Proclaim 17 offers Christian media professionals an opportunity to network and develop new strategies for engaging with audiences. While much of the convention's content focuses on technology, outreach, and industry trends, some of its workshops have a decidedly right-leaning flavor.
Is Transformation Really Possible for Persons with Same Sex Attraction? (presented by Anne Paulk of Restored Hope Network, an "ex-gay" ministry)
The Fight for Religious Freedom and the Future of the Courts (presented by Ryan T. Anderson and Roger Severino of the Heritage Foundation)
Personal Attacks on First Amendment Freedoms and What May Lie Ahead (presented by Todd Starnes of Fox News and the Benham brothers)
Pastors Lunch: Shall We Talk About Islam? (featuring no Muslim speakers, oddly enough)
The Human Cost of the Attack on Religious Freedom
What Does the Trump Presidency Mean for Christian Radio?
Let's not ignore the convention's speakers, who include right-wing figures such as Alliance Defending Freedom founder Alan Sears, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, anti-abortion activist Alveda King, David and Jason Benham, and homophobic ex-Atlanta fire chief Kelvin Cochran.
Writing at the Advocate, L. Cole Parke observes that both NRB and many of the organizations participating in Proclaim 17 are opposed to LGBTQ equality. The fact that Proclaim 17 will take place in Orlando, the location of last year's devastating Pulse massacre, makes the participants' homophobia even more painful to behold.
Fortunately, Soulforce is organizing a direct action during the convention under the hashtags #StopKillingUs and #KeepPulseAlive. According to their website, Soulforce will be honor Pulse victims with a Living Altar of paper doves while "bringing healing, witness, joy, and resistance to the leading Christian Right Wing communicators who are killing our people."
"The National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) is a Right-Wing communications network with 1400+ member stations broadcasting around the world. Their annual meeting will be hosted this year in Orlando, FL during which thousands of members and supporters will convene to strategize, network, and gain skills to further their aggressive anti-LGBTQI and anti-Muslim agenda that broadcasts to the world.
Soulforce invites all those who are willing and able, both in Florida and everywhere, to hold vigil over this Living Altar with us in Orlando as we honor our dead and challenge the power of this communications hub to harm our bodies and spirits with death-dealing rhetoric.
Soulforce, in partnership with local and regional organizations, is collecting doves from around the world to join our Living Altar. These doves symbolize those who were made ancestors at the Pulse Nightclub Massacre in Orlando in June 2016."
As the Religious Right explores ways to promote its agenda through broadcasting in Orlando, people of conscience will be holding them accountable for their bigotry. Soulforce's direct action will serve as another reminder that the Religious Right will encounter resistance to its intolerance.
Bruce Gerenscer posted an insightful commentary piece on the Religious Right's waning influence and disconnection from millennials. In one segment, he argues that the Religious Right uses persecution rhetoric to induce a siege mentality in their remaining followers and ensure their loyalty.
"Part of me wonders if uproar over Scalia, same-sex marriage, Planned Parenthood, and the 2016 Presidential election is really all about keeping Evangelicals in the fold. People such as Franklin Graham, Tim Wildmon, Tony Perkins, and James Dobson
know that Evangelicalism is losing young adults at an alarming rate. Even when young adults remain in the church, they are more likely to support same-sex marriage and abortion rights and are more likely to vote Democrat. These liberal-minded Evangelicals helped put Barack Obama in office in 2008 and 2012. Knowing they cannot retreat from the
culture war, Evangelical parachurch groups increasingly resort to using methods meant to keep their supporters in a constant state of spiritual and political agitation. Anything that is perceived as an “attack” on Evangelical Christianity is quickly reported and added to daily email missives sent to supporters. From the war on Christmas to cries of religious persecution, Evangelical leaders paint a dire picture of the
future for American Christians. Some even go so far as to suggest that Evangelicals will soon be rounded up and jailed for their beliefs."
April 28th was an important day for the American LGBTQ equality movement. On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on whether the Constitution requires state governments to recognize same-sex marriages, reports the Christian Science Monitor. Same-sex marriage bans in Tennessee, Ohio, Michigan, and Kentucky were upheld by a federal appeals court in November 2014, but those cases have now come before the Supreme Court, according to LGBTQ Nation. Countless pro-LGBTQ and anti-LGBTQ entities submitted amicus briefs in the weeks leading up to April 28th. The cases come before a Supreme Court whose judges are divided on the issuer of same-sex marriage, as the New York Times observes.
