Box Turtle Bulletin

Hutcherson and Barber Talk About the Day of Silence and Reveal Hutch’s Paranoia

Rev. Ken Hutcherson spoke with Matt Barber on a Concerned Women for America podcast about Hutcherson’s protest of the Day of Silence. Barber and Hutcherson both make some claims that do not seem to be fact based and, in Hutcherson’s case, appear to demonstrate paranoia:

Barber claims

• GLSEN is an “adult homosexual activist group” that uses children as “pawns to futher their very deceptive agenda”.
• some Christians are taking a “very soft approach” to the Day of Silence rather than “challenge it head on” because they want “the path of least resistance”. [I assume this refers to the Golden Rule pledge]

Hutcherson claims

• kids who are kept out of school on the DOS may make up an excuse rather than “stand up”.
• he was invited to speak at Mt. Si because it was “a great time to ambush the Christian”.
• he’s been labeled the “number one homophobe in the United States”. He told “them” that as long as Dr. James Dobson is alive then Dobson’s number one and he’s is number two. [I can’t find any reference anywhere to Hutcherson being labeled as the number one homophobe, much less that he responded in any way to “them”]
• there is a million dollar award out for information that would destroy his ministry.
• the minute his daughter introduced him on MLK day, white teachers booed [although news reports indicate that one teacher booed, Hutcherson repeated referred to “white teachers”, plural]
• the school promised him that there would be nothing controversially done about his appearance
• four or five teachers run the whole school, along with the principal and assistant principal and they are all afraid of the homosexual agenda
• if you look through the Bible you cannot find one word in the Bible that relates to tolerance
• the reason Jesus didn’t condemn the woman at the well was because was “set up to sin” and the man she committed adultery with wasn’t also brought. He implied that otherwise Jesus would have condemned both of them.

Barber also seems to imply that Hutcherson should engage in violence against the school authorities. Hutcherson said, “now you’ve got an angry dad”, to which Barber replies, “I don’t blame you and I seem to recall that you played a little football”. [Hutcherson played in the NFL in the 70’s].

All in all, I have to conclude that Hutcherson is either paranoid or not particularly concerned about the accuracy of his statements.

(hat tip to Good-As-You)

Uppity Gays

Earlier this week, we awarded Oklahoma Rep. Sally Kern the LaBarbara Award for her ludicrously malevolent statements recorded at a meeting when she thought nobody was listening. Since then, she’s been trying to explain how what she said wasn’t hateful, but were edited and taken out of context. While her remarks may well have been edited, it’s hard to imagine any “context” which could render them innocuous.

Kern also tried to explain that she aimed her remarks to the “homosexual activists” — you know, the ones with the agenda — and not the ordinary gays and lesbians who are just minding their own business:

I have made clear my opposition to the agenda of homosexual activists, but I have never endorsed or supported any hateful action targeting individuals on the other side of this debate and never will.

You can almost hear the word “uppity” there, can’t you?

But what about that “agenda”? Well this is where Kern refers local television reporters to the madcap duo of Matt Barber and Peter LaBarbera who are appalled — appalled! — that gays would dare to exercise their constitutional rights. That “gay agenda” they’re all worried about? It ain’t nuttin’ but the First Amendment:

Amendment I: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Hat tip: Alvin McEwen for the Barber and LaBarbera cites.

Why Does Matt Barber Hate the Bill Of Rights?

Concerned Woman Matt Barber is outraged that homosexual activists are engaged in the political process:

The Gay and Lesbian Leadership Institute is teaming up with homosexual groups such as the Human Rights Campaign, the Stonewall Democrats, and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force for an initiative called the “Presidential Appointments Project.” It is being billed as a “talent bank” for openly homosexual professionals who want to “set or influence” policies of a potential Obama, McCain, or Clinton administration. …

Matt Barber, policy director for cultural issues at Washington, DC-based Concerned Women for America, says the project puts to rest the notion that there is no “gay agenda.” He says the homosexual lobby is committed to infiltrating the executive branch with people who define their identity based on changeable, sexually deviant behavior.

“The ultimate goal, of course, being to have people who engage in these aberrant sexual behaviors in a position of power to influence public policy in such a way that they gain more power,” he explains.

