THE CHURCH MILITANT
Ephesians 5:11-"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them". This Christian News Blog maintains a one stop resource of current news and reports of its own related to church, moral, spiritual, and related political issues, plus articles, and postings from other online discernment ministries, and media which share the aims to obey the biblical commands to shed light on and refute error, heresy, apostasy, cults, and spiritual abuse.
The Indiana National Guard has purchased two military UH-72 Lakota helicopters which will also be used by local law enforcement and the DHS for “homeland security missions”.
The chopper is renowned for its “maneuverability and power” and also features sophisticated sensor technology used for “automatic target tracking” that can “spot a weapon or read a license plate from a distance where the Lakota remains undetected,” according to a promotional video for the helicopter.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Apprising Ministries is doing what we can to warn you of a growing apostasy that I could never have imagined in my wildest dreams. With it has come a growing syncretism as the Gospel shifts from repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ Name to let’s all work together to make the world a better place.
Since the beginning of this year 2012, bolstered by the ill-advised Elephant Room conferences of curator James MacDonald and his partner in spiritual crime Mark Driscoll, we’ve even seen nefarious Word Faith heretic T.D. Jakes come to be embraced by mainstream evangelicals.
The 2014 Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference, June 8-9, immediately followed by the Southern Baptist Convention, June 10-11, will be held in Baltimore, at the Baltimore Conference Center right on Inner Harbor. The theme of the conference represents a deep soul-cry of “Show us Your glory”.
The Conference President, Dr. Bruce Frank of Biltmore Baptist Church in Arden, NC and his team have been working, praying and planning to create a meeting where the presence of God is experienced in a life changing powerful way. (source, click About)
So all of this contemplative sounding language concerning the upcoming PC14, in order to experience “the presence of God” they hope “in a life changing powerful way,” tells us it’s actually the precursor to set the table for this year’s annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. I would offer this is quite significant.
PC14 featuring the trio of a sinful ecumenicist like Rick Warren, Francis Chan, who’s declared his love for NAR heretic Mike Bickle,1 and James MacDonald, a leading figure in a self-appointed Evangelical Ecumenical Magisterium of multisite megachurch pastors,2 gives us plenty of cause for concern in regard to the SBC.
Among the other speakers at PC14 we find Dr. Ronnie Floyd. His PC14 bio informs us he’s:
served as Senior Pastor of Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas for 26+ years. Cross Church is a four-campus, multi-site fellowship of believers and was just recognized by Outreach Magazine for being the 57th Largest Church in America in Weekly Attendance…
He currently serves as the General Editor of Lifeway’s Bible Studies for Life curriculum series,…[and Dr. Ronnie Floyd] is the Lead Pastor and Strategist of SEND North America, and most recently served as the Chairman of the Great Commission Resurgence of the Southern Baptist Convention. (source, click Speakers and then click his picture)
Arkansas pastor Ronnie Floyd will be nominated for president of the Southern Baptist Convention at the SBC annual meeting this June, seminary president R. Albert Mohler Jr. announced today (Feb. 20).
Floyd has “unparalleled experience as a leader among us, an unquestioned commitment to the Great Commission, and he has demonstrated an unstinting urgency to unite Southern Baptists around our shared beliefs, mission, and programs,” Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., wrote in an open letter to Southern Baptists stating his intention to nominate Floyd at the SBC annual meeting in June.
During the 27 years Floyd has led Cross Church in northwest Arkansas, it has become “one of the most evangelistic, visible and innovative congregations in our convention,” Mohler wrote. (source)
It’s what kind of innovation we are seeing on the part of Ronnie Floyd which forms the basis of my article here. Specifically, Floyd’s 1/26/14 sermon entitled Chained-Investing in the Now, which as of this writing, you can still catch on the Cross ChurchVimeo channel. My point being, he obviously stands by it.
