Christian ministry appeals SPLC case to Supreme Court, challenging NYT v. Sullivan

DJKM calls NYT v. Sullivan 'obsolete' in 'hate group' defamation appeal

Tyler O'Neil

Fox News
December 1, 2021

FIRST ON FOX: The Christian ministry D. James Kennedy Ministries (DJKM) has asked the Supreme Court to revisit its landmark defamation ruling in New York Times v. Sullivan (1964), appealing its case against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which has branded DJKM a "hate group."

"New York Times v. Sullivan, which is at the heart of our defamation suit against the SPLC, may have once sought to advance noble purposes, but the practical effect has been devastating to equal treatment under the law," DJKM President Frank Wright told Fox News on Wednesday. "Today Times v. Sullivan is little more than a vehicle to enable reputational terrorism while avoiding the legal consequences of defamation law faced by every other American citizen."

Critics say the SPLC brands mainstream conservative and Christian organizations "hate groups," placing them on a list with truly hateful organizations like the Ku Klux Klan. The SPLC has branded DJKM an "anti-LGBT hate group" due to its Bible-based statements on homosexuality, and Amazon uses the SPLC "hate group" list to determine eligibility for its Amazon Smile charity program. In 2017, DJKM sued the SPLC and Amazon for defamation and discrimination.

Courts have tossed DJKM's lawsuit, however, ruling that the ministry has not met the "actual malice" standard for defamation that the Supreme Court invented in New York Times v. Sullivan. Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch have called for the court to revisit that precedent and the "actual malice" standard, specifically. DJKM's petition for certiorari, which asks the court to take up the case, focuses on that standard.

"This Court’s ‘actual-malice’ standard, invented for a particular time and a particular purpose, has become obsolete and does not serve any of the interests it was designed to protect," the document reads. DJKM claims that the standard is "fundamentally untethered from the original understanding of the First Amendment."

"Today, Sullivan no longer acts as a bulwark to protect civil rights," the filing claims. "Instead of the shield it was designed to be, it is now a sword used to bludgeon public figures with impunity while hiding behind this Court’s mistaken view of the First Amendment."

"It is tragically wrong to deny a ministry its day in court when it is publicly maligned," David Gibbs III, counsel for DJKM, told Fox News on Wednesday. "The 1964 Sullivan ruling was intended to protect national media when there was no public internet or social media. This is the perfect moment for the Court to reconsider that legal standard in light of today’s technology. Greater accountability will increase civility and journalistic integrity."

The document notes that "nearly a dozen" members of the court have questioned various aspects of Sullivan. In 2019, Justice Thomas criticized the ruling as a "policy-driven decision… masquerading as constitutional law." Earlier this year, Justice Gorsuch noted that the media ecosystem has fundamentally transformed since 1964, making the actual-malice standard obsolete.

The document also cites Justice Elena Kagan, who said the actual-malice standard "allows grievous reputational injury to occur without monetary compensation or any other effective remedy."

It also cites a 1985 memo from John Roberts, two decades before he became chief justice on the court. "My own personal view is that a legislative trade-off relaxing the requirements for public figures to prevail (a return to the pre-Sullivan standards) in exchange for eliminating punitive damages would strike the· balance about right," he wrote at the time.

It takes four justices to grant certiorari.

Gibbs told Fox News in August that this "case is the perfect case to overturn the actual-malice standard" because it involves "an organization based on truth and love" being "called a hate group."

Critics and former staffers have claimed that the SPLC uses the "hate group" label to target political opponents and to exaggerate hate in a fundraising scheme. A former SPLC spokesman said, "our aim in life is to destroy these groups." A would-be murderer who targeted the Family Research Council (FRC) in Washington, D.C., aiming to kill its staffers, cited the SPLC's "hate group" map for his decision to target FRC. The SPLC condemned the attack, but kept FRC on the map.

While courts have ruled against DJKM, one recent defamation lawsuit against the SPLC succeeded. The SPLC accused Maajid Nawaz, an anti-terror Muslim reformer, of being an "anti-Muslim extremist." Nawaz sued and the SPLC settled, offering a very public apology and paying $3.375 million to his nonprofit.

Megan Meier, a partner at Clare Locke, the law firm that represented Nawaz, previously said "the SPLC’s ‘hate group’ accusation is a financial and reputational death sentence, effectively equating organizations to the KKK. No right-thinking person wants to be associated with the KKK, so the SPLC’s ‘hate group’ accusation is incredibly effective at shaming organizations and causing them to be shunned by donors, fundraising platforms, service providers, the media and others. Shaming and shunning are hallmarks of what makes a statement ‘defamatory’ under the common law."

"To put this designation in context, SPLC associated the Ministry with real hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, white nationalists, and the neo-Nazi movement – groups that have been associated with and have well-documented histories of horrific violence and true acts of hate," the DJKM filing explains.

DJKM asks the court to "cabin" the actual-malice standard, "protecting free discourse regarding public officials, while not foreclosing the right of public figures to bring a claim for reputational harm caused by false statements."

The Southern Poverty Law Center did not respond to Fox News' request for comment.

Tyler O'Neil is an editor at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil. If you've got a tip, you can email Tyler at tyler.oneil@fox.com.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/christian-ministry-appeals-splc-case-supreme-court-challenging-nyt-v-sullivan

Healing From Hate: Battle for the Soul of America

HEALING FROM HATE examines the root causes of hate group activity through the bold work of those battling intolerance on the front lines, including Life After Hate, an organization founded by former Skinheads and neo-Nazis, now engaged in transforming attitudes of intolerance. Documenting a stunning era of hatred in America, HEALING FROM HATE follows these reformers in their work to de-radicalize White Nationalists, and heal communities torn apart by racism.

Established by a group of former neo-Nazis and Skinheads, Life After Hate was initially envisioned as a support network for those attempting to transition back into the mainstream. But with hate on the rise, the group began to focus on community engagement and direct interventions as well. These compelling “formers”, all with deeply moving stories of their own, carry a uniquely personal understanding of the roots of hate – and an equally unique approach to working with active “movement” members that’s grounded in empathy and compassion.

Having been provided with exclusive access, HEALING FROM HATE follows these counselor/activists in their crusade against violence and intolerance – through community & family engagement, as well as direct “intervention” with radicalized youth – experiencing the conflict of their struggles firsthand.

In support of these powerful personal stories, groundbreaking sociologist Michael Kimmel (“Guyville”, “Angry White Men” & “Healing From Hate”), offers up a parallel narrative through-line – helping the viewer to understand the psychological process of white radicalization, the crucial role of deep-seated needs around masculinity, and insight gleaned from his extensive research with “EXIT” groups around the world – work that had its genesis in Europe, and forms the basis of his recent bestselling book “Healing From Hate”.

Hate is part of a profound change in the crumbling American Dream, and with the arrival of the era of Donald Trump - as well as the tragedies of Charlottesville, Parkland, Pittsburgh and El Paso - the stakes have only intensified. In these times when civil discourse has perished, HEALING FROM HATE seeks to shine a light on the roots of hatred, and courageous work of those who have made their way back from violent extremism – with an eye trained on what’s needed to return meaning, identity and tolerance to a generation of disenfranchised white men.

“We are operating as human beings from one of two places: fear of love. And we get to choose which one that is.” — Tony McAleer, Life After Hate

https://www.healingfromhatefilm.com/



"Documenting a stunning era of hatred in America, Healing From Hate follows Life After Hate – an organization founded by ex-hate group members - in their work to de-radicalize White Nationalists and heal communities torn apart by racism."

'Healing From Hate' Essential Viewing That Documents The Root Cause Of Hate Groups

Risa Sarachan
Forbes
September 9, 2020

Director Peter Hutchison’s film Healing from Hate asks powerful questions of the current moment. It’s an intimate examination of the de-radicalization of white terrorists involved in hate groups across America through the lens of an organization that seeks to heal those involved. Healing from Hate follows Life After Hate, an organization founded by ex-neo-Nazis and former skinheads that helps people leave hate groups and shift their lives towards a path of compassion. We witness this handled in various ways, from community outreach to direct interventions.

Hutchison, a filmmaker, NY Times author and activist, may be best known for his 2015 film, Requiem for the American Dream, which features interviews with Noam Chomsky about inequalities and wealth disparities in the US and how economic disparity affects society. His short film Angry White Men is an adaptation of sociologist Michael Kimmel’s book of the same title, which investigates the anger behind “white manhood in the age of Trump.” Kimmel makes an appearance in Healing from Hate, serving as a grounding voice throughout the film to dissect the psychological process of white radicalization as it pertains to masculinity and a need for belonging. In one scene, a former skinhead recalls that his fellow skinheads were the first people to take an interest in him as a person. A history of childhood abuse is common among the former neo-Nazis and skinheads, as is a sense of entitlement and of the threat that what they feel they are owed will be taken away by people of other races, resulting in an us-versus-them mentality.

“When I embarked on the project - initially envisioned as an examination of the ‘crisis of masculinity’ in America - Trump had yet to settle into the Oval Office,” said Hutchison. “Although the warning signs were surely there, I could never have anticipated what lay ahead in the form of Charlottesville, the rise of the alt-right, executive branch-endorsed xenophobia and intolerance, and a truly shocking rise in hate crimes.”

Healing from Hate serves as a powerful reminder of the racism, anti-semitism and prejudice still deeply ingrained in American society and examines how the current administration perpetuates this divisiveness through fear-mongering. The film, which premieres virtually this month in select cities, is equal parts chilling and hopeful. It offers a rare glimpse into the psyche of a faction of the world many chose to look away from because the reality, shown with unflinching clarity in Healing from Hate, is far too disturbing. This documentary humanizes the people who seek redemption and paints a vivid picture of what brought them to these dark places and back again.

Screening dates and locations for Healing from Hate can be viewed here.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/risasarachan/2020/09/09/healing-from-hate-essential-viewing-that-documents-the-root-cause-of-hate-groups/

CultNEWS101 Articles: 5/19/2020

Conspiracy Theories, Hate Speech, Terrorism, Censorship,  Ravi Zacharias  

Politico: 'Conspiracy Bingo': Trans-Atlantic Extremists Seize On The Pandemic

"The coronavirus is providing a global rallying cry for conspiracy theorists and far-right extremists on both sides of the Atlantic. People seizing on the pandemic range from white supremacists and anti-vaxxers in the U.S. to fascist and anti-refugee groups across Europe, according to a POLITICO review of thousands social media posts and interviews with misinformation experts tracking their online activities. They also include far-right populists on both continents who had previously tried to coordinate their efforts after the 2016 American presidential election. Not all online groups peddling messages on the pandemic have links to the far right, but those extremists have become especially vocal in using the outbreak to push their political agenda at a time of deepening public uncertainty and economic trauma. They are piggybacking on social media to promote coronavirus-related themes drawn from multiple sources — among them, Russian and Chinese disinformation campaigns, the Trump administration's musings about the coronavirus' origins and anti-Muslim themes from India's nationalist ruling party."

Reuters: Facebook Reports Spike In Takedowns Of Hate Speech, Terrorism

"Facebook Inc on Tuesday reported a sharp increase in the number of posts it removed for promoting violence and hate speech across its apps, which it attributed to technology improvements for automatically identifying text and images. The world's biggest social media company removed about 4.7 million posts connected to hate organizations on its flagship app in the first quarter, up from 1.6 million in the 2019 fourth quarter. It also deleted 9.6 million posts containing hate speech, compared with 5.7 million in the prior period. That marks a six-fold increase in hateful content removals since the second half of 2017, the earliest period for which Facebook discloses data. The company also said it put warning labels on about 50 million pieces of content related to COVID-19, after taking the unusually aggressive step of banning harmful misinformation about the new coronavirus at the start of the pandemic. "We have a good sense that these warning labels work. Ninety-five percent of the time that someone sees content with a label, they don't click through to view that content," Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told reporters on a press call."

Wikipedia: Conspiracy Theories

"Many conspiracy theories have drawn inspiration from the writings of ancient astronaut proponent Zecharia Sitchin, who declared that the Anunnaki from Sumerian mythology were actually a race of extraterrestrial beings who came to Earth around 500,000 years ago in order to mine gold.

In his 1994 book Humanity's Extraterrestrial Origins: ET Influences on Humankind's Biological and Cultural Evolution, Arthur Horn proposed that the Anunnaki were a race of blood-drinking, shape-shifting alien reptiles. This theory was adapted and elaborated on by British conspiracy theorist David Icke, who maintains that the Bush family, Margaret Thatcher, Bob Hope, and the British Royal Family, among others, are or were such creatures, or have been under their control. Icke's critics have suggested that 'reptilians' may be seen as an antisemitic code word; a charge he has denied.

Since at least the Middle Ages, antisemitism has featured elements of conspiracy theory. In medieval Europe it was widely believed that Jews poisoned wells, had been responsible for the death of Jesus, and ritually consumed the blood of Christians. The second half of the 19th century saw the emergence of notions that Jews and/or Freemasons were plotting to establish control over the world, a similar conspiracy theory relates to cultural Marxism. Forged evidence has been presented to spread the notion that Jews were responsible for the propagation of Communism, or the hoax The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (1903) which outlines a supposed plot by Jews to control the world.

Such antisemitic conspiracy theories became central to the worldview of Adolf Hitler. Antisemitic theories persist today in notions concerning banking, Hollywood, the news media and a purported Zionist Occupation Government. These theories have a tyrannical worldview in common.

Holocaust denial is also considered an antisemitic conspiracy theory because of its position that the Holocaust is a hoax designed to advance the interests of Jews and justify the creation of the State of Israel.  Holocaust deniers include former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad the convicted chemist Germar Rudolf and the discredited author David Irving."

Spiritual Sounding Board: Before Evangelicals Canonize Ravi Zacharias, will they learn from Jean Vanier and L'Arche?

"This is a guest blog post by Steve Baughman. While studying philosophy, he ran across the works of the highly respected Christian apologist, Ravi Zacharias–and then Steve uncovered a colossal number of lies and cover-ups by him."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

CultMediation.com   

Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.

CultRecovery101.com assists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.

CultNEWS101.com news, links, resources.

Facebook

Flipboard

Twitter

Instagram

Cults101.org resources about cults, cultic groups, abusive relationships, movements, religions, political organizations and related topics.

Selection of articles for CultNEWS101 does not mean that Patrick Ryan or Joseph Kelly agree with the content. We provide information from many points of view in order to promote dialogue.

Breaking Hate: Confronting the New Culture of Extremism

Breaking Hate: Confronting the New Culture of Extremism
by Christian Picciolini

Purchase on Amazon

From a onetime white-supremacist leader now working to disengage people from extremist movements, Breaking Hate is a "riveting" (James Clapper), "groundbreaking" (Malcolm Nance), "horrifying [but] hopeful" (S.E. Cupp) exploration of how to heal a nation reeling from hate and violence.

Today's extremist violence surges into our lives from what seems like every direction — vehicles hurtling down city sidewalks; cyber-threats levied against political leaders and backed up with violence; automatic weapons unleashed on mall shoppers, students, and the faithful in houses of worship. As varied as the violent acts are the attackers themselves — neo-Nazis, white nationalists, the alt-right, InCels, and Islamist jihadists, to name just a few. In a world where hate has united communities that traffic in radical doctrines and rationalize their use of violence to rally the disaffected, the fear of losing a loved one to extremism or falling victim to terrorism has become almost universal.

Told with startling honesty and intimacy, Breaking Hate is both the inside story of how extremists lure the unwitting to their causes and a guide for how everyday Americans can win them-and our civil democracy-back. Former extremist Christian Picciolini unravels this sobering narrative from the frontlines, where he has worked for two decades as a peace advocate and "hate breaker." He draws from the firsthand experiences of extremists he has helped to disengage, revealing how violent movements target the vulnerable and exploit their essential human desires, and how the right interventions can save lives.

