Focus on the Family's (FOF) mission statement should read "Preserving American culture through political means in a manner acceptable to all deists." If you can grasp this concept, FOF alliances and activities make sense. Read their literature. Most of it deals with alerting the readers of threatening cultural changes in American society that are not pleasing to God and warn the readers not to get caught up in the changes. Fair enough, many of the Old Testament prophets, the Gospels, and the Epistles do likewise. FOF warns that this is not pleasing to God and that you need to change your course (repentance) if you are involved in them. Again, this is also in the Bible. Most deists, Christian or not, will agree with all this. The departure from the Christian and nonChristian deists is how do we deal with sin? For the nonChristian deist, they repent before God and try harder the next time. If possible, they eliminate the sinful influences. Some nondemocratic governments effectively remove the people willing participating in sin from the culture, while democratic governments are lobbied by interest groups to pass legislation to limit the influence by these people who are perceived as a threat - something FOF is very active in. Both approaches rely on the power of the government (earthly) to change environments and not the power of the gospel to withstand and witness in our culture. How do Christians deal with sin and sinful influences - the power of the gospel. This is the tension FOF is in. It is politically motivated on cultural moral issues, not the gospel, yet most of it's proponents are evangelical Christians. Therefore FOF ministers to deists in general with very little ministry to evangelical Christians. FOF prints tons of information on morality, a lot of discussion on God, some discussion on Christ, very little coverage on the gospel - especially on the power of the gospel to transform us in our culture, as opposed to changing our culture through political means. See Pastor John MacArthur's website http://biblebb.com/files/dobson.htm.

Believers of the gospel realize that they cannot deal with any part of sin by themselves or with any part of ourselves- none of us has a chance. But believers of the gospel realize that Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension has made us perfect - so that we are perfect before God and by Christ's power alone.

The World Congress of Families (WCOF) http://www.worldcongress.org is an alliance of multinational deists that is a political lobby group for family values at the United Nations. It consists of several faiths and is adamant against proselytizing by any faith within its memebership. The World Congress of Families Mission Statement declares "The World Congress of Families coalition model represents the final option for an effective pro-family movement worldwide. All coalition members, usually orthodox religious believers, are asked to set aside their own personal theological and cultural differences and agree on one simple, unifying concept: the family is the fundamental unit of society. If coalition members can agree on this concept, then all their other disagreements take a back seat."  The WCOF was started and is funded by the Mormon Church. It is sponsored by the World Family Policy Center of BrighamYoung University (BYU) in Provo, Utah, and the Howard Center in Rockford, Illinois. During the summer of 2001, the WCOF planning committee met on the Focus of the Family Campus in Colorado Springs, CO to discuss the next international WCOF conference. Committee members represented Mormons, Muslims, Hindus, and Christians. FOF vice president Tom Minnery was part of the planning committee. Former FOF employee Mr. Brian Cooper and others picketted FOF during the planning meeting in an effort to inform FOF employees of the WCOF presence on their campus. Dr. David Dollahite, associate professor in the School of Family Life and adjunct professor of Ancient Scripture from BYU, came outside to speak with Mr. Cooper. Dr. Dollahite confirmed with Mr. Cooper the purpose of the meeting, the mission of WCOF, as well as the funding and sponsership of WCOF.  Also, I note on the WCOF website that Dr. Darrel Reid, President of Focus on the Family Canada, has been a speaker at an international WCOF conference. The question that comes to my mind is since FOF is willing to host WCOF at FOF headquarters and send at least one speaker to the international meeting - is FOF directly monetarily supporting the WCOF? If I was financially supporting FOF, I would should want to know.

Much of the information on FOF alliances I found on Freedom Quest Ministries website http://www.focusonthefamilyalliance.org.  The ministry is founded by Mr. Brian Cooper - a former FOF employee who was fired for openingly oppossing the FOF's alliance with the Mormon Church.  The site is very informative with fairly recent information.  How does FOF, a ministry focused on preserving American culture by political power respond to Mr. Cooper going public with his website - a lawsuit of course!  Anyway the website is worth the visit.  Mr. Cooper also will supply you with two cassette tapes in a binder titled "Audio Documentation of the Focus on the Family Alliance with the Mormon Church ... When James Dobson Doesn't Make Sense".  The first tape is titled "Nationwide Radio Interview of Focus Employee, Brian Cooper, by Congressman, Dr. Larry Bates."  The radio interview pretty much covers FOF's involvement with the WCOF.  A few interesting things on the tape that I have not mentioned previsouly include:

• FOF comfirmation to appear on the program, then cancelled 45 minutes before the program because FOF wanted to change the format.
• FOF's Mr. Thomas Jacobsen, having the title of, Manager of the United Nations Department at FOF was to speak, but a Ms. Judy Niles called to cancel.
• The WCOF is recognized by the United Nations

The second tape, "Meeting in Which Focus on the Family Official Admits to Alliance with Mormons and Muslims" was covertly recorded by Mr. Cooper while speaking with FOF Vice President Minnery.  At first I had objections to Mr. Cooper covertly recording such a conversation, however, very quickly into the tape one realizes that Mr. Minnery is very adept at wielding political power and is very manipulative.  Despite a third person in the room, Mr. Cooper would have been hard pressed to truthfully explain what transpired in the conversation without a convoluted rebuttal from Mr. Minnery.  With a recorded conversation, there isn't much you can manipulate.  I would have taken a recorder with me in the room myself.  There really are two conversations going on during the tape.  Mr. Cooper is motivated by the gospel; Mr. Minnery motivated by worldly power.  The conversation is very telling.  If you are prayerfully and financially supporting FOF, I strongly suggest you get this tape.  Every church should have this set of tapes in their library. 

FOF's February 2004 newsletter should have left many an evangelical family scratching their heads.  The newsletter focused on Mel Gibson's film, The Passion of Christ.  Yes the newsletter gives a review of the movie and that is good.  What is disturbing is that there is no concern for Mr. Gibson's eternal salvation during his visit to FOF, Dobson excuses himself from the differences between Catholic and Evangelical doctrine, and Dobson uses the movie as an opportunity to take political shots at his opponents.

First, Mr. Gibson states that he is a devout Catholic - Dobson even reaffirms this in his newsletter.  So, here Mr. Gibson is at FOF with several members of the FOF executive staff to include president Don Hodel and Executive Vice President Del Tackett.  Mr. Gibson's intent was to personally give a showing of the early version of the film to FOF staff.  From the February newsletter, quote, "When Mr. Gibson brought his movie to Focus headquarters last year, it was clear that he was genuinely interested in our opinions and respectful of our views.  He could easily have sent one of his representatives here to show the film and request our endorsement.  Rather, he appeared personally, without any fanfare, in order to address any questions and concerns we might have had."  Amazing, here is a film producer, a self proclaimed devout Catholic, showing his film about Christ and asks FOF input at a preview - and none of the reviewers probe Mr. Gibson on doctrinal issues and in particular about Mr. Gibson's eternal assurance of salvation.  This film review made a great opportunity for such a discussion, but as far the newsletter states, silence.  Don't you as a Christain want to know if Mr. Gibson is saved so that you know how to pray for him?  Mr. Gibson left himself vulnerable to the FOF staff and none of them had compassion to ask him if he truely understood the gospel. 

Dobson excuses himself from the stickly doctrinal issues in the newsletter by stating, "Second, I'm aware that many of my readers may have some questions about Mel Gibson himself.  On the one hand, he has appeared in a number of films containing content that many Christians would find offensive.  On the other hand, his staunch adherence to Catholic beliefs and doctrines might be upsetting to those who come from a more evangelical and Protestant persuasion.  Please know that, in discussing this project, I am not offering a blanket endorsement of either Mr. Gibson's personal beliefs or his past work."  Amazing, Dobson is still on the morality issue with Mr. Gibson.  When it comes to Mr. Gibson, the gospel does not weigh how good or bad Mr. Gibson is, the question is, is Mr. Gibson unregenerate or regenerate; does he understand the gospel of Jesus Christ?  Dobson doesn't endorse Catholic doctrine and that is the best he does.  He does not come out and oppose it and state why Catholic doctrine is in conflict with the gospel.  From the context of Dobson's statement, Catholic doctrine may upset some of his readers, but it doesn't seem to upset him. 

Finally, Dobson names two non-Christian opponents of the movie and in particular one of the poor fellows who has been critical of Dobson in the past.  Aren't we as Christians called to bless those who curse us?  I was appauled that Dobson took the opportunity to blast this lost person in a "Christian" newsletter. 

The question is why?  Why did no one approach Mr. Gibson with the gospel during the film review, why did Dobson not take an opportunity to go into Catholic doctrine in his newletter and explain how it conflicts with the gospel, and why did Dobson take cheap shots at non-Christians?  Because FOF is not a ministry of the gospel, it is a ministry to deists with the purpose of maintaining American culture - mentioning the gospel is too risky for this ministry's worldly and embarassing goals.