The Rapture: This Week’s Religious Right Anti-Gay Hate Crimes
Rapture-Causing Nazi-Like Gays Worthy Of Death
The Rapture is coming! The Rapture is coming! And the radical right — furiously working to get their last attacks on “the gays” in before they depart the Earth during Saturday’s promised Rapture — have been hard at work this week. Fresh from worship services, Reverend Rubén DÃaz, who apparently works part-time as a New York State Senator when his anti-gay religious chores are done, was toiling away with his fellow Evangelical preachers at an anti-gay marriage rally in the Bronx this past Sunday, telling gays how evil they are. DÃaz’s fellow preacher, the Right Reverend Ariel Torres Ortega of Radio Visión Cristiana stood on stage in front of a few thousand people, and in Spanish, with a fellow priest translating into English, said that gays should die.
READ: Kill The Gays NYC? Gays Should Die Says Pastor At NOM Marriage Rally
Specifically, Reverend Ortega said, gays “are worthy of death.” The translator did not pause or miss a beat, and neither did Reverend DÃaz — who spoke just minutes later — nor did DÃaz, the elected representative of hundreds of thousands of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender constituents, bother to walk back or disavow that hate speech. It gives one pause to ask, if it’s illegal to yell, “Fire!” in a crowded theater, why isn’t it illegal to yell, “Kill the gays!” in front of a few thousand religious bigots?
While we’re pausing and musing, something Reverend DÃaz, who does not believe in the separation of church and state when it comes to same-sex marriage, is allergic to, let’s think for a moment about what kind of person has not only the desire, but the time, to go to a rally in the Bronx and hang out in the rain, with other people whose sole focus that day is to make sure that two people who love each other are banned from walking into city hall, signing a few pieces of paper, and entering into a civil marriage? I mean, seriously, don’t these people have something better to do with their time?
Sunday’s Bronx anti-gay marriage hate rally, of course promoted and sponsored by Maggie Gallagher’s National Organization for Marriage (NOM) — which has yet to respond to a petition demanding they denounce the “kill the gays” rhetoric — was headlined also by Brian Brown, NOM’s president. Thursday, saying his hate rally had a “festive atmosphere,” Brown said “the warm response of the people in the Bronx made it seem like, well, a ticker-tape parade, if the Bronx had ticker-tape parades.” No doubt ticker-tape parade heroes everyone are nauseous right now.
Characterizing his hate rally as “the march for dignity” — because until every last gay person, evidently, is forever banned from marrying, no opposite-sex marriage can ever regain its dignity — Brown said, “we march in love to protect marriage as the union of husband and wife.” Nothing like a little “kill the gays” hate speech to strengthen and protect the loving marriages of husbands and wives everywhere, right, Brian?
Â
“I mean, ladies and gentlemen, they are Nazis,” Fischer cried. “Homosexual activists, when it comes to freedom of speech, are Nazis. When it comes to freedom of religion, they are Nazis.”
Â
Â
Speaking of hate speech, Bryan Fischer, the public face and voice of the certified hate group, the American Family Association (AFA), decided to educate his readers about hate crimes today.
Offering this definition from USLegal.com, that a “hate crime is usually defined by state law as one that involves threats, harassment, or physical harm and is motivated by prejudice against someone’s race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, sexual orientation or physical or mental disability,” Fischer responds, “If hate crimes involve threats or harassment motivated by prejudice against someone’s religion, homosexual activists are the worst perpetrators of hate crimes in America.”
Because, you see, Fischer blames LGBT groups and individuals for Olympic official Peter Vidmar’s decision to resign from the U.S. Olympic committee because of his anti-gay comments on same-sex marriage and his $2000 donation to the Yes on 8 campaign that brought us Prop 8, the ban on same-sex marriage in California.
“Vidmar makes his living as a motivational speaker, and has now been tagged by the Grand Inquisitors of the left as a homophobic bigot,” Fischer writes. “Good luck getting speaking gigs with that on your resume.” Does anyone care to point out that Fischer makes a fine living as a “homophobic bigot?”
You know who else makes a fine living as a homophobic bigot? Peter LaBarbera. LaBarbera’s claim to fame is that he founded a lie and hate-spreading organization (an organization of one, but still…) called Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH). LaBarbera Thursday night via Twitter accused the media of being unable to deliver facts objectively because their livelihood is dependent upon drumming up controversy. I’ll leave you to put those pieces together to find the blatant hypocrisy.
READ: Rapture: Gays Are Responsible For Saturday Being Judgement Day
Speaking of blatant hypocrisy, note that neither Bryan Fischer, nor Maggie Gallagher, nor Brian Brown, nor anyone else on the Right, has denounced the Right Reverend Ariel Torres Ortega’s hate crime (it’s a hate crime, right, Bryan?) of saying gays should die. We’re waiting, and, given you folks will be Raptured in about 24 hours, there’s not much time left.
