After years of conservatives demonizing liberalism and progressivism, atheists, Muslims, environmentalists, Pagans, moderate Christians, and, especially, members of the LGBT community, the Family Research Council is acting like they don’t understand why people are so angry.
Senior Vice President Rob Schwarzwalder seems to be asking, “Why so angry, bro?” when he writes:
So, the Left is really, really angry that its religion (the state) and orthopraxy (the government) are being temporarily desacralized by Republicans. I’d feel that way if my faith were under attack, too (and, since it is, sometimes do). What’s extraordinary is the irrational, vicious language being used about conservatives and the GOP by those who oppose them.
Remember too, this is coming from an organization that has been identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. And remember, this is being written by a man who said,
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“The reality is, homosexuals have entered the Scouts in the past for predatory purposes.”
– FRC vice president Rob Schwarzwalder, on radio’s “The Janet Mefferd Show,” Feb. 1, 2013.
The Family Research Council is a group, that as the SPLC explains,
The Family Research Council (FRC) bills itself as “the leading voice for the family in our nation’s halls of power,” but its real specialty is defaming gays and lesbians. The FRC often makes false claims about the LGBT community based on discredited research and junk science. The intention is to denigrate LGBT people in its battles against same-sex marriage, hate crimes laws, anti-bullying programs and the repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
There is no effort to engage John Boehner or Ted Cruz at a serious intellectual level. Instead, the ever-eloquent Alan Grayson takes to the floor of the House to cite a poll comparing Republicans to “dog poop.” CNN’s Jack Tapper puts it this way, when asked by Hugh Hewitt about the rhetoric employed by the Left about the current impasse: “I haven’t heard Republicans comparing the Democrats to suicide bombers or to kidnappers or to arsonists.”
Trapper, and Schwarzwalder, both ignoring the numerous examples of Republicans doing exactly that.
Here’s a small sample of the kind of thing to which Tapper is referring:
“This is the resurrection of the Confederacy.” – Jesse Jackson
“Hostage Holdup” – Markos Moulitsas
“Racism & Cruelty Behind Obamacare Attacks” – Robert Scheer
“Republicans’ Fringe Festival” – Thomas Friedman
Republicans are guilty of “extortion … demanding a ransom … (they are threatening) to crash the global economy” – The President of the United States
Republicans are guilty of “extortion” and “blackmail,” and are “delusional” – Paul Krugman
“What we’re not for is negotiating with people with a bomb strapped to their chest. We’re not going to do that.” – White House Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer
“A radical, militant organization … why shouldn’t we consider the Republican Party’s similar acts of extortion of the past week terrorism? … The House’s suit-clad terrorists could end this unprecedented, apocalyptic standoff.” – Andy Ostroy
“Gore Calls Defund Effort ‘Political Terrorism’.” – National Review Online headline
“Those who encourage young people to steer clear of their ObamaCare fleecing are ‘guilty of murder, in my opinion’.” – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME)
“Republicans are like arsonist (sic)” – U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) Republicans are on a “jihad” against the country – U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA)
Schwarzwalder criticzes these comments, but look at some of the things conservatives have said, for example, Ann Coulter in her book, Treason : Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism (2003): “Liberals have a preternatural gift for striking a position on the side of treason,” or Coulter’s exchange with Linda Vester on Fox News (October 6, 2004):
Vester: You say you’d rather not talk to liberals at all?
Coulter: I think a baseball bat is the most effective way these days.
Because a bat is such an intellectual argument.
Or Coulter’s “loving” response to a student’s question at Indiana University on February 23, 2006:
“You don’t want the Republicans in power, does that mean you want a dictatorship, gay boy?”
Let’s make it easy: Look at the list the SPLC has compiled of some of the things the FRC – the organization of which Schwarzwalder is Senior Vice President – itself has said recently:
“[H]omosexual activists vehemently reject the evidencewhich suggests that homosexual men … are … relative to their numbers, more likely to engage in such actions [childhood sexual abuse] than are heterosexual men.”
– Peter Sprigg, Senior Fellow for Policy Studies at FRC, on why the Boy Scouts should not allow LGBT Scouts or leaders, FRC blog, February 1, 2013.“The videos are titled ‘It Gets Better.’ They are aimed at persuading kids that although they’ll face struggles and perhaps bullying for ‘coming out’ as homosexual (or transgendered or some other perversion), life will get better. …It’s disgusting. And it’s part of a concerted effort to persuade kids that homosexuality is okay and actually to recruit them into that lifestyle.”
— Tony Perkins, FRC fundraising letter, August 2011“Those who understand the homosexual community—the activists—they’re very aggressive, they’re—everything they accuse us of they are in triplicate. They’re intolerant, they’re hateful, vile, they’re spiteful. …. To me, that is the height of hatred, to be silent when we know there are individuals that are engaged in activity, behavior, and an agenda that will destroy them and our nation.”
— Tony Perkins, Speaking to the Oak Initiative Summit, April 2011“We believe the evidence shows … that relative to the size of their population, homosexual men are more likely to engage in child sexual abuse than are heterosexual men.”
— Peter Sprigg, “Debating Homosexuality: Understanding Two Views.” 2011.“While activists like to claim that pedophilia is a completely distinct orientation from homosexuality, evidence shows a disproportionate overlap between the two. … It is a homosexual problem.”
— FRC President Tony Perkins, FRC website, 2010“[W]elcoming open homosexuality in the military would clearly damage the readiness and effectiveness of the force – in part because it would increase the already serious problem of homosexual assault in the military.”
— Peter Sprigg, “Homosexual Assault in the Military,” 2010“A little-reported fact is that homosexual and lesbian relationships are far more violent than are traditional married households.”
— Timothy Dailey, FRC publication, “Homosexual Parenting: Placing Children at Risk,” 2002“Gaining access to children has been a long-term goal of the homosexual movement.”
— Robert Knight, FRC director of cultural studies, and Frank York, 1999“[Homosexuality] … embodies a deep-seated hatred against true religion.”
— Steven Schwalm, FRC senior writer and analyst, in “Desecrating Corpus Christi,” 1999“One of the primary goals of the homosexual rights movement is to abolish all age of consent laws and to eventually recognize pedophiles as the ‘prophets’ of a new sexual order.”
—1999 FRC publication, “Homosexual Behavior and Pedophilia,” Robert Knight and Frank York
The Family Research Council is, like the American Family Association, and tea party organizations, all about hate, all about making religion and patriotism an excuse for such hate, all about the demonization of the constructed other – and, most obviously of all based on Schwarzwalder’s claims here, all about lies.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
