Far-right religious group behind outrageous health care lies

[Are_grits_groceries]

When reporters asked former Alaska Gov. and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin where she got the misinformation she posted to her Facebook page about the health care reform bill creating a "death panel" to promote euthanizing the elderly and people with disabilities, her spokesperson pointed to the section in the House Democrats' legislation that begins on page 425.

If Palin or her staff had actually read the bill, they would have realized this section simply promotes advance care planning, which in fact puts the power to make decisions about end-of-life care in the hands of individuals -- not government panels.

So where did Palin get that bad information? It appears she pulled it from a set of talking points that has been making its way around the internet in recent weeks -- talking points assembled by the Liberty Counsel, a far-right religious group that's part of Jerry Falwell's Liberty University empire based in Lynchburg, Va.

Founded in 1989, the Liberty Counsel is a nonprofit law firm and public policy organization with offices in Florida, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Its founder and chairman is Mathew D. Staver (in photo), who also serves as the dean of Liberty University School of Law, and its president is Staver's wife, attorney Anita L. Staver. Before becoming a lawyer, Mathew Staver was a pastor in the Seventh Day Adventist Church, a conservative Protestant sect that believes in the infallibility of the Bible.

Liberty Counsel established its reputation with lawsuits successfully challenging the division of church and state and became affiliated with Liberty University/Falwell Ministries in 2004. Before he died in 2007, Falwell said that he could "think of no greater work being done right now in America for the sake of our religious freedom and Christian heritage than that being done by Liberty Counsel."

http://www.southernstudies.org/2009/08/the-far-right-religious-group-behind-the-outrageous-health-care-reform-lies.html

Oh pleeeeeease, Rapture them away!!!

[mike_c]

1. the inmates are running the asylum....

Or at least trying to. Sheesh.

[sakabatou]

2. Not surprising

[vicman]

3. The rapture can't come too soon...

then those of us left might be able to take the first real steps to Peace on Earth and goodwill toward men.

[Blue For You]

4. Lying religionists are as old as the bible. Nothing new there.

Sounds like the "liberty counsel" has taken liberties with the truth as well.

[MarthaM]

5. So did they scratch the 8th commandment out of their bibles?

Or maybe they just ripped that page out. Some of them have problems with other stuff on that list Thou Shalt Nots...

[n2doc]

7. Seems like they take the commandments as a "to do" list

Covet- check
Adultery - check
Steal - Check
Worship other gods ($$$, Reagan) - Check...

[DCKit]

12. But nowhere else is 10% a passing grade, except with the fundamentalists.

"But St. Peter, I never KILLED anyone."

[surrealAmerican]

14. They're too busy trying to post the commandments in public places ...

... to actually READ them.

Welcome to DU.

[EC]

6. Why can't these preachers led their faithful to their

promised land like in the olden days...away from sane people where they can sit and wait for their rapture?

[Joanne98]

8. Jerry Falwell may he rot in Hell

[PassingFair]

9. The same people who told them that the ERA would require...

that ALL women HAVE to work, and
that their BIBLES would be taken
away from them.

I spit on them.

I really do.

[surrealAmerican]

15. You forgot the unisex public toilets.

[BolivarianHero]

10. Rapturists hate two things: Healthcare and education...

People take longer to get to Heaven that way.

Remember that it was Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition that led the charge against modernizing Alabama's tax system (a plan, incidentally, that had been proposed by moderate-ish Republican governor Bob Riley) so that the rich pay their fair share (rather than having working class people fund the state with taxes on food and medicine) and so that education would be adequately funded, much to the chagrin of the home school lobby and the right-wing fundie private schools.

As a result of that effort, the referendum had failed.

[LiberalAndProud]

11. "Oh pleeeeeease, Rapture them away!!!" -- I know! right?

The rest of us could pitch in together and (gasp!) we might even pay some taxes -- to take care of one another.

Please, let the "Alive in Christ"(tm) go.

[TheKentuckian]

13. When Rapture time comes, all of these evil fucks will be right here.

[kevinbgoode]

16. We should propose an amendment to any health care reform

that requires these con-artists to seek "faith healing" via Pat Robertson's call-in miracle prayer scheme and/or Benny Hinn's circus before accessing health care. That will respect their right to "worship" while cutting down on the lines they claim we'll have with national health care.

It would be worth it just to see the look on their faces when they have to use the same services they've been scamming the public with all these years.

[Gabi Hayes]

17. CNN just ran a story on Palin/death panels, and do you think they mentioned

the provenance of this catchy saying?

[redqueen]

18. Well color me shocked. (nt)

[struggle4progress]

19. Liberty Counsel president .. asserted Florida mayor .. hostile to Christianity because he was Jewish

Liberty Counsel president Mat Staver baselessly asserted Florida mayor was hostile to Christianity because he was Jewish
December 17, 2004 12:22 pm ET

On FOX News Live December 16, Liberty Counsel president and general counsel Mathew D. Staver claimed that a former Florida mayor was hostile to Christianity because he was "apparently Jewish" ... http://mediamatters.org/research/200412170004

[struggle4progress]

20. Liberty Counsel tries to SLAPP Americans United (June 2009)

By Christian Dem in NC
Fri Jun 05, 2009 at 04:03:18 PM EST

Liberty Counsel is asking the IRS to investigate Americans United's tax-exempt status. This comes only days after AU asked the IRS to investigate Liberty's tax-exempt status for withdrawing recognition from its College Democrats chapter while allowing the College Republicans to continue to exist ... http://www.talk2action.org/story/2009/6/5/16318/46409

[struggle4progress]

21. Liberty Counsel is anti-family (August 2009)

Mike Thomas
COMMENTARY
August 2, 2009

... John, 4, wore filthy clothes, suffered from a severe case of ringworm and was all but comatose, responding only to his 4-month-old brother, James. He had become James' main caregiver, feeding him and changing his diaper as his parents huffed their drugs.

John shunned affection. He grunted instead of talked. He hoarded food because in the world he came from, it was not a commodity to take for granted.

James was so young, he healed quickly. But it took Gill and his partner, Tom Roe, two years of relentless compassion to reach John. And now both brothers are thriving. They have friends, a school, a safe neighborhood, loving parents and, most of all, structure.

Gill saved their lives ...

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-locorl-mike-thomas-gay-adoption080209aug02,0,1068230.column

[struggle4progress]

22. Thou "Shall" Not Lie (August 2009)

By Kyle | August 12, 2009 - 3:26pm

Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel ... is correct that the term "shall" does appear in this paragraph, but the "shall" obviously refers what "shall" be covered by any such consultations - it does not mandate that anyone "shall" participate in such consultations. In short, nobody is required to take advantage of "advance care planning consultations," but if they do, among the things covered will be "end-of-life services and supports available, including palliative care and hospice."

That seems pretty straight-forward, but in case Barber is still confused, consider this: this new paragraph is added to the end of "Section s" of the existing Social Security law covering “medical and other health services.”

Among the services already provided under the existing law are things like "certified nurse-midwife services," "qualified psychologist services," "prostate cancer screening tests," "colorectal cancer screening tests," and "screening for glaucoma," among dozens of others services.

By the Right's logic, these sorts of things must also be mandatory right now ... but amazingly, I haven't heard of elderly people forced by government bureaucrats to receive "colorectal cancer screening tests" against their will, have you? ...

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/thou-shall-not-lie

[Bluerthanblue]

23. thank you so much for posting this- it has given me

some very good insight into the garbage being spread by a "friend" of our family.
And some excellent points for rebuttal
:hi:

[Wednesdays]

24. K&R

:kick: