THE HOPES AND DREAMS OF 25 FAITH-BASED HATE GROUPS
Dealing
With The Past To Combat The Future
In the Bring-It-On fashion of Pat Robertson during
his "700 Club" broadcasts, bloggers on religion and politics like
myself have to gird ourselves for the intense and the ridiculous. Unlike Pat
Robertson, however, we can't afford to be righteously arrogant in our dealings
with hypocrisy.
Nor can we afford to be senile.
It would be a relief to think that Robertson represents the "social
conservative" movement: a doddering mass of self-righteousness, hypocrisy
and delusions of grandeur bestowed by God on his way out of the mainstream, but
the moment we think that, we've lost a battle with a ferocious tiger that's
been wounded but is not dead by any means.
And when one looks at the ferocity of the Christian Right's attacks on
America's progressive society in 2012, any wounds inflicted on it come off as
minimal: from Pastor Dennis Terry's famous exhortation to "Get Out!"
to Pastor Gary Cass' canon law of "You can't be a Christian and not own a
gun," animosity and aggression were rampant. Pitiful cries of persecution
coming from broadcasters and news henchmen who fulminated against the building
of mosques, supported the idea of "legitimate rape", railed against
same-sex marriage as the downfall of civilization, and called President Obama
the Anti-Christ brought WTF's from the more rational and reality-based among
us.
But they persisted ... and grew.
The Hopes and Dreams of Hate Groups for 2013
The number of hate groups rose in 2013 as well as the number of crimes ... and
hate crime enablers. And to view the intensity - the worst of the worst - we
must look at some of the largest groups who concentrate on hating one of the
smaller groups in society: faith-based organizations and their fixation on all
things homosexual.
According to the SPLC, the follwing groups are faith-based anti-gay hate groups
The wikipedia entries are accompanied by their website links and - if
applicable - their own "One Man Hate Group" designee)
Abiding
Truth Ministries - One Man
Hate Group: Scott Lively. After building a minor reputation as a debunked
author/researcher, Lively's continuing focus is on inculcating foreign (nee
third world) countries. He was instrumental in Uganda's "Kill The
Gays" bill.
American
Family Association (website) - One Man Hate Group: Bryan Fischer.
The AFA is joined at the hip to the Family Research Council and between the
two, garner over $50 million of donations per year.
American
Vision (website)- One Man Hate Group: Gary
DeMar. While actively touting creation science (Adam and Eve cavorted
dinosaurs, Pebbles and Bam Bam), it also strenuously promotes the death penalty
for all homosexuals.
Americans
for Truth About Homosexuality (website) - One Man Hate Group: Matt
Barber - "Countering The Truth About The Homosexual Activist Agenda"
is a study in convoluted reasoning and interviews with other hate group
leaders. Another One Man Hate Group, Peter LaBarbera (aka "Porno
Pete"***) is linked to other organizations.
Bethesda
Christian Institute (website) - a pseudo intellectual church run by
a pseudo-rational thinker, J.V. Foster.
Chalcedon
Foundation (website) - For a while, the Chalcedon
Foundation was the most dreaded affiliate because of its Reconstructionist
views: absolutely no one wanted to be connected with it. Founded by the
"Father of Reconstructionism" R.J Rushdooney, the concept of
Reconstructionism (as Dominionism or Seven Mountains Theology) is making a
comeback and is probably the most theocratic organization of the bunch.
Dove
World Outreach Center (website) - One Man Hate Group: Terry Jones.
Too much publicity has been given to the Quran-burning pastor who was kicked
out of Germany by his own cult. And that publicity has been deadly.
Faithful
Word Baptist Church (website) - One Man Hate Group
(literally, since there are not many who follow his strip mall church): Pastor
Steven Anderson
Family
Research Council (website) - One Man Hate Group: Tony Perkins.
Even with ties to white separatists, this group (Founded by Focus On Th Family)
continues to influence politics with its anti-gay political hate-fest, the
Values Voters Summit.
Family
Research Institute (website) - One Man Hate Group:
Paul Cameron. Being debunked and kicked out of professional institutions on a
regular basis has never stopped Cameron from spreading the lies that are used
by the likes of the Family Research Council. E.G: according to Cameron, I'm a
medical wonder, since I'm over 65 and the average age of homosexuals (according
to his "research"**) is 42.
Heterosexuals
Organized for a Moral Environment (website) - Besides having the dumbest
looking website featuring animated doves, this organization with it's
"peace" symbolism is probably the most disingenuous.
Illinois
Family Institute (website) - Connected with American Family
Association and Americans For Truth About Homosexuality. Enough said.
Jewish
Political Action Committee (website - inactive)
MassResistance (website) - Rabidly
"pro-family" and rabidly anti-gay, their site takes an "American
Patriot" stance and looks to be connected with the Patriot Movement itself
but supposedly is not.
Mission:
America (website) - One Man Hate Group: Linda
Harvey. Harvey's main target is parents: children must not be exposed to homosexuality,
gay teachers oir doctors.
Parents
Action League (website) - Concentrating on the
Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota, the irony of which is not lost to
people following gay teen suicides and bullying.
National
Organization for Marriage (website)
- Along with American Family Association and One Million Moms (not designated a
hate group but decidedly anti-gay), this organization's campaign against
same-sex marriage has exploded with boycotts of retailers across the country.
