Liberty University’s "Culture of Fear"

Evangelical Christians - and far right Catholics - talk about "Christian love" and a supposedly loving god, yet the entire premise of their faith construct is one based on fear: fear of eternal damnation and fear of ostracism if one does not conform to medieval dogma.  Knowledge, science and freedom of thought are evil and to be rejected.  And as for loving others, it's the opposite of what one sees in reality where hatred of others is the most defining attribute of "conservative Christians."  In Virginia, two of the leading purveyors of this toxic form of Christianity are CBN/Regent University based in Virginia Beach and Liberty University in Lynchburg. Of the two, perhaps the more toxic and bigger blight on Virginia is Liberty where the reality is the opposite of what the name suggests.  As a lengthy piece in the Washington Post lays out, a climate of fear and censorship reigns under the rule of Jerry Falwell, Jr., a Trump supporter embroiled with his own possible dirty linen involving a young pool boy. Read the entire piece.  Here are highlights which suggest Liberty is the last place one should consider sending their child:

In my first week as editor in chief of the Champion, Liberty University’s student-run weekly, our faculty adviser, Deborah Huff, ordered me to apologize. I’d noticed that our evangelical school’s police department didn’t publish its daily crime log online, as many other private university forces do, so I searched elsewhere for crime information I might use in an article. I called the Virginia Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators to find out what the law required Liberty to disclose. But the public affairs worker there told the Liberty University Police Department, which complained to Huff. She called to upbraid me: Apparently, I had endangered our newspaper’s relationship with the LUPD. Huff and Chief Richard Hinkley convened a meeting inside a police department conference room, and Huff sat next to me while I proffered the forced apology to Hinkley — for asking questions. Huff, too, was contrite, assuring the police chief that it wouldn’t happen again, because she’d keep a better eye on me.

This wasn’t exactly a rude awakening. I’d spent the previous three years watching the university administration, led by President Jerry Falwell Jr. (who took a very micromanaging interest), meddle in our coverage, revise controversial op-eds and protect its image by stripping damning facts from our stories. Still, I stuck around. I thought that if I wrote with discretion and kept my head down, I could one day win enough trust from the university to protect the integrity of our journalism.

Instead, when my team took over that fall of 2017, we encountered an “oversight” system — read: a censorship regime — that required us to send every story to Falwell’s assistant for review. Any administrator or professor who appeared in an article had editing authority over any part of the article; they added and deleted whatever they wanted. Falwell called our newsroom on multiple occasions to direct our coverage personally.

Eventually I quit, and the School of Communication decided not to replace me, turning the paper into a faculty-run, student-written organ and seizing complete control of its content. Student journalists must now sign a nondisclosure agreement that forbids them from talking publicly about “editorial or managerial direction, oversight decisions or information designated as privileged or confidential.” The form also states that the students understand they are “privileged” to receive “thoughts, opinions, and other statements” from university administrators.

It was one example of an infrastructure of thought-control that Falwell and his lieutenants have introduced into every aspect of Liberty University life. Faculty, staff and students on the Lynchburg, Va., campus have learned that it’s a sin to challenge the sacrosanct status of the school or its leaders, who mete out punishments for dissenting opinions (from stripping people of their positions to banning them from the school). This “culture of fear,” as it was described by several of the dozen Liberty denizens who talked to me for this story — most of them anonymously, to protect their jobs or their standing — worsened during my four years on campus because of the 2016 presidential election.

[T]he school’s methods became even more aggressive after Falwell endorsed Donald Trump early that year, according to multiple current and former faculty members. “The closer you get to the president’s office,” says former history professor Brian Melton, discussing a chilling effect on campus, “the worse it becomes.” Falwell’s staff now operates masterfully to squash challenges to his views and his rise in national political influence.

The dissent that did exist — from off-message campus speakers, insufficiently sycophantic board members, student activists and our newspaper staff — was ruthlessly neutralized. Liberty, founded on principles of fundamental Christianity, is now a place that has zero tolerance for new questions and ideas. Those who harbor them must remain silent, or leave.

One cause of perpetual insecurity at Liberty is the school’s militant refusal to award tenure to any faculty member (outside the law school, which must offer it for accreditation). Instructors are instead hired on year-to-year contracts; during the spring semester, they find out whether they will be coming back the next fall.

The result is constant, erratic faculty turnover. One recently fired teacher describes the spring as a cycle of stressed-out, fearful professors wandering into each other’s offices to ask if they had their contracts renewed yet. “If you’re a conservative Christian in the academic world, the chances of you getting a job are nil in many areas,” says Melton, who worked at Liberty as an associate professor for 15 years before resigning because of what he described as the school’s surveillance and fear tactics. “The administration knows that, and . . . they wield that very effectively, keeping people quiet.”

Late-notice faculty removals have also become more commonplace, according to Melton, stemming in part from Falwell’s stated desire to tame the teaching corps. . . . This June, a dozen faculty members at Liberty’s School of Divinity were notified that their contracts would not be renewed. By that late in the year, it is too late to find another job in higher education for the fall.

