In a way, you have to feel for Old Spice.

A recent effort meant to reinforce the Procter and Gamble men’s product line’s ruggedly macho image backfired in a big way. Old Spice sponsored the Art of Manliness‘ 2008 Man of the Year poll, which existed to crown a paragon of masculinity, a regular guy who, among other traits, “is loyal to his friends and family… does the right thing, even when it’s not convenient… serves and gives back to his community… [and] sacrifices for the good of others.”

Nominations were submitted by the public and P&G whittled the list down to 10 finalists. Voting in the unscientific poll took place between Oct. 20 and Nov. 9, and roughly 10,000 votes were cast.

The winner announced Dec. 15 was: Matthew L. Chancey, a sharp-dressed Christian missionary and lawyer who works to save lives and souls in Africa. Chancey received roughly 30 percent of readers’ votes, largely on the back of a loving testimonial from his wife Jennie.
 
Mrs. Chancey’s nominating essay on her man’s manliness is truly touching. It speaks of his kindness and strength, lauds his perilous work in Darfur, and describes him as a churchgoing John Wayne-style Rennaisance man who can “read G.A. Henty’s historical fiction aloud to our [eight] children at the dinner table and fix the brakes on a 1964 Ford pickup.” And never, never let you forget he’s the man. “He’d never sing his own praises, but, as his wife, I never tire of doing so,” she writes.

Her words are very moving and obviously persuasive to many. What’s more compelling, however, is what Mrs. Chancey did not share. Her reference to the writer G.A. Henty hints that there is more to the story: Henty was a writer in Victorian England who specialized in youth-focused adventure tales that supported his racist, classist, imperialist worldview and who is beloved by many archconservative Christian evangelicals.

Turns out Old Spice’s 2008 Art of Manliness Man of the Year is deeply involved with Vision Forum, a ministry so reputedly racist and  radically right-wing it couldn’t support Sarah Palin for vice-president. On his Web site, Chancey praises pastor Doug Phillips as his “patriarch par excellence.” Check out what Vision Forum thinks of LGBT people:

Homosexuality is not a victimless crime. It is a cruel moral perversion that wreaks moral, physical and spiritual havoc on men, women, children, families and institutions. The Bible makes no distinction between homosexuals, pedophiles, bestials and rapists. All are criminals, the toleration of which brings judgment on the land and devastation to children.

… It is the mission of the Christian, and is no contradiction, that we lovingly preach repentance to sodomites, even as we seek to drive from the land every manifestation of homosexuality. Furthermore, Sodomy was a punishable crime at common law and should remain such. Any politician who supports same sex marriage or civil marriage for sodomites is complicit in a moral crime against God and should be actively opposed.

He’s a state leader of the Family Policy Network, a right-wing political group that works the same turf as Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council. He’s also a politician — Chancey recently lost a bid to become Alabama’s public service commissioner. and though he ran as a Republican, he was endorsed by the ultra-right Alabama Constitution Party. He even gained some notoriety in 2005 when the Washington Post discovered communications specialist Chancey — apparently no bastion of manly ethics — playing fast and loose with Gov. Tim Kaine’s (D-VA) Internet domain name. And he’s earned quite the reputation for ruthlessness in evangelical Christian circles.

His Biblically inspired views on marriage, gender roles, and family are ultra-traditional. Men are meant to be in the world and to serve as heads of households. Women, from birth, are groomed for service in the home, as the following photo from the Vision Forum Father-Daughter Discipleship Retreat shows.

Vision Forum girls compete to see who can do the best job at grooming, shaving, and tying a tie on their dads.

Matt Chancey’s daughters don’t get to go to college — they don’t even get a Rumspringa. And Chancey — his wife also doesn’t divulge that she runs the Ladies Against Feminism Web site — believes women should not vote.

That’s right. He’s a real man’s man, a regular guy.

Art of Manliness and Old Spice say their hands are clean and that the vote is a win for diversity:

It was not possible, or even desirable to quiz each candidate about their political, religious, and social views. While we selected the finalists, the winner will be determined by you, the reader. If you don’t support a particular candidate’s message, you should vote for those you do believe in and spread the word about that candidate. The contest is not about who AoM or Old Spice believes should be the winner, but who the public determines should be the 2008 Man of the Year.

Matt will be receiving the $2,000 cash prize sponsored by Old Spice along with a manly assortment of Old Spice products. Congratulations, Matt. Right now Matt’s in Africa working for his non-profit. … His $2,000 prize will be going to Darfur to help refugees from the genocide.

Chancey works for the Persecution Project Foundation, which is run by Vision Forum leader Doug Phillips’ brother Brad. The group’s mission is to “take the gospel message of Jesus Christ to the people of Africa, simultaneously bringing them physical supplies and food.”

Whatever one’s views of its captive-audience evangelizing, PPF helps people in desperate need That, of course is an admirable thing, no question.  But if P&G knew the whole story, would it be so blithely accepting of having Chancey serve as the epitome of “good, clean, wholesome manliness?” Is this the role model they were seeking? And now that the announcement is out there and the boycott-threatening complaints by outraged customers are coming in, can you imagine how P&G execs must feel about the whole once-avoidable mess? Chances are, they are praying this controversy just goes away — and fast.

