Roy Beck seems to thinks so, Executive Director of NumbersUSA, who made the argument during the UAFA hearings yesterday. I’m all for reducing our carbon footprint as a part of multifaceted approach to reduce global warming, but I’ve never heard anything so entirely ridiculous. From the NumbersUSA website:

But nearly every new adult permanently added to the U.S. population through immigration legislation would be a potential competitor to unemployed and underemployed American workers. And every new immigrant increases the total U.S. carbon footprint and ecological footprint (and, because of increased consumption once they arrive here, increases the global footprints, as well).

Given the larger context of current immigration levels, passing S. 424 would be irresponsible to the environment, to future generations and to the most economically vulnerable members of our national community.

Don’t individuals seeking U.S. citizenship contribute to our “global” carbon footprint whether they are in our country or not? I wonder if Beck also favors abortion as a method of reducing our carbon footprint? Someone needs to ask.

Beck also has ties John Tanton, the “racist founder of many of the nation’s key nativist groups”, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). In the video below the SPLC explores America’s anti-immigration network, with Roy Beck making an appearance around the 5:30 mark. The whole video is definitely worth a watch.

Somehow this feels like some poorly conceived attempt to appeal to the left-leaning, green conscious among us, making his anti-immigration rhetoric more palatable. Sure we can reduce global warming by simply allowing fewer immigrants to enter the country. It smacks discrimination. And now he’s directing it at gay people. Sure. Let’s spread the hate.

You can watch his testimony at the UAFA hearings here.

The Rock Church of San Diego, which counts Carrie Prejean—also known as Miss California—as one of its members, is using discredited sources and junk science to link homosexuality with pedophilia.

The Rock Church founded and pastored by former San Diego Charger Miles McPherson, established the linkage in a sermon about Sodom and Gomorrah back in 2004.

Consequences of a Homosexual Lifestyle

God’s Word tells us differently and He provides us of the evidence that homosexuality is not natural or normal. There are physiological repercussions from homosexual behavior; male homosexuals are 430 times more likely to contract HIV than a heterosexual, while heterosexuals have a 1-in-750,000 chance of contracting the virus responsible for HIV, a male homosexual has a 1-in-165 chance of getting HIV. A 20 year old gay male has a 30% chance of either dying or contracting AIDS before the age of 30. They are also 23 times more likely to get other sexually transmitted diseases than a heterosexual.

There are also moral repercussions stemming from homosexual behavior as evidenced by the fact that one third of all sexual crimes against children are committed by homosexuals even though they are representative of only one percent of the population. Pedophilia has even been called central to the gay lifestyle. The agenda of the North American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) is to lower the age of consent so that sex with children will be legal.

Emotionally people suffer from homosexuality. Gays are five times more likely to commit suicide than a straight person. They are suffering depression because of God’s judgment and their alienation from Him. So God not only tells us what is right and wrong but that by continually doing what is wrong there will be consequences and this is all evident to us so we have no excuse in suppressing the truth.

The outrageous claim that 1/3 of all sexual crimes are committed by homosexuals comes from Paul Cameron, a discredited researcher known for distorting other people’s  research to further his own anti-gay agenda. Cameron is also founder of the Family Research Institute which is listed as a hate group by Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

A video of the sermon is available below, and is a huge treasure trove of the typical anti-gay and intelligent design pablum.

Not surprisingly, the Rock Church and McPherson were active and vocal supporters of Proposition 8 last November. Watch McPherson deliver a sermon on Prop 8 in the video below. I wonder if Prejean is somewhere in the audience…

McPherson was also a part of a Protect Marriage Simulcast targeting church leaders, young people, and congregations in the run up to the election, which was sponsored by none other than ProtectMarriage.com

It’s clear now that much of the blame for Carrie Prejean’s infamous answer at the Miss USA pageant falls squarely at the feet of Pastor Miles McPherson and the Rock Church of San Diego Church.

Thanks to Americablog via Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters.

The Illinois Family Institute (IFI) has released an insidious and homophobic piece of propaganda called “Dare to Stand” which makes NOM’s “Gathering Storm” look like amateur hour. The new video is a “rethinking” of the National Day of Silence on April 17th, a youth-driven event which calls attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools. Watch “Dare to Stand”… if you dare.

Classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, IFI purports to “uphold marriage & family, life & liberty in the Land of Lincoln.” From their website…

It is our firm opinion that these claims of discrimination, intolerance and bullying (aimed at people of faith who believe God’s Word that homosexuality is sin) are diverting attention away from GLSEN’s main purpose which has been and continues to be the normalization of homosexuality among impressionable youth.

This 6 minute video, made by a Bible believing church here in Illinois, exposes how our children are being indoctrinated, held captive and forced to accept an unproven and dangerous ideology while Biblical Truth is undermined.

“Dare to Stand” surfaces in the wake of Carl Walker-Hoover’s death, the young boy who recently killed himself after enduring repeated anti-gay bullying.

Many may view the timing as unfortunate, but “Dare to Stand” may present a wonderful opportunity for additional dialogue, shedding more light on homophobia and bullying in schools, while at the same time pushing groups like IFI further out of the mainstream and into Fred Phelps territory.

Sadly, Carl’s birthday would have been on April 17th. Hopefully many will use this day of silence to reflect on this tragedy… and how not to repeat it.

That’s right. As reported by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the number of hate groups have grown from 602 to 926 since the year 2000. The highest concentration not surprisingly falls below the Mason Dixon line, and unfortunately, my own home state of California with 88 groups.

From the SPLC Report…

As in recent years, hate groups were animated by the national immigration debate. But two new forces also drove them in 2008: the worsening recession, and Barack Obama’s successful campaign to become the nation’s first black president. Officials reported that Obama had received more threats than any other presidential candidate in memory, and several white supremacists were arrested for saying they would assassinate him or allegedly plotting to do so.

While the vast majority of hate groups groups are comprised of neo-Nazis, white nationalists, skins heads and the KKK, some have made it their mission to target and vilify the LGBT community as well. Those include…

• Traditional Values Coalition – Anaheim CA
• Abiding Truth Ministries – Temecula, CA
• Family Research Council – Colorado Springs, CO
• Traditional Values Coalition – Washington D.C.
• Illinois Family Institute – Carol Stream, IL
• Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment – Downers Grove, IL
• Westboro Baptist Church – Topeka, KS
• The School of Christian Activism – Springfield, MA
• Mass Resistance – Waltham, MA
• Watchman on the Walls – Seattle, WA

Noticeably absent from the list…

• The American Family Association – Tupelo, MS
• Focus on the Family – Colorado Springs, CO
• Americans for Truth – Naperville, IL
• Concerned Women for America- Washington, D.C.

It’s hard for me not to believe that the rise in the number of hate groups, or at least a rise in their membership, has been fueled in part by anti-muslim sentiment after 9/11, the LGBT community demanding equality, and stoking the fires of  hard religious right leading up the election.

And sure, I definitely blame the Bush administration, which allowed an environment of hate, intolerance and economic suffering to grow and fester during his watch, allowing hate groups to flourish. Need we be reminded of the hate we witnessed during the end of the Presidential campaign?