This is so typical. Let’s get out our Right Wing Smear paint-by-numbers kit and see if this one fits:

1. Find honest statement by liberal.

2. Twist the meaning of the statement.

3. Repurpose the statement to make it look like an attack. Bonus points if you can add dogwhistles!

4. Raise a bunch of whining hell over nothing and try to draw blood. Bonus points for directly misquoting the liberal!

Yep, this fits! John Boehner, Brent Bozell, and some other minor figures are having a public sad over the fact that Harry Knox correctly stated that the Pope is hurting people in the name of Jesus by actively working against honest sex and contraception education in sub-Saharan Africa, and is thus contributing to the spread of HIV/AIDS on that continent: (Read More)

Bishop Gene Robinson spoke last night with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC about the Christian Right’s National Prayer Breakfast and the rival American Prayer Hour.

Maddow first introduces the segment with a review of The Family’s efforts to promote terror and destroy human rights in Uganda. She shows brief clips of President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and then showcases the American Prayer Hour as an alternative faith event for leaders who oppose the Christian Right’s abuse of the National Prayer Breakfast.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Truth Wins Out praised President Barack Obama today for his bold speech at the National Prayer Breakfast condemning Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The bill would imprison, hunt down and even execute gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. The bill also threatens imprisonment for those who do not turn in their LGBT friends and family members to authorities.

In his speech, Obama said:

“We may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are — whether it’s here in the United States or, as Hillary mentioned, more extremely in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda.”

The President’s words were particularly powerful in the setting of this breakfast, which is hosted by the fundamentalist group known as The Family. This secretive organization is directly linked to the “Kill the Gays” bill in Uganda. The bill’s sponsor, David Bahati, is a key member of The Family.

“We applaud President Obama for having the courage to confront those responsible for the heinous anti-gay bill in Uganda,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “We hope that the President’s laudable stand makes it clear to Family members in the United States and Uganda that the world is watching. Religion can no longer be used to justify bigotry, intolerance and persecution anywhere on the face of the earth.”

Besen is the coordinator of The American Prayer Hour, which is an alternative to the National Prayer Breakfast. Fifteen national organization’s launched the Prayer Hour this week to shine a spotlight on The Family’s nefarious role in Uganda on the week of their annual National Prayer Breakfast. There are American Prayer Hour events in 20 cities across the nation.

“The easy and safe course would have been for President Obama to remain silent,” said TWO’s Besen. “Instead, he walked into The Family’s house and held them accountable for their actions in Uganda. It was a huge victory for human rights and the president’s actions were courageous and honorable.”

Truth Wins Out is a New York City-based non-profit organization that fights religious extremism and the ex-gay industry.

By Laurie Goodstein

For more than 50 years, the National Prayer Breakfast has served as a prime networking event in Washington, bringing together the president, members of Congress, foreign diplomats and thousands of religious, business and military leaders for scrambled eggs and supplication.

Usually, the annual event passes with little notice. But this year, an ethics group in Washington has asked President Obama and Congressional leaders to stay away from the breakfast, on Thursday. Religious and gay rights groups have organized competing prayer events in 17 cities, and protesters are picketing in Washington and Boston.

The objections are focused on the sponsor of the breakfast, a secretive evangelical Christian network called The Fellowship, also known as The Family, and accusations that it has ties to legislation in Uganda that calls for the imprisonment and execution of homosexuals.

The Family has always stayed intentionally in the background, according to those who have written about it. In the last year, however, it was identified as the sponsor of a residence on Capitol Hill that has served as a dormitory and meeting place for a cluster of politicians who ran into ethics problems, including Senator John Ensign, Republican of Nevada, and Gov. Mark Sanford, Republican of South Carolina, both of whom have admitted to adultery.

More recently, it became public that the Family also has close ties to the Ugandan politician who has sponsored the proposed anti-gay legislation.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a government watchdog group, sent a letter this week to the president and Congressional leaders urging them to skip the prayer breakfast. They have also called on C-Span not to televise it this year.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of the ethics group, said: “It is a combination of the intolerance of the organization’ views, and the secrecy surrounding the organization. It doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be allowed to hold their breakfast; of course they should. The question is, Should American officials be lending legitimacy to it, giving their imprimatur by showing up.”

The Family has no identifiable Internet site, no office number and no official spokesman. J. Robert Hunter, a member who has spoken publicly about the group, said that it was unfair to blame the Family for the anti-gay legislation introduced by David Bahati. Mr. Hunter said that about 30 Family members, all Americans, active in Africa recently conveyed their dismay about the legislation to Ugandan politicians, including Mr. Bahati.

