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November 19, 2008

Focus on the Family Lays Off 202 Workers

Focus on the Family Lays Off 202 Workers

Focus on the Family will eliminate 202 jobs, making it the biggest layoff in the history of James Dobson's Christian ministry, based in Colorado Springs, Colo. The nonprofit's budget has been adjusted from $160 million in the 2008 fiscal year to $138 million, according to The Gazette of Colorado Springs.

The cuts were made after a fall in donations, and officials expect finances to fall even harder between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Coincidentally, layoffs were announced just after California voters passed Proposition 8, banning marriage between same-sex couples. Focus on the Family contributed a total of $622,000 in cash and services to pass California's marriage ban, making it the seventh largest donor in the country for the cause, according to The Colorado Independent.

Fifty-three vacant positions will not be filled, and 149 employees will be laid off, bringing the staff's head count to 950 employees.

Spokesman Gary Schneeberger said Monday that the organization has notified the affected employees, who will learn about their transition packages this week.

At the height of its popularity, Focus on the Family employed more than 1,500 people in 1991. Monday's announcement marks the third time that the ministry has had to make large cutbacks. Nearly 80 employees were reassigned or laid off in September 2005, and 30 workers were laid off in September 2007. (Michelle Garcia, The Advocate)

Keywords:  California marriage  Prop 8 
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Reader Comments

These comments are reproduced as written by visitors to this Web site. They have not been edited for content, grammar, or spelling. The viewpoints appearing here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of advocate.com, The Advocate, or its affiliates.

  • Name: Andrew W Trezise
    Date posted: 2008-11-19 8:25 PM
    Hometown: Melbourne

    Comment:

    I'm in Australia. It sounds like an edifice for the promotion of bigotry by and for bigots. Thank God, this bastardry is not common here. andrew trezise bigwes1@hotmail.com


  • Name: Craig
    Date posted: 2008-11-19 1:48 PM
    Hometown: Chicago, IL

    Comment:

    I have always been a proponent of using one's religious beliefs to guide personal decisions, but not legal ones (if you don't want to marry someone of the same gender, feel free not to, but don't interfere with MY right to do so). I'm sorry that there are families that will be harmed by the poor decisions these workers made when they tried -- and will continue to try -- to force their religious beliefs onto our legal system. They won this round, but at a terrible cost to their families. I hope they won't think it's been worth it.


  • Name: Khadijah
    Date posted: 2008-11-19 10:47 AM
    Hometown: Va Beach

    Comment:

    I think it is sad that so many people are going to lose their jobs right before the holidays. I have in mind the children that may have to suffer because of it. Having said that, I think that these people need to take a good look at what got them in this position. All the money spent on putting hate into law could've been spent in more productive ways. I won't hate these people because it takes more energy than I'm willing to exert on them. However, I will live my life with integrity and try to have compassion for the people that hate me. It gets to these type people more when we show them we can take what they have to dish out, tell them why they're wrong and not be bitter towards them. Just my opinion.


  • Name: Kay
    Date posted: 2008-11-19 7:20 AM
    Hometown: Jumping Branch, West Virginia

    Comment:

    I wonder how much Dobson gets paid and if he,in his Christian ways, has taken a cut in pay? I am sorry folks will be losing thier jobs especially around the holidays but I am relieved to see this organization losing some steam. Spouting hatred in the name of Christianity is just wrong and I am sick of being a victim of it. I would be happy if the whole organization just went away.


  • Name: Elizabeth
    Date posted: 2008-11-19 1:41 AM
    Hometown: Allen, TX

    Comment:

    There is no reason to feel sorry for the 149 employees who are being let go. They were paid to cause harm to our community. I deal with LGBT youth on a regular basis and I see the real harm that FOF et al. do to them. FOF turns family members against one another. FOF is responsible for creating the conditions that foster LGBT teen suicide. When the Kursk nuclear missile submarine sank, I don't recall anyone mentioning the fact that the Kursk's only function was to vaporize Americans.


  • Name: Ronald Wolf
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 10:50 PM
    Hometown: Saint Augustine, Florida

    Comment:

    Rejoicing in the FOF layoffs is not relishing in others' misfortunes. Many enlightened people have spoken of the bitter tasting yet healing medicine that life's challenges bring. Job loss for these myopic followers and employees of Dr. Dobson is a true gift wrapped in what seems to be misfortune. How fortunate for these people to be set free from making a living out of hate and division. Very good news, all around.


