2004 Accomplishments and Highlights Report

Initiating, encouraging Christian Activism:
Online Activism

• Through our online entities, OneMillionDads.com and OneMillionMoms.com, AFA rallied hundreds of thousands of Christian activists to contact companies and ask them to drop their advertising on shows. Companies that responded positively include Hasbro, SC Johnson, Tyson Foods, Lowe's, Geico, Best Buy, Foot Locker, Finish Line, Cellboost, Nissan, Goodyear, LeapFrog, Castrol, Ocean Spray, Nextel and Dodge.
  
  AFA staffers assisted numerous municipalities in restricting sexually-oriented businesses.
  
  Working through local citizen groups, AFA efforts led to the blocking of the distribution of obscenity by several Movie Gallery stores.
  
  AFA worked with lawmakers in Oklahoma and Alabama to help pass legislation that encouraged posting of the national motto, In God We Trust, in the states' public school classrooms.
  
  Through AFA's media outlets and Christian activist networks, AFA promoted the passage of amendments in 13 states that defined marriage as between one woman and one man.
  
  
• AFA efforts, along with other groups, led the Federal Communications Commission to issue its largest broadcast indecency fine in history against CBS for singer Janet Jackson's exposure during the 2004 Super Bowl Halftime Show.

• American Family Radio (AFR), AFA's nearly 200-station nationwide radio network, provided round-the-clock news coverage – news reported by Christians and intended for those with a Judeo-Christian perspective.
  
  AFR original programming, including AFA Report and Today's Issues, provided live, daily discussions of moral issues, alongside discussions with well-known expert guests.
  
  Special AFR broadcasts during 2004 included programs that focused on the sanctity of life, the defense of traditional marriage, judicial tyranny, and the importance of voting. AFR also gave significant broadcast time to support other Christian ministries including the India Children's Project, Compassion International, World Vision, Voice of the Martyrs, Samaritan's Purse, and Truth for Youth Bible Week.
  
  AgapePress, AFA's online news service, saw its individual subscriber list almost triple in size to a total of nearly 23,000 people who received a free daily news summary via e-mail. The print and web subscriber base also increased by 20 percent, expanding the reach of AgapePress into 33 states and two foreign countries. During 2004, AgapePress launched The Insider, a free news resource for churches that can be downloaded from the Internet for bulletin and newsletter use.
  
  
• In its 28th year of publication, the AFA Journal continued to offer in-depth news features and analysis, always striving to give readers a biblical perspective on pressing cultural issues. Also featured on its pages were profiles of activists making a difference and serving as role models for others. In addition to enhancing the visual appeal of the publication during the past year, AFA Journal writers won awards at the Evangelical Press Association and Southern Christian Writers Conference.
  
  

A defender of Christian freedom:
AFA Center for Law & Policy

In addition to defending against the onslaught of same-sex marriage cases across the nation, AFA's Center for Law and Policy (CLP) led the nation in defense of those who stood against the "gay" agenda. These included:

• Upholding the right of cross-carrying Christians to bear witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ on a public highway in Dayton, Tennessee, outside a homosexual celebration at a public park.
  
  Successfully defending the right of a pastor and 200 Christians to speak the truth in love to thousands of homosexuals gathered at the Southern Decadence festival in New Orleans, Louisiana.
  
  Representing a Christian charged with disorderly conduct merely for reading his Bible at a city council meeting in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania.
  
  
• Defending peaceful Christians who were arrested and charged with three felonies and a "hate crime" simply for sharing the gospel on the public sidewalk in Philadelphia.
  
  
  

CLP aggressively protected the rights of public school students as in the following cases by:

• Winning the right for the First Baptist Church of Cabot, Arkansas, to distribute brochures in the public schools that informed students of the Upward Basketball church program.
  
  
• Preserving the right for Mark Austin and two other Christian students in a North Carolina high school to wear T-shirts proclaiming the biblical truth about homosexuality on a pro-homosexual Day of Silence.
  
  
  

Our legal center was routinely called upon, often on very short notice, to assist in keeping the Gospel free on the issue of life as in the following cases by:

• Winning a temporary restraining order allowing pro-life Christians in Jackson, Mississippi, to hold their annual rally outside an abortion clinic.
  
  Winning a jury trial in Wichita, Kansas, in which a 22-year-old young lady was arrested and hospitalized for demonstrating on a public highway at a Cher concert.
  
  Successfully defending newly adopted regulations of the abortion industry on behalf of the State of Arizona.
  
  
• Successfully defending a pro-life ministry's right to share the truth about abortion on public sidewalks in Waupin, Wisconsin.
  
  
  

The CLP defended the right of Christians to speak out on cultural issues. Examples include:

• Winning a case at the Mississippi Supreme Court for a state court judge who had been formally disciplined for expressing his views on homosexuality in a letter to the editor.
  
  Successfully obtaining the right for a Christian rock band to share the Gospel between songs at a public coliseum in Puerto Rico.
  
  
• Winning an acquittal in a criminal trial for a street preacher in Montgomery, Alabama, whose sign was seized by the police and whose Bible was thrown on the ground.