For former faculty members, Liberty’s culture of fear can live on. The school often requires terminated professors to sign a nondisclosure agreement if they want their severance packages, several told me — a practice that is extremely uncommon in higher education, according to Robert Bezemek, a California lawyer who represents labor unions at universities. (As Melton puts it, “They force this NDA on you by leveraging the ability to feed your family against you.”) Even former teachers who hadn’t signed NDAs told me they feared that talking to me on the record would somehow get them blacklisted from jobs elsewhere or imperil their friends who still work at Liberty.

Another onetime instructor declined to use his university-issued laptop because he thought Liberty had equipped it with spyware.

There is no evidence of Liberty firing a faculty member explicitly for his or her political beliefs, but everyone I spoke to believed that the school could easily manufacture some other pretense. “There is zero trust between the administration and faculty,” Melton says. FIRE, a nonprofit that fights for free speech on campus, put Liberty on its 2019 list of the 10 worst colleges for freedom of speech.

Things aren’t much better for the 15,000 students on campus. In 2009, Liberty withdrew funding and recognition for its College Democrats chapter because, as Mark Hine, the senior vice president of student affairs, put it, the national party defends abortion, opposed the Defense of Marriage Act, supported “the ‘LGBT’ agenda, hate crimes, which include sexual orientation and gender identity, socialism, etc.”

Student leaders have consistently helped administrators enforce the culture. After the Charlottesville rally in August 2017, members of Liberty’s Student Government Association drafted a statement expressing solidarity with Heather Heyer, the protester murdered by a neo-Nazi, and all people demonstrating against white nationalism. Then-SGA President Caleb Johnson refused to release the message and send it to university administrators for fear of what Falwell might think. . . . “There’s 100 percent an atmosphere of fear at Liberty,” says Caleb Fitzpatrick, who was then the student government’s speaker of the House and helped draft the statement. “There was a need to avoid being seen as a liberal or progressive, or even being different.”

Guests at the school who deviate from the prescribed philosophy can be targeted, too. . . . . The end finally came for the Champion when a left-leaning faith group, the Red Letter Christians, organized a “Lynchburg Revival” in April 2018 to protest Falwell’s support of Trump and what the group called “toxic evangelicalism.” Two days beforehand, Liberty’s police department notified RLC leader Shane Claiborne that he would be arrested if he set foot on campus.

I graduated last year. Since then, I’ve tried to put Liberty — and the stress and self-doubt that officials there saddled me with — behind me.

UVA Joins Colleges Agreeing to Disregard Suspensions for Participating in Anti-Gun Protests

In the wake of the horrific mass shooting on February 14, 2018, many high school students are planning to participate in anti-gun protests, especially on March 24, 2018 when nationwide protests are scheduled.  A number of school superintendents - typically in backward, GOP dominated/knuckle dragging areas of of America (the two generally go together) - have threatened to suspend students who miss school in order to participate in such protests.  In an effort to counter such efforts to stifle free speech and freedom of assembly, a number of prominent colleges and universities have announced that suspension arising from participation in anti-gun protests will not be counted against student applicants.  Among such universities I am proud to say is my alma mater, the University of Virginia which found itself invaded by non-Virginian Neo-Nazis last August.  Here are highlights from BuzzFeed:

In the Needville Independent School District just outside Houston, Texas, the superintendent reportedly sent out letters threatening three-day suspensions for any student who joins in on walkouts.

"Life is all about choices and every choice has a consequence whether it be positive or negative," Superintendent Curtis Rhodes said. "We will discipline no matter if it is 1, 50, or 500 students involved. All will be suspended for three days and parent notes will not alleviate the discipline."

The Spring Independent School District, also in the Houston area, and the Waukesha County School District in Wisconsin issued similar warnings. (The Waukesha superintendent later made another statement saying students could participate if they were excused from class by their parents.)

Now colleges are standing up for the teenage activists, saying it won't affect their admissions decisions if they get suspended for protesting. 

Here are just a few of the schools that have vowed not to penalize student protesters:

Yale UniversityMIT
Boston University
University of Virginia
Tulane University
Dartmouth College
George Washington University
UMass Amherst
Brown University
Northeastern University
University of Connecticut
Clark University
Smith College
UCLA
Brandeis University

For more schools that have made this pledge, growing lists are available here and here.

Noticeably missing from the lists of such universities are Christofascist institutions such as Regent University and the even more insane Liberty University whose degrees and graduates are frequently viewed with suspicion by those who graduated from legitimate colleges and universities. 

The University of Virginia Statement reads as follows:

Kudos to my alma mater!

Pat Robertson: People Who Oppose Trump Are Revolting Against God

Local embarrassment Pat Robertson is at it again and I again wonder why his children don't quietly lock him in an upstairs bedroom out of public view,.  In his latest bout of verbal diarrhea, Robertson has ranted that anyone opposing Der Trumpenführer is "revolting against God."  I'm sorry, but anything is revolting, it is Robertson and his flim flam operation that fleeces the ignorant and the gullible so that Robertson can live the good life.  Right Wing Watch captures Robertson's latest batshitery.  Here are excerpts:

Today on “The 700 Club,” Pat Robertson wondered if President Obama and other Democrats may have participated in a grand conspiracy to bring down President Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn, who resigned on Monday over his communications with Russia’s U.S. ambassador.

