By Todd Starnes
Several dozen U.S. Army active duty and reserve troops were told last week that the American Family Association
, a well-respected Christian ministry, should be classified as a domestic hate group because the group advocates for traditional family values.
The briefing was held at Camp Shelby in Mississippi and listed the AFA alongside domestic hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazis, the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam.
A soldier who attended the briefing contacted me and sent me a photograph of a slide show presentation that listed AFA as a domestic hate group. Under the AFA headline is a photograph of Westboro Baptist Church preacher Fred Phelps holding a sign reading “No special law for f***.”
American Family Association has absolutely no affiliation with the controversial church group known for picketing the funerals of American servicemembers.
“I had to show Americans what our soldiers are now being taught,” said the soldier who asked not to be identified. “I couldn’t just let this one pass.”
Read more at http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/10/14/us-army-defines-christian-ministry-as-domestic-hate-group/
3 Comments. Leave new
What got the AFA on the hate list of the Army were its publishing of homophobic, anti Obama statements. When you call the President a Muslim, a Socialist and a Communist, you get in trouble. Also the AFA has been an apologist for the Westboro group and supported its demonstrations at funerals and other places.
So duh.
“A Pennsylvanian”, if you are going to accuse the American Family Association of the things you allege, then please provide links to its purported “homophobic, anti-Obama statements” and its purported apologies “for the Westboro group and support (for Westboro’s) demonstrations at funerals and other places”, and please have the courage to put your own name to the accusations.
As with every other Fox news story re-posted by the Layman, this story is, how do you say it nicely? “lacking in veracity.” One slide in a presentation made by one lower ranking member of the military confusing AFA with Westboro does not mean that the “US Army” does this or does that, especially when that member acknowledges the confusion. The “US Army” is not responsible in any official sense for absolutely any remark made at any time by any of the more than a million members on active duty any more than is the Southern Baptist Church or the Republican party.
And for Mr. Golden, I don’t know about the other things, but homophobic statements from AFA are amply sufficient to warrant being categorized as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. One could easily find a dozen more similar to the following:
“Homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler, and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine and six million dead Jews.”
– Bryan Fischer, AFA director of issue analysis for government and public policy
“the homosexual lifestyle is characterized by anonymous sexual encounters and celebration of sexual obsession and perversion unparalleled in any other social group.”
– Richard Howe, “Homosexuality in America,” AFA publication
“Homosexuality is a poor and dangerous choice, and has been proven to lead to a litany of health hazards to not only the individuals but also society as a whole.”
–AFA Action Alert
“The homosexual movement is a progressive outgrowth of the sexual revolution of the past 40 years and will lead to the normalization of even more deviant behavior.”
– Don Wildmon, AFA website