Transgenderism is one of the biggest landmines in today’s culture war. If you believe God created two sexes and there are no “cross-overs,” you are called a “hater” and “bigot” by groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center. In fact, D. James Kennedy Ministries is listed on the SPLC “hate map” as “Anti-LGBT.” These charges are defamatory and completely false, but according to the SPLC, anyone who opposes special LGBT rights is “anti-LGBT.” The SPLC website accuses us and others in this category of using “rhetoric and harmful pseudoscience that demonizes LGBT people as threats to children, society and often public health.”
Of course, accusing us of “demonizing” LGBT people is itself inflammatory rhetoric; rhetoric that is political at its core. The SPLC claims its “Hatewatch” is specifically intended to “monitor and expose the activities of the American radical right.” The SPLC’s purposes are political and its ideology is strictly left-wing. SPLC Senior Fellow Mark Potok further revealed the true sinister character of his organization’s efforts in an interview. The “hate group” criteria, he said, “have nothing to do with criminality or violence or any kind of guess we’re making about ‘this group could be dangerous.’” Mr. Potok admitted, “It’s strictly ideological.’” He also admitted,
Sometimes the press will describe us as monitoring hate crimes and so on. I want to say plainly that our aim in life is to destroy these groups, to completely destroy them. [1]
The SPLC has set about to destroy those it calls “hate groups” by using the simple tool of defamation. Once they tag an organization or individual as a “hate group” or “hater,” businesses and other organizations that believe the SPLC's defamation refuse to allow the designated group or person to utilize their services. PayPal stopped providing service to both Robert Spencer’s JihadWatch.org and Pamela Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative because the SPLC has tagged them as “anti-Muslim.” After the news got out of this action, however, public outcry online prompted PayPal to restore their accounts. Nevertheless, Spencer declared he would not use PayPal in the future, saying, “I know where they stand now.” Also, Amazon denied D. James Kennedy Ministries participation in its Amazon Smile program based on the SPLC’s listing it as an “Anti-LGBT” group on its “Hate Map.”
So, according to the SPLC, what is a “hate group”? By their definition, it is “an organization that—based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities—has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.” The SPLC claims, “The organizations on our hate group list vilify others because of their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity—prejudices that strike at the heart of our democratic values and fracture society along its most fragile fault lines.” Listed along with groups like the Neo-Nazis, White Nationalists, and Racist Skinheads are Christian organizations and ministries, such as D. James Kennedy Ministries, which oppose special rights for homosexuals and transgender individuals and are therefore deemed as deserving of the “Anti-LGBT” label.
Again, the SPLC doesn’t hesitate to use its own inflammatory rhetoric, using the words “attack,” “malign” and “vilify” to describe what it considers to be the hateful actions of those who are “Anti-LGBT.” It also seeks cover by disingenuously claiming that “[v]iewing homosexuality as unbiblical or simply opposing same-sex marriage does not qualify an organization to be listed as an anti-LGBT hate group.” But this is belied by it description of anti-LGBT groups as those that among other things claim homosexuality itself is dangerous, and there is a conspiracy called the “homosexual agenda” at work that seeks to destroy Christianity and the whole of society. The SPLC further concludes that "anti-LGBT groups primarily consist of Christian Right groups."
In addition, the SPLC now calls the following Christian organizations “hardline anti-LGBT groups” and accuses them of “promoting ‘religious freedom restoration acts’ to justify anti-gay discrimination.”
1) Alliance Defending Freedom
2) American Family Association,
3) Family Research Council,
4) Focus on the Family,
5) Liberty Counsel,
6) The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
In its early days the Southern Poverty Law Center was associated with efforts to end lynchings by the Ku Klux Klan and advance civil rights of black Americans. That is no longer their primary focus, however. Over time, the traditional civil rights work of the SPLC has been diminished as more and more of the budget is dedicated to fund raising. According to an exposé by Charlotte Allen in The Weekly Standard in 2013, even the SPLC’s liberal critics see it “primarily as a fundraising machine fueled by his [Morris Dees’] direct-mail talents that generates a nice living for himself . . . and a handful of other high ranking SPLC officials plus luxurious offices and perks, but that does relatively little in the way of providing the legal services to poor people that its name implies.”
