Guest Column: Stanley Campbell’s comments about Tea Party inflammatory
Editor’s note: The following guest column is in response to Stanley Campbell’s Dec. 14-20 Left Justified column “Rockford gets two congressmen.” Stanley Campbell is not an ordained minister and has never claimed to be one. However, he has served as a guest preacher at some United Methodist churches on occasion.
By David Hale
Coordinator, Rockford Tea Party
I have to hand it to Mr. Campbell, who is the minister-in-chief at the nonprofit 501(c)(3) Rockford Urban Ministries here locally. He has no fear of losing his independent voice, as one can see from this lopsided letter and castigation of anything conservative.
It always amazed me how left-wingers can get away with such politically inflammatory, abusive language and never fret over their 501(c)(3) status. Mr. Campbell delights in his progressive street cred and support of the Democrat Party, which is the entity responsible for single-handedly approving the extermination of 60 million children in the womb via abortion. Yet, he calls himself a Christian minister of the gospel.
It may be more of an indictment on those so-called right-wing conservative ministers who have a terrifying fear of losing their tax-exempt status who keep their mouths closed and remain cloistered in their church silos muttering, “Make the bad things go away,” and “Jesus saves,” while the likes of Mr. Campbell run around railing against their meek requests for a chance to even mumble a hushed and all-inclusive prayer at a pre-schooler breakfast.
The Campbells of the world have used the jaws of life to extract God from culture, and our so-called Evangelical Christians have watched the extrication silently.
Those so-called conservative ministers who would prayer torture people keep a tight lid on things, never straying from the reservation when it comes to standing up, whereas Campbell has no qualms about sticking it to anyone who so much as peeps anything conservative or Godlike in public.
Campbell’s use of the derogatory, homoerotically, sexually-charged term “Tea Bagger” to describe those in the Tea Party says more about whatever ministry credentials he may hold in the Methodist Church or whatever denomination it is that would ordain a man that refers to human beings as Tea Baggers as opposed to, say, fellow citizens, or errr … human beings. Eee gads. Tea Baggers are human beings? Oh, OK.
I will hand it to Campbell, who has attended a number of Occupy events and back-slapped with the best of them, while cat-calling anyone in the Tea Party who respectfully and in polite tones has merely asked for government to stop abusing taxpayers. Anathema to Campbell and his crowd of culture warriors on the left. Campbell’s public, overt, shameless disdain for conservatives and “Tea Baggers” is almost admirable in its brazenness and fearlessness of a backlash and utter lack of concern with losing that 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. The operative word there is almost, because in this day and age, it is laudable for those in the popular culture such as Mr. Campbell, who in his off time attends various soirees with the elites of Rockford’s left-wing political class, finds himself a celebrity of sorts for standing up to, uh, let’s see, the Grand Old Tea Party.
It’s easy to join the pack, Stanley, when “pack” is a pack and growing. I have seen packs of teens, and mobs of mobs, beating one person mercilessly, and none of them probably even knows why they were doing it. They were just doing it because it felt good to join the rest of the mob to beat someone down. Well, Stanley, welcome to your mob. You’ve made your denomination proud with your version of social justice and Christian charity. I’m thinking the mobs of people who partake with Campbell in their café society will not object.
From the Dec. 21-27, 2011, issue
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10 Comments
Facts are missing, but anger isn’t in this letter. Please tell me where it is Democrats single handedly causing 60 million children to be aborted.
If people want to be taken seriously, they need to express themselves with facts and in a manner that people can respect.
correct, susan. they must also express themselves sensibly. it wouldn’t hurt to proofread either.
The Democrat Party is the party of Abortion. It is well known and indisputable. If the Democrat party had not been the champion of Abortion with the Likes of Barbara Boxer and Nancy Pelosi in the lead a more reasonable response could be crafted through a national conversation on how to deal with unwanted pregnancy. However with the Democrats and left wing culture warriors in charge that won’t be possible. children will continue to be murdered in the womb per Democrat Part Official Platform Policy.
Thank you David Hale for writing this.
Mr. Campbell who claims to be a minister has never defended the thousands of unborn children who have been murdered in Rockford.
The Tea Party clearly has a lot of good ideas. The occupy folks have some good ideas also. In the end it comes down to doing what is best for all people.
David Hale has always shown a willingness to listen and treat people with respect. Mr. Campbell is a man who smears first and doesn’t even ask questions later.
By the way; Dave (the Dave who responded to Susan), when you claim someone needs to proof read what they have written it is a good idea to capitalize the first word of your sentence, and the first letter in your own name- just a thought.
Thank-you ,David Hale. I pray that the Church will awaken and, not just sing a little louder while our freedoms disappear.
I personally am opposed to abortion. But I also think life continues after birth. I am not trying to be offensive, I am trying to understand why the Tea Party members are so opposed to social programs that preserve life. For example medical programs, food programs. Thanks.
Hey Susan I certainly appreciate the concern however the concern is certainly misperception more than it is founded complaint. We do not oppose those things that are helping people. We do oppose those things that are wasteful, fraudulent, abusive of Taxpayers and the hard earned money they plunk down in the various forms of taxation that have been vitiated upon the American people. We also have legitimate disagreements on how these things can be best accomplished and unfortunately in today’s current political climate disagreeing with your particular interpretation of how those things should be accomplished is equated with the very purposefully applied misperceptions that you articulate.
Its why we have discovered many people think we are talking over each other instead of too each other. Its very easy to blame and throw out invective to score political points. Not saying you are doing so but it is norm in our win at all costs culture. We should be able to have legitimate differences of opinion, especially after having seen for decades what doesn’t change and what doesn’t work when trying the same strategies over and over to wipe out the social problems that plague us. Its also very much a reason why fiscal issues cannot be completely removed from social issues.
