Values Voter Summit: What Kind Of Values, Exactly?

On October 7, thousands of will gather at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC for the Value Voters Summit, an annual political conference for American social conservative activists and elected officials from across the US.

The event's Facebook page states that the Values Voter Summit is held "in the cause of family, family, and freedom." I'm not so sure that's a typo, as the VVS is hosted by the Family Research Council, the conservative Christian hate group that spends the majority of its resources advocating against LGBT rights, women's heath, sex education, embryonic stem-cell research, gambling, and pornography. All of these things, according to the Family Research Council, are a threat to family.

Or at least the FRC's definition of family, which, according to their views, must include one heterosexual man and one heterosexual woman who are married to each other, and whose values must be aligned with the Judeo-Christian worldview.

What kind of values are these folks peddling? 
Based on the statements attributed to the event's sponsors and speakers, these values are: homophobia, xenophobia, dishonesty, ignorance, denialism, Christofascism, paranoia, hysteria, oppression, discrimination, bullying, misogyny, exceptionalism, and bigotry.


The Speakers
Let's take a look at some of the event's speakers, and some examples of their values:

Tony Perkins

Tony Perkins, President, FRC Action and Family Research Council (FRC)

• Called the It Gets Better Project 'immoral' and 'disgusting.'
• Said gay teens are suicidal because they know they are 'abnormal.'
• Said gay activists are intolerant, hateful, vile, spiteful, and pawns of the Devil.
• Says homosexuality “is essentially man shaking his fist in the face of God”
• Paid $82,500 to use the mailing list of former Klan chieftain David Duke.

Representative Ann Marie Buerkle (R-N.Y.)

• Claimed that “the Obama Health and Human Services Department is planning to compile a federal health record on all U.S. citizens by 2014, and will include information on each individual’s Body Mass Index in the files.”
• Previously worked as spokesperson for militant anti-choice and anti-gay organization Operation Rescue,

Representative Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.)

Rep Vicky Hartzler

• Was dubbed the most anti-gay candidate in America by Mother Jones.
• Supported legislation which “would have allowed for prosecutors to charge women who obtained late-term abortions with murder.”
• Compared marriage equality to pedophilia, incest, and allowing three year old children drive cars.
• Said gays “shouldn’t feel bad” that she passed a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, because gays were already banned from marrying by statute.

Genevieve Wood, Vice President, Leadership for America Operations, The Heritage Foundation

• Said "Young people who are sexually confused need the facts about homosexuality. They need to know that research shows they aren't `born gay,' that there is hope for a way out of the lifestyle, and that continuing in homosexuality presents serious health risks."

Mathew Staver, Chairman, Liberty Counsel and Dean, Liberty University School of Law

• Urged public school teachers to serve as “domestic missionaries” and promote Christianity in class under the guise of instruction.
• Believes in an inmate's right to religious freedom, as long as that religion isn't something other than Christianity.



Rick Santorum

• Said that "the American Left hates Christendom. They hate Western civilization.”

Senator Rick Santorum, Republican Presidential Candidate

• Stated it is our obligation to make civil laws "comport with God's laws."
• Equated homosexuality to incest, polygamy, and man-on-dog sex.

Governor Rick Perry (R-Texas), Republican Presidential Candidate

• Compared gays to alcoholics.
• Called the BP oil spill an "act of God" that could not be prevented.
• Asked, “Would you rather live in a state like this, or in a state where a man can marry a man?”

Rep. Steve King

Representative Steve King (R-Iowa)

• Said if gays don't want to be discriminated against, they should just stay in the closet.
• Sued his home state for offering voting materials in languages other than English.
• Equated gays raising children to having them "raised in warehouses."

Governor Bob McDonnell (R-Va.)

Herman Cain

• Rolled back non-discrimination protections for gay state workers.

Herman Cain, Republican Presidential Candidate

• Said he would not appoint a Muslim in his administration.
• Said Muslims "have an objective to convert all infidels or kill them.”

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Republican Presidential Candidate

• Compared Muslims to Nazis.
• Asked, “What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]?”

Ken Cuccinelli

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R-Va.)

