Right Wing Christian Convicted in Isabella Miller-Jenkins Kidnapping

Kidnapping conspirator, Philip Zodhiates, a "godly Christian"

From time to time I have posted about the continuing saga of the Isabella Miller-Jenkins kidnapping in the wake of her mothers' split.  My interest in the story is three-fold (four fold if one considers the Virginia ties).  First, the custody struggle was one of the first time the always reactionary Virginia Supreme Court ruled for a LGBT petitioner. Second, the case highlights the bogus "pray away the gay" scams operated by "Christian ministries" out to fleece the desperate and/or gullible.  Lastly, it demonstrates the manner in which Christian extremists view themselves as above the civil laws.  Adding to the intrigue is the role that Liberty University and Matt Staver, head of the hysterically anti-gay Liberty Counsel, seem to have played in aiding and abetting lawbreakers.  ABC News has details on the criminal conviction of one of the co-conspirators in the kidnapping of Isabella Miller-Jenkins.  Here are highlights:

A federal jury in Buffalo returned the verdict against Philip Zodhiates, of Waynesboro, on Thursday after hearing during a week long trial how he had driven Lisa Miller and 7-year-old Isabella Miller-Jenkins from Virginia to the Canadian border in 2009 so they could fly from Toronto to Nicaragua, and had helped with their living arrangements in the Central American nation.

Neither Miller nor Isabella, now 14, have been seen in the United States since.

Lawyers for Zodhiates, the owner of a direct mail business that serves conservative Christian groups, denied that he was trying to obstruct the other mother's parental rights by helping Miller, who became an evangelical Christian after dissolving her civil union with Janet Jenkins in Vermont.

Miller, who gave birth to Isabella during the civil union, defied court orders granting Jenkins visitation and left the country shortly before a court shifted custody to Jenkins, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Van de Graaf said.

Miller also is charged with international parental kidnapping and conspiracy and is considered a fugitive.

A third defendant, Timothy Miller, recently was arrested after being deported by Nicaragua, U.S. Attorney William Hochul's office said Thursday.

A fourth defendant, Kenneth Miller, a Mennonite pastor, was convicted of international parental kidnapping in Vermont in 2012.

None of the Millers are related.  Kenneth Miller, of Stuarts Draft, Virginia, is serving a 27-month prison sentence.

 Zodhiates faces up to eight years in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 30.

In my view, it is unfortunate that criminal charges were not brought against Matt Staver, a thoroughly vie individual and modern day Pharisee, in my opinion. 

Civil Rights Groups Call on GOP to Denounce Hate Group Summit

click image to enlarge

The GOP war on gays, women, contraception, non-whites, and religious freedom for all Americans continues unabated even though long term the hate and bigotry that these policies embody are increasingly disavowed by America's changing population.  Picking up on this reality, a group of civil rights and leading LGBT rights organizations have run a full page ad (see the ad above) in the Washington Post calling on the GOP to denounce the upcoming gathering of hate merchants sponsored by Family Research Council, a designated hate group, that disingenuously goes by the name "Values Voter Summit."   The reality is that this summit will be little more than a gathering of white supremacists, religious extremists, homophobes and those who seek to have women subordinated to men.  Here are excerpts from the add:

Dear Mr. Priebus, Fifteen years ago, your predecessor called for party members to shun the Council of Conservative Citizens because of the group’s “racist views.” “A member of the party of Lincoln should not belong to such an organization,” GOP Chairman Jim Nicholson said. His comments had their intended effect: Senior members of Congress distanced themselves from the group. Today, Chairman Priebus, we ask that you take a similar stand and call upon Republican officials to disassociate themselves from the groups behind the upcoming Values Voter Summit.

The reason is simple: These groups engage in repeated, groundless demonization of LGBT people — portraying them as sick, vile, incestuous, violent, perverted, and a danger to the nation. The Family Research Council, the summit’s host, is vigorously opposed to extending equal rights to the LGBT community. Its president, Tony Perkins, has repeatedly claimed that pedophilia is a “homosexual problem." He has called the “It Gets Better” campaign — designed to give LGBT students hope for a better tomorrow — “disgusting” and a “concerted effort” to “recruit” children into the gay “lifestyle.”

Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association, a summit sponsor, has said the U.S. needs to “be more like Russia,” which enacted a law criminalizing the distribution of LGBT “propaganda.” He has also said, "Homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler, and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine, and six million dead Jews.” Similarly, Mat Staver of the Liberty Counsel, another summit sponsor, has compared those who do not denounce same-sex marriage to those who remained silent during the Holocaust.

This kind of extremism should not be legitimized by elected officials, because it is contrary to our nation’s highest ideals. . . .  Yet, as in years past, several prominent members of your party — including U.S. Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal — are currently planning to address the Values Voter Summit that begins on Thursday in Washington. So, the question now is: Will you live up to your own words and tell the members of your party to shun groups that demean other people and deny them dignity?

Will the GOP listen?  I'm not holding my breath.  The GOP has become an ugly sectarian party and rank and file Republicans have prostituted themselves to the Christofascist to such an extent that tawdry whores look virtuous in comparison.

Far Right Republicans Want Party to be More Anti-Gay and Anti-Women

With polls and recent elections showing that younger voters and women are fleeing the GOP - as are sane and rational people of all ages - the GOP needs to change its approach.  Yet among the Kool-Aid drinking set, they still believe that the problems is that the GOP isn't sufficiently anti-gay and anti-woman.  It's but one of many examples of the bizarre alternate universe that these people inhabit and, for Democrats, it is part and parcel with the GOP's long term suicide trajectory.  Right Wing Watch looks at the insanity.  Here are excerpts:

The American Principles Project, the Religious Right group that helped torpedo Mary Cheney’s short-lived Senate bid in Wyoming, claims that Republicans can win young and women voters if they campaigned more aggressively on their party platform’s ultraconservative positions on abortion rights and LGBT equality.

The organization issued a report [PDF] last fall which criticizes Republican candidates like Mitt Romney for trying to play down or moderate the GOP’s stances on such social issues. APP’s Maggie Gallagher -- formerly of the National Organization for Marriage -- even chided the far-right Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli for not being conservative enough.

In an interview today with OneNewsNow, an affiliate of the American Family Association, APP spokeswoman Kate Bryan claims that the GOP’s opposition to choice and gay rights will actually help the party win over women and young voters.

Bryan may want to check out the 2012 election exit poll, which found that 59 percent of voters supported legal abortion, or the many studies that report support for marriage equality reaching record highs.

Adding to the batshitery are people like KKK loving Tony Perkins of Family Research Council (who authored the GOP 2012 party platform on "social issues") who is running around claiming that advances in gay rights will lead to the end of humanity.  Right Wing Watch has these highlights:

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins told Washington Watch listeners last Friday that they should oppose gay equality because it will lead to the end of humanity.

Perkins agreed with a caller who said that gay people should be asked how they could exist “if it were not for physical relationship, intimacy between a man and a woman,” a point which followed a long rant about how President Obama is a Muslim under the influence of the Devil.  The FRC head responded that “the human race would be extinct within time if [homosexuality was] normal.”

Perkins has previously warned that government “promotion of same-sex relations” is part of a “push for population control.” Last month, Liberty Counsel head Mat Staver claimed that if gays and lesbians were allowed to legally marry then “everyone” might start “to go towards same-sex marriage” and society would “simply cease to exist.”

Perkins and Staver obviously continue to base their anti-gay propaganda on a model that would have made Adolph Hitler and Joseph Goebbels proud.    These people belong in a mental ward.

 

Liberty University Law Dean: Marriage Equality Will Turn Everyone Gay

I swear, I truly wonder at times what kind of mental illness afflicts the far right Christian crowd.  At times, their insanity defies belief.  A case in point" Matt Staver, a homophobe extraordinaire who is the dean of Liberty University's law school which is both a blight on Virginia and the legal profession.  Staver as some readers may recall may have been involved - although he claims ignorance - in the international kidnapping scheme that centered on Lisa Miller who claimed she had become "ex-gay." Before her flight to Central America, Miller had found aid and comfort in Lynchburg, Virginia from folks at Liberty University and the late Jerry Falwell's Thomas Street Baptist Church.  Staver's latest batshitery involves his claims that marriage equality may turn everyone gay.  He also resorts to the lie of depicting gays as disease ridden and would be pedophiles.  Meanwhile, of course, it is heterosexual males like Staver who are the most likely pedophiles.   Right Wing Watch looks at Staver's insanity.  Here are highlights:

Liberty Counsel head Mat Staver is warning that with full marriage equality, everyone may decide to marry someone of the same sex and society could “cease to exist” altogether. While speaking to Vic Eliason of VCY America last week, Staver said that if gay marriage becomes legal nationwide then the country could become a childless, disease-ridden dystopia.

If you ultimately promoted same-sex marriage and everyone started to go towards same-sex marriage, what would happen to society? It would just simply cease to exist. Moreover, you’d have rampant increase in diseases. Already, you have rampant increase in diseases among same-sex activities, specifically men having sex with men. Same-sex marriage, same-sex relationships is destructive to individuals and it’s destructive to our very social fabric.

He later claimed that the expansion of gay rights is encouraging pedophilia and that the media “promotes” bestiality by making sex with animals seem like “a funny thing.” “That’s how this whole homosexuality began to happen on TV,” Staver said.

Staver went on to praise India’s Supreme Court for recriminalizing homosexuality and Russian president Vladimir Putin for “defending traditional marriage and criticizing President Obama.”

Of course, Staver is being dishonest: Obama actually canceled a September summit with Putin over the Edward Snowden asylum controversy. Further, Putin isn’t facing criticism because he “believes in marriage as one man and one woman,” but because his government is leading a crackdown on Russia’s gay community and rolling back the free speech rights. 

Staver clearly ranks among those for whom the safest assumption should always be that if his lips are moving, he's lying.   It's frightening that Staver isn't in an asylum much less that he's the dean of a supposed law school.  One has to wonder when Liberty University will open a "medical school" granting degrees in witch doctor cures and remedies.

Liberty Counsel head Mat Staver is warning that with full marriage equality, everyone may decide to marry someone of the same sex and society could “cease to exist” altogether. While speaking to Vic Eliason of VCY America last week, Staver said that if gay marriage becomes legal nationwide then the country could become a childless, disease-ridden dystopia - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/staver-fears-everyone-will-go-gay-under-marriage-equality#sthash.Fl0ZItQT.dpuf

Ex-Gay Awareness Event Demonstrates Few Ex-Gays Actually Exist

One of the big lies that has been funded by Christofascist organizations and marketed by charlatans like Michele Bachmann's husband "Marcia" is what I call the "ex-gay myth."   In their battle to deprive gays  equality under the civil laws and deny us marriage in particular, the Christofascist have struggled to convince the public and legislators in particular that sexual orientation is a choice and that this damaged condition can be changed through prayer and voodoo like therapy.   Thankfully, more and more of the public has seen through the lie as shown by the growing number of people who believe one's sexual orientation is something you are born with - i.e., the same position held by legitimate medical and mental health experts.  Yet the Christofascists and their "ex-gays for pay" continue to try to convince the world that there are "hundreds of thousands of former homosexuals" despite their invisibility outside of paid positions in ex-gay "ministries" and snake oil merchants seeking to make a buck at the expense of religiously tormented gays and their families.  To try to further market their lie, "ex-gay" marketers held an "Ex Gay Awareness" event in Washington, D.C.  Only 15 "ex-gays" showed up and at the gala dinner, a total of 60 folks attended, most with ties to marketing the ex-gay myth.  Think Progress looks at the debacle.  Here are highlights:

Tuesday night, the ex-gay group Voice of the Voiceless finally held its Ex-Gay Awareness dinner, having been delayed from July because of supposed “security threats.” Ironically, it accomplished the opposite of its supposed awareness-raising goals.

Earlier in the day, all of 15 ex-gay activists went to Capitol Hill to lobby on behalf of ex-gay therapy and its profiteers and victims. It’s unclear who they were able to talk to on the first day of the federal government’s shutdown, and the measly turn-out mirrored the dismal turnout at July’s “ex-gay pride” press conference.

