Family Research Cncl/AFA

see also Perkins1019 FRC bak

==
islamophobe SJLP:Another anti-Muslim figurehead involved with CNP is <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/frank-gaffney-jr"> Frank Gaffney</a>.

A former Ronald Reagan administration staffer, Gaffney has since become

one of the most prolific anti-Muslim propagandists in the country. He

is gripped by paranoid fantasies of foreign entities such as the Muslim

Brotherhood infiltrating and supplanting the U.S. from within. Gaffney

founded the anti-Muslim hate group <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/center-security-policy"> Center for Security Policy</a> and now serves in an executive chairmanship role at the group.

    <font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[</font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pix Frank Gaffney, founder and president of

the Center for Security Policy, testifies during a hearing of the Senate

Judiciary Committee in 2013 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Win

McNamee/Getty Images)

</div>

Hatewatch first reported on Gaffney’s CNP membership in the

publication of the group’s 2014 roster. He is listed as a “Gold Circle

Member” in CNP’s September 2020 membership roster. Gold Circle Members

pay a yearly fee of $10,000, as shown by nomination documents. Like

Gabriel, Gaffney’s listed interests at CNP include “Radical Islam.”

Gaffney and the Center for Security Policy did not respond to a request for comment.

In 2016, candidate Trump <a href="https://www.npr.org/2015/12/07/458836388/trump-calls-for-total-and-complete-shutdown-of-muslims-entering-u-s" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> used data</a>

from a shoddy survey commissioned by the Center for Security Policy to

justify his call for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering

the United States.” The survey was done by The Polling Company,

Kellyanne Conway’s company. Conway served as Trump’s senior counselor

and was a member of CNP’s executive committee from 2014 to 2015, tax

records show.

Like other anti-Muslim and far-right <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2020/03/24/hate-group-leaders-antigovernment-extremists-push-anti-china-coronavirus-rhetoric"> actors</a>,

CNP has begun to frame China as a new Cold War-style adversary. Gaffney

and his group are active in stoking alarmism about the supposed threat

from China. At a CNP conference in August 2020 in Arlington, Virginia,

the coalition’s sister lobbying arm CNP Action, Inc., hosted a panel

titled “Reckoning with China: Action Steps,” according to a <a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2020/10/27/secretive-council-for-national-policy-closely-tied-to-trump/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> leaked copy</a> of the agenda obtained by the watchdog group Center for Media and Democracy. The panel featured Gaffney as a participant.

Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, a right-wing activist who is married to U.S.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is also a CNP member and counts

“Radical Islam” among her interests. In 2013, Mother Jones <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/07/groundswell-rightwing-group-ginni-thomas" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> reported</a> Ginni Thomas and Gaffney were part of another right-wing strategy group known as Groundswell.

CNP has also included Islamophobic figures in its orbit and network.

Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s former National Security Adviser who was

later pardoned by the former president after lying to the FBI, has ties

to CNP, though he is not listed as a member. Flynn spoke at a CNP Policy Counsel event in July 2016. His name is also <a href="https://twitter.com/BrentAllpress/status/1364480765199704069" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> associated</a> with a CNP Zoominfo <a href="https://archive.is/CF2Kz" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">account</a>,

as uncovered by investigative researcher Brent Allpress, suggesting

Flynn might be involved more formally with the coalition. Flynn has a

history of expressing anti-Islam sentiment, once <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-national-security-adviser-mike-flynn-called/story?id=43575658" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> calling</a>

the religion “a cancer.” In 2016, ACT for America advertised Flynn

serving on its board of advisers. He was also a keynote speaker at ACT’s

2016 conference in Washington, D.C.

In September 2017, longtime anti-Muslim figurehead <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/david-horowitz"> David Horowitz</a>

(who is not listed as a member) spoke at a CNP conference in Colorado

Springs, Colorado. The theme of the event and Horowitz’s presentation

was “Mapping the Left.” Horowitz heads the eponymously named David

Horowitz Freedom Center, a hate group known for spreading anti-Muslim

sentiment and helping fund other Islamophobic projects such as Jihad

Watch and FrontPage Magazine. Once a leftist in the 1960s, Horowitz now tries to smear his former political affiliation as being totalitarian.

Dr. Mark Christian is listed as a member of CNP’s Board of Governors,

which carries an annual fee of $6,000. Christian runs the anti-Muslim

hate group Global Faith Institute, a group that peddles Islamophobic

conspiracy theories while claiming to advocate for “the victims of

Islam.” Christian is a former Muslim who converted to Christianity. He

joins a cottage industry of former Muslims now disparaging their former

faith. Christian is willing to associate with extreme figures in the

anti-Muslim network, such as the former FBI agent turned anti-Muslim

hate figure <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/03/26/anti-muslim-figure-john-guandolo-posts-%E2%80%98cruel-and-inappropriate%E2%80%99-tweet-about-southwest"> John Guandolo</a>. Christian subscribes to the conspiracy theory that Islamic Sharia law is slowly “creeping” into American society.

“Islam has infiltrated all aspects of our life: our schools,

churches, media, courts, military and our government,” reads a 2017

Global Faith Institute email to supporters. “Every day we are losing

more of our freedom because of creeping sharia law.”

Christian did not answer a request for comment.

CNP’s rosters reveal the membership of other figures known for

spreading Islamophobic rhetoric. One is far-right historian William

“Bill” Federer, who treads in Islamophobic and anti-LGBTQ conspiracy

theories. According to the watchdog and research group Right Wing Watch,

Federer <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/right-wing-activist-exposes-the-obama-ferguson-islamist-homosexual-plot-to-destroy-america/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> once claimed</a>

that an “atheist homosexual gay agenda movement” will “open up” the

U.S. “to move into an Islamic future.” Federer has been featured at

events such as the Values Voter Summit, an annual conference put on by

the Family Research Council. Brigitte Gabriel has also spoken at the

Values Voter Summit in recent years, including 2018 and 2019. Family

Research Council’s executive vice president Jerry G. Boykin is also a

member of CNP.

Boykin has a track record of making anti-Muslim remarks, once <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/boykin-islam-should-not-be-protected-under-the-first-amendment/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> claiming </a> Islam should not be protected by the First Amendment. Boykin used <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7241287/CNP-Policy-Counsel-September-2014-Jerry-Boykin.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> similar rhetoric</a> in a 2014 news briefing for Policy Counsel,

a CNP publication and speaker series to inform the public on a “wide

range of topics” and “variety of opinions.” Boykin goes heavy on the

anti-Islam rhetoric in the article, which touches on the rise and

activities of the terrorist group ISIS at the time. Boykin took issue

with former President Barack Obama’s attempts to not conflate the

terrorist group with a religion of around 1.8 billion people.

“I think most Americans have figured this out,” Boykin said. “When

you say Isis [sic] is not Islam the rest doesn’t really matter because

if you are laying out a strategy that doesn’t start with an

understanding of your enemy and who you are up against and what

motivates him to do what he does the rest doesn’t matter.”

Boykin adds elsewhere: “One of the mistakes that we make about Islam

is that only 16% of Islam is actually a religion.” He claims the rest is

a legal, geopolitical and military system. Claiming Islam is not a

religion – or only part one – is a well-tread trope deployed by

Islamophobic figures. “But only 16% is an actual religion,” he said.

“And we make the mistake of thinking that it’s exactly like

Christianity. It is not.”

CNP’s Policy Counsel includes a disclaimer that views

expressed in the articles are not always representative of the

coalition. “These views should not be construed as the views of the

Council for National Policy, as an attempt to aid or hinder the

enactment of any legislation, or as an intervention in any political

campaign for public office,” the disclaimer reads.

However, as CNP papers brought to light by Documented reveal, the coalition has advocated for policies steeped in Islamophobia.

