Religious leaders decry AFA’s ‘messages of hate’

CEDAR RAPIDS — Some religious leaders don’t believe the out-of-state organization financing Bob Vander Plaats‘ push to oust Iowa Supreme Court justices is a good representative of the faith community.

The Rev. Martha Rogers (right), of Christ Episcopal Church in Cedar Rapids, was upset when she was sent information that instructed her to preach on specific topics to her local congregation on specific dates. (Photo: Lynda Waddington/The Iowa Independent)

Three local members of the clergy and Interfaith Alliance of Iowa executive director Connie Ryan Terrell stood on the steps of the Linn County Courthouse Wednesday to call on Vander Plaats and his organization, Iowa for Freedom, to “denounce hate-filled comments made by their funder,” the Mississippi-based American Family Association.

“Many religious leaders and people of faith across Iowa are extremely concerned about the influence of an out-of-state extremist group who is playing havoc with Iowa’s retention election, seeking to change the very nature of our judicial system,” Ryan Terrell said.

The group’s leadership has recently said gay sex is “domestic terrorism,” gay adoption is an “inexcusable, inhumane thing to do to children,” and Muslims are guilty of treason and are naturally more violent due to inbreeding.

Vander Plaats told Radio Iowa’s Dar Danielson that AFA is only one of his group’s many supporters, and that Iowa for Freedom is not a subsidiary of AFA.

But in fact, according to documents filed with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, Iowa for Freedom is not a separate entity, but simply the name given to AFA’s Iowa campaign. The group’s attorney told the state, “It is anticipated that all source funds for the Iowa for Freedom will come from AFA directly and that no other individuals or organizations will contribute specifically or directly for the campaign.”

As The Iowa Independent reported Wednesday, AFA has spent about $85,000 in Iowa in hopes of swaying Iowa voters not to retain three state Supreme Court justices that appear on the November ballot. According to Bryan Fischer, AFA’s director of issue analysis for government and public policy, the group will spend $200,000 on the effort.

“I’m a little upset,” admitted the Rev. Martha Rogers of Christ Episcopal Church of Cedar Rapids, “because over the last few weeks I’ve received personal contacts via e-mail and via personal mail and letters telling me what to preach, how to preach and when to preach — and these instructions are for me to preach hate.”

After receiving the messages, Rogers began to investigate their source and discovered that much was being funded by out-of-state organizations.

“Primarily [what I found] was the American Family Association from Mississippi,” she said. “That was rather ironic because when I looked into Mississippi’s judicial selection process I found that it is ranked as one of the lowest in the states, while Iowa’s system is in the top five. … [The AFA], in my opinion, has a negative and self-serving agenda for themselves. They are not for Iowa, and they are definitely not for a just society.”

While Vander Plaats downplays AFA’s contribution, AFA has done little, if anything, to hide its involvement with the retention campaign. Each page of the Iowa for Freedom website is marked as being “paid for by AFA Action Inc.,” the political arm of AFA. Advertisements generated by Iowa for Freedom are clearly marked as being “paid for by IowaforFreedom.com, a project of AFA Action Inc.” The West Des Moines address provided below the disclaimer is to a mail box at a UPS Store. In addition, e-mails sent by Vander Plaats on behalf of Iowa for Freedom dating back to August bear a similar disclaimer that the group is a project of the AFA. The website does note that AFA Action is a 501(c)4 organization, and that no contributions are tax-deductible.

AFA is an organization, according to Ryan Terrell, that is dominated by hateful and bigoted voices well outside the mainstream of Iowa. Examples of these extreme views include banning all Muslims from serving in the military, the criminalization of homosexuality and barring women from employment as school teachers.

“I believe that as a person of faith I am called on to aide those who are oppressed, abused and bullied — just as Jesus did,” said the Rev. Tom Capo of Peoples Church Unitarian Universalist. “And when I hear any faith-based organization — whether it is called the American Family Association, Iowa for Freedom or IowaPastors.com — that calls basically for revenge against our Iowa Supreme Court justices because these justices made one decision that these groups don’t agree with, a decision to allow one group of people to have the civil rights that they deserve, I wonder if they are considering if they are living loving messages of faith that all the world religious speak of: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Love your neighbor as yourself. Help those in need or in pain. Help those who society shuns. These are the messages of my faith.”

The groups aren’t preaching that message, according to Capo, but are attempting to “manipulate us using fear.”

Rabbi Todd Thalblum, leader of Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, agrees that “the voices of hate are out in force” and encouraged all Americans to return to the country’s “founding principles of equality and respect.”

“We are, each of us, a representation of God on this earth, and this makes us equal,” Thalblum said.

“History has shown us that where ever hate speech has been allowed to fester, violence and aggression are not far behind,” Thalbulum said. “The Jewish people know this all too well as do many, many other minorities both in this country and across the globe. We should never make our decisions based on a rhetoric of hate, rather we should let that what is just and right be our guide.”

Following the event, Alice Haugen, an assistant pastor at Grace Episcopal Church in Iowa City, said those who wish to portray the fight for equality as one of abiding by scripture or abandoning it are creating a false choice.

“This isn’t a matter of following the Bible or throwing the Bible out the window,” she said. “Episcopalians of faith who support marriage equality, who support civil rights, do it based on scripture. So, this is not a matter of following scripture or ignoring scripture, but a matter of wrestling with scripture to understand it better. An an example, 100 years ago people used scripture to justify slavery,  but no one today would use it to justify such a thing.”

Interfaith Alliance, which is a nonpartisan organization founded in 1996, was instrumental in the creation of Justice Not Politics, a multi-faceted coalition of organizations and Iowans who are committed to protecting Iowa’s courts and the current system of merit selection and retention.