Posts on Matt Barber

It seems as if the Right has finally come up with an explanation for the role that African Americans played in the passage of the various anti-gay marriage amendments around the country last week: it was the result of blacks getting tired of gays comparing their quest for equality to the civil rights movement (or, as African American pastor Dwight McKissick likes to put it, comparing their sin to his skin.)

Here's Jeff Jacoby:

If black voters overwhelmingly reject the claim that marriage amendments like Proposition 8 are nothing more than bigotry-fueled assaults on civil rights, perhaps it is because they know only too well what real bigotry looks like. Perhaps it is because they resent the assertion that adhering to the ageless meaning of marriage is tantamount to supporting the pervasive humiliation and cruelty of Jim Crow. Perhaps it is because they are not impressed by strident condemnations of "intolerance" and "hate" by people who traffic in rank anti-Mormon hatemongering.

Or perhaps it is because they understand that a fundamental gulf separates the civil rights movement from the demand for same-sex marriage. One was a fight for genuine equality, for the right of black Americans to live on the same terms, and under the same restrictions, as whites. The other is a demand to change the terms on which marriage has always been available by giving it a meaning it has never before had. That isn't civil rights - and playing the race card doesn't change that fact.

And here is the same point from Matt Barber, who explains it all in the reasonable and classy manner we've all come to expect from him:

For decades now, well-organized, well-funded and highly influential "gay" political pressure groups have, with impertinence, hijacked the language of the authentic civil rights movement. In what amounts to a sort of soft racism, self-styled "queers" have disingenuously and ignobly hitched their lil' lavender wagons to a movement which, by contrast, is built upon the genuine and noble precepts of racial equality and humanitarian justice.

An illegitimate offspring of the '60s sexual revolution, the newfangled "gay rights" cult is today's postmodern, sex-centric cause célèbre. Its core tenets include, among other things, mandated moral relativism, social androgyny and forced acceptance of a pleasure-based, though demonstrably destructive, lifestyle. Apart from practitioners of "the sin that dare not speak its name," its devotees are in large part institutional fringe elitists confined to blue-state America who almost universally suffer the insufferable pangs of white guilt.

Like an addict jonesing for a hit, they long for that rush of self-righteous affirmation associated with belonging to something perceived as larger than themselves. Central to the movement's success is the ability to draft adherents who are easily manipulated through superficial slogans, appeals to emotion via anecdotal parades of horribles, and a mindless propensity to conform to nonconformity.

By drawing artificial parallels between the systematic persecution experienced by blacks over centuries past to the inherent aversion most have toward biologically unnatural, traditionally immoral and objectively perverse sexual behaviors, the homosexual lobby trivializes and diminishes the African-American struggle for civil rights. It's dishonest and offensive for people who choose to define their identity based upon aberrant sexual proclivities to compare sexual temptation and volitional sexual conduct to immutable and innocuous biological traits such as skin color ... Understandably, blacks want all this nonsense to stop.

Of course, the real explanation is a bit more complex, but if you are looking for an explanation that is simplistic and insulting, well, there you have it.

I've been having a bit of difficulty putting together a post regarding what the Right has to say about their anti-gay amendment wins in Florida, California, and Arizona not because I don't know what to say about it, but because they don't seem to know what to say about it. 

As of this writing, aside from ProtectMarriage.com thanking supporters and voters and insisting that their victory in California "doesn’t discriminate or take rights away from anyone," no major Religious Right groups have had much to say about any of this.  Powerhouse groups like Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, Eagle Forum, and the ACLJ have all been oddly silent. 

In fact, the only things I've really been able to find have been Richard Land crowing that "if traditional marriage can win in California, it can win in any of the 50 states when it's put to a vote of the people" and Ken Blackwell saying if Prop 8 "hadn't passed, we would have seen a floodgate opened in terms of same-sex marriage. Now, we've closed that gate." 

Of course, you can always count on Matt Barber to having something to say about it and he does not disappoint by providing his unique spin which suggests that Barack Obama's historic victory last night means he is now obligated to embrace the Right's anti-gay agenda:  

The passage of these three state constitutional amendments is an indicator that Obama, who has pledged full support for every single demand of extremist homosexual pressure groups, must recalibrate his far-left positions on these and other social issues if he wishes to be an effective leader ... The institution of legitimate marriage is a cornerstone of any healthy society. If you introduce counterfeit money into society, it devalues the dollar. By the same token, if you introduce counterfeit "gay marriage" into society, it devalues the institution of natural marriage. President-elect Obama owes his African-American supporters and the rest of America assurances that he will work to protect the cornerstone institution of legitimate marriage and reject the free-speech killing, religious liberties chilling agenda of the radical homosexual lobby."