  • Name: Sarah H.
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 9:19 PM
    Hometown: LA, CA

    Comment:

    Oh Bob... Isn't that just quaint: "Answering hate with hate is never the solution..." Yes. You and Anne Frank are just SO touching, with your forgiveness and tolerance of evil. Look where it got her. Sorry, but the rest of us don't live in the fairy-tale land YOU live in, Bob. The rest of us feel quite comfortable with hating these evil bastards. Maybe if more of us would stand up and HATE these people, we wouldn't be in the mess that we're in, since loving them sure hasn't gotten us anywhere.


  • Name: Art M.
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 9:14 PM
    Hometown: SF>CA>USA

    Comment:

    I'm sorry, I guess I'm just a horrible person. I can't find it in myself to find any sympathy for these hateful, evil people. I hope they become homeless, die of starvation, and rot in a grave, because they won't be rotting in Hell since it doesn't exist. It's what they deserve.


  • Name: Jay
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 5:55 PM
    Hometown: Nashville, TN

    Comment:

    With $622,000, Focus on the Family could have stuffed a lot of Thanksgiving turkeys. I guess hurting homosexuals was more important that feeding the hungry-- or even their co-workers. Nice work, Dobson!


  • Name: Thomas Boylan
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 5:18 PM
    Hometown: Fort Worth, TX

    Comment:

    The mere fact that 950 paid employees of an organization that promotes intolerance and hatred continue to do this type of work is still very disturbing.


  • Name: Jerry
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 5:01 PM
    Hometown: Dallas

    Comment:

    I hope the people that will be laid off realizes they just got screwed. You reap what you sow.


  • Name: red3953
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 4:36 PM
    Hometown: kalama,wa

    Comment:

    Oh maye Hate will go out of business! We could only pray!


  • Name: christian
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 4:36 PM
    Hometown: Atlanta

    Comment:

    It is sad that more Americans are being laid off. Hopefully those workers will be able get jobs in the real world and will be able to see how diverse the world really is. Maybe by working side by side with other fellow Christian they can start to love everyone.


  • Name: bobinPA
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 4:34 PM
    Hometown: cranberry twp, pa

    Comment:

    Promoting hate or their brand of hate mongering is NOT a Christian value. Eventually, more and more people will UNDERSTAND that you simply should not, in any shape or fashion, use God's name to justify such hate and bigotry.


  • Name: Michael
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 4:20 PM
    Hometown: Voorhees, NJ

    Comment:

    Thank goodness !! Bye, bye to a lousy bunch of holier than thou a-wipes ! Try learning something about your fellow human beings !


  • Name: Dollylama
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 3:29 PM
    Hometown: Menifee, CA

    Comment:

    It kills me to hear people say "Jesus said". The Bible was written long after Christ died. While we ponder the hatefulness of the Christian Right let us not forget that according to the Bible Jesus also said love your enemies. This is a very hard thing to do but that is what we are supposed to do. This organization got its money by telling terrible lies about everyone that didn't go along with them on lots of issues and pretended that it was not an attack on us.Let's keep using our enormous energy on rightinng thee wrong in this country and keep the Proposition 8 protests and boycotts going strong.


  • Name: David W
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 3:03 PM
    Hometown: Seattle

    Comment:

    If I remember right Jesus Christ took a whip to the money changers, took to task religious leaders doing the superior dance, and blowing their own horn, who got people more worried about empty laws then loving and carrying about their neighbors. Let's see here, that sound pretty much like FOTF. Maybe God is not happy with FOTF and with their empty dogma. God always did have a problem with greed. Wait! That’s what Dobson supported, that and having fathers take their sons into the shower. I just call it Devine Irony for supporting an ex-president that was anti-Jesus Christ in every one of his narcissist actions. No where in the Bible does it say: _“Blessed are the Corporations that take advantage of the widows and poor.” _ “Blessed are the Corporations who are reckless and pour oil over the earth.” _“Blessed are the Corporations who steel from the people to pad their own wallets.” _“Blessed are the Corporations who profiteer in war and bring misery to the down trodden.”


  • Name: Liz
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 3:01 PM
    Hometown: Philadelphia, PA

    Comment:

    I am so happy to hear this news. For too many years, Mr. Dobson and his "faithful" followers have done nothing to spread love...only hate. To think that in their twisted minds this is truly what Jesus wants makes me sick. Maybe they will all be forced to work at Wal-Mart and go onto welfare.


