Gazette Telegraph, Colorado Springs
April 29, 1993, pg 1B

Political agenda of group at issue

By D'Arcy Fallon

Focus on the Family, the Christian media conglomerate, should be upfront about 
its "extreme and un-American" political agenda, a national civil liberties 
watchdog group said Wednesday.

"We're not bashing them for their involvement in the political process, we just 
want them to take ownership for their political positions," said Mike Hudson, 
vice president and general counsel for Washington, D.C.-based People for the 
American Way.

The liberal organization formally opened its new Boulder office on Wednesday 
and released a report criticizing Focus on the Family for its conservative 
positions on abortion, women's rights, gays in the military, AIDS and sex 
education and other issues.

In Hudson's view, Focus on the Family essentially is a political organization 
that bills itself as something else.

A Focus spokesman rejects that claim, saying the group essentially is a 
religious organization.

Hudson said Focus founder James Dobson has been "very skillful in saying he's 
not political.  We think the facts and history belie that assertion.

"We're calling for Rev. Dobson to comme out of the closet regarding politics.  
He really can't have it both ways."

As an example of Focus' lobbying efforts, Hudson pointed to a Focus ad, "In 
Defense of a Little Virginity," which ran in a Shreveport, La, newspaper.

Not so, said Tom Minnery, Focus' vice president for public policy.  The ad, 
which cited a number of studies, was aimed at communicating the view that 
condoms aren't an effective form of birth control among adolescents.

"We wanted to alert people that the only safe sex is abstinence," Minnery said.

Although Focus educates its members about current issues, it has never tried to 
influence people when it comes to election or political activity, he said.

"People for the American Way is trying to demonize the large number of Ameri-
cans who hold deep moral values," Minnery said.

Through its "Colorado Project," People for the American Way plans to conduct 
research on the activities of religious right organizations such as Focus on 
the Family, Colorado for Family Values, Christian Coalition, Concerned Women 
for America and Citizens for Excellence in Education, Hudson said.

Founded a decade ago by television producer Norman Lear, People for the 
American Way has 300,000 members nationwide and chapters in New York, 
California, North Carolina and Florida.

Hudson said the organization chose to locate in Boudler rather than Colorado 
Springs--hone to more than 50 Christian organizations--because "this is not a 
local Colorado Springs battle.  I don't want to (further) polarize Colorado."

But it doesn't make sense to Minnery: "That's like opening an office in the 
Mojave Desert to monitor the wheat harvest."