Monday, August 20, 2012

Tony Perkins falsely claims the press ignored Family Research Council shooting

The way Tony Perkins is exploiting last week's shooting at the Family Research Council is getting pathetic.

First he blamed the Southern Poverty Law Center for correctly calling FRC a hate group.

Then he blamed President Obama for supposedly creating an anti-religious climate which allegedly contributed to the shooting.

And now . . . Perkins is claiming that the media "ignored" the shooting.

According to Politico, Perkins made the following comments on Fox News (after all, who else would allow him to spout without challenge):

“It was stunning that most of the coverage, with the exceptions of just a few reports I saw over the weekend, were from Fox,” Tony Perkins said on “Fox and Friends,” noting that he reviewed a study of media coverage on the subject. “The others … ignored it.”

Last Wednesday, Floyd Lee Corkins II of Virginia allegedly walked into the downtown D.C. building, told a security guard there, “I don’t like your politics,” and shot the guard in the arm before being taken into custody.

“I think the reason [for the lack of coverage] is, it doesn’t fit the story line,” Perkins said. “You know, it’s supposed to be conservatives who are angry, who are filled with hate. And that’s not the case.”

It boggles my mind that Perkins actually thinks that he can get away with this claim. Rather than verbally refute it, I think I will use a visual:


You see this picture? The man in the middle is Tony Perkins. All of those people around him are from television and newspapers, i.e. the press, i.e. the MEDIA!

This picture took place the day after the shooting.  It was at a PRESS CONFERENCE called by Tony Perkins.

As you can see, the shooting generated a lot of press, from a ridiculous column claiming that FRC isn't a hate group (by folks who should know better) to a very entertaining segment on CNN which left an FRC defender sounding like Porky Pig.

I think that Perkins is a bit sore that not every one in the media allowed him to spout off on a self-pitying monologue like Megyn Kelly did in that monstrous interview.

But to say the media ignored the shooting is a lie that even Perkins can't quantify. But the fact that he had the audacity to push this lie should tell us a lot about Perkins and FRC.
 

Bookmark and Share

'Are Greenville, SC police entrapping and illegally arresting gay men?' and other Monday midday news briefs

South Carolina county sheriffs warned over illegal entrapment of gay men - Screwed up mess happening in my state. Read the article before making judgments. Reportedly even when the gay men decline the come ons thrown at them by undercover officers, they are still being arrested.

Nevada Same-Sex Couple Denied Hospital Visitation Despite Domestic Partnership - When organizations like NOM claim to want a conversation on things like this, they are lying.  

Why no one trusts anything the Family Research Council says—Frank Turek edition - The Family Research Council and the Liberty Council have come out with a "report" claiming to chart many cases of "religious discrimination. Naturally it's bogus.

Barber: Pro-Gay Donors & Activists Have 'Poisoned' the GOP and Must Be 'Rooted Out' - Part of the Liberty Counsel's 'Truth In Love' no doubt.  

'Gay Cure' Ban Heads For Vote In California - Yes! Ban it! 

Bookmark and Share

Stop milking the shooting, Tony. The Family Research Council is still a hate group

Tony Perkins
Tony Perkins on Friday -  "I am grateful that over two dozen homosexual activist organizations released a joint statement expressing concern for Leo (the guard who was shot) and condemning the attack, agreeing that such violence is unacceptable. I would ask them to take the next appropriate step and call on the SPLC to end the words and actions which foster the environment that breeds brutality like we saw on Wednesday morning. I also ask any who repeat SPLC's false "hate group" label to stop."

Me on Monday - "Fat chance, Tony."


What bothers me about the debate on whether or not the Family Research Council is a hate group (in the wake of Wednesday's shooting at FRC's headquarters) is what I see as an effort to bend over backwards in order to minimize the power of words fueled to exploit fear and rage.

I think some folks are too spooked to call out FRC's past homophobic language for fear that they may be accused to giving a green light to the type of violence which occurred on Wednesday.

