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Archae

(46,260 posts)
Sun Mar 11, 2012, 05:15 PM Mar 2012

"Invisible Children" tied to anti-gay, creationist groups.

I figured this.
"Invisible Children" seemed just too good to be true.

Tax Forms Show Invisible Children Funded By Antigay, Creationist Christian Right

Bruce Wilson

What does Invisible Children share in common with the Discovery Institute, the leading organization promoting "Intelligent Design", a pseudo-scientific theory created to insinuate creationist ideas into public schools -- or with The Call, whose leader Lou Engle claims homosexuals are possessed by demons, calls God an "avenger of blood" and a "terrorist", and in May 2010 staged a rally in Kampala, Uganda, at which Engle warned of a gay menace to society and shared a stage with one of the authors of Uganda's notorious Anti Homosexuality Bill ?

990 IRS tax forms and yearly reports from Invisible Children, and 990s from its major donors, tell a story that's jarringly at odds with the secular, airbrushed, feelgood image the nonprofit has cultivated.

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2012/3/11/145213/275/Front_Page/Tax_Forms_Show_Invisible_Children_Funded_By_Antigay_Creationist_Christian_Right

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bayareamike

(602 posts)
1. Interesting....
Sun Mar 11, 2012, 05:48 PM
Mar 2012

Not sure what to make of this. I have my reservations about their KONY 2012 campaign (bringing Kony to justice is a worthwhile goal but the campaign manipulates/omits facts). This is disconcerting to say the least.

Archae

(46,260 posts)
5. Not the first time, won't be the last...
Sun Mar 11, 2012, 06:00 PM
Mar 2012

Some noble-sounding cause is used as a front group by fundys.

I've been reading about how "Ivisible Children" always has plenty of money to pay themselves big salaries.

2ndAmForComputers

(3,527 posts)
2. I said it before and I'll say it again.
Sun Mar 11, 2012, 05:53 PM
Mar 2012

Creationism and anti-choice should be lumped with homophobia and campaigning for Republicans, as far as DU rules are concerned.

white_wolf

(6,238 posts)
12. Wouldn't that ban Blue Dog posters?
Sun Mar 11, 2012, 09:55 PM
Mar 2012

Not that I mind at all, I view Blue Dogs as no better than Republicans, but they are a faction within the Democratic Party so as long as they support Democrats wouldn't they be allowed to post here? It's kind of sad that we are even talking about this since the Democratic Party should not be so far to the right as to allow any anti-choice or pro-Creationist elements.

2ndAmForComputers

(3,527 posts)
16. I very much doubt all Blue Dogs have these vile opinions.
Mon Mar 12, 2012, 12:00 AM
Mar 2012

And if they do, fuck them.

I'm sure there is a good number of homophobe Blue Dogs, too. Those are already not welcome as it is. Is that a bad thing?

white_wolf

(6,238 posts)
17. I don't think so at all.
Mon Mar 12, 2012, 12:42 AM
Mar 2012

I've just never been able to figure out DU's official stance on Blue Dog democrats. I've never seen anyone posters here self ID as one so I'm not even sure there are any here.

Response to Archae (Original post)

Junkdrawer

(27,993 posts)
4. If the original "viral video" didn't set off bullshit detectors, you need to have them checked.
Sun Mar 11, 2012, 05:59 PM
Mar 2012

My son identified at least 14 propaganda techniques during his first viewing.

EFerrari

(163,986 posts)
13. I didn't see the video but iirc, went to their front page.
Sun Mar 11, 2012, 10:04 PM
Mar 2012

Airbrushed kids in Africa, that was enough for me.

 

JackRiddler

(24,979 posts)
7. Looks like a front group for more imperialist interventions on behalf of...
Sun Mar 11, 2012, 06:16 PM
Mar 2012

friendly dictators, like Museveni, who has served the US empire as a proxy force for decades.



Having been busy the last 72 hours or so, I was taken aback at how everyone was suddenly talking about some Kony, whom I soon recalled is the warlord of the obscure and deplorable little Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda - a country that has been run by a bloody US-installed dictatorship for about 20 years and used as the proxy force for imperialist excursions into various neighbors, a country with a heavily US-influenced "Christian" movement that seeks to enact a legal death penalty for homosexuality.

As a crowdsource psyop, whatever its precise origins, this Kony 2012 thing is pathbreaking, but nowadays, a statement like that can be made several times a year.

Like "Save Darfur," it's all about white conscience and safe protest for the well-groomed youth of the Western imperialist offenders. It's about going after "evildoers" who aren't your own, for which you will be praised for being such a good person, rather than called unpatriotic. "Save Darfur," by turning a civil war into a one-sided genocide, distracted a segment of US youth from the real genocide that their own government simultaneously perpetrated in Iraq. "Kony 2012" is distracting (probably larger numbers for a much shorter window) a similar segment away from the US attempts to ramp up its Africom operations and the possibility of a new war on Iran.

bayareamike

(602 posts)
9. I generally agree, but it isn't just white people
Sun Mar 11, 2012, 06:45 PM
Mar 2012

who are buying into the campaign...

Unless you are talking about those in power, in which case I completely agree.

3waygeek

(2,034 posts)
8. This shouldn't be a surprise...
Sun Mar 11, 2012, 06:31 PM
Mar 2012

if there's an Invisible Sky Daddy, why wouldn't there be invisible children?

StarsInHerHair

(2,125 posts)
14. Dominion=really bad types, praying for the death of others, etc
Sun Mar 11, 2012, 10:08 PM
Mar 2012

so I.C. is somewhat like the Komen Foundation?

"Capping the pro-Prop 8 push was a November 1, 2008 San Diego stadium rally held by The Call, whose leader Lou Engle warned that same sex marriage could unleash a "sexual insanity" that would be "more demonic than Islam" and suggested believers should carry out acts of martyrdom to stop gay marriage and legal abortion, which Engle predicts will lead to a second American civil war."<-----

The answer? -- all of these ministries - the Discovery Institute, Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, The Fellowship Foundation, The Call, Ed Silvoso's Harvest Evangelism, and Invisible Children - received at least $100,000 in 2008 from what has emerged in the last decade as the biggest funder of the hard, antigay, creationist Christian right: the National Christian Foundation.


2008 grants from National Christian Foundation, and subsidiaries

Focus on The Family: $4,268,000
Family Research Council: $2,387,000
The Fellowship Foundation (AKA "The Family" or the "International Foundation&quot : $515,000
Lou Engle's The Call: $166,000
Ed Silvoso's Harvest Evangelism: $817,000
The Discovery Institute: $702,000*
Invisible Children: $414,000*

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