Tough times on the morality business front too, it seems.

Published reports in Colorado say that Focus on the Family, the conservative evangelical group founded and headed by Dr. James Dobson, is laying off about 200 of its employees.

It's the second time in recent months the influential group that does so much mailing it has its own ZIP code has released workers from its mountainside headquarters in Colorado Springs. The latest cuts leave the national organization with about 950 employees from a onetime high of some 1,500.

The cutbacks come after Focus, formerly headquartered in California until 1991, spent a reported half-million dollars to successfully support Proposition 8 in the Golden State, overturning a state court decision to allow same-sex marriages.

The support of Dobson, who speaks to millions in his daily broadcasts on some 3,000 domestic outlets and hundreds more abroad from the organization's in-house studio, is eagerly sought by conservative politicians.

After opposing John McCain in 2007 for restrictions on nonprofit political activities in his McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law and Rudy Giuliani for his abortion support, Dobson endorsed ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee late in the Republican primary season this year.

But faced with the choice of McCain or Democrat Barack Obama, Dobson eventually said he would personally support the Arizona senator because the Illinois senator posed such a threat to family values. Since Obama's victory, Dobson has worried online about the direction of the country.

Apparently, that support was insufficient as polling showed millions of religious regulars chose not to vote on Nov. 4.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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