<h2>Turning interest into action...</h2> =// kirp tpusa ~ crt/ maSK<a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/family-research-council-raises-money-for-right-wing-school-board-takeover-campaign/">https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/family-research-council-raises-money-for-right-wing-school-board-takeover-campaign/</a><div>=</div><div>=</div><div>aha/yikes indist betw xian nat'l, evanG AND QANON?!</div><div>
</div><div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/08/christian-nationalists-believe-capitol-rioters-as-victims-report/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/08/christian-nationalists-believe-capitol-rioters-as-victims-report/</a></div><div>
</div><div>ME</div><div>
</div><div>christian nationalists are attempting to put a different spin on the Jan. 6 insurrection. While most Americans have <a data-linked-post="2653803286" href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/07/capitol-riots/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">witnessed some degree of the deadly series of events that have transpired</a>, Christian nationalists believe the rioters who stormed the CApitol are actually the victims, according to Americans United.</div>"The assault by a pro-Trump crowd should have posed something of a dilemma for Christian nationalists, who often pose as "law and order" conservatives, given that police officers were assaulted by an out-of-control mob," the publication reports. "But the same Christian nationalists who had assailed Black Lives Matter over anti-police-brutality protests just months earlier couldn't bring themselves to condemn the violence at the Capitol."
As a result of their refusal to hold rioters accountable and accept what actually happened, more conspiracies have been birthed.For example, Jeff Jansen, head of Global Fire Ministries, has repeatedly claimed Trump will rise to power again; a dangerous lie national security experts believe will only infuriate the Trump base more when it does not come to pass."The Trump administration is on its way in; the pedophilia Biden administration – the fake administration – Biden's administration is on its way out," Jansen said. "I don't care if you like it or not, it doesn't matter. We all know what took place, and God is going to do something amazing in this nation and through this nation. It's revival time. It's revolution time."As a result of Christians like Jansen, there is a growing concern that the conspiracy-driven prophetic movement is becoming "one of the fastest-growing corners of Christianity," according to New York Times reporter Ruth Graham.Offering her perspective of Christian prophets' actions, Graham previously wrote:"Many are independent evangelists who do not lead churches or other institutions. They operate primarily online and through appearances at conferences or as guest speakers in churches, making money through book sales, donations and speaking fees. And they are part of the rising appeal of conspiracy theories in Christian settings, echoed by the popularity of QAnon among many evangelicals and a resistance to mainstream sources of information."Although <a data-linked-post="2653154839" href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/capitol-riot-commission-2653154839/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">there have been efforts to launch a bipartisan committee to investigate the Capitol insurrection</a>, Christian nationalists have joined Republican lawmakers' plight not to further investigate.In the normal world, the pushback against the formation of a 1/6 commission also raises questions since Christian nationalists claim to believe rioters were actually victims.However, Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, has praised Republican lawmakers for blocking the effort by way of the filibuster as he described the commission as nothing more than "political theater." He also accused Democratic lawmakers of pushing to change the narrative although footage of the day makes it clear what transpired.
"This is about political theater, plain and simple," Perkins wrote in a column. "It's about creating a narrative, aided by the media, that all Republicans are dangerous extremists. At least GOP leaders are pushing back and insisting that they won't be a part of the Democratic charade."<a data-linked-post="2647804001" href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/christian-nationalists-aim-to-dismantle-this-core-freedom/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Christian nationalists' disturbing perspective</a> and continued efforts to support Capitol rioters suggests the movement will not wane anytime soon.<div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.438px; list-style: none;"><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/08/captiol-riot/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">'Vanilla ISIS': Terrorism expert breaks down the nightmarish ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/doug-mastriano/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">This PA lawmaker is a Christian zealot, an academic fraud and an ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/02/christian-nationalism/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">History of Christian nationalism played a dominant role in Capitol ... ›</a></li></ul><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase; margin-top: 10px;">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.438px; list-style: none;"><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/02/24/970685909/evangelical-leaders-condemn-radicalized-christian-nationalism" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Evangelical Leaders Raise Alarms About Christian Nationalism In ... ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/responses/white-christian-nationalism-the-deep-story-behind-the-capitol-insurrection" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">White Christian Nationalism: The Deep Story Behind the Capitol ... ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/28/opinion/christian-nationalists-capitol-attack.html" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Opinion | 'The Capitol Insurrection Was as Christian Nationalist as</a>...</li></ul></div><div>=</div></div>=<a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/family-research-council-launches-center-for-biblical-worldview/">https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/family-research-council-launches-center-for-biblical-worldview/</a>
<div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div>
</div>=tool/site:<a href="http://www.politicalresearch.org/research/christian-right">http://www.politicalresearch.org/research/christian-right</a>eg FRC
<a href="http://www.politicalresearch.org/2020/07/01/crumbling-cornerstone-christian-right">http://www.politicalresearch.org/2020/07/01/crumbling-cornerstone-christian-right</a>
no lnxThe Family Research Council (FRC), a leading organization of the Christian Right has long featured Christian nationalist ideology in its materials and events — including speakers at its annual political conference, the Values Voter Summit. But those days may be over.
FRC’s new 2020 election resource, authored by David Closser, Biblical Principles for Political Engagement: Worldview, Issues, and Voting drops the claim that America was founded as a Christian Nation, and relies solely on an open ended Dominionist argument — which it also casts as non-partisan.  But one could be forgiven, if after a close reading, one were to think that in the FRC worldview, biblical means Republican.
The guide takes 31 pages (plus notes) to conclude that Christians are “biblically obliged” to vote; that they should vote primarily according a candidate’s views on “abortion and human sexuality,” and that there is no room for disagreement. 
“The Republican party,” Closser declares, “has generally embraced policy positions on abortion and human sexuality that are consistent with Scripture, while the Democratic Party has embraced positions on these issues that are at odds with Scripture.”   
He says, however, that there may be “room for disagreement,” on matters of race and poverty.
“For our purposes,” Closson continued, “it will suffice to note that the need to care for the poor and marginalized is evident in the Bible. However, the Bible does not outline a specific remedy.” But he insists that it’s unfair to think that Republicans are “against the poor” just because “conservatives believe in the efficacy of limited government and free markets in addressing poverty.”
He declares that “church leaders” should do more than address moral questions in sermons and pray “for those in positions of authority.” He demands that they “carry ideas to their logical conclusion” and “describe practical action steps… and the reality of our two-party system.”
Closson goes on to compare evangelicals who prefer to be apolitical, to those who were complicit in the horrors of Nazi Germany and South African apartheid. He uses these loaded analogies to try to manipulate fellow Christians into political participation under the direction of FRC.
“[I]t is not enough,” he declares, “to acknowledge that various policy positions are profoundly evil and yet not encourage action.”
It is striking that an organization that was once so unambiguously Christian Nationalist makes no appeal to Christian nationalism in their 2020 election year resource.
In any case, old habits of mind die hard. Closson managed to shoehorn-in the strawman argument on which so much of the Christian Nationalist argument depends. Buried in the third endnote he claims that “progressive secular elites” are telling conservative Christians that they are violating the idea of separation of church and state “by bringing their beliefs into the public square.” The Founders, he claims, “did not intend to erect a “wall of separation” between all expressions of faith in God and all aspects of public life.”
As is de rigeur in the knocking down of this strawman, Closson offers no examples of anyone who says that Christians should be banned from the public square. In any case, Jefferson did not intend his metaphorical wall of separation to limit public expressions of faith and no responsible person makes any such claim. The wall of separation is intended to protect the rights of all citizens by at once preventing government coopting of religious institutions, and by thwarting religious factions as a matter of constitutional proscription, from enshrining their religious views in laws and public policy. These are of course, the very aims of Donald Trump and his Christian Right allies. And that is why it is significant that the most important political formation of the Christian Right has demonstrated that it is terrified of non-theocratic Christians and opponents of Christian Nationalism, who believe in religious freedom, pluralism, and separation of church and state.
I wrote an article in The Public Eye in January 2018, titled A Manual to Restore a Christian Nation that Never Was, about the FRC’s grassroots political organizing manual I had picked up at the 2017 Values Voter Summit. The manual sought to justify conservative Christian political action and government by fusing the Christian nationalist ideal with the Dominionist notion of Biblical Principles informed by a Biblical Worldview. A significantly revised edition, published later in 2018, an election year, elided almost all of the Christian nationalist material, relying instead on the Dominionist argument. (Among other things, it encouraged pastors to urge their “congregation to vote their Biblical values.”) But it is striking that an organization that was once so unambiguously Christian Nationalist makes no appeal to Christian nationalism in their 2020 election year resource, issued by FRC and 21 state affiliates.
All this suggests that what the Christian Right has long treated as a strength was actually, or has become, a weakness.
Christian Nationalism Inside OutThe Christian nationalist idea has long been challenged by activists, scholars and journalists, and has been followed by a surge of critical writing and political action in the past year alone. A number of books, have, for example, gained wide attention. These include The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, by Katherine Stewart; The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American by Andrew Seidel; Taking Back America for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States by Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry; and  Revolution of Values: Reclaiming Public Faith for the Common Good, by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove.
There has also been considerable media coverage of the Christian nationalism of the secretive state legislative campaign, Project Blitz, including a statewide controversy in Minnesota that gained national attention. Simultaneously, a wide range of religious, secular and civil rights organizations have actively opposed Project Blitz’s overt and covert activities.
Christians who are opposed to Christian Nationalism are notably visible. William Barber and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove of the Poor People’s Campaign have called out Christian Nationalism and denounced it as “heresy.”  Barber and Wilson-Hartgrove, joined by Katherine Stewart, all say that the contemporary Christian nationalism and antiabortionism, are a continuation of the politics of White Supremacy since the successes of the Civil Rights movement that made overt racial politics much less palatable.
The BJC (Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty) launched a campaign in 2019, called Christians Against Christian Nationalism. They called it “a persistent threat to both our religious communities and our democracy.” They warned, “Christian nationalism seeks to merge Christian and American identities, distorting both the Christian faith and America’s constitutional democracy;” and that “It often overlaps with and provides cover for white supremacy and racial subjugation.”
And the BJC and others have continued the Campaign.
Amanda Tyler, executive director of BJC, wrote, in response to Donald Trump’s now infamous June 1st stunt – in which he wielded an upside down bible for a photo-op in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church across Lafayette Park from the White House after clearing away protestors with mounted police and tear gas: “For many, the display had nothing to do with Christianity,” she said, “but instead was an egregious example of Christian nationalism with its attempted merging of religious authority and political authority….  that merging of authority is ‘idolatrous and often leads to oppression of minority and other marginalized groups as well as the spiritual impoverishment of religion.’” 
Barber, Tyler, and the thousands of endorsers of the Campaign show that there is a religious and not just an historical, secular, or political argument to be made about Christian nationalism. Their high profile entry into this struggle may someday be seen as a turning point in the battle for the narrative of American history, and perhaps the story of Christianity as well.
Retreat or Retrench?Several Christian Right leaders, led by Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council were alarmed by the Baptists’ campaign in the summer of 2019. They went so far as to deny that there was any such thing as Christian Nationalism. Perkins was joined in this by David Closser, FRC’s Director of Christian Ethics and Biblical Worldview, Mark Tooley of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, and even Christian nationalist author David Barton himself.  
This seemed like an odd overreaction at the time, but now that Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council are close political and governing partners with Donald Trump’s Republican Party, their roles have changed, sometimes awkwardly. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appointed Perkins to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in May 2018 – a few months after the publication of my essay “A Christian Manual that Never Was,” related reporting by Paul Rosenberg in Salon, and a frantic response from Perkins in his national Washington Watch newsletter. Since then, the FRC has largely eliminated expressions of Christian nationalism from its public profile. Perkins now chairs the Commission.   
Here’s the rub.
Religious nationalism of any variety, and all of the attendant bigotries that go with it –– runs against the grain of the mission of the USCIRF –– which by statute seeks to advance the values of religious freedom as a human right recognized in international law and treaties, notably Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration affirms that:
“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
The USCIRF asserts that “The freedom of religion or belief is an expansive right that includes the freedoms of thought and conscience, and is intertwined with the freedoms of expression, association, and assembly.”
In religious nationalist ideologies, the favored group seeks governmental power to enforce its views and, as the Christian Right has shown, treating anyone other than the favored faction as second-class citizens at best. And this is the paradox of Perkins’ role: Downplaying the overt Christian nationalist rhetoric that helped propel his movement to political power, while continuing to advance the theocratic goals of the Christian Right.
That’s why some of the avatars of Christian Nationalism are in retreat. The anti-democratic Christian supremacist ideology, and distorted historical narrative of Christian nationalism stands exposed, and its crumbling foundation that may no longer be able to support the movement on which it was built.
<div>=</div><div>=<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/matt-gaetz-2651215213/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/matt-gaetz-2651215213/</a>no lnx twt
att Gaetz blasted after standing up for anti-LGBTQ hate group and promoting a 'fascist sympathizer'Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida speaking at the 2019 Teen Student Action Summit hosted by Turning Point USA in Washington, D.C., Gage SkidmoreDavid Badash and The New Civil Rights Movement March 25, 2021   U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on Thursday stood up for the Family Research Council, a hate group that has spent nearly 40 years spreading dangerous lies about LGBTQ people under the cloak of "religious freedom." He also attacked the Southern Poverty Law Center, a decades-old institution that tracks and reports on the more than 800 current hate groups of all kinds across the U.S.
It did not turn out well for the Florida Congressman, as some rushed to remind Gaetz, a top Trump MAGA sympathizer, of his own associations with the far right.
Gaetz tweeted out an article from the conspiracy theory website Gateway Pundit, whose owner was regularly labeled the stupidest man on the Internet. The article, by Cassandra Fairbanks, paints Gaetz in a very favorable light to his far right supporters. Fairbanks previously worked for Sputnik, the Russian government state media site.
The Southern Poverty Law Center is a hate group. The @splcenter's designation of @FRCdc as a "hate group" caused a… https://t.co/QiJ5oaTm1j— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@Rep. Matt Gaetz)1616693100.0The SPLC is not a hate group.
Fairbanks, according to domestic extremism expert Jared Holt, is a "self-professed fascist sympathizer."
Sharing articles from a self-professed fascist sympathizer to own the SPLC https://t.co/a3kXCUcQ9o https://t.co/gIpDZWqBHo— Jared Holt (@Jared Holt)1616700329.0Journalist Christopher Mathias offered up a similar characterization:
Hardly a week goes by without a GOP congressman promoting/citing the propaganda of fascists. This time, it's Gaet… https://t.co/S6pvvRhI0f— Christopher Mathias (@Christopher Mathias)1616701049.0Gaetz also suggested MAGA is not a dangerous extremist group:
How long until MAGA hats are considered an "extremist symbol?" How long until Christian or pro-life groups are "to… https://t.co/igtqPlLpTr— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@Rep. Matt Gaetz)1616697480.0Here's how some are responding to Congressman Gaetz's attack.Journalist Daniel Moritz-Rabson posted a graphic of Fairbanks appearing on VDARE with its founder. VDARE is a white nationalist hate group, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.oops pic.twitter.com/R17NOTDOug— Daniel Moritz-Rabson (@DMoritzRabson) March 25, 2021Journalist Sam Youngman notes Rep. Gaetz took Holocaust denier Chuck/Charles Johnson to the State of the Union Address and appears to continue to support Trump's attempt to overturn the election:
This person took a Holocaust denier to the State of the Union and voted against honoring the police who fought off… https://t.co/nYQj0c0PJs— Sam Youngman (@Sam Youngman)1616701347.0This Twitter user offered up the details:</div><div>=</div><div><div>-920</div><div>
</div><div>https://theconversation.com/faith-and-politics-mix-to-drive-evangelical-christians-climate-change-denial-143145</div><div>
</div><div>US Christians, especially evangelical Christians, identify as environmentalists at very low rates compared to the general population. According to a <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2020/06/23/two-thirds-of-americans-think-government-should-do-more-on-climate/" libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" outline="outline" none="none" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word">Pew Research Center poll from May 2020</a>, while 62% of religiously unaffiliated U.S. adults agree that the Earth is warming primarily due to human action, only 35% of U.S. Protestants do – including just 24% of white evangelical Protestants.</div><div>
</div><p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Politically powerful Christian interest groups publicly dispute the climate science consensus. A coalition of major evangelical groups, including Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, <a href="http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/an-evangelical-backlash-against-environmentalism/" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">launched a movement</a> opposing what they describe as “the false worldview” of environmentalism, which supposedly is “striving to put America, and the world, under its destructive control.”<p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Studies show that belief in miracles and an afterlife is associated with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2014.02.003" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">lower estimates of the risks posed by climate change</a>. This raises the question: Does religion itself predispose people against climate science?<p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Surveys of people around the world, as well as social science research on denial, suggest the answer to this question is more nuanced than a simple yes or no.<figure class="align-center zoomable" libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative;"><figcaption helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" sans-serif="sans-serif" cursor="cursor" default="default" style="margin: 0px; padding: 6px 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 18px;"></figcaption></figure><h2 libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Where religion and science can’t be reconciled</h2><p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">An automatic resistance to science would seem to make sense for some religious believers.<p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">There are several ways that core aspects of modern scientific knowledge tend to undermine literalist or fundamentalist readings of religious texts. In particular, evolution by natural selection, the central concept underlying the biological sciences, is <a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-there-is-a-war-between-science-and-religion-108002" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">utterly incompatible with most creationist faith traditions</a>.<p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Religion offers the comforts of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01649.x" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">a measure of control and reassurance</a> via an omnipotent deity that can be <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393008319" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">placated by ritual</a>. In contrast, the scientist’s naturalistic universe offers neither an intrinsic moral order nor a final reward, which can be unsettling for the devout and in conflict with their faith.<p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Because of these mismatches, one might expect those with a strong religious affiliation to be reflexively suspicious of scientific findings. Indeed, in a <a href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/reports/wellcome-global-monitor/2018/summary-key-findings" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">large international survey</a>, 64% of those who described religion as an “important part” of their life said they would side with their religious teachings in a disagreement between science and their religion. Other studies find that, for the faithful, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2008.07.013" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">religion and science are at odds</a> as ultimate explanations for natural phenomena.<h2 libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Climate science denial may stem more from politics than religion</h2><p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Social scientist Dan Kahan rejects the idea of an automatic link between religiosity and any anti-science bias. He argues that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2010.511246" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">religiosity only incidentally tracks science denial</a> because some scientific findings have become “culturally antagonistic” to some identity groups.<p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">According to <a href="http://www.culturalcognition.net/blog/2014/11/10/what-accounts-for-public-conflict-over-science-religiosity-o.html" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Kahan’s data</a>, identification as a political conservative, and as white, is much more predictive of rejecting the climate consensus than overall religiosity. He argues that anti-science bias has to do with threats to values that define one’s cultural identity. There are all kinds of topic areas wherein people judge expert qualifications based on whether the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2010.511246" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">“expert” confirms or contradicts the subject’s cherished view</a>.<p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Social scientist Donald Braman <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-conservative-white-maes-are-more-likely-climate-skeptics/" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">agrees that science denial is context dependent</a>. He points out that while conservative white males are more likely to be skeptics on global warming, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2015/07/01/chapter-1-patterns-underlying-public-views-about-science/" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">different demographic groups disagree with experts</a> on other particular topics.<p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">For example, where a conservative person invested in the social and economic status quo might feel threatened by evidence for global warming, liberal egalitarians might be threatened by evidence, say, that nuclear waste could be safely stored underground.<p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">As I explain in my book, “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-truth-about-denial-9780190062279?q=truth%20about%20denial&lang=en&cc=us" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">The Truth About Denial</a>”, there’s ample evidence for a universal human tendency toward <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/motivated-reasoning" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">motivated reasoning</a> when faced with facts that threaten one’s ideological worldview. The motivated reasoner begins with a conclusion to which he or she is committed, and assesses evidence or expertise according to whether it supports that conclusion.<p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">White American evangelicals <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2011/12/02/white-evangelical-protestants-and-the-partisan-divide/" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">trend very strongly toward political conservatism</a>. They also exhibit the strongest correlation, among any faith group, between religiosity and either climate science denial or a general anti-science bias.<p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Meanwhile, African-American Protestants, who are theologically aligned with evangelical Protestants but politically aligned with progressives, show some of the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2015/10/22/religion-and-views-on-climate-and-energy-issues/" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">highest levels of climate concern</a>.<p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">North America is the only high-income region where people who follow a religion are substantially more likely to say they <a href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/reports/wellcome-global-monitor/2018/chapter-4-science-and-society" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">favor their religious teachings over science</a> when disagreements arise. This finding is driven mainly by politically conservative U.S. religious denominations – including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-016-1821-z" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">conservative Catholics</a>.<p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A major new study looking at data from 60 countries showed that, while religiosity in the U.S. is correlated with more negative attitudes about science, you don’t see this kind of association <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550620923239" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">in many other countries</a>. Elsewhere, religiosity is sometimes even correlated with disproportionately positive attitudes about science.<p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And the U.S. is generally an outlier in terms of attitudes toward human-caused global warming: <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/04/18/a-look-at-how-people-around-the-world-view-climate-change/" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Fewer Americans accept</a> the climate science consensus than residents of most other countries.<p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">All this would suggest that climate science resistance has more to do with cultural identity politics than religiosity.<figure class="align-center zoomable" libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative;">
<figcaption helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" sans-serif="sans-serif" cursor="cursor" default="default" style="margin: 0px; padding: 6px 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); line-height: 18px;"></figcaption></figure><h2 libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Which comes first?</h2><p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But the available evidence cuts both ways. A landmark study from the 1980s suggested that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/63.2.555" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">fundamentalist religious traditions</a> are associated with a commitment to <a href="https://theconversation.com/do-passages-in-the-bible-justify-cutting-down-forests-76448" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">human dominion over nature</a>, and that this attitude may explain anti-environmentalist positions.<p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Even after controlling for political ideology, those committed to an “end-times theology” – like U.S. evangelicals – still <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912912442243" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">show a greater tendency</a> to <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2111617" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">oppose the scientific consensus</a> on environmental issues.<p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Perhaps some specific theologies bias the believer against the idea that human beings could be responsible for the end of humanity. This bias could show up as an automatic rejection of environmental science.<p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We are left with something of a “chicken and egg” problem: Do certain religious communities adopt politically conservative positions on climate change because of their religious tradition? Or do people adopt a religious tradition that stresses human dominion over nature because they were raised in a politically conservative community? The direction of causation here may be difficult to resolve.<p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It wouldn’t be surprising to find either religious dogmatism or political conservatism linked with anti-science attitudes – each <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/after-service/201609/how-powerful-is-status-quo-bias" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">tends to favor the status quo</a>. Fundamentalist religious traditions are defined by their fixed doctrines. Political conservatives <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/MULCHA" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">by definition</a> favor the preservation of the traditional social and economic order.<p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Consider that perhaps the single essential aspect of the scientific method is that it has no respect for cultural traditions or received views. (Think of Galileo’s findings on the motion of the Earth, or Darwin on evolution.) Some would argue that scientific inquiry’s “<a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/chris-mooney/the-republican-war-on-science/9780465003860/" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">constant onslaught on old orthodoxies</a>” is the reason both conservatives and frequent churchgoers report a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122412438225" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">decreasing overall trust in science</a> which <a href="https://gssdataexplorer.norc.org/trends/Politics?measure=consci" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">continues to this day</a>.<p libre="Libre" baskerville="Baskerville" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Even if politics and culture rather than religion itself may be driving climate science denial, religious communities – <a href="http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html" style="outline: none; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">as some religious leaders, including the Roman Catholic Pope, have recognized</a> – bear a responsibility to exercise some self-awareness and concern for well-being rather than blindly denying the overwhelming consensus on a civilization-ending threat like human-caused global warming.<div></div></div><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="type post" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; list-style: none; line-height: 1.3; background-image: url(" background-position="background-position" initial="initial" background-size="background-size" background-repeat="background-repeat" background-attachment="background-attachment" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" rightwingwatch="rightwingwatch" images="images" doc.png="doc.png" px="px" no-repeat="no-repeat" display="display" block="block" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" em="em"><a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/dont-let-the-coronavirus-turn-america-into-china-warns-american-family-association/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px; display: block; padding-left: 40px;">Don’t Let the Coronavirus Turn America Into China,’ Warns American Family Association</a><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px; font-family: Helvetica-Light, " helvetica="Helvetica" light="Light" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" padding-left="padding-left">April 24, 2020 3:50 pm</li></ul><a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/#masonry-grid-preloaded" class="button" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: background-position 0.3s ease 0s; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(37, 37, 37) 50%, rgb(237, 28, 36) 0px); background-size: 100px 75px; border-bottom: 5px solid rgb(237, 28, 36); cursor: pointer; display: inline-block;" helvetica="Helvetica" light="Light" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" font-weight="font-weight" height="height" margin="margin" em="em" padding="padding" text-align="text-align" center="center" text-shadow="text-shadow" none="none" text-transform="text-transform" uppercase="uppercase" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline">READ ALL</a><div style="">=</div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/rise-of-a-shadow-political-party-how-christian-nationalists-worship-power-and-why-they-love-trump/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/rise-of-a-shadow-political-party-how-christian-nationalists-worship-power-and-why-they-love-trump/</a></div><div style="">
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Rise of a ‘shadow political party’: How Christian nationalists worship power — and why they love Trump</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Written by Amanda Marcotte / Salon March 4, 2020</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It’s one of the most enduring conundrums of the Donald Trump era: How is it that the Christian right, the self-appointed monitors of American morality, have come to so enthusiastically back a thrice-married chronic adulterer who lies as easily as he breathes?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Author Katherine Stewart has the answer: Because the true god these folks worship is power. In her book, “The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism,” Stewart details how she traveled around the country, getting to know the various Christian conservative figures that are whipping support for Trump and his agenda. She deems the “Christian nationalists” and demonstrates how their supposedly Christian values always come second to their endless quest for power.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Stewart spoke with Salon about her new book. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In the intro of the book you write that most Americans view the Christian right as a  “cultural movement centered on a set of social issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriage.” But in fact, it’s a political movement and its ultimate goal is power. What do you mean by that?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I think when we think of the religious right, we’re often thinking of a cultural movement or social movement that works from the bottom up, expressing the anxieties and reactions of a particular group in American society to change social realities, focused on issues like reproductive rights or same-sex marriage. But Christian nationalism really works from the top down. It actively shapes and manipulates its target population, and it often shifts its target.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When movement leaders are talking to the congregants or to pastors who speak to congregants, it’s all abortion all the time. The foot soldiers may even believe that they’re fighting for things like a ban on abortion or same-sex marriage, but the leaders have actually consciously reframed these issues in such a way that they can control the vote of a large subsection of the American public. They use that to solidify and maintain political power for themselves and their allies, to increase the flow of public and private money in their direction, and to enact economic policies that are favorable to their funders.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When you dig a little deeper into what the movement leaders talk about when they talk with one another, they actually advocate for a very wide range of policy issues that don’t just have to do with abortion or same-sex marriage. A lot of it has to do with economic policy. A lot of it has to do with foreign policy, social policy. It’s important to look at the movement in this broader fashion as a political movement that wants power.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Tell me more about that. How does someone argue that there’s something Christian about, say, low tax and low regulation?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">They say that the Bible favors minimal government or no government. The Bible is against regulation, against the social safety net. Unless the social safety net is managed by the church.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Someone like Ralph Drollinger — who targets political leaders at the top levels of government — he’s got this Bible study group in the Capitol that’s been attended by at least 11 members of Trump’s cabinet, including Mike Pence. He also has Bible study groups targeting the Senate and House of Representatives, and they’re very well-attended. So he’s arguably one of the most politically influential pastors in America.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He argues that social welfare programs have no basis in Scripture. He says that the government should not directly fund needs for the poor. He says the responsibility to meet the needs of the poor lies first with a husband and a marriage, second with a family if the husband is absent, and third with the church. He says nowhere does God command the institutions of government or commerce to fully support those with genuine needs.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">These policies are incredibly favorable to the plutocratic fortunes that are funding the movement. The movement wouldn’t be what it is without some subsection of very wealthy individuals and extended families that are supporting the movement financially. I’m thinking of like the DeVos, Prince families, the Green family, and so many others that I described in my book.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">These families, in turn, benefit from a deregulation of lack of environmental control regulation, low taxation, and minimal workers’ rights. Drollinger himself derived a lot of his early funding from agribusiness kings, people who own large agribusiness conglomerates in Central Valley, California, and the San Joaquin Valley. So it’s a kind of economic policy that actually is favorable to many of the big-picture funders of the movement.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We also have to recognize that the role of public money is absolutely huge. A lot of the calls for “religious freedom” that characterize much of the activism of the movement today are often seen, rightly so, as a demand that conservative Christians should be able to discriminate against LGBT Americans, nonreligious women and members of the religious minority groups.  But even more than that, activists have their eye on a vast potential flow of public funds in the future. This is one of the reasons why the calls for religious freedom are just like this ever-louder drum beat that we’re hearing in so many places.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This agenda has been made really explicit in the field of public education where activists are determined to expand access to public funds in the form of vouchers. They’ve actually placed a key voucher case before the Supreme Court, which they hope will allow a greater funnel of funds in their direction.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The United States spends something like $700 billion a year on K-12. So Christian nationalists realize that, if they can get their hands on a small portion of that in the name of religious liberty, the money will flow without end. So when you look at the larger demands of the movement, it’s not just about these culture war issues, it’s about public policy, foreign policy, and it’s about money.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">You call it a Christian nationalist movement, not a white nationalist movement, not the Christian right even. Why do you call it a Christian nationalist movement?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Christian nationalism is a political ideology. It says that what makes the United States distinctive is not our democratic system of government, or our Constitution, or our history of assimilating diverse people in a pluralist society. Instead, it insists that the foundation of legitimate government is bound up inextricably with the reactionary understanding of a particular religion. It basically says that the U.S. was founded on the Bible, and can only succeed if it stays true to that foundation.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It’s also not just an ideology, but a device for mobilizing and often manipulating large segments of the population and for concentrating power in the hands of this new elite. Vladimir Putin in Russia, or Viktor Orban in Hungary, or Erdogan in Turkey tie themselves closely to religious conservatives in their countries, to consolidate an authoritarian form of power. We’re seeing this today with Trump’s alliances, with our own religious conservatives.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">You write that America’s conservative churches have been converted into “loyal cells of a shadow political party.” What do you mean by that?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Leaders of the movement have figured out that pastors drive votes, and so they organize pastors into these networks, to get them on the same page politically. They give them tools through networks of conservative churches in order to do that, to help them turn out votes for hyper-conservative candidates.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Recently, I found myself at a small church in rural North Carolina, with dozens of evangelical pastors from the area. I was at an event sponsored by an organization called Watchmen on the Wall, which is an initiative of the Family Research Council, which is one of the largest and most powerful policy groups of the Christian right.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Watchmen on the Wall claims to have over 25,000 pastor members. They get all these pastors networked together, and they have these presentations where they tell them what issues matter and how to turn out the vote on these “biblical issues.” There wasn’t a slightest doubt about which way these pastors were expected to tell their congregations to vote.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">They were instructed to form what they call culture impact teams within their churches. They have to figure out which members of their congregation are politically active, well-connected with other members, and motivated to get them to vote according to “biblical values.” They gave these pastors these booklets, 200 pages of material that help them form these culture impact teams.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">They actually give them tools to get them out to vote. They give them tens of thousands of voter guides, and pastors were encouraged to take as many as they could use and hand out.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Your chapter on the anti-abortion movement in the book is titled “Inventing Abortion.” You write that it’s a myth that the movement was a reaction to a sincere belief in protecting fetal life. Tell me more. What is this Christian right obsession with abortion? Where does it come from? What is it actually about?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When Roe v. Wade was passed, the liberalization of abortion laws was something that many, if not most, Republican partisans supported. The early battles over abortion tended to be between Catholics and Protestants, with Protestants largely on the side of liberalization of abortion laws. Even though Catholic hierarchy is opposed to abortion, many Catholic individuals supported some form of liberalization based on sort of lived experience.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">At that time that Roe v. Wade passed, the abortion law reform really conformed with the Republican party’s support for Protestant values, birth control. Billy Graham in 1968 said, “In general, I would disagree with the Catholic stance. I believe in Planned Parenthood.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The most liberal abortion law in the country was signed in 1967 by California’s Republican governor, Ronald Reagan. Barry Goldwater, who is this great conservative hero, supported abortion law liberalization early in his career. His wife, Peggy, was a co-founder of Planned Parenthood in Arizona.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When Roe v. Wade passed, in fact, there was a wire service run by the Southern Baptist Convention. The bureau chief of the Baptist Press wrote a piece saying that religious liberty, human equality, and justice are advanced by the Supreme Court decision.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This was not an issue that united the Republican party at all, until activists from the new right got involved and were really searching for an issue that could unite the party.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">At the time, they’d come together out of concern that institutions like Bob Jones University would be deprived of their lucrative tax advantage. But they knew that preserving tax advantages for racially segregated academies is not going to be an issue that could really unite the party. So they kind of looked around for an issue that could unite conservative Catholics and conservative Protestants.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Bit by bit, they settled on abortion and sort of purged the Republican party of its pro-choice representatives. They needed a single issue that they could get people to vote on, and abortion became that issue.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Let’s talk about Donald Trump. He’s obviously not a religious man. He knows little of Christian theology. He can’t even get the terminology right. He can’t really even be bothered to pretend otherwise. So how is a man like that such a hero to the Christian nationalists?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">First, the movement realizes that much of their agenda is advanced through the courts and he’s delivering them everything that he promised.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I was at a Road To Majority conference, that’s Ralph Reed’s conference, right before the election. Trump held up a list of justices and he said, “I’m going to choose Supreme Court justices from this list,” and every single one of them was pro-life. Of course, the issue wasn’t just abortion, but abortion becomes code for the entire agenda.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">There’s that transactional side of it. But I think that there’s another side too. Trump’s anti-democratic attributes are a vital part of his attraction for this movement.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This movement doesn’t really believe in modern representative democracy. At bottom, they sound as though they prefer autocrats. In fact, what they really want is a king. Paula White is always calling Trump a king. Ralph Drollinger is always talking about kinging and kings. Trump has been referred to as King Cyrus.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The thing about kings like Cyrus is that they don’t have to follow the rules. They are the law. Trump understands this longing for the hard hand of the despot. That is what has made him such an attractive leader to this movement.</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div>=</div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/hallmark-movies-are-the-most-insidious-authoritarian-propaganda-heres-how/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/hallmark-movies-are-the-most-insidious-authoritarian-propaganda-heres-how/</a></div><div>
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</div><div>Hallmark movies are the most insidious authoritarian propaganda — here’s how</div><div>
</div><div>Written by Amanda Marcotte / Salon December 26, 2019</div><div>
</div><div>The Hallmark Channel has been having a rough go of it in the past few weeks. The cable TV behemoth, which has been minting money with its patented holiday season schmaltz, drew widespread criticism earlier this month when it pulled ads for the wedding company Zola that featured a lesbian couple kissing at their wedding. The company’s initial excuse was that they do not allow ads that feature “overt public displays of affection,” claiming the policy is “regardless of the participants.”</div><div>
</div><div>This was, obviously, nonsense, as couples kissing at weddings is not only not outré, but generally seen as mandatory (and features in the channel’s numerous rom-coms).Unsurprisingly, critics quickly found plenty of examples of straight snogging on the channel that shows that sexual orientation was the sole reason for the ad pull. (That, and Hallmark was clearly responding to a right-wing pressure campaign claiming that lesbian kissing “ruined” the channel’s “family friendly” offerings.) Hallmark then flip-flopped, apologizing for pulling the ads and claiming they have been “a progressive pioneer on television for decades” and “committed to diversity and inclusion.”</div><div>
</div><div>Which is, of course, laughable to anyone who has even glancing knowledge of the channel’s offerings. Running down this year’s schedule of Christmas movie offerings is like a trip into an uncanny valley of shiny-teethed, blow-dried heteronormative whiteness, with only a few token movies with characters of color. It’s like watching “The Stepford Wives,” but scarier, since the evil plot to replace normal people with robots is never actually revealed.</div><div>
</div><div>None of this should be a surprise, because Hallmark movies, as cloying and saccharine as they are, constitute the platonic ideal of fascist propaganda.</div><div>
</div><div>That is probably a startling statement to some. When most of us think about fascistically propagandistic movies, we think of the grotesque grandeur of Leni Riefenstahl’s films celebrating the Third Reich — grand, but cold sweeping shots of soldiers goose-stepping and flags waving, all meant to inspire awe and terror. But the reality is, even in Nazi Germany, the majority of movies approved by the Nazi minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, were escapist and feather-light, with a Hallmark movie-style emphasis on the importance of “normality.”</div><div>
