You see, back when the SPLC was primarily concerned with the most overt racists among us, it was fine, because Matt Barber was not weaned in a time when it was socially acceptable to wear one’s racism on one’s sleeve. Now that the SPLC has broadened its scope to include other vicious, hateful, dishonest groups like the Family Research Council and his friend Porno Pete’s Americahs for Truth on their list of hate groups, it’s not okay, because they’re espousing an “extremist left-wing agenda.” You know what else used to be an “extremist left-wing agenda?” That’s right, the Civil Rights Movement.

Same dishonest, bigoted arguments, from the same people, different minority.

So this happened today, apparently. Porno Pete brought all his worldly friends together to go down to the SPLC and cry:

A coalition of African American pastors and pro-family Christian and Jewish leaders is holding a press conference at noon tomorrow (the day after Martin Luther King Day) outside the headquarters of the Southern Poverty Law Center — to protest the SPLC’s smearing of pro-family groups that oppose homosexual activism as “hate groups”:

Ooh, Porno Pete got to go on vacation! Of course, the SPLC doesn’t brand groups as “hate groups” simply for opposing gay people. They have to be known liars and slanderers. Porno Pete = one of those.

Scheduled speakers:

Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH), Chicago, IL (the SPLC has smeared AFTAH as a “hate group”);
Dr. Patrick Wooden, pastor, Upper Room Church of God in Christ (COGIC), Raleigh, NC;
DL Foster, founder, Gay Christian Movement Watch, Atlanta, GA;
Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs, Liberty Counsel, Lynchburg, VA;
Tim Johnson, Fredrick Douglass Foundation, Washington, D.C.;
Rachel Conner, representing Abiding Truth Ministries (smeared by SPLC as a “hate group”)
Pastor Glen Sawyer, New Mt. Zion Church of God in Christ, Elizabeth City, NC
Pastor Wil Nichols, Victorious Praise Fellowship COGIC, Durham, NC
Pastor Jon Robinson, Kingdom C.O.M.E. Ministries, Clairton, PA
Pastor Kenneth Jefferson, Greater Harvest COGIC

The following pro-family leaders and groups will issue supporting statements:

Rabbi Yehuda Levin, Rabbinical Alliance of America;
Laurie Higgins, Illinois Family Institute (smeared as “hate group”)
Arthur Goldberg, author, “Light in the Closet: Torah, Homosexuality, and the Power to Change”;
Linda Harvey, Mission America, Columbus, OH
Brian Camenker, Mass Resistance, (smeared as “hate group”)

Awwwww, Porno Pete got to go on vacation and Matt Barber was there! Did the wives come along? Just curious. Let’s see…so Rachel Conner was there, representing the most vicious, dishonest male anti-gay hatemonger in the country, Scott Lively. D.L. Foster, the purported “ex-gay”  who blames gay kids for their own depression and suicide, was there. I’m not familiar with the others, but my thinking is that the only thing the SPLC was confronted with today was the integrity of their own work.

Looking at the supporting cast, we have ol’ Yehuda Levin, probably the most unhinged rabbi in the United States, Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Association, who would be the most vicious, dishonest female anti-gay hatemonger in the country if Linda Harvey would ever step aside and let her talk, convicted felon Arthur Goldberg, and Brian Camenker, who holds the title of Peter LaBarbera’s Jewish Friend.

These are the leaders of your anti-gay movement, ladies and gentlemen. Quite a stellar cast of characters. I will say, though, that we should appreciate their work, in a way, because we wouldn’t be gaining quite as much public support as we are if people like those above weren’t spreading their hate around on a daily basis. Sadly, their work does embolden some of the most violent, uneducated hicks in this country, which leads to a higher gay teen bullying/suicide rate, but normal people hear the words of the people at that press conference today and it nudges them a little bit closer to our side.

Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans For Truth, which is sponsoring the press event, recently interviewed Pastor Wooden, who said that the SPLC’s gambit of labeling mainstream pro-family groups that oppose homosexual activism as “hate groups” is seriously damaging the SPLC’s credibility.

No it isn’t.

Wooden also debunked the “civil rights” analogy used by “gay” activists, saying it is wrong to compare “my beautiful blackness” with homosexual perversion.

I simply cannot make that quote better.

LaBarbera said the SPLC is engaged in a thinly-veiled, one-sided campaign to demonize adherents of traditional Judeo-Christian morality. He noted that despite the considerable hatred and anti-Christian bigotry emanating from homosexual activists (e.g., Dan Savage’s vile hate-site, Santorum[dot]com), the SPLC has never labeled a “gay” organization or website as “hateful.”

Because we don’t:

1. Lie about you people. We let your words speak for themselves.
2. Advocate for denying you wingnuts your constitutional rights, and instead defend your right to believe whatever bullroar you want, as embarrassing as it must be for your ancestors.
3. Embolden people who would want to hurt bigoted Christian wingnuts — indeed, it’s widely recognized that our side is STILL the only one with a bodycount in this “culture war.”

We do:

1. Report your words verbatim.
2. Make fun of you sometimes. Grow up.
3. Correct the constant, alternate-reality lies perpetuated by extremist religious fanatics who are unwilling to live as adults in a world where not everybody is the same as they are.

The idea that one’s sexual orientation can be changed through therapy is a dangerous lie, and has been discredited by medical and counseling organizations. Please join the Southern Poverty Law Center, GetEqual, and Truth Wins Out to learn from experts about this fraudulent practice, share stories about “conversion therapy,” and understand how we can protect LGBT rights. This is an event that you will not want to miss!

BALTIMORE, MD

Thursday, Dec. 15
6-8 pm · 2640 Co-op
2640 Saint Paul Street

TWO’s Wayne Besen will be joined by “ex-gay” survivor Chris Camp. Free Refreshments Provided

splcenter.org/conversion-therapy

RSVP appreciated but not required. Call 855.841.8356 or email ashley@splcenter.org

Help expose the lies behind “conversion” therapy and help other LGBT people who have undergone or are considering “therapy” to “cure” themselves.

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)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 11, 2011

Contact:
Apreill Hartsfield
334.356.8458 / apreill.hartsfield@splcenter.org

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and Truth Wins Out (TWO) launched a national campaign today targeting conversion therapy, a thriving practice that claims to “convert” people from homosexuality to heterosexuality. The groups made the announcement in coordination with today’s National Coming Out Day.

The campaign will begin with a series of community meetings in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., for survivors of the practice, which has been discredited or highly criticized by virtually all major American medical, psychiatric, psychological and professional counseling organizations. Survivors are also invited to share their own stories at www.splcenter.org/conversion-therapy. The campaign also will encourage community advocates and elected leaders to scrutinize local conversion therapy programs.

“Conversion therapy programs have devastated all too many lives and families by attempting to change a person’s sexual orientation,” said Christine Sun, deputy legal director, who leads the SPLC’s LGBT rights project. “This practice is based on nothing more than junk science and must stop.”

“There’s a serious concern that the damage inflicted by conversion therapy can reach far beyond the individual receiving the ‘therapy’ and into communities across the country,” said Wayne Besen, founder and executive director of Truth Wins Out.

Central to conversion therapy – sometimes known as reparative or “sexual reorientation” therapy – is the belief that being gay is a mental disorder – a position rejected by the American Psychiatric Association nearly four decades ago. People who have undergone conversion therapy have reported increased anxiety, depression, and in some cases, suicidal ideation.

Despite these findings, the conversion therapy movement continues to push its message and is increasingly targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth, often recommending that parents commit their children to treatment against the child’s wishes.

The American Medical Association officially “opposes the use of ‘reparative’ or ‘conversion’ therapy that is based on the assumption that homosexuality per se is a mental disorder or based upon the a priori assumption that the patient should change his/her homosexual orientation.”

In 2006, the American Psychological Association declared: “There is simply no sufficiently scientifically sound evidence that sexual orientation can be changed.”

Yet the message that LGBTQ people can and should change their sexual orientation is echoed throughout the literature promoting conversion therapy:

Absurd theories and treatments also are promoted within the conversion therapy movement:

There are other troubling aspects of this practice. The American Psychological Association expressed concern in 2006 that the positions espoused by some of the leading advocates of conversion therapy, such as the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), “create an environment in which prejudice and discrimination can flourish.”

The potential for conversion therapy to foster an anti-LGBT atmosphere is another concern for the SPLC, which analyzed 14 years of federal hate crime data and found that homosexuals are far more likely to be victims of a violent hate crime than any other minority group in the United States. The SPLC also has worked to combat anti-gay bullying in schools.

###

The Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Alabama with offices in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi, is a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society. For more information, see www.splcenter.org.

Truth Wins Out (TWO) is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to create a world where LGBT individuals can live openly, honestly and true to themselves. TWO monitors anti-LGBT organizations, documents their lies and exposes their leaders. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.

###

1. Richard Cohen, Straight Talk About Homosexuality: The Other Side of Tolerance, 2010, p. 112.
2. Joseph Nicolosi and Linda Ames Nicolosi, A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality, 2002, p. 22.
3. Ibid., p. 24.
4. Joseph J. Nicolosi, Shame and Attachment Loss: The Practical Work of Reparative Therapy, 2009, p. 39.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SPLC Urges Public Figures to Boycott Values Voter Summit Because of Anti-LGBT Hate Speech by Summit Host and Co-Sponsor

WASHINGTON – The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) today urged all public figures to boycott this weekend’s Values Voter Summit, which is hosted and co-sponsored by two groups that demonize members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community with false propaganda.
“The Family Research Council and the American Family Association are among the chief purveyors of lies about the LGBT community – lies that stoke hate and violence,” said Mark Potok, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project. “LGBT people are now, by far, the group most victimized by violent hate crimes in America. Public figures should not lend their names to groups that vilify them.”
Here are examples of what these groups say about LGBT people:

• Both groups say gay men molest children at far higher rates than heterosexual men – an assertion rejected by every relevant scientific organization, including the American Psychological Association.
• Both groups have enthusiastically promoted “reparative therapy,” the widely discredited idea that gay men and lesbians can be “cured” of their sexual orientation.
• The AFA has declared that “homosexuality gave us Adolph [sic] Hitler … the Nazi war machine and six million dead Jews.”

More about the FRC and the AFA and their misinformation can be found here:
www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/just-whose-values-are-promoted-at-the-values-voter-summit.

“The lies peddled by these groups end up hurting real people,” said Wayne Besen, founder of Truth Wins Out, an organization that defends the LGBT community against anti-gay smears. “Hate speech by the FRC and AFA encourages bullying in schools, which has led to tragic suicides. And their push to ‘cure’ gay people has exploited and seriously harmed many in the LGBT community. This fear-mongering has to stop.”

Together, the FRC and the AFA comprise the most influential anti-gay lobby in the country, with combined budgets of more than $30 million. The FRC has hosted the Values Voter Summit, an annual conference for social conservatives in the nation’s capital, since 2006. The AFA is a major sponsor.

Because of the groups’ history of spreading demonizing lies about the LGBT community, the SPLC added the groups to its hate group list last year.

“Our criticism of these groups has nothing whatsoever to do with their opposition to same-sex marriage or their belief that the Bible describes homosexuality as a sin,” Potok said. “Rather, it’s based entirely on their continuing use of discredited research and outrageous falsehoods to defame the LGBT community.”
###
The Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Alabama with offices in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi, is a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society. For more information.

MEDIA ADVISORY

Oct. 7, 2011

Contact:
Apreill Hartsfield
334.956.8458
apreill.hartsfield@splcenter.org

Southern Poverty Law Center to Hold Press Conference Outside Values Voter Summit

The Southern Poverty Law Center will hold a press conference this Friday, Oct. 7, to release a report on the Family Research Council (FRC) and American Family Association (AFA), two groups that spread false propaganda that demonizes the LGBT community. The FRC is hosting the annual Values Voter Summit this weekend Washington, where many prominent public officials will be speaking. The AFA is a major co-sponsor.

WHO: Mark Potok, Director, Intelligence Project, Southern Poverty Law Center
Wayne Besen, Truth Wins Out

WHEN: Friday, October 7
8 a.m. (EDT)

WHERE: Omni Shoreham
2500 Calvert Street NW (at Connecticut Ave.)
Washington, DC

###

The Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Alabama with offices in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi, is a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society. For more information, see www.splcenter.org.

Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that fights anti-LGBT religious extremism. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.

The wingnut reactions are a-startin’ to trickle in!  Oh look, it is the Family Research Council, a known and certified hate group, so designated because they have a policy of spreading fear, hatred and lies about LGBT people, chiming in:

Apple’s old logo was colored by the rainbow–and it looks like their business philosophy still is! In a stunning decision, Apple withered under pressure from the gay community and censored an application that offers help to people struggling with homosexuality.

No, they removed an app that demonizes an entire community and lies to people who have already been demonized and damaged into thinking that the way they are is either not good enough, evil or both. Nice try with the joke-making and the rainbow comment, though.

Even though Apple’s own store gave Exodus a thumbs-up for content, the app vanished overnight–another victim of the growing campaign to silence Christianity in America.

Yes, we are trying to silence you. I mean, right now, on the blog of Truth Wins Out, we are “silencing Christians” by repeating your words verbatim!

“There is no place for ‘ex-gay’ therapy on the Apple platform,” said Mike Jones, whose fringe group started the uproar.

You hear that, Mike? Change.org is a “fringe group.”

Ironically, there seems to be plenty of room for applications like the Gay/Lesbian News Reader, HRC Buying for Workplace Equality Guide, Jack’d gay “social network,” Grindr “gay, bi & curious guy finder,” or Gay Dance Radio. What about the millions of Americans who are offended by those apps?

