Protecting Values

April 29, 2011

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It is interesting to compare the rhetoric and actions of groups like National Organization for Marriage (NOM) and Focus on the Family (FOF) and to compare and contrast them with their detractors and opponents, such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF)

Very few people are of two minds about organizations like National Organization for Marriage (NOM) and Focus on the Family (FOF) and there are very, very few people who support either of these and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF). They are very competitive organizations.

But few people know much about these organizations, even if they do support them. So, let's briefly look at some plain information:

Topic	ACLU	NOM	NGTLF	FOF
Founded	1920	2007	1973	1977
Founder(s)	Eastman, Baldwin and Nelles	Maggie Gallagher	Dr. Howard Brown, Bruce Voeller	James Dobson

So, who were these folks?

Crystal Catherine Eastman was a leader in the fight for women's right to vote and founder of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
Roger Nash Baldwin a Harvard educated sociologist and social worker and became chief probation officer of the St. Louis Juvenile Court.
Walter Nelles was a Yale educated attorney whose legal practice as the subject of an illegal search in 1918, prompting him to become a lifelong proponent of due process of law.
Maggie Gallager studied religious studies at Yale and is a lifelong champion of conservative social policy.
Dr. Howard Brown was an army veteran who became a physician under the GI Bill and practiced medicine in Ohio and New York before becoming a Gay activist in the 1970's.
Bruce Voeller was a professor of biology at the Rockefeller Institute and became a Gay activist in New York in the early 1970's
James Dobson received his doctorate in psychology from USC and taught psychology there for some years, was a proponent of corporal punishment and anti-pornography before founding FOF and serving on its board.

Quite a diverse group. What do their organizations say about themselves?

Organization	Purpose
ACLU	To defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.
NOM	To protect marriage and the faith communities that sustain it.
NGTLF	to build the grassroots power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and to support the struggle for complete equality and to support the respect for the diversity of human expression and identity and to create equal opportunity for all.
FOF	Christian ministry dedicated to helping families thrive, providing help and resources for couples to build healthy marriages that reflect God’s design, and for parents to raise their children according to morals and values grounded in biblical principles.

Now, let's get technical. All of these organizations is a non-profit charitable organization under the US 501(c)3 designation. One of the principle requirements for this tax-exam pt status is non-partisan status. The ACLU is rigidly non-partisan, with a long history of defending civil rights issues of many different parties and interests, often shocking members by defending such diverse groups as legal migrant workers' right to vote and neo-nazi groups' right to march. NOM and FOF support is confined almost entirely to Republican candidates and often advocates very specific candidates and legislative measures. NGTLF does the same, but for Democratic candidates and legislation.

But the biggest divide between these two groups of differing organization lies in the character of their support and opposition:

Organization	Oppose	Support
ACLU	Special privilege, special rights for some.	Equal rights for all under the law
NOM	Equal rights for all under the law	Special consideration and privilege for some
NGTLF	Special privilege, special rights for some.	Equal rights for all under the law
FOF	Equal rights for all under the law	Special consideration and privilege for some

Basically, both NOM and FOF support a position that there are things that are right and things that are wrong, and beyond that, that there are people who are good and people who are bad. FOF in particular supports a narrow, fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible and considers those who ascribe to different beliefs, especially Muslims and Atheists to be anti-ethical. Either you agree with us entirely, or you are entirely wrong.

Both the ACLU and NGTLF are broad consortiums of diverse people of many different beliefs. They judge people and groups not by their beliefs but by the effect of their actions upon people in the community. The principle ethical consideration of the NOM and FOF groups is rigid conformity to ideals, whereas the ACLU and NGTLF consider benefit or harm to the community to be the principle ethical consideration.

In today's complex and divisive political environment, it is always most important to evaluate not only what organizations say about themselves and what they do, but to critically evaluate the organizations' actions and the effect those actions have on others. If we fail to rigorously employ this scrutiny, we risk welcoming in the values of doctrinal ideologues every bit as rigid and inflexible as anything seen in Iran or Pakistan.

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