Tuesday, July 12, 2011

'Interfaith' website lies about SPLC and its hate group designations

An "interfaith" site, Beliefnet, has weighed in on the controversy regarding the Southern Poverty Law Center and its labeling of several religious right groups as anti-gay hate groups.

But the site is very deceptive in terms of what it chooses to highlight . . . and omit.

Rob Kerby, Beliefnet's Senior Editor, said the following in an article:

Why would anybody accuse 13 Christian organizations, including the American Family Association and Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council, of practicing “hate?”

. . . Could the intent be to smear and silence some of the most effective Christian ministries in America? To blacken their names because they have dared to speak out in the political battle over same-sex marriage?

When a smear campaign against the Family Research Council began last year, it was immediately denounced by Speaker of the House John Boehner and 150 other national leaders, including 24 members of Congress.

 . . . That time the smear was led by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which for years has pursued anti-discrimination cases. It received considerable well-deserved publicity for suing the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups.

However, the SPLC in recent years has taken up the same-sex marriage cause and the battle against “don’t ask, don’t tell” in the military.

In late December 2010, the center advised the national press to shun 13 Christian groups because they were hate groups. Among the groups smeared were the American Family Association, the Family Research Council and the Traditional Values Coalition. The smaller groups included Abiding Truth Ministries of Springfield, Massachusetts; the Chalcedon Foundation of Vallecito, California; and the Faithful Word Baptist Church of Tempe, Arizona.

That's the tone of the article - i.e. SPLC is trying to "silence these groups because they are standing up against the supposed "gay agenda."

Kerby's article omitted several important facts about SPLC's designation of these organizations as hate groups.

The most important fact is that SPLC labeled the Family Research Council and those other organizations as hate groups not because of their so-called Biblical beliefs about homosexuality, but because these groups knowingly spread propaganda and hideous lies about the gay community:

Even as some well-known anti-gay groups like Focus on the Family moderate their views, a hard core of smaller groups, most of them religiously motivated, have continued to pump out demonizing propaganda aimed at homosexuals and other sexual minorities. These groups’ influence reaches far beyond what their size would suggest, because the “facts” they disseminate about homosexuality are often amplified by certain politicians, other groups and even news organizations. Of the 18 groups profiled below, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) will be listing 13 next year as hate groups (eight were previously listed), reflecting further research into their views; those are each marked with an asterisk. Generally, the SPLC’s listings of these groups is based on their propagation of known falsehoods — claims about LGBT people that have been thoroughly discredited by scientific authorities — and repeated, groundless name-calling. Viewing homosexuality as unbiblical does not qualify organizations for listing as hate groups.

This propaganda includes such claims as:

Homosexuals molest children at far higher rates than heterosexuals.

Same-sex parents harm children.

People become homosexual because they were sexually abused as children or there was a deficiency in sex-role modeling by their parents.

Homosexuals don’t live nearly as long as heterosexuals.

Homosexuals controlled the Nazi Party and helped to orchestrate the Holocaust.

All of these claims have been debunked as lies, but FRC and other religious right groups keep repeating them as truth. And why? Because they are able to hide these lies behind the claim that they are merely standing on the Biblical belief that homosexuality is a sin.

And they are aided and abetted by one-sided, puff pieces put out by sites like Beliefnet, a site which should have known better.

I would sincerely hope that the way Kerby, who claims to be a Christian, wrote this piece is an indication of being overworked. Because if this isn't the case, the other alternative has to be that Kerby is intentionally deceiving his readers by not giving them the full story.

And that would be most un-Christian

Related posts:

Family Research Council has yet to come out with 'detailed response' against SPLC charges

Family Research Council's 'detailed response' to SPLC's charges leave much to be desired

Family Research Council sneaking misleading studies back onto its webpage



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12 comments:

Autumn Sandeen said...

Amen.

Linnea said...

I find it sad that Beliefnet would fall for the religious right's "we're being persecuted" BS. In the past, I've found Beliefnet to be an interesting and valuable source on world religions. But apparently it's been taken over by religious right zealots. Too bad.

Anonymous said...

I referred some psychotic righties to Beliefnet to get them off of Soulforce. I spotted the EVIL a while back. Maybe not quite CARM but it doesn't miss by much.

I'm not sure the Chopra family is enough to offset the bad.

cheneleen said...

Found your blog through the Huffington Post. I love you now. Keep up the good work!

Unknown said...

I'm not surprised at all to see that from Bnet.

A whole bunch of us ended up leaving when the ownership changed hands and the site content and forum moderation started going heavily to the right. Christers blatantly went against the TOS and weren't punished. Non-Christers who pointed out the rule breaking were.

It's only gotten worse since then.

Jess said...

I used to go to beliefnet quite often, but I haven't in awhile. I won't be going back if that is how their articles are going now!

Sage said...

I am SO glad you wrote this piece Alvin (which BTW, is very well written). I have been mulling over in my head, over the last few days, writing about this exact same topic myself. I could not have done a better job than you did here. I'm now just going to send my readers right on over to your piece here!

Paul said...

Beliefnet used to be truly interfaith, even if it was just a money-making proposition for its owners. It was bought out a couple of years ago by a group who have turned it into a site that engages in this kind of nonsense all the time now. This isn't the first time its so-called Christian bias has been revealed. Even though it still maintains its "interfaith" label, it's not worth the time it takes to search for any longer.

Anonymous said...

There is a difference between using your religion to guide your actions and using your religion to justify your actions.

Wendy Kelly said...

Just stumbled here by way of the SPLC & love your writing. I was also surprised to hear that this came from Belief Net -- I had used that site often in the past, but had not gone back for awhile. Too bad. I agree with "Anonymous" that this is an example of using religion to justify your actions.

Thanks for speaking up!

Scott said...

I tried to post to Beliefnet site, commenting on this article. I said only that "These organizations where not designated hate groups by the SPLC for their anti-gay views. They were designated hate groups for knowingly spreading false, discreditied and hurtful information about GLBT people." Guess what- Beliefnet apparently does not want the truth out there either, as my posts are not being published on their site.

BlackTsunami said...

Neither has my comment been printed scott :(. it's sad.