Facts Are Facts, Tony
The Family Research Council has declared war against one of the top charity rating organizations for noting FRC is an anti-gay hate group. Guidestar has integrated information from the Southern Poverty Law Center, the nation’s top civil rights organization that tracks and reports on hate groups of every kind. And now, Guidestar includes a warning on its profile of FRC: “This organization was flagged as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.”
So now, in addition to its ongoing battle against the Southern Poverty Law Center, FRC has opened a new theater of war against Guidestar, as Raw Story notes.
“GuideStar Wars: Charity Index No Longer Neutral,” is Perkins’ latest diatribe.
And he admits it’s all about money.
“Now, when potential donors search at least 46 conservative organizations, they’ll be greeted by a big red banner, alerting them that these charities were labeled “hate groups” by the SPLC, presumably to steer them away from contributing,” Perkins writes Thursday on his “Washington Update.”
Now, it’s important to note that the Southern Poverty Law Center has very strict standards for placing an organization on one of its lists of hate groups.
Tony Perkins, Family Research Council’s President, will be happy to falsely claim that FRC is on the anti-gay hate list “simply for participating in the political process and advocating for public policy consistent with their orthodox Christian beliefs.”
But in fact, the Southern Poverty Law Center only places groups on its hate list that “have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.”Â
When it comes to anti-gay hate groups, the SPLC includes groups known for “propagation of known falsehoods — claims about LGBT people that have been thoroughly discredited by scientific authorities — and repeated, groundless name-calling. Viewing homosexuality as unbiblical does not qualify organizations for listing as hate groups.”
That’s what Tony Perkins won’t tell you.
But this week, Perkins and his FRC are expressing outrage.
As Alvin McEwen at Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters reports, the FRC is “upset over being labeled a hate group, but won’t address [the] reason why.”
And via Twitter, Holy Bullies posts this important video:
On the FRC blog Perkins offers up this baloney:
“At a time when even the mainstream media is questioning SPLC, the charity index is rushing to embrace the “hate labeling” that inspired Floyd Corkins to walk into our lobby with the goal of killing as many people as possible. Now, just days after the shooting of House Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), who is also branded an extremist on SPLC’s website, most people are shocked that GuideStar — whose calling card is its neutrality — would use the liberal organization as a resource.”
The mainstream media is not questioning SPLC, there’s no evidence of that from a quick Google news search. Floyd Corkins did shoot a maintenance worker at the FRC headquarters in the arm and reportedly had learned about FRC from the Southern Poverty Law Center. Facts are facts, and yes, (not to kick people when they’re down, but) Rep. Steve Scalise has an extremist background. After all, Scalise once said he was “David Duke without the baggage.”
Tony Perkins will never tell you the facts, because the facts about Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council are ugly.
Is the Family Research Council a hate group? Yes. Should Americans wanting to make the best choices for where they donate their hard-earned money be allowed as much information as possible? Yes.
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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC licenseÂ