Like Online Gambling Issue, Focus on the Family Gets It Wrong Again

Focus on the Family is once again sending the wrong message to families. Like the ill-conceived message they send to their blindly loyal followers about Internet gambling, they sent a similar one yesterday that sent the despicable message that it is okay to pray for harm to come upon others as long as it benefits their 'cause'.

They say the video that asked its members to "pray for rain of biblical proportions" during Senator Barack Obama's Democratic acceptance speech at Invesco Field in August was just a joke that was misunderstood. However, they may have only pulled the video off their site because of the strong negative reaction of their members, as well as the even stronger negative reaction from the media. If only the group's members, and the media, knew of the other ridiculous stances they take on issues that they know nothing about.

Here's an ironic little story...

In order to protect families, two years ago Focus on the Family lobbied right-wing Republican members of Congress to get them to ban Internet gambling. They claimed that Internet gambling was causing young children to steal credit cards from their parents. They had no proof of this, but they believed this to be so true, so they assumed it was. (At the time, we told Focus on the Family that maybe they should teach parents how to not let their children steal their credit cards, or put child safety controls on their computer, but they thought banning Internet gambling was the solution.)

They claimed Internet gambling to be as addictive as crack cocaine. There is actually a Harvard study of over 40,000 online gamblers that concludes that gambling only became a problem for less than 1% of those people. They also claimed that banning Internet gambling would solve these problems.

What actually happened was...

Focus on the Family, and the right-wing Conservatives they have in their pocket in Congress, did pass a bill that attempted to ban Internet gambling. However, what they found was that it is impossible to ban something online. (We tried telling them that, but they wouldn't listen.)

The irony is...

As a result of this new law they passed, the respectable online gaming sites that have protective measures in place meant to keep underage citizens out of the casinos, that put limits on its players, that did not run scams in order to cheat its players, left the US market. However, many unregulated sites remained readily available to US citizens, and thus, children were no better protected than before. Perhaps, their families they wish to protect are actually worse off now than they were before.

You see, Focus on the Family has their agenda. They do not back their agenda up with reason, logic, understanding, truth, or even an ounce of open-mindedness. As a result, they end up looking like fools, as well, they end up doing more harm to their followers than good.

So let me say this to Focus on the Family...

Keep up the good work!

Gordon Price
Senior Gaming Analyst
Casino Gambling Web

August 13, 2008
Posted By Susan Torres
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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