Southern Poverty Law Center has been a fraud for decades

OPINION:

Last week’s indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center for “manufacturing racism to justify its existence” and “using donor money to profit off Klansmen” should not surprise you.

If the SPLC ever was a legitimate humanitarian organization, it ceased being one decades ago.

Here are two examples.

Ten years ago, the University of Utah announced its intent to award an honorary degree during its 2016 commencement ceremonies to philanthropist Lynette Nielsen Gay. Ms. Gay is the founder of Engage Now Africa and of the Ensign College of Public Health in Kepong, Ghana.

Her impressive biography includes leadership roles in organizations such as Choice Humanitarian, Family Watch International and the World Congress of Families.

After making its announcement, however, the university chose to edit Dr. Gay’s resume on its website. They expunged any references to the World Congress of Families from her vita. Why? The SPLC and its aligned subsidiary organization, the Human Rights Campaign, had labeled the World Congress of Families a “hate group.”

More specifically, the SPLC officially condemned the World Congress of Families for its belief in the “natural family” as a “fundamental unit of society.” The Human Rights Campaign added that the World Congress of Families “exported hate” because of its pro-family agenda.

For the SPLC and the Human Rights Campaign, it was completely unacceptable to even suggest that it is best for children to have a married mother and father raising them.

The idea of promoting the virtues of the nuclear family was deemed “phobic,” “extreme” and “draconian.” For believing in all this “hate-filled propaganda,” Ms. Gay’s full resume had to be hidden from the public record.

If you think this is just a one-off exception to the rule as to how the SPLC operates, then you’re wrong.

A handful of years ago, I had the privilege of speaking to the same organization for which Ms. Gay was condemned for being a part. I was chosen to be a keynote speaker at the World Congress of Families’ annual assembly, where approximately 3,300 people of various faiths, creeds, cultures and backgrounds gathered from around the world for one simple and common cause: the traditional family.

As I have already said, the World Congress of Families believes it is a good idea for one man and one woman to be committed to each other in marriage as they raise their children. Put simply, it believes in moms and dads raising their children. It believes little girls and boys do best when they have confidence that their mothers and fathers are committed to each other and to them.

It believes that children are happier, people are healthier and countries are freer when a man and woman are married and take responsibility for their own children.

This was the singular topic for the World Congress of Families’ annual conference, and for agreeing with this shocking idea and saying so publicly, I was put on the “Right Wing Watch” and branded a “hater” by the SPLC.

So, here is the take-home from last week’s news.

The SPLC indictment is long overdue. This organization has been little but the mouthpiece of left-wing lunacy for decades. The moral to this story is indeed about a hate group, but those doing the hating are not the World Congress of Families, you or I. Traditional mothers and fathers are not the bigots here.

The haters are not those who believe marriage is defined by God rather than the government. The nuclear family is not the one peddling the malicious, extreme propaganda. It is the Southern Poverty Law Center and all its similarly aligned organizations that are the true “hate groups,” and now we have the proof.

In their efforts to foment anger, resentment, violence, division and civil unrest, they have actually been seeding the literal hate and racial violence of organizations such as the KKK, the Proud Boys and others — with their own money.

The SPLC and those supporting it are the real villains in this story. They are the ones bankrolling racism and resentment.

As I said above, the SPLC’s hypocrisy should not surprise anyone. In fact, Jesus himself told us to expect it: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.” (John 15:18,19) Followers of Christ have always been accused of the very hatred that they themselves suffer.

Still, there is good news. Regardless of name-calling, manipulation, lies and deceit, light always wins over darkness. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not [and will not] overcome it.” Sooner or later, evil always gets exposed.

• Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host. He is the author of “Not a Day Care: The Devastating Consequences of Abandoning Truth” (Regnery). He can be reached at epiper@dreverettpiper.com.