If you wanted a legitimate and reasonable discussion of these issues I would be more than happy to meet with you and have that discussion.
I’d say conservatives are responsible for their fair share of abortions, since they do their best to limit access to contraceptives and responsible sex education. I also wonder how many fundamentalist Christians have “murdered” their own grandchildren by terrifying their daughters into getting an abortion rather than having to tell their Christian parents that they got pregnant outside of marriage and dishonoring their family? And preaching an abstinence-only viewpoint of sexual health is an idealistic joke.
Here are some concrete steps to reduce the number of abortions in the United States, effective today.
1. Tell your teenagers verbatim: “Pulling out doesn’t work.” Too squeamish? Well now you’re a mass murderer by association.
2. Your Christian daughter, the apple of your eye, the good girl who never ever would do bad things with a boy? Put her on the pill. Because dad, when you were my age you would’ve been trying to get all up in her business. Even meek little Christian boys wanna get buck, they just bottle up the sexual tension until it explodes in a fiery inferno of lust.
3. If you send your teens to a private religious school, ask them if any of their classmates got pregnant and were expelled from that school, and if they tell you that has occurred, boycott that school until a new rule is in place. It sounds shamefully hypocritical, but I personally know that school administrators have done this. Seems like making people choose between having their baby or having a better education might lead to some abortions, no?
If you really believe that every fetus being aborted is a unique individual life that ought to be protected, you should have the moral courage to examine how fundamentalist culture encourages abortion. You can wash your hands and claim that the factors I’ve listed are not causal, but in a battle where (as you believe) every single life counts and should for fought for, can you really stand with integrity if you do that?
Abortion is a distasteful and unnatural industry, but I find it ironic that it is the one commercial transaction that many fiscal and cultural conservatives want extremely regulated by the government. Please admit that you do not simply want to downsize the government, but rather you desire to sculpt it to cater to your own cultural background and personal inclinations. Don’t be so dramatic and pretend that you’re saving America from its own lack of self-control, you’re trying to accrue power just like any faction. Get real, Teabaggers.
P.S. How is teabagging homoerotic? Pretty sure you can teabag your wife within the bounds of a God-fearing marriage. See: Freud.
Thank you for your comments and clarification. It helps me to believe that there may be room for compromise and discussion. So often the replies to each other have been full of anger and hate. I sincerely appreciate your calm, logical reply.
While I would like to discuss more, there have been some posters at the RRStar who have reported having posters send them or drop letters off at their home. And while you no doubt would be fine, it makes this retired person a bit nervous.
Mr. Hale and rockfordteaparty,
Have either of you or any of your Tea Party pals ever voted for Congressman Don Manzullo?
If so, you are as much an abortionist as anyone in the Democrat Party.
Our Congressman Manzullo calls himself a pro-life Christian but has never once publicly denounced the Chinese government’s ongoing policies of forced abortion and religious persecution.
Millions of Chinese parents have been forced to undergo surgical extermination of their beloved unborn children without a whimper of dissent from Congressman Manzullo.
Tens of thousands of Chinese Christians and Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested, tortured, jailed and, in some cases, executed while Rep. Manzullo has repeatedly fraternized with the tyrants who have done so.
For many years now, Manzullo has met repeatedly with Red China’s top government officials, promoted their interests in Congress, and ignored their human rights atrocities and assaults upon our security.
And on one occasion, Manzullo went so far as to vote in Congress to subsidize their many crimes.
On 5 November 1997, only hours after he had voted to condemn China for its policies of compulsory abortion and sterilization, slave labor and religious persecution, Manzullo voted to continue funding subsidized loans to that very same country at a cost to U.S. taxpayers of $400 million/year.
Since then China has disguised but continues to cruelly enforce its compulsory abortion policy, while it continues to collect at least $4 billion/year in subsidies from American taxpayers and earn huge profits from the “free trade” low-tariff import policies that Manzullo still supports.
And Manzullo is well aware of this.
Nearly seven years ago, Chen Guangcheng, a prominent Chinese human rights activist who had led the fight against forced abortions under the one-child policy in China, was imprisoned.
As recently as June of this year, he has been beaten by police for attempting to communicate with the outside world. Some of those who have attempted to visit him have been beaten and robbed by Chinese security forces.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Guangcheng#Ruanjin
On December 6, 2011, Reggie Littlejohn, president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, a human rights group that closely monitors the one-child policy in China, testified regarding Chen’s case before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.
http://www.cecc.gov/pages/hearings/general/hearing2/index.php
Manzullo is a member of that Commission:
http://www.cecc.gov/pages/general/commissioners.php
And so, although he is clearly fully informed of their human rights atrocities, Congressman Manzullo refrains from denouncing them and continues to promote trade policies that strengthen the abortionist Chinese government. How can this be?
It can’t be because Manzullo is reluctant to denounce tyrannical foreign leaders. For example, here is what he said in response to the death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il: “Kim Jong Il was the epitome of evil, a dictator of the worst kind who ruled his country with an iron fist and dished out constant pain and misery to his people.”
http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2011/12/manzullo-kim-jong-il-was-the-epitome-of-evil.html
So how can he denounce a Korean dictator but remain silent and continue his support for “free trade” with an equally evil Chinese dictatorship? If Manzullo is not a coward, then he must be either a hypocrite or a traitor, right?
So, in keeping with your opposition to abortion, why don’t you Tea Party folks do something useful with yourselves and force our congressman to account for himself?
Until you do so, anyone of you who supports Manzullo is an abortionist by proxy.
Does that make your Christmas merry?