Tim Wildmon
AFA president
August 1995 – “Why do you do this?” is the question I have been asked many times by reporters and others concerning our work here at American Family Association. Some ask this questions in the “what right do you have to force your morals down my throat” vein. Others – sometimes fellow Christians – ask this question in a “you don’t really expect to change anything do you” sort of way.
When I began working at AFA in 1986, I was quick to take offense at questions like this. If I were on the phone I would snap back fairly quickly. Now, after nearly 10 years under this roof, I rarely get offended anymore. In 1986 I would read something negative in the newspaper about Dad or AFA and it would bother me greatly for days, sometimes weeks. Now, I just yawn and turn the page.
Why do I do what I do here at AFA? Well, life goes by quickly here on earth. The only real legacy we leave are our children. What kind of country am I going to leave to my children and grandchildren? Do I have a responsibility to them beyond food, clothing, shelter and education? Yes, I believe strongly that I do.
I believe the United States of America is the greatest country on the face of the earth and is worth preserving. But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist (I’ve never really met a rocket scientist but I’m sure they are smart people.) to see our country is in a moral mess. Drugs, crime, divorce, violence, disrespect for authority, abortion, sexually transmitted diseases, and on and on we could go.
Yes, we’ve always had social/cultural/ moral problems. But never, ever have we had so many that run so deep that are tearing at the very fabric that separates civilization from barbarism. And modern technology has nothing to do with the type of civility and barbarism I’m writing about here. As Charles Colson writes in his book Against the Night: “The barbarians of the new dark age are pleasant and articulate men and women. They carry briefcases, not spears. But their assault on culture is every bit as devastating as the barbarian invasion of Rome.”
So why do we do what we do here at AFA? Because we love God and want to honor Him by taking a stand for biblical righteousness (Matt. 5:10). Because we love America and don’t want to see her destroyed by the cancer of moral decline. And because we love our children and want to give them a country with some semblance of civility and morality, so that they too can enjoy all that is great about America. 
