Social conservative heavyweight James Dobson dedicated his radio show this morning to discussing Friday’s shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, and like Mike Huckabee and Bryan Fischer, concluded the shooting was caused by Americans “turning our back on God.” Specifically, he believes there are consequences to women getting abortions and marriage equality:

DOBSON: Our country really does seem in complete disarray. I’m not talking politically, I’m not talking about the result of the November sixth election;  I am saying that something has gone wrong in America and that we have turned our back on God.

I mean millions of people have decided that God doesn’t exist, or he’s irrelevant to me and we have killed fifty-four 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.

And a lot of these things are happening around us, and somebody is going to get mad at me for saying what I am about to say right now, but I am going to give you my honest opinion: 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.

Listen to it, via RightWingWatch:

It’s not surprising that these conservatives are championing their own self-fulfilling prophesies. They are clinging to values that are becoming increasingly obsolete, so in order to convince themselves that those points of view still have relevance, they attach meaning to every disaster that occurs, be it a shooting or a hurricane. As Hemant Mehta has pointed out, religious venues are no safer from such tragedies, so the exception Huckabee, Fischer, Dobson, and others anoint for themselves is a mere fabrication of superiority.

A series of new polls shows continued strong support for marriage equality nationwide. A Quinnipiac University poll shows equality fairly conservatively leading with 48 support and 46 percent opposition, with the opposition being led mostly by men (50 – 43 percent opposed) and White Protestants (62 – 32 percent opposed). Notably, Catholics are supportive at rates above average, with 49 percent endorsing equality. Young people continue to support equality by very high rates (63 – 35 percent in favor).

Meanwhile, a new USA Today/Gallup poll shows that 53 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage while 46 percent oppose. Similarly, those who were most likely to favor the freedom to marry were people who were young, Democrats and/or who did not attend church often.  The poll also invited respondents to explain why they oppose marriage equality, and the answers largely revolved around religious beliefs or the Bible specifically:

USA Today also conducted a separate poll of adults who identify as LGBT. Nine of 10 gay men and lesbians say anti-gay discrimination remains a problem, which two-thirds of all Americans agree with. Still 91 percent of gays acknowledge that acceptance has increased in recent years.

As a result of either desperation or just increased media access, Christian conservatives seem to be sinking to a new level of spiritual warfare to achieve their desired result in the election. Insensitive chicken-lover Mike Huckabee is the latest political talking ahead to threaten voters’ very souls if they do not make the “right” choice at the polls this year. In his new video, Huckabee warns Americans that their vote has to to withstand the “test of fire” when it comes to issues like abortion, contraception, and marriage equality:

HUCKABEE: Many issues are at stake, but some issues are not negotiable: The right to life from conception to natural death. Marriage should be reinforced, not redefined. It is an egregious violation of our cherished principle of religious liberty for the government to force the Church to buy the kind of insurance that leads to the taking of innocent human life.

Your vote will affect the future and be recorded in eternity. Will you vote the values that will stand the test of fire? This is Mike Huckabee asking you to join me November 6th and vote based on values that will stand the test of fire.

In other words, anybody who doesn’t vote against the healthcare of women and family security of same-sex couples is going to Hell. Watch it:

Pastor Robert Anderson

At a recent panel hosted by the Maryland Marriage Alliance, Pastor Robert Anderson claimed that according to the Bible, both gay people and their allies are “deserving of death,” calling on voters to oppose marriage equality so as not to “approve these things that are worthy of death.” The group’s executive director, Derek McCoy, was seated next to Anderson and laughed approvingly when Anderson condemned gays and lesbians to the “wrong side of eternity.”

Media backlash was swift, but McCoy called any implication that this was a “call to harm gays and lesbians” as a false “distraction from the real issues of this campaign.” Anderson was quiet on the matter until this weekend, when he issued an “apology” that his comments were misunderstood, essentially doubling down on his biblical condemnations of death and an eternity of Hell:

I regret that many have misunderstood my comments regarding homosexuality and same-sex marriage to mean that I endorse or support physical violence in any shape or form against anyone. The statements in Leviticus 18:22 and Romans 1:32 (KJV) can stand for themselves. The Bible is very clear on the subject of homosexuality, and I do not need to apologize for God’s word, but I do want to be perfectly clear that I am not promoting violence, bullying, or hatred toward homosexuals and neither is God.

Either the Bible verses he cited do call for gays to be put to death, or they do not, and if they “can stand for themselves,” then they very much do. McCoy could not have been more wrong about what the “real issues of this campaign” are. It’s quite clear that his group’s blatant animus against gays and lesbians and their families is at the very root of this challenge to marriage equality.

