Brian Tashman's blog

Roy Moore was removed from his job as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2003 after he disobeyed a court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument he placed in his court house, but last Tuesday he won the Republican nomination for the position, making it extremely likely that Moore will soon have his old job back. Moore celebrated his victory today with Sandy Rios of the American Family Association, where he urged Congress to impeach Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, among other judges he would like to see removed from office. The Religious Right went off the rails after Ginsberg suggested in an interview that Egypt look to the South African constitution when drafting its new constitution, acknowledging that what works in the US may not work in Egypt, and ignoring her immense praise for the Constitution in the same interview. Rios even suggested that progressives wanted to do away with the Constitution altogether:

He also told Rios that America has always been based on a “biblical standard” and warned that “if you take away that standard then you have same-sex marriages, marriages between two and three people, or whatever.”

Moore: There is no standard without the biblical standard that we’ve lived under for 225 years. If you take away that standard then you have same-sex marriages, marriages between two and three people, or whatever. You don’t have a standard and moral atheists may want to hold on to the past without any basis of doing so, they’ve got to recognize the basis of why they have the right to believe in whatever they want to believe in and that right comes from God, it is not from government. You can go to governments over in Southeast Asia or the Mideast and you find governments that restrict what you believe and what you think and how you worship and that is because that is what governments will do when you don’t have this freedom.

Moore went on to claim that he doesn’t know the faith of President Obama, a committed Christian, adding he thinks the President does “favor the Muslim faith” and is trying “to remove any acknowledgement of a particular God” in America.

Moore: We have people like Barack Obama who do favor the Muslim faith and there is a reason for this. Do I believe he is a Muslim? I don’t know his faith but he certainly doesn’t represent what this nation is founded upon. He is typical of secular humanists in government that try to remove any acknowledgement of a particular God and say they grant religious freedom and that is entirely opposite to what this country is founded upon.

American Family Association’s new radio host Sandy Rios, a Fox News contributor and a former president of Concerned Women for America, yesterday maintained that the use of pornography led to the re-election of Bill Clinton even after Americans knew about “all the women in his life, just horrible stories, alleged rapes, just unbelievable, multiple.” While discussing Rick Santorum’s pledge to combat pornography, Rios said that Americans voted for Clinton “because we have allowed so much garbage and immorality and impurity to come into our own homes.”

Rick Santorum has something on his website that says this, Santorum said ‘the United States is suffering a pandemic of harm from pornography,’ and I’m reading now from another news piece, the Associated Press, ‘which he said has been shown to produce brain changes in children and adults, caused the destruction of marriages and contribute to prostitution and violence against women.’

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It certainly won’t appeal to the mainstream population, I think that’s true. I often have said that I think that’s the reason why President Bill Clinton was elected to a second term after we knew about Monica Lewinski and when we knew about all the women in his life, just horrible stories, alleged rapes, just unbelievable, multiple! And yet we re-elected him, I think that was more appalling than having him be elected the first time, the fact that the American people knew all of that and still voted him in.

I wondered at the time what that was all about and I really do think it’s because we have allowed so much garbage and immorality and impurity to come into our own homes, whether it’s in movies, I think video stores were the beginning of that and satellite television perhaps, little towns are no longer innocent, they are as corrupt as the big cities. People gaze on things that they would never have even mentioned or thought of before.

I’ve read studies that men who were into pornography in the past, and I know that men just have a proclivity for images like that, that men that feed themselves on that go through harder and harder stuff to find stimulation and they get into stuff that they would never, ever, ever have thought about, and many times it’s child porn. So it is a progressive thing, it is a sickness and I think that’s the reason why Bill Clinton was elected the second time.

No comment necessary for Mission America president Linda Harvey’s latest WorldNetDaily column, where she claims that gay rights advocates who criticize and expose the vitriolic rhetoric of Religious Right activists are just like the Nazis who used “hate branding, focusing on Jews” to brand “them as the ‘enemy.’”

