John R. Houk
© September 3, 2017
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) got its start
during the Civil Rights movement of the ‘70s. In those days the SPLC was a hero
for targeting racist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), Neo-Nazi
groups (e.g. Aryans and Skin Heads) and other racist hate groups. Good stuff,
right?
Well the major victories of the Civil Rights movement at
least on legal ground has leveled the playing field in the rule of law.
Certainly racism still exists in America, but racial minorities have the law on
their side to prevent racial exploitation on an overt basis. The racism that is
growing now in the America is largely the result of Left-Wing groups stirring
up strife with race-baiting in an effort to gain votes. Leftist race-baiting
has been a political instrument for the last couple of decades to hinder
traditional American values that began to regain sway with the Presidential
Administrations of Reagan, Bush II and now populist Conservatism with the
surprise election of President Donald Trump.
Since the Left can hardly believe they lost to President
Trump, they have done everything to lie, obstruct and manufacture anti-Trump
accusations ever since that first Tuesday in November 2016.
The SPLC is doing their part for the Left by labeling
Biblical Family Values organizations as hate groups. There are several groups
on the SPLC so-called hate list that are simply Biblical Christian or telling
the truth about Islam that I am not going to name here. The Christian ones of
interest to me are the Liberty Counsel (LC), Family
Research Council (FRC) and American Family Association
(AFA).
If I had time I could point out Counterjihad writers and
organizations that simply expose the darker nature of Islam that the Left
refuses to expose and way too many Conservatives are hesitant to expose out of
fear of organizations like the SPLC labeling them Islamophobic haters.
For both Christians and Counterjihadists, the SPLC
hate-labels are merely to turn the relatively uninformed public against what is
correct and moral by calling the good as evil.
The Conservapedia entry for the SPLC provides a great
synopsis of the organization’s hatred of all things American Patriotic,
Christian and Counterjihad in the first couple of paragraphs – READ the entire
entry:
The Southern Poverty Law
Center is a far-Left legal and activist organization created in 1971 in
Montgomery, Alabama. It
was founded by trial lawyers Morris Dees and Joe Levin, and its first president
was civil rights leader Julian Bond, who would later take control of the NAACP. SPLC supports a wide variety of liberal positions;
it is pro-immigration (both
legal and illegal),
advocates multiculturalism and
the homosexual
agenda, supports Muslims and racial preferences and defendants' rights,
and advocates against what it considers "hate groups". In 2012, Black
pastors confronted the Southern Poverty Law Center for smearing as "hate
groups" pro-family organizations opposed to the homosexual agenda.[1] Reverend Dr. Patrick
Wooden admonished the SPLC in declaring that it is wrong to compare "my
beautiful blackness" with homosexual perversion.[2]
The SPLC's op-ed writings have
appeared in the Communist
Party USA's newspaper People's World.[3] This
"controversial, liberal organization" [4] has been criticized
in mainstream press for being extravagant in its spending, and using charges of
racism to stifle conservatives.[5] (Southern Poverty Law Center; Conservapedia; page was last modified on 21 July
2017, at 22:33)
The Liberty Counsel has been blistered by the SPLC so often
that they have been the subject of multiple hate-accusations trying to
discredit and ruin the Christian Family Values advocate organization. It has
led Mat Staver to ask for legal defense aid several times a week to battle in
civil suit beginning with NGO expert Guidestar that used the SPLC hate-list.
An article from 7/2/17 I found on American Civil Rights
Union (ACRU not to be confused with Leftist ACLU):
Frustrated by its inability to win
elections, the left is attempting to silence opponents through intimidation,
either in the streets or in the courts.
The latest example is the hijacking of Guidestar USA by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
Guidestar is a database of more
than 2 million nonprofit and non-governmental (NGO) organizations. It’s
considered the foremost authority on nonprofits, and had a self-avowed
reputation for “remaining neutral.”
That changed when a left-wing
activist, Jacob Harold, came aboard in 2012. Mr. Harold, whose bio boasts of
donating to the Obama campaign, extensive activism on behalf of climate change
groups, and hosting a NARAL Pro-Choice D.C. men’s event, tweeted a photo of
himself holding a sign protesting President Trump at the radical Women’s March
in January.
Apart from Vermont ice cream
magnates Ben and Jerry, it might be hard to find a more radically leftist major
CEO. So it’s no wonder that Mr. Harold welcomed the Southern Poverty Law Center
as an authority on “hate groups.” Using SPLC’s “hate map” as a resource,
Guidestar smeared 46 organizations, many of them Christian, as “hate groups.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center has
a long history of abusing nonprofits and individuals with whom they disagree.
They tar innocent people and may have inspired at least two terrorist
incidents. The SPLC’s “hate map” lumps Christian and conservative organizations
with neo-Nazis, skinheads and other violence-prone groups. … (Silencing the Silencers; By Robert Knight; ACRU; 7/2/17)
And from Christianity Today:
A venerable Christian ministry
based in Fort Lauderdale recently saw its name listed on a CNN map of “all the
active hate groups where you live,” as well as in local news reports as the No.
1 hate group in Florida.
…
“Enough is enough,” said Frank
Wright, president of D. James Kennedy Ministries, which filed a lawsuit against
the SPLC on Wednesday. The organization also sued GuideStar and AmazonSmile for
their use of the SPLC list.
…
The SPLC recently received a prominent boost from Apple, which pledged a $1
million donation and will launch a new feature to allow users to donate
directly from iTunes.
…
D. James Kennedy
Ministries—formerly called Truth in Action—claims that the SPLC falsely labeled
it as a hate group with the intention to hurt its reputation and fundraising
efforts, according to a 39-page lawsuit filed in federal district court in
Alabama (where the SPLC is headquartered).
The suit alleges that the
ministry’s inclusion on the list of hate groups amounts to defamation—spreading
false, harmful information—as well as a trademark violation, misrepresenting
the ministry in order to drum up fundraising support. Wednesday’s filing made
the same claims against the charity-research site GuideStar for promoting the
SPLC designation, seeking an injunction against further use of the “hate group”
label and damages from both organizations.
Wanting to call out “hateful
rhetoric” during a “highly politicized moment,” GuideStar recently added the SPLC designations onto
its profile pages—including for Christian nonprofits who stand for traditional
marriage like the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), Liberty Counsel, the Family
Research Council (FRC), and the American Family Association—then removed the
hate labels after backlash in June. The controversy made many of these groups,
their leaders, and their supporters even more upset over the prominence of the
SPLC’s categorizations. (D. James Kennedy Ministries Sues SPLC over
Hate Map; By KATE SHELLNUTT; Christianity
Today; 8/24/17 10:20 AM)
From WND:
…
The case alleges that the
defendants — online retailer Amazon, online charity reporting company
Guidestar and SPLC — damaged the ministries by creating, publishing and
promoting SPLC’s infamous “hate” designations.
The hate designations already have
prompted a lawsuit by Liberty Counsel against Guidestar. And several
organizations, including the Alliance Defending Freedom, have demanded
broadcasters retract reports quoting SPLC’s hate designations.
The case seeks an award for
“special harms from the SPLC” over the groups’ rejection by the
AmazonSmile program due to the hate designations.
…
“It is the SPLC’s intent that the
people who receive the information that SPLC publishes about the ministry will
rely on SPLC’s information as fact and will base their charitable giving
decisions on that information.”
For its part, GuideStar “knowingly
accepts defamatory information from the SPLC regarding the ministry and
knowingly, intentionally, and purposefully republishes that defamatory
information with the intent that the people who receive the republished SPLC
information from GuideStar will rely on that information as fact for the
purpose of making their charitable giving decsisions [sic].”
The case alleges defamation against
SPLC and GuideStar: “SPLC’s very purpose for placing the ministry on the Hate
Map was to harm the reputation of the ministry as to lower it in the estimation
of the community and to deter third persons from associating or dealing with
the ministry.”
…
Liberty Counsel, a
nonprofit that advocates for civil and religious rights, sued GuideStar over
its use of SPLC’s “hate” labels, explaining the actions resulted in death
threats to employees and other harm.
“Liberty Counsel has been forced to
provide additional security because of the significant threat that GuideStar’s
false and defamatory statement has caused. Violent extremists have relied on
the false and defamatory statement to commit acts of terrorism and violence
against innocent people who merely happen to hold a different viewpoint on
certain issues than GuideStar,” Liberty Counsel said.
