Focus on the Family Under Fire, Labelled ‘Extremist Hate Group’
Focus on the Family (FOTF) is set for a legal showdown with the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC) over defamation.
SPLC targeted the successful Christian ministry last week by adding FOTF to its list of so-called “far-right” extremist hate groups.
The civil rights movement gone awry accused FOTF of “gay bashing,” then claimed the 48-year-old James Dobson ministry for families was violently harming those who self-identify as LGBTQ+.
As such, SPLC said, in effect, that Focus on the Family was no different than the KKK.
Previous groups added to “ze” list include parental rights groups, Moms for Liberty, Proud Boys and liberty-loving jurists, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
‘Dancing on Very Dangerous Territory’: Focus on the Family
FOTF fired back on Fox News Digital, saying SPLC were “dancing on very dangerous territory by putting the hate group label on them.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center recently listed Focus on the Family in their HATEWATCH “Extremist File,” calling Focus on the Family an “anti-LGBTQ+ extremist group.” They criticized our biblical worldview and opposition to LGBTQ+ policies and abortion. In recent decades, the… pic.twitter.com/g3NxbLIbN7
— Focus on the Family (@FocusFamily) June 7, 2025
Explaining why, FOTF boss Jim Daly, recalled the 2012 shooting at the Family Research Council (FRC), which he said was incited by SPLC labelling the Christian non-profit as “hateful.”
A WaPo report and an Obama-era press release from 2015 backed Daly’s remarks.
Drawing Murderous Motivation from the SPLC
Floyd Lee Corkins II was sentenced to 25 years for an act of terrorism after shooting an FRC security guard.
Although Obama’s DOJ did not specifically mention SPLC, the convicted left-wing terrorist later admitted to the FBI that
“he identified the Family Research Council as anti-gay on the SPLC’s website.”
Corkins deliberately targeted FRC,
“because of its socially conservative views, including its advocacy against same-sex ‘marriage’.”
Declaring himself a “political activist, Corkins said he considered the Family Research Council to be a lobbying group.”
Intending to kill as many Christian conservatives as possible, Corkins planned to “smother his victims in Chick-fil-A sandwiches, in order to make a statement.”
This was, he added, because “Chick-fil-A was also against gay marriage.”
Focus on the Family to Consider Suing for Defamation
Sending a clear broadside across SPLC’s bow, Daly said FOTF would be strongly considering a legal response, adding it would be a clear win. He told Fox,
“There has to be a line where an organisation that creates a hate list has to be responsible for that.”
“If we were to go to court, I think they would be hard-pressed to win that defamation lawsuit.”
This seems likely given SPLC’s attempted character assassination of FOTF’s founder, James Dobson.
Falsely accusing Dobson of racism, SPLC claimed, “he had considered calls for racial injustice a threat to white Christian hierarchy.”
Referring to “historians” (without reference), SPLC accused Dobson of “partnering with anti-LGBTQ+ extremists in the 1980s to spread propaganda, in opposition to private schools enrolling black students.”
The preposterous claims went further.
Referring to Alliance Defending Freedom, SPLC accused Dobson of also “cofounding, funding and platforming what has become the infrastructure of the modern anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion movements.”
Putting lives at risk, SPLC snorted, Dobson was also guilty of spreading “extreme ‘homophobic’ disinformation about HIV/AIDS.”
Attacking FOTF, the far-left group said this “evidence” proved the Dobson ministry was a platform of hate and terror.
“The culture is coming after our kids with a vengeance—pushing sexual confusion and moral relativism. We’ve got to fight back with God’s truth!” -Jim Daly
— Focus on the Family (@FocusFamily) June 7, 2025
Focus on Family Helps Hundreds of Thousands of Marriages
Puzzled by the SPLC designation, Daly said,
“Last year, Focus on the Family helped 140,000 couples get through a marital crisis, 540,000 couples to strengthen their marriage.”
“Why SPLC targeting an organisation doing that much good and labelling it a hate group, makes no sense.”
“I think, again, it exemplifies what’s wrong with the culture right now—that we can’t have differing opinions on things.”
Taking the thought captive (Romans 8:15) and denying the far-left culture war tactic any ground, Daly asserted, FOTF refuses to be intimidated.