</div><div>There’s plenty of reason that empty-headed kitsch fits neatly in the authoritarian worldview. It’s storytelling that imitates the gestures of emotion without actually engaging with real feeling. The Hallmark movie steers clear of the real passion or deeper emotion that tends to be the engine driving more artful fiction. Characters who have real feelings, after all, can prompt empathetic reactions in the audience, and empathy for others is the greatest single threat to the authoritarian mindset. And so schmaltz walks through the paces of “love” without touching on any of the messy but compelling realities of it.</div><div>
</div><div>Instead of characters driven by real feelings, therefore, the guiding hand of “normalcy” pulls the characters along through narratives — and unsurprisingly, that idea of “normalcy” doesn’t have a lot of room for the true diversity of American experiences.</div><div>
</div><div>This much is evident in the efforts to include Jewish characters in recent Hallmark holiday movies which, by all accounts, seems like a complete disaster — in part because the rule of “normalcy” reorients everything towards a very narrow, sentimentalized version of Christmas.</div><div>
</div><div>“In the Hallmark-Lifetime Cinematic Universe, Hanukkah and the characters who celebrate it exist only in relation to Christmas,” Nancy Coleman of th New York Times complained, adding that the Hallmark movie “Holiday Date” could, with “remarkably little editing” turn into “a Jewish ‘Get Out.'”</div><div>
</div><div>Britni de la Cretaz, writing for the Washington Post, not only complained that the Jewish Hallmark movies were “Christmas movies with Jewish characters,” but also that the movies “rely on some of the oldest anti-Semitic tropes in the book,” such as painting one Jewish character as the “perpetual outsider” who is “sneaky, untrustworthy.”</div><div>
</div><div>“The drama hinges on Jewish characters being compelled to observe Christmas, and the tension resolves only when these outsiders learn how to participate in or appreciate the dominant religious tradition,” she adds.</div><div>
</div><div>Sadly, it’s hard to imagine it being any other way. The qualities that people cite when they defend Hallmark movies — comforting, formulaic, soothing — are all a result of the aggressively conformist impulse that drives them. And that impulse and fealty to the dominant culture stands in direct contrast to the values of diversity Hallmark facetiously claims to hold.</div><div>
</div><div>Hallmark movies, with their emphasis on returning home and the pleasures of the small, domestic life, also send a not-at-all subtle signal of disdain for cosmopolitanism and curiosity about the larger world, which is exactly the sort of attitude that helps breed the kind of defensive white nationalism that we see growing in strength in the Donald Trump era.</div><div>
</div><div>If you don’t believe me, listen to authoritarians themselves. At the Federalist, which is ground zero website for generating frankly fascist “culture war” arguments, Hans Fiene argues that, “culturally speaking, Hallmark Christmas movies are noticeably Christian.”</div><div>
</div><div>By this, Fiene isn’t talking about characters who actually go to church or pray — even self-identified conservative Christians don’t want to see that — but a set of patriarchal and authoritarian values that are more about white evangelicals defining themselves as an ethnic group, and not about a genuine feeling of spirituality.</div><div>
</div><div>The movies always depict a “heroine who begins the story loving her self-involved life in the city chooses family and a life of self-sacrifice in her hometown,” he writes, arguing that it’s the “last remaining hideout” for those who want a fantasy of a world where “the cynicism and immorality of modern life aren’t allowed.” By “cynicism and immmorality,” Fiene explains he’s talking about “fornication” and acceptance of “sexual deviants,” by which he means LGBTQ people.</div><div>
</div><div>None of this, of course, means that everyone who watches Hallmark Christmas movies is some kind of fledgling fascist. These movies are not for me, but I believe people when they say they find it relaxing to watch these predictable movies that have low stakes because none of the characters feel like real people. I’ve got my own flavors of trashy entertainment I fully enjoy without mistaking it for high art. (Baby Yoda, what’s up?)</div><div>
</div><div>Still, it’s critical to be mindful of the role that Hallmark movies are actually playing in our society. The very fact that they’re presented as harmless fluff makes it all the more insidious, the way they work to enforce very narrow, white, heteronormative, sexist, provincial ideas of what constitutes “normal.”</div><div>
</div><div>It’s easy to spot fascist propaganda when it’s goose-stepping Pepe-the-frog memes. It’s a lot harder to notice how it’s working when it’s tied up in Christmas cheer and suggesting grinchhood of anyone who questions the rigidity of its worldview.</div><div>
</div><div>As University of Richmond communications professor Nicole Maurantonio wrote in a recent piece exposing the sneakily racist propaganda of Confederate-themed Christmas ornaments, “seemingly apolitical objects like cookbooks, toys and Christmas ornaments commemorating Confederate history serve to normalize,” and in doing so, make white supremacy seem less harmful than it actually is.</div><div>
</div><div>Ultimately, there’s a reason that authoritarian religious right groups like One Million Moms and American Family Association — who made the initial demands on Hallmark to end the lesbian-inclusive ads —  believe that the Hallmark Channel “belongs” to them. They may use euphemisms like “family friendly,” but as there is nothing more family friendly than light PDAs from loving couples at weddings, we can say for certain that is not what bothers them. Instead, it’s because they believe Hallmark is “safe” because it excludes people who don’t fit their extremely rigid ideas about what constitutes “normal.”</div><div>
</div><div>“So many people feel betrayed because this is one of the very last channels that families could go to and not be bombarded with politically correct commercials and the LGBTQ agenda,” the American Family Association griped in a press release.</div><div>
</div><div>Note that the language is solely that of exclusion. This isn’t about Christian conservatives wanting more Hallmark movies that show characters who actually go to church or anything like that. What makes something “family friendly” and “Christian” is who is not allowed inside the fantasy land of impossibly expensive rural houses and women who are realizing that they wanted to just get married to the boy next door all along.</div><div>
</div><div>Ultimately, there is probably no way to square the claim to believe in “diversity” with fascistic impulse that guides the current crop of Hallmark movies, which center always around these frankly MAGA-style ideas about what constitutes “real” America. As the Jewish movies show, the best that Hallmark can do is some token “diversity” that wipes out most of what makes people actually diverse.  Their money comes from selling a vision of America that increasingly authoritarian conservatives wish to believe once existed and can be restored again — an America that excludes most of an increasingly urban, racially diverse,  cosmopolitan nation. That won’t change no matter how many inclusive Zola ads the network airs.</div><div>
</div><div>Amanda Marcotte is a politics writer for Salon. Her new book, “Troll Nation: How The Right Became Trump-Worshipping Monsters Set On Rat-Fcking Liberals, America, and Truth Itself,” is out now. She’s on Twitter @AmandaMarcotte.</div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">1219 schism on djt?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/white-evangelicals-still-view-support-for-trump-as-spiritual-warfare-against-the-demonic-forces-pushing-for-his-impeachment" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/white-evangelicals-still-view-support-for-trump-as-spiritual-warfare-against-the-demonic-forces-pushing-for-his-impeachment</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">White evangelicals still view support for Trump as ‘spiritual warfare’ against the ‘demonic forces’ pushing for his impeachment</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Written by Alex Henderson December 23, 2019</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Although President Donald Trump has plenty of critics in Christianity — some Catholics, some Mainline Protestants — he is still quite popular among far-right white evangelical fundamentalists. So when Mark Galli, the retiring editor-in-chief of the evangelical Christianity Today, wrote a scathing anti-Trump op-ed last week, many of Trump’s white evangelical supporters were furious —  including Franklin Graham, son of the late Christianity Today founder Billy Graham. And journalist Ed Kilgore, in a December 23 article for New York Magazine, stresses that Trump’s critics shouldn’t think white evangelical support for him is softening — they still view Trump as their champion.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">White evangelical support for Trump, Kilgore observes, goes beyond Trump putting so many far-right judges on the federal judiciary: as they see it, fighting Trump’s impeachment and getting him reelected in 2020 is a form of spiritual warfare.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Many Christian Right leaders and members of their flocks view political battles involving Trump as spiritual warfare between holy and demonic forces, with the crude, self-idolizing and heathenish POTUS treated as unquestionably the champion of the Prince of Peace,” Kilgore explains.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Kilgore points to a December 19 article by Sarah Posner for Type Investigations as having some of the best reporting in recent days on the amount of unwavering support Trump still enjoys among far-right white evangelicals.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Posner reported, “Trump’s evangelical base is a sprawling, interconnected network of political advocacy groups, megachurches, White House advisers, televangelists and prayer warriors. It also includes a formidable, data-driven get-out-the-vote operation.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="">Posner’s article cites some of the well-known Christian Right extremists who remain committed to helping Trump win a second term in 2020, and they range from the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Ralph Reed to the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins. Another is Jim Bakker.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">According to Posner, “Inside this ecosystem, impeachment is, at best, a partisan sideshow concocted by Democrats to distract the public from Trump’s many important accomplishments. At worst, it is a satanic scheme to upend God’s plan for America — which was to install Trump in office in order to ensure the nation is governed by Christians who espouse ‘biblical’ values.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">One of Trump’s top allies in his Christian Right outreach, Kilgore observes, is Florida-based evangelist Paula White — who preaches an ideology called the Prosperity Gospel. In contrast to all the Catholics and Mainline Protestants who equate greed, materialism and avarice with sinfulness, the Prosperity Gospel associates a fat bank account with being a good Christian and poverty with moral failings. So when Republicans go out of their way to hurt the poor, proponents of the Prosperity Gospel see that as righteous Christian behavior.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Kilgore warns, “No, these people are not going to abandon Donald Trump. They are now so complicit in his presidency that to question him is to condemn themselves to a judgement too terrible to contemplate.”</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div>=</div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/dozens-of-christian-advocacy-groups-urge-trump-to-reverse-decision-to-abandon-christians-yazidis-and-kurds-in-syria/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/dozens-of-christian-advocacy-groups-urge-trump-to-reverse-decision-to-abandon-christians-yazidis-and-kurds-in-syria/</a></div><div>
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</div><div>Dozens of Christian advocacy groups urge Trump to reverse decision to abandon Christians, Yazidis and Kurds in Syria</div><div>
</div><div>Written by Lincoln Green / Daily Kos October 13, 2019</div><div>
</div><div>In “Advocates to Trump: Don’t desert Christians, Yazidis, Kurds in Syria”, Dave Gavlak reports in the National Catholic Reporter that dozens of Christian advocacy groups, led by the Protestant fundamentalist Family Research Council and the religious-freedom group Law and Liberty Trust, issued a letter to President Trump yesterday asking him to reverse his October 6 greenlighting of Turkey’s invasion of Syria. Under the umbrella of the International Religious Freedom Roundtable, the letter says that Trump’s decision to let Turkey invade the Self-Administration of Northeastern Syria (SANES) “was deeply shocking to us as advocates for international religious freedom.” The letter goes on to say:</div><div>
</div><div>Turkey’s plans are clear: exterminate the entire SDF (our military allies), drive current residents out, and replace them. Just like Afrin in 2018, it will commit genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against women, seize homes and businesses, impose Islamist rule. Christians are specifically targeted for slaughter, not protection.</div><div>
</div><div>Turkish president Erdogan has promised to move two million Sunni Muslim Syrian refugees into SANES, displacing Syriac Christians, Yazidis and Kurds who are native to the region, and repeating Turkey’s successful ethnic cleansing of Syria’s Afrin region last year. Before the 2018 invasion, reports Paul Idon of Arab News in “Why Erdogan wants to remake northeast Syria’s demographics”,  “Afrin stood out as an oasis of stability that had welcomed displaced Syrians regardless of ethnicity from across the war-weary country.” After the invasion, Turkish-supported forces engaged in what Amnesty International called “arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and confiscation of property and looting to which Turkey’s armed forces have turned a blind eye” to replace the Kurdish native population with displaced Syrians allied with Turkey. Kurdish journalist Mohammed Salih, told Idon:</div><div>
</div><div>Erdogan and his Syrian jihadi proxies are planning and interested in nothing less than ethnic cleansing of not only the Kurdish people in northeast Syria, but based on what we’ve seen in Afrin, of Christian and Yazidi populations there as well.</div><div>
</div><div>In an interview  (in Italian) by Daniel Rocchi of the SIR news agency and reported by Gavlak, the Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop Jean-Clément Jeanbart of Aleppo, Syria, said that the Turkish invasion has “the risk of a real massacre with many innocent deaths”. Lauren Homer, an Anglican religious-freedom lawyer who heads the Law and Liberty Trust, said:</div><div>
</div><div>Instead of being on the brink of peace with much of Western and Eastern Syria stabilized, this will energize militant Islamists across Syria and Iraq.</div><div>
</div><div>In related news, Marty Johnson reports in The Hill that Trump’s political allies and satraps will appear in force in Sunday’s news shows, to try to do damage control over Trump’s greenlighting of the Turkish invasion. Defense Secretary Mark Esper will likely repeat his assertion that the US has not abandoned our Kurdish allies, even as the Turkish invasion seizes more towns from the Kurds. Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul are also scheduled to appear. No representatives of Christian, Yazidi, or Kurdish groups have been invited.</div></div><div>=</div>djt 1st pres to spk; sez ff used god 4x in doc/const?
<a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/democratic-strategist-says-extreme-right-wing-evangelical-christians-made-deal">https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/democratic-strategist-says-extreme-right-wing-evangelical-christians-made-deal</a><div>=</div><div><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/trumps-religious-right-team-schemes-to-legally-erase-trans-identity">http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/trumps-religious-right-team-schemes-to-legally-erase-trans-identity</a></div><div>
</div><div><div class="mce-content-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><div class="layout-constrain--narrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 47.2222em; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; line-height: 1.5;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"> New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/21/us/politics/transgender-trump-administration-sex-definition.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a> on Sunday that the Trump administration is considering a proposal by <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/the-man-behind-trumps-religious-freedom-agenda-for-health-care/528912/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">one of the administration’s highest-ranking Religious Right activists</a> to virtually erase transgender people from legal recognition and protection by the federal government. The memo proposing the change is <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/the-terrible-anti-lgbtq-first-year-of-the-promised-pro-gay-president-trump/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">just the latest</a> indication of just how <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/the-year-the-religious-right-moved-into-the-white-house/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">completely the Religious Right has come to dominate policy-making</a> in the administration of Donald Trump.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The push by the Department of Health and Human Services to impose a trans-denying definition of “sex” onto federal civil rights law “would essentially eradicate federal recognition” of an estimated 1.4 million transgender Americans, according to the Times story.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The effort is being led by <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/roger-severino/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Roger Severino</a>, who has taken the anti-LGBT agenda of his former employer, the Heritage Foundation, into the Trump administration as director of the civil rights division at HHS. When he was named to that position, <a href="https://www.washingtonblade.com/content/files/2017/04/041017-SIGNED-Senate-Letter-to-Price-on-HHS-OCR-Director-Severino-Appointment.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">a dozen U.S. senators objected</a>, citing Severino’s “long history of making bigoted statements toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and attacking women’s access to health care services and reproductive rights.”<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">One of Severino’s former colleagues at the Heritage Foundation, Ryan Anderson, is at the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/a-fresh-face-emerges-as-a-leader-in-the-movement-against-same-sex-marriage/2015/04/15/d78cf256-dece-11e4-be40-566e2653afe5_story.html?utm_term=.6d311ece8d80" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">forefront</a> of the Religious Right’s anti-trans crusade. Anderson’s latest book is “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment.” Anderson argues that gender cannot be severed from biological sex, and that “taking our sexual embodiment seriously in public policy is not discriminatory.”<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">That language is strikingly similar to Anderson’s approach to sexual orientation, suggesting that if Religious Right activists in the Trump administration are successful in wiping out legal recognition based on gender identity, they may be willing to try the same with regard to sexual orientation.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Anderson is <a href="https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2016/01/16225/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">not a conservative willing to seek “compromise”</a> in the form of religious exemptions to non-discrimination laws. He says that “sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) laws” are “<a href="https://www.heritage.org/civil-society/report/sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity-sogi-laws-threaten-freedom" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">bad public policy</a>” and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/ryan-anderson-takes-break-from-war-on-marriage-equality-to-target-nondiscrimination-laws/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">argues against legal protection for LGBTQ people from discrimination</a>:<blockquote style="background: rgb(239, 243, 243); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; hyphens: none; padding: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0.75em 2em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.5;">Sexual orientation and gender identity refers not only to thoughts and inclinations, but also to behavior, and it is reasonable for citizens to make distinctions based on actions. However, SOGI laws would prohibit reasonable decisions made in response to behaviors that are fraught with moral weight.</blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Indeed, Religious Right groups like the Family Research Council, which has also <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/family-research-council-boasts-of-victories-in-the-era-of-trump/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">placed staff in positions in the Trump administration</a>, deny the very existence of gay identity as well as transgender identity.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The Family Research Council’s Peter Sprigg argues that the idea of a gay identity is “empirically false” and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/anti-gay-warm-up-act-to-world-congress-of-families-this-is-war/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">urges</a> religious conservatives not to use terms like gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender, <a href="https://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF18B16.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">preferring constructs</a> like “people who engage in homosexual conduct” or “people who identify as homosexual.” This echoes the practice of the Catholic and Mormon hierarchies, which use terms such as “people with same-sex attractions.” Sprigg and FRC similarly argue that transgender identity is “an objective falsehood—which no law should force others to affirm.”<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Sprigg was one of the speakers in a session on “<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/world-congress-of-families-gender-ideology-panel-targets-feminism-perverts-transgender-identity/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">gender ideology</a>” at the <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/world-congress-of-families-summit-promotes-anti-lgbtq-anti-choice-policies-globally/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">World Congress of Families global summit</a> held in Moldova in September. His talking points included a denial that discrimination on the basis of gender identity is a form of sex discrimination. The session was moderated by Australian Patrick Byrne, author of a new book, “Transgender: One Shade of Gray.” Byrne said that laws against anti-trans discrimination are “authoritarian” and said the solution is to write the definition of man and woman into law, saying, “if you do that, you block the whole agenda.” That is precisely what Severino seems to be trying to accomplish via executive action.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The National Center for Transgender Equality denounced the “terrifying memo” being circulated within the Trump administration, calling it “a direct attack on trans people.” But Severino cannot unilaterally reverse federal court precedents, noted NCTE:<blockquote style="background: rgb(239, 243, 243); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; hyphens: none; padding: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0.75em 2em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.5;">You should know that this rule will not eliminate the precedents set by dozens of federal courts over the last two decades affirming the full rights and identities of transgender people. It will not undo the consensus of the medical providers and scientists across the globe who see transgender people, know transgender people, and urge everyone to accept us for who we are. And no rule—no administration—can erase the experiences of transgender people and our families.</blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">As a presidential candidate, Trump once held up a rainbow flag, and some of his apologists <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/gays-for-trump-join-conspiracy-theorists-in-bringing-anti-islam-anti-pc-message-to-rnc/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">claimed that he would be the most pro-gay president ever</a>. In truth, the anti-LGBTQ writing was on the wall once Trump decided that his route to the White House depended on a strategic alliance with the Religious Right. In return for his promises to give them the Supreme Court of their dreams and make them more politically powerful by removing legal restrictions on politicking by churches, Religious Right leaders helped generate a massive pro-Trump vote among white evangelicals. Since his election Trump has been returning the favor, giving the Religious Right whatever it wants, and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/the-terrible-anti-lgbtq-first-year-of-the-promised-pro-gay-president-trump/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">reversing</a> Obama administration pro-LGBTQ policies. In return, religious conservatives have remained his most ferocious defenders, regularly denouncing his opponents as evil, even <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/lance-wallnau-trumps-critics-are-being-controlled-by-satan/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Satanic</a>.</div></div><div class="layout-constrain--narrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 47.2222em; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; border-top: 5px solid rgb(239, 243, 243); margin-bottom: 2em; padding-top: 1em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">Tags: <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/roger-severino/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Roger Severino</a> <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/ryan-anderson/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Ryan Anderson</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/topics/anti-gay/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Anti-Gay</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/topics/anti-lgbt/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Anti-LGBT</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/topics/transgender-rights/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">transgender rights</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/topics/trump-administration/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Trump Administration</a></div></div></div><div>
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<a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2018/05/09/christian-right-groups-wage-crusade-capture-courts">https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2018/05/09/christian-right-groups-wage-crusade-capture-courts</a>/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=5c5ed87e-0075-4ed8-aad0-19dc7ba0c82b

