family research fdn FRC2

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see CNP Ginni

see main Perkins

see bachman

election intergity BS cleta illegal scalise

CONSOVOY MCCARTHY PLLC

anti-commie gotv?

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09/29/2026

byPeter Montgomery

House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke via video to the Family Research Council’s Pray Vote Stand activist conference Saturday. As he prepared to hit the campaign trail for Republican House candidates, Johnson repeated his assertions that God will bless Republicans by increasing their majority in the midterm elections. He also previewed his messaging strategy for the next five weeks: demonizing Democrats as communists.

FRC President Tony Perkins introduced Johnson by telling activists who might be discouraged about current polls to remember that Johnson’s leadership role is a sign of the “tremendous progress” that religious-right activists’ prayers and political efforts have brought about.

Johnson agreed, saying:

We have gained ground, and thanks be to God, we won unified government in 2024. And remember, if you remember, even up to the night before that election, the pundits were saying that we would not keep the House majority and that we might lose the Senate and that even President Trump couldn't win, but we know the outcome. And so Republicans were given control again at the White House, the Senate, and the House—unified government.

Johnson cited the Republicans’ tax cuts, which heavily benefited the wealthiest Americans, as one piece of evidence that “God has been gracious to us and answered those prayers and we’ve delivered on our promises.”

But, he said, this election is not just about policy differences:

It's not just a contest right now between Republicans and Democrats. As everybody in that auditorium knows, this is a contrast between two completely different worldviews, visions for America, who we are and what we're going to be. And that's what's on the ballot in 37 days.

When Perkins said that Johnson and others “expressing their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ from positions of leadership” is “emboldening the church across the nation,” Johnson responded, “I hope so. I mean, that’s the objective.”

And when Perkins described the upcoming elections as “communist versus common sense,” Johnson agreed, saying that “the insurgent left is taking over the Democrat Party.” He said about 38 or 40 “radical leftist Marxist ideologues” have won Democratic primary elections, adding, “And we have to defeat that ideology because it is anti-American. And frankly, it is anti-God.”

Johnson made it clear that he and the MAGA political machine will try to paint all Democrats with the same brush:

The most dangerous candidate for Congress right now is not the openly avowed Marxist socialists because they tell you what they're about…They’ve calculated, Tony, that over two or three election cycles they can elect enough Marxists to quite literally take over everything…And what I was going to say is that the most dangerous candidate for Congress right now isn't the person waving that flag. It's the Democrat running as a so-called moderate. When we know very well that that moderate Democrat wing is not going to exist anymore. They’ll have no power because the energy, the excitement, the grassroots, is on the side of the insurgent left. And they will move that party off the cliff. That’s what’s gonna happen.

Johnson promoted a propaganda and fundraising website that is funded by his campaign committee, contrastforamerica.com, that calls the midterms a contrast between “common sense and crazy.”

“Socialism is the first step to communism, and throughout history every single attempt at socialism or communism has failed—leaving populations starving and countries gutted,” the website warns. Its examples, of course, don’t include the successful social democracies of western Europe.

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Right Wing Watch reported in November that right-wing activist Katy Faust had appeared on the Family Research Council's "Washington Watch" program to promote the End Obergefell movement she was organizing. Today her anti-equality coalition officially launched its campaign to get the Supreme Court to overturn its 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that the Constitution protects the right of same-sex couples to marry.

The coalition of 47 right-wing groups is calling their campaign “Greater Than” and using the tagline, “Children are greater than equal.” The basic message is that same-sex couples who want to get married and become parents are selfishly putting adult “fantasies” and “desires” over the wellbeing of children. A number of religious-right figures are featured in a campaign launch video. Influencer Allie Beth Stuckey, for example, mocks equality advocates’ use of the phrase “love makes a family.”

In an interview about the campaign with American Family Radio, Faust made it clear that the campaign will continue a long and dishonorable legacy of anti-LGBTQ forces smearing gay people and couples as threats to children. She called parenting by same-sex couples a “destructive state-sanctioned gaslighting experiment on children.” Faust names a few of the religious-right leaders involved in the campaign, saying, “We’re all going to speak with one voice, and it is ‘don’t touch the kids.’”

The campaign announcement was made through the Heritage Foundation’s “Daily Signal,” which was not surprising given that the Heritage Foundation responded to the Obergefell ruling by insisting that it was not legitimate and publishing a road map to overturning it.

Last year, as equality advocates celebrated the tenth anniversary of Obergefelland the supermajority support for marriage equality among the American public, Right Wing Watch reported that anti-LGBTQ religious-right groups were determined to overturn it. And in November, when the Supreme Court rejected Liberty Counsel’s request to overturn marriage equality, the religious-right legal group insisted that “it’s not if, but when, Obergefell will be overturned.”

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03/14/2025

Peter Montgomery

The religious-right group Family Research Council promoted an excited letter to supporters Thursday saying that President Donald Trump’s dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education could be a “game-changer” for FRC’s efforts to “bring faith and the Bible back to public schools.”

In her recent book “Money, Lies, and God,” Katherine Stewart wrote about the ways that “privatizers and proselytizers” work together to delegitimize and undermine public education. The right-wing funded Moms for Liberty demonstrates this dual strategy, urging activists to take over public school boards while advocating for “school choice” laws to divert funding away from public schools. FRC President Tony Perkins’ letter showcases such a two-front strategy to push religious indoctrination into public schools and shift more students (and education dollars) into religious schools that are free from public oversight.

Perkins begins by criticizing Supreme Court rulings upholding church-state separation, and moves quickly to Christian nationalists’ favorite target: LGBTQ people: “With God, the Ten Commandments, and biblical truths out of the way, the Left had ample room to push their radical indoctrination plan onto our children.”

Perkins’ letter praises recent actions by state officials to turn public schools into de facto Sunday schools, beginning with a 2024 Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom. “Louisiana’s spark became a flame as other states – including Texas, Oklahoma, and South Dakota – have now taken steps to reintroduce biblical teachings back into their schools,” Perkins writes.

But even that is not enough, Perkins continues, calling on every church to start a Christian school in which the Bible “is more than historical context of our nation's founding or a general ethical context -- it is the complete worldview in which reality and life itself are grounded.”

Perkins’ letter comes in the context of Christian nationalist activists urging state legislators to take advantage of right-wing Supreme Court rulings and go “on offense” to dismantle separation of church and state, particularly where schools are involved.

Oklahoma’s Christian nationalist Superintendent of Schools Ryan Walters last year ordered public schools in the state to teach the Bible, which may have been an effort to keep him from being upstaged by Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law, which has been promoted as part of “Project Blitz,” a campaign to promote Christian nationalist legislation at the state level. Walters' plan to buy Trump Bibles for classrooms was put on pause by the state supreme court this week.

Trump chose his billionaire backer Linda McMahon to oversee the dismantling of the Department of Education. McMahon has chaired the America First Policy Institute, a MAGA think tank that promotes right-wing education policies as part of its agenda for “restoring a nation under God.” AFPI promotes so-called “school choice” laws that divert funding from public schools to unaccountable religious schools.

“AFPI has specifically taken credit for lobbying for the expansion of this approach in Arizona—over the objection of voters—where it has become an expensive ‘handout to the wealthy’ that has forced cuts in programs that serve needier families,” Right Wing Watch reported in February. “Pro Publica has reported on the lack of accountability in the program; a failing charter school shut down by regulators simply reopened as a private religious school funded by taxpayers.”

Project 2025 partners are lining up behind the SAVE Act

Civil rights groups have called the SAVE Act "both unnecessary and dangerous”

Written by Sophie Lawton

Published 09/11/24 mma

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) says he is “resolved” to tie the SAVE Act to a continuing resolution required to fund the federal government until the spring. Some Project 2025 leaders and partner organizations have been promoting the legislation and have expressed support for the move by Johnson.

The “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility” or “SAVE” Act, reportedly drafted by a combination of election deniers and Project 2025 contributors, would ban noncitizens from voting — something which is already illegal and exceedingly rare. Civil rights groups have condemned the SAVE Act as “both unnecessary and dangerous” as it may “intimidate members of immigrant communities and communities of color from exercising their lawful right to vote.” The bill was passed in the House in July with President Biden promising to veto it if passed by the Senate.

During her opening statement at a subcommittee hearing on the SAVE Act, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA), ranking member of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, called the legislation an “anti-voter bill” and stated that it was “crafted with the help of election deniers and some of the architects of Project 2025” — one of whom, Cleta Mitchell, testified on behalf of the legislation during the hearing.

Since Johnson’s decision to connect the controversial legislation to a possible government shutdown, Project 2025 leaders and partners have been defending his decision and endorsing the SAVE Act.

The Heritage Foundation

In a September 9 op-ed, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts and Heritage Action for America Executive Vice President Ryan Walker called the continuing resolution “the way forward” for Republicans. Roberts and Walker claim in the piece that the SAVE Act will “ensure” that the election is not “diluted by the ballots of illegal aliens and other noncitizens.” In response to the argument that noncitizen voting is already illegal, they write, “It is undeniable that the current voting system allows non-citizens to register and vote” due to ineffective voter ID laws.

Walker also previously voiced his support for the SAVE Act in an appearance on Heritage’s Heritage Explains podcast. He claimed “states are still allowing for illegal immigrants to register to vote” and called the legislation a “very reasonable ask.” Walker called on Congress to include the SAVE Act in the continuing resolution before Johnson confirmed his plans.

In an article on The Heritage Foundation’s website, senior communications manager Matthew Tragesser similarly claims that “there is ample evidence … that aliens have registered and voted in past elections” (though he fails to cite any evidence in the piece). Besides promoting enforcement of voter ID legislation specifically around noncitizen voting, Tragresser also suggests “creating a congressional commission to further explore how aliens impact the outcomes of American elections.”

Family Research Council

Tony Perkins of Project 2025 partner organization the Family Research Council recently hosted Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) on his podcast Washington Watch to promote the SAVE Act. Perkins said of the legislation, “The Democrats say it's not needed, that the law already prohibits it. If that's the case, why don't they just go ahead and accept it and make it very clear that they are against illegal voting? But they don't wanna do that.”

