Abiding Truth Ministries

Last updated
Abiding Truth Ministries
FoundedAugust 28, 1997 (1997-08-28) [1]
Founder Scott Lively
Type Public charity 501(c)(3)
33-0774765 [2] (EIN))
Registration no.001031098 [3]
Location
Key people
 Scott Lively, President
Revenue
$88,389 (2010) [4]
Website http://defendthefamily.com Archived at the Wayback Machine

Abiding Truth Ministries (ATM) is a United States 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Scott Lively in Temecula, California in 1997. The ministry has been based in Springfield, Massachusetts, since 2008. [1] Lively, an American author, attorney and activist, is noted for his opposition to LGBT rights and his involvement in the ex-gay movement. [5] Lively has called for the criminalization of "the public advocacy of homosexuality" as far back as 2007. [6] [7] Along with Kevin E. Abrams, Lively co-authored the 1995 book The Pink Swastika , which states in the preface that "homosexuals [are] the true inventors of Nazism and the guiding force behind many Nazi atrocities." [8] He is also directly linked to pending anti-gay legislation in Uganda, which would, if passed, make homosexual conduct punishable by a lengthy prison sentence or death. The Southern Poverty Law Center regards Abiding Truth Ministries as a hate group. [9]

Contents

History

Abiding Truth Ministries was founded by Scott Lively, an American author, attorney and activist, noted for his opposition to LGBT rights and his involvement in the ex-gay movement. [5] Lively has called for the criminalization of "the public advocacy of homosexuality" as far back as 2007. [6] [7] He is also directly linked to pending anti-gay legislation in Uganda, which would, if passed, make homosexual conduct and allyship punishable by life in prison or death. [10]

ATM has contributed to organizations including NARTH, American Family Association, Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, Parents' Rights Coalition, Family Research Institute a small group called The Foundation for In-The-Closet Americans and Mission: America. [11] [12] Lively is the former state director for the California branch of the American Family Association [13]

Along with Kevin E. Abrams, he co-authored the book The Pink Swastika , which states in the preface that "homosexuals [are] the true inventors of Nazism and the guiding force behind many Nazi atrocities." [8] In fact, under Nazi Germany, gays and lesbians were sent to concentration camps and several historians have questioned the book's claims and selective use of research. [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] Lively is the former state director for the California branch of the American Family Association and formed Watchmen on the Walls based in Riga, Latvia. [19] According to a January 2011 profile, Lively "has not changed his view that gays are 'agents of America’s moral decline' but has refocused his approach to fit his flock in Springfield, Massachusetts" and "is toning down his antigay rhetoric and shifting his focus to helping the downtrodden." [20]

Positions and issues

ATM promotes its message via its Defend the Family website. The website's mission statement is to "promote and defend the Biblical view of marriage and family through... education, training, and funding." The "Resources" section sells books by Lively. [21]

ATM has influenced the upsurge in "politicized homophobia" in Uganda. In March 2009, Lively spoke on the ATM's behalf at the Seminar on Exposing the Truth behind Homosexuality and the Homosexual Agenda in Kampala. He suggested to the audience that the "powerful gay movement" would soon invade Africa and that the "'gay agenda' unleashes epidemics of divorce, child abuse, and HIV/AIDS wherever it gains a foothold". He added "you can't stop someone from molesting children or stop them from having sex with animals." He implied that the Rwandan genocide was caused by homosexuals. [22]

See also

Related Research Articles

Anti-LGBT rhetoric comprises themes, catchphrases, and slogans that have been used in order to demean lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. They range from the demeaning and the pejorative to expressions of hostility towards homosexuality which are based on religious, medical, or moral grounds. It is a form of hate speech, which is illegal in countries such as the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Family Research Council</span> American evangelical activist group

The Family Research Council (FRC) is an American evangelical activist group and think-tank with an affiliated lobbying organization. FRC promotes what it considers to be family values. It opposes and lobbies against: access to pornography, embryonic stem-cell research, abortion, divorce, and LGBT rights—such as anti-discrimination laws, same-sex marriage, same-sex civil unions, and LGBT adoption. The FRC has been criticized by media sources and professional organizations such as the American Sociological Association for using "anti-gay pseudoscience" to falsely conflate homosexuality and pedophilia, and falsely to claim that the children of same-sex parents suffer from more mental health problems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Family Association</span> American nonprofit organization promoting fundamentalist Christian values

The American Family Association (AFA) is a conservative and Christian fundamentalist 501(c)(3) organization based in the United States. It opposes LGBT rights and expression, pornography, and abortion. It also takes a position on a variety of other public policy goals. It was founded in 1977 by Donald Wildmon as the National Federation for Decency and is headquartered in Tupelo, Mississippi.

