Who Gets to Define What’s ‘Hate’?

Who defines hate?

Christian urban renewal activist says “alt-left” following an insidious path

By Star Parker

As if recent events don’t give us enough to worry about, now we have a new missive in The Atlantic magazine from former Vice President Joe Biden concerning the incident in Charlottesville.

Biden wants to declare America a hate-free zone. He says we should declare “no place for these hate groups in America. Hatred of blacks, Jews, immigrants—all who are seen as ‘the other’—won’t be accepted or tolerated or given safe harbor anywhere in this nation.”

As sickening as the “alt-right” racist bigots may be, at least we know where they’re coming from. They make no claim to the high ground. Their racism is on the table, in the light of day. But the “alt-left” is far more insidious. Take, for instance, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). They are self-appointed mission control for identifying who and where are the haters in America.

They publish a “Hate Map” on their website, in which 917 “hate groups” are identified, ripe for elimination in the spirit of Biden’s appeal. Included are 101 anti-Muslim hate groups, but somehow not a single anti-Christian hate group is identified. Actually, Christian groups, in their map, turn out to be the haters.

SPLC identifies at least 19 Christian organizations as hate groups. Groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom, which provides legal counsel to those whose religious freedom has been abrogated (e.g., a Christian baker being sued for refusing to create a cake for a same-sex wedding), or Family Research Council, which publishes research in support of public policy consistent with traditional Christian values, or D. James Kennedy Ministries, which, through its church and media, disseminates the Christian gospel and sermons of its founder, Dr. D. James Kennedy.

Peacefully preaching Christian gospel is, in the eyes of the SPLC, an act of hate because part of this gospel chastises homosexual behavior as sinful. Unfortunately, in today’s tortured culture, sources deemed by some authority like CNN or GuideStar, which provides data on evaluating nonprofit  organizations, reference the SPLC “Hate Map” as a guide to hate in the country.

Two major corporations, JP Morgan and Apple, announced six-figure contributions to the SPLC after the  events in Charlottesville. In a memo to employees, JP Morgan’s head of corporate responsibility noted that their contribution to SPLC is “to further their work in tracking, exposing, and fighting hate groups and other extremist organizations across the country.”

In 2012, a young man entered the office of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., and shot  the building manager. He, fortunately, was caught and subsequently sentenced to 25 years in prison. He has a volunteer at a pro-gay organization and told the FBI that he used the SPLC hate map to find FRC and that his plan was to kill as many as he could. D. James Kennedy Ministries recently filed a lawsuit against the SPLC for defamation.

In recent media appearances discussing Charlottesville, I noted the equivalency I see between the LGBT rainbow flag and the Confederate flag. Both stand, as I explained, for particular dogma and are statements of exclusion to those who don’t fit their worldview. Those who don’t agree with me are  welcome to say so. But, instead, the so-called advocates of tolerance shut down my office in Washington, D.C., with an avalanche of calls and threats.

We can’t legislate what people feel. But we can and must recapture the American vision of freedom, where law protects individual life, liberty and property, so our large and diverse population can  live together peacefully and productively.

Star Parker is an author and president of CURE, Center for Urban Renewal and Education. Contact her at www.urbancure.org.

 

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