James Dobson, other anti-LGBTQ activists team up to defend racist Congressman Steve King

Congressman Steve King has gotten into trouble for making racist statements and defending white supremacy, but religious right figures below are defending him.

James Dobson

With the anti-LGBTQ right, it's all about "priorities."  Isn't it simply wonderful how these religious right groups and activists took time out of their "busy schedules" of condemning the LGBTQ community to stand up for a Congressman who reportedly can't understand why white supremacy is such a bad word.

From Americans  United for the Separation of Church and State's Rob Boston:

The so-called “pro-family” Religious Right – a movement that claims to be all about promoting morals and decency – is all too happy these days to endorse any politician who agrees with them on certain issues – no matter how alarming that person’s statements and views may be. 

For more evidence of that, consider that hundreds of allegedly “moral” organizations and individuals just signed a letter to Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives demanding that U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) be given his committee assignments back. 

King lost the assignments because he has a long track record of saying incendiary, racist

Janet Porter

things and snuggling up to extreme organizations that preach hate. Although GOP leaders tolerated his antics for years, King finally went too far last month when, during an interview with The New York Times, he questioned why the term “white nationalist” is considered offensive. 

“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization – how did that language become offensive?” King mused. “Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?” 

Bill Owens

King later claimed to have been misquoted. It’s almost certainly a lie, but even if it were the case, it hardly matters – there are plenty of other damning statements by King. He has been spouting racist rhetoric for a long time and last year went so far as to endorse a candidate for mayor of Toronto who had granted an interview to a podcast run by the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website. King once retweeted a neo-Nazi and has been accused of anti-Semitism. He has also met with fascist politicians abroad and has repeatedly endorsed The Camp of the Saints, a paranoid, openly racist 1973 novel that portrays a future Europe overrun by hordes of non-whites.

 . . .  So why is the Religious Right defending this guy? Well, King also has a long

Peter LaBarbera

history of promoting that movement’s pet ideas. In 2002, while a member of the Iowa legislature, King introduced a bill requiring that public schools teach that the United States derives its strength from “Christianity, free enterprise capitalism and Western civilization.” In 2005, King, now a member of Congress, cosponsored legislation that would have stripped the federal courts of their ability to hear any legal case that would challenge any government’s decision to acknowledge “God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government.” He has been a reliable vote for the Religious Right ever since.

 So who signed this letter? According to ThinkProgress (click on the link to find out more details about the folks below), a number of prominent anti-LGBTQ activists:

Focus on the Family founder and prominent evangelical activist James Dobson also appears on the list. Though he is no longer affiliated with Focus on the Family, Dobson continues his advocacy through writing and a radio show. Last year, he wrote that marriage equality was a “cultural disaster” and defended the Trump administration’s proposal to erase recognition of transgender identities in federal law because LGBTQ protections “go against legislative intent and biology.”  

 A litany of other extreme anti-LGBTQ activists also signed the letter, including: 

 Rick Scarborough of Vision America, who said he’d burn himself alive to oppose marriage equality.  

Janet Porter of Faith2Action, the architect of Ohio’s anti-choice “heartbeat bills” and whose website outlines “the dangers of homosexuality.”  

Sandy Rios of the American Family Association, an anti-LGBTQ hate group, who believes LGBTQ people are “disordered” and incapable of serving in the military.
Scott Lively, who believes homosexuality was responsible for the Nazi Party and is best known for advocating for Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” law.  

Steven Hotze and Dave Welch, two of the engineers of Texas’ anti-LGBTQ movement.
Gordon “Dr. Chaps” Klingenschmitt, former Republican member of the Colorado House of Representatives, who frequently denigrates same-sex couples, has called intimacy between same-sex couples “cooperating with the devil,” and who has claimed same-sex couples “recruit” young children through adoption to abuse them sexually.  

Matt Barber and Peter LaBarbera, virulent opponents of gay rights. LaBarbera earned nickname “Porno Pete” from equality activists because of his penchant for videorecording kink festivals in an attempt to demonstrate the debauchery of the gay community.  

William Owens, who heads up the astroturf “Coalition of African-American Pastors,” a small group designed as part of an anti-marriage equality strategy to “drive a wedge between gays and blacks.”  

Brian Camenker of MassResistance (an anti-LGBTQ hate group), who believes anti-LGBTQ Christians like himself are being treated just like the Jews in Nazi Germany. 

So I guess according to these people, Jesus hates gay people, but loves white supremacists.

And here is their letter defending King.