But wait. Of course, there’s more!
You see, hate crimes are only a one-way street. If you accuse someone of a hate crime, in Fischer’s mind at least, you’re absolved of any guilt of committing one yourself.
Case in point.
This week on his talk radio program “Focal Point,†Fischer accused gays of being Nazis. I kid you not.
The 60 year-​old conservative claimed “the homosexual agenda is just like Islam,†then said of gays — repeatedly — “they are Nazis.â€
“I mean, ladies and gentlemen, they are Nazis,” Fischer cried. “Homosexual activists, when it comes to freedom of speech, are Nazis. When it comes to freedom of religion, they are Nazis.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, they are Nazis,” Fischer, whose show on American Family Radio is broadcast by more than 180 radio stations in 40 states, repeated. “Do not be under any illusions about what homosexual activists will do with your freedoms and your religion if they have the opportunity. They’ll do the same thing to you that the Nazis did to their opponents in Nazi Germany.”
Let’s do that pausing and musing thing, an act that those of the radical religious right are allergic to committing. Let’s pause to solemnly remember that the Nazis killed an estimated six million Jews, and some put the total number of human beings murdered by Nazis at 11 to 17 million. We know that the Nazis targeted Jews and homosexuals specifically. How many millions of those were gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender?
But Fischer’s hate crimes and NOM’s anti-gay hate rally were not the only evidence of right wing gay-bashing this week. Despite three polls released this week showing that the majority of Americans accept their gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender neighbors, and want them be be given the right to marry — merchants of hate were selling their wares by the truckload.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who has become infamous for using every tactic in the GOP’s book for stripping union workers of their rights, effectively stripped the rights of every same-sex couple to visit their loved one in a hospital. That’s right, Walker, an Evangelical Christian who has been married for 18 years and has two children, believes he has the obligation to prevent same-sex couples from holding the hand of their spouse — legal or not — as they lie in a hospital bed, perhaps going in and out of consciousness, perhaps leaving this Earth. Walker would rather see gay men, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people die alone. How very Christian…
But none of this will matter much longer, you see, because when the Rapture comes on Saturday, all the good Christians, like Bryan Fischer, Maggie Gallagher, Brian Brown, the Right Reverend (and part-time Senator) Rubén DÃaz, the Right Reverend Ariel Torres Ortega and, especially Harold Camping, the man who has predicted the Rapture will come Saturday, will of course be gone.
Sadly, however, my dear gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender friends, you should know the Rapture that is coming on Saturday is your fault. Yes, Harold Camping, the octogenarian who believes so devoutly that Judgment Day is upon us, that the end of the world is nigh, blames the gays for these end times.
The prevalence of homosexuality, and the rapid acceptance of homosexuality is “a tremendous sign that we’re at the threshold of Judgement Day,†says Camping.
We now have six major nationwide polls that state without a doubt that the majority of Americans support same-sex marriage equality, we have polls that find a majority of Americans believe homosexuality should be accepted, we have polls that find a majority of Americans want the practice of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell finally repealed (it has not yet been, despite a law signed by the president that paves the way for it to be,) we have polls that find that a great majority of U.S. Catholics support same-sex civil marriage, and we have polls that find a majority of Americans want DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act — already found by a federal judge, not to mention the President and the Attorney General to be unconstitutional — repealed.
Given all these facts, well, perhaps Camping is right: there is now a rapid acceptance of homosexuality. So if he says the Rapture is coming, who am I to disagree?
But allow me to quote Scripture as well.
Matthew 5:5 — Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the Earth.
Â
(image)
Enjoy this piece?
… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.
NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.
Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.
 |
In the days leading up to Easter, President Donald Trump has repeatedly—and falsely—claimed that egg prices have plummeted to the point of being “too low,” baselessly citing steep double-digit declines—even as Americans face record-high prices at the grocery store.
“The egg prices are down 87 percent, but nobody talks about that,” the President said on Friday. “You can have all the eggs you want, we have too many eggs, in fact, if anything the prices are getting too low.”
Trump: We have too many eggs. if anything, the prices are getting too low pic.twitter.com/SIKjGJzaD1
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 18, 2025
Trump campaigned on the promise he would lower the price of groceries “on day one,” a promise that three months later is not only unfulfilled, but in some cases reversed: overall grocery prices have risen.
READ MORE: ‘Taunting SCOTUS’: Concerns Mount Over ‘Openly Contemptuous’ White House
On Thursday, Trump claimed the price of eggs had dropped 92%, while berating a reporter and his Federal Reserve Chairman.
“The price of groceries are substantially down,” the president falsely claimed.
