Last year when the Southern Poverty Law Center named several religious right groups as anti-gay hate groups, many of them united (with the Family Research Council – one of the groups named – leading the way) in a campaign with the semi- catchy title of Start Debating/Stop Hating.
Start Debating/Stop Hating was a way in which these groups attempted to deflect the much-deserved criticism given to them by SPLC for their usage of nasty propaganda and junk science against the gay community. They claimed that they were the victims of a “liberal conspiracy.”
Central to this campaign was a mission statement which claimed that FRC – and other groups – were under attack for merely defending “Judeo-Christian” values.
The mission statement was concise, to the point, and full of more pathos than an episode of Lassie. Therefore, I decided to print the mission statement with a little bit of tweaking. FRC’s statements are in bold. My additions are below each bold statement.:
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The surest sign one is losing a debate is to resort to character assassination.
” . . . hatred for men, which is very typical of a lesbian experience” – Kristi Hamrick, October 16, 1996, Family Research Council web site.
“Homosexuals say they don’t want the children, but boy they put a lot of energy into going after them.” – Robert Knight of the Family Research Council writing in a Focus on the Family newsletter, quoted by People for the American Way, “Hostile Climate,” 1997, p.15
“The homosexual rights movement has tried to distance itself from pedophilia, but only for public relations purposes.” – “Homosexual Activists Work to Normalize Sex With Boys,” FRC publication, July 1999
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a liberal fundraising machine whose tactics have been condemned by observers across the political spectrum, is doing just that. The group, which was once known for combating racial bigotry, is now attacking several groups that uphold Judeo-Christian moral views, including marriage as the union of a man and a woman. How does the SPLC attack? By labeling its opponents “hate groups.” No discussion. No consideration of the issues. No engagement. No debate.
“Militant homosexuality is fundamentally opposed to religion, family, and anything that presupposes a natural moral order, a transcendent God, or something else higher than ourselves. The activist homosexual agenda and worldview are fundamentally incompatible with Christianity or any form of true religion, because homosexuality is ultimately narcissism” – THE ASSAULT ON CHRISTIANS BY THE MILITANT HOMOSEXUAL MOVEMENT, Steven A. Schwalm, Family Research Council.
“In fact, most mothers are more concerned with protecting their children from homosexual activists, who insist on their supposed ‘right’ to propagandize young schoolchildren.” – Americans for Truth About Homosexuality press release, July 12, 1998
“Judge Walker has already decided this issue for himself, and has no business putting himself in a place where his own personal value judgments could be substituted for the express will of the people of California. He is Exhibit A as to why homosexuals should be disqualified from public office. Character is an important qualification for public service, and what an individual does in his private sexual life is a critical component of character. A man who ignores time-honored standards of sexual behavior simply cannot be trusted with the power of public office.” – American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer, August, 2010
These types of slanderous actions have been used against voters who signed petitions and voted for marriage amendments in all thirty states that have considered them,:
We use a lot of hyperbole and I think that’s always dangerous. You know, we say things like ‘Teachers will be forced to (teach same-sex marriage in schools)!’ ” he continues. “Well, that’s not a completely accurate statement and we all know it isn’t, you know?” – Marc Mutty, who led an effort in one of those states – Maine – to stop marriage equality.
as well as against the millions of Americans who identify with the Tea Party movement:
“I think fruits are decorative. Hang up where they can be seen and appreciated. Call Wyoming for display instructions.” – Tim Ravndal, president of the Montana Tea Party Movement making a “joke” about Matthew Shepard’s murder.
According to University of Washington professor Matt Barreto, who directed the poll, the Tea Party’s frustration with Washington “is going hand in hand with a frustration and opposition to racial and ethnic minorities and gays and lesbians.” – More Than Half Of Tea Party Supporters Say Gays And Lesbians Have Too Much Political Power, The Huffington Post, June 2, 2010
Some on the left have even impugned the Manhattan Declaration – which upholds the sanctity of life, the value of traditional marriage and the fundamental right to religious freedom – as an anti-gay document and have forced its removal from general communications networks:
. . .Were it to prove anything, it would prove far too much: the assumption that the legal status of one set of marriage relationships affects no other would not only argue for same sex partnerships; it could be asserted with equal validity for polyamorous partnerships, polygamous households, even adult brothers, sisters, or brothers and sisters living in incestuous relationships.
. . . the rights of parents are abused as family life and sex education programs in schools are used to teach children that an enlightened understanding recognizes as “marriages” sexual partnerships that many parents believe are intrinsically non-marital and immoral. – snippets of the Manhattan Declaration.
This is intolerance pure and simple. Elements of the radical Left are trying to shut down informed discussion of policy issues that are being considered by Congress, legislatures, and the courts.