Liberty Counsel pointed out that
SPLC “hate” designations already have been linked to two attempted mass
murders: the attack by Corkins on the Washington office of Family Research
Council and the shooting attack this summer near the capital that severely
injured Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La. (LEFT-WING GROUPS SUED FOR VIOLATING
CHRISTIANS' CIVIL RIGHTS; By BOB
UNRUH; WND; 8/22/17 8:39 PM)
From Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF):
…
SPLC’s word-weapon of choice is
“hate.” It uses the H-word to harpoon victims through a “Hate Map” – a
cluttered visual surrounded by sobering images such as a “hate-graph” and
clenched fist symbols. Percentages purportedly communicating something really
serious about “hate” assault the viewer’s senses in size 72 font.
The map’s approach is
indiscriminate, by design. It mixes the likes of the KKK, “Racist Skinhead(s),”
and “Neo-Nazi(s)” with groups holding traditional views of human sexuality.
Quaint notions on the meaning of marriage, rooted in longstanding religious
beliefs, receive special hostility. Never mind that less than 10 years ago
nearly every major political figure in the country, including President Obama,
said marriage was a union of one man and one woman. Many of those folks are
given a pass, however, because their views on that issue have since “evolved.”
But the SPLC dictates - because it
says so - that those who failed to evolve (some might say “retained their
convictions”) are now the functional equivalent of skinheads. Just picture those
scary traditional marriage types, roaming the streets with chains, looking for
a good fight. This would be a ludicrous and even laughable attempt at
equivalency, if not for the harm it does to people of good will (to say nothing
of the damage to public discourse).
Fortunately, increasing numbers of
independent commentators are calling out the SPLC for
its outrageous tactics. But as someone once observed (the author is disputed),
“a lie gets halfway around the world while truth is pulling its boots on.” (How the SPLC Uses the Word “Hate” to
Silence Dissent; By Joseph Infranco; ADF;
8/21/17)
These efforts are beginning to cause a bit of Leftist worry.
The American
Family Association (AFA) posted this video on Vimeo:
Vimeo Video: CNN
Backs Down On Hate List
Posted by American
Family Association
Posted on 8/22/17 1:20 EST
Mat Staver of the Liberty Counsel not only is
involved in the civil suit against the SPLC, Guidestar and etc., but they are
also publicizing some dirt on the SPLC to demonstrate how nefarious the Leftist
organization is:
I have some breaking news on
the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) that gives us a window of opportunity to
expose the SPLC for what it is — a massive, money-making machine of the radical
left that is aggressively targeting pro-faith and pro-family organizations.
On Thursday, The
Washington Free Beacon exposed the SPLC’s ongoing practice of
funneling many millions of dollars into offshore accounts, where it apparently
is stockpiling vast sums of money.
+ + Why is the SPLC stockpiling
millions overseas?
This practice of stockpiling
millions of dollars in overseas, unregulated bank accounts is highly unusual
for a U.S. non-profit and blows the SPLC’s cover as allegedly being a
legitimate, grassroots organization. Instead, as Liberty Counsel has reported,
the SPLC is a vast enterprise with hundreds of millions of dollars that is
pushing an anti-faith, anti-family agenda that threatens every American’s
liberties! Now that the SPLC’s unethical and unregulated “offshore” money has
come to light, we must do everything in our power to fight back against their
“fake hate” campaign and overcome their outrageous lies once and for all!
That’s why I’m asking for your help
right now…
Over the past few weeks, the SPLC
has blatantly “leveraged” the Charlottesville tragedy to expand its “fake hate”
campaign. As I have been reporting, this has resulted in an AVALANCHE of
attacks against Liberty Counsel and a massive increase in
funding to the SPLC from commercial entities like Apple, JP Morgan, and others.
…
With this revelation of SPLC offshore
bank accounts stockpiling millions of dollars, we must move quickly to expand
our efforts to both expose the SPLC’s deceptions and defeat the SPLC’s attacks.
…
The SPLC is at the forefront of a
very strategic effort to equate Christian and family values with “hate.”
Their attacks have multiplied in recent weeks. But right now, I believe
we have a unique opportunity to both expose their lies and defeat the SPLC’s
twisted strategy. I can’t do this without your help. Please take a moment right
now to consider how you can help. And then go here to make your best
possible gift. …
(BREAKING: SPLC stashing millions offshore!
(Liberty Counsel); By Mat Staver; Liberty Counsel Connect; 9/2/17 7:48 pm)
And I leave you with PJ Media piece on the hypocrisy of the
SPLC.
