WHO IS AFA? American Family Association (AFA) a non-profit 501(c3) organization was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was pastoring First United Methodist
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Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of America’s culture war. The original name of the ministry was National Federation for Decency but was changed to American Family Association (AFA) in 1988.
Today, AFA is one of the largest and most effective pro-family organizations in the country with over two million online supporters and approximately 180,000 paid subscribers to the AFA Journal, the ministry's monthly magazine. In addition, AFA owns and operates nearly 200 radio stations across the country under the American Family Radio (AFR) banner.
Other divisions of AFA include OneNewsNow.com, an online news provider that is syndicated around the world. AFA maintains activist web sites such as OneMillionMoms.com and OneMillionDads.com that rally Christian activists to contact companies asking them to drop their advertising from objectionable TV shows. AFA web sites average over 40 million hits and five million visitors each month.
AFA uses all these means to communicate an outspoken, resolute, Christian voice throughout America.
OUR MISSION
The mission of the American Family Association is to inform, equip, and activate individuals to strengthen the moral foundations of American culture, and give aid to the church here and abroad in its task of fulfilling the Great Commission.
PHILOSOPHICAL STATEMENT
The American Family Association believes that God has communicated absolute truth to mankind, and that all people are subject to the authority of God’s Word at all times. Therefore AFA believes that a culture based on biblical truth best serves the well-being of our nation and our families, in accordance with the vision of our founding documents; and that personal transformation through the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest agent of biblical change in any culture.
ACTION STATEMENT
The American Family Association acts to:
(1) restrain evil by exposing the works of darkness;
(2) promote virtue by upholding in culture that which is right, true and good according to Scripture;
(3) convince individuals of sin and challenge them to seek Christ’s grace and forgiveness;
(4) motivate people to take a stand on cultural and moral issues at the local, state and national levels; and
(5) encourage Christians to bear witness to the love of Jesus Christ as they live their lives before the world.
To that end, AFA spurs activism directed to:
Preservation of Marriage and the Family
Decency and Morality
Sanctity of Human Life
Stewardship
Media Integrity
AFA is also on the cutting edge of media technology. In mid-2009, AFA became one of the first Christian ministries to employ Internet television by launching two channels, the AFA Channel and Home School Channel, in conjunction with Sky Angel IPTV, a global Christian-based Internet television service. Both channels broadcast wholesome and/or educational programming with a decidedly Biblical worldview. Several months earlier, AFA launched AFRTalk – daily 24-hour radio and television programming comprised of one-to-two hour segments – hosted by professional broadcasters whose mission is to inform and engage viewers on issues important to Christians and families. In addition, AFA also communicates through several web sites, keeps supporters informed through timely action alerts, and broadcasts music and inspirational programming through its nearly 200 station radio network. It also provides daily news through OneNewsNow.com, AFA Report, and the AFA Journal.
We believe in holding accountable companies that sponsor programs attacking traditional family values. We also believe in commending those companies that act responsibly regarding programs they support.
It is AFA’s goal to be a champion of Christian activism. If you are alarmed by the increasing ungodliness and depravity assaulting our nation, tired of cursing the darkness, and ready to light a bonfire, please join us. Do it for your children and grandchildren.
AFA STATEMENT OF FAITH
1. We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.
2. We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
3. We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory.
4. We believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful people, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.
5. We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.
6. We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
7. We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.
OUR VOICE
The impact of AFA on pro-family issues is recognized nationwide. AFA spokespersons have appeared on programs such as ABC's Good Morning America, World News Tonight, and Nightline; Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, Hannity & Colmes, and Fox News Live; NBC's Today Show and Meet the Press; MSNBC's Deborah Norville Tonight and Countdown with Keith Olbermann; CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, Anderson Cooper 360, Wolf Blitzer Reports, Talk Back Live, American Morning, and Crossfire; CBN's The 700 Club; TBN's Praise the Lord; INSP's Inspiration Today; and the BBC.
AFA spokespersons have been quoted in publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The Washington Times, Chicago Tribune, Mediaweek, Advertising Age, TIME, Newsweek, WORLD, Christianity Today, and numerous other media outlets. They also are frequent guests on national and international radio programs including the BBC, National Public Radio (NPR), and Voice of America.
Advertising Age listed Donald Wildmon in its December 2004 "Book of Tens" as one of the top "10 Who Made a Mark on Marketing." He was named among other high-profile figures such as Karl Rove, Mel Gibson, and Mark Burnett. Advertising Age, Crain's international newspaper of marketing, serves as a widely recognized source for the latest information to over 198,000 advertising, marketing, and media professionals.
HAS AFA MADE AN IMPACT?
AFA is a long-time member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. In 2008, the AFA received a second consecutive four-star rating from Charity Navigator (CN), an independent watchdog organization which monitors nonprofit groups. Click here to see article.
Highlights of AFA’s recent accomplishments include:
2009
● AFA began video-streaming AFRTalk live over the Internet.
● AFA became one of the first Christian ministries to employ Internet television by launching two channels, the AFA Channel and the Home School Channel, in conjunction with Sky Angel IPTV, a global Christian-based Internet television service. Both channels broadcast wholesome and/or educational programming with a decidedly Biblical worldview.
● AFA used its formidable Internet presence to promote Tax Day (April 15) TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party rallies in over 1,000 cities across America.
2008
● In response to Proposition 8, the California referendum that would amend the state’s constitution to protect marriage as being only between a man and a woman, AFA produced a 30-minute documentary supporting the ballot measure and distributed it at no cost to 21,000 churches in California. The video was written and produced by AFA staffers for a small fraction of typical production costs. The video proved to be a valuable tool in the passage of Proposition 8.
● AFA helped produce video documentaries explaining complex and long-standing issues such as the growing anti-Christian bias in America and the push by homosexual activists for the legalization of same-sex marriage. Partnering with The Inspiration Networks (INSP), AFA helped produce a 14-part documentary series titled Speechless … Silencing the Christians. The TV series, also available on DVD, exposes the ugly reality of bias against Christians and urges believers to speak out and put an end to the silencing.
● On the night of the presidential election, for the first time, AFA provided live Internet streaming video news coverage of the national election results. This effort brought together people, resources and technologies from the American Family Radio Network, AFA Journal, and OneNewsNow.com. Programs and newscasts on American Family Radio, AFA’s 200-station national radio network, are now streamed on the Internet at OneNewsNow.com.
● The number of new activists responding to AFA online “Action Alerts” has multiplied exponentially. Currently over two million people can immediately share their opinions with policymakers and corporations simply by responding to one of the online action-focused initiatives.
● AFA won boycott victories over Ford Motor Company and McDonald’s. Both companies backed out of their promotion of the homosexual agenda, in part due to the flood of responses from AFA activists.
2007
● American Family News, AFA’s news and information service, launched OneNewsNow.com (ONN). The Internet news site has become a trusted place where concerned citizens from all over the world can go to get the day’s latest headlines, particularly concerning issues of special interest to Christians. The new site was introduced to the public in January. Nine months later, ONN had over two million visitors in October alone.
● In a combined effort between American Family Radio (AFR) and our new media departments, an online-only 24/7 talk radio station was launched in September. AFRTalk is a unique combination of talk programs that are relevant to families and that address important issues from a decidedly Christian point of view.
● An AFA video production in response to the Virginia Tech shootings attracted 1.3 million views on Youtube.com. Nearly 500 million e-mails calling for action on various issues were transmitted to supporters. A Webcast (video on the Internet) of the values voter debate between several Republican presidential candidates attracted over 200,000 viewers.
● AFR launched three new radio stations in Texas and one each in New Mexico, Louisiana, Virginia, Mississippi and South Carolina. The broadcasting power of two other stations was upgraded.
● AFR listeners pledged their prayer support, and 148 of them became World Vision child sponsors. The ministries of Global Outreach and Gospel for Asia, both mission agencies, were also highlighted. Ongoing public service campaigns featured the work of well-known Christian ministries including Way of the Master, TransWorld Radio, Crown Financial and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. On two occasions AFR worked with 8 Days of Hope, a relief ministry helping to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.
● The AFA Journal continued to serve as the most thorough expression of AFA’s positions on a wide variety of issues of interest to American families. A full-text version of the monthly Journal was made available at www.afajournal.org.
Typical of the growing symbiosis between the various divisions of AFA, two AFA Journal staff members are regular panelists on AFA Report, a daily issues-oriented roundtable discussion that broadcasts on our radio network and on AFRTalk.
● Encouraging citizen activism remained at the heart of AFA’s mission. In 2007, Ford Motor Company sales continued to decline in part due to AFA’s ongoing national boycott over the company’s support of the homosexual agenda.
