Truth Wins Out’s acclaimed Center Against Religious Extremism (TWOCARE), offers original, in-depth, and on-site reporting.

“Please, come join us,” insisted an attractive college student flashing her bright Aquafresh smile.

Before I was able to decline her friendly invitation I was gently pulled into a large prayer circle of thirty or so Charismatic Christians. “I’m sorry my hand is sweaty,” the girl said with a sheepish grin.

Those were the last words she spoke that I understood. We quickly surrounded a handful of young preachers who whooped and hollered before surrendering English for the unintelligible language of tongues.  The manic participants sounded like a cross between a prayer service and a Native American tribe preparing for battle.

Eventually, they raised their hands toward the sky pointing to God, which allowed me to escape and enter the seating area at Ford Field, where Lou Engle, founder of The Call, had gathered 27,000 fundamentalist Christians from across the nation on 11.11.11, a date that came to him in what he believes to be a divinely inspired vision. The majority of the crowd was Caucasian, however a significant number were African American. There was a large youth component, but the age of participants reached across the spectrum.

While I can’t speak for the entire conference, which was a 24-hour call to fast and prayer, I did spend 14 hours at Ford Field watching sermons, surveying sideshows, videotaping the gathering, and interacting with the hyped-up crowd. So, my observations, while not complete, do offer a significant snapshot of the 11.11.11 Detroit rally.

In a press release prior to the event I wrote that I expected 11.11.11 Detroit to be a “gay bashing” and “Muslim trashing” extravaganza. After all, The Call had chosen Detroit as its rally site in an effort to convert the region’s estimated 150,000 to 200,000 Muslims.

The Associated Press reported that Apostle Ellis Smith, Engle’s local “point person” for The Call, referred to Islam in a sermon leading up to the revival as a “false,” “lame” and “perverse” religion.

Engle had previously held an infamous event in Uganda that whipped up anti-gay hysteria. In 2008, the electrifying preacher organized a rally at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium in support of Proposition 8, a successful measure to prohibit marriage equality in California.

To my surprise, the festivities, which were aired on God TV, were appreciably toned down. Sure, there was red meat on the menu, but it was not the all-you-can-eat buffet that I had come to expect from Engle and other leaders of the 7 Mountains Movement (aka The New Apostolic Reformation) that he is a key part of.

Indeed, most of the aspersions on Friday evening and Saturday were deliberately cast though euphemism. Homosexuality was never explicitly mentioned, but was instead lumped together with other “sins” under the umbrella of “sexual immorality.” Other times, speakers camouflaged their anti-gay agenda by simply saying they supported “traditional marriage.” During the entire time I observed the event there was not one reference to healing homosexuality and no “ex-gays” were trotted up on the stage to tell tales of how they “prayed away the gay.”

However, the Detroit Free Press reported that Apostle Smith claimed that at the event, “a lesbian came from the homosexual community and said she has never experienced such love. And she is now working to change her lifestyle.”

(I’m sure this alleged lesbian was very stable and well adjusted because it is common for healthy and secure LGBT people to spend weekends attending revivals that consider them demonic.)

The conversion of Muslims was also downplayed and “Dearborn,” referring to the Detroit suburb with perhaps the nation’s largest Muslim population, euphemistically replaced the word “Islam.”

It took several hours to figure out what was really going on – but I gasped when the disturbing pattern finally revealed itself. This elaborate show had all the trappings of a modern religious revival – from the thumping music to the two gargantuan video screens suspended above the enraptured audience. But this ostensibly religious event was little more than a political front.

Its real aim was to peel African American support away from the Democratic Party in a swing state during a critical election year. Not only is President Barack Obama’s reelection at stake, Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow is locked in a tight race that includes social conservative and former GOP Rep. Peter Hoekstra. This cynical revival was not about “values” — it was about votes. It was not about worship, but winning office for Republicans by promoting what writer Ed Kilgore called in The New Republic, a “big-God, small-government creed.”

