Great American Journal: The Anti Prop 8 movement: Agree with us, or we will hurt you

“The facade has finally dropped off. This is the real face of the Homosexual movement. Something new and very ugly has entered American politics”.

This week the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) launched a new website: BusttheBlacklist.com, along with an accompanying radio ad campaign. Join the fight! As the ad says, "Your voice will be heard."

Bust the Blacklist is part of NOM's ongoing "Above the Hate" campaign to find a way to fight back against the outpouring of threats, intimidation and aggression, but to fight back in a way that is, as Bishop Harry Jackson told Family News in Focus recently, consistent with Christian principles, no matter how our opponents have behaved. Listen to the Family News in Focus account here.

Brian S. Brown, Executive Director of the National Organization for Marriage is happy to have its organization stand with all people committed not only to God's truth about marriage but to basic democratic norms of decency. I know that if, God forbid, we had lost Prop 8, none of you would be out there vandalizing No on Prop 8 supporters' homes, offices, or places of worship, sending white powder to Unitarian churches or Human Rights Campaign offices, or making little old ladies feel afraid to speak up for their views.

And if anyone did we'd be the first to roundly condemn this behavior. Homosexual marriage leaders by contrast are running with an extremely verbally aggressive campaign, the message of which is: We are entitled to what we want. If you don't agree with us we will hurt you. They don't mean physically of course, but they do mean the "hurt you" part.

In my opinion, I’m not so sure about the physical part.

We must pray for the injured and also for the aggressors here. This is not how Americans treat each other when we disagree.

Maggie Gallagher, president of NOM, tells me she just got a phone call from a reporter asking, "Do you think the ugly backlash against religious people for supporting Prop 8 is waking up a lot of people who never cared about this issue?" Yes, I think so. Of course it's a little odd to describe Americans as "apathetic" about marriage right after the most extraordinary, never-before-assembled coalition of marriage supporters generated hundreds of thousands of volunteers and raised $40 million dollars. Prop 8 was the second largest election in the country after the presidential elections.

But the face of the homosexual marriage movement looks much different now, with Joe Solomonese wagging his fingers and promising to "go after" the LDS church, threats of lawsuits against their tax-exempt status, and these extremely ugly campaigns against individuals who donated to pass Prop 8.

Maggie wrote this week about one of those individuals for the National Review Online titled:
"Marjorie Christofferson's Courage" along with “Staying Well above the Hate” in The Saratogian

Marjorie Christofferson is or was the manager of El Coyote, a restaurant in LA founded by her Aunt. She gave $100 to Prop 8. Today Lisa Derrick of the Huffington Post is reporting she has resigned in the face of an ongoing onslaught of threats against the restaurant, which had nothing to do with her personal donation.

Marjorie is just one of 89 people who work for El Coyote. No matter. El Coyote welcomes homosexual employees and customers and did so long before it was cool. No matter. El Coyote has just sent $10,000 to homosexual organizations to atone for Marjorie's sins. (Sounds like extortion to me) No matter. Marjorie has many homosexual friends whom she has helped over the years. "When one of the guys died from AIDS, Marjorie paid for his mother to fly out for his funeral," noted one restaurant patron. That doesn't matter either.

You can see for yourself what kind of person Marjorie Christofferson is at a meeting with GLBT leaders on YouTube here.

Marjorie tried to call on the American tradition of personal caring and respect for each other in the midst of moral disagreement (Sounds like basic Christianity to me). The “El Coyote establishment “ she says was a "diverse community" in which "not everyone agrees with each other's viewpoint but we all care about and respect one another not to let those differing views come between us. We work together as a team and truly love each other as a family." Again, it’s basic Christianity.

In the end, shaking and tearful, she expressed regret for the pain she had caused, but Marjorie also said, "I cannot change a lifetime of faith in which I believe in very deeply. I cannot and will not, no matter what, change my love and respect for you and your views." She is practicing Christianity.

Not good enough.

Marjorie's apparent resignation has only whetted the appetite of the anti-Prop 8 crowd. West Hollywood News is reporting, "In other boycott news, No On 8 activists are gathering lists of Yes On 8 donors to publish online in hopes of punishing those businesses for their support of the effort to strip fellow Californians of a civil right.

