Focus on the Family

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Focus on the Family (FOTF or FotF), founded in 1977, is a Christian non-profit organization based in the United States. The organization describes itself as "dedicated to nurturing and defending families worldwide". The group was founded by James Dobson and is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Focus on the Family is one of a number of evangelical para-church organizations whose stated aim is not to start a new church or denomination, but to work interdenominationally to protect and promote their definitions of traditional family and family values. Some of the core promotional activities of the organization include a daily radio broadcast by Dobson and his colleagues, providing free counseling and resources for those facing family difficulties, and publishing a variety of magazines, videos and audio recordings.

In response to perceived threats to the family from changing world views in society, Dobson and his associates have become more politically active, and are regarded as a major voice in the Christian right, promoting socially conservative policies. Recently it began publishing a new political magazine called Citizen which addresses political concerns, especially on issues where current public policies are seen as threatening to conservative families.

Contents 1 History and facilities 2 Leadership 3 Adventures in Odyssey 4 Radio Theatre 4.1 Father Gilbert Mysteries 5 Political positions and activities 6 Controversy and criticism 7 International affiliates 8 See also 9 References 10 External links

[edit] History and facilities

Focus on the Family began on March 26, 1977 out of a small office in Arcadia, California. It soon outgrew that facility and began acquiring space in both Arcadia and in nearby Monrovia as its radio program grew in listenership. By 1990, the group needed even more space, and relocated to a new office complex in Pomona, California, that was supposed to last the organization for many years. Further growth caused by increased listenership of the radio program and readership of its books and magazines caused the organization to look for even more. In September 1993, having relocated to temporary quarters in various locations in Colorado Springs in the previous months, Focus on the Family dedicated its main building on an expansive 49 acre (200,000 m²) site.

Currently its three office buildings have a combined space of over 526,000 square feet (49,000 m²) housing over 1,300 employees. One of the buildings is largely used for receiving telephone calls from listeners and providing requested assistance; this activity engages the largest segment of its employees. The organization's facilities are open for tours by the public Monday through Saturday, excepting certain holidays. A bookstore and cafeteria are onsite, as is the child-oriented Whit's End Soda Shoppe which serves ice cream and "Wodfamchocsod" (chocolate soda) made famous by the Adventures in Odyssey children's radio theatre show produced by Focus on the Family.

[edit] Leadership

Leadership for the organization was provided by Dobson alone until 2003. In 2003, Donald P. Hodel became president and chief executive officer, tasked with the day-to-day operations. This left Dobson as chairman of the Board of Directors, with chiefly creative and speaking duties. A former leader was John Paulk.

In March 2005, Hodel retired and Jim Daly, formerly the Vice President in charge of Focus on the Family's International Division, assumed the role of president and chief executive officer.

[edit] Adventures in Odyssey

Main Article: Adventures in Odyssey

FOTF also produces a children's radio drama entitled Adventures in Odyssey. It began in 1987 as Family Portraits, starring an elderly Christian gentleman named John Avery Whittaker (aka "Whit"), who runs a popular ice cream shop/"discovery emporium" called Whit's End; and he imparts Christian wisdom to the children of the town of Odyssey. It was renamed "Odyssey USA" in November 1987 and took on its present name, "Adventures in Odyssey" in April 1988.

[edit] Radio Theatre

Focus on The Family Radio Theatre is a subsidiary company of Focus on the Family, which adapts classic literature, mystery mini-series' and biographical productions, extending its reach to the mainstream as well as the Christian audience. At its peak, the weekly broadcasts aired on 240 stations nationwide, reaching audiences in excess of 350,000.

Radio Theatre began with historical biographies of Squanto ("The Legend of Squanto"), Jesus ("The Luke Reports") and Dietrich Bonhoeffer ("Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom"), and in 1996, a 90-minute radio drama based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol was produced and aired as a broadcast special. In 1986, they broadcasted a radio edition of Tilly, a book by evangelical author Frank Peretti.

In 2005, Focus on the Family Radio Theatre released an audio dramatization of C. S. Lewis' epic novel series The Chronicles of Narnia, with David Suchet providing the voice of Aslan, and a host of English actors rounding out the cast. Lewis' stepson, Douglas Gresham, served as host for the daily broadcasts of the series.

Radio Theatre was awarded the Peabody Award for Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom.

[edit] Father Gilbert Mysteries

Radio Theatre also had a successful original miniseries, the Father Gilbert Mysteries, which tell of the strange spiritual mysteries encountered by Louis Gilbert, a cop-turned-Anglican-priest, who lives in Stonebridge, an English village in the shire of Sussex, and ministers to the people of the town from St. Mark's Church. Nine episodes have been produced in four volumes available on cassette and CD:

Volume One

• "A Soul In Torment", in which Father Gilbert investigates a vision he has of a young man who confesses to murder and its odd implications to reality.
• "Where The Heart Is", in which Father Gilbert and Lori Peters (who turns out to be a con artist) search for the long-lost Esselton Chalice.
• "Dead Air", in which Father Gilbert helps the police investigate a kidnapping, and is confronted by an old enemy from another kidnapping case fifteen years before, when Gilbert was a Scotland Yard detective, and the enemy turns out to be the demon Legion from Mark 5 and Luke 8. *

Volume Two

• "Healing", in which Father Gilbert investigates the Advent Group, a healing ministry outside of the village of Storwich, led by a man who claims to be the angel Gabriel.
• "Secrets", in which Father Gilbert aids the police in investigating the kidnapping of his friend Bill Drake, and gets to the root of the anger of Drake's kidnapper.

Volume Three

• "The Play's The Thing", in which Father Gilbert investigates sabotage attempts of the Stonebridge Faire, and learns that his father is really his uncle.
• "The Grey Lady", in which Father Gilbert and a theologically liberal chaplain investigate the claims of two soldiers on a Royal Military Base that a ghost killed their wives. *

Volume Four

• "The Silver Cord", in which Father Gilbert tries to figure out whether his dying mother is delirious or serious when she pleads with him to help her childhood friend Edgar Graham. *
• "In Memoriam", in which Father Gilbert finds a photo of a girl who looks like his mother as a young girl, only to discover that she is his daughter through extramarital relations with a former girlfriend when he was a young man. *

Note: Episodes marked with a * have a parental advisory that these episodes are not recommended for children under the age of 15 (or 14 in the case of "The Grey Lady")

[edit] Political positions and activities

As a 501(c)(3) corporation, Focus on the Family is not permitted to advocate any individual political candidate. However, in its radio broadcast, it often discusses political issues and current events, usually from a conservative point of view. Focus on the Family's magazine Citizen is exclusively devoted to politics. The FOF also has an affiliated group, Focus on the Family Action (a.k.a. Focus Action), which engages in conservative political activism, though the two groups are legally separate.

The group supports the teaching of what they characterize as "traditional family values". It advocates school prayer and supports corporal punishment.^[1] It strongly opposes abortion, the practice of homosexuality, pornography, and pre-marital and extra-marital sexual activity. Focus on the Family also embraces and reflects the wider political agenda of its conservative American Christian audience, for instance promoting a religiously-centered conception of American identity and the support of Israel.[2][3]

Focus on the Family broadcasts a national talk radio program of the same name hosted by Dobson or his aides. The program has a range of themes, such as Christian-oriented assistance for victims of rape or child abuse; parenting difficulties; child adoption; husband/wife roles; family history and traditions; struggles with gambling, pornography, alcohol, and drugs; and many other themes. When programs deal with civic issues, listeners often respond to these programs by contacting political leaders.

The organization claims that their daily radio broadcast has over 1.5 million listeners daily in the United States. They also have offices worldwide, and claim a worldwide audience of over 200 million for their daily radio broadcast.

Focus on the Family also produces ten monthly magazines with a combined circulation of about 2.3 million subscribers, and a wide variety of books and films. Magazines include Focus on the Family, Plugged In, Brio, Clubhouse, Clubhouse Jr., and Citizen.

Dobson has also another group, Focus Action, a 501(c)(4) social welfare group which has fewer political lobbying restrictions.

