American Family Association

American Family Association Redoubles Efforts to Get JC Penney to Fire Ellen DeGeneres

JC Penney quickly shot down the American Family Association’s campaign through its subgroup One Million Moms to have the retailer fire Ellen DeGeneres as their spokesperson because she is openly gay, but that hasn’t stopped the organization’s efforts. Instead of calling JC Penney’s corporate office, now OMM is telling activists to call local managers. OMM accused the corporate office of “insulting” them by not bowing to their anti-gay pressure campaign, and now hopes that store managers will be easier targets:

OMM began contacting JC Penney after the store announced that comedian Ellen DeGeneres would become the company's new spokesperson. Funny that JC Penney thinks hiring an open homosexual spokesperson will help their business when most of its customers are traditional families. As consumers, what we find tragic is a corporate office and customer service department that not only transfers customers to voicemail, but even hangs up on them rather than verses hearing their concerns.

It is absurd to think that a company would find treating customers in this fashion an acceptable behavior. Our members stated their concerns in a kind, professional manner. Insulting customers by ignoring us will not be tolerated. OMM members can shop elsewhere if JC Penney does not appreciate our business. Unless JC Penney decides to be neutral in the culture war and listen to customers in a considerate fashion, their brand transformation will be unsuccessful.

Degeneres is not a true representation of the type of families who shop at the retailer. The small percentage of customers they are attempting to satisfy will not offset their loss in sales by offending the majority.

Since JC Penney won't listen to us nationally, it is time we let them hear from us locally!

Since the corporate office doesn't consider your call important, please call your local store manager. Local managers are more likely to listen to your concerns and pass them along to the corporate office.

Please be kind when you ask them to tell corporate that Ellen DeGeneres is a poor choice for spokesperson and should be replaced with someone who more represents your family values.

OMM spokeswoman Monica Cole, last seen attacking Glee, told the AFA affiliated OneNewsNow that DeGeneres doesn’t make a good spokesperson because of the small size of the openly gay community:

But Monica Cole, director of American Family Association's advocacy groupOneMillionMoms.com, tells OneNewsNow the campaign might backfire since only an estimated 1.7 percent of the population is homosexual.

"Yes, DeGeneres is not a true representation of the type of families that shop at their store," says Cole. "And they're going to be gaining a very small percentage of liberal customers. This will not satisfy or offset their loss in sales. They will be losing more than they'll be gaining."

In hiring a lesbian to sell the public on the idea of shopping at J.C. Penney, the company is making the mistake of turning its back on its base of customers, says Cole.

"[We're] asking J.C. Penney to hire a spokesperson who's more representative of the type of the customers that shop in their stores, such as traditional families," she concludes.

OneMillionMoms is asking people to call J.C. Penney to politely ask that DeGeneres be replaced -- and that instead of "jumping on the pro-gay bandwagon," the firm take a neutral stance in the culture war.
Brian Tashman's blog

Obama Cites Jesus and the Right Loses Its Mind

It seems like all we ever hear from the Religious Right is how important it is for our political leaders to let their faith influence their public policy decisions.  But apparently that only applies when it leads politicians to support the conservative political agenda because when President Obama cites Jesus, it seems to make the Right lose their minds.

Yesterday, during the National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama cited a passage from the Book of Luke to support his view that the well-off should be expected to contribute more:

And when I talk about shared responsibility, it’s because I genuinely believe that in a time when many folks are struggling, at a time when we have enormous deficits, it’s hard for me to ask seniors on a fixed income, or young people with student loans, or middle-class families who can barely pay the bills to shoulder the burden alone. And I think to myself, if I’m willing to give something up as somebody who’s been extraordinarily blessed, and give up some of the tax breaks that I enjoy, I actually think that’s going to make economic sense.

But for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’s teaching that “for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.”

And now right-wing leaders and Republicans are outraged, with Sen. Orrin Hatch lashing out about it on the Senate floor and Rep. Phil Gingrey walking out in protest while Ralph Reed, of all people, is saying that Obama went "over the line":

Ralph Reed of the Faith and Freedom Coalition said that for the president to tie his tax policy to Jesus’s teachings “is theologically threadbare and straining credulity.”

“I felt like it was over the line and not the best use of the forum,” Reed said. “It showed insufficient level of respect for what the office of the president has historically brought to that moment.”

