Kerby Anderson

Hate labels have been thrown around quite a bit lately. Much of that started with the Southern Poverty Law Center. As I have mentioned in previous commentaries, the group used to provide a valuable service but now throws the hate label around irresponsibly. Their “Hate Map” identifies groups that deserve the label (white supremacists, Neo-Nazis) with many others that do not (Family Research Council, American Family Association, Alliance Defending Freedom). Unfortunately, too many other organizations take them seriously. In July, I wrote about GuideStar slapping a “hate group” label on certain groups merely because they were so designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center. For now, they have removed that label. Now foundations (like the Clooney Foundation) and businesses (like Apple) have donated up to a million dollars to the Southern Poverty Law Center. No wonder they can now afford to take out full-page ads in USA Today. On August 23, Dr. Frank Wright (President at D. James Kennedy Ministries) announced that the ministry filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the Southern Poverty Law Center. The lawsuit alleges that the Center “illegally trafficked in false and misleading descriptions of the services offered by the ministry and committed defamation against the ministry arising from the publication and distribution of false information that libels the ministry’s reputation and subjects the ministry to disgrace, ridicule, odium, and contempt in the estimation of the public.” Another concern is the overuse and misuse of the hate label. We no longer seem to have an adequate public vocabulary to describe real haters and racists. Here’s a suggestion: if we want to end hate in America, maybe we should start by accurately defining it.