I can’t say I was expecting to find coverage of a religion angle in the brouhaha surrounding community organizing group ACORN, but we have one.
For those who don’t know, federally funded community organizing group ACORN — a group with strong ties to President Obama — has been subject to an undercover journalist sting. For the last week, two young conservative journalists have been releasing videos of ACORN employees (including some from my neighborhood here in DC) advising people posing as a pimp and prostitute how they can best handle their business. The videos show the undercover journalists asking for advice on how to handle the underage girls they plan to bring into the country illegally — and the employees telling them how to avoid the law or write the sex slaves off as dependents. It’s not ACORN’s finest moment. The group, after a week of complaining it was being victimized by the journalists, has now admitted it needs to clean up its act.
Anyhow, there have been some fascinating media angles. Namely, much of the mainstream media had been choosing to ignore the story. It’s all over FOXNews and the blogosphere — particularly the conservative blogosphere — but the first story the New York Times ran about the sting was after the Senate had already voted to cut off some of the funds the group receives. And that story wasn’t about the sting so much as about conservative opposition to the group. An odd way to introduce the topic to readers, it would seem. A previous repeat of an Associated Press story (about how Census was dropping ACORN from one of its programs in light of the undercover journalism) published in the Times managed to delete the portion explaining the pimp and prostitute. Other media outlets have been similarly reticent.
But check out the latest Washington Post piece about ACORN’s change of tune. It includes this portion describing the 20-year-old woman who plays the part of the prostitute:
James O’Keefe, a self-described filmmaker, and Hannah Giles, the eldest daughter of a conservative Christian minister in Miami, visited ACORN offices in the summer. An ACORN spokesman said they were turned away in Miami, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, where workers called police and filed a report. But workers welcomed them in the other cities.
Giles is a journalism novice who has written two columns for the conservative Web site Townhall.com. Her father, Doug Giles, serves as minister of the ultra-conservative ClashChurch near Miami, where he proclaimed that liberals “spit on the Word of God,” according to a report by the Miami New Times.
I don’t know why this passage makes me laugh, but it does. Beginning with the unnecessarily snarky “self-described” before the word filmmaker (he either is or he isn’t, and given that he’s releasing videos every day at BigGovernment.com, I think we can go ahead and drop the “self-described”).
But the best part is the description of ClashChurch as “ultra-conservative.” As the reader who sent the piece in asks:
Ultraconservative how? SSPX ultraconservative? Benedict XVI ultraconservative? Old Believer or Old Calendarist ultra conservative? Probably not, but come on, let’s be more precise when describing these strange creatures called (ultra)conservative Christians.
I wonder what reporter Darryl Fears means when he describes the church as “ultra-conservative.” The supplemental quote about, allegedly, liberals who “spit on the Word of God” has even less context. I went to the original report by the Miami New Times. To give you an idea of where that paper is coming from editorially speaking, the same article describes columns by William F. Buckley as conservative “screeds.” Because “screed” is definitely the word to use when describing the writing of WFB, Jr., no? The original 2006 piece, reproduced here, says this:
The Aventura minister uses his column to lash out against liberals, who he says “spit on the Word of God.”
And here’s the quote from that conservative column as it was originally written at least two years prior to that:
Liberalism has been hijacked by bizarre special-interest thugs who spit on the Word of God and believe that the Bible has no place in public life, (except maybe in a museum where people can look at it from time to time).
So while I’m sure there’s even more context somewhere around that line, at the very least the Miami New Times didn’t quite get the quote right. I’m not entirely sure what Fears thinks the column writing of “novice” journalist Hanna Giles’ father has to do with her work, per se, but if you’re going to tie the two together, at least do a bit of homework.
Anyway, you can see what the “ultra-conservative” church says its theological views are here but below is a portion:
What We Believe
Eternity
Man was created to exist forever. He will either exist eternally separated from God by sin, or in union with God, through forgiveness and salvation. To be eternally separated from God is Hell. To be eternally in union with Him is eternal life. Heaven and Hell are places of eternal existence.
John 3:16; I John 2:25 & 5:11-13; Romans 6:23; Revelation 20:15Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is co-equal with the Father. Jesus lived a sinless human life and offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all men by dying on a cross. He arose from the dead after three days to demonstrate His power over sin and death. He ascended to Heaven’s glory and will return again to earth to reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Matthew 1:22-23; Isaiah 9:6; John 1:1-5 & 14:10-30; Hebrews 4:14-15; I Corinthians 15:3-4; Romans 1:3-4; Acts 1:9-11; I Timothy 6:14-15; Titus 2:13Salvation
Salvation is a gift from God to man. Man can never make up for his sin by self-improvement or good works. Only by trusting in Jesus Christ as God’s offer of forgiveness can man be saved from sin’s penalty. Eternal life begins the moment one receives Jesus Christ into his life by faith.
Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9; John 14:6 & 1:12; Titus 3:5; Galatians 3:26; Romans 5:1
Are these theological views now considered “ultra-conservative” by the Washington Post? Is there something else about the church that makes it ultra-conservative? Is the Washington Post instead describing the political or cultural views of the pastor as “ultra-conservative”? He actually seems to fit many other adjectives better than “ultra-conservative.” He’s very colorful, to put it mildly. Anyway, it seems that if we’re going to use that word, it should be pretty easy to substantiate it somehow.
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Comments (40) |
September 17, 2009, at 12:58 pm
The use of the term “ultraconservative” reminds me of the sequence of names that P&G gave to its flagship diaper line, Pampers, about a decade ago. “New and improved” Pampers became Ultra Pampers, which became Ultra Pampers Plus. Unable to top that, P&G followed that with, you guessed it, plain old Pampers.
I wonder how my good friends at the WaPost (“Pay not attention to Newsweek! It has nothing to do with us!”) will top ultraconservative. Ultraconservative plus?
September 17, 2009, at 1:05 pm
I understand that Charlie Gibson of ABC is not aware of the ACORN story. Perhaps you can send an article to him. ;^D
September 17, 2009, at 1:14 pm
a group with strong ties to President Obama
Like “ultraconservative,” this is a bit of a weasel phrase and designed to have the same impact. What do you mean by strong ties? He’s never worked for them. They, like other voter outreach groups, did voter outreach. He’s spoken to them, like he’s spoken to 1,000 of other audiences.
We see how easy it is for weasel words and weasel phrases, like “ultraconservative” and “strong ties” end up in news stories without substantiation. Maybe they think “ultraconservative” speaks for itself, like you assume “strong ties” speaks for itself. But do they?
September 17, 2009, at 1:21 pm
Davis,
According to both Obama and ACORN, they worked together in Illinois doing community organizing work. Those ties have not been well described by the media but neither group denies this. Obama also represented ACORN in a lawsuit years ago.
ACORN also endorsed Obama over HRC during the Dem primary and the Obama campaign paid an ACORN offshoot $800,000 during the last campaign do to work.
And, as you note, he has also addressed them where he has said he was proud of his affiliation with the group.
September 17, 2009, at 1:27 pm
Mollie:
Giles looks like an WND.COM ultra conservative politically: http://clashradio.com/xcart/product.php?productid=85&cat=1&bestseller=Y
Here’s the description of his book:
The culture war is heating up and Doug Giles, pastor of ClashChurch of Miami, Florida and Townhall.com columnist has jumped in, gloves off and tongue wagging at the cultural coarsening people and policies he believes are screwing up the church, family and state.
With comedy, substance and an unapologetic Christian worldview Giles weighs in on everything from:
* Islam
* Radical homosexuals
* Illegal immigrants
* Sexless wives
* Goofy husbands
* Your daughter’s boyfriends
* Gun free zones
* Global warming whackos
* Stupid sluts
* Atheists & atheism
* John Edwards, Barack Obama and Hillary
* Rosie O’Donnell
* How to be a college conservative hell razer
* Why conservatives need to take comedy seriously
* How some pastors are worse than aggressive atheists
* How hunting and hunters trump PETA’s paltry input for animals and conservation
September 17, 2009, at 1:30 pm
I’m really not sure I would describe that hot mess of views as “ultra-conservative” but it doesn’t matter.
The article described the CHURCH as ultra-conservative, not Giles.
September 17, 2009, at 1:32 pm
I should add, however, that I don’t really know what the term “ultra-conservative” means. Other than taking comedy seriously, of course.
September 17, 2009, at 1:33 pm
Bob, what about the book’s description makes you think the “ultra” label applies to this man?
September 17, 2009, at 1:43 pm
Giles is the church, given he’s the founder and senior pastor.
To an alternative newspaper, it’s ultraconservative in the same way a conservative news outlet would say Obama has “strong ties” to ACORN. Whether either description belongs in the maintream press is another question.
September 17, 2009, at 1:49 pm
Davis,
I would remove the “strong” adjective before the “ties” but I just don’t think it would be honest. An $800K check, among other items, seems like a pretty strong tie to me. I also don’t think it’s necessarily a bad mark on Obama. I am merely trying to provide readers with some context about ACORN and its influence. Again, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Many people support the overall work of ACORN (even if they don’t support the law-breaking stuff).