The price of eggs, you know, when I came in, they hit me with eggs. I just got there, I was here for one week, and they started screaming, ‘Eggs have gone through the roof.’ I said, ‘I just got here.’
“They went up 87%, and you couldn’t get them,” Trump told reporters. “They said, ‘You won’t have eggs for Easter,’ which is coming up. Happy Easter, everybody.You won’t have eggs for Easter.”
“And we did an unbelievable job, and now eggs are all over the place and the price went down 92 percent,” he claimed.
READ MORE: Trump’s Latest Target: The Watchdog That Keeps Suing Him
Last week on Monday, Trump had claimed, falsely, that egg prices had dropped 79%.
Egg prices, Newsweek reported on Wednesday, “continued to climb despite recent efforts by the Trump administration to combat the shortage brought about by the ongoing bird flu with imports of Turkish eggs. The CPI egg index jumped by 5.9 percent from February and was up 60.4 percent compared to March 2024, and the average price for a dozen grade A large eggs climbed 5.6 percent to a record $6.23.”
Moe Davis, the well-known retired U.S. Air Force colonel, attorney, and former administrative law judge, posted to social media a federal government chart of egg prices.
“According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,” Davis wrote, “the price of a dozen eggs in March was $6.23, the highest price ever recorded and 26% higher than in January when Trump took office. Of course if Trump says egg prices are down then the MAGA cult is obliged to say egg prices are down.”
Watch the video above or at this link.
READ MORE: ‘Things Like This Take Place’: Trump Shrugs Off Mass Shooting Despite Once Being a Target
Image via Reuters
The Trump White House is coming under fire for what appears to be an attempt to mock the U.S. Supreme Court, the facts in the case of a Maryland man wrongly deported to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, and The New York Times.
The White House’s official account on the social media platform X posted a “corrected” version of a New York Times story—corrections that have drawn concern and scorn from the legal community and political commentators.
“Senator Meets With Wrongly Deported Maryland Man in El Salvador,” read a screenshot of the Times’ headline.
But the White House’s version (below), complete with red ink and cross outs, reads: “Senator Meets With MS-13 Illegal Alien in El Salvador Who Is Never Coming Back.”
The White House added remarks saying, “Fixed it for you, @NYTimes. Oh, and by the way, @ChrisVanHollen — he’s NOT coming back.”
Fixed it for you, @NYTimes.
Oh, and by the way, @ChrisVanHollen — he’s NOT coming back. pic.twitter.com/VoAphh2ZPY
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 18, 2025
Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) traveled to El Salvador this week and, after several days, was finally permitted to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia—the legal U.S. resident whom the Trump administration has admitted in court it wrongly deported. Multiple courts, including the Supreme Court, have ordered the administration to “facilitate” his return. Yet the Trump administration appears to be refusing.
Friday’s claim that Abrego Garcia is “never coming back” was taken as a serious statement of intent by some.
Attorney Aaron Regunberg wrote: “The White House is saying he’s ‘never coming back’ — they are explicitly declaring they will violate a unanimous Supreme Court order.” Calling out Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Regunberg wrote: “you said this was your red line that would trigger ‘extraordinary action.’ So…where the f— are you?”
“2 telling things here,” offered The Washington Post’s senior political reporter Aaron Blake. “1) White House crosses out ‘wrongly,’ despite repeatedly acknowledging its error in court. 2) ‘who’s never coming back’ is basically taunting SCOTUS. Signals the opposite of any intent to ‘facilitate’ his return.”
“The White House press shop lies and claims Mr. Abrego was not wrongfully deported, despite having acknowledged that fact at every single stage of the court process; at the district court, the circuit court, and the Supreme Court,” noted attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick. “They are openly contemptuous of the truth.”
Civil rights attorney Patrick Jaicomo, replying to the White House, wrote: “There is a mistake in the headline. You didn’t wrongly deport Garcia. You wrongly imprisoned him without due process. So, fix your mistake, as the courts have ordered. You don’t have to keep doubling down on bad decisions.”
Attorney Dilan Esper added, “I’ll remind you that the federal judges issuing orders see this.”
Veteran journalist John Harwoood called it, “disgusting fascism,” and wrote that “the Trump WH is garbage from top to bottom.”
Opinion writer Magdi Jacobs noted, “They’re moving from evading the judiciary to openly mocking it. This is very dangerous territory.”
Some others addressed what they appeared to suggest was the juvenile nature of the White House’s post.
“When you graduate from 4chan and land your first job at the White House,” wrote Talking Points Memo publisher Josh Marshall.
“The Trump admin really wants to distract people from the fact that it illegally sent someone to El Salvador in violation of a court order & binding law, either out of malice or sheer incompetence. No amount of s—posting will change that,” said Reason magazine’s Billy Binion.
“This is the evil of the Trump White House,” remarked Fred Wellman, an Army veteran, political consultant, and the host of the podcast “On Democracy.”
