Mission: America is an American

Christian right The Christian right are Christian political factions characterized by their strong support of socially conservative and traditionalist policies. Christian conservatives seek to influence politics and public policy with their interpretation ...

organization based in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

and founded in 1995 that seeks to "cover the latest cultural and social trends in our country and what they might mean for Christians." The organization publishes articles on its web site about its views on

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...

and

paganism Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the ...

. Mission: America's founder and president, Linda Harvey, is an outspoken critic of

LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, Gay men, gay, Bisexuality, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the Capital punishmen ...

, including

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

. The

Southern Poverty Law Center The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white ...

designated Mission: America as an active anti-gay

hate group A hate group is a social group that advocates and practices hatred, hostility, or violence towards members of a race, ethnicity, nation, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other designated sector of society. Acc ...

in March 2012 based on its particular anti-LGBT rights stances.

History

According to founder Linda Harvey, Mission: America was founded with the objective of equipping "Christians with current, accurate information about cultural issues such as

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

, homosexuality, education and

New Age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...

influences." Harvey is a radio talk show host on

WRFD WRFD (880 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to both Columbus and Worthington, Ohio. It is owned by the Salem Media Group and broadcasts a Christian talk and teaching radio format. WRFD and sister station WTOH (98.9 FM) share ...

in Columbus, and also writes commentary for

WorldNetDaily WND (formerly WorldNetDaily) is an Radical right (United States), American far-right news and opinion website. It is known for promoting fake news and conspiracy theories, including the false claim that former President Barack Obama Barack Obama ...

. In January 2008, she authored ''Not My Child; Contemporary Paganism & New Spirituality''. The book discusses the author's view that "casual

occultism The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mystic ...

permeates youth culture" and suggests tips for parents as well as classroom lessons. The group's "School Risk Audit" program was conducted jointly by Mission America, the

American Family Association The American Family Association (AFA) is a conservative and Christian fundamentalist 501(c)(3) organization based in the United States.Concerned Women for America Concerned Women for America (CWA) is a socially conservative, evangelical Christian non-profit women's legislative action committee in the United States. Headquartered in Washington D.C., the CWA is involved in social and political movements ...

, the

Family Research Council The Family Research Council (FRC) is an American evangelical 501(c)(3) non-profit activist group and think-tank with an affiliated lobbying organization. FRC promotes what it considers to be family values. It opposes and lobbies against access ...

, and other groups. It was launched in April 2006. Its stated purpose is to assess what it sees as schools' promotion of homosexuality such as anti-

bullying Bullying is the use of force, coercion, Suffering, hurtful teasing, comments, or threats, in order to abuse, aggression, aggressively wikt:domination, dominate, or intimidate one or more others. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. On ...

programs that include acceptance of different

sexual orientations Sexual orientation is an enduring personal pattern of romantic attraction or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. Patterns are ...

, and non-discrimination policies that include sexual orientation. The plan has received support from Exodus Mandate, an

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

Christian group supporting

home-schooling Homeschooling or home schooling (American English), also known as home education or elective home education (EHE) (British English), is the education of school-aged children at home or a variety of places other than a school. Usually conducted ...

. In March 2012, the

designated Mission America as an active anti-gay hate group. The group has denied this characterization. Mission America had previously launched a campaign to get the website "Prop 8 Maps" listed by the SPLC as a hate group.

Positions

According to Mission America, the organization promotes "Biblical morality", though e-mail, videos and its website, seeking to reach American Christians. A major issue for the organization is what they refer to as the "burgeoning and increasingly fascist 'gay rights' movement".

Literary views

Harvey criticized author Alex Sanchez' novel '' Rainbow Boys'' in her 2002 essay "The World According to

PFLAG Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) is an LGBTQ advocacy organization founded and led by friends and family of LGBTQ people. PFLAG is a national organization presiding over decentralized local and regional chapters. PFLAG has nearly ...

: Why PFLAG and Children Don't Mix Unless You Happen to Like Child Abuse".

LGBT rights

In March 2018, Harvey says homosexuality is God's punishment for abortion. In speaking against the Equality Act in December 2015, Harvey said that endorsing LGBT equality measures is "the least compassionate, the meanest and most hateful thing you can do" because it will cause more people to think it's okay to be LGBT. In 2011, Harvey said that gay rights advocates were "masters of demonic manipulation" while speaking as a guest on Peter LaBarbera's radio program. She has also referred to the ''

It Gets Better It or IT may refer to: * It (pronoun), in English * Information technology Arts and media Film and television * ''It'' (1927 film), a film starring Clara Bow * '' It! The Terror from Beyond Space'', a 1958 science fiction film * ''It!'' (1967 ...

'' video project as "wrong, it's evil, it's dark". In that same broadcast, she referred to LaBarbera as her "good friend". LaBarbera heads the organization Americans for Truth about Homosexuality. Harvey opposes efforts to decriminalize homosexuality in Jamaica, promoting a petition that declares Caribbean societies are "under attack" from gay rights supporters. She describes LGBT anti-discrimination orders as "anti-Christian gag orders" whose goal is to "criminalize speech and Christian faith." In August 2011, Harvey stated on her weekend radio show that "There is no proof that there's ever anything like a gay,

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

ed child, or teen or human," and that openly gay people should not be allowed to teach in public schools.

References

External links