Homosexual activists and their allies have become quite skilled at marketing the Hate brand. Jeers, vulgarities and name-calling are only the beginning. The goal is to keep their easy-to-manipulate followers simmering in a bitter stew of misinformation and sexual entitlement, and then unleash their power in focused humiliation/intimidation campaigns.

The Hate label has been affixed to an array of conservative luminaries recently. The newest enemies list of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, GLAAD, is a who’s-who of respected leaders and journalists: Chuck Colson, Robert George, Joseph Farah, Albert Mohler, Don Wildmon and Tony Perkins are just a few of the names. GLAAD has decided that Hate is the shameful badge these folks must now wear. Isn’t this what used to be called “shunning”?

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The carefully cultivated Hate brand is a big seller among marginally informed youth who quickly process whom to heed and whom to dismiss. This volunteer sales force moves throughout the nation with whistleblowing at speeches, interruption of church services, heckling and predictable “H8″ protest signs. Demanding the “hater” lose his/her job ups the ante. Online petitions keep the pressure high. And of course, the N.Y. Times, Huffington Post, MSNBC and others will feature Hate product press releases verbatim.

Recognize this? Hate branding, focusing on Jews, succeeded in branding them as the “enemy” in public opinion in Nazi Germany. It’s the method used today by Islamic radicals who spread ludicrous fables about Jews in many mosques.

You would think the SPLC and even GLAAD might recognize this, search their hearts and say,”What are we doing here? Christians are not monsters and traditional values are not Hate!”

We have to call this what it is – an attempt at revolution. We need to come up with a no-nonsense response. I am of course not advocating anything abusive or violent. Unlike our ideological opponents, we tend to play by the rules, which is why truly honorable people are easy targets.

American Family Association president Tim Wildmon yesterday hosted conservative writer Neil Mammen on Today’s Issues, where Wildmon warned that “if President Obama is re-elected again” he will “threaten our religious freedoms” by making hate speech laws to “shut you down if you have anything critical to say about homosexuality.” Conservatives have been warning, dishonestly, of impending hate speech laws for years now, with groups warning of churches being closed and pastors getting arrested and going to prison. While their nightmare vision never seems to come true, Religious Right leaders like Wildmon never fail to make such claims in order to rile up their supporters and stoke fears of equal rights for gays and lesbians.

Wildmon: If President Obama is re-elected again, he will appoint more ACLU lawyer type judges to the Supreme Court and to the federal bench, all right, that will threaten our religious freedoms in this country as we’ve known them. I guarantee you it will. Now President Obama would reject that idea but I’m telling you they will, for instance they will take hate speech, if you speak out against homosexuality, and they will impose that as unacceptable and they will shut you down if you have anything critical to say about homosexuality.

Mammen: Look at this new contraception law thing that they pushed through.

Wildmon: Exactly. Prime example, prime example right there.

Concerned Women for America’s Chelsen Vicari on Monday hosted a call with Linda Harvey of Mission America and Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute where they discussed their plans for a walkout on the Day of Silence, when students protest anti-LGBT bullying and bias by remaining silent throughout the school day. The walkout endorsers also include the American Family Association, Citizens for Community Values, Faith 2 Action, Liberty Counsel and Save California, all prominent supporters of the Religious Right’s anti-anti-bullying campaign.

We posted highlights from program where Higgins urged teachers to “plan activities that involve student communications so students are not allowed to do this” and Harvey warned that the Day of Silence is using children “as a tool” for an “ungodly agenda.” Harvey dubbed the Day of Silence a “God-dishonoring day” that makes children “bow before manipulative, exploitative and deceptive accusations.”

Higgins: What the Day of Silence does is ask kids to refuse to speak during instructional time in class, that they have no legal right to do and no school has to accommodate that, and so that’s what we’re doing is asking parents to call their school, ask if students are allowed to refuse to speak in instructional time, and if they are, to keep their kids home in protest about the disruption of instructional time for a political purpose.

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Harvey: You can keep your kids home that day if you suspect or you find out that teachers are going to accommodate this protest silence in order to honor homosexuality, let’s be clear about what this is, this is a God-dishonoring day that honors sin, sinful, immoral behavior that most parents don’t want their children involved in.

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Higgins: Christian teachers out there and if you’re working in a public school plan activities that involve student communications so students are not allowed to do this.

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Vicari: So Christian families, it’s imperative really to take a stand against Day of Silence.

Harvey: Yes, because it’s teaching your children to dishonor [sic] what God finds sinful, it’s teaching even conservative parents who maybe are not believers it’s teaching your children to bow before manipulative, exploitative and deceptive accusations. They claim tolerance but they are creating division, hostility and they are undermining high standards for kids.

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Harvey: Your child will remember this, you know the biggest lesson—of course the school is going to learn something as lots of kids are missing that day—but the biggest lesson is your child will learn that you don’t go along with this nonsense, you don’t let people lie to you and use you as a tool for their ungodly agenda.

Religious Right pundits have been up in arms since GLAAD publicized many of their most vitriolic anti-gay statements as part of their Commentator Accountability Project, comparing GLAAD to the Irish Republican Army and calling the group a tool of Satan. Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality took his pity party to The Janet Mefferd Show yesterday, where he said that conservatives have been “a little too tolerant of the media bias” and that “activist-minded homosexuals” in the media are “leading a lot of other journalists to not bring both sides.” LaBarbera also defended Ron Paul’s writings about a “federal-homosexual coverup on AIDS,” saying they are not “homophobic” and no one should use that term anyway because it is “homosexual activist rhetoric.”

“You don’t see any Christians or any pro-family advocates, at least any that I’m aware of,” Mefferd said, “organizing any sort of accountability project to keep gay activists off the air.” Actually, the radio host didn’t have to look so far as LaBarbera himself, who who repeatedly tried to get Grove City College to fire professor Warren Throckmorton for his opposition to Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

Mefferd: Here’s what is interesting too, because you don’t see any Christians or any pro-family advocates, at least any that I’m aware of, organizing any sort of accountability project to keep gay activists off the air. I mean, this doesn’t go both ways. I actually think the Christians and the pro-family leaders are awfully, awfully tolerant of activists and what they have to say and what kind of media coverage they get.

LaBarbera: I think we’re a little too tolerant of the media bias, you’re absolutely right. You read a typical AP story these days, you won’t find another point of view.

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LaBarbera: Then there’s lots of openly, I would call them, activist-minded homosexuals in the newsroom and I think they are leading a lot of other journalists to not bring both sides.

Mefferd: That’s true.

LaBarbera: And you do have gay journalists, openly gay journalists, covering stories and they might not be fair because maybe they’re too close to the story because they are activist-minded homosexuals themselves.

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Mefferd: Tell both sides and stop calling it hate because I’ve never seen a Christian or a pro-family person ever exhibit hate toward a homosexual.

LaBarbera: Yes and stop using tendentious words like ‘homophobe,’ I remember Chris Wallace on Fox ran a story on Ron Paul, he described Ron Paul’s past writings as homophobic, I think it was ‘blatantly homophobic,’ and I read them and I said, look, this is Ron Paul’s point of view, these were not fearful, this is just a point of view about homosexuality and AIDS and something I don’t recall but we can’t use homosexual activist rhetoric in telling these stories.

Religious Right groups have lately set their sights on attacking the game Star Wars: The Old Republic, which allows players to have their characters join same-sex relationships. The Family Research Council has blasted BioWare, the game’s creator, for crossing over “to the dark side” and the American Decency Association accused BioWare of pandering to “homosexual extremists.” The Florida Family Association, which earlier this month cautioned that the new Star Wars game will expose small children to gay Stormtroopers, now wonders if the game will “create Darth VaPaula, a (mock) transgender version of Darth Vader – RuPaul, for kids to choose as their action player.” The group even provided this image of how the drag superstar might look in the video game:

Will the makers of Star Wars video games create Darth VaPaula, a (mock) transgender version of Darth Vader - RuPaul, for kids to choose as their action player?

LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender) extremists pressure Star Wars video game maker to commit to add LGBT content and censor critics. An overwhelming percentage of the 1.7 million games sold are being used by children who do not need to be introduced to this propaganda. Please send your email to BioWare's parent company Electronic Arts.

Will the makers of Star Wars video games create Darth VaPaula, a (mock) transgender version of Darth Vader - RuPaul, for kids to choose as their action player? If you have not sent your email to Electronic Arts and Lucas Films please click here.

These LGBT demands on Star Wars game maker must be opposed. Please forward this article to friends.

LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) activists are demanding that the makers of Star Wars video games add LGBT characters for kids to select as their action figure when playing the games. Previous email alerts with more information on this issue are posted below.

These LGBT activists want children and young teens to be able to choose Star Wars action characters who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. This would mean:

• Children and teens, who never thought anyway but heterosexual, are now given a choice to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender in their game player.

• Children and teens, who choose non-social agenda characters, would be forced to deal with lesbian, gay, bi-sexual or transgender characters chosen by other players.

Should BioWare bow to the demands of these LGBT activists by adding such action characters to Star Wars video games they certainly would not create game rules that would allow regular players to prohibit entry into their games by these social agenda characters. That would be discrimination (sarcasm.)

There were no LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) characters in any of the Star Wars movies. So if BioWare, the maker of Star Wars video games, adds LGBT characters for kids to select as their action figure it could be something like Darth RuPaula, a combination of Darth Vader, one of the most popular Star Wars characters, and RuPaul, the renown transgender cross dresser. Florida Family Association has prepared an email for you to send that urges officials at BioWare’s parent company Electronic Arts and Lucas Films to stop any additions of LGBT content to Star Wars video games.

Fox News contributor Sandy Rios yesterday launched her new show, Sandy Rios in the Morning on the American Family Association’s American Family Radio, and had as her first guest Rick Santorum. Rios, who last week railed against secular Jews as among “the worst enemies of the country,” asked Santorum, a Catholic, about his consistent struggle to win over Catholic voters. Santorum claimed that he performs better “with folks who do practice their religion more ardently” and only has problems with voters, Catholic and Protestant alike, who do not “take their faith seriously.”

Rios: You are doing very well among evangelicals, not so well among Catholics. I have my own theory about that, but I want to know what yours is this.

Santorum: I really wish I could tell you. I think the bottom line is that we do well among people who take their faith seriously, and as you know just like some Protestants, some Protestants are not church going, they are folks who identify with a particular religion but don’t necessarily practice that from the standpoint of going to church and the like, and I think, you know, with folks who do practice their religion more ardently I tend to do well.

Rios: I have to interrupt you, I totally agree. I think you take your faith seriously and for the serious believers, you’e the man.

Conservative organizations are planning to hold rallies on March 23rd across the country to “Stand up for Religious Freedom” and “Stop the HHS Mandate” on contraception coverage. Members of the new coalition include the Alliance Defense Fund, American Life League, Christian Defense Coalition, Concerned Women for America, Operation Rescue, Thomas More Society and various anti-choice groups, and they seek to organize demonstrations “outside federal buildings, Congressional offices and historic sites across the country.” In a statement responding to a conciliatory move by the administration which ensures that religious-based organizations won’t have to pay directly for contraceptives, rally organizers doubled down on their criticisms of the Obama administration and said that they are against the insurance mandate’s impact on “all businesses—not just religious institutions”:

"With their March 16 statement, President Obama and Kathleen Sebelius are once again pretending to accommodate employers' conscientious objections to their HHS Mandate. The accounting tricks they're proposing are nothing but smoke and mirrors. At the end of the day, employers are still forced to provide free contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs through their health plans," said Eric Scheidler, co-director of the Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rallies across the United States.

