GOP Clown Car Loads Up For 2015 Faith And Freedom Conference Of Crackpottery

Disgraced Christian activist Ralph Reed's Faith & Freedom Coalition will hold its sixth annual "Road To Majority" conference this week in Washington DC. Confirmed speakers include eight of the eleven declared GOP presidential candidates, as well as notorious crackpot figures Todd Starnes, the Benham brothers, and Michael Medved. Not yet listed as attending are Huckabee, Santorum, and Pataki, however still undeclared candidates Jindal, Walker, and Christie will be there.

Also attending: Reince Priebus, Phyllis Schlafly, Gary Bauer, and Penny Nance, who is the head of Concernstipated Women, this year's title sponsor. Other 2015 sponsors include NOM, the World Congress Of Families, Tea Party Patriots, Townhall, Liberty University, and (rather curiously) the Humane Society. The event kicks off with a VIP dinner on Wednesday night, followed by a "full lobbying day on Capitol Hill." See the list of breakout sessions here.

Hate Groups Publish Full-Page Message To SCOTUS In The Washington Post: We Won't Honor Your Ruling On Marriage

A coalition of hate groups and Christian pastors calling themselves Defend Marriage has published a full-page message to SCOTUS in the Washington Post. Among the signers at the bottom of the ad are Mat Staver, Elaine Donnelly, the Benham brothers, Alveda King, Jim Garlow, John Hagee, E.W. Jackson, Don Wildmon, Dave Welch, Robert Jeffress, and Penny Nance. From the text:

We affirm that any judicial opinion which purports to redefine marriage will constitute an unjust law, as Martin Luther King Jr. described such laws in his letter from the Birmingham Jail. We are Christians who love America and who respect the legitimate rule of law. However, we will not honor any decision by the Supreme Court which will force us to violate a clear biblical understanding of marriage as solely the union of one man and one woman. We affirm that Marriage, as existing solely between one man and one woman, precedes civil government. Though affirmed, fulfilled, and elevated by faith, the truth that marriage can exist only between one man and one woman is not based solely on religion but on the Natural Law, written on the human heart.

Bolding is theirs. (Tipped by JMG reader Jim)

Concernstipated Women: GLSEN's Day Of Silence Stifles Our Right To Bully

"On the Day of Silence, GLSEN encourages students to go to school and remain silent all day. Their website says the day seeks to 'call attention to the silencing effect of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in schools.' And therein lies the irony, doesn’t it? In light of all we know today, how the pro-LGBT radicals are bullying Christians into silence, it is almost comical to hear this propaganda still being peddled to our children. If we want to talk about a silencing effect, we can talk about the recent Indiana brouhaha and the ensuing hysteria over Memories Pizza owner Crystal O’Connor telling a viciously deceptive reporter they could not cater a same-sex 'wedding' because it would conflict with their religious beliefs. How about the silencing of Mozilla’s former CEO, Brendan Eich? Or the bullying of Barronelle Stutzman, the florist who is at risk of losing everything she has, including her home, her family business, and her life savings, because of her religious beliefs on marriage? We are at the point where they are ready to put Christians in jail if they don’t abide by the pro-LGBT mantra." - Concernstipated Women head Penny Nance, writing for Breitbart.

Hate Groups: Keep Your Kids Home On This Year's Anti-Bullying Day Of Silence

A coalition of hate groups today issued their annual call for parents to keep their kids out of school on the coming anti-bullying Day Of Silence.

If you have school age children, contact your administration as soon as possible to ask this specific question: Will you be permitting students to refuse to speak in class on the Day of Silence? If the administration either answers “Yes” or dodges the question, please call your child or children out of school on the Day of Silence. Every absence costs districts money, and money talks. The Day of Silence is the queen of all the numerous homosexuality-affirming activities that take place in public schools. It started in one university and then like a cancer metastasized to thousands of high schools, and then into middle schools. Before long it will take place in elementary schools. Leftists know that it’s easier to indoctrinate 16-year-olds than 36-year-olds and easier still to indoctrinate 6-year-olds.

Among the signees of the above-linked message are Linda Harvey, Porno Pete, Mat Staver, Laurie Higgins, Brian Camenker, Penny Nance, Scott Lively, and Matt Barber - who has twice published columns by advocates of the death penalty for homosexuality.

