"Dear Friends of Virginia Families,

The resilience of the American spirit is a source of considerable national pride. One nation, under God, we remain.

We have experienced from our homes a tragic event of incalculable proportion. At once been we have frozen in disbelief while also encouraging one another to stand firm in our conviction to resist the inevitable change forced upon us by the events of a single day.

We watch and read and listen and wait... to see what form this change will take. But in fear and confusion there is a quiet calm to be found in the opportunity to shape the nature of change. There is in this moment an opportunity for reflection, revival, and repentance. There must be in our response to this opportunity, a sense of urgency that this opportunity is one we can ill afford to squander.

The threat within remains unchanged.

Our national attention is turning slowly away from New York City and the Pentagon. Our interest now is in our response to Osama bin Laden. While he and his disciples continue to pose a clear and present danger to the American way of life, there remains unchanged within our neighborhoods the familiar threats to the integrity of our culture.

Abortions continue to be performed at the same alarming rate.

Homosexuality continues to redefine family.

Parents continue to lose authority over the education of their children.

Tax-and-spend liberals continue to have their way with our tax dollars.

Al Qaeda may be the visible threat to our national security, but secular individualism continues to be the silent killer from within. It is upon this threat that we must remain focused.

The Family Foundation of Virginia remains focused, and we continue to be actively engaged in the war for our culture.

The Family Foundation is on alert.

The Virginia General Assembly reconvenes in less than three months. For The Family Foundation and millions of pro-family Virginians, it is within the halls and chambers of state government that the real battles for the future of our children will be fought.

Although, like you, our attention has been riveted by the life-changing events of Septemberllth, we are intensely focused on the legislative agenda for2002.

We know that on January 7th, there will begin again, another well orchestrated effort to decriminalize sodomy.

Virginia is one of only a handful of states across the nation that views its sodomy laws as the only legal discriminator between traditional marriages and same-sex marriages. Witness the legislative debacle in Vermont, where domestic partnerships were granted equal legal status with traditional marriages shortly after the Vermont legislature eliminated the state's sodomy laws from the Vermont code.

Homosexual behavior is currently illegal in Virginia, and The Family Foundation will be fighting hard with just a few pro-family legislators to keep it that way.

"Virginians for Justice" stir controversy.

The e-mail alert The Family Foundation recently sent out across the state to announce our three Saturday morning citizen activism training seminars was intercepted by "Virginians for Justice" and, in an alert they sent out to their network, rewritten to distort our mission.

"Virginians for Justice" is our most combative opponent in the war we fight to preserve the sanctity of marriage. "Virginians for Justice" boldly promotes the gay-rights agenda and opposes us in the General Assembly, promoting decriminalization of sodomy, "domestic partner" benefits, hate crimes legislation, and same-sex marriages. The Family Foundation is their number one enemy.

One of the many interesting and angry calls we received from supporters of the gay-rights agenda, was from the Vice President of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), an organization we know now to be very supportive of and closely aligned with "Virginians for Justice." The call was made to invite The Family Foundation to meet alone with their small staff to discuss our varying views in the hope of achieving a greater level of understanding. We agreed to meet with them.

Then we discovered that NASW participated in an interview with The Blade, a Washington, D.C., based newspaper, advertised as the "nations oldest gay and lesbian newspaper" and well known as the voice for northern Virginia gay-rights activists. The interview was published in the September 28th edition of The Blade, and quoted the NASW vice president's intention to invite other gay-rights groups and The Blade to this meeting "to control the language of The Family Foundation."

The Family Foundation has no interest in participating in any effort to control our language, particularly on this issue. So we cancelled the meeting.

Furthermore, The Family Foundation will speak out at every opportunity against every effort to redefine family and marriage. The future of our Commonwealth and our Republic depends on strong families in which children are raised and educated by a father and mother committed to their marriage and to the future of their kids.

Because of their recent attacks against The Family Foundation, we are compelled to clarify our position on the issue of homosexuality and the special rights gay activists seek in the Virginia code. Our position stands in opposition to the behavior, not the individual. That position is provided in the paper enclosed with this letter.

Chemical abortion is just a vote away from law.

During the 2001 Virginia General Assembly Session, both the House of Delegates and the Senate passed legislation authorizing school nurses and pharmacists to dispense "emergency contraceptives" to schoolgirls without parental consent or a physician's prescription.

The prevailing school of thought was that such a pill would reduce abortions, when in fact it is abortion by another name ... chemical abortion.

The bill was sent to conference committee to work out the language when time ran out and the general assembly adjourned.

"Emergency contraceptives" legislation will be back in 2002 and The Family Foundation will be speaking out boldly and aggressively to return sanity to the vote for the health and safety of our children.

This will be a legislative battle of significant proportion, and we will be mobilizing parents for the fight. Be prepared to call, write, fax and e-mail your legislator to express your disdain for chemical abortion. We will alert you!

The budget debate will take up where it ended ... in confusion!

2002 is the year in which the Virginia General Assembly will draft a new budget. And in that process, The Family Foundation will review every tax and spending proposal to insure that the cost of government does not break the backs of Virginia families.

Every state taxpayer has the right to know how every tax dollar is spent and therefore should have a role in the decision. Appropriation and authorization of every tax dollar should reflect the will of the people. The Family Foundation will be taking that argument to the 2002 Virginia General Assembly.

What is the Jones Institute up to?!?

Last month we told you about the experiments that the Jones Institute in Norfolk is conducting with human embryos. The Governor's report will soon be published, but it is widely known that the Jones Institute is paying men and women to "harvest" human embryos for the exclusive purpose of extracting from them stem. cells to be used in medical research.

The question that remains unanswered asks whether our state tax dollars are being used to fund these experiments. The Governor's report should provide that answer.

We recently sent you The Family Foundation position paper on stem cell research. We support adult stem cell research but oppose embryonic stem cell research. To take a life to save a life (if that is possible through stem cell growth) is counter to the value our culture places on all human life.

We met with Secretary Rossiter.

Last month the Secretary of the Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, the Honorable Louis Rossiter, agreed to meet with The Family Foundation to discuss stem cell research in the context of the Governor's inquiry into the Jones Institute.

At that meeting we shared with Secretary Rossiter our position on embryonic stem cell research and were please to find that the Secretary agrees with us that human embryos are living human beings and therefore should not be destroyed. It is the hope of The Family Foundation that the Governor's report reflects that position.

Your support is crucial!

The Family Foundation cannot possibly accomplish all that we have pledged in this letter without your support. Please remember that we are the only pro-family organization that maintains a full-time presence on the public square and often we stand alone in the battle to promote and defendfor you ... faith, family and freedom.

Your financial support is urgently needed to ensure that we can maintain our presence during the upcoming 2002 Virginia Assembly Session.

"Virginia's for Justice" cannot be allowed to present their argument in the absence of the much more compelling argument The Family Foundation can present to defend traditional family values, common sense public policy, and a Commonwealth bathed in the blessings of our Creator.

Thank you for your prayers and your support.

God bless you and your family!!

Wayman R. Bishop, Executive Director