2012 GOP Candidates: the Hate and the Extremism of the Right

Recently, companies like Microsoft, Wells Fargo, REI, Apple, BBC America, TOMS shoes, and Delta Airlines have terminated their relationship with a religious group that is right leaning, the Christan Values Shopping Network, specifically because of the relationship with five groups identified as hate groups because of their advocacy of discrimination, and in some cases even violence towards LGBT individuals and for their anti-women positions:

Focus on the Family
Family Research Council
Summit Ministries
Abiding Truth Ministries
Liberty Council

As an example of their offensive positions, groups like the Family Research Council employ people to do their research and form their official positions, who openly advocate for the deportation and/or imprisonment of all gay and lesbian individuals.  The list of corporations which are denouncing CVN, and ending their business relationship with the group continues to expand. 

A former presidential candidate, now Fox pseudo'News' personality, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is also employed as a spokesman and advisor for CVN; Huckabee incorrectly equates same sex sexual orientation with bestiality, necrophilia and pedophilia.  Michele Bachmann makes similar ludicrous claims, statements she is trying to backpedal away from, now that she needs to be more centrist to appeal to mainstream voters:

Founders of CVN are right wing sort-of-celebrity Michael Lohan, noted among other things for his alcohol and drug use and his appearance on reality television in rehab, and minor celebrity Stephen Baldwin, noted extreme evangelical, and for advocating the debunked reparative 'pray away the gay' therapy, are the founders of CVN.  Reparative therapy is discredited by all of the professional and medical associations in the U.S., and it is has a causal relationship not only to failed efforts to alter sexual orientation, but also for resulting in dramatic increases in suicide rates for those subjected to it.

There have been multiple reports, including most recently undercover video of the practice of reparative therapy, that link the clinic owned by Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and her husband Marcus, where religion is promoted as therapy in spite of it violating professional standards for therapy.  In addition, the Bachmann's promote the sale in the lobby of their clinic of a book written by a quasi religious quack who advocates for similar sexual reorientation, with personal endorsements by them. 

Both Bachmann's are on record as having made extreme religious based anti-homosexual statements, and in the case of Michele Bachmann, have also advocated racist views about slavery and religion.  Michele Bachmann is closely linked to the fraudulent religion exploiter, sleazy Bradlee Dean, who has similarly expressed repellent and extremist views on topics relating to false claims about the U.S. constitution; the dangers of homosexuality, including false and inaccurate claims about pedophilia and sexual predators (see video below, about 4:20 into the video); and racist comments which resulted in Dean losing his radio show on a local Salem network AM station, WWTC. 

In fact, the link between homosexuality and child predators that Dean claims does not exist.  I would encourage Penigma readers to read the entirety of the web site's content, but examples of the pertinent information  is cited below, from the UCDavis website, Facts About Homosexuality and Child Molestation:

"For the present discussion, the important point is that many child molesters cannot be Members of disliked minority groups are often stereotyped as representing a danger to the majority's most vulnerable members. For example, Jews in the Middle Ages were accused of murdering Christian babies in ritual sacrifices. Black men in the United States were often lynched after being falsely accused of raping White women. In a similar fashion, gay people have often been portrayed as a threat to children....  It has also been raised in connection with scandals about the Catholic church's attempts to cover up the abuse of young males by priests.... [Child molesters] Instead of gender, their sexual attractions are based primarily on age. These individuals – who are often characterized as fixated – are attracted to children, not to men or women. ...Other researchers have taken different approaches, but have similarly failed to find a connection between homosexuality and child molestation. ....The researchers found that homosexual males responded no more to male children than heterosexual males responded to female children (Freund et al., 1989).

and in summing up the conclusions of existing research:

"Science cannot prove a negative. Thus, these studies do not prove that homosexual or bisexual males are no more likely than heterosexual males to molest children. However, each of them failed to prove the alternative hypothesis that homosexual males are more likely than heterosexual men to molest children or to be sexually attracted to children or adolescents."

Dean, whose accomplishments are minimal, has parlayed his fraudulent collections for a street ministry, into personal luxury, including a home valued at just under a half a million dollars, by making fraudulent representations about that ministry, including soliciting donations under a false name and promoting materials that are bogus and offensive to normal, mainstream, intelligent and informed people.

Texas Governor and now declared 2012 Presidential candidate Rick Perry recently hosted a much-ballyhooed, little attended prayer event.  That "Response" event invited the governor's of the other 49 states to participate, which suggests a questionable division of church and state - they all appear to have declined.  Looking at the participants in hosting the "Response", I couldn't find any NORMAL, NOT EXTREME / mainstream group involved in hosting this event.

The event itself was sponsored by the American Family Association; here is a list of some of the offensive positions promoted by that group, from Right Wing Watch ( I could have provided my own, but they appear to have been so well-researched and comprehensive, that I refer readers to them; I could not do better myself.):

The American Family Association
The American Family Association is the driving force behind The Response. Founded by the Rev. Don Wildmon in 1977, the organization is based is best known for its various boycott campaigns, promotion of art censorship, and political advocacy against women’s rights and LGBT equality. The organization also controls the vast American Family Radio and an online news service, in addition to sponsoring various conferences frequented by Republican leaders, including the Values Voter Summit and Rediscovering God in America. The AFA today is led by Tim Wildmon, Don’s son, and its chief spokesperson is Bryan Fischer, the Director of Issues Analysis for Government and Public Policy and host of its flagship radio show Focal Point.
Fischer routinely expresses support for some of the most bigoted and shocking ideas found in the Religious Right today. He has:

•held gays responsible for the Holocaust and likened them to domestic terrorists and Nazis who are intent on committing “virtual genocide” against the military, and asserts that “homosexuals should be disqualified from public office”;•said “we have feminized the Medal of Honor” by awarding it to a soldier who saved his fellow combatants rather than killing enemies;
•demanded all immigrants “convert to Christianity” and renounce their religions;
•asserted that Muslims have “no fundamental First Amendment claims” and should be banned from building mosques and deported from the US, adding that Muslims are inherently stupid as a result of inbreeding;
•claimed African American women “rut like rabbits” due to welfare and that Native Americans are “morally disqualified” from living in America because they didn’t convert to Christianity and were consequently cursed by God with alcoholism and poverty;
•said that the anti-Muslim manifesto of the right-wing Christian terrorist who killed dozens in Norway was “accurate.”

Other AFA leaders and activists are just as radical:

•AFA President Tim Wildmon claims that by repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell President Obama shows he “doesn’t give a rip about the Marines or the Army” and “just wants to force homosexuality into every place that he can.”
•AFA Vice President Buddy Smith, who is on the leadership council of The Response, said that gays and lesbians are “in the clasp of Satan.”
•The head of the AFA’s women’s group led a boycott against Glee because she accused it of indoctrinating children in homosexuality and idolatry.The editor of AFA Journal Ed Vitagliano said that gay pride months are an affront to the Founding Fathers and will usher in “a return to pagan sexuality.”
•A columnist for the AFA demanded Christians stop practicing yoga because it was inspired by the “evil” religions of Buddhism and Hinduism.

International House of Prayer (not to be confused with the pancake people)

The Response’s leadership team includes five senior staff members of the International House of Prayer (IHOP), a large, highly political Pentecostal organization built on preparing participants for the return of Jesus Christ. In a recent video, IHOP encouraged supporters to pray for Jews to convert to Christianity in order to bring about the Second Coming. IHOP is closely associated with Lou Engle, a Religious Right leader whose anti-gay, anti-choice extremism hasn’t stopped him from hobnobbing with Republican leaders including Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann and Mike Huckabee. Engle is the founder of The Call, day-long rallies against abortion rights and gay marriage, which Engle says are meant to break Satan’s control over the U.S. government. One recent Call event featured “prophet” Cindy Jacobs calling for repentance for the “girl-on-girl kissing” of Britney Spears and Madonna. Perry's The Response event is clearly built upon Engle's The Call model.
Engle has a long history of pushing extreme right-wing views and advocating for a conservative theocracy in America.
Engle:

•is a proponent of “Seven Mountains” dominionism, a movement that seeks to have Christians take control of all aspects of American life, including government, business, entertainment and the media;supports the criminalization of homosexuality;

•claimed that universities with LGBT anti-discrimination measures are teaching students to “accept the mark of the beast”;
•is waging a “spiritual war” on the Supreme Court to get abortion outlawed in America;
•prayed that Ellen Degeneres will be “converted” from homosexuality.
•led a prayer rally in Jerusalem to lead one of the "greatest awakenings in the earth" to bring the Jews of Israel to Christianity.
•claimed that the devastating tornado in Joplin, Missouri was God’s judgment for abortion.

IHOP’s founder and executive director, Mike Bickle, who is an official endorser of The Response, like Engle pushes radical End Times prophesies. In one sermon, he declared that Oprah Winfrey is a precursor to the Antichrist.
Tony Perkins
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, is a co-chairman of The Response. At the FRC, Perkins has been a vocal opponent of LGBT equality, often relying on false claims about gay people to push his agenda.
He:

•called gay rights activists “intolerant,” “hateful,” “vile,” “spiteful” and “pawns” of Satan;
•denied that there was a correlation between anti-gay bullying and depression and suicide, saying instead that gay and lesbian teens know they are “abnormal” and “have a higher propensity to depression or suicide because of that internal conflict";
•wrote that Senators would have "the blood of innocent soldiers on their hands" if they vote to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell and allow gays to serve openly in the military;
•likened President Obama to a Middle East dictator when the president refused to defend the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act in court;
•said “I don’t know if the country can survive” another Obama term;
•said that armies that allow gays and lesbians to serve openly – including several U.S. allies in Iraq and Afghanistan –“participate in parades, they don’t fight wars to keep the world free.”

Jim Garlow
One of the most prominent members of The Response’s leadership team is pastor Jim Garlow. The pastor for a San Diego megachurch, Garlow has been intimately involved in political battles, especially the campaign to pass Proposition 8. Garlow invited and housed Lou Engle to lead The Call rallies around California for six months to sway voters to support Proposition 8, which would repeal the right of gay and lesbian couples to get married. He claims Satan is behind the “attack on marriage” and credits the prayer rallies for the passage of Prop 8. He said that during a massive The Call rally in San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium “something had snapped in the Heavenlies” and “God had moved” to deliver Prop 8 to victory.
Most importantly, Garlow is a close spiritual adviser to presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and leads Gingrich’s Renewing American Leadership (ReAL). Garlow is a principal advocate of Seven Mountains Dominionism, and wants to “bring armies of people” to bring Religious Right leaders into public office and defeat their political opponents.
Garlow has a long record of extreme rhetoric.
He:

•when Prop 8 passed in California, claimed that African Americans “saved us from the bondage and enslavement that would come upon us if gay marriage actually passed in a state” and alleged marriage equality supporters are going to “totally destroy the definition of the family”;
•likened homosexuality to bestiality, saying that if marriage equality is upheld “the next court case could conceivably say that if three people wanted to marry or four people or five people or if someone wanted to marry their dog or their horse”;
•compared gay adoption to children losing their parents in the September 11th attacks and said that supporters of gay rights are “almost like an Antichrist spirit”;
•told conservative activists that “your land has cancer” and believes that the “lethal ideological ‘radiation’” of progressives “is killing our nation” and “poisoning us and our children”;
•argued that legal abortion is responsible for unemployment.

