Organizational Background and Activities

Founded by James Dobson (Focus on the Family) in the early 1980’s, FRC grew rapidly under the leadership of Gary Bauer (American Values), when he became president in 1988. The organization’s growth in the lobbying arena forced an official split with Focus on the Family in 1992, in order to avoid jeopardizing either group’s status with the IRS.

Bauer left FRC in 1999 to launch an unsuccessful bid for President of the United States. From 2000 to 2003, Ken Connor, an anti-abortion advocate and failed gubernatorial candidate from Florida, ran FRC. Perkins has been president since 2003.

FRC is considered one of the largest independent organizations of the Christian Right. Legislative priorities for FRC include defining marriage between a man and woman only, attacking family planning and abortion, and working against what they call “state sanctioned suicide.” Other specific priorities include de-funding Planned Parenthood and the private adoption of embryos.

Most notable of FRC’s recent activities are their Justice Sunday events. Along with Focus on the Family, Phyllis Schlafly, and other conservative leaders, FRC began holding these controversial events across the United States in order to rally evangelical Christians alternately against liberal “judicial tyranny” and for their chosen judicial nomination in conservative Justice Samuel A. Alito. While FRC worked to assuage the churches’ concerns that participation in Justice Sunday would compromise their nonprofit status, both they and Focus on the Family chose to sponsor the programs “through their legally separate spin-off corporations FRC Action and Focus on the Family Action” in order to avoid possible tax hurdles. Three such events have been held thus far.

Additionally, FRC produces “State Model Legislation” booklets and uses grassroots tactics to support state-level activities, such as an attempt in Florida to place a ban on same-sex marriage on the ballot. FRC has also fought for the display of the Ten Commandments in Federal buildings and supported the Boy Scouts’ ban on homosexuals. Perkins regularly offers his fundamentalist perspective on national news outlets.

Between their legislative and judicial priorities, it is clear that FRC is a leader among its pack in seeking to mandate its ideology across the land. They are frontrunners in organizing the wider effort by the Christian Right to override the mainstream opinions of the general public and pursue fundamentalist regulations at the state and national levels.

Supporters stay up-to-date on FRC happenings with daily emails (“Tony Perkins’ Washington Update”), FRC Prayer Team E-mails, radio programs, and regular media updates.