The American Family Association periodically employs exgay Stephen Bennett as a writer and activist, and supplies Exodus International with much of its antigay “news” through the misnamed “Agape Press” nameplate.
In a fund-raising “petition” dated and e-mailed today:
AFA anti-Ford “petition” (PDF file)
the AFA dehumanizes same-sex-attracted persons and their families and supporters by repeatedly referring to them as “homosexuals.” While an isolated reference to the noun might be sensible, AFA persistently uses the word alone, without modifiers. The objective of this tactic is to reduce people to nothing more than their sex drives — and then to project that smear onto same-sex-attracted persons, falsely accusing them of defining themselves solely by their sexual attractions or conduct.
If the smear tactic stopped there, AFA could already be condemned for savaging human souls, reducing decent people (including Christians) to smut. Tthis is what AFA — and its allies, Exodus and Stephen Bennett — consider Christian “ministry.”
But the tactic does not stop there: The head of AFA, Don Wildmon, has a long history of asserting that only one word — “sodomites” — is truly appropriate for people who either struggle with, or responsibly manage, same-gender attraction.
So long as Exodus and Stephen Bennett affirm AFA’s desecration of other people, their own credentials as “Christians” are questionable at best.
Postscript: In the fine print at the end of the “petition,” the AFA attempts to profit further from the 2001 video titled “It’s Not Gay,” which was hosted by an antigay activist — Michael Johnston — who in 2003 shut his organization when it was disclosed that he was deliberately exposing people to the HIV virus.
We have a woman here in Rhea county whom I refer to as “Ms. June” whom I would classify as our local “bigot in residence.” She always refers to gays as “sodomites” in her letters to the editor of our local paper. I mention some of her antics in this post.
Now, if you really want a lesson in name calling you ought to go over to my “Satanic blog” yup, that’s what they called it and read some of my interactions with members of the Charisma online forum. Start at the top and read down. Links are provided to their part of the discussion. Wow!
oops, that Satanic blog link doesn’t work, I didn’t include the www. Well, you know where I am, just click on my name below. Thanks.
Mike,
The first line in the letter says “..a shareholder resolution forbidding Ford to promote homosexual marriage..”. But the resolution isn’t about homosexual marriage. It is to change Ford’s workplace nondiscrimination policies.
The resolution is “that Ford Motor Company amend its written equal employment opportunity policy to exclude any reference to privacy issues related to sexual interest, activities, or orientation”. Interstingly, this would NOT exclude Ford from fully funding the fight for marriage equality, it it so wanted. Yet Wildmon claims that it would “…force Ford to stop the promotion of homosexual marriage…”.
He claims that the boycott is “…because of Ford’s support for homosexual marriage.” Yet none of the complaints on the AFA website can directly show support by Ford for “homosexual marriage”. The closest they get is to groups (like GLAAD) that while not actively involved in the marriage equality fight do support it in principle.
I’m willing to give the benefit of doubt where there is doubt. But this repetitious deceitful linkage of Ford and “homosexual marriage” isn’t a mistake, an ooopsie, a typo, or a misunderstanding. And Donald Wildmon doesn’t truly believe that Ford Motor Company advocates for gay marriage.
Donald Wildmon is deliberately using anti-gay-marriage sentiment to attact the employment of gay people. And he’s willing to make claims that are false to try and come up with linkage that he know’s does not exist.
Talk about seeing the trees but missing the forest … thanks.