Abbreviation ADF Purpose Christian advocacy Founded 25 March 1993 Endowment 4.285 million USD Revenue 43.6 million USD | Legal status 501(c)(3) Chairman Chapman Cox Headquarters Scottsdale Motto For Faith, For Justice | |
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Formation March 25, 1993; 23 years ago (1993-03-25) Type Non-profit organization Founders Alan Sears, James Dobson, Larry Burkett, D. James Kennedy, Bill Bright Similar Family Research Council, American Center for Law & Ju, Focus on the Family, American Family Association, Freedom From Religion Profiles | ||
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF, formerly Alliance Defense Fund) is a 501(c)(3) American conservative Christian nonprofit organization with the stated goal of advocating, training, and funding on the three key issues of "religious freedom, sanctity of life, and marriage and family", The Southern Poverty Law Center has described the organization as "virulently anti-gay" and an anti-LGBT hate group.
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ADF supports the inclusion of invocations at public meetings and the use of religious displays (such as crosses and other religious monuments) on public lands and in public buildings. The ADF opposes abortion, and believes that healthcare workers have a right to decline participation in the performance of abortions and other practices an individual health worker finds morally objectionable. ADF opposes same-sex marriage and civil unions, as well as adoption by same-sex couples based on their belief that children are best raised by a married mother and father. ADF believes parents should be able to opt their children out of sex education in schools that run counter to a family's religious beliefs.
ADF states that it has "had various roles of significance" in thirty-eight wins before the United States Supreme Court, including such cases as Rosenberger v. University of Virginia, Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network of Western New York, and Boy Scouts of America v. Dale. ADF represented a litigant in Perry v. Schwarzenegger in which the Supreme Court ruling in effect allowed same-sex marriage to proceed in California.
On July 9, 2012, the Alliance Defense Fund changed its name to Alliance Defending Freedom. The name change was a strategic initiative designed to reflect the organization's shift in focus from funding allied attorneys to litigating cases.
Organization
ADF was incorporated in 1993 by Bill Bright (founder, Campus Crusade for Christ), Larry Burkett (founder, Crown Financial Ministries), James Dobson (founder, Focus on the Family), D. James Kennedy (founder, Coral Ridge Ministries), Marlin Maddoux (president, International Christian Media), and William Pew.
ADF's President, CEO, and General Counsel is Alan Sears. Sears was previously a Justice Department official under the administration of President Ronald Reagan, and has co-authored two books with Craig Osten: The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today and The ACLU vs. America: Exposing the Agenda to Redefine Moral Values.
The ADF is based in Scottsdale, Arizona. It has six branch offices, located in Sacramento, California; Lawrenceville, Georgia; Shreveport, Louisiana; Memphis, Tennessee; Washington, D.C., and Olathe, Kansas. In addition, the ADF Center for Academic Freedom is located in Nashville, Tennessee.
Major donors for the organization include the Covenant Foundation, the Bolthouse Foundation and the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation, whose vice president is Academi (formerly Blackwater Worldwide) founder Erik Prince.
Finances
The ADF reported a total revenue of $61.9 million for the year ending June 30, 2015, and net assets of $39.9 million. This compares with a budget of $9,000,000 in 1999.
Some of its funds come from the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation, the Bradley Foundation, the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation, the Covenant Foundation and the Bolthouse Fund, which affirms "that man was created by a direct act of God in His image, not from previously existing creatures, and that all of mankind sinned in Adam and Eve, the historical parents of the entire human race".
M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, created by Tektronix co-founder Melvin Jack Murdock, donated $375,000 to ADF in February 2016. The trust has given nearly $1 million to ADF in the past nine years.
Programs and initiatives
ADF's National Litigation Academy and Blackstone Legal Fellowship are aimed at training lawyers to pursue cases from a socially conservative perspective based on Christian ideals.
The National Litigation Academy brings together law school professionals, litigators, and constitutional lawyers for courses of study. Volunteer and allied attorneys are offered training in areas of law that relate to religious freedom, same-sex marriage, and pro-life issues. The training is provided at no charge, but each attorney pledges to spend 450 hours of pro bono time furthering ADF's mission by representing Christian organizations and individuals. ADF states that more than 1,200 attorneys have attended the National Litigation Academy with pro-bono service totaling more than $82 million to date.
The Blackstone Legal Fellowship is a nine-week summer internship program designed for Christian law students. Interns work closely with legal professionals and advocate a Conservative Christian worldview. According to ADF, the goal of the Blackstone Legal Fellowship is "to train a new generation of lawyers who will rise to positions of influence and leadership as legal scholars, litigators, judges, and perhaps even Supreme Court justices, and who will work to ensure that justice is carried out in America's courtrooms." More specifically, ADF states that the Blackstone Legal Fellowship purposes to "[e]quip Christian law students to engage the legal culture with biblical and natural law principles," to "[g]ive law students confidence that the foundation of law on which our country was established is rationally superior to any competing legal philosophy," and to "[p]rofoundly influence Christian law students to take their training and knowledge into positions of influence where they can bring about needed change in America's legal system."
The Center for Academic Freedom was established in 2006 and works to protect the right of students and teachers to freely express their religious beliefs.
Day of Truth
The Alliance Defense Fund states that it established the Day of Truth "to counter the promotion of the homosexual agenda and express an opposing viewpoint from a Christian perspective." The Day of Truth is held annually following the Day of Silence, which is organized by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.
The ADF claims that students who have attempted to speak against same-sex relationships and behavior have been censored or, in some cases, punished for their actions under campus hate-speech rules, such as Chase Harper, a high school student whose activism sparked the first Day of Truth. Harper was suspended for wearing a T-shirt that read "Be Ashamed" and "Our School Embraced What God Has Condemned," and on the back read, "Homosexuality is Shameful" and "Romans 1:27." The ADF filed an unsuccessful federal lawsuit against school officials on behalf of Harper, claiming his religious freedoms were violated. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Day of Truth was first organized in 2005. According to ADF, over 1,100 students in 350 schools participated in the first Day of Truth.
ADF announced that beginning in 2009, it had passed on its leadership role in the Day of Truth to an ex-gay organization, Exodus International, who has prepared the resources for the event. On October 6, Exodus International stated they will no longer be supporting or leading the Day of Truth.
On November 11, 2010, evangelical Christian organization Focus on the Family announced it had acquired the Day of Truth event and was renaming it to the Day of Dialogue.
Notable cases
The Alliance Defense Fund, working with other socially conservative organizations and Christian groups, as well as allied litigators, litigates cases involving religious freedom, abortion issues, and same-sex marriage.