I Had a Vision, God Had a Plan: A Memoir
by Don Wildmon

Not until he was 39 years old did Don Wildmon begin to build the American Family Association (AFA). He felt "constrained" as a Methodist pastor, certain that God had other plans for him. AFA is a front-line network created to fight the "culture wars" before most even knew a battle was looming. AFA consists of a monthly journal, hundreds of radio stations, a news service, OneMillionMoms.com, and more.

One evening in 1976, failing to find a decent television show for his family to watch on any of the three channels then available, Wildmon told his children to turn off the TV. Later pondering the negative impact of television on society, he was inspired to launch "Turn the Television Off Week" (TTOW). Wildmon persevered until the Associated Press picked up the story.

Soon after TTOW, Wildmon founded the precursor of AFA. He accepted speaking engagements to promote his conservative Christian viewpoint that society was debased by popular culture and secular humanism. He debated liberals and endured withering criticism; he honed his skills, thickened his skin, and became adept at refuting opposing arguments. By the time he began appearing on major media, like the Phil Donahue TV talk show, he was prepared and could hold his own on any turf.

At first AFA attempted to win support from churches, but was often faced with the "silence and apathy" of mainstream Christianity on social issues. Instead, the American Family Association reached, and eventually mobilized individual Christians.

AFA gave companies every chance to change their ways before resorting to boycotts. The young organization had run-ins about over-the-counter sales of porn magazines and inappropriate television shows. (Imagine Mighty Mouse snorting cocaine on morning cartoons three times before CBS was forced to back down.)

Always a good steward of donations, over 90% of which still come in amounts of $25 or less at a time, AFA had $3 million in the bank when presented with the opportunity to expand into radio stations. A woman once told Don Wildmon that she could see "he was not in it for the money." When he asked her how she could tell, she said that when he knelt for prayer at the altar she could see the holes in the soles of his shoes.

Wildmon's memoir, written along with his brother, is a look at a humble gentleman from Mississippi, who one columnist described as sincere, smart, and "right more often than not."

(American Family Association, 2013, 225 pps., $24.95)