The amazing part was that the audience seemed totally unaware of the underlying motives and machinations. After all, the words “Democrat” and “Republican” were never spoken and there was only one local politician identified on-stage. It seemed that even some of the minor speakers might not have been privy to the overarching strategy. Nonetheless, a brilliant display of political subterfuge was unfolding as the oblivious crowd bopped to Christian rock with their hands swaying above their heads.

This is not the first attempt of white fundamentalists to lure black voters away from the Democratic Party. Immediately following the 2004 presidential election, social conservatives made a strong push to lure African-Americans. Rev. Lou Sheldon, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center hate group, The Traditional Values Coalition, hosted a right wing meeting of 70 black religious leaders in Los Angeles.

“In 2004, the religious right was concerned about re-electing George W. Bush,” said Al Sharpton at First Iconium Baptist Church. “They couldn’t come to black churches to talk about the war, about health care, about poverty. So they did what they always do and reached for the bigotry against gay and lesbian people.”

Unbelievably, at the Los Angeles meeting Sheldon played an anti-gay video featuring disgraced Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss. Remember, Lott had to step down as Senate Majority Leader after he publicly pined over Strom Thurmond not winning the presidency as a Dixiecrat. African-American columnist Leonard Pitts put Sheldon’s power grab in perspective:

“Whether the issue was slavery, segregation, lynching, voting rights or housing discrimination, social conservatives have always taken a position that history later judged to be ignorant and flat-out wrong….which leaves me at a loss to understand why any African American possessed of a functioning brain would give this atavistic bunch the time of day.”

Still, the attempt was gaining some momentum until Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, which badly frayed the burgeoning unholy alliance. The effort was further hampered by the emergence of Barack Obama as the Democratic standard bearer.

In this renewed effort in Detroit, Lou Engle and his minions were smart. They wisely figured out that direct attacks on the Democratic Party would not fly, nor would all-out verbal barrages against President Barack Obama, who still has strong African American support. They also understood that the baggage surrounding white Evangelical racism would have to be addressed and surmounted before real progress was made.

To overcome these obstacles and recruit African Americans to vote for the GOP they devised what seems like a five-part strategy.

1) Pick a key swing state with a beleaguered city that had an economically disadvantaged African American population

2) Create an emotional spectacle where tearful white people pleaded for forgiveness and repented onstage for past racism

3) Sharply define new wedge issue(s) and create a racially-based conspiracy theory that could ultimately be used against the Democratic Party

4) Exploit these emerging wedge issue(s) to the point they become more important than fixing the economy

5) Redefine voting criteria so candidates are primarily judged by where they stand on these wedge issue(s) – with the ultimate goal of leading many African Americans to conclude that they are best represented by the conservative GOP.

Lou Engle understands that much of Michigan is conservative. If he were able to peel off fifteen or twenty percent of Detroit’s black Democratic vote, he might be able to turn the state solidly red. The main wedge issue he selected to accomplish his plan is abortion. For good measure, he helped weave a conspiracy theory: Sinister white bigots who run programs like Planned Parenthood were using abortion to reduce African American birthrates.

“What Birmingham is to the civil rights movement, Detroit is to abortion,” bellowed Engle at the event. “Detroit has a calling…blacks and Latinos could lead the parade of history.”

Engle’s message was aided by a parade of socially conservative African American ministers.  One preached that black people must choose “BC (Biblical Correctness) over PC (Political Correctness).” The subtext was that the pro-life GOP is on the side of the Bible and thus should be the party of African Americans. Another pastor was even more explicit when he declared that African Americans had a choice: “God’s way or a political party’s way.” (Read More)

[Except, of course, when her mouth is open]

Linda Harvey is just a frail, sweet flower, you guys! She would never be hateful, dishonest, disgusting or homophobic!

