Jim Daly, President and CEO of Focus on the Family (FOTF), continues his damage control after conceding defeat on marriage equality with a column in today’s Washington Post called, “What’s the focus of Focus on the Family?” Rather than actually establish that FOTF has any priorities other than continuing to demonize the LGBT community and defend bullies, Daly commits the whole post to walking back his concession on the marriage issue:

So, let me be clear: I am not waving a white flag. I’m not even contemplating picking one up. There is still much work to be done by those of us in the faith community to advocate for marriage as it has been defined, and practiced, by every civilized society for millennia.

My comments to World are no more or no less than a continuation of something I’ve been saying for years: That we cannot expect the culture to be the church. As Christians, we are called to speak the truth in love, and advance it in public policy, regardless of opinion polls or shifting political winds. But our responsibility doesn’t end at the bully pulpit or the ballot box. We also must model the beauty and permanence of traditional marriage to society. And, to be frank, we have not done a very good job in that regard.

“Don’t think of an elephant.” That strategy always works for convincing an audience to not think of a white flag. It also makes perfect sense to argue that the culture should not be the church, and yet Christians should still advance the church in public policy using the “bully pulpit.” If Christians are modeling love, shouldn’t it be a “friend pulpit”?

But Daly clearly doesn’t even understand the focus of his own argument. As in his post yesterday on FoxNews.com, he seems much more concerned with divorce than same-sex marriage. While maintaining his commitment that same-sex couples shouldn’t even have the chance to make the commitment of marriage (though many do anyway), he’s frustrated that “Christians” don’t model it better:

Imagine if, as the result of such efforts, the Christian divorce rate goes from 40 percent to 10 percent or 5 percent, and the world’s goes from 50 percent to 80 percent. How can the culture not look at us then and think, “We want more of what they’ve got,” because we’re proving in front of the eyes of the world that marriage in a Christian context works?

Forget for a moment that Daly’s now back to making religious arguments about a civil institution. If the statistics on Christian marriage compared to all marriages were ever that absurdly disparate, it would suggest that Christians’ contributions to defining cultural norms are entirely insignificant. In reality, while born again Christians do get married at higher rates, they divorce at exactly the same rates as the rest of society.

Ultimately, Daly draws no link between FOTF’s goal of “divorce-proof marriages” and fighting against marriage equality. Quite to the contrary, if FOTF reaches that goal and demonstrates the potential success of marriage, it would likely only encourage same-sex couples to advocate more for equal access to its privileges and responsibilities. Daly may think that the past success of state marriage amendments is an endorsement of his position, but as he attempts to refocus Focus on opposing all things gay (remember: no white flag), he’ll realize that even if they haven’t “lost,” they’re still losing by everyone’s count.

The Minnesota House ensured that same-sex marriage is an issue debated there until next year’s election, but New Yorkers are continuing a push to get their legislature to vote for marriage equality in the next month:

- CALIFORNIA: Activists are divided as to whether voters should get the opportunity to repeal Prop 8 on the 2012 ballot or wait for it to work its way through the courts.

- CONNECTICUT: The Senate will today consider a gender identity protections bill that has already been approved by the House. Opponents continue to smear it as a “Bathroom Bill,” using stories of bathroom peeping toms as a scare tactic against protecting transgender people from discrimination.

- ILLINOIS: Same-sex couples are excited to begin getting civil unions next week, but activists will be busy counter-protesting an anti-gay rally. Just today, a last-minute amendment was added to a bill as one last attempt to provide special exemptions for religious adoption agencies to discriminate against same-sex couples.

- IOWA: The Iowa caucuses could be a proving ground for Republican candidates to determine their positions on LGBT equality.

- LOUISIANA: A House committee killed a bill that would have allowed same-sex couples to adopt.

- MINNESOTA: The House approved the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, ensuring it will be on the 2012 ballot. Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) and the White House have spoken out against the ballot initiative.

- NEVADA: All three bills that would protect transgender Nevadans from discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations have passed the legislature. Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) has already signed one of them and intends to sign the other two. They will take effect October 1.

- NEW YORK: Gov. Andrew Cuomo continues to speak out in support of marriage equality, while opponents rally with religious cries of self-victimization. Today, though, labor leaders offered their support at City Hall in New York City.

- TENNESSEE: Following the passage of the bill overturning Nashville’s non-discrimination protections, the flip-flopping Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and its business membership continue to face blowback while opponents of equality boast the advance of hate.

- TEXAS: The Senate approved bills that support anti-bullying and suicide prevention initiatives while Rep. Wayne Christian’s (R) attempts to defund university LGBT resource centers seem to be stymied for now.

Keep track of how LGBT issues are advancing in the states at our State LGBT Watch.

As reported Monday, Focus on the Family President Jim Daly recently admitted that conservatives have “lost” the fight against same-sex marriage. His organization tried to downplay his concession as merely an “acknowledgment of the cultural trend,” and yesterday, he had a column on FoxNews.com dedicated to “Why the Same-Sex Marriage Experiment Will Not Work.” Unfortunately for Daly, the weakness of his argument does more to confirm his concession than reverse it. To his credit, he attempts to make a case against equality without using the Bible, but his fallacy-ridden attempt at rejuvenating opposition is just begging to be debunked:

I am, naturally, personally opposed to the legalization of same-sex marriage for the simple but profound reason that it violates and contradicts the sacred text of the Bible, which I believe to be true and inspired. But on what basis should I expect people who don’t believe as I do to likewise oppose same-sex marriage?

On the basis of logic, reason, common sense and the fact that preservation of traditional marriage is in the best interest of the common good, as evidenced by any number of factors, including reams of social science data and thousands of years of history.

Daly goes on to cite examples of what he calls “social engineering” in an attempt to suggest that it always leads to failure. The problem is that he tries to connect all kinds of dots without anything to support his doing so. (He must have missed the lesson about correlation not meaning causation.)

His first example is no-fault divorce. Daly suggests that the advent of legalized no-fault divorce “encouraged struggling spouses to throw in the towel,” which led to abandoned families, higher poverty levels, higher prison populations, and fatherless kids. He provides no evidence that any of those “consequences” even took place, let alone that they had anything to do with the availability of no-fault divorce. But that’s besides the point. Even the implication that marriage is not popular or that it should be a “struggle” are arguments against marriage, whereas same-sex couples want the commitment of marriage.

The next example he tries to use is the legalization of abortion. Daly’s argument requires a belief that abortion is a “tragedy,” but as before, his suggestions that “the beauty of life has been cheapened” and “child abuse has skyrocketed” don’t actually have any connection to abortion. He also conveniently ignores the fact that abortion rates are down except among women who don’t have access to contraception. For Daly, the abortion argument is merely self-fulfilling; people are getting abortions and abortions are bad. Read more