Faith in America's Call to Courage campaign

defending the First Amendment against the Christian right ...

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National campaign challenging religion-based bigotry against gays starts in Iowa

Faith In America "Call to Courage" campaign using ads, mail and house visits to educate against discrimination

by JewsOnFirst.org, May 8, 2007

Faith In America has launched a five-city campaign to challenge religion-based bigotry against LGBT people, according to the organization's leaders who announced the campaign with a telephone news conference on May 3rd.

The cities are: Ames, Iowa; Reno; Greenville, South Carolina; Manchester, New Hampshire; and Colorado Springs. The first four are in states with early presidential primaries.

Faith In America is a civil rights organization focusing on ending religious discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

As in previous campaigns (here, and here), Faith In America is using arresting advertisements that clearly talk to average people who might absorb anti-gay propaganda at church or in the media. "Don't accept bigotry disguised as religious truth," exhorts one.

FIA founder Mitchell Gold said the organization "is educating Americans....be they fundamentalist or simply apathetic.....that using their....and I underline the word ‘their’....Biblical interpretations to justify legalized discrimination or lack of protections for any American is just plain wrong. History has clearly shown this. Today the loudest voices against full and equal rights for gay Americans use their Biblical interpretations."

There are links to the advertisements, opening statements from the news conference and news clips below.

According to FIA Executive Director Rev Jimmy Creech, the earlier campaigns showed:

...the power of the message of the history of religion-based discrimination. We learned that when people understand that throughout history, religion has been misused to justify slavery, to justify racial injustice and segregation, to justify the denial of women their right to vote, to justify laws that made interracial marriage illegal. We’ve seen how when people understand how religion has been misused in this way to form public policy to create cultural and social attitudes that stigmatize people, they begin to understand what is happening today against lesbian, gay, and transgender people in a new way. They begin to understand religion-based bigotry.

The campaign that kicked off in Ames on Sunday will use direct mail in addition to advertising, plus canvassing in neighborhoods, leading up to a "town hall meeting," according to FIA officials.

Creech said that the campaigns are timed to coincide with the primaries because "we want to create a public discussion about religion-based discrimination so that the candidates will have to be engaged about the question of how religion and policy should be kept separate."

During the news conference, a representative of Focus on the Family's news operation stated: "Your reading of scripture is by far in the minority." FIA founder Mitchell Gold replied that in the past, similar "majority" interpretations had justified discrimination. "This is no different than arguments against women having the right to vote" or in favor of slavery, Gold said.

He added: "Focus on the Family and [its leader] James Dobson have been primary leaders in attacks demeaning the humanity" of gays and lesbians.

However, Gold said that Faith in America would take on Focus on the Family and all the other organizations damaging LGBT families. However, he said, "Faith in America is not looking to have a fight. We really want to give an opportunity to people to talk about it." He noted that Jerry Falwell and George Wallace, the arch-segregationist governor of Alabama, ultimately had to change their positions on racism.

Faith In America Call to Courage advertisements

Please click here for a PDF file containing all the advertisements in the Call to Courage campaign. You can also find the ads on the Faith In America Website, half-way down this page.

Faith In America Call to Courage campaign annoucement statements

These statements were made during the May 3rd campaign kick-off telephone news conference. Please Continue. (a PDF file).

Furniture CEO Brings Gay-Rights Fight Into America’s Living Room

Jim Baxter, Forward, May 11, 2007

As the CEO of a furniture company in North Carolina that boasts annual sales of more than $100 million, Mitchell Gold knows a thing or two about making customers feel comfortable. These days, however, he is working to unsettle people.

Gold, in addition to his day job, is the founder and primary funder of Faith in America, an organization that seeks to “educate Americans about the misuse of religious teachings to discriminate and isolate gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.” This week, the organization launched a multi-city campaign aimed at people who live in the early presidential primary and caucus states. Continue.

National gay-rights campaign kicks off in Ames

Shirley Ragsdale, The Des Moines Register, May 6, 2007

A North Carolina group dedicated to gaining equal rights for gays and lesbians has chosen Ames to launch a nationwide grass-roots campaign it hopes will counter efforts of religious conservatives during the 2008 presidential election.

Faith in America's "Call to Courage" campaign is intended to educate the public about misuse of religious teachings against homosexuality and raise awareness of historical precedents of religion-based bigotry.

"For the last six years, fundamentalist Christians have attacked the gay community through the Republican Party, and the Democrats have not done such a great job defending my rights" said Mitchell Gold, a furniture manufacturer and gay man who is bankrolling the campaign. "Today, the loudest voices against full and equal rights for gay Americans use their biblical interpretations to justify legalized discrimination. Enough is enough." Continue.

Gay rights group to launch national campaign in Ames

By O.Kay Henderson, Radio Iowa, May 3, 2007

A group called "Faith in America" will hold a public meeting in Ames later this month as part of its national campaign to counter religious leaders that call homosexuality a sin.

Jimmy Creech, executive director of the group, was a Methodist minister for 29 years. "It is really an offense against religion to misuse it in the name of bigotry and fear and ignorance," Creech says. Continue.

Campaign Targets 'Religion-Based Bigotry Against Gay People'

By Randy Hall, CNSNews.com, May 4, 2007

(CNSNews.com) - A homosexual advocacy group announced on Thursday that it is launching a five-city, six-month "Call to Courage" tour to "educate Americans about the misuse of religious teachings to discriminate and isolate gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people."

However, a conservative Christian leader told Cybercast News Service that the group was replacing one kind of bigotry with another -- and "unfortunately, it's against Almighty God."

"We're asking Americans to be courageous and to join us in a stand against discrimination in all forms," said Mitchell Gold, founder of the organization Faith in America, during a telephone news conference on Thursday. Continue.