One wonders then why people continue to give to the SPLC. Its president Richard Cohen president has described those who support the SPLC as aging Northern-state “1960s liberals” who respond to the organization’s direct-mail fundraising efforts because they still think of it in terms of its previous efforts to shut down the Ku Klux Klan. But as Charlotte Allen wrote, “the SPLC is probably the richest poverty organization in the history of the world,” thanks to its founder’s direct mail marketing genius. (Dees is listed in the Direct Marketing Association’s “Hall of Fame” along with retailer L. L. Bean.) Even if the recent light shown on its activities by exposés such as John Stossel’s (see The Southern Poverty Law Center Scam)and Jeryl Bier’s (Weekly Standard 9/6/2017) shake up some of its long-time donors, the SPLC still has a war chest large enough with its $320 million endowment to continue its name-calling and defamation of Christian groups for years to come.
Therefore, the lawsuit filed by our ministry is critically important. It is the best means available to shut down the SPLC’s hate-mongering against Christian action organizations and ministries. If we are successful, the court will issue a permanent injunction “enjoining the SPLC, its officers, agents, servants, employees, and all other persons acting in concert or participation with the SPLC from further dissemination of the SPLC’s defamatory declaration that D. James Kennedy Ministries is a 'Hate Group.'”
Please join us in praying for the success of our suit.
[1] Tyler O’Neil, “Southern Poverty Law Center: ‘Our Aim in Life Is to Destroy These Groups, Completely,’” PJ Media, September 1, 2017, https://pjmedia.com/trending/2017/09/01/southern-poverty-law-center-our-aim-in-life-is-to-destroy-these-groups-completely/ (accessed November 28, 2017).
Who Are the “Haters?”
By Karen VanTil Gushta
Transgenderism is one of the biggest landmines in today’s culture war. If you believe God created two sexes and there are no “cross-overs,” you are called a “hater” and “bigot” by groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center. In fact, D. James Kennedy Ministries is listed on the SPLC “hate map” as “Anti-LGBT.” These charges are defamatory and completely false, but according to the SPLC, anyone who opposes special LGBT rights is “anti-LGBT.” The SPLC website accuses us and others in this category of using “rhetoric and harmful pseudoscience that demonizes LGBT people as threats to children, society and often public health.”
Of course, accusing us of “demonizing” LGBT people is itself inflammatory rhetoric; rhetoric that is political at its core. The SPLC claims its “Hatewatch” is specifically intended to “monitor and expose the activities of the American radical right.” The SPLC’s purposes are political and its ideology is strictly left-wing.
SPLC Senior Fellow Mark Potok further revealed the true sinister character of his organization’s efforts in an interview. The “hate group” criteria, he said, “have nothing to do with criminality or violence or any kind of guess we’re making about ‘this group could be dangerous.’” Mr. Potok admitted, “It’s strictly ideological.’” He also admitted, “Sometimes the press will describe us as monitoring hate crimes and so on. I want to say plainly that our aim in life is to destroy these groups, to completely destroy them.”[1]
The SPLC has set about to destroy those it calls “hate groups” by using the simple tool of defamation. Once they tag an organization or individual as a “hate group” or “hater,” businesses and other organizations that trust the SPLC refuse to allow the designated group or person to utilize their services. PayPal stopped providing service to both Robert Spencer’s JihadWatch.org and Pamela Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative because the SPLC has tagged them as “anti-Muslim.” After the news got out of this action, however, public outcry online prompted PayPal to restore their accounts. Nevertheless, Spencer declared he would not use PayPal in the future, saying, “I know where they stand now.” Amazon denied D. James Kennedy Ministries participation in its Amazon Smile program based on the SPLC’s listing it as an “Anti-LGBT” group on its “Hate Map.”
