Charity reports drop SPLC 'hate' labels

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An organization that posts financial information for more than 1 million of charities abruptly withdrew its "hate" designation for 46 mostly Christian organizations, which had been based on the assessment of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that has been linked in federal court to domestic terror.

Guidestar explained Friday its intent was to "provide even more information to our users" but said it had "heard from both supporters and critics of this decision, many of whom have presented reasonable disagreements with the way in which this information was presented."

The decision, Guidestar said, was motivated by "our commitment to objectivity and our concerns for our staff’s wellbeing," claiming staff members had been subject to "harassment and threats."

"We are always open and willing to have conversations with our users and nonprofit groups and welcomed this feedback. We acknowledge there is a deep, nuanced conversation to be had with Americans of all political, cultural, and religious backgrounds regarding how we address – and identify – hate groups," Guidestar said.

Get the Whistleblower Magazine's revelations about SPLC in "The Hate Racket," the story of how one group fools government into equating Christians and conservatives with Klansmen and Nazis – and rakes in millions doing it.

"Dismayingly, a significant amount of the feedback we’ve received in recent days has shifted from constructive criticism to harassment and threats directed at our staff and leadership.

"With this development in mind – driven by both our commitment to objectivity and our concerns for our staff’s wellbeing – we have decided to remove the SPLC annotations from these 46 organizations for the time being. This change will be implemented during the week of June 26, 2017. In the meantime, we will make this information available to any user on request."

The hate designations vanished from Guidestar's pages Monday.

One of the 46 organizations targeted, the Washington-based Family Research Council, reacted to the move.

FRC's executive vice president, Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jerry Boykin, said: "We are generally encouraged by GuideStar's decision to remove the labeling of non-profit webpages like ours based on characterizations made by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a bitterly partisan political organization that has been linked in federal court to a domestic terrorist shooting."

Boykin noted, however, that SPLC "continues to list on its website people such as House Majority Whip Steve Scalise who was recently shot by James Hodgkinson who 'liked' SPLC's Facebook page."

"GuideStar correctly decided to end its reliance on the SPLC, a decision that is in line with organizations like the FBI and the U.S. Army under Secretary McHugh," he said.

Boykin said his organization is "greatly dismayed that Guidestar and its staff have received verbal attacks and threats since news broke that a number of mainstream conservative organizations had been tagged by GuideStar with the SPLC's 'hate' label."

"We encourage Guidestar to report these threats to the authorities. We at FRC know directly what it is like to be on the receiving end of threats and life-threatening violence, so we do not take such matters lightly. We note that our interactions with the Guidestar staff have been cordial – even though we disagreed with its new policy," he said.

Boykin said he has not doubt that his constituents, "as followers of the Lord Jesus, share our condemnation of threats and violence."

"This goes to our larger point about the SPLC. It is the SPLC that creates a toxic environment of hostility and animus toward those they seek to silence," he said.

WND reported last week a letter sent by FRC and dozens of other SPLC-targeted organizations to Guidestar asked that it stop its program of "ostracism and dehumanization."

WND previously reported Guidestar's notice posted on the pages of selected organizations said, "This organization was flagged as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center." And it had provided a link to the far-left SPLC, accompanied by the group's logo.

The letter addressed to Guidestar CEO Jacob Harold said: "We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, write to express our strong disagreement with Guidestar's newly implemented policy that labels 46 American organizations as 'hate groups.' Your designations are based on determinations made by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a hard-left activist group. As such, SPLC's aggressive political agenda pervades the construction of its 'hate group' listings."

However, the leaders point out SPLC "has no bona fides to make such determinations."

How Guidestar had Christian groups labeled

"It is not a governmental organization using a rigorous criteria to create its lists, and it is not a scientifically oriented organization. The SPLC is merely another 'progressive' political organization," the letter said.

The letter is signed by representatives of Eagle Forum, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, American College of Pediatricians, Wallbuilders, Liberty Counsel, Family Research Council, National Organization for Marriage, London Center for Policy Research, Center for Security Policy, American Family Association, ACT for America, Secure America Now, Alliance Defending Freedom, Judicial Watch, the Heritage Foundation and many other groups.

"The 'hate group' list is nothing more than a political weapon targeting people it deems to be its political enemies," the letter stated.

"The list is ad hoc, partisan, and agenda-driven. The SPLC doesn't even pretend to identify groups on the political left that engage in 'hate.' Mosques or Islamist groups that promote radical speech inciting anti-Semitism and actual violence are not listed by the SPLC even though many have been publicly identified after terrorist attacks.

"Radical, violent leftist environmentalists or speech suppressing thugs – like the rioting 'antifa' movement – receive no mention from the SPLC."

The letter pointed out that violence has been provoked by the lists promoted by the SPLC.

"Despite its denials to the contrary, this highly refined method of ostracism and dehumanization practiced by the SPLC isn't just about verbal debate – it can foreseeably lead to violence," the letter said. "Can it be of any surprise then that SPLC's hate map was used by a political activist and domestic terrorist to perpetrate the very sort of hate crimes SPLC claims to oppose? In 2012, a shooter entered the Family Research Council headquarters in Washington, D.C., to 'kill as many as possible' because SPLC had identified FRC as a 'hate group,' and the killer-to-be relied on SPLC's website to identify targets, according to his sworn testimony.

"The SPLC continues to list on its website people such as House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, who was recently shot by James T. Hodgkinson, who 'liked' SPLC's Facebook page. Does it not concern you that within the past five years, the SPLC has been linked to gunmen who carried out two terrorist shootings in the DC area?"

The letter pointed out that SPLC's Mark Potok stated: "Sometimes the press will describe us an monitoring hate crimes and so on. … I want to say plainly that our aim in life is to destroy these groups, to completely destroy them."

The letter, initiated by Liberty Counsel, also noted the far-left activities of Harold.

For example, his biography shows he's "written extensively on climate change and has further training from Green Corps in grassroots organizing. He has also worked for Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace USA and Citizen Works. In addition, Harold's Twitter account shows he is a climate-change advocate, and he retweeted a GuideStar-published piece that uses pro-LGBT and pro-transgender language. Harold was a host for a NARAL Pro-Choice D.C. men’s event in 2014, and he blogged for Huffington Post. He also donated to the Obama campaign in 2011 before joining GuideStar in 2012. His wife is also a pro-abortion advocate. Harold tweeted a picture of himself at the so-called 'Women's March' in January 2017, holding a protest sign obviously directed against President Donald Trump. This march overtly promoted abortion."

Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, said SPLC "is intent on destroying pro-family organizations."

"It's 'hate group' label is false and dangerous," he said. "Guidestar's CEO, Jacob Harold, is using Guidestar to promote his liberal agenda by using the Southern Poverty Law Center to falsely label good nonprofit organizations as 'hate groups.' The only purpose of providing the SPLC false and dangerous 'hate group' label is to push a liberal political agenda designed to hurt good organizations. Guidestar has lost all credibility. GuideStar must immediately cease and desist, distance itself from the SPLC, and apologize."

Among the organizations that were targeted by Guidestar are the American Family Association and the Family Research Council, both highly respected and prominent Christian organizations that SPLC considers "hate" groups because they support traditional marriage.

Other groups appear to be in the bull's-eye because they don't subscribe to an open-borders agenda.

FRC previously has commented on SPLC's "hate" agenda.

"Logically, a 'hate group' should be defined as one whose members 1) actually say that they hate a particular group of people; and/or 2) engage in or condone violence or other illegal activity toward such a group," the group previously explained.

FRC continued: "The SPLC, however, uses much broader criteria for defining 'hate groups,' and criteria which can vary depending on which of 14 categories of 'hate groups' you are looking at – ranging from 'Neo-Nazi' to 'Black Separatist' to 'Radical Traditional Catholicism.' These criteria are entirely subjective and largely ideological."

FRC explained SPLC tars everyone with which it disagrees ideologically with the same label.

"The SPLC claims that the number of 'hate groups in American increased by a staggering 66 percent from 2000 to 2010. Yet this is only as a result of their own expanding definition of what constitutes a 'hate group.' Actual hate crimes as measured by the FBI, fell nearly 25 percent between 1996 and 2009," the group explained. "The SPLC's Mark Potok has publicly confessed that there is 'an element of hypocrisy' in the SPLC attacking conservative groups while remaining silent about liberal groups that use 'exactly the same kind of tactics.'"

