HATTIESBURG, Mississippi, October 16, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The U.S. Army is blaming a soldier for the content of a slide show that labeled one of the largest pro-family Christian organizations in the country a “domestic hate group” because of its strong traditional family values.
“The slide was not produced by the Army and it does not reflect our policy or doctrine,” Army spokesman Troy Rolan told The Clarion-Ledger Tuesday afternoon.
Several dozen Army active duty and reserve troops were told during a mandatory military training session at Camp Shelby in Mississippi last week that the pro-life and pro-family American Family Association (AFA) is now classified as a hate group, reported Fox News’ Todd Starnes.
The AFA’s traditional family values includes outspoken opposition to same-sex marriage, pornography, and abortion. The group believes that God has “communicated absolute truth to mankind, and that all people are subject to the authority of God’s Word at all times.” Its mission is to “inform, equip, and activate individuals to strengthen the moral foundations of American culture” through Gospel values.
The training session reportedly linked the AFA to hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Neo-Nazis, the Black Panthers, and the Nation of Islam.
Rolan said that the information labeling AFA as a hate group did not come from any official Army sources, nor was the presentation approved by senior staff.
“It was produced by a soldier conducting a briefing which included info acquired from an internet search,” he said.
An online search reveals that AFA has been labeled a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) because of its opposition to homosexuality. Homosexual terrorist Floyd Lee Corkins II admitted in April that the SPLC’s labeling of the Family Research Council as a “hate” group led directly to him targeting the pro-family organization in his August 2012 shooting rampage.
Rolan said that the soldier behind the training presentation has since “recognized that the information was incorrect” and that the “briefing has been updated” so that “any reference to American Family Association has been removed.”
But AFA President Tim Wildmon says his organization may file a defamation lawsuit against the military.
“We are probably going to be taking legal action,” he told Fox News. “The Army has smeared us. They’ve defamed the American Family Association.”