Liberty Counsel

The New York Times Sheds New Light on the Lisa Miller Kidnapping Case

Submitted by Miranda Blue on Monday, 7/30/2012 5:02 pm

New York Times reporter Erik Eckholm has a big front-page story in Sunday’s paper on a case that readers of RWW are familiar with: the disappearance of Lisa Miller. Eckholm traveled to Nicaragua to talk with the Mennonite communities that have helped harbor Miller and her daughter Isabella on their flight from United States law enforcement and from Isabella’s other legal parent, Miller’s former partner Janet Jenkins of Vermont. Miller, who kidnapped her daughter rather than allow her to have visitation rights with Jenkins, has become a cause celebre among the Religious Right, a supposed victim of anti-Christian persecution.

Eckholm supplies us with an illuminating and creepy anecdote about a family of hamsters left to die in Miller’s abandoned house, and casts some light on the thinking of those who helped harbor Miller in Nicaragua. But there’s one important piece of the puzzle that remains a mystery: did Miller’s attorneys at Liberty University have anything to do with Miller’s disappearance? LU Law School dean Mat Staver tells Eckholm that he was surprised as anyone when Miller disappeared, as he has since it first became known.

But Liberty University’s relationship with Miller has always been a little complicated. Rena Lindevaldsen, an LU Law School dean and Miller’s attorney before she disappeared, has now written a book arguing Miller’s case. And even before Miller kidnapped with Isabella, Lindevaldsen and Staver were teaching Miller’s case as an example of a situation where the demands of “God’s law” trump those of “man’s law.” Religion Dispatches’ Sarah Posner talked with several students who had taken a required class from the two deans and got her hands on a copy of an exam that quizzed students on what to do in Lisa Miller’s situation:

Students at Liberty Law School tell RD that in the required Foundations of Law class in the fall of 2008, taught by Miller’s attorneys Mat Staver and Rena Lindevaldsen, they were repeatedly instructed that when faced with a conflict between “God’s law” and “man’s law,” they should resolve that conflict through “civil disobedience.” One student said, “the idea was when you are confronted with a particular situation, for instance, if you have a court order against you that is in violation of what you see as God’s law, essentially... civil disobedience was the answer.

This student and two others, who all requested anonymity for fear of reprisal by Staver (who is also the law school’s dean), recounted the classroom discussion of civil disobedience, as well as efforts to draw comparisons between choosing “God’s law” over “man’s law” to the American revolution and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. According to one student, in the Foundations course both Staver and Lindevaldsen “espoused the opinion that in situations where God’s law is in direct contradiction to man’s law, we have an obligation to disobey it.”
...
That semester’s mid-term exam, obtained by RD [see excerpts of the actual exam here], included a question based on Miller’s case asking students to describe what advice they would give her “as a friend who is a Christian lawyer.” After laying out a slanted history of the protracted legal battle, the exam asked, “Lisa needs your counsel on how to think through her legal situation and how to respond as a Christian to this difficult problem. Relying only on what we have learned thus far in class, how would you counsel Lisa?”

Students who wrote that Miller should comply with court orders received bad grades while those who wrote she should engage in civil disobedience received an A, the three students said. “People were appalled,” said one of the students, adding, “especially as lawyers to be, who are trained and licensed to practice the law—to disobey that law, that seemed completely counterintuitive to all of us.”

Still, some knew what they needed to “regurgitate,” in order to get a good grade. “It was obvious by the substance of the class during the semester the answer that they wanted,” said one of the students. “The majority of people that I am acquainted with who did get As wrote that because that was expected of them.”

One of the students who got an A said, “I told them she needed to engage in civil disobedience and seriously consider leaving the country,” adding, “I knew what I needed to write.”

Given what was expected of them on the exam, and the tenor of the class, there is “not a lot of shock among the students about the current developments,” said one of the students, referring to the revelation that Miller is in hiding in Nicaragua. “Everybody semi-suspected that Liberty Counsel had something to do with her disappearance.”


Of course, we have no way of knowing what Liberty Counsel knew and when they knew it. But Posner’s reporting shows that it’s certainly worth looking into.

Religious Right Leaders Pray for 'Healing for Those who Struggle with Same-Sex Attraction'

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Monday, 7/30/2012 11:30 am

A number of prominent women leaders of the Religious Right have come together for the American Prayer Initiative, which is “designed to help draw ‘we the people’ of this nation back to the One upon whom she was founded.’ The group includes the National Day of Prayer’s Shirley Dobson and Vonette Bright, talk show host Janet Parshall, Liberty Counsel’s Anita Staver, Concerned Women for America’s Penny Nance, Susan B. Anthony List’s Marilyn Musgrave, activist Rebecca Hagelin and Susan Allen, wife of Virginia’s George Allen. The group offers members a specific prayer for every day of each month until Election Day, including prayers condemning homosexuality and the separation of church and state.