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We protest the federal government's definition of what constitutes a religious institution through the narrowly constructed "exemption" to the HHS Mandate, a definition which is both false and beyond the federal government's authority to make.

We protest the fact that religious institutions, even after President Obama's so-called "accommodation," are being forced to facilitate contraception, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs through the health plans they are mandated to provide.

We protest the Mandate forcing all businesses -- not just religious institutions -- to provide coverage of contraception, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs, if even doing so violates their own moral convictions on these matters.

We protest the HHS Mandate because, in requiring all health plans to provide free contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs as "preventative care," it treats pregnancy and childbirth as a disease.

Last night at his home church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, following a scorching speech from pastor Dennis Terry, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins insisted that he will not endorse any candidate for president. Perkins even joked that the FRC didn’t even endorse its own leader, Gary Bauer, when he ran for president 2000.

But while Perkins, who calls Santorum his “good friend,” may not technically have endorsed anyone, he’s done just about everything else to support Santorum’s campaign.

Back in January it was Perkins who announced that Religious Right leaders had decided to coalesce behind Santorum, even as many were still supporting Newt Gingrich, and again earlier this month it was Perkins who hinted that Gingrich should drop out because “If they were to converge together you would have a majority” to defeat Romney. Perkins also participated in the Council for National Policy meeting where conservative leaders pledged financial support for his presidential campaign. Santorum even filled in for Perkins once on the American Family Association’s radio network as a guest host prior to launching his campaign for president.

Last night Perkins asked Santorum questions that surely provided red-meat to the megachurch crowd on issues like abortion, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the debt, and his faith, although at one point he asked the former Senator to explain his support for Arlen Specter’s re-election.

The Associated Press reported that Perkins hosted a private meeting between Santorum and pastors from across the country before last night’s event:

Nearly a hundred pastors from all over Louisiana and from as far away as Texas and Colorado accepted Family Research Council President Tony Perkins' invitation to hear a personal pitch Sunday from the former Pennsylvania senator, who met with them in a private briefing before he addressed the more than 1,400 faithful who crowded into the sanctuary at Greenwell Springs Baptist Church.

"What we need to do in this country is to rebuild that culture of life and rebuild that culture of marriage and families," Santorum said, standing in a small back room as the invited pastors gathered in an informal circle wearing handwritten name tags. "No one else talks about social issues."

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Perkins, the head of the socially conservative Family Research Council, can't officially endorse a presidential candidate, but he made his personal feelings clear. "I'll tell you this," he said, "I wouldn't invite just anybody to my church."

Ironically, in 2008 Perkins was criticized for speaking too favorably of Romney and too critically of Mike Huckabee, who was then the preferred candidate of many in the Religious Right.

We have consistently documented Perkins’ extreme record:

• said Islam is “evil”;

• called gay rights activists “intolerant,” “hateful,” “vile,” “spiteful” and “pawns” of Satan and said that homosexuality is “man shaking his fist in the face of God”;

• wrote that the anti-bullying “It Gets Better Project” is “immoral,” “disgusting,” and promotes “perversion”;

• denied that there was a correlation between anti-gay bullying and depression and suicide, saying instead that gay and lesbian teens know they are “abnormal” and “have a higher propensity to depression or suicide because of that internal conflict";

• wrote that senators would have "the blood of innocent soldiers on their hands" if they vote to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell and allowed gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military;

• warned, “I don’t know if the country can survive” another Obama term and that the president’s reelection would “destroy this country”';

• asserted that President Obama has a “disdain for Christianity” and his supporters must “repent”;

• claimed “Islamists and the homosexuals work out of the same playbook”;

• attacked the Girl Scouts and a Star Wars video game for including gay members and characters, respectively;

• said governments are beginning the “promotion same-sex relations” as a means of “population control”;

• believes gays and lesbians have “an emptiness within them” because of their “destructive path”

With views like that, it is no wonder that Perkins has become one of Santorum’s (unofficial) cheerleaders.