We’ve written before about the Right’s plan to unleash the “biggest culture war battles ever” should Barack Obama become president and now we have Matt Barber urging right-wing activists to be like Christ and storm “into a temple and started kicking over some tables and throwing some people out of there”: 

A pro-family activist is encouraging Christians to become and stay involved in the culture war no matter the outcome of the presidential election …

"We have too many Christians who are kind of sitting on their hands, being in the world but not of the world. Well, that doesn't mean that you don't get involved in the process and that you don't stand up for your religious liberties," he contends.

"We have this notion of Christ as being kind of passive and allowing himself to be pushed around. Well, as I recall, Christ at one point went into a temple and started kicking over some tables and throwing some people out of there....I'm not advocating violence -- but it's time for people to start standing up for their constitutionally guaranteed freedoms."

The interesting thing about this OneNewsNow article is how it describes Barber.  Noting that his claim to fame is having been fired from Allstate Insurance after penning anti-gay screeds for right-wing “news” outlets, Barber landed a gig at Concerned Women for America and recently became “director of cultural affairs with Liberty Counsel and also the associate dean of the Liberty University School of Law.”  As ONN put it, he “now serves full-time on the front lines of the culture war.”

Imagine that?  Someone who makes their living serving on the “front lines of the culture war” and ginning up right-wing outrages is planning on continue to do just that regardless of who wins the next election.

For the last several days, there has been a story floating around the right-wing media sites about some instructor at some college in Colorado who reportedly instructed his students to write a critical essay about Sarah Palin … or something like that.  I hadn’t really been paying attention because it seemed like just another one of those bogus pseudo-scandals that the Right likes to concoct every chance it gets. 

But then I came across this article in the Examiner that shed some light on it:

Blogs are abuzz about what they claim is the latest example of a liberal college instructor imposing his views in class.

Instructor (not “Professor,” as many accounts have it) Andrew Hallam allegedly assigned students in one his Metro State freshman writing classes to write an essay critical of GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. He reportedly later broadened the assignment so that students could write about any candidate.

Basically nobody outside the class seems to know what the assignment was and the only person willing to discuss it is one student named Jena Barber:

One student said the instructor singled out Republican students in the class and allowed others to ridicule them.

"I was shocked. I was 'Holy cow, this is just an open door for him to discuss politics with us,' " said Jana Barber, a student in the class.

Barber shared the assignment with CBS4 on Wednesday. Instructor Andrew Hallam asked students in an English course to write an essay to contradict what he called the "fairy tale image of Palin" presented at the Republican National Convention. Hallam declined an interview with CBS4 News on Thursday.

And wouldn’t you know it, she just so happens to be the sister of Matt Barber:

Jana Barber is the sister of Matt Barber, director of cultural affairs for the conservative Liberty Counsel legal organization. Until June, Matt Barber held a similar title with Concerned Women for America, another conservative Christian organization.

Of course, the story has already shown up in WorldNetDaily and now Matt Baber is sending out press releases announcing that his sister will appear on “The O’Reilly Factor” tonight to discuss it.  

Why is it that every time the Right manages to gins up some phony outrage, Matt Barber seems to be involved?

As we reported last year, San Francisco’s Folsom Street Fair became the subject of a controversy that began when Concerned Women for America took umbrage at this provocative flyer, which they deemed “open ridicule of Christianity.”

Matt Barber urged that “the mainstream media…cover this event with cameras in hand. There's an unbelievable news story here. The Folsom Street Fair is reminiscent of Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah, and the media should document exactly what the city of San Francisco is allowing to occur - in public - in the name of 'tolerance.”

That the media did…or, at least, the story landed on Fox News.

But it doesn’t end there.  Because of the California gay marriage decision, the Right thinks there may be more material to be drawn from the Folsom Street Fair.  As Linda Harvey of Mission America explains, the event is symptomatic of a larger corrupting influence, the “polluting effects of California’s moral decay”:

California’s sexual license is not something we welcome in Middle America.  We don't want same sex 'marriage' legalized, nor to have our children taught to praise homosexuality, as California children now must do after the passage of SB 777 and AB 394. And we don't want naked people having sex in our streets.

