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Family Research Council Attacks Moderate Republicans

Conference Session on Homosexuality is Scene of GOP Rift
'Moderates are the Bane if Our Existence' says Bob Knight

Compiled By GayToday

Ft. Lauderdale, Florida-- The growing tension between moderate and socially conservative Republicans was exacerbated last Saturday at the Reclaiming America for Christ conference, in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

In a speech at an afternoon session titled "Homosexuality", FRC Cultural Studies Director Bob Knight said that moderate Republicans are "always the bane of our existence."

Gary Bauer is one of the speakers at the Reclaiming America for Christ Conference

The Human Rights Campaign's Winnie Stachelberg spoke directly to the ideological posturing now threatening an internal war for the Republican Party: "The Family Research Council has now added moderate Republicans to their growing list of groups they disdain," she said.

"Robert Knight's comments show how the extreme right thrives on dividing the Republican Party and on fostering an atmosphere of mistrust and antipathy at a time when our nation is demanding that Congress move forward, in a bipartisan fashion, and address the important business of the American people."

Moderates were debased during a packed ballroom speech where Knight expressed his fear that moderate Republicans would support the Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HCPA), which would add sexual orientation, gender and disability to current federal hate crimes law.

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"So, what they [gay organizations] will do is push ENDA (the Employment Nondiscrimination Act) with everything they've got, then they will go to moderate Republicans -- who are always the bane of our existence -- [to push HCPA]."

Knight was joined on the anti-gay panel by Reclaiming America for Christ director Janet Folger and Focus on the Family's John Paulk and his wife Anne, both who claim to be former homosexuals.

Keynote speakers at a Friday banquet were House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Tex.), former FRC President Gary Bauer, and FRC spokesperson Janet Parshall.

Rev. Kennedy

The sixth annual Reclaiming America for Christ conference, which took place at the Ft. Lauderdale convention center, Feb. 26-28, was hosted by Rev. D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries.

The conference trains right wing grass roots activists on how to influence elections so American law can be replaced by biblical law.

Panels included: "The case for purity", "Defeating Darwinism" and "The Assault Against Christianity".