• Wants to see homosexuality outlawed.

Representative Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Republican Presidential Candidate

• Said of Melissa Etheridge's cancer: "This may be an opportunity for her now to be open to some spiritual things, now that she is suffering with that physical disease. She is a lesbian.”
• Said that we live in a time when "a judge will say to little children that you can't say the pledge of allegiance, but you must learn that homosexuality is normal and you should try it."

Bryan Fischer

Bryan Fischer, Director of Issues Analysis, American Family Association

• Said American Muslims have no First Amendment rights, should be banned from the U.S. military, and has called for a ban on the building of new mosques in the U.S.
• Stated that African American welfare recipients "rut like rabbits."
• Wrote that “gay sex is a form of domestic terrorism” and thinks gays and lesbians should be “disqualified from public office.
• Stated that the anti-Muslim manifesto of the right-wing Christian terrorist who killed dozens in Norway was “accurate.”
• Stated that Islam was "as racist as the KKK."
• Has made so many incendiary remarks, it's ridiculous.

Tom McClusky, Senior Vice President, FRC Action

• Accused Obama of “bullying” students by supporting efforts to combat anti-gay bullying, and claims that these efforts are forcing anti-gay students “in the closet.”

Derek McCoy, President, Maryland Family Alliance

• Declared solidarity with those who want to see homosexuality outlawed.

Brian Brown

Brian Brown, Executive Director, National Organization for Marriage

• Stated, “The One who designed marriage knew what He was doing. And we will never sit back passively and permit our own government to teach our own children a lie. Same-sex unions are not marriage. Same-sex marriage is not a civil right, it is a civil wrong.”

David Tyree, Former Wide Receiver, New York Giants

• Said that the Marriage Equality Act would "be the beginning of our country sliding toward...anarchy," and would trade his famous catch and the team's Super Bowl title to keep marriage between a man and a woman.

Gary Bauer

Gary Bauer, President, American Values

• Stated that President Obama, progressives, and Islamic terrorists all have the same agenda: to destroy America and its Judeo-Christian values.
• Believed that "anybody who had AIDS ought to die with it. That was God's punishment for them."
• Equated torture with a frat party.

Glenn Beck, Founder, Glenn Beck TV (yes that's how he's being billed.)

• On morbidly obese people: "Let them die."
• On Obama: A "racist" who has "exposed himself as a guy" with "a deep-seated hatred for white people."

Bishop Harry Jackson

Bishop Harry Jackson, Senior Pastor, Hope Christian Church

• Claims Martin Luther King, Jr. would oppose marriage equality.
• Says marriage equality is "a Satanic plot to destroy our seed"

Jason Mattera, Editor, Human Events

• Accused President Obama of using cocaine and called him "scrawny street agitator" and "jack-ass."

Lila Rose, President, Live Action

• Suggested that women should be forced to have their abortions carried out in the public square.

Dr. Kenyn Cureton, Vice President for Church Ministries, Family Research Council

Brent Bozell III

• Believes that those who do not support FRC's agenda are pawns of Satan.

L. Brent Bozell III, President, Media Research Center

• Believes 'Glee' and 'Degrassi High' are turning young children into gay "propaganda targets."

Mark Levin, Host, "The Mark Levin Show"

• Calls the National Organization of Women 'The National Organization of Ugly Women.'
• Told a female caller that her husband would be better off putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger than staying married to her.

Phyllis Schlafly

Phyllis Schlafly, Founder, Eagle Forum

• Says married women can't be raped by their husbands.
• Believes "the feminist movement is the most dangerous, destructive force in our society today."
• Blamed the Virginia Tech massacre on the university's English department.

The Sponsors
The event is heavily represented by the following organizations (those with asterisks are event sponsors):

The American Family Association*:

• Designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
• Claims "[p]rominent homosexual leaders and publications have voiced support for pedophilia, incest, sadomasochism, and even bestiality."
• Sent out mailers which read: "For the sake of our children and society, we must OPPOSE the spread of homosexual activity! Just as we must oppose murder, stealing, and adultery!" and "Since homosexuals cannot reproduce, the only way for them to 'breed' is to RECRUIT! And who are their targets for recruitment? Children!"