Along the way, Picciolini solves the puzzle of why extremism has come to define our era, laying bare the ways in which modern society-from "fake news" and social media propaganda to coded language and a White House that inflames rather than heals-has polarized and radicalized an entire generation.

Piercing, empathetic, and unrestrained, Breaking Hate tells the sweeping story of the challenge of our time and provides a roadmap to overcoming it.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/breaking-hate-christian-picciolini/1129965185?ean=9780316522939

CultNEWS101 Articles: 8/5/2019

Psychics, Scientology, Hate Groups, Jehovah's Witness  

Otago Daily Times: NZ psychic under fire in UK over health claims

" ... A New Zealand psychic doctor is under fire in the UK as she claims "ghost doctors" can heal pain from conditions such as arthritis.

Jeanette Wilson, who is based in Auckland, is on a speaking tour of the UK and has more than 35 events booked.

But her claims have raised fears she is providing false hope to sick people."

" ... Michael Marshall, project director at the UK's Good Thinking Society, told the newspaper he was concerned vulnerable and sick people faced having time and money wasted.

"Those patients could be convinced to believe that the solution to their health problems lies not in the advice of their doctors or any qualified medical professional, but in the healing powers Ms Wilson claims to have and the expensive products she sells."

Yahoo News: Seth Rogen says AMC 'pushed back hard' on showing Tom Cruise explode in 'Preacher' pilot

"Speaking at the Comic-Con Preacher panel on Friday night, executive producer Seth Rogen revealed that AMC was less than thrilled about depicting the death of Tom Cruise in the pilot of the comic book adaptation. The episode contained a news report in which, after being possessed by a supernatural entity, the Top Gun actor explodes while overseeing a Scientology event.

"The most push back we got was — in the pilot, we blow up Tom Cruise," said Rogen when he was asked by an audience member if AMC had ever refused to allow the creative team to include something in the show. "They really pushed back hard and were like, 'We don't think you can do this.' And I just kept saying, 'I think we can! I think we can!' [They didn't] come into the editing room and hit the f—ing button…and one day it was on television! But I did get an angry phone call from Tom Cruise's representation."

CBC: WHY I JOINED — AND LEFT — CANADA'S ORGANIZED HATE GROUP MOVEMENT

"There is a troubling myth that gangs and extremist groups are made up of poor, disenfranchised kids from broken homes. My life is proof that the membership in these groups is made up of many more types of people: rich, poor, angry or people simply looking for somewhere to belong.

I am not poor, or from a broken home. I like to think I grew up with great privilege and had parental figures who were very involved with my upbringing.  I feel like I did it all as a kid: fishing, hockey, skateboarding, music.

The one thing that was missing, though, was that I felt I did not belong. I spent my teenage life seeking a place to belong. I tried raves, drugs, fighting, crime — you see a trend here. Everything I was trying to attach to was negative, my peer groups were into unsavoury activities from drug sales to car theft.

I was the skinny kid of the bunch and was never the toughest, but I was seeking a group that would accept me no matter what. So, in my late teens, I encountered a friend from my early criminal days who said he was a white power skinhead. That is when my life changed forever."

HullLive: Former Jehovah's Witness on life inside group - and how his parents were told to 'shun' him when he left

"Jake realised his educational and career options could be severely hampered if he stayed in the religious organisation.

"I'm good at art but Jehovah's Witness discourages higher education so I wasn't really geared for a career outside of the organisation," he said.

"It is only in the last few years I've figured out what I want to do, but I finally qualified my level 3 in electrical installation and I'm enjoying life in the world.

"Jehovah's Witnesses are conditioned to think that ordinary people are from Satan's world and that the world blinds you from the truth. The elders are also incredibly sexist.

"But I've always seen it the opposite way round and I've found a lot of "worldly" people much kinder and more Christian-like than many Jehovah's Witnesses although there are a few good people in the congregations."

Indeed, the reaction of the elders to Jake's desire to leave reinforced the belief he made the right decision.

"When I left at age 14-15 they told my mother to kick me out and shun me which happens to most leavers," he said, "which is why a lot of young people whose full family is in the religion are scared to leave."

" ... Thankfully, Jake's mum refused and he was also able to turn to friends and family outside the religious organisation to get through.

He believes it was a crucial decision which helped shape his future."

Psychology Today: Why a Gaslighting/Narcissist Relationship Is So Devastating

" ... Part of a gaslighter's strategy is to make you think you are not capable of functioning without her.  [They] will tell you that you are crazy, or that what you saw and heard "isn't really what happened."  By making you feel like you're unstable, you start relying on the gaslighter to give you the "correct" version of reality.  This manipulation assures the gaslighter that you will stay with [them] and continue feeding her narcissistic supply.  You may start to feel like you perceive things incorrectly.  Gaslighters will even hide your items and tell you that you are irresponsible and can't be trusted.   They tell you that you are crazy, that they told other people you're crazy, and that your friends and family think you're crazy."

" ... Gaslighters manipulate partners by telling them how wonderful their exes were, or by telling you that they could have anyone they wanted.  You start distrusting your friends, people that you meet, even strangers.  The gaslighter does "splitting" - pitting you against others, to isolate you from important people in your life.  One common gaslighter tactic is to tell you that your friend was flirtingwith him and that if you don't start treating the gaslighter with respect, it's he has other options.  Being told this makes you eye your friends suspiciously.  It even makes you look at people you don't know suspiciously.  A friendly person may be interpreted by you as flirting with the gaslighter because the gaslighter told you how many people want him.  Gaslighters/narcissists are also more likely to cheat, which adds to your distrust of others."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

CultMediation.com   

Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.

CultRecovery101.com assists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.

CultNEWS101.com news, links, resources.

Facebook

Flipboard

Twitter

Instagram

Cults101.org resources about cults, cultic groups, abusive relationships, movements, religions, political organizations and related topics.

Selection of articles for CultNEWS101 does not mean that Patrick Ryan or Joseph Kelly agree with the content. We provide information from many points of view in order to promote dialogue.

FBI stats: LDS less frequently victims of hate crimes than other religions, but on rise

Larry D. Curtis
KUTV 2News
June 12th 2019

(KUTV) With FBI statistics that track crimes hate crimes by religion, it is far statistically safer to be LDS than Jewish, Muslim, or in other Christian churches. Jewish people faced the steepest risks and were far more likely to be victimized than other religions.

In 2017, members of what the FBI defined as "Mormons" were the target of .9 percent of hate crimes in the U.S. The FBI recorded 15 individuals suffering "anti-Mormon bias" in crimes. That is the same as the number of people, 15, who suffered anti-Hindu bias, with approximately three times as many members. The same number of Hindus were attacked, but from a significantly smaller population.

Jehovah's Witnesses suffered a similar number of anti-religious hate crimes with 13 attacks, also from a smaller population than who the FBI defines as Mormons.

It is not clear if the FBI's use of "Mormon" refers only to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or if it includes other churches that also trace their roots to Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon. The Utah-based faith has more members by far than the other churches, making it statistically likely the 15 incidents were based on the church widely known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church. The church recently requested use of its full legal name, after previously using the shorter terms.

It is estimated there are 4.5 million members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the U.S., compared with an estimated 1.5 million adherents of Hinduism, according to the State Department. The Pew Research Center reports approximately 2.5 million Jehovah's Witnesses in the U.S.

On its website the FBI defines a hate crime:

For the purposes of collecting statistics, the FBI has defined a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” Hate itself is not a crime—and the FBI is mindful of protecting freedom of speech and other civil liberties.

The FBI said it is responsible to uphold the civil rights of the American people and offers support to law enforcement to do so. It also said it investigations, forwards results of investigations to the U.S. Attorney's Office for potential federal prosecution, engages in public outgreach and trains local law enforcement, minority and religious organizations along with training for agents and police officers nationwide.

But according to the FBI, of the religiously-motivated hate crimes in the U.S., "58.1 percent were victims of crimes motivated by their offenders’ anti-Jewish bias." According to the Jewish Agency, there are 5.3 million Jews in the U.S. The date by religion shows:

• 58.1 percent were victims of crimes motivated by their offenders’ anti-Jewish bias.
• 18.6 percent were victims of anti-Islamic (Muslim) bias.
• 4.3 percent were victims of anti-Catholic bias.
• 3.3 percent were victims of bias against groups of individuals of varying religions (anti-multiple religions, group).
• 2.3 percent were victims of anti-Protestant bias.
• 1.8 percent were victims of anti-Other Christian bias.
• 1.5 percent were victims of anti-Eastern Orthodox (Russian, Greek, Other) bias.
• 1.5 percent were victims of anti-Sikh bias.
• 0.9 percent (15 individuals) were victims of anti-Hindu bias.
• 0.9 percent (15 individuals) were victims of anti-Mormon bias.
• 0.7 percent (13 individuals) were victims of anti-Jehovah’s Witness bias.
• 0.7 percent (12 individuals) were victims of anti-Buddhist bias.
• 0.5 percent (8 individuals) were victims of anti-Atheist/Agnostic bias.
• 4.9 percent were victims of bias against other religions (anti-other religion).

There are approximately 70 million Catholics in the United states.

Crime statistics with an "anti-Mormon bias" increased from 2016 to 2017, more than doubling from seven incidents to 15. According to available records, the FBI didn't track Mormonism as its own religious category before 2015. It is not clear if Mormon refers to other churches in the Latter Day Saint movement such as the Community of Christ, The Church of Jesus Christ or the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Mormon hate crimes by year:

Year — incidents — victims — known offenders

2015 — 8 — 8 — 8 — 6

2016 — 7 — 8 — 8 —3

2017 — 15 — 15 — 15 — 8

https://kutv.com/news/local/fbi-stats-lds-members-less-frequently-victims-of-hate-crimes-than-other-religions

Is There A Cure For Hate?

Taly Kogon and her son Leo, 10, listen to speakers
during an interfaith vigil against anti-Semitism
and hate at the Holocaust Memorial late last month in Miami Beach, Fla.

ERIC WESTERVELT
NPR
November 6, 2018

For months prior to the recent shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh, suspect Robert Bowers spewed venomous bigotry, hatred and conspiracies online, especially against Jews and immigrants. During the Oct. 27 attack, according to a federal indictment, he said he wanted "to kill Jews."

