Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion

From Charles Johnson at LGF, last week:

Vatican Cracks Down on Uppity US Nuns

The Vatican is cracking down on American nuns who aren’t opposed to women’s rights and gay rights, which should surprise no one who’s been following the Catholic Church’s swing to the right.

As will be immediately obvious to anyone, the headline contains irony; Johnson does not believe that the nuns are being “uppity”, but he has used the word in order to convey the ugliness of what he believes to be the Vatican’s attitude towards them.

However, it is apparently useful for some individuals to pretend that the headline has a different meaning – here’s Dana Loesch, writing on Twitter:

…Why it was a “slur” when Rush said “uppity,” but not Charles? Hack. (1)

…I love nothing more than when husky white progressive males try to explain why it’s OK for them to use racial slurs. (2)

…No, no, noes. Charles previously classified it as a slur. According to his own rules, it still is one. (3)

And so on along the same lines.

This goes back to last November, when Rush Limbaugh described Michelle Obama as “uppity”; Glenn Beck concurred, identifying the word with “snotty”. However, “uppity” also has the connotation of “getting above one’s station”, and when applied to black people evokes memories of the phrase “uppity negro”, used by racist whites in the American south to demonize black social advancement; Limbaugh is certainly aware of this. Johnson was among those who attacked Limbaugh and Beck for using the word in the context of Michelle Obama.

Loesch’s argument begins with the suggestion that by using the phrase “uppity nuns”, Johnson understands that “uppity” isn’t really a racial term; this was the “gotcha” non-point made by a Christian Right blog called Blue Collar Philosophy, which is the ur-text of the subsequent attacks. However, this then slides into the mocking suggestion that since Johnson has claimed that “uppity” has a racial meaning, the fact that he has used the word himself means that he must guilty of using “racial slurs”. Blue Collar Philosophy also links triumphantly to a Tweet on the subject of black nuns:

Many Catholic nuns are black. @Lizardoid says they’re “uppity.” (4)

Pay no heed to the details that that “uppity US nuns” does not refer to a racial group, or that Johnson has used “uppity” to mock the Vatican’s attitude towards the nuns, rather than to describe what he thinks of the nuns.

Of course, “person on the internet is troll” is not much of a story, but the above is worth logging because Loesch has a public profile as a well-connected conservative talk-show host and as a contributor to CNN. She is controversial for other reasons, but her Tweets here show her up as a hack willing to engage in vicious distortions for political gain. Her bad faith does not just insult the intelligence of the public; she undermines her own integrity. She could perhaps defend herself by claiming that she’s simply echoing what’s been passed along the food-chain (The Blue Collar Philosophy post was picked up by Dan Riehl), but what kind of a person makes a dozen goading Tweets on a point they haven’t properly checked out?

Johnson is a lightning rod for this sort of nonsense: back in January, the fact that all books available on Amazon can be purchased through his site’s personal store prompted the late Andrew Breitbart to claim that Johnson is “PROFITING from the racist Turner Diaries”; prior to that, scepticism of a claim by Robert Spencer that a family shooting in Texas had been an honour killing provoked Spencer to accuse Johnson of “excusing” honour crimes in return for payment. There is also a chorus of lesser blogs along the same lines which are probably not worth mentioning – but the words of Loesch, Breitbart, and Spencer are of wider significance as providing the ideological underpinning for a large-scale political movement. It’s all rather unattractive.

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Last December, Good published a profile by Kristin Rawls of Jason “Molotov” Mitchell and his wife Patricia (“DJ Dolce”). Molotov is one of WND‘s more abrasive commentators: he has no problem with the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill, pointing out that it reflects Uganda’s culture and that gay Ugandans can simply leave the country; he has a long list of “Nazis” that includes Obama and Wiccans; and – inevitably – he regards Sandra Fluke as a “slut”. I looked at some of his material here, and managed to elicit a comment from the man himself.

Good’s profile includes some personal background:

Molotov has a more troubled past. His father was an evangelical Christian who worked construction. His mother has struggled for years with symptoms of mental illness. Molotov disapprovingly notes that she “had a very strong feminist thing going on,” and one day, “my father came home and she’d just left a note and taken me with her. She was cursed by God for doing that. To this day, she hears demonic voices non-stop.”

Molotov’s father Wayne Mitchell may indeed have “worked construction” when Molotov was very young, but for most of Molotov’s life he has been an evangelist and pastor. One wonders why Molotov has decided to downplay this now; a 2008 article in Harper’s mentions that

Mitchell’s parents divorced when he was five, and his father, an evangelical pastor who now heads the Beacon City Church in Boston, raised him.

