Special Interest Groups

• WHAT IS ITS MISSION?
• HOW IS IT STRUCTURED?
• PRIMARY FUNCTIONS
• PROGRAMS
• BUDGET INFORMATION
• HISTORY
• CURRENT POLITICAL ISSUES
• FUTURE DIRECTIONS
• GROUP RESOURCES
• GROUP PUBLICATIONS
• BIBLIOGRAPHY

ESTABLISHED: 1977
EMPLOYEES: 125
MEMBERS: 250 local affiliates
PAC: None

Contact Information:
ADDRESS: PO Drawer 2440 Tupelo, MS 38803
PHONE: (601) 844-5036
FAX: (601) 844-9176
URL: http://www.afa.net
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Donald E. Wildmon

WHAT IS ITS MISSION?

According to the organization's Web site, the American Family Association (AFA) serves "people who are tired of cursing the darkness and who are ready to light a candle." Founded as a nonprofit organization by Donald Wildmon in 1977, the AFA "stands for traditional family values, focusing primarily on the influence of television and other media—including pornography—on our society."

The agenda of the AFA is driven by a belief that the entertainment industry has done much to contribute to the decay of morals and culture in U.S. society. The organization cites a rise in teen pregnancy, the increase in the incidence of AIDS, and the proliferation of pornography as examples of such decay. It carries out its mission by targeting media or companies that the AFA believes contribute to a decline in what it perceives as family values.

HOW IS IT STRUCTURED?

The AFA structure is set up to facilitate the organization's fight for promoting values of decency in everyday life or in the media. It provides assistance to its regional affiliates, coordinates legal assistance when needed, and carries out watchdog efforts that canvas the government and the media. The AFA's main office in Tupelo, Mississippi, houses the AFA Law Center, which is staffed by six attorneys. Attorneys work with more than 400 AFA affiliate attorneys across the nation to provide legal assistance for Christians who believe their constitutional rights have been violated. The main office also houses the Office of General Counsel, another legal part of the organization that focuses on corporate legal issues. This office serves not only the AFA and its affiliates, but also American Family Radio, a Christian-sponsored radio station, and the AFA's Office of Governmental Affairs. The organization's Mississippi office also houses the outreach division, which provides help and counseling for sex addicts.

The AFA Office of Governmental Affairs is located in Washington, D.C., and serves to monitor legislation relevant to Christian and Family Values organizations. Staff from this branch of the AFA keeps supporters current on the status of policies relating to family values.

Individuals wishing to support the AFA agenda have the option of forming local AFA affiliates and carrying out activist functions in their communities. Approximately 250 AFA affiliates are linked to the national organization. These function at the local level and are overseen by 21 state directors. The national office provides support and activist/leadership training to affiliate members.

PRIMARY FUNCTIONS

The AFA uses many tactics to fight what it considers the causes of moral decay in U.S. society. Most of these methods involve putting pressure on companies that appear to be violating biblical standards of decency in their advertising or other business practices. The AFA also uses pressure to get advertisers to withdraw financial backing for what the organization considers objectionable entertainment.

Through public awareness campaigns, the AFA helps its supporters know which companies and which aspects of the entertainment industry are contributing to moral degradation, so that supporters can protest to those companies and avoid using their products. For example, in 1996 the AFA publicized a "Dirty Dozen" list of prime-time television advertisers that used what the group considered objectional material in their ads. The organization also undertakes public education efforts to advance its agenda, producing resources that not only describe its work, but provide people tools for dealing with family value or decency issues. For example, in 1994 the AFA produced a "Marriage Savers" video series aimed at helping couples work through differences and avoid divorce. The organization produces the monthly AFA Journal, which is sent to 400,000 subscribers. The AFA radio show, AFA Report, broadcasts daily from the Washington, D.C., office and allows listeners at over 1,200 local radio stations to hear the latest policy news on family values issues.