2 hate groups are sponsors

Family Research Council*

• Designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
• Claimed that children in gay households are at greater risk of sexual involvement with a parent.
• When American Airlines introduced domestic partner benefits, the AFA asked, "What are you going to develop next? A pedophilia market?"
• Stated that "the research is overwhelming that homosexuality poses a [molestation] danger to children."
• Claimed that “homosexuals are overrepresented in child sex offenses” and that “homosexuals are attracted in inordinate numbers to boys.”
• Claimed that “one of the primary goals of the homosexual rights movement is to abolish all age of consent laws and to eventually recognize pedophiles as the ‘prophets’ of a new sexual order."

National Organization for Marriage

• Founding president Maggie Gallagher wrote: “In a simple biological framework abstracted from all religion and morality, homosexuality is like infertility. It is a sexual disability preventing certain individuals from participating in the normal reproductive patterns of the human species.”
• Gallagher believes polygamy is better than same-sex marriage.
• Has deep ties to the Mormon Church, the Catholic Church hierarchy, and right-wing evangelical pastors.
• Have engaged in a "radical, nationwide plan to flout long-established campaign finance disclosure laws. This is nothing short of a strategic, coordinated plan to hide their political activities from voters and state offices charged with monitoring campaign spending. This effort has prompted several state investigations and resounding legal defeats for NOM."
• Are occasionally hilarious.

Liberty Counsel*

• Argued that hate crime laws are “actually ‘thought crimes’ laws that violate the right to freedom and of conscience.”
• Argued that it should be considered “criminally reckless for educators to teach children that homosexual conduct is a normal, safe and perfectly acceptable alternative.”

With values like these...
Good luck, Values Voters Summit. Your particular brand of 'values' is on the decline, and, in a few generations, will likely be extinct. Support for same-sex marriage has risen over the past two decades, soaring from 11 percent approval in 1988 to nearly 50 percent by 2010.

The number of young people who claim 'no religion' has increased drastically. Nearly a third of young people today say they have no religion. Any idea why that is?  Well, it's complex, but according to David Campbell (professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame, and author of 'American Grace: How Religion Divides Us And Unites Us'), "We have good reason to believe that the growth of the nones...is a direct reaction to the intermingling of religion and politics in the United States."

So, at the end of the day, what we have with the Values Voters Summit, is a group of dinosaurs lamenting the fact that society is moving away from the very values which are causing people to move away.

The message I have for you, Values Voters, is evolve or become extinct. Personally, I prefer to stick with my own values, and pass them along to my children. Those values are knowledge, reason, justice, compassion, and human fulfillment. These are values which, unlike yours, never dictate that I inflict harm upon, or restrict the rights of, other human beings. These values will allow us to evolve. And they will evolve with us.

The AFA's Bryan Fischer: Worst Person In The World

Bryan Fischer, Director of Issues Analysis at hate group American Family Association, has vomited up another vile tweet. Remember this one from a while back? 

We need to continue to call attention to his hateful rhetoric, and his close ties to GOP policymakers, until he is no longer welcome.  Sadly, that time doesn't seem to be coming anytime soon.

Fischer's tweet from today:

AFA's Bryan Fischer: Criminalize Homosexuality In All 50 States

The American Family Association's Douchebag-In-Chief Bryan Fischer wants to re-criminalize sodomy in all 50 states.

Is anything Bryan Fischer says surprising anymore? Hardly. He has a long history of making ignorant, hateful, and downright bizarre comments. But that doesn't mean we should stop paying attention to what he's saying.

We need to remember that Fischer has been embraced by many of the GOP's 2012 presidential candidates. His organization hosted Rick Perry's Texas prayer rally. And the AFA continues to host "policy briefings" to introduce GOP candidates to pastors.

Those who have dismissed Fischer as a fringe lunatic with no real political sway are of the same mindset as folks who dismissed Michele Bachmann as too fringe-y to have a shot at higher office.

Douchebag Of The Day: Bryan Fischer

Bryan Fischer, Director of Issues Analysis at hate group American Family Association, is a huge douchebag.  I've called attention to his insanity in these pages on a regular basis, so nothing he says is ever terribly surprising, sadly.