As you’ll see, during the sermon Floyd touts the WF mythology of Robert Morris, pastor of Gateway Church (GC), who’s gained most of his growing notoriety within megachurch circles for his book The Blessed Life (TBL), which arose out of a sermon series he did. It’s now also the title of:
a half-hour program featuring insightful teaching from Robert Morris, the Founding Senior Pastor of Gateway Church,… (source)
More on the teaching of Robert Morris in a minute. First, when we consider the September 9, 2013 postTuning in Regularly by Ronnie Floyd at his personal blog. I think we should be a bit alarmed at the number of EEM megachurch pastors Floyd is being influenced by. He tells us that:
Each week I do all that I can to grow personally… I listen to a long list of Christian leaders… Here is a list of various people I listen to along the way,,,,
If you’re a regular reader of Apprising Ministries you’ll recognize most of those names as being part of those “vision casting” EEM prophet-pastors I cover on a regular basis. So, we shouldn’t be surprised to find Ronnie Floyd promoting the WF work of Robert Morris; after-all, Floyd’s just told us he listens to Morris regularly.
The introduction of Floyd’s 1/26/14 sermon in question purports, in jargon typical of Word Faith preachers a la T.D. Jakes, to be helpful for us to “break free financially in 2014.” Perhaps this is a reason Floyd draws from a WF preacher like Robert Morris; and he’s far from the only multi-site megachurch pastor who’s done so with Morris.
He’s really made the rounds to many EEM churches with his TBL mythology; including Saddleback Church of Rick Warren, as well as Perry Noble’s Newspring Church. In fact, Morris even has enough clout within Church Growth Movement circles to have Bill Hybels speak at his Alpha Summit 2012:
Unfortunately, when TBL dropped originally Robert Morris was still flying under the radar so there really hasn’t been much written exposing its false teachings. The point of this piece is to further document possible future SBC president Ronnie Floyd’s endorsement of WF preacher Robert Morris, which should be a real cause for pause.
Just know that the central fable of TBL by WF preacher Robert Morris is that our personal finances are under the curse of God until we redeem them by tithing to Him. Now you should be able to begin to understand why Morris’ mythology has become so appealing to multi-site megachurch pastors with their huge monetary needs.
As I begin to wrap this up, in Ronnie Floyd’s 1/26/14 sermon, while he’s teaching the “universal principle” of first fruits—coming quite close to sounding like seed-sowing prosperity preaching—we find that Floyd allows people in his congregation to use of the atrocious Message4 paraphrase of mystic Eugene Peterson.
Sadly, notice in this short clip, while equating the Crucifixion of Christ to first fruits tithing—just as WF preachers so often do—Floyd even takes the Name of the Lord in vain:
We also note that Robert Morris holds to the classic WF myth that our words have creative power. You need only look at the title of his 2009 book The Power of Your Words: How God Can Bless Your Life Through the Words You Speak to see this. A typical WF preacher, Morris teaches that what you speak out will determine your future.
And now, listen for yourself as Dr. Ronnie Floyd refers to The Blessed Life as “one of the greatest books on financial matters that I’ve ever read.” Yet it’s a book containing antibiblical WF mythology from Robert Morris:
Finally, I leave you with Chris Rosebrough’s salient commentary Ronnie Floyd Teaches Robert Morris’ Money Curse Heresy concerning Dr. Floyd, recommended by Dr. Al Mohler to be the next SBC president, teaching the WF fable of Robert Morris:
MARTIN LUTHER: THE REFORMATION VIEW OF ROMAN CATHOLICISM By Ken Silva pastor-teacheron May 10, 2014; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
What is the whole papacy but a beautiful false front and a deceptively glittering holiness under which the wretched devil lies in hiding? The devil always desires to imitate God in this way. He cannot bear to observe God speaking. If he cannot prevent it or hinder God’s Word by force, he opposes it with a semblance of piety, takes the very words God had spoken and so twist them as to peddle his lies and poison under their name. (What Luther Says, II: 10007)
Since the papal church not only neglects the command of Christ but even compels the people to ignore it and to act against it, it is certain that it is not Christ’s church but the synagogue of Satan which prescribes sin and prohibits righteousness. It clearly and indisputably follows that it must be the abomination of Antichrist and the furious harlot of the devil. (What Luther Says, II: 1019)
The negotiation about doctrinal agreement displeases me altogether, for this is utterly impossible unless the pope has his papacy abolished. Therefore avoid and flee those who seek the middle of the road. Think of me after I am dead and such middle-of-the-road men arise, for nothing good will come of it. There can be no compromise. (What Luther Says, II: 1019)
Let him who does not want to be lost and go to the devil be on his guard with all diligence and earnestness against the papacy and its doctrine, and let him never again accept even the most insignificant and smallest part of the papacy’s teaching, no matter what it may cost him. Let him flee from the papacy and its following as from the devil incarnate himself, and let him by no means be silenced by the sweet, slippery words of hypocrites or be persuaded that yielding and conceding something for the sake of peace is a matter of little consequence and that the bond of love should not be disrupted for the sake of something trifling (as they represent and rationalize this to be). Come now, there is assuredly no joking in this matter; eternal salvation and eternal damnation are involved. (What Luther Says, II:1019-1020)
Can anything more horrible be said than that the kingdom of the papists is the kingdom of those who spit at Christ, the Son of God, and crucify Him anew? For they do crucify Christ in themselves, in the church and in the hearts of the faithful. Therefore let everyone who is honestly given to piety flee out of this Babylon as quickly as possible. For so great are its impurity and its abomination that no one can express them in words; they can be discerned only by eyes that are spiritual. (What Luther Says, II: 1020)
My dear pope, I will kiss your feet and acknowledge you as supreme bishop if you will worship my Christ and grant that through His death and resurrection, not through keeping your traditions, we have forgiveness of sins and life eternal. If you will yield on this point, I shall not take away your crown and power; if not, I shall constantly cry out that you are the Antichrist, and I shall testify that your whole cult and religion are only a denial of God, but also the height of blasphemy against God and idolatry. (What Luther Says, II: 1069)
Ah, my dear brother in Christ, bear with me if here or elsewhere I use such coarse language when speaking of the wretched, confronted, atrocious monster at Rome! He who knows my thoughts must say that I am much, much, much too lenient and have neither words nor thought adequately to describe the shameful, abominable blasphemy to which he subjects the Word and name of Christ, our dear Lord and Savior. There are some Christians, wicked Christians indeed, who now would gloss things over to make the pope appear against in a good light and who, after he does so and has been dragged out of the mud, would like to reinstate him on the altar. But they are wicked people, whoever they may be, who defend the pope and want me to be quiet about the means whereby he has done harm. Truly, I cannot do this. All true, pious Christians, who love Christ and His Word, should, as said, be sincerely hostile to the pope. They should persecute him and injure him. All should do this in their several calling, to the best of their ability, with all faithfulness and diligence. (What Luther Says, II: 1072)
What kind of a church is the pope’s church? It is an uncertain, vacillating and tottering church. Indeed, it is a deceitful, lying church, doubting and unbelieving, without God’s Word. For the pope with his wrong keys teaches his church to doubt and to be uncertain. If it is a vacillating church, then it is not the church of faith, for the latter is founded upon a rock, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it (Matt.16:18). If it is not the church of faith, then it is not the Christian church, but it must be an unchristian, anti-Christian, and faithless church which destroys and ruins the real, holy, Christian church. (Luther’s Works, vol. 40, Church and Ministry II, The Keys, p.348)
