Focus on the Family?

James Dobson’s Focus on the Family — a conservative religious advocacy organization — has decided that its next target in the ongoing culture war is LGBT teens who are bullied at school.

FoF has started a major public relations push to attack anti-bullying programs in public schools that include references to sexual orientation in their curriculum.

The facts are that 86% of LGBT Students are bullied at school. Additionally, LGBT student face an 8 times greater chance of suicide than heterosexual teens.  Bullying is a major factor in this.

It seems to me quite obvious that one does not need to agree with homosexuality to believe that LGBT teens should not be harassed unto the point of suicide.  As Christians — no matter what our theological bent on the topic — should alway oppose bullying, harassment, etc.  

Here is a good article about FoF position from Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Law Poverty Center.  Part of what they write is:

“For the last few days, an “educational analyst” for Focus on the Family has been getting a lot of press. She’s been suggesting that anti-bullying efforts that draw attention to the harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students are part of a “gay agenda” to “sneak homosexuality lessons into classrooms.”

One can argue, as some have, that Focus on the Family is a fringe group that doesn’t represent the majority of Christians in the United States. That’s true. But it’s also true that Focus on the Family has an outsized impact on conservative thought in this country. And by using deception and spin, the group has managed this week to grab the media spotlight. The goal is apparently to make schools less safe for LGBT students and more safe for their harassers. That cannot be ignored.”

You can read the rest of the post here.

I would love to hear your thoughts… anyone want to defend FoF on this one?