June 30th, 2007
What do you do if a poll releases information that you don’t like? Well, if you are Focus on the Family, you spin yourself in circles.
The New York Times issued a poll on June 27 revealing some attitudes of America’s youth. The survey of 659 adults ages 17 to 29, dealt with social and political issues and indicated that youth are currently more liberal than are the population as a whole. Let’s compare Focus on the Family’s reporting with the results shown from the poll.
FotF Headline: Young Americans Hold Conservative Views
NY Times Headline: Young Americans Are Leaning Left, New Poll Finds
Focus: Sixty-two percent said abortion should be outlawed or restricted.
Actual poll results:
37% – Abortion should be generally available to those who want it
38% – Abortion should be available but under stricter limits than it is now
24% – Abortion should not be permitted
Focus: Fifty-four percent of young adults expressed opposition to same-sex marriage.
Actual poll results:
44% – gay couples should be allowed to legally marry
24% – gay couples should be allowed to form civil unions but not legally marry
30% – there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple’s relationship
Now Focus on the Family can argue that the words they put down on paper are technically true. But the message they tried to convey is completely dishonest.
There is no point at which Focus believes that holding “conservative views” includes support for civil unions. Nor is 68% support for recognition of gay couples cause for Focus to triumphantly declare that young Americans “hold conservative views”.
But the worst example in the Focus article of deliberate misinformation is the secondary heading:
A majority opposes abortion and same-sex marriage.
That’s just an outright lie.
(hat tip to Scott H.)
Latest Posts
Featured Reports
In this original BTB Investigation, we unveil the tragic story of Kirk Murphy, a four-year-old boy who was treated for “cross-gender disturbance” in 1970 by a young grad student by the name of George Rekers. This story is a stark reminder that there are severe and damaging consequences when therapists try to ensure that boys will be boys.
When we first reported on three American anti-gay activists traveling to Kampala for a three-day conference, we had no idea that it would be the first report of a long string of events leading to a proposal to institute the death penalty for LGBT people. But that is exactly what happened. In this report, we review our collection of more than 500 posts to tell the story of one nation’s embrace of hatred toward gay people. This report will be updated continuously as events continue to unfold. Check here for the latest updates.
In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that “[Paul] Cameron’s ‘science’ echoes Nazi Germany.” What the SPLC didn”t know was Cameron doesn’t just “echo” Nazi Germany. He quoted extensively from one of the Final Solution’s architects. This puts his fascination with quarantines, mandatory tattoos, and extermination being a “plausible idea” in a whole new and deeply disturbing light.
On February 10, I attended an all-day “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.
Prologue: Why I Went To “Love Won Out”
Part 1: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Part 2: Parents Struggle With “No Exceptions”
Part 3: A Whole New Dialect
Part 4: It Depends On How The Meaning of the Word "Change" Changes
Part 5: A Candid Explanation For "Change"
At last, the truth can now be told.
Using the same research methods employed by most anti-gay political pressure groups, we examine the statistics and the case studies that dispel many of the myths about heterosexuality. Download your copy today!
And don‘t miss our companion report, How To Write An Anti-Gay Tract In Fifteen Easy Steps.
Anti-gay activists often charge that gay men and women pose a threat to children. In this report, we explore the supposed connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, the conclusions reached by the most knowledgeable professionals in the field, and how anti-gay activists continue to ignore their findings. This has tremendous consequences, not just for gay men and women, but more importantly for the safety of all our children.
Anti-gay activists often cite the “Dutch Study” to claim that gay unions last only about 1½ years and that the these men have an average of eight additional partners per year outside of their steady relationship. In this report, we will take you step by step into the study to see whether the claims are true.
Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council submitted an Amicus Brief to the Maryland Court of Appeals as that court prepared to consider the issue of gay marriage. We examine just one small section of that brief to reveal the junk science and fraudulent claims of the Family “Research” Council.
The FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics aren’t as complete as they ought to be, and their report for 2004 was no exception. In fact, their most recent report has quite a few glaring holes. Holes big enough for Daniel Fetty to fall through.
Samantha Davis
July 1st, 2007
Call me a glass-half-empty pessimist but those numbers have a long way to go before they can be called “good.”
Emproph
July 1st, 2007
Perhaps their conclusions were faith based.
Leave A Comment