The Southern Poverty Law Center

A lot of people see me throwing the term "hate group" at various organizations and I can see how it would be easy to think that I'm conjuring it out of some arbitrary standards within my own head.  I can assure you this is not the case.  Enter: The Southern Poverty Law Center, also known as the SPLC.

The SPLC was originally formed in the early 70s (1971) as a civil rights law firm with the goal of bankrupting discriminatory organizations by filing lawsuits on behalf of the people they'd denigrated, harassed, threatened, or committed violence against.  With the Civil Rights Act only seven years behind them and racism still running rampant throughout the country, the original target was the Ku Klux Klan and like organizations.  That focus has since expanded.

Which is where we come into the term "hate group."  The SPLC has tracked hate groups across the country from racist organizations to neo-nazis to anti-gay groups attempting to masquerade as Christians.  The last of those is obviously the most relevant here as such groups would have you believe that the SPLC is "waging a war against Christianity," or "persecuting them for their beliefs." 

Not quite.

The SPLC has said on numerous occasions that a biblical condemnation of homosexuality alone is not worthy of earning a "hate group" label.  What makes organizations like Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, Abiding Truth Ministries, Mass Resistance, and others "hate groups" is that they knowingly and willingly publish known falsehoods about the LGBT community and routinely harass LGBT members.

The most common way they do this is by either citing discredited researcher Paul Cameron, or misrepresenting the work of legitimate scientists to push the lies that "there are higher instances of pedophilia or child about among gay or lesbian men," that "heterosexual parents are superior to homosexual parents," or that the SS within the Nazi Party was comprised mainly of homosexuals, recruited for their "innate brutality."  (Really Scott Lively?)  These are the things that make them hate groups, not their religion.