By Allie Martin and Jody Brown
July 19, 2002

(AgapePress) - An official with the American Family Association says Big Brothers Big Sisters of America needs to hear from people who are upset that the organization will include active homosexuals as volunteers and mentors to children.

While BBBSA officials say its "non-discrimination" policy has been around for years, a new mandate from the group's national board of directors requires local agency directors to match homosexuals with their children -- or risk losing affiliation. Effective July 1, 2002, all 500 local BBBSA affiliates are required to permit homosexuals to be mentors to children, many of whom are from single-parent homes. [See Related Article]

Pro-family groups like Focus on the Family and Concerned Women for America have been openly critical of the policy move, saying in light of the ongoing sex-abuse scandal among Catholic priests that it is both "reckless" and "irresponsible." Now, the Internet-based activist groups OneMillionMoms.com and OneMillionDads.com -- sponsored by the American Family Association -- are encouraging their members to e-mail statements of protest to Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Buddy Smith is executive assistant with the Mississippi-based AFA. Smith says the decision is an another example of political correctness at the expense of children's safety.

"One just has to consider what the Catholic Church is going through, and what many surveys are now indicating about the very dangerous activity that these homosexual men engage in," Smith says. "They prey upon young children, and young boys are particularly the target."

Smith believes the decision clearly is not in the best interest of children. "Beyond the risk of putting them in harm's way, with regard to being molested, I think there's the practical side of this as well," he explains. "Here we have fatherless boys, and now they're going to place a homosexual in front of them who is not a father, [perhaps] never been a father -- and so it is just a very impractical move."

"Obviously it has 'politically correct' written all over it. It's politics."

In an online statement to their members, OneMillionMoms.com and OneMillionDads.com also allude to the ongoing scandal in the Catholic Church, saying it is "ironic" that the mentoring agency is mandating that homosexuals be allowed in a position of trust and authority, while at the very same time the Catholic Church is taking "great strides" to keep homosexuals away from children.

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