The Cheering Section

Conservative Admirers of the Antis . . . their passions and their quarrels

While most of the right-wing institutes and religious groups in these links agree in a general sense on a wide range of hot-button issues, their unity often dissolves into disputes. They invoke a complex skein of Bible citations to prove themselves religiously correct -- but it seems likely these splits are the result of intense competition for market share. Nowadays they express their opposition to abortion in more moderate tones, lest they be identified with the arsonists, bombers and snipers.

For their part, the extremists delight in denouncing the moderates.

Denunciations of Conservatives in General

Conservatism is Pretend Salt! Flip Benham, head of Operation Save America declares "Not only are we being trampled under the feet of sworn enemies of our Lord who support abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, ad nauseum, we are also being trampled under the feet of another so-called friend - CONSERVATISM!"
Incrementalsim - A Lie from the Pit of Hell! Flip Benham urges his followers not to accept any partial solutions, like parental notification, parental consent, and the partial birth abortion ban. To support any of these would be to allow that some abortions are permissable.

Prolife Groups denounce Prolife Groups

American Family Association Severs Ties With Operation Rescue National "the separation occurred as a result of the disruptive presence of ORN participants inside the Federal Courthouse in Orlando on June 2 while an AFA staff attorney presented a case involving ORN's activities in the Orlando area . . . ."

Missionaries to the Preborn Condemn Campaign Against "Partial-birth Abortion" MTP takes the hard core position: if you focus your opposition only on one type of abortion, you tacitly endorse most abortions.

Neville Chamberlain Award The website of the extremist Army of God critcizes Fr. Frank Pavone for having offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of "fugitives wanted for abortion clinic shootings."

Operation Rescue Holier Than Jerry Falwell

WELCOME TO THE GENTLE REVOLUTION: Jailed in Lynchburg. Operation Rescue National's own April, 1998 newsletter account of Flip Benham's trespassing conviction and jailing in Lynchburg, VA. The article mentions that 300 students from Liberty University had participated in the demonstration.

LIBERTY UNIVERSITY: Falwell Denounces Operation Rescue A May 18, 1998 article in Christianity Today reports that the Reverend Mr. Jerry Falwell denounced demonstrators from Operation Rescue as "thugs and thieves" after they accused Falwell's Liberty University of selling child pornography.

Homosexuality vs. Christianity…Should we build bridges or storm the gates? In an October, 1999 article, Flip Benham, the Director of Operation Rescue, condemns Jerry Falwell for meeting with gay and lesbian Christians.

Fading Back . . .

VCY/America (VCY = "Voice of Christian Youth") With corporate headquarters in Milwaukee, it has radio and TV stations in these Wisconsin cities: Milwaukee, Tomah, Oshkosh, Eau Claire. In Kansas: Fort Scott and Salina, and in Gregory, South Dakota. Satellite feed supplies radio and TV programming to many more stations around the US. For years they supported extremist antiabortion positions and often showed videos of dismembered fetuses. They provided many programming hours a week to antiabortion extremists. VCY lost heavily in two lawsuits based on their circulating reckless statements cooked up by the antis. In October of 2000 they ceased to carry any further programming directly tied to Milwaukee antis, choosing to fill the time-slots with topics like "Heart Healthy Eating" and Coast Guard tips on safe boating.

Though this "Christian" media empire was for years generous to a fault with the street activists, now the pious institution must suffer denunciations from its former pets.

Missionaries to the Preborn continue to function in Milwaukee, but the most recent reference to them on WVCY's website is from August of 2000.

Row among nation's religious broadcasters January 22, 2002 - Arch conservative columnist Joseph Farah reports that the incoming president of the National Religious Broadcasters wants to dissociate NRB from the far right. Among those mentioned as far right: Vic Eliason of WVCY radio and TV.

Insufficiently Homophobic

The Rutherford Institute Publicizes right-wing complaints about loss of religious liberties and provides legal assistance. Example: "Can a pro-life pharmacist be forced to dispense prescription drugs that cause abortions? If the pharmacist works at K-Mart, the answer is yes." "For now, K-Mart continues to sell drugs that kill unwanted babies." The Rutherford Institute represented Paula Jones in her suit against President Bill Clinton. VCY/America (see their link above) dropped programming connected to the Rutherford Institute because the latter had allegedly developed a "soft" line on homosexuals.

"Jones' Lawyer Kinder, Gentler?" Article from Gay/Lesbian publication planetout.com. Quotes John Whitehead, the head of the Rutherford Institute: "About 95% of my opinion on the whole gay thing started changing a while ago. I was working with some gay people on a video project and I talked to them and started reading about the subject, and I saw that not only was I wrong but a great majority of evangelicals are out to lunch on the subject. Christ would not have been that way," he said, adding, "Homophobia is wrong."

Once Righteous Warriors, the PKs are now Servants of Evil

By sticking closely to a central task of converting as many men as possible to Christianity, the Promisekeepers offend reactionary social activists.