He is charged with 44 counts — including hate crimes — for the murder of 11 people and wounding of six others at the Tree of Life Congregation synagogue.

The attack follows a spike in anti-Semitic incidents, concerns about the rise in domestic extremism and calls for politicians to rethink their anti-immigrant rhetoric.

We wanted to know what programs, if any, are effective in getting violent and violence-prone far-right extremists in America to cast aside their racist beliefs and abandon their hate-filled ways.

Here are five key takeaways:

1) Neglected, minimized and underfunded

Creating and expanding effective programs to get homegrown far-right racists to find the off-ramp from hate is, overall, an under-studied, underfunded and neglected area.

White supremacy is really a problem throughout the United States. It doesn't know any geographic boundaries. It's not isolated to either urban or rural or suburban — it cuts across all. - Pete Simi, Chapman University

"We haven't wanted to acknowledge that we have a problem with violent right-wing extremism in this kind of domestic terrorism," says sociologist Pete Simi of Chapman University, who has researched and consulted on violent white nationalists and other hate groups for more than two decades.

"White supremacy is really a problem throughout the United States," he says. "It doesn't know any geographic boundaries. It's not isolated to either urban or rural or suburban — it cuts across all."

But it's a problem and topic that America has "tended to hide or minimize," he adds.

That willful denial, Simi says, has left many nonprofits, social workers and police and other interventionists largely flying blind.

"There really haven't been much resources, attention, time, energy devoted to developing efforts to counter that form of violent extremism."

In fact, the Trump administration in 2017 rescinded funding that targeted domestic extremism.

The administration, instead, has focused almost exclusively on threats from Islamist extremists and what it sees as the security and social menace of undocumented immigrants including, again, whipping up anti-immigrant sentiment ahead of the midterm elections.

2) There's no consensus on what really works

The research done so far shows that adherence to white supremacist beliefs can be addictive. Some who try to leave can "relapse" and return to the hate fold.

But Simi says, "We're really very much in the early days."

And there is no consensus yet on what works best over the long haul.

Academically, there has been more attention and research on interventions with American gang members or would-be Jihadis.

And while there is some crossover, far-right hate comes with ideological baggage often absent in gangs and is different from the religion-infused Jihadi belief system.

3) Best practices are costly and labor-intensive

Can racist radicals and homegrown right-wing violent extremists successfully be rehabilitated and re-enter civil society?

"The answer to that question is absolutely 'yes,' " Simi says.

The groups with the best approach, he says, seem to be those that partner with a broad section of civil society — educators, social workers, those in health care and police — to tackle the full range of problems someone swept up into an extremist world might face.

They may need additional schooling or employment training, he says or "maybe they have some housing needs, maybe they have some unmet mental health needs," such as past trauma or substance use problems.

It's a more holistic approach that he says, in the end, is far more effective and less costly than prison and packing more people into the already overcrowded U.S. criminal justice system.

But that "wraparound services" model is also labor-intensive, expensive and hard to coordinate.

It's also severely hampered, Simi says, by America's woefully inadequate drug treatment and mental health care systems.

"A big, big problem that we face as a society is abdicating our responsibility in terms of providing this kind of social support and social safety net for individuals that suffer from mental health," as well as drug problems, he says.

4) Life after hate

Tony McAleer knows the mindset of the suspect in the synagogue shooting.

A former member of the White Aryan Resistance and other hate groups, he once echoed the type of racist invective Bowers spewed online; the kind that sees a cabal of malevolent Jews running the world by proxy through banks, Hollywood, corporations and the media.

I think of them as lost...And I can tell you being in that place is not a fun place to be. When you surround yourself with angry and negative people I guarantee you your life is not firing on all cylinders. - Tony McAleer, Life After Hate

And McAleer knows how savvy racist recruiters can be. He was one of them.

"I was a Holocaust denier. I ran a computer-operated voicemail system that was primarily anti-Semitic," he says.

He eventually renounced his bigotry and helped co-found the nonprofit Life After Hate, one of just a handful of groups working to help right-wing extremists find an off-ramp. It also was among those that lost funding — a $400,000 Obama-era federal grant — when the Trump administration changed focus.

In McAleer's experience, adherence to racist beliefs — whether as part of a group or as a lone wolf like the synagogue suspect — is more often sparked by a flawed search for identity and purpose than by a deeply held belief.

The group doesn't attack people's ideology verbally. He calls that approach "the wrong strategy. Because it's about identity."

The best method, he believes, is simply listening and trying to reconnect to the person's buried humanity.

McAleer says he tries to get at what's motivating the hate, to find out why people are really so angry and upset to begin with, and to start the dialogue from there.

You condemn the ideology and the actions, he says, but not the human being.

"I think of them as lost. Somewhere along the line, they find themselves in this place," says McAleer, "and I can tell you being in that place is not a fun place to be. When you surround yourself with angry and negative people, I guarantee you your life is not firing on all cylinders."

He says that's the way he felt. "I was just so disconnected from my heart."

The birth of his children and compassion from a Jewish man, he says, helped him to leave that life and to reconnect with his own humanity and that of others.

People often have never met the people that they purport to hate, he says.

"And there's nothing more powerful — I know because it happened to me in my own life — than receiving compassion from someone who you don't feel you deserve it from, someone from a community that you had dehumanized."

5) How do you scale compassion?

