The Alliance for Defending Freedom (ADF) organization became the latest victim of AmazonSmile’s crackdown against hate groups, according to a recent report by Christian Headlines and the Federalist.
The victimization occurred once they were labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), resulting in their removal from the list of organizations able to utilize AmazonSmile for fund raising purposes.
AmazonSmile is a website owned and operated by Amazon, featuring the same prices, products and features of traditional Amazon.com. AmazonSmile foundation will donate approximately 0.5% of the purchase price to certain charitable organizations. These organizations are vetted by Amazon through other organizations to ensure they are worthy of donations and are not what would be considered a “hate group.”
According to SPLC, the organization Alliance for Defending Freedom should be considered a hate group due to “their propagation of known falsehoods about LGBT people over the years, its demonization of LGBT people, its support of criminalization of gay sex in the U.S. and abroad and its continued attempt to create state and local policies and legislation that allow Christians to deny goods and services to LGBT people in the public sphere and marginalize LGBT students in schools.”
The organization began in 1994 with a passion to protect pro-life and religious freedom causes, such as protecting the family and marriage. It is currently representing Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cake Shop in the Supreme Court. Their representation is needed to help Phillips fight for his right to refuse a specific service to a homosexual couple.
“We don’t have to agree on questions of sexual morality,” Phillips told USA Today. “But what we should be able to agree on is our freedom, to live our out our most important ideals.”
In addition to this historic and significant case, the ADF organization has played a role in winning 52 cases on the Supreme Court level. Consequently, this nonprofit legal organization most certainly serves a vital role for those with more conservative views. This support will no longer come in the form of AmazonSmile, though.
Although there is little that can actually be done by the organization to protest their removal from the AmazonSmile program, ADF President Michael Ferris did protest the decision made by Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to add ADF to their list of hate groups, which ultimately caused their removal from AmazonSmile.
“Although the SPLC did good work many years ago, it has developed into a far-left propaganda machine that slanders organizations with which it disagrees and destroys the possibility of civil discourse in the process. Once the SPLC identifies an ideological opponent, its goal is to ruin them,” he told Amazon in a letter.
Ferris offered to work with Amazon in an effort to establish better guidelines, ensuring faith-based organizations that are legitimate in nature would no longer be excluded.
The term “hate group” is defined by Southern Poverty Law Center as being “an organization that vilifies others because of their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identify.” While it’s a stretch to place the American for Defense Freedom under this classification, it seems reasonable to classify an organization that regularly promotes and propagates the killing of innocent babies like Planned Parenthood as such a group. This organization; however, is one that is still firmly placed on AmazonSmile’s list of reputable organizations that are worthy of donations.
Suffice it to say that the SPLC’s interpretation of their own definition leaves a lot to be desired, and Amazon might do better making their own decisions on the organizations to include in their AmazonSmile program.
~ 1776 Christian