Last week, Focus on the Family president Jim Daly took some time to chat with the extremely anti-gay radio host Janet Mefford about how to “represent God’s heart” when debating LGBT activists. Regardless of how he softens his message, it’s still one of condescension and disdain, because gays are in “pain” and at battle with “the creator of the universe”:

DALY: When you’re on CNN debating and the homosexual activist is shouting over you, you don’t turn around and shout him down. You take it, and then you say, “I understand this person’s pain; however, as I read Scripture, this is how I’m informed.” And the reality is, Janet, the battle that they have is not with us, it’s with the Creator of the universe, and that’s where they’ve gotta take that battle. And that’s where I like to try to point them. I’m simply trying to live out the Scripture; they’ve got to take it up with the author of the Scripture.

Listen to it (via Jeremy Hooper):

Evangelical Christians have no problem admitting that “we’re all sinners,” but as Daly makes clear here, that doesn’t mean that the “homosexual activist” is still less than.

Greg Quinlan (PFOX), Austin Nimocks (ADF), Derek McCoy, and Rob Anderson

The Maryland Marriage Alliance, the group of religious conservatives campaigning against Question 6 to approve marriage equality in Maryland, held a panel over the weekend that demonstrated how anti-gay their campaign truly is. Jeremy Hooper noticed two important details: the inclusion of an ex-gay advocate, and the violent Biblical language promoted by one of the religious leaders.

Greg Quinlan is the President of PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays), an ex-gay advocacy organization that manufactures visibility for the supposed ex-gay community. He also serves as director of government affairs for the New Jersey Family Policy Council, which has advocated against LGBT equality there. In his testimony, Quinlan claims that the only reason he was ever gay was because he was abused and sexually molested, and that now he has left the “lifestyle” and identifies as ex-gay. By advocating that gays can and should change, the Maryland Marriage Alliance proves that its motivation is not just about the definition of “marriage,” but clear animus against people who are not heterosexual.

If that weren’t proof enough, consider the testimony of Pastor Robert Anderson, who joined the panel to share a Biblical perspective for why same-sex marriage should be opposed. After comparing homosexuality to prostitution, bestiality, polygamy, and incest, Anderson endorsed the Biblical interpretation that both gays and their allies are “deserving of death”:

ANDERSON: The Scriptures in Leviticus 18:22 — you know what that says, that a man is not to lay down with another man; if they do that, it’s an abomination. But there is one verse I really wanted to drive home and then I’ll stop, but that’s in Romans Chapter 1. And it’s the very last verse — as you know, Paul addresses this. Listen to the last verse: “Knowing the righteous judgment of God that those who practice such things are deserving of death. Not only do the same” — but watch this — “for those who also approve of those who practice these things.”

If we don’t vote against it, then we are approving these things that are worthy of death!

Watch it:

Of course, Quinlan and Anderson flank Derek McCoy, executive director of the Maryland Marriage Alliance. And the juxtaposition of these two ideas illuminates the official campaign’s philosophy: gay people have to deny their own existence, and if they don’t, then they and their allies are worthy of death. That is not a paraphrase or an interpretation, but the verbatim language of those advocating against Question 6. To vote No to marriage equality is to endorse that position.

The Family Research Council, currently playing host to Paul Ryan and other Republican members of Congress at the Values Voters Summit, has sent out a new prayer target that includes gays and lesbians. FRC has been trying to push back on its designation of a hate group, but this particular call to prayer disproves its own point by describing homosexuality as a “destructive lifestyle,” further demonizing a group that is already a vulnerable target for hate-motivated violence:

In mid-August, following a shooting assault on FRC’s D.C. headquarters, FRC President Tony Perkins made a public appeal to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to end its ceaseless campaign falsely characterizing FRC as a “hate group.” Leo Johnson, FRC’s courageous building manager, took a bullet yet managed to prevent what would almost certainly have otherwise been a mass shooting.

The gunman’s actions came after a two year effort by the SPLC, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), and a network of homosexual advocacy groups to marginalize FRC and some of our pro-family allies as “hate groups.” Sadly, because they cannot prevail in civil debate, these groups have resorted to name-calling.

But the dedicated Christian staff at FRC does not hate homosexuals. Indeed, by publishing Biblical and scientific truth, our aim is redemptive. We pray for those caught in this destructive lifestyle for their liberty. We labor to advance public policy that strengthens faith, family and freedom, and physical, moral and spiritual safety for our children (Accusation, Liberal Defense,Speaker’s Answer, FRC Response).

