Persistence is key. As Kevin Jones noted in a report on Theocracy Watch about a 2002 "Confessing the Faith" conference in Indiana of conservative protestants:
The more I was around them, the more I admired their ingenuity and persistence while at the same time I got more and more scared at what they relentlessly want to accomplish. It was just weeks ago, in December, when gay organizations seemed to have won a mini-victory after Ford said that it really didn't want to cruise to the tune of the AFA's strident whine, demanding anti-gay discrimination and bias. A December diary on Talk2Action described the situation. Gay activists and a website Americablog had jumped on the issue and managed to rouse public attention. Some of the less savory postures of AFA circulated, as described in this post by Michelle Goldberg, who urged that AFA deserved serious media scrutiny:
To me, one of the more sinister aspects of AFA's ideology is its association with anti-gay Holocaust revisionism -- the belief, promoted throughout the hard right, that not only were gay people not targeted by the Nazis, but that they were the primary mover behind Nazism. By December 14, 2005, Americablog was declaring "We Won," and urging people to thank Ford via an online form. Well, Americablog better swing back in action because AFA is baaaack. In a letter, dated January 10 and co-signed by 44 Religious Right leaders including Tony Perkins of Family Research Council, James Dobson of Focus on Family, Gary Bauer of American Values, D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries, Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, Paul Weyrich of Coalitions for America, Beverly LaHaye of Concerned Women for America, Judie Brown of American Life League, Ted Haggard of National Association of Evangelicals, Alan Chambers of Exodus International, AFA demands a return to intolerant anti-gay promises that it said Ford had made.
The letter outlines the concessions that AFA said Ford had given, and set a January 20 deadline for a turnaround.
On November 28, Ford Motor Company and American Family Association worked out a representation concerning Ford's support of groups promoting the homosexual agenda including homosexual marriage. Ford's representations seemed to AFA a very reasonable and attainable goal. This time, AFA not only pushed the anti-gay marriage buttons, but a few others, too: Your support for these groups pushing homosexual marriage can only hurt your dealers. And then, the threat: We can not, and will not, sit by as Ford supports a social agenda aimed at the destruction of the family. If there is a lesson to be learned from the Religious Right, it's this: it doesn't back down. From Anita Bryant to Janet Floger, from Clarence Thomas to Samuel Alito, again and again, they come back and back and back. Is there anything on which the Religious Right has backed down? Is there an example to inspect? Maybe, but it's not apparent. As much as eternal vigilance -- a guard-the-gates defensive position, the example of persistence -- a determined forward motion, is the one lesson that progressives and supporters of religious liberty should be driving baaa-ack home.
Drive-Away Lesson: Persistence | 13 comments (13 topical, 0 hidden)
The only thing that will help will be for all gays to buy Fords and TELL THE FORD COMPANY ABOUT IT!!
by rbrtptrck on Sat Jan 14, 2006 at 07:09:47 AM EST
Did AFA purposely renew its attack while the eyes of activists are turned toward the Alito hearings and other issues? Or is this mere coincidence in the ongoing culture war.
by cyncooper on Sat Jan 14, 2006 at 01:08:42 AM EST
Individiduals and whole organizations on the right may come and go -- and they have! But the general antigay campaign is here to stay, certainly for the rest of the lives of anyone who happens to read this comment.
Therefore, even as we look at, and act on, the situation with Ford, we need to be looking at the lessons learned each step along the way, and taken as a whole. So we can organize better responses to opposition initiatives -- and take a few initiatives of our own.
We can drive (no pun intended) ourselves crazy and hopeless if we find ourselves only responding to the latest urgent outrage. Sure playing defense is important. And learning to play defense even better is more important. I hope that someone will examine the Ford/antiFord campaign at somepoint. If anyone finds an article, or writes one(!), I hope they will let us know. Or write one right here at Talk to Action.
Drive-Away Lesson: Persistence | 13 comments (13 topical, 0 hidden)
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Left Behind: Eternal Forces: Installments of Jonathan Hutson's Talk To Action expose series
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