Opening Insights
A PJ Media article written by Tyler O’Neil, (contribution by Alexandra Bruell), dated August 23, 2017, outlined the treatment of Christian groups and organizations who dare to go against the liberal mold.
Informational Insights
On Tuesday, D. James Kennedy Ministries (DJKM) filed a lawsuit against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the charity navigation organization GuideStar, and Amazon for defamation, religious discrimination, and trafficking in falsehood. The SPLC listed DJKM as a "hate group," while GuideStar also categorized it in those terms, and Amazon kept the ministry off of its charity donation program, Amazon Smile.
"We embarked today on a journey to right a terrible wrong," Dr. Frank Wright, president and CEO at DJKM, said in a statement Tuesday. "Those who knowingly label Christian ministries as 'hate' groups, solely for subscribing to the historic Christian faith, are either woefully uninformed or willfully deceitful. In the case of the Southern Poverty Law Center, our lawsuit alleges the latter."
The SPLC has labeled DJKM an "anti-LGBT hate group" for its opposition to same-sex marriage and transgenderism. "These false and illegal characterizations have a chilling effect on the free exercise of religion and on religious free speech for all people of faith," Wright declared."After having given the SPLC an opportunity to retract, we have undertaken this legal action, seeking a trial by a jury of our peers, to preserve our own rights under the law and to defend the religious free speech rights of all Americans," the DJKM president concluded.
The lawsuit laid out charges against the SPLC, GuideStar, and Amazon. "SPLC acted knowingly, intentionally, and with actual malice in publishing the Hate Map that included the Ministry and in publishing the SPLC Transmissions to GuideStar that included the ministry," the suit alleged. "SPLC's conduct in making these publications was beyond the reckless disregard for the truth standard required by Alabama law for punitive damages."
The suit claimed that "the Ministry suffered special damages in its exclusion from the AmazonSmile program as a result of SPLC's publication of the Hate Map and the SPLC Transmissions."
Specifically, DJKM brought the suit under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for religious discrimination, under the Lanham Act for trafficking in false or misleading descriptions of the services offered under the ministry's trademarked name, and for defamation under Alabama common law arising from "the publication and distribution of information that libels the Ministry's reputation and subjects the Ministry to disgrace, ridicule, odium, and contempt in the estimation of the public."[..]
In a statement on the DJKM lawsuit, FRC's executive vice president, Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jerry Boykin, declared, "I applaud D. James Kennedy Ministries for its efforts to expose the truth about the Southern Poverty Law Center, a discredited organization that has become so controversial that even the Obama Justice Department backed away from the group.""For any reputable organization to use the Southern Poverty Law Center's hate list, is reckless, irresponsible and uniformed," Boykin added. "This is an organization that has been linked in federal court to domestic terrorism, committed against the Family Research Council, by Floyd Corkins, with information he obtained from SPLC's so-called 'hate map.'" Boykin also noted that the SPLC continues to attack Scalise, even after the attack.
The FRC director called the SPLC "an attack dog of the Left," adding that "they are not a neutral arbiter that is calling balls and strikes. They are on the field playing, pushing an agenda, and anyone who opposes them is slandered and slapped with a hate label."
"It is important to remember that the SPLC is the same group that identified Dr. Ben Carson as a hatemonger because of his Christian values," Boykin noted, adding that the group only removed the label after a public backlash. "This is wrong. It's not the American way. The SPLC is inciting hatred against Christians, which has already led to violence. It needs to stop."
In July, DJKM released a video entitled "Profits of Hate," a program that was broadcast on various stations that month and will be broadcast again in September.Scalise Shooter "Liked" the Terror-Linked SPLC, Which Repeatedly Attacked Scalise
"What are some issues that need to be addressed that represent significant existential threats to religious freedom and to Christian ministries like ours that try to proclaim the Gospel faithfully?" DJKM President Wright wondered in an interview with The Christian Post last month. "The Southern Poverty Law Center was at the top of our list."
The SPLC's "attempt to redefine historic Christian teaching as hate speech is so insidious and had the potential for having such a damaging effect on the cause of Christ that we put it at the top of our list," Wright said.The DJKM president lamented that the SPLC will "call hate anything that departs from a progressive liberal socialist ideology. If you support traditional marriage, you're a hater. If you support the sanctity of human life, you're a hater. But also if you support immigration reform, you're a hater. If you're concerned about Islamic radicalism, you're a hater."
While DJKM is a Christian ministry, the implications of the SPLC smear campaign go far beyond the issue of religious freedom. If the SPLC will smear with "hate" labeling any conservative organization, and if GuideStar and AmazonSmile will blindly follow their lead, free speech will become a dead letter.
Source: https://pjmedia.com/faith/2017/08/23/d-james-kennedy-ministries-sues-splc-guidestar-and-amazon-for-defamation/
Possibilities for Consideration
- What if there is a way to support religious rights and tolerance in a diplomatic and responsible manner?
- What if there is a way to secure free speech and ensure it is respected and not misused?
Add Your Insight
To suppress free speech is a double wrong.
It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS