What Is Up with the Southern Poverty Law Center?
I’ve been seeing more and more criticism of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) from conservative Christian groups who believe they have been wrongly characterized as hate groups for their anti-LGBTQ position. D. James Kennedy Ministries recently filed a lawsuit against the SPLC for this reason. David French had a piece in the National Review last month, taking issue with the SPLC’s labeling of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) as a hate group, implying that all Christians who are anti-LGBTQ are in the same pickle with the SPLC. The SPLC’s most recent Anti-LGBT Roundup of Events calls out the likes of Robert P. George (Princeton) and Baylor University for association with various anti-LGBTQ initiatives. What is going on here?
The SPLC’s Intelligence Report Spring Issue listed the following Active Hate Groups in 2016:
- KKK (130)
- Neo-Nazi (99)
- White Nationalist (100)
- Racist Skinhead (78)
- Christian Identify (21)
- Neo-Confederate (43)
- Black Separatist (193)
- Anti-LGBT (52)
- Anti-Muslim (101)
- General Hate (100)
Hmmmm….there must be more than 52 Christian organizations in the U.S. who believe LGBTQ is a sin, of which my own church is one. Why aren’t all such Christian organizations included?
To find the answer, we must dig into the definition that the SPLC gives for this category. Clicking on the Anti-LGBT category in the referenced article yields the following definition (emphasis mine):
Opposition to equal rights for LGBT people has been a central theme of Christian Right organizing and fundraising for the past four decades. These groups are not listed on the basis of opposition to same-sex marriage or the belief that the Bible describes homosexual activity as sinful. Anti-LGBT groups engage in crude name-calling and disseminate disparaging propaganda and falsehoods about this population, such as the claim that gay men molest children at vastly higher rates than straight men.
In another article on the site, the following definition is provided (again, emphasis mine):
Even as some well-known anti-gay groups like Focus on the Family moderate their views, a hard core of smaller groups, most of them religiously motivated, have continued to pump out demonizing propaganda aimed at homosexuals and other sexual minorities. These groups’ influence reaches far beyond what their size would suggest, because the “facts” they disseminate about homosexuality are often amplified by certain politicians, other groups and even news organizations. Of the 18 groups profiled below, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) will be listing 13 next year as hate groups, reflecting further research into their views; those are each marked with an asterisk. Generally, the SPLC’s listings of these groups is based on their propagation of known falsehoods — claims about LGBT people that have been thoroughly discredited by scientific authorities — and repeated, groundless name-calling. Viewing homosexuality as unbiblical does not qualify organizations for listing as hate groups.
Read that last sentence again: “Viewing homosexuality as unbiblical does NOT qualify organizations for listing as hate groups.” So it seems that the mere fact of an organization’s doctrinal position on LGBTQ isn’t grounds for an SPLC designation as a hate group. That explains why the total number of anti-LGBT groups on the SPLC list for 2016 was such a small number, why my church isn’t on the list.
On the face of it, this definition doesn’t seem like a problem to me. I think most people agree, no matter their doctrinal position, that propaganda, falsehoods, and name-calling are not activities in which Christians should be engaging. Such activities demonize and ARE hateful, are not reflective of Christ’s love for the world, and do not properly respect the Imago Dei characteristic of all humans, including LGBTQ.
It would seem to me that David French’s National Review article is over the top, engaging in some fairly misleading hyperbole when he jokes that all anti-LGBTQ Christians must be considered hate mongers by the SPLC for their beliefs alone. With these definitions, I wonder how D. James Kennedy Ministries thinks they even have a case.
It may be that the issue is the SPLC’s interpretation of what constitutes “propaganda,” “known falsehoods,” and “name-calling.”
Let’s dig a little deeper. The specific groups that the SPLC has designated Anti-LGBT hate groups are:
- Abiding Truth Ministries
- Alliance Defending Freedom
- American College of Pediatricians
- American Family Association
- Americans for Truth
- About Homosexuality
- American Vision
- ATLAH World Missionary Church (All The Land Anointed Holy)
- Campus Ministry USA, The
- Center for Family and Human Rights (C-FAM)
- Chalcedon Foundation
- Citizens for Community Values
- Conservative Republicans of Texas
- D. James Kennedy Ministries (formerly Truth in Action)
- Faith Baptist Church (formerly Sons of Thunder)
- Faith2Action
- Faithful Word Baptist Church
- Family Research Council
- Family Research Institute
- Family Watch International
- Generations With Vision
- Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment (H.O.M.E.)
