It's been said that "Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows", but when you mix in Bigotry, Homophobia and Religious Fundamentalism, the resulting brew is anything but Saintly.By: Aurora Grajeda
SFCA 100608
In simple terms:
The Mormon Church and affiliates are against same-sex marriages, they poured millions to pass Proposition H8 in California, the LGBT Community and Allies responded with nationwide protests and a call to Boycott the Mormon Church and their business interests, the Church and it's supporters are calling 'foul', claiming the LGBT Community is engaging in Hate-Speech and suppressing 'Freedom of Expression'
Their latest salvo is a full page advertisement in The New York Times,
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty published a full page advertisement that makes inaccurate and unsubstantiated claims about supposed "violence and intimidation" against religious groups by "mobs" since the passage of Proposition 8. You can see the ad here: http://www.nomobveto.orgGLAAD's Call To Action:
It is unacceptable to publish these kinds of dishonest claims. The New York Times needs to hear from you. Contact them TODAY and demand that they discontinue allowing inaccurate claims in their advertising: letters@nytimes.com.
For tips on writing letters to the editor, see GLAAD’s Media Essentials Training Manual:
http://www.glaad.org/media/media_essentials/07_mediaessentials_toolkit.php.
They are advocating for Religious Liberty? This truly tops the cake, please pray tell Becket Fund, in what way do we curtail your Religious Liberty? Interesting to note the way they list religions in their AD 'Jewish, Christian, Hindu,
whatever', hmmmm... I wonder what the '
whatever stands for', let's see, how many mayor religions are there? last time I check, the consensus was that there were 4, Could it be that the fourth one stands for the
"M" Religion and these, allegedly, defenders of Freedom of Religion couldn't even bring themselves to list it?
It'd be interested if they fee that the Muslim Faith also has a right to exist,
HEY BECKET FUND AND ALLIES, CAN YOU ANSWER THAT QUESTION IN WRITING?The Mormon Church came into another state with millions or dollars to impose their religious belief on other people by taking away their Constitutional rights, the question before us is: doesn't everybody has the right to spend their money as they choose? What's wrong in choosing how and where we spend our money? They interpret the Church's spending millions to take away rights as
'Freedom of Expression' and they label our boycott as
'Hate-Speech' and
'Violence'; talk about speaking from both sides of the mouth.
In their AD, they claim that '
some of the violence is being stoked by public statements denouncing the LDS for merely participating in the debate at all--as if that were somehow illegal', first of all, we are not saying that their meddling in other people's lives is illegal, (unless they are violating their
'Religious tax-exempt status'), second, they didn't just
merely participated in the debate, they acted to perpetrate an act which clearly goes against the principles of equality accepted in this country and, third, what about the separation of Church and State? Didn't they participated to effectively impose their religious beliefs on others by amending a Constitution?
Check out what they have to say about the Demonstrations,
far too many, however, seem never to have been demonstrations in the first place, but more nearly mobs, seeking not to persuade but to intimidate, another claim they have yet to substantiate is the claim that
thugs send white powder to terrorize any place of worship, and this jewel of hypocrisy
"Religious ware are wrong; they are also dangerous", really, isn't that what the Mormon Church and others are doing?.
There are 13 signatures listed in their AD, let's look at who some of them are, I'll start with
Armando Valladares -- Depending on which side's claims you look at, he was either a Cuban Prisoner of Conscience imprisoned for 22 years and lauded by President Reagan who appointed Valladares to serve as the US ambassador to the "United Nations Human Rights Commission" and would later confer on him the nation’s highest civil honor, the
"Presidential Citizens Medal" or, he was
a former member of the secret police of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista --
a cop from the Batista’s dictatorship, detained "that is the press of the time" for placing in public places bombs packed in cigarette boxes; a member of a terrorist cell in which Carlos Alberto Montaner also participated. They were convicted and for that reason Armando Valladares went to prison in CubaThat was a little background info on him, but who is he today and what is he doing?
From
WikiPedia:"He is currently the President of the Valladares Project, an international non-profit organization which advocates children’s rights. Valladares is Chairman of the International Council of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation".
"The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a non-profit organization that works on "defending human rights and promoting liberal democracy in the Americas." The Human Rights Foundation was founded in 2005 by film producer Thor Halvorssen. Its offices are in New York City.
"According to a 2005 article by a conservative news website, the foundation ideologically emphasizes property rights and free markets as the basis for human freedom and criticizes traditional human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch for undermining capitalism"
And this is Armando Valladares latest incarnation as
"Defender of Human Rights" And making common cause with people and entities taking away rights from an entire community.
