Family Policy Alliance

Last updated
Family Policy Alliance
Founded2004;20 years ago (2004)
Founder James Dobson
20-0960855 (EIN)
Location
Key people
Craig DeRoche (President & CEO) [1]
Revenue (2022)
$2,435,770 for the 501(c)3 [2]
$1,314,136 for the 501(c)4 [3]
Website familypolicyalliance.com
Formerly called
CitizenLink,
Focus on the Family Action

Family Policy Alliance (FPA), formerly CitizenLink and Focus on the Family Action, [4] is an American conservative Christian organization that acts as the lobbying arm of Focus on the Family [5] [6] [7] at the level of state government politics. It is an umbrella organization for an "alliance" of state organizations known as Family Policy Councils [8] which are state-level Focus on the Family affiliates.

Contents

The stated mission of Family Policy Alliance is "to advance biblical citizenship, equip and elect statesmen, promote policy and serve an effective alliance, all committed to a common vision". [9] The organization opposes and advocates against same-sex marriage, [10] transgender rights, [11] legal abortion, sexual consent education, [12] marijuana decriminalization, [13] and the Equal Rights Amendment. CEO Craig DeRoche considers these social phenomena "a demonic onslaught" which he attributes to Satan. [14] FPA supports Reaganomics [15] and traditional gender roles. [10] It considers LGBT rights to be a dangerous "LGBT agenda." [16]

As an organization with 501(c)(4) tax status, FPA faces fewer political lobbying restrictions than its affiliate [6] Focus on the Family. FPA lobbying includes "rigorous training by experienced Christian legislative leaders" for politicians who align with the organization's conservative priorities. The organization maintains a 501(c)(3) called Family Policy Foundation or alternatively Family Policy Alliance Foundation. It is a different organization than The Family Foundation, although both are a part of Focus on the Family and have similar goals.

It was founded in 2004 by James Dobson and operates from Focus on the Family headquarters in Colorado Springs.

History

Focus on the Family headquarters in Colorado Springs, which is also headquarters of Family Policy Alliance Focus on the Family Administration Building (Colorado Springs).jpg
Focus on the Family headquarters in Colorado Springs, which is also headquarters of Family Policy Alliance

The alliance of lobbying groups that FPA currently coordinates was built by James Dobson, a Southern California psychologist and evangelical Christian radio broadcaster, beginning in the 1980s. Dobson is the founder of Focus on the Family, which described the alliance-building as a "behind-the-scenes" program to affect legislation and culture without appearing to be coordinated. [17] According to The United Methodist Reporter members were urged to keep the existence of the alliance a secret so that they would appear to be diversity of different groups, rather than a coordinated effort. [18] The members of this alliance became known as Family Policy Councils.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Focus on the Family and its state-level Family Policy Councils were associated with highly-visible culture wars, including strong opposition to legal abortion and same-sex marriage. [19] The alliance was unable to maintain its secrecy and became more widely known in the 1990s. The organization Family Policy Alliance has operated since 2004, coordinating the state Family Policy Council organizations. It shares Focus on the Family's Colorado Springs headquarters building.

Partnership with Women's Liberation Front

In 2017, FPA filed an amicus brief jointly with Women's Liberation Front, a trans-exclusionary radical feminist organization, to the US Supreme Court. The brief, in opposition to a lower court ruling for a transgender student, stated "pro-family Christians and radical feminists may not agree about much, but they agree that redefining "sex" to mean "gender identity" is a truly fundamental shift in American law and society." [20] The head of FPA Kansas called this partnership "co-belligerence with strange bedfellows." [21]

Georgia elections

At the time of the Trump–Raffensperger phone call, FPA of Georgia sent a fundraising email in support of Trump's attempts to overturn the results of the US presidential election. The group's executive director, Cole Muzio, expressed concern that Georgia has become more liberal and that the church in Georgia has become weaker. Muzio says that these demographic trends are a form of "cheating" in elections, requiring FPA to respond by advocating for election laws favoring conservative Christians. [22]

Journalist Sarah Posner considers this action by FPA to be part of a larger trend in which the American Christian right embraces voter suppression techniques. [22]

Project 2025

FPA is a member of the advisory board of Project 2025, [23] a collection of conservative and right-wing policy proposals from the Heritage Foundation to reshape the United States federal government and consolidate executive power should the Republican nominee win the 2024 presidential election. [24]