On another episode of Washington Watch, Perkins hosted Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) to promote both the SAVE Act and Johnson’s plan for a continuing resolution. Perkins asked the audience, “Would Democrats allow a government shutdown just to thwart an election integrity measure?”

Family Research Council also published an article supportive of the SAVE Act in its blog The Washington Stand, titled “‘Sorely Needed’: Speaker Johnson May Attach SAVE Act to Govt. Funding Bill.”

Conservative Partnership Institute

Project 2025 partner organization the Conservative Partnership Institute published a blog titled “The SAVE Act is a fight worth having,” arguing that Democrats are not supporting the legislation in order “to make sure they can cheat” and falsely claiming that noncitizen voting is a “real and significant problem.”

In a post to X (formerly known as Twitter), Project 2025 and SAVE Act contributor Cleta Mitchell, a senior legal fellow at the Conservative Partnership Institute, wrote, “Get behind Speaker Johnson!” in response to his remarks on attaching the SAVE Act to a continuing resolution.

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The Family Research Council is a conservative advocacy group with a “biblical worldview.” While it has a church ministries department that works with churches from several evangelical Christian denominations that share its perspectives, it does not represent a single denomination. Although its activities are primarily focused on policy, advocacy, government lobbying and public communication, the Internal Revenue Service granted the council’s application to be treated as “an association of churches” in 2020.

Concerned that the IRS had erred in allowing the council and similar groups to be designated churches or associations of churches, Democratic members of the House of Representatives sent the Treasury secretary and the IRS commissioner letters in 2022 and 2024 expressing alarm. The House Democrats pointed to what appeared to be “abuse” of the tax code and asked the IRS to “determine whether existing guidance is sufficient to prevent abuse and what resources or Congressional actions are needed.”

As a professor of nonprofit law, I believe some groups that aren’t churches or associations of churches want to be designated that way to avoid the scrutiny being a charitable organization otherwise requires. At the same time, some other groups that should qualify as churches may have difficulty doing so because of the IRS’ outdated test for that status.

Together with my colleague Ellen P. Aprill, I recently published a paper outlining two main arguments in favor of revising the federal government’s definitions of churches as they pertain to tax law.

No 990s means less scrutiny

All charitable nonprofits, including churches, get the same basic benefits under federal tax law. This means they don’t have to pay taxes on their revenue and that donors can deduct the value of their gifts from their taxable income – as long as they itemize deductions on their tax return.

Unlike other tax-exempt charities, churches don’t have to file 990 forms. That means the public does not have access to churches’ staff pay, board membership and funding details, which are in this publicly available tax form that all other charities must complete every year. The availability of 990 forms enhances the transparency and accountability of the nonprofit sector.

And churches and associations of churches are unlikely to get audited by the IRS. Federal law requires that a senior IRS official “reasonably believes” the church or association has violated federal tax rules before beginning an investigation. This means that an official must have reason to believe the organization has violated federal tax law before obtaining any information from the organization.

This standard is higher than what’s needed before an audit can begin for all other tax-exempt organizations and indeed all taxpayers. For everyone else, the IRS is free to begin an examination based only on a suspicion of a violation or even based on random selection.

Also, unlike other tax-exempt charities, churches and church associations are automatically eligible for their tax-exempt status. They don’t have to apply for it.

Why churches get special treatment

Congress has passed laws granting churches and what it calls “integrated auxiliaries” and “conventions or associations of churches” special protections because the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects religious freedom.

Churches include houses of worship ranging in size from a handful of parishioners to megachurches with 10,000 or more people attending weekly services. Houses of worship of all faiths, including synagogues, mosques and temples, count as churches, according to the IRS.

Integrated auxiliaries are church schools and other organizations affiliated with churches or conventions and primarily supported by internal church sources, as opposed to by the public or government.

Conventions or associations of churches are organizations that have houses of worship from either a single denomination or from multiple denominations as their members. Most denominational bodies, such as the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, are likely conventions or associations of churches, although the IRS does not publish a list of such entities.

Not every religious nonprofit belongs in one of these categories.

For example, the University of Notre Dame, where I teach law students and conduct legal research, and World Vision, a global humanitarian group, are both religious organizations that do not fall into any of these categories. This makes sense, because Notre Dame and World Vision are primarily engaged in activities other than fostering a religious congregation or coordinating the activities of churches within a single denomination.

The IRS has long relied on a 14-factor test to distinguish churches from the other religious nonprofits. Examples of those factors include having ordained ministers, a formal doctrine, a distinct membership and a regular congregation attending religious services.

It’s not necessary for all the factors to apply to pass this test.

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Yet for almost as long, courts have been uncomfortable with this test because it draws heavily on the traditional characteristics of Protestant Christian churches, as the U.S. Court of Federal Claims explained in a 2009 ruling. This system therefore may be a poor fit for houses of worship of other faiths, especially given the increasing diversity of faith communities.

These courts have instead adopted an “associational test.” It focuses on whether the organization’s congregants hold religious services on a regular basis and gather in person on other occasions.

With the growth of virtual and televised religious services, an update of this test is overdue.

Proposed solutions

Aprill and I recommend that the IRS change its definition for churches to the associational one adopted by some courts in rulings as early as 1980. As the U.S. Court of Federal Claims explained in that 2009 ruling, this test focuses on whether a body of believers assembles regularly to worship. Given technological advances, the IRS should also make it clear that this test can be satisfied through remote participation in religious services using interactive, teleconferencing apps such as Zoom.

This definition would be also better suited for congregations of all faiths because some faiths do not prioritize many of the factors included in the IRS test, such as having a formal code of doctrine or requiring members to not be associated with other houses of worship or faiths. And it would better reflect how some Americans participate in religious services today.

We recommend that the IRS revisit its test for being a church and that Congress pass a law that would change the definition of church associations. The new law could limit associations of churches to organizations that represent a single denomination, as Congress likely initially intended.

This latter change would make it harder for religious organizations that are primarily involved in bringing churches from multiple faiths together to engage in advocacy or other activities to obtain this status and the lack of transparency and accountability that come with it. We believe Congress, not the IRS, should make this change because of the potential political tensions that narrowing the definition could create.

We don’t think the changes would impinge upon the special role that churches have in our society. Indeed, the revised test for qualifying as a church would better fit with both the increasing variety of faiths in our country and technological advancements.

Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Tony Perkins, President

FRC.org

https://frc.org › tony-perkins

Tony Perkins is Family Research Council's fourth and longest-serving president, joining the organization in August of 2003. Described as a legislative pioneer ...

Tony Perkins (@tperkins) / X

X · tperkins

47K+ followers

tony perkin frc from twitter.com

President @FRCdc. Chairman @FRCAction. Host of Washington Watch. Former Chair @USCIRF. Married 38 years, grateful father of five.

Tony Perkins (politician)

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In addition to his duties as president of the FRC, Perkins hosts a radio program, Washington Watch with Tony Perkins. Perkins was involved in the 2005 ...

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Tony Perkins is Family Research Council's fourth and longest-serving president, joining the organization in August of 2003. Described as a legislative ...

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Tony Perkins

Southern Poverty Law Center

https://www.splcenter.org › extremist-files › individual

Anthony Richard “Tony” Perkins, who since 2003 has served as president of the anti-LGBT Family Research Council (FRC), was born and raised in Cleveland, ...

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Tony Perkins, Vice Chair | USCIRF

US Commission on International Religious Freedom | USCIRF (.gov)

https://www.uscirf.gov › about-uscirf › tony-perkins-vi...

Tony Perkins has served as the president of the Family Research Council (FRC), a public policy organization that provides research and advocacy on issues ...

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Highlights From The National Gathering For Prayer And Repentance

Kyle Mantyla | February 2, 2024 RWW

Dozens of members of Congress joined with multitudes of religious-right activists for a “National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance” at the Museum of the Bible on Wednesday. Hosted by Jim Garlow of Well Versed ministry and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, the hours-long event featured wave after wave of politicians and activists taking the stage to deliver various prayers, many anodyne but some more targeted and political.

The event’s main feature was the prayers delivered by the myriad members of Congress who took to the stage in small groups and delivered their short prayers in turn. Among the participants was Rep. Greg Steube of Florida, who proclaimed that everyone in the nation must repent of immorality and their rejection of God. He was followed by Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, who delivered a prayer entirely dedicated to railing against abortion, and Rep. Randy Weber of Texas who wept as he begged God’s forgiveness because this nation has “trampled on holy marriage and called it an alternative lifestyle.”

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Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida used her time on stage to proclaim that “each person, regardless of their race, nationality, language will serve you and praise you as Lord, and we will preserve this country the way you formed it and the way you envisioned it.”

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The congressional segment of the event was closed out by House Speaker Mike Johnson, who joined all the participants on stage to deliver a prayer, after which they were collectively prayed over by Perkins.

The next few hours featured an array of religious-right activists, many of them connected to the dominionist New Apostolic Reformation, delivering prayers, generally targeting their respective pet issues. For example, Jon Hamill of Lamplighter Ministries who warned that this nation has been “making deals with our enemies through idolatry, witchcraft, false religions, and secret orders, secret societies” and prayed that God will “annul all covenants with Baal, Moloch, Ashtoreth which have bound us.”

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Prophetic intercessor Lou Engle later took to the stage to pray fervently for “a hundred thousand LGBT to be saved and transformed.”

“Loose a new revolution that the LGBT will be saved,” Engle thundered.

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Among the other congressional participants were Reps. Josh Brecheen, Mark Alford, Michael Cloud, Diana Harshbarger, Kevin Hern, Gary Palmer, Rick Allen, Brandon Williams, Bob Good, Tracey Mann, Glenn Grothman, Warren Davidson, Mary Miller, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, and Sens. Katie Britt and James Lankford.

Religious-right activists who participated included Jonathan Cahn, Che Ahn, Paul Blair, Gary Hamrick, Lucas Miles, Janet Porter, Mario Bramnick, Dave Kubal, and Dutch Sheets.

