Publicly, they equate homosexuality to incest, bestiality and child abuse. Since Anita Bryant, they feel free to say we are recruiting children. The happily proclaim we are incapable of long term relationships. They quote scriptures saying we are an abomination and that homosexuality should be outlawed and we should not receive full and equal civil rights, nor should we be included in hate crimes laws.
These are just their public tactics. What do they say to each other about us? What is the whole story? Autumn Sandeen, in one of her posts, suggested we study our enemy, so we can know how to fight them. I have been studying, mostly what they say to each other. They all say the same thing to each other.
They say they want to re-criminalize homosexuality; it is top on their priority, that is why they fight same sex marriage and the inclusion of LGBT in hate crime laws, that is why they marginalize us by claiming we are only 1% of the population.
They want do this for a number of reasons:
1. First and foremost they wish to send us back into the closet, to scare us into retreating in our battle for civil rights. This is what the average, person on the street Anti-Gay wants, and if some of us spend time in jail, it will just teach the rest of us a lesson.
2. Secondly, they wish to have judges consider Ex-Gay therapy as an option. James Dobson, Mike Ensley of Exodus International, The Peter LaBarbera, James Hartline, Sally Kern, Mr. Steve (Sally’s Husband) Kern, Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries, Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association, Beverly LaHaye of Concerned Women for America, Martin Mawyer of the Christian Action Network and the rest of the Anti-Gay Industry have claimed at various times and in various ways to support this idea.
3. The end result of their agenda is this: They wish to make homosexuality a capital offense. When they are speaking to “their audience” and each other, they do not mince words. They do not pull punches. They flat out say that the penalty for homosexuality must be death, it is what the Bible and the Quran require.
You may think I am being a little paranoid with that third statement. I think you need to read these pieces below. They are out there on the internet; they are included in their pamphlets and brochures that they send out to members, on their forum posts and in their newsletters.
We don’t need to be paranoid, we need to let our congressmen and senators and even President Obama know that these ideas aren’t the fringe in the Anti-Gay Industry, they are The Anti-Gay Industry. And when they say homosexuality means a death sentence, they aren’t talking about not making it to the after life.
Introducing the Anti-Gay Industry and what it preaches:
The American Family Association [AFA]:
Founder: Don Wildmon; President Tim Wildmon
In its 1994 booklet Homosexuality in America, the AFA claims:
"[p]rominent homosexual leaders and publications have voiced support for pedophilia, incest, sadomasochism, and even bestiality."AFA's direct-mail appeals are particularly shrill:
"For the sake of our children and society, we must OPPOSE the spread of homosexual activity! Just as we must oppose murder, stealing, and adultery!" says one such recent fundraiser letter. "Since homosexuals cannot reproduce, the only way for them to 'breed' is to RECRUIT! And who are their targets for recruitment? Children!"In one October 2004 article, the AFA Journal suggests that gay influences are leading to a
"grotesque culture" that will include "quick encounters in the middle school boys' restroom."
AFA has 21 state directors, including California's Scott Lively, co-author of The Pink Swastika, a book that claims "homosexuals are the true inventors of Nazism and the guiding force behind many Nazi atrocities"
America Vision:
Founder: Gary DeMar, AFA president Tim Wildmon praised him as "one of the best writers out there in the Christian community and thinkers."
Gary DeMar on the February 2, 2006 broadcast of Today's Issues, a program of American Family Radio, a network of nearly 200 radio stations owned by The American Family Association (AFA).
DeMAR: The definition of Christian Reconstruction is simply this: The Bible applies to every facet of life. That means not just the judicial aspects of life, such as civil government, church government, but business, economics -- every facet of society. The Bible has something to say about each area. For example, on homosexuals: We do not believe that homosexuals ought to be executed. The Bible doesn't say that homosexuals ought to be executed. What it says is this: If two men lie together like man and woman, they are to be put to death.
PORTEOUS: What the hell do you think that is?
DeMAR: Well, wait a minute. If a guy comes up to me and he says, "I'm a homosexual," that doesn't mean he's to be executed. If you understand the Scriptures, it says very clearly: If a man comes up to you and says, "I've murdered somebody," that doesn't mean that person ought to be executed.
GONZALES: Oh, so what you are saying, Gary, is, if you catch homosexuals in the act, then the Bible says to execute them.
DeMAR: The Bible lays forth the severest penalty, which would be capital punishment for two men who publicly engage in sodomy. DeMar continued by stating his nominal support for the death penalty for adulterers and abortion doctors:
GONZALES: If, indeed, the Reconstructionist movement ever made it in America, would you advocate these biblical principles being carried out: the execution of the adulterer, the abortionist, and the homosexual?
DeMAR: I'm saying that they could be implemented, yes.
In 1993, American Vision helped county commissioners in Cobb County, Ga., pass an anti-gay resolution so strongly worded that it sparked a national controversy. Cobb County Commissioner Gordon Wysong spoke at American Vision's annual fundraising banquet the following year, saying of gay people, "We should blame them for every social failure in America
DeMar is a leading promoter of an extremist theology called Christian Reconstructionism, also known as Theocratic Dominionism, which, according to journalist and author Frederick Clarkson, "argues that the Bible is to be the governing text for all areas of life -- such as government, education, law, and the arts, not merely 'social' or 'moral' issues like pornography, homosexuality, and abortion." In his essay, "Theocratic Dominionism Gains Influence," Clarkson stated that under a Christian Reconstructionist government,
"[w]omen would be generally relegated to hearth and home. Insufficiently Christian men would be denied citizenship, perhaps executed. So severe is this theocracy that it would extend capital punishment beyond such crimes as kidnapping, rape, and murder to include, among other things, blasphemy, heresy, adultery, and homosexuality."
The Alliance Defense Fund:
Founders: D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries, James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family, William Bright of the Campus Crusade for Christ more than 30 other Christian ministries, as a response to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Their purpose is to defend "family values." ADF's major focus is strategizing and coordinating with hundreds of lawyers and right-wing groups to defend what they define as "Christian legal issues." Examples include anti-gay cases like Boy Scouts of America v. Dale and Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network, and a national strategy to "protect marriage," following Vermont's decision to allow same-sex civil unions. According to the People for the American Way;
"ADF's founding groups are influential members of the Right, they are pro-life and anti-gay and their ultimate goal is to see the law and government of the US enshrined with conservative Christian principles."In 1994, ADF solicited funds on Christian radio with an ad claiming,
""Pro-life demonstrations may soon be illegal. ... Religious broadcasting may soon be censored. Hiring homosexuals in Christian schools, churches, and even as Sunday School teachers may soon become the law of the land. ... Don't let Christianity become a crime."
In 2003, President and Chief Council, Alan Sears and ADF Vice President Craig Osten expanded on that theme in The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom, which ties homosexuality to pedophilia and other "disordered sexual behavior."
On November 22, 2004, ADF lawyers filed suit on behalf of Stephen Williams against the Cupertino Union School District in Cupertino, California. Williams, a fifth-grade teacher at Stevens Creek Elementary School, had been told not to use class handouts that proselytized for Christianity. His suit alleged that his First Amendment rights had been violated. Because one of his handouts included excerpts from the Declaration of Independence making reference to God, the ADF's press release about the case was headlined "Declaration of Independence Banned from Classroom". Fox News and other conservative outlets gave heavy play to that distorted version of the story. Alan Keyes also repeated ADF's spin:
"Someone was mentioning to me that there is a school district now in America where they will no longer teach the Declaration of Independence to the students. Why? Because it mentions God. ...Now we’re being told that on account of some doctrine that has been promulgated by the courts, it is now unconstitutional to teach our children about the Declaration."
The truth, as pointed out in an answering press release from the school district, was that "The Declaration of Independence, sections of the United States Constitution, and other historical documents are re-printed in our textbooks, displayed in some of our school buildings, and taught in our social studies curriculum and lessons."
