Groups Attacked by SPLC Fight Back Against Defamation

Groups Attacked by SPLC Fight Back Against Defamation:Â Many conservative groups are coming together to fight against the Southern Poverty Law Center and their unjust accusations. The SPLC is coming against conservative groups that they are wrongly accusing as, “hate groups.” Some of these conservative groups are people who we support, our friends, and they have even come against us. Tune in now to learn the other side of the story.

Air Date:Â 07/24/2018

Guest: Jerry Johnson

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

WallBuilders | American historical events, founding fathers, historical documents, books, videos, CDs, tapes, David Barton’s speaking schedule.
InternetFreedomWatch
Expose SPLC Video
Coupons: Use promo code WBL17 to receive 10% off your entire order on ALL WallBuilders Store Products!!
Helpful links:

Listen:

Download: Click Here

Transcription note: Â As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith And The Culture

Rick:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. This is WallBuilders Live! We”re talking about today”s hottest topics on policy, on faith, on the culture. Always doing that, though, from a very specific worldview, a very specific perspective. We call it a constitutional, biblical, and historical, perspective. So, we look at those three things on every issue.

We’re here with David Barton, he”s America’s premier historian and our founder at WallBuilders. Tim Barton”s, national speaker and pastor, and the president of WallBuilders. My name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas state legislator.

Go to WallBuildersLive.com for more information about the radio program. And then WallBuilders.com for the ministry as a whole. There’s a lot of different things that we’re doing across the country and you can find out more about that at WallBuilders.com. And there’s some very specific tools for you, for your children, for your family, for your Sunday school class. Go check that out at WallBuilders.com.

David, Tim, later in the program we”ve got Jerry Johnson going to be with us – not the football owner and the Cowboys owner. This is actually Jerry Johnson from NRB – National Religious Broadcasters. Also President of Croswell College which is in Dallas. So, I guess you could say it’s some sort of a Dallas team there, the team of ministers being trained. That’s a good thing right. You guys know Jerry Johnson.

David:

We know Â Jerry Johnson and Jerry is a good guy. He”s doing a great job at National Religious Broadcasters. He”s really take that organization in a very good direction. And right now he’s in the middle of– there’s a whole coalition of major, really kind of conservative, faith based groups that have come together. Over recent programs we’ve talked about what’s called the Southern Poverty Law Center. And the Southern Poverty Law Center has had unbelievable clout in recent years, particularly in the Obama administration, calling out what they call hate groups. A hate group is basically somebody that they disagree with as secular progressives. So, if therefore homosexual marriage and you’re against it, you”re a hate group just because you don’t agree with them. And that’s been pretty much their standard on whatever the issue is.

We”ve Redefined the Terms

Tim:

Well, and yeah, so it’s worth noting that in our modern culture we’ve redefined a lot of terms. And in redefining those terms the application has been that if you are pro marriage between a man and a woman, if you are pro life, if you are basically biblical, or what used to be traditional conservative values, that makes you a hateful person. Which, the great irony is that some of the people that would be considered hateful, you would have to consider someone like a Billy Graham, a Mother Teresa, or Jesus–

David:

Martin Luther King Jr..

Tim:

You’d have to consider them hateful because they held these traditional biblical values, these traditional conservative beliefs. And yet today, because we’ve redefine what it means to hate, if you don’t agree with us well then you must be hateful. So, the Southern Poverty Law Center has become known and recognized, actually advised the U.S. government, advised multiple organizations–

David:

Well, the Justice Department, the Pentagon, several branches use the SPLC list of hate groups.

Tim:

Yes, so they advised them and said, “Okay, here’s what you need to look for with a hate group. A hate group is someone that doesn’t tolerate what we tolerate.” And basically, Â Â just, it’s such a crooked double standard, but it’s, the power that they had, and they have lots of money, they’re a very, very, good fundraising group. So, it’s kind of ironic that they”re the Southern Poverty Law Center because they’re everything but poor. They are–

David:

And they don’t defend the poor either.