***************
Southern Poverty Law Center: ‘Our Aim in Life Is to
Destroy These Groups, Completely’
By TYLER O'NEIL
SEPTEMBER 1, 2017
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has gained traction
in recent weeks, but contrary to media reports, the group does not exist to
"monitor hate groups" but to destroy groups that it targets for
"strictly ideological" reasons. In light of large donations from
Apple, J.P. Morgan, and George Clooney, and CNN's favorable coverage of the
SPLC, Americans should learn the real motivations behind this far-left
organization.
In the words of SPLC former spokesman Mark Potok (who spent
20 years as a senior fellow at the SPLC and only retired this year, according to LinkedIn), the
group does not exist to monitor hate groups.
"Sometimes the press will describe us as monitoring
hate groups, I want to say plainly that our aim in life is to destroy these
groups, completely destroy them," Potok declared at an event in Michigan
in 2007.
VIDEO: Mark Potok Speech 1
Posted by Bonnie Bucqueroux
Published on Sep 11, 2007
Mark Potok from the Southern
Poverty Law Center Speaks at the 2007 MIAAHC Hate Crimes Conference
Potok reiterated this point at a Vermont school group in
2008. "You are able to destroy these groups sometimes by the things you
publish," he declared. "It's not so much that they will bring down
the police or the federal agents on their head, it's that you can sometimes
so mortally embarrass these groups that they will be
destroyed" (emphasis added).
The SPLC "mortally embarrasses" groups by equating
mainstream conservative, Christian, and other organizations with the Ku Klux
Klan and white supremacists. Make no mistake, this is not a "hate group
monitoring" organization, it's a far-Left defamation racket that exists to
target any group it disagrees with politically.
"We see this political struggle," Potok added in
his 2008 Vermont speech. "We're not trying to change anybody's mind. We're
trying to wreck the groups. We're trying to destroy them. Not to send them to
prison unfairly or to take their free speech rights away, but as a political
matter to destroy them."
In yet another 2008 speech, Potok explained the SPLC criteria for a "hate group." The
spokesman said, "Our criteria for a 'hate group,' first of all, have
nothing to do with criminality, or violence, or any kind of guess we're making
about 'this group could be dangerous.' It's strictly ideological"
(emphasis added).
Here's the criteria:
"So we look at a group and we say, 'Does this group, in its platform
statements, or the speeches of its leader or leaders — Does this group say that
a whole group of people, by virtue of their group characteristics, is somehow
less?"
The SPLC's actions have revealed what "group
characteristics" means. The "hate group" list features
Christian organizations like D. James Kennedy Ministries, the Family Research Council (FRC), Liberty Counsel, the American
Family Association (AFA), and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF),
along with other groups like the American College of Pediatricians and the
Center for Immigration Studies. It also lists Muslim reformer Maajid Nawaz and women's rights
activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali as "anti-Muslim extremists."
If an organization disagrees with LGBT activism, it is a
"hate group," because in the eyes of the SPLC belief in traditional
marriage equates to stigmatizing gay people. If an organization or an
individual warns against radical Islamic terrorism, that person or group is
"hateful" because in the eyes of the SPLC it has stigmatized all
Muslims, even if the person is a Muslim himself.
In light of these revelations, it makes sense that D. James Kennedy Ministries, Liberty Counsel, and Maajid Nawaz have each
filed defamation lawsuits against the SPLC.
The SPLC's broad definition of a "hate group" is
exceedingly important, because this "hate" labeling has inspired at
least one terror attack.
In the summer of 2012, the SPLC's "hate map"
inspired Floyd Lee Corkins III to break into the Family Research Council (FRC),
a Christian nonprofit in Washington, D.C. Corkins aimed to murder everyone in
the building, and he later pled guilty to
committing an act of terrorism. He was sentenced to 25 years in
prison.
During an FBI interrogation, the terrorist said he targeted
FRC because it was listed as an "anti-gay group" on the SPLC website.
Posted by Polk Sheriff
Published on Apr 16, 2015
While the SPLC took no responsibility for their hate map
inspiring the FRC shooting and refused to remove the FRC from that hate map,
the group did claim that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's political action
committee released maps putting Democrats in Congress in
crosshairs, inspiring the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Az.). PolitiFact rated the
SPLC's claim "false."
Nor was the 2012 attack the only terrorist event involving
the SPLC. Earlier this summer, Bernie Sanders supporter James Hodgkinson shot
people at a Republican Congressional Baseball Game practice, nearly killing
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) Hodgkinson "liked" the SPLC on Facebook.