Alan Keyes also believes that Gay adoptions promote incest [5:40]:
Christian Action Network
Founder: Martin Mawyer, longtime editor of Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority Report
In his "dirty and dangerous" battle against "militant homosexual groups," Mawyer has not held back. In 1997, after Ellen Degeneres came out as a lesbian on her TV sitcom, Mawyer accused her of
"DUMPING HER FILTHY LESBIAN LIFESTYLE RIGHT IN THE CENTER OF YOUR LIVING ROOM!! ... If we allow the tidal wave of gay and lesbian smut to continue to pour into our homes, it will utterly consume us in no time at all!"
In 1999, he asked the Federal Communications Commission to put an "HC [homosexual conduct] warning label" on TV programs with gay characters.
The following year, CAN caused a national stir when TV stations refused to air its inflammatory ad attacking Hillary Clinton, who was then running for U.S. Senate.
"It is rumored that Hillary Clinton is a lesbian. It is rumored that Hillary Clinton supported homosexual marriage. It is rumored that Hillary Clinton will leave her husband upon taking office. ... Sometimes, rumors are true. Shouldn't you know the truth? For more information on traditional family values, please contact the Christian Action Network."
More recently, CAN protested "Gay Days" at Disney World and other theme parks — events that Mawyer's wife and CAN partner, Bonnie, says demonstrate "the true intent of these homosexuals: they are after our children!!"
A 2000 Mawyer mailing incorporated militia-like paranoia:
"I am not ready to give this great nation over to one-world government extremists ... radical, disease-carrying homosexuals ... anti-family lesbian feminists ... or anti-American U.N. globalists!"CAN activists today are familiar faces at Gay Days, videotaping "bad behavior."
In 2003, CAN turned its footage of "homosexual kissing, hugging and fondling" into a video tour of the Southeast, warning parents about the perils of Gay Days and warning that "homosexuals live in a pattern of sin and debauchery."
Christian Street Preachers Alliance:
Founder: Jim Rudd also publisher of “The Covenant News.” The Christian Street Preachers Alliance also known simply as The Christian Alliance and is considered the heir to the Christian Coalition. Jim Rudd has published numerous articles seeking our government to make homosexuality a capitol offence. Below are exerpts from just two of his articles.
Homosexuality Is A Crime By Jim Rudd The Covenant News ~ December 9, 2008 When ministering to homosexuals, one of the first things we let them know is that there is no such thing as a right to commit sodomy...... Homosexuality is a crime (Lev. 20:13), and for Christians to publicly refer to this criminal activity as "gay" or as a "life style" is an anti-Biblical presupposition that suggests to the public, and to our civil officials, that the laws against sodomy can be ignored. To ignore what God says is to mock God, and for Christians to suggest that it is permissible for civil officials to ignore the Commandments of God is iniquity -- anomia -- Greek for lawlessness (Matt. 7:23). Homosexuality is not a light or transient crime. It is an abomination (Lev. 18:22). It is the culmination of man's apostasy and hostility toward God and His Church (Rom. 1:18-32). For civil officials and judges to approve of homosexuality brings eternal damnation upon themselves (Rom. 13:2) and God's righteous judgment of death on the society as a whole (Gen. 19:24, II Pet. 2:6)...... Not only should Christian men fight for the safety of their families by demanding that these civil officials repent, or resign from office immediately, Christians should be demanding the strongest laws and punishments against homosexuality be put into effect so as to cleanse the pestilence from our society. (Lev. 20:13)Again, in Rudd's article: Put Homosexuals To The Sword - By Jim Rudd - The Covenant News ~ June 7, 2006
America is a cursed nation (John.7:49) and "defending marriage" does nothing to cut off the curse. The marriage amendment does nothing to protect the people of the United States from the wrath to come-because of homosexuality. The word of God commands that sodomites are to be executed, and God gives our civil officials the sword to do the job. Until our civil officials turn from their wicked way by administering Justice, we can only be judged with the most depraved pagan nations in history: "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire" (Jude 1:7). If you hate your children's guts, then do not teach them how to administer Justice in the land (Eph.6:4). Just sit back and let the lawless be damned (Matt.7:21-23)
There are a number of commentators on The Covenant News including Chuck Baldwin, Baldwin is the American founder-pastor of Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida, and was the presidential nominee of the Constitution Party for the 2008 U.S. Presidential election.