With typical chutzpah, Focus on the Family co-founder James Dobson on Tuesday declared that rational and reasonable Republicans like conservative Kathleen Parker are hereby excommunicated from the U.S. conservative movement and the Republican Party.

According to Dobson’s ghost-writer, if you don’t smugly shout out that God and the Bible are on your side in every speech or essay, then you’re no longer a conservative:

Whatever she once was, Ms. Parker is certainly not a conservative anymore, having apparently realized it’s a lot easier to be popular among your journalistic peers when your keyboard tilts to the left.

Dobson limits the totality of moral concern to his own self-serving interests — sex and reproduction — in order to state, misleadingly:

Ms. Parker cites the election of Barack Obama as evidence that Americans no longer care much about the moral-values issues that have historically driven conservative voters to the polls.

As evidence, Focus cites just one issue: freedom for sexual minorities and orientation-tolerant Americans from orthodox religious tyranny. Specifically, Dobson cites the votes in three states to withdraw or deny the freedom to marry to gay and lesbian Americans — votes that were won with support from misinformed members of the antigay religious left and that were opposed by many conservatives who favor limited government and true religious freedom.

Focus doesn’t seem to fully know left from right — or rather, it is redefining “conservative” and “Republican” to favor big government, federal bedroom police, and federal arbiters of religious correctness.

Focus falsely accuses Parker of taking “gratuitous swipes” at Sarah Palin’s vacuous displays of shallow pop spirituality. Parker criticized Palin for this transparently thoughtless and egocentric remark:

I’m like, okay, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I’m like, don’t let me miss the open door. Show me where the open door is…. And if there is an open door in (20)12 or four years later, and if it’s something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I’ll plow through that door.

Such notions are to be expected from spiritually immature teen-agers, not mature leaders — whatever their religious affiliation.

When Parker says Americans live in a “diverse” nation that “is no longer predominantly white and Christian,” Focus responds not by documenting a coherent case to the contrary, but by vaguely suggesting that readers search Google for some kind of evidence to reinforce their prejudices.

Dobson seems most angered at Barack Obama’s past suggestion that democracy “requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason. … I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God’s will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all.”

In the view of Dobson and the Southern Baptists that dominate both Focus and the ex-gay movement, it is heresy to recognize beliefs other than fundamentalist Christianity. And it is deeply threatening to require a rational basis for law. Dobson asserts that simply requiring reason and recognizing diversity is “rescinding the invitation” for conservative Christians to speak at all.

Focus on the Family hopes to silence both liberals and conservatives who oppose its smug presumption to speak as America’s sole political, moral and religious authority. Meanwhile, Focus whines that it is being silenced simply by being compelled to share U.S. political movements with people who hold different viewpoints and who don’t want government bureaucrats dictating the religious and moral beliefs that Americans — and their religious institutions — are allowed to hold.

Dobson whines: “We’ve never been that marginalized in our culture and government — and won’t be anytime soon, the efforts and epithets of big media notwithstanding.”

So long as Dobson presumes to speak for all conservatives and for all moral or religious people, he deserves to be marginalized.

In days of old, “conservative” (within the American context) once described someone who favored small government, minimal government intrusion into people’s lives, and relatively unfettered freedom of speech, religion, and commerce.

A coalition of ex-gay activists apparently hopes to change that.

Exodus Youth activist Mike Ensley, pundit Warren Throckmorton, former Exodus board member Tom Cole, ex-gay activist Stephen Black, and 30 others have formed the Conservative Education Project on Facebook. (Read More)

After admitting earlier today that he had an extramarital affair and fathered a child out of wedlock, Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.), who was nailed for drunk driving last week, was spotted today huddling with the House chaplain in the back of the chamber during floor debate.

Fossella, who is married and has three children with his wife, could be seen standing on the back rail of the chamber, on the Republican side near the center aisle, in deep conversation with Rev. Daniel Coughlin, the House chaplain.

In a statement today, Fossella went so far as to name the woman with whom he has had an affair for several years. Her name is Laura Fay, a retired Air Force Lt. Col. who, as Fossella now admits, is the mother of their 3-year-old daughter.

Fossella’s “love child” was exposed in his drunken-driving charge because Fay is the person who fetched Fossella from an Alexandria, Va., police station after he was charged with driving while intoxicated in the wee hours of the morning last Thursday.

I just checked the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional scorecard. This human Sin-Bag had three straight ZERO ratings. So, he can oppose loving GLBT families while he wrecks his own home?

According to the Empire State Pride Agenda, the Staten Island Representative had voted not once or twice–but three times to, as many of his colleagues argued, “preserve the sanctity of marriage.”

This is so typical of our right wing opponents. Any time a conservative starts boasting about his or her morals and values and sanctimoniously preens about the “sanctity of marriage” – look out! They not only are likely to have skeletons in their closet – but a graveyard of lies, hypocrisy and deceit. It has almost become a cliché that the more one preaches against something, the more likely he or she is to be engaged in that forbidden arena.