American Family Association

Fred Jackson and Dan Celia of the American Family Association discussed the Boy Scouts of America’s vote to end the ban on openly gay members under the age of 18 this morning on Financial Issues, which Jackson called an “open rebellion against God.” The two expressed shock and disappointment as Jackson noted that over 60 percent of delegates backed the change in policy, and Celia predicted that this will bring “the fall of the nation.”

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The American Family Association’s monthly magazine, AFA Journal, has a story this month about a movie written by the group’s research director Ed Vitagliano called “Accidental Activist”:

Ted and Lynn Murphy lead a simple life. They have three wonderful children, their own small business, and a good relationship with friends and neighbors.

But that life is turned upside down when Ted signs a petition advocating traditional marriage. It is a small act of civic duty in his mind, but in the minds of others in the community it is viewed as an act of heartless bigotry.

Ted and his wife become the focus of a local protest that threatens not only to destroy their business but suffocate their religious freedom as well.

AFA Journal interviewed Vitagliano about his “friendships with people who are homosexual or have been, and have left that lifestyle when they became Christians.”

Vitagliano laments that a gay person, even the “the ordinary homosexual non-activist,” for some reason may not want to maintain a friendship with someone who opposes his or her right to marry: “I don’t know how many homosexuals would want to be friends with a Christian who signs what we would call a pro-marriage petition.” He says he wants gay people to “see that in the culture war, Christians are victims as much as they see themselves as victims.”

What happens when an ordinary Christian family is “accidentally” thrown into the fires of a heated culture war battle?

American Family Association’s new movie, Accidental Activist, follows the trials of Ted Murphy and his family as their reputations, friendships and even livelihood are threatened after he signs a petition supporting traditional marriage.

The story is propelled by the friendship of Ted who, along with his wife, runs a custom T-shirt business, and Ron who owns a nearby popular coffee shop. Ron is a homosexual.

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Ed Vitagliano: I tried to portray Ted as an ordinary Christian who reacts in a very human way to his trials. Ted wants to know where God is in the midst of his troubles. Earlier in my Christian walk I sometimes felt like that. I wasn’t yet at a place to understand that stressful circumstances are often used to glorify His name. As I grew older and more experienced with my walk with the Lord, I realized that God doesn’t have to explain to me what He’s doing in my life. Ted faces the same dilemma.

Over the years, I've had friendships with people who are homosexual or have been, and have left that lifestyle when they became Christians. Some still struggle with it. For me, those relationships humanize the struggles of gay men and women. Admittedly, I’ve had limited experience; however, I realize they are human beings made in God’s image.

I wanted to make sure that Ron represented what I think is the ordinary homosexual non-activist who is just trying to live his life and find happiness. I wanted him to be seen as someone with whom a Christian could have a friendship. At the same time, I wanted to make it clear that there was an important disagreement between Ted and Ron.

AFAJ: Do you think such a friendship is possible?

EV: I think Christians would want to maintain friendships with people who have beliefs that are outside Christian belief – atheists, for example.

On the other hand, I don’t know how many homosexuals would want to be friends with a Christian who signs what we would call a pro-marriage petition. But if there are homosexuals who watch the movie, I hope they might give Christians a chance.

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On the other side, I’d like for those in the homosexual rights movement to see that just because we Christians see marriage in a way that excludes homosexuals, that doesn’t mean we are motivated by hate. I want them to see that in the culture war, Christians are victims as much as they see themselves as victims.

The other day, Bryan Fischer appeared on Alan Colmes' radio program where he refused to entertain Colmes' questions about whether he had ever experienced any gay impulses. It seemed like a relatively simple question, but Fischer insisted that he was not going to talk about his personal life ... but then decided to he needed to make it crystal clear on his own radio program today that he is a "lifelong, happily married heterosexual."

Fischer then welcomed one of the few other Religious Right activist who can match him when it comes to demonstrating relentless anti-gay hostility, Matt Barber, onto the program so the two could congratulate one another for being so courageous in standing for the truth of Christianity in the face of the Left, which is driven by nothing but irrational rage and hatred of the truth.