Fischer tweeted the following today:

It cannot be stressed enough that Fischer is not part of the lunatic fringe.  He is in bed with many high profile religious right politicians, including current Texas governor and potential President of the United States, Rick Perry (The AFA is paying for Perry's 'Response' prayer rally in Texas.)

30 Reasons Why Bryan Fischer is Dangerous and Must Be Stopped

Bryan Fischer, major douchebag

Despite his growing role as a kingmaker in Republican politics, not many people know about Bryan Fischer. His name is benign-sounding, like a cross between a chess player and a washed up 80's pop singer. But don't be fooled. This guy is arguably more dangerous than Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, and any other batshit GOP politician you could name.

The scariest thing about Bryan Fischer is that, despite the fact that he spews hateful bile on a daily basis (via his talk radio show and via his role as spokesperson for the American Family Association), GOP politicians continue to cozy up to him, and (seemingly) none of them seem to believe he should tone it down.

People for the American Way have just released a ginormous profile on Bryan Fischer entitled, The GOP's Favorite Hate-Monger: How the Republican Party Came to Embrace Bryan Fischer. It's exhaustive, and it's scary.

From PFAW's Introduction:

Responsible politicians wouldn’t fawn over an unhinged activist who opposes civil rights and religious freedom for minorities, wants to make being gay a crime and decries his personal rivals as enemies of God, right? But that is exactly what is taking place today in the Republican Party, as likely and declared GOP presidential candidates line up to win the approval of Bryan Fischer...

Fischer’s unabashed bigotry is on full display throughout his writings and on-air rants. His entire career is based on leveling venomous attacks against gays and lesbians, American Muslims, Native Americans, progressives and other individuals and groups he detests. He wants to redefine the Constitution to protect only Christians, persecute and deport all American Muslims, prohibit gays and non-Christians from holding public office and impose a system of biblical law.

While Fischer’s views are undeniably shocking, what is most disturbing is his growing influence within not only the Religious Right but also the Republican Party.

Scary stuff.

Here's a partial list, pulled from PFAW's report, of why Bryan Fischer is full-on batshit and dangerous:

1. He successfully pressured Hallmark stores in Idaho to refuse to carry greeting cards for same-sex weddings.
2. He fought legislation that would provide workplace protections for gays and lesbians.
3. He has likened gays to domestic terrorists, pedophiles, slave traders and murderers, and decried the adoption of children by gay parents as a “terrible, inexcusable, inhumane thing to do to children.”
4. He espouses the view that gays were responsible for the Nazi Party and the Holocaust. 
5. He believes that “homosexuals should be disqualified from public office,” banned from serving as judges and barred from working as teachers, and that “homosexual behavior should be against the law.”
6. He claims that bullying-prevention programs will be used for the “brainwashing” of children to make them gay, arguing that “homosexuals cannot reproduce, so they have to recruit; it’s the only way to swell their numbers.” For example, Fischer believes that the television show Glee is “glamorizing homosexual behavior” and “promoting deviant sexuality,” as well as idolatry.
7. He warned, after DADT was repealed, that the military would “now be feminized and neutered beyond repair” and insisted that “the world is now a more dangerous place for us all.” 
8. He likened African Americans to rabbits.
9. He said Native Americans cannot be considered full-fledged American citizens until they convert to Christianity.
10. He said Native Americans “remain mired in poverty and alcoholism because many native Americans continue to cling to the darkness of indigenous superstition instead of coming into the light of Christianity and assimilating into Christian culture."
11. He says American Muslims are a “toxic cancer” to American society and that Muslim Student Associations are “parasites.”
12. He urged the U.S. to ban the construction of mosques, likened mosques to IEDs, and prayed for the destruction of the Dome of the Rock. He has repeatedly claimed that Muslims are inherently dangerous, unintelligent and mentally ill due to inbreeding.
13. He believes that Muslims must be purged from the military and prohibited from enlisting, and that the U.S. not only ban Muslim immigration but also deport and expel all American Muslims.
14. He maintains that only Muslims who renounce their religion and convert to Christianity should be allowed to come into and live in the U.S. 
15. He maintains that Muslims deserve no First Amendment rights.
16. He believes that the Founding Fathers only wanted to extend rights to different Protestant denominations.
17. He denies the existence of the separation of church and state, and believes that states and localities should be allowed to establish official religions. 
18. He wants to model the U.S. justice system on the biblical law of ancient Israel (He cites Genesis to attack Muslims and uses Leviticus to demonize gays and lesbians).  
19. He says President Obama is tyrannical, anti-Christian and intentionally weakening the country so the U.S. can join “every other nation which has ignored God or kicked him to the curb.”
20. He maintains that Obama “nurtures this hatred for the United States of America” and “nurtures a hatred for the white man.”
21. He believes that progressives are “unpatriotic” and “un-American,” arguing that they want to muzzle Christians and overthrow the Constitution in order to advance their social and political agenda.
22. He blamed Sarah Palin’s unpopularity on actual demonic forces that emerged from the political left, calling criticism of Palin “unvarnished demonic evil on full display” and “pure homicidal rage and hate.” He made clear that his charges of demonic conspiracy were not metaphorical.
23. He urged right-wing activists to have more children in order to give conservatives a numerical advantage in the political and cultural battles of the future.
24. He demands that the government “close down Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and welfare,” claiming that Social Security and Medicare represent an “an ungodly and unconstitutional recipe for national suicide.” 
25. He insists that the only difference between progressives and terrorists is that “so far [progressives] haven’t taken to killing people”
26. He demanded, following the tragic news that the SeaWorld whale Tilikum had killed a trainer, that the whale be put to death. He claimed that the courts should use the “ancient civil code of Israel” in dealing with Tilikum.
27. He blamed a deadly attack by a grizzly bear in Yellowstone Park on the fact that American “culture has jettisoned a biblical view” of animals, and called it a sign that God is punishing America.
28. He maintains that Christians should not vote for any candidate who supports gay rights in any form because, he says, homosexuality is an “abomination in the nostrils of God” that “no rational society should ever endorse.”
29. He said that gays should be “ashamed” and “embarrassed,” contends that the “deviancy cabal” is responsible for suicide among gay youth and that “homosexual activists are not wholly innocent in these tragedies.
30. He says the separation of church and state is an idea straight out of Nazi Germany.

It's very easy for progressives and moderates to look at Bryan Fischer and assume that someone with these ideas would never be taken seriously, much less garner serious political clout.  Those people are forgetting that the same thing has been said about potential GOP presidential candidates Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum, who have been mocked endlessly by the left.

Ben Adler wrote of Bryan Fischer's growing influence in Newsweek:

You might think that attention in the form of mockery is not what a public-policy organization would want. But when your business is waging a culture war, there is no such thing as bad publicity for ideological or rhetorical extremism. Being criticized by liberals in the media raises the profile of a socially conservative organization, and burnishes its credibility among the base. Just ask Sarah Palin, or her fans.

Fischer's radio show is distributed on over 200 stations across the country, and reaches over 2 million listeners. While that may seem like chicken scratch compared to Limbaugh or Beck, Fischer's show attracts some of the GOP's biggest names. Guests on Fischer's show include: Herman Cain, Mike Huckabee, Tim Pawlenty, Haley Barbour, Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, Jim DeMint, Jim Inhofe, Roger Wicker, Lamar Smith, Steve King, Jack Kingston, etc., etc.

Many of these GOP figures have expressed support for Fischer's bigotry and extremism, even making campaign promises to Fischer to enact legislation supporting some of his views, or to repeal certain legislation he disagrees with.

Aside from the realization that more people think like Bryan Fischer than one would imagine, is the scariest realization of all: This man might actually run for president one day.

