Colorado Springs, 2-paper town
A tale of two ledes: Focus on the Family just announced a layoff of 20% of its workforce--big news here in Colorado Springs, where the ministry is one of the ten largest employers. Here's how our daily paper, the Gazette,
reported the news:
Because of a weak economy and cash-strapped donors, Focus on the Family said it is eliminating 202 jobs, the deepest cuts in the 32-year history of the Colorado Springs-based Christian nonprofit. The ministry laid off 149 workers, and cut another 53 vacant positions.
And here's the lede from the Independent, our alternative weekly:
Focus on the Family is poised to announce major layoffs to its Colorado Springs-based ministry and media empire today. The cutbacks come just weeks after the group pumped more than half a million dollars into the successful effort to pass a gay-marriage ban in California.
It's not the altitude that makes it hard to breathe here.
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
James Dobson is bff with Larry Craig. They share a stall at the airport.
The Lord works in mysterious ways.
Focus on the Family Action is a fiscally-separate lobbying organization. Its finances are not connected to Focus on the Family, the tax-exempt 501(c)3 organization, and so the two pieces of the story (Focus on the Family Action spends .5 Million lobbying for Prop 8, and Focus on the Family has job cuts) are not directly related.
While the fundraising of FOTF Action almost certainly cut into the fundraising ability of FOTF, the political lobbying entity could not transfer its assets to the ministry, even to save jobs.
Michael:
Legally, no doubt you're right.
Morally, the symbolism could not be worse -- and dare I say, un-Christian.
Note to Michael-
The money Focus on the Family spend to pass prop 8 did not come from Focus on the Family Action. It came from Focus on the Family.
I wonder how many starving or dying children could have been saved with that money. FOTF needs to expand their definition of life. As Ron Sider says, life does not start at conception and end at birth. And they need to expand their definition of family to include every person born upon this earth.
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.