• Please pray that God will give FRC and our friends courage ceaselessly to proclaim truth as it pertains to marriage and human sexuality. May God grant us favor in fashioning public policy that fosters marriage and human sexuality that reflects God’s wisdom and righteousness! (Dt 17:18; Ps 5:11; Is 10:1; Mt 19:3 ff; Eph 5:22-33; Titus 1:8 ff; Heb 13:4; Jude 7)

(HT: Good As You.)

he National Organization for Marriage’s Brian Brown has written his own reflection about his recent debate with Dan Savage, attempting to further craft a bizarre narrative that somehow Dan Savage is the bully. Just as Brown ignored acknowledging same-sex families in the debate, he thanked Savage for the chance to meet “his partner and his child,” as opposed to his husband and their child. Then Brown went on to suggest that the LGBT community is “powerful” while ironically trumpeting Christian ideals of “equality”:

Christian teaching and practice was never rooted in racism, but in the radical equality of all people and peoples before God. The American South, under slavery, was the exception to the rule—which is one reason why, when challenged, the belief that Christianity can justify not only slavery but also racism, failed abjectly and is now a dead idea. That was Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s great triumph.

But sexual morality and marriage are quite different. Here we have the broad consistent sweep of the authoritative teaching of Christ and the Christian church he founded, recorded in the Bible, and in Christian teaching and practice across the centuries. Here we have something core to the Christian faith, and as I told Dan Savage, it’s not going to go away just because he doesn’t like it.[...]

Something about that dynamic captures what we all see at work at this point in the gay marriage debate. Power is being exercised by a minority, which denies it has the power it is exercising, and denies what we see happening in front of us: this power is being used to label and demonize all who disagree, no matter how relentlessly civilized we are, no matter that we uphold gay people’s real fundamental civil rights.

Brown’s cognitive dissonance is on grand display here. He concedes that the attempt to defend slavery with the Bible failed, but is unwilling to admit that his own defense of inequality with the Bible could fail just as easily (and does). He accuses the LGBT community of exerting power over Christians, but NOM’s regular talking point is to brag how majorities have voted against the right of the minority in 31 states. He co-opts the civil rights movement to defend his position while his organization accuses the LGBT community of doing the same to create a racial wedge. And he claims that he is the victim being demonized, even though he can’t even bring himself to acknowledge the very families he campaigns against daily. As Brown actually said in the debate (about divorce), “Just because you believe something is wrong, it doesn’t mean that you make it illegal,” and yet that is exactly what he has dedicated his life to doing with same-sex marriage.

It’s not surprising that Brown’s reflection relies upon various anonymous comments from supporters — comments NOM could only get by reposting its own copy of the debate video. He failed to make one cogent argument against same-sex marriage, relying entirely on self-victimization and obvious lies. The debate deserves to be watched widely so that Brown’s obvious spin about how the evening played out doesn’t distract from what actually took place:

Arguably, the Chick-fil-A fiasco has subsided with the completion of last week’s public demonstrations, but in its wake lie the complicated questions of where the chips fell. Here’s a round-up of issues to consider in the aftermath:

The Political Made Personal

The high visibility of the company’s anti-gay positions and giving has clearly had an impact, but one much less measurable than most of the coverage can truly examine: on the personal level. As people proudly boasted their support for Chick-fil-A on Facebook and other social media outlets, their LGBT family and friends were faced with the choice of how to respond, if at all. Justin Michael, a gay Christian, wrote to The Advocate about addressing this very situation with his parents:

I am a gay Christian.  This whole Chick-fil-A controversy meant nearly nothing to me until I saw a picture of my conservative parents (whom I love deeply) on Facebook yesterday proudly holding their Chick-fil-A sandwiches.

I broke down crying in front of my computer screen. And since I’m not good with speaking how I feel, I wrote my mother a Facebook message with my concerns about the photos.

She took them down and apologized for the insensitivity.  She was just supporting a man’s right for “freedom of speech.”

Getting The Talking Points Right

Indeed, this “freedom of speech” argument unfortunately dominated the coverage, despite being largely irrelevant to the actual controversy. There is no legal way for a city to block Chick-fil-A so long as it doesn’t discriminate, nor has anyone tried to censor Dan Cathy’s vitriolic remarks. Despite how quickly lawmakers backed away from empty threats to interfere with Chick-fil-A’s business, the media continued to let this infringement-of-freedom talking point circumvent the LGBT community’s objections. As a result, many would-be LGBT allies were seemingly defending Chick-fil-A by catering to this strawman talking point. The editorial board at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette acknowledged how many have gotten this wrong:

This had the effect of putting the company into the hottest broiler of the culture wars — the issue of same-sex marriage — but in America people can freely state their principles and act on them. And other people can criticize them for it. That’s how the First Amendment works. Those diners who came out last Wednesday in part because they thought that Chick-fil-A was being denied its First Amendment rights were wrong about that.

The Boston Globe similarly argued today that Mayor Tom Menino (D) hurt marriage equality efforts by turning “bullies like Dan Cathy into martyrs.” Michaelangelo Signorile further offered insights into how the messaging got off the tracks, how LGBT leadership was unfortunately not at the forefront of the effort, and how the response was poorly organized at various levels. There is much to be learned from the past three weeks that can be applied in future efforts to dissuade people from supporting anti-gay companies and organizations.
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