Tim:

No. They have like half a billion dollars.

David:

And I don’t think they”re even a law center, are they? Â

Lost Because of False Accusations

Tim:

I don’t– I think there are public policy. I don’t think they”re a law center.

David:

Yeah, I think they”re kind of a think tank.

Tim:

But, yeah, so ultimately what they’ve done is they’ve come out against conservative values, Christian biblical moral values, and they were advisers in the Obama administration and to multiple cabinet departments. So, what happened is organizations that would have values like we have at WallBuilders, values like many of our our friends around the nation, they would come against those groups. And they have come against many of our friends for their traditional beliefs.

So, actually, they’ve lost some lawsuits because of some of the accusations they’ve made. Because people realized, “Wait a second, you’ve gone too far.” And they’ve actually had to pay out settlements because of this.

Rick:

And admit that they were wrong and went over the top.

David:

Well, that’s what we had a couple of weeks ago. They had a settlement for 3.2 or 3.4 million dollars. So, we talked about that and we had a judge on who won a decision against them, Judge Tom Parker, Justice in the Alabama Supreme Court. We had Matt Staver on who took on that case, so we’ve seen that.

SPLC has also been advising a lot of the social media groups on who should get status on social media. So, all of these conservative faith based groups have come together and kind of outed them. And it’s kind of fun to see now we’re getting our act together on our side and starting to move the ball down the court the opposite direction.

Two Things that Went Out

Rick:

Yeah, and there’s two things that went out – first of all there was a press release letter that went out, it was a joint statement by a ton of organizations that have been defamed by the Southern Poverty Law Center. And then there’s a fantastic video. We”re actually going to play this when we come back from the break. But it’s a really good video that really summarizes the history here and what the Southern Poverty Law Center has turned into. And folks at home, or in your car, or wherever you are listening, so you’re going to be listening to the audio of a video. Â

So, we want to tell you right up front who you’re going to be listening to – a lot of comments from a lot of different voices you’re going to hear here. It’s going to have Mike Farris from Alliance Defending Freedom. Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council. Carol Swain, Ed Meese is on here, former attorney general under President Reagan, Brad Dacus at Pacific Justice, Bill Owens from Shift to Greatness. Lot of different voices you’re about to hear, but they’re going to lay out the case, they”re going to give you the history and how Southern Poverty Law Center has been defaming all these folks. And then when we come back from the break after that video, or the audio of that video– And by the way, you can go actually watch the video by simply going to ExposeSPLC.com, that’s ExposeSPLC.com.

We”ll have a link today at our website. But after that plays, we’ll take a quick break. When we come back, Jerry Johnson is actually going to be with us. Dr. Jerry Johnson, he’s NRBs, National Religious Broadcasters, president and CEO. He’ll tell us a little bit about how all this happened. And then we’ll have some closing comments at the end of the program back with David and Tim Barton. So, stay with us. We’ll be right back. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

Moment From American History

This is David Barton with another moment from America’s history. What is the purpose of government? Founding Father Oliver Ellsworth believed he knew. Oliver Ellsworth was a delegate at the convention which formed the Constitution and later he became the chief justice of the US Supreme Court.

Concerning the purpose of government, Oliver Ellsworth declared, “The primary objects of government are the peace, order, and prosperity of society.” Yet, how are these goals to be achieved?

Ellsworth explained, “To the promotion of these objects, good morals are essential. Institutions for the promotion of good morals are therefore objects of legislative provision and support. And among these religious institutions are eminently useful and important.”

Founding Father Oliver Ellsworth believed government could never reach its goals apart from the help of religious institutions. For more information on God’s hand in American history contact WallBuilders at 1-800-8-REBUILD.

Exposing The SPLC Video

New Speaker:

There’s something brewing. It has been subtle, but now we are seeing.

New Speaker:

What every American that’s halfway sensible wants is a civil society where freedom is protected. The consequences of not speaking truth is that we’re giving evil, and we’re giving the lie, a chance to germinate and spread itself.