Sometimes the AFA takes more direct action, using E-mail alert lists for grassroots mobilization, instructing supporters to write or call their representatives, boycott products, or take other action, depending upon the issue. The organization organizes on-site boycotts and pickets when an issue is deemed particularly important. For example AFA supporters picketed convenience stores that were owned by the Southland Corporation; as a result, pornographic magazines were pulled from the stores by management. The AFA also provides legal assistance for Christians dealing with family issues at the national and the affiliate level. Legal issues may involve First Amendment Rights, the rights of the unborn child, or instances when individuals have been persecuted for their faith.

PROGRAMS

AFA programs are organized to help supporters become aware of issues of concern to the organization, and to help these supporters institute change by acting at the grassroots level. For example the AFA initiated the annual Pornography Awareness Week in 1982; the event has been held in nationwide locations ever since, beginning the last Sunday in October. Churches and interested groups use the event to carry out discussions on the effects of pornography on society. The AFA provides resources to participating communities, including anti-porn posters. Another program initiated by the AFA is Meet at City Hall, first carried out by the organization in 1992. On this day, the AFA asks Christians to pray together in their towns for 20 minutes at noon on the first Thursday in May. People pray for their town, the nation, the world, and many other concerns.

BUDGET INFORMATION

The AFA is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, which means that all bookkeeping is handled by an independent firm. The organization buys nothing on credit and completely owns all its assets. The AFA is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

For the fiscal year beginning in July 1, 1996 and ending June 30, 1997, the organization had total revenue of $10,798,861. Revenue included direct public support ($9,819,406); program service revenue ($827,873); interest on savings ($16,216); dividends from securities ($6,138); gross rents ($44,033); net gain from sale of assets ($51,266); and other revenue ($33,929). Expenses totaled $10,152,679 and included program services ($8,758,156); management and general ($212,405); and fundraising ($1,182,118). In a separate breakdown of expenses, highest expenses included salaries and wages ($2,435,987) and postage/shipping ($1,507,606).

HISTORY

The AFA actually started out as an organization called the National Federation for Decency (NFD), which was founded in 1977. The founder, Donald Wildmon, was an ordained United Methodist Minister. The idea of NFD was born as Wildmon watched television one night and could find nothing among the program selections that did not contain violence or adultery. Disturbed, Wildmon came up with a plan to get members of his church to turn off their televisions for a week. The national media picked up on the event and it began to be implemented across the country as "Turn off the TV Week." The success of the event led Wildmon to form the NFD.

One of the historical highlights of the organization occurred in 1987 with the debut of the movie The Last Temptation of Christ. Christians objected to the movie on the grounds that it portrayed Jesus Christ in a negative and sinful light. The AFA worked to mobilize opposition to the movie by presenting its position to the public and encouraging supporters to boycott the film.

In 1988 the NFD changed its name to the American Family Association. The organization began mobilizing opposition to the federal government's National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in 1989. According to the AFA, the NEA spends taxpayer dollars on artistic endeavors that, in some cases, are pornographic and indecent. The AFA's high profile attacks on the NEA brought it increasing publicity and attention from the public.

The AFA's ideals gained wide acceptance during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush both emphasized family values as part of their political platforms. Though the AFA was disappointed with the election of Democrat Bill Clinton to the presidency in 1992, a Republican majority dominated the Congress throughout the 1990s and was in general sympathetic to the organization's concerns.

Through the 1990s the organization remained active in its multiple functions of appealing to companies, picketing and boycotting, or conducting public awareness campaigns. In May of 1996 the AFA convinced giant soft-drink manufacturer PepsiCo to withdraw its backing of the premier of the Dana Carvey show, a television program featuring skits of drug use and gay characters. The show later floundered and was taken off the air. In a collaborative effort with southern Baptist groups, the AFA organized a boycott of Disney World in June 1997. The organization's Disney boycott was launched in opposition to Disney films that the AFA considered anti-Christian and pornographic. The organization also opposed the Disney employee policy that allowed partner benefits to homosexual employees. When Disney sponsored a segment of the television series Ellen (April 1997) which featured a lesbian character coming out on television in a supportive environment, the event added fuel to the AFA's campaign against the entertainment

giant. To aid supporters in their boycott efforts, the AFA produced materials listing what it maintained were Disney's anti-family practices. The organization also published a list of Disney's business holdings. Another AFA-sponsored boycott occurred in January of 1996 and focused on the Circle K convenience store chain since these stores were selling pornographic magazines.

