By Dogemperor, Guest Columnist
[DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this article belong to the columnist entirely and do not represent that of this site. Please email the author at [email protected] if you have any queries]
In <read here> an earlier post on Wayang Party, I focused on a particular "Christian nationalist" movement--the New Apostolic Reformation, often known as "Joel's Army" or "Elijah's Army" and the threat the NAR poses to religious tolerance and diversity in Singapore as well as the potential threat to national security.
Today, we focus on the other part of the "Christian Nationalist" equation in Singapore--Focus on the Family and its Singaporean division as well as its American "mother ship".
A brief history of "Focus"
Focus on the Family started out in California in 1977, during a period of <read here (Part-2)">widescale
targeting of the primary conservative political party in the US and generally increased political activism by what is known now as the "Religious Right".
Its founder, Dr. James Dobson, specialised originally in being essentially a "Christian alternative" to the writings of childcare expert Dr. Benjamin Spock. Rather than Spock's analytical approach to childrearing (where he advocated using child psychology to work with kids), Dobson very much promoted a <read here> "tough love" approach which included in its signature book "The Strong-Willed Child" the description of <read here> flogging a Dachshund (who
had apparently committed the unpardonable sin of refusing to get into his bed and who was resting on the toilet seat) as an example of how children's wills should be broken:
"But this is not a book about the discipline of dogs; there is an important moral to my story that is highly relevant to the world of children. JUST AS SURELY AS A DOG WILL OCCASIONALLY CHALLENGE THE AUTHORITY OF HIS LEADERS, SO WILL A LITTLE CHILD -- ONLY MORE SO."
"[I]t is possible to create a fussy, demanding baby by rushing to pick him up every time he utters a whimper or sigh. Infants are fully capable of learning to manipulate their parents through a process called reinforcement, whereby any behavior that produces a pleasant result will tend to recur. Thus, a healthy baby can keep his mother hopping around
his nursery twelve hours a day (or night) by simply forcing air past his sandpaper larynx."
In addition to describing flogging dogs, he advocates <read here> flogging children as young as 1 1/2 years old with whips they are forced to select themselves until the children are weeping; in another book ("The New Dare to Discipline") he lovingly recalls being literally flogged by his mother with a girdle and <read here> essentially blames the entire decline and fall of Western civilisation and Christendom on parents not sufficiently beating their kids.
In large part, "Focus" started out as a media outlet for selling Dobson's books; to this day, as we'll see, the sale of his books is still a major source of income (as well as the rest of his rather large media empire).
Unlike its "daughter-ship" in Singapore, Focus on the Family organised itself in a rather unusual fashion for "religious right" groups in the US--instead of establishing itself as an educational foundation, <read here> it literally incorporated with the US tax authorities and California state government as a religious corporation -- the same legal method used to establish a parachurch group not linked to an official denomination, or the method used to start a new religious denomination. (Of note: California has very easy laws to do this compared to most US states; in
much of the US, one must have a congregation of a minimum size to incorporate as a religious group not affiliated to a pre-existing denomination.)
Eventually, Focus moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado--a town that is regarded as the de facto capital of the "Christian Nationalist" movement in the United States (a large number of groups, including C. Peter Wagner's "World Prayer Center", call Colorado Springs home; there is some evidence to suggest the town may have been rather explicitly targeted by the "religious right").
In 1981, Focus founded the first of its lobbying wings--Family Research Council--which was forced to split off in the late 80s due to the American tax authorities investigating complaints of illegal electioneering. (Both Focus and Family Research Council were organised under sections of US nonprofit law that prohibit endorsement of candidates or specific bills in legislatures.) Focus promptly founded a new lobbying wing--Focus on the Family Action--which operates now under its <read here> CitizenLink name and publishes "Citizen Magazine".
FotF: Where "Christian Nation" nonsense is Big Business
Focus has also grown considerably. At their peak, Focus pulled in <read here> close to US$145 million (S$211.5 million); profits are down to around US$97 million (S$141.5 million) as of 2006 but from the period of 2000-2005 <read here> Focus pulled in US$552,002,190 (S$805.15 million) with over US$496 million (S$723.47 million) in donations. (Of note: "short" millions are being used here--aka "milliards" outside of the US and UK.)
By far, Focus is the wealthiest "religious right" group in the US, and also quite possibly the one with the most extensive media empire. In addition to Dobson's books and Citizen Magazine, Focus on the Family operates a radio network for "Christian" talk radio stations in the US; this includes children's programming including the "Adventures in Odyssey" radio serial programme, which <read here> promote "God Warrioring" to the elementary school set.
