Hate is NOT a family value!!!
Posted: November 25, 2010 Filed under: Civil Rights, GLBT Rights, Marriage Equality | Tags: Defense of Marriage, hate groups, The Family Research Council 27 Comments
I wanted to pass this link on from WAPO because I think it’s got an important message in it today. You cannot hide hate behind religion and expect people to remain silent. We know who you are and we know what your agenda is. You cannot hide behind a bible any more than slave owners and wife beaters can.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has been an important voice in civil rights for a very long time Today, ” they labeled as “hate groups” several political and religious organizations that campaign against same-sex marriage and, the center says, engage in “repeated, groundless name-calling” against gays and lesbians.”
Good for them!!!
Included on the list released by the civil rights organization is the Family Research Council, a prominent and politically influential group of social conservatives. The report by the law center, which has spent four decades tracking extremist groups and hate speech, accuses the council and a dozen other groups of putting out “demonizing propaganda aimed at homosexuals and other sexual minorities.”
The report, which has sparked debate across the Internet, taps into the continuing potency of social issues, such as same-sex marriage, in American politics. Several of the groups described in the report supported a successful effort to oust state Supreme Court judges in Iowa because of a unanimous ruling last year that legalized same-sex unions.
The Family Research Council has been at the forefront of political activism against same-sex marriage. In explaining the decision to put the council on its hate-groups list, the law center highlighted comments by Peter Sprigg, a senior fellow for policy studies at the council, who told MSNBC host Chris Matthews this year that he thinks “homosexual behavior” should be outlawed.
Council President Tony Perkins, who was also named in the report, called the hate-group designation a political attack by a “liberal organization.”
“The left’s smear campaign of conservatives is . . . being driven by the clear evidence that the American public is losing patience with their radical policy agenda as seen in the recent election and in the fact that every state . . . that has had the opportunity to defend the natural definition of marriage has done so,” Perkins said in a statement.
I cannot figure out why ‘marriage’ needs defending against anything. Any institution that’s viable will stand the test of time and public support. The defense of marriage is not more than a horrible campaign to exclude people that don’t meet specific physical criteria defend by a bunch of narrow minded bigots.
It’s about time we label them all what they are. They are hate-groups. Now, if we could only get CNN and other MSM outlets to start treating them like the KKK which is another organization that tries to define its insidious form of hatred behind religion too.
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So where do Tibetan lamas who threaten “Black Thread Hell,” and other dire outcomes from “wrong orifice sex” come in? In a fair world, we shall find numerous Buddhist hate groups. Then we can hate hate, hate the hate groups, and hate anyone who refuses to hate them.
First, I’m not suggesting we hate them. second, there’s a diFference between teaching or preaching from an alter and actively trying to impact secular policy and laws with fundamentalist religious doctrines.
I’m not sure where Rickpa is coming from. I didn’t take read anything into your post other than Hate is not acceptable. You did not do anything other than report and indicated that hate is not a family value. Having read you for a long time, I know that you meant hate coming from anyone regardless of their affiliation, religious or otherwise.
It’s always baffled me that Family Research Council would consider itself a Christian organization when it’s function has appeared to be cherrypicking human behavior and determining which God would forgive and which he’d find an abomination. I find it particularly baffling considering the New Testament has many examples of tolerance, compassion and it’s message overwhelmingly is that God forgives. Even if I were to believe that homosexuality is a sin(which I don’t) it makes sense to me to leave that between God and the individual. You can’t work on being the best human being you can be when you are busy telling your neighbor how he needs to live his life to be good with God rather than concentrating on your own fallibility.
Even if I weren’t to consider them a hate group I can certainly consider them and their means questionable.
I’ve always loved the beatitudes and I think these folks must skip right over them. How could you quote those and with the same month damn so many people to hell?
Dak, I’ve always loved the beatitudes as well – actually when I was a youngster, I really related to Jesus the rebel (which is what he was according to the scriptures). I never related to the other stuff. I don’t think most of the groups on the list really have read and understood the beatitudes in their entirety. Sadly, the rest of us pay the price of their ignorance.
same here … I used to stick with the gospels and ignore the rest. Although I did like James.
I left the church in 1961, which was a unusual at the time, however, not as unusual as most people think – I learned later that a whole lot of people I grew up with did the same, and for the same reasons, but because of the social stigma would never admit it in “Polite Society”.
The “Church” is a corporate entity, nothing more, nothing less that is there to maintain it’s power and influence in the world that is moving beyond it’s grasp, so it’s mobilizing it’s forces to fight back the tide, I’m old enough that I don’t need to worry unless they manage to get control, in which case, as an atheist, I’m doomed.
I only went for the music. Once they quit using the classical music, I quit. The new music is a ear melter.
I actually enjoy some of the new music or at least some of the sentiments. Natalie Grant’s Held is beautiful and Casting Crowns does a great job with Does Anybody Hear Her. I’m a sucker for meaningful songs.
OMG – I used to love the music – I still know all the words to the hymns. I went back when my children were young because I thought I should introduce my kids religion (my fears of cults and all that). I took them so they would have a point of reference (my sister is devout and very active). I couldn’t believe the difference. I even taught sunday school for a brief moment in time, so I could watch for indoctrination (and I was more knowledgeable about what was in the bible than most of the parishioners although age has a way of making you forget). When they brought in incense and bells one week, and folk singers and rap the next, I was out of there, however, I waited for the gruesome twosome’s response because it was their decision. It didn’t take long – one morning over potato pancakes, they told me they didn’t want to return. I asked them their reason for this decision (because I didn’t want to appear too joyful) and they laid it out. They didn’t like people who said one thing and acted differently, who exaggerated, who tried to make them feel inferior because they had a single mom etc etc. Can you believe people who make comments about children of single moms within earshot of those children? And these are supposed to be charitable people? What is truly ridiculous – I was a single mom with assets beyond my children. Not one of these people who were making catty remarks behind my back but in front of my children and their children, every approached me to ask about the situation.
