The Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting: Deace and Fischer Respond (UPDATED)

A disturbing tragedy has befallen a Connecticut school. According to the Washington Post, 20 year-old Adam Lanza walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut on Friday, where he proceeded to kill 20 children and several adults before committing suicide. Lanza had also murdered his mother, a teacher, that day. The New York Times recounts stories of horror from students and employees at the school, who described hearing the sound of gun fire, hiding in closets, huddling in gym corners, and fleeing outside. President Obama gave a nationally televised address, expressing grief at Friday's loss of life.

What would motivate someone to murder over two dozen people in cold blood? Did Lanza have a history of violence? How do surviving students, school staff, and loved ones process a horror of this magnitude? Could this massacre have been prevented? The Newton community and the nation as a whole have many questions and few answers as they respond to this tragedy.

To my disgust, it wasn't long before some Religious Right voices used the tragedy as a soap box. For example, Right Wing Watch reported that talk show host Steve Deace used the tragedy to pontificate about bearing arms, atheism, abortion, and entertainment. Deace made the following observations about America's alleged "culture of death" on his Facebook page.

"Insanely tragic scene in Connecticut, and already there is a rush to politicize it. For example, the White House reiterated its support for an assault weapon ban, however that wasn't even the type of weapon they're saying right now was used. But I'm sure there are some honest people who care about human life that think banning guns would avert these tragedies, and not just folks out to disarm the citizenry as a check and balance on tyrannical government. If you're one of them, I have a proposition for you. If you're willing to agree with me up front that asking kids to write suicide notes in schools, teaching them there is no God and thus no real purpose to their lives, letting children see movies glorifying the occult and gory violence, and that allowing and subsidizing parents killing at least 4,000 of their own children each day contributes to this culture of death, then maybe -- just maybe -- we can have an honest conversation about guns. But if you can't see that ultimately this is a cultural/spiritual problem then the reality is you don't really care about human life. You really care about politicizing yet more gun violence in what is supposed to be a gun free zone."

Right Wing Watch also documented the reaction of the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer, who tastelessly used the tragedy as an opportunity to promote religion in schools.

"You know, the question's going to come up -- where was God? I thought God cared about the little children, God protected the little children. Where was God when all this went down, and here's the bottom line. God is not going to go where he is not wanted. Now we have spent, since 1962 ... we have spent fifty years telling God to get lost, telling God we do not want you in our schools, we don't want to pray to you in our schools, we don't want to pray to you before football games, we don't want to pray to you at graduation, we don't want anybody talking about you in a graduation speech, we don't want anybody referring to you, we don't want your word read in our schools. So in 1962, we kicked prayer out of the schools. In 1963, we kicked the word of God out of schools. In 1980, we kicked the Ten Commandments out of schools. We've kicked God out of our public school system, and I think God would say to us, 'hey, I'll be glad to protect your children, but you've got to invite me back into your world first. I'm not going to go where I'm not wanted. I am a gentleman.'"

UPDATE: In a similar vein, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee used the massacre as an opportunity to call for more faith in schools. During an interview with Fox News on Friday, Huckabee lamented that "we've systematically removed God from our schools" and hinted that this state of affairs was partially to blame for the tragedy. "Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage becuase we've made it a place where we don't want to talk about eternity, life?" he said. If people would make room for God at the "front end", Huckabee argued, "we wouldn't have to call him to show up when it's all said and done at the back end." (Hat tip to Politicus USA)




To be fair, some Religious Right organizations posted sensitive, sympathetic statements in response to the Newton shooting, such as Concerned Women for America (see www[dot]cwfa[dot]org/content.asp?id=21787). Focus on the Family posted a column today on helping children cope with trauma. (See family[dot]custhelp[dot]com/app/answers/detail/a_id/26257/)

Only time will tell how other Religious Right voices will respond to the tragedy. Hopefully, other voices will be more sensitive than Deace, Fischer, and Huckabee. The shooting victims are NOT political mascots, and a senseless tragedy is NOT the time to spout irrelevant right-wing rhetoric.

Steve Deace Interviews PFOX President Greg Quinlan

During the third hour of the February 7th episode of The Deace Show, Steve Deace interviewed Greg Quinlan, president of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX). PFOX is a prominent organization in the so-called "ex-gay" movement, and has drawn criticism from LGBT equality groups such as Truth Wins Out, SPLC, and GLSEN. PFOX created controversy in February when it sent home 8,000 flyers to students in five Maryland schools advertising so-called "reparative therapy" (see here and here). To boot, Truth Wins Out announced on February 22nd that it was filing a defamation lawsuit against PFOX and Greg Quinlan, after Quinlan reportedly made inflammatory comments about the organization on News-Plus with Mark Segraves.

Deace began the interview by describing Quinlan as "a man who doesn't exist, according to pop culture, the media, and the indoctrination you're getting in your government school." Lambasting the "politically correct mafia" on college campuses who claim that ex-gays do not exist, as well as alleged "propaganda tools" such as anti-bullying legislation, Deace legitimized Quinlan and the "ex-gay" movement.



