Focus on the Family

Focus on the Family (FOTF or FotF), founded in 1977, is a Christian 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in the United States. The organization describes itself as "dedicated to serving, strengthening, and defending families worldwide." The group founded by James Dobson is led by President and CEO Jim Daly, and employs a staff of 1,300 people in the United States, headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Focus on the Family is one of a number of evangelical para-church organizations whose stated aim is not to start a new church or denomination, but to work interdenominationally to protect and promote their definitions of traditional family and family values. FOTF initiatives address the diverse needs of families and individuals at every life stage through radio broadcasts, magazines and online publications, books, events.

In response to perceived threats to the family from changing world views in society, Dobson and his associates have become more politically active, and are regarded as a major voice in the Christian right, generally promoting socially conservative policies. Recently it began publishing a new political magazine called Citizen which addresses political concerns, especially on issues where current public policies are seen as threatening to conservative families.

International affiliates

• Australia: Focus on the Family Australia, Clayton, Victoria
• Belgium: Focus on the Family Belgium, Oud-Heverlee
• Canada: Focus on the Family Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia
• Costa Rica: Enfoque a la Familia Costa Rica, San José
• Egypt: Focus on the Family Egypt, Cairo
• Iran: Islamic Republic Iran, Tehran
• Ireland: Focus on the Family Ireland, Dublin
• Japan: Family Focus Japan, Yokohama
• Korea: Open Family Korea, Seoul
• Malaysia: Focus on the Family Malaysia, Selangor
• Netherlands: Focus on the Family Netherlands, Dordrecht
• New Zealand: Focus on the Family New Zealand, Auckland
• Singapore: Focus on the Family Singapore
• South Africa: Focus on the Family Southern Africa, Hillcrest, KwaZulu-Natal
• Taiwan: Tai-wan Ai-chia Chi-chin Hui, Taipei