According to a 1995 article in Charisma (snippet on Google Books), Wayne Mitchell “worked with Maranatha Campus Ministries in the 1980s”, and he created an organisation to evangelise foreign students, called “Churches Serving Internationals” in Durham, NC. Jay Rogers of the Forerunner (a Maranatha newsletter) has further details:

I was contacted by Jason Mitchell… Jason mentioned that he knew The Forerunner and that his dad had been part of Maranatha Ministries. Jason didn’t remember me, but I knew him quite well when he was a teenager. His father, Wayne Mitchell, now a pastor in Boston, and I produced The Mandate, a version of The Foreunner for Chinese students, for three years in the mid-1990s.

I am glad to see that Jason has turned out to be even more radical than his father. God is truly a sovereign God!

Maranatha has a particularly controversial history; the organisation was was accused of authoritarianism and abuse in the 1980s, and it collapsed in 1989 – I discussed this here. Some of those involved with Maranatha then reformed as Morning Star International, later rebranded as Every Nation. In the 1990s, Wayne Mitchell was the associate pastor of a Morning Star church in Durham called King’s Park International Church. He moved to Boston in 2001, but an association remains: the senior pastor at KPIC, Ron Lewis, created a new organisation to evangelise students, called Campus Harvest, and Molotov’s “Illuminati Pictures” created a promo for this group in 2007. In Boston, Wayne Mitchell formed Beacon City Church; however, as I discussed here, Beacon City was originally “Maranatha Christian Church of Boston”, and later “Boston Morning Star Church” (it has recently “joined forces” with another Boston church, called Aletheia Church).

Another student group created by KPIC is High Rise, which in 2009 hosted Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa. This was before Ssempa’s had become infamous for a viral video in which he conflated gay sex with coprophagy, but his views were very much on record.

Footnote

Morning Star International should not be confused with Rick Joyner’s MorningStar Ministries. However, Joyner is friendly with Bob Weiner, who headed Maranatha. Another controversial figure formerly associated with Maranatha is Pastor Terry Jones, as I discussed here.

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Christian Concern has published details of its upcoming “One Man, One Woman” conference, to be held on 23 May. The event was announced earlier this month in a press release issued by Don Feder of the World Congress of Families; here’s the line-up:

Remembering the Nature of Marriage
Peter Duckworth (Barrister – Family Specialist)

Observing the State of Marriage
Sir Paul Coleridge (High Court Judge, Family Division)
Allan C. Carlson (Founder, World Congress of Families)

Making the Case for Marriage
Phillip Blond (Director, ResPublica)
Cristina Odone (Journalist and Media Commentator)
Ben Harris-Quinney (Chairman, The Bow Group)

Duckworth has spoken at a previous Christian Concern event, while Coleridge announced a new “Marriage Foundation” in January. Harris-Quinney recently issued a statement against gay marriage, and he is the author of piece warning the Conservative Party that it must “decide between the pulpit and the progressive agenda”. Blond, meanwhile, is famous as David Cameron’s “Red Tory Philosophy King”; ResPublica’s view of gay marriage has been articulated by John Milbank, who is a ResPublica Fellow (and, perhaps somewhat awkwardly, a 9/11 Truther who reportedly recently screamed at Oliver Kamm that he was “going to to be dealt with”). Odone’s argument against gay marriage appeared in a Telegraph column last month.

But what of the American guest star in the show, Allan Carlson? I’ll again quote journalist Kathryn Joyce:

Carlson, the Lutheran head of the Illinois-based Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society, is a compelling conservative historian who uses secular arguments to advance religious right ideas. A chief example of this is “The Natural Family Manifesto,” a guiding document of the WCF community, co-written by Carlson and Paul Mero, head of the Mormon think tank the Sutherland Institute. The ecumenical call to arms extols a conservative lifestyle where fathers lead and women honor their highest domestic calling by becoming “prolific mothers” of “full quivers of children.”

In service of that goal, Carlson, who has helped craft policy for ultra-right Senator Sam Brownback and Representative Lee Terry of Nebraska, hopes to involve the state in a pro-family welfare system, where tax laws encourage large families, and the government encourages a family-and-faith-centered legal system, which repeals “witch-hunting” child abuse laws that restrict parental discipline as well as no-fault divorce; imposes penalties for unmarried cohabitation; and reconfigures Social Security to provide support on a family, rather than individual basis, so that women are recognized not for their work as independent employees but for their roles as spouses and mothers. 

Doris Buss and Didi Herman, law professors and co-authors of Globalizing Family Values: The Christian Right in International Politics, write that the Manifesto’s secular, social science rationales are part of the “‘intellectualization’ of the Christian Right”.

The conference website also carries the notice that

Our London event will be followed by a full World Congress in Madrid from Friday 25th – Sunday 27th May 2012 – for more information please visit the website.

Attendees in Madrid will be able to enjoy talks on subjects such as “The Cultural Roots of Demographic Winter”; “The Threat from Transnational Progressivism”; “Authentic Women  and Rediscovering Homemaking”; and “Solutions to Homosexual Behavior”.

