Focus on the Family’s Steadfast Commitment to Scripture

On Monday, Focus on the Family published a social media post that, to put it bluntly, we got wrong. Most disappointingly, we got it wrong because we confusingly expressed the scriptural truth we have held sacrosanct since the ministry’s founding nearly 50 years ago.

In publishing excerpts from a 2012 “Q & A” feature on homosexuality, we caused many readers to come away with a troubling impression of where we stand on the issue. Worse, we confused them on what the Bible says about the issue.

For that, we apologize. As president of Focus on the Family, I apologize. Because this is such a critical and sensitive issue, we must be more careful than we were in this instance when commenting on it. You have my personal assurance that we are already taking additional steps to ensure accurate communication of our Bible-based responses to the questions posed in the post — and any other related matters on which we offer advice and counsel, to ensure we make clear the infallible wisdom of Scripture.

In our nearly five decades of ministry, Focus on the Family has remained steadfast in our unequivocal biblical conviction that homosexuality is sinful and fundamentally in conflict with the Christian faith — in both thought and deed. As we have said repeatedly, the term “gay Christian” is antithetical to the Holy Scriptures. Given that critical importance, we cannot afford to state the biblical truth of the matter as sloppily as we did. Lust and other sexual sins are warned about repeatedly in Scripture, from Matthew 5:27-28 to James 1:14-15, from 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 to 1 Corinthians 6:18-20. God’s good design for human sexuality rests on the firm foundation of male and female, and one-man, one-woman marriage – and that every child deserves a mother and a father.

We are grateful we have heard from many friends of Focus who rightly challenged us to do better. To be clearer. We thank them for their wisdom and commit to taking their counsel not just to heart, but to application.

It grieves me that our original social media post has created the very confusion the Focus team works so tirelessly to combat on a daily basis. Please be assured that our hearts, minds and hands remain committed to serving individuals and families – and doing so in adherence to and in accordance with God’s sacred Word.