New Speaker:

The whole purpose, very clearly, and Americans need to see this, is to silence debate and discussion. There is nothing, nothing, more un-American than that.

New Speaker:

Most people have not kept up with the fact that they have transitioned from fighting hate groups that being an ideological arm of the radical left.

New Speaker:

They only look at organizations that they disagree with ideologically and they lump them in with these violent organizations that are actually engaged in violence that include the KKK, neo nazis, and white supremacists.

New Speaker:

It is perhaps the most serious threat we have in the nation for the ability for people to go about their business peacefully.

A Civil Society

New Speaker:

A civil society means I may disagree with you, but I think you have the right to your opinion.

New Speaker:

It”s actually evil, really evil, to call someone or group a hate group without even knowing them. Without having any real understanding of who they are or what they’re about.

New Speaker:

In America you can agree and you can disagree. It doesn’t mean you hate. We don’t hate people, we love people, but we want the truth to be told.

New Speaker:

The Southern Poverty Law Center is politically driven, agenda driven, and they”re far left. So, they define hate from that prism.

New Speaker:

Here’s the bad thing. If the Southern Poverty Law Center continues this approach, it minimizes true hate. Now, the Southern Poverty Law Center has lost all credibility.

New Speaker:

The Southern Poverty Law Center which has focused on neither the South, nor poverty, nor the law, weirdly enough, aspires to be America’s supreme arbiter of what is and what is not a hate group.

New Speaker:

When you take a look at the history of the Southern Poverty Law Center, it’s apparent that there were some noble things that took place years ago when they started. But today that’s changed.

New Speaker:

When they originally were founded they were founded to fight the KKK, and the neo nazis, and groups that most Americans find abhorrent.

New Speaker:

But that’s not what they’re about at all. They’re a fundraising organization.

The Name Doesn”t Fit

New Speaker:

It has nothing to do with poverty except to try to make organizations that it doesn’t like poor. And it has nothing to do with the law because they try to be a law unto themselves.

New Speaker:

They’ve got hundreds of millions of dollars. That’s the reason that the word “poverty” is sort of deceptive.

New Speaker:

328 million dollars in net assets 50 million dollars plus a year.

New Speaker:

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a money making operation. They have millions of dollars that they’re not spending to advance the causes they say they support.

New Speaker:

The fact that one of the leading philanthropic organizations gives them an F because of the large amount of money that they raise and then they stash offshore.

New Speaker:

Why in the world would a nonprofit organization hide money in offshore accounts where you can’t trace how they’re using it?

New Speaker:

–actually follow hate. And let me go through a little bit of of who these groups are according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

New Speaker:

The Southern Poverty Law Center is really the ultimate nightmare in that they have the money, they have the media, and they have a hate label that they can slap on virtually anyone or any organization they disagree with.

New Speaker:

The media just * this information without any critical analysis. They never pick up the phone or send an e-mail to ask the organization they’re writing about if it’s true.

This Could Lead to Real Danger

New Speaker:

When it’s repeated by the mainstream media it’s given credibility. And when it’s given credibility that could lead to real danger.

New Speaker:

When you have an organization that’s putting out literature or labeling people in a way that creates emotions among other people that follow them it puts them at risk.

New Speaker:

We saw it here at the Family Research Council just a little over five years ago when we had a gunman who came in with 100 rounds of ammunition and 15 Chick fil A sandwiches intending to kill as many people as he could. He testified to the FBI when he was interrogated that he did so based upon the Southern Poverty Law Center”s hate map which had listed the Family Research Council.

New Speaker:

Even the FBI has recently taken the Southern Poverty Law Center off their list of credible organizations.

New Speaker:

It’s not just conservative groups that have attacked SPLC. They’ve also been reprimanded by Obama’s Department of Justice. They were also criticized by the U.S. Army for labeling Christians “extremists”. Even a liberal journalists and some left leaning news media have criticized SPLC. And Stephen Bright of the Southern Center for Human Rights called the SPLC founder a con man and fraud.

New Speaker:

And so the group is determined, literally as they say themselves, to wipe out, or to eliminate, groups with which they disagree. And they’ve gone after people all over the country trying to attack them, trying to put them out of business.

New Speaker:

The danger is they are doing it in a way that people won’t know what is right and what is wrong. Because when you label a group as a hate group some people believe it.

We Have An Opportunity and the Truth Always Wins

New Speaker:

None of the Christian organizations that are on the Southern Poverty Law Center”s site that have been recently placed there in the last five years that engage in public policy. None of them advocate violence against anyone in our society.

New Speaker:

Major companies and government institutions are listening to them and using the material and taking action based on the material. That’s the problem.

New Speaker:

Some organizations have lost their landing page for credit card processing on their websites. Some people have lost their URLs with GoDaddy and others shutting down the URLs of some of these groups.

New Speaker:

Banks are taking action based on this, credit card processing companies, insurance companies, Internet providers and other high tech service organizations, are cutting off dealings with organizations that get labeled a hate group.

New Speaker:

We’ve got to do something about this. So, the first thing you can do is pray.

New Speaker:

We have an opportunity to challenge their narrative. And the truth always wins. It might come in a little late, but I promise you, it”s always going to show up. So, it’s critical. This is a great time for Christians and for conservatives to show up.

New Speaker:

It starts with organizations like us, but it doesn’t stop there. If groups like ours get shut down under the name of hate you better believe you are next. People will suffer. Families will suffer. Communities will suffer. We stand between you and a monster organization who wants to silence people like you from holding certain beliefs that they don’t like.

New Speaker:

The best way you can to fight back is to play on the same ground that they’re trying to play on and support those groups that are being attacked by this leftist organization. Because their desire is not just to silence those groups. Their desire to silence you.

Share a veteran’s story

We Want To Hear Your Vet Story

Rick:

Hey friends! If you have been listening to WallBuilders Live for very long at all, you know how much we respect our veterans and how appreciative we are of the sacrifice they make to make our freedoms possible. One of the ways that we love to honor those veterans is to tell their stories here on WallBuilders Live. Â Once in awhile, we get an opportunity to interview veterans that have served on those front lines that have made incredible sacrifices have amazing stories that we want to share with the American people.

One of the very special things we get to do is interview World War II veterans. You’ve heard those interviews here on WallBuilders Live, from folks that were in the Band of Brothers, to folks like Edgar Harrell that survived the Indianapolis to so many other great stories you heard on WallBuilders Live.

You have friends and family that also served. Â If you have World War II veterans in your family that you would like to have their story shared here on WallBuilders Live, please e-mail us at [email protected]. Â Give us a brief summary of the story and we’ll set up an interview. Thanks so much for sharing here on WallBuilders Live!

Rick:

Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live. Dr. Jerry Johnson is with us. He’s President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Religious Broadcasters. Dr. Johnson, good to have you, brother. Thanks for coming on.

Dr. Jerry Johnson:

Hey, it’s good to be with you.

Rick:

Thanks for your good work at NRB and of course at Criswell College as well. We keep seeing the Southern Poverty Law Center continue to add Christian organizations or anybody they disagree with to this hate group map. It’s had significant negative consequences out there. But they’re starting– the tide”s starting to turn, people are starting to realize they are not the SPLC that was originally started decades ago to fight racism.

An Orwellian Twist

Dr. Jerry Johnson:

No, and what people need remember– this is very dangerous– a man named Floyd Corkins in 2012 looked at a so-called hate map which the Southern Poverty Law Center put together and it targeted the Family Research Council. And this man, Floyd Corkins, was so enraged by looking at this hate map that he loaded a backpack full of Chick fil A sandwiches, got a gun, and went up to the Family Research Council and was wanting to kill as many people as possible and smear the Chick fil A sandwiches in the victim’s faces. That’s the direct quote. And he did shoot the security guard, but that was all triggered, if you will, by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

It’s kind of an Orwellian twist here that they’re supposed to be fighting hate, they”ve got the hate watch, they identify hate groups, they’ve got the hate map, but they’ve been inciting hate.