Now let's look at another signator to the Becket Group's AD:
William A. Donohue: He has been the president of the Catholic League for Religious and
Civil Rights in the United States since 1993.
William A. Donohue began his teaching career in the 1970s working at St. Lucy's School in Spanish Harlem. In 1977, he took a position as a college professor teaching at La Roche College in McCandless, Pennsylvania. In 1980 he received a doctorate in Sociology from New York University (NYU).[1]
His first book was "The Politics of the American Civil Liberties" Union and he became associated with the conservative Heritage Foundation where he is an adjunct scholar. His books on the ACLU made him one of the group's most prominent critics and firebrands.
While Donohue was in college in New York, Virgil C. Blum, a Jesuit at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, founded the Catholic League to counter Anti-Catholicism in American culture. Blum died in 1990; in 1993, Dr. Donohue became the director of the organization. Under his direction, the organization has become far more prominent and vocal.
Donohue publishes The Catalyst, the Catholic League journal. He serves on the board of directors of the National Association of Scholars. He serves on the board of advisers of the Washington Legal Foundation, the Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society, Society of Catholic Social Scientists, Catholics United for the Faith, Ave Maria Institute, the Christian Film & Television Commission and Catholic War Veterans. He has received several awards from the Catholic community and was voted one of the top 100 Catholics of the 20th century in a survey of Catholics conducted by the internet site, Daily Catholic. He received the 2005 St. Thomas More Award for Catholic Citizenship from Catholic Citizens of Illinois.
The Catholic League is registered as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. In 2006, according to its Form 990, its revenue was $16,590,333, and Donohue's salary and benefits amounted to $343,420
Weeeell, the second signator to the "
Freedom of Religion AD" Is a "
Defender Of Civil Liberties" lending his signature to the highly misleading Ad.
Next, let's look at
Chuck Colson - currently, he is working with his non-profit organization devoted to prison ministry called
Prison Fellowship, has a radio show and is a lecturer and author.
In 1968, Colson served as counsel to presidential candidate Nixon's Key Issues Committee.
On November 6, 1969, Colson was appointed as Special Counsel to President Nixon.
Colson was responsible for inviting influential private special interest groups into the White House policy-making process and winning their support on specific issues. His office served as the President's political communications liaison with organized labor, veterans, farmers, conservationists, industrial organizations, citizen groups, and almost any organized lobbying group whose objectives were compatible with the Administration's. Colson's staff broadened the White House lines of communication with organized constituencies by arranging Presidential meetings and sending White House news releases of interest to the groups.
In addition to his liaison and political duties, Colson's responsibilities included: performing special assignments for the President, such as drafting legal briefs on particular issues, reviewing Presidential appointments, and suggesting names for White House guest lists. His work also included major lobbying efforts on such issues as construction of an antiballistic missile system, the President's Vietnamization program, and the Administration's revenue-sharing proposal.
Colson was known as President Nixon's hatchet man. Slate magazine writer David Plotz described Colson as "Richard Nixon's hard man, the 'evil genius' of an evil administration." Colson has written that he was "valuable to the President ... because I was willing ... to be ruthless in getting things done". This is perhaps complimentary when read in comparison to the descriptions of Colson which pepper the work of Rolling Stone National Affairs' Political Correspondent, Hunter S. Thompson during the period. Colson authored the 1971 memo listing Nixon's major political opponents, later known as Nixon's Enemies List. A quip that "Colson would walk over his own grandmother if necessary" mutated into claims in news stories that Colson had boasted that he would run over his own grandmother to re-elect Nixon. Plotz reports that Colson sought to hire Teamsters thugs to beat up anti-war demonstrators. John Dean maintains that Colson proposed firebombing the Brookings Institution and stealing politically damaging documents while firefighters put the fire out.
Colson's voice, archives from April 1969, was heard in the 2004 movie Going Upriver deprecating the anti-war efforts of John Kerry. Colson's orders were to "Destroy the young demagogue before he becomes another Ralph Nader." In a phone conversation with President Nixon on April 28, 1971, Colson said, "This fellow Kerry that they had on last week...He turns out to be really quite a phony."
