‘Bogus’ allegations against church

Skepticism is good in any enterprise, especially journalism, yet none was in evidence in a recent story telling readers that the Christian media outreach I lead is an “anti-LGBT” hate group.

That false and defamatory claim, made by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), was retailed to the public without a whiff of skepticism, independent fact-checking or the courtesy of a call to us to get our response to this wholly bogus allegation.

Here’s what the story didn’t tell readers. First, the Southern Poverty Law Center is a hard-Left advocacy group that sees “hate” exclusively on the right — almost never on the left. Its agenda, in the words of one SPLC leader, is to “do battle” with the “radical right,” “to destroy them or to politically nullify them.”

Second, the FBI dropped the SPLC from its list of hate crime resources in 2014. The FBI acted after its investigation found that the SPLC website played a significant part in bringing about an act of domestic terrorism. Third, the SPLC apologized and paid $3.3 million in 2018 to former Islamist Maajid Nawaz for falsely listing him and his Quilliam Foundation in the SPLC’s “Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists.” Fourth, our three-yearold defamation suit against the SPLC for falsely designating us a hate group is before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Frank Wright, Boca Raton

The author is president and CEO of D. James Kennedy Ministries