GLAAD – John Malcolm

By Cindy Simpson | April 1, 2012 | American Thinker

“Thoughtcrimes” — opinions and ideas that oppose the status quo — were pursued and punished by the Thought Police in the future world described by George Orwell in his novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. Could politically incorrect thought be declared illegal — a type of “hate” crime against individuals or the State — someday in America? Since much of Christian thought seems to be considered politically incorrect these days, might it also be declared hate speech?

Although such notions may seem the stuff of futuristic science fiction, just last week, Big Journalism ran a column with the subtitle “Shorter Ann Curry: Your religious beliefs represent hate speech!” The column by John Nolte described Curry’s recent NBC Today interview with Christian actor Kirk Cameron.

What did Cameron say to deserve Curry’s “attack”? When, a couple of weeks earlier, the actor was asked his views on gay marriage by CNN’s Piers Morgan, Cameron, within a much longer answer, made these particular statements: “I think that it’s unnatural. I think that it’s detrimental and ultimately destructive to so many of the foundations of our civilization.”

Morgan immediately shot back that he found Cameron’s views “destructive,” but Curry instead wandered down the lofty road of imagined consequences when she asked Cameron: “Do you feel any responsibility saying words like that, that might encourage people to feel that it’s okay to treat — mistreat gay people?”

Cameron never even used the word “hate,” yet Curry asserted that “many people are suggesting that this is hate speech.” Then she asked Cameron, “Are you encouraging people to feel hate towards gay people?”

And there you have it. The futuristic sci-fi plot laid out, in real life, in March of 2012 on NBC:

Christian publicly asserts Christian beliefs; beliefs are politically incorrect speech; speech equals hate; hate encourages mistreatment; encouragement equals crime…

Although Curry didn’t complete the plotline by mentioning the word “crime,” this wasn’t the first time she read from a similar script. Last September, reporting on the suicide of a gay teen, she fretted: “Do you think our churches, our politicians and other adults who adhere to an anti-gay message enable some of this hate?”

The consequences of the Curry/Cameron exchange were not lost on Nolte:

What Ann Curry did to Kirk Cameron this morning is the first phase of that war [on the Christian Church]: The shaming campaign. On national television she brought the actor on to declare his religious beliefs hate speech that will encourage others to “mistreat gay people.”

We all know what the next step is, and that’s the outlawing of these opinions under the principle that the speaking of such things will cause harm to others.

This, of course, would mean the end to the church — which is the whole idea.

Glenn Beck’s recent program focused on what he also sees as an assault on the church, covering the atheist “Reason Rally” and other events supporting his claim that Christians and God are “under attack.”

GLAAD argues that LGBTs are under attack, and the organization has published an “accountability list” of Christian commentators who use “violent anti-LGBT rhetoric” and express “extreme animus towards the entire LGBT community.” Prominent Christian activist and founder of Prison Fellowship Chuck Colson wrote this about being included on that list:

Read the full article here.

The Left’s Orwellian Censorship Campaign

By J. Matt Barber | March 30, 2012 | CNS News

Liberal theologian William Ellery Channing once observed, “The cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated.”

War has indeed been declared. Channing’s contemporary liberal counterparts have declared a war for our culture. But while Channing presumably held to the oft-bandied supposition that “dissent is the highest form of patriotism,” today’s secular-progressive has no choice but to endeavor that “all opposition should be hushed.”

Liberals recognize that when arguing on the merits, they cannot prevail. Not only are their morally relative, redistributionist philosophies untenable and utopian, but they read the same polls demonstrating that reasonable people reject their ideas outright. In fact, Americans identify as conservative over liberal by a two-to-one margin. Even those who call themselves “moderate” lean conservative.

It makes sense. The “progressive” movement wars against natural law, pushes perpetually failed secular-socialist policies and places — above constitutionally safeguarded individual liberty — thickheaded tenets of postmodern political correctness. Liberal elites demand tolerance for all things perverse and find intolerable all things righteous.

And so, the final, desperate act of the left-wing, lemon-hocking charlatan is to marginalize, smear and ultimately shut down the competition. As a result, liberals obfuscate, propagandize and strive to silence all dissent. They no longer even try to hide it.

The evidence of this calculated assault on free speech is overwhelming, but the most recent and high-profile examples include carefully orchestrated campaigns by three well-funded, interconnected, George Soros-linked organizations: Media Matters for America (MMFA); the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC); and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).

After years of trying to censor the conservative voice of Rush Limbaugh, for instance, the George Soros-funded Media Matters recently pulled out all the stops to get him booted from the airwaves.

Read the full article here.