● AFA supporters responded to a significant number of online “Action Alerts” that led to victories in the culture war which curbed anti-Christian bias and impacted national and state debates over core moral issues.
2006
● Increased revenue from underwriting allowed the AFA Journal to enhance the design and produce a more reader-friendly publication, and at the same time maintain the hard-edge coverage of news and issues for AFA’s activist partners.
● The Journal made a concerted effort to increase coverage of positive media entertainment projects, e.g. full reviews of theater releases such as Facing the Giants and The Nativity Story. In addition, the AFA Journal carried numerous interviews with principal players in new family-friendly entertainment.
● News editor Ed Vitagliano was awarded first place in magazine writing at the Southern Christian Writers Conference. Editor Randall Murphree received honorable mention in the same venue, and Vitagliano earned a fourth place award at the national Evangelical Press Association.
● In April and September, AFR partnered with Compassion International to encourage listeners to help meet the needs of children in Third World countries. Approximately 1,500 new child sponsors were added, bringing the total to over 5,000 sponsorships through efforts of AFR and making the network the leading radio partner for Compassion International.
● From May 28 to June 3, AFR participated in Eight Days of Hope. Over 1,500 volunteers from around the country gathered on the Mississippi Gulf Coast to assist with the restoration of homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. According to Steve Tybor, the overwhelming majority of these volunteers were there because they listened to AFR.
● On August 17, AFR partnered with Free Wheelchair Mission to raise funds to provide wheelchairs for impoverished and disabled people in Third World countries. Our goal was to raise enough to buy and ship 1,500 wheelchairs. We met the goal in the first 3 hours of the 12-hour broadcast. At the end of the day, over 5,000 wheelchairs had been purchased!
● Also in August, AFR partnered with Tim Todd Ministries, Truth for Youth Project, to place Bibles in the hands of junior and senior high school students. Over 50,000 Bibles were distributed for that purpose. This is our fourth year to participate in a Truth for Youth campaign. In that time approximately 200,000 Bibles have been placed.
● The radio news team began work on developing closer relations with Christian news agencies around the world in order to expand AFR coverage of international issues of importance to Christians.
● AFA’s online news service was recognized by Alexa, a Web information company, as the second most popular Christian news site on the Internet. AgapePress, (now known as Onenewsnow.com) consistently drew over 50,000 visitors per day to its online stories.
● For the first time since its founding in 2000, several secular newspapers became regular subscribers to OneNewsNow.com.
● AFA Center for Law & Policy, closed in 2007, won an unusual victory in an anti-pornography case that required the owner of a nude bar to pay court-ordered attorneys’ fees to the CLP.
● AFA won a potentially far-reaching victory in federal court for a client to share his Christian faith on public highways and streets in Detroit, Michigan. He had been arrested for doing so during the 2006 Super Bowl in Detroit.
● AFA successfully defended numerous prolife advocates who had been charged for peacefully protesting against abortion in Waco, Texas. AFA then sued the city in federal court for violating the pro-lifers’ constitutional rights, winning the case and attorneys’ fees.
● AFA efforts caused NBC to cancel the anti-Christian show called The Book of Daniel.
● In January, AFA asked supporters to file formal complaints with the FCC against CBS and its affiliate stations for broadcasting Without A Trace which contained an extended teenage orgy scene. Within days, 165,997 AFA online supporters had filed formal complaints with the FCC. As a result, FCC announced fines on 111 CBS stations.
● AFA distributed tens of thousands of videos that refuted the claims of the heretical contents of the popular movie The DaVinci Code.
● Because of the efforts by AFA supporters, the National Education Association dropped their proposal to endorse homosexual marriage.
● AFA was one of the leading organizations that helped save the historic cross featured at the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial in San Diego, which was under attack by atheists.
● Due directly to the efforts of AFA, NBC was forced to cancel a scene in the Madonna concert special in which she mocked the crucifixion of Christ. More than 750,000 AFA supporters emailed NBC asking for the scene to be deleted from the special which aired in November.
WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP?
There is much you can do.
Pray daily for this ministry and our country.
Get informed. Sign up to join our mailing lists. We will keep you informed on the battles going on, as well as how you can help. To see past AFA Action Alerts, click here.
Consider making a financial gift. We promise to be good stewards of what ever gift you can give