GuideStar declined multiple requests from WND for an interview.

SPLC's past targeting of FRC was cited in court as the impetus for an attack on the Christian organization's Washington, D.C., headquarters.

The legal team at Liberty Counsel, criticizing SPLC for "falsely and recklessly labeling Christian ministries as 'hate groups,'" noted SPLC is "responsible for the first conviction of a man who intended to commit mass murder targeted against a policy organization in Washington, D.C."

"On August 15, 2012, Floyd Corkins went to the Family Research Council with a gun and a bag filled with ammunition and Chick-fil-A sandwiches. His stated purpose was to kill as many employees of the Family Research Council as possible and then to smear Chick-fil-A sandwiches in their faces (because the founder of the food chain said he believed in marriage as a man and a woman). Fortunately, Mr. Corkins was stopped by the security guard, who was shot in the process. Corkins is now serving time in prison. Mr. Corkins admitted to the court that he learned of the Family Research Council by reading the SPLC's hate map."

WND reported a video showed Corkins entering the FRC offices and confronting Leo Johnson.

Corkins later was sentenced to prison for domestic terrorism. It was during an interview with FBI officers that Corkins named SPLC as his source of information.

Central to the case, according to the government's document, was that Corkins "had identified the FRC as an anti-gay organization on the Southern Poverty Law Center website."

FRC officials repeatedly have explained that they adhere to a biblical perspective on homosexuality but are not "anti-gay."

SPLC also exhibited behavior so egregious that it was reprimanded by the far-left administration of Barack Obama.

Judicial Watch, citing a letter to Michael M. Hethmon, senior counsel for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, and others, said the DOJ reprimand came in 2016 but was "kept quiet at the agency's request."

"[It] involves the SPLC's atrocious behavior during immigration court proceedings. Two groups that oppose illegal immigration, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), were the target of personal, baseless and below-the-belt attacks from SPLC attorneys during official immigration court proceedings. The SPLC filed a motion attacking and defaming the two respected nonprofits by describing them as 'white supremacist,' 'eugenicist,' 'anti-Semitic,' and 'anti-Catholic.' In its reprimand the DOJ says it is troubled by the conduct of SPLC lawyer Christopher Strawn and that his conduct 'overstepped the bounds of zealous advocacy and was unprofessional.' Furthermore, SPLC made 'uncivil comments that disparaged FAIR and its staff,' the rebuke states, adding that the language constitutes frivolous behavior and doesn't aid in the administration of justice," Judicial Watch explained.

"The Obama administration kept the reprimand confidential and asked FAIR and IRLI to keep it under wraps. In the meantime, SPLC continues to publicly trash the groups and escalate attacks against them by putting them on the official hate list. The executive director and general counsel of IRLI, Dale Wilcox, says his nonprofit and FAIR will keep fighting for immigration policies that put America first. 'The SPLC’s latest tactic in its never-ending witch-hunt and the federal government's resulting reprimand should send the following message to the mainstream media,' Wilcox said: 'Stop using the SPLC as a legitimate hate-watch source in your news coverage. That a cabal of biased list-keepers can play such an important role in distorting the immigration debate in this country is testament to the utter failure of much of the mainstream media which frequently publishes their inflammatory commentary and refuses to question their baseless methods or financial motivations,'" Judicial Watch said.

The letter explained the DOJ stopped short of "formal disciplinary proceeding[s]," instead opting for the rebuke in the letter.

"We take this opportunity to remind the attorney practitioners involved in this misconduct that practitioners before EOIR should be striving to be civil and professional in their interactions with each other, the public, the board and immigration courts. Attorneys owe a duty of professionalism to their clients, opposing parties and their counsel, the courts, and the public as a whole."

Get Whistleblower Magazine's revelations about SPLC in "The Hate Racket," the complete story of how one group fools government into equating Christians and conservatives with Klansmen and Nazis – and rakes in millions in the process.