Journalist and author Robert Lusetich observed: “The White House, an ever-lasting symbol of the power, dignity and greatness of the United States. Now, a trolling meme account.”
Anti-gun-violence activist Fred Guttenberg declared the White House is “staffed by pathetic punk 2nd grade pre pubescent children.”
Journalist James Surowiecki commented, “Your tax dollars are paying for this childish cr–.”
See the White House’s social media post above or at this link.
Image via Reuters
From the outset of his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump signaled that a central focus of his presidency would be targeting and exacting retribution against his critics.
“In 2016, I declared, ‘I am your voice,’” Trump told attendees at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference in March 2023. “Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”
In keeping his retribution vow, Trump in just three months—often with the use of the power of his executive orders—has targeted for retribution numerous top law firms, revoked the security clearances of dozens of top national security experts, former government officials, and former political opponents. He has targeted top universities, threaten to defund millions of dollars or more in critical research grants, and declared top news outlets CNN and MSNBC “corrupt” and “illegal.”
Just days after the 2024 election, NPR reported that during the campaign, “Trump made more than 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, imprison or otherwise punish his perceived enemies, including political opponents and private citizens.”
READ MORE: ‘Things Like This Take Place’: Trump Shrugs Off Mass Shooting Despite Once Being a Target
On Thursday, Trump threatened to go after one of his top legal critics: CREW, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit legal and ethics watchdog that has been working for years to hold him (and others) to account, often by suing.
Asked by a reporter what group he would like to see have their tax exempt status removed, Trump replied, “Well, we’ll be making some statements, but it’s a big deal.”
“They’re so rich and so strong, and then they go so bad, they’ve earned so much by being a member of this country, you know, a member of this group, this beautiful group of people in this country, and then they go and they abuse their power like that,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Thursday afternoon. “I think it’s, you know, I think it’s very sad.”
“I have a group named CREW,” he continued. “CREW. You ever hear of it? I think it’s CREW, and they have a guy that heads CREW. It’s supposed to be a charitable organization. The only charity they had is going after Donald Trump. So we’re looking at that.”
“We’re looking at a lot of things, but if you take a look at CREW, what they’ve done, and I think it was a very big abuse, but we’re going to be finding out pretty soon.”
During Trump’s first and second terms, CREW sued Trump or his administration for alleged emoluments clause violations, alleged Presidential Records Act noncompliance, and challenged some of his executive orders. It also represented voters in a lawsuit attempting to use the 14th Amendment to remove him from the ballot, claiming his role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection was constitutionally disqualifying.
READ MORE: ‘Full Time Babysitter’: Treasury Secretary Urges Caution After Trump Fed Chair Threat
In January, CREW was part of a lawsuit suing to “block Trump’s illegal plan to fire government workers,” and in February, CREW sued the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) “to compel transparency.”
CREW, in a statement to NCRM, vowed to continue its work.
“For more than 20 years, CREW has exposed government corruption from politicians of both parties who violate the public trust and has worked to promote an ethical, transparent government,” CREW Vice President of Communications Jordan Libowitz said. “Good governance groups are the heart of a healthy democracy. We will continue to do our work to ensure Americans have an ethical and accountable government.”
Legal experts are blasting Trump’s threat.
“It is literally a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison for the President, VP, or any senior White House employee, to ‘request, directly or indirectly, any officer or employee of the IRS to conduct … an audit or other investigation of any particular taxpayer,'” wrote attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.
“The Trump administration has gone after law firms, they’ve gone after universities, and they’re now going after civil society, including groups like @CREWcrew. They want to silence any opposition to their extreme agenda,” added the National Women’s Law Center.
“President Trump is now threatening to weaponize the IRS against nonprofit organizations like @CREWcrew,” wrote Public Citizen. “He is attacking our most basic right: to say what we believe without fear of government prosecution. We proudly stand in solidarity with our friends at CREW.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
Reporter: On the tax-exempt status subject, what are the other groups you would like to see status remove from?
Trump: … Could be. Environmental — I have a group named crew. Ever hear of it? I think it is c-r-e-w. The only charity they had is going after Trump pic.twitter.com/lfaxnQ0A1N
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 17, 2025
Watch the video above or at this link.
READ MORE: ‘Stunning Admission’: GOP Senator Says Colleagues ‘Are All Afraid’ of ‘Retaliation’
Image via Reuters
Trump Doubles Down Calling Egg Prices ‘Too Low’ as Costs Soar to Record Highs
‘Taunting SCOTUS’: Concerns Mount Over ‘Openly Contemptuous’ White House
Trump’s Latest Target: The Watchdog That Keeps Suing Him
‘Things Like This Take Place’: Trump Shrugs Off Mass Shooting Despite Once Being a Target