One message asks participants to pray for God’s “healing for those who struggle with same-sex attraction” and to “replace unnatural affections”:

We pray for healing and restoration of true manhood and womanhood in America. We ask for Your wisdom and protection against attempts to re-define our very identity as men and women.

We pray for Your design for abundant and fulfilled manhood, womanhood and marriage to gain preeminence in America.

We pray for a full restoration of the image and definition of manhood and womanhood in America.

We petition You, God for Your healing for those who struggle with same-sex attraction. May they come to know Your power, Your mercy and Your love as You replace unnatural affections with ones You Yourself designed.

Another is a prayer to oppose the legalization of same-sex marriage:

We pray that the union of one man and one woman will be embraced by all societies as the sole form of legitimate marriage and the proper basis of family.

We ask that the power of Your hand intervene to transform and heal the hearts of those who would attempt to re-define marriage.

The group also sends a message criticizing the influence of judges and proponents of the separation of church and state:

We ask for leaders, a judicial system and judges who adhere to the original intent of our founding documents and their many connections to Biblical principles.

We pray for a true understanding of justice according to Your Word We pray for Your protection from attempts to redefine justice for political gain.

We ask You to convict, transform and protect those who are out of Your will. We ask You to encourage, strengthen and protect those who honor and follow You.

We ask You for judges who will follow constitutional principles rather than ruling according to pre-chosen outcomes or relying on international law.

We pray that courts will recognize parents’ fundamental rights to the care, custody and control of their children.

We ask for Your guidance for accurate rulings over first amendment issues, and an awareness in our country that the words, “separation of church and state” are found nowhere in any one of our founding documents. We ask for a reversal of rulings which have inaccurately established “separation” as a Constitutional principle.

There is even a prayer against a media looking “to bring our country down by bringing our culture down”:

We ask you, Lord, to open greater and greater opportunities for Your Gospel to flow freely across our airwaves.

We ask, Lord, for You to grant Americans the wisdom to discern truth from deception.

We pray for those in the entertainment industry that they may better serve the families of our country by creating programs and movies that are uplifting in nature and extol positive virtues.

We especially pray Your blessings upon those in media, entertainment, the arts and journalism who are driven by loyalty to You. We ask for favor and acceptance for their work.

We ask You to raise up, equip, and abundantly provide for Your true disciples in the media, the arts, entertainment and journalism.

We pray for honesty in journalism.

We pray for those who would intend to bring our country down by bringing our culture down.

We ask you to foil the plans of those who would bring others down in any form.

We ask for Your transforming power in the lives of those who would divide, deceive and destroy.

Are Boycotts Moral? For the Religious Right, It Depends on Who They're Targeting

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Thursday, 7/26/2012 5:25 pm

Last year, Liberty Counsel and the Family Research Council were outraged — outraged! — when gay rights advocates began pressuring companies to end their ties to a so-called charity group called the CGBG, which funds anti-gay organizations including LC and FRC. The two groups urged retailers to “remain neutral in the culture wars” and accused gay rights supporters of “economic terrorism.” The FRC even created a website where activists could call on companies to “remain neutral in the current cultural battles, thus enabling you to focus on business and not force consumers to make purchasing choices based on corporate political agendas.”

Of course, both LC and FRC had organized and endorsed similar pressure campaigns against corporations in the past, but apparently those didn’t constitute “economic terrorism.”

As Chick-fil-A, a company that bankrolls anti-gay groups and whose CEO has said marriage equality is inviting God’s judgment, faces a national backlash for its opposition to gay rights, once again the Religious Right is employing an almost pathetic use of double standards.

The National Organization for Marriage, which literally has two campaigns dedicated to boycotting Starbucks and General Mills for refusing to stay “neutral” in the marriage equality debate, is now outraged that gay rights activists are boycotting Chick-fil-A.

NOM's state affiliate in Minnesota organized a protest outside of the corporate headquarters of General Mills and in a letter to Minnesota corporations, NOM asked that companies “stay neutral and respect the conscience rights of your customers and employees who are on both sides” of a proposed state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

Another group shockingly outraged by protests targeting Chick-fil-A is the American Family Association.

The AFA and its subgroups One Million Moms and One Million Dads have boycotted countless companies, most recently leading boycotts and pressure campaigns against Home Depot, Ford, GAP, Macy's, JC Penney for their advertising campaigns and efforts to create inclusive work environments “rather than remain neutral in the culture war,” and against DC, Marvel and Archie Comics for including gay characters.

In fact, the AFA goes so far as to claim, without any evidence, that it’s pressure campaign is responsible for financial problems at JC Penney.

So the question needs to be asked, did the AFA, in the words of its spokesman Bryan Fischer, "go Ahmadinejad" on JC Penney, Home Depot and Archie?

Barber: 'Shame on Hillary Clinton' For Not Attacking Gays in AIDS Conference Speech

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Wednesday, 7/25/2012 2:25 pm

Like most other Religious Right activists, Liberty Counsel’s Matt Barber was enraged by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s announcement of a major push for LGBT rights abroad, even going so far as to say that reports of anti-LGBT persecution are “nonsense.” Today, Barber slammed Clinton in an interview with the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow for her speech to the International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C., in which she called on policymakers to create a “blueprint” for “achieving an AIDS-free generation,” because she failed to attack the gay community.