Concernstipated Women: Disney's Frozen Is Totally A Threat To "Real Masculinity"

Via the Daily Beast:

‘Fox & Friends’ claims that Frozen empowers women by saying all men are fools and villains, and is therefore bad for society and harmful to little boys. For the love of god. There was a segment by the fearless thought leaders on Fox & Friends Wednesday morning, impressively delivered by all with a straight face, that claimed that the success of hit Disney animated film Frozen, a film about the love between sisters and a snowman who loves the beach, is a dire threat to masculinity as we know it. Yo, I get it. I’m a man. And as a man I know there’s nothing more manly than being afraid of a Disney Princess. In a timely segment airing 14 months after Frozen hit theaters, Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy wonders whether a film like Frozen is problematic, as it is “empowering girls but turning our men into fools and villains?”

(Tipped by JMG reader Larry)

Wingnut Coalition To GOP: Now We LOVE The Democrats' Filibuster Rule Change

A coalition of far-right groups has sent a letter to incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urging him to keep the filibuster rule change made by the Democrats last year.

A group of 26 conservative academics, advocates and leaders wrote in a letter that they see “very little upside” to restoring the old rules, which had allowed the minority party to require 60 votes to confirm nominees. They say the rules would help Republicans put “committed constitutionalists” on the bench if the White House changes hands in 2016. “The decision by Senator [Harry] Reid and his Democratic colleagues to deploy the so-called ‘nuclear option’ was transparently designed to facilitate the confirmation of judicial nominees who would insulate ObamaCare and other aspects of President Obama’s agenda from meaningful judicial review,” the letter says.  Regardless of their motives, we see very little upside and significant downside in reviving the judicial filibuster.

You will recall that these groups screamed bloody murder when the Democrats made the filibuster rule change, even though many of them had explicitly advocated for that very change the last time the GOP was in charge. Among those signing this week's letter are Phyllis Schlafly, Gary Bauer, Concerned Women head Penny Nance, AFA radio shrieker Sandy Rios, Liberty Counsel head Mat Staver, and Family Research Council senior fellow Ken Blackwell.

Concerned Women To SCOTUS: Gays Are Too Powerful To Claim Discrimination

Concerned Women for America have filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in support of Utah's ban on same-sex marriage. According to the brief, gay Americans are far too politically powerful to deserve the heightened level of legal scrutiny that would support claims of marriage discrimination.

Amicus agrees with both the Petitioners’ and Respondents’ view of this case: this Court should grant the Petition and address, not only the Due Process claim, but also the Equal Protection claim. In so doing, heightened scrutiny must be rejected because homosexuals are not a suspect or quasi-suspect class, since - among other reasons - homosexuals are not politically powerless. This Brief demonstrates this by documenting that homosexuals have achieved direct political power; acquired important political allies; raised significant funds from their own community, from labor unions and from corporate America; obtained support from religious communities; and moved public opinion in their favor.

The brief goes on at great length to cite President Obama'a gay pride proclamations, his employment executive order, the major corporations that back LGBT rights, the openly gay US delegation to the Sochi Olympics, the repeal of DADT, the passage of the Hate Crimes Act, and other examples of LGBT triumphs. In other words, we've already too damn successful to possibly claim discrimination.

FRC's Star-Spangled Sunday

Yesterday the Family Research Council and a cavalcade of anti-gay crackpots held an event that was pitched as a marking of the 200th anniversary of the national anthem. But, of course, the event was really more of a Christian get-out-the-vote rally laden with ominous claims about the end of religious liberty and the "movement to expel God from the public space" in the United States. Speakers included Mike Huckabee, loony E.W. Jackson, Sen. Ted Cruz, the Benham brothers, Penny Nance of the Concernstipated Women, and Pastor Rick Scarborough, who recently called for a class action lawsuit against homosexuality itself. The full clip is below, click around if you can bear it. (The event was two hours long, the clip repeats halfway through.)

UPDATE: The Charlotte Observer reports on the rally.

Two possible GOP presidential candidates joined with prominent leaders of the religious right in Charlotte on Sunday night to mark the 200th anniversary of the poem that became America’s national anthem. The evening of speeches, Bible verses, and music from First Baptist Church in uptown Charlotte was simulcast to 351 conservative evangelical churches across the country. These listeners and the event’s headliners – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and former Gov. Mike Hucakbee, both exploring a 2016 run for the White House – also heard a longer, religion-tinged version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” than those who stand and sing it at baseball games and Fourth of July celebrations. Asked whether “Star Spangled Sunday” amounted to a political rally in a tax-exempt church, Perkins insisted the celebration of Key’s words, written in September 1814 during a battle with the British at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, amounted to an appropriate tribute to the religious heritage that shaped America. “If you look at the history of Francis Scott Key, he was a Christian motivated by his faith,” Perkins said. “If you read the final stanza (of what became ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’) it is, I would say, nothing short of a prayer.”

Concernstipated Women: Help, Jesus! The Gays Have Done Stolen Our Freedoms!

Jerry Falwell Jr: Boycotts Don't Work

"Boycotts are ineffective and only cost Christian organizations time and money. They are futile and ineffective. Boycotting is not how Jesus did business. He was a carpenter and routinely mingled with known sinners." - Jerry Falwell Jr, responding to a Christian Post survey of religious leaders on anti-gay boycotts.

Concerned Women head Penny Nance disagrees.

"One of the most notorious victories occurred in 1986, when an American Family Association (AFA) boycott successfully convinced 7-Eleven to ban its distribution of Playboy and Penthouse magazines. In 2008, too, an AFA boycott led to a McDonald's executive stepping down from a homosexual rights association board. We win moral victories, but might not always gain ground in the public arena. But if we abandon the argument, then there will be no light in the darkness."

American Family Association head Donald Wildmon claims that boycotts work, but only if you do them one company at a time. There must not be much internal dialogue with One Million Moms.

"You cannot boycott the world. That is why AFA has generally stuck to one at a time as with Home Depot now," said Wildmon, son of Don Wildmon, who has pioneered many boycotts. "The idea is that if you demonstrate effectiveness with one company, others are going to take notice and listen when you approach them." "A boycott is only after you have exhausted all other means of getting results such as persuasion based on the reasonableness of your request," Wildmon argues.

"With companies, we just ask that they remain neutral in the culture war, not support one side or the other. Home Depot, for instance, has actively participated in homosexual pride parades across the country. For AFA, that crosses the line. We are not so much concerned about a company's internal affairs with their employees. It's when they financially support activism that we have a problem with. For example, giving financial contributions to the Human Rights Campaign or Planned Parenthood."

Home Depot's stock value has almost tripled since the AFA launched their boycott.

Concerned Women Head Penny Nance: Atheism Brought The Holocaust

Concerned Women head Penny Nance is super concernstipated because Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx endorsed the National Day Of Reason, an atheist response to this week's National Day Of Prayer. Earlier this week President Obama nominated Foxx to be Secretary of Transportation. Via Crooks And Liars:

When normal people think of the Enlightenment, they think of Newton, Locke, Voltaire, Spinoza, Montesquieu, Goethe, Paine, Jefferson -- and the ideas that helped launch the American Revolution. When crazy right-wing Christians think of the Enlightenment, they apparently think of...Nazis. See what happens when you advance science, cast off the monarchy and separate church from state? Hitler. Sure, it sounds crazy -- but Nance's rant is of a piece to what Rick Santorum said during the presidential campaign.

(Tipped by JMG reader Ted)

NOM's Hate March: A Cavalcade Of Crackpottery And One Catholic Drunk

NOM today published the above list of speakers scheduled for their hate march on the Supreme Court.  Hopefully there'll be an open bar for busted drunk driver Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and an emergency Botox station for Concernstipated Women head Penny Nance.  And we can only presume that New York state Sen. Ruben Diaz will bring along the same speaker who told attendees at the last NOM hate march that homosexuals are "worthy of death."  As for "Bishop" Harry Jackson, let's just hope he doesn't curse the Washington Blade into bankruptcy, as he claims to have done with other "Satanic gay publications."  DC police should also keep an eye on Jim Garlow, who has called on pastors to emulate to the Founding Fathers and "pick up a musket" against evil homosexuals.