
• FRC says it "plans to launch a nationwide tour getting people all around the country to sign on" to it's SPLC push-back campaign.
• The Liberty Counsel is "dedicated to advancing religious freedom" and "does not limit its services to Christians, as the rights of Christians are also affected positively by defending the rights of others." Just not Muslims.
• Focus on the Family continues to milk the outrage over the book "Nickel and Dimed" and its "insults" to Jesus.
• Finally, this is a quote from James Dobson in 2006 discussing the plan by "homosexual activists and their allies ... to gain control of children": "It was a brilliant plan, hatched in Satan's own lair. Not since Adolf Hitler prepared a generation of German and Austrian youth for war has so grand a strategy been attempted."

Focus on the Family reports on an outrage in New Hampshire after a high school student was assigned to read a book that insulted Jesus:

Focus: The parents of a New Hampshire high school student are speaking out after learning that an assigned book included derogatory statements about Jesus. The author called him "a wine-guzzling vagrant and precocious socialist." Roger Greer has more

Greer: Dennis and Aimee Taylor objected to the book, which is part of their son's personal finance class. Conrnerstone Action's Ann Marie Banfield.

Banfield: This has nothing to do with personal finance.

Greer: She says the parents are going through the proper course of action.

Banfield: They should have some sort of say over what reading material goes into that school and what a child is required to read.

Greer: Banfield says this is the result of outcome-based education.

Banfield: It focuses on changing values, attitudes and beliefs in the students.

Greer: She says this book very likely would already have been removed if it insulted any other group.

The book in question is "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich which examined the impact of welfare reform on the working poor.

And reading it was apparently so traumatic that the Taylors' son now has to be homeschooled:

Some New Hampshire parents are upset after finding out a schoolbook refers to Jesus as a "Wine-guzzling vagrant and precocious socialist."

The book in question is Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, written by Barbara Ehrenreich. The account of working minimum-wage jobs was assigned to students at Bedford High School's personal finance class.

Ehrenreich makes this reference to Jesus Christ after attending a tent revival meeting:

"But Jesus makes his appearance here only as a corpse. The living man, the wine guzzling vagrant and precocious socialist is never once mentioned."

Aimee and Dennis Taylor’s son was so upset at the passage in the book about Jesus that the 16-year-old wanted to be taken out of the school. His parents tried to convince him to stay, but he is now being home schooled.

"He told us the language in the book was horrible," Aimee argued in front of the School Board. "If there was a movie about this book and they stayed faithful to the book and used the same quotes, he would be too young to see the movie," her husband added.

Taylor believes the book is Anti-Christian, delivers a drug promoting message and uses obscene language.

The relevant passage reads:

It would be nice if someone would read this sad-eyed crowd the Sermon on the Mount, accompanied by a rousing commentary on income inequality and the need for a hike in the minimum wage. But Jesus makes his appearance here only as a corpse; the living man, the wine guzzling vagrant and precocious socialist, is never once mentioned, nor anything he ever had to say. Christ crucified rules, and it may be that the true business of modern Christianity is to crucify him again and again so that he can never get a word out of his mouth.

Have you ever thought "gee, I sure wish I could buy some mail-order meat from Pat Boone and have some of the proceeds go to support the Religious Right"?

Well, you are in luck:

Iconic 1950s clean-cut crooner Pat Boone has partnered with an Oklahoma businessman to launch a mail-order steak business that will benefit conservative Christian causes.

Pat Boone All-American Meats will compete with Omaha Steaks and expects to appeal to Christian, conservative women over age 55.

Half of Boone's royalties will go to nonprofit organizations -- including Mercy Corps, the hunger relief program Boone and Christian community members started in his home. The business also will partner with other groups, including Focus on the Family and the Parents Television Council. About 5 percent of sales will go combat world hunger.

Pat Boone All-American Meats: A Taste Of What Makes Us Great.

• Rep. Michele Bachmann appears serious about organizing classes on the Constitution for incoming lawmakers.
• On a related note, Bachmann's Birther allies over at WorldNetDaily appear quite serious about trying to impeach President Obama.
• It seems that Matt Barber is a little worried that Republicans will not be sufficiently committed to the Religious Right's social issues agenda.
• Focus on the Family will be hosting a three-hour webcast on election night.
• Remember this the next the time the Right starts screaming about the ACLU stealing your tax dollars by suing public schools.
• Finally, just let me say that I pretty much completely disagree with this analysis.

On Friday we asked whether Focus on the Family would hold its ground in opposing anti-bullying programs that take into account the harassment of LGBT students in light of the five reported suicides in September that resulted from anti-gay bullying. Andy Birkey of the Minnesota Independent reports that the Minnesota Family Council, like Focus on the Family, is stepping up its fight against anti-bullying programs and support groups like the Gay-Straight Alliance:

The Minnesota Family Council (MFC) is pushing back against efforts to improve the climate for LGBT students in the Anoka-Hennepin School District, where community members are mourning suicides by four LGBT students in the last year. The real issue is “homosexual indoctrination,” not anti-gay bullying, says MFC’s Tom Prichard, who says the students are dead because they adopted an “unhealthy lifestyle.” MFC’s campaign against anti-bullying education comes as national religious right groups mount a similar campaign in the aftermath of nearly half a dozen suicides by LGBT students around the country in the last month.

Prichard asserts that the suicide death of 15-year-old Justin Aaberg was not due to anti-LGBT bullying. Aaberg took his life in July, and his mother and friends say anti-LGBT bullying played a factor Prichard claims that “homosexual activists” are “manipulating” his death to get homosexual indoctrination programs into the school district.

