AFA founder Don Wildmon resigns as chairman
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Rev. Don Wildmon has resigned as chairman of the American Family Association, a Christian political movement he founded that now boasts millions of followers in a fight against what it considers indecency.
Wildmon, 72, said Wednesday his resignation follows months of health problems, including hospitalizations for treatment of encephalitis, which he got from a mosquito bite, and cancer on his left eye.
Wildmon told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that his son, Tim, is expected to lead the ministry. Don Wildmon said he will continue to work at AFA, but not in a leadership role.
"I just figured the time has come. I'm still in rehab learning to walk again. My mind is not working the way it used to, if it ever did," he said with a laugh.
Wildmon, a retired Methodist minister, founded the group in 1977 in his Tupelo home as the National Federation for Decency, promoting family values and waging boycotts to combat what it deemed pornography and violence on television and in magazines.
Anti-gay, anti-porn, anti-freedom of speech, and usually on hand to claim it was the poor Christians who whose voices were left out of debates. Given what is said about his health, I believe in his retirement the way I don't really believe in James Dobson's retirement from Focus on the Family. Both have left progeny to carry out the business of their groups in their stead, but I think these things tend to coalesce around singular personalities.
I'm kind of saying it's nice to see them go, but haven't hit upon an elegant way of saying it. So, there, I said it.
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