The Madrid line-up lists around 100 speakers: familiar faces include Alan Sears (of the Alliance Defense Fund); Ted Baehr (of “Movieguide“); Richard Cohen (who has addressed the Polish parliament on the need to keep homosexuality criminalised); Natalya Yakunina (wife of Vladimir Yakunin, an Orthodox activist who runs Russia’s railways and who is close to Vladimir Putin); Steve Mosher (of Paul Marx’s Population Research Institute) ; and Peter LaBarbera (of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality; LaBarbera is known for his particularly ugly and obsessive rhetoric on the subject, and for his links with Scott Lively).

Along with Ben Harris-Quinney, the British end in Madrid will be represented by: Gordon Macdonald (of CARE and Care Not Killing); Paul Coleman (a Christian Concern legal advisor); Robert Colquhoun (of “40 Days for Life”, which has brought US-style anti-abortion protests to the UK); Ade Omooba (a pastor, who organised a protest against the Sexual Orientations Regulations  in 2007); and Christian filmmaker Norman Stone (not to be confused with the historian).

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Once again, I return to the subject of anonymous smear attacks against Tim Ireland of Bloggerheads. Tim is adept at identifying and exposing instances of dishonesty on-line, in the media, and in politics, as a result of which he has a number of enemies who use underhand methods in attempts to discredit or intimidate (I’ve had a bit of attention myself for daring to write about it). Just last week, a paedo smear about Tim was posted to Wikipedia; back in November Tim wrote about fabricated evidence of mental illness:

In January 2010, during a police investigation that resulted from Dorries’ complaint/’report‘, some fabricated evidence emerged. It was quite damaging stuff. The anonymous originator claimed to have fished it out of my bin; a box of prescription medication made out to me (specifically a powerful anti-psychotic drug). Bedfordshire Police investigated its origins until they hit a dead end.

A photo of the box was sent to Tim anonymously, in order to taunt. Further:

Police were advised of the following by a medical professional they interviewed as part of their investigation, and I was present when it was said; the medication involved is a carefully controlled substance to the extent that you cannot pick up even an empty box like it by digging through bins at the back of Boots; the original picture that was used for this forgery was most likely accessed by someone who had been prescribed this medication, or enjoyed a position of trust with someone who had been prescribed this medication.

The photo was also emailed to individuals hostile to Tim; one of these was “Harry Cole”, sidekick to Paul Staines. Although Cole has no moral objection to lying and smearing, he realised he had to be careful how he deployed his gift, and so he decided to claim that he believed that the photo had been sent to him by Tim himself as a “sting”. It was explained to Cole that this was not the case, but that the email’s metadata might contain evidence of use to the police in tracking down a potentially dangerous stalker. Cole’s response on Twitter: “Go fuck yourself”.

It now transpires that the photo was also sent to Bedfordshire Police. The background here is that Nadine Dorries MP has a habit of reporting critics to the police for harassment, including her Liberal Democrat opponent at the last election; she infamously made a complaint about Tim after Tim filmed (openly and with the permission of the organisers) a hustings event at which Dorries was speaking. Clearly, if the police were to believe that Tim was on anti-psychotic drugs, that would have an effect on how they viewed her complaint. Of course, it is not here claimed that Dorries had anything to do with the photo – but a number of other individuals would have been very happy to see Dorries succeed in using the police to silence or discredit Tim.

One would hope the police would take the matter seriously: the creation and dissemination of the photo was not only a malicious attempt to cause Tim distress, but an attempt to interfere with a police investigation with the intention that the course of justice would be perverted. Also of relevance is that Tim has made complaints of his own about harassment, one of which very nearly came to court in September.

However, Bedfordshire Police are apparently reluctant to share information with Tim, let alone investigate further. His latest blog post features a letter he has written to a Bedfordshire DCI:

Among the false allegations passed to Bedfordshire Police; fabricated evidence with the obvious intention of give people the false idea that I am clinically psychotic, and a danger to others.

…After failing to disclose an instance of this being passed directly to your investigating officer(s) during an investigation, Bedfordshire Police then failed to disclose it again in response to a legitimate subject access request after that investigation, and you now claim that you cannot disclose any detail about its source because of a further investigation.

If this fabricated evidence has any bearing on your current investigation, then why are you not investigating its origins?

If it it not relevant to your current investigation, then on what grounds do you refuse disclosure today?

I believe this evidence has a direct bearing on a current investigation by Surrey Police; it forms part of my complaint, and I would like to know on what grounds you refuse me the data I require to make them fully aware of its significance.

…Like you, Surrey Police also refused to disclose this fabricated evidence to me in response to a subject access request under the Data Protection Act, and had I not pressed the matter, I would never have discovered that Bedfordshire Police were aware of three items of evidence where previously I was only aware of one.

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A breathless report in the Telegraph:

Anders Behring Breivik trial: the ‘real’ Lionheart

Anders Breivik has insisted at his trial that he attended a meeting in London in 2002 in which his violent right-wing group, the so-called “Knights Templar,” was founded.