The Family Research Institute (FRI), originally known as the Institute for the Scientific Investigation of Sexuality (ISIS), is an American socially conservative non-profit organization based in Colorado Springs, Colorado which states that it has "...one overriding mission: to generate empirical research on issues that threaten the traditional family, particularly homosexuality, AIDS, sexual social policy, and drug abuse". The FRI is part of a sociopolitical movement of socially conservative Christian organizations which seek to influence the political debate in the United States. They seek "...to restore a world where marriage is upheld and honored, where children are nurtured and protected, and where homosexuality is not taught and accepted, but instead is discouraged and rejected at every level." The Boston Globe reported that the FRI's 2005 budget was less than $200,000.

"Gay agenda" or "homosexual agenda" is a term used by sectors of the Christian religious right as a disparaging way to describe the advocacy of cultural acceptance and normalization of non-heterosexual sexual orientations and relationships. The term originated among social conservatives in the United States and has been adopted in nations with active anti-LGBT movements such as Hungary and Uganda.

<i>The Pink Swastika</i> 1995 book by Scott Lively and Kevin Abrams

The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party is a 1995 pseudohistorical book by Scott Lively and Kevin Abrams. Drawing on Samuel Igra's 1945 book Germany's National Vice, Lively and Abrams argue that the crimes committed by homosexuals in the Nazi Party exceed the persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany and that homosexuality contributed to the extreme militarism of Nazi Germany. They contend that only feminine homosexuals were persecuted by the Nazis, while "butch" homosexuals formed the leadership cadre of the Nazi party. Historian Andrew Wackerfuss criticized the book for lack of accuracy and "outright homophobic charges". The claim advanced by Igra, Lively, and Abrams that homosexuals were responsible for Nazi atrocities is rejected by most historians.

Homophobic propaganda is propaganda based on homonegativity and homophobia towards homosexual and sometimes other non-heterosexual people. Such propaganda supports anti-gay prejudices and stereotypes, and promotes social stigmatization or discrimination. The term homophobic propaganda was used by the historian Stefan Micheler in his work Homophobic Propaganda and the Denunciation of Same-Sex-Desiring Men under National Socialism, as well as other works treating the topic.

Watchmen on the Walls is an international evangelical ministry based in Riga, Latvia. It describes itself as "the international Christian movement that unites Christian leaders, Christian and social organizations and aims to protect Christian morals and values in society." According to a Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) Intelligence report the group's name derives from the Old Testament book of Nehemiah, in which the "watchmen" guard the reconstruction of Jerusalem. "The cities they guard over today, say the contemporary Watchmen, are being destroyed by homosexuality."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Lively</span> American activist, author, and attorney (born 1957)

Scott Douglas Lively is an American activist, author, and attorney, who is the president of Abiding Truth Ministries, an anti-LGBT group based in Temecula, California. He was also a cofounder of Latvia-based group Watchmen on the Walls, state director of the California branch of the American Family Association, and a spokesman for the Oregon Citizens Alliance. He unsuccessfully attempted to be elected as the governor of Massachusetts in both 2014 and 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014</span> Ugandan law

The Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014 was an act passed by the Parliament of Uganda on 20 December 2013, which prohibited sexual relations between persons of the same sex. The act was previously called the "Kill the Gays bill" in the western mainstream media due to death penalty clauses proposed in the original version, but the penalty was later amended to life imprisonment. The bill was signed into law by the President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni on 24 February 2014. On 1 August 2014, however, the Constitutional Court of Uganda ruled the act invalid on procedural grounds.

Martin Ssempa is a Ugandan pastor, activist, and the founder of the Makerere Community Church. He referred to himself as Pastor Doctor Martin Ssempa, but now calls himself Gabriel Baaba Gwanga'mujje Eri Yesu. Ssempa first came to international prominence in 2010 after a presentation video he made at his church, which showcased his opposition to homosexuality, went viral.

Bryan Jonathan Fischer is the former Director of Issues Analysis for the American Family Association (AFA). He hosted the talk radio program Focal Point on American Family Radio and posted on the AFA-run blog Instant Analysis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter LaBarbera</span> American journalist

Peter LaBarbera is an American social conservative activist and the president of the anti-gay organization Americans for Truth about Homosexuality (AFTAH).

Americans for Truth about Homosexuality (AFTAH) is an organization which describes its mission as "exposing the homosexual activist agenda". AFTAH rejects the idea that sexual orientation is innate and believes that people can "leave the homosexual lifestyle". AFTAH contends that there is a fundamental conflict between gay rights and religious freedom. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) designated it as an anti-LGBT hate group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Mugisha</span> Ugandan LGBT rights activist

Frank Mugisha is a Ugandan LGBT advocate and Executive Director of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), who has won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award and Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize 2011 for his activism. Mugisha is one of the most prominent advocates for LGBT rights in Uganda.