TheocracyWatch identifies Focus on the Family as a dominionist organization,^[2] and contends they have become more successful than the Christian Coalition in their influence on the U.S. Congress.^[2]

Focus on the Family has been a prominent supporter of intelligent design, publishing pro-intelligent design articles in its Citizen magazine and selling intelligent design videos on its website.^[3][4] Focus on the Family co-published the intelligent design videotape Unlocking the Mystery of Life with the Discovery Institute, hub of the intelligent design movement.^[5] Focus on the Family employee Mark Hartwig is also a fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, a connection which has helped to publicize intelligent design extensively; James Dobson often features intelligent design proponents on his Focus on the Family radio program. Focus on the Family's Family.org is a significant online resource for intelligent design articles.^[6][7]

[edit] Controversy and criticism

On July 17, 2006, Soulforce, a gay rights group, "accused Focus on the Family founder James Dobson of manipulating research data to say gays and lesbians are not good parents."[4] Judith Stacey, a sociologist at New York University, said Focus on the Family "manipulated" her work "in an attempt to show gays and lesbians do not make good parents."[5] A Focus on the Family official denied the allegation.[6] In December 2006, two more scientists alleged that Dobson misrepresented their research. In a guest column published in Time Magazine titled Two Mommies is One Too Many, Dobson argued that same-sex couples are unsuitable parents, citing as support research by New York University educational psychologist Carol Gilligan, PhD, and Dr. Kyle Pruett of the Yale school of medicine.^[8] After the article's publication, Gilligan accused Dobson of "twisting" and "distorting" her research.^[9] Pruett also disagreed with Dobson's representation of his work, saying in a letter to Dobson, "You cherry-picked a phrase to shore up highly (in my view) discriminatory purposes.... This practice is condemned in real science, common though it may be in pseudo-science circles. There is nothing in my longitudinal research or any of my writings to support such conclusions."^[9] It was reported that Pruett's work suggests the opposite of Dobson's assertions.^[9] Truth Wins Out called on Time Magazine to renounce Dobson's article. Gilligan asked Focus on the Family to never quote from her work again, and to issue an apology.^[10] Pruett requested that Focus on the Family seek his permission before using his work in the future.^[11] Dobson has defended his usage of the research.^[12]

On August 11, 2006, James Dobson publicly defended Mel Gibson after Gibson made anti-Semitic remarks to police officers during a DUI traffic stop.[7] In a statement, Dobson announced he supported "Mel Gibson and his film, The Passion of the Christ," saying Gibson's anti-Semitic remarks had nothing to do with "one of the finest films of this era." He explained further that "we certainly do not condone that racially insensitive outburst," but added, "Mel has apologized profusely for the incident and there the matter should rest." On the movie, "Our endorsement of it stands as originally stated. We did not believe it was anti-Semitic in 2004, and our views have not changed," Dobson said.

[edit] International affiliates

• Australia: Focus on the Family Australia, Clayton, Victoria
• Belgium: Focus on the Family Belgium, Oud-Heverlee
• Canada: Focus on the Family Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia
• Costa Rica: Enfoque a la Familia Costa Rica, San José
• Egypt: Focus on the Family Egypt, Cairo
• Ireland: Focus on the Family Ireland, Dublin
• Japan: Family Focus Japan, Yokohama
• Korea: Open Family Korea, Seoul
• Malaysia: Focus on the Family Malaysia, Selangor
• Netherlands: Focus on the Family Netherlands, Dordrecht
• New Zealand: Focus on the Family New Zealand, Auckland
• Singapore: Focus on the Family Singapore
• South Africa: Focus on the Family Southern Africa, Hillcrest, KwaZulu-Natal
• Taiwan: Focus on the Family Taiwan, Taipei

[edit] See also

• Culture war
• Focus on the Family Action
• Focus on the Family Canada
• Focus on the Family Institute
• Family Research Council
• Christian Right and Christian right in United States politics
• James Dobson
• Adventures in Odyssey - Episode Guide

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• http://www.oneplace.com/Ministries/Focus_on_the_Family/
• Focus on the Family Radio Theatre official site.
• Plugged In Online, FOTF's movie, video, music, and television reviews web site.
• Adventures In Odyssey radio
• #1 Selling Focus on the Family Radio Broadcast Fraudulent

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