(Daily Signal)—When the Southern Poverty Law Center put Focus on the Family on its “hate map,” listing the conservative Christian nonprofit alongside chapters of the Ku Klux Klan, it made life a bit tougher, but the Christian group had already faced so many “cancel culture” attacks, it was ready for the blowback.
“We are Christians, we’re commanded to love people that don’t think the way we think, we’re commanded to endure evil patiently, which I feel that this is one of these exercises,” Focus on the Family President Jim Daly told The Daily Signal.
The SPLC, which gained its reputation for suing Klan groups into bankruptcy in the 1980s but now puts mainstream conservative and Christian groups on the “hate map” with Klan chapters, branded Focus on the Family an “anti-LGBTQ+ hate group” last month. As I noted in my book, “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center,” the SPLC claims America is more hateful than it actually is, partly to raise money and partly to silence its political opponents.
The SPLC started putting conservative Christian groups on the “hate map” in 2010, leading to accusations that it is anti-Christian. The SPLC had a section on its website calling this a “major misconception” and stating that it does not put organizations on that “hate map” just because they oppose same-sex marriage. As evidence, the SPLC noted that it did not put Focus on the Family on the “hate map.” The language addressing the “major misconception” has since disappeared from its website.
For years, the SPLC claimed it was a “major misconception” that “the SPLC considers opposition to same-sex marriage or the belief that being LGBTQ+ is a sin as the sole basis for the hate group label.”
What’s the evidence against this “misconception,” according to the SPLC? You… pic.twitter.com/iBZdXl3MNQ
— Tyler O’Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) June 11, 2025
Daly noted that the “hate map” inspired a 2012 terrorist attack at the Family Research Council, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that spun off from Focus on the Family. While a security professional foiled the attack, the terrorist later told the FBI he targeted the council using the “hate map.” The SPLC condemned the attack but has kept the council on the map ever since.
“I think what they’re trying to do is quite evil and quite horrible to the Christian community particularly, but also to the United States in general,” Daly told The Daily Signal.
He said he read the SPLC’s reasons for putting Focus on the “hate map.”
“Basically, they’re saying Focus on the Family is a Christian, biblically based group that thinks marriage should be between a man and a woman,” he noted.
“As far as the SPLC and their list, the day after they announced us being on the list, we had about 15 protesters on the property, not on the sidewalk, outside the door of Focus’ entrance,” Daly recalled. He said the protesters were “kind of harassing our staff as they come into work.”
“I think that directly is at the lap or the feet of the SPLC,” he said.
Focus on the Family already receives threats and hate mail, but after the SPLC attack, “those instances are up slightly.”
Many companies use the SPLC’s “hate map” to screen potential clients and to “cancel” business relationships. While Daly expressed concern about this, he noted that many companies had already “deplatformed” his nonprofit.
“Focus was already experiencing the deplatforming,” he noted. “We have had definite problems with insurance, technology, and banking.”
Focus on the Family bought insurance from a U.K.-based company for 48 years and never filed a claim. “All they’ve done is taken money from us,” Daly explained. “They wrote me a letter and said, because of your position, Mr. Daly, on the definition of marriage, we can no longer underwrite you.”
“I thought, ‘You know what, I can’t wait until your actuary guys have a chitchat with you,’” the president said, wryly. “We’re the ones paying the bills for the rest of the people that are blowing it.”
Yet the “cancel culture” is not limited to insurance.
“We’ve had seven contracts when technology companies have signed an agreement to do work with us, midway through they’ve said, ‘Now that we know you don’t support gay marriage, we can’t work for you,’” he recalled. “We haven’t sued them like [Christian baker] Jack Phillips was sued by the [Colorado Civil Rights] Commission” for refusing to bake a custom cake to celebrate a same-sex marriage.
Daly said Focus on the Family just found other companies to do business with instead.
The Christian nonprofit won’t yield to cancel culture, he added.
“We’re gonna stand firm in the river of culture,” Daly pledged. “We’re not going to be moved by intimidation. We’re not going to be moved by the herd or cancel culture mentality.”
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