Thursday, September 03, 2009

Budget Woes Force Focus on the Family Layoffs

Apparently hate and intolerance are not as profitable as once was the case. In yet another round of layoffs, Focus on the Family will be leting go another 75 employees and not filling another 57 vacant positions. While I feel some empathy for those soon to be joining the ranks of the unemployed, I cannot help but wonder who would want to work for an organization that principally markets lies, bogus science, deliberate untruths and hate and intolerance. As for Daddy Dobson, I suspect that he has set aside a very nice nest egg for himself so that even if his Christianist empire were to fall, he would continue to live quite comfortably off of his ill gained monies - blood money if you will in light of the number of LGBT lives Dobson has likely ruined or negatively impacted. One can only hope that the financial woes of FOTF and similar organizations that denigrate other citizens continue to falter as older bigoted generations die off and are replaced by younger, more tolerant generations that believe in the concept of the separation of church and state. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post:
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Focus on the Family announced Wednesday it is laying off 8 percent of its work force, casualties of the latest budget shortfall at the influential conservative Christian group. Seventy-five employees will lose their jobs and an additional 57 vacant positions will remain unfilled, said Gary Schneeberger, spokesman for the evangelical ministry founded by child psychologist James Dobson. The cutbacks are necessary because projections show the group will fall 5 percent short of a $138 million budget for the fiscal year ending this month, Schneeberger said.
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The cutbacks include a staffer at "Love Won Out," a conference series about "overcoming" same-sex attractions that Focus on the Family announced last month would be ceded to another religious organization.
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An in-house ad agency also will be closed, Schneeberger said. The layoffs will leave Focus on the Family with about 860 employees, down from a peak 1,400. Last fall, budget problems prompted the group to eliminate more than 200 positions, the largest staff reduction in its history.

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