- Illinois Family Institute
- Liberty Counsel
- Mass Resistance
- Mission: America
- Pacific Justice Institute
- Pass the Salt Ministries
- Pilgrims Covenant Church
- Pray in Jesus Name Project, The
- Probe Ministries
- Providence Road Baptist Church
- Public Advocate of the United States
- Ruth Institute
- Save California
- Stedfast Baptist Church
- TC Family (Traverse City Family)
- Tom Brown Ministries
- Traditional Values Coalition
- True Light Pentecost Church
- United Families International
- Verity Baptist Church
- Westboro Baptist Church
- Windsor Hills Baptist Church
- World Congress of Families/International Organization for the Family
I have passing familiarity with a handful of these ministries. I doubt anyone disagrees with Westboro Baptist Church being on the list. But is the Family Research Council’s anti-LGBTQ activity really at the same level? Perhaps not.
Let’s look at a couple of entries for some specifics as to why the SPLC included them on the list.
Family Research Council (FRC) – The main beef that SPLC has with FRC is its reliance on questionable LGBTQ research. Unfortunately, I have personal experience with FRC, the specifics of which I will not get into, that supports this accusation. Further, the SPLC states quite clearly that FRC’s designation as a hate group is based on the FRC strategy of demonizing gay men as child molesters, and has nothing to do with the FRC’s doctrinal position on LGBTQ.
Liberty Counsel – Much of what the SPLC documents for this organization has to do with their defense of individuals who engage in falsehoods about LGBT individuals, especially with regard to alleging increased tendency towards pedophilia.
D. James Kennedy Ministries – There isn’t an entry on the SPLC Extremist Files for D. James Kennedy Ministries, or any of its predecessor dbas (Coral Ridge Ministries, Truth in Action). I’m not sure if this was always the case, or whether the material has been scrubbed as a result of the recent lawsuit. However, in the SPLC Intelligence Report – Winter Issue 2010, the organization is covered, including the rationale for its designation as a hate group, i.e. association of LGBTQ with pedophilia, etc. The article does cite sources, which seem legit, although dated; however, I was unable to locate the source documents.
I found many references to the SPLC on the D. James Kennedy Ministries website, including this one that alleges that “the SPLC has falsely designated (us) a “hate group” because we don’t believe in same-sex marriage.” This is an extremely deceptive statement, if not an outright falsehood, in light of the definitions quoted above. While it is true that D. James Kennedy Ministries has been designated a hate group by the SPLC, it is not true that it’s merely because they believe LGBTQ activity to be a sin. Unfortunately, D. James Kennedy Ministries doesn’t cite any searchable references to prove their case either.
The general assertion that the SPLC designates churches and Christian organizations as hate groups simply on the basis of their doctrinal position on LGBTQ is extremely prevalent on conservative discussion boards. Unfortunately, this assertion is not supported by facts.
Here is my conclusion. The SPLC does not appear to target Christian organizations merely on the basis of their anti-LGBTQ doctrinal beliefs; rather, they distinguish and call out as hate groups those organizations that use propaganda, falsehoods, unfounded research, and name-calling against the LGBTQ community.
Whether or not the SPLC definitions of propaganda, falsehoods and name-calling hold up in court is something else again. As I can attest from my graduate research, there is precious little in the way of solid, credible research ON EITHER SIDE of the LGBTQ debate. I suspect that both sides of the lawsuit will have difficulty defending their positions.
At any rate, while there may be good reasons to question the SPLC definitions of propaganda and falsehoods, let us not make unfounded assertions that Christian groups are being targeted as hate groups simply for their doctrinal position on the subject. As Christians, we ought to take care that the SPLC position is presented as accurately and fairly as possible, whatever else may be wrong with the organization. The Family Research Council may not be on the same level of depravity as Westboro Baptist Church, but it hasn’t been targeted merely for its anti-LGBT bias. The SPLC has other reasons for labeling it a hate group. We may not agree with those reasons; unfortunately, productive debate about definitions is being obscured by misrepresentation of what the SPLC is doing overall.