The Truth About SPLC
The Southern Poverty Law Center has created a list of its adversaries which it calls “hate groups.” This list includes champions of marriage and the family, including our name and those of some of our UN pro-life and pro-family coalition members.
Unfortunately, this false moniker has been wielded by those who oppose the natural family and marriage to scare government officials away from working with us and deter those who would support our work from funding us and others.
The real purpose of this list is to silence opponents, to isolate them. It is a kind of weaponized political correctness. It is also about raising money for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has more than $300 million dollars in the bank and rakes in more than $50 million every year.
The SPLC and its allies are getting away with this scare tactic in part because they hide behind the perception that they are a human rights organization that champions fairness and American values.
This is false.
C-Fam’s core mission is truth telling, and we believe that the truth about SPLC should be known so that people of good faith can make up their own mind about SPLC scare tactics and put an end to them.
The good news is that many are waking up to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The FBI used to partner with them in identifying hate groups. They no longer do. The Army used to have them lecture on domestic terrorism. The Army has ended that relationship.
Below you will find a powerful video exposing the Southern Poverty Law Center and their stated goal of destroying their political opponents. You will also find many essays and articles about this nefarious group, including articles from left-wing groups who are also concerned about the tactics of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of hate groups
Dakin Andone, CNN, 18 Aug 2017
“Some critics of the SPLC say the group’s activism biases how it categorizes certain groups. For example, there are a number of Christian-based advocacy groups listed because the SPLC says the groups have hateful language and policies regarding the LGBT community. Those groups are very critical of the list arguing that they are faith-based and that the list includes them with neo-Nazi, white supremacy and other groups that may advocate violence.”
Charity Watchdog GuideStar Labels Christian Non-Profits as “Hate-Groups”
Austin Ruse, Center for Family and Human Rights, 6 Jul 2017
“The non-profit law firm Liberty Counsel is suing the non-profit monitoring group GuideStar in federal court for defamation. At issue is GuideStar’s use of the “hate-list” published annually by the Southern Poverty Law Center that in recent years has targeted Christian groups it disagrees with on public policy.”
NGO financial monitor GuideStar may resume using Southern Poverty Law Center’s ‘hate-group’ label
Fox News, 28 Jun 2017
“Some Christian groups complained that they were pegged as “hate groups” by SPLC because they oppose same-sex marriage. They argued that it wrong to lump them in the same category as, for instance, the Ku Klux Klan and skinheads.”
Guidestar Drops SPLC’s Fake ‘Hate Group’ Label
Scott Walter, The Capital Research Center, 26 Jun 2017
“The SPLC is a radical group that uses its infamous ‘hate groups’ list to lump together genuine racists like the KKK with mainstream conservative groups.”
After conservative backlash, charity tracker GuideStar removes ‘hate group’ labels
Susan Hogan, The Washington Post, 26 Jun 2017
“But some conservative organizations complained that the center’s lumping them together with violent racist groups wasn’t based on objective research but on a political agenda. GuideStar’s usage
Real Time with Bill Maher
Episode #430, Maajid Nawaz Interview, HBO, 23 Jun 2017
Charity website cites threats in removing hate group labels
Michael Kunzelman, Associated Press, 23 Jun 2017
“A website that maintains a massive database of information about U.S. charities said Friday that it will remove warning labels flagging dozens of nonprofits as hate groups after threats directed at its staff.”
The Insidious Influence of the SPLC: Its branding of ‘hate groups’ and individuals is biased, sometimes false—and feeds polarization
Jeryl Bier, The Wall Street Journal, 21 June 2017
Nonprofit Tracker Smears Dozens of Conservative Organizations as ‘Hate Groups’
Rachel del Guidice, The Daily Signal, 21 Jun 2017
“GuideStar, which calls itself a “neutral” aggregator of tax data on charities, recently incorporated “hate group” labels produced by the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center.”
Charity website flags dozens of nonprofits as hate groups
AP Breitbart, 8 Jun 2017
“’This is defamation. GuideStar is an accomplice to this defamation now,’ said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
12 Ways The Southern Poverty Law Center Is A Scam To Profit From Hate-Mongering
Stella Morabito, The Federalist, 17 May 2017
“The SPLC’s main role is as a massively funded propaganda smear machine… Two years ago, the FBI deleted the SPLC from its website’s list of legitimate resources on hate crimes. This is a promising sign of growing clarity that the SPLC’s designations for hate groups lack legitimacy.”