My oldest told me she wanted to stop when her sunday school teachers told her her Jewish friend was going to hell for not being christian … couldn’t argue with that
Reminds me of when I was in Catholic school as a kid (1st Grade Sister Theodora), the nuns told us that Californians have “a black spot on their hearts” because they have “too much fun”… and that is why “God sends earthquakes over there.” I told my Mother what the Sister said, and she got me out of there real quick.
Smart mom and lucky you!
I don’t get the concept of hell at all either. The idea a loving, compassionate and all knowing being would choose to condemn a soul He/She created for eternity just doesn’t compute with me.
Nope hell seems like a concept meant to scare people into behaving in a certain way. That isn’t how I picture my Creator.
Yeah. Seems inconceivable to me that a perfect being would need to be worshiped,gets angry and jealous and condemns its own children to eternal suffering. I’m not perfect and I don’t even have those issues.
I’m going to post this with HUGE OBSCENITIES warnings. Dawkins is reading hate mail from Christians and every obscenities in the world is used in the letters. Be Forewarned. If the F bomb offends you, please don’t listen to this.
Cwaltz: I put this up because it’s the sorta thing that makes me wonder which jesus these folks read up on? Doesn’t sound like the loving god of the beatitudes and the gospels does it?
Actually, this is not surprising, considering the quality of comments throughout the internet on many different issues – For example, on the Clintons. Hate and ignorance does seem to be in vogue today.
It does make me concerned about the quality of the education these particular morons are receiving. It would be too easy to say that they were all home schooled, but I’ve known many homeschooling moms/dads who would never think of allowing their students/children to write an inflammatory letter like those – the grammar, sentence structure is atrocious – my two could write a better letter at age 6. As an atheist, with an ultra religious mom (long dead), sister, and two other siblings who are not religious, I know that had I ever written a hate mail letter, I would have been severely punished – for us, hate was a word in the dictionary. It does, however, illustrate the lack of emotional control that seems to be prevalent in the Xian versus anyone current state of affairs. Richard Dawkins is entitled to his opinion, as are the folks at Focus on Family. The problem is when people try to enforce their views on others with no concept of respect, consideration and polity.
Another thing I meant to mention. I made an innocuous comment at TC the other day, which I rarely do, and someone with a moniker I had never seen before immediately posted a response that could be considered an attack. Much later I made another comment (it was just before Turkey day) and the same person came after me again. When I challenged him/her about why they were targeting me, there was some gobbledy gook about this person having seen my comments all over the internet, and essentially he/she was trying to teach me a lesson. When I responded that there were only five sites on which I commented sporadically, and perhaps he/she had mistaken me for someone else, he/she wrote something garbled and disappeared. The instinct seems to be attack, even without fully investigating, educating themselves, or stopping to consider they might be wrong before instigating the attack – if that makes sense. It’s a very dog eat dog situation today and there are a lot of disturbed individuals running around without supervision.
Bostonboomer and I were talking about these the other day. There really do seem to be a lot of them out there. Read Sociopaths Among Us. It’s got a good section on how to recognize them.
I think there’s a lot in our modern society that damages people and very few resources provided to help heal the damage.
Thanks for the link – I’ll check it out. Odd though – most of humanity is damaged in one way or another yet only a minority lose control and become abusive and ugly. The internet opened up a venue for people who felt insignificant and wanted attention, and they are working it to the maximum degree. I’ve been on the internet since 83 (work related), and in the last five years I’ve seen an explosion of vitriol and naked hatred. Prior to that it was primarily naked men and women, which is another topic. Enough. I’ve commented more in these last two days than I’ve done in the last year, with the exception of Uppity’s place.
I’ve been on the internet a long time also. As it’s opened up, all kinds of things of opened up including meanness and craven greed. A bunch of us oldies used to say that they day AOL let people loose on the WWW was the day it started going down hill. I’ve had a PC since 1980 and got on about the same time. First, at work and university, then at home. It’s sure changed since then.
Yes, I remember the old days. It was mainly research and it was an eyeopener – all of that information available if one only had the access. I used to access a central dbase – a repository – I can’t remember the name, thought it was “the source”. Anyway, it’s gotten very ugly, very quickly, which is why I don’t post very often. I feel comfortable here, at the Widdershins (madamab), at Uppity’s so I periodically post a comment. After my experience at TC, I won’t go back other than to read. I read John Smart and Cannonfire (he’s back). Other than that, my surfing is definitely confined to read only via links from the trusted sites and some newspapers. The general conversation on the internet is becoming dumbed down, quite frankly, which is why I read the folks who are intelligent, witty and informed.
Well, I’m perfectly open to differences in opinion but I can’t take folks that are unnecessarily mean, personal, and crude. I’ve never felt that just because you can hide behind a screen name doesn’t mean you can abandon all accoutrement and civility.
The internet has really been an eye-opener. Before that, I didn’t know so many people hated me.
branjor, that’s the point – they don’t hate you at all, because they don’t know you. It appears to be a badge of courage for these miniminds to intimidate and totally cow people, and they pick them at random. Perhaps you used a certain work, or expressed a certain thought – someone swoops in and attacks. They feel good, you feel like shit, you don’t post for awhile, they go and find their next target. What we once had – civilized discourse, has become a target for these cretins. It’s almost like being in one of their reality games. They don’t give a crap – it’s almost like being in a computer game wherein there are prizes. They make you feel bad, they get a prize and go to the next level. – and some days I suspect that it is exactly that.
Don’t ever let them silence you.