(Weekly Column)

A February 2008 poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that 16 percent of America’s 225 million adults are unaffiliated with any religion. According to the report, “When ‘childhood religion’ is compared against ‘current religion,’ the unaffiliated show a net increase of 8.8 percentage points, compared to a 7.5 point loss among Catholics, for example, or a 2.6 percent loss among Protestants.”

It is my belief that outrageously hypocritical behavior by conservative religious authorities is directly responsible for the surge in non-believers or those who shun organized religion. The ubiquitous scolds who dominate cable TV and Republican politics are too often conservatives of convenience, who believe they are exempt from practicing the strident rules that they preach.

For example, South Carolina’s First Lady, Jenny Sanford, filed for divorce last week after her husband, Gov. Mark Sanford (R), admitted an affair with a woman from Argentina. Until the scandal broke, Mark and Jenny posed as a beacon of Christian family values.

I can understand Jenny’s disgust with her husband, who left his four sons to cheat with his mistress on Father’s Day. But one can’t masquerade as a Bible-thumper when it comes to gay rights and other issues, and then say that the Bible is suddenly irrelevant when it comes to divorce.

Both Jenny and Mark profited from their charade, yet jilted Jenny wants to conveniently abandon biblical absolutism and utilize liberal divorce laws because her feelings are hurt. Sorry Jenny, but a mistress does not negate your marriage vows. Anyone can embrace the “sanctity of marriage” in good times. A true person of fundamentalist faith stays with the vows even when the relationship sours.

To highlight such hypocrisy, John Marcoa, a Sacramento Web-designer, has drafted a 2010 parody ballot measure that would ban divorce in California. Tellingly, the right wing organizations that fought to save marriage from gay couples have not lined up to support it.

From mega-churches to suburban strip mall ministries, fundamentalist youth rail against the secular culture, even as they ape it. They sport gaudy tattoos of Jesus, wear earrings in their noses and play imitation rock. On their fingers are silly chastity rings, when they really need chastity belts.

A recent New York Times magazine article points out that “More government money has been spent on the cause of sexual abstinence in Texas than any other state, but it still has the third-highest teen birth rate in the country and the highest percentage of teen mothers giving birth more than once.”

Former beauty queen Carrie Prejean is the perfect spokesperson for liberal bashing libertines. She moralized over same-sex marriage, but expected forgiveness and understanding when, thanks to tabloid pictures, America got to know her in the biblical sense.

Perhaps the most amusing part of studying conservatives is their absurd claim that America is a Christian nation, which is impossible, because no two people can define what it means to be Christian. A new Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report entitled,  “Many Americans Mix Multiple Faiths,” concludes that people are now choosing to “blend Christianity with Eastern or New Age beliefs”. Who knew crystals and Christ went so well together?

Last month, Watergate felon Chuck Colson joined a batch of wing nuts to write “The Manhattan Declaration”. This supposedly conservative manifesto began by shamelessly co-opting historical liberal successes. The Declaration reads:

“It was Christians who combated the evil of slavery…Christian women stood at the vanguard of the suffrage movement…The great civil rights crusades of the 1950s and 60s were led by Christians…

It is true that Christians played a role in these movements. However, it was non-believers teaming up with liberal Christians to overcome the opposition of conservative Christians. The anti-gay signers of The Manhattan Declaration are the ideological heirs to those on the wrong side of history. It was remarkable how efficiently they scrubbed their own embarrassing past and replaced their monumental failures with liberal accomplishments.

Social conservatives are a loud bunch, but their power is slipping. I think back to Middle school, when I attended a Houston Rockets basketball game with my father. During a time out the “Voice of God” announced that a gay rights measure had been crushed. The enthusiastic crowd burst out in to loud cheers, which was quite devastating to a thirteen-year old coming to terms with his sexual orientation.

On Monday, Houston voters elected openly gay Annise Parker as mayor. Unlike my youth, I watched a Houston crowd cheer for progress instead of prejudice. No doubt there were countless social conservatives across the city slamming beers, ogling women who weren’t their wives and betting on sports – while bemoaning the city’s fallen values.

This is the lifestyle of today’s conservatives of convenience. They are all creed and no deed.

Religious Activists Claim to be Above the Law and Express Desire to Force All Americans To Obey Sectarian Church Rules, Says TWO

NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out (TWO) condemned a theocratic anti-gay manifesto that seeks to foist compulsory Christianity on the nation, at the expense of basic liberty, pluralism and freedom. The so-called “Manhattan Declaration” was signed by 145 fundamentalist, evangelical, Catholic and Orthodox Christian activists, who claimed they were above the law and would refuse to obey state rules unless they were in alignment with their sectarian church beliefs.

“This is a disturbing call for anarchy from a group of radical clerics and activists who believe they don’t have play by the same rules as other taxpaying Americans,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “We call on all Americans who value a free society to stand up and reject this theocratic and intolerant manifesto.”

