For decades, the Family Research Council has — for ideological reasons — used various backdoor methods to place American couples at increased risk for untimely pregnancy and abortion.
One such method was a Bush Administration health-care “conscience” clause which allowed ideologically biased health-care workers to violate the ethical standards of their profession — and their employer — by withholding information and services that would give patients alternatives to pregnancy and abortion.
FRC, a cheerleader for that denial-of-service clause, believed that the amorality or immorality of a health-care worker — rationalized with flimsy references to religion — should trump the ability of a patient to make fully informed decisions.
The Obama administration is moving swiftly to stop FRC’s government-backed attack against patient education and informed decisionmaking. (Read More)
Ted Haggard shamed in gay sex/meth scandal. James Dobson gives up his throne.
These are just a few of the headlines that have come from the little town of Colorado Springs in the past couple of years.
How did this sleepy, conservative town become an evangelical Mecca?
“This Beautiful City”, a brilliantly executed and engaging play, answers this question. It takes you back to the 1980′s when Colorado Springs tried to attract new businesses through tax breaks. Focus on the Family moved from Southern California and dozens of evangelical organizations followed, transforming the town. Ted Haggard’s New Life Church was formed with the goal of religious revival in Colorado Springs.
I went to see the production in New York City’s Vinyard Theatre (108 East 15th Street) this week. I give it two thumps up (too bad I don’t have a third hand) and highly recommend it. This Beautiful City was timely, terrific and thought provoking.
To write the script, The Civilians, a New York theater group, actually ventured to Colorado Springs to interview locals. This resulted in writers Steven Cosson and Jim Lewis (music) presenting realistic, eye-opening dialogue and songs. The acting was superb and led to a boisterous standing ovation.
If you live in New York City or may be visiting, inquire with Wayne Besen about the Truth Wins Out discount.
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3. Visit the box office at 108 East 15th Street Tue 1-7pm, Wed-Sat 1-8pm, Sun 1pm-3pm and mention code JTI40TBC
*Conditions: Ticket discount valid for all performances through 3/15/09. Some blackout dates apply. Phone and online orders are subject to regular service charges. This offer is not valid on previously purchased tickets, is subject to availability and may be revoked at any time. Offer Expires 03/15/2009.
The Family Research Council on Feb. 26 sent out an e-mail to constituents which contended that penalties for felony violence threaten religious liberty.
The enactment of so-called “hate crimes” legislation is a long-stated objective of the homosexual agenda. What this legislation does is lay the legal foundation and framework for investigating, prosecuting and persecuting pastors, business owners, and anyone else whose words and actions reflect their faith.
The act would establish a new FEDERAL offense for so-called “hate crimes” and add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as specially protected classes. It will mandate a separate federal criminal prosecution for state offenses.
FRC sidesteps a basic fact: Existing hate-crime laws punish felony violence — murder, rape, and severe battery — not speech. Adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the existing laws merely ensures that such violence won’t be ignored or treated less harshly by local authorities.
Why does FRC, year after year, defend a special right to felony violence against gay and transgender persons? Perhaps because its constituency of far-right pastors considers bullying and incitement to violence by far-right Christians to be valid forms of religious expression against the religious and social freedom of others.
FRC adds that punishment of antigay felony violence is equivalent to punishment of “thought crime.” FRC concludes by asking donors to sign a worthless online “petition” which tells signers that they are fighting hate crimes — even as they exempt antigay and anti-transgender felony violence from full prosecution under existing hate-crime laws which already protect other at-risk demographics.
Sign our Petition TODAY to say that equal protection under the law means equal protection for ALL.
FRC seems to reinterpret the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution so that it guarantees “equal protection” only to those persons who continue to be excused by prejudiced law-enforcement agencies for acts of systematic violence against gay people.
Despite what some prooftexted Bible verses may claim, felony violence is never a legitimate form of religious “speech” in civilized society. Furthermore, it is the victims of felony violence — not the perpetrators — who are denied religious liberty.
For FRC’s culture-war constituency, bullying and incitement to violence against entire sectors of the population remain necessary tools in their war against religious and social freedom and individuality.
The Fairness Doctrine is a defunct federal policy which required that federally licensed users of the publicly owned airwaves allow diverse voices to air their perspectives on public property. The doctrine was phased out as cable TV and the Internet greatly broadened opportunities for expression beyond old-fashioned radio and TV.
The intent of the doctrine was to maximize free speech and minimize the role that costly broadcast infrastructure plays in silencing perspectives which aren’t supported by the executives of multibillion-dollar media companies.
To Focus on the Family Action, however, the expression of diverse opinion on public property is a form of “censorship”. Focus seems to suggest that federally owned airwaves should be wholly controlled by those lucky few who have millions of dollars in cash and billions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure at their disposal.