"That's why it's so easy to be a Christian," Barber explained, "that's why it's so easy to be a conservative because all we have to do is say what we believe and say what happens to be true ... We just simply tell the truth; they can't tell the truth because their entire worldview is rooted in a lie":

The American Family Association announced yesterday that it has parted ways with Buster Wilson, the host of AFA Today and the general manager of its radio network. Wilson says he will continue to write for his personal blog.

Certainly Wilson isn’t leaving because he is too extreme (see: Fischer, Bryan) or vacuous (see: Wildmon, Tim) for the AFA, but we are going to miss him in particular because we have always appreciated Wilson’s tendency to respond to nearly every single Right Wing Watch post about him and even completely make up things we’ve said.

But most of all we really enjoyed watching him conclude many of his conspiratorial rants with the phrase, “I’m just asking the question.”

Since Wilson is a member of the extremist Oath Keepers, we were not surprised to see him push several anti-government conspiracy theories, wonder about the existence of FEMA concentration camps and assert that he was “staying neutral” on the matter of whether it is appropriate to shoot U.S. Marshals. He also maintained that the government was going to classify Christians as mentally ill in order to “get us out of the picture,” confiscate the guns of conservative Christians and ban celebrations of Christmas. Furthermore, he has promoted the birther conspiracy theory and posted a hoax photo of President Obama’s “foreign student ID.” 

Wilson has also been no friend of the gay community. He warned that gay men are bent on molesting Boy Scouts, linked the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to an increase in the military’s suicide rate, warned that legalizing gay marriage will lead to dog, building and automobile marriages and blamed Hurricane Isaac on an LGBT festival. At one point, Wilson even floated a boycott of Google over the company’s strong stance in support of gay rights:

We’ll certainly miss Wilson’s daily presence on AFA Radio, but we look forward to keeping track of upcoming conspiracy theories on his blog.

American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer is convinced that President Obama’s pledge to “keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people,” a remark he made while speaking in Mexico City, is actually a veiled attempt to lay the groundwork to forcibly “disarm people of the Christian faith.”

Fischer said that Obama is “setting up the stage to take guns away from evangelicals” and classify them as terrorists: “‘You believe in Jesus Christ?’ ‘Yes I certainly do sir.’ ‘Give me your gun, we’re coming into your house and taking your guns, you’re dangerous, you’re a threat you’re an extremist, you’re a terrorist threat, we can’t let you have a gun.’”

Watch:

On his radio program yesterday, Bryan Fischer dedicated multiple segments to dismissing the news that Jason Collins has become the first openly gay athlete to play in the NBA.

Things took a rather odd turn when Fischer started taking calls from listeners, one of whom tried to claim that the fact that gays use discretion in picking sexual partners proves that they can control their behavior and thus being gay is really a choice.

And Fischer agreed, saying "anytime a homosexual exercises any sort of selectivity at all when it comes to intimate matters, he is proving that it is a matter of choice. Nobody is compelled to follow those impulses."

Of course, by this logic, then being straight must also be a choice, since straight people also exercise selectivity in choosing partners.

But eventually Fischer got back to the topic at hand, asserting that gays celebrate things "that ought to be matters of shame, humiliation, and embarrassment" and criticizing President Obama for supporting Collins and "openly celebrating sexual deviancy, calling evil good and calling good evil":

Bryan Fischer dedicated a segment on his radio program today to once again discussing the news that Jason Collins has become the first active NBA player to announce that he is gay.  And Fischer is unimpressed, to say the least, saying that Collins is a free agent at the end of his career with no real prospects of playing again next season and so he thought this was a good opportunity for himself to garner some attention for himself and make money.

"Everybody is talking about how brave and courageous Jason Collins is and I'm going to submit to you that he's not being brave and courageous at all," Fischer declared. "This is just a shrewd marketing move to wave the rainbow flag right at the time when it can be of the most benefit to him. A year from now, when he's been out of the NBA for a year, nobody is going to care.  This is the only time this would be of any benefit to him ... This is why this is not courageous; he's become a hero to the deviancy cabal and their allies in the political world and academia and the media, like President Obama":

Right-wing talk show host Kevin McCullough has a column in the American Family Association-affiliated One News Now today, cleverly titled “Barack Hussein Gosnell.” McCollough’s argument is that President Obama, by speaking at Planned Parenthood recently, is morally equivalent to accused murderer Kermit Gosnell.