While LGBTQequalityadvocates brought attention to the landmark cases, supporters held the Unite 4 Marriage rally in Washington D.C. on Tuesday morning. LGBTQ Nation reports that the atmosphere outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday was festive, with supporters of same-sex marriage wearing costumes, waving rainbow flags, and holding signs.
Anti-LGBTQ voices from the Religious Right were also on-hand, both inside and outside the Supreme Court. The Advocate states that a disruptive man was ejected from the Supreme Court building, reportedly shouting, "The nation will earn God's wrath!" Outside the building, same-sex marriage opponents took part in their own rally, featuring speakers such as the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins and Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kansas).
The Religious Right was active in the days leading up to April 28th as well, calling on the Supreme Court to reject same-sex marriage. Vision American president Rick Scarborough, Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver, and Focus on the Family Founder James Dobson launched an online marriage pledge, which insists that marriage is between one man and one woman.
On April 24th, Vision America hosted a press conference at the National Press Club, where Religious Right leaders denounced same-sex marriage. James Dobson could not appear in person, and thus his associates played a pre-recorded video of Dobson's message. In the video, Dobson described heterosexual marriage and the "institution of the family" as gifts from God and bedrocks of culture throughout history. "God help us if we throw the divine plan for humankind on the ash heap of history," he told listeners. At the 4:02 mark, he mentioned that a handful of cultures that accepted LGBTQ people later perished, then claimed that same-sex marriage is a modern phenomenon.
"Admittedly, there have been periods in history where homosexuality has flourished, including the Biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, in ancient Greece, and during the Roman empire. None of these civilizations survived. Only in the last few years has what has been called gay marriage been given equal status with Biblical male-female unions."
First, all civilizations fall or fade over time. For Dobson to attribute the end of civilizations to same-sex intimacy is patently ridiculous. Dobson's claim about long-faded societies was either an attempt at instilling fear of destruction in listeners, or a display of arrogant superiority over LGBTQ rights supporters. Second, same-sex marriage is not a modern invention, but rather a practice with a long historyacrossthe globe. Contrary to Dobson's claims, same-sex marriage has existed alongside heterosexual marriage for millennia.
At the 5:28 mark, Dobson claimed that the American people do not endorse same-sex marriage, a claim that evidence refutes. In doing so, Dobson tried to depict advances in LGBTQ equality as the will of a minority, rather than a reflecting of large-scale social change.
"The American people didn't demand the sea change that is occurring. In fact, the populations in 31 states voted one at a time on the definition of marriage, and every one of them affirmed it as being exclusively between one man and one woman."
Vision America president Rick Scarborough blasted those who support LGBTQ equality, condemning them of debating a matter than has already been "settled in heaven". Scarborough accused them of defying God himself at the 12:48 mark.
"We've witnessed an attack on God and the veracity of his word unparalleled in American history. Judges, legislators, and citizens who voted for same-sex marriage have said, in effect, God and his word are incorrect on marriage. Perhaps unknowingly, they've chosen to deny God's word and observable nature and it created an illusion that most Americans approve of that which God forbids."
At the 13:14 mark, Scarborough argued that the majority opinion on LGBTQ equality is not necessarily correct, just as the majority opinion on historic racism was wrong. In doing so, he likened those who see to grant equal rights to a groups of Americans with earlier generations that denied equal rights to their fellow citizens. The irony, I thought.
"I am not surprised that some recent polls have shown the majority of Americans now say they approve of same-sex marriage. We have heard a steady drumbeat for the past decade of a one-sided national discussion on the subject. But there was also a time when the majority of Americans in this country approved of separate restrooms and separate classrooms for black American citizens. The majority often gets it wrong. And who wants to be labeled a bigot for declaring what their heart truly believes about sodomy and alternative lifestyles?"
I found it amusing that Scarborough spoke of LGBTQ rights as a movement supported by the majority of Americans, while Dobson rejected the very idea just a few minutes prior. The Religious Right is having trouble keeping all its myths and bad arguments straight, I realized.
Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, told the audience that religious liberty was under attack in a "zero-sum game". Staver discussed racist and eugenicist Supreme Court decisions from the past, speaking of LGBTQ rights gains to historic racism in the same breath. At the 29:19 mark, he told the audience that if the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage, he and his kindred spirits would not respect the decision.
"If the supreme court can't get this issue right, whether or not there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage in the United States Constitution, if they cross this line and somehow invent some purported right to same-sex marriage in the United States Constitution, I say that, and the leaders that have signed this, and many more that will sign this around this country, that we will consider and treat such a decision by the United States Supreme Court in the same way that we and history has viewed Dred Scott and Buck v. Bell ... That decision will be an unjust law, and we cannot and we will not give it the respect of the rule of law. That goes too far."
