The Ruth Institute invited a few guests to participate in a discussion about Cancel Culture. Our Guests are Brian Camenker and Zachary Mettler, along with our own Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse and Don Feder. Zachary Mettler works as a staff writer and communications liaison for The Daily Citizen at Focus on the Family. In his role, he writes about current political issues, U.S. history, political philosophy, and culture. Brian Camenker is Chairman of Mass Resistance. His organization had their book removed from Amazon, and they had their credit card processing suspended.
Posted on Ruth Institute Facebook page, March 2, 2021.
The Stream’s John Zmirak saw a press commentary by pro-family activist Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse. He couldn’t quite believe his eyes, so he decided to interview her about its startling claims.
John Zmirak: I saw you put out a press release about Kamala Harris joining Bill Clintonlast week for a summit on empowering women and girls. You just made that up for April Fools, right? Kind of a tasteless joke for a Catholic pro-life leader to make in my opinion. Can’t you get your mind out of the gutter?
Jennifer Roback Morse: Sorry John. I didn’t make it up. The jokes write themselves these days. I wish I could get my mind out of the gutter. But some of our elected officials keep dragging me back there.
Sleeping Your Way to the Abyss
Okay, I’ll admit that it’s real. You might say that these people have more of an insight on the subject than most, although the wrong point of view. Kamala “dated” the married Willie Brown — old enough to be her grandpa — to sleep her way to the middle. Then she clawed her way to the top using Planned Parenthood’s money and ruthless opposition research aimed at fellow Democrats. Bill Clinton, for his part, has learned all there is to know about putting out “bimbo eruptions.”
Christianity is not just another myth, invented by primitive people to explain natural phenomenon that we can now explain through science. Jesus is the Son of the living God. No more tap dancing around this central issue.
“These are the times that try men’s souls.” Actually, these times try the souls of women and men, especially people of faith.
This current historical moment presents this challenge: Do we really believe in the truths of the faith? Let me be specific: Do we really believe Jesus rose from the dead? And what difference does it make whether we do?
It is a historic fact that Jesus of Nazareth died. He was executed by the Romans in the very public, very thorough manner for which they were well-known. There is no doubt about the death of Jesus.
On the third day after his death, people began to claim that they had seen him alive. This was not a matter of one person making a private, unconfirmed assertion. Rather, whole groups of people alleged that they had all seen him at the same time. They contended that they touched him, spoke with him and saw him consume food.
Washington D.C., Feb 2, 2021 / 09:45 am MT (CNA).- Critics of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) say the organization has become extreme and “thoroughly disgraced,” after the center released its 2020 “census of hate groups,” which included numerous pro-life and family organizations.
Since 1990, the SPLC has issued an annual list of hate groups, listing organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis. More recently, however, it has also included pro-life and pro-traditional marriage Christian organizations as “anti-LGBTQ hate groups.”
Many of these groups are well-respected, such as the Ruth Institute, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), Family Research Council, and several smaller Christian churches. …
Last year, NBC reported as scandalous that as 14 organizations designated “hate groups” by the SPLC benefited from the Paycheck Protection Program, designed to provide relief to small businesses affected by the coronavirus lockdowns. We reported on this. Did CNA get our press release and make this connection?
Among the groups listed was the Ruth Institute, a pro-life organization based in Louisiana. Its founder and president, Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, said the group faced bad publicity and unfair bias from the report.
“NBC relies on the Southern Poverty Law Center for the ‘hate group’ designation. This just means the Ruth Institute is a group the SPLC hates. Big deal. They raise a lot of money with their hate-mongering tactics. In 2018, their net assets were a half billion dollars,” Morse said.
Morse said “the Ruth Institute is a global, non-profit organization leading an international, interfaith coalition to defend the family and build a civilization of love. If fighting sex abuse, pornography, and divorce makes us a hate group, so be it.”
Last year, I interviewed Tyler O’Neill of PJ Media about his new book, Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center.” This book, and this interview, are more relevant than ever.
NBC News is doing a full-court press against pro-family organizations, with three smear pieces in the last three weeks of 2020. These stories aim to eliminate pro-family groups from polite society and routine business transactions. Even worse, these NBC News stories are scapegoating and marginalizing Christians. We are to blame, you see, for all the troubles in our troubled world.
The SPLC “Hate List”
First up: on December 9, NBC News published a story cataloguing 14 organizations on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “Hate List” that received Paycheck Protection Program forgivable loans. (Full disclosure: the Ruth Institute, which I head, is one of the 14.) The Paycheck Protection Program was designed to provide relief to small businesses affected by the government-imposed coronavirus lockdowns.