Listen:

Shame on Hillary Clinton. In choosing to ignore the reality that in the United States people are primarily infected with AIDS through deviant homosexual behavior, she has essentially postured with a false air of resolve while cowardly refusing to address the real cause of AIDS in the U.S. and that’s homosexual behavior.

…

We all know better and so should Hillary Clinton. She missed a real opportunity here to show courage and discourage people from engaging in the high-risk behavior of homosexuality that spreads AIDS.

Akers: Religious Education vs Indoctrination into the Spartan Mindset

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 7/23/2012 11:09 am

On today's installment of Liberty Counsel's "Faith and Freedom" radio program, Shawn Akers was discussing a recent 4th Circuit Court decision upholding a South Carolina law that allows students to receive elective credits for taking off-campus religious education classes.

The case involved a lawsuit filed against a Spartanburg school district, which was interesting to Akers because it supposedly highlighted the difference between the worldview of the Founding Fathers and that held by the warriors of ancient Sparta: 

You see these two worldviews colliding. One is the worldview of the Founders that said that we are a moral and religious people, that our Constitution was created for a moral and religious people and is wholly inadequate for any other. And that not only is religious allowable but it's something that we have a responsibility to train in our children.

Versus another worldview and it's very close to that one we see in Sparta. Do you know what they did in Sparta? They took the children of people at a very early age, they took them away from people at a very early age. The ones that were deemed undesirable, especially young girls, baby girls, were just killed. The ones that were too weak to live were allowed to die. Only the toughest and the strongest were given over as property of the state and they were dictated to from the time they woke up to the time they went to bed to be completely indoctrinated with the Spartan mindset, to be completely indoctrinated with the religion of the state, the state of Sparta.

And we see these two religions, these two worldviews coming head to head. One is that of liberty of the Founders and the other says, no the state owns your children and we're going to train them accordingly.

Barton, Green & Barber Agree: Not Voting for Romney is a Sin

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 7/19/2012 9:19 am

A few months ago, David Barton and Rick Green invited early Mitt Romney supporter Jordan Sekulow onto their "WallBuilders Live" program to make the case why Religious Right votes can and should be excited about supporting Romney in the general election. 

Sekulow made the case that Romney would nominate good judges, especially to the Supreme Court , and while that certainly appealed to Barton and Green, the fact of the matter is that regardless of how unexcited they might be about a candidate like Romney, their vehement opposition to President Obama meant that they were going to do whatever they could to see Obama defeated. 

And that was more or less the argument put forth by Matt Barber last month in a column he wrote calling on Christians to support Romney primarily because Obama was so bad that no "Christian in good conscience" could ever vote for him or even consider sitting this election out.

Today, Barton and Green invited Barber on to the program to make this case to the WallBuilders listeners and the general consensus among all three was that it was a sin for any Christian not to vote for Mitt Romney:

Barber: We are admonished in Scripture to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Now the wise thing to do is to go in and support Mitt Romney because, again, the alternative is catastrophic.

Green: Absolutely. And like you said, not voting is not only a dereliction of duty, it's really anti-Biblical. It's actually being the servant, remember the parable where they gave the talents? It's being the one that buried their talent. Well that was described in the Bible as being a wicked and slothful servant. I don't want to be that one, man, I want to be one of the other guys.

Barber: Well, absolutely. Well, it's worse than that; not voting is essentially a vote for Barack Obama because it fails to cancel out a vote for Barack Obama so it's absolutely a dereliction of duty.

...

Barton: I don't care if Romney calls himself a Mormon [and] Obama calls himself a Christian. Here's my question: where are you on judges, because Isaiah 1:26 says the righteousness of a land is determined by the judges of the land. Who's more biblical on judges? Romney or Obama?

Green: No question, Romney.

Barton: Let's ask marriage, who's more biblical on marriage? Romney or Obama?

Green: Romney, no question.

Barton: Let's ask where we are on the life issue, who's more biblical? Romney or Obama?

Green: Not even close. Obama supports infanticide he's so pro-abortion. Romney has become very pro-life.

Barton: We know the free enterprise system was started out of five verses in the Bible, the whole economic system that God created we used in America. Who's more biblical on the free enterprise system, Obama or Romney?

Green: Obama's a socialist without question on free enterprise. Romney's a great example on true biblical free enterprise.

Barton: So why do we have a question here? Because he's a Mormon? Hey, we've got to get past labels. Just like Obama's Christian label means nothing, Romney's Mormon label means nothing. What matters is the fruit, which one is going to produce more biblical fruit ...

There's only two options Christians have. Christians do not have the option of sitting this one out. You do not have that option, it is not a possibility. You will stand before God and He will say "I gave you your vote, what did you do with your vote?" And we can't just say "well, I chose to sit this one out."

Green: Especially in a situation like this where so much is at stake. What's the verse, when you know what to do and you do nothing? That's sin!

Barton: James 4:17; when you know what's right to do and you don't do it, that is sin.

Sandy Rios: Child Abuse is tied to 'Homosexual Recruitment'

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Monday, 7/16/2012 11:05 am

Sandy Rios of the American Family Association last week discussed Louis Freeh’s report on the Penn State child abuse scandal, and like countless other anti-gay activists, tied child abuse to homosexuality, a claim dismissed by groups like the American Psychological Association but commonplace on the far-right fringe. While likening the Penn State scandal to child abuse found in the Catholic Church, Rios said that Catholic seminaries were “just festering with homosexual activism” and “homosexual recruitment,” leading to child molestation:

I think that the point I want to make with this is this sounds stunning, it sounds a little bit like the priest scandal, doesn’t it? Where all of this stuff went on, where Catholic seminaries, it was just festering with homosexual activism—homosexual recruitment, I should say. A priest just turning the other way or engaging in it and not doing anything about it. So you might say, ‘well that’s shocking,’ but I think this is typical.

Naturally, AFA’s Dianne Gramley and Liberty Counsel’s Matt Barber also linked gays to child abuse in the wake of the Freeh report:

Through all this we cannot ignore the fact that Jerry Sandusky's victims were all young boys. We can't ignore the homosexual aspect of this," Gramley offers. "And through Graham Spanier's tenure as president, he has brought more and more homosexual-oriented programming and events to the campus than ever before."

Adds Barber: "There also is an element of political correctness run amok here," he explains. "Anytime homosexuality is involved -- even though in this case it's a homosexual predator preying on children -- people seem to have this innate fear that they are going to be crushed by the sexual anarchist lobby if they speak out against it." Yet Barber says it is a fact that percentage-wise more sexual crimes are committed against children by homosexuals than by heterosexuals.

The Heroic Tales of Kamal Saleem

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 7/11/2012 2:07 pm

Listening to "ex-terrorist" Kamal Saleem tell his life story is like listening to the Forrest Gump of terrorism as he relates who he was an extremely important figure working in terror networks ranging from Al Qaeda to those established by Moammar Gadhafi to Saddam Hussein.

Recently, Saleem has become the Religious Right's favorite ex-Muslim as he spreads some of today's craziest and wild conspiracies which the Right seemingly accepts uncritically despite the fact that his biography is rather questionable.

For the last week, Saleem has been the featured quest on Liberty Counsel's "Faith and Freedom" radio program where he has been regaling Mat Staver with tales of being trained to be a terrorist from the age of seven, when he first led a mission to smuggle weapons into Israel from Syria.

As Saleem explained today, that mission was such a success that he became a hero and was then tasked with recruiting other children for future missions, which he succeeded in doing. Saleem claims that he recruited another child named Mohammed but only after promising Mohammed's mother that he would let nothing happen to him and that Mohammed would return alive.

Now eight years-old, Saleem claims to have led a second weapons smuggling mission into Israel, only this time, when they emerge from the tunnel they had used to sneak into the country, they were confronted by the Israeli military "which started hitting us with everything they've got," killing Mohammed after he "took shrapnel through his esophagus and severed his spine," prompting Saleem to pick him up, put him on his shoulders, and run back across the border in Syria, with Mohammed serving as a shield to absorb the bullets being fired at him by the pursing Israeli soldiers: 

Sounds plausible to me.

Affirmative Action for the Muslim Brotherhood?

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 7/5/2012 10:28 am

As Brian noted the other day, phony ex-terrorist Kamal Saleem has been a guest on Liberty Counsel's "Faith and Freedom" radio program where he has been warning that the Muslim Brotherhood is plotting to take over America.

On today's episode, Mat Staver revealed that, according to "two sources" involved in the intelligence community, the Obama administration has implemented an "affirmative action program" to place unqualified Muslims in important national security positions.  This revelation prompted Saleem to warn that the administration is also bringing in Muslim students from all over the world and enrolling them in military academies where they are being made ranking officers all as part of an effort by the Muslim Brotherhood to infiltrate and dismantle our civilization:

Religious Right Unites Behind '40 Days to Save America' Initiative

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Tuesday, 7/3/2012 1:05 pm

In March, Kyle reported that Rick Scarborough of Vision America was launching a new effort, 40 Days to Save America, to rally conservative voters before the November election and stop the “daily deluge of sinful activity”:

We fully understand and are grateful for the fact that America was birthed first in your heart. We acknowledge that America has been a blessed nation above all the nations of the world. Hallelujah!

But we also acknowledge that we have forgotten as a people that it was you and your laws that made this country the land of freedom and opportunity that has been the envy of the world for more than two hundred years. Dear Lord, forgive us of our pride and apathy that has allowed men to call good, evil; and evil, good. We acknowledge that we have grown calloused to the daily deluge of sinful activity, degradation and speaking that has become the routine in American life, and we repent.

