If you're interested in a history of the Focus on the Family hate cult, you
came to the wrong place. Enough literature has been written about the
cult's formation and history that I need not delve further into it. (If
you're looking for specific information about the sex and money scandles
of the mid 1980's, query the Los Angeles Times archives for copies of
their multi-part exposure of Dr. James Dobson and his one-time partner.)
What you'll find here are:
Greetings, Freedom Writer Editor.
I just read the December issue of Freedom Writer -- specifically the
"Letters" forum -- and was surprised to read a comment by R.
McCabe about "Killer Prayers" and Focus on the Family. His
complaint was the lumping of FoF in with the Religious Reich and the
Christian lunatic fringe which dominates American society as opposed to
grouping FoF in with what he calls "other legitimate Christian
organizations."
His complaint is rubbish! From Feb 1988 to Feb 1989 I worked for
a company called Telcom Technologies in Pomona, California, designing,
developing, and installing Automatic Call Distributors (ACDs.) One of
the sites Telcom went into with an ECD-6000 was the Focus on the Family
facility right next door.
It was my great displeasure to be exposed to FoF at its most intimate
levels utterly berift of religious blinders to save me from what was
the single most disgusting display of Christianity I have yet to
experience. To describe my exposure to the truth about what goes on
inside of FoF I must cover just a bit of the technology involved in
their telephone operations. That way I hope to convince readers that
I was there and that what I say is true.
At the time, the FoF business brought into their facility T1 spans
which came into channel banks for their 1-800 numbers. Most of these
were routed by an ECD-6000 onto PCM highways while other analog loop-
start lines from the Central Office were put onto line cards which
were then put onto PCM highways. On the back of the 14-inch card slot
chassis there were flat ribbon cables which routed the PCM data
(digitized voice) to a digitial switch chip then back onto the PCM
bus.
It so happened that testing of the ACD prior to installation failed to
locate a minor cabeling problem on the PCM highway backplane. Because
of this the ECD-6000 was installed and running, routing the telephonic
faithfull to the first available agent from a pool of around 70 agents,
with a bizarre functional problem. When two calls were up on PCM
channels which exist side-by-side on the backplane, all four parties of
the two calls would suddenly be conferenced. Because of this problem
I spent a long time inside of the FoF facilities gathering log
information and examining the raw data describing the actions of the
ACD. Among the fault isolation methodologies employed was bringing
sepected PCM highways onto a conferencing chip one-by-one and listening
to each, trying to determine what the problem was.
Let me tell you, my lack of belief in Christianity and religion was
firmly vindicated and underscored after a week of listening to callers
and listening to the sales pitch. I came to the realization that Focus
on the Family is a charasmatic cult; a business; that it represented
everything that is wrong about Christianity and American socity which
allows these high-tech boiler-room operations to continue to operate
-- with tax exemptions to boot!
What FoF does is sell non-existant diseases to the gullible through
radio, audio and video tapes, and books. Then they turn around and
sell the faithfully fearful fictional cures. I got to listen to several
callers, one day, exclaim how frightened they are that their teenage
sons and daughters are listening to Rock and Roll and how they (the
caller) had just listened to the radio program describing how Satan
influences children through Rock and Roll.
Agents taking these people's calls follow scrips which are posted on
their cubicle walls (many of these cubicles were made into shrines,
covered with pictures of white men nailed to crosses.) Step 1 was to
verify the callers credit card number and billing address if the caller
was already in the FoF database or to establish new credit card
information if they were not. Then the agent would identify a list of
tapes and books which offered "cures" for what the caller is
frightened of, giving "suggested donation" amounts for each.
If the caller wasn't interested in buying anything but just wanted to
talk over her fears, the agents gave non-toll-free numbers to call and
hung up.
The degree of hypocricy and catering to all that's negative in humanity
was truely repulsive. During testing and modification phases at night
I would examine the libraries inside of FoF and was disgusted at the
hatred and bigotry expressed within so many books. The fear and hatred
of homosexuals occupied one manager's mind so much that his library
was dedicated almost exclusively to homosexuality and the belief that
there is some large cabal of evil demons dedicated to "tearing
asunder the family unit." Several of the books were horribly
graphic in their depiction of activities stereotypeing homosexuals.
Most of these books claimed that homosexuals actively "recruit"
children and are responsible for nearly all rape, ponography, and all
other crimes. One book claimed that women could not be gay; that it
was a "disease" that only "affects" males.
R. McCabe wants to pretend that Focus on the Family isn't like all the
others. Nonsense! He probably doesn't know (or would like to
pretend to forget) that FoF leadership was wracked by sexual and
financial scandals in the late 1980's and that FoF lost its tax exemption
status on many of their publications, eventually fleeing California for
Colorado (where someone had donated to FoF a great deal of property.)
Everyone wants to believe that their pet religious organizations are
some how different than all the rest, ignoreing the public exposures and
justifying-away all the negatives. (I constantly hear Christians try
to justify their hatred of homosexuals as the "will of God."
Or even better, with "hateing the sin of homosexuality, not the
sinner -- which is exactly equal to hateing the sin of black skin
but not the Negro.)
Though they point toward the Jesse Helms and the David Dukes of America
and demand they're not "Trve Christians," so many seem
incapable of (or unwilling to) take a good look at their own pet
organizations and see the hurtful truth looking back at them.
There is a large majority of "legitimate Christian
organizations" in America and I, a devout atheist, routinely
donate to their causes (my favorate is the Salvation Army.) But Focus
on the Family just aint no such critter.
Tim Pauly
Fredric Rice
Tim Pauly
Fredric Rice
Tim Pauly
Fredric Rice
As an exmple, the FoF cult sells fear by labeling "heavy metal"
rock and roll music as "Satanic" and "leading to drugs,
sex, and a life of crime." They enumerate a list of "warning
signs" to look for which are vague and all-encompassing afterwhich
frightened parents call up and buy "cures" in the form of audio
tapes, video tapes, books, magazines, pampletts, religious tracts et al.
The FoF cult also sells homophobe hatred and fictional "cure"
for homosexuality, offering listeners a list of "warning signs"
to tell if your son (they don't seem to think that woman can be
homosexual) is "contemplating the homosexual 'lifestyle.'"
Each agent has before them in their cubicle a video screen, a Telcom
DDS digital display set) and a keyboard. Some of them wear headsets.
Before them taped or pined to their wall is a script that each agent must
follow.
When the ECD6000 presents a call, the video display indicates the
telephone number of the calling person (these are incoming WATS lines
-- 1-800 lines coming in off of a T1 span through a T1 channel bank.)
The FoF cult's computer looks up the phone number and brings up the
past buying history of the sheep, offering credit card numbers, address,
and a list of products which the sheep has purchased in the past.
The agent's script first has the agent verify the credit card number.
The actual words that the agent is supposed to use is printed on the
script and beinning agents must follow it exactly until they gain the
experience they need to start to deviate from the script's words (but
not the sequence.)
The agent then asks how they can help the sheep and in nearly every
single case, the sheep states that they just heard such-and-such and
need to "learn more" about such-and-such to save their son
or daughter from such-and-such.
Those calls which are not related to sales cause the agent to branch in
the script to a sequence which directs the caller to another bank of
agents which are not on the 1-800 line whereafter the agent hangs up.
Those calls from which there is revenue expected (nearly 100% of all
calls) results in a list of recommended materials which address the fears
and the sheep is given the cost -- excuse me -- "recommended donation
value" for each one.
The script then walks the sheep through buying as much of the materials
as possible in as short a time as possible so that the caller hangs up
(the agent isn't allowed to hang up first) so that she may take another
call.
Agents sign into the DDS by hitting the "SIGN-IN" softkey, then
their agent code. They are placed into the "UNAVAILABLE" state
and, when they're ready to recieve calls, they hit the "AVAILABLE"
softkey which puts their station into the "AVAILABLE" state.
A timer starts to count for that agent and after a configurable amount
of time the agent recieves a call.
Between each call the agent may hit the "WRAP-UP" softkey which
puts the agent into the "WRAP-UP" state. The agent can't
recieve calls during this period and the time spent in wrap-up is
attributed to the time spent with the previous call. This priod of time
is intended for the paperwork to be finished. Paperwork isn't done when
the caller is on the line because the phone line is charged to the FoF
cult.