Mr. Hunter said the recent controversies had prompted a debate within the group about its lack of transparency. “I and quite a few others are saying we should be much more open,” he said.

Jeff Sharlet, author of “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power” (Harper Perennial, 2009) said in a telephone interview, “Here’ an organization that, in the past, has not acknowledged its own existence.”

“It’ not a sinister plot. This is their theological stance,” said Mr. Sharlet, who infiltrated the group to do research for his book. “Their leader, Doug Coe, says that the more invisible you can make your organization, the more influence it will have.”

A White House official said that Mr. Obama, like each president since Dwight D. Eisenhower, planned to attend the breakfast. Michelle Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and other cabinet members will also attend. The president will deliver remarks about “the importance of an openness to compromise,” the official said.

The official also said that the president and the State Department had spoken out strongly against the legislation in Uganda.

The breakfast, which usually features a prominent keynote speaker (past ones have included Bono, Mother Teresa and former Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain), is only the most visible in several days of gatherings where the Family’ networking takes place in smaller groups. There are separate meetings for African politicians, military leaders, business people and media professionals, to name a few.

Many states also have prayer breakfasts this week, which may appear to be government-sponsored but are also mostly affiliated with the Family.

Liberal members of the clergy and gay rights leaders organized the alternative events in haste this year, calling theirs the American Prayer Hour. The will convene at places like Calvary Baptist Church in Washington; Glendale City Seventh-day Adventist Church in California; the bishop’ chapel of the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York, in Rochester; and Covenant Community Church in Center Point, Ala.

Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, a gay rights group, said he initiated the prayer-hour idea because many religious Americans who attend the breakfasts have no idea about the connection to the Family and the anti-gay legislation.

“They have symbolically taken the mantle of religion,” Mr. Besen said, “and I think it’ time to take it back. And the American Prayer Hour is a step in that direction.”

Truth Wins Out co-hosted a press conference on Tuesday announcing the American Prayer Hour. The purpose of the APH, which is Thursday, February 4, is to offer an alternative to the annual National Prayer Breakfast, which takes place on the same day and is run by the secretive fundamentalist organization known as The Family. This shadowy group is directly tied to the notorious “Kill the Gays” bill in Uganda.

Among those who spoke were:

Harry Knox, Director of Religion and Faith for the Human Rights Campaign

Bishop Gene Robinson

Moses, a young gay man from Uganda, is seeking asylum in the United States because he fears for his life in Uganda

Please join an American Prayer Hour event tomorrow (Feb. 4) in a city near you.

(Moses, pictured left, is a gay Ugandan seeking asylum in the U.S. who had to hide his face at today’s press conference. He feared persecution and even violence if his identity were known.)

Religious Leaders Urge America’ Leaders to Speak Out Against Event’s Connection to Abhorrent Ugandan “Anti-Homosexuality Bill”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Key religious leaders held a press conference this morning at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. to announce the formation of The American Prayer Hour, a multi-city event to be held in two days on February 4, 2010, with key events in Washington, D.C., Dallas, Chicago and Berkeley and to call on organizers of the National Prayer Breakfast, Members of Congress attending and the President to use the opportunity to send a clear, unified message against the horrendous Ugandan “Anti-Homosexuality Bill”.

The American Prayer Hour was announced as an alternative to the National Prayer Breakfast which is sponsored by The Family (aka The Fellowship), a group with disturbing ties to those spearheading Uganda’ oppressive “Anti-Homosexuality Bill.” The Bill proposed by Parliament Member, David Bahati, adds an array of criminal punishments for gay people‚Äîincluding the death penalty.

Harry Knox, Director of Religion and Faith for the Human Rights Campaign,(pictured left) opened the press conference and said, “Tax documents from The Family show millions of dollars have gone into programs run by David Bahati, Ugandan Parliament Member who wrote the anti-gay legislation for Uganda. With that kind of influence, we call on the head of The Family, Doug Coe, to publicly speak out against the proposed anti-gay bill in Uganda. Our nation’ public officials, religious leaders and civil and human rights champions must speak with one, clear voice that the proposed execution of a group of people for no other reason than because of their sexuality is immoral and will not be tolerated or condoned through silence. Members of Congress and other elected officials attending this event cannot turn a blind eye to the obligation they have to speak out against such inhumane proposals such as the legislation being proposed in Uganda.”

Metropolitan Community Church pastor, the Rev. Elder Darlene Garner, (pictured) said, “MCC is an international denomination at work in dozens of countries so we know firsthand that hatred of gay people is not limited to Uganda. Sadly, conservative groups like The Family continue to spread lies and foment rejection of people based on perceived or real differences in sexual orientation and gender identity. In the name of protecting families, they tell parents to reject their sons and daughters. Implicitly they ask families to imprison their own people and inflict the death penalty on them, whether on the streets or in the jails.”