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dobbs amicus

BRIEF OF AMICUS CURIAE FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONERS TRAVIS WEBER KATHERINE BECK JOHNSON FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL 801 G Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20001 July 29, 2021THOMAS R. MCCARTHY Counsel of Record TIFFANY H. BATES CONSOVOY MCCARTHYPLLC 1600 Wilson Boulevard Suite 700 Arlington, VA 22209 (703) 243-9423 tom@consovoymccarthy.com Counsel for Amicus Curiae

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October 18, 2023 RWW

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson took advantage of Gov. Roy Cooper’s absence from the state to proclaim “North Carolina Solidarity With Israel Week,” presumably in an effort to downplay his own long history of antisemitism now that he is running for governor.
David Lane’s American Renewal Network will be hosting a “complimentary Iowa Pastor Prayer Summits featuring Special Guest: Mike Huckabee” in December.

The Family Research Council and the Center for Urban Renewal and Education released a joint report titled “The Trans Youth Phenomenon: Critiques & Hard Questions” which they claim “answers the hard questions concerning the ideological underpinnings of gender-transitioning minors, the physiological procedures currently being employed on minors, the ability of minors to consent, and the deficient justifications for increasingly intensive interventions.”

Speaking at a Pastors for Trump rally, right-wing pastor Jackson Lahmeyer called on God to remove from office all politicians “that refuse to listen to your voice”: “Father, it is our request that you would uproot them and that you would remove them and you would replace them.”
Finally, Curt Landry, who repeatedly prophesied that former President Donald Trump would be reelected in 2020, now that he is not responsible if his prophecies don’t come true because it is “human lack of attention to following through with the details” that is to blame.

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after right-wing predictions of a “red wave” or “red tsunami” were defeated by voters, some right-wing leaders are predictably calling for new restrictions on early voting and mail-in ballots, both of which have increased access to the ballot and expanded as safe ways for people to vote during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Among those calling for limiting early and mail-in voting is the Family Research Council’s Ken Blackwell, a notorious voter suppresser during his tenure as Ohio secretary of state, who in 2020 participated in former President Donald Trump’s scheme to get Vice President Mike Pence to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power after Trump’s loss.

An article published Tuesday by FRC’s “news” outlet, The Washington Stand, said Blackwell called it “crazy” to depend on vote by mail and said he would end early voting if he could. In a conversation with FRC’s Tony Perkins two days after the election, Blackwell declared himself “a 21st Century Luddite” and said he wanted to ditch voting machines for paper ballots and restrict voting to Election Day itself.

Blackwell and Perkins agreed that voting by mail and longer election periods create greater ballot security challenges and more opportunities for human error. “The Democrats want that type of a process,” Perkins claimed. Blackwell agreed, saying, “What they figure is that if you have enough confusion, if you have tight margins, you get vote counts in what I call the area of litigation.” In reality, election experts and studies have shown that vote by mail is safe and reliable.

While making insinuations about Democratic motives, Perkins and Blackwell said that there were fewer reports of “shenanigans” this year, thanks in part, they said, to having additional observers at the polls.

Perkins said the two political parties have worldviews that are 180 degrees apart, claiming that “Our freedoms, our abilities to raise our families, to teach our children to love the Lord and to know him and to live that faith out in the broader society is at risk in every election.” Blackwell agreed, adding, “We know that the difference between our constitutional republic is that God is at the center, is central to it, and all of the totalitarian states that I have ever visited, they tried to run God and faith out of the public square, crush the family, and make people more dependent, not free citizens but subjects.”

Speaking about the midterm elections, Blackwell said that it may not have been a red tsunami, but there were major victories for right-wing candidates. “We cannot let the devil steal our joy,” he said. Perkins responded by quoting or paraphrasing Pastor Gary Hamrick: “Hey, we sawRoeoverturned, and we didn’t expect some kind of backlash from the devil?”

“I think the reason people are opposed to very practical procedures such as a photo ID is because they want to cheat the system,” Perkins said. “They want to be able to manipulate it.”

“They want confusion,” Blackwell added, “They don’t want clarity.”

To be fair, Perkins and Blackwell know something about cheating the system and creating confusion. Both energetically embraced and promoted Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. In December 2020, they signed a letter falsely claiming, “There is no doubt President Donald J. Trump is the lawful winner of the presidential election. Joe Biden is not president-elect.” The letter called on state legislatures in six battleground states won by Biden to appoint pro-Trump electors anyway. At the end of that month, both Perkins and Blackwell signed another letterurging Senate Republicans to contest electors from five states.

As mentioned earlier, Blackwell was also involved in the scheme to pressure Pence to overturn the election. On Dec. 28, 2020, Blackwell sent an email to several right-wing insiders urging that Pence and his staff get a briefing from “John and Ken”—that is,John Eastman and Ken Klukowski. Eastman, a lawyer who pushed illegal schemes to keep Trump in power, has had a long professional association with Klukowski, a former director of FRC’s Center for Religious Liberty who after Trump’s loss was parachuted into the Justice Department office of Jeffrey Clark, who was plotting to drag the DOJ into Trump’s efforts to overturn the election.

