News Tidbits

Pink News: Christian foster couple want ‘political intervention’ in gay equality laws

Baltimore Sun: National anti-gay marriage group commits $1 million

TB News Watch: Students sent home for pro-choice gesture

The Morning Call: Girl sues school district over Christmas party invitations

Pennlive: Westboro Baptist Church plans to picket funeral for seven dead Perry County siblings

KSDK.com: Nathan Phelps tells Clayton crowd his father believes the things he says

Commentary Tidbits

Jews on First: Christian Zionists' Night to Honor Israel in Albuquerque

St. Louis Today: Chick-fil-A president's appearance canceled at request of pro-diversity group

Religion Dispatches: Record Number of Stealth Creationism Bills Introduced in 2011 

Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters: Should Christians be allowed to discriminate on the basis of personal beliefs? 

Truth Wins Out: Janet Boynes Ministries Is a Big Gay Joke

Right Wing Watch: Sarah Palin to Share Stage With Lila Rose

RH Reality Check: Randall Terry's Campaign Platform

When Disaster Strikes, the Blame Game Begins (UPDATED)

Recently, I was struck by several articles involving religion and natural disasters. First, in her commentary at Religion Dispatches, Anthea Bulter reflects on religious conversations via Twitter that attribute the 8.9 earthquake in Japan to God's wrath. Second, Right Wing Watch reports that Chuck Pierce described Japan as a "stronghold of spiritism" and its recent earthquake as a message from God. KVIA 7 reports that El PAso city council candidate Malcolm McGregor III said the Japanese earthquake was a possible curse from God. Generals International preacher Cindy Jacobs claimed that God is using the earthquake to pierce the "darkness" surrounding the Japanese people, according to Truth Wins Out. Finally, Pink Paper reports that an American church is preaching that the New Zealand Christchurch quake is God's retribution against gays and lesbians. In the face of disasters, why is it that some observers respond with compassion, while others respond with victim-blaming?

I've noticed that some high-profile fundamentalist Christians have reacted to tragedies by blaming either the victims or a despised group for inciting God's fury. No introduction is needed for the Westboro Baptist Church, whose members cite everything from military casualties to private horrors as evidence of God's disgust with America's alleged immorality. However, other high-profile fundamentalists have blamed victims or despised groups for tragedies, earning them endless controversy.

For example, shortly after the September 11th attacks, Jerry Falwell appeared on The 700 Club and insisted that the ACLU, feminists, pagans, abortion providers, and gays helped the tragedy happen. 700 Club host Pat Robertson concurred. Falwell later backtracked on this statement.




Pat Robertson himself has made controversial statements about disaster victims as well. Following the 7.0 earthquake that devastated Haiti in January 2010, Robertson attributed Haiti's misfortune to a supposed "pact to the devil" that their ancestors made.

"They were under the heel of the French, you know Napoleon the third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said 'We will serve you if you will get us free from the prince.' True story. And so the devil said, 'Ok it's a deal.' And they kicked the French out. The Haitians revolted and got something themselves free. But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after another."

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs called Robertson's comments "stupid."

Commentary Tidbits

Friendly Atheist: Lake Zurich School Board Candidates Retract Pro-Creationism Statements

Media Matters: After Shootings, Does Pat Robertson Still Support Recalcitrant Ivory Coast Leader?

Right Wing Watch: Religious Right Group Says Anti-Bullying Programs Will "Homosexualize" Children

Talk to Action: Huck Run Amok: The Hysterical Harangues of a Hapless Huckabee

Salon: NPR sting also nets ... Pamela Geller?

Truth Wins Out: Hate Comes to Harvard

News Tidbits

Pink News: UK: David Cameron says Christians should be ‘tolerant’ of homosexuality

Yahoo News: Soldiers Wrongly Punished for Skipping Concert

Beaver County Times: Dueling Rallies on Abortion at Atlmire's Office

The American Independent: Reps. Pence, Jordan: House must insist on provision to defund Planned Parenthood

American Independent: Ralph Reed says gay marriage not an issue for 2012 Republicans – because they’re all equally against it

Minnesota Independent: GOP bill seeks to condemn UN children’s rights treaty

Colorado Independent: Religious right calls for tough love in denouncing civil unions legislation

Florida Independent: Catholics for Choice: Jacksonville mayoral candidate using ‘rhetoric of violence’

The Advocate: Santorum's 180 on Legal Gay Sex?

