Friday, July 12, 2019

#2216: Gary Schneeberger

Gary Schneeberger is president of communication at Focus on the Family and editor of their publication Family News in Focus. According to Schneeberger, the biblical view of marriage and sexuality is badly needed for balance in mainstream media, and “what Focus on the Family’s analysts and experts bring to the national discussion in their media appearances are reasoned, passionate and compassionate insights that help families make sense of, and make their mark in, the world around them.” Of course, “experts” here means “people who agree with us”, not expertson anything remotely relevant to determining the truth of the claims the group is pushing; “passionate”, “compassionate”, “reasoned” and “insights” are similarly understood in non-standard ways. Meanwhile, critics of the group are of course opposed to free speech and trying to silence them by criticism and confronting bigots with stuff they actually say (very fine example here of Schneeberger trying to argue that Keith Olbermann is misrepresenting James Dobson by showing viewers Dobson saying what he actually did say, in context). Exactly as you’d expect, in other words.

According to Schneeberger, the views of the group are shared by a majority of Christians, but he helpfully explains that “we use that word ‘Christian’ to refer to people who are evangelical Christians.” The rest are presumably infidels.

Diagnosis: Schneeberger is not the most flamboyantly crazy spokesperson for the organization, and mostly seems to publicly address organizational or fiscal matters. He is, however, something of a mover and shaker, and his influence, and the harm he is causally responsible for, should not be underestimated.

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