Kyle Mantyla's blog

On today's episode of Liberty Counsel's "Faith and Freedom" radio program, Mat Staver reacted to a recent Oklahoma Supreme Court decision striking down a proposed "personhood" amendment to the state constitution by comparing the effort to pass such laws to Martin Luther King, Jr's famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail."

Liberty Counsel recently formed a partnership with Personhood USA to essentially serve as the legal arm of the effort to pass laws all over the nation that "declare that human life begins at conception."  The effort to pass such laws has caused rifts in the anti-abortion movement between those pushing the radical measures and other groups that prefer to take a more incremental approach to outlawing abortion, prompting Staver to directly compare the "personhood" movement to King's crusade for civil rights:

But it goes back, somewhat, to Martin Luther King, Jr's. "Letter from the Birmingham Jail." When he was there in the Birmingham Jail and he was protesting certain injustices there in Alabama, some of the ministers said "Dr. King, it's too early to do this, why don't you allow the newly elected mayor and some of those newly elected individuals to have a chance to do what you want them to do?" And he says "you know, that's easy for you to say but we've lived under injustice for 400 years. The time has come to act now."

We've lived under absolute killing of unborn children since 1973. The time to act, I think, as long passed. It's now.

This is yet another example of the trend that Peter pointed out last month of Religious Right leaders "claiming Dr. King’s moral authority as their own, positioning themselves as inheritors of his righteous struggle, and claiming against all evidence and history that he would support their war on Planned Parenthood, their opposition to legal protections for LGBT Americans and their families, their crusades against separation of church and state, and their free market fundamentalism."

As Josh noted in the previous post, Mitt Romney will be delivering the commencement address tomorrow at Liberty University, the ultra-fundamentalist university founded by the late Jerry Falwell.  But what many people may not realize is that Liberty U is also the home of some of the most militant anti-gay activists operating today, who are on staff at Liberty U while simultaneously working for the affiliated Liberty Counsel.

In fact, the two are so intertwined that Mat Staver serves as both Dean of the Liberty U Law School and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, while Rena Lindevaldsen, LU's Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Matt Barber, LU's Associate Dean for Career and Professional Development, Shawn Akers, Dean of LU's Helms School of Government, and Deryl Edwards, LU's Director of Institutional Advancement, all hold positions with Liberty Counsel as well.

For years, Liberty Counsel has been at the center of a custody case involving Lisa Miller, an "ex-gay" woman who kidnapped her daughter and fled the country rather than abide by court-ordered custody arrangements with her former partner.  Rena Lindevaldsen was Miller's attorney and even wrote a book about the saga while Liberty Counsel continues to insist that it has no knowledge of Miller's whereabouts, despite the fact that she was reportedly living at a home in Nicaragua owned by the father of an administrative assistant working for Staver at Liberty U Law School. Furthermore, Liberty U also taught a class based on the Miller case in which students were reportedly instructed that the "right" thing for a lawyer to do in a case such as this would be to counsel their client that they have an obligation to ignore the law and court orders and instead engage in "civil disobedience" in order to uphold God's law.

While Staver may be the head of Liberty Counsel with a penchant for issuing warnings that President Obama seeks to become a global dictator, his rhetoric pales in comparison to Matt Baber who, in addition to serving as an instructor at Liberty U's Law School, also happens to be one of the most viciously anti-gay bigots operating today, as demonstrated by his view that homosexuality is nothing more than “one man violently cramming his penis into another man’s lower intestine and calling it ‘love.’”

Just in recent months, Barber has said that marriage equality mocks God and desecrates the Church, declared that the Defense of Marriage Act is necessary to prevent children from becoming gay and getting AIDS, said that gay teens commit suicide because they "know that what they are doing is unnatural, is wrong, [and] immoral," proclaimed gay adoption to be "tragic," "unconscionable," and "reprehensible," and warned that gay activists are seeking to poison the minds of children and are "running interference for the pedophile movement."

But it is not just gays whom Barber attacks on a regular basis, but liberals in general, whom he claims are driven by a hatred of God and are working with radical Islamists to destroy Christianity. He has said that the Obama administration's contraception mandate was no different than being forced to kill your family and that those who support reproductive choice are literally no different than the Nazis.  In fact, Barber thinks the Left in general are nothing but a bunch of bullies who just need to be punched in the mouth.

Last year, when Romney spoke at the Values Voter Summit, he publicly called out the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer for his bigotry and declared that "poisonous language does not advance our cause."  

Will Romney have the courage this weekend to likewise take a stand against the "poisonous language" and bigotry regularly displayed by the staff at Liberty University/Liberty Counsel? 

We won't hold our breaths.

