While necessity is the mother of invention, sloth and envy beget
mediocrity and upheaval – the twin siblings of
secular-socialism.
It is in this vein that a rebellious and
increasingly violent spirit of incoherent
anarchy continues to fester in urban centers
across the nation. This is most evident in the
form of the envy-driven "Occupy wherever"
nonsense embraced by the "progressive"
establishment.
Still, this Obama-supported effort to supplant,
through lawless imposition, our free-market
constitutional republic with some misguided
conception of an outcome-based equalitocracy is
rooted in much more than just good old-fashioned
class warfare.
Part and parcel of secular-socialism is
secularism. It's fascinating in its
predictability. Wherever you find an
entitlement-minded Marxist, you're likely to
find a "progressive," counter-biblical moral
relativist.
Case in point: The "Occupy D.C." protesters, who
have squatted – in more ways than one – at
Washington's McPherson Square, have posted a
list of rules by which "occupants" are expected
to abide. Rule No. 10 requires that folks not
"assume anyone's gender," but, instead, "go with
gender-neutral pronouns" like "comrade." (Who
knew that a so-called "99 percent" of Americans
were gender-bending commies?)
Indeed, the opposite of order is disorder. While
rebelling against the natural order – whether
related to economic liberty or issues
surrounding transcendent moral values – many of
the less stable elements on the left are
exhibiting an increased willingness to move
beyond mere disorder to outright violence.
Examples of such violence continue to mount. But
beyond the fiery "Occupy" riots in Oakland, and
the shootings, murders, rapes and thousands of
arrests occurring throughout the dozens of
disease-riddled "Occupy" chaos camps around the
country, a less publicized example of left-wing
violence took place last month in Illinois.
The "Gay Liberation Network" – a militant
homosexual activist group of self-described
"Trotskyites" – announced that it would be
protesting an award ceremony held at the
Christian Liberty Academy, an Arlington Heights,
Ill., church and school. In the past, when GLN
has protested this particular event, Christian
attendees have been spat upon and even
physically threatened by protesters.
This time, things got worse. The night before
the event someone threw two paver bricks through
the church's plate glass doors with a dire
warning: "This is just a sample of what we will
do if you don't shut down Scott Lively and AFTAH.
… [F---] Scott Lively. Quit the homophobic
[s---]!"
The Christian organization, Americans for Truth
About Homosexuality (AFTAH), was giving an award
to Pastor Scott Lively, a pro-family advocate
who, in recent years, has been falsely maligned
by leftist groups and media-types like Rachel
Maddow, for supposedly supporting the death
penalty for homosexual behavior – a patently
false charge.
The assailants later posted an
al-Qaida-like statement
on the "progressive" website IndyMedia.org,
taking credit for the attack and calling it a
"consequence for hatred and homophobia in our
community." They further threatened the church,
warning that "if this event is not shut down …
the Christian Liberty Academy will continue to
be under constant attack."
Unbelievably, the threat remains posted to
this day.
Fortunately, no one has yet been hurt; however,
according to the FBI,
by definition this attack meets all the elements
of domestic terrorism.
But none of this is surprising. The flames of
violence against Lively, AFTAH and Christian
Liberty Academy were ignited long ago. On the
other end of the fuse is the Southern Poverty
Law Center (SPLC), a hard-left outfit known in
past years for monitoring true hate groups like
the KKK and neo-Nazis.
After partnering with the admittedly communist
GLN, the SPLC had declared, with much media
fanfare, both AFTAH and Lively's organization,
Abiding Truth Ministries, along with several
other highly respected Christian organizations,
official "hate groups."
This propagandist smear tactic has been
increasingly used by the SPLC in an effort to
marginalize Christian and conservative
organizations with which the group disagrees.
Unfortunately, however, we now see that this
strategy to dehumanize, can also have unintended
(presumably) consequences.
As in Illinois, the SPLC's dangerous and
irresponsible disinformation campaign can
embolden and give license to like-minded, though
less stable, left-wing extremists, creating a
climate of true hate. Such a climate is ripe for
violence. After all, these "hate groups" are
just like the KKK, right?
Despite all this, even today the SPLC has
somehow managed to maintain some level of
mainstream credibility. But as it quickly moves
further from its left-of-center moorings toward
the far fringes of left-wing extremism, its own
deceptive activities threaten to undo much of
the good for which the organization was once
recognized.
After the anti-Christian attack, Bob Schwartz,
cofounder of GLN, refused to condemn the
violence noting precisely that the victims were
"SPLC-designated hate groups." This comes as
little surprise in that Schwartz once threatened
to push AFTAH founder Peter LaBarbera into
oncoming traffic.
Still, what is a bit surprising is that, like
its GLN ally, the SPLC – a self-styled domestic
terrorist watchdog organization – has
additionally refused to condemn this overt act
of domestic terrorism.
Instead, the SPLC
released a statement,
dripping with sarcasm, that piled on the
victims. Rather than denouncing the attack, the
organization simply lamented that the violence
"only strengthened the absurd argument,
promulgated by many [Christians]" that left-wing
extremists "want to take over America and
persecute Christians."
Yes, it's official. The SPLC has abandoned all
pretense of objectivity.
And so, as left-wing violence continues to spike
in coming months, not only should we expect to
hear little about it from a sympathetic
mainstream media; we should also expect little
help from the once-respected Southern Poverty
Law Center.
Indeed, it's hard to do much about the problem
when you're a driving force behind it.
Matt Barber (@jmattbarber
on Twitter) is an attorney concentrating in
constitutional law. He serves as Vice President
of
Liberty Counsel Action.
(This information is provided for identification
purposes only.)
Memory Verse