But there are only a few programs like Life After Hate.

And they're often small. Since the summer of 2017, for example, the Chicago-based group has taken on only 41 new people who want to leave their racist hate behind.

"Keep in mind, de-radicalization is a lifelong process," says Life After Hate's Dimitrios Kalantzis. "We consider it a major success when formers remain active in our network, even if that means checking in within our online support group. That means they are engaged and unlikely to relapse."

But is inspiring compassion really scalable, and how can groups more effectively structure and organize similar efforts?

How can researchers and others scale it to reach as large a number of people as possible?

"That's the answer I can't provide because at this point, we really don't know," sociologist Pete Simi says.


https://www.npr.org/2018/11/06/663773514/is-there-a-cure-for-hate

He was a KKK member, then a neo-Nazi: How one white supremacist renounced hate

Filmmaker Deeyah Khan interviewed Ken Parker for her documentary,
 "White Right: Meeting the Enemy." (Photo: Fuuse Films)

Monica Rhor

USA TODAY
November 1, 2018

For years, Ken Parker lived in a world of bigotry and hate.

He wore the green robes of a grand dragon in the Ku Klux Klan. He stood at lecterns and shouted racist catchphrases. He posed shirtless in a photo posted on Facebook, a swastika tattoo on his chest and a gun cradled in his arm.

He paid $30 to ride in a 15-person van from Jacksonville, Florida, to Charlottesville, Virginia, for the 2017 Unite the Right rally, where he marched as part of the National Socialist Movement contingent. They spit out slurs and anti-Semitic slogans, clashed with counterprotesters and celebrated the violence and chaos.

When a neo-Nazi plowed into the crowd, killing Heather Heyer, who was there to stand against white nationalists, Parker and his crew were in a parking garage about a mile away, giddy over what they saw as a victorious day.

Parker was immersed in white supremacist ideology, radicalized by a steady diet of racist propaganda. Like Dylann Roof, who killed nine African-American churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina. Like Robert Bowers, who police said gunned down 11 Jewish worshipers in a Pittsburgh synagogue.

Hate crimes leave grieving families and terrorized communities – from the Muslims whose Texas mosque was burned to the ground to the Indian-born immigrant gunned down in a Kansas bar to the two African-Americans killed last week in a Kentucky Kroger grocery store.

After Charlottesville, something shifted inside Parker. He began to turn away from hate and toward the people he once might have targeted.

Why did Parker change? And how was the U.S. Navy veteran, who said he grew up in a “good Christian” family outside Chicago, drawn to hate groups in the first place?

The answers offer insight into the dynamics feeding the spread of right-wing extremism.

Need, narrative, network

In many ways, Parker was the perfect recruit for the hate movement.

After serving in the Navy for 11 years, he floundered. Scuffling to find a job in a bad economy. Trapped in a crumbling marriage. Seething about demographic changes that seemed to leave him behind.

One rainy night in early 2012, as he and his now-ex-wife shuffled through shows on Netflix, they stumbled on programs about neo-Nazi skinheads and the Ku Klux Klan.

As they watched the show about the KKK, the oldest hate group in the country, his wife turned to him. "You should look them up," she said, according to Parker. "They seem right up your alley."

Parker reached out to Klan groups he found through an online search and got a call within 15 minutes from the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. At first, he bristled at the anti-Semitic rhetoric the members tossed around, thinking it conflicted with the Christian teachings he had grown up with.

“Within six months, I was head over heels,” said Parker, 38. “I was looking through my Bible just to put down Jewish people.”

Parker’s path is an almost textbook example of how hate group members are radicalized.

They often feel “less than,” searching for someone to blame, for some place to direct their rage, said Tony McAleer, a former leader of the White Aryan Resistance and co-founder of Life After Hate, which helps people leave hate groups.

Parker felt lost without the camaraderie and rank structure of the military – and even more alone after his marriage collapsed and his wife left him.

Arie Kruglanski, a social psychologist at the University of Maryland who has studied extremists around the world, calls that dynamic the three N’s: need, narrative and network.

The “need” is a basic human “quest to matter, to be somebody, to have respect,” Kruglanski said.

In some cases, that need for significance leads people to good deeds; in others, it leads to violent means. The deciding factor, Kruglanski explained, is the narrative to which they are exposed.

“If you’re exposed to a narrative that the way to attain significance is by contributing to society and helping others, then you would follow that particular course of action,” Kruglanski said. “However, if you're exposed to a narrative that tells you the way to do it is through violence, through fighting the enemy of your group or the enemy of your culture, then that is what you are going to do.”

The third “N” refers to network – the community that rewards behavior and dispenses adulation and recognition.

In the 1980s, when McAleer first joined a group of racist skinheads as a student in England, it took months, sometimes years, for someone to be radicalized. They had to order books and material promoting racist beliefs through the mail and look for places to meet in person. Now, someone like Roof, whose descent into hate began with a Google search, can binge on white nationalism through YouTube videos and online forums such as 4chan.

Once in the KKK, Parker was further indoctrinated through weekly “Klan class,” a Bible study that used Scripture to advance racist beliefs, and a Klan website and chat room.

He attended his first Klan rally in May 2012, months after his first contact. Soon, he had risen to the rank of grand dragon, a reward for recruiting other members.