The group had repeatedly tarred
Scalise for a speech he gave to a white supremacist group, even after Scalise apologized (and
was called a "sellout" by former KKK leader David Duke).
This connection to terror is particularly troubling,
considering the SPLC's most recent "hate map" — a diagram
showing every single Confederate monument across
the United States, which also includes elementary schools, middle
schools, and high schools. The SPLC warned of "turmoil and bloodshed"
should these statues not be taken down.
Posted by Fox News
Published on Aug 31, 2017
The Southern Poverty Law Center has
warned of 'turmoil' with new map identifying Confederate monuments, cities and
middle schools. But is SPLC also part of the problem? #Tucker
The group has also been rather slow to admit fault and
remove innocent towns from the "hate map" that inspired the FRC
shooting. The SPLC falsely listed the historic Iowa town of
Amana Colonies as the home of the notorious white supremacist website Daily
Stormer. When challenged, the group argued that Daily Stormer writers had met
for a book club in one of the town's restaurants. The SPLC finally
removed the town this week.
In spite of all this, the SPLC has been raking in the cash
after the riots in Charlottesville, Va. George Clooney and his
wife Amal pledged $1 million to the group, and the company J.P. Morgan pledged
$500,000. Apple CEO Tim Cook was even more generous, announcing
his company would give $1 million to the SPLC and that it would set up a system
in iTunes software to let consumers directly donate to the organization.
Earlier this month, Lyft announced it
would partner with the SPLC "to provide educational resources for
drivers." MGM Resorts announced that
it would match employee contributions to the SPLC dollar-for-dollar. Some
companies already follow this policy.
According to an analysis by Second Vote provided to PJ
Media, companies such as Disney, Kraft Heinz, Charles Schwab, Progressive
Insurance, Shell, and Verizon have matched their employees' small-dollar
donations to the SPLC. The big offenders are: Pfizer, which gave the SPLC
$8,919.5 in 2013 and 2015 combined; Bank of America, which gave the SPLC $9,310
between 2013 and 2015; and Newman's Own, which gave the group $50,000 between
2013 and 2015.
Each of these contributions pale in comparison to the gifts
from George Clooney, J.P. Morgan, and Apple, but they are still noteworthy.
To make matters worse, the SPLC does not need any of this
money. The group is a cash cow, recording more than $50 million in
contributions and $328 million in net assets (according to its 2015 Form 990). The
Washington Free Beacon reported multiple transactions to foreign entities,
including two cash payments of $2.2 million to funds in the
Cayman Islands.
CNN broadcast the SPLC's "hate map" on
its website and Twitter account this month (with the FRC still marked on the
map). In June, the charity navigation website GuideStar adopted the SPLC "hate group"
list, marking each profile of the targeted organizations as a
"hate group." ABC and NBC parroted the SPLC's "hate group"
label against Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) last month.
917. That's the number of hate groups operating in the US, according to data from the Southern Poverty Law Center https://t.co/hsuBqjal9y pic.twitter.com/eMWFiLECfz— CNN (@CNN) August 17, 2017
"The SPLC depicts itself as a big champion of rights,
but it's become a champion of wrongs," Dan Gainor, vice president of
Business and Culture at the Media Research Center, told PJ Media in an email
statement. "It is no longer the civil rights era group that many of its
supporters believe. It now exists largely to attack groups it doesn't agree
with and to fundraise millions and millions of dollars off of uninformed
donors."
Gainor warned that "the media make this far worse by
legitimizing the group's so-called 'hate list.' In reality, that list is a
bizarre mix of good conservative groups and disturbing fringe organizations.
The SPLC sees no difference between a group defending the rights of Christians
in court and the Klan."
"The media credential this awful hate group and rarely
report that some of the SPLC's biggest fans are dangerous criminals,"
Gainor added. He mentioned Floyd Lee Corkins and James Hodgkinson.
Apple, J.P. Morgan, George Clooney, Lyft, MGM Resorts, and
any organization that partners with the SPLC should know what it's getting
into.
Corporate America should not support a group that exists to
tar mainstream organizations as "hate groups," inciting violence
against them. It should not bankroll an organization that targets innocent
towns and elementary schools as purveyors of hate. It should not support a
"poverty" organization that sends millions of dollars to accounts in
the Cayman Islands. Enough is enough.
__________________
Exposing SPLC as Hate Group
John R. Houk
© September 3, 2017
_________________
Southern Poverty Law Center: ‘Our Aim in Life Is to Destroy These
Groups, Completely’
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