September 17, 2009, at 2:09 pm
Great post, Mollie!
September 17, 2009, at 2:15 pm
Mollie and Blestou:
Just using the normal, dictionary entry for “ultra” as in, “going beyond what is usual or ordinary; excessive; extreme.” A quick look at Pastor Giles’s WND columns— like this - seems to confirm the label.
Like these clips about about why Obama sucks and why he’s praying “Dirty Harry Prayer” and buying a hand gun with hollow point bullets.
and
Looking at Dirty Harry as a spiritual guide pretty much means ultra conservative.
September 17, 2009, at 2:17 pm
It’s worth pointing out that the better news reports informed people that those attempting to run the sting tried a number of offices before finding someone that would bite. So the question is more an organizational one for ACORN. Was there one bad egg or is there an institutional issue?
It was also pointed out that for non-law enforcement people to tape someone without their consent is a crime. I’m wondering if police will prosecute those who apparently committed a criminal act.
September 17, 2009, at 2:24 pm
James O’Keefe III may be a Christian as well. Here’s a post of his from Twitter from back on Sep 4 (the Friday before the first ACORN video was released):
“Their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken.”
http://twitter.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/3761202336
The line is from Psalm 37:15.
September 17, 2009, at 2:29 pm
Jerry,
Not quite. ACORN made the claim that the undercover journalists had failed to get offices in San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and Philadelphia on video as breaking the law.
That claim was made before videos were released showing employees at offices in San Diego and New York had given advice to the pimp and prostitute. So “better news reports” shouldn’t be saying what you say they’re saying.
Also, by the second day of the story, it was clear it was not ONE bad egg. Day one was Baltimore, day two was DC, day three was NY, day four was San Bernardino, day five was San Diego.
There may not be more or there may be more.
And, finally, laws governing taping probably vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In Baltimore, the authorities responded to the videos showing ACORN giving advice on how to set up a brothel with underage foreign girls in avoidance of the law by saying they might prosecute the journalists.
September 17, 2009, at 2:35 pm
The US Roman Catholic bishops cut off ACORN completely in the wake of last fall’s election and prior concerns. It did not want to fund a partisan group. Wow! Ahead of the curve on this one. http://www.usccb.org/cchd/morin_acorn_report.shtml
From Nov 08 USCCB report:
.
September 17, 2009, at 2:39 pm
Jerry, they have released not one, but five videos so far, with more apparently still to come. One or two videos could be coincidental “bad eggs.” But it’s statistically unlikely that five diverse locations all have bad eggs without it being an institutional problem.
As for the Maryland law, it’s widely believed to be a 1st amendment violation. (“Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom… of the press.”) Police are allowed to tape without consent, but not regular citizens (in this case, independent journalists)? Puh-leeze.
Yes, please let this go to court so the silly law can get overturned.
September 17, 2009, at 2:41 pm
It’s worth pointing out that the better news reports informed people that those attempting to run the sting tried a number of offices before finding someone that would bite.
I’ve heard that claimed, but not actually backed up. When the first videos were released, Bertha Lewis, Chief Organizer for ACORN said the following: “This recent scam, which was attempted in San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia to name a few places, had failed for months before the results we’ve all recently seen.”
Subsequent videos proved that they had in fact succeeded in NY and San Diego, so I don’t see why we should give this claim any credence. We certainly need stronger proof than ACORN’s word at this point.
Unless there’s some other piece of evidence out there, a news report which simply made that claim is probably not doing their job properly. The right move would be to attribute it to an ACORN officer, without declaring that it is actually true.
September 17, 2009, at 3:54 pm
Mollie, this is just a great job of media analysis. The videos are wonderfully sardonic enough; but your coverage of the MSM’s handling of an, uh, “awkward” story has had me grinning all day. I sent it to our bishops and every church staffer and friend I could think of. Brava.
September 17, 2009, at 4:30 pm
From what I have seen of Giles over the years, he seems to be more over-the-top in his rhetoric, sort of a pastoral Ann Coulter; I recall an essay on the demasculinization of the church that pulled few punches.
His theology might be mainstream evangelical (as you show above), but his praxis is in-your-face.
September 17, 2009, at 4:34 pm
It sounds like I missed some of the news stories based on the info posted here.
September 17, 2009, at 5:58 pm
Jerry,
September 17, 2009, at 6:06 pm
Wha hoppen?
Well, anyway, Jerry, if you’ve been following the MSM it’s not surprising that you’ve “missed” some of the stories. There haven’t been any! At least nothing “in depth” such as might have been given to a Scooter Libby misdemeanor. Charlie Gibson doesn’t know anything? Gimme a break.