big-budget religious-right organizations are waging a sustained crusade to advance their controversial social agenda by rigging the rules in state courts, according to a new report released by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD).

Ten of the largest groups with a combined annual budget of more than $220 million have spent millions over the past decade to mount a relentless attack on traditional safeguards designed to insulate judges from politics, including merit selection, campaign finance laws, and judicial codes of conduct that limit what judges can say about legal issues likely to come before their courts.

The Christian right groups oppose same-sex marriage and adoption rights, promote gay conversion therapy, oppose reproductive rights, and fight for broad religious exemptions. Some have been classified as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Emboldened by the successful ousting of three state Supreme Court justices in Iowa in 2010, as retaliation for the Court’s unanimous decision overturning a ban on same-sex marriage, those conservative religious groups have used legal challenges, legislation, and dark-money election spending in more than a dozen states to politicize state courts.

Religious Right Assaults on Judicial Indipendence

“All courts are under attack by conservative warriors,” said Arn Pearson, CMD’s executive director and the report’s author. “But since Iowa, those most at risk are in the states.”

“The organized Christian right thinks judges should be accountable to ‘values’ voters, and does not believe in the separation of church and state,” Pearson said.

While the religious right has not been able to replicate its Iowa rout, it has successfully teamed up with corporate and partisan players to abolish merit selection in Tennessee, win a conservative majority on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, and mount a major 2016 challenge against four Kansas Supreme Court justices based on their rulings on abortion, the death penalty, and school funding.

Those efforts have been bolstered by the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial ruling in Citizens United v. FEC, which allowed corporations–including nonprofits–to pour money into judicial elections for the first time in more than a century.

“The influence of big money–already pervasive in federal and state elections–increasingly casts a shadow over how state judges handle controversial cases concerning equal marriage or privacy rights,” Pearson said. “Million-dollar-plus campaigns against sitting judges have become the new normal and can intimidate judges, who are supposed to be neutral arbiters of the law, even when unsuccessful.”

Outside spending on state supreme court elections has more than tripled since 2010, reaching a record $28 million in the 2015-16 judicial elections.

Outside Spending in Supreme Court

Citizens United and many of the state attacks on judicial independence have been masterminded by James Bopp, an Indiana attorney and GOP insider who has represented groups like Focus on the Family, the Christian Coalition, National Organization for Marriage, and National Right to Life.

Focus on the Family and its advocacy partner, the Family Policy Alliance, have been major players in that effort. The groups spent a combined $93 million in 2016 and funneled nearly $7 million to a network of local partners in 38 states between 2012 and 2015.

Focus on the Family recently declared itself a church and announced that it will no longer file informational tax returns with the IRS.

“The religious right wants to win ‘Christ-centered’ courts that reflect their extreme religious views, and they will continue to wage a series of small battles until they get there,” Pearson said. “Ensuring that courts will protect the constitutional and civil rights of all Americans, regardless of their religious views, will take an equal commitment from supporters of an independent judiciary.”