While Flynn and other White House officials said that the two did not talk about U.S. sanctions against Russia before Trump’s inauguration, such statements conflicted with “reports from U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies that routinely monitor the communications of Russian diplomats.”

Robertson, however, wrongly suggested that U.S. intelligence agencies were specifically monitoring Flynn, not the ambassador, and then warned of a larger plot involving Democrats, liberal government officials and members of the media that he believes could be working to take Flynn down and damage the Trump administration.

Referring to Psalm 2:2, “The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed,” Robertson said that those challenging Trump are really fighting against God:

I think, somehow, the Lord’s plan is being put in place for America and these people are not only revolting against Trump, they’re revolting against what God’s plan is for America. These other people have been trying to destroy America. These left-wingers and so-called progressives are trying to destroy the country that we love and take away the freedoms they love. They want collectivism. They want socialism. What we’re looking at is free markets and freedom from this terrible, overarching bureaucracy. They want to fight as much as they can but I think the good news is the Bible says, “He that sits in the heavens will laugh them to scorn,” and I think that Trump’s someone on his side that is a lot more powerful than the media.

I want Der Trumpenführer to be impeached or, better yet, convicted of treason and at a minimum jailed for the rest of his life, for many reasons.  But one of the most delicious side benefits would be the utter discrediting of Robertson and other modern day Pharisees  and their institutions - think Regent University - who have hooked their credibility (or at least what credibility they still have) to Der Trumpenführer. 

Pat Robertson: Satan Inspires Liberals To Lie About Donald Trump (And Him)

One of the downsides of living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia is that try as the region might to attract progressive businesses and stop the brain drain of college educated locals who graduate from  college and move to more progressive cities and regions (DC and Atlanta are big rivals as is New York City), we continue to have the foul presence of Pat Robertson and his right wing creations, Christian Broadcasting Network and Regent University, that make the area look like a lunatic backwater.  Now, true to form, Pat Robertson has shot off his mouth and said that Satan is behind liberals' criticisms about the GOP's would be fuhrer, Donald Trump. Having known one of Robertson's sons and his daughter-in-law in my GOP past, I keep wondering when are they going to shuffle Pat off to the attic and keep him under lock and key.  The man is more insane by the day. Right Wing Watch looks at Robertson's latest case of dementia induced verbal diarrhea.  Here are excerpts:

Today on “The 700 Club,” Pat Robertson defended GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump over his recent comment that if Hillary Clinton is elected president, nothing could be done to prevent her and her judicial nominees from doing away with gun rights unless “Second Amendment people” stop them.

Robertson blamed liberal monitoring groups for the uproar, alleging that they twisted Trump’s remarks, before he himself went ahead and altered Trump’s remarks to make them more benign.

The televangelist told co-host Wendy Griffith that he feels for his “buddy” because he has been the victim of similar hit jobs from Media Matters and People For the American Way. (Right Wing Watch is a project of People For the American Way).

“I sympathize with Donald Trump. I had a group called Media Matters, I had another group called People For the American Way, they taped every single word that I said and I did about 10,000 broadcasts, I did many adlibs, and every time they would take my words and transpose—they would take connectors out and they would put it out, and there was somebody at the AP who was one of their clones and they picked [it] up and across the country would come these idiotic statements,” he said. “The same thing is being done to Trump.”

These supposed lies about Trump and himself, Robertson explained, are inspired by the same source: Satan.

“Every time they’re going to twist the words, I know what it’s like, he has my profound sympathy but these people are profound liars and they’re set up as liars,” he said. “The devil is a liar and the father of lies, according to the Bible.”

 If the devil is the father of lies, then Robertson must be one of his top apprentices.

Religiously Inspired Hate Is Still Hate

As regular readers of this blog well know, one of my pet peeves is the undeserved deference that religion is afforded both by the media and by America's political establishment.  Take something that would never otherwise be respected or catered to and wrap the smoke screen of religious belief around it and suddenly it becomes acceptable and critics are labeled as "anti-religion."  Throughout history all kinds of atrocities and rape and pillaging have been justified because of conflicting religious beliefs.  Hate and, in some cases, genocide don't suddenly become something different merely because the perpetrators point to the Bible or Koran for justification.  It is long past time that the "get out of jail free" given to hate filled religious extremists end and their words and actions be judged for what they are regardless of the claimed justification on "deeply held religious belief."  A piece in Huffington Post looks at a controversy in Canada  over the accreditation fight over Trinity Western University ("TWU") proposed law school.  TWU is a Christian extremist institution that openly discriminates against the LGBT community.  Properly, the Canadian accreditation bodies have to date refused to approve TWU application because of its discriminatory policies.  Now, three courts will determine whether such refusal was appropriate.  Here are article excerpts:

The complete picture of what occurred in Orlando last week, of what motivated the worst mass shooting in United States' history, is complicated and may never fully emerge.

But what we do know is that the shooter targeted an LGBTQ club, and that most of the people he murdered and injured belonged to the Queer community. We also know that this was not a coincidence. Gay, lesbian, and transgendered folks in the United States, and elsewhere, are among the most vilified -- the most hated -- minorities in the world.