John Hagee
While Senator John McCain rejected John Hagee’s endorsement during the 2008 presidential campaign for his “deeply offensive and indefensible” remarks, Perry invited Hagee to join The Response. Hagee leads a megachurch in San Antonio, Texas, and is a purveyor of End Times prophesies. Like members of the International House of Prayer, Hagee utilizes language of spiritual warfare and says he is part of “the army of the living God.” He runs the prominent group Christians United For Israel, which believes that eventually a cataclysmic war in the Middle East will bring about the Rapture.
John McCain was forced to disavow Hagee for a reason as the Texas pastor:

•claimed that God sent Hitler to be a “hunter” of Jews to usher in the establishment of Israel and “do God’s work,” lamenting that Jews are no longer “spiritually alive.”
•referred to the Catholic Church as ‘The Great Whore,’ an ‘apostate church,’ the ‘anti-Christ,’ and a ‘false cult system.’
•believes that Hurricane Katrina “looked like the curse of God” and ravaged New Orleans in order to stop a “homosexual rally” and punish the city’s high “level of sin.”
•said that if gay marriage becomes legal “you can kiss this country goodbye,” alleged that the US is “rebirthing Sodom and Gomorrah,” and demanded that the government stop funding AIDS research and treatment to stop benefiting a “sinful lifestyle.”
•demands that “wives submit yourselves to your husbands” and said that the “husband has a God-given role as leader of your home.”
•said that God won’t allow the United States to win wars anymore because “we have allowed the worship of Satanism in the U.S. military.”

James Dobson
James Dobson, an official endorser of The Response, is one of the most prominent figures in the Religious Right. Founder of both Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council , Dobson has been instrumental in bringing the priorities of the Religious Right to Republican politics, including campaigning hard for President George W. Bush. But many of the views that Dobson pushes are hardly mainstream.
Dobson:

•is no fan of the women’s movement, writing that women are just “waiting for their husbands to assume leadership” ;
•claims that marriage equality will “destroy the Earth”;
•insists that the Religious Right’s fight against Planned Parenthood is “very similar” to that of abolitionists who fought against the slave trade.
•Asked if God had withdrawn his hand from America after 9/11, Dobson responded:

“Christians have made arguments on both sides of this question. I certainly believe that God is displeased with America for its pride and arrogance, for killing 40 million unborn babies, for the universality of profanity and for other forms of immorality. However, rather than trying to forge a direct cause-and-effect relationship between the terrorist attacks and America's abandonment of biblical principles, which I think is wrong, we need to accept the truth that this nation will suffer in many ways for departing from the principles of righteousness. "The wages of sin is death," as it says in Romans 6, both for individuals and for entire cultures.”

David Barton, an official endorser of The Response, is a self-proclaimed historian known for his twisting of American History and the Bible to justify right-wing political positions. Barton’s strategy is twofold: he first works to find Biblical bases for right-wing policy initiatives, and then argues that the Founding Fathers wanted the United States to be a Christian nation, so obviously wanted whatever policy he has just found a flimsy Biblical basis for. Barton, “documenting” the divine origins of his interpretations of the Constitution gives him and his political allies a potent weapon. Opponents who disagree about tax policy or the powers of Congress are not only wrong, they are un-American and anti-religious, enemies of America and of God

David Barton.
Barton uses his shoddy historical and biblical scholarship to push a right-wing political agenda, including:

•Biblical Capitalism: Barton’s “scholarship” helps to form the basis for far-right economic policies. He claims that “Jesus was against the minimum wage,” that the Bible “absolutely condemned” the estate tax,” and opposed the progressive income tax.
•Revising Racial History: Barton has traveled the country peddling a documentary he made blaming the Democratic Party for slavery, lynching and Jim Crow…while ignoring more recent history.
•Opposing Gay Rights: Barton believes the government should regulate gay sex and maintains that countries which “rejected sexual regulation” inevitably collapse.

I continue to be amazed at the talent of the right to make large amounts of money that goes fully or in part, to line their personal pockets, off the base constituencies to whom they appeal. I continue to be appalled at the lies, disinformation, and misinformation that consistently is promoted by the right, including every serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination and the religious leaders and base which supports them.