Nonsense. Simply calling out homophobic language is in no way giving a license to violence

But there is a problem with ignoring just how such language has contributed to the aura of hate and violence.

With that in mind, while I abhor what happened Wednesday, I have no plans on slacking up on continuing to call out FRC for their anti-gay lies and homophobia.

In 2010 FRC launched a Start Debating, Stop Hating campaign designed to make it seem that SPLC is unfairly targeting the organization and other religious right groups for their stances against gay marriage.

On its webpage, FRC has a statement announcing the campaign. The organization is also inviting folks to sign its petition.

FRC's statement was nice but I felt that it needed work, therefore I made a few minor additions that I think puts proper perspective not only on FRC but the other organizations which were either named as hate groups or profiled.

Parts of FRC's statement are in bold and my "tweaking" is below each statement:

The surest sign one is losing a debate is to resort to character assassination.

" . . . hatred for men, which is very typical of a lesbian experience" - Kristi Hamrick,  October 16, 1996, Family Research Council web site.

"Homosexuals say they don't want the children, but boy they put a lot of energy into going after them." - Robert Knight of the Family Research Council writing in a Focus on the Family newsletter, quoted by People for the American Way, "Hostile Climate," 1997, p.15

"The homosexual rights movement has tried to distance itself from pedophilia, but only for public relations purposes." - "Homosexual Activists Work to Normalize Sex With Boys," FRC publication, July 1999

The group, which was once known for combating racial bigotry, is now attacking several groups that uphold Judeo-Christian moral views, including marriage as the union of a man and a woman. How does the SPLC attack? By labeling its opponents “hate groups.” No discussion. No consideration of the issues. No engagement. No debate.

"Militant homosexuality is fundamentally opposed to religion, family, and anything that presupposes a natural moral order, a transcendent God, or something else higher than ourselves. The activist homosexual agenda and worldview are fundamentally incompatible with Christianity or any form of true religion, because homosexuality is ultimately narcissism" - THE ASSAULT ON CHRISTIANS BY THE MILITANT HOMOSEXUAL MOVEMENT, Steven A. Schwalm, Family Research Council.

"In fact, most mothers are more concerned with protecting their children from homosexual activists, who insist on their supposed 'right' to propagandize young schoolchildren." -  Americans for Truth About Homosexuality  press release, July 12, 1998

"Judge Walker has already decided this issue for himself, and has no business putting himself in a place where his own personal value judgments could be substituted for the express will of the people of California. He is Exhibit A as to why homosexuals should be disqualified from public office. Character is an important qualification for public service, and what an individual does in his private sexual life is a critical component of character. A man who ignores time-honored standards of sexual behavior simply cannot be trusted with the power of public office." - American Family Association's Bryan Fischer, August, 2010


This is intolerance pure and simple. Elements of the radical Left are trying to shut down informed discussion of policy issues that are being considered by Congress, legislatures, and the courts.

Christian homophobes have misused my writings on the biology of homosexuality, particularly "Gay Genes, Revisited," published in Scientific American in November 1995. -John Horgan, a science journalist and Director of the Center for Science Writings at the Stevens Institute of Technology, August  2010

" . . .our research is being used by select groups in US and Finland to suggest that gay and bisexual men live an unhealthy lifestyle that is destructive to themselves and to others. These homophobic groups appear more interested in restricting the human rights of gay and bisexuals rather than promoting their health and well being. " - Robert S Hogg, Steffanie A Strathdee, Kevin JP Craib, Michael V O'shaughnessy, Julio Montaner, and Martin T Schechter,  International Journal of Epidemiology, December 2001

Our debates can and must remain civil - but they must never be suppressed through personal assaults that aim only to malign an opponents character.

