It’s an ancient secular proverb that “Dead men tell no tales” – but it’s also true that the warnings of very wise people who have passed from this world to the next are often validated and confirmed years after their passing.
In the wake of the explosive allegations contained in this week’s indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), warnings and comments from some notable late cultural commentators are resurfacing on social media.
Last May, after Turning Point USA was singled out as a “hate group,” founder Charlie Kirk stated, “Being on their list is a badge of honor. It means they’re terrified that we’re so effective. Keep crying, SPLC—America’s done with your scam.”
The martyred conservative leader exposed the hypocrisy and devious tactics of the Alabama-based group.
“They cannot have dialogue, they cannot actually go on to the merits of why they are right or why we might be wrong,” Kirk stated. “Instead, they must smear us with the age-old one-liner that you are a racist or that you are a hater, and they’re finally realizing the power of Turning Point USA, which is why they put us on this list. Well, when you’re effective, you’re a threat.”
We don’t know if Kirk’s assassin was inspired or motivated to kill him because of the SPLC’s evil designation of TPUSA, but we do know the SPLC’s listing inspired the would-be assassin who stormed the Family Research Council after noting their inclusion on the group’s target list. Security guard Leo Johnson, who was shot back in 2012, thankfully survived – but the gunman intended to kill as many people as possible in retaliation for the group’s support of biblical sexuality.
Kirk’s chilling words proved tragically prescient and personal: “When you’re effective you’re a threat.”
Charlie Kirk’s assassin knew he was effective and was threatened by his effectiveness.
Scott Adams, the “Dilbert” creator who died in January, also warned about the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“Now, remember how I always tell you that if you know what happened, you might not know anything,” Adams said last year. “But if you know who was involved, well, now you might know something.”
He continued:
“If your job is to identify ghosts, are you going to find any ghosts? Of course you will, because you get paid for it. If your job is to identify hate groups, are you going to find some new hate groups every year? Or are you going to find all the ones that exist, and then you say, you know, we don’t even need to get any funding for the next year, I don’t even know why we have a staff.
He concluded:
“So, you can’t trust anybody who gets paid by the amount of hate that they identify.They’re going to find some hate. But is it real? No, Turning Point USA is nothing like a group, not even close.”
Adams was right, but he obviously wasn’t the only one waving the warning flag on the deviousness and destructiveness of the group’s tactics.
Last year, the tech titan Elon Musk declared, “The SPLC is an evil organization that spreads hate propaganda relentlessly. It needs to be shut down.”
After Focus on the Family was placed on the organization’s “hate” list last year, the ministry’s Glenn Stanton wrote, “Being listed only means Focus on the Family, and all these other allied organizations, are simply contending for the wholly uncontroversial natural order of things in God’s design for human sexuality, the mother/father family founded on marriage, and the objective reality of male and female. We and each of these other groups have all done so publicly and consistently. We will continue to do so, undaunted.”
He added:
“It’s an adage that you can tell a lot about someone from the company they keep. The same goes for organizations. Our inclusion on this childish list with so many of our long-term friends would hardly be worth noting if not for the danger this list has previously incited.”
Last June, Focus on the Family president Jim Daly told Fox News, “I think the SPLC started in a good place… but they have turned that muscle now on the Christian community.”
Focus’ Daly then posed a question to the SPLC – one which has never been answered:
“Why would you go after an organization doing that much good and label us a hate group? It makes no sense. This (FOTF’s ministry) is not hate. This is the love of Christ trying to show people God’s design for marriage and parenting and people.”