UDRP dispute

In 2024 the Family Policy Foundation filed a Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) complaint against a website which criticized it as "a fake charitable organization with a mission to keep gay people at an inferior legal status." [25] The World Intellectual Property Organization denied the attempt to seize the critical website on the grounds that the organization uses a "confusing" mixture of names (Family Policy Foundation, Family Policy Alliance, and Family Policy Alliance Foundation, all of which are difficult to distinguish from The Family Foundation ) which do not establish strong trademark protections. [26] [27]

Criticism

According to its website, critics of Family Policy Alliance refer to it as a hate group. [28]

Elisa Rae Shupe, a former supporter of FPA and speaker at their Statesmen Academy, says that the goal of FPA is "to inflict maximum harm" on transgender people. Shupe regrets providing training to lawmakers on how cause harm. She feels that the FPA exploited her mental illness when they recruited her as a speaker. [29]

State allies

Family Policy Alliance oversees a network (an "alliance") of 41 state organizations called family policy councils. Together, the alliance employs more than 350 people and takes in revenue of more than $50 million annually as of 2024. Family Policy Alliance writes policy which it disseminates to the state and local level through this network. [14] Its members include:

See also

Related Research Articles

Focus on the Family is a fundamentalist Protestant organization founded in 1977 in Southern California by James Dobson, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The group is one of a number of evangelical parachurch organizations that rose to prominence in the 1980s. As of the 2017 tax filing year, Focus on the Family declared itself to be a church, "primarily to protect the confidentiality of our donors." Traditionally, entities considered churches have been ones that have regular worship services and congregants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Dobson</span> Evangelical Christian psychologist, author, and radio broadcaster

James Clayton Dobson Jr. (born April 21, 1936) is an American evangelical Christian author, psychologist, and founder of Focus on the Family (FotF), which he led from 1977 until 2010. In the 1980s, he was ranked as one of the most influential spokesmen for conservative social positions in American public life. Although never an ordained minister, he was called "the nation's most influential evangelical leader" by The New York Times while Slate portrayed him as a successor to evangelical leaders Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.

The Christian right, otherwise referred to as the religious right, are Christian political factions characterized by their strong support of socially conservative and traditionalist policies. Christian conservatives seek to influence politics and public policy with their interpretation of the teachings of Christianity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Concerned Women for America</span> Socially conservative Christian American nonprofit womens activist group

Concerned Women for America (CWA) is a socially conservative, evangelical Christian non-profit women's legislative action committee in the United States. Headquartered in Washington D.C., the CWA is involved in social and political movements, through which it aims to incorporate Christian ideology. The group was founded in San Diego, California in 1978 by Beverly LaHaye, whose husband Timothy LaHaye was an evangelical Christian minister and author of The Battle for the Mind, as well as coauthor of the Left Behind series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Family Research Council</span> American evangelical activist group

The Family Research Council (FRC) is an American evangelical 501(c)(3) non-profit activist group and think-tank with an affiliated lobbying organization. FRC promotes what it considers to be family values. It opposes and lobbies against access to pornography, embryonic stem-cell research, abortion, divorce, and LGBT rights—such as anti-discrimination laws, same-sex marriage, same-sex civil unions, and LGBT adoption. The FRC has been criticized by media sources and professional organizations such as the American Sociological Association for using "anti-gay pseudoscience" to falsely conflate homosexuality and pedophilia, and to falsely claim that the children of same-sex parents suffer from more mental health problems.

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), formerly the Alliance Defense Fund, is an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group that works to expand Christian religious liberties and practices within public schools and in government, outlaw abortion, and oppose LGBTQ rights. ADF is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, with branch offices in several locations including Washington, D.C., and New York. Its international subsidiary, Alliance Defending Freedom International, with headquarters in Vienna, Austria, operates in over 100 countries.

Justice Sunday was a series of religious conferences organized by the Family Research Council, founded by James Dobson and headed by Tony Perkins, and Dobson's Focus on the Family organizations. According to FRC, the purpose of the events was to "request an end to filibusters of judicial nominees that were based, at least in part, on the nominees' religious views or imputed inability to decide cases on the basis of the law regardless of their beliefs." Three such conferences were held. Perkins and Dobson have been present as speakers at all events, and some conservative politicians, including Zell Miller, Tom DeLay and Bill Frist have also made appearances.

