AN OPEN LETTER TO MARK POTOK, SPOKESMAN FOR THE SPLC
August 21, 2012
Dear Mr. Potok,
Because your organization has not
responded to my previous attempts to interact and because the SPLC is coming under
increasing public scrutiny, I am writing this open letter with the hope that
you will respond. You should be familiar with my name, since I am on your list
of “
30 New Activists Heading Up the
Radical Right” and since I was profiled in the Spring 2012 Intelligence
Report (more on that shortly).
My desire in writing to you is
not to be contentious, nor is it to embarrass you. Rather, it is to pursue
peace, to expose falsehood, to confront hateful misinformation, and to call on
you and the SPLC to do what is right.
To be sure, I am hardly the only
one questioning the credibility of the SPLC today. You have, no doubt, read
the
editorial in the
Washington Post by
columnist Dana Millbank, who stated, “I disagree with the Family Research
Council’s views on gays and lesbians. But it’s absurd to put the group, as the
law center does, in the same category as Aryan Nations, Knights of the Ku Klux
Klan, Stormfront and the Westboro Baptist Church.” And Millbank is just one of
an increasing number of Americans from diverse backgrounds who are pointing out
the absurdity of your recent “hate group” listings.
Do you realize, Mr. Potok, that
by placing mainstream, conservative Christian ministries like the American
Family Association and the FRC side by side with legitimate hate groups that
you call your whole work into question? Do you realize that millions of
Americans, hearing about the SPLC for the first time in the wake of the FRC
shooting, will now question the veracity of all your listings, thereby
empowering genuine, dangerous hate groups?
You placed my name, along with
that of a number of other conservative Christian leaders, on your list of “30
New Activists Heading Up the Radical Right.” This list included men like Malik
Zulu Shabazz, leader of the New Black Panther Party. One of their recent radio
shows featured this audio clip: “We give them [i.e., whites] 24 hours in South
Africa to get out of town by sundown. I say, if they don’t get out of town, we
kill the men, we kill the women, we kill the children, we kill the babies, we
kill the blind, we kill the cripple, we kill the crazy, we kill the fa**ots, we
kill the lesbians, I say god da**it we kill them all.”
Contrast those words with my
statement in May 2006, addressing the gay and lesbian community of Charlotte:
“We recognize that we have sometimes failed to reach out to you with grace and
compassion, that we have often been insensitive to your struggles, that we have
driven some of you away rather than drawn you in, that we have added to your
sense of rejection. For these failings of ours, we ask you to forgive us. By
God’s grace, we intend to be models of His love.
“We understand, of course, that
in your eyes, our biblical convictions constitute hate, and it is hurtful to us
that you feel that way. The fact is that we really do love you – more than you
realize or understand – and because we love you, we will continue to speak the
truth, convinced that it is the truth that sets us free. Love does what is
right, even when it is scorned and mocked and ridiculed.”
Does this constitute hate in your
book? Is this comparable to the language of the KKK? Neo-Nazis? New Black
Panther Party? Yet it is in this spirit that we have carried out our work for
the last 8 years, all to find a place on one of your lists.
The SPLC actually acknowledges in the
“30 New Activists” article that, “Unlike many other voices on the religious
right, Brown generally has avoided the kind of slashing rhetoric that often
devolves into rank defamation. His work is heavily footnoted and avoids the
blanket pronouncements that have gotten others in trouble.” Yet I am listed side
by side with Shabbaz, whom the SPLC cites as saying, “Kill every god**mn
Zionist in Israel! God**mn little babies, god**mn old ladies! Blow up Zionist
supermarkets!” Surely listing me (and other Christian leaders) alongside of him
discredits the SPLC, not me (and the other Christian leaders).
You define a hate group as one
which knowingly disseminates false information and demonizing propaganda about
other people and groups, yet I have
noted
where the SPLC is guilty of
this
very thing. (You will claim that you never do so knowingly; certainly, the
Christian groups you are attacking would say the very same thing about
themselves.)
Mr. Potok, does it trouble you
that your Intelligence Report focusing on NARTH (the National Association for
Research and Therapy of Homosexuality) was so
riddled
with errors that anyone in possession of a program to the conference would
recognize that the report was utterly unreliable, not to mention patently biased?
What hope does the average reader have of accurately separating fact from
fiction in reports like this?