For instance, she wasn’t giving aid and comfort to the Ugandan authors of the infamous “kill the gays” bill when she lied thusly [except it sort of seems like she is!]:

Linda Harvey, leader of Mission America, claims legislation pending in Uganda , the anti-homosexuality bill, does not include a death penalty provision for homosexuality. Instead, Harvey says, the bill was designed to stop “Western homosexuals” from exploiting Uganda children.

“This has been mis-portrayed– and please clear this up. Uganda is criminalizing rape of children, and I think that a lot of people would say hmmm maybe death penalty for rape of children — heterosexually or homosexually,” Harvey said in an interview following the speech in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.

(Audio recording of the interview, 13 minutes)

“The fact they are re-criminalizing homosexuality is (a) their business, (b) it is patronizing for white Westerners to be telling these folks — they are seeing George Soros funded gay groups going into Uganda. They are all through the schools, lots of promotion to kids. Poor kids, poor kids are being offered money and favors and gifts to have sex. That’s exploitation. That’s sex trafficking. And it’s being done mostly homosexually. By Western homosexuals coming in and trying to get involved in Uganda.”

Now, I am always willing to consider the possibility that Fundamentalists are illiterate. Because even a perfunctory reading of the Uganda bill, or an honest desire to understand the bill, easily shows that part of the bill clearly stated that the death penalty could be given for “aggravated homosexuality,” which was decidedly not “child rape.” Warren Throckmorton explains all that here. Here is the thing, though: in that same interview, she said that she “loves” Scott Lively and had worked with him on that very bill! Seriously, go up to the top and click on that link. That was a Truth Wins Out exclusive audio-recorded interview, folks.

Here are some other examples of Linda Harvey being totally not hateful, homophobic, disgusting or dishonest:

1. On the subject of anti-bullying programs and GLSEN, Linda Harvey, who gives aid and comfort to the people who bully gay kids to death, whether they are adults or children, says this:

“GLSEN poses as a ‘gay rights’ and ‘anti-bullying’ group for youth, going to bat for them on issues like discrimination. But GLSEN is actually a threat to children, unless parents don’t care about their kids being drawn into early deviant sexual activity, or learning to approve of sinful, God-defying behaviors without the parents’ knowledge. To put it bluntly, when you think GLSEN, think ‘children and bodily fluids.’ Yes, it’s that bad. Behind GLSEN’s window-dressing rhetoric about safe schools, bigotry, ‘homophobia’, oppression, and concerns about harassment, lies the reality: advocacy of actual homosexual sex, sometimes implicit, sometimes very explicit, even for young kids. And sometimes it’s with adults.”

2. Here is Linda Harvey claiming that gay people don’t exist, based on absolutely no science at all:

“Once you buy into the ‘born that way’ idea then self-delusion is not that far behind. There’s no evidence there are different humans called LGBTQ people, these are sinful behaviors, not in-born identities. And people do not have to cower in fear or depression or shame, if you truly love God you accept His will knowing it’s best for your life and it’s His design that will make you happy. God’s grace can and will help anyone who resolves to go beyond these feelings, to put them aside, and decide that He is sovereign.”.

3. Here is Linda Harvey sticking her head even further into the sands of reality-denying Christian Fundamentalist Ignorance, on the same subject:

“There’s one big fact that’s not backed up. There is no proof that there’s ever anything like a gay, lesbian or bisexual or transgendered child, or teen or human. One of the other things you’re gonna see as I mentioned is a big campaign GLSEN’s gonna roll out this year calling for ‘respect,’ respect! Not just for people, but for homosexual lifestyle. The PR campaign to hold up gay as a good thing: the lifestyle, not the person, because there are no such humans.“

4. Here is Linda Harvey saying that gay people shouldn’t be allowed to be teachers:

“Kids should not be put in the confusing position of having a teacher they like and respect in many ways who’s also known to be practicing homosexual behavior. Of course that’s where many of our children in public schools today find themselves because the National Education Association not only allows but applauds and defends openly homosexuality and even transvestite teachers. The fact is that no homosexuality should be in our schools, period. When people leave that behavior behind, then they might be qualified for a job involving children. Out and proud homosexuals should not have jobs that involve children. I know that’s not the current policy in many schools but it should be.”

Amusing that she acknowledges that kids might like their gay teachers. WHO DO NOT EXIST, remember.

5. Now, we’re going off into full on tin-foil hat, black helicopter DSM-IV territory, as we have Linda Harvey claiming that teachers’ unions are paying for kids to be turned into gays:

“The group’s website says they raise money for teen scholarships given to those kids who consider themselves homosexual. The past few years the scholarship winners have not simply been young people persuaded to be in this deviant lifestyle, but are students who have unfortunately bought the party line and become involved in activism projects like homosexual clubs and the pro-homosexual Day of Silence in their schools. And so now kids are given financial incentives to be actively engaged in both the political goals of homosexuals as well as the risky behavior. This is appalling. In these tough economic times many kids will be struggling to get money together for college and here we have a really sleazy connection for them to make. It’s just one more outrageous thing going on with our teachers’ unions.”

6. Jumping further over the shark, Linda Harvey once claimed that gays caused the mortgage crisis. No, stop laughing, you guys! This is a very serious woman! With a serious passion! For hating people! Who don’t exist!

“Just as a child is far less likely to suffer abuse in the home of his/her married, heterosexual parents, so the opposite is true. Where the structure is sin-based, other sins are more likely to scurry in through the cracks. Substance abuse and self-destruction accompany sexual deviance. And some of this means poor decisions about finances.”

Ooooookay. You want more? Okay, there’s more!

7. How terrifying is marriage equality in New York? THIS terrifying, according to Ms. Linda:

“This ‘freedom’ will include much more than a perpetual pansexual pagan party. It will, and already does, include libel, slander, intimidation, corruption of youth, revolt in congregations, suppression of parental rights, revision of language, disease, loss of employment and loss of life. Oh, and did I mention public sex, the porn explosion and public nudity? Welcome to entitlement sex. The New York crowd was on board with this concept, too, erupting into applause for Obama at all the appropriate moments. And why not? They live in a city that has already earned its Good Sodomizing Seal of Approval. More than 36,000 men who have sex with men in New York City are currently living with HIV/AIDS. This bleak prognosis casts a shadow on these ‘marriages,’ but no one wants to think about that.”

Perpetual Pansexual Pagan Party! You see, not only does Linda cower in fear of gays and claim to have a hand in working on legislation that includes a death penalty provision for gays, she also writes tongue twisters, you guys! Life of the party!

I still haven’t seen the “porn explosion” that marriage equality has brought to New York, but I find it rude that she’s using “explosion” language about New York so close to the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

8. Eight Is Enough. Did you know that all liberals hate everything “Judeo-Christian?” According to Linda, liberals also hate the West! Even though most of us live here and the West wouldn’t include most of the First World countries on the planet without liberalism. Also, we hate Jesus, and the more liberal we are, the more we…wait for it…your brain will fry if you try to find the “logic” in this, so just accept it for the wingnut stupidity that it is…LOVE RADICAL ISLAM. Yeah, it’s that whole “the enemy of my enemy” crap, and it works on low information voters [i.e. fundamentalists] because they’re frankly woefully ignorant of liberalism, feminism, sexuality and radical Islam. All they know is that they’re afear’d of all of those things. Stupid is as stupid does, y’all:

“[People on the left] all hate the actual Judeo-Christian heritage and those who uphold it. They hate the West… they hate the freedom. And… it’s a spiritual thing. They hate Jesus Christ. And so this is why you have the homosexual and pro-abortion feminists remaining silent or actually being apologists for radical Islam. Hello — they would be the first people that, you know, in an Islamic state would come under some level of oppression. Why wouldn’t they be afraid of these people? Because they all hate Jesus Christ and his followers.”

So there you have it: a Children’s Treasury of Linda Harvey being totally, completely NOT hateful, homophobic, disgusting or dishonest. Except that she really, really is all of those things. Constantly. This is why Wayne branded her The Most Homophobic Woman in America this week.