Limiting media access to large companies, according to Focus, preserves free speech. Granting diverse taxpayers a voice on government-owned airwaves, Focus says, is “censorship.”
Valid arguments can be made for and against the Fairness Doctrine. But Focus takes the low road, projecting its own desire for suppression of free speech onto those who defend diverse, robust, and civil public conversation.
Truth Wins Out (TWO) expressed its hope today that James Dobson resigning as chairman of Focus on the Family would eventually lead the anti-gay organization in a new direction. Dobson has created an entire industry that distorts the lives of gay and lesbian people for political gain, says TWO.
“James Dobson’ legacy of lies has caused significant pain for gay and lesbian people and their families,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “We hope his departure will eventually signal a shift in tone and end Focus on the Family’ destructive attacks against gay and lesbian Americans.”
The Associated Press reports that Dobson, 72, will still be a powerful presence. He will continue to host his daily radio show, which reaches 1.5 million listeners in the United States. A Focus on the family spokesman also said he will “continue to speak out as he always has – a private citizen and not a representative of the organization he founded.”
“It is time for Focus on the Family to abandon the politics of polarization and choose moderate leaders who are not fixated on culture wars,” said Besen. “This would also be a good time for the organization to consider abandoning its failed “ex-gay’ ministry, Love Won Out.”
In Nov. 2008, Truth Wins Out protested Dobson’ selection into the Radio Hall of Fame. In the past two years, TWO has found eight researchers in three countries who say that Dobson has distorted their work. Videos and letters that these scientists sent to Dobson can be viewed at www.Respectmyresearch.org.
Dobson’ rhetoric is so divisive that former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) said that, “Dobson and his gang of thugs are real nasty bullies.” Focus on the Family co-founder Gil Alexander Moegerle said that, “I believe Dobson-style politics have been inept, simplistic, exclusionary, divisive and alarmingly sectarian…James Dobson’ political style has been one of relentlessly demonizing his adversaries.”
Dobson told The Daily Oklahoman on Oct. 23, 2004 that, “Homosexuals are not monogamous. They want to destroy the institution of marriage. It will destroy marriage. It will destroy the Earth.” Dobson also told the Daily Oklahoman that Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is “a God’ people hater. I don’t know if he hates God, but he hates God’s people.”
Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that defends gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people against anti-gay misinformation campaigns. TWO also counters the “ex-gay” industry and educates America about gay life.
James Dobson, co-founder of Focus on the Family, publicly announced his resignation today as chairperson of the organization which serves as flagship of the Christian Right’s culture-war network.
Dobson, who inaccurately presents himself to the public as FOTF’s sole founder, was quoted by AP (via SFgate.com):
One of the common errors of founder-presidents is to hold to the reins of leadership too long, thereby preventing the next generation from being prepared for executive authority. … Though letting go is difficult after three decades of intensive labor, it is the wise thing to do.
But Dobson, now 72, did hold the reins of leadership too long. His authoritarian management style and his personal animus against women and ethnic minorities drove away at least one organization co-founder, Gil Alexander Moegerle, and ensured that the organization would drift from its original pro-family mission into political trench warfare for the preservation of white male evangelical privilege in a nation of numerous and increasing faiths, denominations, and cultures.
Dobson filled the organization’s top ranks with like-minded managers and successors who would carry on his amoral, almost all-consuming, preoccupation with just two issues: abortion and homosexuality. Dobson’s obstinate and ignorant policy positions against sex education ensured that millions of unprepared women would unnecessarily become pregnant and seek abortion when underequipped religious and secular charities failed to offer viable alternatives. Dobson’s efforts to smear, silence and discriminate against gay students and young adults ensured that millions of persons struggling with their faith and sexual orientation would resort to unsafe and compulsive behavior instead of informed and disciplined management of their values and sexuality.
As Dobson’s health declined in recent years, his successors have gradually taken over for him — and Truth Wins Out will spotlight these successors in the coming days. Many of them are, unfortunately, as uncompassionate, partisan, amoral, and closed-minded as Dobson.
Dobson may be on his way out, but Focus on the Family may continue to threaten family values, accuracy in science, civil political discourse, and national unity for years to come.
Emproph, of the Genocide for Jesus blog, has transcribed and critiqued the hate ad that was released by the anti-family “Family Policy Council of West Virginia.”
Emproph points out that the state network of religious-rightist family-policy groups offers resources for pastors — assembled by a senior executive for the Family Research Council — which promote a “Biblical” definition of marriage that tolerates and excuses the Bible’s support for marital incest, polygamy, and murder.
