Rebecca Davis
AFA Journal staff writer
January-February 2018 – It was a Sunday morning in 1982 when the late Dr. Adrian Rodgers announced to his Memphis congregation that a man from Tupelo, Mississippi, was coming to share about an organization he had started. Through the announcement, Mary Lib Stevenson and her husband were introduced to AFA founder Don Wildmon for the first time.
“[T]he only thing I remember is the humble man Don Wildmon speaking with passion about his organization and his desire to make a difference in our culture,” Stevenson told AFA Journal.
Inspired by Wildmon, the couple began their own activist efforts that led Stevenson to her present position as president of the Clay Family Policy Forum, a not-for-profit organization founded in 2006 that encourages a pro-family culture in Clay County, Florida.
Voter guide
The organization’s key initiative is to provide a survey-based voter guide of Clay County candidates that reveals “the values and the character of candidates to the voters,” Stevenson said.
CFPF informs voters in an effort “to encourage Christians to fulfill their civic duty in the election process,” she added. “Voters tend to vote in state and federal elections and oftentimes consider the local elections unimportant.”
The voter guide is compiled from an extensive list of questions that candidates voluntarily answer. The questions are hard-hitting and cause candidates to be forthcoming in their views on a number of issues ranging from marriage to sanctity of life to homosexuality to sex education.
Although candidates have no obligation to fill out the survey, completing it is almost expected in the conservative Green Cove Springs area.
“Clay Family Policy Forum has surveyed 117 candidates since 2006 and had 21 candidates who chose not to respond,” Stevenson explained. “Of those 21 non-respondents, only four have been elected.”
What began as 15,000 guides being delivered to 75 churches through a church liaison is now a high-quality professional publication with a most recent print volume of 25,000. For the first time last year, the guide was mailed to 10,000 super voter households. The guides are also distributed at the polls, and much of the content is available online at clayfamilypolicyforum.com.
Church involvement
The organization also hosts a pastors’ reception each election year just before the mid-August primaries. There, ministry leaders in the community become acquainted with the candidates, and the new voter guides are unveiled.
Involvement from churches and their leaders is key, especially since statistics show that only half of any congregation is voting. Hearing the statistics about the number of Christians who do not vote is what birthed a passion for voter activism within Stevenson.
How to begin
Her philosophy: “Start small, but just get started!” More than 30 years ago, Stevenson started by diligently mailing postcards to whatever company AFA was targeting that month.
“I recently pulled out the December 1995 AFA Journal regarding the Kmart Boycott to show my Sunday School class members to encourage them to join the Target Boycott and explain to them the difference that we could make if we all worked together,” Stevenson said.
She also emphasized that praying individually and corporately about specific activism efforts is of utmost importance. 
Effective activism per Mary Lib Stevenson
▶ Find a church liaison who can network with local pastors.
▶ Build relationships with church members who are willing to talk to their pastor about voter guide distribution within the church.
▶ Get to know church secretaries; they are the gatekeepers to the pastor.
▶ But most importantly, always remember: “Do not be afraid or dismayed, … for the battle is not yours but God’s” (II Chronicles 20:15).
