More Details Emerge on Norway's Fundamentalist Terrorist

As more details emerge about Anders Behring Breivik who has reportedly confessed to the bombing and shooting massacre in Norway, the more the man sounds like a clone of some of the far right Christians and white supremacist extremists in the USA. Yesterday, one commenter left a nasty comment attacking me for focusing on the parallels between what appear to have been Breivik's views and those that I see as a threat in this country. I did not publish the comment because I refuse to provide a platform for such people - they can get their own blog if they want to publish such drivel. If the truth hurts as to what such constant anti-immigrant, anti-liberal Christian and anti-Muslim propaganda can lead to I'm sorry. I will continue to call things as I see them. If individuals don't like my views, then my advice: don't read this blog. An Associated Press story in the Virginian Pilot has these highlights:
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A manifesto published online - which police are poring over and said was posted the day of the attack - ranted that the European elite, "multiculturalists" and "enablers of Islamization" would be punished for their "treasonous acts."
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More was coming to light Sunday about the man who police say confessed to a car bomb at government headquarters in Oslo and then, hours later, opening fire on young people at an island political retreat. Both targets were linked to Norway's left-leaning Labor Party, and authorities have said Breivik held anti-Muslim views and posted on Christian fundamentalist websites.
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"He wanted a change in society and, from his perspective, he needed to force through a revolution," Geir Lippestad, his lawyer, told public broadcaster NRK. "He wished to attack society and the structure of society."
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"We, the free indigenous peoples of Europe, hereby declare a pre-emptive war on all cultural Marxist/multiculturalist elites of Western Europe. ... We know who you are, where you live and we are coming for you," the document said. "We are in the process of flagging every single multculturalist traitor in Western Europe. You will be punished for your treasonous acts against Europe and Europeans."
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CNN has highlights from the manifesto here. Yes, it's frightening stuff - and it sounds far too similar to things being said by anti-immigrant factions in the USA and far right Christians who have claimed that the freedom of religion rights under First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution apply only to Christians. As for Breivik's views on liberal Christian denominations - which likely included the Church of Norway that allows partnered gay clergy - the Christian Post has these highlights:
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He chose to be baptized into the Protestant Church at the age of 15, but over recent years has grown weary of the state of the modern Church. In one blog posted in 2009 he wrote: “Today's Protestant church is a joke. Priests in jeans who march for Palestine and churches that look like minimalist shopping centres. I am a supporter of an indirect collective conversion of the Protestant church back to the Catholic.”
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Another Christian Post story has this highlight:
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“In Norway and Sweden extreme Marxist attitudes have become acceptable/everyday while the old-established truths of patriotism and cultural conservatism today are branded as extremism.”
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Candidly, his complaints against liberal churches sound like the screeds one sees on the website of the far right's so-called Institute for Religion and Democracy. This highlight from the New York Times is also note worthy:
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Thomas Hegghammer, a terrorism specialist at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment, said the manifesto bears an eerie resemblance to those of Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders, though from a Christian rather than a Muslim point of view. Like Mr. Breivik’s manuscript, the major Qaeda declarations have detailed accounts of the Crusades, a pronounced sense of historical grievance and calls for apocalyptic warfare to defeat the religious and cultural enemy.
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According to the police, Mr. Breivik first drew security services to central Oslo when he exploded a car bomb outside a 17-story government office building, killing at least seven people.
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Then he took a public ferry to Utoya Island, where he carried out a remarkably meticulous attack on Norway’s current and future political elite. Dressed as a police officer, he announced that he had come to check on the security of the young people who were attending a political summer camp there, many of them the children of members of the governing Labor Party.
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He gathered the campers together and for some 90 hellish minutes he coolly and methodically shot them, hunting down those who fled. At least 85 people, some as young as 16, were killed.
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Given the constant drumbeat of grievances against gays, liberals, Hispanics, blacks and Muslims being put out by so-called Christian "family values" groups and far right GOP aligned organizations, one can only wonder how many would be Breiviks are being cultivated here at home in the USA.