CURRENT POLITICAL ISSUES

The AFA carries out its mission of restoring family values in the United States by focusing on what the organization considers key issues, such as pornography and homosexuality. The organization is concerned by material offered by the entertainment industry that AFA representatives feel violates biblical standards of decency. Of particular concern to the organization is the exploitation of children in pornography.

Case Study: Pornography at Barnes & Noble?

When Barnes & Noble bookstores across the country began selling books that featured nude photography collections of young children, the AFA and other like-minded groups were incensed. According to the AFA, the books in question—Radiant Identities and The Last Day of Summer by Jock Sturges; Immediate Family by Sally Mann; The Age of Innocence by David Hamilton—featured preteen girls in provocative poses, children of the same sex holding hands or embracing, and children touching their genitals. Though the books were expensively packaged and didn't look like typical pornographic offerings, the AFA claimed that the books exploited children and were, in fact, pornography.

The AFA asked its members to call local bookstores and request that the books be removed from store shelves. Other like-minded groups participated in the effort, including Operation Rescue National (which pickets in front of stores); the Middle Tennessee Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, a small group that was one of the first to object to the books and to picket; and Loyal Opposition, which has organized protests across the nation. The organization also called for a boycott of Barnes & Noble bookstores for stocking what the organization considers child pornography. Barnes & Noble refused to pull the books from its shelves, claiming that they were not violating any laws, and while some might consider the works indecent, they were protected by the First Amendment of the Consitution.

The AFA's efforts met with mixed results. In 1997 and 1998 Barnes & Noble was indicted in Alabama and Tennessee respectively for violation of state pornography laws, but in other states, such as Kansas, prosecutors did not feel a case could be made against the bookseller. The indictments drew national attention, and some in the media talked of a landmark legal decision that would set readily enforceable guidelines differentiating art from pornography. Public interest in the issue declined rapidly, however. In May of 1998 the Tennessee case was settled out of court, and charges against Barnes & Noble were dropped. In return, the bookstore agreed to treat the books as "adult," meaning that they could still be sold at the store, but could only be displayed on racks at least five and a half feet tall, with no more than one third of their covers visible.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

An area of growing concern to the AFA is the Internet, which may provide anybody with a computer and an on-line account access to pornography or sexual material. While conservative groups endeavor to control children's Internet access to pornography using such things as the on-line filters proposed in the Child Online Protection Act in 1998, groups concede that it is difficult to control a medium such as the Internet which grows at the rate of 4,000 sites per day. The AFA is examining the most effective way to reduce the pervasiveness of this particular form of pornography.

GROUP RESOURCES

The AFA maintains a Web site at http://www.afa.net. The site includes a discussion of current organization issues as well as an on-line version of the AFA Journal and a section aiding viewers who want to contact their representative. Other materials that can be ordered include anti-porn and sexual addiction posters. For more information abou the organization, contact the AFA by mail at American Family Association, Inc., PO Drawer 2440, Tupelo, MS, 38803; by phone at (601) 844-5036; or by fax at (601) 844-9176.

GROUP PUBLICATIONS

The AFA publishes the monthly AFA Journal, available to subscribers by contacting the organization directly or through its Web site at http://www.afa.net. The Fight Back Book is a publication that lists contact information and descriptions of all advertisers that sponsor prime-time TV. Other AFA publications include: Homosexuality in America; Exposing the Myths, Public School Sex Education, and Anti-Christian Bias in America. For more information on AFA publications, contact the organization by mail at American Family Association, Inc., PO Drawer 2440, Tupelo, MS 38803; by phone at (601) 844-5036; or by fax at (601) 842-7798.