…Three days after the Norway attacks, the Daily Telegraph identified and tracked down a British man calling himself Paul Ray, who admitted that he could have been the inspiration for Breivik, although he denied ever meeting him.

British and Norwegian investigators are convinced that Breivik’s Knights Templars do not exist but say it is possible that he was inspired by information he found on the internet. If he was, Ray appears to be the man he modeled himself on.

In his 1,500 page manifesto, Breivik wrote that his “assigned mentor” at the founding meeting was “referred to as Richard (the Lionhearted).”

This was all raked over last year; the theory of Ray as Breivik’s model collapses under scrutiny. Ray uses the name “Lionheart” on his blog, but that’s not the same as “Richard the Lionhearted”, and “Lionheart” is obviously the first name that would come to mind to anyone who wished to identify with Crusaders. Ray and Breivik also regard Serb nationalists and Liberia’s Charles Taylor as Christian champions against Islam, but again, these are shared generic sympathies rather than evidence of influence.

Further, Breivik claims to have met his “mentor” in 2002; Ray’s anti-Islam activism dates from several years later. According to evidence from Breivik’s current trial, credit card records show that Breivik visited a café London in 2002; by his own account, he attended a meeting which consisted of “four sweaty men in a basement”. However, even if a meeting really happened, there is no reason to suppose Ray was present.

Ray was one of the founders of the English Defence League in 2009, although he was sidelined soon afterwards and broke away. Ray’s blog fulminates against the current EDL leadership, and against Alan Lake, who has also been accused of having influenced Breivik. Ray has revealed details of an EDL planning meeting at Lake’s apartment in 2009, and he has published an email from one of Lake’s associates (“Kinana”, discussed here) which mentions that another person present at this meeting also uses the name “Richard the Lionheart”. While it would be interesting to know who this person is (“a big ginger-haired guy from London”, in Ray’s recollection), again, there’s no reason to extrapolate from this to a link to Breivik.

The Telegraph continues:

Ray went on to become a member of a group calling itself Order 777 that appeared to advocate a violent struggle against Muslims.

Order 777 posted videos online featuring a depiction of a Templar Knight and footage of a variety of armed gangs, including Serbian nationalists and Liberian fighters such as Charles Taylor.

…Both the videos and [Breivik's] manifesto featured a man called Milorad Ulemek, a former commander of a unit of the Serbian security services who was arrested in 2004 and convicted of the assassinations of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and former Serbian President Ivan Stambolic.

The Telegraph also makes a few other connections:

Mr Ray, who later moved to Malta, is originally from Luton, Bedfordshire, a place that Breivik referred to repeatedly in court.

Lastly, the videos featured a thumping trance music soundtrack, exactly the kind of music Breivik listened to obsessively as he prepared his attacks.

Despite the similarities, Ray pointed out that the right-wing anti-Muslim movement did not begin in Britain until 2006 – which by coincidence is the same date Breivik claims to have started writing his manifesto.

Luton is also known as the original centre for EDL activism, so once again there’s no need to make a link to Ray; the other “similarities” appear to be incidental.

However, “Order 777″ is genuinely troubling, even without the Breivik element; the “group” represents Ray’s association with Nick Greger, a reformed neo-Nazi, and with Greger’s friend Johnny Adair, a well-known figure in Northern Irish Loyalism. There is a website which purports to belong to the group, which contains the following  blurb (1):

The Order 777 is a Paraintelligence Service structured in Special Operation Units (SOU).
Task of The Order 777 is to fight the threat of Islamic Terrorism on 3 Levels:

- Operations to expose Islamic Terrorists, their Networks and Activities.
– spiritual Warfare to fight Islam itself.
– assistance in founding Citizen Militias with purpose of self-protection of Communities which are directly terrorized by Jihadists.

Members of The Order 777 are operating alongside different Secret Services in various Countries.

The Order 777 is an Christian Brotherhood,
outside Europe especialy dedicated to support Christians in:
Democratic Republic Congo,Nigeria,Liberia,Sierra Leone,Casamance Region in Senegal,Egypt,southern Sudan,Armenia,Lebanon and Israel to name just some of them .

You find a few Samples of how The Order 777 operates in our Video Section with Explanation to the Operations written amongst the Videos.

Members of The Order 777 are in general reformed Characters who converted to Christianity,dedicated to protect Christendom against the onslaught of Islam.

Further Task and Goal of The Order 777 is to build an save Haven for its Members aft, er their Retirement. A save Haven in Form of a Settlement on private Property in a secret Location. A Vision which The Order 777 Mentor Lonnie Earl Johnson once described as *Building the new Jerusalem in the Heart of Darkness…a Light to inspire others to follow our Example*.

The reference to “Mentor Lonnie Earl Johnson” is particularly bizarre. Johnson was executed in Texas in 2007 for the fatal shooting of two teenagers in 1990; Johnson claimed to have acted in self-defence from a racist attack (he was black and the two teenagers were white), but one cannot see what the case has to do with Ray and Greger’s concerns. The quote attributed to Johnson cannot be found anywhere else, and he does not appear to have had any interest in Islam.

