Recently I was forwarded an "Action Alert" email from a friend, which I discovered was orginally sent out by the
American Family Association, "America's Largest Pro-Family Action Site" (or so their
website tells me). What frustrated me was the content of the email, for the alert was announcement that Wal-Mart was supporting the "homosexual agenda" with thousands of dollars and therefore must be boycotted by Americans with real "family values."
We can debate whether this "homosexual agenda" is a good or bad thing another time though, for what especially struck me was the fact that this "Pro-Family" organizaiton was only now speaking out against Wal-Mart, as if the insidious corporation has done nothing to seriously harm families in the past. Homosexual marriage and other issues may be important to some degree in relation to families, but I seriously question whether they are more important than people being paid fairly, provided with basic health-care needs, and respected in their communities, all three of these things that
Wal-Mart is notoriously known for violating. Frankly, I am much more convinced that when these conditions are not met adequately families will struggle more, than I am that increased homosexual activity will tear families apart.
Examples like this also force me to ask, how did "conservative" and/or "religious" groups ever develop a notion of "family values" so narrow as only that which is sex-related? These same types of people seem to blaim our culture for being too sex-obsessed, something that may be true, but perhaps they also need to look at where their own criticisms lie. As far as I can tell, even if a general excessive sex-craze is one of the problems in the world today, it is far from the only one. In the end, I suppose what I'm trying to say then, is that if the American Family Association is really pro-family, they should have been protesting and boycotting Wal-Mart a long, long time ago.
