The American Family Association celebrates the decline of the American worker

Somehow my e-mail address ended up on the list for the (anti-)American Family Association. Their most recent email touts a 15 month long boycott by the organization as one of the main reasons for a drop in sales at Ford. The reason for the boycott? Ford is apparently "a leading corporate promoter of homosexual marriage and the homosexual agenda." I've never been quite clear as to what the "homosexual agenda" is and the black-and-white world view email from the anti-American Family Association fails to go into details. But last I checked, the majority of U.S. autoworkers 1)Are not homosexual, and 2)have families. So why would someone against the "homosexual agenda" and supposedly pro-American family want to launch a campaign that would take their jobs away? Apparently what caused the outrage is a handful of ads Ford has run mostly in popular gay publications and mostly overseas (I've put the ads at the end of this article).

The crux of the email seems to ignore a basic understanding of "supply and demand" as well as the unwillingness of Ford to adopt innovation. The organization touts the drop in Ford's sales by 6.8 percent in May as proof that their boycott is working. The main argument is that the other four major car companies have watched their sales increase (Honda, Toyota, GM, Chrysler). However, they forgot to mention that they are also boycotting Toyota and that the Asian car maker's sales are skyrocketing - in fact, the email celebrates Toyota's sales simply because they blow Ford out of the water. According to the AFA's own email Toyota is up by 14 percent.

Not surprisingly the email is fairly vague on other significant economic impactors to Ford's sales, probably because the group also doesn't believe in climate change, so they probably don't understand that the average American could possibly be avoiding Ford because of lack of fuel efficient options. When the National Association of Evangelicals attempted to launch a campaign to encourage evangelicals to help stop climate change, the AFA stepped up with Focus on the Family to crush the campaign. Anything to move the rapture along, no? It must tear AFA members up inside knowing that the other companies tout climate change as a reason to buy their vehicles and Ford has been a slow adopter. In a sense, by not buying Ford and supporting the companies with more hybrid options they are perpetuating the "theory" of climate change. Maybe the AFA should start a car company that sells only SUVs?

Back to Ford's sales. One of the primary facts they ignore is a new attitude in America regarding hybrids and Toyota pretty much has that market cornered with 80 percent of all U.S. hybrid sales. I believe most Americans would prefer to buy American, but they just don't have the options. Prius sales nearly tripled last month (more than 24,000 sold in May) over the same time last year. GM has also finally gotten on the ball with more fuel efficient vehicles - just in time for skyrocketing gas prices. Most of GM's sale increases have been in "light" vehicles including the hybrid Saturn Aura and the Chevrolet Silverado.

Ford is having a helluva time marketing the hybrid Ford Escape SUV. The main problem according to the Deseret News is, "A buyer considering other hybrids, such as the Toyota Camry sedan and Ford Escape SUV, can usually stroll across a dealer's showroom and see a non-hybrid model of the same vehicle for $3,000 to $5,000 less before any incentives, a gap that isn't always overcome by the hybrid's fuel savings.

'You can't help but see how much less you'd be paying for what looks like the identical vehicle, and it invites comparison,' Libby said. 'Long term, the premiums should decline, and it should be less of an issue.'"

GM offers two hybrids and is promising four more by the end of the year, while Ford only has the one - in the United States. It isn't that Ford can't make more fuel efficient cars in the United States, they just choose not to. In Europe they are winning accolades with the launch of the Ford Focus FFV (Flexi-Fuel Vehicle). The FFV has won the Swedish Association of Green Motorists top honor along with Fiat. The main issue is the vehicle is a biofuel vehicle and the United States as a whole has been slow to adopt.

In the United States, Ford has been gut wrenchingly slow to turn away from gas guzzlers and adopt while GM can thank their quirky and always innovative Saturn division for having a fast turn around. As for Toyota, that company expects to sell 150,000 Priuses this year, while Ford expects to sell a underwhelming 20,000 hybrids.

That said, how can the AFA gloat while American jobs are lost? If the AFA is really as powerful as it claims to be and really cares about America, which I severely doubt, then they would be out there pushing supporters to buy American while pushing Ford to change the way they make cars, not the way they market them. Stand up for our workers, don't kick stab them in the back.

Even if you are homophobic and are against the so-called "homosexual agenda," do you really think a handful of ads that have run in mostly gay magazines are going to undermine the foundation of the United States (I mean, if you believe the foundation of the United States includes discrimination)? If anything is going to undermine the United States it is the loss of jobs from a car company that is afraid to grasp innovation in order to cut back on our dependence on fossil fuels and keep more money in our pockets. What supporters of the AFA should be asking is, 1) if their leaders are so anti-"homosexual agenda," why are they reading gay magazines in the first place? 2) What do they have against the U.S. autoworker? And 3) how can you pray for the loss of U.S. jobs while saying you are pro-family? WWJD, indeed.

The email:

The drop came as sales for GM [up 9.6%], Chrysler [up 4.3%] and Toyota [up 14%] were all increasing. Of the big four, only Ford showed a loss.

AFA has identified Ford as a leading corporate promoter of homosexual marriage and the homosexual agenda. For more information on Ford’s promotion of the homosexual lifestyle, click here. More than 700,000 individuals have signed the Boycott Ford Pledge.