Running Against Sodom and Osama

The New Christian Right Leadership Network

Family Research Council Action

Focus on the Family was originally located in Southern California, far from the Washington public policy debates during the 1970s. Founder James Dobson created a Washington presence for his organization by starting a think tank/lobbying arm and calling it the Family Research Council. Incorporated in 1983, the FRC was at first a closely aligned with Focus on the Family, becoming more influential under the leadership of Gary Bauer from 1988 to 1990 when Bauer then left to become a candidate for President. Issues around tax-exempt status resulted in a separation between Focus and the FRC, and now both organizations have 501 c (4) spinoffs, Focus on the Family Action and Family Research Council Action, to allow them greater permission to lobby.

The organization has maintained its focus on its definition of family issues: opposition to reproductive rights, homosexuality, and support for strictly traditional gender roles. The current President is Tony Perkins, a former Louisiana legislator.

Perkins maintains a strong connection to FRC members through his daily web messages from Washington and a print distribution center in Holland, MI, the home of the FRC’s original benefactor, Edgar Prince. In the twenty years since its founding, the FRC has become the premier lobbying arm of the Christian Right in Washington, well positioned to sponsor its recent summit.

Additional resources on the Christian Right:

• Christian Right: Introduction
• The Christian Right, Dominionism, and Theocracy
  by Chip Berlet
• The Christian Right Seeks Dominion
  by Sara Diamond
• Christian Reconstructionism
  by Frederick Clarkson
• Behind the Culture War to Restore Traditional Values
  by Chip Berlet & Margaret Quigley
• Who's Behind the Culture Wars?
  by Mark Schapiro
• Bibliography
  on the Christian Right

• Dances with Devils
  A PRA report
• Christian Zionism
• MP3 audio lecture
  by Chip Berlet

• Directory of Groups undermining democracy and equality:
• Directory of Groups defending democracy and equality:

Political Research Associates:

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