And of course Bryan Fischer, who thinks the Bible ought to be the foundation for all our public policy, including putting animals to death, was incensed that Obama would dare to claim that the teachings of Christ support his agenda when, in fact, his agenda "is in the spirit of Joseph Stalin" and Karl Marx:

As we have said before, it is amazing President Obama even bothers to talk about his Christian faith because nothing he says will ever be acceptable for the "real" Christians in the Religious Right.

Kyle Mantyla's blog

Is the AFA Censoring Bryan Fischer Again?

The American Family Association’s spokesman and Director of Issues Analysis Bryan Fischer keeps finding that his own organization censors articles he posts to the AFA’s website, including one where he claimed that welfare encourages African Americans to “rut like rabbits” and one in which demanded that all immigrants must “convert to Christianity.”

Now, Fischer is finding himself in trouble for an article condemning Newt Gingrich, which the AFA has yanked from its website.

Why? Because AFA founder and chairman emeritus Don Wildmon endorsed Gingrich and is a member of his Faith Leaders Coalition, and claims that only a Gingrich presidency can save Western civilization and the human race.

Fischer, who is not one to apologize, began his radio show last month to by offering “my apologies for yesterday” for the “intensity” of his attacks on Gingrich over his marital affairs, and had his post labeling Gingrich “a serial adulterer” had been pulled off the AFA’s homepage.

For a radio host who constantly complains that Muslims, liberals and gays and lesbians are trying to suppress his views, it seems that the only one actually censoring Bryan Fischer is none other than his own employer.

Here’s the original article before the AFA took it off their website:

Brian Tashman's blog

Perkins: 'The Islamists and the Homosexuals Work Out of the Same Playbook'

Yesterday on Today’s Issues, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins claimed that “Islamists and the homosexuals work out of the same playbook” in their attempt to “marginalize” and “silence” critics. Perkins told his cohost, American Family Association head Tim Wildmon, that both Islamists and gays and lesbians attack critics because “if what they do and what they subscribe to is scrutinized, people will turn away from it.” Wildmon wholeheartedly agreed with Perkins and said that Islamists and the gay community want people to “suspend common sense.”

Listen:

Perkins: The Islamists and the homosexuals work out of the same playbook. They knew that if what they do and what they subscribe to is scrutinized, people will turn away from it, so what they want to do is they want to marginalize and eventually silence anyone who challenges their ideology and their agenda.

Wildmon: That’s called political correctness.

Perkins: Yup.

Wildmon: What you have to do there is you have to deny reality and you have to, you know, you have to suspend common sense.
Brian Tashman's blog

Bryan Fischer Hails Roger Ailes for Running Fox News with 'Exactly the Style that Jesus Taught'

In a column, “Jesus explains the success of Fox News,” American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer claims that Fox News president Roger Ailes’s “leadership style is exactly the style that Jesus taught.” Fischer credits Ailes’s Jesus-like behavior for Fox’s success and says “the key to success in a capitalistic system is to do things Jesus’ way.”

For Fischer, it is “Jesus’ way” to encourage someone to lie under oath, threaten the elderly publisher of a small newspaper, introduce a series of political dirty tricks, including racially charged campaign strategies and television ads, and manage a media outlet which lies and foments extremism on a routine basis.

An interesting story on Politico this morning, explaining the success of Fox News, which has double the audience of CNN and MSNBC. The brainchild of Fox is Roger Ailes, and the Politico piece quotes Shepard Smith about his leadership style:

“We have one dad in this family,” said Shepard Smith, a star anchor who was a correspondent in the Los Angeles bureau at launch. “He makes all the decisions, and you know exactly who you have to go to, and you know when to stop asking. If you get an answer from Mr. Ailes’s office, that’s the answer; it’s time to move on.”

Smith said that when he leaves Ailes’s office, “the last thing he asks me is, ‘What can I do for you?’ And the last thing he tells me is he loves me. That’s not going to work everywhere, and most people will hear that and go, ‘You are full of crap.’ That’s exactly how it is here, and I love it.”

In other words, whether Ailes realizes it or not, his leadership style is exactly the style that Jesus taught.

Remember that Jesus said, in Mark 10:45, “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve.” Ailes is successful not because he can throw his weight around, but because he uses his weight to serve the people who work for him. By serving them rather than spending all day ordering them around, he gives them the opportunity to succeed and in turn he receives the considerable reward of their talent and effort.

Bottom line: the key to success in a capitalistic system is to do things Jesus’ way. Who knew?
Brian Tashman's blog

Fischer: Let Hospitals Refuse Treatment to Emergency Room Patients

It seems that Bryan Fischer considers himself to be something of an expert when it comes to the issue of medicine and healthcare.  

For example, just last week he has informed us that Bill Clinton was responsible for a rise in oral cancer.  And before that, he was explaining that AIDS is not caused by HIV , but rather by rampant drug use and promiscuity among gay men and that if they would only stop having sex, God would be able to cure the disease.

So it only stands to reason that he would also have some thoughts on how to get healthcare costs under control by allowing hospitals to refuse treatment to those who show up in the emergency room:

I submit that we will never get health care costs under control until the federal law is repealed that mandates - there's that word again - that emergency rooms treat everybody who shows up regardless of ability to pay.

Hospitals should be allowed to set their own policies for services just like all other businesses, none of whom are forced to sell cars, food, or clothes to people who can't pay for them. Hospitals can develop a fund to which generous members of the community can contribute to cover genuine health care emergencies for the indigent.

Many people are now using emergency rooms like corner medical clinics, for routine, non-emergency care, because they know they can get care that somebody else will be obligated to pay for.

Kyle Mantyla's blog

Klingenschmitt Prays Against Home Depot for 'Marching in Parades that Defile Children and Promote Sodomite Sin'

Back in January, the American Family Association was close to declaring victory in their long running boycott of Home Depot over the company’s sponsorship of gay pride parades, telling members that “in response to AFA's boycott” Home Depot is “silently dropping public support for the homosexual agenda.” A week later, the AFA was forced to walk back their initially gleeful statement after Home Depot said that exactly nothing has changed, knocking down the AFA’s claims that their boycott has been effective.

In response to the AFA’s recommitment to the boycott, Religious Right activist Gordon Klingenschmitt called on members of his Pray In Jesus’ Name project to “boycott Home Depot” for having employees march “in parades that defile children and promote sodomite sin.” He went on to cite a much misconstrued passage in Romans for indicating that gays and lesbians are “worthy of death”

Klingenschmitt: Almighty God, we pray many more Christians will boycott Home Depot, who wrote a letter this week to the American Family Association saying they will continue sponsoring Homosexual Pride parades, and encouraging employees to dress in Home Depot aprons while marching in parades that defile children and promote sodomite sin. We refuse to buy anything there, because from Romans 1:32, “although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them,” in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Brian Tashman's blog

Fischer: Bill Clinton Responsible for Rise in Oral Cancer

A new study estimates that 7% of Americans carry the human papillomavirus (HPV) in their mouths which has been transmitted by oral sex and that this may be responsible for the rise in mouth and throat cancer over the last twenty five years.

And Bryan Fischer knows just who is to blame: Bill Clinton

Kyle Mantyla's blog

Fischer on Obama, Abortion, and The Judgment of God

As we have noted several times before, Bryan Fischer has essentially two modes of operation: bigotry and denial. 

He fills hours of radio airtime every day with unrelenting bigotry but then, when he starts to get criticism for the things he has said, he claims that his critics are taking his words out of context and misrepresenting his views ... despite the fact that everything he says has been captured on video and in audio files.

So it was interesting to see Fischer address the statement that President Obama issued on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade earlier this week by flagrantly lying about what it said. 

Obama's statement concluded by saying that "we must also continue our efforts to ensure that our daughters have the same rights, freedoms, and opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams." But to Fischer, what Obama really meant was that "unless women kill their babies in the womb, they cannot realize their destinies" as he also warned that God was going to punish this nation with a massive shedding of blood unless we repent for the sin of abortion:

Kyle Mantyla's blog

Perkins: Gays won't be Happy with Marriage Equality because of an 'Emptiness within Them'

On Today’s Issues, a despondent Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association discussed the likely passage of a bill in Washington that will legalize same-sex marriage. Citing the stories of “ex-gays,” Perkins argued that gays and lesbians will always have “an emptiness within them” and will never be content with having the right to marry, as “they are operating outside of nature and outside of God’s plan and design.” He went on to say that gay rights advocates ultimately want “the indoctrination of our kids.” Perkins has previously said that gay youth are more likely to commit suicide not as a result of “inacceptance” but because they intuitively know they are “abnormal” and even blamed “the homosexual movement” for suicides.

Watch:

Wildmon: Do you really think though, and I think you spoke to this earlier program, that these people really care about getting married, that they really care? Or are they looking for societal approval of their behavior?

Perkins: I think it’s the latter. We’ve seen that even in the early states that had same-sex marriage, not many actually, there were some certainly but by and large they don’t, you can talk too many in the homosexual community, I mean you can Google it and read the interviews, a lot of them don’t want marriage. Not every person that identifies as a homosexual or a lesbian is an activist trying to redefine the laws. I do think and many of those who have come out of the homosexual lifestyle will tell you this that they are looking for acceptance, there is an emptiness within them, they are looking for that acceptance and they think that if society will redefine the norms of behavior that will make them feel content, and it won’t because they are operating outside of nature and outside of God’s plan and design. It will be something else next; redefining marriage will not be the end of this. We’re already seeing this in California, SB 48, the measure that took effect this month, now all of the “positive” contributions of those in the GBT, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender population have to be taught in the public schools, so it will be the indoctrination of our kids to teach them that homosexuality is normal.
Brian Tashman's blog

Fischer: 'Poppers' and Promiscuity Cause AIDS

Bryan Fischer continues to defend his claim that the HIV virus does not cause AIDS and that the entire thing is a scam designed by scientists to get research money.

So what is the cause of AIDS, according to Fischer?  Well, it is the thousands of sexual partners that gay men have coupled with the fact that they need to take "poppers" in order to have that much sex.  It is these poppers, Fischer says, that destroy the immune system and "96% of the people who engage actively in homosexuality" use these drugs:

God's design is one sexual partner for life. Now, in the homosexual community, the average homosexual has hundreds of sexual partners over the course of a lifetime. Hundreds. Some of them have between 500 and 1000 and there are any number of homosexuals, and they admit this in their own literature, have more then a 1000 sexual partners.

Now they're talking about numerous sexual encounters on the same night. Now, in order to do that, they've got to take drugs to enhance the experience and to make it possible to have numerous encounters on the same night. These drugs are called "poppers," is the street name for them. They're amyl nitrites, alkyl nitrites ... they inhale these things and they dilate the blood vessels, increase blood flow and all that kind of thing - they're real tough on the heart, in fact, you'll find homosexuals frequently dying at early ages of heart attacks. Why? Because they've just overstimulated their heart with these nitrites because of the kind of sexual behavior that they engage in.

And we know, [Peter] Duesberg say, look we know, we can demonstrate in the lab the way these nitrites, the way these inhalants break down the immune system. And the research indicates that 96% of the people who engage actively in homosexuality, homosexual behavior, use these nitrites. The inhalants are very common.

So he suggests that this is the cause of AIDS: it's the rampant promiscuity, coupled with this drug use. That's what causes the human immune system to break down.

Kyle Mantyla's blog

American Family Association and Family Research Council Proud to Stand with Anal-Obsessed Pastor Patrick Wooden

On Today’s Issues, American Family Association president Tim Wildmon and Family Research Council president Tony Perkins hosted and praised North Carolina pastor and anti-gay activist Patrick Wooden, the very same pastor who said that gay men “have to wear a diaper or a butt plug just to be able to contain their bowels,” to condemn the Southern Poverty Law Center’s work against anti-gay organizations. Wooden has not only focused on “what happens to the male anus” but also said homosexuality is “wicked, deviant, immoral, self-destructive, anti-human” and should make people “literally gag.”

Remember, this is the pastor the AFA and the FRC brought on their radio show to prove why they do not deserve the SPLC’s ‘hate group’ classification.

During the show, Wooden claimed that SPLC, which he recently protested alongside Peter LaBarbera and Matt Barber, was “hijacked” and “infiltrated” by gay rights advocates, and called homosexuality “deviant” and a “death style,” and even claimed that the LGBT community discriminates against African American males.

Perkins accused the SPLC of trying to “silence the debate” over gay rights and Wildmon asserted that the SPLC “switched over” to covering LGBT issues because racism is in “rearview mirror here in our country and we moved beyond that and they had to have something to do,” and labeled the AFA and FRC anti-gay hate groups simply because the two organization “stands for traditional marriage and against homosexual marriage.” However, their stance on marriage equality was not part of the SPLC’s criteria as “not one of them was listed because of their position on same-sex marriage.”

Brian Tashman's blog

Fischer: A Mormon President Threatens the "Spiritual Health" of the Nation

Ever since Mitt Romney called out Bryan Fischer for his relentless bigotry at the Values Voter Summit, Fischer has been on a mission to ensure that Romney does not win the Republican nomination and has been increasingly willing to attack Romney's Mormon faith as part of this effort.

Yesterday, Fischer ramped it up a notch, declaring on his radio program that having a believer in a false religion in Mormonism inhabiting the White House would be a threat to the spiritual health of this nation:

[Mormonism] is not a Christian faith. It is, as Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church in Dallas says, a false religion. So it's kind of a striking things and I know it concerns a number of spiritual leaders, and I count myself among them, is what this would mean for the spiritual health of the United States of America is a worshiper of a false god occupied the White House. You know, what that would mean for the spiritual future of America and what it might reveal about the spiritual weakness of America if the American people, particularly the so-called conservatives, the people of faith in America, would promote someone to the highest office in the land who is a follower of a counterfeit faith, a false religion.

Kyle Mantyla's blog

Fischer: God Will Cure AIDS If Gays Stop Having Sex

A few weeks ago, we posted a video of Bryan Fischer denying that HIV causes AIDS and claiming it is all a scheme concocted by scientists in order to get research grants.

Since then, Fischer has continued to promote this position and earlier this week, Warren Throckmorton got Rick Warren to issue a statement decrying people like Fischer (and the "expert" he cites, Peter Duesberg) for promoting "quack science."

Fischer, of course, is standing by his claims, asserting that "it is the folks who have been propagating this scam for almost three decades who are the ones in fact putting millions of additional lives at risk" and saying that the solution to the AIDS crisis is simple:

If you’re a man, stop using poppers, stop having sex with other men, and don’t shoot up. The beauty of that solution is that it doesn’t require billions and billions of dollars.

He also discussed the issue on his radio program today, where he said we need to stop spending so much money on AIDS research and instead focus it on how to rehabilitate the human immune system because, as Fischer sees it, if gay men will just stop having sex, God will heal them:

Kyle Mantyla's blog

American Family Association Condemns Indiana for License Plates that Bolster the 'Promotion of Homosexuality among Minors'

The American Family Association is up in arms over a decision by Indiana’s bureau of motor vehicles to offer license plates that benefit the Indiana Youth Group, an organization which provides safe spaces for LGBT youth and straight allies. The license plate would cost an additional $40, $25 of which would go to IYG, and feature a rainbow with a handprint.

Naturally, the AFA’s Indiana chapter is displeased with the move, warning that the license plate which will help “a group which recruits teens into the homosexual lifestyle”:

Micah Clark, Executive Director of the American Family Association of Indiana noted that other plate interests rejected by the BMV have often taken their case to the legislature. Such was the case with Indiana's National Motto "In God We Trust Plate" license plate which now appears on more then 2 million Hoosier automobiles. For some reason the homosexual group went back to the agency again and received approval from the BMV. It is doubtful that the legislature would have approved a plate for a controversial group like the Indy Youth Group.

"You have to question what the BMV was thinking when they approved a license plate for a group which recruits teens into the homosexual lifestyle. Since health risks do not seem to matter, what is to prevent a cigar club from now getting a license plate from the BMV?"

"State agencies should be neutral in the politically charged culture war especially the promotion of homosexuality among minors. It is very disappointing that Indiana is the first state in the nation to have a license plate celebrating youth involved in homosexual behaviors," said Clark.
Brian Tashman's blog

Fischer: Romney is Preying on Evangelical Niceness/Stupidity

Bryan Fischer just cannot understand how any evangelical could possibly support Mitt Romney for president, but he does have a theory:  Romney is "preying on evangelical weaknesses."

As Fischer sees it, the only logical explanation is that evangelicals are so darned nice that they will believe anything anybody tells them and so Romney can lie to them with impunity because he knows they are so "dull" and "uninformed" that they will never figure it out:

Mitt Romney is actually preying on evangelical weaknesses. He is taking advantage of the inherent niceness in evangelicals. Evangelicals are portrayed as these people who are these flaming bigots, these hardliners, these Victorian prudes, these bluenoses, they're just angry at everybody and they walk around judging and condemning everybody. Evangelicals are not like that; they are the nicest people that you can meet, they're kind, they want to give people the benefit of the doubt, they're willing to take people at their word, they're willing to bend over backwards to accommodate other people and Mitt Romney knows that.

So he knows that evangelicals are nice people and he can take advantage of that niceness by telling them what they want to hear. And they lack enough discernment that they'll believe what he tells them. Mitt Romney tells them he's a champion on the sanctity of life, they'll believe him just because they heard him say it and they want to give him the benefit of the doubt ... Governor Romney is more responsible for the fact that we have same-sex marriage in the united States then anybody else on the planet, yet evangelicals are dull enough, uninformed enough, undiscerning enough that they are supporting him.

Kyle Mantyla's blog

Candidate Rick Perry to Speak at 'Apolitical' The Response: South Carolina

In the lead up to The Response in Houston back in August, organizers of the prayer rally and Rick Perry himself said the event had absolutely nothing to do with politics, even though the Texas Governor was actively preparing his presidential campaign at the time and announced his bid seven days after The Response.

Now, The Response is holding events in early Republican primary states, including one last month in Iowa and two prayer rallies in the next major GOP contests, South Carolina and Florida, and presidential candidate Rick Perry will be the special guest at the event in Greenville, which will take place just days before the primary vote:

Of course, having a presidential candidate who has made South Carolina the last stand of his campaign address the prayer event flies in the face of everything The Response organizers and Perry said about the “apolitical” nature of The Response. Perry’s office said in a statement publicizing The Response, which he headed along with the far-right American Family Association, that it was decidedly “apolitical”:

Gov. Rick Perry has proclaimed Saturday, Aug. 6th, as a Day of Prayer and Fasting for our Nation to seek God's guidance and wisdom in addressing the challenges that face our communities, states and nation. He has invited governors across the country to join him on Aug. 6th to participate in The Response, a non-denominational, apolitical, Christian prayer meeting hosted by the American Family Association at Reliant Stadium in Houston. Gov. Perry also urged fellow governors to issue similar proclamations encouraging their constituents to pray that day for unity and righteousness for our states, nation and mankind.

Don Wildmon, the founder of the AFA even claimed that “no political candidates will be speaking” at The Response, and organizer Doug Stringer, who called the September 11th attacks divine punishment, said he wouldn’t participate if it advanced anyone’s “political aspirations”:

"The Response is an open event. Anyone who wants to pray to Jesus for a nation in crisis is welcome to attend. Next, The Response is a prayer event, not a political event," Wildmon says. "No political candidates will be speaking. Finally our critics say The Response violates the separation of church and state. The event will be held at a public stadium which has no connection to a religious body."

…

“I didn’t want to officially be a part of The Response if there was any inkling that this would be anything political or that preaching pontificators would use this as an agenda for their individual denominations or political aspirations,” Stringer says. “But the governor said it’s going to stay pure. You can’t buy your way or influence your way to the platform.”

But Luis Cataldo of The Response and the International House of Prayer today told the Christian Post that he is bringing the prayer rally in primary states so the campaign can “reflect the values of the evangelical church”:

The Response Director Luis Cataldo acknowledged to The Christian Post that its schedule is intentionally aligned to that of the primaries. And The Response, he said, is definitely about influence.

“We are trying to influence the primary race in that the [current] moral climate, the legislation doesn’t reflect the values of the evangelical church,” Cataldo revealed.

…

“That was one of the things we most said at the beginning that we’re not political people, we’re praying people,” said Cataldo. But he added, “Prayer must be followed by action.”

Many of the original organizers of The Response had high hopes for Perry, with Lou Engle even saying that Perry’s presidential campaign announcement caused God to end the drought in Texas, but as his presidential bid has badly floundered, even Wildmon, the official host of The Response, has abandoned him.

Brian Tashman's blog

Candidate Rick Perry to Speak at 'Apolitical' The Response: South Carolina

In the lead up to The Response in Houston back in August, organizers of the prayer rally and Rick Perry himself said the event had absolutely nothing to do with politics, even though the Texas Governor was actively preparing his presidential campaign at the time and announced his bid seven days after The Response.

Now, The Response is holding events in early Republican primary states, including one last month in Iowa and two prayer rallies in the next major GOP contests, South Carolina and Florida, and presidential candidate Rick Perry will be the special guest at the event in Greenville, which will take place just days before the primary vote:

Of course, having a presidential candidate who has made South Carolina the last stand of his campaign address the prayer event flies in the face of everything The Response organizers and Perry said about the “apolitical” nature of The Response. Perry’s office said in a statement publicizing The Response, which he headed along with the far-right American Family Association, that it was decidedly “apolitical”:

Gov. Rick Perry has proclaimed Saturday, Aug. 6th, as a Day of Prayer and Fasting for our Nation to seek God's guidance and wisdom in addressing the challenges that face our communities, states and nation. He has invited governors across the country to join him on Aug. 6th to participate in The Response, a non-denominational, apolitical, Christian prayer meeting hosted by the American Family Association at Reliant Stadium in Houston. Gov. Perry also urged fellow governors to issue similar proclamations encouraging their constituents to pray that day for unity and righteousness for our states, nation and mankind.

Don Wildmon, the founder of the AFA even claimed that “no political candidates will be speaking” at The Response, and organizer Doug Stringer, who called the September 11th attacks divine punishment, said he wouldn’t participate if it advanced anyone’s “political aspirations”:

"The Response is an open event. Anyone who wants to pray to Jesus for a nation in crisis is welcome to attend. Next, The Response is a prayer event, not a political event," Wildmon says. "No political candidates will be speaking. Finally our critics say The Response violates the separation of church and state. The event will be held at a public stadium which has no connection to a religious body."

…

“I didn’t want to officially be a part of The Response if there was any inkling that this would be anything political or that preaching pontificators would use this as an agenda for their individual denominations or political aspirations,” Stringer says. “But the governor said it’s going to stay pure. You can’t buy your way or influence your way to the platform.”

But Luis Cataldo of The Response and the International House of Prayer today told the Christian Post that he is bringing the prayer rally in primary states so the campaign can “reflect the values of the evangelical church”:

The Response Director Luis Cataldo acknowledged to The Christian Post that its schedule is intentionally aligned to that of the primaries. And The Response, he said, is definitely about influence.

“We are trying to influence the primary race in that the [current] moral climate, the legislation doesn’t reflect the values of the evangelical church,” Cataldo revealed.

…

“That was one of the things we most said at the beginning that we’re not political people, we’re praying people,” said Cataldo. But he added, “Prayer must be followed by action.”

Many of the original organizers of The Response had high hopes for Perry, with Lou Engle even saying that Perry’s presidential campaign announcement caused God to end the drought in Texas, but as his presidential bid has badly floundered, even Wildmon, the official host of The Response, has abandoned him.

Brian Tashman's blog

Fischer Laments that ‘We Have Feminized Public Policy’

The American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer was excited today to read about a Public Library of Science One Journal study that finds distinct differences in personality traits between men and women. Although the study did not explore to what extent those differences are due to nature or nurture, and other researchers are already questioning the results, Fischer took the opportunity to expound on his views on the proper role of women in the public sphere.

Two years ago, Fischer provoked national controversy when he said that the United States had “feminized” the Medal of Honor by granting it to those who who have saved lives, not just those who have killed enemy troops. Today he goes back to the theme, claiming that America is in trouble because we have “feminized public policy”:

If these differences are as profound as this study suggests, could that be the explanation for why God has designed men to be leaders in the home, leaders in the church and leaders in society? And I would suggest that the answer to that question is, “Yes.”

In fact, I’ll tell you how we have gotten into trouble in our public policy, is – I don’t know how to say this without getting myself in big trouble here – but the way we have gotten in trouble in our public policy is we have gotten away from masculine characteristics of public policy. We have feminized our public policy. Our public policy ought to be about stability, it ought to be about rule consciousness -- that’s the rule of law, the same rules apply to everybody, that’s what it ought to be about -- and vigilance. Instead, so much of our public policy has been driven by what? Sensitivity, warmth and fear. These are female characteristics, they’re feminine characteristics, they should not be the things that guide and control public policy.

So anyway, I probably just got myself in a big mess there, but again that’s not me saying it. That’s not me saying that men and women have distinct personalities and it’s inate, that’s a secular outfit, the Public Library of Science One Journal.
 

Miranda Blue's blog

Bryan Fischer: AIDS Denialist

It really should come as no surprise that there is no depth to which Bryan Fischer will not sink in his relentless assault against all things gay, as he is now openly promoting the idea that the HIV virus is not the cause of AIDS.

Fisher dedicated two segments on his program yesterday to interviewing Peter Duesberg, author of "Inventing the AIDS Virus," who asserts that the idea that HIV causes AIDS was a scheme concocted by scientists in order to get research grants and that the symptoms attributed to AIDS are really caused by massive recreational drug use among gay men.

And it is a theory which Fischer wholeheartedly endorses:

You can watch the entire interview below:

Kyle Mantyla's blog
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