Stop Calling Conservative Groups Hate Groups

| August 17, 2012
477px-Tony_Perkins_1

Tony Perkins, President
Family Research Council

That is the unexpected call from Dana Milbank a liberal columnist for The Washington Post.

I disagree with the Family Research Council’s views on gays and lesbians. But it’s absurd to put the group, as the law center does, in the same category as Aryan Nations, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Stormfront and the Westboro Baptist Church. The center says the FRC “often makes false claims about the LGBT community based on discredited research and junk science.” Exhibit A in its dossier is a quote by an FRC official from 1999 (!) saying that “gaining access to children has been a long-term goal of the homosexual movement.”

Offensive, certainly. But in the same category as the KKK?

Since the shooting, conservatives have complained that the media have played down the story. This probably has less to do with bias than with the fact that nobody was killed. Still, there is something to the complaint.

I took issue with Glenn Beck before his fall for stirring up the unstable by promoting conspiracy theories in the mass media; more than one Beck follower became violent. What the Southern Poverty Law Center and Human Rights Campaign have done isn’t close to the level of provocation Beck achieved, but that doesn’t justify their actions. The National Organization for Marriage, which opposes gay marriage, is right to say that the attack “is the clearest sign we’ve seen that labeling pro-marriage groups as ‘hateful’ must end.”

It certainly is a double-edged sword as he pokes at conservatives as well, but at the heart of the issue he’s right, and I’m sure he’s getting blasted for it.  The Southern Poverty Law Center which did good work during the 60s can’t be taken seriously anymore and do nothing more than “inflate the hate.”  The Southern Poverty Law Center is guilty of what the left has accused conservatives of doing.  While they certainly didn’t give the perpetrator in yesterday’s shooting at the Family Research Council license their rhetoric hasn’t contributed to healthy, civil discourse.

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Category: Engaging Culture

About the Author ()

Shane Vander Hart is the founder and editor-in-chief of Caffeinated Thoughts.  He is also the President of 4:15 Communications, LLC, a social media & communications consulting/management firm.  He is a communications director for American Principles Project’s Preserve Innocence Initiative.  Prior to this Shane spent 20 years in youth ministry serving in church, parachurch, and school settings.  He has also served as an interim pastor and is a sought after speaker and pulpit fill-in.  Shane has been married to his wife Cheryl since 1993 and they have three kids.  Shane and his family reside near Des Moines, IA.  You can connect with Shane on Facebook or follow him on Twitter and Google +.
  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Nicholas-Reed/758821588 Nicholas Reed

    Falsely accusing people of being child molesters is not something that should be dismissed casually.  It is a blood libel; it justifies murder.  A lot of people on the right don’t seem to think that’s a big deal as long as those being murdered are gay.  But if being called a hate group (just for slandering millions of innocent people in an attempt to jeopardize their safety and fight their civil equality!) can justify injuring a security guard, imagine how much more extreme the reaction could be to falsely accusing someone of being a child molester.  The fact that LGBT people are the largest targets of hate crimes (in proportion to their numbers) certainly has some connection to this demonizing rhetoric.  Do you suggest we do nothing to criticize it, because the people who spread this slander might come to harm?  The only good reason not to call them a hate group is if the charge is wholly inaccurate. The FRC can “support traditional marriage” without resorting to blood libel, surely.

  • NCMountainGirl

    May I humbly suggest the gay, lesbian and hopelessly confused community is being conned by a group of people who would make Jim and Tammy Faye blush with the brazen falsity of their fundraising. 

    Don’t believe me?  Try Harper’s.

    http://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/03/hbc-90006753
     

    • Springdale

      To NC Mountain Girl:  I just took a few minutes of time to read the article at Harpers that you referenced. It confirms what I had read elsewhere. Not only is the Southern Poverty Law Center a hard core leftist group; it is also has a lust for money. A combination of leftist political ideology and corrupt capitalism.

  • Baltimatt

    Much of the language of anti-same-sex marriage groups is quite overheated and meant to poison the atmosphere.  These groups style themselves as “pro-family” and “pro-traditional marriage”, implying their opponents are not.  We are told that “marriage is under attack.”  The North Carolina Family Policy Council even published a picture showing a bride and groom in the crosshairs in support of North Carolina’s Amendment One, which would deny any state recognition of same-sex couples and their families.  

    All of this could lead people to think supporters of same-sex marriage are out to destroy traditional marriage to the point of shooting brides and grooms.  Meanwhile, these “pro-family” groups are doing all they can to marginalize same-sex couples and put their families at a disadvantage.

    While there was no justification for the man taking a gun to the Family Research Council, let’s not think hate speech is only coming from one side.

  • Springdale

    There has been in the United States an unrelenting and destructive attack upon Christian and basic social-cultural values. Communist and leftist ideology in general have purposely opposed, underminded and, when in the ascendancy, persecuted Christians and Christian values.

    Unfortunately the traditional family has suffered by infiltration and compromise with godless secular ideologies and the prostitution of popular culture. We are reverting to the debaucheries of the old paganism. And, yes, the call for the acceptance of “consensual” pedophilia will be one of the next steps downward unless we have spiritual and moral renewal!

  • Brian

    There wasnt one thing that Beck said, that wasnt 110% true!  Beck did a great service for the American people and the constitution, by pointing out the agenda of the radical left, which the MSM tried to cover up!  Putting Beck in the same category of this leftist scumbag, is bad enough. To go on and say Beck is actually far worse, is disturbing! 

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