Focus sending mixed message with Day of Dialogue?

Focus on the Family’s decision Thursday to take over sponsorship of a student-led observance that emphasizes Christianity’s viewpoint on homosexuality has polarized conservatives.

Some applaud Focus’ sponsorship of the Day of Dialogue. But others question the ministry’s timing and motive, and say it blurs the ministry’s softer direction since founder James Dobson left the ministry last February.

Jon Henke, co-founder of political-action website The Next Right, said Focus has made a mistake.

“They have a right to do it, but that doesn’t make it right,” Henke said. “They are adopting gimmicks and stunts” to remain relevant.

The observance was started in 2005 and called the Day of Truth by the conservative law firm the Alliance Defense Fund.

It was a protest of the Day of Silence, created by students nine years earlier to support those who feel they have to be silent about their sexual orientation. Students participate by remaining silent throughout the day.

Over the years, the observance spread to schools and colleges across the country.

In 2001, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, started sponsoring the Day of Silence.

Both days are student-led. Schools and colleges do not participate or organize the programs.

Last April, more than 38,000 U.S. students participated in the Day of Silence, and about 2,000 students took part in the Day of Truth.

Exodus International, a Christian right coalition, became sponsor of the Day of Truth last year. But in October, Exodus announced it was abandoning the sponsorship because it was the wrong approach given the rash of gay bullying in American schools.

Exodus declined to comment for this article.

Focus picked up the observance and changed its name to the Day of Dialogue, while retaining its core message that homosexuality is a sin.

Warren Throckmorton, a Pennsylvania-based psychologist who in 2006 wrote a critique for Focus of its now-defunct Love Won Out program, which sought to help gay people become straight, said Focus is sending mixed messages.

Focus president and CEO Jim Daly has given the ministry a “kinder, gentler” tone under his leadership, Throckmorton said. The sponsorship is “potentially inconsistent with wanting to lead Focus away from divisive issues,” he said.

Focus maintains that it hasn’t softened its core beliefs and is against gay bullying.

Focus spokesman Gary Schneeberger said the purpose of the Day of Dialogue is to create a conversation on homosexuality. “The key thing is to raise (student) awareness that there is more than one side to this issue,” Schneeberger said. “The opposite of silence is dialogue.”

But Throckmorton said the Day of Silence is about preventing bullying and the Day of Dialogue is about asserting and defending religious beliefs. The observances “are not the same themes and represent two conversations, not a dialogue,” he said.

Other conservatives defend Focus’ sponsorship.

Jim Pfaff, president of the Colorado Faith and Freedom Coalition and host of a conservative radio show on 560 KLZ AM in Denver, said GLSEN presents a biased view of homosexuality.

“GLSEN uses the Day of Silence to bully Christians who have a different view on the gay lifestyle,” he said.