Janet Boynes, founder of Janet Boynes Ministries, claimed that "ex-gays" like her can "debunk" calls for LGBTQ rights and "tear down their belief system" if given a national stage. She called homosexuality a "false identity" rooted in "sexual or emotional brokenness", arguing that since gays can supposedly become heterosexual, calls for LGBTQ rights are invalid.At the 38:46 mark, she claimed that LGBTQ equality is not a civil rights issue, since it can supposedly be changed, unlike skin color.
"We have tragically watched our nation cave in to homosexuality propaganda. More and more, people are falling for the lie that homosexuals are born that way, when we know that's a lie anyway. Homosexuals have successfully made inroads into Hollywood, television, our children's public schools, universities, our government, the president of the United States, and our churches. Homosexual marriage is growing in America. [A] reality which is currently being litigated in our nation's Supreme Court as a potential federal civil rights, when we know this is not a civil rights issue. See, the color of my skin is an immutable, unchangeable characteristic. I can't change from black to white, but I did live a homosexual life for 14 years, and I've been out 17, so we know change is possible through the power of Jesus Christ."
Boynes depicted LGBTQ people as not only false, but ominous. "If same sex marriage becomes the law of the land, no one can even imagine or even predict the ramifications that this decision will have," she warned the audience.At the 41:30 mark, she insisted that advances in LGBTQ rights would lead to the shuttering of "ex-gay" ministries and "homosexual activists" indoctrinating children.
"Those who seek help to leave the life of homosexuality may soon discover that there is no longer any help out there. Homosexual activists and their homosexual attorneys are pushing to ban any type of ministries, such as Janet Boynes Ministries, which help people exit homosexuality. Their goal is to indoctrinate our kids. Their goal is to silence us. Their greatest fear is men and women like myself who have walked away from that life. Soon, it may become illegal to even have this kind of ministry. Who knows how much longer we will have to do what we are doing today, unless we act now."
As I listened to the press conference, I was struck by how stale and overused all of the arguments were. Every single argument -- God hates same-sex marriage, the majority is wrong for supporting same-sex marriage, the majority doesn't want same-sex marriage, gays can change to straight and thus don't need equal rights, think of the children! -- have been thrown around for years by anti-LGBTQ activists and refuted by equality supporters. Sadly, this is all the Religious Right knows how to do. The Religious Right clings so tenaciously to its outmoded vision of marriage and family that it cannot adapt to a changing world.
The gig is up, fundies. You're losing the culture war. Society is growing more enlightened, rejecting the homophobia, misogyny, science denialism, and dominionism that defines your worldview. As the world leaves you behind, your desperation becomes evidence in your relentless activism and overheated rhetoric.
The U.S. is still reeling from the December 14th mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut that claimed the lives of 27 victims. Compassionate people across the country have reacted with donations, vigils, and an outpouring of support for those impacted by the tragedy. Others have ask how the U.S. can prevent such violence by expanding the public conversation on our culture's glorification of violence, the merits of gun control, and the state of our mental health services.
Unfortunately, Religious Right figures such as Mike Huckabee, Bryan Fischer, and Steve Deace have responded to the tragedy with insensitive comments, blaming the tragedy on insufficient national piety. Over the past few days, other Religious Right voices have followed suit, using the tragedy as a cheap opportunity to lash out at abortion, evolution, and insufficient religiosity.
First, First, during the December 17th edition of Family Talk with Dr. Dobson, James Dobson speculated that the shooting was an example of God's judgment. At the 16:07 mark of the radio show, he argued that God has allowed judgment to fall on Americans because of the proliferation of atheism, abortion, and LGBTQ equality.
"Something has gone wrong in America. We have turned our back on God. I mean, millions of people have decided that either God doesn't exist or he's irrelevant to me, We have killed 54 million babies, and the institution of marriage is right on the verge of a complete redefinition. Believe me, that is going to have consequences too. A lot of these things are happening around us ... I think we have turned our back on the scripture and on God almighty, and I think he has allowed judgment to fall upon us. I think that's what's going on. We're seeing things happen that didn't happen just a few years ago, and there's a reason for it. Something has gone wrong in this country."
In a December 14th column at Charisma News, Alex McFarland of the Christian Worldview Center grieved for the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting, offering condolences to all those impacted. Unfortunately, he also blamed the all-too-common mass violence in America on rejection of "Biblical principles", which supposedly created fertile ground for evil to take root. McFarland believes that the country must return to "God's morality" to prevent future massacres.