Stats

• The probability of divorce for a couple marrying for the first time is between 40 and 50 percent. (Source: David Popenoe, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, "The State of Our Unions 2007: The Social Health of Marriage in America," The National Marriage Project, Rutgers University; July 2007)
• The always-intact married family has a median income of $54,000—more than twice that of most other household family configurations: never-married single-mother family, $9,400; separated family, $20,000; divorced family, $23,000; cohabiting family, $30,000; the stepfamily/second-marriage, $50,000. (Source: Survey of Consumer Finance, 2001.)
• Only 12 percent of children living intact, married families live in poverty. Poverty levels for children living in other household configurations: 67 percent for never-married familes, 41 percent for separated families, 39 percent for cohabitating families, 31 percent for divorced families, and 13 percent for subsequent marriage families. (Source: Survey of Consumer Finance 2001)
• Children from married families have the lowest level of emotional disorders. In ascending order, children of cohabiting parents come next, followed by always-single-parent families, and finally the widowed, divorced, single-parent family. (Source: H. Meltzer, et al., Mental Health of Children and Adolescents in Great Britain, London: Her Majesty s Stationary Office, 2000)
• Children living in households with a biological cohabiting mother have a 73 percent risk of fatal abuse. Children living with biological married parents have a one percent risk. (Source: Robert Whelan, Broken Homes and Battered Children: A Study of the Relationship Between Child Abuse and Family Type, London: Family Education Trust, 1993)
• Adolescent children raised in a step-family are more than three times more likely to be incarcerated than those raised in an intact, married parent family. (Source: The Heritage Foundation/C Harper & S McLanahan, “Father Absence and Youth Incarceration” ASA Annual Meeting, San Francisco. Aug 1998)
• Serious child abuse can be measured across family structures. The lowest level of serious abuse occurs in the always-intact married family. In Britain, the stepfamily abuse levels are six times higher; the always-single mother family, 14 times higher; cohabiting family, 20 times higher, and the single-father family, 20 times higher. The most dangerous family structure is when the mother cohabits with a boyfriend who is not the father of the child. This abuse rate is 33 times greater than in the intact married family. Here the father belongs neither to the child nor to the mother. (Source: Robert Whelan, Broken Homes and Battered Children: A Study of the Relationship Between Child Abuse and Family Type, London: Family Education Trust, 1993)
• Children living in an intact family with married parents earn higher grade point averages—2.98 GPA—than children from divorced families—a 2.64 GPA. (Source: National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health Wave 1, 1995 and Holly E. Heard, Rice University, "Family Structure and Adolescent School Engagement: The Mediating Influence of Family and Parental Resources," presented at the American Sociological Association, Aug. 17, 2004)
• Children from families where the parents were never married are 30% more likely to be expelled or suspended from school than those living in an intact family. (Source: National Adolescent Health Study, Wave 1. Adolescents grade 7-12, 1994-1995)
• Adolescent children living in intact families have 2.5 times fewer sex partners than those from divorced families. (Source: National Adolescent Health Study, Wave 1. Adolescents grade 7-12 1994-1995)
• Of all the parenting resources parents consider most helpful, “advice from a religious leader or doctor” ranks as the highest-desired resource. (Source: Eugene C. Roehlkepartain, Peter C. Scales, Jolene L. Roehlkepartain, and Stacey P. Rude, "Building Strong Families: An In-Depth Report on a Preliminary Survey on What Parents Need to Succeed," YMCA/Search Institute, 2002, p. 52.)
• An MTV/AP survey found that adolescents believe their families are their primary source of happiness (2007)
• Eighty-two percent of high school girls and 70 percent of high school boys rate having a good marriage and family life as “extremely important” to them—an increase from results documented between 1976 and 1980 (Source: L.D. Johnston., J. G. Bachman, & P.M. O'Malley, Monitoring the Future: Questionnaire responses from the nation's high school seniors, 2005. (Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research, 2006))
• Of the known living arrangements of 2005 child abuse victims, more than 1 in 4 were living with a single parent or unmarried parents, whereas less than 1 in 8 victims were of married parents. This means that where the marital status of victims’ parents were known (38 percent of 2005 cases), more than two-thirds involved children of an unmarried parent or cohabiting parents. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “Child Maltreatment 2005: Living Arrangement of Victims”)
• Of the approximately 899,000 child abuse and neglect victims in 2005, the largest percentage of perpetrators (79.4 percent) were parents, including birth parents, adoptive parents, and stepparents. (Source: National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System’s most current report, Child Maltreatment 2005)
• It is estimated that 20 to 40 percent of adult women in the United States were sexually abused before the age of 18. For men, the range is 10 to 20 percent. That's 24 million to 48 million women and 11 million to 22 million men. (Source: San Francisco Chronicle, 2005, http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/04/03/INGN4C224F1.DTL)
• Over half a million children remain in the U.S. foster care system. (Source: AFCARS [Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System Report] Report, released in September 2006, counting children in foster care on Sept. 30, 2005)
• An estimated 24.4 million children in the United States (34%) do not have their father at home (Source: 2005 U.S. Census)
• One in five children is now approached by online predators. (Source: 2006 ABC News report and U.S. Department of Justice, 2007)
• 66.5 percent of U.S. high school seniors admitted to using drugs or alcohol in the past 12 months. (Source: 2006 National Institute on Drug Abuse Study)

Political positions and activities

The group supports the teaching of what they characterize as "traditional family values." It advocates school prayer and supports corporal punishment. It strongly opposes abortion, homosexuality, pornography, and pre-marital sexual activity. Focus on the Family also embraces and reflects the wider political agenda of its conservative American Christian audience, for instance promoting American patriotism and the support of Israel.[1][2]

Focus on the Family broadcasts a national talk radio program of the same name hosted by Dobson or his aides. The program has a range of themes, such as Christian-oriented assistance for victims of rape or child abuse; parenting difficulties; child adoption; husband/wife roles; family history and traditions; struggles with gambling, pornography, alcohol, and drugs; and many other themes. When programs deal with civic issues, listeners often respond to these programs by contacting political leaders.

The organization claims that their daily radio broadcast has over 1.5 million listeners daily in the United States. They also have offices worldwide, and claim a worldwide audience of over 200 million for their daily radio broadcast.

Focus on the Family also produces ten monthly magazines with a combined circulation of about 2.3 million subscribers, and a wide variety of books and films.

• Children and Teen Magazines: Brio[3],Breakaway[4], Clubhouse [5] and Clubhouse Jr. [6]
• College and Yound Adult resources: TrueU.org [7],Boundless Webzine [8],The Truth Project [9]
• Adults resources: Family News in Focus[10], Plugged In Online[11], Pure Intimacy [12],The Parsonage [13]
• Marriage and Parenting resources: Focus on the Family Daily Radio Broadcast [14], Enfoque a la Familia [15], Family Minute with Dr. Bill Maier [16],Focus on Your Child [17], How to Drug Proof Your Kids® [18]
• Crisis Assistance: TroubledWith.com [19], Heartlink.org [20]

Dobson has also another group, Focus Action, a 501(c)(4) social welfare group which has fewer political lobbying restrictions.

TheocracyWatch identifies Focus on the Family as a dominionist organization, and contends they have become more successful than the Christian Coalition in their influence on the U.S. Congress.

Leadership

Leadership for the organization was provided by Dobson alone until 2003 when Donald P. Hodel became president and chief executive officer. He tasked with the day-to-day operations. This left Dobson as chairman of the Board of Directors, with chiefly creative and speaking duties. In March, 2005, Hodel retired and Jim Daly, formerly the Vice President in charge of Focus on the Family's International Division, assumed the role of president and chief executive officer.

History and facilities

Focus on the Family began in 1977 out of a small office in Arcadia, California California. It soon outgrew that facility and began acquiring space in both Arcadia and in nearby Monrovia as its radio program grew in listenership. By 1990, the group needed even more space, and relocated to a new office complex in Pomona, California, that was supposed to last the organization for many years. Further growth caused by increased listenership of the radio program and readership of its books and magazines caused the organization to look for even more. In September 1993, having relocated to temporary quarters in various locations in Colorado Springs in the previous months, Focus on the Family dedicated its main building on an expansive 49-acre (200,000 m²) site.

Currently its three office buildings have a combined space of over 526,000 square feet (49,000 m²) housing over 1300 employees. One of the buildings is largely used for receiving telephone calls from listeners and providing requested assistance; this activity engages the largest segment of its employees. The organization's facilities are open for tours by the public Monday through Saturdays, excepting certain holidays. A bookstore and cafeteria are onsite, as is the child-oriented Whit's End Soda Shoppe which serves ice cream and "Wodfamchocsod" (chocolate soda) made famous by the Adventures in Odyssey children's radio theatre show produced by Focus on the Family.

Radio Theatre

Focus on The Family Radio Theatre is a subsidiary company of Focus on the Family, which adapts classic literature, mystery mini-series' and biographical productions, extending its reach to the mainstream as well as the Christian audience. At its peak, the weekly broadcasts aired on 240 stations nationwide, reaching audiences in excess of 350,000.

Radio Theatre began with historical biographies of Squanto ("The Legend of Squanto"), Jesus ("The Luke Reports") and Dietrich Bonhoeffer ("Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom"), and in 1996, a 90-minute radio drama based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol was produced and aired as a broadcast special.

In 2005, Focus on the Family Radio Theatre released an audio dramatization of C. S. Lewis' epic novel series The Chronicles of Narnia, with David Suchet providing the voice of Aslan, and a host of English actors rounding out the cast. Lewis' stepson, Douglas Gresham, served as host for the daily broadcasts of the series.

Radio Theatre was awarded the Peabody Award for Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom.

Focus on the Family's Radio Theatre's broadcasts were discontinued at the end of 2005; previously released dramatizations are still available for purchase through the division's official website.

Other radio shows

Adventures In Odyssey- Official Website

See also

• Focus on the Family Action
• Focus on the Family Canada
• Family Research Council
• Christianbook

External links

• Official website
• Focus on the Family Radio Theatre official site.