All this is to be noted carefully, so that we can treat with contempt the filthy, foolish twaddle that the popes present in their decrees about their Roman church, that is, about their devil’s synagogue (Rev.2:9), which separates itself from common Christendom and the spiritual edifice built up on this stone, and instead invents for itself a fleshly worldly, worthless, lying, blasphemous, idolatrous authority over all of Christendom. One of these two things must be true: if the Roman church is not built on this rock along with the other churches, then it is the devil’s church; but if it is built, along with all the other churches, on this roc, then it cannot be lord or head over the other churches. For Christ the cornerstone knows nothing of two unequal churches, but only of one church alone, just as the Children’s Faith, that is, the faith of all of Christendom, says, “I believe in one holy, Christian church,” and does not say, “I believe in one holy Roman church.” The Roman church is and should be one portion or member of the holy Christian church, not the head, which befits solely Christ the cornerstone. If not, it is not a Christian but an UN-Christian and anti-Christian church, that is, a papal school of scoundrels. (Luther’s Works, Volume 41, Church and Ministry III, Against The Roman Papacy, An Institution Of The Devil, p.311)
These arrogant and unlearned papists can’t govern the church because they write nothing, they read nothing, but, firmly saddled in the pride of possession, they cry out that the decrees of the fathers are not to be questioned and decisions made are not to be disputed, otherwise one would have to dance to the tune of every little brother. For this reason the pope, possessed by demons, defends his tyranny with the canon “Si papa.” This canon states clearly: if the pope should lead the whole world into the control of hell, he is nevertheless not to be contradicted. It’s a terrible thing that on account of the authority of this man we must lose our souls, which Christ redeemed with his precious blood. Christ says, “I will not cast out anybody who comes to me” (John 6:37). On the other hand, the pope says, “As I will it, so I command it; you must perish rather than resist me.” Therefore the pope, whom our princes adore, is full of devils. He must be exterminated by the Word and by prayer. (Luther’s Works, vol.54, Table Talk, No.441, p.330)
I believe the pope is the masked and incarnate devil because he is the Antichrist. As Christ is God incarnate, so the Antichrist is the devil incarnate. The words are really spoken of the pope when it’s said that he’s a mixed god, an earthly god, that is , a god of the earth. Here god is understood as god of this world. Why does he call himself an earthly god, as if the one, almighty God weren’t also on the earth? The kingdom of the pope really signifies the terrible wrath of God, namely, the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place. (Luther’s Works, vol.54, Table Talks, No.4487, p.346) (source)
But on Tuesday, Right Wing Watch, a project of People for the American Way, released an article decrying David Benham as an “anti-gay, anti-choice extremist.” It noted that the Benham brothers are the sons of Flip Benham, the director of the pro-life group Operation Save America, and that David led the Charlotte 7:14 prayer rally in 2012 outside of the Democratic National Convention.
Benham, who is the founder of Cities4Life with his wife Lori, was also denounced by Right Wing Watch for being involved in sidewalk ministry outside of area abortion facilities. The organization likewise quoted from Benham surrounding his beliefs in biblical marriage and his support of North Carolina’s constitutional marriage amendment. VIDEO:
BENHAMS SPEAK OUT
America : HGTV cancels Benham Brothers show because of their Christian Values (May 10, 2014):
“Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems,” Obama told the audience at the Ohio State commencement ceremony. “They’ll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices”.
Obama went on to imply that “individual ambition” was a negative concept before adding, “We don’t think the government is the source of all our problems”.
That strikes a somewhat different tone to one of Obama’s predecessors, Ronald Reagan, who repeatedly gave speeches warning that “government is not the solution to our problems, government is the problem”.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Ex-Mormons across the country are decrying Liberty University’s decision to feature Glenn Beck at their recent convocation ceremony, who invoked the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith and referenced LDS doctrine before the thousands of students in attendance.
“I am Mormon and share your faith,” the outspoken conservative talk show host asserted during his spiritually-mixed charge to students, as he stood in front of a large banner bearing the university’s motto, “Training Champions for Christ.”
As previously reported, Beck was introduced by President Jerry Falwell, who noted that the university presented the political commentator with an honorary doctorate in 2010 as he likewise addressed the students during that time. Beck then took the podium to applause and cheers, explaining that he believed he was given a message from God that day to share with the students.