During his radio program yesterday,  Bryan Fischer was adding his voice to the chorus of Right Wing outrage over President Obama's support for marriage equality, and doing so in typical Bryan Fischer manner:  by accusing Obama of lying when he said his decision was prompted, at least in part, by "members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships" because, as Fischer claims, "homosexual monogamy is a myth."

And so Fischer dedicated an entire segment of his program to attacking the idea that gay couples can and do establish monogamous relationships.  But since that is something Fischer has been saying for years, it wasn't really worth posting. 

But that rant prompted Fischer to eventually set forth two simple "abiding truths" for our public policy and culture that he knows will solve a lot of our problems if embraced and acted upon: 1) homosexuality is not a benign alternative to heterosexuality and 2) Islam is not a benign alternative to Christianity:

• Leslie Watson Malachi @ Huffington Post: On Marriage, African Americans Aren't a Monolithic Voting Bloc.
• Jonathan Rowe @ American Creation: What's In Jefferson's Bible.
• Noah Shachtman and Spencer Ackerman @ Danger Room: U.S. Military Taught Officers: Use ‘Hiroshima’ Tactics for ‘Total War’ on Islam.
• Jon Bershad @ Mediaite: Mitt Romney Admits To Doing ‘Dumb Things’ Following Anti-Gay Prep School Prank Allegations.
• Zack Ford @ Think Progress: Bill Donohue: ‘I Want The Law To Discriminate’ Against Same-Sex Couples.

• Liberty University says the late Jerry Falwell would be "proud" that Mitt Romney will be speaking at this weekend's graduation ceremony.
• Michele Bachmann has already withdrawn her Swiss citizenship.
• Al Mohler calls President Obama's support for marriage equality "a sad day for America."
• The National Organization for Marriage says it "will cost Obama [his] re-election bid."
• And finally, FRC has responded to Obama's announcement by posting the organization's "The Problem with Same-Sex Marriage" program on YouTube, which is heavily focused on promoting ex-gay therapy:

Just last week David Barton was on The Daily Show where he trotted out a nearly twenty year old piece of right-wing mythology about some poor public school student who was reportedly yanked out of his chair and yelled at by a teacher merely for praying before eating his lunch in the school cafeteria.

As we pointed out, this incident took place way back in 1994 and involved a student named Raymond Raines who, contrary to Barton's claims, was not yelled at for praying before lunch, but rather for fighting in the cafeteria.

But just because something might be demonstrably untrue, that is not going to stop Barton from repeating it, which he did again today on "WallBuilders Live":

Here's a good one: [In] St Louis, Missouri, an elementary student was praying over his lunch; a school official jerked him out of his seat - lifted him up physically out of his seat - reprimanded him in front of the other students for praying over his lunch and took him to the principal who ordered him to stop praying over his lunch. Can you believe that?

No, as a matter of fact, we cannot believe that ... because it is not true. 

Several weeks ago, Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, set off a controversy when he delivered a rant on his weekly radio program claiming that all the attention being paid to the Trayvon Martin shooting was "being done to try gin up the black vote for an African-American president who is in deep, deep, deep trouble for re-election."

Initially,  Land stood by his comments and vowed that he would never "bow to the false god of political correctness," but as the controversy grew, Land eventually relented a bit and issued a rather weak statement blaming others for the "misunderstanding" and complaining that he had "overestimated the progress" the country has made on issues involving race.

This dismissive non-apology only made matters worse, prompting Land to meet face-to-face with several Black SBC leaders last week, after which he issued a "genuine and heartfelt apology" for his statements and thanking these leaders "for holding me accountable": 

"I am here today to offer my genuine and heartfelt apology for the harm my words of March 31, 2012, have caused to specific individuals, the cause of racial reconciliation, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Through the ministry of The Reverend James Dixon, Jr. the president of the National African American Fellowship of the Southern Baptist Convention, and a group of brethren who met with me earlier this month, I have come to understand in sharper relief how damaging my words were.

"I admit that my comments were expressed in anger at what I thought was one injustice -- the tragic death of Trayvon Martin -- being followed by another injustice -- the media trial of George Zimmerman, without appeal to due judicial process and vigilante justice promulgated by the New Black Panthers. Like my brothers in the Lord, I want true justice to prevail and must await the revelation of the facts of the case in a court of law. Nevertheless, I was guilty of making injudicious comments.

"First, I want to confess my insensitivity to the Trayvon Martin family for my imbalanced characterization of their son which was based on news reports, not personal knowledge. My heart truly goes out to a family whose lives have been turned upside down by the shocking death of a beloved child. I can only imagine their sense of loss and deeply regret any way in which my language may have contributed to their pain.