Christian homophobes have misused my writings on the biology of homosexuality, particularly “Gay Genes, Revisited,” published in Scientific American in November 1995. –John Horgan, a science journalist and Director of the Center for Science Writings at the Stevens Institute of Technology, August 2010
” . . .our research is being used by select groups in US and Finland to suggest that gay and bisexual men live an unhealthy lifestyle that is destructive to themselves and to others. These homophobic groups appear more interested in restricting the human rights of gay and bisexuals rather than promoting their health and well being. ” – Robert S Hogg, Steffanie A Strathdee, Kevin JP Craib, Michael V O’shaughnessy, Julio Montaner, and Martin T Schechter, International Journal of Epidemiology, December 2001
Tell the radical left to stop spreading hateful rhetoric attacking individuals merely for expressing ideas with which they disagree. Our debates can and must remain civil – but they must never be suppressed through personal assaults that aim only to malign an opponents character.
“How long before married people answer the dictators thus: Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage, and help me raise my children in a society where they will expect to marry in their turn. […] American government cannot fight against marriage and hope to endure. If the Constitution is defined in such a way as to destroy the privileged position of marriage, it is that insane Constitution, not marriage, that will die.” – National Organization for Marriage board member Orson Scott Card, April 2009
“You’ve got these Mujaheddin on the battlefield setting out these syringes with the HIV virus in it as a way to carry out terrorism.This is exactly what happens when two males have sex with one another. If one of them is HIV Positive, then it’s just like injecting his partner with a needle with HIV. That’s domestic terrorism. I don’t know what else you’d call it.” – American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer, September, 2010
We, the undersigned, stand in solidarity with
Family Research Council – “This has moved from cultural terrorism to corporate terrorism. That’s what this is. Now, back in the 80’s and early 90’s I worked with the state department in anti-terrorism and we trained about fifty different countries in defending against terrorism, and it’s, at it’s base, what terrorism is, it’s a strike against the general populace simply to spread fear and intimidation so that they can disrupt and destabilize the system of government. That’s what the homosexuals are doing here to the legal system.” – FRC president Tony Perkins, 2011
American Family Association – “Hitler recruited around him homosexuals to make up his Stormtroopers, they were his enforcers, they were his thugs. And Hitler discovered that he could not get straight soldiers to be savage and brutal and vicious enough to carry out his orders, but that homosexual solders basically had no limits and the savagery and brutality they were willing to inflict on whomever Hitler sent them after.”- American Family Association’s Bryan Fisher, May 2010
Concerned Women of America – “Do you believe school children as young as 13 should be exposed to explicit, detailed discussions and instructions on homosexual practices (including sodomy) as are being conducted by homosexual teachers and activists right now?” – March 2009
National Organization for Marriage – “When you knock over a core pillar of society like marriage, and then try to redefine Biblical views of marriage as bigotry, there will be consequences. Will one of the consequences be a serious push to normalize pedophilia?” – NOM president Brian Brown, 2011
Liberty Counsel – “one man violently cramming his penis into another man’s lower intestine and calling it ‘love.’” – Liberty Counsel member Matt Barber describing gay relationships, 2009
and other pro-family organizations
These groups (who were called out by SPLC) include:
Traditional Values Coalition — “Reverend Louis Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition has come out in favor of quarantining AIDS patients in what he calls ‘cities of refuge.’ ” – Mark E. Pietrzyk, News-Telegraph, March 10, 1995
Family Research Institute — “Untrammeled homosexuality can take over and destroy a social system. If you isolate sexuality as something solely for one’s own personal amusement, and all you want is the most satisfying orgasm you can get- and that is what homosexuality seems to be-then homosexuality seems too powerful to resist. The evidence is that men do a better job on men and women on women, if all you are looking for is orgasm.” – Family Research Institute head Paul Cameron, Rolling Stone, March 18, 1999
Addendum about Paul Cameron: “Dr. Paul Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented sociological research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism” – American Sociological Association, 1985
“The Canadian Psychological Association takes the position that Dr. Paul Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism.” – The Canadian Psychological Association, 1996
Faithful Baptist Church – “I do hate homosexuals and if hating homosexuals makes our church a hate group then that’s what we are.” – Steven Anderson, pastor at Faithful Baptist Church, December 2010.
Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment – ” . . .while having separate barracks for homosexuals and heterosexuals would help solve the problem of homosexuals ogling or sexually harassing heterosexuals, it would probably exacerbate the problem of homosexuals ogling or sexually harassing each other since they are sexually attracted to each other and they would be confined in close quarters. Oddly enough, in order to ameliorate that problem it would make some sense to mix male homosexuals with lesbians in the same barracks because they do not sexually attract each other. This mixing would reduce the amount of sexual desire or tension in homosexual barracks. ” – statement on the group’s web page
that are working to protect and promote natural marriage and family. We support the vigorous but responsible exercise of the First Amendment rights of free speech and religious liberty that are the birthright of all Americans.
All in all, I think my tweaking makes the Family Research Council statement better? What do you think?
Family Research Council statement needs a little ‘editing’