So, according to the SPLC, what is a “hate group”? By their definition, it is “an organization that—based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities—has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.” The SPLC claims, “The organizations on our hate group list vilify others because of their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity—prejudices that strike at the heart of our democratic values and fracture society along its most fragile fault lines.” Listed along with groups like the Neo-Nazis, White Nationalists, and Racist Skinheads are Christian organizations and ministries, such as D. James Kennedy Ministries, which oppose special rights for homosexuals and transgender individuals and are therefore deemed as deserving of the “Anti-LGBT” label.
Again, the SPLC doesn’t hesitate to use its own inflammatory rhetoric, using the words “attack,” “malign” and “vilify” to describe what it considers to be the hateful actions of those who are “Anti-LGBT.” It also seeks cover by disingenuously claiming that “[v]iewing homosexuality as unbiblical or simply opposing same-sex marriage does not qualify an organization to be listed as an anti-LGBT hate group.” But this is belied by it description of anti-LGBT groups as those that among other things claim that:
1) homosexuality itself is dangerous,
2) there is a conspiracy called the “homosexual agenda” at work that seeks to destroy Christianity and the whole of society.
3) anti-LGBT groups primarily consist of Christian Right groups.
In addition, the SPLC now calls the following Christian organizations “hardline anti-LGBT groups” and accuses them of “promoting ‘religious freedom restoration acts’ to justify anti-gay discrimination.”
1) Alliance Defending Freedom
2) American Family Association,
3) Family Research Council,
4) Focus on the Family,
5) Liberty Counsel,
6) The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
In its early days the Southern Poverty Law Center was associated with efforts to end lynchings by the Ku Klux Klan and advance civil rights of black Americans. Those days are long gone, however. Today co-founder Morris Dees lives in a lavish home in Montgomery, Alabama, and receives a compensation package of $345,000, while his organization consistently receives “Fs” from Charity Watch for stockpiling assets. In addition, over time, the traditional civil rights work of the SPLC has been diminished as more and more of the budget is dedicated to fund raising. According to an exposé by Charlotte Allen in The Weekly Standard in 2013, even the SPLC’s liberal critics see it “primarily as a fundraising machine fueled by his [Morris Dees’] direct-mail talents that generates a nice living for himself . . . and a handful of other high ranking SPLC officials plus luxurious offices and perks, but that does relatively little in the way of providing the legal services to poor people that its name implies.”
One wonders then why people continue to give to the SPLC. Its president Richard Cohen president has described those who support the SPLC as aging Northern-state “1960s liberals” who respond to the organization’s direct-mail fundraising efforts because they still think of it in terms of its previous efforts to shut down the Ku Klux Klan. But as Allen writes, “the SPLC is probably the richest poverty organization in the history of the world,” thanks to its founder’s direct mail marketing genius. (Dees is listed in the Direct Marketing Association’s “Hall of Fame” along with retailer L. L. Bean.) Even if the recent attention it is garnering by exposés such as John Stossel’s (see The Southern Poverty Law Center Scam)and Jeryl Bier’s (Weekly Standard 9/6/2017) shake up some of its long-time donors, it still has a war chest large enough with its $320 million endowment to continue its name-calling and defamation of Christian groups for years to come.
Therefore, the lawsuit filed by our ministry is critically important. It is the best means available to shut down the SPLC’s own hate-mongering against Christian action organizations and ministries. If we are successful, the court will issue a permanent injunction “enjoining the SPLC, its officers, agents, servants, employees, and all other persons acting in concern or participation with the SPLC from further dissemination of the SPLC’s defamatory declaration that D. James Kennedy Ministries is a “Hate Group.”
Please join us in praying for the success of our suit.
[1] Tyler O’Neil, “Southern Poverty Law Center: ‘Our Aim in Life Is to Destroy These Groups, Completely,’” PJ Media, September 1, 2017, https://pjmedia.com/trending/2017/09/01/southern-poverty-law-center-our-aim-in-life-is-to-destroy-these-groups-completely/ (accessed November 28, 2017).
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