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at Concerned Women for America By Bill Berkowitz
Of course, the "cutting-edge" issues nearest and dearest to the good people at CWA are "homosexual activism and other forces that threaten to undermine marriage, family and religious freedom." Robert H. Knight, a former spokesperson at the Washington, DC-based Family Research Council (FRC), has been brought on board as Director of the Institute. Beverly LaHaye, founder and chairman of CWA announced she was certain "Bob Knight has the experience, talent and knowledge to promote policies that strengthens marriage and family, two of the greatest gifts and responsibilities in a women's life." Knight has been a longtime crusader in the Right's culture wars. He spent ten years as the Director of Cultural Studies and Senior Editor of Culture Facts at the FRC, a Washington, DC-based lobbying group founded by Gary Bauer, where he regularly hammered and yammered away at the so-called "homosexual agenda." Knight has been at his abrasive best during his all-too-frequent appearances on such television talking-head-programs as CNN's Crossfire, Fox's Hannity and Colmes and ABC's World News Tonight. Knight also spent some time as a Senior Fellow for Cultural Policy Studies at the conservative Heritage Foundation. Another dream-teamer more recently brought on board by LaHaye is the ubiquitous Peter LaBarbera, who will be a Senior Policy Analyst at the Institute. LaBarbera is a former reporter with the Rev. Moon-owned Washington Times newspaper and a former editor of CWA's Family Voice magazine. He is the former publisher of the Lambda Report on Homosexual Activism, a bimonthly font of anti-gay misinformation and dis-information, and was also a Senior Analyst in the Cultural Studies Department at the Family Research Council. (If you think you've spotted a pattern in the hiring and recycling process at these Washington, DC-based right-wing culture war chop shops, you have).
Yet another new CFI staffer, fresh from his stint as the assistant editor of the Family Research Council's Culture Facts, is Ken Ervin. In FRC's farewell message to Ervin, the organization praised him for his "unswerving dedication to the defense of family, faith and freedom, [and] his faithful and enduring contributions to the Cultural Studies Department… We take a measure of consolation in knowing that he will be continuing the fight to defend biblical truth and morality at his new post." Concerned Women for America was founded in 1979 by Beverly LaHaye, the wife of the Rev. Tim LaHaye, a longtime Religious Right activist, co-founder of the Moral Majority and currently co-author of the fabulously successful Left Behind series of apocalyptic Christian novels. According to The Right Guide, CWA, along with its CWA Legislative Action Committee, combined to bring in more than $11.9 million in 1998.
In her appeal LaHaye warned against awarding "special job protections" to homosexuals who are "people who: make lewd phone calls; expose themselves to others; and engage in prostitution." In a press release commenting on CFA's Culture and Family Institute, Ralph Neas, president of People for the American Way Foundation, said: "Both LaBarbera and Knight have loudly offered crude commentary about gays and used inflammatory rhetoric to attack their efforts to attain equal rights in America. Apparently and sadly, the CWA believes these men and their divisive tactics are worth promoting. CWA is bent on spewing more heated and harsh rhetoric about gays in our country, which can only exacerbate the challenge gay Americans face in achieving full equality under our nation's laws." One of CFI's first public statements backed the decision by the Kalamazoo, Michigan, city commissioners to place a ballot measure on the November ballot barring the creation of "special rights based on sexual orientation." Director Knight, picking up where he left off at the FRC, pointed out that "it's about time that people realize that they do not have to sit back and watch homosexual activists highjack the moral capital of the civil rights movement. The term 'sexual orientation' is code for declaring that sexual morality is dead and that the law can be used to punish people of faith. Once the phrase is imbedded in the law, homosexual lawyers inevitably rev up to attack the Boy Scouts, demand 'gay marriage' and harass employers." CFI also opposed President Bush's recent nomination of Paul Cellucci as the new ambassador to Canada, because, Knight explained, "as governor, Cellucci established a record of advocating for pro-abortion and pro-homosexual policies. He has long collaborated with homosexual activists to force Massachusetts residents to accept homosexuality as a viable, healthy option." Although still in its infancy, the Culture and Family Institute has already unleashed a stream of commentaries on critical issues affecting the gay community. Count on CFI loading up its wagons and spearheading numerous anti-gay campaigns and lobbying efforts. Well-funded and amply staffed, CWA's anti-gay Institute is champing at the bit. Bill Berkowitz is a free lance writer covering the Religious Right and related conservative movements. Contact him at wkbbronx@aol.com. |
Homophobic Founder: Beverly LaHaye is founder and chairman of CWA 
Peter LaBarbera 
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