The dinner, which was held at an undisclosed location, was supposedly attended by some 60 people, though it’s unclear who any of them are. The only people who spoke were either people who are not ex-gay, like the Liberty Counsel’s Matt Barber and Bishop Harry Jackson, or those who profit from their ex-gay identities and are already established pundits on the topic, like Voice of the Voiceless founder Christopher Doyle and PFOX president Greg Quinlan. The event was closed to the press — and to anyone who doesn’t support ex-gay therapy — so only the Christian Post and WORLD Magazine articles shed any light on what was said.

According to Doyle, ex-gays “need to scream and yell for equality and justice for all.” Indeed, it seemed many of the speakers highlighted the need to be visible — at an event designed to not be visible. It’s unclear what its organizers hoped to accomplish by hiding in the dark. If anything, they proved that ex-gay therapy is based on shame, that there are very few success stories, and that only those who profit from the harmful, ineffective treatment are willing to be visibly associated with it.

But for the harm and misery these frauds cause, they'd be laughable.  As for the "ex-gays for pay" themselves, tawdry whores have more virtue and decency.

Christofascists File Suit to Block New Jersey Ban on "Ex-Gay" Therapy

As promised, the theocrats and Christofascists at Liberty Counsel - which is affiliated with Liberty University, another huge blight on Virginia's image - have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block New Jersey's newly enacted ban on subjecting minors to fraudulent witch doctor like "ex-gay" therapy.  As noted before, maintaining the myth that gays can change their sexual orientation is a crucial part of the Christofascists' effort to block gay rights and anti-discrimination protections.  Never mind that every legitimate medical and mental health association in America condemns the therapy.  And never mind that there is a long history of courts and statutes protecting minors form abuse and/or dangerous religious based practices.  Would that courts would begin imposing sanctions on Liberty Counsel and Matt Staver (pictured above) for the frivolous cases that are routinely filed.  The Washington Blade looks at the lawsuit.  Here are details:

Liberty Counsel filed the 46-page complaint before the U.S. District Court of New Jersey against Christie, who signed a law on Monday barring sexual orientation conversation therapy for minors within his state, as well as other state officials.

The lawsuit alleges the law violates freedoms of speech and religion under the U.S. and New Jersey Constitutions. Additionally, the lawsuit contends the law violates parental rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

The group filed the lawsuit on behalf of two Christian counselors who practice sexual orientation conversion therapy and two fringe psychological groups that have endorsed it: the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, or NARTH, and the American Association of Christian Counselors.

“This law went into full effect immediately, upon being signed by Governor Christie on August 19, 2013, and thus time is of the essence to obtain judicial relief because plaintiffs, their clients, and the members of the plaintiff associations are currently suffering immediate and irreparable injury to their most cherished constitutional liberties,” the filing states.

Mat Staver, founder and chair of Liberty Counsel, said in a statement on the day the lawsuit was filed that the law is “a tyrannical overreach of government authority.”

“With this law, parents may face Child Protective Services investigating their home and even law enforcement taking their children if they seek change therapy,” he said said.

“Ex-gay” conversion is widely discredited and refuted by major mainstream psychological groups, such as American Psychological Association. In June, the largest ex-gay group, Exodus International, closed its doors after its executive director Alan Chambers issued an apology acknowledging “the pain and hurt others have experienced” through failed attempts at conversion therapy.
Still, plaintiffs in the lawsuit contend its effective.

One of the plaintiff counselors, Tara King, . . . . holds a Masters Degree in Christian counseling from Liberty University . . .

The other plaintiff counselor in the lawsuit is Ronald Newman, a licensed psychiatrist who obtained advanced degrees in psychology from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, which has spoken out about “ex-gay” therapy and its dangers, criticized the lawsuit as a waste of time for the judicial system.

“The Liberty Counsel has filed a frivolous lawsuit that confuses religious liberty with license to abuse LGBT youth,” Besen said. “The claim is without merit, relies on perpetuating junk science, and is in defense of a fraudulent product. With evidence and facts on our side, the Liberty Counsel is wasting time and money — similar to the clients of ex-gay therapists.”

Wayne - who I have worked with for a decade to expose ex-gay frauds like ex-gay poster boy Michael Johnston and JONAH founder and former NARTH board member Arthur Goldberg as an ex felon - sums it up well.  And yes, parents should be subjected to child protective services investigations if they place their children in "ex-gay" programs. 

