Exposing The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)

Who’s watching the watchers? Gary Demar has an expose on the SPLC. 

Over the weekend, “MSNBC contributor and Newsweek senior editor Kurt Eichenwald accused Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Republican members of Congress of defending ‘right-wing terrorists’ during the Obama administration, as the Liberal journalist tried to implicate mainstream conservatives in recent reports of hate crimes.”

As is usual for such a claim, Eichenwald did not offer any examples and Joy Reid, Saturday’s AM Joy’s host, did not press him for any evidence.

In addition, “[o]n Sunday morning, NPR posted an article by reporter Wade Goodwyn using the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center on “The Far Right’s Language Explained.” The inspiration for this article was the murder of two men in Portland who tried to defend a woman in a hijab on a subway train by an extremist named Jeremy Christian. Goodwyn, like many liberal journalists, skipped right over evidence that Christian voted for Bernie Sanders and could not bring himself to vote for President Trump. He also supported beheadings to ‘stop the war on babies’ foreskins.’”

Not to be outdone, “[o]n Weekend Edition Saturday, anchor Scott Simon introduced reporter Ben Philpott of Austin NPR affiliate KUT-FM to describe scuffling on the floor of the state legislature on Texas. Protesters were unlabeled, but the ‘far right’ was apparently to blame” – specifically, the Texas Freedom Caucus that has been a thorn in the side of Texas establishment Republicans.

In May of this year, I was interviewed about my opinions about the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and its tactic of listing any group it disagrees with as “extremist,” “right-wing,” and “haters.” In the past, the SPLC has listed an organization I have been associated with for more than 30 years as a “hate group.” And why was American Vision listed as a “hate group”? Because we, along with tens of millions of Americans believe same-sex sexuality is immoral and should not be made a protected class.

Many people forget that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama opposed same-sex married. As you will see below, Martin Luther King opposed homosexuality. The SPLC is coming out with a six-part documentary on “extremist groups.” You can bet your bottom dollar that it will be narrowly selective and will leave up the true hate groups that are actively engaged in violence.

The following are my notes for the interview.

1. Southern POVERTY Law Center hitched its wagon to the Civil Rights movement.
2. SPLC does not raise money to fight poverty.
3. Early on the SPLC made a name for itself fighting genuine extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan and breaking down barriers of government discrimination in the South.
4. Today the SPLC is primarily a leftist attack machine on any worldview that does not advocate an anti-Christian agenda.
5. The SPLC devotes most of its sizeable financial resources to a systematic smear campaign against respected organizations and opinion leaders whose legitimate policy differences put them to the right of the SPLC.
6. There’s not enough money in helping the poor. So a new bad guy was manufactured – extremist “hate groups” that are lurking in every corner of America. If they are not rooted out by the SPLC, then they might get you!
7. The money has been rolling in ever since.
8. It’s been said that the SPLC uses “white guilt . . . manipulated with black pain” in its fund-raising screeds.
9. The SPLC – a 501(c)(3) “non-profit” law center dedicated to eliminating poverty – has a six-story $24 million headquarters.
10. Such organizations have prohibited by law from electioneering, and yet during the 2016 presidential election, the SPLC made specific attacks against Donald Trump.
11. In October 2005, the SPLC completed construction on a new two-story $5.5 million Civil Rights Memorial Center.
12. The SPLC has net assets totaling $300 million. The President and Chief Trial Counsel make $333,000 and $337,000 respectively.
13. Took as its statement of faith a quotation from the Bible but attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr.” “Until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream” (Amos 5:24).
    
14. It’s remarkable (or is it?) that most websites do not recognize the citation as coming from the Bible.
15. MLK on homosexuality. From an advice column in Ebony magazine:

    Question: My problem is different from the ones most people have. I am a boy, but I feel about boys the way I ought to feel about girls. I don’t want my parents to know about me. What can I do? Is there any place where I can go for help?