Reignite our love for purity and holiness, and create in us a will to initiate the changes in our society that will allow you to once again bless our beloved America.

Scarborough is now unveiling endorsements of the effort from Senator Roy Blunt and Congressmen Todd Akin, Doug Lamborn, Duncan Hunter and Louie Gohmert, and major Religious Right groups like the American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, Liberty Counsel, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and the Family Research Council. Dominionist organizations including Lou Engle’s The Call and Cindy Jacobs’ Generals International have also signed on, along with Janet Porter’s Faith2Action, Jerry Boykin’s Kingdom Warriors, Sam Roriguez’s National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and Jim Garlow’s Renewing American Leadership.

The board of directors appears to be a who’s who of leading conservative activists and pastors:

David Bereit
40 Days for Life

General Jerry Boykin
Kingdom Warriors

Dave Butts
Harvest Prayer Ministries

Dr. Jim Garlow
Renewing American Leadership

Bishop Anne Gimenez
Rock Church, Virginia Beach, VA

Bishop Harry Jackson
Hope Christian Church

Dr. Robert Jeffress
First Baptist Church, Dallas, TX

Penny Nance
Concerned Women for America

Father Frank Pavone
Priests for Life

Tony Perkins
Family Research Council

Rev. Samuel Rodriguez
National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference

Dr. Rick Scarborough
Vision America

Kelly Shackelford
Liberty Institute

Mat Staver
Liberty Counsel

Tim Wildmon
American Family Association

Kamal Saleem: 'Islamist Lobbyists are Bringing Billions of Dollars to our Government and Buying Politics'

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Tuesday, 7/3/2012 11:10 am

Kamal Saleem has promulgated some of the craziest and wild conspiracies so it is difficult to take the phony “ex-terrorist” seriously, but since Religious Right leaders continue to rely on the hoaxer for their anti-Muslim activism, he can’t be easily ignored. Liberty Counsel chairman Mat Staver hosted Saleem on Faith & Freedom this week where he maintained that radical Muslims are plotting to takeover America’s religious, education, medical, financial and political fields until “Islam will be the only religion that will be practiced in the United States of America and the White House and all this will be Islamist”:

The invasion that we are seeing today, it’s mandated by their own Sharia law, that they have to do so and the way that they are here today in the United States of America they have infiltrated to every level. The head of the Muslim Brotherhood said we are not here to be equal to the American people or to their belief but to be the highest order, where Islam will be the only religion that will be practiced in the United States of America and the White House and all this will be Islamist. In doing so, what happened is the agenda is to infiltrate the highest rank of this government, the political arena, the education arena, the banking arena, the medical arena, all the other facets of what make America, America. With this they have penetrated the religious sector and they have penetrated also the government today, Islamist lobbyists are bringing billions of dollars to our government and buying politics, and you know, politicians. The education system has been shifted because now the Islamic centers are being opened specifically in all the Ivy League universities in the United States of America to create the curriculum for our students from kindergarten all the way to university level.

…

Nobody is stopping them, you know, in this current political time and leadership. So therefore what happened is that’s why they are advancing in many different ways, specifically in the education, where they are changing the future, and also in the medical arena where they are concentrating on changing and bringing all the natural resources in America to be owned by Islamists so there will be co-dependency on Muslim power.

Steve Crampton: ENDA is Insanity

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Friday, 6/29/2012 10:58 am

On today's episode of Liberty Counsel's "Faith and Freedom" radio program, hosts Steve Crampton and Harry Mihet were discussing the Pentagon's decision to no longer allow Bibles to be published bearing the official emblems of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps; a move which has, predictably, outraged the Religious Right.

Somehow Crampton and Mihet managed to tie this issue to a recent Senate hearing on the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA,) prompting Crampton to marvel that a transgender person was actually allowed to testify on behalf of the legislation and complain that ENDA is not about "equal rights" but rather "special rights" for gays and cross-dressers.  

Crampton stated that if ENDA passed, he could come into work - "God forbid," he said - wearing a dress and would be allowed to use the women's restroom.  "In years past," Crampton said, "we had another word for this: it's called insanity":

Liberty Counsel: True Science Always Reinforces the Bible

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 6/25/2012 10:25 am

Today's episode of Liberty Counsel's "Faith and Freedom" radio program featured Steve Crampton and Harry Mihet praising the roundly criticized study by Mark Regnerus on gay parenting, calling it a "blockbuster" that "blows the lid" off of the claims that kids are not damaged by being raised in gay households.  

But mainly Crampton and Mihet hailed the study for confirming both common sense and the Bible because, as Crampton said "true science always seems to me to reinforce and strengthen what the Scripture tells us from the start": 

Barber: WI Election Signals the 'Implosion [of] the Progressive Movement'

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 6/14/2012 2:57 pm

One of the entertaining thing about monitoring the Religious Right is watching them explain how seemingly every election signals some sort of broad national trend or carries with it some deep philosophical implication that supports their political agenda. 

When Republicans lose, it is always because they did not take a stand for the Religious Right's agenda and so the voters rejected them for being insufficiently conservative. But when Republicans win, it is inevitably because the candidate stood for conservative Christian values and the victory is therefore proof that Americans embrace that worldview ... leading to absurdly overblown pieces of "analysis" like this from Matt Barber declaring that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's win in the recent recall election signals "a shift of the tectonic plates" and the "implosion [of] the progressive movement":

I think it's a shift of the tectonic plates here and this is just an early tremor of the earthquake that is going come of implosion with the progressive movement ... It's a microcosm that shows that the American people have rejected radical secular socialism, the agenda of the unions, liberal causes and that they adopting fiscal responsibility, family values, the things that made this the greatest nation on earth.

Secular socialism has been an abject failure everywhere and every time it has been tried and we find ourselves headed down that path in this country right now and we need only look to Europe to see where that leads us and it's disaster. And Wisconsin, as I mentioned, is the early tremors, the American people saying "no, the secular socialist progressive ideology has failed in Europe, it's failed every time it's been tried, it's going to fail here in the United States, we reject it and we're heading back to our founding principles!"

Barber: Arrogant Obama 'Infuriated Black Pastors Across This Country'

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Wednesday, 6/13/2012 5:10 pm

Mat Staver and Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel on Faith & Freedom today were rankled by a speech Attorney General Eric Holder delivered to a meeting of the Conference of National Black Churches and the Congressional Black Caucus where he denounced the new wave of voter suppression measures like voter ID laws and curtailing early voting that have a disproportionate impact on people of color.

Naturally, Barber tied this back to the issue of gay rights, arguing that black voters should no longer trust President Obama since he “infuriated black pastors across the country” by endorsing marriage equality. “Now he goes to them with hat and hand and expects them to fire up the base for his cause when he has alienated them in such a way,” Barber asserted.

Staver went on to say that most African Americans oppose marriage equality because it “compounds the breakdown of the family.” However, the latest polling shows that 59% of African Americans support marriage equality and 90% of black voters approve of President Obama’s job performance. Similarly, last June Barber predicted that Jewish voters will rebuff Obama’s “anti-Semitism” but a strong majority of Jewish voters continues to back Obama.

Staver: Anything that is biblical, anything that you want to speak on with regards to the Bible or our culture is not off-limits simply because politicians are also talking about it.

Barber: You mentioned biblical issues, that brings up another case tied into this idea of the Obama administration going to these black churches. Again, it just displays an amount of hubris and arrogance on the part of this administration and this President that I’ve never seen before. This after on the heels of the President thumbing his nose at these very black pastors around the country by coming out in support of counterfeit, same-sex marriage. He has infuriated black pastors across the country with this and now he goes to them with hat and hand and expects them to fire up the base for his cause when he has alienated them in such a way.

Staver: In fact, he talked to some black pastors before he went out to do this announcement on same-sex marriage and they opposed it, many of them did oppose it. Now there were some obviously that were in favor but there were many black pastors, and I would say there are most black pastors by far that don’t agree with same-sex marriage. They understand the breakdown of the family. Of many communities, you see the breakdown of the family with regards to the father, and same-sex marriage creates a fatherless home, it just does, it creates a fatherless situation. It compounds the breakdown of the family. Most black pastors and people in the black community understand that. So he’s thumbed his nose at them and then he wants to now recruit them.

Mat Staver Warns ENDA Will Result in the 'Death of Some Individuals'

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Wednesday, 6/13/2012 11:00 am

Liberty Counsel chairman Mat Staver is ratcheting up the rhetoric in opposition to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), even going so far as to say that if passed the legislation may lead to child molestation, sexual assault, and death. Staver told Jim Schneider of VCY America on Crosstalk yesterday that ENDA “will put individuals at risk and ultimately result in significant damage and even death of some individuals”:

Staver: So you can go into these restrooms or changing rooms, if you’re a man, and want to go in and molest, or watch, or sexually assault young girls. So, I mean, the absurdity of this is just beyond understanding how someone could be in favor of it. This will ultimately, in addition to colliding with religious liberty, in addition to forcing a radical agenda on people, this also will put individuals at risk and ultimately result in significant damage and even death of some individuals.

Staver also claimed that ENDA “will be the biggest club that the homosexual agenda will have to ultimately beat down people of faith and moral values” and could lead to the abolition of gender, morality and marriage in order to “undermine the very concept of God himself”:

Schneider: How critical is it Mat that our listeners contact their U.S. Senators at this time pertaining to ENDA?

Staver: I think it’s absolutely critical, we cannot have this law pass, we just simply cannot have it pass, it will literally reshape America and business and you will have your religious freedom on a collision course with this radical homosexual agenda. This will be the biggest club that the homosexual agenda will have to ultimately beat down people of faith and moral values.

