The American Religious Right: about the true nature of the American Religious Right movement.

The AFA functions primarily as a media watchdog of the Religious Right. Founded in 1977 and lead by United Methodist minister Donald E. Wildmon, the AFA's main focus is homosexuality in the media, sex on tv in general, the NEA and pornography. AFA spearheaded the Right's campaign against Ellen (which lead to the cancelation of the show) and the ongoing, highly "successful" boycott against Disney. The AFA website used to have a 'good & bad' list of tv shows which was probably the best guide to gay-themed shows on the web.

A brief inspection of the AFA website at any given time quickly leads to the impression that the AFA is singularly obsessed with homosexuality, above and beyond even what is to be expected for an organization of the religious right. To substantiate this impression, I have tabulated the number of hits for specific search terms when searching the AFA Journal, the FRC website, the CWA library and Phyllis Schlafly's columns on the Eagle Forum. The results give an interesting picture of the relative importance of specific issues to specific groups.

keyword	AFA	FRC	CWA	Eagle Forum
homosexual	1407	619	192	34
gay	234	358	98	67
"same-sex marriage"	15	76	62	0
"gay marriage"	0	57	40	0
marriage	302	829	217	74
pornography	308	345	841	14
"Howard Stern"	50	7	1	1
feminism	2	69	39	32
gambling	55	176	13	8
abortion	287	723	367	88
evolution	63	87	14	31
premarital	7	75	23	9
abstinence	6	381	59	65
masturbation	21	26	10	4
family	671¹	3225¹	1063	363
values	97	430	211	181
pro-life	96	286	275	47
Christian	923	453	255	61
Jewish	2	138	18	9
judeo-christian	9	68	10	8
traditional	47	409	129	120
God	455	448	293	64
Jesus	196	148	100	8
conservative	155	209	99	183
liberal	135	233	96	135
bible	118	155	1073	25
biblical	59	78	55	12
evangelical	29	38	29	1

¹ count is inflated because "family" is part of the name of the organization.

AFA's obsession with homosexuality is obvious from these numbers. The keyword "homosexual" produces 1407 matches, "gay" 234. The keyword "pornography" only produces 308, "abortion" 287, "marriage" 302, "values" 97, "pro-life" 96. Even "Christian" gets only 923 matches, "God" 455, "Jesus" 196, "conservative" 155, "liberal" 135, "bible" 118, "biblical" 59, "Lord" 53, "evangelical" 29.

more information on the AFA
Religious leaders denounce Wildmon's anti-Semitism (June 1989 article)
Fight back against the Religious Right's Disney Boycott has many cute Wildmon quotes

"acceptance or indifference to the homosexual rights movement will result in society's destruction by allowing civil order to be redefined and by plummeting ourselves, our children and grandchildren into an age of godlessness. Indeed, the very foundation of civilization is at stake." Donald E. Wildmon