Actually, they called the religious right a bad name. That name would be "extremist" and "hate group," and they compared them to the Ku Klux Klan. Ooh, hate when that happens.
From the Family Research Council, one of the lead religious right hate groups, run by a man, Tony Perkins, who gave former Klansman David Duke over $80,000 in the mid 90s. Gotta love that. No hate there. Nothing to see. Please move right along.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization historically devoted to fighting racial discrimination, has decided to brand the entire pro-family movement as "hate groups" and "extremists," like the Ku Klux Klan. Yet it seems odd to apply the label "extremist" to a majority of Americans, since their lengthy article (titled "Holy War") admits that in 2003 "opposition to gay marriage had climbed from 53 to 59%" and that a "majority of Americans, 55%, now characterized gay sex as a sin." Be assured that the Family Research Council will continue to stand, with a majority of Americans, where we have always stood--against violence toward homosexuals, but also against celebrating a behavior that is harmful to those who engage in it and to society as a whole.Ah, another day, another violation of the 6th (or 7th, depending on your religion) Commandment by the FRC. You see, the Southern Povery Law Center isn't chastizing the religious right for being against gay marriage. They're chastizing the religious right for acting like a bunch of Nazis in the way they attack gays and try to demonize them out of existence. Of course, that kind of nuance is lost on the holy-rolling knuckledraggers of the radical right.
Anyway, it's true - one of the lead voices of the civil rights movement, the Southern Poverty Law Center, has for the first time branded some religious right groups "hate groups." This is a monumental occasion, I'm really serious. And it's obviously freaking the religious right out that more and more mainstream civil rights advocates are correctly putting them in the same category as the Klan and Aryan Nations.
SPLC has a new report on anti-gay hate here, the one the FRC is so upset about. There's a lot in the report. I'll be going through it over the next few days and reporting back. I've already glanced through it, there are some JUICY things in that report that are quite embarrassing to the religious right.