They don’t demonize or lie about people. You do, though. And so did the Exodus app.

Would 146,000 signatures be enough to rid iTunes of them?

Nope. See above. Plus, closeted fundamentalists would die without Grindr.

In this instance, all Exodus does is offer compassion and help for people who choose to seek it.

No, they offer lies and false hope to people who are pressured by their society, their families, their churches and their communities into believing that they are sick and in need of a cure, even though every grown-up medical and mental health association agrees that homosexuality is normal, while reparative therapy is harmful. Try again!

Jeff Buchanan of Exodus is tired of the app being misrepresented in the press. “It’s being touted as a ‘gay cure’ app,” he says, “and nothing could be further from the truth. We present a redemptive, Biblical worldview on sexuality… it’s a message of love and acceptance of those [who] are struggling with same-sex attraction.”

Oh, Jeffers. We know you don’t change gay people into straight people. God, everybody knows that by now. You’ve been consistently moving the goalposts for years on that one! But no, your “worldview” for gay people is loneliness, shame, isolation, self-hatred, etc. You don’t even know the meaning of the words “love” or “acceptance,” because you’ve been brainwashed with such a disgusting, transmogrified version of them for so long. Cha-ching, though, right?

In other words, Apple’s censorship has nothing to do with “tolerance.” This is about silencing anything and anyone who challenges homosexuality.

No, it is about a private corporation following its own policies and responding to its customers.

Americans need to wake up and realize that religious liberty is heading in the same direction as Exodus’s app–toward extinction! In this environment, it doesn’t matter what the facts are.

Well, that should be a comfy environment for the Family Research Council!

Meanwhile, liberals are on a crusade to end bullying–when the biggest bullies are the ones in their own movement!

Yeah, all those gay teenagers killed themselves because of us. Right. I often wonder whether the talking mouths at groups like FRC will ever have a moment in their lives when the pain they’ve caused to innumerable people and families, all in the service of their disproven, patriarchal, anti-scientific worldview, will suddenly dawn on them. I’d hate to be there for that moment.

What do you call 146,000 people ganging up on a company because they don’t like someone else’s point of view?

Petition-signers.

Bullies!

Oh, oops, we’re bullies. Let me know when anti-gay extremists start jumping off bridges because the gays have bullied them so much. Maybe then we’ll talk about how badly you have been “bullied.”

I guess they still don’t understand why we started the petition, even though we’ve said it clearly, in English, for days. But let’s not be cute about people’s “points of view.” It would be the same if the Ku Klux Klan [another SPLC-certified hate group] wanted an iPhone app. I mean, certainly the KKK has a “point of view,” and their app would be rejected because their “point of view” is eliminationist against an entire minority group. Just like the Family Research Council’s point of view. Just like Exodus’s point of view. That is sort of the point that wingnuts are missing, I think.

They also know that if they had to debate conservatives out in the open on issues like marriage and morality, they’d lose!

Uh, we do it all the time, and we win. There was this thing called “The Prop 8 trial,” and the Religious Right brought its best and brightest [I know, I'm using that phrase very loosely], and they ended up being used for floor-mopping purposes by the plaintiffs.  It would’ve been must see teevee if the very same Religious Right hadn’t been so afraid of the general public seeing what they look like when they have to defend themselves by the standards of a court of law.

Anyway, that’s about it. It must be comforting for Exodus to see hate groups rising up to defend their honor. Until the next wingnut crying spell, I’m signing off!

Nice people you attract, Pete.

Peter LaBarbera, of course, runs a very small hate group called Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, and this video was made by a member of another hate group, the very small shopping center outpost known as “Faithful Word Baptist Church,” pastored by the biblically illiterate Steven Anderson.  It’s notable that, in the flurry of fist-shaking and tantrum-throwing that’s come in the wake of the Family Research Council and American Family Association being added to the SPLC’s list of hate groups, no one of any note has stepped up to defend either Peter’s or Steven’s organization.  They are that marginal, even among their own ideological compatriots.

My favorite thing about the video though, is that the guitar is very Indigo Girls, but not Indigo Girls now, but more like the day they picked up their guitars, but not in a world where the Indigo Girls had hands, but instead something more akin to paws.  But it’s clear where the songwriter gets his inspiration.  Baby, you ain’t never gonna be Closer to Fine.

Joe Jervis adds:

The song’s author is a regular poster on Free Republic (of course) and in typical chickenshit fashion has cloaked the ownership details of his URL: GodGunsGutsGlory.com. But here’s his YouTube channel, if you wanna have some fun over there.

Anyway, I hope the author had a really merry Christmas, filled with nightmares about homosexuals, of course!

[h/t Jeremy]