Other AlliesAmong the other far-right figures who signed on to work with Gov. Perry on The Response are:

•Rob Schenk, an anti-choice extremist who was once arrested for throwing a fetus in the face of President Clinton, and who allegedly had ties with the murderer of abortion provider Dr. Barnett Slepian
•Loren Cunningham, who is working to mobilize support for the rally is a co-founder of the radical “Seven Mountains Dominionist” ideology. Cunningham says that he received the “seven mountains” idea, which holds that evangelical Christians must take hold of all aspects of society in order to pave the way for the Second Coming, in a message directly from God.
•Doug Stringer, The Response's National Church and Ministry Mobilization Coordinator, who blamed American secularism and the increased acceptance of homosexuality for the 9/11 attacks, saying “It was our choice to ask God not to be in our every day lives and not to be present in our land.”
•Cindy Jacobs, self-proclaimed “prophet” and endorser of The Response, who famously insisted that birds were dying in Arkansas earlier this year because of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
•C. Peter Wagner, an official endorser of The Response, is one of the most prominent leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation, a controversial movement whose followers believe they are prophets and apostles on par with Christ himself (other adherents include Engle, Jacobs and Anh). Wagner has advocated burning Catholic, Mormon and non-Christian religious objects. He blamed the Japanese stock market crash and later the devastating earthquake and tsunami in the country on a traditional ritual in which the emperor supposedly has “sexual intercourse” with the pagan Sun Goddess.
•Che Ahn, a mentor of John Hagee and official endorser of The Response, who endorses “Seven Mountains” dominionism and compares the fight against gay rights to the fight against slavery.
•John Benefiel, a self-proclaimed "apostle" and official endorser of The Response, who claims the Statue of Liberty is a "demonic idol" and that homosexuality is a plot cooked up by the Illuminati to control the world's population, and that he renamed the District of Columbia the “District of Christ” because he has “more authority than the U.S. Congress does.”
•James “Jay” Swallow, official endorser of the rally, who calls himself a “spiritual warrior” and hosts “Strategic Warriors At Training (SWAT): A Christian Military Training Camp for the purpose of dealing with the occult and territorial enemy strong holds in America.”
•Alice Smith, who advocates "spiritual housecleaning" because demons "sneak into" homes through everyday objects.
•Willie Wooten, a self-proclaimed “apostle” who claims that God is punishing the African American community for supporting gay rights, reproductive freedom and the Democratic Party.
•Pastor Stephen Broden – Broden, an endorser of The Response, has repeatedly insisted that a violent overthrow of the U.S. government must remain “on the table.”
•Timothy F. Johnson – Johnson, a former vice-chairman of the North Carolina GOP, was elected to that post despite two domestic violence convictions and still unresolved questions about his military service and educational record.
•Alice Patterson – Patterson, a member of The Response's leadership team, insists that the Democratic Party is controlled by a "demonic structure."

These Hate Zealots hiding under cover of religion and right wing politics do incalcuable harm to this country, and to specific groups of people. Their words are the justification for violence and hatred. From the FBI website on hate crimes: Definition:"..., Congress has defined a hate crime as a 'criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or n part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.'  Hate itself is not a crime—and the FBI is mindful of protecting freedom of speech and other civil liberties."
From an MSN/AP article in 2009:

Crimes motivated by race

Half of all hate crimes are motivated by race, according to the FBI. One out of every five is driven by religious bias, and one out of every six is based on sexual orientation bias.

Hate crimes in every other category, OTHER than sexual orientation (real or perceived) and religion have trended downwards, although that trend is minimal for racially based hate crimes.  Crimes based on sexual orientation have increased, and one factor for that is the hate, fear and misinformation promoted by the right, especially the so-called 'religious right'. Another category for hate crimes is immigrant status, or perceived immigrant status, another topic for hysteria rather than reason and fact. 

The right dislikes having what they characterize as fringe groups included in their mainstream, but the bottom line is that the people they are considering as presidential candidates, this election, and the last election, largely fit that description.  We cannot afford to run, much less elect, candidates for the highest office in this country who believe these views, who listen to these people, who rely on their support, and who want to impose this hateful, horrible mindset on our country.  This is not about politics; it is about sanity opposing insanity, it is about moderate centrists opposing extremists.

This is about reality based Americans opposing the demented fear and fantasy driven ideologues.