Rick:

That’s right.

Dr. Jerry Johnson:

And recently a court has actually gotten involved and they’ve had to pay millions of dollars because they’ve crossed the line.

Rick:

Well, yeah, their defamation has been widespread against all kinds of organizations and they finally, someone finally, took them to court over it, won a multimillion dollar–

Dr. Jerry Johnson:

Yeah, it’s the Quilliam Group. And the reason this is important is the Southern Poverty Law Center was started really to battle the KKK and to protect black people, African-Americans. And it’s not that anymore, it’s not Southern anymore, it’s not really about poverty anymore. In fact, their endowment is 477 million dollars.

Rick:

Wow.

The Islamophobic Bandwagon

Dr. Jerry Johnson:

Think of that 477 million dollars they don’t give any of it to poor people and it’s not really Southern. I can tell you that as a Southerner the values they espouse are not Southern values in any case.

Rick:

Yeah.

Dr. Jerry Johnson:

But what they’ve done is they’ve gotten now on the Islamophobic bandwagon. So, if your critique of terrorism, Islamic terrorism, they call you an Islamophobe. And they went out for this group called the Quilliam Foundation. This foundation advises several former prime ministers of the UK, the present government, I know a member of the House of Lords that regularly uses Quilliam numbers in debate on Wednesday in the House of Lords. But they called this group Islamophobic. And the guy that leads it is named * – he’s actually a Muslim. His argument is that Islam is a religion of peace and that they need to fight the radicals, the militants, the jihadists.

Well, anyway, there was a defamation lawsuit and Southern Poverty Law Center had to pay 3.4 million dollars–

Rick:

Wow.

Dr. Jerry Johnson:

To this * group. And what this does is expose them, really. Because here are the groups they’ve been labeling hate groups. Tony Perkins” Family Research Council, American Family Association – that’s the Wildmon’s, D. James Kennedy ministry Alliance Defending Freedom. And it’s very interesting on ADF, Alliance Defending Freedom, that Â Â they scolded Jeff Sessions the Attorney General for speaking at an ADF conference. They said, “You’re speaking to a hate group.” And ADF has won nine Supreme Court cases.

Now, think of that – nine Supreme Court cases and they’re calling them a hate group. And I think people just need to see this group for what they really are. They themselves have become a hate group. They hate conservatives, they hate Christians, and they’re going to besmirch them.

They”re the Ones Deciding

Rick:

Yeah. Yeah, no doubt about it. I’m thrilled to finally see some coverage of the other side of the story. And the other thing, Jerry, they’ve got a significant foothold into some of the largest corporations in America where they are the ones – they meaning Southern Poverty Law Center, are the ones choosing for these companies, like Amazon, who gets nonprofit status. Â

Dr. Jerry Johnson:

There you go.

Rick:

That is a very dangerous thing. And of course they’re going to say “no” to virtually every conservative group out there – especially if it’s a group that’s large enough to be on their radar.

Dr. Jerry Johnson:

Well, we’ve been tracking internet censorship here at NRB. We’ve got a project called Internet Freedom Watch and we’re showing where Facebook, Google, and Amazon smiles, and Twitter, they’ve been censoring conservative and Christian content. Guess who these immediate providers use as their research authority–

Rick:

I’m sensing a theme here.

Dr. Jerry Johnson:

–to decide who to censor? It’s off the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Rick:

Yeah.

Dr. Jerry Johnson:

If they identify you as a hate group then Amazon, or Facebook, or Google, or Twitter, or you”ve got Dennis Prager with youtube.

Rick:

Yeah.

Internet Freedom Watch

Dr. Jerry Johnson:

He’s also been designated as a hater or a hate group, he’s on the hate watch. So, people need to look at our website. It’s called InternetFreedomWatch.org. We’re tracking this censorship of conservative Christian thought, but actually, the Southern Poverty Law Center is behind a lot of that.