Kapya John Kaoma is a Zambian, US-educated scholar, pastor and human rights activist who is most noted for his pro-LGBTQ+ activism, particularly regarding Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gay Nazis myth</span> Myth that homosexuals pervaded the Nazi Party

There is a widespread and long-lasting myth alleging that homosexuals were numerous and prominent as a group in the Nazi Party or the identification of Nazism with homosexuality more generally. It has been promoted by various individuals and groups both before and after World War II, especially by left-wing Germans during the Nazi era and the Christian right in the United States more recently. Although some gay men joined the Nazi Party, there is no evidence that they were overrepresented. The Nazis harshly criticized homosexuality and severely persecuted gay men, going as far as murdering them en masse. Therefore, historians regard the myth as having no merit.

Homosexual seduction is the pseudoscientific conspiracy theory which suggests homosexuality is spread through intergenerational sex, and that older homosexuals aim to change the sexual orientation of previously heterosexual youth by seducing them. It is related to the LGBT grooming conspiracy theory, the discredited acquired homosexuality theory, the gay agenda conspiracy theory, and the drag panic phenomenon.

Family Watch International (FWI) is a fundamentalist Christian lobbying organization. Founded in 1999, the organization opposes homosexuality, legal abortion, birth control, comprehensive sex education, and other things that it regards as threats to the divinely ordained "natural family." It has a strong presence in Africa, where it promotes conservative policy and attitudes about sexuality through its United Nations (UN) consultative status.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Business Entity Detail - Abiding Truth Ministries". State of California. Archived from the original on April 2, 2010. Retrieved October 4, 2012.
  2. ↑ "Nonprofit Report for Abiding Truth Ministries". GuideStar. Retrieved October 4, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Corporate Filing". The Commonwealth of Massachusetts. June 23, 2010. Retrieved October 4, 2012.
  4. ↑ "2010 IRS Form 990 Federal Tax Return" (PDF). Foundation Center. Retrieved October 4, 2012.[ permanent dead link ]
  5. 1 2 "Scott Lively's Bio". The Pro-Family Resource Center of Abiding Truth Ministries. Abiding Truth Ministries. 2002–2008. Archived from the original on 24 July 2012. Retrieved 13 November 2008.
  6. 1 2 "Letter to the Russian People". Abiding Truth Ministries. 15 October 2007. Archived from the original on 24 July 2012. Retrieved 12 September 2010.
  7. 1 2 "Scott Lively Advocated 'Criminalizing Homosexuality' as Far Back as 2007". The Huffington Post. 13 March 2010. Retrieved 12 September 2010.
  8. 1 2 The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party: Preface to the Fourth Edition, retrieved 2010-04-17
  9. ↑ Waddington, Lynda (November 23, 2010). "Groups that Helped Oust Iowa Judges Earn 'Hate Group' Designation; SPLC Adds American Family Association, Family Research Council to List". Iowa Independent . Retrieved 25 November 2010.
  10. ↑ Gettleman, Jeffrey (January 3, 2010), "Americans' Role Seen in Uganda Anti-Gay Push", The New York Times , p. A1, retrieved 2010-02-09
  11. ↑ "Grantees". Abiding Truth Ministries. Archived from the original on July 24, 2012. Retrieved October 4, 2012.
  12. ↑ "2010 IRS Form 990 Federal Tax Return" (PDF). Foundation Center. Retrieved October 4, 2012.[ permanent dead link ]
  13. ↑ "Watchmen Not a Hate Group". Abiding Truth Ministries. November 7, 2007. Archived from the original on July 24, 2012. Retrieved October 4, 2012.
  14. ↑ Erik N. Jensen (January–April 2002). "The Pink Triangle and Political Consciousness: Gays, Lesbians, and the Memory of Nazi Persecution". Journal of the History of Sexuality. 11 (1/2): 319–349, pp. 322–323 and n. 19. doi:10.1353/sex.2002.0008. S2CID   142580540.
  15. ↑ Dorthe Seifert (Fall 2003). "Between Silence and License: The Representation of the National Socialist Persecution of Homosexuality in Anglo-American Fiction and Film". History and Memory. 15 (2): 94–129, p. 94. doi:10.2979/HIS.2003.15.2.94.
  16. ↑ "The Other Side of the Pink Triangle: Still a Pink Triangle". October 24, 1994. Retrieved 2008-11-08.
  17. ↑ "A historian's analysis of The Pink Swastika, part 1". Wthrockmorton.com. Archived from the original on 2012-03-16. Retrieved 2012-03-16.
  18. ↑ "A historian's analysis of The Pink Swastika, part 2". Wthrockmorton.com. Archived from the original on 2012-03-16. Retrieved 2012-03-16.
  19. ↑ "Watchmen Not a Hate Group". Abiding Truth Ministries. 7 November 2007. Archived from the original on 24 July 2012. Retrieved 29 July 2010.
  20. ↑ Levenson, Michael (5 January 2011). "Shift in mission for religious firebrand – Antigay pastor refocuses on aiding Springfield". The Boston Globe . Retrieved 2012-03-16.
  21. ↑ "A service of Abiding Truth Ministries". Defend the Family. Retrieved October 4, 2012.
  22. ↑ Kaoma, Kapya (May 2012). "Exporting the Anti-Gay Movement". The American Prospect. 23 (4).
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