"As our nation mourns the loss of precious, innocent children and the staff members who were responsible for guiding and teaching them, we must consider the true source of the problem, which is not guns--it’s morality. We must return to the source of absolute truth--God and His Word--and recognize that abolishing of these Biblical principles from our society leaves the opportunity for pure evil to take root and the result can be what we saw today: the worst school massacre in our nation’s history. The sixth commandment is clear: You shall not murder. And yet, there are so many today who don’t know the commandment, don’t know why it is wrong, and don’t know that God’s truth is absolute--there is no justification for breaking it. We must return these laws and principles, as well as discussion of them, to our homes and dinner tables, our schools, and our public squares. By teaching God’s morality, we will raise up a generation in which fear of the Lord will help to prevent tragedies like the one experienced in Connecticut today."
Randy Thomasson right-wing group Save California issued a statement offering condolences to those impacted. Unfortunately, the statement quickly devolved into an attack on abortion and "godless evolution". (Hat tip to Right Wing Watch.
"We should be all the more grieved and all the more resolved to stop murders before they start. The answer is teaching the fear of God and love for God in schools and throughout society. Because mass murder is another example of societal degradation, a deadly consequence of promoting murderous abortions, godless evolution, and gratuitous violence. How opposite of teaching children that all people are worthy because they were created by God, that all innocent human beings deserve protection because they're made in God's image, and that every person is accountable to God when He judges the world."
In a recent press release, Operation Save America lambasted an interfaith memorial service for the Newtown shooting victims, calling it an "abomination" and an "affront to Almighty God". The organization failed to consider that not all of the mourners likely followed the same faith, or that the interfaith service might have given comfort to the victims' loved ones. (Hat tip to Right Wing Watch)
"Watching the Memorial service for the twenty-six precious lives taken from us was painful to say the least, but it was far more painful to the God who made America great. Newtown cancelled Christmas so it could properly mourn. How foolish, yet typical of governmental strategy to replace God. The "Interfaith" service was an affront to Almighty God. Those claiming to be His priests barely mentioned His Name --Jesus! After all, He is the only God there is!"
Tastelessly, Operation Save America used the massacre as a another shameless opportunity to mock contraception, anti-bullying policies, and the alleged neglect of divine law.
"What happened? We violently removed the fear of Almighty God from the hearts of our children. We expelled God from school and banished Him from the schoolyard. He was replaced with metal detectors, condoms, policemen, anti-bullying policies, No-gun zones, and violence of unprecedented order. Our strategy has replaced God's Truth. We are losing our kids because we are ignoring God's Law. Our government cannot fix us!"
John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minnesota, used the shooting as an opportunity to preach about hell. In a December 15th commentary at the Desiring God website, Piper wrote that "what we saw yesterday in the Newtown murders was a picture of the seriousness of our own corruption." He used the tragedy to make moral comparisons between murder and anger, arguing that both are sins against God. In essence, he detracts from the horror of the Newtown massacre by citing it as just another example of human sinfulness for which we should all repent. (Hat tip to Friendly Atheist.)
"...[T]he murders of Newtown are a warning to me — and you. Not a warning to see our schools as defenseless, but to see our souls as depraved. To see our need for a Savior. To humble ourselves in repentance for the God-diminishing bitterness of our hearts. To turn to Christ in desperate need, and to treasure his forgiveness, his transforming, and his friendship."
Sadly, this is nothing new. The Religious Right has a disgusting habit of blaming victims or unrelated scapegoats (LGBTQs, pro-choice persons, non-Christians) for catastrophes, with HurricaneSandy as a recent example.
In a prior post on the Religious Right "blame game" after catastrophes, I speculated on why so many right-wing voices feel the need to blame victims or unrelated scapegoats. One possibility is that Religious Right figures who do so may be trying to psychologically distance themselves from the victims. By believing that the victims or scapegoats provoked catastrophy by stirring God's anger, commentators can then conclude that they can avoid catastrophe themselves by pleasing God.
Another possibility is that those who blame victims or scapegoats may subscribe to toxic theodicy. If God controls all things, and if God is just, why would God allow tragedy to befall innocent people? The idea that violence and death can claim innocent people anyone, anywhere may be too much for them to bear. To preserve the idea that God is just, Religious Right voices may assume that tragedy victims or scapegoats must therefore have done something deserving of divine punishment.
Or am I over-analyzing here? Maybe the root of these attitudes is nothing more than self-righteousness and spite. Whatever the origin of such attitudes, they should be condemned as insensitive and irrelevant to the tragedy at hand. The victims of Friday's rampage deserve better.
On the February 7th edition of Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk, Focus of the Family founder James Dobson interviewed Rabbi Daniel Lapin as part of "The Battle for Civilization" series. Lapin, president of the American Alliance of Jews and Christians, reportedly had ties with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and participated in Glenn Beck's 2010 Divine Destiny revival. Additionally, he has a history of unkind comments about gays, animalrights, and "secular liberal males," according to Right Wing Watch. Throughout Family Talk, Lapin painted secularism in ominous colors and decried the alleged role of changing sexual attitudes in societal decay.
Dobson set the tone of the interview at the 0:25 mark when described modern society as in decline.
"It is no secret to any of us that the American way of life such as it's been known for generations is under attack today. At least that's what we believe. The Judeo-Christian system of values on which this country, and truly much of Western civilization, have been founded are threatened on a number of different fronts."
Much of Lapin's talk revolved around the alleged dangers of secularism and the degeneration of society. For instance, at the 3:06 mark, Lapin explained that he and his wife homeschooled their seven children to shield them from "the sordid stain of secularism" in public schools.
"We realized that sending them off for the best part of every day to fall under the influence of a system that is fundamentally spreading the sordid stain of secularism, essentially a public educational system that has as one of its prime purposes the obliteration of faith, that seemed to me to be an incredibly self-destructive act after we've invested so much of ourselves ... into these children."
Throughout the show, Lapin's distaste for secularism was clear. At the 16:32 mark, he demonized secularism as a "sinister and aggressive religion" bent on the obliteration of faith.
"You don't see secularism as a sort of benign, comfortable absence of religion. On the contrary, when you see that secularism is actually a very sinister and aggressive religion all on its own ... if you are a secular fundamentalism, then yes, you do need to obliterate all evidence of competing religions, and Christianity of course is the most conspicuous of the competing religions. And so obviously a prayer to the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob must be removed from schools. Praying to Jesus Christ, yes, must be stopped and eliminated."
In line with Lapin's contempt for secularism was his positive opinion of school prayer, whose demise in the U.S. he lamented. At the 13:40 mark, he suggested that school prayer is not an assault on anyone's rights, stunned that anyone would be opposed to school prayer.
"Prior to the Supreme Court rulings in that period, it was unthinkable. I mean, nobody ever thought that there was anything problematic--I know so many Jews of that generation who said, 'Of course we all said prayer in public school. So what? It was wonderful. It was not a bad thing.' And all of a sudden, over a span of terrifyingly few decades, people have been trained to consider prayer as a violent assault that challenges your rights to, what? Secularism?"
Like other voices from the Religious Right, Lapin help up Biblical knowledge as paramount. At the 9:15 mark, Lapin lamented that "timeless truths" from the Torah have been rendered "unpopular" in modern society. Amusingly, he suggested that this is the first generation in all of human history that considers itself sophisticated despite its alleged lack of Biblical knowledge.
"Christians ... during the colonial period were deeply aware of the permanent principles and the timeless truths to be found in the Torah, and they implemented them to build the society. And as the society has become more secularized and these timeless truths have been stripped one by one from the culture and made unpopular, to the point where interestingly enough we are now in the very first generation in all of human history ... this is the first generation where people, there are people in America today who consider themselves educated and sophisticated ... and yet they are utterly and sublimely clueless about the Bible. There's never been people who dared to consider themselves educated and yet who were ignoramuses Biblically."
Um, Rabbi Lapin? You do know that countless societies existed long before the Bible was compiled? And that many non-Christian and non-Jewish societies have existed across the globe? Were they uneducated and unsophisticated by default, despite their impressive contributions to history? To boot, Lapin's assumption that well-read, cosmopolitan people aren't truly "educated and sophisticated" unless they are knowledgeable about the Bible was extremely condescending.
In keeping with Religious Right rhetoric, Lapin pointed to sexual practices he disagreed with as culprits for a host of social ills. During a discussion of the roots of societal decline, Lapin attributed the emergence of the birth control pill to the alleged rise of "perpetual male adolescence." At the 11:35 mark, he had this to say.
"Perhaps one of the notable events ... was the arrival of the birth control tablet in the 1960s. And what that did for the very first time is it created the possibility of perpetual male adolescence. It made it possible for the first time for men to really never grow up and essentially it transformed masculinity and with all the implications of honor and respect and courage and the ability to defer gratification, everything that we think of as responsible masculinity got transformed into a very simple question: did you remember to take your pill, honey?"
