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Sorry for being so late with this, but what with the Burmese government needing training in their interrogation techniques, and various undisclosed projects, I've been too busy to write this up until now. Sorry!
Introduction
The Family Research Council, in partnership with several other Religious Right organizations, convened the “Values Voter Summit” in Washington DC on September 22-23. The event, which organizers said drew more than 1,700 participants, was designed to energize activists for the mid-term elections and the ongoing political and cultural battles against abortion, gay rights, and church-state separation. Attendees were urged to engage in political and spiritual warfare against the forces of evil and on behalf of President Bush and candidates like Senator Rick Santorum.
Among the conference themes:
The stage itself is a TV set, decorated in red white and blue drapes, with elaborate lighting effects and logo backdrops, two huge video monitors, and a central stage with two imposing Ionic columns and twin American flags. Speakers enter from behind a curtain and walk across to the podium (Dobson referred to it as a “pulpit”) accompanied by musical introductions chosen to match their messages. The production quality is impressively high.
Testifying to how up-to-date this movement has become, the exhibits are media-savvy, with some form of CD, DVD or web-related handout in every booth. Rev. Donald Wildmon, whose ministry consists of boycotts of gay friendly corporations-- like Ford – says he can mobilize 380,000 emails, representing ten percent of his database, in a matter of days.
Day One
On the first day of the Values Voter Summit, speakers discussed embryonic stem-cell research (Sen. Brownback: "If you research and you kill a human at that stage [embryo], that human doesn't have a rest of a life"), abortion (Bishop Wellington Boone: African Americans are an "endangered species" because of "black genocide" through abortion), and the war on terror (James Dobson: "I really see that as a family issue"). But by far the greatest emphasis was placed on the dangers of the "homosexual agenda."
Jennifer Giroux of Citizens for Community Values: "The ultimate child abuse is placing a child in a gay home". Dobson asserted that the goal of advocates of same-sex marriage is to simply "bring down marriage."
And, beginning with Romney, speakers warned that equality for gays will lead to "repression" of Christians. "The homosexual agenda and [freedom of] religion are on a collision course," said Alan Sears of the Alliance Defense Fund, as Perkins added that "They know they must silence the church." Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colorado), sponsor of the federal constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, said that "If we have gay marriage, our religious liberties are gone!"
Senator says environmentalists are bug-worshippers
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) warned the crowd at the Values Voter Summit about the "attack to eliminate the conservative agenda of Evangelicals," which includes scriptural issues such as flag burning, abortion, and homosexuality. But the main thrust of his speech was a push back against environmentalism. According to Inhofe, the "smartest thing" that "liberal groups" have done is to introduce the issue of the environment to churches, and he said he was "very worried" that the majority of the audience "believe[s] global warming is real." He set out to dispell that understanding.
"It was started really by the United Nations," Inhofe's argument began. He said that the "motive" was "to try to shut down this machine called America." From there he turned to environmental terrorism, and then he jumped to "animal rights people" who say animal and human lives are "morally equal." He returned to the theme of "global governance" briefly before asking, "What does God say about this thing?" He quoted Romans' warning of those who worship "birds, and fourfooted beasts, andcreeping things." He concluded: "We have something that we know is scriptural."
Armed with this conclusion, Inhofe had harsh words for the National Association of Evangelicals, a group strongly allied with the Right which nevertheless has expressed sympaties with the environment, and NAE spokesman Richard Cizik, "the man behind this."
Only Judas cares about poverty
FRC head and seeming Dobson heir-apparent Tony Perkins gave the closing address. Annoyed by criticism from liberal Christian leaders earlier in the week, he started by mocking liberals who make “faith speeches.” “They talk about their faith, but they don’t let it get in the way of their public policy.” He seemed especially rankled by the “Red Letter Christians,” a group that held a press conference earlier in the week to call for a greater religious focus on poverty. He said the only way to address poverty is to strengthen the family. Perkins recounted the Bible story of a disciple who questioned whether an expensive perfume should have been sold to aid the poor rather than poured on Jesus, and Jesus’ response that “the poor you have with you always.” Referring to the “Red Letter Christians,” Perkins noted that it was Judas who had asked that question.
Day Two
Nothing like starting your Saturday with Sean Hannity. The Fox TV personality got a hero’s welcome. While he promised a serious talk, he couldn’t stop from entertaining by repeatedly breaking into innuendo-rich impersonations of Bill Clinton. He lamented the “troubling” nature of our public debate, saying it shouldn’t be left and right, Democratic and Republican – we should all be united in the battle of right v. wrong, good v. evil. Then he went on to deride liberals and Democratic leaders for suffering from “Bush Derangement Syndrome.”