…

Staver: Years ago I said what the ultimate goal of this homosexual agenda was not this sexual orientation where you are wired to a particular way but ultimately the abolition of gender. It’s hard for us to even comprehend that, how can you abolish the concept or the construct of gender, male and female, it’s so objective, it’s so obvious, how can you do that? But that’s exactly what they want to do: anything that you see is just fictitious; it’s only what’s in your mind. If you abolish the concept of gender you ultimately undermine morality, you ultimately have no morality and norms for men and women or sexual behavior. As Alfred Kinsey ultimately wanted to do, he wanted to undermine morality in marriage. Why? So he could undermine the very concept of God himself.

Barber: No 'Christian in Good Conscience' can Support Obama; Trust Romney to Appoint Right-Wing Judges

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Monday, 6/11/2012 5:15 pm

Liberty Counsel’s Matt Barber and his boss Mat Staver were consistent critics of Mitt Romney and endorsed Newt Gingrich in the Republican primary, but now Barber is out with a new column begging the Religious Right to coalesce behind Romney and today spoke to Jordan Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice about his new found support for the former governor. Barber ironically began the interview by commenting that the ACLJ, like him, was probably bothered by Romney’s inconsistent record, even though both Jay and Jordan Sekulow vigorously supported Romney both times he ran for president and ACLJ attorney David French founded the group Evangelicals for Romney.

He said he came around to supporting Romney because of his pledge to nominate right-wing judges. “The one word that made the decision for me is judges,” Barber told Sekulow, warning that if Obama can make more appointments to the judiciary then he will create a “radical, secular, socialist, European-style nation.”

Barber went on to claim that he couldn’t “imagine any Christian in good conscience based on Obama’s radical, counter-biblical, anti-Christian, pro-abortion, pro-homosexual activism policies voting for Barack Obama.” Or as Barber puts it in his column, “any Christian who votes for Mr. Obama will get to take that up with God.”

The one word that made the decision for me is judges. Probably the most significant thing that any president can do for better or for worse and this may not be how our Founding Fathers intended it but it is the reality we live in is to appoint judges, particularly United States Supreme Court justices. The next president, either Barack Obama, radical secular socialist, or Mitt Romney, center-right Republican, the next president is going to appoint at least probably two, potentially three United States Supreme Court judges. That will affect law, public policy, our culture at large in perpetuity, for as far out as we can see for decades, it literally will make the difference. This next election I think is the most important election we ever faced in our lifetimes, it will make the difference based on Supreme Court appointments alone between an America that we can recognize, that at least resembles what our Founding Fathers intended, versus a radical, secular, socialist, European-style nation, which is the goal of Barack Obama.

…

A Christian non-vote is a vote for Barack Obama in that it fails to affirmatively cancel out an Obama vote. I can’t imagine any Christian in good conscience based on Obama’s radical, counter-biblical, anti-Christian, pro-abortion, pro-homosexual activism policies voting for Barack Obama. That leaves a final choice, and that is to get out, vote for Mitt Romney, and get out the vote for Mitt Romney.

Barber: PFAW, ACLU, FFRF, & AU are Communists Engaged in 'Religious Cleansing'

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 6/11/2012 10:16 am

Liberty Counsel attorney Harry Mihet grew up in Communist Romania and lived there until his family fled to America and now, in his capacity as a right-wing culture warrior, never misses an opportunity to warn that sees America heading down the road toward communism.

So it was no surprise to see Mihet featured on today's "Faith and Freedom" radio program entitled "Is American Becoming Communist?" where he warned that things like the contraception mandate are just "communism by any other name." 

Host Matt Barber completely agreed with Mihet, declaring that groups like People for the American Way, the ACLU, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State are "anti-theist" groups that "display a marked hostility towards religious freedom" and are seeking to make all citizens loyal to the state by "engaging in religious cleansing" ... which is "uncannily similar" to what took place in communist Romania:

Barber: Scott Lively 'Really is a Hero' Who is Doing 'Kingdom's Work'

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 6/5/2012 10:09 am

Earlier this year, a Ugandan gay rights group sued notorious anti-gay activist Scott Lively in US court for allegedly violating international law over his role in Uganda's proposed "Kill The Gays" bill.

Shortly thereafter, the notorious anti-gay activists at Liberty Counsel stepped up to represent  Lively  and on today's installment of "Faith and Freedom," Matt Barber and Harry Mihet explained that they were doing so because Lively is really a courageous hero who ought to be commended for the kingdom's work that he has been doing but who has become instead the victim of violence from gay activists:

Barber: Progressive Principles can Only be Imposed Through Tyranny

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Friday, 6/1/2012 2:55 pm

On today's installment of the "Faith and Freedom" radio program, Matt Barber returned to his favorite theme of late, namely that liberals are tyrannical bullies who can only succeed in the public arena by intimidating their opponents into silence.