“Are you willing to give your life?” Beck asked fervently. “What are you willing to do? What is it that means something to you?”
“Days before Joseph Smith was martyred he was taken out by the sheriff; they tried to tar and feather him several times,” he explained. “The last time they took him, they said, ‘You owe $25.’ He said, ‘No, I don’t owe a man anything.’ They said, ‘No, you stole a stove’—one of the most ridiculous charges I’ve ever heard.”
“At that time, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his pocket watch,” Beck continued, displaying the relic that he said belonged to Smith, considered a prophet of God in Mormonism. “He gave it to the sheriff and said, ‘I owe no man nothing.’ They let him go. They killed him, but on the warrant for his arrest, he wrote on the back of his warrant to his people, ‘Put down your guns. No matter what happens, put down your guns. Put down your guns and trust in the Lord.’”
He then compared Smith’s story to the challenges that Liberty students may face in the days ahead.
“You are going to be pushed and challenged every step of the way,” Beck said. “What is it that you truly believe?”
Later in his message, the Mormon talk show host told the students that “no one in the Grand Councils” sent them to earth just to make a living. Beck was referring to the Mormon belief that human souls pre-existed in heaven, and that a gathering of heavenly beings known as the Grand Councils, send certain individuals to earth to accomplish a special purpose.
“You didn’t come down for a job. You came to this university maybe thinking, ‘I have to have an education to get a job.’ You need this education from Liberty University because of your only true job, the purpose you were sent here for,” he said.
Beck’s comments were met with cheers and applause during several points in his speech, and was given a standing ovation by many in attendance upon his conclusion.
Decker
But those who have come out of the Mormon religion are expressing dismay at why Liberty University—considered the nation’s largest Christian university—provided Glenn Beck a platform, which he used to preach Mormon doctrine.
“[I]t exceeds my capacity to understand how one of the great Christian universities with a steadfast commitment of ‘Training Champions for Christ’ could invite an elite cultist to stand before its entire student body and give them spiritual instructions for life,” Ed Decker, former longtime Mormon and founder of the ex-Mormon ministry Saints Alive, wrote in an article provided to Christian News Network.
“Is it that, as educated as they seem, they just don’t know that Mormons worship an exalted man/god, serve a different Christ, offer a different salvation, stand on the foundation of false prophets and seek to earn their own godhoods?” he asked.
“It’s completely outrageous for Liberty and Jerry Falwell Jr. to bring Glenn Beck in [and allow him] to spew his false and blasphemous doctrine, which is an affront to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and to shape these young, eager minds in a way that distorts the gospel,” added Tricia Erickson, daughter of a former Mormon bishop and author of Can Mitt Romney Serve Two Masters?
“It’s wrong,” she continued. “It’s like me opening my front door and saying to a Muslim, ‘Come on in. If they like what you have to say, it’s up to them. They can decide; you can just preach to them.”‘
Decker noted that although Beck excelled at his oration skills, quoted Scripture and was generally well-received by the audience, his presentation of Mormon doctrine was troubling.
“Beck talked about what a great man Joseph Smith was. He talked about his dying a martyr for Christ, dying for his faith,” he said. “[B]ut he also ignored the historical fact that Smith wasn’t quite as innocent as Beck claimed. He was in jail for leading his militia into town and destroying a newspaper press and burning the place down. He didn’t like what the paper had said about his many well-known adulteries.”
“Beck told the gathering that Smith told his followers in a note to lay down their arms and act in peace,” he said. “He forgot to mention Smith’s loaded pistol or the gunfight [where he killed two people].”
Decker said that he also took note of Beck’s reference to the Mormon doctrine of the “Grand Councils.”
“He forgot to talk about his heavenly mother who gave birth to us as spirit beings there before we were sent to earth,” he outlined. “Mormons are told that they are a special people, chosen by God for such a time as this. Beck offered that same word to his audience.”
Erickson
Erickson agreed.
“Mormons believe that when they die, that they become gods and get their own planet. And then, the man calls the woman onto his planet by her secret name that is given to her only in the secret Mormon ceremonies, which puts him in charge of her salvation,” she explained. “[T]hen they have spirit babies and and populate their planet. And their spirit babies pop down into our baby’s bodies here on Earth to walk out their eternal progression to godhood.”
She stated that false religion should be exposed, not given an appearance of credibility.
“If you’re a parent, certainly you’re not going to have someone come into your home [and be] around your children that is going to distort their judgment of Christianity, and that’s going to tell them things that are blasphemous to a living God and pose them as the truth,” Erickson said. “At universities, we as adults have to protect our youth. These are going to be our future leaders.”
“[Liberty University has] allowed Glenn Beck to come in and basically distort the gospel of Jesus Christ by the comments that he made. We don’t know if these students have enough discernment to know that it was a distortion of the truth because he’s posing as an angel of light,” she lamented. “He’s posing as a Christian.”
From Fox News, Glenn Beck, and Alex Jones to prominent politicians and political donors, and to the The John Birch Society and “Patriot” groups, the SPLC’s half-baked campaign takes aim at vast swaths of the opposition to Common Core. (Contrary to most Americans, SPLC uses the term “Patriot” as an attack rather than a compliment). The outfit acknowledges that there are “legitimate” concerns about the scheme being foisted on more than 40 states by billionaire Bill Gates and his allies in the White House. However, it claims that much of the criticism is actually based on “propaganda” put out by “extremists.”
It is clear from the report that the opposition is making big gains. Indeed, U.S. Program boss Allan Golston with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which bankrolls Planned Parenthood, the United Nations, population control, and Common Core, made that explicit in comments to the SPLC. “It’s causing political leaders to question this, with hearings across the country,” Golston complained, referring to the efforts of critics. “There are indications some political leaders are feeling pressure to back away from Common Core.” It was not immediately clear why the Gates foundation would oppose questions or public hearings into national education standards being foisted on tens of millions of children.
The SPLC report, packed with factual errors and paranoid conspiracy theories bordering on delusions, follows another recent document from the organization blasting critics of the United Nations “sustainability” plot Agenda 21 using similar hysteria. Like its previous report, though, it appears that the latest bizarre screed has largely fallen on deaf ears as the discredited Alabama-based group increasingly fades into irrelevance. Other than a handful of leftist blogs and this report, it appears that the SPLC’s attacks have gone virtually unnoticed in the press thus far.
One of the most ludicrous conspiracy theories throughout the latest SPLC rant is the suggestion that opposition to Common Core is somehow being orchestrated by a vast right-wing conspiracy opposed to all government education. Considering the outrage among parents, government-school teachers, Democrats, educators, and even labor unions, though, the claim is so preposterous it’s hard to believe such a claim would even be made — much less taken seriously. Ironically, the Chicago Teachers Union joined New York State’s educators’ union in opposing the "deeply flawed" Common Core on the same day the SPLC report was released.
Indeed, pro-public-school educators from across the political spectrum have become some of the fiercest critics in the battle against Common Core. “Never have I found myself finding so much common ground with people who call themselves conservative and libertarians — we all agreed public schools were going to be ruined by this,” Fordham University Professor Dr. Mark Naison, who leads an alliance of tens of thousands of teachers opposed to Common Core, told The New American. “This really represents the worst fantasies of both the Right and Left coming true: Big Government and Big Corporations imposing this terrible, untested, expensive plan using intimidation and bullying.”
For the SPLC, however, there is a sinister agenda behind much of the opposition to Common Core — an insidious secret plot to abolish all government education. Lamenting the fact that polls show less than one third of Americans have confidence in public education, the report quotes a few statements by critics of government schooling and links them to the industrialist Koch brothers in concocting a vast conspiracy among “the most ardent on the radical right” whose supposed “real purpose is to destroy public schools.” (For perspective, "radical right" to the SPLC includes, for example, support for traditional marriage, and so, would have included Obama just a few years ago).