It's boycott of Starbuck's attempted to go global but fizzled within the first
weeks.
Public
Advocate of the United States (website) - One Man Hate Group:
Eugene Delgaudio.
SaveCalifornia.com (website)
- This organization attempts to save California children from "Sexual
Brainwashing"
Sons
of Thundr (Faith Baptist Church) (website) - With graphic depictions of
aborted fetuses and auto accidents (due to alcoholism), you don't want to see
what they think of gays and AIDS.
Tom
Brown Ministries (website)
Traditional
Values Coalition (website) - One Man Hate Group: Lou
Sheldon. This organization and its founder can best be termed as the granddaddy
of anti-gay faith-based hate groups, going back to 1984. Although tarnished
considerably during the Jack Abramoff scandal, it continues to tout over 43,000
affiliated churches.
True
Light Pentecost Church (website)
- When you don't believe in Christmas or Easter and dress like a demented
Mennonite or Mother Theresa you're a cult.
United
Families International (website)
Westboro
Baptist Church (website) - One Man Hate Group: Fred
Phelps. Volumes have been written about the Man Addicted To Hate who catapulted
to the Hate Hall of Fame by picketing Matthew Sheperd's Funeral.
Windsor
Hills Baptist Church (website)
You
Can Run But You Cannot Hide International (website) - One Man Hate
Group: Bradlee Dean. When you play rock hate music at school assemblies under
the guise of "education" you are a fraud. When you state that
"on average, they [homosexuals] molest 117 people before they're found
out" you're a hate group.
As you can see, the groups run from the highly organized (Family Research
Council), to the hopelessly inept (Faithful Word Baptist Church*) and just
plain weird (True Light Pentecostal), but it is their intensity across the
board that provoke discrimination, violence, bullying and suicide. All in the
name of God, of course.
Reading their websites can be a confusing amalgam of
"we-hate-them-but-we-love-them" platitudes, faulty (if not outwardly
fake) research, junk science, cherry-picked quotes from Scripture, rages
against a "Homosexual Agenda" that never was, and ubiquitous family
portraits (sometimes unintentionally hilarious) Some tout a great deal of books
(inspirational or otherwise) by their pastors and spiritual leaders, few
published by any mainstream publisher.
But confusing as they might seem, the hopes and dreams of their hate groups can
be read between the lines:
Family
Research Council:
"To make matters worse, President Obama's
fiscal cliff deal would impose a marriage penalty on many American families.
For real, long term solutions to our nation's fiscal problems, the government
should not be working to further dissuade couples from getting married."
IOW (In other words): we're losing the battle for same-sex
marriage, but we will continue to attack Obama, if even from an oddly
tangential standpoint. Our 2013 goal will be to go after the legislators who
even think of giving in to the dreaded :homosexual agenda."
Linda Harvey,
Mission America:
"Our hearts should be torn apart by the schoolroom lies that
spawn callous disregard for God and each other, embedded in lessons on evolution ("you are just a higher animal"),
lessons covering every loony worldview except Western civilization ("white male
racism and patriarchy") and "anti-bullying" programs that are often hijacked
as vehicles for children to
embrace or applaud homosexuality."
IOW: Since schools are evil spawns of secular humanist homosexuals
our goal in 2013 (barring home schooling) is to root them out and sack them.
They are un-Christian and certainly un-American. Note: Linda Harvey has
said previously that there is no "proof that homosexuals exist."
Other One Man Hate
Groups To Watch Our For
Being
listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center has, for some, become
a badge of honor - and indication that they are true Christian Right zealots
and proud of it. And while some others have not made the grade, they are
certainly worth mentioning as One Man Hate Groups (links to related articles)
David Barton
Cindy Japan-Is Shaped like A Dragon Jacobs
Martin Ssempe , the "Eat Da
Poo-Poo Pastor"
Ken Hutcherson
Franklin Graham
San
Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone
Shattering Those Hopes
And Dreams: Back To The Wounded Tiger
Although
hate is on the rise, and enablers are on the attack, many people have been
lulled into a sense of complacency: after all, marriage equality is making
strides and given time ... The problem is that such complacency masks what is
currently happening and will continue: organizations such as the Family
Research Council will continue to demonize gays to the point of suicide (esp.
gay teen suicide****). Pastors will continue to make inane comments about
putting homosexuals behind barbed wire fences. Christian broadcasters will
continue to excoriate gays as Nazi-driven perverts.
And Pat
Robertson will continue to maintain that gays are demonically possessed .
The Hopes
and Dreams of Hate Groups are ready to reap the benefits of the intensity. But
they will be shattered if we counter that intensity with these weapons:
Vigilance
Determination Education Activism
*Pastor
Anderson's claim to fame, you will recall, was praying for the death of Obama.
In statements that would make a rock look intelligent, he said that homosexuals
recruit through molestation and should be executed.
**
Cameron still sticks to his research - which was garnered during the Age of
AIDS from reading gay newspaper obituaries.
***
LaBarbera is known to attend events such as the Folsom Street Fair in San
Francisco in order to take pictures and collect "material" (note: his
collection of sex toys is said to be FABULOUS!
****
Or as Dan Savage put it : "Tony Perkins
sits every day on a pile of dead gay kids ... and h,e calls himself a
Christian."
