A coalition that is virtually a who's who of nonprofits is demanding that the CEO of Guidestar – a company that posts the financial reports of nonprofit organizations – stop a new program of "ostracism and dehumanization" on his site that already has led to violence.
WND reported Guidestar, a "public charity" that purports to be "neutral" and provide online "nonprofit information to a broad audience at no cost to those users," began slamming Christian and other conservative organizations based on the recommendations of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which itself has been linked to domestic terror and once put Ben Carson on its list of "haters."
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Guidestar has been flagging the pages of nonprofit organizations that disagree with SPLC's pro-abortion and pro-homosexual agenda, identifying them as "hate" organizations.
Guidestar posts a notice saying, "This organization was flagged as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center."
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It also provides a link to the far-left SPLC, accompanied by the group's logo.
"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," the letter to Jacob Harold states.
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However, the leaders point out SPLC "has no bona fides to make such determinations."
"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 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 states.
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"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 warned 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.
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"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, asks for a response within a week. It 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."
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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 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.
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FRC's executive vice president, Lt. Gen (Ret.) William G. "Jerry" Boykin, told WND that Guidestar's neutrality has been abandoned, and it is now "a part of the political arm of the left."
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."
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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.'"
The group continued: "A liberal writer in The Humanist said, 'The SPLC campaigns for laws that will effectively deny free speech and freedom of association to certain groups of Americans on the basis of their beliefs. … Then, with no discernible irony, it goes on to justify its Big Brother methods in the name of tolerance.'"
Guidestar use of SPLC's bias against Christianity to flag beneficial charities was revealed in an Associated Press report.
Michael Kunzelman wrote, "A website that touts itself as the world's largest course of information about charities has added a new feature: a warning label on tax-exempt nonprofits accused of spreading hate."
The report quoted Harold saying the move reflects a "broader shift in how we imagine our role in the field."
He said the move came as a response to the "recent rise in 'hateful rhetoric' in the U.S.," AP said.
GuideStar declined multiple requests from WND for an interview.
A spokesman for the Center for Immigration Studies, which also was being targeted by Guidestar, told AP: "This is defamation. GuideStar is an accomplice to this defamation now."
Harold told AP his group didn't do any evaluation; it just repeats SPLC's bias.
"We feel that's quite defensible," he told AP.
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."