    Answer: Your problem is not at all an uncommon one. However, it does require careful attention. The type of feeling that you have toward boys is probably not an innate tendency, but something that has been culturally acquired. Your reasons for adopting this habit have now been consciously suppressed or unconsciously repressed. Therefore, it is necessary to deal with this problem by getting back to some of the experiences and circumstances that led to the habit. In order to do this I would suggest that you see a good psychiatrist who can assist you in bringing to the forefront of conscience all of those experiences and circumstances that led to the habit. You are already on the right road toward a solution, since you honestly recognize the problem and have a desire to solve it.”

16. Supreme Court in 1986 ruled that homosexuality was not a fundamental right in Bowers vs. Hardwick (1986):

Sodomy was a criminal offense at common law and was forbidden by the laws of the original 13 States when they ratified the Bill of Rights. In 1868, when the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified, all but 5 of the 37 States in the Union had criminal sodomy laws. In fact, until 1961, all 50 States outlawed sodomy, and today [1986], 25 States and the District of Columbia continue to provide criminal penalties for sodomy performed in private and between consenting adults.1

This changed in the 5-4 Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015. Why wasn’t the 1986 “precedent”? Groups like the SPLC continue to fight until they get their way.

17. Millard Fuller, Dees’ former business partner, wrote, “Morris Dees and I from the first day of our partnership, shared one overriding purpose: to make a pile of money. We were not particular about how we did it; we just wanted to be independently rich. During the eight years we worked together we never wavered in that resolve.”
18. “The entire SPLC legal staff resigned in protest in 1986, disgusted with Dees’ refusal to address issues important to poor minorities — such as homelessness, voter registration, and affirmative action —- issues which appeared to be much less marketable to affluent benefactors than fighting the KKK. Several years later, attorney Gloria Browne resigned, stating to reporters that the SPLC’s programs were designed to cash in on ‘black pain and white guilt.’”
19. Dees is known to be the architect of one of SPLC’s most effective — and most controversial — tactics: exaggerating the prevalence and capabilities of racist and extremist rightwing groups operating in the United States in order to frighten supporters into donating money to SPLC.”
20. The SPLC site states that “No incidents have been reported” in Alabama in 2006 and yet “10 Baptist churches had been burned in rural Alabama. Five churches in Bibb County — Ashby Baptist, Rehobeth Baptist, Antioch Baptist, Old Union Baptist, and Pleasant Sabine — were torched between midnight and 3 a.m. on Feb. 3 [2006]. Four days later, arsonists destroyed or badly damaged Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church in Greene County, Dancy First Baptist Church in Pickens County, and two churches in Sumter County, Galilee Baptist and Spring Valley Baptist. On Saturday, Beaverton Freewill Baptist Church in northwest Alabama became the 10th house of worship to go up in flames.”
21. The SPLC did not consider these church burnings significant enough for their fundraising purposes. Burning down white churches does not fit the organization’s definition of “hate,” therefore, there’s no money in it.
22. We know that if they had been black churches, or mosques, or “gay” bars and bookstores, the SPLC would have cranked up the fundraising machine.
23. One of SPLC’s supporters assaulted the headquarters of the Family Research Council (FRC), an organization on its “hate list.”
24. “FRC’s appearance on the list gained national attention in 2012 when a gunman, Floyd Corkins, entered FRC headquarters with the intent of killing everyone there. FRC’s building manager, Leo Johnson, subdued Corkins and was shot in the process. Corkins targeted FRC after finding the group on [is] Hatewatch [webpage]. SPLC has continued to label FRC a hate group even after the shooting.”

25. “All the groups listed on Hatewatch, with the exception of black separatists, [George Yancey, professor of sociology at the University of North Texas] notes, are either political or religious conservatives. Yancey believes this is because SPLC is a liberal organization and it is using subjective criteria to choose which groups belong on the list.”

26. Hundreds of shooting deaths in Chicago. Most of the victims are poor and black. The SPLC has been silent. Again, there’s no money in it.

27. Islamic hate crimes: San Bernardino, Fort Hood, Fort Dix, Chattanooga. SPLC silence and indifference.