Media Transparency has a fascinating, interesting and ultimately pretty frightening expos´ posted — « Air Jesus: The Evangelical Air Force »:
‘For five days inside the Anaheim Convention Center, from February 11-16, the NRB’s attendees conducted business as if they were huddled in the catacombs of Rome rather than welcomed guests at a self-contained suburban city of paisley-carpeted hotels, all-you-can-eat buffets and climate-controlled conference halls directly across the street from Disneyland. Indeed, when McDonald asked attendees for a show of hands in affirmation of his question, nearly every hand in the room shot up.
‘It might seem ironic for McDonald to invoke the spectre of persecution at the convention of a group that represents the interests of 1700 broadcasters and which enjoys unfettered access to congressional Republicans and the White House. The NRB’s influence was best summarized by its new CEO, Frank Wright, who, in describing a recent lobbying excursion to Capitol Hill, said, “We got into rooms we’ve never been in before. We got down on the floor of the Senate and prayed over Hillary Clinton’s desk.” Wright went on to rally support for the NRB’s handpicked candidate for FCC commissioner, whom he refused to name, and rail against federal hate crime legislation because, “Calls for tolerance are often a subterfuge when everything will be tolerated except Christian truth.” [Emphasis added]
— Media Transparency
Further down in the article, there’s a passage about the evil, power-hungry genius behind it all:
‘On Friday evening a crowd of a few dozen fawning followers and activists gathered to meet Dobson and his 20-something son, Ryan, in a stuffy conference room decked out like a VFW hall, replete with red, James Dobson and his son Ryan prepare for Ping Pong battle at the National Religious Broadcasters’ confereence in Anaheim white and blue ribbons and furnished with ping-pong tables and a hot dog stand. The only thing that kept me from believing I had walked through a time warp to the 1950s was an announcement by a guy in a striped referee jersey that Dobson and son would give iPods to the two contestants deemed suitable to face them in ping-pong. Before the games began, the referee sat on a stool next to Dobson and son for an informal discussion of some of their favorite topics: family, culture, and the homosexual agenda. Dobson was uncharacteristically reticent during the event, seated in a hunched posture and speaking only when spoken to.
‘He did not seem anything like the kingmaker who answered a post-election thank you call from the White House by demanding that Bush get “more aggressive” or “pay a price in four years.” Nor did he seem like the draconian uber-dad who, in his best-selling parenting handbook, “Dare to Discipline,” advised parents to spank their children with “sufficient magnitude to cause the child to cry genuinely.” One of few times Dobson spoke out of turn was to make a clarification he had apparently wanted to issue for some time. “I did not say SpongeBob was gay,” Dobson told the crowd, responding to media ridicule of his attack on the popular cartoon character: “All I said was he was part of a video produced by a group with strong linkages to the homosexual community that’s teaching things like tolerance and diversity. And you can see where they’re going with that. They’re teaching kids to think different about homosexuality.”’
Of course, ‘think different’ means ‘don’t beat, bash, stone, kill, torture, discriminate against, use as political pawns or otherwise molest gay and lesbian Amurricans,’ but poor Jimmy D. thinks that’s all okay. It is, after all, supposedly in the Bible.
And it is, after all, part and parcel of the next big Culture War « battle on tolerance and diversity — UNC Front »:
‘A federal court has ordered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to reinstate a Christian fraternity which had been denied recognition because its officers refused to sign the university’s nondiscrimination policy requiring the group to allow homosexuals to join. The preliminary injunction, issued by U.S. District Court Judge Frank W. Bullock Junior, will permit Alpha Iota Omega access to student funds and university facilities, like other fraternities on campus. The order will remain in force until the issue of compliance with the university’s policy against discrimination is settled, most likely in court. “This is the first battle in the lawsuit, and we are victorious in that sense,” said Joshua Carden, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, the Arizona-based organization representing the fraternity.’
— Pandagon.net
Hey, how ‘bout that Activist Judge Legislating from the Bench? [crickets chirping]
Update: « Alternet has an extensive investigative piece » on a shadowy group, the Council for National Policy, which features all the usual suspects from Pat Robertson to Tom Delay, that is at the forefront of the Culture War. If the Anaheim meeting mentioned above represented the Air Jesus Air Force, the CNP can certainly be characterized as the Black Ops Army.