The Family Research Council's Values Voter Summit is over and as predicted, it was as nauseating as hell. It's the one time of the year which I don't envy the folks who stand on the very front line to monitor anti-gay groups and the like.
They have to actually attend or intensely watch mess like this.
So what to me is the stand out moment of the Values Voter Summit? Is it the fact that Sen. Ted Cruz won the straw poll again but has absolutely no chance of winning the presidency (proving that there is a merciful God) or Sarah Palin's incredibly stupid botch of White House address (girlfriend, even a first grader knows that address)?
No. To me, one can basically describe not only this Values Voter Summit, but every other one of those monstrosities, and the entire mindset of the anti-gay right by the speech of the Liberty Counsel's Mat Staver.
According to People for the American Way's Religious Right Watch:
I would almost understand Staver's anger except for one simple problem - Staver is on record, in writings and videos, spouting all sorts comments which contradicts his claims of innocence.
Such as the following, courtesy of GLAAD:
Yet they keep saying "we are not haters." "Those things they say about us aren't true." "These people are lying on us because they want to destroy America's Christian heritage."
It seems to me that the values of these folks are less about Christianity and more about the Jedi mind trick. Whatever the case may be, all of this stuff is going to come to a head one day. People like Staver can only outrun the truth for so long before they get winded and tired.
And truth never gets winded or tired.
They have to actually attend or intensely watch mess like this.
So what to me is the stand out moment of the Values Voter Summit? Is it the fact that Sen. Ted Cruz won the straw poll again but has absolutely no chance of winning the presidency (proving that there is a merciful God) or Sarah Palin's incredibly stupid botch of White House address (girlfriend, even a first grader knows that address)?
No. To me, one can basically describe not only this Values Voter Summit, but every other one of those monstrosities, and the entire mindset of the anti-gay right by the speech of the Liberty Counsel's Mat Staver.
According to People for the American Way's Religious Right Watch:
Mat Staver spent a good portion of his speech at the Values Voter Summit today fuming over a letter sent by People For the American Way, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and five other civil rights and LGBT organizations to Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus, asking members of the GOP not to participate in the conference, citing the anti-gay extremism of its sponsors.
Staver's organization, Liberty Counsel, is among those very sponsors and he is not very happy about being labeled an anti-gay extremist, despite this long and documented record of being one.
Staver fumed that he is being attacked merely for believing "in God's natural created order of male and and female and marriage as the union of one man and one woman."
"For me believing in something that is that obvious," he complained, "I am considered by some groups to be a hater. But I hate no one. I hate no one, but I believe in God's truth and I will not be silent in the face of intimidation." In an effort to prove that he is not an extremist, Staver then went on to liken himself to Jesus when he turned over the tables of the money changers in the temple before declaring that marriage equality teaches that children do not need mothers or fathers. "That is an absolute lie from the very pit of Hell," he said.
I would almost understand Staver's anger except for one simple problem - Staver is on record, in writings and videos, spouting all sorts comments which contradicts his claims of innocence.
Such as the following, courtesy of GLAAD:
Claims LGBT advocates are doing "the bidding of the devil"Staver is not an anamoly when it comes FRC's Values Voter Summit or the anti-gay right. He is just one in a large number of these folks on the right who claim that they are being unjustly persecuted for being Christian and that they don't voice hate, even though there is a paper trail more than a mile long which contradicts their claims.
Claims negotiating with what he calls 'homofascists' (i.e. advocacy groups like GLAAD) is 'almost like negotiating with terrorists'
On coexisting with LGBT rights: "You cannot coexist, you cannot give up on something, that is literally an attack on God himself.”
Claims marriage equality obliterates the idea of God: "Same-sex marriage is ultimately the abolition of gender; it’s ultimately the abolition of any moral behavior with regards to human sexuality. This whole assault on marriage is really an attempt to obliterate not only morality but Judeo-Christian morality, to obliterate marriage and to even obliterate the idea that there even is a God."
On the repeal of the discriminatory Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: "We believe they've slapped the military in the face and have betrayed the men and women in the service by using the military to push the homosexual agenda. We will ask the House to refuse to fund the repeal, which will take millions of dollars to fund."
Claims that children with gay parents will end up “behind bars for committing violent crimes.” (0:00 - 0:56)
Claims: "Same-sex marriage, same-sex relationships is destructive to individuals and it’s destructive to our very social fabric."
“It may sound crass, but take a fan for example, and instead of having the male plug, have the female plug, and try to see if you can make it work. You’re not going to be able to plug it into a wall. The fact is nature teaches you -- you don’t have to have anything -- that’s why a five-year-old can understand that this is against nature. That’s why it’s been called a crime against nature. (0:00 - 0:27)
Says President Obama has a "sexual anarchist agenda"
Yet they keep saying "we are not haters." "Those things they say about us aren't true." "These people are lying on us because they want to destroy America's Christian heritage."
It seems to me that the values of these folks are less about Christianity and more about the Jedi mind trick. Whatever the case may be, all of this stuff is going to come to a head one day. People like Staver can only outrun the truth for so long before they get winded and tired.
And truth never gets winded or tired.
It's tiresome and disgusting to see this, repeated so often, again and again, but thank you, and all the people who put themselves through attending/watching these events to make sure these things do not go undisclosed
ReplyDeleteOne things I will gripe about in your post, however: Jedi use their abilities for knowledge and defence, never for the attack. And as these sorry-excuses for people prove, they neither crave knowledge nor do anything but viciously attack.
Thanks again