Focus also has a considerable commercial sponsor--namely, <read here> the Chick-Fil-A "Southern chicken sandwich" chain of restaurants who not only are a major corporate sponsor of FotF but also include Focus on the
Family-related children's meal incentives.
The radio programs meant for "Religious right" audiences cover over 2000 radio stations total worldwide, and it is not an exaggeration to state <read here> Focus' radio empire probably covers every "religious right" friendly station in North America.
In addition to his radio network servicing "Christian talk" radio, Dobson also has a newspaper column carried in hundreds of US newspapers (under a "parenting advice" column) as well as radio spots carried on over 300 secular radio stations in the US.
As we'll see, it's primarily the info targeted at secular audiences (where Dobson is pretty much promoted as merely standing up for keeping families safe from adult material as well as being a childrearing agony columnist)--just as is in the case in Singapore, where Focus is registered as a secular nonprofit--where unsuspecting families get
recruited into the "religious right" content.
Focus and its habit of hiding its agenda
Partly because of the strength of the "religious right" in the States, Focus is remarkably more open about its Stateside operations than it is in Singapore. However, it does tend to vary in regards to the level of openness.
The rough equivalent to Focus Singapore's site in the States is <read here> Focus On Your Child, which promotes itself as a parenting resource. Even here, though, it's remarkably more open about the religious content, and all of two clicks note <read here> a heavy emphasis on the "reparative therapy" and "degaying" industries -- including claims there is somehow a "gay agenda" to destroy Christendom.
Another similarly stealthy front is a site called <read here> Drug Proof Your Kids -- this tends to be a fairly major recruitment front here in the US, due to fears of drug abuse among teenagers.
Focus in the US tends to also focus not only on "tough love" childrearing but also relationship advice. Its <read here> Love Won Out page is focused solely on trying to "de-gay" people and promoting "de-gaying" therapy (which,
at least in the US, is almost universally regarded by mainstream psychiatric, psychological and social work orgs as not only flatly impossible but dangerously harmful to the mental health of the "de-gayee"); this includes promotion of <read here> "religious right" groups that are promoted as <read here>"Christian alternatives" to "worldly" legitimate mental health and social services.
We also get a glimpse at something else that Focus does very well indeed--the "astroturf" letter-writing campaign, in which thousands of angry letters can be sent to legislators and city councilpersons and boards of education by merely the click of a mouse button or a notification through an email alert.
FotF Action CitizenLink <read here> has a specific section for "legislative alerts". One example is <read here> their
efforts to try to derail US Congressional approval of the Matthew Shephard Act (a bill that would formally add crimes against LGBT people to the category of "hate crimes" subject to additional legal penalties; the bill is named after a young man who was viciously beaten and dragged to his death because he was gay). It's likely that similar "alert chains" are in use in Singapore re the attempts to get AWARE's educational materials removed from Singapore schools.
Focus on the Family Action also operates a <read here> petition page -- technically the only form of lobbying they are allowed to do under their particular tax code exemption.
One of the surprising areas where Focus lobbies--at least it's surprising for a group supposedly concerned about families and children -- is working to prevent laws that would protect kids from abusive parents. Dobson is one of <read here> an entire collective of "religious right" promoters who actively work to scuttle existing laws preventing child abuse in the US.
In addition, Focus on the Family is one of the major lobbying groups that is <read here> responsible for the US being the sole country with a functional government that has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child
(Somalia does at least have the excuse that the country is in a de facto state of anarchy); as if this weren't shameful enough, <read here> works to get other countries to drop ratification. (Of note, the Convention is one of the most powerful tools in use to stop child abuse in countries without strong anti-abuse laws; the international NGO <read here> RISE International uses it as a primary tool to stop religiously motivated child abuse and neglect.) The US is, by far, not the only country in which Focus actively tries to scuttle child abuse laws--<read here> its New Zealand
affiliate is particularly active in this as well.
Another surprising area is promotion of <read here>"Christian Worldview Investing" -- that is, doing banking and funding based on a litmus test on how "Christian Nationalist" a company is. This includes being explicitly anti-environmentalist; in fact, <read here> Dobson led a purge of the leadership of the main ecumenical body for
evangelicals in the US because its leader promoted a "Christianised" green movement called "Creation Care".
Digging deeper, we find more info on Focus's true agenda -- especially with some of its more obscure sub-orgs.