That statement is bogus. This is not a civil rights issue. It is a moral issue.

Maggie goes on to point out, "This is a totally new tactic by the way. Boycotts against businesses that donate to a cause or mistreat their customers have long been an accepted part of the American democratic practice. But targeting an entire business because one person associated with it made in their personal capacity a donation to a cause is “brand new”. It's essentially McCarthyism. Homosexual marriage activists hope to make you unemployable if you publicly disagree with them.

We must show the face of marriage supporters in this country and of the homosexual marriage advocates too!

"I'm sure many ordinary homosexual marriage supporters deplore what happened to Marjorie.
But this is now the face of their movement: agree with us, or we will hurt you."

Brian S. Brown says, “Let me join my voice with Maggie's in saying, "Best of luck to you, Marjorie. Thank you for your courage and your decency in the aftermath of these attacks. Very few of us in this country have had to pay any price at all for our religious beliefs. Thank God and our Founding Fathers. Our sacrifices must lead us in the end to a more generous, kinder, and more typically American solution."

Maggie Gallagher was on Dr. Phil recently. She sat next to two major homosexual marriage leaders: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and the Human Rights Campaign's Joe Solmonese. In her column last week Maggie points out, "In the last few weeks, the homosexual marriage movement has visibly morphed from a movement advocating for tolerance into a political tsunami that will broker no dissent and openly seeks to punish Americans who disagree with its new dogmas."

She's right. Since California passed Proposition 8, extraordinary attacks have been unleashed. Livelihoods threatened, artists blacklisted, property defaced, worship services blocked and even some physical attacks directed at ordinary people simply because they say marriage means a man and a woman.

How has homosexual marriage leaders responded? Maggie points out, "On the 'Dr. Phil' show last week I sat next to a powerful politician, Mayor Gavin Newsom, who ritually rejected violence but refused to decry these extraordinary threats to ordinary voters' livelihoods. I also sat next to Joe Solmonese, head of the Human Rights Campaign. A young Mormon in the audience asked him, 'Why are you singling out my faith when so many other people supported Prop 8?' Did Joe Solmonese, an amiable guy, take a moment to call off his troops to back away from religious bigotry or to refocus on the larger problem? Remember, 7 million Californians disagree with his organization's homosexual marriage civil rights dogma.

"No," Maggie notes. "I sat silent, dumbfounded, next to Joe when he pointed at the young man and cried, 'We are going to go after your church every day for the next two years unless and until Prop 8 is overturned.”

You heard right. Extortion, blackmail, retaliation, threats. What's next?

As Maggie says, "This was Joe's response just a few days after white powder was sent to LDS temples in Utah and California." And not only LDS temples: Pastors up and down California have reported incidents that have not made the news.

Right now, "judging from their unwillingness to speak out, leaders of the homosexual marriage movement to include powerful politicians like Mayor Newsom apparently believe that the new politics of payback works for them."

But the good news is getting out, thanks to people and peoples’ support of NOM. Our Above the Hate campaigns been featured not only on Focus on the Family News but on Janet Parshall's America, WABC during the Rush Limbaugh show and many other places: We have 5500 courageous signers so far. WE NEED MORE.

And by the way, we are not the only group calling attention to the threats and the violence. Interfaith leaders from all denominations signed onto No Mob Veto.org, a website and a full-page ad in the New York Times denouncing the intimidation tactics.

As in Citizen Link, which promoted our new Bust the Blacklist campaign, "The new McCarthyism is just as wrong as the old. Instead of responding in kind with a boycott or threats, NOM aims to rise above the hate by offering a 'BUYCOTT'. This is a chance for Californians to show their support for basic human decency by supporting people and businesses targeted by anti-Prop 8 forces.

With God's help and yours, we must not fail to speak the truth. Your voice will be heard!

"Truth and love will prevail over lies and hate. God bless you and your family this Christmas season."

Source material: Brian S. Brown, National Organization for Marriage

Armand Christopher Hale is retired as a master sergeant in the United States Air Force. He served over 23 years and was stationed in Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. He has a degree in logistics management and plans to write a book about his service in Qatar.