The American Family Association
The American Family Association is the driving force behind The Response. Founded by the Rev. Don Wildmon in 1977, the organization is based is best known for its various boycott campaigns, promotion of art censorship, and political advocacy against womens rights and LGBT equality. The organization also controls the vast American Family Radio and an online news service, in addition to sponsoring various conferences frequented by Republican leaders, including the Values Voter Summit and Rediscovering God in America. The AFA today is led by Tim Wildmon, Dons son, and its chief spokesperson is Bryan Fischer, the Director of Issues Analysis for Government and Public Policy and host of its flagship radio show Focal Point.
Fischer routinely expresses support for some of the most bigoted and shocking ideas found in the Religious Right today. He has:
held gays responsible for the Holocaust and likened them to domestic terrorists and Nazis who are intent on committing virtual genocide against the military, and asserts that homosexuals should be disqualified from public office;
said we have feminized the Medal of Honor by awarding it to a soldier who saved his fellow combatants rather than killing enemies;
demanded all immigrants convert to Christianity and renounce their religions;
asserted that Muslims have no fundamental First Amendment claims and should be banned from building mosques and deported from the US, adding that Muslims are inherently stupid as a result of inbreeding;
claimed African American women rut like rabbits due to welfare and that Native Americans are morally disqualified from living in America because they didnt convert to Christianity and were consequently cursed by God with alcoholism and poverty;
said that the anti-Muslim manifesto of the right-wing Christian terrorist who killed dozens in Norway was accurate.
Other AFA leaders and activists are just as radical:
AFA President Tim Wildmon claims that by repealing Dont Ask Dont Tell President Obama shows he doesnt give a rip about the Marines or the Army and just wants to force homosexuality into every place that he can.
AFA Vice President Buddy Smith, who is on the leadership council of The Response, said that gays and lesbians are in the clasp of Satan.
The head of the AFAs womens group led a boycott against Glee because she accused it of indoctrinating children in homosexuality and idolatry.The editor of AFA Journal Ed Vitagliano said that gay pride months are an affront to the Founding Fathers and will usher in a return to pagan sexuality.
A columnist for the AFA demanded Christians stop practicing yoga because it was inspired by the evil religions of Buddhism and Hinduism.
International House of Prayer
The Responses leadership team includes five senior staff members of the International House of Prayer (IHOP), a large, highly political Pentecostal organization built on preparing participants for the return of Jesus Christ. In a recent video, IHOP encouraged supporters to pray for Jews to convert to Christianity in order to bring about the Second Coming. IHOP is closely associated with Lou Engle, a Religious Right leader whose anti-gay, anti-choice extremism hasnt stopped him from hobnobbing with Republican leaders including Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann and Mike Huckabee. Engle is the founder of The Call, day-long rallies against abortion rights and gay marriage, which Engle says are meant to break Satans control over the U.S. government. One recent Call event featured prophet Cindy Jacobs calling for repentance for the girl-on-girl kissing of Britney Spears and Madonna. Perry's The Response event is clearly built upon Engle's The Call model.
Engle has a long history of pushing extreme right-wing views and advocating for a conservative theocracy in America. Engle:
is a proponent of Seven Mountains dominionism, a movement that seeks to have Christians take control of all aspects of American life, including government, business, entertainment and the media;supports the criminalization of homosexuality;
claimed that universities with LGBT anti-discrimination measures are teaching students to accept the mark of the beast;
is waging a spiritual war on the Supreme Court to get abortion outlawed in America;
prayed that Ellen Degeneres will be converted from homosexuality.
led a prayer rally in Jerusalem to lead one of the "greatest awakenings in the earth" to bring the Jews of Israel to Christianity.
claimed that the devastating tornado in Joplin, Missouri was Gods judgment for abortion.
IHOPs founder and executive director, Mike Bickle, who is an official endorser of The Response, like Engle pushes radical End Times prophesies. In one sermon, he declared that Oprah Winfrey is a precursor to the Antichrist.
Tony Perkins
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, is a co-chairman of The Response. At the FRC, Perkins has been a vocal opponent of LGBT equality, often relying on false claims about gay people to push his agenda. He:
called gay rights activists intolerant, hateful, vile, spiteful and pawns of Satan;
denied that there was a correlation between anti-gay bullying and depression and suicide, saying instead that gay and lesbian teens know they are abnormal and have a higher propensity to depression or suicide because of that internal conflict";
wrote that Senators would have "the blood of innocent soldiers on their hands" if they vote to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell and allow gays to serve openly in the military;
likened President Obama to a Middle East dictator when the president refused to defend the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act in court;
said I dont know if the country can survive another Obama term;
said that armies that allow gays and lesbians to serve openly including several U.S. allies in Iraq and Afghanistan participate in parades, they dont fight wars to keep the world free.
John Hagee
While Senator John McCain rejected John Hagees endorsement during the 2008 presidential campaign for his deeply offensive and indefensible remarks, Perry invited Hagee to join The Response. Hagee leads a megachurch in San Antonio, Texas, and is a purveyor of End Times prophesies. Like members of the International House of Prayer, Hagee utilizes language of spiritual warfare and says he is part of the army of the living God. He runs the prominent group Christians United For Israel, which believes that eventually a cataclysmic war in the Middle East will bring about the Rapture.
John McCain was forced to disavow Hagee for a reason as the Texas pastor:
claimed that God sent Hitler to be a hunter of Jews to usher in the establishment of Israel and do Gods work, lamenting that Jews are no longer spiritually alive.
referred to the Catholic Church as The Great Whore, an apostate church, the anti-Christ, and a false cult system.
believes that Hurricane Katrina looked like the curse of God and ravaged New Orleans in order to stop a homosexual rally and punish the citys high level of sin.
said that if gay marriage becomes legal you can kiss this country goodbye, alleged that the US is rebirthing Sodom and Gomorrah, and demanded that the government stop funding AIDS research and treatment to stop benefiting a sinful lifestyle.
demands that wives submit yourselves to your husbands and said that the husband has a God-given role as leader of your home.
said that God wont allow the United States to win wars anymore because we have allowed the worship of Satanism in the U.S. military.
Other Allies
Among the other far-right figures who have signed on to work with Gov. Perry on The Response are:
Cindy Jacobs, self-proclaimed prophet and endorser of The Response, who famously insisted that birds were dying in Arkansas earlier this year because of the repeal of Dont Ask, Dont Tell.
C. Peter Wagner, an official endorser of The Response, is one of the most prominent leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation, a controversial movement whose followers believe they are prophets and apostles on par with Christ himself (other adherents include Engle, Jacobs and Anh). Wagner has advocated burning Catholic, Mormon and non-Christian religious objects. He blamed the Japanese stock market crash and later the devastating earthquake and tsunami in the country on a traditional ritual in which the emperor supposedly has sexual intercourse with the pagan Sun Goddess.
John Benefiel, a self-proclaimed "apostle" and official endorser of The Response, who claims the Statue of Liberty is a "demonic idol" and that homosexuality is a plot cooked up by the Illuminati to control the world's population, and that he renamed the District of Columbia the District of Christ because he has more authority than the U.S. Congress does.
Willie Wooten, a self-proclaimed apostle who claims that God is punishing the African American community for supporting gay rights, reproductive freedom and the Democratic Party.
Pastor Stephen Broden Broden, an endorser of The Response, has repeatedly insisted that a violent overthrow of the U.S. government must remain on the table.
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