Update: Thanks to Kim in the comments. The Huffington Post reported 2 hours ago that Tony Dungy has declined the position because of time commitments. This is what I get for putting off a blog post!

The rest of the post is below, since Obama still nominated the guy and that says something.

Original post: We posted quite a few times over two years ago on Bilerico (back when this site was only about Indiana) about how Colts coach Tony Dungy was a reactionary homophobe who was using the Colts name and imagery to raise money for local Focus on the Family affiliate Indiana Family Institute right when LGBT folks were fighting a possible marriage amendment in the legislature.

Well, anyway, he's apparently been nominated by Barack Obama to the advisory board of the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives. The council is a hot-bed for evangelical conservatives, and I was hoping for it to have more religious diversity on board.

While one could question his qualifications to help run federal agencies, he is a star, and that's, like, more important than knowing anything. Also, he's way popular in Indiana, so I'm guessing Barack wants to pull the Hoosier State again in 2012.

Either way, Dungy shouldn't be determining who gets money for various projects. He obviously doesn't believe much in even minimal safeguards in protecting freedom of religion or the separation of church and state:

"IFI is saying what the Lord says," Dungy said. "You can take that and make your decision on which way you want to be. I'm on the Lord's side."

The coach said his comments shouldn't be taken as gay bashing, but rather his views on the matter as he sees them from a perspective of faith.

"We're not anti- anything else. We're not trying to downgrade anyone else. But we're trying to promote the family -- family values the Lord's way," Dungy said.

And he'll be able to promote "the Lord's way" in a number of functions on the council:

  • The Office's top priority will be making community groups an integral part of our economic recovery and poverty a burden fewer have to bear when recovery is complete.
  • It will be one voice among several in the administration that will look at how we support women and children, address teenage pregnancy, and reduce the need for abortion.
  • The Office will strive to support fathers who stand by their families, which involves working to get young men off the streets and into well-paying jobs, and encouraging responsible fatherhood.
  • Finally, beyond American shores this Office will work with the National Security Council to foster interfaith dialogue with leaders and scholars around the world.

How his fave lobbyist organization views women, pregnancy, and childhood issues is below. If he agrees with even half of the items on that list, it's hard to imagine how he would make life better for others.

At least Tony can regale the other board members with football war stories. I have a hard time seeing any other qualifications he might have.

IFI's statement on the importance of marriage (there are no citations or proof of anything here, of course):

Why Is Marriage So Important?

Family

1. Marriage increases the likelihood that fathers and mothers have good relationships with their children.

2. Cohabitation is not the functional equivalent of marriage.

a. Couples who live together, on average, report relationships of lower quality than do married couples - with cohabitors reporting more conflict, more violence, and lower levels of satisfaction and commitment.

3. Growing up outside an intact marriage increases the likelihood that children will themselves divorce or become unwed parents.

4. Marriage is a virtually universal human institution.

5. Marriage, and a normative commitment to marriage, foster high-quality relationships between adults, as well as between parents and children.

a. By offering legal and normative support and direction to a relationship, by providing an expectation of sexual fidelity and lifelong commitment, and by furnishing adults a unique social status as spouses, marriage typically fosters better romantic and parental relationships than do alternatives to marriage.

6. Marriage has important biosocial consequences for adults and children.

a. Research strongly suggests that an intact, married household protects girls from premature sexual development and, consequently, teen pregnancy.

Economics

7. Divorce and unmarried childbearing increase poverty for both children and mothers.

8. Married couples seem to build more wealth on average than singles or cohabiting couples.

9. Marriage reduces poverty and material hardship for disadvantaged women and their children.

10. Minorities benefit economically from marriage.

a. Research suggests that black child poverty rates would be almost 20 percent lower than they currently are had the proportion of black children living in married families not fallen below 1970 levels.

11. Married men earn more money than do single men with similar education and job histories.

12. Parental divorce (or failure to marry) appears to increase children's risk of school failure.

13. Parental divorce reduces the likelihood that children will graduate from college and achieve high-status jobs.

Physical Health and Longevity

14. Children who live with their own two married parents enjoy better physical health, on average, than do children in other family forms.

15. Parental marriage is associated with a sharply lower risk of infant mortality.

16. Marriage is associated with reduced rates of alcohol and substance abuse for both adults and teens.

17. Married people, especially married men, have longer life expectancies than do otherwise similar singles.

18. Marriage is associated with better health and lower rates of injury, illness, and disability for both men and women.

19. Marriage seems to be associated with better health among minorities and the poor.

Mental Health and Emotional Well-Being

20. Children whose parents divorce have higher rates of psychological distress and mental illness.

a. When marital conflict is low, children suffer psychologically from divorce.

b. Currently, about two-thirds of U.S. divorces appear to be taking place among low-conflict spouses.

21. Divorce appears to increase significantly the risk of suicide.

a. Divorced men and women are more than twice as likely as their married counterparts to attempt suicide.

22. Married mothers have lower rates of depression than do single or cohabiting mothers.

Crime and Domestic Violence

23. Boys raised in single-parent families are more likely to engage in delinquent and criminal behavior.

24. Marriage appears to reduce the risk that adults will be either perpetrators or victims of crime.

a. Single and divorced women are almost ten times more likely than are wives to be raped, and about three times more likely to be victims of aggravated assault.

25. Married women appear to have a lower risk of experiencing domestic violence than do cohabiting or dating women.

a. One analysis of the National Survey of Families and Households found that cohabitors were over three times more likely than spouses to say that arguments became physical over the last year.

26. A child who is not living with his or her own two married parents is at greater risk for child abuse.

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