“Our Christian tradition is marriage between one man and one woman, and that’s what we believe, and we believe we can advocate for that.”
“We won’t relent. We won’t be changing what we believe to be scriptural truth for the current place of where the culture is at.”
Concerns about SPLC designations contributing to potential hate crimes were not just hypothetical.
Fox Digital’s Jasmine Baehr said, within 24 hours of SPLC listing Focus on the Family as a hate group, left-wing protesters were harassing staff, forcing the ministry to pay for extra security.
In response, Daly, citing Romans 2:4, told Fox he hoped Christians would respond to the Left’s culture war with character.
We can’t just “preach orthodoxy, we need more orthopraxy. We have to live it,” he concluded.
‘SPLC is a Criminal Organisation’: Elon Musk
It’s worth noting that in November last year, Elon Musk publicly called SPLC a criminal organisation.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is a criminal organization imo https://t.co/zWcWaUaCkO
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2024
Musk was responding to the far-left hate group’s doxxing attempts of writers from The Babylon Bee’s sister news platform, Not the Bee. Seth Dillon wrote at the time,
“The SPLC extracted sensitive information from our site, then used that information to contact our writers directly.”
This exposed Not the Bee writers who wished to remain anonymous.
SPLC did this “because they’re vindictive bullies,” Dillon continued.
‘They’re admitted their aim is to “completely destroy” individuals and organisations they disagree with, by making them pay a steep price for speaking freely.”
As former Trump administration lawyer Jenna Ellis quipped,
“The SPLC is, ironically, the worst hate group in the U.S.”
SPLC are the epitome of the left’s domestic terrorism double standard.
They were never charged for inciting the 2012 far-left terrorist attack on the Family Research Centre.
With the far-left terror watch group now terrorising Focus on the Family, surely it’s time to designate SPLC a terrorist organisation?
___
Images via Adobe.
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Yes, this is what I can’t understand. How is a group, so obviously full of hate and rousing others to violence, not itself subject to legal restraint. Are the authorities fearful of repercussions – so they endorse passive Christians being persecuted? Now is the time for Christians everywhere to take a stand. We can no longer sit back and expect it to go away. Thank you Rod for exposing this situation which would be farcical if it wasn’t so damaging to an organisation that does so much good.
Thank you Rod. We see ‘good being called evil and evil being called good,’ even though Scripture warns against this (Isa 5:20). We need wisdom to know how to respond. The Body of Christ have, on the whole, been quiet and allowed our society to be slowly overrun with this type of evil for many years. It is time to wake up and see what we have been blind to for years. Pray that the Lord of the harvest will weed out the evils in spheres of influence in society and plant believers in those positions who can bring Godly influence in our nation. The rest of the Body must pray and support them.
Please use this resource if putting a biblical position on all of these issues.
To counteract a bunch of heresies regarding human sexuality and God’s perspective we Aussies came up with this 225 word creed. The theological/scriptural basis of the creed is well explained in the Resources/Explanatory Guide. We must base our views on God’s word, not current social ‘norms’.
The Australian Creed for Sexual Integrity – https://australiancreed.org/
We invite people of faith in Australia and around the world to make a stand for sexual integrity and sign the creed.
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We believe in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who designed sex as part of His loving plan for humanity, and whose will for sexual integrity is clearly revealed in Holy Scripture.
We believe God created each person in His image as male or female, and any person’s attempt to deny or change this distorts God’s good design.
We believe God blesses sexual intimacy solely between a man and a woman within the holy covenant of marriage, a life-giving mystery that reflects Christ’s love for His church.
We believe God calls a husband and wife to be fruitful and multiply, that every life is sacred, and that children are precious to God and must be protected from sexualisation.
We believe God calls all people to the joy of living a chaste life, by celibacy in singleness and faithfulness in marriage, and that His commands are given for the common good.
We believe sexual activities outside these bounds are sins which grieve God’s heart, injure others, and enslave people to idolatry.
We believe our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, that Christ calls and empowers us to repent from all sin, including sexual sin, that His mercy abounds to forgive and restore, and that by living with sexual integrity we glorify God and humbly embrace His wise and loving plan for human life.
Amen.
Great article Rod!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!