American Family Association

The American Family Association (AFA) is a conservative, Christian non-profit organization founded in 1977 by Rev. Donald Wildmon as the National Federation for Decency. The AFA is headquartered in Tupelo, Mississippi. Many of its critics consider it a hate group due to its fervent campaigns against the rights of gay and lesbian Americans.

Goals

The AFA "represents and stands for traditional family values, focusing primarily on the influence of television and other media—including pornography—on our society."AFA about page

The origanization publishes articles which promote traditional nuclear families, promote Christianity, advocate for Christian missionaries, oppose abortion, oppose homosexuality, oppose pornography and promote clean entertainment, and advocate being thrifty with finanaces and against excessive debt.

Activism

The AFA has a long history of activism by organizing its members in boycotts and letter-writing campaigns aimed at promoting socially conservative values in the United States. As of June 2006, it is promoting boycotts of Abercrombie & Fitch ("Use of softcore pornography in company catalogs"), Movie Gallery ("distributor of pornographic videos"), Kmart ("Sale of adult-rated music CDs") and Nike ("promoting a back door move to legalise homosexual marriage").AFA Boycotts

In the past, the AFA has promoted boycotts of all television shows, movies, and businesses that have promoted "indecency". The AFA has also launched specific boycotts against Crest, Volkswagen, Tide, Clorox, Pampers, MTV, Burger King, the Carl's Jr., Kraft Foods, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Old Navy, NutriSystem, and American Airlines. In 2004, the AFA went after the movie Shark Tale, because the group believed the movie was designed to brainwash children into accepting gay rights. In 2005, it attacked the company American Girl, seller of dolls and accessories, because of a charity that the company supported American Girl Boycott, and Target for its lack of the word "Christmas" in its advertising.Target Boycott

AFA's boycotts have had mixed success. In 1990, Blockbuster Video decided not to stock films that carried the recently introduced NC-17 rating after pressure from the AFA. But a nine-year boycott of Disney resulted in none of the group's demands being met while Disney enjoyed a surge in profits.

The AFA failed in 2000 to persuade Congress to eradicate the National Endowment for the Arts for funding a controversial book, One of the Guys, by Robert Clark Young. In March of 2004, the AFA filed suit in an attempt to prevent the city of Seattle, Washington from recognizing same-sex marriages. (see Same-sex marriage in the United States).

Controversial statements

After the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005, the American Family Association's Agape Press published praise for the hurricane's destruction as an instrument of God's mercy, in that it "wiped out much of the rampant sin common to the city."New Orleans Residents: God's Mercy Evident in Katrina's Wake

In January 2006, Rev. Rob Schenck was quoted by AgapePress, the American Family Association's news service, as apparently questioning the religious devotion of those who prayed for the trapped miners in West Virginia, then warning that "God rebuked nations who only turned to Him in their most extreme moments of need."Commentary & News Briefs

The American Family Association's many publications and statements claim that homosexuality is a choice and that it can be changed.Homosexuality in America

On the October 11, 2005, AFA broadcast, Tim Wildmon agreed with a caller that cable networks like Animal Planet and HGTV featured homosexual people and added that "You have to watch out for children's programs today as well because they'll slip it in there as well."Today's Issues

Critics

The AFA has long been opposed by groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and various liberal organizations. It has also been opposed by conservative Constitutionalists who see the AFA's support for government regulation as unconstitutionally increasing centralized power.

Many legal restrictions on individual liberty favored by the AFA require a loose interpretation of the Interstate Commerce Clause of the Constitution. Paleoconservatives and Christian libertarians, even fundamentalist ones, have also opposed the AFA for similar reasons as well as for the AFA's desire to make vices into crimes, which the critics argue is forcing religious beliefs on non-believers.

References

External links

Anti-pornography activists | LGBT rights opposition | Political advocacy groups in the United States