“It is heartbreaking that these so-called Christians have elevated bigotry to be the defining aspect of the religious experience,” said Rev. JR Finney, pastor of Covenant Community Church in Birmingham, Ala. “These churches are uniting by dividing this country and making a mockery of the rule of law.”

The manifesto was unveiled today at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Spearheading the effort is convicted Watergate felon Chuck Colson (pictured above), who runs Prison Fellowship ministries. The activists at the press conference signed a declaration proclaiming they will not obey or comply with laws that they falsely claim could be used to force their institutions to partake in abortions, or to bless or in any way recognize same-sex couples.

“We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence,” reads the manifesto.

“In naming this manifesto, the far right makes great use of symbolism,” said TWO’s Besen. “We believe they have chosen to co-opt the ‘Manhattan Project’ and the ‘Declaration of Independence’. We must pay attention when a powerful group of clerics plans to go nuclear on American values, spending significant political and financial capital to impose their narrow religious beliefs on society.”

Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that counters anti-gay misinformation, fights religious extremism exposes the “ex-gay” myth and educates America about the lives of GLBT people.

CLICK HERE for TWO Analysis by Bruce Garrett

– Colson, Watergate felon, mugshot prior to opportunistic religious “conversion” –  (from Smoking Gun)

Contact: Wayne Besen
Phone: 917-691-5118
E-Mail: wbesen@truthwinsout.org
Web: www.TruthWinsOut.org

‘We Refuse To Allow Anti-Gay Activists To Rewrite History and Pose As Beacons of Religious Tolerance,’ Says TWO

NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out (TWO) unveiled a hard-hitting full-page ad today that will be published in The Salt Lake Tribune on Thursday, under the headline, “Lies in the Name of the Lord.” TWO’s provocative advertisement is in response to an ad by anti-gay activists in last Friday’s New York Times, that falsely portrayed protests against Proposition 8 – a ballot measure in California that prohibited same sex couples from marrying – as mob violence. The TWO ad also criticized the culture warriors who ran the Times ad under the name, “No Mob Veto,” for their disingenuous claim of religious tolerance and their posture as staunch defenders of the Mormon Church.

“These anti-gay activists are crying wolf on the Proposition 8 protests, but they actually are a wolf in sheep’s clothing that preaches religious tolerance while practicing the most defamatory form of religious bigotry,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “We refuse to permit this orchestrated campaign to rewrite history, nor will we allow some of the most notorious Mormon bashers in America to pose as friends of the Latter-day Saints.”

TWO exposes “No Mob Veto’s” hypocrisy, after the group wrote in the Times, “Beginning today, we commit ourselves to opposing and publicly shaming anyone who resorts to the rhetoric of anti-religious bigotry, against any faith, on any side of the cause, for any reason.” In its ad, TWO agreed to take the signers of the “No Mob Veto” ad at their word, including convicted felon Chuck Colson, Prison Fellowship; Rich Cizik, National Association of Evangelicals; and William Donohue, The Catholic League, and remind America of their past incendiary statements against other religions, particularly the Mormon church.

“Activists like Colson, Cizik and Donohue must decide if they are ‘people of faith’ or ‘people of fibs’ – they can’t be both,” TWO proclaimed in its ad. “Lying is wrong, especially when it’s done in the name of God.”

“There is a concerted and ongoing effort by anti-gay forces to portray peaceful marchers exercising their First Amendment rights as violent troublemakers,” said Besen. “We hope to set the record straight and refuse to let No Mob Veto get away with their blatant lies.”

Singer Pat Boone contributed to the “Big Lie” this week when he wrote a column in World Net Daily that compared nonviolent Proposition 8 protesters with the terrorists who wantonly murdered nearly 200 innocent people in Mumbai.

Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that counters right wing propaganda, exposes the “ex-gay” myth and educates America about gay life.

In a breathtaking display of lies and hypocrisy, a group of anti-gay culture warriors and long-time Mormon bashers placed a full page ad in the New York Times pretending to be both victims of alleged homosexual “mobs” and staunch defenders of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons). Both claims are absurd and a cruel attempt for the victimizers to claim the mantle of the victimhood – which is a manipulative and cynical political ploy.

The dishonest Times ad essentially claimed that violent mobs of gay protesters were attacking the Mormon Church and its followers in the aftermath of California voters narrowly approving Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in that state. They even launched a website www.NoMobVeto.org. (It seems they forget that they put basic human rights up for a vote, which is essentially mob rule)

This Times ad is full of blatant lies – much like the immoral television ads attacking same-sex families during the Prop. 8 campaign. The fact is, the vast majority of the rallies across America were peaceful. Considering gay families just got stripped of their basic rights by deception and deceit, the protests were remarkably tame. If any other group had been subject to such humiliation through a multi-million dollar smear operation, there would likely have been riots in the streets – not the fake “violence” conjured in the bogus Times ad.

The anti-gay organizations and individuals who sponsored this “Big Lie” ad are trying to pull off a remarkable feat: They are both crying wolf, while being the wolf in sheep’s clothing. The degree of chutzpah is remarkable and eye-popping. (Read More)