Advancing Biblical Truth Media Statement August 16,2017 Confronting Hate & Lies: D. James Kennedy Ministries Is Not A Hate Group By Frank Wright, Ph.D. With enormous sadness, but with equally firm conviction, I write to dispute the assumed validity of news reports that D. James Kennedy Ministries is considered a “hate group.” Nothing could be further from the truth. We do not hate anyone. This label is both patently false and defamatory. This is particularly disheartening and infuriating in a week when Americans have witnessed, and some have suffered, the kind of despicable violence that we expressly and unequivocally condemn. And then news outlets go running to the widely discredited “hate map” at the Southern Poverty Law Center, claiming breaking news of “haters” in our midst. We have lived and worked in this community for 44 years. We strive every day to follow our Lord’s command to love our neighbors as ourselves. We try to seek the welfare of others, when itis in our power to do so. We try to show the love of God to a watching and listening world. We try to live by Christ’s teaching and to bring honor to His blessed name. So why are we on the so-called “hate map” of the Southern Poverty Law Center? In fact who is the SPLC? The Southern Poverty Law Center is an organization that once did good work, in the latter days of the Civil Rights Era. Today they have descended into a political attack machine, plastering the “hate” label not only on legitimate hate groups, but also on anyone who disagrees with their far-Left political persuasions. It is intellectually and morally dishonest to group mainstream Christian ministries with neo-Nazis and violent militias—yet this is exactly what the SPLC does, and news media reporting uncritically parrots them. Just last month, we aired a television exposé about the SPLC’s slanderous attacks against religious free speech and free exercise. In the interests of fairness, the special can be viewed here: www.djkm.org/splc. Even mainstream media outlets like Politico have begun to call into question the SPLC’s highly biased, ideologically driven (and very lucrative) agenda: http://www. politico.com /magazine /story /2017 /06 /28 /morris-dees-splc-trump-southern- poverty-law-center-215312.D. James Kennedy Ministries Page Two. In the case of D. James Kennedy Ministries, we have been falsely branded by the SPLC for nothing more than subscribing to the teachings of the historic Christian faith. We are a non- profit ministry whose deeply held Christian convictions energize our mission to faithfully proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our aim is to help others find the forgiveness of sins and eternal life that Jesus offers to all who will trust in Him. Unfortunately, we live in a world where many people never get past the news headline or the sound bite. But no one should be confused by the SPLC’s rank, rhetorical deception. Theirs is nothing more than a poorly disguised effort to stifle religious free speech, while padding their sizable coffers. By the SPLC's flawed and libelous criteria, both Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King, Jr. were haters too—simply because their devout Christian convictions guided their views on human life, human sexuality, and marriage. The SPLC should be ashamed of themselves. Sadly, they are not.