But Barber, for one, will not be intimidated!  And the reason he won't be intimidated is because he works for an organization that has "liberty" in its name ... and everyone knows that liberty is the key to furthering Biblical principles while progressive principles can only be imposed through tyranny, which is why the Left is always working to sidestep the Constitution: 

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Liberty Counsel Posts Archive

Crampton: If SCOTUS Strikes Down DOMA, the Homosexual Agenda 'Will Eradicate Us'
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Thursday 02/07/2013, 4:21pm
The other day, Matt Barber and Steve Crampton of Liberty Counsel were discussing the Supreme Court's decision to hear arguments on Proposition 8 later this year, when Crampton warned that any decision to strike it down would put society "on the verge of total collapse." The two followed that up with a discussion of the related decision to by the court to hear arguments over the Defense of Marriage Act, which both Barber and Crampton discussed in an equally reasonable fashion, with Barber warning that gay marriage will be the sledgehammer that crushes religious liberty in America... MORE >
Rios: Opponents of Boy Scouts' Gay Ban Should Pay for Child Abuse Cases
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Thursday 02/07/2013, 3:20pm
The American Family Association’s Sandy Rios today continued to press the Boy Scouts of America against opening the organization to gay members on her radio show. She said that opponents of the ban like AT&T CEO Randall Stevenson, Ernst & Young CEO James Turley and Mitt Romney (!) who are affiliated with the BSA should be forced to pay for any future settlements of all the child abuse cases that Rios claims will be a consequence of having openly gay Boy Scouts. I think I have a solution, I just thought of it this morning. I think these guys, let’s put Mitt Romney in... MORE >
Crampton: Society Will Be on the 'Verge of Total Collapse' if SCOTUS Strikes Down Prop 8
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Tuesday 02/05/2013, 12:57pm
On today's "Faith and Freedom" radio program, Matt Barber and Steve Crampton discussed the Supreme Court's decision to hear arguments on California's Proposition 8 later this spring, with Crampton warning that the American people need to be made aware of just how important this case will be because "society itself is on the verge of total collapse if we give up what marriage really means": MORE >
Liberty Counsel Warns Gay Marriage Will Keep Boys and Girls from Becoming Men and Ladies
SUBMITTED BY: Miranda Blue, Monday 02/04/2013, 6:10pm
Back in 2010, when a federal district court in California heard the first legal challenge to the anti-gay Proposition 8, the judge asked the attorney defending Prop 8 how marriage equality would hurt the ability of straight couples to bear and raise children. The attorney sputtered and answered, “I don’t know.” A key witness for Prop 8’s supporters had the same answer, and later changed his mind to support marriage equality. Four years later, the case is coming before the Supreme Court, and marriage equality opponents are still struggling to answer that question. In... MORE >
Is Satan Behind the Campaign to Let Gays Join the Boy Scouts?
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Monday 02/04/2013, 5:05pm
With the Boy Scouts of America board planning to vote Wednesday on whether to allow local troops to accept gay members, Religious Right activists are ramping up their efforts to keep the ban in place. And Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel believes that Satan is the real culprit behind the potential shift in policy. Barber blamed “spiritual pressure” from Satan — “the Prince of the Earth” — for the potential decision of the BSA board and claimed that Jerry Sandusky may soon “join the jamboree.” The Prince of the Earth seeks to corrupt and... MORE >
Religious Right Activists Fear Boy Scouts Will Soon Face 'Homosexual Indoctrination'
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Friday 02/01/2013, 3:55pm
Conservative leaders are continuing to rally opposition to a proposed plan to end the national ban on gay members in the Boy Scouts of America with warnings about pedophilia and “indoctrination.” Family Research Council vice president Rob Schwarzwalder told Janet Mefferd yesterday that fathers cannot trust their sons to be around gay people. Mefferd called gay rights advocates “totalitarian” for opposing the ban and lamented that the “violins are playing full blast” in the media when they cover stories about gay youths kicked out of the Boy Scouts. Mat... MORE >
Rubio Warns Hagel Confirmation Could Lead to War
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Friday 02/01/2013, 1:20pm
The Religious Right is mobilizing against Chuck Hagel’s nomination for Defense Secretary, and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is saying exactly what they want to hear. In an interview with Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council yesterday, Rubio suggested that if Hagel is successfully confirmed then countries like Iran and Syria may consider going to war against Israel, which will “end up pulling us into an armed conflict in that region.” Rubio: Israel’s enemies look for daylight of any kind in order to move forward on actions. Just today we are reminded of that, there... MORE >
Right Wing Leftovers - 1/31/13
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Thursday 01/31/2013, 6:42pm
The Family Research Council and Liberty Counsel are urging activists to contact the Boy Scouts and voice their opposition to the possibility of lifting the ban on gay scouts and scout leaders. In case that is not enough, FRC is also asking God to intervene: "Thanks be to God for keeping the Scout Program strong till now. May He intervene to prevent this travesty against righteousness and justice from taking place! May God give the BSA leaders courage and understanding NOT to forsake their own laws by BOWING to those behind this immoral shakedown. May those within who are behind... MORE >