Christians are fighting back after being labeled a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
A federal lawsuit has been filed by an evangelical ministry against the left-leaning SPLC, which has a long history of attacking traditional Christian beliefs as bigoted and discriminatory.
D. James Kennedy Ministries in Fort Lauderdale, Florida has sued the SPLC claiming it defamed them as an “active hate group” because of their acceptance of the biblical view of homosexuality, Fox News reported.
The Southern Poverty Law Center is a hate group, nothing more. https://t.co/UYkwNo9sqD
— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) August 25, 2017
“It’s completely disingenuous to tag D. James Kennedy Ministries as a hate group alongside the KKK and neo-Nazis,” Kennedy Ministries spokesman John Rabe told Fox News. “We desire all people, with no exceptions, to receive the love of Christ and his forgiveness and healing. We unequivocally condemn violence, and we hate no one.”
Churches and groups that do not support LGBTQ lifestyles have been targeted by organizations like SPLC which claim the traditional Christian beliefs about sex and other issues are at odds with the mainstream culture, and therefore they fuel hate and division.
“It’s ridiculous for the SPLC to falsely tag evangelical Christian ministries as ‘hate groups’ simply for upholding the 2,000-year-old Christian consensus on marriage and sexuality,” Rabe said. “It’s nothing more than an attempt to bulldoze over those who disagree with them, and it has a chilling effect on the free exercise of religion in a nation built on that. We decided not to let their falsehoods stand.”
Though the SPLC’s efforts in the 1970’s to fight the Ku Klux Klan was a commendable mission, the organization has spread its net wider in recent years as it has sought to silence voices that do not line up with liberal viewpoints.
“They deserve praise because they used the law to hurt the Klan — a lot,” Scott Walter, president of conservative think tank, Capital Research Center. “But as often happens in the charity world, it concocts new ways to keep donations flowing.”
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“When you talk about hate groups, you’re talking about a group that is a threat because of its violent tendencies and racism. If you go up to somebody on the street and ask ‘What is a hate group?’ that is what they would take it to mean,” Walker explained. “It’s an outrageous lie that some mainstream Christian group is a threat in terms of violence and racism.”
The lawsuit by the Kennedy Ministries was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Montgomery, Ala., where the SPLC is headquartered, according to Fox News.
“These false and illegal characterizations have a chilling effect on the free exercise of religion and on religious free speech for all people of faith,” the Ministries president wrote in a statement after the lawsuit was filed. “After having given the SPLC an opportunity to retract, we have undertaken this legal action, seeking a trial by a jury of our peers, to preserve our own rights under the law and to defend the religious free speech rights of all Americans.”
Many applauded the move by the Christian ministry and felt it was “about time” someone took a stand against liberal overreach.
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The longer @splcenter allowed to call Christian orgs hate groups the sooner Christianity will be called hate speech https://t.co/AGAapdP8Av
— LTG Jerry Boykin (@GenBoykin) August 25, 2017
Hallelujah!
— Karen Brady (@karenbradynj) August 25, 2017
We have freedom of religion in our country, unless the SPLC decides that you don’t.
— Dan Harrell (@danharrell11) August 25, 2017
They label them a “hate-group” for opposing gay marriage but exclude every single Muslim organization.
— Jim Beam (@Rtyfgh321) August 25, 2017
About time someone fights back against those terrorists!
— Redskin80 (@BallState1984) August 25, 2017
All of the other Christian orgs need to do the same. Enough Christophobia.
— Samuel Schwarzeberg (@schwarzeberg) August 25, 2017
Good. Hope they win.
— Albert Turner (@BPBlazer) August 24, 2017
Isn’t it strange that the SPLC ONLY names those groups against the far left agenda as “hate groups”? SPLC is a HATE group against Christ!
— Kurt Boulter (@Kurt_Boulter) August 25, 2017
Good for James Kennedy Ministries. Southern Poverty Law Center is leftist fund-raising con & deserves to be sued. https://t.co/bJiDgLPRLL
— Michael R Shannon (@ReluctantUser2) August 24, 2017
Absolutely! Whatever their original intent decades ago, they’ve crossed over the line between American & un-American, right & wrong. ????
— Jay Mattox (@shtewpedaholes) August 25, 2017
George Clooney just donated 1M to the Southern Poverty Law Center. That’s enough reason for me to know they’re on the wrong side. #MAGA
— Ruth Lee (@RuthBLee) August 25, 2017
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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