Chris Christie Signs Ban on "Ex-Gay" Therapy; Christofascists Go Berserk

As noted frequently on this blog, the "ex-gay" myth is critical to the Christofascists' efforts to block gay rights in general and gay marriage in particular because if sexual orientation is immutable and not changeable, then their argument that being gay is a "choice" collapses and their flimsy legal arguments evaporate.  Thankfully, legitimate medical and mental health professionals recognize that the claims of "ex-gay" ministries is to put it politely, bullshit at best and more likely down right harmful.  Now, New Jersey has joined California in banning licensed therapist in that state from subjecting minors to their bogus, witch doctor like therapy regimes.  It goes without saying that the hate merchants and charlatans who promote these programs are beside themselves and the crackpots at Liberty Counsel have vowed to sue New Jersey.  First, these highlights from CNN on Chris Christie's signing the bill banning the practice into law:

New Jersey will become the second state to forbid gay conversion therapy for minors when Gov. Chris Christie signs legislation into law Monday banning the highly controversial practice, CNN has learned.

Gay conversion therapy is an effort championed by people who believe that you can change a person’s sexual orientation through counseling. The American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association and American Psychological Association are just a handful of professional organizations that oppose this practice, saying it is harmful.

New Jersey’s decision to outlaw gay conversion therapy will not only be looked upon as another major step in gay rights, but it will also be viewed through the prism of the 2016 race for the White House.

In explaining his decision to ban gay conversion therapy for minors, Christie is expected to emphasize that while he is wary of the “government limiting parental choice on the care and treatment of their own children,” on this particular issue he sided with the experts. The New Jersey senate passed the legislation in late July, but as with any legislation, it ultimately requires Christie’s final approval.

“The American Psychological Association has found that efforts to change sexual orientations can pose critical health risks including, but not limited to, depression, substance abuse, social withdrawal, decreased self-esteem and suicidal thoughts,” Christie will say in his signing statement, according to an advanced copy provided to CNN. “I believe that exposing children to these health risks without clear evidence of benefits that outweigh these serious risks is not appropriate.”

A Catholic, Christie in the past has stated his opposition to gay conversion therapy and in a June 2011 interview on CNN said he did not think homosexuality is a sin.

“Well, my religion says it's a sin,” Christie said on ‘Piers Morgan Tonight.’ “But for me, I don't. I've always believed that people are born with the predisposition to be homosexual. And so, I think if someone is born that way, it's very difficult to say then that that's a sin. But I understand that my church says that. But for me personally, I don' t look upon someone who is homosexual as a sinner.”

Yep, the spittle must be flying by the bucketful at the offices of the usual hate groups and at the Vatican.  Kudos to Chris Christie.  As noted, the sociopaths at Liberty Counsel - an ongoing blight on the Commonwealth of Virginia -  are big time unhappy and have announced via press release that they are ready to file a lawsuit against the state on New Jersey.  Here is some of the spittle flect drivel from the press release:

If the bill goes into effect, Liberty Counsel will immediately file suit.  . . . A3371 prohibits only one viewpoint regarding change counseling and, therefore, constitutes viewpoint discrimination. No viewpoint-based restriction on private speech has ever been upheld. The Supreme Court ruled that “the First Amendment forbids the government to regulate speech in ways that favor some viewpoints or ideas at the expense of others.”

This bill is so broad that parents would be prohibited from seeking help for their son who developed unwanted same-sex attractions after being molested by the likes of Jerry Sandusky. This law would inflict serious damage to children, parents, and counselors,” said Staver.

The Governor should reject this transparently unconstitutional law. It tramples the fundamental rights of counselors and clients, and it destroys the ability of patients to seek, and counselors to provide, counseling in accordance with their sincere desires and religious beliefs. It also runs roughshod over the fundamental rights of parents.

Memo to Staver: the courts and states regularly override parental religious based decisions which would subject their children to unsafe practices or deprive them of necessary medical care.  This bill does precisely the same thing: it protects minors for  religious based idiocy and extremism that could cause them severe harm.  If anyone is a threat to minors it is Staver and his fellow Christofascists who continue to embrace Bronze Age beliefs that have be refuted by legitimate science.  Inflicting "ex-gay" therapy on minors is nothing less than a form of child abuse.   It should be illegal nationwide.