Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Faith In America, a nonprofit GLBT advocacy group headquartered in North Carolina, will kick off its several-state campaign to promote religious acceptance of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender persons in Ames on Sunday, with a large ad in the Ames Tribune.
Likely to provoke significant controversy, the series of ads slated to run in the Tribune are designed to challenge conventional interpretations of the Bible that forbid homosexuality as sin. And they don’t pull any punches, frequently comparing religious intolerance of homosexuality to religious-based racism (and, in particular, lynching and segregation).
Faith In America was founded by furniture mogul Mitchell Gold, who is optimistic that the group will succeed. “Many have said I and we are dreamers—that we can’t change people’s minds about their deeply held religious beliefs,” Gold said in a conference call with reporters. “I would only remind them that Jerry Falwell was once one of America’s leading segregationists and he changed when he realized the harm he was causing.”
Although Gold is himself Jewish, the group’s message seems primarily Christian. Reverend Cindi Love, Executive Director of Metropolitan Community Church, who also represents Faith In America’s new campaign, participated in the press conference call from Abilene, TX. “We will be a truly Christ centered nation when we no longer allow our own homophobia—our irrational fear of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people—to stop us from doing what is really right,” she said. “Jesus would have included gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people at the table with him as his disciples and there are hundreds of thousands of faithful same-gender loving people serving as his disciples today.”
The group’s objective is unusual because instead of challenging the legal basis for allowing religious beliefs to influence political issues like same-sex marriage and civil rights, Faith In America takes religion for granted as a fact of political life and mounts its challenge on different grounds, focusing on the validity of homophobic religious beliefs in and of themselves.
Sure to make some evangelicals here in Iowa uncomfortable, the newspaper ad FIA plans to run this Sunday in Ames, entitled “A Simple History Lesson,” contains a full page of text and photos including the following:
A Simple History Lesson: Some religious and political leaders have used religious teaching to justify discrimination against women, people of color, and interracial couples… We now know this kind of discrimination is wrong. Yet today there are some religious and political leaders who still use religious teachings to justify discrimination. [Inset of Pat Robertson saying making a homophobic claim.]
A Simple Truth: Using religious teachings to deny equal rights to anyone, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, is clearly wrong.
But what is likely to spark the most controversy is another of the organization's ads, scheduled to run in Ames at some point in the coming weeks. Depicting a noose hanging from a wooden cross, the ad places photos of Emmett Till and Matthew Shepard side-by-side. The text reads:
One born black. One born gay.
Both murdered.Religion-based bigotry promotes violence and hate.
Not love and respect.
The ad will turn heads, but its effectiveness remains questionable. Evan Seite, a young progressive who hails from rural Hamilton County just outside Ames, supports the group’s general mission but questions the effectiveness of the ad depicting the noose. “I hope the ad inspires positive dialogue,” he said, “but I’m not sure many Iowans are ready to have their religions challenged so bluntly.
(Editor's note: Iowa Independent initially received permission to reprint the FIA ads here, and we had been told that all ads which we received were scheduled to run in Ames at some point. This morning, a spokesperson for FIA asked us to remove the 'noose' ad, and told us that they had not yet decided whether they were going to run any ads in particular. Our inference is that the "Simple History Lesson" ad is still slated to appear on Sunday, but that FIA might decide not to run the other ads we received, including the 'noose' ad.)
But the newspaper ads are only part of the campaign, which kicks off in Ames before moving to other targeted cities in early primary states. “The campaigns will use a variety of media, newspaper ads, billboards, op-eds, yard signs, bumper stickers, direct mail, radio spots, and letters to the editor,” said Faith In America Executive Director Jimmy Creech, who has 29 years of experience as a Methodist minister. “We will also be canvassing in various neighborhoods in each of the cities with door-hangers that provide information about Faith in America and a brief survey of each household. We will conclude each campaign with a town hall meeting that will be open to the public where we can have a discussion about the misuse of religion to justify discrimination.”
What will come of this new campaign, being billed as a "Call to Courage," only time will tell.
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