Shocking indeed. Because there’s certainly no evidence that Exodus, Focus on the Family or even Concerned Women like himself would ever do anything to influence public policy and “gain more power,” is there? But I suspect that real problem Barber has is that gay Americans are participating in a fundamental American right:

Amendment I: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Why does Matt Barber hate freedom?

Close the San Francisco and Boston Bathhouses!!!

Update for Peter LaBarbera’s readers: The post you’re really looking for is here: Is MRSA The New Gay Plague? It’s the post he doesn’t want you to see.

As we reported earlier, the usual crowd of anti-gay activists jumped all over the faulty stories about outbreaks of MRSA in San Francisco and Boston. Although subsequent reporting (and our indepth analysis) clearly shows that the anti-gays were completely wrong in their accusations, rather than repent of their false accusations, they simply changed directions.

Concerned Women for America issued a press release quoting their own Matt Barber “inviting” the gay community to join his campaign against bathhouses

Therefore, these groups should publicly condemn those specific ‘high-risk behaviors’ which this study has concluded are responsible for spreading MRSA among homosexuals.

“In light of this behaviorally related MRSA outbreak,” said Barber, “we additionally ask HRC and other groups to call on local health agencies to shut down the many bathhouses and sex clubs around the country where men meet for anonymous sex with other men, often multiple partners, on a daily basis. These places create the ‘perfect storm’ for infectious disease, including MRSA.

Peter LaBarbera printed Concerned Woman Barber’s press release with the heading

CWA Invites Homosexual Groups to Work to Curb Spread of MRSA

and put in his own support for the effort

Well, folks, I’m not exactly expecting Human Rights Campaign and the rest of the “gay” lobby to hop on this request for cooperation from my good friend Matt Barber of CWA, but it sure would be progress if they did.

So will Box Turtle Bulletin join the cry to close down those bathhouses in San Francisco and Boston that were so integral to the spread of MRSA? Well, we might consider the question, if they existed!

What the anti-gays failed to notice is that neither San Francisco nor Boston has a single public gay bathhouse. San Francisco closed down bathhouses in 1984 at the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic and the closest bathhouses to San Francisco are in Berkeley and San Jose. Bostonites can head down to Providence.

So yet again we see that the claims of anti-gays have no basis in reality.

Concerned Woman Matt Barber’s Invitation

Reasonable heads are starting to prevail in the latest MRSA “gay plague” scare. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a statement saying that MRSA isn’t a gay disease, UCSF has backed away from their misleading statements, and some members of the media is starting to follow suit.

But while reasonable heads are coming forward, the unreasonable ones are still hacking away. Concerned Woman Matt Barber has issued a cynical and shameless press release calling on the homosexuals to “join him” to “help curb the spread of a potentially deadly strain of Staph infection.”

The gay community doesn’t really need an invitation from Barber. Given the neglect and open hostility that too many so-called Christians demonstrated during the HIV/AIDS crisis, the gay community has had to learn how to draw on their own resources. But if Barber were to actually consider the overwhelming weight of medical evidence concerning MRSA, he might consider issuing a call to the “straight community” to help curb the spread of MRSA into the gay community. After all, if one were to really look for someone to blame, that’s the first place one should look. 

But don’t count on it. People like Barber have no qualms about exploiting the suffering of others to score cheap political points. If there was any doubt about that, Barber’s latest stunt is just another example.

Mainstream Media Retreats From MRSA Hysteria

The mainstream media is now beginning to recognize that the MRSA hype was overblown:

• New York Times: “After linking new strain of staph to gay men University scrambles to clarify.”
• Newsweek: “A new ‘gay disease’? A drug-resistant staph is infecting some gay men, but experts say a lot of media got it wrong.”

Peter LaBarbera and Matt Barber couldn’t conceal their glee when the lead researcher’s ill-conceived statements landed on their lap. Now that UCSF has apologized and denounced LaBarbera’s and Barber’s statements and major news outlets are correcting initial reports, will we see a similar apology from LaBarbera and Barber? After all it would be the Christian thing to do. I somehow doubt it. They’ve built a career by exploiting the suffering of others to score cheap political points. “With love,” of course, as they like to say when they remember it’s what they’re supposed to say. But in the end, this is just another day at the office for them.

You can read more about the overblown hype in our latest report, Testing the Premise: Is MRSA The New Gay Plague?