The Arlington Group was a coalition uniting the leaders of prominent Christian conservative organizations in the United States. Founded in 2002 principally through the efforts of American Family Association President Donald Wildmon and Free Congress Foundation Chairman Paul Weyrich, the group sought to establish consensus goals and strategy among its members and translate its combined constituency into an overwhelming force within the Republican Party, particularly at its highest levels. Its membership and purpose overlapped to a high degree with the Council for National Policy; but the group is much more narrowly focused, choosing to emphasize such issues as same-sex marriage, abortion, and confirmation of like-minded federal judges.

Richard Cizik is the president of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good. He was the Vice President for Governmental Affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and one of the most prominent Evangelical lobbyists in the United States. In his position with the NAE, Cizik's primary responsibilities were setting the organisation's policy on issues and lobbying the White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court. Cizik also served as NAE's national spokesman and edited a monthly magazine, NAE Washington Insight. Since 2003, Cizik has been active in a type of environmentalism known as "creation care". His stance on global warming has drawn both support and criticism from fellow Evangelicals. He serves on the board of advisors of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Family Policy Council</span>

A Family Policy Council (FPC) is one of several US state-level organizations affiliated with Focus on the Family (FotF), a nationwide conservative Christian organization. Family Policy Councils work for policies that FotF describes as "pro-family". These include opposition to same-sex marriage, LGBT adoption, and LGBT workplace protections, and support for abstinence-only sex education, increased legal restrictions on abortion and traditional Christian gender roles. FPCs also work to shape public opinion, organize political demonstrations, and cultivate future politicians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Family Institute of Connecticut</span> U.S. non-profit advocacy organization

The Family Institute of Connecticut is an interdenominational, conservative 501(c)(3) non-profit advocacy organization founded in 1989. Its stated goal is to encourage and strengthen the family as the foundation of society and to promote Judeo-Christian ethical and moral values in the culture and government of Connecticut.

The National Day of Prayer Task Force is an American evangelical conservative Christian non-profit organization which organizes, coordinates, and presides over Evangelical Christian religious observances each year on the National Day of Prayer.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Daly (evangelist)</span> President of Focus on the Family

Jim Daly is the head of Focus on the Family, an international Christian communications ministry based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He succeeded founder James Dobson in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minnesota Family Council</span>

Minnesota Family Council (MFC) is an American Christian organization in Minneapolis, Minnesota, founded in 1983. MFC is a family policy council affiliated with Focus on the Family and Alliance Defending Freedom. The organization advocates for the passage of socially conservative policies in the state. It also produces voter guides to encourage its supporters to elect conservative lawmakers. After registering as a political action committee in 2011, MFC has lobbied against abortion and same-sex marriage, and in favor of single-sex school bathroom and athletics policies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-abortion movements</span> Movement that believes abortion should be illegal

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The Women's Liberation Front (WoLF) is an American self-described radical feminist advocacy organization that opposes transgender rights and related legislation. It has engaged in litigation on transgender topics, working against the Obama administration's Title IX directives which defined sex discrimination to include gender identity. WoLF describes itself as radical feminist, and according to its mission statement, it wishes to "abolish regressive gender roles and the epidemic of male violence using legal arguments, policy advocacy, and public education". It has been described by news sources including The Washington Post, The Advocate, and NBC as feminist, but progressive and feminist organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)and the National Organization for Women (NOW) challenge this characterization, with NOW describing WoLF, alongside Women's Declaration International, as "anti-trans bigots disguised as feminists".

Nebraska Family Alliance (NFA) is a fundamentalist Christian 501(c)(3) organization based in Lincoln, Nebraska. It most prominently lobbies against LGBT rights, such as same-sex marriage and LGBT adoption. The NFA also seeks legal restrictions on abortion, and to change public policy on gambling and human trafficking. It advocates for traditional family structures and gender roles.