The NBC article quoted experts who mused aloud about whether the government should forgive Paycheck Protection Program loans to these “hate groups.” These experts were “troubled” by “extremist groups” receiving federal stimulus money.
NBC News’ ultimate target is not Amazon, of course. Nor is it the Paycheck Protection Program. Their ultimate target isyou and me …
To put this in perspective, the 14 groups received a total of $4.3 million. (The Ruth Institute received roughly $37,000 through the Paycheck Protection Program.) Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood affiliates received $80 million in funding, and dozens of strip clubs qualified for between $11.5 million and $27.95 million in COVID disaster relief. No word about those organizations in NBC’s breathless story.
The Ruth Institute responded by launching a petition in association with Life Petitions demanding that NBC retract the story. We also asked that they stop using the Southern Poverty Law Center as a source and issue an apology.
Anti-LGBTQ Businesses and Non-Profits
No sooner had that petition gone up, than NBC did another story, this time, focusing on “anti-gay” businesses and non-profits. They admitted that these organizations had not been designated “hate groups” by the SPLC. But, they declared, these groups have a “demonstrated track record of anti-LGBTQ advocacy or espousing an anti-LGBTQ ideology.”
The report zeroed in on two private schools that have made national news due to their “anti-LGBTQ policies — and their high-profile conservative backers.” Immanuel Christian School, a private K-10 in northern Virginia where Vice President Mike Pence’s wife teaches, and Trinity Schools, a group of private Christian schools where Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett was once a trustee, both received funding. These schools require their students and faculty to adhere to traditional Christian sexual morality. These requirements are perfectly legal (for now).
This December 12 story also targets businesses that have had high-profile legal conflicts with the LGBT establishment, among them Catholic Social Services in Philadelphia, Roncalli High School in Indianapolis and Arlene’s Flowers. The two Catholic organizations are in court defending their rights to act in accordance with their Catholic beliefs. Arlene’s Flowers is a small business that has been legally harassed since 2013. In the minds of the LGBT cheerleaders at NBC, these organizations should be beyond the pale of Paycheck Protection. Just being hauled into court by the Human Rights Campaign and the ACLU, just fighting back, is enough for these organizations to be excluded from relief every other small business is entitled to.
Scapegoating, Plain and Simple
The most insidious aspect of this article is the scapegoating in the section headed “Warped Priorities.” NBC quotes “experts” who blame Christians for the financial struggles of small businesses. According to one such expert, “It is hard to find a clearer example of the Trump administration’s warped priorities than allowing countless mom-and-pop shops to go under without proper relief while bailing out wealthy and well-connected anti-LGBTQ enterprises on Americans’ dime.” (As if Arlene’s Flowers were not a “mom-and-pop” business.)
The president of the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce also commented to NBC News. “I think it’s ridiculous,” he said, “that the Small Business Administration led by the Trump administration would put the needs of avowed anti-LGBT organizations before hardworking small-business owners. These folks are worried about keeping the lights on.” (As if all of those gay bars went under because a couple of Christian academies got small business loans.)
In NBC’s mind, evidently, the Chinese Communist Party’s malfeasance had nothing to do with the struggles of small businesses. Evidently, there was nothing “warped” about the “priorities” of the state governors that created the financial hardship in the first place. Evidently, the media-induced panic was blameless.
This is scapegoating, plain and simple. “If it weren’t for those Bad People over there, all of us Good People would be fine.” The specific short-term end game for these two articles is to make “hate groups” have to repay the Paycheck Protection Program loans. These loans were advertised as forgivable and will undoubtedly be forgiven for everyone else, including the abortion clinics and strip clubs.
The Ultimate Target is You and Me
The third entry in NBC News’ trifecta of Sexual Revolutionary propaganda criticized the Amazon Smile program. This program allows consumers to contribute a small portion of their Amazon purchases to the charity of their choice. NBC News takes for granted that all Decent People will be instantly and thoroughly shocked to find that anti-LGBT groups are participating in this program. After all, Amazon’s participation agreement states that non-profits that promote “intolerance, hate, terrorism, violence, money laundering or other illegal activities” are ineligible. All Decent People know that it is intolerant to say that homosexual practices are unhealthy. All Decent People realize that advocating that parents be able to opt out their children out of sex education is terrorism against LGBT people.
NBC News’ ultimate target is not Amazon, of course. Nor is it the Paycheck Protection Program. Their ultimate target is you and me and anyone else who stands in the way of The Grand March of the Sexual Revolution. We are the problem. If it weren’t for us, everyone could have all the sex they want and nothing bad would ever happen.
