Tag: Focus On The Family

Just one day after the results of a controversial parenting study were released to the public, the research was used – and misrepresented – in a federal court brief defending the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act.

"Jared Polis is a far left-wing candidate but Kevin Lundberg is even farther out on the right," said Brett Moore, campaign manager for Boulder businessman Eric Weissmann, who lost in a neck-and-neck Republican primary last night to Christian-right state Senator Kevin Lundberg.

A dozen groups fighting against marriage equality are touting a controversial study about gay and lesbian parenting that was funded by two conservative organizations.

DENVER-- Opposition to a gay-rights civil union bill defeated here last month was directed in large part by Colorado Springs-based evangelical empire Focus on the Family and the Colorado Catholic Conference. The Christian-right campaign, however, also reenergized a leading anti-gay rights activist organization of the 1990s, influential rough-and-tumble group Colorado for Family Values.

For the average crisis pregnancy center, each abortion stopped is counted as a victory in what is often described, by both sides of the abortion-rights debate, as a war. And while unhappily pregnant women tend to seek out abortion clinics, crisis pregnancy centers tend to seek out those unhappily pregnant women.

James Dobson, founder of Colorado Springs-based evangelical Christian empire Focus on the Family, today endorsed Rick Santorum for president. The move comes a week after prominent conservative leaders met in Texas to choose one candidate to rally around in the so-far fractious Republican primary. As a U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and as a presidential candidate, Santorum has made his stands on social issues his calling card, touting his opposition to gay rights, abortion and even contraception. Yet Dobson in his announcement cited Santorum's expertise on foreign affairs as the main factor driving the endorsement.

CitizenLink, the Focus on the Family Christian news site based in Colorado Springs, weighed in Thursday on the latest political controversy winging out of Washington. The site reported that, in using "recess appointments" to fill three seats on the National Labor Relations Board and to place Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, President Obama had "stepped over a line and into history." The CitizenLink reporter then turned to Georg W. Bush justice department attorney John Yoo, the author of the notorious 2002 War on Terror "torture memos," to support the argument that the nation was witnessing a major unconstitutional power grab.

The weekend before thanksgiving, Colorado Springs-based evangelical group Focus on the Family and the National Organization for Marriage will host a Republican presidential candidate forum in Des Moines centered on social issues. Focus on the Family staffer Tom Minnery said the hosts of the event don't plan to "get into theology as such" because there wouldn't be enough time for the candidates to "solve theological questions." Primary campaign frontrunner Mitt Romney, who is Mormon, has yet to commit to the event.

Focus on the Family news outlet CitizenLink on Monday posted a dire summary of a recent court ruling that rejected an attempt to protect the identities of donors to the anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 campaign. The CitizenLink story echoes the fears of intimidation and harassment from "gay activists" and "the homosexual lobby" that drove the major organizational financial backers of the campaign to file the suit in 2008.

While gay soldiers and veterans in Colorado react today with a mix of joy and relief that the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy barring them from serving openly has been repealed, Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family continues to express concerns. The Christian-right group's political-action news outlet, CitizenLink, worries that repeal might impinge on soldiers' freedom of religion and expression and that it could also further erode the shaky standing of the Defense of Marriage Act, which precludes federal recognition of same-sex unions.