Of course, the only way to keep this “corruption footprint” from infecting Middle America is for a few brave souls like Harvey and her allies to wade right into the middle of San Francisco, where they will “protest and expose” the Folsom Street Fair.  For its part, CWA announces that “Peter LaBarbera, President of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality will return to document the street fair's activities.”

It would be amazing if LaBarbera weren’t there, because his entire career seems to consist of attending these types of events.  Nevertheless, he is already at work attacking Joan Rivers for making an appearance, exposing Gavin Newsom’s cheery letter of greeting to fairgoers, and even imagining “the conversation between leather partners Stephane and Jahn before the big event”:

Jahn: “Oh, I wouldn’t live anywhere else. Who wants to live in one of those prudish cities where you they make you wear clothes in public and where you can’t have sex in the streets?”

Stephane: “What’s extra special is that we’re even allowed to bring Thad and Chad, our three-year-old adopted twins, to come on Sunday to join in the fun! They just love to watch.”

Jahn: “Thank the gods for the California Supreme Court and our new right to marriage equality. Now that we’re married it will be so much easier to adopt our next child!”

Matt Barber, Policy Director for Cultural Issues with Concerned Women for America, is moving on to Liberty University Law School and Liberty Counsel, CWA reports. Barber only got the CWA gig in the first place because Allstate fired him for writing an article on “the medical risks of homosexual behavior for a Christian publication.” Says CWA President Wendy Wright: “Matt’s insightful commentaries and dedication to doing what is right will continue to serve our common goals of influencing our culture.”

As we noted a few weeks ago, the Right did not react well to the California Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians, with people like Janet Folger going so far as to proclaim it signals the end of the world.

In the days since the ruling was handed down, the Right doesn’t appear to have mellowed … if anything, some of them seem to be getting more and more riled up by the day.  Take, for instance, this recent rant by Concerned Women for America’s Matt Barber:

So-called "same-sex marriage" is a counterfeit. It's a fraud and not even a good one at that. If marriage is a Rembrandt, then the ridiculous and oxymoronic notion of "gay marriage" is a Rembrandt knock-off from the pages of Mad Magazine. It's a silly novelty.

I know. I'm "mean-spirited." But in light of the California Supreme Court's recent opinion - which enigmatically manufactured a "constitutional right" to "same-sex marriage" out of thin air - I think we need to come back to earth for a moment. Mind you, re-entry into reality's atmosphere will inevitably burn some folks.

When same-sex friendships (or more often, seconds-old acquaintances) are twisted and sexualized, practitioners of "the sin that dare not speak its name" are forced, at every level, to merely mimic the genuine article. They jump through a series of inelegant hoops to create a fantasy world wherein two people of the same gender clumsily imitate natural heterosexual pairings properly designed for procreation and the healthy rearing of children.

Even "gay sex" (male-male anal sodomy) is a crude, man-made imitation of the natural heterosexual reproductive process (only the fallen mind of man could concoct such depraved and foul behavior). Sadly, as millions of homosexuals have had to learn the hard way, this disordered, makeshift simulation of a natural biological process is coldly rejected by the very human biology it mocks.

…

Ellen [DeGeneres] compounds the sin of homosexuality by using the platform she's been given to lead others astray. She guides her many adoring housewife fans into rebellion against God's divine and explicit natural order by suggesting they celebrate sin and entertain, along with her, the "gay marriage" delusion.

Still, God will not be mocked. It's the height of humanist hubris to believe that man (including judges) can radically redefine that which God has created. We can never sanctify that which natural law rejects and God expressly condemns. Especially when God Himself, out of sheer love for each of us, offers us so much more.

I'm sorry (well not really) for my lack of contrived "sensitivity," but Ellen, sweetie (to borrow from a presidential candidate), no amount of wishful thinking or going through the motions will make your illicit same-sex "relationship" with Ms. DeRossi a "marriage." You may get a piece of paper that says it is, but, in the eyes of God and most of the world, your counterfeit "marriage" will never be worth the paper it's written on.

Before he was hired by CWA, Barber worked for Allstate Insurance until he was fired for penning anti-gay columns for right-wing websites – go figure.

Speaking of right-wing groups going completely over the top, the Traditional Values Coalition weighs in on the equality legislation in Colorado that we wrote about a few days ago … or, as TVC calls it, “The She-Male Restroom Bill”:

Not surprisingly, the Right’s reaction to last week’s ruling by the California Supreme Court in favor of equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians was swift and negative.

Former Rep. Ernest Istook, now of the Heritage Foundation, evoked Nazi metaphors to blame those who supported civil unions as a compromise: “By trying to appease homosexual rights activists, those who have refused to stand up for traditional marriage helped to create this court ruling.  They are the Neville Chamberlains of the cultural wars.”

