American Family Association

The American Family Association (AFA) promotes itself as an organization for traditional family values. As the little fish in their logo indicate, it is a fundamentalist Christian lobbyist group.

History
AFA was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon as the National Federation for Decency (NFD). The NFD became the American Family Association in 1988.

According to the organization's web site "AFA is for people who are tired of cursing the darkness and who are ready to light a bonfire. We are a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1977 by Don Wildmon. The American Family Association represents and stands for traditional family values, focusing primarily on the influence of television and other media - including pornography - on our society.

"AFA believes that the entertainment industry, through its various products, has played a major role in the decline of those values on which our country was founded and which keep a society and its families strong and healthy. For example, over the last 25 years we have seen the entertainment industry 'normalize' and glorify premarital sex. During that time we have suffered a dramatic increase in teen pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS and abortion as a means of birth control.

"We believe in holding accountable the companies which sponsor programs attacking traditional family values. We also believe in commending those companies which act responsibly regarding programs they support.

American Family Radio
American Family Radio is a network of nearly 200 radio stations broadcasting Christian-oriented programming. AFA owns most of the stations.

OneNewsNow
OneNewsNow is the AFA's news division. It was created in February 2007 through the merger of AFA's AgapePress news website and the news operation of American Family Radio.

State Affiliates
Dubbed by the organization, the "front line troops in America's culture wars, AFA claims to have 19 affiliates, but only lists the 13 below.

Family Policy Network of Virginia
This organization, founded in 1997 by Joe Glover, also lists resources for the states of Alabama, California, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee,Texas and West Virginia.

Minnesota Family Association
Brian Howse, the director is also founder and president of the American Family Policy Institute and World View Weekend

In God We Trust Posters
According to the AFA website, the group has "has launched a national campaign to place before our children a copy of the official motto of the United States...(as areminder of the historical centrality of God in the life of our republic." The group urges members to contact their state officials and urge them "to take the lead on this important campaign" and promised to defend any lawsuits by the ACLU free of charge.

Meet at City Hall
According to the website, the group asks members to meet on the first Thursday in May from 12:20 p.m. to 12:40 p.m. at their local city halls and pray "for a moral rebirth in our country....Let us unashamedly take our Light from underneath the basket and set it on a table."

Glossy Garbage
According to the website, members should pressure store managers to remove offensive magazines from view and offers a guide on how to mount a campaign. 

Movie Gallery
According to the website, members should mount a campaign against the chain's rental of pornography, including statements that store clerks are in danger of contracting sexually tranmitted diseases from the videos.

Contact details
American Family Association P.O. Drawer 2440 Tupelo, MS 38803 Phone: 1-662-844-5036 Fax: 1-662-842-7798 Web: http://www.afa.net

Profiles

 * Right Wing Watch: American Family Association, People For the American Way. Site accessed on May 31, 2006.

2004

 * Bill Berkowitz, "Christian right's compassion deficit: More than 100,000 dead in south Asia, but it's business as usual at the web sites of America's Christian right organizations", Working for Change, December 30, 2004.

2005

 * Bill Berkowitz, "SpongeBob GayPants? American Family Association blasts children's television characters for participating in 'We Are Family' video that 'promotes the normalization of homosexuality'", Working For Change, January 17, 2005.
 * John Aravosis, "American Family Association promotes debunked quack scientist", AMERICAblog, March 14, 2005. (The blog reported that through AgapePress AFA was promoting the homophobic work of Paul Cameron, a psychologist whose biased work was so completely discredited that he was kicked out of professional organizations.
 * Hamilton Nolan, "AFA sets sights on Ford ban", PR Week', June 1 2005. (Sub req'd). (Story on boycott campaign aimed at Ford).

2006

 * Stephanie Simon, "'War on Christmas' has a new jingle: money. Christian groups raise funds as they sell items to counter a perceived assault on the holiday," Los Angeles Times, December 23, 2006.

2007

 * John Aravosis, "Religious right misleads its followers in massive email blitz about weekend peace march," AMERICAblog, February 1, 2007.
 * John Aravosis, "American Family Association, Family Research Council, and Concerned Women for America disseminating Nazi-esque science of known 'hate group'," AMERICAblog, April 13, 2007. re Family Research Institute
 * Bill Berkowitz, "Still Cranky After All These Years", Media Transparency, April 19, 2007.
 * John Aravosis, "The religious right Republicans are simply obsessed with sex," AMERICAblog, May 2, 2007. See sex list here.