The Advocate: Chuck Norris Thinks Schools Are Too Gay

"Pray Away the Gay?" on OWN

On Tuesday evening at 10 p.m. Eastern, OWN presented an edition of Our America with Lisa Ling that discussed Christian "ex-gay" ministries. Not only did Ling bring attention to a worrisome movement, but she incorporated multiple voices into the show in a respectful manner, without neglecting the controversies surrounding "ex-gay" programs.

The episode began with scenes from the 35th Exodus International Freedom Conference, where Exodus president Alan Chambers acknowledged that the ex-gay ministry offered no guarantees. "What if your feelings never change?" he asked the audience. "Will you still serve Him?" Chambers insisted that God "created us for something better" than homosexuality.

In a one-on-one talk with Ling, Chambers said that while he still struggles with same-sex attraction, he had resisted the "power" that those "fleeting temptations" had over him before. He claims that he is now living his life through the "filter of faith" instead of the "filter of sexuality." Chambers told Ling that he did not say homosexuality was wrong, God did. Reflecting on the six passages in the Bible that address homosexuality, Ling wondered if the Bible was a "moral compass" or an iron-clad cage.

Commentary Tidbits

Freak Out Nation: Conservative Pundits Call Glenn Beck “Disturbing”

Religion Dispatches: Hagee and Others See End Times in North African Revolutions 

Box Turtle Bulletin: Scott Lively Warns of "Outbreak of Homosexuality" in Moldova, Part of a "Secret Plan by the Homosexual Powers of the EU"

365 Gay: Love, marriage – and hate

Huffington Post: Why Evangelicals Hate Jesus

News Tidbits

MSNBC: High court rules for anti-gay funeral protesters

Beliefnet: Publisher Backs Off Warning Label for Evangelical Books

Nola.com: Southern Decadence protest leader booked with masturbating at Metairie park

Florida Independent: Personhood Florida leader: Many opponents have ‘participated in taking their own child’s life’

Minnesota Independent: Tempers flare over anti-gay bullying at Anoka-Hennepin school board meeting

American Independent: Abortion provider disputes Operation Rescue’s claims of wrongdoing

Iowa Independent: Iowa ‘Pastors’ Policy Briefing’ to host Bachmann, other 2012 hopefuls

Commentary Tidbits

Scientific American: The Scopes Strategy: Creationists Try New Tactics to Promote Anti-Evolutionary Teaching in Public Schools

President Terry O'Neill of NOW: U.S. Catholic Bishops Major Force Behind War on Women

Talking Points Memo: Pam Geller on “Hate Group” Label: “A Badge of Honor”

Media Matters: Beck Again Ties Islam To "The Antichrist From The Book Of Revelation"

The 700 Club on the Family Research Council's Hate-Group Label

The 700 Club recently aired a segment on the Southern Poverty Law Center's decision to list the Family Research Council as a hate group, due to the FRC's promotion of anti-gay falsehoods.  (To read a transcript of the segment, click here.)



While the segment did discuss the mission of SPLC and featured quotes from Intelligence Report editor Mark Potok, it devoted far more attention to conservative anti-gay voices, such as Peter Sprigg and Bishop Harry Jackson. Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council defended FRC, insisting that his organization presents evidence for its anti-gay views, adding that he doesn't think "the debate should be shut off by these gratuitous charges of hate." Sprigg cited a controversial study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, claiming that most male child molesters studied identified as homosexual or bisexual.

The claim that gay and bisexual men allegedly abuse children at higher rates than other populations has been proven incorrect by several sources. Also, Box Turtle Bulletin posted commentary that placed the Archives of Sexual Behavior study in context.

Sprigg and Jackson also claimed that anti-gay activism cannot be equated with racism, with Jackson citing the violence against African-Americans that his father witnessed in the South. Sprigg accused the SPLC of inappropriately extending the hate-group label to organizations that "hold politically incorrect positions on certain issues like homosexuality."

These claims ignore the reality of homophobic violence, as well as homophobic discrimination and discriminatory legislation (i.e., anti-sodomy laws, DOMA, and the now repealed DADT). To claim that racism is a form of oppression and anti-gay attitudes are not is to ignore widespread evidence to the contrary. For Sprigg to claim that homosexuality is simply an "issue" that people can disagree on is to belittle millions of gays and lesbians while ignoring the oppression that LGBT people encounter.

I regret that The 700 Club did not take a more balanced approach to the SPLC's decision to label FRC as a hate group. It appears that some anti-gay voices cannot understand why FRC has warranted this label, or why homophobia is noxious in the first place.