The site is owned by someone using the name and image of “Danny Archer” (the protagonist of the film Blood Diamonds), and dates from 2011. The owner is listed as having joined in August, so presumably the site dates from then – which was a month after Brevik’s massacre. At this time Ray was complaining bitterly that he had been misunderstood and unfairly associated with violence; his appearance on a sinister site alongside photos of Eugene Terre Blanche and Ulemek (among other figures, including Adair and Johnson) seems an odd way to dispel such impressions.

(1)globalresistance.webs.com/

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Interfax reports:

Russia’s Union of Cinematographers came out with a statement in which it lashed out at the standards of Russian cinema, lambasted the Russian media and claimed that Russia is on the verge of a cultural and moral “catastrophe.”

…The union said illiteracy, degradation of gender relationships, and depreciation of family values are features of modern Russian society. “All these diseases put Russia on the verge of disappearance,” is said.

Russians find Russian films humiliating and have stopped seeing them, the union said. “Generally speaking, modern Russian cinema is destructive. Not only does it fail to generate love for one’s country, for one’s near and dear and for other people – it in principle kills off one’s desire to live, work and raise children in Russia,” the statement said.

And inevitably:

The union appealed to President-elect Vladimir Putin to intervene. 

The head of the Russian Cinematographers’ Union is the director Nikita Mikhalkov; a recent article in Radio Free Europe has some background:

Despite critical looks at the country’s Stalinist past in works like “Burnt By The Sun” — for which he won a U.S. Academy Award for best foreign film — Mikhalkov is an unabashed fan of Vladimir Putin, even directing a hagiographic film about the then-president on the occasion of his 50th birthday.

Together, the two men last year launched a government advisory panel on the Russian film industry that will be headed by Putin. The move sparked fears among critics and filmmakers that the Kremlin may be seeking to harness moviemaking for its own ideological ends.

Mikhalkov was supposed to have stepped down as chairman in 2008; however, when his preferred successor (a man “known mainly for his roles in action movies and as the host of the TV series ‘Battle of the Psychics’) was rejected he retained his position following a court challenge and a re-election. The report further notes:

…the list of those who have spoken out against Mikhalkov is impressive, and includes such legends of Russian film such as film directors Eldar Ryazanov and Aleksei German, theater directors Yury Lyubimov and Mark Zakharov, and animator Yury Norshtein.

In 2011, Mikhalkov arranged for his poorly-received sequel to Burnt By the Sun to represent Russia at the Oscars; the decision was decried as “cronyism”. In the same year, his views on the tsunami in Japan garnered controversy; France 24 reported:

…On March 16, he delivered a lecture in the Moscow House of Cinema, during which he appeared to say that the earthquake and tsunami were sent to Japan to punish its citizens for their sins.

…Two days later, Mikhalkov clarified his position on his own YouTube channel. He said that the meaning of his words had been distorted, and that the Japanese had been punished not for their own sins, but for the sins of the whole world. To his detractors, however, his statement came as too little, too late. As one of his critics ironically put it, “God punishes the Japanese with the earthquake and us, Russians, with Mikhalkov”.

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Back in November, I noted an article on the website of Christian Concern about Scott Lively; the piece for the most part was sourced from MassResistance, and described how Pastor Scott Lively had been the target of protests:

There have been reports that ‘Occupy’ activists in America have started targeting Christians, in a new development for the protest movement.

…Although his focus is on helping people live by Christian principles, Dr Lively was targeted because of his pro-family activism.

At the time, I thought this was just a piece of opportunism by Christian Concern, which is keen to drum up support through a narrative of persecution. However, I have since become aware* that Paul Diamond, who is closely allied with Christian Concern, actually addressed MassResistance in September:

On Sunday afternoon, Sept. 18, Paul Diamond is coming to the United States exclusively to address the MassResistance Banquet to reveal, explain, and warn us on “What is happening in Britain – and what you must do now in America.”

This is a breathtaking opportunity that you must not miss. Mr. Diamond is a gifted speaker and a committed Christian. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime occasion.

Diamond apparently spoke on homosexuality and on the various religious liberty cases he is known for handling (I discussed some of these here):

First, spread the truth. We must move out of our own sphere of influence and create debate among average Americans about the harmful truths of the homosexual agenda, he said.

…Secondly, we need to keep trying to develop major media contacts to publicize the truth… For example, British Airways employees have been banned from wearing even small cross necklaces, but allowed to wear turbans, Hindu ponytails, or any other jewelry with religious symbolism. This made the front page of a major UK newspaper.

Brian Camenker (founder of MassResistance) and Sally Kern followed, and there were closing remarks from Scott Lively.

Diamond and Christian Concern have a number of US links already: Christian Concern takes advice from the Alliance Defense Fund and is a “partner” of the World Congress of Families. Last November, Diamond and Christian Concern’s director, Andrea Minichiello Williams, also forged links with the EDL-supporting Tennessee Freedom Coalition.

However, Lively is a particularly controversial figure – he is famously the co-author of a book blaming gay people for the Holocaust, and he has been linked to authoritarian anti-gay measures in Russia and Uganda. Brett Edward Stout noted the Russian situation in March:

Pouncing on antigay momentum around the 2006 ban on the Moscow Pride parade [blogged here - RB], American evangelist Scott Lively wrote a letter to the Russian people after completing a speaking tour in the country… Through his tour, Lively closely allied himself with the Russian Orthodoxy and presented its adherents with a road map to protect themselves from what they saw as gay propaganda. 

Of the several steps he lays out, the third is this: “Criminalize the public advocacy of homosexuality. My philosophy is to leave homosexuals alone if they keep their lifestyle private, and not to force them into therapy if they don’t want it. However, homosexuality is destructive to individuals and to society and it should never [be] publicly promoted. The easiest way to discourage ‘gay pride’ parades and other homosexual advocacy is to make such activity illegal in the interest of public health and morality.”

The full letter can be seen here. This is of some significance given that several Russian cities have subsequently passed laws along these lines: two men were recently arrested in St Petersburg for holding signs in support of gay rights (The bill’s author, city assemblyman Vitaly Milanov, also intends to attend a Madonna pop-concert in the city to see if he can find cause to have her arrested). Lively also has links with New Generation, a neo-Pentecostal church in Latvia known for its anti-gay teachings; Minichiello Williams met the church’s administrator and other New Generation figures at a church in Northampton in November 2010.

Lively spoke in Uganda in 2009; numerous sites have noted his report that local activists had told him that “our campaign was like a nuclear bomb against the ‘gay’ agenda in Uganda”. He supports a “revised” version of the notorious Anti-Homosexuality Bill (without the “extremely harsh punishments including the death penalty and life imprisonment for certain forms of ‘aggravated homosexuality’”), although he is currently being sued by a Ugandan gay rights group in a federal court in Massachusetts for allegedly “violating international law by inciting the persecution of gay men and lesbians in Uganda”. Lively takes the view that the existence of gay people in Uganda is the result of a plot orchestrated by George Soros, and MassResistance blames Soros for the legal case.

Meanwhile, MassResistance recently held a Tea Party-hosted “Patriot’s Day Rally” in Boston featuring Lively and the World Congress of Families’ Don Feder, among others (Feder has his own contacts in Russia). The event attracted protestors, who were reportedly abused by one of the speakers as “faggots”.

*Hat tip: Hope Not Hate’s Counter-Jihad Report.

(Spelling var: Mass Resistance)

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From the website of the Leadership Institute:

Once a year, the Leadership Institute organizes the International School of Fundraising for key conservative leaders from around the world.

Held in Berkshire, England, this week-long training gives you the chance to develop effective skills in fundraising for both candidates and causes.

The event took place from 30 March to 3 April, and was held at Wellington College, one of Britain’s prestigious public schools (for non-UK readers: this means that it’s an upmarket private school). The website of the Honorary Doctors’ Association has further details:

“Productive donor relations” and “Face-to-face fundraising” lectures, covered by Morton Blackwell, the LI president, were highly motivational and offered an insight into the subjects from the philanthropist’s point of view.

The Chief Executive of Cobden Centre, Tim Evans, delivered a great speech on corporate donations and was generous with his time advising trainees on the strategy based on their charity’s goals.

Incredible talent and expertise were the main features of the lectures such as “Grant writing, by Karla Bruno from Leadership Institute and “Organisations that fund international non-profit organisations”, by Larry Jacobs from the World Congress of Families.

Bruce and Katherine Eberle from Eberle Communications Group shared some tips on planning and organising highly successful fundraising events.

Evans and Jacobs are both faculty members of the Leadership Institute, an represent a broad range of conservativism: Evans is a former president of the Libertarian Alliance (and the author of a useful book about about the 1980s UK right-libertarian scene), while Jacobs’ World Congress of Families is part of the Christian Right. Kathryn Joyce described the WCF in 2008 (as I noted just a few days ago); she described it as

a locus for heavyweight US conservative actors such as the Heritage Foundation, the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America and James Dobson’s Focus on the Family–a Who’s Who of the American Christian right–to network with representatives from the Vatican, conservative Christians from developing nations and a smattering of Muslim groups seeking allies to fight gay and women’s rights at the United Nations.

Also likely to have been present was the WCF’s man in Russia, Alexei Komov; in a recent episode of the Voice of Russia’s Religion and Society programme, Komov told presenterVakhtang Kipshidze (following a discussion between Kipshidze and Christian Concern‘s Andrea Minichiello Williams) that he planned to be there. Komov has expressed his enthusiasm for US conservatism on a previous episode of the programme; he also runs a Russian franchise of Ted Baehr‘s Movieguide.