Barrett Duke of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission said he was "saddened for the people of California" but "especially for the children of that state."

"The California Supreme Court ruling not only overruled the very clear will of the people, it also proposes to overrule God's design," Duke said. "These judges may think they know more about marriage than the rest of us, but I am confident they don't know more about marriage than God. Marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Children need that environment to give them their best chance to fulfill their great potential. That's not only my opinion and the opinion of most of the people in this country, it's God's opinion, and His opinion overrules the opinion of any judges.

Indeed, the Right emphasized this “activist judges” angle; Gary Bauer, attacking the “four unelected robed radicals,” wrote:

It was an egregious exercise in judicial activism – of judges wielding raw political power to redefine our most basic values. But that is how the Left has succeeded. It cannot achieve its goals through the democratic process via the elected legislatures, so it ignores the people and goes to the courts, where it relies on political activists cloaked in black who answer to no one. The Left succeeds by using the most undemocratic methods possible.

Of course, Bauer may not realize that, while appointed at first, justices on California’s Supreme Court face voters at the next general election; each of the justices in the majority for this case has been retained by voters at least once. Bauer is probably aware, though, that the “elected legislature” in California passed marriage equality in 2005 and 2007, only to have it vetoed both times by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Nevertheless, right-wing activists hoped the decision would energize opponents of gay rights into action. “The good news is that I believe this will re-ignite the debate over a federal constitutional amendment,” according to Concerned Women for America’s Matt Barber. Jan LaRue called on Californians to recall members of the state’s Supreme Court in the way they recalled the governor several years ago. “Are you going to sit by and do nothing while four black-robed despots take away your right to govern yourselves?”

Meanwhile, the effort to put on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage on the California ballot continues—now, apparently, with more funding.

And, in spite of a beleaguered GOP’s effort to keep a low profile on social wedge issues during this election cycle, the Right is hoping the decision will push John McCain to “speak out more strongly in support of defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman,” as Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council put it.

At least a thousand people attended a rally in the Oklahoma capitol for state Rep. Sally Kern, who recently became a right-wing celebrity after ranting about how gays are a bigger threat than terrorism. In her speech, Kern called homosexuality “the death knell for this country,” warned of a sinister “gay agenda” of indoctrinating “two year olds” and “infiltrating city councils,” and associated gays with “deadly” diseases. Unsurprisingly, the legislator has been catching some flack for her over-the-top anti-gay broadside, but according to Kern and her supporters, criticism of Kern (including angry e-mails, “many of them filled with profanity and vulgarity”) is proof of the persecution of the Religious Right.

From the Oklahoman:

"I told the people when I was running for this office that I was a Christian candidate and that I believed we were in a cultural war for the very existence of our Judeo-Christian values,” said Kern, who was elected to the House in 2004. "This situation proves that I was right. We are in a cultural war; this is for real.”

Concerned Women for America’s Matt Barber, who has helped promote Kern as a right-wing hero and who recently cited blood donations as proof of the “gay agenda” Kern warned against, said Kern had been the victim of “tremendous assault” by “homosexual anti-Christian hate groups.” After the rally, he portrayed this “persecution” as biblical:

People with traditional values who value God's design for human sexuality will not be intimidated and bullied into silence.  Political correctness can never trump truth. Sally Kern stood for truth, and she was hated for it. She was persecuted for Christ, but the Body of Christ was there to lift her up.

Likewise, Kern herself claimed the mantle of St. Paul in his imprisonment by the Romans:

"This is not about me," Kern said at the rally, which spilled over from the first floor rotunda to the building's second and third floors. She is the wife of Olivet Baptist Church pastor Steven Kern in Oklahoma City. "It's about the church having the right to speak out for the redeeming love of Jesus Christ Who died to set us all free from sin. The Lord gave me a verse I've been claiming. Philippians 1:12, 'I want you to know that what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel.'"

The Religious Right has long sought to claim that Christianity is under attack by nefarious forces in the form of whatever policies and politics it disagrees with, as a way to convince people to go along with its far-right platform. Presenting Kern as the victim of a “gay hate campaign” neatly deflects the obvious criticism that Kern, Barber, and the others have been waging their anti-gay “hate campaign” the whole time.

(Photo by Bob Nigh from Baptist Press.)

