There are small evils and big ones. Focus on the Family is, in my view, a big one. Besides promoting child-beating as a method of keeping your little darlings in line, they are the most homophobic people on the planet. Dobson (even though he is no longer affiliated with them in an official capacity) made a point out of doing everything he could possibly do to make gays and lesbians look like Satan.

The newest FotF "concern" is that gay activist groups are "bullying" schoolchildren:

As kids head back to school, conservative Christian media ministry Focus on the Family perceives a bully on the playground: national gay-advocacy groups.

School officials allow these outside groups to introduce policies, curriculum and library books under the guise of diversity, safety or bullying-prevention initiatives, said Focus on the Family education expert Candi Cushman.

"We feel more and more that activists are being deceptive in using anti-bullying rhetoric to introduce their viewpoints, while the viewpoint of Christian students and parents are increasingly belittled," Cushman said.

Public schools increasingly convey that homosexuality is normal and should be accepted, Cushman said, while opposing viewpoints by conservative Christians are portrayed as bigotry.

In case you haven't seen what happens when children are taught that homosexuality isn't normal and shouldn't be accepted, let me introduce you to the story of Lawrence King.

Lawrence (or Larry, as he was known) was my daughter's age and attended a middle school not far from hers. Larry was struggling with his sexual identity. He knew he was different, thought he was gay, and was experimenting with different looks that meshed with where he was internally. By all accounts, he was a friendly sort, didn't pick fights with people and had some family problems that had landed him a placement with Casa Pacifica.

Brandon McInerney attended the same school as Larry King. They were in the same grade, had the same homeroom classes. Brandon McInerney had no struggles with his sexuality. He was straight, macho, and came from a family of gun owners and "real men."

On February 13, 2008, Brandon McInerney put a gun in his backpack. He walked to school the way he always did, arrived at his first period class and told a classmate it would be the last day Larry King would spend on earth. When the bell rang, Brandon headed to the computer lab, where the following took place:

Brandon picked up his backpack, headed over to the computer lab, walked into the room, went straight to Larry King, where he placed the muzzle of his gun to Larry’s head and pulled the trigger, execution-style. Then he pulled back the gun and fired into Larry’s back one more time just for good measure before he took off running as fast as he could. Brandon is tall and fast, so he was able to get out of the room and off campus before anyone really realized what had just happened.

Now, this happened at the time that: a) the petition was being circulated in churches to put proposition 8 on the November ballot; and b) an organization called "SaveOurKids.net" was circulating a petition against SB 877, which broadened the protected class definition in California for non-discrimination laws to include sexual orientation.

SaveOurKids.net was a joint effort by Focus on the Family and the LaHaye bullies to get enough signatures on a petition to "protect the children" by allowing discrimination against gays and lesbians on California school campuses. Or at least, that's what they said. It was really just a "right wing freakout".

This is what happens when the fires of homophobia are stirred. Children are assassinated in cold blood by classmates, threatened by the sexuality and the messages they get from organizations like Focus on the Family. When those fires are stoked up too high, 14-year old boys take guns to school, walk up to classmates, and put two bullets in the back of their heads.

Tell me again. Who is the bully here?

Postscript: Brandon McInerney is now finally on trial, after delaying as much as possible for the past two years. When the District Attorney announced the intention to try Brandon as an adult, there was a huge outcry from the community. Yep, that's right. A cold-blooded murdering kid got more sympathy than the victim. This is also what homophobia brings. Sympathy for murder, in cold blood.