A Christian Ministry Sues over Labelling as ‘Hate Group’

The Christian pro-family organization of D. James Kennedy Ministries (DJKM) is filing a defamation lawsuit against the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for labeling it a “hate group.”

DJKM, formerly known as Coral Ridge Ministries, is among dozens of organizations opposing the LGBTQ agenda, radical Islam, and uncontrolled immigration that have been tarred as “hate” organizations by the SPLC … which is now receiving millions of dollars in new funding in the wake of the recent racial violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.  These dozen organizations are listed alongside racist and anti-Semitic extremist groups like Aryan Nation and the Ku Klux Klan.

The lawsuit, filed August 10 in federal District Court in Alabama, charges the SPLC with “trafficking in false or misleading descriptions of the services offered under the Ministry’s trademarked name, and for defamation pursuant to Alabama common law arising from the publication and distribution of information that libels the Ministry’s reputation and subjects the Ministry to disgrace, ridicule, odium, and contempt in the estimation of the public.”  The lawsuit also names Amazon.com, AmazonSmile Foundation and GuideStar USA — organizations that have relied on the SPLC’s “hate” designation to effectively punish DJKM and other pro-family and conservative groups by labeling them as “hate groups” and thus ineligible for charitable donation programs.

After receiving much criticism, the charity-listing group Guidestar backpedaled and said it would stop designating conservative organizations as “hate groups” based on the SPLC’s jaundiced characterization, as LifeSiteNews reported in June.

The DJKM civil suit appeals to the federal Lanham (Trademark) Act and asks for a permanent injunction enjoining the SPLC and its allies from disseminating the “hate group” declaration against the Christian ministry.  It also asks for monetary “punitive damages” from the SPLC, Guidestar and the Amazon affiliates for re-publishing the “hate group” designation “with knowledge that the matter published was false, or with reckless disregard of whether the matter was false.”

The DJKM civil suit further states, “The mission of the [DJKM] Ministry is to proclaim the Gospel upon which this nation was founded, to teach and nurture the followers of Jesus, to equip and encourage believers, and to defend religious liberty.  Nowhere in the purpose or action of the Ministry is there HATE or any room for HATE.”

SPLC endangers Christians such as when they designated the pro-family Family Research Council (FRC) as a “hate group.”  On August 15, 2012, a gun-wielding LGBT activist named Floyd Lee Corkins targeted employees at FRC’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., for mass-murder; but was thwarted by the heroic actions of building manager Leo Johnson.  Corkins, now serving a 25-year jail sentence for domestic terrorism, told the FBI that he found FRC through the “Southern Poverty Law [Center] lists [of] … anti-gay groups.”

In a statement, DJKM said the SPLC has “descended into a political attack machine, plastering the ‘hate’ label not only on legitimate hate groups, but also on anyone who disagrees with their far-Left political persuasions.  It is intellection and morally dishonest to group mainstream Christian ministries with neo-Nazis and violent militias — yet this is exactly what the SPLC does, and news media reporting uncritically parrots them.”

“Unfortunately, we live in a world where many people never get past the news headline or the sound bite.  But no one should be confused by the SPLC’s rank, rhetorical deception. Theirs is nothing more than a poorly disguised effort to stifle religious speech, while padding their sizable coffers,” said DJKM’s CEO Frank Wright in a separate statement.  By the “SPLC’s flawed and libelous criteria, both Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King, Jr. were haters too — simply because their devout Christian convictions guided their views on human life, human sexuality, and marriage,” Wright said.  “The SPLC should be ashamed of themselves.  Sadly, they are not.”

Such so called ‘news media’ like CNN continues to publish its “hate map” listings (originating from SPLC) as if it is an accurate and impartial listing of extremist groups.

While I’m truly sorry for what’s happening to DJKM … for whom I have the highest regard … I’m saddened that my preaching and publications have not awarded me the same designation.  I guess I need more readers and listeners of my ministry for Christ.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel