June 2012

Right Wing Leftovers - 6/26/12

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 6/26/2012 5:30 pm
  • NOM is now protesting General Mills, declaring "this is extremely serious! We cannot allow Corporate America throw its weight behind the gay marriage movement!"

  • Janice Crouse says "the only group that has continued to remain pro-choice are those without any religion."

  • Republican members of Congress continue to appear on Bryan Fischer's radio program, as yesterday Rep. Alan Nunnelee actually joined him in studio for an interview.

  • Save California's Randy Thomasson says that "you, your children, your grandchildren, your friends and others you know deserve to know the truth about the unnatural, unhealthy, destructive and intolerant LGBT agenda, for that's what it is."

  • Finally, it looks like David Barton and James Robison are bringing together a nice collection of Religious Right leaders for a pastors conference ahead of Glenn Beck's "Restoring Love" event next month.

Boykin: Go To Dearborn, Michigan and 'You Would Think You Were in Beirut or Damascus'

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 6/26/2012 3:40 pm

Over the weekend, Jerry Boykin was interviewed on a radio program out of Bakersfield, California ahead of a scheduled appearance at a local church early next week where he will undoubtedly promote his anti-Islam conspiracy theories.

During the interview, Boykin warned that every serious Muslim was determined to enshrine Sharia wherever they lived and that they were making great progress in establishing it in America.  This prompted one of the co-hosts to ask Boykin about Dearborn, Michigan which he claimed was "almost one hundred percent Muslim and operating under Sharia law now," a statement with which Boykin agreed, adding that "if you walk down the streets, you would think you were in Beirut or Damascus": 

New TBN Lawsuit Alleges Rape Cover-Up

Submitted by Josh Glasstetter on Tuesday, 6/26/2012 3:08 pm

Back in April we reported on a suit filed against TBN – the right-wing televangelism powerhouse based in Orange County, California – by Brittany Koper, a granddaughter of TBN founders Paul and Jan Crouch and a former senior executive at the organization. The suit alleged “multiple cover-ups of sexual and criminal scandals,” including a cover-up of a “bloody sexual assault.” A new suit, filed last week by Koper’s 19-year-old sister Carra Crouch, sheds signficant light on the allegation. 

Teri Sforza, who has closely covered TBN’s legal woes for the Orange County Register, broke the news about the suit:
A granddaughter of Trinity Broadcasting Network founders Jan and Paul Crouch filed a lawsuit Monday alleging that she was plied with alcohol and raped by a TBN employee when she was just 13 — and that her family covered up the incident, rather than report it to authorities, to protect TBN’s reputation.
 
Carra Crouch, now 19, was distraught after the 2006 assault by a 30-year-old man, and told her grandmother what had happened. “Jan (Crouch) became furious and began screaming at Ms. Crouch, a thirteen year old girl, and began telling her ‘it is your fault,’” according to the suit.
 
Carra Crouch then told John Casoria, TBN’s in-house counsel and her second cousin; he became agitated and told her that he didn’t believe her, it says. “He elaborated by stating he further believed she was already sexually active ‘so it did not really matter’ and he ‘believed she may have propositioned him,’ ” the suit alleges.
According to the suit, both Jan Crouch and Casoria are ordained ministers and therefore legally required to report such an incident. They allegedly failed to report the rape and prevented Carra Crouch from speaking with the police, a counselor, or any other third party.
 
In 2006, Carra Crouch traveled with her grandmother Jan to TBN’s spring telethon in Atlanta, where she was given her own hotel room. As Sforza reported:
The 30-year-old TBN employee, who Crouch had known for years, wound up in her room and ordered a bottle of wine from room service on Trinity’s account (“Trinity Broadcasting makes a regular practice of providing alcohol to its employees during business meetings”), the suit alleges. He coerced her to drink it “in an attempt to get her intoxicated,” and she did, it says. She asked him to leave her room, and he responded by giving her a glass of water to “help her feel better.”
 
Carra Crouch drank the glass of water and passed out immediately, according to the suit. When she awoke the next morning, the man was lying next to her, there was blood on the bed sheets, and she had “severe pain and soreness in her body in places which indicated she had been molested and raped,” it alleges. She locked herself in the bathroom and screamed at the man to leave her room, and returned to California that day.
 
That glass of water, Crouch now believes, contained a date rape drug which caused her to pass out.
TBN’s attorney Colby May vehemently denied any wrongdoing by TBN when contacted by Sforza. However, TBN did fire the 30-year-old man shortly after Carra Crouch reported him to her grandmother and Casoria:
Casoria, TBN’s in-house attorney,  fired him over the telephone, saying Trinity had gathered enough evidence to terminate him with cause, that the evidence was “most probably sufficient to bring criminal charges” against him, and that Trinity would not disclose the evidence to the police if he would not file for unemployment, worker’s compensation or an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claim, the suit alleges.
Carra Crouch, until recently, worked at the TBN gift shop. She was fired, however, as part of what she calls a sweep by Paul and Jan Crouch against family members who are close to her sister, Koper.
 
We’ll check in periodically on this suit and others against TBN. Stay tuned.

 

Does the Contraception Mandate Spell the End of America?

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 6/26/2012 2:03 pm

Just this morning we had a post noting how Eric Metaxas' book "Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy" had become a favorite of the Religious Right, largely due to parallels they see between Dietrich Bonhoeffer resistance to the Nazi regime and their own opposition to President Obama and his administration.

Now we see that Metaxas and Jennifer Roback Morse of the NOM affiliated Ruth Institute, are featured in a new video from the Acton Institute in which Metaxas declares that, just as Bonhoeffer warned under the Nazis, the time has come for the Church to rise up together against the Obama administration's contraception mandate because it literally represents "a threat to the United States of America" and failure to stop it means "the end of America" because, as Morse ominously notes, if the government can get away with this, then "they're going to squash you like a bug": 

Linda Harvey Seeks to Save Children from the Quicksand of LGBT Confusion

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 6/26/2012 1:38 pm

Earlier this month, the school board in Erie, Illinois voted to ban the use of materials from the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network's (GLSEN) "Ready, Set, Respect!" lesson program for elementary school students on the grounds that materials like "The Family Book," which states that "some families have two moms or two dads" were inappropriate.

And for this decision, the school board is being hailed by Linda Harvey who says that it was "because of nonsense like this" GLSEN lesson program that she got involved in the effort to expose the gay agenda in the first place, since all it does is confuse and upset children who "can sense when something is profoundly not right":

They want little children to learn that boys can dress as girls and girls as boys and that this is normal. They want small children to look into their futures and envision romance and even marriage with a person of the same sex and feel comfortable with this option.

When I got involved in this issue, that is exposing the agenda directed to our kids, it was because of nonsense like this. Let's put ourselves in the minds of little children, seven or eight years old, and imagine being told that when you grow into your teen years, you may want to date a girl or you may want to date a boy but it doesn't matter and that this is normal development. But children can sense when something is profoundly not right. The problem is they won't always be able to verbalize their discomfort.

When adults betray the trust of kids, children react like kids who are troubled. They behave with insecurity and sometimes very inappropriately because their world just doesn't make sense. Their little lives have become quicksand and unstable and confused adults are the reason.

Janet Mefferd has No Use for Gay Rights 'Talking Points' that Make 'No Mention of Sodomy'

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 6/26/2012 11:31 am

Recently, singer Carrie Underwood revealed her support for marriage equality, while Dick and Lynne Cheney publicly supported the marriage of their gay daughter Mary to her partner and even former anti-gay marriage activist David Blankenhorn announced that he had changed his views.

But Janet Mefferd is not impressed, mainly because none of these people have any "reasons" for their views and are unable to provide any "arguments" in favor of them.  Instead, Mefferd claims, they are just citing "regurgitated talking points [that are] continually reinforced by an insidious social movement that wants unanimous compliance on its immoral agenda -- an agenda that many more Americans would reject if it were brought into broad daylight, where all its lies, obfuscations and straw men could be exposed."

In fact, Mefferd explains, the "talking points" used to support marriage equality are no different from the talking points used to support the right to choose as gay activists seek to "make "heterosexuals scared to offend homosexuals" and talk about the issue in terms of equality and love while making "no mention of sodomy":

1. Both agendas operate as anti-child cultures of death. Abortion kills children. Homosexual behavior can't create them.

2. Both agendas falsely play on people's unnecessary fear and guilt by focusing on the micro personal story, rather than the macro moral issue. For abortion activists, the question often was framed thusly: "What if your daughter found herself in a crisis pregnancy? Shouldn't she have the right to choose?" The LGBT activist subtly alters his question to this: "What if your daughter announced she's gay? Shouldn't she have the right to choose whom to love?" And, of course, if your answer focuses on deeper questions about the effect on society of embracing abortion on demand or so-called homosexual marriage, rather than personal love for your own flesh and blood, then you look like a jerk. This is why the questions are put the way they are. "This isn't about society. It's about your daughter. Don't you love your daughter?" LGBT activists have gained many a quasi-conservative convert just because that person had a gay daughter, son or friend and couldn't look beyond the love lines. Emphasizing the personal is a very effective tactic, and both lobbies have used it successfully. The abortion lobby did it by making men scared to offend women. The LGBT lobby does it by making heterosexuals scared to offend homosexuals. Same tactic, different objective.

3. Both agendas rely heavily on Orwellian Newspeak. For the abortion activists, the terminology is "a woman's right to choose," "reproductive health decision" or "termination of pregnancy." No mention of babies. For the LGBT activists, the terminology is "equality," "civil rights" and "love." No mention of sodomy.

4. Both agendas count on the media to frame the agenda for the general public, reporting only stories that make the agenda look good and its opposition look bad. From Planned Parenthood to women who have had abortions to abortionists themselves, the media dutifully paints the pro-abortion zealots as selfless heroes who just care about women. One-sided stories are vital to the cause, which is why you'll rarely see more than a token quote from a pro-lifer in any major news report on abortion. And if you're waiting to see an expose on Planned Parenthood or actual pictures of dismembered babies on a nightly TV newscast, keep on waiting.

The LGBT activists enjoy the same treatment. To the media, homosexuals are an honorable and severely oppressed victim class, and they're all born gay -- no exceptions. Consequently, you'll only see media portrayals of Awesome Homosexuals. They're sensitive, good-looking and saintly; they're wonderful friends with brilliant minds, sharp wits and caring personal advice at the ready. And they're everywhere: on TV, in the movies, on the news, in the White House (except the non-Awesome ones who recently got caught flipping off portraits of President Reagan). Which brings up a periodic problem the media has when the storyline doesn't go as planned: you know, like when actress Cynthia Nixon declared that for her, being gay is a choice. Or when singer Melissa Etheridge's partner, Julie Cypher, left her, with this exit line: "I'm not gay." But when Jerry Sandusky or Catholic priests sexually abuse little boys, you won't see any media outlet raise the slightest question about the accused's sexual preferences. Not relevant, homophobe. End of debate.

5. Both agendas have succeeded by obfuscating the physical death, pain or injury that comes from embracing their agenda. When, again, was the last time you saw a major network broadcast photos of dismembered preborn children? Oh, yes, we already covered that. Never. Similarly, why don't we ever see a major news analysis on the health risks of homosexuality, as reported on the website of the Centers for Disease Control? http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/msm/index.htm

I guess we are all to believe that the moment America's First Gay President repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," all the health risks of homosexuality magically went away. Not relevant, homophobe. End of debate.

6. Both agendas have thrived by relying on the Saul Alinsky-esque tactics of targeting, freezing, personalizing and polarizing their opponents. There are no reasonable, honest and fair debates with the Abortion Lobby or the LGBT Lobby. It's not how they get stuff done. It's all about making the opposition look bad, in order to skirt the real issue of whether or not their agenda is moral or good for society. So in the agenda-pushing scheme of things, those who support abortion are reasonable, freedom-loving people with a sense of fairness, and those who don't are judgmental, religious zealots. Those who support so-called homosexual marriage also are reasonable, freedom-loving people with a sense of fairness. And those who don't are judgmental, religious zealots. See how easy that was?

7. Both agendas seek "religious cover." It's why you see stories like the recent news report on the Washington, D.C.-based "Christian" obstetrician, who changed his mind on abortion and decided to start killing preborn children out of his great "compassion" for women. Or why the senior religion editor at The Huffington Post breathlessly reported a story over the weekend about religious people "celebrating" LGBT Pride. Again, religious people who embrace abortion or homosexuality -- even if they're violating the very tenets of their own religion by doing so -- are good. But religious people who oppose those practices are evil, bigoted, homophobic and -- let's face it -- probably hiding a secret abortion or same-sex affair.

Joyner: We Must Act Like Wilberforce or We'll be Martyred Like Bonhoeffer

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 6/26/2012 10:28 am

Eric Metaxas has written two books in recent years that have been widely embraced by the Religious Right, largely because the movement sees parallels between the Metaxas' subjects and their own ideological crusades.

The first book that caught their attention was the book "Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery" which was widely promoted by the Right as a parallel to their fight against abortion.

Then, in 2011, Metaxas released "Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy," a biography about German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was put to death by the Nazis for his role in the resistance, and to whom the Religious Right compares itself in opposing the Obama administration and liberals in general.

On Friday's episode of "Prophetic Perspective on Current Events," Rick Joyner saw prophetic significance in the combination of Metaxas two works, revealing that they serve as a warning that "if we don't take the kind of action that Wilberforce took, we're going to end up being martyrs like Bonhoeffer":

Right Wing Round-Up - 6/25/12

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 6/25/2012 5:46 pm

Right Wing Leftovers - 6/25/12

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 6/25/2012 5:37 pm
  • Lou Engle and The Call are returning to California in September For "a gathering focused on the great Hispanic peoples of California [because] God gave us a word that California would be a pro-life state."

  • Randy Thomasson of SaveCalifornia.com says gay pride events "are harmful because they advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender rights. These are false rights that trample the conscience rights of anyone who disagrees."

  • NOM has endorsed former Judicial Confirmation Network counsel Wendy Long in her race to challenge Sen Kirsten Gillibrand.

  • Why does it seem that every time we turn around FRC is hosting another webcast?

  • Peter Sprigg says college classes studying the issue of pornography are "unconscionable and potentially harmful."

  • Steve Deace officially declares that he will not vote for Mitt Romney.

  • Finally, in an elaborate ceremony, Harry Jackson was declared "International Presiding Bishop of the ICEC," which is quite an accomplishment since Jackson himself founded the ICEC just last year.

Newt Having Trouble Keeping His Tyrants Straight

Submitted by Peter Montgomery on Monday, 6/25/2012 5:27 pm
Last Friday’s edition of the exercise in narcissism that is the “Newt and Callista Weekly Recap” email from Gingrich Productions included what may be a strange Freudian slip.  The email linked to a wildly over-the-top column in Human Events in which Newt referred to President Obama’s decision to temporarily halt deportations of some young undocumented immigrants as a “dictatorial action” that historians might one day consider “the day the Constitution died.”
 
As part of his fulminations, Newt declared, “Now, in one bold move worthy of Cesar Chavez or Vladimir Putin, President Obama has added the role of Congress to that of president.”
 
Cesar Chavez? Presumably, Gingrich meant to pair Putin with Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez. But then again, maybe he has a Big Thinker theory connecting the legendary farmworker organizer to Russia’s current president. It may be no more far-fetched than Newt’s idea that the deportation deferrals are proof that “No president in our history has been as willing to destroy the Constitution as Obama.”