July 21st, 2011
In response to yesterday’s takedown of Focus On the Family’s Tom Minnery by Sen. Al Franken over a study that Minnery misrepresented, Politico spoke to the study’s author to see who got it right:
“Sen. Franken is right,” the lead author of the study told POLITICO. The survey did not exclude same-sex couples, said Debra L. Blackwell, Ph.D., nor did it exclude them from the “nuclear family” category provided their family met the study’s definition.
The study’s definition of nuclear family is: “one or more children living with two parents who are married to one another and are each biological or adoptive parents of all the children in the family.”
U.S. Health and Human Services study in 2010 found better health outcomes for children in “nuclear families,” which Minnery claimed included only children with heterosexually married parents.
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Dawn
July 21st, 2011
I’m not always a fan of politico, but I’m glad they did follow-up on this. Good to hear it from the mouth of the author.
Ben in Atlanta
July 21st, 2011
The definition of ‘family’ on dictionary.com does not even mention parental gender.
My question for Mr. Minnery is “What the hell are you talking about”?
The only real difference between the past and now is visibility. It’s about damned time.
Timothy Kincaid
July 21st, 2011
Minnery comes from a “but it must be so” worldview. So, already knowing that hetero families are better, when he reads the studies, he makes assumptions and probably truly believes that they were in the study.
Christine
July 24th, 2011
I receive Focus on the Family mail (and have for years, including Citizen Magazine, where Minnery gives a report every issue) and think that you are being overly generous to Minnery, Timothy.
I think Minnery (and James Dobson, Glenn Stanton, Candi Cushman, and Melissa Fryrear, and all of the others who misuse research to demonize our families – because they have to – they have no legitimate arguments) know very well what they are doing when they try to make claims about gay parenting based on studies of single parent households (and other misreadings of legitimate research).
Their repeated distortions, selective plucking of studies, and use of hate group propaganda are pointed out time and again, and they do this repeatedly.
Where is the apology from Focus on the Family for this?
Don’t hold your breath.
They know exactly what they are doing.
And they are unrepentant.
Funny, homosexuality is not listed in the 10 commandments, but lying and bearing false witness against your neighbor are.
Timothy Kincaid
July 25th, 2011
Christine,
I think it is not a matter of intentionally lying in the way that, say, a politician lies: telling something that you know and believe to be untrue out of a desire to gain advantage through deception.
Rather, it is a matter of seeing the world in a very dichotomous way in which there the Good and the Evil. Those who are fighting on the side of God and holiness are good, everyone else is evil (except for the liberal Christians who are perhaps good but have been deceived by evil.)
So it just doesn’t matter what science says or what you say or really anything at all whatsoever… that’s just Satan seeking to deceive and not only can it be disregarded, but it is right and holy to do so. There’s nothing to apologize for, because they are right. By definition, they must be right because whatever may look like they are wrong is just Satan working to deceive.
Are they lying? Absolutely. But they are lying to themselves as certainly as they are lying to us and society. Ironically, they may now be the only people believing their lies.
I have a commentary in process that will flush this idea out a bit more.
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