Why this post? Oh, she’s whining about suing Wayne for being mean to her by giving her actual words a wider audience than her little wingnut radio show has ever had previously.

Yesterday, we posted video of the latest “glitter attack,” as a “horde of gay barbarians” went to Marcus Bachmann’s wingnut clinic and, you know, threw glitter everywhere.  This tactic, which is actually just sort of cute, is used to push back against anti-gay wingnuts.  No one who is not homophobic, to date, has been glittered.

Oh, but Chris Barron of GOProud does not like this glittering behavior!  Not one bit!

Chris Barron, leader of the gay tea party-leaning group GOProud, is not amused by the string of glitter attacks LGBT activists have been carrying out over the past few months.

[...]

“No rational person can look at that behavior and think that this is actually good for average gay people,” Barron told the DailyCaller’s Matt Lewis. “All it does is reinforce the worst, most negative, nasty stereotypes about gay people.”

[...]

Barron has publicly praised Herman Cain’s campaign, and has pushed back on claims that the tea party is bigoted. He told Lewis the glitter attacks — which have been carried out on Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann — are a tactic used to cast the tea party as homophobic.

I was not aware that the “worst, most negative, nasty stereotypes about gay people” involved glitter. I guess, for gay wingnuts who value their white male privilege above all else, anything that challenges their chance at passing within conservative circles is taboo.

Noted. Also, Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann are homophobes. Their records show this clearly.

You all might remember Frank Neudecker, the Jackson, Tennessee city councilman who posted a vile, racist, homophobic screed on his blog “FrankTalk,” which sparked a local controversy as many of his constituents were appalled that an elected official would allow something so disgusting to be tied to his name.

Just a quick update:  he lost reelection last night, to a guy named Scott Conger.  If we had any tiny part in helping Jackson voters remove this man from office, we’re glad we could help.

I think this may be the one, folks.  Alan Simpson, former senator from Wyoming, correctly states that many of the members of his party are homophobic and anti-woman.  Of course, I’m sure the howler monkeys on the Right have loaded his images into the Two Minutes Hate by this point:

Something new and different!

Homosexual “marriage” is legal in Canada, where acceptance of the lifestyle is taught in public schools and television preachers avoid making negative comments about the issue. John-Henry Westen, editor-in-chief of LifeSiteNews.com, believes Christians — out of love — should start approaching those trapped in the homosexual lifestyle with the truth about its sinful nature. But he says they avoid doing so because they do not want to be viewed as hateful.

Like hell.

“They’re not opposed out of any kind of hatred or animosity. In fact, they’re opposed out of love,” Westen contends. “Christians care enough about those men and women who are in these destructive lifestyles to tell them that it’s hurtful — and it is hurtful. God designed us so that a man and a woman fit together in complimentarity.”

Like hell.

Do I need to say anything, or is the fact that I’m laughing, you’re laughing, the whole world is laughing, sufficient?

Behold, the limited mental worldview of The Constitutional Originalist. Joe Jervis:

Speaking on Friday at the University of Richmond, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia denounced the concept of a “living Constitution” and said the 14th Amendment was not written with the intent of granting equal protection to ALL Americans. Just the heterosexual ones.

“The due process clause has been distorted so it’s no longer a guarantee of process but a guarantee of liberty,” Scalia expounded. “But some of the liberties the Supreme Court has found to be protected by that word – liberty – nobody thought constituted a liberty when the 14th Amendment was adopted. Homosexual sodomy? It was criminal in all the states. Abortion? It was criminal in all the states.” “The way to change the Constitution is through amendments approved by the people, not by judges altering the meaning of its words,” he added.

Joe points out that Scalia also believes women’s rights fall under the same category. Basically, he’s a misogynistic, homophobic pig. Excuse me, YOUR HONOR is a misogynistic, homophobic pig.