Concerned Women for America
Founder: Beverly LaHaye, wife of Christian Reconstructionist Tim LaHaye, author of Left Behind series.
Concerned Women for America thinks college health clinics shouldn’t provide contraceptives and that young women should marry early and make “their husband and children their priority.” The organization promotes the idea that people can be de-gayed through belief in Jesus and that hate crime laws “threaten religious freedom”. LaHaye’s activism is centered on making the American legal system more directly based on a fundamentalist reading of Christian ideology. She encourages women to be strong and courageous, but only in a manner consistent with their God-ordained roles as wives and mothers.
Beverly LaHaye pins blame for the "radical crusade" on gay people. In 1992, LaHaye said gay activists "go after boys by becoming teachers and Boy Scout leaders." In 1998, CWA called homosexuals "people who make lewd phone calls, expose themselves to others, and engage in prostitution." (Who knew? I thought it was heterosexuals who do that.)
In 2001, LaHaye hired two of America's most prominent anti-gay propagandists, Robert Knight and Peter LaBarbera, to launch CWA's Culture and Family Institute. LaBarbera, a former Washington Times reporter and editor of an inflammatory anti-gay journal called The Lambda Report on Homosexual Activism, had earlier been thrown out of the American Psychological Association due to his faulty "science." He also produced CWA's 11 Ways You Can Fight the Homosexual Agenda manual. Peter LaBarbera has moved on to the "bigger and better thing of attending gay leather events."
Knight, produces reports like "Sexual Orientation and American Culture," which warns that accepting "sexual orientation as a civil right" will lead to "a loss of stability in communities, with a rise in crime, sexually transmitted diseases and other social pathologies."
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, CWA accused same-sex partners of those killed of "trying to hijack the moral capital of marriage." In 2004, CWA raised a ruckus over a gay Canadian couple that wanted to visit the U.S. together, calling the men "a new threat to border security" and "the latest pair of 'domestic terrorists.'"
Coral Ridge Ministries/Center for Reclaiming America:
Founder: D. James Kennedy
Below taken from Souther Poverty Law Center:
Beginning in the early 1960s, the Rev. D. James Kennedy turned conservative Coral Ridge Presbyterian into a mega-church that now claims 10,000 members. In 1974, Kennedy branched out with Coral Ridge Ministries, which has since become one of the largest fundamentalist enterprises in America with some 160 employees, several divisions including a Washington-based Center for Christian Statesmanship, and radio and television studios producing shows that reach a combined weekly audience of 3 million.
In his book Stranger at the Gate, evangelical minister Mel White (see A Thorn in Their Side), who produced a popular film for Kennedy called "Like a Mighty Army," says Coral Ridge "practically funded its television outreach on ... disgusting, inflammatory antigay propaganda."
In one typical newsletter, Kennedy published a photograph of two sweet-looking children under a headline reading, "Sex with Children? Homosexuals Say Yes!" Elsewhere, he has written that "homosexuals prey on adolescent boys" and "take America's children."
After Kennedy cited bogus claims about AIDS transmission, U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, himself a conservative evangelical, attacked his statement as "reprehensible" and "homophobic." "I just cannot believe the poor scholarship of so many Christians," Koop said, adding that Kennedy refused his subsequent offer of a briefing on the facts of AIDS transmission.
Kennedy denies that he subscribes to the extremist ideology of Christian Reconstructionism, which calls for killing "practicing homosexuals," but he is tied closely to leading Reconstructionists.
