Basically all of today’s Focus On The Family broadcast was spent discussing how Focus chose to leave their old bank, Wells Fargo, for being too gay friendly. Until Dobson brought it to my attention I had no idea Wells Fargo was that cool so on my morning break I walked into the branch next to our office and opened an account.
Aparantly FOTF’s new motto is “never overlook an oportunity to discriminate”.
One thing I did notice, though, in their press release: “Focus on the Family is sympathetic to the homosexual community…”.
I think this is the first time I’ve seen them use the term community. Usually they are “sympathetic with people trapped in that lifestyle”. How nice to know that we may have graduated from a lifestyle to actuallly having a community.
I may sound like I’m making light of this, but this really is a positive shift. They are claiming to by sympathetic to “homosexual” people as a collective group with collective needs. Community is a powerful word that has positive connotations relating to caring for each other and communal good.
Of course, though, they still believe that anyone who identifies as a member of the “homosexual community” is by definition a militant activist of the radical homosexual agenda (after all saying “please don’t beat me” makes you militant and supporting Lawrence – i.e. saying “may I have the right to the privacy of my bedroom” – makes you radical).
I have a feeling that “community” was just something they would call “a poor choice of words.” I don’t think I’d be too excited about it.
Focus on the Family routinely promotes “family” values at the expense of “community” values.
If a community decides not to discriminate against homosexuals, or decides to offer children comprehensive sex education — then Focus declares war against the community, in the name of a handful of fundamentalist “families” who refuse to abide by the values of the community.
I’d say Focus is, quite often, an opponent of community values.
FWIW, we ARE a community and we ARE a family too, albeit, at times, a fractious, slightly disfunctional family.
We need to stop ceding the moral high ground to the likes of Focus (Fucos?), et. al. I personally, don’t care what Dobson and his ilk think of us. What I do care about is the slanderous rhetoric they use against us.
IMHO, the Exoduses, the Focuses, AFA, FRC, CWA, etc. are breaking the commandment against bearing false witness. And they claim the the moral high ground? Why and how?
I’m a little surprised that FoF had their account at Wells Fargo to begin with — didn’t they know they were based in San Francisco? And since SF has such strict laws about gay friendliness and that Wells Fargo is the bank for the City and County of SF, the pro-gay stance of Wells Fargo is practically law. In fact, FoF is going to have a hard time find a bank that doesn’t do a lot by their gay employees and customers. There’s a reason that Charlotte, NC, is such a gay friendly city — it’s all the banks that are headquartered there, especially Bank of America, another SF bank.
Switching my account over…thanks for the tip.
I’ve heard and seen these groups use the term “community” before, and always imagine tumbleweeds on Christopher Street, bookstores’ contents burned and replaced with FOTF books and Thomas Kincaid paintings, etc. ‘Cause that’s what they want for our community.