In other words, NBC News is scapegoating and dehumanizing us for our political views. I wonder if the Titans of Tolerance will ever notice.
No matter. The Ruth Institute is a global, non-profit organization leading an international, interfaith coalition to defend the family and build a civilization of love. If fighting sex abuse, pornography, divorce and the LGBT agenda makes us a hate group, so be it.
Are you at your wits end trying to explain why you believe marriage is only between a man and a woman? Listen to my interview with Fr. Sebastian Walshe.
Are you at your wits end trying to explain why you believe marriage is only between a man and a woman? Do your own adult children think you are a bigot for believing what the entire human race has always believed? You’ve got to listen to my interview with Fr. Sebastian Walshe on his new book, “Understanding Marriage and Family.” He defends the traditional Catholic view of marriage, using natural law and the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Fr. Sebastian Walshe, a Norbertine Canon of the Abbey of St. Michael in the Diocese of Orange, California developed this book by teaching moral theology to high school boys. He answers the questions the young men really wanted answers for! Fr. Walshe shows that marriage is natural, not man-made. He shows how the traditional teaching on marriage is connected to the essential mysteries of the Christian faith, including the Incarnation, and the Trinity. Fr. Sebastian is a regular guest on Catholic Answers Live. You don’t have to be Catholic to appreciate his compelling explanations. When you hear him, you will see why his listeners and his students love him!
“The decline of the family is at the root of most of our problems. Along with our friends at LifeSiteNews, the Ruth Institute is calling for a Presidential debate focused exclusively on what the candidates will do to support the family.”
Ruth Inst. and Life Site News Launch Petition for Presidential Debate on the Family
Partnering with Life Site News, today, the Ruth Institute launched a petition to the U.S. Commission on Presidential Debates calling for a 4th debate to be focused on the family.
Ruth Institute President Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D., explained: “The decline of the family is at the root of most of our problems. We’re calling for one debate focused exclusively on what the candidates will do to support the family.”
She continued: “Honestly, I’m shocked that we even have to state this obvious point: Every human life begins with a family. Every significant challenge the United States faces can be improved by strengthening the family. The breakdown of the family and the over-sexualization of society create massive problems affecting the economy, the criminal justice system, public health, education, and even national defense. The rioting in our cities is in part the result of family breakdown.”
Three debates are scheduled on September 29, October 15, and October 22, to cover public health, including COVID 19, public safety, the economy, and defense/foreign policy.
Morse said, “These are all important issues to be sure. But unless something is done immediately, the family will once again be ignored. Issues like marriage, the right to life, parental rights in education and health, sex education in schools, pornography, population control, and declining fertility will be overlooked entirely or treated as an afterthought.”
She added: “We believe this is the first time such a debate has been proposed by anyone. We at the Ruth Institute and our friends at Life Petitions think it’s about time.”
The Ruth Institute is a global non-profit organization leading an international interfaith coalition to defend the family and build a civilization of love.
To schedule an interview with Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse or Mr. Don Feder, Communications Director of the Ruth Institute, contact info@ruthinstitute.org.
I recently wrote an article called “Ideas Don’t Have Consequences.” The subtitle was “Why Conservatives Keep Losing.” My point was that ideas by themselves, don’t do a darn thing. Someone has to take action to implement those ideas, to fight for those ideas and to build a society around those ideas.
Here at the Ruth Institute, we post a joke every weekday afternoon on our Facebook page. You may have wondered why a pro-family organization would do that.
We cover very dark topics. My talks on family breakdown stir up a lot of pain. I have had people run out of the room crying. The first time I saw that, I thought, “We can’t have this!” But we can’t ignore these difficult topics.
At our upcoming Summit for Survivors of the Sexual Revolution, we will cover these topics.
The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution. And the revolution is always about power.
Did you see our Laugh in the Afternoon today? The Media kicks the coronavirus to the curb. The caption says, “Your services are no longer needed.” Let’s analyze what is so darkly funny about that image.
We know now that protecting people from the Wuhan flu was not really the issue. Of course, there were and are many conscientious people in the health care sector who sincerely care about their patients’ health, and who were sincerely trying to help as many people as possible. But those are the very people who, above all, realize that many of the measures imposed by the Public Health Establishment were pure theater or worse. The hardworking doctors, nurses, nursing home aids, hospice workers and EMT’s could see from the beginning that there must have been something else at work besides preserving health. Especially if you take mental health into account.
The media-driven panic was never about health. Keeping everyone in a fevered state of anger or fear is not healthy. The geniuses in the Public Health Establishment should have known that.
No RINOs CINOs or Conservative Inc.
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