R.g. Cravens

On Feb. 20, the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Family Research Council (FRC) released a report it claimed showed an increase in “acts of hostility” at U.S. churches in 2023. Public comments by the group’s president, Tony Perkins, since the release suggest FRC is using attacks on LGBTQ+ and Black Christians to pad its claims about liberal policy threats to “religious freedom.” Despite attacks on LGBTQ+-affirming churches representing nearly 20% of the total incidents documented by FRC, Perkins and others…

The International Religious Freedom Summit (IRF Summit) held annually in Washington, D.C., is a gathering of advocates and policymakers concerned with freedom of religion or belief (FORB). According to the IRF Summit website, part of the conference mission is to “highlight the personal testimonies of survivors of religious persecution and restrictions on religious freedom.”

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared Wednesday with pastor Jonathan Cahn – whose sermon highlighted three ancient deities which Cahn equated to demonic spirits that have now “come to America” – at the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Family Research Council’s National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance.

Republican former Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia has joined the Family Research Council (FRC) as a senior adviser to the anti-LGBTQ hate group’s longest-serving president, Tony Perkins. FRC helped launch the religious right as an overt political movement in the 1980s and remains one of the largest anti-LGBTQ organizations in the U.S. Hice described working for the anti-LGBTQ hate group as a “personal mission.”

At the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit in Washington, D.C., last month, summit co-chairs Sam Brownback and Katrina Lantos Swett addressed a joint session. Noting the summit’s theme, “Religious Freedom for Everybody, Everywhere, All the Time,” Brownback characterized his idea of religious freedom as societies allowing “freedom for the soul and respect for each other.” But the rhetoric of individuals and groups present at the summit shows how extremists wield the language of religious…

Anti-LGBTQ+ groups have ties to International Religious Freedom ... - Southern Poverty Law Center

In a sign that the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol continues to affect state and local politics, two figures with prominent roles in the events leading up to and following the insurrection testified this week on behalf of a state politician seeking to stay in office despite ties to…