Are the AFA and FRC Really Hate Groups?
“You’re a ‘Hate Group!’ … Na-nana-naa-nah!”
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) calls the American Family Association (AFA) a “hate group” because AFA promotes traditional biblical views on homosexuality and marriage. SPLC does not have a standard for who they label as a “hate group.” They apply the label to whomever they want to dehumanize and attack. Surprisingly, President Obama stated the same position on homosexual marriage that AFA holds when he first ran for President, but SPLC did not call him a hater.
I am writing this blog so that you can evaluate for yourself whether AFA is a hate group, here are:
- A background sketch of the SPLC;
- A list of AFA’s views regarding homosexuality that SPLC disagrees with, and therefore defines as hateful lies;
- Some of the consequences of SPLC’s name calling; and
- Information about SPLC’s leader Morris Dees that you can use to evaluate his hostility toward AFA.
(1) Multi-millionaire lawyer Morris Dees co-founded the SPLC in 1971 and developed a successful litigation strategy to financially destroy the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups which had perpetrated racial violence. During this period the SPLC developed a data base of information on white supremacist groups that the FBI and other federal agencies sometimes consulted. As racial violence ebbed in national focus, Dees moved on to contesting the death penalty. Later, to keep the SPLC relevant, Dees added homosexual rights to its agenda.
(2) AFA promotes the following views that SPLC calls lies:
(a) Homosexual behavior is sinful, and a perversion of human sexuality.
(b) Christ offers forgiveness and freedom from bondage to homosexuality or any other sin (1 Cor. 6:9-11).
(c) Feeling homosexual urges does not require a person to act on them.
(d) God ordained marriage as a union of one man and one woman in a pattern that has the potential for producing children.
(e) No relationship between same-sex couples is really marriage, no matter what the law may say.
(f) An intact family, with a father and a mother, is the best environment for raising a child.
(g) Although a same-sex couple may love a child, they inevitably give the child a perverted view of sex.
(h) Youthful partners are highly prized by homosexuals, posing a potential threat to vulnerable minors.
(i) Homosexuals target Christians who refuse to affirm them in their sin, such as the Methodist campmeeting reception facility, the baker, the photographer, the florist and the wedding chapel operator who have been sued for not wanting to participate in homosexual wedding celebrations.
(3) By calling AFA and the Family Research Council “hate groups” the SPLC has confused the public, making them think that those conservative family organizations advocate either violence or harassment of homosexuals. We do not.
By including AFA and FRC on its list of hate groups, SPLC has aroused suspicion of conservative Christians among law enforcement and military personnel when SPLC materials are used for training purposes.
Floyd Corkins told the FBI he felt that the hate map on the SPLC website gave him license to kill anti-gay targets when he entered FRC headquarters and shot four FRC employees in 2012. FRC and AFA remain listed on the SPLC hate map.
(4) Morris Dees personal life puts him at odds with the values of AFA. After four divorces, Dees is on his fifth marriage. Dees’ second divorce left ugly allegations of sexual misbehavior, including serial adultery, forcing his wife to participate in group sex and engaging in incest, pedophilia and homosexuality. The biblical Christian values championed by AFA and FRC undoubtedly pose a stinging rebuke to Dees’ personal lifestyle.
Please respond to this ugly blog by praying that AFA will be gracious and winsome as it defends biblical teachings on sexuality and marriage. Pray that God will defend His Name. Pray that Morris Dees and the other folks at SPLC will come to repentance and find grace and healing.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