The Official Promisekeepers Homepage "Men Transformed Worldwide." One recent formulation of their mission: "to help bring a million men to Jesus in the next two years."
Have We Forgotten? July 4, 2002 - Recently Operation Save America approached the Promisekeepers organization, asking if OSA could pay to put up an information table about prolife activites at a coming Promiskeepers rally. The PK's said "No." That would be "too controversial." The leader of Rescue Rochester, an affiliate of OSA, poses the question: "will we seek to walk the broad road of modern reason and compromise, as many of our evangelical leaders and ministries such as Promise Keepers encourage us; looking to win many while risking nothing?"
JUST PREACH THE GOSPEL - And Other Out of Balance Statements - "Just preach the gospel. Just preach the gospel. Just preach the gospel. Just preach ... oh. I’m sorry. Was I droning? I must have slipped into the mantra of the average separatist Christian. Babies are being murdered!" Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue condemns as "separatist" anyone who ignores activism in favor of piety.
Aren't Christians Just Supposed to Preach the Gospel? Why Protest Against Abortion? "Abortion is a Gospel issue."
Have We Forgotten? Rescue Rochester recently asked the Promise Keepers to permit them to place a prolife table at a PK meeting. PK felt it would be "too political."

Cal Thomas' Stock Plunges!

Treachery in Our Midst Randall Terry, founder of "Operation Rescue," denounces Cal Thomas at great length, with lots of quotes from scripture. "It is with grief I tell you that we are once again being betrayed and sold out to our ethical, cultural and political opponents - by Christian leaders. There is treachery in our midst." "These are those that misuse God's Word like a surgeon's knife to castrate us of our will to fight, and disembowel us of our hope for victory." And so forth, in a document that is 60K long.

The Christian Coalition: Soft on Abortion!

The Christian Coalition They style themselves "America's Leading Grassroots Political Organization - Fighting for America's Families." On their list of "Legislative Issues": The Partial Birth Abortion Ban, The Unborn Victims of Violence Act, The Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. Yet the hardcore antis give them no respect.

Pat Robertson's brain abortion Ultra-conservative columnist Joel Miller accuses Pat Robertson of having "played patty cake with Peking's policy of forced abortion to control its swelling population."

Pat and Politics December 7, 2001 - "Pat Robertson's decision to step down as president of the Christian Coalition and leave politics is good news for Christians, especially conservative Christians." Recounts some of the goofier moments in Pat's long career.

Christian Coalition in crisis as Robertson quits politics December 7, 2001 - His most disastrous miscalculation: claiming September 11 to be God's punishment on America.

Conservative Christians losing power, interest in political arena October 12, 2002 - The Philadelphia Inquirer describes the Christian Coalition's annual political meeting in Washington, DC: "It failed to draw any top Bush administration officials, and members of Congress who did attend spoke to a half-empty hall."

The American Center for Law and Justice ACLJ is a "law firm and educational organization dedicated to the promotion of pro-liberty, pro-life and pro-family causes." They defend antiabortion protesters and the right to public postings of the ten commandments.

Justice Foundation Home Page "The Justice Foundation is the abortion malpractice and pro-life outreach website of the Law Firm of Attorney Claudia Rich Hojnowski."

Focus on the Family with Dr. James Dobson Has an annual budget three times the size of that of the better known Christian Coalition. Founder and President, Dr. James Dobson, is both an ordained minister and a psychologist. While FOF is certainly on the political right and opposed to abortion, they don't indulge in shocking rhetoric and pictures of the subject of abortion, thus permitting themselves to be outflanked on the right by the likes of VCY/America and various antiabortion activists, like Missionaries to the Preborn.

Focus on Family cuts back February 6, 2003 - Donations are down, so FOTF has cut $5 million from its budget and laid off 34 employees.

Concerned Women for America Headed by Beverly LaHaye. A "News Flash" dated October, 1998 advises "Higher education seeks deeper indoctrination of leftist views. Expressions of faith may violate a university’s speech code." In other words, they're all stirred up because some colleges have put limits on verbal gay-bashing.

Republican National Coalition for Life Since the November 3, '98 congressional election, they've been feeling blue, because the masses let them down. The Coalition senses "a serious disconnect between so-called religious people and their biblical roots."

Eagle Forum - Phyllis Schlafly "Leading the pro-family movement since 1972" Ms. Schlafly asserts that the Declaration of Independence is America's Greatest Religious Document. She enumerates the various references to a Creator God and Divine Providence. Yet she is curiously silent on the most obvious omission: nowhere does the Declaration contain the words "Jesus" or "Christ" or "Savior" or "Redeemer."

Liberty Counsel "Liberty Counsel is a nonprofit civil liberties education and legal defense organization established to preserve religious freedom." They have represented Jews For Jesus, anti-abortion protesters, rights to prayer in public schools, and "family values" issues.