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A press release from Don Feder:

Christian Concern is a founding member of Coalition for Marriage. The Coalition’s “Don’t Play Politics With Marriage” Petition has reached over 407,000 signatures.

In response to Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron’s plans to legalize so-called same-sex marriage in the United Kingdom, the petition states: “I support the legal definition of marriage which is the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others. I oppose any attempt to redefine it.”

….Conservative M.P. Nadine Dorries noted that a recent poll showed 57% of Christians are ready to abandon the Conservative Party over the move, which 70% of the nation opposes.

“The fact is that many people now look at the Conservative party and are reeling with the realization that this modern party is the one they don’t know, didn’t vote for and no longer represents their views,” Dorries declared. She added, “They don’t recognize the values, are confused by the policies and repelled by the elitism.”

A World Congress of Families Partner, Christian Concern is planning a May 23rd conference, “One Man, One Woman: Presenting A Compelling Case for Protecting Marriage” at The Law Society in London.

Feder’s Dorries quote is taken from an article at Conservative Home:

A recent ComRes poll reported that 57% of Christians are ready to abandon the Conservative Party over the issue of gay marriage alone. Actually, 70% of the total population don’t want it either and yet, the Conservative Party felt this was a good policy to push in order to keep us in power. A policy completely out of step with the belief of the majority of the British public and many members of the gay community, but certainly one relentlessly pursued by the left-wing political gay lobby. 

According to details of the poll, which was undertaken on behalf of Premier Media:

ComRes surveyed 544 UK Christians on Cpanel between 25th and 31st October 2011 by online questionnaire. ComRes is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules,

Full details can be seen here. As ever, Dorries’ interpretation is slightly sloppy – the poll found that 57% of Christians would be “less likely to vote Conservative”, which is not quite as dramatic as the image of a Christian exodus from the party.

Feder adds further details about the conference:

The discussion will include: “Remembering the Nature of Marriage” (with historical and legal perspectives), “Observing The State of Marriage” (judicial, sociological and global perspectives) and “Making the Case for Marriage” (from a policy, media and political standpoint). The conference will conclude with a panel discussion on “Constructing a Compelling Case for Marriage” and will be followed by a reception in the House of Lords.

Christian Concern also held a World Congress of Families event last year; a WCF newsletter reports that

The World Congress of Families hosted a key conference in London on June 29. “The Future of the Family in Coalition Britain” was held to help identify the causes of family breakdown in the United Kingdom and to present possible solutions. The event was sponsored by Christian Concern (a World Congress of Families Partner) and was addressed by such prominent leaders and thinkers as Stewart Jackson MP, Bishop Michael Nazir Ali (Church of England), Nadine Dorries MP, Professor Julian Rivers, Peter Hitchens, who writes for The Sunday Mail, Benjamin Bull of Alliance Defense Fund (a WCF Partner) and Ignacio Arsuaga of HazteOir.org, who invited participants to WCF VI, Madrid 2012.

I recently noted a WCF event in Moscow; the organisation is perhaps the most successful example of a globalising Christian Right movement. Kathryn Joyce wrote about the WCF for the Nation in 2008, and described it as

a locus for heavyweight US conservative actors such as the Heritage Foundation, the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America and James Dobson’s Focus on the Family–a Who’s Who of the American Christian right–to network with representatives from the Vatican, conservative Christians from developing nations and a smattering of Muslim groups seeking allies to fight gay and women’s rights at the United Nations. The result is the spread of US culture-war tactics across the globe, from the Czech Republic to Qatar–where right-wing Mormon activist and WCF co-founder Richard Wilkins has found enough common cause with Muslim fundamentalists to build the Doha International Institute for Family Studies and Development.

…The architects of the WCF have persuaded traditionally isolationist American conservatives to care about the fate of secular, impious Europe with two main arguments: one, that Europe is a bulwark against a Muslim “invasion” of America–”If Europe is lost to demographic winter and radical secularism, much of the world will go with it,” [WCF's Allan] Carlson warns–and two, that global trends, such as the normalization of gay and women’s rights, can impact life at home.

I noted one troubling alliance in Europe in 2007. Joyce’s article drew a hostile response from Feder, as I discussed here.

Feder also embodies the link between the WCF’s demographic concerns and worries about Islam – he is also project coordinator for the “Shariah Awareness Action Network”, which was the original organiser of a conference held in Tennessee in November; Christian Concern’s Paul Diamond was involved in this event.

Dorries has long-standing links with Christian Concern, and a national media profile based on her campaigns to reform sex education, abortion counselling, and the date up until which abortion should be allowed. In recent months, she has increasingly positioned herself as a defender of Christianity in general. On Twitter, she has suggested that government might be “secretly implementing an anti-Christian agenda”, and she has promoted an article discussing whether the current government is the “most anti Christian government in history”. Last year, Dorries was at the receiving end of a flippant comment from David Cameron for which he later apologised; it seems likely that the incident inflated her sense of self-importance, and her willingness to launch unguarded attacks.

