How are Family First, Focus on the Family, or Family Research Council Connected?

Factual Questions
1

Asking for a friend. Apparently her local school has had a years’ long association with the All Pro Dads program, which she already knows is sponsored by Family First. What she’s looking for is information on whether All Pro Dads/Family First are linked to Focus on the Family, or Family Research Council, or other groups of the hate group disguised as religious group. She’s objected before, but now she wants evidence.

Anyone?

ETA: Also Florida Family Council?

2

Family First is the Florida Family Council…same group. However, although some people have linked them to the Family Research Council, as far as I can tell, the Florida Affiliate of the Family Research Council is The Florida Family Policy Council, which is a distinct organization, although I haven’t done the research to find out if they have any overlapping directors or anything like that.

Mark Merrill, the head of All Pro Dads/Family First, is himself pretty anti-gay, though, and against gay rights and gay marriage.

3

It’s not a disguise. They don’t exist to hate people. They do that because they have an agenda of promoting what they consider to be family-oriented ideas, and have religious beliefs to back up what those ideas area. Their interpretation of their religion is that anyone who fails to follow their ideas must be hated. They did not decide to hate certain groups and craft some sort of reason behind why they decided to hate them - they hate them for the relationship those people have to the values they profess. Extremely regressive values, but I’m sure they take it as a compliment.

4

Bullshit. They are cynical operators out to make a buck off of whoever will buy. They’re no more religious than I am. They sell “torturing your gay child until he submits” because the idea of torturing gay children sells their books to the sickening shit-pile that is American “Christianity”.

5

Moderator Warning

DavidwithanR, religious jabs are not permitted in General Questions. This is an official warning. Do not do this again.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

6

I started looking into this when I saw a billboard for All-Pro Dad near my home, and it set off warning bells.

So, while Family First claims to be a non-religious non-profit:

  • Their website FAQ refers readers to Focus On the Family for counseling (link)
  • They are named as party in an Amicus brief filed in an appeal in Case No. 08-CV-588 in the Western District of Wisconsin, alongside James Dobson, the Family Research Council, and others (link) - the Amicus brief argues that the Freedom from Religion foundation lacks standing in their suit claiming that the National Day of Prayer is an unconstitutional support of religion - odd that a non-religious organization would care).
  • Family First’s founder, Mark Merrill has been featured on the Focus on the Family podcast (link) - this is tenuous at best, since many people I disagree with have been on podcasts of people who have great opinions, but I doubt Focus On The Family has people on their shows who are there to present an alternative point of view.
  • Family First is the DBA name of the Florida Family Council (link, which appears to be frequently confused with the Florida Family Policy Council formed by John Stemberger in 2004. However, I did find an article in the LA Times from 1995 stating that the Florida Family Council wrote a letter protesting Disney extending health benefits to same-sex partners.

Safe to say, the Anti-LGBT agenda hasn’t gone away.

EDIT: Add LA Times LINK