Politics makes strange bedfellows, and here is another shining example.
Anti-gay activists have hit the trifecta of racism, antisemitism, and homophobia with newly recognized allies David Duke, Rev. Ted Pike, and Peter LaBarbera.
Rev. Ted Pike makes claims against Jews on his website in the name of Jesus, while Duke not only pushes “white civil rights” and caters to white supremacists, but has published his own “bestselling” take on what he calls “Jewish Supremacism.” Peter LaBarbera aligns himself with this man while claiming to know the truth about what happened when a gay young man called out another young man for making a homophobic remark.
Here’s how they’re all connected: David Duke’s website features a retelling of the incident by Rev. Pike, who encourages people to take up his cause and protest the prosecution of the perpetrator. LaBarbera takes him up on this cause on his own website, encouraging others to do the same, all the while benignly referring to Pike as a “pro-family activist.”
World Net Daily reports their own view of the incident, quoting LaBarbera’s qualms:
“The true danger of hate-crimes laws is selective prosecution and unequal protection under the law. If a homosexual were to push an obnoxious Christian onto the ground, or things got out of control after a verbal spat, would he be facing a felony hate-crime conviction and possible jail time in Champaign, Ill., right now?” LaBarbera asked.
The answer is “yes,” because religion is protected under hate crimes laws. If a gay person were to assault a Christian because they saw them praying on the street or because they saw them wearing a crucifix, this would count as anti-Christian violence and therefore be a hate crime. The same thing would count if a gay person assaulted a Jew for wearing a skullcap or a Muslim exiting a Mosque.
There exists here a practical conflict for evangelical Christians seeking to convert Jews out of “love”, especially Christian Zionists: it does their cause no good when their own kind end up aligning themselves with anti-Semites.
UPDATE:
Peter LaBarbera has responded to Box Turtle Bulletin, Pam’s House Blend, and XGW for our coverage of this issue:
I cited Ted Pike in my original article on this case because, as one who has crusaded against “hate crimes” laws, Pike was the first to bring the VanAsdlen story to national attention (in a mass email) — not because I agree with the thrust of his website (or Duke’s). Like most evangelicals, I abhor anti-Semitism and in fact am quite the hawk on defending Israel. I also decry racism and, of course, white nationalism, “white pride,” etc. [emphasis mine]
As if to prove how un-racist he is, Peter then goes on to talk of what a tragedy it is that gays have “hijacked” the civil rights movement, which in his mind, belongs to African Americans ONLY.
It’s good to see that Peter “abhors” anti-Semitism, but I also hope he understands is that his evangelical support of Israel (or, “Christian Zionism”) is not the same thing as supporting Judaism.
LaBarbera’s question isn’t even hypothetical. Over 100 anti-Christian hate crimes were reported from 2000-2005 in the US.
See here.
I hate it when “professionals” can’t even do some basic research.
Ephilei, LaBarbera is an “occupied” man researching into every latex fetish scene he could find in gay clubs. He seems to have no time in studying it at straight clubs.
you all got Peter really upset. did you see his post today? LOL.
he defended his usage of Ted Pike’s info saying that Pike was the first to point it out in a mass mailing. Was Peter on that mailing list?
I’m just asking.
That’s a good question. I just read his post; the entire thing could be replaced more concisely with WHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
I’ll never understand how grown men and women can take anything LaBarbera says seriously. My only solace is the number of people I’ve run across from “the other side” of this issue that truly can’t stand him. I’m hoping they will begin saying that in public soon.
LaBarbera is probably too blinded by Zionism, but most of the rest of the world has come to believe Israel is now operating a Gaza as a prison camp based on anti-Arab racism. Or maybe he doesn’t care since he doesn’t believe in hate crimes.
That might be a bit strong, and quite unsupported. Let’s stick to what we know — there is plenty of that already 😉
Peter LaB asked if there were any ex blacks out there. That was easy. I cited a book by Shirley Heslip on the very subject of ex blacks, or light blacks who left the black lifestyle under Jim Crow and never contacted black family again.
All he has to do is google books on blacks passing and he’d find out.
The point isn’t that people pass to avoid those in a majority who threaten your life and freedom, it’s about laws that threaten lives and freedoms.