Virtue-meister Bill Bennett seemed to surprise the crowd a bit by insisting that the Bush administration is being too tentative in conducting the war on terror. After four U.S. contractors were killed in Fallujah, the town should have been leveled.
Rev. Herb Lusk is the Philadelphia pastor whose church hosted “Justice Sunday III” – the Religious Right’s rally for then-Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.
An odd element of Lusk’s performance was his declaration that Rev. Barry Lynn, the oft-reviled-at-this-conference director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, should no longer be mentioned by name. “The enemy is out there. We know who our enemy is. The more you call the enemy’s name, the larger he becomes.” It remains to be seen if other speakers will adhere to Lusk’s declaration that Lynn has become, like Voldemort in the world of Harry Potter, He Who Must Not Be Named.
Bill Bennett, former Secretary of Education under President Ronald Reagan and author of the Book of Virtues, spoke at the Family Research Council’s Values Voters Conference on Saturday. If the audience expected him to talk about education or even the culture, they were in for a surprise. Instead, they got military advice, a theme that surfaced frequently throughout the conference.
Bennett’s brief talk bemoaned the “tentativeness” in our foreign policy today. He reminded his audience how the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war with Japan and asked “why are we so hesitant about these matters.”
Homosexuals are subhumans
Perkins also covered the now more-than-familiar territory of “radical homosexuals” who present “a clear and present danger” to religious liberty in America.
Perkins wrapped up saying that “our enemies are not people….We fight against the rulers of darkness.” He urged people to pray, prepare, and participate in the “great battle of our day.”
Katherine Harris: God rigs elections in our favor
Embattled Florida Senate candidate Katherine Harris appeared on the program between Gingrich and Perkins, offering her own faith testimony and telling people to remember that she had won two previous campaigns after being down by 30 percents. She said God would get the credit for her victory in the race. “God gave us authority and dominion over this land…God is our king, our judge our lawmaker….we have a right to claim our historic heritage.”
Ann Coulter
Coulter, while extremely popular with the crowd, seemed a bit off, rushing through her speech in order to get to the book signing table.
She did remark that the killing of doctors who provided abortions was basically the fault of the Supreme Court. She derided Supreme Court decisions that "read like newsletters from NAMBLA" and asked when the other branches of government would finally start ignoring "absurd" Supreme Court decisions. (She suggested that Bush and Congress should have ignored decisions on the rights of detainees.)
She declared the war in Iraq a "magnificent success," made light of stone-age nation and the looting that took place there ("broken pottery") and dismissed concerns about the conditions in Iraq raised by the "treason lobby."
"Faggots and Sissies"
Bishop Wellington Boone, a frequent speaker at Promise Keepers events, gave a great speech. He touted a flyer he'd written called "The Rape of the Civil Rights Movement," which he said explained how "sodomites" were hijacking civil rights to "promote perversion."
Boone recalled that as a young person, he and his friends used the words "faggot" and "sissy" to refer to people who didn't stand on principle. "God has not called us to be sissies!...I want the gays mad at me. I am not on enough of their hit lists."
The Value of a Little Strategic Dishonesty
A Saturday workshop on “Getting Church Voters to the Polls” suggested that getting the right candidate elected is more important than being honest with fellow churchgoers.
What Connie Marshner of the Leadership Institute presented was not the kind of nonpartisan voter registration and civic participation campaign that are legal for tax-exempt organizations such as churches, but a step-by-step “Church Plan” to recruit volunteers and run a campaign to identify and turnout voters for a specific candidate.
The plan starts with a voter canvas – calling through the church directory to find out which candidate people are supporting, whether they’re registered, and how likely they are to vote. “It is absolutely essential that the initial phone contact with the voter be anonymous contact,” says the manual, explaining that if the person receiving the call knows the caller, they might say what they think the caller wants to hear.
Marshner and her manual suggest having the callers pretend that they are with a polling firm. Several effeminate attendees noted that when there was some discomfort in the room about the ethics of building the campaign on deceptive calls, and workshop attendees got no good answers to questions about how a caller should respond if asked how he or she got the person’s name and phone number, Marshner moved the conversation along.
The kind of campaign Marshner presented could not be carried out by a church without violating its tax status; her plan seems designed to skirt that problem by being carried out by church members as individuals. And, it was suggested, it might be better not to get the pastor involved. A little plausible deniability to be on the safe side. Good idea.
Introduction
The Family Research Council, in partnership with several other Religious Right organizations, convened the “Values Voter Summit” in Washington DC on September 22-23. The event, which organizers said drew more than 1,700 participants, was designed to energize activists for the mid-term elections and the ongoing political and cultural battles against abortion, gay rights, and church-state separation. Attendees were urged to engage in political and spiritual warfare against the forces of evil and on behalf of President Bush and candidates like Senator Rick Santorum.
Among the conference themes:
- we’re at war abroad and at home – against the “culture of death,” gays, judges, advocates of church-state separation, etc;
- dissent from President Bush’s war on terror – including detention and torture policies – is treasonous;
- evil gays are threatening the family and religious liberty;
- the president and Congress should ignore the Supreme Court (at least until there are more right-wing justices);
- poverty isn’t all that important;
- the Religious Right is winning the culture war and has to win the political war – if not, we’re doomed.
The stage itself is a TV set, decorated in red white and blue drapes, with elaborate lighting effects and logo backdrops, two huge video monitors, and a central stage with two imposing Ionic columns and twin American flags. Speakers enter from behind a curtain and walk across to the podium (Dobson referred to it as a “pulpit”) accompanied by musical introductions chosen to match their messages. The production quality is impressively high.
Testifying to how up-to-date this movement has become, the exhibits are media-savvy, with some form of CD, DVD or web-related handout in every booth. Rev. Donald Wildmon, whose ministry consists of boycotts of gay friendly corporations-- like Ford – says he can mobilize 380,000 emails, representing ten percent of his database, in a matter of days.
Day One
On the first day of the Values Voter Summit, speakers discussed embryonic stem-cell research (Sen. Brownback: "If you research and you kill a human at that stage [embryo], that human doesn't have a rest of a life"), abortion (Bishop Wellington Boone: African Americans are an "endangered species" because of "black genocide" through abortion), and the war on terror (James Dobson: "I really see that as a family issue"). But by far the greatest emphasis was placed on the dangers of the "homosexual agenda."
Jennifer Giroux of Citizens for Community Values: "The ultimate child abuse is placing a child in a gay home". Dobson asserted that the goal of advocates of same-sex marriage is to simply "bring down marriage."
And, beginning with Romney, speakers warned that equality for gays will lead to "repression" of Christians. "The homosexual agenda and [freedom of] religion are on a collision course," said Alan Sears of the Alliance Defense Fund, as Perkins added that "They know they must silence the church." Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colorado), sponsor of the federal constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, said that "If we have gay marriage, our religious liberties are gone!"
Senator says environmentalists are bug-worshippers
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) warned the crowd at the Values Voter Summit about the "attack to eliminate the conservative agenda of Evangelicals," which includes scriptural issues such as flag burning, abortion, and homosexuality. But the main thrust of his speech was a push back against environmentalism. According to Inhofe, the "smartest thing" that "liberal groups" have done is to introduce the issue of the environment to churches, and he said he was "very worried" that the majority of the audience "believe[s] global warming is real." He set out to dispell that understanding.
"It was started really by the United Nations," Inhofe's argument began. He said that the "motive" was "to try to shut down this machine called America." From there he turned to environmental terrorism, and then he jumped to "animal rights people" who say animal and human lives are "morally equal." He returned to the theme of "global governance" briefly before asking, "What does God say about this thing?" He quoted Romans' warning of those who worship "birds, and fourfooted beasts, andcreeping things." He concluded: "We have something that we know is scriptural."
Armed with this conclusion, Inhofe had harsh words for the National Association of Evangelicals, a group strongly allied with the Right which nevertheless has expressed sympaties with the environment, and NAE spokesman Richard Cizik, "the man behind this."
Only Judas cares about poverty
FRC head and seeming Dobson heir-apparent Tony Perkins gave the closing address. Annoyed by criticism from liberal Christian leaders earlier in the week, he started by mocking liberals who make “faith speeches.” “They talk about their faith, but they don’t let it get in the way of their public policy.” He seemed especially rankled by the “Red Letter Christians,” a group that held a press conference earlier in the week to call for a greater religious focus on poverty. He said the only way to address poverty is to strengthen the family. Perkins recounted the Bible story of a disciple who questioned whether an expensive perfume should have been sold to aid the poor rather than poured on Jesus, and Jesus’ response that “the poor you have with you always.” Referring to the “Red Letter Christians,” Perkins noted that it was Judas who had asked that question.
Day Two
Nothing like starting your Saturday with Sean Hannity. The Fox TV personality got a hero’s welcome. While he promised a serious talk, he couldn’t stop from entertaining by repeatedly breaking into innuendo-rich impersonations of Bill Clinton. He lamented the “troubling” nature of our public debate, saying it shouldn’t be left and right, Democratic and Republican – we should all be united in the battle of right v. wrong, good v. evil. Then he went on to deride liberals and Democratic leaders for suffering from “Bush Derangement Syndrome.”
Virtue-meister Bill Bennett seemed to surprise the crowd a bit by insisting that the Bush administration is being too tentative in conducting the war on terror. After four U.S. contractors were killed in Fallujah, the town should have been leveled.
Rev. Herb Lusk is the Philadelphia pastor whose church hosted “Justice Sunday III” – the Religious Right’s rally for then-Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.
An odd element of Lusk’s performance was his declaration that Rev. Barry Lynn, the oft-reviled-at-this-conference director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, should no longer be mentioned by name. “The enemy is out there. We know who our enemy is. The more you call the enemy’s name, the larger he becomes.” It remains to be seen if other speakers will adhere to Lusk’s declaration that Lynn has become, like Voldemort in the world of Harry Potter, He Who Must Not Be Named.
Bill Bennett, former Secretary of Education under President Ronald Reagan and author of the Book of Virtues, spoke at the Family Research Council’s Values Voters Conference on Saturday. If the audience expected him to talk about education or even the culture, they were in for a surprise. Instead, they got military advice, a theme that surfaced frequently throughout the conference.
Bennett’s brief talk bemoaned the “tentativeness” in our foreign policy today. He reminded his audience how the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war with Japan and asked “why are we so hesitant about these matters.”
Homosexuals are subhumans
Perkins also covered the now more-than-familiar territory of “radical homosexuals” who present “a clear and present danger” to religious liberty in America.
Perkins wrapped up saying that “our enemies are not people….We fight against the rulers of darkness.” He urged people to pray, prepare, and participate in the “great battle of our day.”
Katherine Harris: God rigs elections in our favor
Embattled Florida Senate candidate Katherine Harris appeared on the program between Gingrich and Perkins, offering her own faith testimony and telling people to remember that she had won two previous campaigns after being down by 30 percents. She said God would get the credit for her victory in the race. “God gave us authority and dominion over this land…God is our king, our judge our lawmaker….we have a right to claim our historic heritage.”
Ann Coulter
Coulter, while extremely popular with the crowd, seemed a bit off, rushing through her speech in order to get to the book signing table.
She did remark that the killing of doctors who provided abortions was basically the fault of the Supreme Court. She derided Supreme Court decisions that "read like newsletters from NAMBLA" and asked when the other branches of government would finally start ignoring "absurd" Supreme Court decisions. (She suggested that Bush and Congress should have ignored decisions on the rights of detainees.)
She declared the war in Iraq a "magnificent success," made light of stone-age nation and the looting that took place there ("broken pottery") and dismissed concerns about the conditions in Iraq raised by the "treason lobby."
"Faggots and Sissies"
Bishop Wellington Boone, a frequent speaker at Promise Keepers events, gave a great speech. He touted a flyer he'd written called "The Rape of the Civil Rights Movement," which he said explained how "sodomites" were hijacking civil rights to "promote perversion."
Boone recalled that as a young person, he and his friends used the words "faggot" and "sissy" to refer to people who didn't stand on principle. "God has not called us to be sissies!...I want the gays mad at me. I am not on enough of their hit lists."
The Value of a Little Strategic Dishonesty
A Saturday workshop on “Getting Church Voters to the Polls” suggested that getting the right candidate elected is more important than being honest with fellow churchgoers.
What Connie Marshner of the Leadership Institute presented was not the kind of nonpartisan voter registration and civic participation campaign that are legal for tax-exempt organizations such as churches, but a step-by-step “Church Plan” to recruit volunteers and run a campaign to identify and turnout voters for a specific candidate.
The plan starts with a voter canvas – calling through the church directory to find out which candidate people are supporting, whether they’re registered, and how likely they are to vote. “It is absolutely essential that the initial phone contact with the voter be anonymous contact,” says the manual, explaining that if the person receiving the call knows the caller, they might say what they think the caller wants to hear.
Marshner and her manual suggest having the callers pretend that they are with a polling firm. Several effeminate attendees noted that when there was some discomfort in the room about the ethics of building the campaign on deceptive calls, and workshop attendees got no good answers to questions about how a caller should respond if asked how he or she got the person’s name and phone number, Marshner moved the conversation along.
The kind of campaign Marshner presented could not be carried out by a church without violating its tax status; her plan seems designed to skirt that problem by being carried out by church members as individuals. And, it was suggested, it might be better not to get the pastor involved. A little plausible deniability to be on the safe side. Good idea.
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