"Second, I am here to confess that I impugned the motives of President Obama and the reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. It was unchristian and unwise for me to have done so. God alone is the searcher of men's hearts. I cannot know what motivated them in their comments in this case. I have sent personal letters of apology to each of them asking for them to forgive me. I continue to pray for them regularly, and for our president daily.

"Third, I do not believe that crime statistics should in any way justify viewing a person of another race as a threat. I own my earlier words about statistics; and I regret that they may suggest that racial profiling is justifiable. I have been an outspoken opponent of profiling and was grief-stricken to learn that comments I had made were taken as a defense of what I believe is both unchristian and unconstitutional. I share the dream of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that all men, women, boys, and girls would be judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin. Racial profiling is a heinous injustice. I should have been more careful in my choice of words.

"Fourth, I must clarify another poor choice of words. I most assuredly do not believe American racism is a 'myth' in the sense that it is imaginary or fictitious. It is all too real and all too insidious. My reference to myth in this case was to a story used to push a political agenda. Because I believe racism is such a grievous sin, I stand firmly against its politicization. Racial justice is a non-partisan ideal and should be embraced by both sides of the political aisle.

"Finally, I want to express my deep gratitude to Reverend Dixon and the other men who met with me recently for their Christ-like witness, brotherly kindness, and undaunting courage. We are brethren who have been knit together by the love of Jesus Christ and the passion to reach the world with the message of that love. I pledge to them -- and to all who are within the sound of my voice -- that I will continue to my dying breath to seek racial justice and that I will work harder than ever to be self-disciplined in my speech. I am grateful to them for holding me accountable.

• PFAW Memo: Debunking the GOP’s Disinformation Campaign on Judicial Obstruction.
• Tommy Christopher @ Mediaite: Prez and the Evolution: President Obama Comes Out For Gay Marriage To Robin Roberts.
• Pam Spaulding: Where do I begin? It’s just the beginning for North Carolina after the passage of Amendment One.
• Peter Montgomery @ Religion Dispatches: Did North Carolinians Vote Against their Own Beliefs?
• Emmelle Israel @ ALF-CIO NOW: John Stossel Follows in James O'Keefe's Footsteps.
• Simon Brown @ Wall of Separation: Liberty Counsel Con: What’s Falwell Lawyer Mat Staver Got To Hide?
• Towleroad: Piers Morgan Asks Hate Group Leader Tony Perkins What He'd Do if One of His Kids Would Gay.
• Scott Keyes @ Think Progress: Rep. Allen West On Food Stamps: ‘That’s How You Enslave The American People.’
• David Taintor @ TPM: Conservative Author Jonah Goldberg’s Book Falsely Claims Pulitzer Nominations.

• Yesterday, voters in North Carolina passed a constitutional amendment prohibiting recognition of same-sex marriage and have received congratulation from the likes of FRC, NOM, CWA, and Liberty Counsel.
• Michele Bachmann is now a citizen of Switzerland.
• The Oak Initiative declares that "overall America remains at what is probably its lowest state spiritually and morally possibly in its history."
• It looks like Mitt Romney's campaign is courting Samuel Rodriguez.
• Finally, we won't hold our breath waiting for Bryan Fischer to issue any sort of correction for this ridiculous segment.

One of the most amazing things about Religious Right activism, especially around elections times, is how redundant so much of it is.

Back in 2010, it seemed like every organization was organizing a prayer campaign aimed at swaying the election.  But this time, it looks like the Religious Right is focusing more on getting conservative Christians registered to vote.

We have already written about the Champion The Vote effort, which seeks to register 5 million new Christian voters ahead of the 2012 election and some 50 million over the next decade.  And now it looks like Focus on the Family is heading up a joint voter registration with pretty much the same goal.

Yesterday, Focus released a new video in which Gary Schneeberger, the organization's vice president of communications, (mistakenly?) claimed the goal of the effort was to register some 50 million new Christian voters before the election, which would seemingly require them to begin registering more than 250,000 new voters daily. 

That seems highly unlikely, especially since the rudimentary website for the effort, called Commit2Vote2012.com, says that the goal is to reach some 5 million unregistered voters: 

It's really a matter of simple math: If we want politicians and policies that reflect our most deeply held Christian convictions to win on Nov. 6, we need to ensure fellow believers register to vote and then get to the polls on Election Day.

And you can help make that happen with your financial gift to Focus on the Family's most ambitious voter-registration effort to date. "Commit 2 Vote 2012," an unprecedented partnership with six other pro-life, pro-family groups, aims to reach 5 million unregistered, pro-life Americans with easy registration materials and the motivation to vote their values on Election Day. Every dollar we raise is another potential voter activated who shares our morals and biblical values.

The election is only six months away and Focus is just announcing this massive registration effort now?  How exactly do these various Religious Right groups plan on registering nearly one million voters per month via a project that doesn't even have so much as a website yet?