The Batshit Files: News Roundup | 6.15.11

 A whole buttload of crazy:

• Citing the Bible, a government recreational facility in Kentucky forced two gay males with developmental and intellectual disabilities to leave the premises. (KYEquality)

• Family Research Council: Gay-straight alliances make kids unhealthy (Right Wing Watch)

• Rick Perry says he's a prophet and that's why Texans don't like him much. (Houston Press)

• American Family Association's Bryan Fischer: Gay adoption is a "social disaster." (Right Wing Watch)

• More than 70,000 so-called "moral police" officers have been deployed in Tehran to enforce a government approved dress code. (Al Jazeera)

• Southern Baptists still totally (and officially) believe in Hell. (Associated Baptist Press)

• Rush Limbaugh is launching his own line of tea, featuring Limbaugh as Paul Revere on the label. (Raw Story)

• Tea Party camp. For kids. Really. (Crooks & Liars)

• Texas Republican says it is ‘very insulting’ to use Spanish in his presence. (Raw Story)

• Glenn Beck, huge Ayn Rand fan, despises Ayn Rand. (Huffington Post)

Bryan Fischer: Gays Responsible For The Nazi Party

Bryan Fischer, total dickhead

Bryan Fischer, of the American Family Association (the hate group sponsoring Gov. Rick Perry's prayer and fasting rally) wants to clear something up.

He never once said that gays were responsible for the HOLOCAUST. He said that the gays were responsible for the NAZI PARTY (which was responsible for the Holocaust).

Remember, folks! Bryan Fischer will be praying for America alongside Texas governor and potential GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry on August 6 at the seven-hour fasting and prayer-fest, Response: A Call to Prayer For a Nation in Crisis. 

The Batshit Files: News Roundup | 5.18.11

Your daily bucket o' crazy:

• Kirk Cameron says Stephen Hawking is wrong about Heaven: "Why should anyone believe Mr. Hawking's writings if he cannot provide evidence for his unscientific belief that out of nothing, everything came?" Yes, Kirk, why would anyone believe something without evidence? Oh, wait. (TMZ)

• Harold Camping, the Christian broadcaster and President of Family Radio, the group claiming The Rapture is coming Saturday May 21, explains how it's all because of gay people. (Towleroad)

• The AFA's Bryan Fischer stated on his radio show that gays are literally Nazis and that they will "do the same thing to you that the Nazis did to their opponents in Nazi Germany." What a dick. (Right Wing Watch)

•  The following words actually came out of Newt Gingrich's mouth: “Any ad which quotes what I said on Sunday is a falsehood.” Is he a Jedi? (Firedoglake)

• Texas Governor and complete douchebag Rick Perry could make a run for president. *shudder*  (Religion Dispatches)

Bryan Fischer (American Family Association): Obama Hates America and White People

Bryan Fischer, weighing in on the whole Common silliness, provides further evidence that he is completely batshit:

The AFA Wants You To BUYCott Chick-Fil-A

In response to the criticism and boycotts of Chick-Fil-A due to their ties to anti-gay causes, The American Family Association is asking you to BUYcott Chick-Fil-A.

What exactly is a BUYcott, you ask?

It is collectively showing appreciation for a company by purchasing their products or services – the opposite of a boycott.

The AFA isn't buying that those boycotting Chick-Fil-A are not keen on supporting a restaurant with ties to bigoted anti-gay groups. In fact, there is a "culture war going on here in America," according to AFA president Tim Wildmon. "There are people who want to change our country for the worse."

You get the sense that there's more to this attack on Chick-fil-A than meets the eye. And you're right. There is. Chick-fil-A operates on Biblical principles and that irritates secularists.

For Example:

• Chick-fil-A plays Christian music in its restaurants ... exclusively. 

• Chick-fil-A closes all its locations on Sunday ... no exceptions.

• Chick-fil-A's stated corporate purpose is: 1) To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us; and 2) To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chickfil-A.

 *Sigh* You're on to us, Tim.  We're pissed that they give their employees a day off on Sundays.  We despise the good service, clean facilities, and that damned Christian music that I've never noticed once in my entire life of patronizing Chick-Fil-A.

It's about the hate, Tim. Chick-Fil-A has deep ties to anti-gay organizations like Focus on the Family and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Its charitable division, The WinShape Foundation has provided more than $1.1 million to groups that deliver anti-LGBT messages and promote unsound and demeaning practices like reparative therapy that seeks to "cure" homosexuals.