New Zealand Denies Exodus International Affiliate Non-Profit Status

Many countries allow charitable organizations some sort of non-profit status provided that they document that they offer educational and non-profit motivated benefits to society. Unfortunately, in the USA many of the far right Christianist organizations hide behind the smoke screen of such educational endeavors when in reality their stock in trade is hate and prejudice - not to mention interference with the civil rights of other citizens. Worse yet, they peddle bogus science and in reality serve as PR arms for theocrats who want to subvert the U.S. Constitution - particularly the constitutional ban on an established religion. Part of this cesspool of faux charities is Exodus International - the largest purveyor of the "ex-gay" myth - myth used repeatedly by Christianists in opposing full civil legal equality for LGBT citizens. It seems that in New Zealand some people are waking up to Exodus' foul agenda and Exodus Ministries Trust Board's application for non-profit status was not renewed. Indeed, the conclusion was that the organization was "not performing any public benefit, because being gay is not a mental disorder and does not need curing." Would that the IRS would exercise such forthright thinking. Here are some highlights from GayNZ.com:
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The Charities Commission says the Exodus Ministries Trust Board is not performing any public benefit, because being gay is not a mental disorder and does not need curing.
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The trust is affiliated with the United States-based Exodus Global Alliance, which promises "freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ". It has had charitable status for more than a decade, but that status has now been removed by the Charities Commission under a regime introduced in 2007.
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The trust claimed it had a legitimate point of view and provided support to homosexuals during "very difficult times". It said a comparison could be made with Rainbow Youth having charitable status, "clearly an education provided by Rainbow Youth Inc. would be from a preconceived point of view, ie that homosexuality and other forms of sexuality are perfectly normal for some people."
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The Charities Commission disagreed.
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The full Commission decision can be found here. Among other things the Commission noted that the American Psychological Association found reparative therapy to be unethical and that all major mental health associations held that such "ex-gay" therapies were not effective and, indeed, could be harmful. I have long advocated that regulatory boards in the states need to crack down on "ex-gay" ministries and, better yet, yank the licenses of therapists who engage in such programs. Maybe New Zealand's example will be the beginning of a trend. Of course, that would mean that Alan Chambers and other ex-gays for pay might need to find legitimate employment.

Health Care Bill Lawsuits - Including Virginia's - Are Going Nowhere

I posted earlier about the dubious basis for the law suits filed by mostly Republican Attorney Generals - including Cooch, Virginia's top Kool-Aid drinker - challenging the passage of federal legislation providing for health care reform (BTW, faux moderate Bob McDonnell has endorsed Cuccinelli's lunacy). CNN has a new column that looks further at this waste of time and money. On the local front, the Cooch's crazy jihad may yet bit him in his homophobic ass. It seems that the Democratic Party of Virginia has filed Freedom of Information Act requests that will hopefully expose to the light of day the fact that Cuccinelli is acting on behalf of the far right GOP fringe and that state funds and resources are being needlessly wasted. First some highlights from CNN on the bogus nature of the lawsuits:
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A state attorney general is almost by definition a candidate for higher office. The filing of lawsuits challenging the health reform law by 14 attorneys general -- all but one of them Republican -- may look good for their next campaigns, but these cases are going nowhere legally.
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The case filed by Florida and 12 other states challenges obligations allegedly imposed on the states by the statute as well as the individual insurance purchase mandate imposed by the law. The Virginia case challenges only the individual mandate, setting up against it a new Virginia law purporting to nullify it. One of the states' claims is based on a simple misreading of the health reform law.
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The lawsuit claims that it compels the states to enforce the federal law or to operate exchanges that would make health insurance available to consumers. Section 1321 gives states the choice of doing so or not, and if states elect not to do so, the federal government will enforce the law and operate the exchange in the state.
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The Supreme Court has long upheld spending clause programs that require states that accept federal program funds to comply with federal program requirements, and this law simply follows those precedents.
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The challenge to the individual insurance mandate is simply not legally credible. First, it is not clear whether the federal courts even have jurisdiction to hear the claim. Under Article III of the Constitution, courts may not decide hypothetical questions but rather only actual cases and controversies. The states are in no way injured by the mandate that individuals purchase health insurance, and thus should not be able to challenge it.
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But the mandate is clearly constitutional. The mandate requires people who have household incomes above the tax filing limit ($18,700 for joint filers) and who are not covered by their employer or a public program to buy health insurance. Those who earn less than 400 percent of the poverty level will get tax credits to help pay for it. People who are subject to the mandate but choose to remain uninsured will have to pay a tax, which will increase with their income up to the cost of a high-deductible insurance policy.
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I am from Virginia. Like most states, we are in terrible shape financially, lacking money for schools, roads or health care. We cannot afford bankrolling frivolous lawsuits.
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As for what Cuccinelli's teabagger jihad may bring back to bite him in the ass, the Richmond Times Dispatch has a story. These are highlights:
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State Democrats today blasted Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s lawsuit against the federal government over health-care reform as a “right-wing” pursuit “doomed to fail,“ and said they filed a Freedom of Information Act request to find out how much money is being spent on the action.
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And when the issue of state’s rights arose, so did this state’s scarred racial past.
Asked by a reporter about any parallels between Virginia’s opposition to desegregation decades ago and its current fight against health care reform, Del. Jennifer L. McClellan, D-Richmond, said “absolutely.“
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McEachin predicted that the state will lose the lawsuit. The state Democratic Party, in their FOIA request, asked for the following: —records of Cuccinelli and the attorney general’s office staff in preparing the suit;
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—records of costs to taxpayers of staff work on the lawsuit;
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—a list of conference calls or written correspondence that the attorney general’s office had with other states’ attorneys general or any national conservative groups in planning the lawsuit;
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—the names of any outside firms contracted to assist on the lawsuit;
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—and the attorney general’s full schedule since taking office.
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Obviously, it will be interesting to see (1) how much money is being wasted and (2) who Cuccinelli has been meeting with. Somehow, I suspect his meeting has involved ultra far right teabaggers and purported conservative Christian organizations.

More Evidence of American Influence Behind Anti-Gay Actions in Uganda

Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, revealed in a radio interview yesterday that The Family, an infamous and influential cadre of religious fundamentalist politicians in Washington D.C., has been funding and influencing many of the major proponents of Uganda’s anti-homosexuality bill. Sharlet was able to trace direct funding from The Family to MP David Bahati as well as find ties between The Family and Nsaba Butoro and even Museveni. In my view, it is critical that more Americans come to recognize the insidious nature of these theocratic politicians and vote them out of office. The Independent has some portions of an interview of interview with Fresh Air’s Terry Gross, in which Sharlet explains the connections between The Family and Uganda and the anti-homosexuality bill. Here are some highlights:

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Mr. SHARLET: Well, the legislator that introduced the bill, a guy named David Bahati, is a member of The Family. He appears to be a core member of The Family. He works, he organizes their Ugandan National Prayer Breakfast and oversees a African sort of student leadership program designed to create future leaders for Africa, into which The Family has poured millions of dollars working through a very convoluted chain of linkages passing the money over to Uganda.
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GROSS: What's the relationship of Museveni and The Family now?
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Mr. SHARLET: It's a very close relationship. He is the key man. Now...
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GROSS: So what does that mean? What influence does The Family have on him?

Mr. SHARLET: It means that they have a deep relationship of what they'll call spiritual counsel, but you're going to talk about moral issues. You're going to talk about political issues. Your relationships are going to be organized through these associates. So Museveni can go to Senator Brownback and seek military aid. Inhofe, as he describes, Inhofe says that he cares about Africa more than any other senator. . . . As we give foreign aid to Uganda, these are the people who are in a position to steer that money. And as Museveni comes over, and as he does and spends time at The Family's headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, a place called The Cedars, and sits down for counsel with Doug Coe, that's where those relationships occur.
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Mr. SHARLET: Well, they began with the issue of economics. I mean, they began as a union-busting organization. That was their first and strongest mission, and for a long time they saw their two goals as economic and in foreign affairs. Something - economically what they, the core members, came to call biblical capitalism, the idea that capitalism is ordained by the Bible in a very sort of deregulated, laissez-faire, privatized market; and foreign affairs, a kind of expansionist view of what might be called a soft empire for America.
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And, as you expand outwards over the last couple decades, and you look at the concerns of politicians like Senator Sam Brownback, Senator Jim Inhofe, Senator Tom Coburn, all these guys who are very involved members -you see homosexuality, you see all the culture-war issues taking a place alongside biblical capitalism and this foreign affairs expansionism, and, in fact, merging in The Family's view into one sort of united world view.
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GROSS: Before we get to the Stupak-Pitts Amendment and its connection to The Family, can you just do a roll call of some of the prominent senators and congressmen who are affiliated with The Family?
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Mr. SHARLET: Yeah. Well, when I first lived with the group, one of the first guys I met was Senator John Ensign, who was then living in a house The Family maintains on Capitol Hill. Senator Sam Brownback spoke with me extensively about his involvement. Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma boasts of traveling around the world, doing The Family's political business. Senator Tom Coburn has done the same thing. Senator Chuck Grassley has been very involved in African affairs on behalf of The Family. Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming is a part of it.
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Mr. SHARLET: Well, the new [Uganda] legislation adds to this something called aggravated homosexuality. And this can include, for instance, if a gay man has sex with another man who is disabled, that's aggravated homosexuality, and that man can be - I suppose both, actually, could be put to death for this. The use of any drugs or any intoxicants in seeking gay sex - in other words, you go to a bar and you buy a guy a drink, you're subject to the death penalty if you go home and sleep together after that. What it also does is it extends this outward, so that if you know a gay person and you don't report it, that could mean - you don't report your son or daughter, you can go to prison.
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And it goes further, to say that any kind of promotion of these ideas of homosexuality, including by foreigners, can result in prison terms. Talking about same sex-marriage positively can lead you to imprisonment for life. And it's really kind of a perfect case study in the export of a lot of American, largely evangelical ideas about homosexuality exported to Uganda, which then takes them to their logical end.

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In other interviews with Christian right publications, he [Senator Coburn] said, I use my role as a U.S. senator to open the doors to power. In other words, he presents himself as representing the United States. He also, frankly, is flying into these countries on military transport, and he is this powerful U.S. senator.
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GROSS: What's your concern here? If members of Congress or senators are traveling, funded by The Family, to go abroad and promote issues of concern to The Family, is there anything wrong with that?
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Mr. SHARLET: Yeah. There's something wrong with it. A lot of that kind of travel is illegal under the 2007 Open Government Act, which was passed in response to the Abramoff scandal, especially when you look at some of these trips that would be sponsored by one nonprofit entity under The Family's umbrella, but taken at the behest of another organization like Christian Embassy, another sort of Christian right ministry in Washington for elites.
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Personally, I find all of this VERY frightening. The so-called Family needs to be stopped and its export of hate and bigotry brought to an end. If you are interested knowing more about The Family, their ideology and their foreign policy influence around the globe read the full transcript from the Fresh Air interview.

Top Religious Right Distortion Techniques and Lies About Gays

I have followed a number of Christianist organizations for nearly a decade and it is amazing how they (1) lie without the slightest remorse and act as if the Commandment against lying and bearing false witness doesn't exist, and (2) repeatedly recycle the same old lies and bogus "research" in their jihad to malign LGBT citizens and depict us as diseased. Alvin McEwen Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters has put together a great compilation of some of the most used lies by those who proclaim themselves to be "godly Christians" in their never ending effort to disseminate hate and untruths. Here is a sampling of some of my favorites (please read the entire piece):

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Top six religious right distortion techniques used to defame the lgbt community

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1. Using nonrepresentative or out-of-date studies to make generalizations, or distorting legitimate studies to give misleading conclusions.
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2. Repetition - Despite the fact that several physicians and researchers complain about the distortion of their work, corrections are usually not made. In fact, you can still find the work of the six Canadian researchers, Judith Stacey, Joanne Hall, Patrick Letellier, as well as many others being distorted on various religious right webpages.

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3. Conspiracy Theory - Claiming that gays and lesbians are consistently plotting to "erode traditional values"
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4. Dire Consequences - Claiming that a pro-gay law or ordinance will lead to negative consequences without proof that the consequences will take place.

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5. Phony Experts - Creating their own "experts" on the lgbt community. One such "expert" is Linda Harvey of Mission America. According to her bio, she is a former ad executive who became a born again Christian. Another phony expert is Glenn T. Stanton of Focus on the Family. He is considered an "expert" on the subject of homosexuality but has a master’s degree in interdisciplinary humanities with an emphasis in philosophy, history and religion.

