"The $1-Billion-a-Year [Religious] Right-Wing Conspiracy You Haven't Heard Of"
Bruce Wilson printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Fri Sep 26, 2014 at 12:47:54 PM EST
In honor of the 2014 incarnation of the event known as The Gathering, I've given an interview with Jay Michaelson, writing for the Daily Beast, on what Michaelson has chosen to call The $1-Billion-a-Year Right-Wing Conspiracy You Haven't Heard Of.
As Michaelson introduces the interview,

"Have you heard of the $1,750-per-person "Gathering," which starts Thursday in Orlando, Florida?

Probably not. But if you're female, gay, non-Christian, or otherwise interested in the separation of church and state, your life has been affected by it.

The Gathering is a conference of hard-right Christian organizations and, perhaps more important, funders. Most of them are not household names, at least if your household isn't evangelical. But that's the point: The Gathering is a hub of Christian Right organizing, and the people in attendance have led the campaigns to privatize public schools, redefine "religious liberty" (as in the Hobby Lobby case), fight same-sex marriage, fight evolution, and, well, you know the rest. They're probably behind that, too.

Featured speakers have included many of the usual suspects: Alliance Defending Freedom President and CEO Alan Sears (2013), Focus on the Family President Jim Daly (2011), and Family Research Council head Tony Perkins (2006). This year, however, they are joined by David Brooks of The New York Times and Michael Gerson of The Washington Post. What's going on? Has The Gathering gone mainstream?

Hardly, says Bruce Wilson, director of the advocacy group Truth Wins Out's Center Against Religious Extremism and a leading researcher on The Gathering. The selection of this year's speakers, he says, is just the latest in a long line of misdirections and canards...

...The Gathering is as close to a "vast right-wing conspiracy" as you're likely to find. So with this year's conference about to get under way, Wilson gave The Daily Beast an exclusive interview over email--heavily redacted here--about this shadowy, powerful network of hard-right funders.

Read my interview with the Daily Beast's  Jay Michaelson

Here is a collection of the ongoing Twocare.org series related to The Gathering and the National Christian Foundation:

NYT's David Brooks, WaPo's Michael Gerson to Speak at Top Antigay Funding Confab

Twocare.org Index #1: From Russia To Uganda, the War on Gay Rights Leads to The Gathering (2014)

The Secret Antigay U.S. Money Behind The WCF and the Global Evangelical War on LGBT Rights

The National Christian Foundation Anti-LGBT Funding Encyclopedia

The Gathering: The Religious Right's Cash Cow

Transcript, The Gathering 1997: "The Homosexual Agenda"

Chick-Fil-A Vice President on Board of "Biggest Anti-LGBT Funder In America

American Evangelical Anti-LGBT Push in Ukraine Tied To National Prayer Breakfast Affiliate `The Gathering'

Hobby Lobby Case Linked To Secretive National Prayer Breakfast Group, "The Family"

The Hobby Lobby Case and The Alliance Defending Freedom's Ties To Christian Reconstructionism

Becoming Evil: The Ex-Gay Industry As a Handmaiden To Genocide ?

How Antigay American Fundamentalists Indoctrinated Russia's School Children, 1992-1997




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As I stated on the FB post of this, "It is the scariest thing anyone will read today."

by trog69 on Sat Sep 27, 2014 at 10:45:13 PM EST
Well, the Daily Beast is a good start. But reaction from the LGBT rights community, and ostensibly interested NGOs (by virtue of their mission statements), has been minimal.

I suspect the lack of reaction is rooted in narratives ("framing" if you will) entrenched in the minds of people who - by virtue of their evinced politics - should care except that they either 1) believe the religious right barely exists anymore or is rapidly fading or 2) can't fit into their mental framework such phenomenon as The Gathering.

by Bruce Wilson on Mon Sep 29, 2014 at 11:52:00 AM EST
Parent

Here in the ex-Confederate Midwest (MO, AR, OK), there are lots of ex-ex-gays and others in the LGBT community who are very familiar with the religious right Two Minute Hate. So I find it interesting that you think that "the LGBT community" is not paying attention. Maybe you ought to be contacting state-level LGBT rights organizations?

by stillthesameNancyP on Tue Sep 30, 2014 at 02:11:55 PM EST
Parent
...with reps from the biggest LGBT orgs. Almost zero reaction.

Why ? I suspect two things. One, they can't imagine they've missed something so huge. Two, because they've missed something so huge they feel threatened. They've been paid to stay on top of these things, but missed this. Best to just ignore it and hope it goes away (it won't).

by Bruce Wilson on Tue Sep 30, 2014 at 07:49:08 PM EST
Parent





Until after they finish writing laws and outlawing a part of the population. They want results not reaction to them. So they are on the down low. And then there is the Cassandra Problem. When you give real information and it is ignored and thought of as anything but true. That will be hard to overcome.

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