"How long before married people answer the dictators thus: Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage, and help me raise my children in a society where they will expect to marry in their turn. […] American government cannot fight against marriage and hope to endure. If the Constitution is defined in such a way as to destroy the privileged position of marriage, it is that insane Constitution, not marriage, that will die." - National Organization for Marriage board member Orson Scott Card, April 2009

"You've got these Mujaheddin on the battlefield setting out these syringes with the HIV virus in it as a way to carry out terrorism.This is exactly what happens when two males have sex with one another. If one of them is HIV Positive, then it's just like injecting his partner with a needle with HIV. That's domestic terrorism. I don't know what else you'd call it." - American Family Association's Bryan Fischer, September, 2010

We, the undersigned, stand in solidarity with


Family Research Council  - “(Gays) are luring kids into a homosexual behavior. There is a strong undercurrent of pedophilia in the homosexual subculture.” - Robert Knight, Family Research Council, Rolling Stone, March 18, 1999

American Family Association  - "Hitler recruited around him homosexuals to make up his Stormtroopers, they were his enforcers, they were his thugs. And Hitler discovered that he could not get straight soldiers to be savage and brutal and vicious enough to carry out his orders, but that homosexual solders basically had no limits and the savagery and brutality they were willing to inflict on whomever Hitler sent them after."- American Family Association's Bryan Fisher, May 2010

Concerned Women of America - "Do you believe school children as young as 13 should be exposed to explicit, detailed discussions and instructions on homosexual practices (including sodomy) as are being conducted by homosexual teachers and activists right now?" - March 2009

National Organization for Marriage  - For a time, NOM’s name was used by a bus driver named Louis Marinelli, who drove a van for NOM’s “Summer for Marriage Tour” this year. Marinelli called himself a “NOM strategist” and sent out electronic messages under the NOM logo that repeated falsehoods about homosexuals being pedophiles and gay men having extremely short lifespans. In homemade videos posted on his own YouTube page, he said same-sex marriage would lead to “prostitution, pedophilia and polygamy.” But this July, NOM said it was not associated with Marinelli. - Southern Poverty Law Center, Intelligence Report, Winter 2010.

Liberty Counsel - “one man violently cramming his penis into another man’s lower intestine and calling it ‘love.’" - Liberty Counsel member Matt Barber describing gay relationships.

and other pro-family organizations

These groups include:
Traditional Values Coalition - "Reverend Louis Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition has come out in favor of quarantining AIDS patients in what he calls 'cities of refuge.' " - Mark E. Pietrzyk, News-Telegraph, March 10, 1995

Family Research Institute - “Untrammeled homosexuality can take over and destroy a social system. If you isolate sexuality as something solely for one’s own personal amusement, and all you want is the most satisfying orgasm you can get- and that is what homosexuality seems to be-then homosexuality seems too powerful to resist. The evidence is that men do a better job on men and women on women, if all you are looking for is orgasm.” - Family Research Institute head Paul Cameron, Rolling Stone, March 18, 1999

Addendum about Paul Cameron:
"Dr. Paul Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented sociological research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism" - American Sociological Association, 1985

"The Canadian Psychological Association takes the position that Dr. Paul Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism." - The Canadian Psychological Association, 1996

Faithful Baptist Church - "I do hate homosexuals and if hating homosexuals makes our church a hate group then that's what we are." - Steven Anderson, pastor at Faithful Baptist Church, December 2010.

Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment - " . . .while having separate barracks for homosexuals and heterosexuals would help solve the problem of homosexuals ogling or sexually harassing heterosexuals, it would probably exacerbate the problem of homosexuals ogling or sexually harassing each other since they are sexually attracted to each other and they would be confined in close quarters. Oddly enough, in order to ameliorate that problem it would make some sense to mix male homosexuals with lesbians in the same barracks because they do not sexually attract each other. This mixing would reduce the amount of sexual desire or tension in homosexual barracks. " - statement on the group's web page

that are working to protect and promote natural marriage and family. We support the vigorous but responsible exercise of the First Amendment rights of free speech and religious liberty that are the birthright of all Americans.

Perhaps instead Stop Hating, Start Debating, FRC should name its campaign We can't stop trying because we are afraid to admit that we have been lying.

(The statements from FRC and other religious right groups have been taken from various web pages, including my blog and I stand by each statement.)


Bookmark and Share