I feel like I could have typed that headline fifty times in the past year, but whatever. He’s at it again:

Barack Obama is opposed to the draft as a matter of principle, to be sure. So are most politicians in both parties. But the president’s drive to repeal the ban on open homosexuality in the military could have this unintended consequence: It could bring back the draft.

…The military is not a red state/blue state institution. It unifies our country. It draws its dedicated members from all regions. Still, it is no secret that the military is a socially conservative institution. It recruits heavily from rural areas in the South, the Midwest, and the Inter-Mountain states.

In our larger cities, black and Hispanic recruits are encouraged to consider the military – which has historically been a great ladder of achievement for racial and ethnic minorities.

These are the very areas and groups who have been most resistant to the demands of the homosexual lobby. These are the very regions and groups who have rallied to our side whenever we put a defense of marriage initiative on the ballot

If these regions and groups do not enlist in our all-volunteer force, President Obama will be driven to the place he does not want to go: the military draft.

As Pam Spaulding said, this is desperation talking. They know they’re losing this one. There is no evidence that the majority of the military is made up of knuckle-dragging self-loathing fey bigots like Tony Perkins; indeed all the evidence points to the military’s reaction to openly gay people serving as a sort of collective “Meh.” But oh, no, in Tony’s world, those poor black and hispanic people who join the military, those poor blacks and hispanics Tony was sooooo concerned about when he bought David Duke’s mailing list, won’t somebody think of the blacks?!

What a pig.

During the summer, there was a little uproar when it was discovered that a scientist on Obama’s panel addressing the BP oil spill, Jonathan Katz,  had written an essay entitled “In Defense of Homophobia,” wherein he said vile things like this:

The religious believer may see the hand of God, but both he and the rationalist must see a fact of Nature. The human body was not designed to share hypodermic needles, it was not designed to be promiscuous, and it was not designed to engage in homosexual acts. Engaging in such behavior is like riding a motorcycle on an icy road without a helmet. It may be possible to get away with it for a while, and a few misguided souls may get a thrill out of doing so, but sooner or later (probably sooner) the consequences will be catastrophic. Lethal diseases spread rapidly among people who do such things.

Unfortunately, the victims are not only those whose reckless behavior brought death on themselves. There are many completely innocent victims, too: hemophiliacs (a substantial fraction died as a result of contaminated clotting factor), recipients of contaminated transfusions, and their spouses and children, for AIDS can be transmitted heterosexually (in America, only infrequently) and congenitally. The icy road was lined with unsuspecting innocents, who never chose to ride a motorcycle. Guilt for their deaths is on the hands of the homosexuals and intravenous drug abusers who poisoned the blood supply. These people died so the sodomites could feel good about themselves.

When it was discovered, he was promptly dropped from the oil spill panel.

So, of course, his son is gay, and he bravely came out to tell his story, in a very public essay, in hopes of helping others who are under the thumb of virulent anti-gay bigotry.  Here, via Perez Hilton, is Isaac Katz’s  essay:

(Read More)

And Keith Olbermann is reporting on it, as well as John McCain’s widdle senile temper tantrum after the DADT vote:

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss’ office has determined it was indeed the source of a highly publicized homosexual-bashing slur on an Internet site. But in a statement, Chambliss’ office said it has not discovered exactly who was behind the slur, and has turned the matter over to the Senate Sergeant At Arms. “The (Sergeant at Arms) has worked side by side with our personnel to determine whether the comment in question emanated from our office. That appears to be the case,” an unsigned statement from Chambliss’ press office read. “There has not been a determination as to who posted the comment,” the statement read. “That part of the review is ongoing, and is now in the hands of the Senate Sergeant at Arms.” Spokeswomen for Chambliss did not return a reporters phone calls or emails seeking more details.

Joe Jervis also mentions that he has been interviewed by The New York Times on the story.

The money quote from the above video, though, comes from Dan Savage, on the subject of John McCain’s outburst:   “Props to Kerry Eleveld for committing an act of journalism in the presence of a US Senator.”

Props, indeed.