Watergate and Ellsberg scandals
Colson also became involved in the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP or CREEP). At a CRP meeting on March 21, 1971, it was agreed to spend US$250,000 on "intelligence gathering" on the Democratic Party. Colson and John Ehrlichman appointed E. Howard Hunt to the White House Special Operations Unit (the so-called "Plumbers") which had been organized to stop leaks in the Nixon administration. Hunt headed up the Plumbers' burglary of Pentagon Papers-leaker Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office in September 1971. The Pentagon Papers were military documents about the Vietnam War which helped increase opposition to the war. Colson hoped that revelations about Ellsberg could be used to discredit the anti-Vietnam War left. Colson admitted to leaking information from Ellsberg's confidential FBI file to the press, but denied organizing Hunt's burglary of Ellsberg's office. He expressed regret for attempting to cover up this incident in his 2005 book, The Good Life
Another signator is:
Chris Seiple Another Christian(?) (Following the Prince of Peace?)
http://www.fpri.org/about/people/seiple.html -- Chris Seiple is a Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Research Institute and
President of the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE). Before coming to IGE, Seiple was an Earhart Fellow at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University , where he received his Ph.D. in 2007.
Seiple serves on the board of Wycliffe Bible Translators, USA. He is a member at the Council on Foreign Relations (New York), the International Institute for Strategic Studies (London), and is Founder of IGE’s Council on Faith & International Affairs. He is the author of The U.S. Military/NGO Relationship in Humanitarian Interventions.
Chris Seiple "Stewarding American Power: Recommendations for the Next President"
Event on January 8, Under written by: The Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation
Chris Seiple, President of the Institute for Global Engagement in Washington DC which promotes sustainable environments for religious freedom worldwide. As a faith-based organization, IGE believes firmly in universal human dignity and is committed to the protection of all faiths through the rule of law. Dr. Seiple combines expertise with experience in fashioning some practical suggestions about how we, through the president we elect, might steward American might - spiritual, cultural, economic, and military - in a globalizing and hurting world."
Gee, a
"Defender of Universal Human Dignity" also making common cause with people taking it away from a Community.
Next we will look up
Dr. Alveda C. King, this signator is listed in the Becker Fund's Ad as
"Civil Rights Activist", but it doesn't clarify if she is for protecting them or for taking them away, judging from her political views, the latter seems to be the correct answer. (From:
Wikipedia)
Dr. Alveda C. King is an American politician, author, and activist. She is a niece of the civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr.. She is currently a Senior Fellow at the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, a conservative "think-tank" in Washington, D.C. She is a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives and the founder of King for America.
Education
King has an M.A. in business management from Central Michigan University. She received her doctorate from Saint Anselm College.
Political views
King is a pro-life speaker and often speaks on college campuses about pro-life issues.
She endorsed Senator Sam Brownback for the 2008 Republican nomination.
Family
The mother of six, and a grandmother, she is the niece of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr..
One year after her famous uncle was assassinated, her father, A.D. King, died unexpectedly. Some believe he may have been murdered, though the details surrounding his death are not well known.
Another signature reads Marvin Olasky - Let's take a brief look at him, his travels and his deeds, or misdeeds depending on where one stands -- From:
WikipediaBorn in Boston, Massachusetts into a Russian-Jewish family, Olasky became an atheist at 14, shortly after his Bar Mitzvah. In college, he discovered Marxism and joined the Communist Party USA in 1972, after graduating from Yale University in 1971 with a B.A. degree in American Studies. In 1976, however, Olasky became a Christian after reading the New Testament in Russian, studying Puritan sermons, and reading Walker Percy, Whittaker Chambers, and C.S. Lewis. Also in 1976, Olasky graduated with a Ph.D. in American Culture from the University of Michigan.
Career and works
Olasky began working as a speech writer and public affairs coordinator for DuPont in 1978, and in 1983 began teaching journalism at the University of Texas, becoming a full professor in 1993. His initial writings gave him to opportunity to win funding from the Bradley Foundation in 1989, allowing Olasky to begin his most famous work, The Tragedy of American Compassion, which was first published in 1992. Largely ignored at first, this book in 1994 and 1995 gained the endorsement of William Bennett and Newt Gingrich, who gave a copy to every incoming Republican freshman representative in the 1994 Congress. Critics blasted the book for its criticism of government programs and said the book was short on research; supporters said it was well-researched and used it in the 1995-1996 welfare reform debate.
The Tragedy of American Compassion argues that private individuals and organizations, particularly the Christian church, have a responsibility to care for the poor, and contends that challenging, personal, and spiritual help, common until the 1930s, was more effective than the government welfare programs of recent decades. Olasky states that government programs are ineffective because they are disconnected from the poor, while private charity has the power to change lives because it allows for a personal connection between the giver and the recipient. He demonstrates his points by a chapter by chapter overview of poverty-fighting in America from colonial times to the 1990s. The book, with its sequels, became a key work defining "compassionate conservatism" (a term coined by Doug Wead)[citation needed] as it relates to welfare and social policy.
