Religious right spokesman smears Civil Rights Movement to attack SPLC

The Liberty Counsel's Matt Barber is obviously angry at the Southern Poverty Law Center over its list of anti-gay hate groups because his group didn't make the cut.

How else can one explain the lunacy of his words today?

According to People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch, Barber said the following during a radio interview:

The SPLC has grabbed the tiger by the tail and now they get the teeth. They are really marginalizing themselves outside of a very liberal echo chamber; the SPLC has really embarrassed itself and really marginalized itself in the mainstream.

Of course Barber doesn't provide proof of this claim, so his words are pure speculation and bad speculation at that. His words are as pitiful as those of a hunter facing a hungry bear while armed with a pea shooter and exclaiming, "I got you where I want you."

But hold on because Barber goes further off of the deep end later in the interview when he says the following:

And now they (SPLC) find themselves fighting against the very Christian leadership that led the Civil Rights movement, the very Christians that fought for abolition under the Republican Party, under Abraham Lincoln, now they have those very Christians in the cross-hairs.

Barber is trying to push the lie that SPLC is attacking religious right groups based on their so-called Christian opposition to homosexuality. SPLC has said that deliberately repeating distortions and negative propaganda about the lgbt community is the reason why organizations were named as anti-gay hate groups.

But Barber's comments about the Civil Rights Movement deserve more criticism.

In my readings about the Civil Rights Movement, from what I have heard in interviews with those involved in the marches, speeches, and planning, and what I have seen on video footage, I have been made aware of:

• Many people black and white, heterosexual and lgbt, male and female marching, singing, and basically risking their lives against the onslaught of mad racists,

• Speeches uniting us all in a common purpose of dignity and love,

• And especially the contributions of certain gay black man (Bayard Rustin) who played a key role in the Movement, especially the 1963 March on Washington.

But I don't remember anything about precisely coiffed, pitch perfect talking point repeating, but hypocritical, soulless denizens of the religious right leading any marches, making any speeches, or even shaking hands with those who marched or risked their lives.

However I do remember many veterans of the Civil Rights Movement from Coretta Scott King, Julian Bond, and John Lewis standing up for the rights of lgbts.

And I do remember that in April of last year, Barber accused Lewis of lying regarding the racist behavior of tea party members when Congress was working to pass the health care bill.

Lastly, I also remember what Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition (another organization designated as an anti-gay hate group by SPLC) said in 2007 about Lewis defending lgbts:

“Rep. Lewis is a member of the Old Guard of civil rights activists who have sold out to the homosexual movement . . ."

My advice to Barber is that if he wants the Liberty Counsel to get on SPLC's hate group list,  he should keep talking about "gay sex" the way he does.

But if he does, he shouldn't be surprised if while Liberty Counsel makes the list of anti-gay hate groups, he makes a list himself - that of the "booby hatch."