In Canada, courts in three provinces are poised to issue decisions related to Trinity Western University's ongoing efforts to establish an accredited law school in British Columbia. TWU, as many are aware, requires its students, staff, and faculty to sign a contract promising not to engage in "sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman." The University cites biblical passages vilifying and condemning homosexuality to support its policy of discrimination against gays and lesbians. The passages refer to homosexuality as "vile" and "shameful."

Law Societies in Ontario, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia decided that TWU's law degree could not be accredited because the University excludes gays and lesbians. TWU appealed those decisions and courts in each of these provinces are now faced with striking the right balance between TWU's freedom of religion and the equality rights of sexual minorities. Getting this balance right is critically important.

The issue is not whether TWU should be able to teach law. The issue is whether public bodies, like law societies, should accredit TWU's law degree given its discriminatory policy. These three law societies were rightly concerned about the detrimental impact on the equality interests of sexual minorities that would occur if they accredited an institution that discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation.

Why was it right for them to deny accreditation? Because, unfortunately, our society remains filled with hatred for sexual minorities. This is not, as Justice Jamie Campbell of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court grossly mischaracterized the issue, a matter of "hurt feelings." Queer people are beaten, raped, and murdered because of our sexual orientation and gender identities.

From the perspective of those of us who remain the subject of this disgust and detestation, it matters not whether this hatred is born of religious belief. The effects of religiously inspired homophobia are every bit as real as homophobia motivated by fear of difference or intolerance of others. Practices of exclusion based on views that perpetuate this type of hatred, whether intentionally or inadvertently, are no less damaging when supported by scripture.

Public institutions, such as law societies, are obligated not to put their stamp of approval on an organization that excludes one of the most vilified minorities in Canada and around the world. They are legally obligated not to contribute to the hatred of sexual minorities.

This does not mean that TWU should be prevented from practicing its beliefs or from teaching law from its evangelical Christian perspective. But as with all rights, there are limits to freedom of religion. For example, it must be balanced with equality. Requiring public bodies to accredit an institution that discriminates against a despised minority, a group subject to the most violent hate crimes in Canada, would allow freedom of religion to trump equality.

The mass murder of gays and lesbians that occurred last week in Orlando provides a horrific example of what can occur when a country allows one of its constitutional rights to run amok.  Let's hope that the British Columbia Court of Appeal, Nova Scotia Court of Appeal, and the Ontario Court of Appeal recognize that a just and humane balance between freedom of religion and equality protections for sexual minorities draws a line between what a religious organization can do privately and what our public bodies will accept. Let's hope these courts recognize that offering state sanction to an organization that discriminates against gays and lesbians because of a religious belief that homosexuality is "vile" and "shameful" would contribute to the kind of hatred that makes LGBTQ communities the target of such virulent homophobia.

Here in Virginia we see two law schools that routinely use follow practices  like those advanced by TWU.  Regent University and Liberty University both  have law schools that support hate and bigotry as part of their agenda.  Sadly, both received accreditation from the American Bar Association.  Shame on the ABA. 

Nut Case Pat Robertson: The Gays Are Recruiting Youth

I keep wondering when Pat Robertson's sons are going to force him into retirement.  His outbursts of verbal diarrhea seem to be getting worse with each passing month and not only does he make himself looks like an utter fool, but he is an huge embarrassment to the Hampton Roads area of Virginia.  In his latest delusional rant, Robertson went on a tirade claiming that gays are recruiting young people.  If Robertson would get his head out of his ass and pay any attention to modern knowledge and science, he know that no one recruits you into being gay.  You are born that way. Period, end of story.  If any recruitment is going on its by the Christofascists who try to get gays to pretend that they are "ex-gay'" and do untold damage to gays and their straight spouses in the process.  The Advocate looks at Robertson's latest pile of bullshit.  Here are highlights:

Pat Robertson yesterday took advantage of a 700 Club viewer’s concerns about her son’s questionable relationship to rant about gay men supposedly recruiting young people into homosexuality.

The viewer, identified as Nancy, said her son, who lives with her, is involved with a married man who goes to their church. The man’s wife, she said, knows nothing of the relationship. “What would the Lord want me to do?” the viewer asked.

The homophobic televangelist immediately called the married man a “pedophile,” although Nancy did not specify her son’s age. He also questioned the son’s identity. “Her son right now doesn’t know what he wants and he doesn’t know whether he’s a homosexual or not a homosexual, but this guy is trying to talk him into that,” he said. “There’s so many people, young people, impressionable, some coach comes after them, some adult comes after them, some older sibling comes after them, and they somehow think, ‘Because they did this I must be gay.’ Well, he doesn’t know that for sure, he doesn’t know what sexual identity he’s got.”

Robertson needs to be placed in a mental ward.   Virginia Beach will never be taken seriously as a city as long as Robertson and CBN continue to spew batshitery.

"Christian" Colleges Must Choose Between Bigotry and Public Funds

Freedom of religion was intended by the Founding Fathers was intended to mean that no citizens would be forced to belong to an established church or profess a faith they did not support through forced attendance such as was the norm in colonial Virginia.  One could freely choose one's house of worship.  It was not intended to mean that one could receive public funds and then turn around and discriminate against members of the taxpaying public who did not subscribed to a particular sect's belief system.  Yet that is precisely what a number of so-called Christian colleges - I view them as modern day Pharisee colleges - are seeking to do: receive public funds and grants yet openly discriminate against LGBT students and citizens.  To me, the choice is clear: cease discriminating or give up the public funding.  It's really that simple.  Give up public, taxpayer derived funds and be free to be as bigoted and Pharisaic as one wants.  A piece in the Richmond Times Dispatch looks at the ongoing controversy that will likely ultimately impact a number of gay hating "Christian" colleges and universities in Virginia.  Here are excerpts:

His [Gordon College president D. Michael Lindsay] stand last July came at a cost — to him and the school — that he never anticipated: broken relationships with nearby cities, the loss of a key backer for a federal grant, a review by the regional college accrediting agency, and campus protest and alumni pushback over whether the school should maintain its ban on "homosexual practice" as part of its life and conduct standards.

After coming under fire for its ban on hiring faculty in same-sex relationships, Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia decided this year to delay a decision on whether to uphold the policy, which means it won't be enforced for now. World Vision, a Christian international relief agency based in Washington State, said last March it would hire employees in gay marriages, but quickly backtracked after drawing condemnation from evangelical leaders and losing thousands of donors. At several evangelical colleges, students have formed advocacy groups for gay acceptance, such as OneWheaton, at Wheaton College in Illinois.

Lindsay's support for an exemption from a civil right for gays unleashed long-simmering campus tensions over the school's assertion that it has created a safe place for lesbian and gay students, while maintaining a conduct policy that singles them out.
Mayor Kim Driscoll of Salem responded by ending Gordon's contract to manage the city's Old Town Hall. Salem's Peabody Essex Museum ended its academic relationship with the school and withdrew support for Gordon's grant application to the National Endowment for the Humanities. The New England Association of Schools & Colleges started a review of the controversy.

"He made a mistake in signing it," said James Trent, a sociologist and Gordon professor for 11 years who supports eliminating the ban on "homosexual practice." ''The middle ground begins to wear when you're oppressing people. How do you slightly oppress someone?"

Here in Virginia, Regent University and Liberty University among others need to be forced to decide whether they want public funds or to continue to practice bigotry and discrimination. They are free to decide on the latter, but the cost needs to be that the rest of the taxpaying public is not forced to indirectly subsidize it.   They should not be able to have their cake and eat it too.

Anti-Gay "Christian" Unniversity May Lose Accreditation

In what the Christofascists and professional Christian crowd will likely describe as more "persecution" of Christians, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges has given anti-gay Gordon College a year to review - and apparently change - its anti-gay policies.  The accreditation board has indicated that Gordon College's policy on homosexuality may be in violation of accreditation standards.  Would that similar accreditation boards would take action against Regent University in Virginia Beach and the always foul Liberty University in Lynchburg.  Obviously, if these "Christian" colleges begin to lose accreditation, students may find themselves hindered in getting scholarships and their graduates could find it difficult to get into graduate schools or find employment.  Personally, I'd love to see that trend.  The Boston Business Journal looks at the situation.  Here are highlights:

The regional body that accredits colleges and universities has given Gordon College a year to report back about a campus policy on homosexuality, one that may be in violation of accreditation standards.

The higher education commission of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges met last week and "considered whether Gordon College's traditional inclusion of 'homosexual practice' as a forbidden activity" runs afoul of the commission's standards for accreditation, according to a joint statement from NEASC and Gordon College.

The commission asked Gordon College to submit a report next September. The report should describe the process by which the college has approached its review of the policy “to ensure that the College’s policies and procedures are non-discriminatory,” the statement said.

NEASC placed Gordon College on its September agenda after news broke in July that Lindsay had signed a letter with other religious leaders supporting an exemption from an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating based on sexual orientation.

That led to scrutiny about the now infamous Gordon College policy, which it calls the life and conduct statement, that prohibits a range of activities such as sex outside of marriage, drinking and smoking on campus or at college functions – and homosexual practices.

The members of the working group include trustees, faculty, administrators, staff and students, Sweeney said. At least one of the students is gay, Sweeney said, and some of the faculty members on the working group have been vocally opposed to Gordon College’s life and conduct policy. Asked if the working group will consider eliminating the policy entirely, Sweeney said he believes this will be among the options the working group considers. “There will be a very balanced perspective,” he said.

As I have argued before, far right Christians and their discriminatory - and often racists - beliefs need to become unwelcome in decent society and their schools and colleges that indoctrinate students in hate and bigotry truly should not be counted among accredited institutions that pursue education and knowledge since their basic tenants reject knowledge and intellect and embrace ignorance and bigotry. 

Pat Robertson Threatens Legal Action Against Filmmakers Exposing Charity Scam

Hampton Roads' own mega local embarrassment, Pat Robertson is making news again.  This time, however, it's not because of his latest insane batshit crazy remarks but instead because his is threatening film makers who did an expose on Robertson's alleged charity, Operation Blessing, that would indicate that the charity has skimmed off large amounts of money and diverted the funds to Robertson's diamond mining operations.  In my opinion, the only god Robertson has ever really worshiped is money.  The trappings of religiosity have in my view always merely served as a means Robertson uses to fleece the ignorant and gullible.  The Guardian looks at the film and Robertson's reported lies misrepresentations.  Here are excerpts:

One of the stranger sights of the refugee crisis that followed the 1994 Rwandan genocide was of stretcher-bearers rushing the dying to medical tents, with men running alongside reciting Bible verses to the withering patients.

