Focus on the Family Blames Pres. Bush for Its Mistake

We have tried to be as gentle as possible when writing the concerns about Focus on the Family that have been expressed by leaders of the family movement in Washington for the last year. But James Dobson went beyond the pale this week when he had his minions blame President Bush for his troubles.

By Atty. J. Edward Pawlick
January 28, 2004

   President Bush was blamed yesterday by Focus on the Family because the efforts to pass a federal marriage amendment have slowed. But the word around Washington is that any problems are the fault of the President of Focus, Dr. James Dobson.

   They say that four leaders of the family movement were recently invited to talk with the President's top advisor, Carl Rove. When the President himself appeared, Dr. Dobson got flustered and told him that they were not opposed to civil unions. This surprised and startled the President and caused him to delay action on the proposed Amendment.

   The other persons at the meeting were Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship, Michael Farris, a home-school leader and President of Patrick Henry College, and a representative from the Southern Baptist Church.

   Yesterday's press release came from the Focus subsidiary, the Family Research Council. It wrote about the State of the Union Address: "Now that people have had a chance to analyze the President's comments, it is clear that in his attempt to please everyone, he ended up pleasing no one. His comments were the union of conflicting sides and now no one is holding their peace. Unfortunately, the President's ambivalence towards action in the Congress has sent a message to our representatives that passing a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman is a low priority. We must persuade them otherwise."

   The real conflict, it is said, is that Focus and its many affiliates are the only ones pushing for a weak Amendment -- which they did in California and are attempting to do in Massachusetts. It would permit civil unions and ban only the use of the word marriage.

   The President of the Family Research Council, Atty. Ken Connor, was terminated last summer because he disagreed with the Focus position.