Focus on the Family Wants to Have Coffee With You

Is the religious right attempting to shed its fire and brimstone approach, opting instead for a more civil dialogue with opponents of its conservative agenda?  The answer is yes if you believe what some religious right leaders are saying.  If you look at their actions, of course, it looks like this might be another "Do as I say, don't do as I do" phenomenon.

US News & World Report's God & Country blogger Dan Gilgoff has the scoop today, breaking the news that Focus on the Family - one of the more conservative religious groups out there - is looking to engage a bit more civilly in the age of Obama.  Jim Daly, President and CEO of Focus on the Family, posted this on the Focus on the Family Web site:

Jim Daly, president and CEO of Focus on the Family, has repeatedly suggested that his staff invite those who disagree with them to share a cup of coffee—his own civility project.

"I use that coffee expression as a real-world way of saying, 'Let's have a conversation, face-to-face, get to know each other and what informs our worldviews,' " he said. "And when we hit a subject on which we don't share the same values, let's talk about those issues with boldness and passion, yes, but with mutual respect, too."

Daly said it's important for Christians to remember that we are called not only to stand up for our convictions, but to love our neighbor, as well.

"Those are not mutually exclusive exhortations," he said. "Every human being deserves dignity and respect."

Those are pretty nice sentiments.  One almost wants to take them at their word.  Until you look at the fundraising numbers coming out of Maine, where anti-LGBT activists are leading the crusade against marriage equality in the state.  Guess which organization just gave a sizable $31,000 to take back the civil marriage rights of gays and lesbians?

Focus on the Family.  Hmmph.  That's a pretty funny way of showing "dignity and respect" to your political opponents.

(Although out of fairness to Focus on the Family, they were far outspent by the Catholic Church in terms of political donations to take away marriage rights for Maine's gay and lesbian population.  The Catholic Church has donated in excess of $100,000, making Focus on the Family's $31,000 seem a little bit like chump change.)

Hypocrisy aside, Gilgoff's piece is an interesting read, in that some of the right are starting to realize that their hell-fire approach to social issues is alienating voters.  Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition, has started a new organization which he says will be less strident that the Coalition was in its late 1980s heyday. Joel Osteen and Rick Warren have both become cash cows on the basis of friendly evangelicalism, as well.

Which I guess means that the religious right is starting to realize that you catch more flies with honey than you do with....well, you know.

Of course, the only problem is that when you start to peel back the layers of "friendliness" coming from the religious right, you often find the same fire and brimstone, just packaged differently.  Case in point the $31,000 gift to Maine's anti-LGBT crowd from Focus.  Case in point, the Los Angeles Archdiocese's weak justification for supporting Proposition 8.  Case in point, Pat Roberton's prayer for the destruction of the LGBT-friendly U.S. Episcopal Church.

All of that combined doesn't demonstrate civility.  It demonstrates sneakiness.