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05/16/2010
Bruce admires his Barber -- yet it's Kagan who shouldn't make the cut?!?
A few weeks back, the pro-family movement's most undeniably incendiary lover of hyperbole, Matt "one man violently cramming his penis into another man’s lower intestine and calling it ‘love’” Barber, wrote yet another-over-the-top piece, wherein he directly likened people like Anderson Cooper and Rachel Maddow to Fred "God Hates F*gs" Phelps. Here's a snip:
“Progressives” are like pig farmers. In an effort to bury opposing viewpoints they sling pejorative slop, labeling as “bigot,” “hater,” “wingnut” or “racist” those with whom they disagree. It’s the height of intellectual sloth.
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I pray that [Fred] Phelps and Co. will both repent and seek Christ’s redemption for the harm they’ve caused people like the Snyders. I also pray that liberals will repent. By lumping together with Phelps those who recognize traditional, biblical sexual morality, homosexual activists and the left-wing media trivialize true hate.
Indeed, many Americans – perhaps most – adhere to the biblical notion that all sexual conduct outside the bonds of marriage between one man and one woman is sexually immoral. (Sorry liberals, that’s just the way it is; nothing personal. Despite disingenuous bleatings to the contrary, such beliefs are typically as far removed from hate as Phelps is from cuddly. Every major world religion, thousands of years of history and uncompromising human biology hold this to be true. And as with all absolute truth, it just is.)
So, Fred Phelps aside, every time you hear some lefty like Anderson Cooper or Keith Olbermann despicably refer to Bible-believing Christians as “homophobes,” or who call grandma a “teabagger” (slang for a vile homosexual act), consider who the real haters are.
Whenever Mark Potok, Rachel Maddow or some liberal politico in Congress attempts to equate conservative Joe to a “right wing extremists” or a “domestic terrorist,” contemplate who the true bigots are.
The palpable irony is that leftists – with their slanderous name-calling, harsh judgments and ad hominem attacks – are, in truth, more like Phelps than those they falsely accuse.
The Face of Hate [TownHall]
A ridiculous charge, of course. Because while in "pro-family" fantasy world, progressives are running around calling people names rather than fleshing out cogent arguments, in the real world, grown-ups on both sides of the ideological spectrum are, largely, having fair (if firm) conversation about matters of import. While no side is pure, and some all over the partisan spectrum do use rhetorical flourishes, the true "intellectual sloth" would be to reduce our politics to the offensive notion that "left" = "second grade bully on a playground." This is especially true when talking about Matt Barber, a man who is, without a doubt, one of the most prone-to-hyperbolic-attack voices we ever encounter [*SEE: The time Matt called Barack Obama an anti-american enemy; the time he accused Obama and Barney Frank of being anti-religious bigots; the time he suggested there are "sinister motives" in the Obama White House; the time he agreed with TVC's Andrea Lafferty that homosexuality is "among a litany of...sexual deviances" that include things like sex with an amputee's stump and sexual behavior involving feces and urine; the time he referred to marriage equality advocates as "purveyors of evil"; the time he compared gay unions to marrying a house plant; the time he said Ellen Degeneres "guides her many adoring housewife fans into rebellion against God's divine and explicit natural order"; etc, etc.]
But Matt's bit of purple prose did earn a fan in one certain Focus on the Family staffer. This is how FOtF judicial analyst Bruce Hausknecht responded to Matt's piece:
Matt's Facebook wall [F'book]
Okay, so why do we bring all of this up here and now? Well, because in this week's edition of Focus on the Family's regular "Friday Five" feature, the organization turned its webpage over to Mr. Hausknecht for the sole purpose of decrying the "alarming" SCOTUS nomination and the supposed affronts a Justice Kagan would bring to those on the evangelical right:
Although Elena Kagan has a thin — some would stay "stealth" — history with regard to hints of her judicial philosophy (she's never been a judge), there are indeed glimpses into her legal and constitutional views on several subjects near and dear to pro-family groups, and those glimpses are alarming.
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We know that as the current solicitor general (in charge of defending America's laws in court challenges around the country), Kagan has undermined the federal DOMA, which defines marriage as one man and one woman for all federal purposes. She's done so by admitting in legal papers filed with the courts that the Obama administration feels the law is discriminatory and ought to be repealed. She's further undermined DOMA in those cases by conceding that marriage has nothing to do with responsible procreation or child-rearing — a startling and ill-founded concession.
We also know of her well-publicized personal distaste for our country's law prohibiting gays from openly serving in the military. It's not hard to draw a line from her opposition to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to support for same-sex marriage.
Friday Five: Judicial Analyst Bruce Hausknecht [FoTF]
So essentially we have someone who calls it a "nice job" when Matt Barber, someone with a demonstrated track record of vicious attacks against progressives and gays, says that people like CNN's 10PM anchor is a "hater" now working to convince Focus on the Family's audience that a smart, highly qualified, admittedly (by both sides) consensus-building person with absolutely NO history of slights against conservatives, rhetorical or otherwise, is somehow a "radical"?! Where does he get off?!?!
But of course it's not just this one association. Focus on the Family, as an organization, spends a major portion of the work week knocking anything even remotely having to do with gays and their rights. So when Bruce Hausknecht, the group's chief judicial analyst, demonstrates that he spends a portion of his own day reading and agreeing with one of the gay community's most incendiary voices, we take notice (even if/especially if FOtF, as an org, is highly reluctant to link to Barber publicly). Because these folks can try all they want to paint Kagan as "extreme" when she simply looks at the constitution as being applicable to all citizens (something Hausknecht recently did right alongside FOtF's president, Jim Daly). But for those of us who pay attention to actual digital paper trails turn an objective eye to what is out there, it's quite easy to see that there actions are a carefully orchestrated game meant to (a) create a false reality, and (b) mask the actuality that is fueling their side. It's easy to see who really seems to want to reshape society in one certain vision, and who really seems to want an America that acts like its promises.
And we don't need to call anyone a "bigot" or a "hater" in order to make such an appraisal.
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**SEE ALSO: This "Friday Five" column is the one that FOtF, last week, turned over to Barbara Nicolosi, a film personality who accused the gay male population of "holding disdain for women," likened Harvey Milk to Hitler, and said that the Brokeback lovers did a "twisted enemas-as-act of love thing": And we hear she finds 'Blu-Ray' too suggestive of a certain sex act [G-A-Y]
But yea: We're totally the radical ones. Right?
**ALSO, ALSO: Focus on the Family is on record saying that an LGB (they don't even talk about T) SCOTUS nominee is automatically disqualified by virtue of their sexual orientation. A "non-starter," Focus' Tom Minnery says: FACT: Focus on the Family this week became 10x more discriminatory [G-A-Y]
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