You claim that the FRC knowingly
disseminates false and defamatory information about LGBT people. Why, then,
have you refused to have a public dialog with FRC head Tony Perkins in order to
demonstrate your points? What if there is support for the statements the FRC
has made, or what if their statements have been taken out of context?
My attempts to engage in public
dialog with the SPLC have also been met with deafening silence. What is it,
sir, that you fear? Why are you so unwilling to bring the issues to light in
the public square? To this day, it would be my delight to have civil,
constructive, public dialog regarding your “anti-gay” hate group listing. Are
you willing?
On December 2, 2011, you
partnered with Truth Wins Out, running an ad in a local DC paper that asked,
“HAS ANYONE TRIED TO ‘CURE’ YOU OF BEING GAY? SHARE YOUR STORY. Help expose the
lies behind the ‘conversion therapy and help other LGBT people who have
undergone or are considering ‘therapy’ to ‘cure’ themselves.”
Is this now part of what the SPLC
does? And in the interest of fairness and accuracy, have you put out similar
ads in other cities asking for the stories of those who have been helped by
such therapy? And are you aware of detailed, scientifically sound studies
documenting that some are indeed helped and now gladly identify as “ex-gay”? (One
of these recent studies has received the highest praise from respected
academicians and psychologists.)
And how is it that the SPLC has
partnered with Truth Wins Out (TWO), an organization known for vicious, ugly,
and mendacious attacks on individuals and groups? In
one
short article, Wayne Besen, founding executive director of TWO, referred to
me as a pathological monster, a slick, sick, cynical, diabolical madman with a
messiah complex, also accusing me of trying to incite a bunch of “unstable
thugs . . . to engage in a violent physical clash with LGBT people.”
Mr. Potok, is not this defamatory
hate speech? Do you approve of a close colleague of the SPLC calling fine
Christian moms, dads, kids, and grandparents a bunch of “unstable thugs”? Do
you approve of his dangerous and utterly false accusation that I am trying to
incite these fine people to violence?
And what do you make of the
comments of Dan Savage, perhaps America’s best-known gay activist, with regard
to the FRC? He said, “These people won’t be satisfied until they are standing
on top of a pile of dead, gay children.” Perhaps the SPLC has contributed to
this inflammatory, toxic environment? And perhaps it is no coincidence that the
FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force has confirmed that the FRC shooter was also
targeting the Traditional Values Coalition, another “anti-gay” Christian
organization on your “hate group” list? Would it trouble you if, in fact, you
and the SPLC were part of the potential mass-murderer’s inspiration?
I want to say clearly that I am
not writing this letter out of concern for my own safety, nor am I afraid to
suffer
the
consequences of my beliefs. Following Jesus is not meant to be easy or
popular, and I have friends and colleagues who were tortured for their faith
(have you heard of the late Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, celebrated author of
Tortured for Christ?), stoned for
preaching the gospel, and even killed. (Recently a young man close to my
organization was murdered by Islamic terrorists while doing Christian,
humanitarian work in a Muslim country.)
The purpose of this letter is to
expose error and to pursue truth, and I am lovingly challenging you and your
colleagues to sit down in a room together with the Christian leaders whose
names and organizations you have defamed so each side can present their case.
(I would also welcome this in a public forum, if preferable. On a personal
level, I reaffirm my commitment to have public dialog on the relevant issues
with any qualified representative from the SPLC or approved by the SPLC.)
In powerful and concise language,
the apostle Paul wrote, “For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only
for the truth” (2 Cor 13:8). And it was Jesus who said that, “whoever lives by
the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has
done has been done through God” (John 3:21).
The highest and best thing you
could do is recognize the error of your recent listings and remove the leaders
and organizations in question, thereby restoring a modicum of credibility. But
if you are convinced that your listings are right, then let us have the private
convocation of which I speak, and let the truth come forth for all to see.
I ask again: Have you anything to
hide or fear? I appeal to you not to respond with a press release but to
contact me directly. I am accessible to you and will take your call whenever
possible.
Will you move forward and come into
the open or will you retrench and retreat? The future of the SPLC could be at
stake.
Sincerely,
Michael L. Brown, Ph.D.
Director, Coalition of Conscience
President, FIRE School of Ministry
Host, Line of Fire radio broadcast