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“I don’t think parents want their kids indoctrinated in homosexuality,” he said, adding that Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs), often the only safe space for LGBT students on campus, should be removed from schools. “It’s sad and harmful for kids to celebrate homosexuality when in fact it’s not a healthy lifestyle,” he said.

Prichard went on to float in his blog the discredited claim that the murder of Matthew Shepard was not actually an anti-gay hate crime:

The manipulation of this tragedy is reminiscent of the Matthew Shepard tragedy. Shepard a homosexual was brutally murdered by two men who robbed him. It was asserted that Shepard was murdered, because he was homosexual. It turns out that wasn't the case. No matter. Shepard's tragic death served an important ideological purpose for homosexual activists.

Focus on the Family, unsurprisingly, had words of praise for the group’s efforts:

“Once schools are forced to include special categories for things like sexual orientation or gender identity in their policies, that has been used as leverage to get in homosexual-themed curriculum for kids as young as kindergarten [and to introduce] so-called ‘diversity training’ for high school students and teachers,” said Candi Cushman, education analyst with Focus on the Family. “So this just becomes a gateway for homosexuality promotion in the school.”

Update: Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) tells The Advocate: "After all the tragedy that Anoka-Hennepin school district students have endured this year, I find it unbelievable that anyone would suggest that bullying is not a problem."

Prichard, however, stands firm: "People say [gays] have a higher incidence of [mental health problems] because they’re not embraced, or because they’re ostracized. I don’t think so,” Prichard said. “It’s unhealthy behavior."

Back in August, Focus on the Family launched “True Tolerance,” its campaign to stop schools from implementing anti-bullying plans that include protections for LGBT students. Since the start of the school year, there have now been five reported cases of teens who have committed suicide following anti-gay bullying. GLSEN has been documenting anti-gay bullying, and according to a 2009 survey, the vast majority of LGBT students reported being verbally harassed, and “40.1% reported being physically harassed and 18.8% reported being physically assaulted at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation.”

Focus on the Family, however, says that bullying isn’t the problem, anti-bullying policies are. The group’s True Tolerance campaign argues that school strategies to target bullying are really covert ways for “activists who want to promote homosexuality in kids” to “capture the hearts and minds of our children at their earliest stages.”

Candi Cushman of True Tolerance asserts that “gay activists” are “infiltrating classrooms under the cover of ‘anti-bullying’ or ‘safe schools’ initiatives.” That’s why Focus on the Family claims to be defending the “innocence and purity” of children against LGBT groups that conspire “under the cover of so-called safe-school initiatives” and use “‘Safety’… as a political arm-twisting tool to force an adult agenda into schools.”

True Tolerance goes on to suggest:

Listing certain categories creates a system ripe for reverse discrimination, sending the message that certain characteristics are more worthy of protection than others. Instead of bringing more peace and unity, this can politicize the school environment and introduce divisiveness among different groups of students and parents.

Why not emphasize instead the things we have in common as Americans? For example, we can unite around the teachings of our Founding Fathers—in particular, the principle that all men are created equal and that they are endowed with unalienable rights.

Under the calls for unity and equality, Focus on the Family turns the victims of bullying into the victimizers, claiming that the supposed discriminatory and manipulative actions of “gay activists” are the real problems in schools. After what we’ve seen in the last few weeks, maybe Focus on the Family should rethink its opposition to protecting all students from bullying.

Yesterday, Sarah Posner tweeted that this post from CBN's David Brody would become the "next idiotic anti-Obama meme":

In a speech to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute last week, President Obama ad-libbed a key line from the Declaration of Independence but in the process left out the word “creator”.

...

If you look at President Obama’s prepared remarks before the speech was delivered, the Declaration of Independence line was not in there so clearly President Obama ad-libbed the line...and gets it wrong.

Conservative websites have been quick to pounce on this to possibly suggest that President Obama left the word “Creator” out on purpose.

And right she was, as Focus on the Family called it part of a "troubling trend," while Rob Schenck sees it as further evidence that Obama is a "skeptical humanist universalist," and Day Gardner sees it as proof that Obama is a secret Muslim because "no real Christian would do that."

And, of course, Bryan Fischer declares it to be due to the incontrovertible fact that liberals hate the Declaration of Independence:

So the President of the United States quotes the Declaration of Independence but omits the references to the Creator with a capital C.

And this highlights something that I observed before; I observed it with Elena Kagan and that is a striking thing, but liberals in the United States of America hate the Declaration of Independence.

Liberals, and statists, and socialists, and Marxists, and communists, and the political class by and large hates the Declaration of Independence.

Why?

They hate the Declaration of Independence because it unapologetically affirms the existence of a Creator.

• Twice-divorced, thrice-married Newt Gingrich has been confirmed as a speaker for the FRC's Values Voter Summit.
• The Traditional Values Coalition, of all groups, opposes "Burn a Quran Day."
• David Barton, Rick Green, and Tom DeLay go on and on about how poor DeLay was the victim of a partisan witch-hunt because he was such an awesome Congressman and Christian.
• Focus on the Family is outraged that George Soros donated $100 million to the "Anti-Family, Anti-Faith Group" Human Rights Watch.
• I genuinely have no idea what the point of this Catholic League press release is supposed to be.
• Finally, the quote of the day from Alan Sears of the Alliance Defense Fund: "Judges and politicians can ignore all the legal and constitutional standards they want to ram the homosexual political agenda down our throats. But they will never make the actions at the base of that agenda anything but a sin—and like any other sin, its indulgence brings only misery, for individuals, and for a nation."