Trust Not the Southern Poverty Law Center
Charlotte Allen, The Weekly Standard, 7 Mar 2017
“It’s hard to say what’s worse: the outrageousness of the Southern Poverty Law Center in pinning the label “white nationalist” and “extremist” on anyone who bucks the prevailing politically correct narrative, or the credulity of the mainstream media in treating the SPLC as a neutral source.”
Some People Love to Call Names: The Southern Poverty Law Center’s extremist list isn’t a Consumer Reports guide. It’s a political tool
Karl Zinsmeister, Philanthropy Roundtable’s Philanthropy Magazine, Spring 2017
“At the end of 2016, the Chronicle of Philanthropy published an article headlined “Dozens of ‘Hate Groups’ Have Charity Status, Chronicle Study Finds.” The “study” took at face value a list of 900 entities pinned with the “hate” label by a notoriously partisan attack group—the Southern Poverty Law Center. Over the years, numerous investigators have pointed out that most of the scary KKK and Nazi and militia groups that the SPLC insists are lurking under our beds are actually ghost entities, with no employees, no address, hardly any followers, and little or no footprint.”
Everyone Who Disagrees with the SPLC Is Hitler
National Review, 1 Nov 2016
“The Southern Poverty Law Center, which made its reputation tracking and cataloguing violent extremist groups, has set its sights on a new group of people who are neither violent nor extreme but who are in fact precisely the opposite of that: critics of the violence and extremism too often associated with Islam.”
How Did Maajid Nawaz End Up on a List of ‘Anti-Muslim Extremists’?: “They put a target on my head.”
David A. Graham, The Atlantic, 29 Oct 2016
“When earlier this week, the Southern Poverty Law Center and three other groups released a list of 15 “anti-Muslim extremists,” many of the names came as no surprise… But one name in particular stuck out: Maajid Nawaz, a British activist who runs the Quilliam Foundation, which calls itself ‘the world’s first counter-extremism think tank.’”
Debunking the SPLC “Hate Group” Myth
Liberty Counsel, 5 Oct 2015
“The Southern Poverty Law Center(SPLC), an organization that has recently defamed Liberty Counsel, is a money-driven organization that has admitted its own hypocrisy, lost sight of its own vision, and stooped to arbitrary name-calling to pander to its donors and media sensationalists. It has even been exposed by our courts to be instrumental in the attempted mass murder of American citizens. Allow us to set forth facts about this group.”
Law Enforcement Charitable Foundation, INC.
Intelligence Brief, Vol. 1, Pg 13-16, Sep 2016
The Hate List: Is America really being overrun by right-wing militants?
J.M. Berger, Foreign Policy, 12 Mar 2013
“The problem is that the SPLC and the ADL are not objective purveyors of data. They’re anti-hate activists. There’s nothing wrong with that — advocating against hate is a noble idea. But as activists, their research needs to be weighed more carefully by media outlets that cover their pronouncements.”
C-Fam Response to Southern Poverty Law Center Regarding Classification as a Hate Group
C-Fam Staff, Center for Family and Human Rights, 11 Mar 2014
“In response to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), C-Fam and other targeted Christian groups point out that SPLC’s criteria and the application of the criteria is biased against SPLC’s conservative opponents.”
Southern Poverty Law Center: Wellspring of Manufactured Hate
James Simpson, The Capital Research Center, 7 Oct 2012
“The Southern Poverty Law Center began with an admirable purpose but long ago transformed into a machine for raising money and launching left-wing political attacks. Lately it’s become more of a threat to free speech and civil debate than a defender of the weak or a foe of violent extremism.”
“Hate,” Immigration, and the Southern Poverty Law Center
Ken Silverstein, Harper’s Magazine, 22 Mar 2010
“much like CIS, I feel that the Law Center is essentially a fraud and that it has a habit of casually labeling organizations as “hate groups.” (Which doesn’t mean that some of the groups it criticizes aren’t reprehensible.) In doing so, the SPLC shuts down debate, stifles free speech, and most of all, raises a pile of money, very little of which is used on behalf of poor people.”