Two days before the Capitol insurrection, Blackwell tweeted a video message using the “Stop the Steal” hashtag and urging activists to demand that members of Congress address “election irregularities and illegalities” on Jan. 6. “This is not a time for sideline sitters or backbenchers,” he said. “You must do what you can with what you have where you are. Our republic demands it.”

Under Perkins’ leadership, FRC last year launched the Center for Biblical Worldview, which it said would help activists “see the spiritual warbehind the political war.” Pollster and Center for Biblical Worldview senior fellow George Barna told religious right activists at FRC’s “Pray Vote Stand” summit last yearthat it is their duty to try to indoctrinate other people’s children into a “biblical worldview.”

Tags: Ken Blackwell Kenneth Blackwell Tony Perkins Capitol Insurrection Donald Trump Election 2020 Election 2022 Stop the Steal voter suppression Voting Rights Family Research Council

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https://ministrywatch.com/30-largest-christian-advocacy-organizations/

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Below is a list of the 30 largest Christian advocacy organizations in the United States.

The organizations on this list are those whose work is not primarily direct aid, but in advocacy, including those who work in the arena of public policy — including life, marriage, and religious liberty.

The total revenue of the advocacy organizations on our list is more than $800 million. In order to make this list, an organization needs about $4.4 million in revenue. Last year, the #30 organization on the list had $2.3 million. That means a few organizations fell off the list this year. They are Advocates for Community Transformation, The Exodus Road, Frontline Response/Atlanta Dream Center, and Americans United for Life.

Organizations new to this list include: Faith and Freedom Coalition, Acton Institute for the Study of Religious Liberty, Atlas Free, and ZOE International.

This list should not be interpreted as a list of recommended ministries. They are ranked by revenue, and not by ministry effectiveness, financial efficiency, or any other measure. That said, the Financial Efficiency rating, Transparency Grade, and Donor Confidence Score of each ministry is listed.

To learn more about these ministries, click on the ministry’s name and read the complete MinistryWatch profile on this organization.

Access to MinistryWatch content is free. However, we hope you will support our work with your prayers and financial gifts. To make a donation, click here.

We should note that the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) is not a Christian organization, but it advertises heavily in Christian media and has thousands of evangelical Christian donors, so it is included on this list so as to provide transparency into its operations. To read more about IFCJ, click here.

If you would like to know more about our Financial Efficiency Rating, click here. If you would like to know more about our Transparency Grades, click here. To learn about the Donor Confidence Score, click here.

Editor’s Note: Stephen DuBarry contributed to this list.

Rank Last Year Organization name CEO Total revenue ECFA Rating Transp DCS Latest 990

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1 1 International Fellowship of Christians and Jews Yael Eckstein $219,904,132 No 2 C 79 2021

2 2 AbleLight Keith Jones $107,612,471 Yes 2 A 82 2021

3 3 Alliance Defending Freedom Kristen Waggoner $78,833,050 Yes 1 A 92 2021

4 4 The Voice of the Martyrs Cole Richards $77,331,603 Yes 3 C 85 2020

5 5 Giving Children Hope Pete Bowen $32,370,795 No 5 C 75 2020

6 6 American Family Association Tim Wildmon $31,046,881 Yes 4 A 100 2021

7 NR Faith and Freedom Coalition Timothy Head $23,533,527 No 2 D 43 2019

8 7 American Center for Law and Justice Jay Alan Sekulow $22,860,452 No NA C 45 2021

9 8 Family Research Council Tony Perkins $18,177,498 Yes 5 A 92 2020

10 9 Human Coalition Jeff Bradford $17,281,324 Yes 2 A 78 2020

11 10 First Liberty Institute Kelly Shackelford $14,810,344 Yes 3 A 88 2020

12 11 Home School Legal Defense Association J. Michael Smith $13,876,643 Yes 2 A 88 2020

13 13 Students for Life of America Kristan Hawkins $11,694,814 No 4 C 79 2020

14 14 Becket Fund for Religious Liberty Mark Rienzi $11,216,379 No 4 C 65 2021

15 12 Christian Medical & Dental Associations Mike Chupp $9,244,893 Yes 1 A 82 2021

16 NR Acton Institutefor the Study of Religious Liberty Kris Alan Mauren $8,804,881 No 2 C 69 2020

17 16 Care Net Roland Warren $8,724,760 Yes 4 A 96 2022

18 15 Save The Storks Diane Ferraro $8,203,663 Yes 3 A 96 2021

19 17 The A21 Campaign Nicholas Caine $8,050,835 Yes 2 A 78 2019

20 18 Safe Families for Children David Anderson $7,741,735 Yes 4 A 82 2020

Rank Last Year Organization name CEO Total revenue ECFA Rating Transp DCS Latest 990

«‹12›»

21 21 Live Action Lila Rose $7,476,280 No 1 D 63 2020

22 NR Atlas Free Jeremy Vallerand $6,740,936 Yes 5 A 100 2022

23 19 Bread for the World Institute Eugene Cho $6,419,987 No 1 C 69 2021

24 NR ZOE International Michael & Carol Hart $6,345,288 Yes 1 A 74 2021

25 20 Kingdom Advisors Rob West $5,246,145 Yes 4 A 92 2020

26 22 The National Center on Sexual Exploitation Dawn Hawkins $5,085,859 No 1 C 65 2021