  • Name: Ted Hayes
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 2:48 PM
    Hometown: Stone Ridge, NY

    Comment:

    Seems this old hypocrite, James Dobson, would prefer spending his money on hating gays than keeping families, on whom he allegedly is focused, working.


  • Name: Ginelle
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 2:12 PM
    Hometown: British Columbia, Canada

    Comment:

    While it is very unfortunate to see people losing their jobs in today's very tight economy, at the same time, I sense that people are losing their faith in an organization such as this, that preaches and incites hatred towards a marginal group such as the Gay Community. Can this be a sign of things to come when people are gradually coming to their senses and realizing that by infringing on a person or person's civil rights, that they may be effectively be infringing on their own rights down the road. I don't see this as being the end of it either, as Wanda Sykes said in her speech the other night in Las Vegas "They pissed off the wrong group of people this time"!


  • Name: Carol
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 1:46 PM
    Hometown: Mo

    Comment:

    Good news today! The Generals and Admirals want "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to stop, and Focus On the Family is diminishing in power. I'm sorry for people losing their jobs, as well as many others losing their jobs, but things will change....We voted for that, didn't we?


  • Name: Bob
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 12:38 PM
    Hometown: Monroe, LA

    Comment:

    I find it somewhat discouraging that the majority of posts here are simply delighting in another's misfortune. Even if you aren't Christian... or religious at all.. it's still bad form to gloat about someone else's misfortune. At the very least, it brings you down to the same level as the people you're mocking. I agree with many of the posts that say that it is not Christian to act in such an un-loving manner as many homophobic groups do... but answering hate with hate is never the solution. It really makes me sad to have to say these kinds of things about a Christian group.


  • Name: Rich
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 12:37 PM
    Hometown: San Diego

    Comment:

    Let me see here.. A group that touts itself as pro-family (look at the name even) is laying off over 200 people during a major recession - very family like. Personally, glad to see it happen though - couldn't happen to a better group of people.


  • Name: Tom
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 12:22 PM
    Hometown: Toronto

    Comment:

    FOTF is going DOWN! And the Republican Party is not far behind. About time these old, hateful bigots were shown the door and it couldn't come any faster. Sayonara assholes!


  • Name: Ken
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 12:20 PM
    Hometown: Schenectady

    Comment:

    Maybe if they actually did do Christian work (like helping those in need), people would feel compelled to donate.


  • Name: Shaniqwha
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 11:58 AM
    Hometown: My Pussy

    Comment:

    Gods wrath is upon Focus on the Family! That is why they are having to layoff so many people because they are running out of money! LOL


  • Name: John Hess
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 11:28 AM
    Hometown: Mt. View

    Comment:

    my favorite bumper sticker says: "Focus on YOUR OWN Damn Family!"


  • Name: Chris Sullivan
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 10:37 AM
    Hometown: Chicago, IL

    Comment:

    Puts the "good" in "goodbye" (and "good-riddance).


  • Name: Jerry
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 10:26 AM
    Hometown: Los Angeles

    Comment:

    So that's what the face of EVIL looks like!


  • Name: Dan
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 9:32 AM
    Hometown: Pittsfield, MA

    Comment:

    Dobson should be out selling vacuum cleaners! Instead, he has discovered how to make big money by cashing in on people's fears and superstitions.


  • Name: Michael
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 6:44 AM
    Hometown: Clayton, CA

    Comment:

    You reap what you sow. The truth is that God has never been on the side of those who promote homophobia. It conflicts directly with Christ's commandment to treat others as we want to be treated. One day, Focus on (heterosexual) Families will get the message.


  • Name: Paul
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 5:04 AM
    Hometown: Fort Lauderdale

    Comment:

    While I never like to see people loose their jobs, I am glad to see the Focus on Family is loosing its power and influence. Perhaps this will force this group to focus on issues that are useful and true the Christian Message.


  • Name: Adrian
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 3:29 AM
    Hometown: Northridge

    Comment:

    It's good to hear that they have financial problems. The truth will prevail that the real Christian ministry is a ministry that reflects the LOVE of Jesus Christ. People will leave this misleading organization, which supports HATE and DISCRIMINATION. What happened with the "Love thy neighbor" thing?


  • Name: Parris
    Date posted: 2008-11-18 1:44 AM
    Hometown: Dayton

    Comment:

    Down with Focus on the Family! A movement to take America back to a previous time, fronting as a movement that cares about people! Go AWAY!


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