Quinlan introduced himself at the 3:31 mark as a successful ex-gay man, insisting that there were many like him in the world.

"I'm an ex-gay. I'm someone who left the homosexual lifestyle. Since no one's born that way, and since people seem to be able to change and it's okay and politically correct and acceptable to change from straight to gay, why can't you change from gay to straight, which is exactly what I did? ... There are hundreds of thousands of people who've left the homosexual lifestyle, but few of us have the insanity to go public about it and let people know that change is possible."

First of all, homosexuality and bisexuality are not "lifestyles," but sexual orientations. One's sexual orientation does not automatically indicate how one will fashion one's life. Cross-country RVing is a lifestyle. Veganism is a lifestyle. Bodybuilding is a lifestyle. Being gay or lesbian is not. Second, where is the evidence that reparative therapy is successful at changing sexual orientation?

Quinlan claimed that those who promote the ex-gay movement face hostility. He claimed that he has been smeared, called named, and even "slugged" outside of a Chicago church where he spoke. This was not the first time that Quinlan publicly claimed that his rivals have hurled vitriol at him.

Regarding same-sex marriage, Quinlan asserted at the 5:09 mark that "Marriage equality is just bogus. There's no such thing as equality with two men or two women." He argued that civil rights come into play when a minority is defined by something innate and immutable, and the group cannot protect itself. Same-sex marriage is not a civil right because homosexuality is supposedly not innate, but a choice. As SPLC's Sam Wolfe and Truth Wins Out's Wayne Besen said at a December 2011 talk, this is a common trope that the ex-gay movement uses to attack LGBT rights. Why grant the LGBT community a place at the table when they can just change into straight people? the flimsy argument goes.

At the 8:11 mark, Quinlan insisted that homosexuality was a choice, resorting to the discredited argument that childhood sexual abuse can allegedly turn someone gay.

"Many of the people you talk to individually without the press there, without the agenda, know they aren't born that way. They know it's a choice, but you see, the problem with choices is sometimes choices are sometimes made for you. I was sexually molested when I was ten years old. I was introduced to pornography when I was nine. Those were choices made for me and choices I continued to follow up on because I was interested."

Quinlan offensively claimed that gays and lesbians "recruit" young people, and that LGBT youth organizations such as GLSEN allegedly have this as their goal. At the 9:09 mark, he made this outrageous statement.

"So what do you do when [homosexuality is] not innate? You have to recruit. You have to find more people like you or that are vulnerable to be like you and bring them into the fold. This is why it is such an imperative with organizations like GLSEN with what your Republican governor is doing to educate children about their options sexually."

Deace made a somewhat convoluted argument at the 15:59 mark that acknowledging sexual orientation supposedly ignores the notion that people are made in the image of God. In a breathtaking reversal, he essentially argued that by denying LGBT people recognition, one is affirming their dignity.

DEACE: By affirming these phony -- and I just think it's pagan, frankly -- notions of sexual orientation, we are actually advancing the premise of the other side, and we're actually devaluing our own premise, which is that ... every human being is so much more than the sum parts of their choices and desires, that they are created in the image of God, and when we focus on orientation of behaviors we are devaluing their ... imago dei, and we're actually helping their own side cannibalize really their own, the value of their own lives. What are your thoughts on that?"


QUINLAN: You're absolutely right, and I like the word that you used here -- cannibalize -- because there is a scientific term that's called that. I want to have sex with that man so I can be like him, so I can become a part of him. It's a sexual, emotional cannibalization. That person has something I want. They look better than I do. They're more muscular than I am. They're more virile than I am, or whatever the reason is, they have something I want, and it's a type of what we call an emotional or sexual cannibalism ... We have lost our way because we denied we are made by a creator.

Predictably, Deace argued that acceptance of the LGBT community is a sign of societal decline. At the 18:11 mark, Deace insisted that no society, no matter how supposedly depraved, had ever "mainstreamed this level of immorality."

"Even in the darkest, most pagan cultures, like ancient Rome where Nero married a male slave inside the Roman Senate, never in human history have we had a human civilization, no matter how dark, how pagan, how unenlightened, that has mainstreamed this level of immorality to the point of  teaching its own children that it was okay at at young age, that they were willing to redefine their own cultural institutions and the basic framework of the rule of law in order to validate it. This has never happened anywhere ever in human history like it's happening in Western civilization right now."

I find it interesting that his watermark of a truly "dark" society was not slavery, genocide, tyranny, oppression of women, disease, or ignorance, but acceptance of LGBT people.



At the 18:50 mark, Quinlan told listeners that teaching children to accept LGBT people was a sign that parents and churches had abnegated their responsibilities. He alleged that society is encouraging children to "experiment," a dubious claim we've heard before.

