Once upon a time, James Dobson's Focus on the Family was a good family-service organization. Dobson wrote and promoted several great books and Bible studies that were aimed at helping people.
Then one day, they decided to play politics. Forget the separation of church and state notion this country was founded on, by golly Focus on the Family and other religious organizations decided they wanted to legislate morality through politics.
This has not fared well. The republicans immediately jumped in bed with them and gained their political support by claiming they supported "family values." Then churches followed, with political speeches from the pulpit denouncing the democrats in favor of good brother Bush and other "conservative" candidates. Now, after watching the Rush Limbaugh's abuse drugs and senators sending naughty emails to little boy interns, people wonder what "family" the republicans and these religious organizations envisioned in their family value campaign.
The good name of Focus on the Family has, in my opinion, been tarnished. In addition to the above, they were linked to helping convicted felon, Jack Abramoff, stop an indian tribe from expanding a casino that was in direct competition with one of Abramoff's clients.
See article here. Of course, Dobson et al claim it was a coincidence they were fighting the same casino, but emails obtained from Abramoff and cohorts by subpoena suggest otherwise.
Now Dobson and crew have joined with other religious groups in writing a letter to the U.S. Congress attacking online gambling and urging congress to continue to defy the World Trade Organization's ruling against the U.S...a defiance that could result in severe sanctions including the dishonoring of our copyright, trademark and patent laws.
What is their justification for asking this? In their letter, they justify their request by making self-serving conclusory allegations such as their claim that internet gambling "creates fertile ground for criminal activity and threatens homeland security by potentially funding terrorist activity." But they offer no evidence to support this claim.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I am unaware of a single internet casino that has been proven to have links to terrorist funding. I am unaware of anyone who has been convicted of funding terrorism through online gambling. But of course, if you want the government to do something, the best thing you can do is claim the opposite action has links to terrorism so that the government can justify it to the people--true or not.
If we are going to outlaw online gambling because it "threatens homeland security by potentially funding terrorist activity," then logically, we should outlaw everything that has the potential to fund terrorist activity. The first thing we outlaw in that category will have to be religion.
Think about it. There is a large amount of loosely accounted for cash flowing through in the offering plates that can easily be piped to terrorist organizations. In fact, after 911, a number of religious organizations were shut down as groups that funded terrorists. Thus, we know for a fact religion has funded terrorism. I'm sorry Mr. Dobson, but under your own logic, you will have to shut down Focus on the Family. It clearly has the potential to fund terroist activity.
I am not advocating the banning of religion. I am merely pointing the above out because it shows how poorly thought out the letter to Congress was in this case. The letter throws around politically motivating phrases without any substantiation of the claims and the argument for banning online gaming is completely illogical.
The family values movement was a farce. The first gambling letter got Focus on the Family scruitinized for having assisting a now convicted felon. Now this letter resorts to unsubstantiated self-serving allegations and illogical arguments to obtain a desired result. These do not seem like the tactics of a good religious organization. They seem like the tactics of a dirty politician. Perhaps the reason our forefathers separated the church and the state is not because of the effects religion would have on politics but because of the effects politics has upon all it touches. The more Dobson and Focus on the Family delve into politics, the less they look...well, for lack of a better description...Christ-like.