So it is HE that insults black people (especially gay black people) and insults the fact that homosexuality has been around longer than his or anyone else’s religion and transcends all human life.
He insults those of us with a far more comprehensive education in American history because Jim Crow was ALL about white fear of black sexuality, not fear of black color.
I pointed to Gunnar Myrdal’s first research on that.
So, I gave him references that easily refute his bullshit, and I don’t know why he makes it SO easy. Is his nose so far up his ass that he can’t see the mountains for his entrails?
I have my own form of hate. I’ll admit it. I HATE STUPID PEOPLE!
There, I said it.
The thing about Petey boy and Matt Barber is they ARE so stupid, or at least they think who they are talking to is.
Treating you like an idiot seems to be the response of choice of our detractors and THEIR followers. I can handle it.
And out of any of them, I’m the one who can claim intimate and varied social interaction with ACTUAL gay and transgendered folks.
People that Petey and Matty are scared of.
Even as a black woman I find plenty of validity in the civil rights parallels.
How Peter LaB as a white man insulated from his own subject thinks HE knows about that too, is just part of his irrational squeamer factor.
He’s so pathetic. I wonder if he’ll look up the ex black thing and get back to me?
Regan, thank you so much for bringing your knowledge of “ex-blacks” to the table. Being white, I can’t really touch upon the racial issue as much as you, a black woman, can. I think it was a niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that said, “I’ve met an ex-gay. I’ve never meet an ex-black.” I’m glad you can effectively bring that subject to the table, unlike LaBabs, who would rather fill his hours learning more about gay sex than I, a gay person, would ever want to know.
Emily K, I met two ex blacks in my own family. My maternal grandfather and his siblings were VERY light skinned. Grandpa looked like Henry Fonda. His sisters had long hair, and two of his sisters were fair skinned red heads.
It was they who would regale the family with stories about ‘walking the white side’. Just a little day tripping into life without Jim Crow by pretending they were white.
Unsuspecting white people would say and do things that were very hurtful and inconsiderate and my aunts couldn’t tolerate their disguise for long.
They fully embraced their lives as black women from the day to day. However, several of my relatives of that generation were clinically depressed and a good deal of it was because of the conditions under JC. I’ve also observed that those with that depression were also the strongest personalities. The ones who were far more likely to talk back, raise resistance to white authority (and would get severely punished for it). And being women too, that aspect could be tougher in a man’s world. Such as it was prior to women’s lib.
I loved my aunts, admired their boldness and dignity. In fact, I feel that way about all of my relatives of that generation.
At any rate, a black person that says they never met an ex black, probably didn’t. As ex blacks tended to fully renounce their background and avoided blacks who might recognize their deception.
But any black person that denies light black never passed to be able to have the freedom that whites did would be lying sacks of skin.
And I DARE any black person to say that’s never happened.
Passing for white, is as terrible a burden as a closeted gay person can carry. And with similar consequences regarding loss of job, family or any other standing.
Light blacks passing are closeted blacks, if not ex blacks.
This is the price of bigoted and discriminatory institutions. Those that invent and implement them, cannot judge those threatened by those institutions liars for deceiving to escape them.
Jews in anti Semitic environments can relate too. There are ex Jews. But the reasons are important. In Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia, one could understand a person that if they had the choice, would have stayed Jewish.
Same for light blacks had freedom been realized regardless of their color.
So the ex gay industry is empircally disingenuous, given the environment so many young gay people find themselves in to say that become ex gay is a choice. It isn’t in this time.
But once gay equality is a fully realized situation, I doubt a gay person would want to be anything other than gay.
Anti gay sentiment has much in common with any other bigoted institution. So this alliance isn’t surprising. They need to find a coalition of the willing to put Jim Crow like policies back into the American lexicon because that’s what SUPREMACY is all about.
It doesn’t have to be about color or gender, but the supremacy these men feel is their birthright.
They are bullies and liars. And count on fear and ignorance to further themselves.
Gay folks, Jews…whoever, don’t use fear, but intergrated cooperation to win.
That in itself is how one can judge the moral soundness of how we try to reach the public, and Peter LaB doesn’t.