27 23 Bridges for Peace Rebecca J. Brimmer $4,839,459 Yes 5 C 67 2020

28 25 Rapha International Stephanie Garman Freed $4,670,544 Yes 2 A 92 2021

29 26 Shared Hope International Linda Smith $4,492,238 Yes 3 A 100 2021

30 24 Concerned Women for America Penny Young Nance $3,834,675 Yes 1 A 96 2021

tags

AbleLightActon Institute for the Study of Religious LibertyAlliance Defending FreedomAmerican Center for Law and JusticeAmerican Family AssociationAtlas FreeBecket Fund for Religious LibertyBread for the World InstituteBridges for PeaceCare NetChristian Medical & Dental AssociationsConcerned Women for AmericaFaith and Freedom CoalitionFamily Research CouncilFirst Liberty InstituteGiving Children HopeHome School Legal Defense AssociationHuman CoalitionInternational Fellowship of Christians and JewsKingdom AdvisorsLive ActionMinistryWatch monthly listRapha InternationalSafe Families for ChildrenSave The StorksShared Hope InternationalStudents for Life of AmericaThe A21 CampaignThe National Center on Sexual ExploitationTHE VOICE OF THE MARTYRSZOE International

Warren Cole Smith

Warren previously served as Vice President of WORLD News Group, publisher of WORLD Magazine, and Vice President of The Colson Center for Christian Worldview. He has more than 30 years of experience as a writer, editor, marketing professional, and entrepreneur. Before launching a career in Christian journalism 25 years ago, Smith spent more than seven years as the Marketing Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

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rww 10 22

On the eve of Thursday’s hearing at which a congressional committee revealed even more damning evidence of former President Donald Trump’s central role in the Capitol insurrection and the broader plot to keep him in power after losing the 2020 election, former Rep. Michele Bachmann told religious-right activists that the insurrection was planned by Trump opponents to make him look bad.

Bachmann, who was at the U.S. Capitol that day, told a Family Research Council town hall on Christian nationalism that the Jan. 6 crowd was “happy” before the violence started. She declared that the attack was a “rebranding exercise” to portray Trump and the MAGA movement as terrorists.

Bachmann is an influential figure on the religious right.She is dean of the School of Government at Pat Robertson’s Regent University and board chair of the Family Research Council, which was the organizer of Wednesday’s event.

Bachman is an ardent election denialist who, like Trump, has refused to accept his defeat. On Election Day 2020, she had assured viewers of Kenneth Copeland’s Victory Network that “the Lord, our God, has sealed this election in the heavenlies and we are going to be rejoicing very soon.”

Weeks after the election, she screamedthat her vote had been “stolen” on election night, “when Satan was snatching away from America rule by the consent of the governed.” In April 2021, she responded to President Biden’s first State of the Union Speech by saying, “We had a fake election. We’ve had a fake presidency. This is a fake State of the Union address.” A month before, she used her post at Regent to host an “election integrity” conferencethat gave a platform to Gateway Pundit’s Jim and Joe Hoff and other conspiracy theorists.

Bachmann has also been a fervent promoter of bogus conspiracy theories about the insurrection since hours after the attack. The day after the insurrection, she falsely declared that the Capitol was invaded by left-wing “rabble-rousers paid to put together a coup.” Months later, she told right-wing radio listeners that the insurrection “was a theatrical event that the progressive left put on” to “rebrand Donald Trump as being an insurrectionist and a leader of a terrorist movement.”

She has her story, and she’s sticking to it, evidence be damned. [vid]

Tags: Michele Bachmann Capitol Insurrection Christian Nationalism Jan. 6 Family Research Council

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https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/their-failure-to-consider-the-bible-relevant-debunking-christian-nationalists-favorite-claim-about-the-founding-era/

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an 922

Far right wing extremist, Christian nationalist, antisemite Andrew Torba, the founder of Gab, the social media platform that is popular with white supremacists, is telling the Republican Party that “80 percent” of its base is Christian nationalists, and warns them to not “condemn” or “disavow” them.

Torba has ties to far right Christian nationalist Doug Mastriano, the Republican party’s nominee for governor of Pennsylvania. Torba has also “endorsed” Arizona GOP secretary of state nominee Mark Finchem, a an election-denier and member of the far-right antigovernment group Oath Keepers, and election-denying Arizona GOP state Senator Wendy Rogers.

“We have the numbers, we are the majority. And we are done being the footstool. We are going to wake up the body of Christ in this country. And we’re going to do something about you castrating our children, about you sexually indoctrinating them in the schools, about, you know, taking over our culture and taking over our government and sending all of our money to foreign countries and allowing our border to be invaded,” he says in video published by Right Wing Watch.

Gab is home to QAnon and “great replacement” conspiracy theorists, Trump supporters, MAGA and ultra MAGA extremists, white Christian nationalists, white supremacists, antisemites, and anti-LGBTQ extremists.

“We’re done,” Torba continues in his rant.

“We’re done with it, and we’re going to step up and we’re going to rebuild this fallen and corrupt society from scratch, just as Christians have done many times before. And yes, we absolutely are going to get involved in public discourse and in politics, and you’re not going to shut us up,” Torba declared.

“And it’s a message to the Republican party too that they are not to disavow us,” he warned. “They are not to condemn us, because we are 80% of the Republican Party. Christian nationalists are the Republican Party, and they’re going to start doing the will of God,” he says, appearing to order the Republican Party to meet his demands.

“And they’re going to start, you know, supporting biblical policies, and they’re going to start, you know, fighting back against this and not being complacent or they’re going to get out of the way and we’re going to go in there and we’re going to do it ourselves. Those are their two choices.”

Torba has appeared on Tony Perkins’ show. Perkins is the longtime head of the Family Research Council, which appears on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of anti-LGBTQ hate groups.

Last week Jewish Insider reported on an “obscure new book calling for the construction of ‘a parallel Christian society’ to replace ‘the failed secular state'” that seemed to be “performing surprisingly well on Amazon.”

That book, Christian Nationalism: A Biblical Guide for Taking Dominion and Discipling Nations, was written by Torba.

Last month the House Committee on Oversight sent Torba a letter “regarding your company’s response to the surge of online threats against law enforcement following the execution of a court-authorized search warrant by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club.”

“We are concerned that reckless statements by the former President and Republican Members of Congress have unleashed a flood of violent threats on social media that have already led to at least one death and pose a danger to law enforcement officers across the United States. We urge you to take immediate action to address any threats of violence against law enforcement that appear on your company’s platforms,” the letter reads.

But that letter also said, “On August 15, a Pennsylvania man was arrested and charged with making threats of violence against FBI personnel. He wrote on the social media platform Gab, ‘If You Work For The FBI Then You Deserve To Die.’ He also wrote, ‘Every single piece of shit who works for the FBI in any capacity, from the director down to the janitor who cleans their fucking toilets deserves to die. You’ve declared war on us and now it’s open season on YOU.'”

Watch below or at this link:

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/08/jamie-raskin/

pro pub

Forty members of Congress on Monday asked the IRS and the Treasury to investigate what the lawmakers termed an “alarming pattern” of right-wing advocacy groups registering with the tax agency as churches, a move that allows the organizations to shield themselves from some financial reporting requirements and makes it easier to avoid audits.

Reps. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., and Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., raised transparency concerns in a letter to the heads of both agencies following a ProPublica story about the Family Research Council, a right-wing Christian think tank based in Washington, D.C., getting reclassified as a church. Thirty-eight other lawmakers, including Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Jamie Raskin, D-Md., signed onto the letter.

“FRC is one example of an alarming pattern in the last decade — right-wing advocacy groups self-identifying as ‘churches’ and applying for and receiving church status,” the representatives wrote, noting the organization’s policy work supporting the overturning of Roe v. Wade and its advocacy for legislation seeking to ban gender-affirming surgery.

“Tax-exempt organizations should not be exploiting tax laws applicable to churches to avoid public accountability and the IRS’s examination of their activities,” they wrote.

The Family Research Council did not respond to requests for comment. The IRS told ProPublica that it does not comment on congressional correspondence.

The FRC’s website describes the organization as “a nonprofit research and educational organizationdedicated to articulating and advancing a family-centered philosophy of public life,” noting that it provides “policy research and analysis for the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the federal government.”

The FRC sought and received reclassification from a standard tax-exempt charity to an “association of churches” in 2020.

In its application for church status, the organization said it met 11 of the 14 characteristics that the IRS uses to determine whether an organization is a church, including an established place of worship — a chapel in the organization’s Washington office building, at which it said it holds services attended by more than 65 people. (Someone who answered the phone at the office said the group doesn’t offer church services.)The organization said its association comprises nearly 40,000 “partner churches” that must affirm a statement of faith to join; it did not offer the names of those partners on its form to the IRS or provide them to ProPublica.

The representatives’ letter asks the IRS to review the FRC’s status change and to examine its review process for organizations similarly seeking to switch their status to become a church or association of churches.

“It’s disturbing that a letter like this is even necessary,” Huffman said. “Unfortunately our IRS has been so worn down and beaten up by the right wing that they have essentially ceased all scrutiny of organizations that self-report as churches.”

The IRS classifies churches and associations of churches as tax-exempt charitable organizations, meaning that they do not have to pay federal taxes and that donors can deduct contributions from their own taxes.However, churches are exempt from submitting Form 990, the annual financial disclosure that nonprofit organizations use to list board members, key staffer salaries, large payments to independent contractors and grants given by the organization.

And unlike for other tax-exempt organizations, a high-level Treasury official must sign off on any audit of a church.

“We understand the importance of religious institutions to their congregants and believe that religious freedom is a cherished American value and constitutional right. We also believe that our tax code must be applied fairly and judiciously,” Huffman and DelBene wrote.

In their letter, the representatives asked for feedback from the IRS on whether it needs additional direction from Congress to enforce rules surrounding tax-exempt organizations and churches. Huffman said that he hopes to pursue legislative action if the IRS isn’t able to address these concerns, but that the letter is a first step.

“You need to start here — give the agency a chance to clean up its mess,” he said.

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