The bulk of the thousands of doctors and nurses struggling to save lives – as about 40,000 people died of cholera – were volunteers for the international medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The Bible readers were hired by the American televangelist and former religious right presidential candidate, Pat Robertson, and his aid organisation, Operation Blessing International.

But on Robertson's US television station, the Christian Broadcasting Network, that reality was reversed, as he raised millions of dollars from loyal followers by claiming Operation Blessing was at the forefront of the international response to the biggest refugee crisis of the decade. It's a claim he continues to make, even though an official investigation into Robertson's operation in Virginia accused him of "fraudulent and deceptive" claims when he was running an almost non-existent aid operation.

"We brought the largest contingent of medicine into Goma in Zaire, at least the first and the largest," Robertson said as recently as last year on his TV station.

Now a new documentary lays bare the extent of the misrepresentations of Operation Blessing's activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire, that it says continue to this day.
Mission Congo, by David Turner and Lara Zizic, opens at the Toronto film festival on Friday. It describes how claims about the scale of aid to Rwandan refugees were among a number of exaggerated or false assertions about the activities of Operation Blessing which pulls in hundreds of millions of dollars a year in donations, much of it through Robertson's televangelism. They include characterising a failed large-scale farming project as a huge success, and claims about providing schools and other infrastructure.

But some of the most damaging criticism of Robertson comes from former aid workers at Operation Blessing, who describe how mercy flights to save refugees were diverted hundreds of miles from the crisis to deliver equipment to a diamond mining concession run by the televangelist.

Robertson claimed that Operation Blessing sent plane-loads of doctors. . . . . But the film was of MSF medical staff at work. Operation Blessing had just one tent and a total of seven doctors. MSF officials who worked in Goma told the documentary-makers that they had no recollection of even seeing Operation Blessing – let alone working with it.

The documentary describes how dredges, used to suck up diamonds from river beds, were delivered hundreds of miles from the crisis in Goma to a private commercial firm, African Development Company, registered in Bermuda and wholly owned by Robertson. ADC held a mining concession near the town of Kamonia on the far side of the country.

"Mission after mission was always just getting eight-inch dredgers, six-inch dredgers … and food supplies, quads, jeeps, out to the diamond dredging operation outside of Kamonia," Hinkle told the film-makers.

Right Wing Watch looks at Robertson's spittle flecked threats of legal action against the filmmakers. Here are highlights:

Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network is already weighing legal action against two filmmakers over their documentary depicting the televangelist’s egregious misrepresentations of the activities of his charity, Operation Blessing.

 An Operation Blessing spokesman told The Virginian-Pilot that they are “considering legal action” against Lara Zizic and David Turner, whose film “Mission Congo” will hold its premier at the Toronto International Film Festival, over the film’s supposed “false and defamatory” content.

CBN has a history of going after Robertson’s critics; for example, they recently embarked on an unsuccessful push to cover up a video of Robertson — first posted here on Right Wing Watch —arguing that gay men wear special rings that they use to infect random people they meet with HIV/AIDS.

Robertson should remember that truth is an absolute defense to claims of libel and slander.  The last thing he should want is for the filmmakers prove the truth of their allegations in a court of law.  Moreover, if litigation ensues, the defendants could use discovery to force Robertson to turn over documents and information.  

 

Pat Robertson Legal Group Fires Senior Attorney for Possibly Being Gay

As a number of news outlets are reporting, Pat Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice fired James Henderson on September 25, 2012, apparently because of Internet rumors that Henderson might be gay and having some type of relationships with younger men.  Having met Robertson - who is regarded by many in Hampton Roads as a major embarrassment to the region - and his then minion, Ralph Reed, in person several times years ago during my GOP activist days I have to laugh.  Ralph Reed set my gaydar off into the dangerous overdrive zone.  While Reed isn't as nellie as "Marcia" Bachmann, in my opinion, if the man is straight, then I'm Queen Victoria!!   But that apparently was fine with Robertson so long as Reed was helping to wage the culture wars.   The Advocate reports on this bizarre story.  Here are highlights:

A senior attorney has been fired from the conservative American Center for Law and Justice for reportedly having multiple relationships with younger men.

Metro Weekly reports that James Henderson was fired September 25, one day after two blogs, Exposed Politics and The Patriot-Ombudsman, posted reports that Henderson may be gay. The reports showed that Henderson created a Facebook account solely to communicate with at least two men he was involved with.

While it is unclear whether the men are at the age of consent or old enough to consume alcohol, it appears that Henderson provided them with alcohol and marijuana. One of the reports alleges that one of the men was 17 when he began communicating with Henderson in 2010.
Henderson is married with eight children.

The American Center for Law and Justice was founded in 1990 by Pat Robertson as a counter to the American Civil Liberties Union. Representatives of the organization confirmed to Metro Weekly that Henderson had been fired but would not make any further comments. His attorney, Christopher Zampogna, told Metro Weekly that he would not comment on Henderson's termination, but also confirmed that he was fired.

Henderson previously taught undergraduate religious studies at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., also founded by Pat Robertson.

Pat Robertson Promotes "Ex-Gay" Cure Myth

Once again Pat Robertson is causing sane and rational local residents to cringe with more of his reality denying batshitery. His latest eruption of verbal diarrhea on The 700 Club involved his advice to the parent of a gay son to admonish his son to "un-acquire" his sexual orientation and "get out of" homosexuality. Never mind that every legitimate mental health and medical association says that reparative therapy doesn't work, is unethical, and is often harmful. Or the fact that researchers at Robertson's own Regent University belatedly have admitted that reparative therapy doesn't change sexual orientation. Nope, instead Robertson's sticks with the same old tied Christianist lies. As for the father asking the question, he needs to get his head out of his ass and educate himself as to the untruthfulness of Robertson's advice. Nothing is more selfish than trying to force your children to live their lives to please you. Oh, and as for gays going to Hell, I suspect that all the seats will be taken by the likes of Robertson. Here's Right Wing Watch's commentary on Robertson:

Today on The 700 Club, a man with an openly gay son asked Pat Robertson how he can show his son “the love of Jesus when you know his sexual preference is an abomination to God.” Robertson told the father to love his son by encouraging him to “un-acquire” his sexual orientation and “get out of this.” Robertson’s advice should come as no surprise, as The 700 Club has featured “ex-gays” and the televangelist has said that gays and lesbians are “on their way to hell,” will bring America into the “ash-can of history” and prompt God to destroy America.


Robertson: Well you can love, you know what they say, you love the sinner and hate the sin, but I think what you got to do is love him, you’re his father. You want to say, ‘look I don’t agree with what you’re doing but I love you, you’re my son, you came from my body, you’re part of me and I’m with you but I’d like you to get out of this.’ I know people disagree with the question of homosexuality; is it something that they’re born with or is it something that’s acquired? I think a lot of it is acquired, I don’t know all the genes or the genetics that’s in your son as to what is causing him to do whatever he’s doing, you’ll have to figure that one out. But normally speaking, a person who has acquired this can un-acquire it. We’ve had many people who have indeed left the homosexual lifestyle and gone into a heterosexual relationship and have been very, very happy. But all I can say is love the son, love the son, and show him what you consider a better way.

Notably, Robertson’s own Regent University in a study of sexual minorities (gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer or bi-curious) involved or once involved in opposite-sex relationships found that heterosexual behavior did not alter their homosexual or bisexual orientation

With the rapidly changing global economy and the increasing need to attract talent, the Hampton Roads area desperately needs to change its ignorant, backward image. That's not going to happen with Robertson, CBN and Regent University daily underscoring the image that is harming the area's future and causing the educated younger generations to leave the area.

Pat Robertson Again Shows He's A Bigoted (and Insane) Ass

With regular clock work, resident embarrassment to the Hampton Roads area, Pat Robertson has verbal diarrhea moment. This time the loony Robertson is claiming that liberals back abortion rights to help mainstream lesbians. And people wonder why the Brookings Institute labeled Hampton Roads old, slow and not too bright? With Robertson constantly damaging the region's image, it's no wonder that we have a net brain drain of the college educated and that progressive businesses are not exactly beating on the door to relocate to the region. Robertson's Regent University may afford a means for the non-Bible beater to get a degree through its much more liberal part time student policies (its law school, for example, allows part time attendance unlike Virginia's leading law schools), but the deleterious damage, in my view, out ways any possible positive benefit. Right Wing Watch has the latest on Robertson's batshit crazy bigotry. Here are highlights:
*
Pat Robertson has figured out why President Obama supports the funding of Planned Parenthood and believes in a woman’s right to choose: because progressives want women to have abortions as a way to achieve equality for lesbians. While speaking with co-host Terry Meeuwsen of The 700 Club about the recent debate over Planned Parenthood’s funding, Robertson attempted to use “psychological stuff” to rationalize why progressives back Planned Parenthood and “this culture of death.” According to Robertson, progressives want straight women to “abortion their babies” to “put [lesbians] on a level playing field.”
*
Meeuwsen: There are lots of government-funded agencies in this country. Why do you think the President picked that one above all else to say, ‘not one penny’?
*
Robertson: Well it’s the left; it’s this culture of death. The far-left is livid about killing babies. They want to kill do this, they want to destroy. You go back, and I don’t want to play all this psychological stuff but nevertheless, if a woman is a lesbian, what advantage does she have over a married woman? Or what deficiency does she have?
*
Meeuwsen: Well she can’t have children.
*
Robertson: That’s exactly right. And so if these married women don’t have children, if they abort their babies, then that kind of puts them on a level playing field. And you say, nobody’s there to express that? Isn’t that shocking, well think about it a little bit ladies and gentlemen.