The acrobatics in “logic” evident throughout the whole report are stunning. Incredibly, the SPLC also tries to imply that because a higher proportion of minorities go to government school than whites, criticism of Common Core must be at least partly due to racism. The half-baked insinuations are hardly new. In fact, SPLC spokesman Mark Potok was recently ridiculed on national television after suggesting that more than half of whites had “anti-black” attitudes.
Throughout the report, the SPLC also parrots debunked lies in a bid to build support for Common Core. For example, it labels as a “myth” the notion that the national standards will dictate curricula. Perhaps Bill Gates, who spent an estimated $2 billion to finance Common Core, never got that memo. In a 2009 speech at the National Conference of State Legislators, Gates celebrated the adoption of his standards as encouraging. “But identifying common standards is not enough,” he said. “We’ll know we’ve succeeded when the curriculum and the tests are aligned to these standards.”
Ironically, the SPLC also blasts political leaders for seeking to end federal involvement in and support for the scheme. “Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has joined with seven other senators, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, to sponsor legislation prohibiting federal financing for any Common Core component,” the report complains. If there is nothing federal about it, why is the federal government funding Common Core components in the first place? The SPLC does not say.
“The disinformation campaign is being driven by the likes of Fox News, the John Birch Society, Tea Party factions, and the Christian Right,” the SPLC report claims without ever specifically identifying or disproving any alleged “disinformation” put out by any of its targets. “National think tanks and advocacy groups associated with the Koch brothers, whose father was a founding Birch member, have taken up the cause.”
Indeed, throughout the report, the SPLC takes special aim at one of its favorite targets, The John Birch Society — “Chief among the Patriot groups,” it says — often parroting talking points that have been thoroughly debunked for months. As just one example among many, the 40-page document claims that “the JBS’s American Opinion Foundation is paying travel expenses for alleged education experts to testify against the Common Core in states like Wisconsin that have held investigative hearings on the standards.”
The SPLC also takes aim at an article in The New American published in March entitled “Common Core and UN Agenda 21: Mass Producing Green Global Serfs.” While the SPLC report never points to any actual problem with the article, it omits the key quotes, perhaps expecting that nobody will check them out. In the article, though, Obama’s Department of Education boss Arne Duncan is quoted telling a “sustainability summit” that his department “is taking a leadership role in the work of educating the next generation of green citizens.”
In a separate speech to UNESCO, Duncan boasted of the administration’s cooperation with the UN agency and promised more to come, even quoting Nelson Mandela on using education as a “weapon” to “change” the world. “We must advance the sustainability movement through education,” Duncan also said in a speech posted right on the Education Department’s website. Instead of actually dealing with the facts contained in the TNA article, the SPLC simply claims the “allegations are impossible to refute” because they apparently rely on “wild conjecture, leaps of logic and supposed documents that have nothing do with the Common Core.” The article is linked here for anyone who cares to check the facts themselves.
Art Thompson, the CEO of JBS, responded to the SPLC report in a statement to The New American. “The report against The John Birch Society and others in opposition to Common Core is a masterpiece of hiding the full story of what is involved in Common Core,” he explained. “It is revealing that they include so many people of influence and expertise that oppose it. On the other hand, they do not include the fact that even some teachers’ unions have come out against it. The work of the anti-Common Core organizations must be taking a toll on the success of a campaign that was essentially a stealth operation before its exposure by so many people, originally independent of one another but who have now come together to fight for the future of our children.”
The SPLC also takes aim at the American Opinion Foundation’s Freedom Project Education program, an online K-12 school offering Common Core-free classical education with Judeo-Christian values. FPE Academic Director Dr. Duke Pesta, a university professor who has spoken to tens of thousands of concerned Americans about the standards at speeches nationwide, also comes under attack for pointing out the agenda behind the nationalization of education. Again, the SPLC report never actually disputes any of the facts Pesta has highlighted in his speeches, which have also been viewed hundreds of thousands or even millions of times online.
