A homosexual advocacy organization has launched a major attack on a member of the Duggar family, known for its TLC reality show "19 Kids and Counting."
The Duggar family, led by Jim Bob and Michelle, have been open about their Christian faith and dedication to pro-family values. Their show focused on their 17, then 18, then 19 children. Now they also have two grandchildren.
So when the eldest son, Josh, married and with two children already, applied for a position with Family Research Council, a key player in pro-family advocacy in Washington, D.C., the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Discrimination attacked.
It described the FRC as "one of the country's most dangerous hate groups."
TRENDING: 'Art of the Deal': How Trump turns COVID issue into 'win-win'
FRC has yet to announce Duggar's hiring. It put out a statement explaining that Josh Duggar is among a handful of candidates being considered for a position with FRC, but no final decision has been made.
According to a report from Buzzfeed, Duggar is being considered for an executive position with FRC Action, the organization's lobbying arm.
GLAAD's wording of its attack largely mirrored that of an attack on the FRC by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a leftist organization that apparently inspired homosexual activist Floyd Corkins' gun assault on the FRC offices in Washington.
"We greatly appreciate Josh and the Duggar family's devotion to the pro-family movement and their counter-cultural courage," FRC spokesman JP Duffy said in a statement.
GLAAD President Herndon Graddick called the Family Research Council "without a doubt one of our country's most dangerous hate groups, led by the most anti-gay man in America, Tony Perkins."
"Josh Duggar needs to reconsider his vocational choices and refrain from adding his voice to the chorus of anti-gay voices at the Family Research Council," Graddick said. "We also demand that TLC refrain from giving a platform to FRC's hate speech. GLAAD is watching, and we will be prepared to take action."
Duggar said he wanted to work with a Christian organization to help promote "family values and right to life."
Josh Duggar, 25, is the oldest son of the 19 children of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar.
The family's traditional values led members to stump for Rick Santorum in the 2012 presidential election.
FRC Action's website describes the group, formerly known as American Renewal, as "the non-profit and tax-exempt legislative action arm" of the Family Research Council. It founded in 1992 "to educate the general public and cultural leaders about traditional American values and to promote the philosophy of the Founding Fathers concerning the nature of ordered liberty."
WND recently reported on the SPLC's demand that the government investigate "the growing threat of non-Islamic domestic terrorism."
The letter, signed by J. Richard Cohen, was addressed to Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
The organization routinely describes organizations such as the FRC, which holds firmly to the biblical teachings on issues such as homosexuality, as "hate" groups. It recently released its list of "hate" and "extremist" groups in the United States, lumping charitable ministries such as the FRC along with the KKK and others.
There were suggestions the SPLC itself fostered hate when homosexual activist Floyd Corkins last year entered FRC's Washington offices and shot a guard.
Constitutional attorney Matt Barber, whose columns appear in WND, wrote recently about the irony of the SPLC's condemnation of others for having a specific belief based on the Bible.
He's warned that the SPLC's labeling would produce trouble.
In a column he wrote: "The SPLC's dangerous and irresponsible ('hate group') disinformation campaign can embolden and give license to like-minded, though less stable, left-wing extremists, creating a climate of true hate. Such a climate is ripe for violence."
Barber said after Corkins shot and injured FRC employee Leo Johnson, he again raised the issue, writing, "I plead with the SPLC to end its 'dishonest and reprehensible' strategy of 'juxtaposing FRC and other Christian organizations with violent extremist groups' in a transparent effort to marginalize them."
He wrote that he no longer believes the SPLC has a sense of good will.
"In fact, based on FBI evidence and the group's own actions (and inaction), I and many others are left with no other inference but this: The SPLC – a left-wing extremist fundraising behemoth – may be intentionally inciting anti-Christian violence," Barber charged.
Cohen said the government needs to take a much stronger stance against Christian "hate groups."
"The resources devoted to countering domestic hate and radical antigovernment groups and those they may inspire do not appear commensurate with the threat," the letter from Cohen said.
"The number of far-right antigovernment groups has exploded and the number of neo-Nazi and racist skinhead groups had remained at a high level," he said.
Evidence in the Corkins case revealed SPLC listed the exact location of the FRC office, and Corkins used the information to choose his target.
Prosecutors said Corkins, scheduled to be sentenced April 29, claimed he was at FRC headquarter interviewing for an internship. When a security guard asked for ID, Corkins took a pistol from a backpack and fired three shots, striking security guard Leonardo Johnson in the arm.
Johnson, however, was able to wrestle away the gun from Corkins, preventing further bloodshed.
Perkins said that only by "ending its hate labeling practices will the SPLC send a message that it no longer wishes to be a source for those who would commit acts of violence that are only designed to intimidate and silence Christians and others who support natural marriage and traditional morality."
Corkins was carrying 15 Chick fil-A sandwiches in his bag when he was taken into custody. The fast-food restaurant was embroiled in controversy at the time over CEO Dan Cathy's remarks in opposition to same-sex marriage in an interview. FRC was a vocal supporter of Cathy.
Corkins confessed in a court hearing he intended to "kill as many as possible and smear the Chick-Fil-A sandwiches in victims' faces, and kill the guard."
He told FBI agents who interviewed him after the shooting that he wanted to use the sandwiches to "make a statement against the people who work in that building ... and with their stance against gay rights and Chick-fil-A."
At a news conference the day after the August attack, Perkins claimed SPLC had encouraged the attack by listing his organization as a hate group.
"Let me be clear that Floyd Corkins was responsible for firing the shot yesterday," Perkins told reporters in Washington Aug. 16. "But Corkins was given a license to shoot an unarmed man by organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center that have been reckless in labeling organizations hate groups because they disagree with them on public policy."
Cohen's letter said the SPLC had found that the number of "militias and radical antigovernment groups" and "hate groups" such as the FRC, grew to 1,360 in 2012.
He blasted individuals such as Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and U.S. Rep. Trey Radel, R-Fla., as well as former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack, Barber, Fox News Radio host Todd Starnes and Montana pastor Chuck Baldwin.
WND previously has reported that the Obama administration warned that "returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to rightwing extremists."
The 2009 report, from the Department of Homeland Security, was called "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment." It also said Obama's governmental managers were "concerned that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to boost their violent capabilities."