Moses, a gay Ugandan man seeking asylum in The United States said, “It breaks my heart that I have to leave my family and loved ones to seek asylum in this country simply because I am gay. Even as I speak, gay people a are being persecuted as a result of this proposed law against gay people. I can only imagine how bad it will be if the bill is actually passes.”

Bishop Gene Robinson, (pictured left) the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church said, “I spent time in Uganda to help set up HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs many years ago. Ugandans are a generous and hospitable people. But because of an unholy alliance between conservative religious groups in this country and anti-gay forces overseas Ugandans are turning on their own Ugandan sons and daughters who happen to be gay. This proposed law is a threat to LGBT people in Uganda and everywhere. Around 35% of Ugandans are Anglican and 45% are Catholic. Although many faith leaders have stood by silently, today we speak out on behalf of the marginalized. Faith leaders of all traditions should speak out for the most vulnerable in Uganda before it’ too late.”

Bishop Carlton Pearson, (left, with collar) interim senior pastor at Chicago’ Christ Universal Temple said, “As a straight ally, gay and transgender people come to me and say “thank you for speaking out.’ In Uganda, gay and transgender people cannot even say “thank you.’ They are being silenced by the threat of imprisonment and death. In the yawning silence, we must speak and we must pray. Both religious and political leaders must pray for gay people in Uganda and stop preying on them.”

Frank Schaeffer, (pictured left) son of pre-eminent conservative theologian, Francis Schaeffer said, “As a person who was raised in the heart of conservative Christianity, it took me years to realize that anti-gay beliefs are wrong and not inherent to Christianity. Today, fundamentalists are exporting anti-gay beliefs because fewer and fewer people here believe the lies. It’ time to stop using gay people as political pawns and understand that we are all children of God.”

Barry Lynn, Executive Director of Americans for Separation of Church (pictured below) said, “We are heartened to note that Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and the State Department, under President Obama’ direction, have been actively working against the proposed anti-gay law in Uganda. These efforts have led Ugandan President Museveni and MP David Bahati to signal that they are considering changes to the legislation. But, now is not the time to ease up the pressure but to continue to push for full decriminalization of gay and transgender people. We ask that President Obama to take the lead on human rights for everyone, everywhere, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Interested in attending an American Prayer Hour event? Want to organize an APH event in your town?

CLICK HERE

Media Contact: Wayne Bessen, American Prayer Hour Coordinator
Phone: 917-691-5118 E-Mail: wbesen@truthwinsout.org
Website: www.AmericanPrayerHour.org

Multi-City Prayer Hour Offers Alternative to the National Prayer Breakfast Whose Leaders Have Apparent Ties to Uganda’ Draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill

What: On Tuesday, February 2, 2010 key religious leaders will hold a press conference to announce the formation of The American Prayer Hour, a multi-city event on Thursday, February 4, 2010, with key events in Washington, DC, Dallas, Chicago and Berkeley. The American Prayer Hour events will affirm inclusive values and call on all nations, including Uganda, to decriminalize the lives of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. The American Prayer Hour provides an alternative to the National Prayer Breakfast, which is sponsored by The Family (aka The Fellowship), a group with disturbing ties to those spearheading Uganda’ oppressive Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

When: Tuesday, February 2, 2010 — 10:30 a.m. (EST)

Where: The National Press Club (Washington, DC) Murrow Room
529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor – Washington, DC 20045

Who: Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church

Frank Schaeffer, author, “Crazy For God: How I Grew Up
As One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right and Lived to Take
All of it Back.”

Harry Knox, The Human Rights Campaign, Director of Religion and Faith

Moses, A gay Ugandan man seeking asylum in The United States

Rev. Elder Darlene Garner, Metropolitan Community Church, Vice-Moderator, Board of Elders

Bishop Carlton Pearson, Senior Minister at Chicago, Illinois’ Christ Universal Temple

Background: Uganda is considering the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, put forth by parliamentarian David Bahati and initially backed by President Yoweri Museveni. If passed, the new law would unleash a vicious campaign of persecution against LGBT citizens. Bahati and President Museveni are members of The Family and are among their “key men” in Africa. The Family hosts the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. The American Prayer Hour will show that such cruelty and extremism does not represent most people of faith.

Sponsors:

National Black Justice Coalition

Religion and Faith Program
Human Rights Campaign Foundation

Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation

National Religious Leadership Roundtable
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

Metropolitan Community Churches

Full Equality Now DC

PFLAG National

Truth Wins Out