Even before the latest ad emerged, it seemed that the Family Policy Council, FRC, and SBC were vying to be included in the SPLC’s growing list of hate groups — organizations whose beliefs or practices attack or malign an entire class of people.
But in the context of this ad and its related resources for pastors, it seems that gays are not the only enemy of ‘Biblical’ marriage; so are married couples that oppose incest, polygamy, and murder.
Hate groups are defined by the Southern Poverty Law Center as groups with beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people.
According to a new study by the SPLC, U.S. hate groups have grown in number by 54 percent since 2000, and in 2008 alone they grew in number by 4 percent.
Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School who studied the issue of hate crimes, said people in hate groups can feel paranoid about a specific group of people. This panic leads them to feel threatened, and they may react with violence, he said.
Alternately, individuals in a hate group may sometimes transplant their own personal rage onto a particular group that has no real connection to the cause of that rage, he said.
“Their thinking is very distorted,” Poussaint said.
It is an odd time to be gay in America. Whether you are celebrated or despised depends on where you stand at any given moment.
The most dramatic example of this dichotomy occurred on Sunday evening at the Academy Awards. To attend the glamorous event, one had to drive past anti-gay protesters shouting vile condemnations of homosexuality. Once inside, guests were treated to perhaps the most pro-gay Oscar extravaganza in history.
First, openly gay Dustin Lance Black won Best Original Screenplay for “Milk”. Black gave a moving acceptance speech to thunderous applause and told GLBT youth that they were “beautiful, wonderful creatures of value…no matter what anyone tells you.”
The icing on the cake was superstar Sean Penn’ remarks after winning an Oscar for his role as Harvey Milk.
“For those who saw the signs of hatred as our cars drove in tonight, and, I think that it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect and anticipate their great shame and the shame in their grandchildren’ eyes if they continue that way of support.”
The GLBT community has come a long way. It is now acceptable for top tier straight men to play gay roles without it negatively impacting their careers. This is no small achievement and we should be quite grateful to have obliterated this barrier that once seemed insurmountable. (Let’ not forget Tom Hanks who played a gay man with AIDS in Philadelphia.)
Before we sip the Champagne, we should remember that there is still an ongoing taboo against openly gay actors playing leading men in Hollywood. On the morning of the Oscars, the New York Times Magazine wrote a profile on actor Rupert Everett discussing the obstacles he faced as a result of coming out. The article spoke of the time he was turned down for a major movie role because of his sexual orientation. An MGM executive told his agent, “to all intents and purposes, a homosexual was a pervert in the eyes of America.”
Clearly, some glass ceilings still need to be shattered. It should be a major priority among GLBT activists to make sure this breakthrough in Hollywood comes to fruition.
Equally jarring was my experience in Charlotte, North Carolina this past week. My organization, Truth Wins Out, traveled there to counter Focus on the Family’ “Love Won Out” conference, where they teach people to “pray away the gay.”
On a beautiful Saturday morning, I broke away from our protest group to attend a seminar at Love Won Out. It was heartbreaking to see more young people than I ever had before at this traveling “ex-gay” road show. There was a cardboard sign that read “Youth Track”, and several teenagers — some that appeared not much older than 13 — were being taken inside by their desperate and confused parents.
Outside the conference were many dedicated local activists, such as Matt Comer, who organized our protest. Counter-protesters from Operation Save America greeted us. They preached that in 1973 the Lord turned against America. In this year, they said, God was angered by Roe v. Wade, the American Psychiatric Association removing homosexuality from its list of mental disorders and Israel’ war with the Arabs. Yeah — this is a bizarre conclusion to draw, but one that compelled about one dozen troglodytes to bring signs calling us “whoremongers.”
On the other side of town, the Human Rights Campaign held its annual North Carolina dinner. Much like those who attended the Academy Awards, attendees were greeted by belligerent Bible-thumpers who shouted Scripture into megaphones.
The dinner itself was an elegant affair that featured an excellent motivational speech by HRC Executive Director Joe Solmonese and a keynote address by Sen. Kay Hagen (D-NC). It was truly inspiring to hear Sen. Hagen, who occupied the seat once held by the notorious Jesse Helms. (R-NC).
The week ended with a hateful ad by The Policy Council of West Virginia, which compares same-sex marriage supporters to snipers targeting families. The more we progress, it seems the more our opponents regress and resort to shrill and bombastic attacks.
At any given moment, GLBT people are portrayed as either wonderful or wicked. While it is still painful to be put down, I can’t help but notice that when it counts — whether in Hollywood or Charlotte — it is we who are increasingly on the inside. While our opponents could win Oscars for their dramatic protest performances, they certainly can’t like the way the script is unfolding.
