Out of Focus on the Family 59
• Good quality family relationships are more important contributors to successful development than family type ;
• Teenage offspring of same-sex couples have similar dating and romantic relationship behaviors as children of oppositesex couples ;
• On measures of their psychosocial adjustment and school results , such as grades and test scores , both groups had similar outcomes , and their adjustment was not affected by the type of family — whether same sex or opposite sex parents .
5 . Foster-care programs will be impacted dramatically .
Dr . Dobson laments that “ foster-care parents will be required to undergo ‘ sensitivity training ’ to rid themselves of bias in favor of heterosexuality , and will have to affirm homosexuality in children and teens .” It seems only appropriate that he objects to foster parents not being allowed to teach children bigotry and hatred . Andrew Sullivan has made the point that :
If . . . young men and women were taught in childhood to respect the few among their midst who were homosexual , the result might not merely be beneficial for the few homosexuals . . . It might also be beneficial for inculcating in young men a respect for women that is conducive to responsible courtship and successful marriage , and a respect for the other that is conducive to stability in a pluralist society as a whole ( Sullivan , 114-115 ).
But a respectful , pluralist society is not what Focus on the Family or Operation Rescue wants . As the founder of the latter , Randall Terry , put it : “ We don ’ t want equal time . We don ’ t want pluralism .” Mr . Terry was equally blunt about what he does want from his “ Christian ” followers :
I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you . I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you . Yes , hate is good . . . . Our goal is a Christian nation . We have a Biblical duty , we are called by God , to conquer this country . We don ’ t want equal time . We don ’ t want pluralism ( Fort Wayne , Indiana News-Sentinel , August 16,1993 ).
The call-to-hatred and the all-or-nothing mentality assures failure . But , in the meantime , such faith-based fanaticism should not be allowed to infect any child in a foster care program . ( It should be noted that Mr . Terry and his former