September 17, 2009, at 6:41 pm
The mainstream media seems determined to wallow in being a dinosaur in order to protect and promote their favorite liberal politicians and policies.
The Boston Globe (NY Times, Boston version) has been barely covering the scandals being uncovered in the Obama Administration. (Mini-paragraphs on the bottom of a page—when it tells anything) In the meantime Fox and the internet do the work the mainstream media used to brag was their role (keeping government honest and under control).
It is not uncommon to run into liberals hereabouts in the Boston area who are married to the Globe and the MSM who don’t have the foggiest notion about what is being uncovered by real journalists doing their jobs of deep probing. Maybe their being baffled will wake them up to the fact that for decades they got only one side—and still do (the liberal spun side) of most stories and that their liberal attitudes may be the result of falling prey to liberal brainwashing.
It is good to see some young people with religious roots doing the probing for truth—even though the liberal media sneers at and needles those bringing out truth—whether about communist czars in the White House or Acorn promoters of child prostitution and pornography.
September 17, 2009, at 6:55 pm
I used to write about Doug Giles back in 2004; I wondered why I was suddenly getting a spike of hits on the subject.
In short: he’s the brother-in-law of Mell Winger, who was or is a pastor at New Life in Colorado. He started out Pentecostal-Charismatic, and was at one point linked to a South African grouping called “His People”, in turn part of Morning Star International. However, he’s since turned more towards Christian Reconstructionism, in part because he dislikes the “defeatism” of pre-millennialism. He studied at Knox Theological Seminary, and he has links to David Barton and the Chalcedon crowd:
That actually is ultra-conservative, although I doubt the hack would know anything about it. He’s in to a big “masculinity” thing, although he likes women to be tough, too - I recall at one point he said his daughters were learning Karate.
September 18, 2009, at 8:46 am
Apparently, there is a systemic problem in ACORN and has been for some time. Catholic Charities recently disowned them after a financial scandal. Too bad any good the organization has done or might have done is now out the window. Many such organizations are “partisan”—right as well as left—but the best of them at least attempt to keep it, shall we say, lower-key. Any organization that can’t keep their radical rowdies in check—and do basic damage control—deserves its fate.
#18: Just have to point out that, philosophically speaking it is impossible to prove a negative. (“Do you still beat your wife?”) The only independent corroboration so far of the claim that the journalists tried until some “bad apple” was uncovered is the Philadelphia police report. Guess ACORN shoulda had videotapes going in all their offices 24/7.
September 18, 2009, at 8:52 am
Actually, the New Yorker probably thought it was doing these folks a favor using “ultra-conservative” in description. It smacks of “ultra-orthodox” a regularly employed elite euphemism for Jewish fundamentalism. The New Yorker would understand that.
September 18, 2009, at 9:45 am
This morning’s Cleveland Plain Dealer carried a claim by an ACORN spokesperson that the tapes were fraudulent in that the actor’s voices were dubbed later with damning statements that the responding ACORN clerk never heard.
September 18, 2009, at 10:10 am
NPR just aired a report about the House passing a bill pulling funding. Reporter mentioned conservatives have long been skeptical of ACORN. Bipartisan bill passage, but no mention of this undercover sting. Story was painfully lacking context.
September 18, 2009, at 11:26 am
Story was painfully lacking context.
Was it? I heard the same report, which wasn’t very long. I agree that it didn’t mention the undercover stings, which are the cause celebre of the conservatives who have long been skeptical of ACORN. But there is controversy about the stings and to dip into that part of the drama would have required a lot more story than NPR had time to give.
The stings are controversial and inconclusive. The attacks on ACORN are controversial. Support for ACORN is controversial. The fact they have been defunded at this moment is connected to the stings, but it also isn’t that simple. I’m not sure how you tell that story in thirty seconds, but I also wonder whether the defunding story deserves more than 30 second.
September 18, 2009, at 1:26 pm
Apparently this reporter named Fears has a regular issue with injecting politics into his reporting
September 18, 2009, at 1:40 pm
I just left a polite but forceful message with the WaPo general manager asking that the reporter, Darryl Fears be disciplined for this via this link.
I suggest that you click on the link for Goli Sheikholeslami - General Manager.
This kind of despicable excuse for journalism is just not acceptable. Speak out.
September 18, 2009, at 5:16 pm
Anyone else remember the very obvious attire of the “weekend hippies” back in the 1970’s that you could spot a mile away. This young womans “door knocker” earings and huge bracelet reminded me of the old “weekend hippy” accessories. Side splitting funny!
