The Family Research Council has launched a new “Association of Churches and Ministries” dedicated to “impacting the culture with biblical truth.” According to FRC, “The Association of Churches and Ministries equip churches, pastors, ministries, and ministry leaders to be Ambassadors for the truth in a world that either hates the truth or denies it exists.”
In reality, FRC’s leaders have a dubious relationship with the truth. For example, they spread former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and participated in his illegitimate effort to stay in power after he lost to President Joe Biden. The group promotes false Christian nationalist history.
FRC is intensely opposed to legal abortion and legal equality for LGBTQ people and portrays LGBTQ equality as a dire threat to religious liberty.
At its 2021 Pray Vote Stand conference, George Barna told religious-right activists that it is parents’ responsibility to shape their children’s worldview. But since not enough people—and not enough Christians—meet FRC’s standards for holding a genuine “biblical worldview,” Barna said those who do have a responsibility to “look for opportunities” to indoctrinate other people’s children.
In an email promoting the benefits of paying to join FRC’s new association, FRC President Tony Perkins plays up the supposed threat posed by “cancel culture.” A promotional video on the association’s website features images of LGBTQ equality activists and Black Lives Matter protesters as exemplars of threats to churches. Among the services the video touts is candidate training to church members who feel called to run for public office.
The new church association joins other FRC projects, including Perkins’ “Washington Watch” radio show, news and commentary platform “The Washington Stand,” the Pray Vote Stand activist conference (formerly known as the Values Voter Summit), the Watchmen on the Wall gathering for pastors, the Center for Biblical Worldview, and “Stand Courageous,” FRC’s “manhood” project.