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6. Dehumanizing Semantics - Consistently using language (i.e. demonstrative verbs and adjectives) in their talking points, sound bites, and press releases to make gays and lesbians seem like impersonal, threatening outsiders.

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In addition, Alvin lists 17 top lies used by the Christianists, all of which can be readily refuted by legitimate data. Unfortunately, these "professional Christians" prey in particular upon the ignorant and uneducated - always asking for a monetary donation in the process or on their websites. They are false Christians and parasites. And yes, that includes James Dobson and his Virginia minion, Victoria Cobb.

New Coven of Christianists

As several bloggers have noted, a number of the leading anti-democracy, Christian Right organizations that seek political and worldly power rather than honestly preaching the Gospel message have joined together to form the inappropriately named the "Freedom Federation." This group, which the Washington Post as describes as a direct descendant of the Moral Majority, the Christian Coalition and Values Voters, includes all of the leading gay-hating demagogues and seems to represent an attempt on the part of these Uber-Christians to regain lost political power now that the GOP is imploding - largely because it embraced these very enemies of religious freedom and knowledge. Without a doubt LGBT Americans will remain one of their favorite targets as they try to eek out more donations in these challenging economic times. Here are highlights from the Post story:

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Founders say the new group will have a broader membership and a kinder, gentler, more nonpartisan approach than its ancestors. "The stereotypical media-exacerbated image of the angry white evangelical will be replaced by an evangelical movement that will reconcile uncompromised values of compassion, truth with mercy, and righteousness with justice," Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, told reporters last week. We shall see.

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But what's most interesting about the Freedom Federation isn't who's participating. It's the conspicuous absence of evangelical America's three most influential organizations -- Focus on the Family, the National Association of Evangelicals, and Rick Warren's Saddleback Church network, . . .

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The Freedom Federation seems to be making an effort to broaden its white, evangelical Protestant base by adding the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and Catholic Online to the mix. But the roster is filled with such culture war veterans as the American Family Association (Donald Wildmon), Eagle Forum (Phyllis Schlafly), the Family Research Council (Tony Perkins) and the Traditional Values Coalition (Lou Sheldon). (EDITOR'S NOTE: TVC has been identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center).

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[The] core shared values, found in the new group's Declaration of American Values, reads more like the Republican Party platform than the Sermon on the Mount. For example, it calls on Christians to oppose progressive tax systems and "to encourage economic opportunity, free enterprise, and free market competition." It also includes opposition to abortion and homosexuality (emphasis on gay marriage) and support for the Second Amendment, the Ten Commandments ("the freedom to acknowledge God through our public institutions") and the U.S. military. The new grouping also seems to oppose health care reform and hate crime penalties.

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In my opinion, the Freedom Federation is merely an effort to put lipstick on a pig. Hopefully, more and more Americans are waking up to the toxicity of the Christianists and their goal of imposing their poisonous version of Christianity on all - much like the Islamic extremists currently cracking down on the reform minded opposition.

Christianists: Homosexuality and Interracial Dating Pose Health Risks

Based on years of monitoring Christianist organization websites, I have often maintained that the Christiansts are no only homophobes but also racists. Whenever possible they distort research on gays and depict us as a disease ridden form of vermin. In addition, they regular disseminate an anti-minority and anti-immigrant mantra. Now, interestingly enough a video has popped up on You Tube that parallels the same disingenuous story line used against gays as it proclaims that interracial dating poses significant health risks.

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First, here is a sample of Pete LaBarbera's standard sliming of gays as diseased and a public health risk via Pam's Blend:

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“Barack Obama’s homosexual agenda is beginning to take shape – but he has no election mandate to impose GLSEN’s radical vision of celebrating homosexuality, bisexuality and gender confusion (transsexuality) in U.S. schools,” LaBarbera said. “Anti-religious bigots should not be setting policy for schools — and promoting dangerous sex and gender identities to youth is the antithesis of ‘safety.’ (Men who have sex with other men (MSM) suffer from much higher rates of sexual diseases – including anal cancer, HIV, syphilis, and gonorrhea — than non-MSMs.)

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Now watch this video that no doubt warms the hearts of white supremacists and many of the lily white Christianist organizations:
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Would that more people would connect the dots and realize that these people hate everyone who doesn't look just like them and hold their divisive beliefs.