The American Family Association
If I call the American Family Association the American Taliban I risk being dismissed as hysterical.
After all, the AFA isn't against kite flying. They're just Christian folks who want to spread the love. Sure, they don't like gays, or Jews for that matter, but that's just a difference in religious beliefs – nothing personal. Right?
Wrong. The AFA doesn't cut off women's fingers for wearing nail polish or engage in public executions in their mega-churches, but they do act a lot like the Taliban's "Ministry For The Protection Of Virtue And Prevention Of Vice." With the AFA, like the Taliban, there's no wiggle room. You're either with them or you're Christian-hating, hell-bound, homo-loving scum.
But is the AFA a hate group? True, they're a little nutty, but what's the harm?
Plenty, as LGBT folks can attest. We know extremist rhetoric leads to violence. And the AFA puts a lot of stock into presenting gays as sick child-predators who, when not pushing the "homosexual agenda" in elementary schools, take a lot of overseas vacations.
But gays aren't the only thing at the center of the AFA's moral target.
Just ask Kansas University professor Paul Mirecki, who caught hell after sending out an email mocking creationism and "intelligent design." Mirecki was planning on teaching a course on "religious mythologies." The AFA and other fundies caught wind of it and raised a stink. Mirecki has since been forced to resign as chairman of his department and KU is looking at having funding yanked by right-wing legislators. Oh – and two unknown assailants, mentioning the creationism hullabaloo, beat the shit out of Mirecki.
Here's to peace and love this holiday season.
Er, I mean, Christmas. At least I'd better lest I be on the wrong side of the "War on Christmas." According to the AFA, Christmas is under attack by Godless liberals who are de-Christifying America with heathen phrases like "Happy Holidays."
According to Dan Savage, "It stokes the Christian Right's bizarre belief/assertion that Christians in America are an oppressed majority."
Savage continues, "The proof of their oppression, disturbingly enough, is the existence of Americans who aren't Christians…. The 'War on Christmas' is about a majority seeking to eradicate public tolerance for, or evidence of, the existence or rights of the minority groups with which it shares this country."
The rights of everyone, gay and straight, are in danger in the AFA's ideal America.
On the AFA agenda, among other things, is the "right" of pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for items that offend their morals (emergency contraceptives being the main target). The AFA is also fighting the release of a vaccine against HPV, the virus that causes cervical cancer.
After all, HPV is God's way of saying "you dirty whore" to women who have sex before marriage. Cervical cancer is a byproduct of sin. And the only vaccine against sin is prayer and chastity. To that end the AFA also opposes comprehensive sex education and stem cell research. Thank you, AFA, for keeping our young girls pure.
Merry Christmas, indeed.