All calls are pesented to the agent who's been available the longest yet
weighted with a percentage value which indicates the experience of the
agent, allowing the most experienced agents to recieve the most calls or,
if all agents have the same priority, a flat longest-available.
Tim Pauly
Fredric Rice
Letter from Dave Knapp to Dr. James Dobson:
Dr. James Dobson, Ph.D., President
Focus on the Family
Colorado Springs, CO 80995
Dear Dr. Dobson:
I was introduced to your film series in the early 1980's,
and I have followed your radio program since then. My wife and I
have written you once before to give you information on a
ministry with which we are affiliated, Engaged Encounter. I have
admired you and seen you as an honest spokesman for the Christian
faith, and, though we disagree on some topics, we have enjoyed
reading your monthly letters.
But your most recent letter, that of April 1994, has made me
wonder if my perceptions have been correct.
In it, you recount some details of your interview with Dr.
Phillip Johnson, who has written the book Darwin on Trial. I
have read Dr. Johnson's book and am familiar with his arguments,
and I have corresponded with Dr. Johnson myself; we disagree, but
are able to do so in a mutually respectful and civil manner. The
debate over the validity of evolution is not, I believe, a
"salvation issue." However, your treatment of this issue
concerns me greatly. You printed the following:
Darwin tried to tell us that the various life
forms evolved on earth from a single-celled organism
swimming in a primordial 'soup.' ... From that
spontaneous beginning in an African swamp came a
dazzling array of evermore complicated species...
Evolution is the only belief system which holds
that events in the natural world move from disorder to
order on their own initiative."
Scientists sometimes exaggerate a position for the sake of
argument; it can be a useful tool. However, there is a point at
which exaggeration becomes misrepresentation; your passage above
is well over that line.
Several statements in the above passage from your letter are
utterly incorrect.
I'm not talking about a difference of opinion about how to
interpret data; I mean you made erroneous statements that might
be interpreted as falsehoods. I don't have space here to explain
in detail, but:
I do not seek to debate evolutionary theory; rather, I am
concerned that as Christians it is our duty to speak truth, not
falsehood, and to act in an honest and ethical manner. I
honestly hope that your above statements were made from
ignorance, not purposeful mendacity.
We will never promote God's kingdom through the use of
inaccuracies or false statements.
Without integrity and truth, our witness to the world is a
hollow one. I strongly urge you to consult someone who is
conversant with science, evolution, the scientific method, and
the evidence for evolution. In my opinion, Dr. Johnson does not
meet these criteria. Please feel free to contact me; my address
and phone number are given below. I am a scientist: I obtained a
Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University in 1986, and I now do
research at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. I am
also a Christian who believes that the Bible is the inspired word
of God. I have thought long and hard about these issues, and
studied them a great deal. It does not matter to me so much that
we do or do not agree about evolution; it does matter to me that
you, a high-profile Christian, not make public statements that
would appear to be dishonest.
Thank you very much for your consideration. Since you asked
me to write about the issues you raised, I hope that I will not
receive a form letter in response. I pray that God will move
your heart to hear my concern and love.
In Christ's love,
(s) Dave Knapp
Return to The Skeptic Tank's main Index page.
You claim to have worked at FOF for several months...
That's a bit ambiguous and not quite what I said. I stated that I
worked inside of their Pomona facility for several months, not that
I worked "at" it.
Just what did you do there,
I designed, built, installed, and [debuged] their ECD6000 Automated Call
Distributor for a company called Telcom Technologies which still exists
on the same street as the FoF cult used to: Campus Center Drive.
and what is it about them that you saw
that causes you to label them as evil?
The FoF cult sells fear and hatred to ignorant people and then sells
them "cures." While conferenced into the ACD with agents
and sheep, I got to learn first hand what the cult was all about.
And what is your definition of cult?
The same as any dictionary's description.
"Now, after 135 years of exhaustive research, the
transitional forms still have not turned up. They
don't exist in the geological record. This and other
convincing criticisms of classical evolution make it
difficult to understand why so many intelligent and
highly educated men and women still hold a position
that is not supported by verifiable scientific data.
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