Monday, January 21, 2019

Family Research Council uses MLKDay as a commodity, wants you to forget its 2016 defense of alt-right racism

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins

Earlier today, I made the following remark about Martin Luther King, Jr Day:

I need disinfectant to spray all of the folks & groups praising MLK knowing fully well they would disparage him if he were alive and presently support policies opposite to his beliefs.

Recent remarks posted by Tony Perkins of the anti-LGBTQ hate group Family Research Council make me wish for a big can of disinfectant:

A lot has changed since Rev. King's life was cut short a half century ago. The man who would have turned 90 last week would notice a lot of his fingerprints on America's social progress. But he would also be deeply dismayed to see the number of people who've turned their backs on his greatest motivation: a deep and abiding faith in God. In all of the politically-correct retrospectives, we've lost perspective on how important religion was to the story of Dr. King and the civil rights movement.

 . . . The leaders of the civil rights movement weren't transformational in spite of their faith -- they were transformational because of it. "I say [all of this]," Rev. King insisted, "as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who was nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen." 
America's war against religious liberty would have saddened Dr. King. Like us, he knew that without it, he wouldn't have had the freedom -- or the platform -- to speak out against segregation. In his day as in ours, there is one path to reconciliation in this country: the church. "There is so much frustration in the world because we have relied on gods rather than God... Christianity affirms that at the heart of reality is a Heart, a loving Father who works through history for the salvation of His children. Man cannot save himself, for man is not the measure of all things and humanity is not God. Bound by the chains of his own sin and finiteness, man needs a Savior."

Exploiting Dr. King's name to promote its quest of white evangelical "Christian supremacy" (disguised as a fight for "religious liberty") is rotten in itself.

But then one remembers how in 2016, both Perkins and FRC ran interference for former Trump official Steve Bannon and Breitbart, the white supremacist enabling publication he had led before working for Trump.

At Breitbart, Bannon helped make the hardline populist website a go-to resource for white nationalists and the alt-right, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups.  
 . . . Breitbart has propagated conspiracy theories, like Planned Parenthood having Nazi ties or Clinton aide Huma Abedin being a spy for Saudi Arabia. The website traffics in misogynist and racist stories; it frames women who push back against harassment or gender bias as weak and incompetent and portrays people of color and immigrants as inherently criminal.

When Bannon came under fire, FRC attempted to paint Bannon as a so-called victim of persecution.

I have the receipts right here:

Family Research Council defends Steve Bannon by omitting details of his history at Breitbart

Family Research Council creates false persecution controversy & defends white supremacist enabling publication 

 The Family Research Council seems to think that Dr. King and his holiday should be used as a commodity just like its supporters.

Not today, my friends. 

5 comments:

daveh said...

Regardless of what you think about FRC, there point is quite valid. MLK certainly would have fought for religious liberty against the leftist and humanist attempts to squelch the right to worship according to your beliefs.

BlackTsunami said...

David, My guess is that Dr. King would see through that nonsense you spewed and call it out exactly for what it is - perverting religious beliefs as a supremacist weapon of discrimination. You forget that a lot of folks opposing Dr.King used somewhat the same jargon you just used.

daveh said...

My guess is Dr. King would see through the nonsense of the LGBT movement trying to appropriate the civil rights movement he led to support a behavioral choice, since it is clear there is no "gay gene" and gender is now considered fluid, and especially since LGBT activists have conducted the opposite of a non-violent approach.

BlackTsunami said...

Save the right-wing talking points about the "gay gene," my friend. Here is a fact that you obviously don't know. Dr. King had an openly gay aide named Bayard Rustin. HE was the one who introduced tactics of non-violence to Dr. King and also coordinated and crafted the 1963 March on Washington. He also coordinated Dr. King's trip to pick up his Nobel Peace Prize. All of that other stuff you attempt to introduce into the conversation is ridiculous because it has nothing to do with the topic.

Anonymous said...

Furthermore, various of King's family have said that MLK absolutely would have supported LGBT rights as well. So,David.... why don't you take your no-history-knowing, bigoted irrelevancies and sashay away.