September 18, 2009, at 7:32 pm
I have questions about the police report from the Philly office.
The police report I have seen online does not support ACORN’s claims about them calling the police for what they were doing (prostitution, child trafficking, etc). It simply says the problem was that he ‘caused a verbal disturbance.’
Is this how you would characterize “Asked us to help him cover up a crime?”
The police report names James O’Keefe by name. In the other tapes I have seen, Hannah uses a pseudonym. Did James really use his own name, or does this indicate the police report was filled out, at least partially, after the tapes were released?
Only James is mentioned in the police report- not Hannah.
In the article I have seen, an Acorn spokeswoman does not claim Hannah was with James, she says it was him and ‘another girl’ Does that not indicate that Hannah is telling the truth when she says she wasn’t turned away? Because so far ACORN is claiming ‘dozens of offices’ turned them away and called the cops, but they are only showing us one police report that doesn’t mention Hannah at all.
I also find it interesting that originally ACORN was very specific in their claims:
“This recent scam, which was attempted in San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia to name a few places, had failed for months before the results we’ve all recently seen”
And then we saw the NY and SD tapes, and it appears that the statement has been scrubbed from their website, and they have resorted to the far more vague ‘dozens of offices,’ and they won’t specify which offices.
September 18, 2009, at 9:19 pm
I wonder what the political and religious views of novice screed writer Darryl Fears’ parents are? Although it’s not as though I need that information to know that he’s biased!
September 19, 2009, at 10:04 am
“Ultraconservative”? I dunno what that means, but I’m sure it must be double-plus ungood. Welcome to the Ministry of Truth.
September 19, 2009, at 11:51 am
I’m not familiar with this particular story, but I think the label “ultra” tends to get thrown around too readily in general.
September 19, 2009, at 2:25 pm
Great, evenly-handled job, Mollie.
It’s interesting to see all of the uninformed responses and their “Whoops!” when brought up to date. Just further evidence that te “mainstream media” is irrelevant when it comes to up to date, unbiased reporting. Gibson’s self-professed lack of knowedge as to what’s going on in the news is either:
1. An outright lie, or
2. An admission that he is, in fact, only an on-air news reader and in his personal life he is ignorant of what is occurring in our country and the world.
I’m thinking that Glenn Beck is right in calling NBC, ABC and CBS the “fringe media.”
September 20, 2009, at 9:45 pm
Hmmmmm.
Interesting. A couple points.
1. Obama has a much closer relationship with ACORN, and it’s myriad associations, than has been acknowledged here.
2. Obama represented ACORN in a lawsuit concerning … demands for mortgages for low-income residents in Chicago. Anybody hear about that financial implosion over mortgages given to people who cannot pay them back? Bingo.
3. Obama was also a -trainer- for ACORN in training “community organizers”.
4. In 2008, amongst others, Obama gave a speech to senior ACORN members where he promised them “a seat at the table in his administration”.
Not to pick nits but generally I don’t think Presidents offer that kind of power or access to people that they neither know or have close associations with.
The icing on the cake?
When Michelle Obama was VP of Community Affairs at Chicago Hospital, at $330,000 a year, she and David Axelrod came up with a scheme to ship indigent patients to other local hospitals and clinics so more bed space would be available to wealthier patients.
It’s call “patient dumping”.
So hearing Michele Obama gas on about healthcare issues is rather amusing in a way.
September 20, 2009, at 9:53 pm
Hmmm.
Also people need to understand that ACORN is an umbrella organization that actually is little more than a small part of dozens if not hundreds of other organizations all of whom shift money to one another, request grants from private and public programs and contribute money to candidates. Some of these organizations are ACORN. Some are SEIU, a union of public employees. Some are non-profits.
One cycle that appears to be in place is that a non-profit ACORN member organization will apply for a grant or a program from a federal agency. This ACORN group member will then donate a large amount of money to a non-profit and take a deduction in it’s taxes. The non-profit then shifts money, as a donation or payment, to another ACORN group organization since there are a lot of rules on how non-profits can handle money. This last ACORN group member then donates a portion of the money to various political candidates. Then the political candidates pressure federal agencies to provide even more money to ACORN affiliates.
And for those who wish to argue that this cannot happen then please explain why there are provisions in the “stimulus package” that would allow ACORN, just ACORN alone amongst all of the other affiliated organizations, access to $7.5 Billion dollars?
And again that doesn’t include any additional funds that might be accessible by ACORN affiliates that are supposedly independent charities, funds, organizations and corporations. All of whom, amazingly enough, all share the same address and phone number.