After four years with the KKK, Parker broke away from the organization. Not because he had renounced racist beliefs but because of a woman, who is now his fiancee, whom he met at a cross-burning. The Klan disapproved of her because she associated with black people.

“I said, screw you,” Parker recalled. “That’s how I became a Nazi.”
The rise of 'White Power'

In video footage, Parker stands at a lectern, wearing the black “battle dress” uniform of the National Socialist Movement, one of the largest neo-Nazi groups in this country. Behind him, Confederate flags rustle in the breeze.

He rails against Muslims, refugees and Mexican immigrants and vows to “stop at nothing” to wipe out those groups. He flings his arm out in a Sieg Heil salute and chants, “White Power.”

The NSM, which has roots in the original American Nazi Party, espouses violent anti-Jewish rhetoric and warns of a “white genocide."

The country's demographic changes are part of standard white supremacist talking points. Combined with easy online access to racist propaganda, it is what experts who track extremism call a perfect formula for the spread of hate.

“When these talking points slip into political debate, it lends legitimacy to it,“ said Keegan Hankes, senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “People get sucked into the echo chamber.”

The alleged Pittsburgh synagogue shooter, who blamed Jews for the caravan of asylum seekers making its way north through Mexico, called the immigrants “invaders” – echoing descriptions used by President Donald Trump and by pundits on the Fox cable news network.

Parker, who said he did not hear racist beliefs when he was growing up in a churchgoing Baptist family outside Chicago, absorbed the hate disseminated by the NSM on its website and on a radio station run by the neo-Nazi group, where it promotes an “all-white ethno-state.”

He would let loose with racial slurs if someone from a different ethnicity bumped into him in a store. He was furious when the NSM changed its logo from a swastika to the Odal rune, another Nazi symbol the group thought would be more palatable to a mainstream audience.

And he couldn’t wait to get to Unite the Right in Charlottesville.

“I was so pumped up,” Parker said of the white nationalist rally in August 2017. “Everyone was saying that we were going to start a revolution.”

In reality, he realizes, they did not score a victory. Instead, a “bunch of angry white guys got locked up for a long time,” and an innocent woman was killed. “Her mother doesn’t have a daughter,” Parker said. “That is not cool. At all.”

The rally marked a turning point for Parker – through an unlikely encounter with a Muslim filmmaker.

Confronting 'the enemy'

“This is Ken Parker,” Deeyah Khan narrates in her Netflix documentary “White Right: Meeting the Enemy.” “Ken is exactly the kind of person I’ve always been afraid of.”

Khan, a British Norwegian filmmaker who was targeted by racists, went to Charlottesville to try to understand what drove people into hate groups. She found “broken men” who were afraid – afraid of being marginalized by women and minorities, of being emasculated, of their own trauma and weakness.

She found Parker, whom she followed back to his home in Jacksonville, Florida. There, as Khan’s camera rolled, Parker made flyers with anti-Jewish slogans and swastikas that he tossed into front yards.

At first, he laughed and boasted about the hate act, then grew increasingly anxious as Khan questioned him about his actions. He listened as Khan read samples of racist e-mails she had received.

For Parker, who had often spewed the ugliest kind of anti-Muslim taunts, Khan’s compassion and respect were revelatory. Khan, who said she had previously tried to combat fascism with angry demonstrations and in-your-face retorts, described her approach as a necessary way to retain her own humanity.

"I don't believe it's the job of minorities to reform racists or to have to engage with their abusers," Khan said. "When we're confronted with people who hold such ugly views, who act out in such horrible and violent ways, it's hard to hold onto your own humanity. But I refuse to become like them."

On the last day of filming, Parker surprised Khan, the first Muslim person he had ever spent time with, by referring to her as a friend.

“What does this change?” she asked him. “What is this going to do for you moving forward?”

After Khan’s documentary was completed, Parker watched it over and over. By the fifth or sixth viewing, he saw himself and the NSM with new eyes. “I’m like, dude, I look stupid,” he said. “We all look so stupid. This is foolish.”

Shortly after that, Parker and his fiancee struck up a conversation with a neighbor – the pastor of an African-American church. Like Khan, the neighbor treated the couple with kindness, inviting them to Sunday service.

They became regulars at the All Saints Holiness Church, where they were welcomed by the African-American congregation.

At first, Parker could not discard what he saw as the brotherhood of the NSM, and he planned to go to a rally in Georgia.

The night before, he prayed to the Holy Spirit for guidance – and decided not to attend the rally. Instead, he sent a resignation e-mail to the National Socialist Movement.

“I could not keep living that lifestyle of hate,” Parker said.

Just as Parker’s journey into the KKK and the NSM illustrates the pull of hate groups, his path out shows how extremists can be deradicalized.

“You have to basically reverse the process,” said Kruglanski, the social psychologist. “You’ve got to convince potential recruits that this movement will not bring significance. It only brings humiliation and ignominy.”

That counter-narrative must come not only from friends, Kruglanski said, but also from public officials and political leaders.

Parker, who rejects the message of hate he once promoted, found a new network. Almost a year after he marched as a neo-Nazi in Charlottesville, a few days before he began the process of having his white supremacist tattoos removed, he was baptized in All Saints Holiness Church.

He walked hand-in-hand with his black pastor into the Atlantic Ocean, dipped his head under the water and rose into a new life.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/11/01/hate-group-white-extremist-radicalization/1847255002/