Morning Briefing: Franklin Graham Offers 'Spiritual Support' for 'Wicked' and 'Evil' Community
Franklin Graham, who has characterized the LGBTIQ community as "wicked" and "evil," directed his organization to provide "spiritual support" for victims of Club Q mass shooting in Colorado Springs.
Morning Briefing: Franklin Graham, the right-wing fundamentalist Christian leader, said in a statement on Facebook that the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains traveled to Colorado Springs in the wake of the Club Q mass shooting to offer “emotional and spiritual support to this hurting community.”
Graham has repeatedly made anti-LGBTIQ statements, and “for members of the LGBTQ community and their allies, this was a disturbing vision of someone who incites violence pretending to engage in ministry after such a violent act.”
The first member of Patriot Front, the neo-fascist White Supremacist group, was sentenced to two-year unsupervised probation and a $500 fine “for disturbing the peace in connection with his role in the hate group’s plan to disrupt a Pride celebration in Coeur d’Alene this past summer.”
Christopher Brown, one of two men arrested and charged for an alleged mass shooting plot that targeted a New York City synagogue, “has been connected to Twitter accounts with a long history of neo-Nazi activity and making threats.”
Far right White Supremacists violent extremists “driven by a belief in the superiority of the white race continue to pose the primary threat among [domestic violent extremists] of committing lethal violence against civilians, based on their ideology and attack history,” according to the FBI’s annual Strategic Intelligence Assessment and Data on Domestic Terrorism.
Extremists Activity:
A local chapter of the Proud Boys, the far right violent extremists street gang, “plans to disrupt a Dec. 3 drag story event in Columbus, Ohio.” Propaganda from Patriot Front was reportedly found on the campus of Texas Tech University. Propaganda distrusted by White Lives Matter, the far right White Nationalists group, was identified in Lynchburg, Virginia and Southbury, Connecticut.
This Week in Extremism: Far Right Extremist Rhetoric & Deadly Violence ― Guest speakers include Chrissy Stroop, Parker Molloy, and Moira Donegan. Join the discussion Friday, December 2nd at 12:00pm EST (11:00am CST / 9:00am PST).
Must Reads
Natasha Lennard writes that “for as long as marginalized and minority communities have been threatened and imperiled by armed white supremacists and fascists — a violence foundational to this country — they have been condemned for taking up arms in self-defense. It is a profound mischaracterization of the history and principles of armed community defense to suggest that armed antifascists and anti-racists are engaged in escalatory political violence that is worthy of the same condemnation as the fascists they confront. Oppressed groups and their allies have time and again seen guns as necessary defensive tools.” [The Intercept]
Will Sommer writes that “believers in the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory are always on the hunt for the powerful pedophiles they imagine run the world—like the cabal of pedophiles they say controls the Democratic Party, or the one operating out of the imagined basement of a Washington pizzeria. But now, new court records reveal that QAnon leader Phil Godlewski has a criminal past of his own involving an inappropriate relationship with a minor that police records suggest turned sexual. Thanks to an ill-conceived defamation lawsuit against a local newspaper, Godlewski has put his conspiracy-theory career at risk by inadvertently prompting the release of more details regarding his case, including lurid text messages and a video of his erect penis.” [The Daily Beast]
Tom Nichols writes that “over the past week, the global right has shown signs of trying to regroup after taking a hiding everywhere from the ballot box to the battlefield. Some of it seems little more than disorganized thrashing about, such as Jair Bolsonaro’s election challenge in Brazil and Kari Lake’s refusal to concede in Arizona. Donald Trump, meanwhile, is trying out a bolder version of his 2016 and 2020 race-baiting strategies by hosting a dinner for an anti-Semite and a racist—a pathetic and vulgar event that in a better political environment would be treated as yet another disqualification for participation in our public life.” [The Atlantic]
What to expect from Radical Reports: Morning Briefing provides a daily round-up of reporting on the Radical Right; Extremist Links offers a weekly round-up of extremists activities including the white supremacist and militia movements; Narratives of the Right delivers weekly analysis of the current narratives in far right online spaces and promoted by right-wing media; and Research Desk provides monthly highlights research and analysis from academia on the Radical Right.