"The real scare here is what we're doing to children. We are teaching children it's okay. We're teaching them to experiment. Parents have abrogated the responsibility to raising their children, to teaching them these fundamentals such as the birds and the bees of sexuality, and we've surrendered it to the schools. This is where we have got to stop this, and  parents have got to start being parents, and the church has to be the church."

For being the president of an organization that claims to care about homosexuals, Greg Quinlan showed great contempt for LGBT people and their rights on The Deace Show. By resorting to fear tactics and weak, outdated arguments, Quinlan demonstrated that he does not have the best interest of LGBT people at heart. In conclusion, Quinlan's interview reminds us that the so-called "ex-gay" movement is yet another strategy by the far right to undermine LGBT equality.

Hat tip to Right Wing Watch. To listen to the episode, visit stevedeace[dot]com/news/national-politics/deace-show-podcast-02-07-12/

Quotes from the Presidential Pro-Life Teletownhall

On December 27th, Personhood USA sponsored the Presidentual Pro-Life Teletownhall, moderated by radio show host Steve Deace. The participating GOP presidential candidates -- Texas Governor Rick Perry, Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich --signed Personhood USA's Presidential Pledge, thereby endorsing the belief that life begins at conception and vowing support for a human life amendment to the U.S. constitution. (See www[dot]personhoodusa[dot]com/blog/personhood-republican-presidential-candidate-pledge) Throughout the evening, candidates reiterated anti-abortion positions discussed during the December 14th Citizens United forum in Des Moines, with emphasis on the belief that personhood begins at conception.

Deace began the forum by alleging that President Obama has shown "absolutely no regard for the inalienable right to life," and that anti-abortion voters seek a champion for the abortion issue. The first candidate to speak was Gov. Rick Perry, who quoted Psalm 139:13 and attributed his anti-abortion stance to the Founders at the 4:35 mark.

"My commitment to the unborn, it's actually rooted in the Founding Fathers documents, and that came from the wisdom of the Old Testament and the natural law written on our hearts. The Declaration of Independence declared life liberty and pursuit of happiness are rights that are endowed by out creator, and that's not open to some arbitrary bureaucrat or a judge in a black robe -- legislator's robes as I refer to them -- or for that matter any human power. They declared it as a right. It comes from God."

Rep. Michele Bachmann stressed that the anti-abortion struggle was "what I would literally die for," outlining her abortion platform at the 21:40 mark.

"We know that President Obama has a war on the family, and just days after he took office, he advanced his cause by reversing Mexico City. Nothing has helped save more human life than the Hyde Amendment, but it doesn't go far enough. What we need to do to upend Roe v. Wade and end that horrible holocaust in the United States of life is to pass the personhood amendment. I am the first person to sign the Personhood USA pledge, and I'm proud to say that, to define life from the moment of conception. We don't have to wait just for the Supreme Court. We can be involved in this ourselves ... As president of the United States ... I will veto any congressional attempt to provide federal funding of abortion."

Moderators read a question submitted by Lou Engle of TheCall, who asked how candidates would combat "chemical abortions" in the wake of Secretary Sebelius' refusal to allow the over-the-counter sale of Plan B. Bachmann replied that repealing Obamacare was the best way to do so, expressing anger that President Obama supposedly has the authority to put "abortion pills" alongside bubblegum in stores. (Bachmann seemed to be conflating emergency contraception with "abortion pills" as she did at the December 14th Des Moines forum.)

Finally, long-time abortion opponent Rick Santorum argued that the life-at-conception position is not a belief, but rather at fact at the 30:28 mark.

"When politicians say 'I believe life begins at conception,' that is conceding ground, and the ground that we concede is by using the term 'believe.' Life beginning at conception is not a belief, it's not an article of faith, it's an article of fact, the biological fact that life in fact begins at conception, and we need to begin to understand that we have to use language that is consistent with what the truth is."

On a final note, although Texas Rep. Ron Paul signed Personhood's USA presidential pledge, he did not speak at the December 27th forum. Indeed, Personhood USA requested clarification from Paul on his anti-abortion stance, according to a December 26th press release at www[dot]personhoodusa[dot]com/press-release/ron-paul-signs-personhood-pledge-personhood-usa-questions-commitment

The fact that several prominent GOP presidential candidates signed Personhood USA's pledge and spoke at a forum it sponsored should give us pause. The anti-abortion stance of several candidates is absolute, condemning the procedure under any circumstances. As the far right becomes more prominent in politics, its beliefs manifests through even more stridently anti-abortion candidates.



To listen to the forum, visit stevedeace[dot]com/news/national-politics/deace-show-podcast-12-27-11/. To read additional commentary, visit the following links.

Des Moines Register: Some GOP presidential candidates sign anti-abortion pledge, but Paul’s stance is questioned

Huffington Post: GOP Candidates Reveal How They Would Enact Pro-Life "Personhood" Laws

Right Wing Watch: Bachmann to Personhood USA: Ending Abortion 'Is What I Would Literally Die For'