For charity index GuideStar, the troubles didn’t end when its “hate banners” did. Although the nonprofit tracker finally took down the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) phony labeling from the conservative groups on its website, the backlash is still coming. Three days after their switchboards were overwhelmed by complaints, GuideStar learned that it will have to explain its actions — in court. Our friends at Liberty Counsel, one of the 46 groups intentionally smeared by Jacob Harold’s organization, launched a lawsuit against GuideStar for trying to dissuade donors from giving to their group with SPLC’s politically motivated “hate group” name-calling.

“GuideStar and its political ally, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), are intent on destroying pro-family organizations,” the Counsel’s chairman Mat Staver told reporters. The ‘hate group’ label is false and dangerous,“ he said, as FRC knows all too well. "GuideStar’s CEO, Jacob Harold, is using GuideStar as a weapon to defame, harm, and promote his liberal agenda by using the SPLC to falsely label good nonprofit organizations as ‘hate groups.’ The only purpose of providing the SPLC false and dangerous ‘hate group’ label is to inflict reputational and financial harm to Liberty Counsel. GuideStar has lost all credibility. GuideStar will now have to answer for its reckless, defamatory, and harmful political labeling.”

SPLC, which is hanging on to its support base by a thread, was quick to comment, insisting that it would be ready to defend its designation of Liberty Counsel. Proving that its labeling has no basis in objectivity, the group could only point to Staver’s beliefs in biblical marriage and sexuality as justification for the designation. “Liberty Counsel is a group that has consistently called LGBT people ‘immoral, unnatural and self-destructive.’” As usual, the Left isn’t pointing out actual extremism (since 53 percent of Americans hold the same view of marriage); it’s merely trying to marginalize Christians it disagrees with.

Unfortunately for the 41 top conservatives who intervened with a letter to the charity ranker, Harold did not agree to cut all ties with the SPLC, which has even come under fire from mainstream outlets like Politico and The Wall Street Journal after it was discovered that yet another gunman was highlighted by the radical group. Instead, he’s offered to make the SPLC’s designations available to anyone who requests them. That’s not good enough for Staver and others, who’ve watched the SPLC’s veneer of credibility vanish after the U.S. Army, FBI, and Obama Justice Department backed away from Morris Dees’s organization.

On Thursday night’s “Washington Watch,” Mat explained to me, “Certainly you and the folks at Family Research Council know: this is serious. This puts people’s lives at risk… And this begins with SPLC’s false and defamatory labeling — not because [its targets] are violent, because they’re not. They admit that they’re not violent… [But] If you’re not on the same page with the SPLC on the radical LGBT agenda, then they’ll label you a ‘hater.’ We’re not going to take it.”

As for the case against GuideStar, he told our listeners:

We’re taking them to federal court on the claim that they violated federal and state law by interfering with business opportunities, intending to hurt and punish. We know, for example, that some corporations who do matching funds for their employees will block their employees from contributing to groups with the ‘hate group’ label. We know that’s happening … because of GuideStar. We’re asking for financial damages, since they’re trying to damage these 46 organizations. And we’re asking for a permanent injunction so that they are permanently blocked by the court order from using this label in a defamatory way.

The Washington Times in a front page article Friday sums up the case against the SPLC in this way: “As far as conservative organizations are concerned, being labeled a ‘hate group’ by the Southern Poverty Law Center isn’t just annoying — it’s dangerous.” This is the number one reason why no one — including GuideStar — should be using the SPLC’s data.

Originally published here

Congressional Crunch

Congress left town Friday for the July 4th recess, leaving themselves a glut of must-pass legislation to tackle when they return on the 11th. Waiting for them upon their return will be the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), addressing the debt limit ceiling, the repeal and replace of Obamacare and 12 spending bills that must be finalized in September. Unless Congress foregoes their August recess, they will basically have three weeks to get all of this done.

The NDAA, which funds the nation’s military, will be approved (it always is), however, it may take a little extra time to deal with an Obama-era policy that is scheduled to go into effect today. While we are told there will be a delay in the July 1 deadline set by Obama’s DOD Secretary Ash Carter to allow new recruits who self-identify as transgender into the military, the Congress will need to provide a more through solution if Defense Secretary James Mattis does not. An analysis by FRC’s Peter Sprigg’s showed that the cost of this policy could hit $3.7 billion over 10 years. That amount would equal either one Destroyer for the Navy, twenty-two F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Planes, or 3,700 tomahawk missiles. At a time when our military is suffering from both low morale and low funding, the last thing the Trump administration should do is allow an Obama social experimentation policy to go into effect.

After conversations with members of the Senate Friday, it’s more apparent the repeal of Obamacare could be in trouble. The House-passed American Health Care Plan was changed in the Senate and scheduled to pass this week, but moderates and conservative Republicans couldn’t garner the 50 votes needed to pass the bill, so Leader McConnell delayed the vote until after the July 4th recess. The Senate bill, called the Better Health Care Act, saves $321 billion over 10 years, rips out much of Obamacare’s taxes, defunds Planned Parenthood for one year, and replaces Obamacare with an approach to give states and insurers more flexibility than the Obamacare one-size-fits-all law. One of the sticking points with moderate members of the GOP is the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) estimate that the bill still would cause 22 million uninsured over current law. These senators should keep in mind the CBO’s abysmal track record over the life span of Obamacare — if it was in the medical field no doubt it would be sued for malpractice. The Congress must deal with this because Obamacare is not sustainable. Too many insurers are losing money and are therefore pulling out of the exchanges. We will continue to work with senators as we did with House members to arrive at a bill that will lead to lower premiums for families, end taxpayer funded abortion, and ends the forced partnership with organizations like Planned Parenthood.

Originally published here

Let Us Kneel before the Lord Our God, Our Maker…

This Sunday, July 2, 2017, is Call2Fall Sunday!

The Psalmist wrote “Come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture… Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart…” (Ps 95:6-8).

America is in a time of great distress. Our sins have found us out (Num 32:13-23). There is a faithful remnant, but as a nation we have turned our backs on God. We’ve ignored the eternal moral laws of our Maker, Giver of life and Author of our liberties. Moreover, we’ve collectively engaged in grave acts of sinful defiance against Him. If we do not return to Him, we will surely perish (Lk 13:1-5). God mercifully gave Solomon a road map for returning to Him: 2 Chronicles 7:14. This verse has become overly familiar to many but its power has not been diminished.

The Call2Fall “Declaration” reminds believers to respond seriously and wholeheartedly:

“I will answer God’s call to fall on my knees in humility and seek His face in repentance so that He might forgive my sins and heal our land.”

Only our Lord Jesus Christ can save America (Acts 4:12). Our future depends upon God’s mercy and His people responding to this wonderful but conditional promise to heal us.

This Sunday pastors in all 50 states will lead their people during worship services to take a time for personal reflection, repentance, and prayer for our nation. They will invite those physically able to spend at least five minutes on their knees in an act of humility. Many more thousands will pray on bended knee wherever they are, acknowledging our nation’s dependence upon God before we rush to fire up the grill and break out the fireworks to celebrate Independence Day two days later.

Founding Father John Adams, writing to his wife Abigail about their momentous vote for independence, declared: “I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”

What might God do, if His people take His call to fall seriously each and every day?

Visit Call2Fall.com to learn more and click “Count Me In!”

Originally published here

---

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.