Chuck Hurley Fights ‘The Culture’ at Iowa Family Policy Center

The culture, more than the caucuses, is the focus of the Iowa Family Policy Center (IFPC), according to its president, Chuck Hurley. This seems to differ from other organizations such as the Iowa Christian Alliance, Concerned Women for America of Iowa, Iowa Right to Life Committee, or the Network of Iowa Christian Home School Educators that seek to galvanize socially conservative Christians for political aims. “Probably our major role is cultural in that we try to inform our listeners or readers as to the issues,” Hurley said in an interview with Iowa Independent. “We aren’t quite as pointedly political.”

The IFPC is “associated,” Hurley said, with Focus on the Family, a national organization that is highly influential among social conservatives. Focus on the Family’s website CitizenLink.org lists the IFPC as its Iowa family policy council but says, “These councils are independent entities with no corporate or financial relationship to each other or to Focus on the Family.”

Lobbying the Iowa legislature takes up about one-third of IFPC’s time, said Hurley, a former Republican state representative. A bit less than one-third of the time goes to working in the courts, he said, and “probably two-fifths doing stuff in the culture and churches and community groups.”

“We do a lot of pre-marital counseling,” Hurley said. “I preach and teach in churches,” as well as in seminars, before rotary clubs and on talk radio. “I call that in total, our cultural effort, versus … [work] in the court room or state legislature.”

Hurley said “a few thousand” people listen regularly to IFPC radio shows or read newsletters, but he calls them “supporters or friends” rather than “members.” IFPC probably reaches the most people by riding the radio waves of 26 different radio stations around the state, Hurley said. Most of these are Christian radio stations but not all. “I’m on Jan Mickelson’s with some frequency,” he said, and sometimes he appears on KCCI TV to rail against “the culture.”

What does “the culture” entail? With short bursts of breath in between, he went down the list: “”Homosexual bills that come before the legislature, homosexual advocacy in the media; the life issue, abortion, euthanasia, cloning, sanctity of life issues; marriage is a big one, no-fault divorce, pre-marital counseling, court room battles defending the definition of marriage; a lot of pre-marital counseling, a lot of post-marital counseling; parental involvement to get more engaged in children’s education, advocating parental choice in education … curriculum in schools; gambling issues; pornography and obscenity laws and the enforcement there of.”

The IFPC, unlike other socially conservative organizations, does not intend to play a large role in the caucuses. “It’s pretty limited,” Hurley said. “We might disseminate some information.”

The organization will not endorse a candidate, though Hurley, as a private citizen, has announced his support for Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback and leads Brownback’s “Faith and Family committee.” Hurley has known Brownback for more than 25 years, dating to when Brownback lead the Bible study at the Kansas law school Hurley attended. Hurley got to know him there at a “spiritual, moral level,” he said. “I trust him.” Hurley said Brownback “helped orphans and widows of Sudan before it was cool to do so. He’s the real deal, very smart, and I think he can handle the office.”

Hurley said former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s ties to Marriott, which makes millions of dollars off hotel pornography, and has been a recent griping point among social conservatives, could hurt his outreach to the influential caucus-going group. “I think that could become an issue with him for a certain segment of the caucus electorate,” he said. “I think that’s an 80 plus percent issue that people are fed up with.” But, he said, Romney could still make lemons out lemonade. “He might have some clout and influence” at Marriott, Hurley said, and if Romney could convince the company to “get out of that ghastly business,” it could be a coup for Romney.

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson has also seen his social conservative bona fides go under fire after news broke that he had once lobbied for an abortion rights organization. “If that turns out to be true, I definitely think that could be a major issue for some people,” Hurley said. “There are a lot of purists or really passionate people on the life issue. If they sense that they’re being duped…”

Hurley said it was hard to describe the relationship between the different social conservative organizations in the state, though they likely share many of same supporters. “I do think those ones you mentioned are pretty much in agreement philosophically,” he said. “They certainly work together with some frequency.” He noted that he had worked with Kim Lehman, who has directed the Concerned Women for America of Iowa and the Iowa Right to Life Committee, on issues like abortion and pornography over the last 18 years. And the IFPC joined with Concerned Women for America of Iowa, and the Iowa Christian Alliance to form an organization called Iowans Concerned About Judges. “There’s camaraderie at a minimum,” he said. “There’s active cooperation in certain cases.”