Recently, the Human Rights Campaign released a statement on a hearing in which the "American Red Cross, the American Association of Blood Banks and America’s Blood Centers [testified] that the ban on blood donations from men who have had sex with men since 1977 should be lifted,” in which HRC President Joe Solmonese commented:

Twentieth century prejudice shouldn’t keep us from 21st century health standards. Our nation’s leading blood services organizations agree that there is no rational justification for treating gay and bisexual men different than straight men. Given modern testing and the fact that anyone can be vulnerable to infection, there is no medical or scientific rationale for this discriminatory policy.

Predictably, Concerned Women for America’s resident anti-gay “expert” Matt Barber weighed in and, instead of criticizing the groups that actually delivered this testimony, chose to attack Solmonese for intentionally endangering the nation’s blood supply:

"Joe Solmonese's demand is incredibly reckless and selfish," said Matt Barber, Policy Director for Cultural Issues with Concerned Women for America (CWA). "Unfortunately, it's a common demand among his fellow extremists.

"In South Africa, militant homosexual activists have been deliberately and surreptitiously violating that nation's blood ban, planning to flood blood services with 70,000 units.  Who knows how much blood has been contaminated or how many innocent people have been infected," said Barber, "This isn't a protest; it's an act of violence.

…

"Joe Solmonese has severely damaged his credibility here, and he should immediately withdraw his demand.  It's unconscionable that he would place a deceptive and dangerous political agenda above the health and well-being of American men, women and children. 

Barber has been a busy man lately, working to turn anti-gay Oklahoma legislator Sally Kern into a right-wing cause célèbre after she was recorded saying that the gay agenda is the “biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam,” so it is no surprise that Barber would cite HRC’s position as proof that Kern was indeed correct in her assessment:

In recent days, Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern has been viciously attacked and maligned, even receiving death threats, for saying that homosexual activism poses a grave threat.  This represents but one example of many which illustrate her point.  She can rest her case. 

Anti-gay Oklahoma state legislator Sally Kern defends herself in an interview with like-minded allies Matt Barber of Concerned Women for American and Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality ... the two "experts" she initially cited in explaining her views.

Oklahoma state legislator Sally Kern became a national celebrity over the weekend, after the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund posted an audio clip of her expounding on the supposed “homosexual agenda”: “I honestly think it’s the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam,” said Kern.

According to Oklahomans for Equality, Kern has been expressing similar anti-gay views for years, and she apparently has no plans to change course:

Kern said Monday she plans to take this issue as far as it goes and will not apologize for her statements. "If it costs me my seat that's OK," she said. "I'm going to stand up for what is right."

And apparently Republicans in Oklahoma are behind her: Kern said she received a standing ovation from fellow GOP legislators in a closed meeting on Monday.

Religious-right activists have been pushing idea for years that there is a nefarious “homosexual agenda” behind political efforts for equal rights for gays and lesbians, usually taking the form of “indoctrinating” children or shutting down churches. So it’s no surprise that when pressed to back up her rant, Kern provided as “proof” links to statements by the usual far-right activists—such as Matt Barber of Concerned Women for America and Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality—claiming that politically active gays are part of a conspiracy to “gain power” and “promot[e] homosexuality among young people.”

Concerned Women for America’s Matt Barber has, at long last, found “proof” of the “gay agenda”: gays and lesbians looking for government jobs. From the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow:

The conservative policy group Concerned Women for America is speaking out against a new project launched by a coalition of homosexual activist groups designed to recruit and vet openly homosexual professionals to serve in influential political positions in the next presidential administration. …

Matt Barber, policy director for cultural issues at Washington, DC-based Concerned Women for America, says the project puts to rest the notion that there is no "gay agenda." He says the homosexual lobby is committed to infiltrating the executive branch with people who define their identity based on changeable, sexually deviant behavior.

"The ultimate goal, of course, being to have people who engage in these aberrant sexual behaviors in a position of power to influence public policy in such a way that they gain more power," he explains.

CWA's Matt Barber warns that "The Golden Compass" is trying to turn kids into atheists: "With The Golden Compass, Phillip Pullman shares his heart with us - a heart that says, 'There is no God.' And he clearly wants to influence your child's heart as well. This movie's creation - or chance materialization, take your pick - has a specific agenda. It is clearly targeted toward unsuspecting children with the furtive goal of enlisting the next generation of 'fools.'"

Concerned Women for America's Matt Barber explains to his younger brother that the Right's anti-gay agenda, while purely defensive, is necessary to fight the "relentless homosexual propaganda [which] goose-steps along, trampling upon those who observe traditional notions of sexual morality."