In 1995, Olasky became an occasional advisor to then Texas gubernatorial candidate George W. Bush, who put some of Olasky's policy suggestions into action during his term as governor by encouraging the use of religious charities to solve social problems. Christian ministries were called in by the state government to help in a variety of ways, most notably with the rehabilitation of drug and alcohol abusers and the counseling of prisoners. Their disputable success[citation needed] led Bush to make faith-based programs a major component of his 2000 presidential campaign, and in 2001, Olasky saw the national implementation of his ideas when President Bush created the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. During Bush's campaign, Olasky attained brief mass-media notoriety when he was understood by many to have claimed that the 2000 John McCain candidacy was equivalent to a pagan religion of Zeus. Olasky was actually playing off Tom Wolfe's novel A Man in Full, where a main character converts to the "religion of Zeus." Olasky was observing that McCain emphasized in campaigning the classical virtues, such as courage, while "compassionate conservative" Bush emphasized biblical virtues such as mercy -- and Olasky learned that wry comments during a heated campaign are verboten.[1]
Next in line for scrutiny is one with a 'funny' (he, he, he) last name and with a gargantuan dose of hypocrisy to go along,
Douglas LaycockFrom
THE PEW FORUM ON RELIGIOUS AND PUBLIC LIFE Transcripts page:Event Transcript
Under God? Pledge of Allegiance Constitutionality
Friday, March 19, 2004
10:00 - 11:30 a.m.
National Press Club
Washington, D.C.
Speakers:
Doug Laycock, Counsel of Record for 32 Christian and Jewish clergy, urging the Court to affirm the 9th Circuit's ruling
Jay Alan Sekulow, Chief Counsel, American Center for Law and Justice; Counsel of Record for United States Senators and Congressmen and the Committee to Protect the Pledge, urging the Court to reverse the 9th Circuit's ruling
Moderator:
E.J. Dionne, Jr., Co-Chair, Pew Forum; Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
"I come to these cases with a fairly simple theory, which is that people of every religion, including the majority and the minority, and people of no religion at all, are entitled to believe their own beliefs, speak their own beliefs, and act on their own beliefs as long as they're not hurting anybody else, and to be left alone by government and have government not take sides. And a corollary of that is that none of these groups can use the government to try to force the other side to join in or participate in their own religious observances."
-- Douglas Laycock
This guy's balls are made are out of bronze or foam rubber, fearless at having them broken by simple intellectual honesty, also making common cause with religious people imposing their beliefs on others via the Government.
Now is Kevin J. Hasson, Esq.'s turn, the big cojuna of the Becket Fund, the claim is that "Hasson enjoys broad credibility in the national media"
From: The Becket Fund's Website
Hasson is also highly praised by the "Federalist Society", which has a membership of ultra right wingers feverishly working on taking away rights from everybody else.
Kevin J. Hasson, Esq.
Chairman and President
The Becket Fund
Kevin J. "Seamus" Hasson is Founder, Chairman of the Board, and President of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a bipartisan, interfaith public-interest law firm that protects the free expression of all religious traditions. Since 1994, Hasson and the Becket Fund have successfully represented clients from nearly every faith tradition including Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus, Native Americans, Unitarians and Zoroastrians. Along the way, the Becket Fund has won kudos from thinkers from Pope John Paul II to Elie Wiesel.
Hasson enjoys broad credibility in the national media. He has been widely quoted, appearing for example, in Newsweek, US News and World Report, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor and USA Today, as well as in regional media from The L.A. Times to The Chicago Tribune to The Philadelphia Enquirer. He has appeared on broadcast news programs including The Today Show, Dateline NBC, McLaughlin One on One, NPR’s Talk of the Nation, and CNN Talkback Live. He’s also appeared twice on Al-Jazeera, debating Saudi clerics.
Hasson lectures and debates frequently, in venues ranging from Oxford to the Vatican, from Harvard to BYU. He is the author of "The Right to be Wrong: Ending the Culture War over Religion in America."
I mentioned that
The Federalist Society praised Hasson and in case you didn't know who they are, here is a tidbit about them:
S P E C I A L R E P O R T
H I J A C K I N G J U S T I C E
The Federalist Society, a Right-wing network of lawyers, judges and supporters, is undoing civil rights and other gains made through the courts
By George E. Curry & Trevor W. Coleman
Emerge, October 1999
Another signator is:
Nathan J. Diament, The public policy director for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, let's take a quick look at him and on who are some of the players attacking the LGBT Rights, from the Boston.Com:
Episcopal diocese sets same-sex wedding banBy Michael Paulson, Globe Staff | May 13, 2004
Although rabbis have almost total authority within Jewish congregations, for Orthodox Jews "there is no conceivable basis under Orthodoxy's understanding of halakha [Jewish law] which would sanction a same-sex marriage," according to Nathan J. Diament, public policy director for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations. Similarly, in Conservative Judaism "The Rabbinical Assemblies' Law Committee has deemed it inappropriate for a Conservative rabbi to perform such marriage," said Aaron Kischel, executive director of the New England region of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.
And "Last but not Least" of this strange brew of signators to
The New York Times dishonest Becket Fund's AD, a more strange Evangelist,
Richard Cizik, by his being an Evangelist, speaks volumes about him, but there are aspects which makes you take a second look at him, as in this interview in
Salon.Com Lost faith in the GOP Evangelical leader Richard Cizik explains how Iraq, corruption and other failures are transforming the political piety of America's religious voters.But my being a gullible, trusting-kind-of-person without the scintilla of skepticism, I'd like to ask him about other precepts in the Bible/Leviticus, does he follows all of them? Or, as many Evangelical Christians do, Picks and Chooses in a sort of as in a
Evangelical Biblical Cafeteria?I will give him some points on this piece, written on Earth's Day 2007.
Richard Cizik
Earth Day: A Biblical Mandate
I will celebrate "Earth Day" and encourage Christians of all denominations and traditions to do so. Why? We believe that God created the earth, entrusting its care to man, and that He will one day recreate it in "the new heaven and new earth." We are called to "witness" to our faith as believers.
Participation in this event is an opportunity to express love for God and care for what He has created. We evangelicals call this "creation care." Care for the entire creation -- the environment and "all creatures great and small" -- is a biblical obligation (Gen. 2:15). We should walk in God's ways (Deut. 10:12) and try to inspire people by offering broader vistas of thought and service.
Can we hear the voice of the biblical prophet Ezekiel: "Is it not enough for you to drink the water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet?" Here's a modern-day question: Is it enough for you to enjoy a pleasant climate? Must you destroy it? Is it not enough for you to enjoy the myriad of creatures? Must you extinguish them? Major segments of the earth are dying and we are responsible. Earth's resources are not infinite.
A new moral awakening is sweeping our land. It's a re-awakening to the heart of the Gospel ethic: to steward the natural world in order to preserve for ourselves and future generations a beautiful, rich, and healthy environment. It is "revision-ing" our lives. Taking part in "Earth Day" is a response to this new calling.
Thus, our family will worship together at National Cathedral in Washington with other environmental, scientific, and faith leaders and then enjoy the outdoors together. It's all part of a faith commitment we've made to do everything in our power to preserve this precious gift the Creator has given us.
Richard Cizik is vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals. His primary responsibilities include editing publications such as NAE Washington Insight, directing NAE's Washington Insight Briefing and Christian Student Leadership Conferences, setting its policy direction on issues before Congress, the White House, and Supreme Court, and serving as a national spokesman on issues of concern to evangelicals.
Posted by Richard Cizik on April 22, 2007 11:06 AM
The big news out last night was that a California federal judge ruled that donors who gave money to the Yes on 8 campaign could not violate campaign finance laws and keep their donations secret. That's a huge victory for LGBT rights supporters, and a huge smackdown for donors looking to hide their donations to fund discrimination. Elsewhere in the country we're stopping by Florida, New York, and New Hampshire in today's 50 spot.
The California Supreme Court announced today that it will hear oral arguments on Thursday, March 5, 2009 in the Proposition 8 legal challenge. The National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal, and the ACLU—with support from civil rights groups, religious organizations, labor unions, and legal scholars—argue that Proposition 8 is invalid because the people of California have established strict safeguards that prohibit the underlying principles of the California Constitution from being changed by a simple majority vote. By taking away a right only from one group, Proposition 8 violates the most basic principle of our government: that all people are entitled to equal treatment under the law.
The California Supreme Court will ultimately have to decide the fate of Proposition 8, but late yesterday, California Attorney General Jerry Brown weighed in with his office's verdict on the matter, and it's a win for supporters of marriage equality. Jerry Brown's thoughts? 
