DOD Asked to Stop Using Hate Group’s Anti-Christian Training Materials

The Department of Defense (DOD) may be relying on a leftwing, anti-Christian civil rights outfit linked to domestic terrorism for training materials and a coalition of conservative groups is asking Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to investigate.

The radical nonprofit, Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), providing the material labels conservatives who disagree with it on social issues hateful. In fact, its website features conservative organizations on a catalogue of “hate groups.” The hate catalogue made headlines last year when a domestic terrorist who carried out a politically-motivated shooting at a Christian organization, the Family Research Council (FRC), admitted he got his target list from the SPLC.

The shooter, Floyd Lee Corkins, stormed into the FRC’s Washington D.C. headquarters with the intention of killing as many employees as possible, according to a news report that cites legal documents. He shot an unarmed security guard at the FRC before the guard subdued him. Corkins pleaded guilty to three felonies, including committing an act of terrorism, and was sentenced to 25 years.

It may seem unfathomable that the U.S. government would use training materials provided by an organization like the SPLC, though records obtained by Judicial Watch earlier this year show the group is quite influential in the Obama administration. In fact, the files obtained by JW from the Obama Justice Department reveal that SPLC co-founder Morris Dees, conducted a “Diversity Training Event” for the agency.

Incredibly, the SPLC is also providing our military with supplies and briefings, according to various reports of training incidents in which Army instructors relied on the group’s anti-Christian materials. This evidently led Army Secretary John McHugh to issue an order a few months ago to “cease” the SPCL’s anti-Christian briefings in that branch of the military. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) followed by declining to endorse the SPLC as a source.

But it appears that other branches of the U.S. military continue to use SPLC training materials and briefings. Led by the FRC, a coalition of conservative groups—including Judicial Watch— are asking Hagel to end the practice. In a letter to the Defense Secretary, the groups ask that installations stop relying on the SPLC and other non-governmental sources as approved resources for equal opportunity training.

“It is imperative that the Defense Equal Opportunity Institute (DEOMI) ensure future materials do not rely on information from organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) or any others that engage in groundless and highly pejorative mischaracterizations of long-standing ministries and organizations for their own political purposes,” the letter says.