References

  1. ↑ "Leadership". Family Policy Alliance. 12 June 2019.
  2. ↑ "Family Policy Foundation". ProPublica.
  3. ↑ "Family Policy Alliance". ProPublica.
  4. ↑ Draper, Electra (May 19, 2010). "Focus on the Family rebrands political arm as CitizenLink". The Denver Post. Retrieved 2019-08-22.
  5. ↑ Stern, Mark Joseph (March 2, 2022). "How the War on Critical Race Theory Revived Anti-Gay Activism in Schools". Slate. Family Policy Alliance, the lobbying arm of Focus on the Family, advocates against education about race and LGBTQ identities under the umbrella of protecting "parental rights."
  6. 1 2 Peters, Jeremy W. (March 29, 2021). "Why Transgender Girls Are Suddenly the G.O.P.'s Culture-War Focus". The New York Times. Retrieved June 9, 2021.
  7. ↑ Just, Amie (September 6, 2019). "Drew Brees on Focus on the Family video: I was not aware of, don't support anti-LGBTQ views". The Times-Picayune / The New Orleans Advocate. Retrieved June 9, 2021.
  8. ↑ "About Us". Family Policy Alliance. 12 June 2019. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
  9. ↑ "GuideStar Charity Check". GuideStar. Candid. Retrieved 2019-08-22.
  10. 1 2 Brenneman, Todd (2014). Homespun Gospel: The Triumph of Sentimentality in Contemporary American Evangelicalism. Oxford University Press. p. 135-136. ISBN   978-0199988983.
  11. ↑ Hanna, John (June 24, 2019). "Kansas to allow trans residents to change birth certificates". AP News. Associated Press. Retrieved 2019-08-22.
  12. ↑ Staver, Anna (February 27, 2019). "Colorado sex education bill: Separating fact from fiction". The Denver Post. Retrieved 2019-08-22.
  13. ↑ Robinson, Carin (2018). "Colorado: Hiking in Rocky Terrain". God at the Grassroots 2016. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 117. ISBN   978-1538108925.
  14. 1 2 Rabey, Steve (April 8, 2024). "Family Policy Alliance battles 'Satan' with plan to end abortion and IVF, outlaw porn, stop transgender identity and take over public schools". Baptist News Global.
  15. ↑ Stephens, Hilde Løvdal (2015). "Money Matters and Family Matters". Religion and the Marketplace in the United States. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 102. ISBN   978-0199361809.
  16. ↑ Hudgens, Nicole. "Who can you trust?". Family Policy Alliance.
  17. ↑ Chandler, Russell (March 4, 1989). "Evangelical Broadcaster Seeks 'Pro-Family' Lobby". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 9, 2021.
  18. ↑ Boczkiewicz, Robert E. (March 10, 1989). "Conservative Christians organizing 'pro-family' coalitions within states". The United Methodist Reporter. Religious News Service. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  19. ↑ Raz, Guy (February 12, 2012). "Focus On The Family's President On Group's Work". NPR. Retrieved June 9, 2021.
  20. ↑ Bookbinder, David Archived 2019-05-11 at the Wayback Machine Brief of amici curiae.
  21. ↑ Herbert, Danedri (April 21, 2017). "Eric Teetsel, Family Policy Alliance of KS Prez, Answers Sentinel's 20 Questions". The Sentinel. Retrieved December 6, 2019.
  22. 1 2 3 Posner, Sarah (September 28, 2021). "How the Christian right embraced voter suppression". Vox.
  23. ↑ "Advisory Board". The Heritage Foundation. Archived from the original on November 19, 2023. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  24. ↑ Mascaro, Lisa (August 29, 2023). "Conservative Groups Draw Up Plan to Dismantle the US Government and Replace It with Trump's Vision". Associated Press News . Archived from the original on September 22, 2023. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  25. ↑ "FamilyPolicyFoundation.org: UDRP against criticism domain failed all three points". Domain Gang. April 10, 2024.
  26. ↑ Raheja, Ankura (April 16, 2024), ""A Complex and Unusual Scenario": Common Law Trademark, Free Speech, "Impersonation" and More", Internet Commerce Association
  27. ↑ Gibson, Christopher S.; Lothian, Andrew D.S.; Hill, Richard. "Administrative Panel Decision: Family Policy Foundation v. John Skinner" (PDF). WIPO.
  28. ↑ "Texas". Family Policy Alliance.
  29. ↑ Newton, Jacob (March 13, 2023). "'Their goal was to inflict maximum harm': Behind the scenes of the anti-trans movement". KELOLAND Local News and Weather .
  30. ↑ Moseley-Morris, Kelcie (April 26, 2022). "'It's Christ or chaos': Idaho's newest family policy center and its biblical beliefs". Idaho Capital Sun.
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