SPLC labels law firm representing Kim Davis a ‘hate group’
The Southern
Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has labeled Liberty Counsel, the law firm
representing and supporting Christian Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, who famously
went to jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, a
"hate group."
Pointing
to evidence that Liberty Counsel supports Christian beliefs on homosexuality,
SPLC placed the group on a list of "hate groups" alongside other
organizations such the Ku Klux Klan, the ultra-violent New Black Panther Party,
and neo-Nazi white supremacist groups.
On
a page explaining the "hate" designation, the SPLC include quotes by
Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver pointing to the harmful effects of
homosexual behavior, and saying that homosexual behavior is immoral.
Direct
mail marketing millionaire Morris Dees founded the SPLC as a civil rights
organization to monitor the Ku Klux Klan and other violent and/or racist
groups.
In
recent years, however, the SPLC has dramatically expanded its list of
"hate groups," and particularly turned its attention on Christians
and Christian organizations that support natural marriage. Critics sasy that
its criteria for what constitutes a "hate group" are "entirely subjective
and largely ideological."
Liberty Counsel has
also criticized the SPLC, observing "[t]hey do not distinguish between
racist or violent groups and legitimate organizations that participate
peacefully in the political process – tarring all with the same label. In
recent years whole categories and new groups have been added, not because of
actual 'hate' activities, but because they hold conservative positions on
controversial political issues such as homosexuality."
Meeke
Addison, director of communications for the American Family Association's Urban
Family Talk, told LifeSiteNews, "The SPLC has long been void of cultural
relevance. It's not surprising that they would label yet another legitimate
organization a 'hate group.'"
"Disagreement
with popular opinion is not hate," Addison said. "However, by SPLC's
definition, anyone who holds deep views contrary to those of the SPLC, whatever
those views are, they are hate-filled."
The
SPLC's defamation of Christian organizations has created real-world tragedy. On
August 15, 2012, after the SPLC listed the Family Research Council (FRC) as a
"hate group," homosexual activist Floyd Lee Corkins II took the
SPLC's listing to heart and attacked the FRC headquarters.
Corkins
entered the FRC building with a gun and 100 rounds of ammo, shouted, "I
don't like your politics," and started shooting. He was stopped by FRC
security, but he later admitted he intended to "kill as many as
possible" in the hopes that his murder spree would "make a statement against the people
... with their stance against gay rights." Corkins was
ultimately found guilty of terrorism and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
"The
Southern Poverty Law Center is an anti-American, anti-Christian, Marxist
organization," Family Research Council Executive Vice President Lt. Gen.
Jerry Boykin (ret.) told LifeSiteNews. "They are connected to domestic
terrorism in a federal court, as a result of testimony by Floyd Lee Corkins II,
who entered our facility, shot our building manager, and admitted to the judge
that he intended to kill as many people as possible, because of our position on
natural marriage."
"Corkins
admitted he targeted us because of the Southern Poverty Law Center's listing us
as a 'hate group,'" Lt. Gen. Boykin pointed out. "Think about this
for a moment. This is the same tactic as Islamic terrorist groups: they label
people as hate-mongers, which incites others to commit acts of violence. It is
very reckless behavior."
Addison
has concluded that the FBI contributes to the SPLC's stature (and fundraising)
by legitimizing the anti-Christian organization. "The FBI's past
acknowledgement of SPLC only served to validate a political organization's
fundraising efforts," Addison told LifeSiteNews. "The FBI's
dissolution of any type of relationship with the SPLC is long overdue."
Addison
urged the FBI to disavow the "anti-hate" hate group. "The
federal government should have never been a willing participant in an
illegitimate organization's intimidation or suppression efforts," she told
LifeSiteNews. "I hope today's news signals a complete and total end to any
federal undergirding of the Southern Poverty Law Center."
Attorney Matt Barber,
vice president of Liberty Counsel Action, opined of the SPLC, "The
hard-left group has become everything it presumes to expose."
The
SPLC has also come under sharp criticism for its financial practices. Morris
Dees has used his multi-million-dollar mail marketing experience to turn his
organization into a powerful fundraising
machine. The SPLC has a budget of $30 million but enjoys a huge
"endowment" of $223 million, some of which is stored in bank accounts
in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. The American Institute of Philanthropy,
popularly known as "Charity Watch,"
has given the SPLC a "FAIL" for continuing to fundraise while sitting
on such a massive pile of money.
