What is making the right-wing mouthpieces angry today? It is the fact that the
Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)'s website was blocked on some military bases.
The Tennesseean:
The website for the Southern Baptist Convention has been blocked from some US Army computers.
That's caused some conservative activists to accuse the Pentagon of being hostile to religion.
Ties between conservative evangelicals and the military have been strong in the past. But the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and other recent incidents have strained those ties.
A Southern Baptist spokesman said that he spoke to Army officials who confirmed that some computers have blocked access to SBC.Net
Those officials say the problem is a glitch, said Roger "Sing" Oldham, convention spokesman.
Even SBC spokesman Sing Oldham admits the the site's blocking as accidental, but according to the conservative minsinformation chamber, the incident was viewed as "sinister," "anti-Christian," and even "pandering to Islamists."
Right-Wing Reactions:
Todd Starnes, Fixed Noise Radio:
The U.S. Military has blocked access to the Southern Baptist Convention’s website on an unknown number of military bases because it contains “hostile content” — just weeks after an Army briefing labeled Evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics as examples of religious extremism, Fox News has learned.
The censorship was made public after an Army officer tried to log onto the denomination’s website and instead — received a warning message.
“The site you have requested has been blocked by Team CONUS (C-TNOSC/RCERT-CONUS) due to hostile content,” the message read.
Team CONUS protects the computer network of the Dept. of Defense. The SBC’s website was not blocked at the Pentagon.
It’s unclear what the “hostile content” might have been. The SBC is pro-life and opposed to same-sex marriage.
Bryan Fischer, host of AFA Radio's Focal Point:
Bryan Fischer has produced the latest anti-Christian conspiracy theory and of course rather than do any research, rather than do anything as simple as picking up the phone or sending an email, he’s decided to go on the air to tell his million or so listeners about this latest “attack” on their religious rights by their government.
In this video, below, Fischer explains that he has “breaking news,” that the U.S. government is blocking access from military or government personnel to the Southern Baptist Convention’s homepage. The SBC is the nation’s second-largest Christian group, after Roman Catholics, and they boast about 16 million members, or about five percent of the nation’s population.
By the end of the video clip, Fischer has convinced himself that this seems like a vast government conspiracy to label the Southern Baptist Convention a “hate group,” making the giant leap from “hostile content” to “hate group.”
“Basically, the U.S. military has classified the Southern Baptist Convention as a hate group — the entire denomination,” Fischer repeatedly cries, adding, “it’s like porn.”
Lucianne Goldberg, founder of Lucianne.com:
Was access to Islamic radical websites also blocked? I would sure be more concerned about that! The DOD is working diligently to investigate what might be causing access issues. Uh huh.
AFA Action Alert:
This is just another example of the Christian faith coming under attack in the military. Earlier this month, an Army email listed prominent Christian ministries like the Family Research Council and American Family Association as "domestic hate groups."
FreeRepublic:
Here are some of the more out there comments on that site:
Actually, it seems that some U.S. Army officers are hostile to the Southern Baptist Convention. - righttackle44
Muslims good, Christians bad. - E. Pluribus Unum
Military chaplains and bibles in the foxhole have a long history. Now because sodomites are celebrated by a corrupt culture, sin has been redefined by the government. That is still prohibited by the First Amendment. - a fool in paradise
but not a negative word about Islam.
Time for Christians and conservatives to not join the military and to advise their relatives not to. - GeronL
They’re getting this information from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). A very far Left Wing outfit that labels any and everything conservative a hate group. The SPLC is now a traning contractor for the US government.
Originally hired by “Big Sis” Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security, who claimed military veterans were potential terrorists deemed watching by DHS, the SPLC is now training the entire FedGov.
Write your Congressman! The SPLC contract HAS TO GO! - Alas Babylon!
The comments on that page are what you would expect-- blaming it on Muslims, gays, liberals, Obama, et al.
Ken Kluklowski at Breitbart.com's Big Government:
Lt. Col. Damien Pickart insists the Pentagon is not intentionally blocking access for Southern Baptists but has not provided any official explanation for the multiple reports of the military blocking access to Southern Baptist material. On its face, this looks like a brazen show of hostility by the Obama administration against devout Christians in the U.S. military.
Breitbart News legal columnist Ken Klukowski is senior fellow for religious liberty at the Family Research Council.
Today on AFR's
Focal Point, Bryan Fischer hosted Todd Starnes on this topic. As expected, it's full of complaining that "Muslims have more rights than [Conservative] Christians in this country" crap.
The right will continue to declare this an "intentional sabotage of our Christian freedoms," but the fact is this: the Southern Baptist Convention's website getting blocked is more likely to be a glitch. Flip the story for a second: If it was Planned Parenthood, Media Matters, Alternet, pro-LGBTQ sites, or this very site getting blocked on the bases, the right would cheer it.
UPDATE (2:30PM CDT, 04.26.2013):
Just like I guessed it yesterday on here, I knew it was a glitch, not "anti-Christian bias."
Right Wing Watch:
SBC.net was in fact blocked, but not as a result of anti-Christian bias, but because of malware on the SBC’s website.
Don’t just take our word for it, the Baptist Press, the news arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, reported that “the military's software filters detected malware at SBC.net and blocked the website.” Due to malware, not the content of the website, SBC.net was considered “hostile content.”
That won't stop the charlatans from bleating out the falsehood that the site was blocked due to "anti-Christian" bias.