Rick:

Alright, we’re going to do a link to that website. Also, the video, ExposeSPLC.com, you can go watch that one right now. It’s got a lot of great interviews including our guest today, Jerry Johnson, and several others on there as well. It”s really powerful and makes the case very well.

Dr. Johnson, always good to have you, sir. Thank you for speaking out on this. Thanks for putting together the letter from all the groups. You all had something like 40 different groups in there. This is so important to do and we need to get some movement on these major corporations. So, we’ve got to keep the pressure up. Appreciate your time today, sir.

Dr. Jerry Johnson:

Thanks, Rick.

Rick:

Stay with us, folks. We’ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

Pastors Only Briefing Trip

Tim:

Hi, this is Tim Barton with WallBuilders and I want to encourage all the pastors out there with a unique opportunity that we’re presenting it WallBuilders. We’re doing a special tour just for pastors that you can come and learn more about the spiritual heritage of our nation. Not just seeing the sights but understanding the significance of what they are and what they represent.

We get to go to the Capitol at night. Â And we get to see the spiritual heritage of our Founding Fathers, of who we are as a nation, where we came from. We bring in congressman that will tell you about current legislation, about our religious liberties Â and freedom, and what’s going on in Washington, D.C.

If you’re a pastor or if you want to recommend your pastor for this trip, you can go to our website at www.WallBuilders.com. And there’s a link that’s for scheduling. Â If you click on that link there’s a section for pastor”s briefing. There’s more information about the dates, when it’s going, and how it’s going to happen. If you want to know more about our nation, our religious liberties, our freedom, our spiritual heritage, this is a trip you want to be a part of.

Pastors Only Briefing Trip

Rick:

Thanks for staying with us. Welcome back to WallBuilders Live. We’re back here with David and Tim now. And, guys, we’ve been through the video, played the audio of that video, and then of course the interview with Jerry Johnson. Obviously a lot of groups have come together here. These are most of the main Christian worldview organizations, legal organizations, think tanks, groups like ours. Virtually everybody is on the letter or in the video.

Tim:

Yeah, it really is a very united front from people with common values, from a biblical perspective. And it”s because, really, the SPLC has just overstepped for so long that really it needed to happen. We said, “Look, we”ve got to point out who they are, and what they’re doing, and help the American people know.” And more and more people are now becoming familiar with who they are. They are being exposed as even the ExposeSPLC website gives those details. But it really is good that now Americans are getting a little better picture of who they are, and what they’re doing, and it’s not good stuff.

Why the SPLC Doesn”t Like It

Rick:

The websites for folks that want to actually go watch the video, go to ExposeSPLC.com, Â ExposeSPLC.com. We”ll have a link today at WallBuildersLive.com to make it easy for you. And I”ll just tell you, the reason that folks like us here at WallBuilders, why we end up on those lists, why the SPLC doesn’t like what we’re doing, is because it’s making a difference, it’s having an impact on the country, it’s restoring the biblical foundations. The whole idea here at WallBuilders, “Arise and rebuild the walls that we may no longer be a reproach.”

We’re not just talking about it, it’s happening. We’re seeing the results. You’re seeing the results. We get e-mails constantly from families that their lives have been changed, they have been able to educate their kids in these things. We have legislators across the country, hundreds of legislators that use WallBuilders as a resource for these things and then come together at our Pro Family Legislators Conference to get trained so that they can go back home to their states and pass legislation that is positive in these areas, that restores our constitutional republic.

Same things happening with young people through Patriot Academy, and High Point, these other programs where we train young people. The summer program where leaders come in from across the country and get to spend a week or two with David and Tim Barton and go through all that training, actually participate at WallBuilders. All of those things are tangible, they’re real, they’re happening. And that’s why groups like SPLC don’t like us because we’re restoring our constitutional foundations here in America.