Read the report: Conquering the Courts
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<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/right-wing-ramps-up-campaign-against-southern-poverty-law-center">http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/right-wing-ramps-up-campaign-against-southern-poverty-law-center</a><div class="mce-content-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><div class="layout-constrain--narrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 47.2222em; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; line-height: 1.5;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Religious Right groups and right-wing media outlets are waging an intensified campaign against the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based organization that monitors and challenges extremist groups and hateful rhetoric. The <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/katie-yoder/2017/09/06/conservatives-urge-media-cut-ties-splc-over-dangerous-hate-map" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">latest salvo</a> comes in the form of <a href="http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF17I05.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">an open letter</a> to the media written by the Family Research Council and Media Research Center and signed by 47 right-wing leaders and organizations. The letter characterizes the SPLC as “an attack dog of the political left” and urges media outlets to stop using SPLC data, lists and maps.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Religious Right groups have been <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/dozens-of-gop-leaders-declare-solidarity-with-those-who-want-to-see-homosexuality-outlawed/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">furious</a> at the SPLC since the organization decided several years ago to begin listing some of them as anti-LGBTQ hate groups. Religious Right groups <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/dozens-of-gop-leaders-declare-solidarity-with-those-who-want-to-see-homosexuality-outlawed/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">rallied around the Family Research Council</a> when the SPLC <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/family-research-council" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">labeled it a hate group</a> in 2010. Religious Right leaders complain that they are designated as hate groups simply for upholding “traditional” Christian teaching about marriage and sexuality, which the SPLC has repeatedly explained is not true.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">“Viewing homosexuality as unbiblical does not qualify organizations for listing as hate groups,” the SPLC has <a href="http://www.startribune.com/printarticle/?id=165871936" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">explained</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120919155856/http:/www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/splc-s-anti-gay-hate-list-compiled-with-diligence-and-clear-standards" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">saying</a> groups receive the designation for spreading “demonstrably false information” and “disparaging, emotion-provoking stereotypes.” SPLC <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/anti-lgbt" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">notes</a> that many Religious Right leaders “have disseminated disparaging ‘facts’ about gay that are simply untrue—assertions that are remarkably reminiscent of the way white intellectuals and scientists once wrote about the ‘bestial’ black man and his supposedly threatening sexuality.”<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Two years ago, for example, SPLC’s Mark Potok <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/anti-lgbt-groups-absolutely-deserve-their-hate-group-designations-d17aa0a0aa97/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">told a reporter</a> <a href="https://apnews.com/21afaa02e8ec4effae8baac4aba23a63/law-firm-labeled-hate-group-leading-kim-davis-crusade" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">profiling Liberty Counsel</a>, “A group that regularly portrays gay people as perverse diseased pedophiles putting Western civilization at risk are way, way over the line.”<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The most recent concerted campaign against the SPLC seems to have been triggered when GuideStar, an online resource that compiles financial and other information about nonprofit organizations, began flagging organizations categorized by the SPLC as hate groups. More than 40 right-wing leaders, including representatives of anti-LGBTQ, anti-immigration and anti-Muslim groups, <a href="http://lc.org/PDFs/062217LTR_Coalition%20to%20Guidestar-Harold%20Jacobs.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">complained</a> and asked GuideStar to stop using SPLC information. GuideStar <a href="http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/charity-website-cites-threats-in-removing-hate-group-labels/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a> that its staff members had received death threats over the designations. After a torrent of right-wing complaints, GuideStar removed the banners, but in June Liberty Counsel <a href="https://www.lc.org/newsroom/details/062817-liberty-counsel-sues-guidestar-over-false-hate-group-label" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">sued</a> them anyway.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Then in July, right-wing groups, led by the Family Research Council, <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/exclusive-conservatives-launch-war-on-southern-poverty-law-center-promotes-terrorism/article/2628801" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">launched</a> a renewed coordinated campaign targeting the SPLC, which has been amplified by the right-wing media. Even white nationalists have gotten in on the act, with VDARE <a href="https://www.advocate.com/politics/2017/7/19/white-nationalist-site-joins-anti-lgbt-groups-campaign-against-southern-poverty-law-center" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">calling</a> it the “Southern Poverty Lie Center.”<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">As part of the new campaign, D. James Kennedy Ministries produced an anti-SPLC video called “<a href="https://www.djameskennedy.org/video-detail/1729-profits-of-hate-the-southern-poverty-law-center-special-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Profit$ of Hate.”</a> Among the Religious Right figures featured in the nearly 30-minute video are FRC’s Tony Perkins, Jerry Boykin, Peter Sprigg and Ken Blackwell and Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver. A spokesperson for the group <a href="http://www.christianpost.com/news/d-james-kennedy-ministries-president-documentary-splc-hope-to-see-reformation-liberal-group-193587/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">told the Christian Post</a> they made the film because the SPLC poses “significant existential threats to religious freedom and to Christian ministries like ours.”<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Then in August, D. James Kennedy Ministries <a href="https://www.djameskennedy.org/Uploads/PDF/SPLCLawsuitPressRelease_8-23-17.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">filed</a> its own lawsuit against the SPLC, GuideStar and Amazon, which has not included the ministry in its Amazon Smile fundraising program. The lawsuit <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2017/08/left-wing-groups-sued-for-violating-christians-civil-rights/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">charges</a> defamation, trafficking in false or misleading information, and religious discrimination. Here’s how the complaint explains the religious discrimination charge:<blockquote style="background: rgb(239, 243, 243); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; hyphens: none; padding: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0.75em 2em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.5;">Because the ministry’s position on ‘LGBTQ’ issues is inextricably intertwined and connected to the ministry’s religious theology, and because SPLC and GuideStar have declared the ministry to be a hate group due to the ministry’s stand on LGBTQ issues, what occurred here is that SPLC and GuideStar have discriminated against the ministry because of its theology and its religious beliefs.</blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Lawsuits over the SPLC’s “hate group” designation have been accompanied by a media and messaging barrage, enlisting participation from evangelist <a href="https://www.facebook.com/FranklinGraham/posts/1627922307263944" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Franklin Graham</a>, Fox News Radio personality <a href="https://www.toddstarnes.com/column/cnn-publishes-fake-hate-list-targeting-well-known-christian-groups?rq=SPLC" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Todd Starnes</a>, Breitbart, <a href="https://pjmedia.com/faith/2017/08/23/d-james-kennedy-ministries-sues-splc-guidestar-and-amazon-for-defamation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">PJ Media</a>, the Drudge Report, Alex Jones, and Western Journalism, which published a piece <a href="https://s2.westernjournalism.com/political-correctness-fangs-southern-poverty-law-center/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=familyresearchcouncil&utm_content=2017-08-30&utm_campaign=can" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">calling</a> the SPLC a hate group that “burns crosses in its own way.”<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">SPLC’s detractors also complained when media outlets turned to the group for its widely acknowledged expertise on extremist groups in the U.S. after the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, which resulted in high-profile gifts to the SPLC from corporations like Apple and individuals like George Clooney. Anti-LGBTQ activist Peter LaBarbera, for example, <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/liberal-law-center-demonizes-christian-foes-of-lgbtq-agenda-as-hate-groups" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">slammed CNN</a> for using the SPLC’s “hate map” in a story; so did the American Family Association’s <a href="http://www.afa.net/the-stand/culture/2017/08/cnn-backs-down-on-hate-list/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Tim Wildmon</a>.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Earlier in the summer, the Alliance Defending Freedom <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/07/14/abc-news-smears-prominent-christian-nonprofit-as-hate-group-in-recent-article/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">complained</a> that ABC and NBC had used SPLC “hate group” criteria in news stories about Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaking to the group. When, in the wake of white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, the Arizona Republic and a Phoenix television station noted ADF’s inclusion on the SPLC’s list, ADF <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2017/08/christian-advocates-scorch-media-for-defamatory-reporting/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">accused</a> the outlets of “journalistic malpractice.”<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The campaign also <a href="https://2ndvote.com/meet-the-liberal-corporations-supporting-the-southern-poverty-law-centers-assault-on-christians-and-conservatives/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">targets</a> <a href="http://www.2ndvote.com/splc/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">corporations</a> that have donated to the SPLC. The right-wing platform 2ndVote <a href="https://2ndvote.com/meet-the-liberal-corporations-supporting-the-southern-poverty-law-centers-assault-on-christians-and-conservatives/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">calls</a> the Kennedy Ministries’ lawsuit “a first step to defunding SPLC” and suggests that consumers could take action against SPLC funders. Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver even <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/mat-staver-anti-gay-groups-being-treated-like-jews-in-nazi-germany/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">said</a> the SPLC labeling his organization a hate group is part of a persecution of Christians in America reminiscent of the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The Right’s anti-SPLC campaign is not marked by intellectual consistency; right-wing leaders have frequently charged that the “hate” label recklessly incites hatred and invites violence. But then they apply the very same label to the SPLC, as the American Family Association did on August 25, calling the SPLC <a href="https://afa.net/the-stand/culture/2017/08/splc-is-the-most-dangerous-hate-group-in-america/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">“the most dangerous hate group in America.”</a> Western Journalism’s article warned that if your policy positions don’t match with the SPLC’s, “you are sued, silenced and threatened,” which of course is exactly what the Right is doing, or trying to do, to the SPLC.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The Family Research Council has included a stream of anti-SPLC criticism in its Twitter feed and email alerts, along with criticism of companies that donated to the group in the wake of white supremacist violence in Charlottesville. FRC’s Jerry Boykin <a href="http://www.frc.org/newsroom/family-research-council-statement-on-d-james-kennedy-ministries-lawsuit-against-the-southern-poverty-law-center" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">cheered</a> the Kennedy Ministries lawsuit, saying the SPLC is guilty of “inciting hatred against Christians.” Boykin went on Liberty Counsel’s radio show and <a href="https://www.lc.org/faith-and-freedom-full-article/charlottesville-tragedy-exploited-by-splc-family-research-council-speaks-out" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">told people</a> to demand that their members of Congress “get engaged in stopping the reckless behavior of the SPLC.” It’s not clear what Boykin thinks Congress can or should do to the group.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Anti-immigration organizations have been waging their own campaign against <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2016/11/immigration-activists-launch-attack-on-splc/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> the SPLC since last November</a>. FAIR, an anti-immigration group with <a href="http://www.pfaw.org/report/anti-immigrant-groups-links-to-white-supremacists-and-other-hate-groups/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">historical ties to white nationalists</a>, has joined with other anti-immigration groups to launch a website under the name <a href="http://splcinfo.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Stop Politicizing Legitimate Causes</a>adopting the Southern Poverty Law Center’s acronym. The fake “SPLC” appears to have placed search-term ads designed to ensnare people seeking information on hate groups. It also mimicked the Center’s Hatewatch and Hate Map projects with its own “Greatwatch” and “Great Map,” which includes a few natural and historical sites, along with FAIR’s Washington, D.C., headquarters. The site asks people to report a “mislabeled organization or a hate incident.”<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">SPLC’s opponents blame the group for a 2012 shooting at the Family Research Council that was carried out by a man who said he had chosen the group based on its designation as an anti-gay hate group. Gay rights activists and other progressive leaders immediately and unequivocally denounced the violence, which FRC quickly <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/religious-right-exploiting-tragedy-to-blunt-criticism-of-its-extremism/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">moved</a> to exploit in an effort to damage the SPLC. Right-wing groups have also blamed the SPLC for this year’s shooting at a congressional softball team practice because the shooter had reportedly liked the SPLC’s Facebook page.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The SPLC initially made a name for itself targeting violent racist groups like the KKK and anti-government “patriot” and “militia” groups. Even some right-wing groups acknowledge the value of the SPLC’s work on those fronts, but they say the SPLC’s focus on them unfairly equates their organizations with groups like the KKK.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Some fair-minded people may disagree with the criteria the SPLC uses or the decisions it makes about categorizing individual organizations and leaders. But as RWW’s own reporting on many of the organizations now attacking the SPLC makes clear, there is no question that groups on its list do, in fact, promote harmful stereotypes and inflammatory falsehoods about targeted groups, including <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/topics/anti-gay/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">LGBTQ people</a>, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/topics/immigration/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">immigrants</a>, and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/topics/anti-muslim/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Muslims</a>. In addition to false and damaging rhetoric at home, Religious Right leaders are <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/how-the-religious-right-made-life-more-difficult-dangerous-for-worlds-lgbt-people-in-2016/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">making life more difficult and dangerous</a> for LGBTQ people around the globe by supporting laws that criminalize homosexuality and <a href="http://www.politicalresearch.org/2016/11/14/international-backlash-the-religious-right-at-the-un/#sthash.QtJ6XecS.2OaTrkrL.dpbs" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">resisting international efforts</a> to recognize and protect the human rights of LGBTQ people and their families.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Right-wing groups have been invigorated by the campaign, election, and presidency of Donald Trump, and they are apparently feeling emboldened by the most favorable political climate they have enjoyed in years. Now they’re taking a page from the Trump playbook and aggressively attacking those who criticize and report on them.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Signers of the anti-SPLC letter released today <a href="http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF17I05.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">include</a> a who’s who among Religious Right peddlers of division and bigotry. Among the signers: the MRC’s <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/brent-bozell/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Brent Bozell</a>; the Family Research Council’s <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/tony-perkins/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Tony Perkins</a> and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/jerry-boykin/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Jerry Boykin</a>; the American Family Association’s <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/tim-wildmon/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Tim Wildmon</a> and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/sandy-rios/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Sandy Rios</a>; anti-Islam activists <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/frank-gaffney/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Frank Gaffney</a>, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/brigitte-gabriel/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Brigitte Gabriel</a>, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/pamela-geller/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Pamela Geller</a> and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/robert-spencer/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Robert Spencer</a>; Liberty Counsel’s <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/mat-staver/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Mat Staver</a>; ADF’s <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/michael-farris/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Michael Farris</a>; WND’s <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/joseph-farah/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Joseph Farah</a>; C-FAM’s <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/austin-ruse/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Austin Ruse</a>; and more.</div></div><div class="layout-constrain--narrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 47.2222em; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; border-top: 5px solid rgb(239, 243, 243); margin-bottom: 2em; padding-top: 1em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">Tags: <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/austin-ruse/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Austin Ruse</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/brent-bozell/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Brent Bozell</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/brigitte-gabriel/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Brigitte Gabriel</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/frank-gaffney/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Frank Gaffney</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/jeff-sessions/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Jeff Sessions</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/jerry-boykin/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Jerry Boykin</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/joseph-farah/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Joseph Farah</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/ken-blackwell/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Ken Blackwell</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/mat-staver/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Mat Staver</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/pamela-geller/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Pamela Geller</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/peter-labarbera/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Peter LaBarbera</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/peter-sprigg/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Peter Sprigg</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/robert-spencer/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Robert Spencer</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/sandy-rios/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Sandy Rios</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/tim-wildmon/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Tim Wildmon</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/tony-perkins/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Tony Perkins</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/topics/anti-gay/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Anti-Gay</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/topics/anti-immigrant/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">anti-immigrant</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/topics/anti-lgbt/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Anti-LGBT</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/topics/anti-muslim/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Anti-Muslim</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/alliance-defending-freedom/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Alliance Defending Freedom</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/american-family-association/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">American Family Association</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/c-fam/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">C-FAM</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/fair/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">FAIR</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/family-research-council/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Family Research Council</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/liberty-counsel/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Liberty Counsel</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/media-research-center/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Media Research Center</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/worldnetdaily/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">WorldNetDaily</a></div></div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/07/19/white-nationalist-website-joins-other-hate-groups-smear-campaign-against-splc/217312" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/07/19/white-nationalist-website-joins-other-hate-groups-smear-campaign-against-splc/217312</a>VDARE.com, which the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has described as a “white nationalist” and “anti-immigration hate website,” has joined other hate groups in an official smear campaign against SPLC launched by anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council (FRC).FRC and other organizations that SPLC has labeled hate groups <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/exclusive-conservatives-launch-war-on-southern-poverty-law-center-promotes-terrorism/article/2628801" rel="“nofollow”" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">launched a campaign</a> on July 17 accusing SPLC of “fueling hate, killing free speech and even encouraging terrorist-style attacks on those it doesn’t agree with,” as the Washington Examiner described it. The campaign included a “planned Monday tweetstorm” and the suggestion that its supporters use the hashtag “<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/splcexposed?f=tweets&vertical=default&src=hash" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">#SPLCexposed</a>.”FRC and other hate groups have <a href="https://twitter.com/FRCdc/status/886941068331278338" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">repeatedly</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/02/16/biggest-myth-about-anti-lgbtq-hate-groups-debunked/215370" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">pushed the myth</a> that SPLC labels as “hate groups” those organizations that it “simply disagree[s] with.” In fact, SPLC has more extensive criteria for the distinction. It <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/news/2012/09/13/frc-deserves-%E2%80%98hate-group%E2%80%99-label" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">designate</a><a href="https://www.splcenter.org/news/2012/09/13/frc-deserves-%E2%80%98hate-group%E2%80%99-label" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">s</a> anti-LGBTQ hate groups as such when they knowingly spread “demonizing lies about the LGBT community,” engage in “baseless, incendiary name-calling,” or actively work to criminalize LGBTQ people. Regarding anti-immigrant groups, SPLC <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/anti-immigrant" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700; outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">wrote</a> that though “many groups criticize high levels of immigration and some … typically confront or harass individual immigrants and their supporters, anti-immigrant hate groups generally go further by pushing racist propaganda.” It continued that most anti-immigrant hate groups “subscribe to one of two conspiracy theories that have no basis in fact,” including that Mexico is trying to “‘reconquer’ the American Southwest” and that “Mexico, Canada and the United States are secretly planning to merge into a European Union-like entity.” SPLC also <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/anti-muslim" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700; outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">clearly defines</a> its anti-Muslim hate group label, noting that these groups “hold conspiratorial views regarding the inherent danger to America by its Muslim-American community” and view Muslims as “intent on undermining and eventually replacing American democracy and Western civilization with Islamic despotism.”[img]White nationalist hate website VDARE joined FRC’s campaign on July 18, <a href="https://twitter.com/vdare/status/887492176099381248" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">tweeting</a> the #SPLCexposed hashtag alongside an <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/the-southern-poverty-lie-oops-law-center-faces-its-worst-ever-pr-crisis" rel="“nofollow”" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">accompanying article</a> from the site that called SPLC the “Southern Poverty Lie … Center” and touted the #SPLCexposed Twitter campaign. The article also attempted to cast doubt on the <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/20090201/nativist-lobby-three-faces-intolerance" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">reasoning behind</a> SPLC’s designation of anti-immigrant hate group Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).According to SPLC, <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/vdare" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">VDARE</a>, founded in 1999 by English immigrant Peter Brimelolobbyist 2016<table class="datadisplay" id="firm_issues" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; margin: 0.5em 0px 1em; padding: 0px; background: rgb(224, 230, 236); width: 574px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><thead><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><th class="data" style="padding: 3px; text-align: center; background: rgb(153, 153, 153);">Issue</th><th class="data" style="padding: 3px; text-align: center; background: rgb(153, 153, 153);">No. of Reports</th><th class="data" style="padding: 3px; text-align: center; background: rgb(153, 153, 153);">No. of Lobbyists</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/issuesum.php?id=CIV&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Civil Rights & Civil Liberties</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">4</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">3</td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/issuesum.php?id=FAM&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Family, Abortion & Adoption</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">4</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">3</td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/issuesum.php?id=HCR&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Health Issues</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">4</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">3</td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/issuesum.php?id=REL&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Religion</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">4</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">3</td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/issuesum.php?id=BUD&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Fed Budget & Appropriations</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">2</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">4</td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/issuesum.php?id=SCI&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Science & Technology</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">2</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">2</td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/issuesum.php?id=TAX&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Taxes</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">2</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">3</td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/issuesum.php?id=EDU&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Education</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">1</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">2</td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/issuesum.php?id=LAW&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Law Enforcement & Crime</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">1</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">2</td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/issuesum.php?id=TOU&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Travel & Tourism</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">1</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">1</td></tr></tbody></table><table class="sortable datadisplay" id="client_bills" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; margin: 0.5em 0px 1em; padding: 0px; background: rgb(224, 230, 236); width: 574px;"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=hr5485-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">H.R.5485</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2017</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">31</td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=hr4974-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">H.R.4974</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">19</td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=s2806-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">S.2806</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">19</td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=s2066-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">S.2066</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">18</td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=hr2802-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">H.R.2802</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">First Amendment Defense Act</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">18</td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=hr3185-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">H.R.3185</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Equality Act</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">18</td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=hr4909-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">H.R.4909</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">17</td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=s2943-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">S.2943</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">17</td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=s1598-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">S.1598</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">First Amendment Defense Act</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">14</td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=hr5055-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">H.R.5055</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">13</td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=hr5233-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">H.R.5233</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Clarifying Congressional Intent in Providing for DC Home Rule Act of 2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">13</td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=hr4828-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">H.R.4828</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Conscience Protection Act of 2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">13</td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=s2927-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">S.2927</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Conscience Protection Act of 2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">10</td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=s304-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">S.304</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Motor Vehicle Safety Whistleblower Act</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">6</td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=hr5325-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">H.R.5325</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2017</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">6</td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=hr2028-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">H.R.2028</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">4</td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=sconres3-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">S.CON.RES.3</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">A concurrent resolution authorizing the use of Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center for an event to celebrate the birthday of King Kamehameha I.</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">4</td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=hconres125-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">H.CON.RES.125</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Establishing the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2017 and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2018 through 2026.</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">1</td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=hconres75-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">H.CON.RES.75</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Expressing the sense of Congress that the atrocities perpetrated by ISIL against religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria include war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">1</td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=hr3762-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">H.R.3762</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">1</td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=hr453-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">H.R.453</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Healthy Relationships Act of 2015</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">1</td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=hr515-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">H.R.515</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">International Megan's Law to Prevent Child Exploitation and Other Sexual Crimes Through Advanced Notification of Traveling Sex Offenders</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">1</td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;" nowrap="" align="left"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=s1858-114" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">S.1858</a></td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">114</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Family Research Council</td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Equality Act</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">1</td></tr></tbody></table>5055<table class="sortable datadisplay" id="issue_summary" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; margin: 0.5em 0px 1em; padding: 0px; background: rgb(224, 230, 236); width: 574px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><thead><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><th style="padding: 3px; text-align: center; background: rgb(153, 153, 153);">Client</th><th style="padding: 3px; text-align: center; background: rgb(153, 153, 153);">Year</th><th style="padding: 3px; text-align: center; background: rgb(153, 153, 153);">No. of Reports & Specific Issues*</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000031844&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Battelle Memorial Institute</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000031844&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">10</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000000237&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Bechtel Group</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000000237&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">9</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000032528&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Chicago Bridge & Iron</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000032528&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">8</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000029618&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Centrus Energy</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000029618&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">7</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000000555&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Nuclear Energy Institute</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000000555&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">7</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000028426&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">PPG Industries</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000028426&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">6</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000056431&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Santa Clara Valley Water District</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000056431&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">6</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000000168&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Southern Co</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000000168&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">6</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000030661&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">University of Illinois</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000030661&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">6</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000057996&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">University of North Dakota</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000057996&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">6</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=F127894&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Covestro LLC</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=F127894&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">6</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000032062&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Boston University</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000032062&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">6</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000023771&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">AECOM Global</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000023771&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">6</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000000477&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Duke Energy</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000000477&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">6</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000000255&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Entergy Corp</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000000255&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">6</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000000368&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Exelon Corp</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000000368&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">5</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000000317&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">General Atomics</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000000317&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">5</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000053700&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Metro Water District/Southern California</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000053700&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">5</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000048983&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">City of Long Beach, CA</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000048983&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">5</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000030687&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">University of Rochester</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000030687&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">5</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000028051&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">NRG Energy</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000028051&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">5</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000047883&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Boise State University</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000047883&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">4</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000025111&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Consolidated Edison Inc</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000025111&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">4</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000021809&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Air Products & Chemicals Inc</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000021809&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">4</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000047380&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Assn of American Universities</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000047380&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">4</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000000165&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">General Dynamics</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000000165&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">4</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000000297&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Edison Electric Institute</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000000297&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">4</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000050568&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Energy Industries of Ohio</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000050568&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">4</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000067956&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Enhabit</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000067956&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000000239&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Edison International</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000000239&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000050341&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000050341&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000050364&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Eastern Municipal Water District</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000050364&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000064697&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Eaton Electrical</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000064697&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000025625&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Ecolab Inc</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000025625&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000049303&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Clean Water Services</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000049303&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000025165&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Covanta Holding</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000025165&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000000561&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">DTE Energy</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000000561&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000051107&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Friends Cmte on National Legislation</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000051107&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000051195&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Gas Technology Institute</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000051195&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000050847&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Fermi Research Alliance</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000050847&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000000531&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">FirstEnergy Corp</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000000531&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=F127401&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">FirstEnergy Service Co</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=F127401&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000026295&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Great Lakes Dredge & Dock</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000026295&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=F117916&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Great Lakes Metro Chambers</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=F117916&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=F107674&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Green Business Certification Inc</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=F107674&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000043587&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Georgia Tech</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000043587&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000000544&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Harvard University</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000000544&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000053907&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Monroe Chamber of Commerce</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000053907&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000058869&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Meggitt PLC</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000058869&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000053635&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Merced County, CA</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000053635&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000000369&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Leidos Inc</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000000369&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000035453&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Los Angeles County, CA</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000035453&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000036043&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Muckleshoot Indian Tribe</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000036043&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000054075&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">NAACP</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000054075&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=F137254&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Nalco Holding</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=F137254&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000027850&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">National Grain & Feed Assn</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000027850&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000042381&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Hyundai Motor Co</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000042381&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000052091&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Incline Village General Improvement Dist</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000052091&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000022041&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Independent Petroleum Assn of America</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000022041&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=F114259&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Indio Water Authority</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=F114259&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000052165&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Inland Empire Utilities Agency</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000052165&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000000804&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Intel Corp</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000000804&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000034744&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Iowa State University</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000034744&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000052610&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000052610&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000052828&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Kurion</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000052828&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000052718&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Kern County, CA</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000052718&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000052928&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Las Vegas Valley Water District</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000052928&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000047500&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Auburn University</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000047500&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000068116&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Avangrid Inc</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000068116&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000021757&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Berkshire Hathaway</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000021757&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000047808&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Bismarck State College</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000047808&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000024375&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Black Hills Corp</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000024375&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000031857&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Baylor University</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000031857&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000022588&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">BWX Technologies</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000022588&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000032235&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">California Institute of Technology</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000032235&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000048182&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">California Marine & Navigation Conf</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000048182&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000022690&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">California State Senate</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000022690&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000048209&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Calstart-Westart</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000048209&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000032380&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Case Western Reserve University</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000032380&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=F127536&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Alabama AHEAD</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=F127536&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000046575&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Alabama State Port Authority</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000046575&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000046588&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Alameda County, CA</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000046588&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000031473&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">American Civil Liberties Union</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000031473&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000064509&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">American Geophysical Union</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000064509&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000046961&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">American Institute of Physics</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000046961&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000046963&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">American Israel Public Affairs Cmte</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000046963&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000047015&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">American Rivers Inc</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000047015&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000047052&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">American Society of Plant Biologists</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000047052&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=F110457&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">American Water Enterprise Group</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=F110457&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000024119&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">AREVA Group</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000024119&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=F110653&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Arizona Electric Power Cooperative</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=F110653&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000049712&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Contra Costa Water District</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000049712&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000000337&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Contran Corp</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000000337&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000032877&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Cornell University</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000032877&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000021945&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Cummins Inc</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000021945&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000050041&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Decommissioning Plant Coalition</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000050041&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000025307&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Defenders of Wildlife</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000025307&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000050118&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Desert Research Institute</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000050118&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000050248&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Douglas County, NV</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000050248&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr><tr style="background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000048854&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">City of Encinitas, CA</a></td><td style="padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">2016</td><td class="center" style="padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr5055-114&id=D000048854&year=2016" style="background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">3</a></td></tr></tbody></table>trump lobby trans<ul style="margin: 0px 0px 20px 30px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><li style="margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-position: outside;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/lobbyist.php?id=Dannenfelser%2C%20Martin&id=Y0000007217L&year=2000" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Martin Dannenfelser</a> – Dept. of Energy. Lobbying client was the Family Research Council. Deregistered 2000, worked at the <a href="http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060046511" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Energy Innovation Reform Project</a>.</li></ul>backed many of? TP 2010<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/report/the-ten-scariest-republicans-heading-to-congress/">http://www.rightwingwatch.org/report/the-ten-scariest-republicans-heading-to-congress/</a><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-family: Helvetica-Light, " helvetica="Helvetica" light="Light" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">5) Obama Will Create A Personal Brownshirt Army<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-family: Helvetica-Light, " helvetica="Helvetica" light="Light" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color">Ret. Gen. Jerry Boykin, who now serves as the executive vice president of the Family Research Council, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/boykin-exposes-obamas-health-care-conspiracy-to-build-his-brownshirt-army/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration: none;">repeatedly</a> <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/boykin-obama-creating-personal-brownshirt-army-to-enforce-marxism/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration: none;">predicted</a> that Obama planned to “establish a constabulary force” through the Affordable Care Act that would “control the population in America” much in the same way that Adolf Hitler used the Brownshirts to consolidate power, <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129581493" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration: none;">basing his accusation on a debunked myth about the health care law</a>.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-family: Helvetica-Light, " helvetica="Helvetica" light="Light" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color">Boykin wasn’t alone in predicting that Obama would create such an army.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-family: Helvetica-Light, " helvetica="Helvetica" light="Light" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color">Another former military official, Ret. Army Major General Jerry Curry, <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/08/28/daily-caller-op-ed-suggests-obama-administratio/189611" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration: none;">warned</a> that the Obama administration might “arm illegal immigrants” to begin killing Americans, with a focus on <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/retired-general-predicts-obama-will-start-killing-us-soldiers/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration: none;">assassinating members of the armed forces</a>.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-family: Helvetica-Light, " helvetica="Helvetica" light="Light" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color">Then-Republican Rep. Paul Broun of Georgia similarly <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/gop-congressman-obama-wants-to-go-down-the-road-of-hitler-5acacbe42f4a#.fb9nm42ps" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration: none;">warned</a> in 2008 that Obama’s proposed expansion of national service programs was “exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany” and “exactly what the Soviet Union did.” Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, claimed in 2013 that Obama’s “<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/gohmert-obamacare-created-secretive-security-force/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration: none;">secret security force</a>” was already in existence.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-family: Helvetica-Light, " helvetica="Helvetica" light="Light" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color">Lawrence C. Mackin, a conservative writer, warned that Obama was bent on creating a “<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/gun-activists-obama-raising-private-army-of-undocumented-immigrants-refugees-federal-employees-soviet-troops/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration: none;">private internal army</a>” including “illegal aliens” and Middle Eastern terrorists, and William Gheen of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/william-gheen-obama-will-give-immigrants-badges-and-guns-to-go-after-christian-heterosexual-male-population/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration: none;">said</a> Obama would give immigrants “a badge and a gun” in order to target the “Christian, heterosexual male” population. Far-right activist Jim Garrow <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/jim-garrow-reveals-obamas-secret-plan-to-use-aliens-and-canadians-to-plot-against-america/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration: none;">thought Obama would fake contact with aliens</a> in order to justify the creation of his own army.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; font-family: Helvetica-Light, " helvetica="Helvetica" light="Light" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color">Convinced that President Obama was set to wage an <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/michael-savage-obama-is-inciting-the-white-man-to-revolt/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration: none;">anti-white</a> <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/michael-savage-obama-will-commit-anti-white-genocide-just-as-the-mayans-prophesied/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration: none;">race</a> <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/michael-savage-obama-inciting-race-war-may-as-well-be-charles-manson/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration: none;">war</a>, radio host Michael Savage <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/savage-obama-will-arm-the-crips-and-bloods-in-the-coming-race-war/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration: none;">said</a> that Obama intended to arm and “deputize” members of the Crips and Bloods gangs and turn them into his “shock troops.” He also <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/michael-savage-black-lives-matter-are-obamas-brownshirts-and-secret-private-army/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration: none;">claimed</a> that Black Lives Matter supporters would be “Obama’s shock troops” and “secret private army” much like “the Brownshirts that Hitler had.”<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/the-conservative-playbook-for-keeping-dark-money-dark">https://www.propublica.org/article/the-conservative-playbook-for-keeping-dark-money-dark</a>
<div>9. Troy Newman: The president of Operation Rescue jumped aboard the Trump train this week. An anti-choice extremist, Newman even co-authored a book with a would-be domestic terrorist, Cheryl Sullenberger, who in 1988 was sentenced to three years in federal prison for conspiring to blow up an abortion clinic. In that 2003 book, Newman and Sullenberger argue, according to People for the American Way, “that the government has a responsibility to execute abortion providers.”</div><div>=</div><div>Time was when a presidential candidate who played footsie with segregationists and white supremacists would have banished to the fringes of the American political scene. But Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump has changed all that. Oh sure, there have been plenty of codes telegraphed to the anti-black base of the GOP’s southern flank: Ronald Reagan’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/13/opinion/13herbert.html?r=0" style="text-decoration: none;">choice of Philadelphia, Mississippi</a>, as the place to make a “states’ rights” speech in his 1980 presidential campaign; Richard Nixon’s southern strategy and “Silent Majority” framing. But after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, expressions of outright racism were frowned upon in presidential politics. And articulations of misogyny were generally doled out in the form of <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/vice-presidential-debate-shockers-moments-forget/story?id=17435278#5" style="text-decoration: none;">withering condescension</a>. I don’t need to recount for you Trump’s friendliness with the alt-right, the white nationalist movement that was given a platform at Breitbart News by Stephen K. Bannon, the man Trump hired as his campaign CEO. You don’t need to take my word for it; <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/stephen-bannon-donald-trump-alt-right-breitbart-news" style="text-decoration: none;">Bannon has boasted</a> of this fact. And you surely know of Trump’s <a href="http://fortune.com/donald-trump-white-supremacist-genocide/" style="text-decoration: none;">numerous retweets</a> of posts and memes from white supremacist websites. And who can forget all of the lovely things he’s said about women, calling them fat pigs and demeaning them for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/08/07/trump-says-foxs-megyn-kelly-had-blood-coming-out-of-her-wherever/" style="text-decoration: none;">having menstrual periods</a>?Just yesterday, Trump’s running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/mike-pence-capitol-hill-wary-gop-228081" style="text-decoration: none;">declined for a second time</a> to say that former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke was “deplorable,” stating that he isn’t “in the name-calling business.” Isn’t it enough, Pence asked, that he and Trump have disavowed Duke’s endorsement?Trump yesterday won the endorsement of Operation Rescue president Troy Newman, an anti-choice extremist who co-authored a 2003 <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Their-Blood-Cries-Troy-Newman/dp/097203675X" style="text-decoration: none;">book</a>, <a href="http://www.pfaw.org/press-releases/2016/09/pfaw-reacts-troy-newman-trump-endorsement-trump-s-new-effort-reach-women" style="text-decoration: none;">according to People for the American Way</a>, that “argued that the government has a responsibility to execute abortion providers.” In 1988, Newman’s co-author, Cheryl Sullenberger, was <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1988-05-06/local/me-2616_1_bomb-abortion-clinic" style="text-decoration: none;">sentenced to three years in federal prison</a> for conspiring to bomb an abortion clinic.On Friday, Donald Trump appeared before evangelical Christians assembled at the Values Voter Summit, an annual confab convened by FRC Action, the political arm of the Family Research Council. The conference exhibit hall featured the booths of such co-sponsors as <a href="http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/anti-lgbt-march-supreme-court-dominated-group-celebrates-spanish-inquisition" style="text-decoration: none;">Tradition, Family and Property</a>, a paleo-Catholic cult whose founder described the Spanish Inquisition as the church’s most glorious moment, and the <a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/trump-clears-path-return-john-birch-society" style="text-decoration: none;">conspiracy-theorist and segregationist John Birch Society</a>, which William F. Buckley thought he had managed to purge from the conservative movement in 1962. This was the first time the JBS appeared in the Values Voter hall of sponsors. It could be said that the Trump candidacy helped pave the way, what with his embrace of the <a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/dirty-trickster-and-trump-adviser-roger-stone-speaks-conspiracist-america-first-rally" style="text-decoration: none;">conspiracy theorist radio host Alex Jones</a>, and his numerous winks to white nationalist extremists.The following day, FRC President Tony Perkins, who has endorsed Trump, <a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/tony-perkins-defends-alt-right" style="text-decoration: none;">defended the alt-right</a> when I asked him about the movement at a press conference. Its existence, he seemed to say, was the fault of President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, for having “snuffed out” the voices of people who disagree with the administration’s policies.To lay all of this at Trump’s feet would be to give him too much credit. As I’ve argued before, the misogynist, racist, nativist, anti-LGBT right wing that took over the GOP in 1980—of which Perkins himself is evidence—has much to answer for, not least of all, the rise of Donald Trump as the party’s standard-bearer. Trump may not have been the first choice of right-wing leaders, but they created the conditions that cleared his path to the nomination, and most have lined up behind him since he won it.But mainstream media are also complicit in this normalization of hatred, allowing it to masquerade in the guise political positions. For decades, when reporting on the Christian right, for example, media have treated it as a religious movement, barely mentioning—if at all—the roots of movement positions in the segregationist backlash of the South. Instead, media executives allowed themselves to be cowed by the right wing’s outrage machine, every time it cranked up its conveyor belt of allegations of the anti-religion bent of reporters.Today, the same tendency is evident in the false-equivalence reporting prevalent in the degrees to which media cover different stories. Questions about Clinton’s emails demand teams of reporters toiling for months; scandals involving Trump are too often written as one-off reports—so fearful are mainstream editors of fielding an accusation of liberal bias.In the meantime, a monster has been allowed to grow in our midst. Bannon take an obscure fringe of the right and elevates it to a platform that garners tens of millions of pageviews per month. Trump hires Bannon. Media say, hey, that’s interesting, do one story, and say, “Next?”Covering the Values Voter Summit this September 9 and 10 was downright depressing. Trump addressed the conference on Friday, and Pence on Saturday—meaning that the conference attendees represent a legitimized constituency of the GOP, as they have for 30 years. The founders of the religious right are passing onto their just rewards. Organizers Paul Weyrich and Howard Phillips died in 2008 and 2013, respectively; Phyllis Schlafly died on September 5 (but not before she took the opportunity to endorse Trump). The movement they founded, however, continues to wreak the havoc of hate on the American political landscape, and the media dare not call it by its name.
<a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/normalization-evil-american-politics">http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/normalization-evil-american-politics</a></div><div>=</div>

---

<h1 class="title">Perkins Warns Of Government "Promotion Of Same-Sex Relations" For Population Control</h1>

</div>

<div class="submitted">Submitted by Brian Tashman on Thursday, 10/13/2011 10:40 am</div>

</div>

Calvin Beisner of the Cornwall Alliance appeared on Janet Parshall’s radio show <a href="http://www.moodyradio.org/radioplayer.aspx?episode=77428&hour=1">In The Market</a> on Tuesday to discuss the “Green Dragon” film series which was made by Beisner’s group and hosted by Parshall. As we discussed in our report <a href="http://www.pfaw.org/rww-in-focus/the-green-dragon-slayers-how-the-religious-right-and-the-corporate-right-are-joining-fo">The ‘Green Dragon’ Slayers: How the Religious Right and the Corporate Right are Joining Forces to Fight Environmental Protection</a>, the “Green Dragon” series represents efforts by the Religious Right and the Corporate Right to paint environmentalism as <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/beware-green-dragon">anti-Christian and ungodly</a>:

During the <a href="http://www.moodyradio.org/radioplayer.aspx?episode=77428&hour=1">radio show</a>, Parshall played clips from the “documentary,” including one from Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, who argues that in the name of “population control” the government will eventually push “infanticide” and promote “same-sex relations”:

<blockquote>Perkins: Population control is a very loaded term. It includes not only abortion, contraception and sterilization, all at government expense of course, but it also includes infanticide and the promotion of same-sex relations. At the heart of this push for population control is an unbiblical view of children and of life.</blockquote>

Another clip featured right-wing pseudo-historian David Barton. Barton, who has made a career of <a href="http://www.pfaw.org/rww-in-focus/barton-s-bunk-religious-right-historian-hits-the-big-time-tea-party-america">infusing Religious Right beliefs into politics and American history</a>, accused environmentalism of being “a religion” with its own rules and “high priests,” and went on to tell people to contest environmental beliefs because “that’s not science, that is the faith position that you’re taking”:

<blockquote>Barton: People say that environmentalism is a religion. Others say, ‘Oh no, that’s not true,’ but it really is. Now how do we know? I’ve been involved in seven cases at the US Supreme Court and I can point to a number of court decisions where the court has said religion is whatever you believe so strongly that it affects the way you live your life. That’s why the court recognizes even atheism as a religion. Environmentalism definitely is a religion, it has its own high priests, it has folks that tell us what we can and can’t do with the environment and how we can treat it and they’re the guardians of it as if it’s a great temple. It’s a religion. And as soon as we recognize that environmentalism is a religion then it helps us to understand better how to respond to what’s being said, how to filter what’s being said, and say, now wait a minute, that’s not science, that is the faith position that you’re taking.</blockquote>

</div>

<h3>Filed Under</h3>

<h3>Organizations:</h3>

<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/organizations/undefined">undefined</a>, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/organizations/religious-right">Religious Right</a>, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/organizations/pfaw">PFAW</a>, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/organizations/family-research-council">Family Research Council</a>, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/organizations/cornwall-alliance">Cornwall Alliance</a></div>

<h3>People:</h3>

<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/tony-perkins">Tony Perkins</a>, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/people/calvin-beisner">Calvin Beisner</a></div>

<h3>Topics:</h3>

<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/topics/supreme-court">Supreme Court</a>, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/topics/science">Science</a>, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/topics/religious-right">Religious Right</a>, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/topics/religion">Religion</a>, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/topics/politics">Politics</a>, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/topics/green-dragon">green dragon</a>, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/topics/environment">Environment</a>, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/topics/court-decisions">court decisions</a>, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/topics/abortion">Abortion</a></div>

</div>

==

<a href="http://www.grist.org/article/2010-12-17-environmentalism-is-a-plot-to-take-over-the-world-says-coalition">http://www.grist.org/article/2010-12-17-environmentalism-is-a-plot-to-take-over-the-world-says-coalition</a>

<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council">http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council</a>

<h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading">Family Research Council</h1>

<h3 id="siteSub">From SourceWatch</h3>

<div id="jump-to-nav">Jump to: <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#column-one">navigation</a>, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#searchInput">search</a></div>

The Family Research Council (FRC) is an organization in Washington, D.C. that grew out of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ronald_Reagan" title="Ronald Reagan">Ronald Reagan</a>'s <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Neoconservative" title="Neoconservative" class="mw-redirect">neoconservative</a> "pro-family" domestic agenda.

<h2>Contents</h2>

[<a href="javascript:toggleToc()" class="internal" id="togglelink">hide</a>]</div>

<ul>

<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#History">1 History</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#Gay_escort_controversy">2 Gay escort controversy</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#Personnel">3 Personnel</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#Opposition_to_health_care_reform">4 Opposition to health care reform</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#Contact_information">5 Contact information</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#SourceWatch_Resources">6 SourceWatch Resources</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#External_resources">7 External resources</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#References">8 References</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#External_links">9 External links</a></li>

</ul>

</td></tr></tbody></table>

<h2>History</h2>

According to the organization's website, "the Family Research Council (FRC) champions marriage and family as the foundation of civilization, the seedbed of virtue, and the wellspring of society. FRC shapes public debate and formulate public policy that values human life and upholds the institutions of marriage and the family. Believing that God is the author of life, liberty, and the family, FRC promotes the Judeo-Christian worldview as the basis for a just, free, and stable society."

"The idea of the Family Research Council originated at the 1980 White House Conference on Families. Among the conferees, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=James_Dobson" title="James Dobson">James Dobson</a> stood out because of his rare combination of Christian social values and academic and professional credentials. A practicing clinical psychologist and noted author, Dobson had recently transitioned into radio broadcasting and also launched a nonprofit, family service organization. He felt that the time was ripe to establish an organization that would drive the national debate on family issues. In 1983, the Family Research Council incorporated as a nonprofit educational institution in the District of Columbia; its founding board included Dobson and two noted psychiatrists, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Armand_Nicholoi._Jr.&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Armand Nicholoi. Jr. (page does not exist)">Armand Nicholoi. Jr.</a> of Harvard University and <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=George_Rekers" title="George Rekers">George Rekers</a> of the University of South Carolina," it states.

"Under the leadership of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Gerry_Regier&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Gerry Regier (page does not exist)">Gerry Regier</a>, a former Reagan Administration official at the Department of Health and Human Services, FRC began to link policy makers with researchers and professionals from a variety of disciplines. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Gary_Bauer" title="Gary Bauer">Gary Bauer</a>, a domestic policy advisor to President Reagan, succeeded Regier in 1988 and by the mid-1990s the organization had grown into a $10 million operation with a nationwide network of support...", it states.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#cite_note-0" title="">[1]</a>

The FRC is associated with James Dobson's <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Focus_on_the_Family" title="Focus on the Family">Focus on the Family</a> and <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=William_J._Bennett" title="William J. Bennett">William J. Bennett</a>.

<h2>Gay escort controversy</h2>

In May, 2010, the Miami New Times reported that on April 13, FRC co-founder <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=George_Rekers" title="George Rekers">George Rekers</a> was photographed arriving at the Miami International Airport with a male escort after having taken a ten day trip to Europe. The services of Rekers' companion, identified only by the name Lucien, were found to have been advertised solely on the Web site <a href="http://www.rentboy.com/Splash.aspx?ReturnUrl=/default.aspx" class="external text" title="http://www.rentboy.com/Splash.aspx?ReturnUrl=/default.aspx" rel="nofollow">RentBoy.com</a>, a gay escort/masseur Web site. Lucien's profile on the site was only accessible after the viewer acknowledged he is over age 18 and clicks a button saying he is aware that the site contains "content and materials that are of a graphic and/or sexual nature."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#cite_note-1" title="">[2]</a> Rekers claimed that the man was there to help him carry his luggage, since he had recently had surgery and was unable to carry it himself. Rekers was pushing his own luggage cart when he and Lucien were spotted at the airport. Rekers denied knowing Lucien's line of work, to which Lucien expressed his surprise. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#cite_note-2" title="">[3]</a><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#cite_note-3" title="">[4]</a><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#cite_note-4" title="">[5]</a>

Following the April, 2010 scandal regarding Rekers being caught with a young professional male escort in Miami, the Family Research Council eliminated Rekers from the organization's history and their website at <a href="http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?c=HISTORY_ABOUT" class="external free" title="http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?c=HISTORY_ABOUT" rel="nofollow">http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?c=HISTORY_ABOUT</a>.

<h2>Personnel</h2>

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tony_Perkins&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Tony Perkins (page does not exist)">Tony Perkins</a>, President</li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Chuck_Donovan&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Chuck Donovan (page does not exist)">Chuck Donovan</a>, Executive Vice President</li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tom_McClusky&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Tom McClusky (page does not exist)">Tom McClusky</a>, Vice President for Government Affairs</li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Charmaine_Yoest&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Charmaine Yoest (page does not exist)">Charmaine Yoest</a>, Vice President for Communications</li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Robert_Morrison&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Robert Morrison (page does not exist)">Robert Morrison</a>, Vice President for Academic Affairs</li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Peter_Sprigg&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Peter Sprigg (page does not exist)">Peter Sprigg</a>, Vice President for Policy</li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=J._Kenneth_Blackwell" title="J. Kenneth Blackwell">J. Kenneth Blackwell</a>, Senior Fellow for Family Empowerment</li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=David_Prentice&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="David Prentice (page does not exist)">David Prentice</a>, Senior Fellow for Life Sciences, Center for Human Life and Bioethics</li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Patrick_F._Fagan&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Patrick F. Fagan (page does not exist)">Patrick F. Fagan</a>, Senior Fellow and Director for Marriage and Religion Center<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#cite_note-5" title="">[6]</a></li>

</ul>

<h2>Opposition to health care reform</h2>

On December 16, 2009, FRC held a one-hour "prayercast" to oppose health care reform. The press release promoting the event announced it would be attended by a number of Republican elected representatives who have been among the most vocal opponents of health care reform including Senator <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Sam_Brownback" title="Sam Brownback">Sam Brownback</a> (R-Kansas), Senator <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jim_DeMint" title="Jim DeMint">Jim DeMint</a>, (R-South Carolina) Rep. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Randy_Forbes" title="Randy Forbes">Randy Forbes</a>, (R-Virginia) and Rep. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Michele_Bachmann" title="Michele Bachmann">Michele Bachmann</a>, (R-Minnesota).<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#cite_note-6" title="">[7]</a>

James Dobson of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Focus_on_the_Family" title="Focus on the Family">Focus on the Family</a>, speaking at the prayercast, referred to <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Barack_Obama" title="Barack Obama">President Obama</a> as the “Evil One,“ saying "I just pray that you will frustrate the plans of the Evil One and revive us again with conviction and forgiveness,” said Dobson. Pastor <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jim_Garlow&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Jim Garlow (page does not exist)">Jim Garlow</a> of Skyline Church in San Diego, California made the case that the proposed health care reform bill violated nearly all Ten Commandments. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#cite_note-7" title="">[8]</a> Bachmann led the group in a prayer asking for forgiveness of governmental leaders who have not looked to God in crafting healthcare reform legislation.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#cite_note-8" title="">[9]</a>

<h2>Contact information</h2>

<h2>SourceWatch Resources</h2>

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Justice_Sunday" title="Justice Sunday">Justice Sunday</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=The_Bush_Theocracy" title="The Bush Theocracy">The Bush Theocracy</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Theocracy" title="Theocracy">theocracy</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Robert_Knight" title="Robert Knight">Robert Knight</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=George_Rekers" title="George Rekers">George Rekers</a></li>

</ul>

<h2>External resources</h2>

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.rentboy.com/Splash.aspx?ReturnUrl=/default.aspx" class="external text" title="http://www.rentboy.com/Splash.aspx?ReturnUrl=/default.aspx" rel="nofollow">RentBoy.com</a></li>

</ul>

<h2>References</h2>

<li id="cite_note-0"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#cite_ref-0" title="">↑</a> <a href="http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=PG03F06&f=WX03E10" class="external text" title="http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=PG03F06&f=WX03E10" rel="nofollow">History/Mission</a>, Family Research Council, accessed March 17, 2008.</li>

<li id="cite_note-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#cite_ref-1" title="">↑</a> RentBoy.com <a href="http://www.rentboy.com/Splash.aspx?ReturnUrl=/default.aspx" class="external text" title="http://www.rentboy.com/Splash.aspx?ReturnUrl=/default.aspx" rel="nofollow">RentBoy.com home page</a>, accessed May 5, 2010</li>

<li id="cite_note-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#cite_ref-2" title="">↑</a> Penn Bullock, Brandon K. Thorpe <a href="http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-05-06/news/christian-right-leader-george-rekers-takes-vacation-with-rent-boy/" class="external text" title="http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-05-06/news/christian-right-leader-george-rekers-takes-vacation-with-rent-boy/" rel="nofollow">Christian right leader George Rekers takes vacation with "rent boy"</a>, Miami New Times, May 6, 2010</li>

<li id="cite_note-3"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#cite_ref-3" title="">↑</a> Ria Viente <a href="http://www.24worldnews.com/anti-gay-activist-george-rekers-hired-a-gay-escort/10950/" class="external text" title="http://www.24worldnews.com/anti-gay-activist-george-rekers-hired-a-gay-escort/10950/" rel="nofollow">Anti-gay activist George Rekers hired a gay escort</a>, 24World News, May 5, 2010</li>

<li id="cite_note-4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#cite_ref-4" title="">↑</a> Alvin McEwen <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alvin-mcewen/anti-gay-organization-fou_b_563633.html" class="external text" title="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alvin-mcewen/anti-gay-organization-fou_b_563633.html" rel="nofollow">Anti-gay organization founder travels with a 'rentboy'</a> Huffington Post, May 4, 2010</li>

<li id="cite_note-5"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#cite_ref-5" title="">↑</a> <a href="http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?c=TEAM_FRC" class="external text" title="http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?c=TEAM_FRC" rel="nofollow">The FRC Team</a>, Family Research Council, accessed March 17, 2008.</li>

<li id="cite_note-6"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#cite_ref-6" title="">↑</a> J.P. Duffy, Family Research Council <a href="http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=PR09L09&f=RF07B02" class="external text" title="http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=PR09L09&f=RF07B02" rel="nofollow">FRC Action to Host Live PrayerCast Tonight on Health Care Reform</a>, Press release. 1 page. December 16, 2009</li>

<li id="cite_note-7"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#cite_ref-7" title="">↑</a> Sue, Chattahbox <a href="http://chattahbox.com/us/2009/12/17/bachmann-at-anti-health-care-bill-prayercast-leaders-deserve-gods-wrath/" class="external text" title="http://chattahbox.com/us/2009/12/17/bachmann-at-anti-health-care-bill-prayercast-leaders-deserve-gods-wrath/" rel="nofollow">Bachmann at Anti-Health Care Bill Prayercast: Leaders Deserve God’s Wrath</a>, News blog, December 17, 2009</li>

<li id="cite_note-8"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Research_Council#cite_ref-8" title="">↑</a> Kyle, Right Wing Watch <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/prayercast-bachmann-and-engle" class="external text" title="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/prayercast-bachmann-and-engle" rel="nofollow">Prayercast: Bachmann and Engle</a> Blog. Video. December 17, 2009</li>

</ol>

<h2>External links</h2>

<ul>

<li>Bill Berkowitz, "<a href="http://www.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=70" class="external text" title="http://www.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=70" rel="nofollow">The Family Research Council's Tony Perkins Is a Rising Star in a Crowded Universe of Evangelical Christian Leaders</a>," MediaTransparency.org, July 17, 2005.</li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=MinistryWatch" title="MinistryWatch">MinistryWatch</a>'s <a href="http://www.ministrywatch.com/mw2.1/F_FullRpt.asp?EIN=521792772" class="external text" title="http://www.ministrywatch.com/mw2.1/F_FullRpt.asp?EIN=521792772" rel="nofollow">opinion</a></li>

<li>Bill Berkowitz, "<a href="http://mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=121" class="external text" title="http://mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=121" rel="nofollow">'Where's the outrage?': Another fracture in the conservative evangelical movement</a>", Media Transparency, April 14, 2006.</li>

<li>John Aravosis, <a href="http://americablog.blogspot.com/2007/02/religious-right-misleads-its-followers.html" class="external text" title="http://americablog.blogspot.com/2007/02/religious-right-misleads-its-followers.html" rel="nofollow">"Religious right misleads its followers in massive email blitz about weekend peace march,"</a> AMERICAblog, February 1, 2007.</li>

<li>Bill Berkowitz, <a href="http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=22364" class="external text" title="http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=22364" rel="nofollow">"Ken Blackwell, Ohio's defeated GOP gubernatorial candidate, lands in D.C. Despite former secretary of state's role in multiple election mishaps, he signs on with Tony Perkins,"</a> WorkingForChange, May 24, 2007. re <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=J._Kenneth_Blackwell" title="J. Kenneth Blackwell">J. Kenneth Blackwell</a></li>

<li>David D. Kirkpatrick, "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/01/us/politics/01evangelicals.html" class="external text" title="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/01/us/politics/01evangelicals.html" rel="nofollow">Giuliani Inspires Threat of a Third-Party Run</a>", The New York Times, October 1, 2007.</li>

</ul>

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</div>

==

related: rick perry response rally

The American Family Association

The American Family Association is the driving force behind The Response. Founded by the Rev. Don Wildmon in 1977, the organization is based is best known for its various boycott campaigns, promotion of art censorship, and political advocacy against women’s rights and LGBT equality. The organization also controls the vast American Family Radio and an online news service, in addition to sponsoring various conferences frequented by Republican leaders, including the Values Voter Summit and Rediscovering God in America. The AFA today is led by Tim Wildmon, Don’s son, and its chief spokesperson is Bryan Fischer, the Director of Issues Analysis for Government and Public Policy and host of its flagship radio show Focal Point.

Fischer routinely expresses support for some of the most bigoted and shocking ideas found in the Religious Right today. He has:

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bachmann%E2%80%99s-favorite-ministry-joins-fischer-link-gays-holocaust">held gays responsible for the Holocaust </a>and likened them to <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/fischer-inescapable-conclusion-gay-sex-form-domestic-terrorism">domestic terrorists</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/user/rwwblog#p/u/33/ysR0Tdz5SaM">Nazis</a> who are intent on committing “<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/fishcer-gay-activists-will-commit-virtual-genocide-against-christian-soldiers">virtual genocide</a>” against the military, and asserts that “homosexuals should be <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/fischer-prop-8-ruling-proof-homosexuals-should-be-disqualified-public-office">disqualified from public office</a>”;</li>

<li>said “<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/vander-plaats-bryan-fisher-and-afa-do-not-speak-me">we have feminized the Medal of Honor</a>” by awarding it to a soldier who saved his fellow combatants rather than killing enemies;</li>

<li>demanded all immigrants “<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/fischer-all-immigrants-must-convert-christianity">convert to Christianity</a>” and renounce their religions;</li>

<li>asserted that Muslims have “<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/fischer-no-first-amendment-rights-muslims">no fundamental First Amendment claims</a>” and should be<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/fischer-again-calls-ban-muslim-immigration-and-mosques"> banned from building mosques </a>and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/afas-fischer-calls-end-muslim-immigration-and-deportation-all-muslims-us">deported from the US</a>, adding that Muslims are <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/fischer-centuries-inbreeding-reason-muslims-are-stupid">inherently stupid as a result of inbreeding</a>;</li>

<li>claimed African American women “<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/fischer-welfare-just-gives-money-people-who-rut-rabbits">rut like rabbit</a>s” due to welfare and that Native Americans are “<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/fischer-native-americans-need-leave-reservation-convert-christianity-and-become-full-fledged">morally disqualified”</a> from living in America because they didn’t convert to Christianity and were consequently <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/fischer-native-americans-are-mired-poverty-and-alcoholism-because-they-refuse-accept-christi">cursed by God with alcoholism and poverty</a>;</li>

<li>said that the anti-Muslim manifesto of the right-wing Christian terrorist who killed dozens in Norway was “<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/fischer-norway-terrorists-manifesto-accurate">accurate</a>.”</li>

</ul>

Other AFA leaders and activists are just as radical:

<ul>

<li>AFA President Tim Wildmon claims that by repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell President Obama shows he “<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/wildmon-obama-doesnt-give-rip-about-marines-or-army">doesn’t give a rip </a>about the Marines or the Army” and “just wants to force homosexuality into every place that he can.”</li>

<li>AFA Vice President Buddy Smith, who is on the leadership council of The Response, said that gays and lesbians are “<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/home-depot-tells-afa-take-hike">in the clasp of Satan</a>.”</li>

<li>The head of the AFA’s women’s group led a boycott against Glee because she accused it of <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/american-family-association-goes-war-glee">indoctrinating children in homosexuality and idolatry</a>.The editor of AFA Journal Ed Vitagliano said that gay pride months are an affront to the Founding Fathers and will usher in “<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/afa-warns-gay-rights-will-lead-paganism-break-founding-fathers">a return to pagan sexuality</a>.”</li>

<li>A columnist for the AFA <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/afa-writer-condemns-christians-who-practice-yoga">demanded Christians stop practicing yoga</a> because it was inspired by the “evil” religions of Buddhism and Hinduism.</li>

</ul>

gop platform:

2. Tony Perkins. Perkins heads the Family Research Council, whose Values Voter Summit is the Religious Right’s most important annual conference, where activists rub shoulders with Republican officials and candidates. Perkins <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/religious-righting-republican-platform">bragged</a> [6] in an email to his supporters how much influence he and his friend David Barton (see below) had on the platform. Perkins was an active member of the platform committee, proposing language to oppose school-based health clinics that provide referrals for contraception or abortion, and arguing for the strongest possible anti-marriage equality language. Perkins also introduced an amendment to the platform calling on the District of Columbia government to loosen its gun laws, which Perkins says still do not comply with recent Supreme Court rulings.

The media tends to treat Perkins, a telegenic former state legislator, as a reasonable voice of the Religious Right, but his record and his group’s positions prove otherwise. Perkins has been aggressively <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/religious-right-exploiting-tragedy-blunt-criticism-its-extremism">exploiting</a> [7] the recent shooting at FRC headquarters to divert attention from the group’s extremism by claiming that the Southern Poverty Law Center was irresponsible in calling FRC a hate group. Unfortunately for Perkins, the group’s record of promoting hatred toward LGBT people is well-documented. Perkins has even complained that the press and President Obama were being too hard on Uganda’s infamous “kill the gays” bill, which he <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/religious-right-exploiting-tragedy-blunt-criticism-its-extremism">described</a> [7] as an attempt to “uphold moral conduct.” It’s worth remembering that Perkins ran a 1996 campaign for Louisiana Senate candidate Woody Jenkins that paid $82,600 to David Duke for the Klan leader’s mailing list; the campaign was <a href="http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2012/08/flashback-federal-election-commission.html">fined</a> [8] by the FEC for trying to cover it up.

3. David Barton. Texas Republican activist and disgraced Christian-nation “historian” Barton has had a tough year, but Tampa has been good to him. He was perhaps the most vocal member of the platform committee, and was a featured speaker at Sunday’s pre-convention “prayer rally.” During the platform committee’s final deliberations, Barton couldn’t seem to hear his own voice often enough. He was the know-it-all nitpicker, piping up with various language changes, such as deleting a reference to the family as the “school of democracy” because families are not democracies. He thought it was too passive to call Obamacare an “erosion of” the Constitution and thought it should be changed to an “attack on” the founding document. He called for stronger anti-public education language and asserted that large school districts employ one administrator for every teacher. He backed anti-abortion language, tossing out the claim that 127 medical studies over five decades say that abortion hurts women.

Progressives have been documenting Barton’s lies for years, but more recently conservative evangelical scholars have also been <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/even-more-conservative-scholars-publicly-question-david-bartons-scholarship">hammering</a> [9] his claims about American history. The critical chorus got so loud that Christian publishing powerhouse Thomas Nelson pulled Barton’s most recent book – which, ironically, purports to correct “lies” about Thomas Jefferson – from the shelves. Of course, Barton has had plenty of practice at this sort of thing, from producing <a href="http://www.pfaw.org/media-center/publications/david-barton-propaganda-masquerading-history">bogus</a> [10] <a href="http://www.pfaw.org/media-center/publications/david-barton-propaganda-masquerading-history">documentaries</a> [10] designed to turn African Americans against the Democratic Party to pushing his religious and political ideology into Texas <a href="http://www.pfaw.org/rww-in-focus/texas-textbooks-what-happened-what-it-means-and-what-we-can-do-about-it">textbooks</a> [11]. Barton’s right-wing friends like Glenn Beck have rallied around him. And nothing seems to tarnish Barton with the GOP allies for whom he has proven politically useful over the years.
=aug 2012 hmn<a href="http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/?s=David%20Brody" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none; line-height: 21.6px;">David Brody</a>, the chief political reporter for CBN News admitted in an MSNBC "Morning Joe" discussion this morning that the <a href="http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/?s=Koch%20Brothers" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none; line-height: 21.6px;">Koch Brothers</a>, <a href="http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/?s=Karl%20Rove" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none; line-height: 21.6px;">Karl Rove</a>, and the <a href="http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/?s=Tea%20Party" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none; line-height: 21.6px;">Tea Party</a> are "coming together" with major anti-gay organizations and a hate group, the <a href="http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/?s=Family%20Research%20Council" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none; line-height: 21.6px;">Family Research Council</a>.CBN News is the Christian Broadcasting Network, founded by televangelist Pat Robertson in 1961. Brody, author of the new book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0310335612/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0310335612&linkCode=as2&tag=thenewcivrigm-20" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none;">The Teavangelicals: The Inside Story of How the Evangelicals and the Tea Party are Taking Back America</a>, is also "a political contributor to Glenn Beck's GBTV network," according to <a href="http://www.cbn.com/Authors/cbnnews/David-Brody/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none; line-height: 21.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CBN</a>. "We talk about the pro-life groups but the pro-life groups are also the Tea Party type groups, in other words, they're all coming together," Brody told the panel, explaining the close relationship between the Tea Party, Tea Party organizations, the Koch Brothers (who fund those groups,) anti-gay organizations, and anti-gay hate groups. "Here's my point: Concerned Women for America, a pro-life group, they're working with Americans For Prosperity, Tim Phillips group, and so they're doing a lot of bus tours together." <a href="http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/?s=Americans%20For%20Prosperity" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none; line-height: 21.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Americans For Prosperity</a> was founded by the Koch Brothers. While <a href="http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/?s=Concerned%20Women%20for%20America" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none; line-height: 21.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Concerned Women for America</a> is not technically a named anti-gay hate group, they are mentioned in this <a href="http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/?s=Southern%20Poverty%20Law%20Center" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none; line-height: 21.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Southern Poverty Law Center</a> article, "<a href="http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/winter/the-hard-liners" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none; line-height: 21.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">18 Anti-Gay Groups and Their Propaganda</a>" at least five times. They, their work, and their people have been embedded in several other anti-gay hate groups, like the <a href="http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/?s=Family%20Research%20Council" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none; line-height: 21.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Family Research Council</a>, Traditional Values Coalition, <a href="http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/?s=Americans%20for%20Truth%20About%20Homosexuality" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none; line-height: 21.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Americans for Truth About Homosexuality</a>, and Chalcedon Foundation, the SPLC reports. Here's what the Southern Poverty Law Center article says about Concerned Women for America:<blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 25px 0px 25px 70px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px; border-left-width: 2px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(70, 192, 237); font-style: italic; line-height: 21.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">San Diego, Calif., activist Beverly LaHaye, whose husband Tim would go on to become famous as co-author of the Left Behind novels depicting the end times, started Concerned Women for America (CWA) in 1979 to create an anti-feminist group that matched the power of the National Organization for Women. Today, CWA claims more than 500,000 members organized into state chapters, a radio program that reaches more than 1 million listeners, and a cadre of attorneys and researchers devoted to the group’s mission of promoting biblical values. LaHaye has blamed gay people for a “radical leftist crusade” in America and, over the years, has occasionally <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/winter/10-myths" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none;">equated homosexuality with pedophilia</a>. In 2001, she hired prominent anti-gay propagandists Robert Knight (now with Coral Ridge Ministries; see below) and Peter LaBarbera (now with Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, above) to launch CWA’s Culture and Family Institute. Matt Barber was CWA’s policy director for cultural issues in 2007 and 2008 before moving on to similar work with the Liberty Counsel (below). While at CWA, on April 12, 2007, Barber suggested against <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/winter/anti-gay-hate-crimes-doing-the-math" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none;">all the evidence</a> that there were only a “miniscule number” of anti-gay hate crimes and most of those “may very well be rooted in fraudulent reports.” In comments that have since disappeared from CWA’s website, Barber demanded a federal probe of “homosexual activists” for their alleged fabrications of hate crime reports. CWA long relied on and displayed Knight’s articles and talking points, including claims that “homosexuality carries enormous physical and mental health risks” and “gay marriage entices children to experiment with homosexuality.” Most remarkably, Knight cited the utterly discredited work of Paul Cameron (see Family Research Institute, below) to bolster claims that homosexuality is harmful. Today, CWA continues to make arguments against homosexuality on the basis of dubious claims. President Wendy Wright said this August that gay activists were using same-sex marriage “to indoctrinate children in schools to reject their parents’ values and to harass, sue and punish people who disagree.” Last year, CWA accused the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), a group that works to stop anti-gay bullying in schools, of using that mission as a cover to promote homosexuality in schools, adding that “teaching students from a young age that the homosexual lifestyle is perfectly natural … will [cause them to] develop into adults who are desensitized to the harmful, immoral reality of sexual deviance.”</blockquote>"Family Research Council, the pro-life group, is working with Colin Hanna, and Let Freedom Ring, another Tea Party group. It's all very much a conglomerate... coming together," Brody continued. <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-04-30/oil-drilling-advocates-driving-presidenti-debate-with-ads" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none; line-height: 21.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Business Week</a> describes Let Freedom Ring as "an advocacy organization active with ads targeting Obama in 2008 and whose founder is evangelical Christian John Templeton, and Washington-based Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, which is affiliated with Republican political strategist Karl Rove, are also airing commercials critical of the president’s energy policy." <a href="http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/?s=Tony%20Perkins" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none; line-height: 21.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Tony Perkins</a>' <a href="http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/?s=Family%20Research%20Council" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none; line-height: 21.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Family Research Council</a>, which most of America now knows is listed as an anti-gay hate group by the <a href="http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/?s=Southern%20Poverty%20Law%20Center" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none; line-height: 21.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Southern Poverty Law Center</a>, who <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/winter/the-hard-liners" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none; line-height: 21.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">notes</a>:<blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 25px 0px 25px 70px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px; border-left-width: 2px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(70, 192, 237); font-style: italic; line-height: 21.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Headed since 2003 by former Louisiana State Rep. Tony Perkins, the FRC has been a font of anti-gay propaganda throughout its history. It relies on the work of Robert Knight, who also worked at Concerned Women for America but now is at Coral Ridge Ministries (see above for both), along with that of FRC senior research fellows Tim Dailey (hired in 1999) and Peter Sprigg (2001). Both Dailey and Sprigg have pushed <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/winter/10-myths" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none;">false accusations</a> linking gay men to pedophilia: Sprigg has written that most men who engage in same-sex child molestation “identify themselves as homosexual or bisexual,” and Dailey and Sprigg devoted an entire chapter of their 2004 book Getting It Straight to similar material. The men claimed that “homosexuals are overrepresented in child sex offenses” and similarly asserted that “homosexuals are attracted in inordinate numbers to boys.” That’s the least of it. In a 1999 publication (Homosexual Activists Work to Normalize Sex With Boys) that has since disappeared from its website, the FRC claimed that “one of the primary goals of the homosexual rights movement is to abolish all age of consent laws and to eventually recognize pedophiles as the ‘prophets’ of a new sexual order,” according to unrefuted research by AMERICAblog. The same publication argued that “homosexual activists publicly disassociate themselves from pedophiles as part of a public relations strategy.” FRC offered no evidence for these remarkable assertions, and has never publicly retracted the allegations. (The American Psychological Association, among others, has concluded that “homosexual men are not more likely to sexually abuse children than heterosexual men are.”) In fact, in a Nov. 30, 2010, debate on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews” <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2010/11/30/tony-perkins-defends-family-research-council-sort-of/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none;">between Perkins and the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mark Potok</a>, Perkins defended FRC’s association of gay men with pedophilia, saying: “If you look at the American College of Pediatricians, they say the research is overwhelming that homosexuality poses a danger to children. So Mark is wrong. He needs to go back and do his own research.” In fact, the college, despite its hifalutin name, is a tiny, explicitly religious-right breakaway group from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the 60,000-member association of the profession. Publications of the American College of Pediatricians, which has some 200 members, have been roundly attacked by leading scientific authorities who say they are baseless and accuse the college of distorting and misrepresenting their work. Elsewhere, according to AMERICAblog, Knight, while working at the FRC, claimed that “[t]here is a strong current of pedophilia in the homosexual subculture. … [T]hey want to promote a promiscuous society.” AMERICAblog also reported that then-FRC official Yvette Cantu, in an interview published on Americans for Truth About Homosexuality’s website, said, “If they [gays and lesbians] had children, what would happen when they were too busy having their sex parties?” More recently, in March 2008, Sprigg, responding to a question about uniting gay partners during the immigration process, said: “I would much prefer to export homosexuals from the United States than to import them.” He later apologized, but then went on, last February, to tell MSNBC host Chris Matthews, “I think there would be a place for criminal sanctions on homosexual behavior.” “So we should outlaw gay behavior?” Matthews asked. “Yes,” Sprigg replied. At around the same time, Sprigg claimed that allowing gay people to serve openly in the military would lead to an increase in gay-on-straight sexual assaults.</blockquote>Brody also stated this morning: "What Ted Cruz did last night, talking about our rights come from God not government, Mitt Romney used that exact line in Irwin Pennsylvania and had -- and I counted it -- a 17-second standing ovation. Bigger than Obamacare, bigger than anything else." And Brody admitted Republican Senatorial nominee Ted Cruz used "code language" to appeal to religious voters, like, "the great awakening," and agreed the former President George W. Bush also used the idea that rights come from God not from government. "We hear about this all the time in those Tea Party and Evangelical circles, I call them the Teavangelical circles, you know, the great awakening, very much a spiritual reference to our nation's history," Brody said, talking about his book. "I talk about how our rights come from God, not government," Brody added. 10 days ago, <a href="http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/new-poll-finds-tea-party-is-political-group-that-hates-gays-the-most/politics/2012/08/19/46939" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; outline: none; line-height: 21.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The New Civil Rights Movement</a> reported on a new poll that found while "Democrats came in with 68% support for same-sex marriage, Independents with 57%, and Republicans with only 30%, a mere 6% of Tea Party members said they support same-sex marriage. No other group was close to that low support level." The relevant portion begins around the 8:00 minute mark, but the entire clip is fascinating.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640

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