Lapin conflates male responsibility with delaying sex, and delaying sex with the absence of birth control. The idea that birth control use is a form of responsibility meant to prevent unwanted pregnancy was not considered, nor was the idea that men can embody "honor and respect and courage" and have non-procreative sex. To boot, Lapin neglects contraception's immensely positive impacts on women, allowing them to enjoy intimacy while postponing or foregoing childbearing. This, in turn, allows them to cultivate other realms of their lives such as education, career, and community life.
Similarly, Lapin claimed that removing faith and Biblical wisdom from society heralded a tide of abortion, homosexuality, and changing sexual attitudes. Describing "sexual depravity" as the "barometer of a failure of a culture to control its basic instincts," he had this to say at the 21:20 mark.
"There is only one force powerful enough to combat the pull toward sensuality. Only one force powerful enough to defeat the compelling urge of rising sap in adolescent bodies, and that is God's power, the power of faith, and the wisdom of the Bible. When you strip that out of a society, you start off gradually with the violation of sexual mores, which we found during the Sixties and Seventies. It follows on with abortion, which is of course just another way of furthering if you like the sexual revolution, and then finds full expression in homosexuality which is ultimately the freest form of sex there is."
In keeping with familiar right-wing tropes, Lapin looks askance at secularism, contraception, and homosexuality as supposedly corrosive to a sound society. Instead of recognizing church-state separation, reproductive autonomy, and LGBT inclusion as positive developments, Lapin excludes them from his vision of an ideal society.
As you recall, former Secretary of Education and Drug Czar Bill Bennett just released a new book,The Book of Man: Readings on the Path to Manhood, in which he discussed with Pat Robertson in an October 26th episode of The 700 Club. Bennett spoke at length with James Dobson about the book in a two-part segment of Family Talk, where the men had both positive and negative things to say.
Dobson and Bennett began "The Value of Manhood I" segment of Family Talk with familiar jabs at feminism and the LGBT community. At the 5:04 mark, Dobson and Bennett attributed modern "confusion" about masculinity to alleged moral relativism, gay culture, and feminists.
BENNETT: We used to know and be unapologetic about saying what it means to be a man and to raise men to manhood ... We're not sure of that anymore because of the things, Jim, you and I have been talking about forever ... Moral relativism, the notion that there's no right or wrong, who's to say. The dizzying array of signals, to gay culture, which has confused an awful lot of boys, the messages there. DOBSON: And the feminist movement has just hammered away at what manhood means. BENNETT: The feminist movement. Remember Gloria Steinem? "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle." If you put on TV, if you go to the universities, if you check the popular culture, you'll see there is not a consistent message to boys about what it means to be a man, and as a result they’re confused.
Dobson and Bennett covered a wide range of topics during their discussions, including Ronald Reagan as an exemplary man and (to their credit) the horrors of the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal. On the topic of masculinity, the two spoke of the importance of men working hard, showing courtesy to women, and loving and providing for their families.
The conversation took an unexpected turn at the 20:33 mark of "The Value of Manhood II," when Dobson asked Bennett to talk about his wife Elayne. Bennett described his wife's work with Best Friends, a sexual abstinence program for teens that drew controversy in 2008 over its federal funding. During the conversation, Bennett lamented that Elayne could not "talk about one form of family being preferable to another" in her program, a possible jab at calls for tolerance for same-sex couples.
DOBSON: Here at the end of the program, talk about who she is ... She has had this program for teenage girls called Best Friends.
BENNETT: She's a hero of mine, and she's a hero of the country. It's by the research the most successful abstinence education program in the country, and she works in the public schools, which is not an easy place to work. She's now been given some directions from people in the Obama administration about what she can say and not say. They'd prefer that she--strongly prefer that she not use the word 'abstinence."
DOBSON: Can't even use the word. They tell her not to use the word.
BENNETT: And do not talk about one form of family being preferable to another, you know, that the the nuclear family, the family of husband--of man and woman.
DOBSON: And the government can say that to her because they provide some money for her.
BENNETT: It's the guidelines, yeah, and she's being audited, which I believe, I shouldn't say this, but I think she's being harassed because the success of her program.
Amidst otherwise positive messages -- including horror at the Sandusky abuse scandal and calls for men to be responsible and courteous -- Bennett's appearance on Family Talk also included jabs at feminists and gays that we've come to expect.