Kennedy has described the works of Reconstructionism founder R.J. Rushdoony, which are laced with anti-black racism and anti-gay vitriol, as "essential." His ministry has sold a book by leading Reconstructionist George Grant that laments the abandonment of legal codes prescribing death for homosexuals.
And he certainly holds theocratic views closely related to Reconstructionism, as reflected in the name he chose for Coral Ridge's political outreach arm: the Center for Reclaiming America (CRA). Since its founding in 1996, the CRA has brought together fundamentalist groups in campaigns like "Truth in Love," a million-dollar 1998 ad campaign that promoted "ex-gay" ministries offering discredited methods of "curing" homosexuals.
CRA sponsors an annual conference, Reclaiming America for Christ, that has featured leading Reconstructionists like Grant (who is also a former Coral Ridge vice president) and Gary DeMar (see American Vision), along with anti-gay stalwarts like Robert Knight (see Concerned Women of America).
Coral Ridge also has been a generous supporter of deposed Alabama Chief Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore, the "Ten Commandments Judge" who in a 2002 "special concurrence" court opinion suggested that the state could impose "physical penalties, such as confinement and even execution" to protect children from gays and lesbians.
Moore's new Alabama outfit, the Foundation for Moral Law, is being partly bankrolled by Coral Ridge.
There are many more in The Anti-Gay Industry, most have been blogged about extensively here on Pam's House Blend, such as
American's for the Truth About Homosexuality Founder: Peter Labarbera
Oklahoma Representative, Sally Kern and her husband Steve Kern
And then there is of course James Dobson who founded Focus on the Family According to SPLC, No one has spread the anti-gay gospel as widely, or with as much political impact, as James Dobson, the former child development professor and spanking enthusiast who founded Focus on the Family (FOF) in 1977.
Ex-gay "Christian" activist James Hartline
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council "Perkins doesn’t just represent a minority of radical right-wing religious conservatives. He also represents a trend of anti-intellectual propaganda perpetuated by organizations pretending to have religious principles but ultimately end up falling in line with Republicans on fiscal issues as well as social ones. Perkins’ outlook promotes bad public policy and pushes the economic and social disparities further apart."
Paul Cameron - debunked "scientist" Cameron is a researcher who was dismissed from the American Psychological Association in 1984 after it was discovered that he was misrepresenting the work of his colleagues to demonize the gay community.
Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition The Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) is a small but influential organization that appears to consist mostly of the Rev. Lou Sheldon and his daughter Andrea Sheldon Lafferty. Both are mainstays on the conservative circuit, though their reputation has been damaged by revelations that Lou Sheldon took money from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff to help kill an anti-gambling bill that would have hurt one of Abramoff's clients.
They all spew the same hate, day after day, it gets quoted in newspapers, blogs, on network and cable news shows. Their representatives get interviewed on talk shows. Can you imagine the KKK or Joe McCarthy getting interviewed as much today? They aren't experts or scientists and I wonder how they get away with being called Christians.
I think we shouldn't just be sending this stuff to our legislators, both federal and state, but we should be sending it to the MSM, and blogging about it like crazy. Not just the "family values" pieces, but the literature right off their sites. We should be asking everyone, "why are we listening to these people?" They are causing families to be broken when they influence parents to throw out their LGBT children, they encourage hate crimes with their preaching, they are causing suicides through the perpetuation of Ex-Gay therapy, and their real agenda is our criminalization and executions.
Why do WE still listen to them? Why don't we expose their agenda and just shut them up?
Thanks to Southern Poverty Law Center, Wikipedia, Right Wing Watch, Ex-Gay Watch, and The Radical Religious Right for giving me all kinds of information. And I want to thank the Anti-Gay Industry for unashamedly publishing their agenda.
Cross Posted as Part II of What We Can Learn From Joe McCarthy: Fighting the Anti-Gay Industry on Pam's House Blend