Although Dorries is often dubbed “the British Sarah Palin”, there are also similarities with Newt Gingrich, as noted by Gen J.C. Christian. In late 2010, Dorries entered into a relationship with a married man, vilifying her lover’s estranged wife (a former friend) in the process. Dorries’ behaviour was criticised by the conservative moralist Anne Atkins; Dorries, who never forgets a slight, recently responded with some prudish clucking on Twitter after Atkins wrote an article about her sex life:

Pious wife of Vicar, DMcolumnist, Anne Atkins writes abt her sex life+ waking hubby up at 4am and making it worth his while! (1)

Fnd it amusing how a columnist can be so pious in one paper and write in such personal ‘interlaced limbs’ detail in another! (2)

My point is hipocricy! (3)

However, Dorries’ prudery is selectively employed; she recently applauded James Delingpole’s description of David Allen Green as being a “tosser”.

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Tim Ireland writes:

On 8 April I tracked Douglas Morpeth’s receipt of my email making him aware of this article. He made no effort to communicate any response to me, but less than 24 hours later, I was smeared as a paedophile again (i.e. in the first attack of its kind since the 2009 event). This time the author decided to incorporate my volunteering with local children into this damaging and dangerous lie.

The article refered to (same link) is a recent blog post by Tim in which he discussed Morpeth’s associations with Dominic Wightman; Morpeth (who is a well-connected semi-public figure with a knighthood) used to be listed as the “Patron” of Wightman’s Westminster Journal website, and the two men are or have been involved with activism on behalf of the local Conservative Party in Shamley Green, Surrey. Wightman, it may be remembered, used to run a private “terror-tracking” organisation called the “VIGIL Network”, which purported to infiltrate on-line and real-world extremist groups; the group has since been disbanded, and it has subsequently become apparent that Wightman is extremely dishonest on a whole range of matters.

It is not here claimed that Morpeth has had any involvement with the new smears or with any other underhand action against Tim, but we know with certainty that Wightman has subjected Tim to a sporadic campaign of on-line abuse and harassment since autumn 2009 (I’ve also been targeted from time to time). Morpeth has had this matter brought to his attention, but he either refuses to believe the evidence or considers it none of his concern. This is despite the fact that Wightman claims that he has support of his local MP, Anne Milton, who he claims wants “Ireland downed”, and despite the fact that the website of which he used to be Patron hosts distasteful and spitefully abusive falsehoods (and in May 2011 a threat to run Tim and me over). And now, despite the fact that new attacks against Tim, of the foulest and most dishonourable kind, have appeared shortly after Morpeth has been contacted by Tim.

Paedophile smears were previously used against Tim in 2009, in the form of fake newspaper articles placed on websites about Thailand; this was during the period during which Tim was trying to get the media to take notice that the Sun‘s “Terror Target Sugar” story about a supposed Muslim plot to harass British Jews had been concocted by Glen Jenvey, who made postings to an on-line forum under a fake name which he then “exposed” (Jenvey was also formerly associated with VIGIL).

A paedophile smear was also used by two Conservative activists associated with Anne Milton in 2005, against a local opposition candidate. Tim identified the culprits, and just last year Jonathan Lord MP, at that time Chairman of the Guildford Conservative Association and responsible for dealing with complaints, admitted that Tim had been correct. However, the two activists were at that time standing in council elections, and Lord merely told them in private to “cut it out”, rather than expel them for grossly unethical conduct (a decision that, it seems to me, amounts to dereliction of duty).

Tim now adds:

Conservative MPs Anne Milton and Jonathan Lord still refuse to attempt to draw this matter to a close by taking a public stand against this kind of conduct. Jeremy Hunt, my local MP, and also a Conservative, refuses to even discuss the possibility of conducting any diplomacy or casework that might draw this matter to a close.

Meanwhile, I can add that the new smear against Tim appeared twenty minutes after an abusive and taunting comment was posted to this blog, under my post about Wightman’s links to the “counter-jihad” activist A. Millar. As ever, the comment was left by someone too cowardly to leave his or her real name. Instead, they signed themselves with the title of a Marilyn Manson song (“Doll Dagga Buzz Buzz Ziggety Zag”). I’ve since removed it.

Wightman also has links with Patrick Mercer MP: after VIGIL collapsed, Mercer was contacted by a former employee about Wightman’s dishonesty. This employee had won an industrial tribunal against Wightman, but Mercer dismissed her out of hand:

Dominic and Vigil have been extremely helpful to me from my task as Shadow Minister for Security. They have provided me with a number of very useful leads and between us we have managed to put pressure upon the nation’s enemies and secured a number of arrests. I shall certainly continue to use any guidance that Vigil gives me.

This clueless and self-serving response in the face of evidence is one other reason why Wightman’s subsequent behaviour is of wider public interest.

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