Anti-Gay Christianists Seek to Blame "Gay Agenda" Rather Than Themselves for Gay Teen Suicides

Candidly, there are few things in my view more reprehensible that religious extremists who spew anti-gay hatred and falsely hold themselves up as "experts." This is especially true where these faux experts continue to peddle the tired "ex-gay" myth which has now been discredited and condemned by every legitimate medical and mental health association. One such bigot is Linda Harvey (pictured at right) who hasn't held a real job since 1995 when she founded founded Mission:America and began living as a parasite off of the ignorant and gullible. While Ms. Harvey holds herself out as an expert on all things, including the lie that gays can change their sexual orientation, in reality if one checks her website, her professional background is in advertising and the only degree that she holds is a B.A. in English. Like most Christian extremists, Ms. Harvey doesn't let her lack of any legitimate credentials lessen the diarrhea of the mouth that afflicts her when it comes to gay bashing. Ms. Harvey's latest disingenuous lie filled anti-gay screed can be found at Wing Nut Daily. Here are highlights of her effort to deflect partial responsibility for recent gay suicides from herself and Christianist organizations to the LGBT community:
*
The homosexual lobby has gone into full demand mode, particularly GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) and the Human Rights Campaign. Obama Education Secretary Arne Duncan hosted a national summit on bullying with homosexual activists present and featuring former GLSEN president and "safe schools" czar Kevin Jennings. There's a renewed press for passage of H.R. 4530, national legislation that goes beyond stronger anti-bullying measures to incorporate mandatory pro-"gay" propaganda.
*
As the pressure groups scream for pro-homosexual policies, they simultaneously seek to prohibit all speech opposing homosexual behavior, which is viewed as harassment or contributing to it. Compulsory re-education is the only solution, because saying "no" to homosexuality always leads to such tragedy, or so they claim. In the fantasy world of these child-corruption advocates, there's an unbroken line connecting the actual bullies to any and all who stand up against sexual deviance.
*
One wonders if any of these kids ever heard a clearly articulated warning against homosexuality. Or were they faced with a continuous onslaught of pro-homosexual diversity lessons, novels and events like the "Day of Silence"? Were they surrounded with liberal teachers as role models and the bad example of a homosexual school club? What part did any of this play in the sad belief that homosexuality was an inevitable destiny, instead of a wayward yet changeable sexual inclination? Under almost continuous pressure to accept a lie – confusion and then despair may be the predictable result.
*
But there's a solution. First and foremost, kids should be told the truth that no one is born gay. Despite any budding feelings he or she may have, many people who felt similarly at that age went on to change both their feelings and behavior, and to be well-adjusted adult heterosexuals, some married with children. The gay lobbyists actively prevent kids from knowing this option. Why can't they be "pro-choice" regarding homosexuality?
*
Let's consider the real goal of homosexual activism: that everyone becomes comfortable with homosexuality, that even personal revulsion is no longer acceptable. This re-imagined "gay" utopia depends upon a widely accepted lie.
*
True to form, Harvey repeats the lie that many have "left homosexuality." The truth, of course, is that none of the ex-gay rackets can ever produce more than a few dozen such individuals at most and even then almost all of them are typically on an ex-gay ministry payroll. The so called ex-gays for pay, if you will. If Ms Harvey's bull shit isn't nauseating enough, Matt Barber - now affiliated with Jerry Falwell's Liberty University - has to chime in. Like Harvey, Barber has ZERO credentials in medicine or mental health issues. In fact, all of his education comes from Christianist colleges: Colorado Christian University, a glorified Bible college, and Pat Robertson's Regent University. Here are highlights from Barber's rant against gays who are tired of the bullshit and lies such as are his stock in trade:
*
Unfortunately - though not surprisingly - extremist ‘gay' pressure groups, like the incongruously named ‘Human Rights Campaign,' Ellen DeGeneres and other liberal activists are shamelessly exploiting these tragedies as a means to achieve their own selfish political ends.
*
"In a recent statement, Ms. DeGeneres said: ‘There are messages everywhere that validate this sort of bullying and taunting and we need to make it stop. We can't let intolerance and ignorance take another kids life.'
*
"Indeed, actual bullying and taunting must not be tolerated. But what ‘messages' is Ms. DeGeneres referring to, and how do ‘we...make [them] stop?' I'll translate from liberalese to plain English. What Ellen meant was this: ‘Public defense of God's express, self-evident and unequivocal design for human sexuality must be stopped under force of law.
*
It makes me physically ill to watch as the HRC and other ‘gay' militants lick their chops and rub their hands together over the tragic suicides of these troubled, sexually confused young men," continued Barber. "Before they were even laid to rest, the radical homosexual lobby pounced leveraging these suicides to demand that government codify each of their extremist, social engineering demands. This is political exploitation at its slimiest and it pours salt on the wounds of loved ones.
*
But Christians are also praying that these wicked and callous political vultures who seek to exploit these suicides become confounded and fail fantastically. Their mission is not one of ‘tolerance' or ‘diversity.' Quite the opposite: Their goal is to fan flames of anti-Christian bigotry and discrimination, evangelizing on behalf of their own perverted god: moral relativism. We simply won't let them get away with it," concluded Barber.
*
If anything is sickening, it is seeing shameless liars like Harvey and Barber making a living off of the misery of others and then through a slight of hand renounce the reality that THEY are indeed murdering LGBT teens and youths through their vile propaganda and screeds. Harvey and Barber make the nastiest of whores look virtuous.