One of the big Focus divisions is a group called the <read here> Alliance Defense Fund. ADF promotes itself as essentially a "Christian alternative" to mainstream civil rights organisations (like the American Civil Liberties Union) and focuses largely on trying to set pro-"religious right" legal precedents in the US courts. One of the big things they push are what are euphemistically termed "Defense of Marriage Acts"--laws that prohibit not only same-sex couples from marriage but legal recognition of marriages in areas where they are legal and even "domestic partnerships" and contracts that give the same legal benefits as marriages.
In addition, one thing they love filing lawsuits on (and which becomes particularly relevant re the current problems AWARE has with the MOE) are <read here> matters relating to any form of sex education at all in schools. (It's
probably right here that the protesters are taking notes from, by the way.) In essence, they try to get "religious right" laws in place <read here> via court precedents.
The <read here> allies section, particularly the <read here"> educational section, lists (among other things) a law school run by televangelist Pat Robertson and a group called Wallbuilders which promotes <read here> a version of American history that can be termed, quite frankly, "Christian Nationalist revisionism". (Wallbuilders, of note, also has some <read here> notable links to Joel's Army groups including those who promote paramilitary activity in the US.)
ADF itself promotes Campus Crusade for Christ (as well as CCC front Intervarsity Christian Fellowship), Crown
Ministries (a "Christian investment" scheme) and Bill Gothard's "Institute in Basic Life Principles"--all three of which may be considered NAR groups, and Gothard's group in particular linked to literal "Joel's Army with Guns"--<read here> on its "ministries" page (along with lesser-known NAR-linked groups Generation X-Cel, a second "marketplace evangelism"/"wealth transfer" NAR group called <read here> Fellowship of Companies for Christ International.
Of particular note to the Singaporean situation, it appears <read here> ADF explicitly operates internationally; most of its operations seem to be in <read here> Canada and Europe but the possibility a base may be established in
Singapore can't be discounted. One thing ADF tends to be heavy in promoting is <read here> the bogus concept that somehow the US is not bound by international laws and treaties and calling for countries to pull out of international
treaty orgs.
Much like FotF Action, they also <read here> promote letter-writing campaigns including "astroturfing" news opinion columns and legislator and judicial mailboxes.
Far less well publicised, but notable in the nonprofit "tax exemption" forms for Focus, is a group called <read here> The Truth Project -- in essence, Truth Project is Focus on the Family's own branded "pyramid scheme" of cell-churches, in which people <read here> are indoctrinated into "God Warrioring" in similar manner to NAR groups.
In fact, there's evidence NAR groups may have directly influenced Focus (less in the terms of "steeplejacking" and more in terms of "strategic partnerships"); <read here> Ravi Zacharias explicitly endorses the project, and the head of "Truth Project" <read here> has links to steeplejacked Presbyterian churches (specifically a group called
Presbyterian Church in America which has <read here> been taken over in a steeplejacking by "Christian Nationalist" groups connected with neo-Confederate secessionist orgs); Truth Project's head <read here> was himself recruited into a "cell church" group whilst in the US Air Force (itself an organisation with some fairly major problems with
NAR-linked operatives massively infiltrating the armed forces).
It's finally with the "Truth Project" that we get to the real "truth" of what Focus is promoting--<read here> mass conversion to "Religious right" theology and "Christian nationalism".
About the author:
[I'm located in the US (and as for nationality--American of largely Cherokee and Irish descent). I've been published on Talk to Action(http://www.talk2action.org/user/dogemperor) and DailyKos (http://dogemperor.dailykos.com), and am presently part of a new research team focusing primarily on "religious right" groups connected to "Joel's Army"; I am also presently working as a consultant/co-author with Leah Burton, whom has recently published a book called "Theopalinism" regarding Sarah Palin's connections with Joel's Army
(among other things). I am also in the preparatory stages of writing a book on domestic violence within "religious right" groups including, notably, religiously motivated child abuse.
As for my work--well, since roughly 2005 I've been doing freelance research and education on "religious right" groups both in the US and abroad. (My backgrounder on this: I grew up in one of the fifteen largest NAR/Joel's Army churches in the United States and eventually left when I found out I'd been extensively lied to and manipulated. Many experts on cults in the US and Australia now consider the group I left, and the movement it's a part of, a "Bible-based coercive group".)
I do tend to post pseudonymously because the particular group I walked away from has a documented history of harassing not only critics but family members of critics, and the church I left is part of an anti-LGBT
hate group that has promoted Holocaust revisionism and violence against LGBT people.]
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