McCullough claims that “every woman I’ve ever spoken to on the matter” agrees with him that Planned Parenthood is not “helpful to women.” Instead, he writes, “They say they give women choices -- which they interpret to mean, encourage them to be as promiscuous as possible.”

See Planned Parenthood touts cancer screenings, but Lila Rose proved they don't do mammograms. They claim they are improving the health of women, but they have become the biggest cemetery of unborn women in history. They say they give women choices -- which they interpret to mean, encourage them to be as promiscuous as possible. Planned Parenthood may be many things, but helpful to women, is not one of them -- so says every woman I've ever spoken to on the matter.

McCullough goes on to accuse the president of “abject racial self-loathing” because of his support for choice.

What is also stunning is the abject racial self-loathing it must require for President Obama and Kermit Gosnell to directly and unequivocally contribute to an organization and "medical" practices that were set up by design to extinguish the people with their same color of skin.

Margaret Sanger -- Planned Parenthood's founder -- argued in articles such as "The Eugenic Conscience" (February 1921) that sterilizing the "unfit" Negro was her "plan of Salvation" for the American civilization.

Evidently President Obama and Kermit Gosnell strongly agree with that racial "solution." Their actions certainly demonstrate as much.

The truth is Kermit Gosnell's house of horrors, where he burned, chopped, snipped, and stabbed babies to death, is very little different than the Planned Parenthood "super-sized" abortion mills. Very little different indeed.

The truth is that both Planned Parenthood and Kermit Gosnell prey upon mostly immigrant minority women. And while President Obama trots out Sandra Fluke to yell "squirrel" about contraception and has attempted to force those of us who have a moral objection to providing money to those who will burn, chop, snip and stab babies, the smoke screen never fools the children who always end up dead.

The Religious Right went into a frenzy this week over charges that the military was deliberately blocking access to SBC.net, the official website of the Southern Baptist Convention’s, as part of an anti-Christian ploy.

“What we are seeing here, I want to be very clear here, we are seeing under the Obama administration a Christian cleansing underway in the United States military,” Fox News' Starnes maintained.

David Limbaugh accused the military of acting like a “thought police” who “selectively suppress[es] First Amendment freedoms” that “our armed forces are charged to protect,” and the SBC’s top ethicist Richard Land said it was an “outrageous” move and the person who blocked the website “needs to be fired.”

The American Family Association called the incident an example of the military’s “hostility towards faith and religious freedom” and its spokesman Bryan Fischer claimed it was part of an Islamist-secularist conspiracy to classify the entire denomination as a “hate group that spews nothing but ‘hostile content.’”

SBC.net was in fact blocked, but not as a result of anti-Christian bias, but because of malware on the SBC’s website.

Don’t just take our word for it, the Baptist Press, the news arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, reported that “the military's software filters detected malware at SBC.net and blocked the website.” Due to malware, not the content of the website, SBC.net was considered “hostile content.”

But don’t hold your breath for Land or Fischer to retract their inflammatory claims.

A military official says malware was to blame for the Southern Baptist Convention's website being blocked on some military bases.

Lt. Col. Damien Pickart, a Defense Department spokesman, said the military's software filters detected malware at SBC.net and blocked the website. The malware since has been removed off the website, and the denomination's website unblocked, he said.

"The Department of Defense is not intentionally blocking access to this site," Pickart told The Tennessean in an email. "The Department of Defense strongly supports the religious rights of service members, to include their ability to access religious websites like that of the SBC."

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Chris Chapman, the SBC Executive Committee's director of information systems, said SBC.net -- like the websites of many other organizations -- is a target for hackers. He also said the military's filters are at an "optimum level" in blocking content, not simply "recognizing invading viruses" but also blocking anything that possibly could be harmful.

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"The recent situation impeding access to our website for some was aggravated by a misunderstanding of a term familiar to those in the information technology field. That term is 'hostile content.' To technical administrators, it simply means some sort of vulnerability or virus. It might not even be an actively harmful element, but simply an exploitable or potentially exploitable condition. We now live in an age where defending against or removing 'hostile content' is a daily undertaking, especially for any organization that maintains multiple Internet servers.