Exposing The Southern Poverty Law Center… Now It’s Personal!
Debbie Morgan, InfoWars, 19 Mar 2010
“After recovering from the “news” that the new film Camp FEMA is somehow racist, I thought it might behoove me to take another look. Maybe the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) knows something I don’t about “racism.” After exploring their interesting site, it has become even more clear that they are not on the side of We-the-People. In fact, they may have been founded on some very sound principles, but their present-day agenda is profoundly more nefarious.”
Guilt by Association: The Southern Poverty Law Center Hurls a Punch
Carol M. Swain, Huffington Post, 18 Mar 2010
“I have been highly critical of the organization [SPLC] in recent months because of its penchant for going after conservative individuals and groups who have exercised their First Amendment Rights to speak out on issues like illegal immigration. In fact, I have published two Huffington Post blogs critical of the new direction that the SPLC has taken. So, I was not exactly surprised that the SPLC would seek revenge against me, a relatively conservative black woman.”
Mission Creep and the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Misguided Focus
Carol M. Swain, Huffington Post, 9 Oct 2009
“…what is most shocking is that the SPLC has spent far more resources hounding conservative organizations, such as the Center for Immigration Studies, and prominent citizens like CNN’s award-winning anchor Lou Dobbs, than it has protecting the civil rights of American voters, which includes white people as well as black. The unrelenting attacks on Mr. Dobbs and others are shameless. The once venerable organization wages war against conservative individuals, principles, and organizations.”
Mediocre Grade for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Latest Report
Carol M. Swain, Huffington Post, 13 Sep 2009
“Instead of providing readers with a systematic analysis and hard data supporting its warning about a growing threat, the SPLC’s report was chocked full of vague generalities and unnamed sources. Most importantly, it made no serious effort to distinguish between individuals exercising their constitutional rights and groups that might actually pose a threat to society.”
King of the Hate Business: With haters on the wane, what will the hate-seekers do?
Alexander Cockburn, The Nation, 29 Apr 2009
“It’s also horrible news for people who raise money and make money selling the notion that there’s a right resurgence out there in the hinterland with legions of haters ready to march down Main Street draped in Klan robes…What is the archsalesman of hatemongering, Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center, going to do now? Ever since 1971, US Postal Service mailbags have bulged with his fundraising letters, scaring dollars out of the pockets of trembling liberals aghast at his lurid depictions of a hate-sodden America in dire need of legal confrontation by the SPLC.”
The Southern Poverty Business Model
Ken Silverstein. Harper’s Magazine, 2 Nov 2007
“Many of you out there have no doubt received in the mail desperate cries for help from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the do-gooder group that does very little good considering the vast sums of money it raises. But before you pull out your checkbook, make sure to read the following letter that Stephen Bright, an Atlanta-based civil rights and anti-death penalty attorney, recently wrote in declining an invitation to an event that honors Morris Dees, head of the SPLC.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center: A Twisted Definition of ‘Hate’
Matthew Vadum, The Capital Research Center, 1 Nov 2006
“Those who question the SPLC’s approach to race are blacklisted as contemptible bigots. Conservative writers have observed that to be called a ‘racist’ today is akin to the label ‘Communist’ in the 1950s. Indeed, the SPLC’s tactics are hard to distinguish from those of the late Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was also a fan of guilt by association.”
The church of Morris Dees: How the Southern Poverty Law Center profits from intolerance
Ken Silverstein, Harper’s Magazine, Nov 2000
“Today, the SPLC spends most of its time–and money–on a relentless fund-raising campaign, peddling memberships in the church of tolerance with all the zeal of a circuit rider passing the collection plate…The Center earned $44 million last year alone–$27 million from fund-raising and $17 million from stocks and other investments–but spent only $13 million on civil rights program, making it one of the most profitable charities in the country.”
The SPLC Calls Names
Philanthropy Roundtable
“The Southern Poverty Law Center hasn’t contributed anything to law or poverty for a generation. Instead it’s become a political attack group and fundraising scam.”
