Former Religious Right Activist Warns Against Incitement to Violence

Interview with Frank Schaeffer, conducted by Scott Harris

The conservative "tea party" protesters whose signs and shouts at town hall meetings compared President Obama to Hitler and Stalin; accusations that Mr. Obama is not a U.S. citizen and assertions that "death panels" are a central element of health care reform proposals, provides only a quick snapshot of America's resurgent right-wing movement.

Despite conservative anger in April when the Department of Homeland Security had warned about the potential for violence from extremist anti-government and anti-abortion groups, a pattern of such violence has ensued.

In early April, three Pittsburgh police officers were killed by a white supremacist. The man accused of murdering a black security guard at Washington D.C.'s Holocaust Museum on June 10, James von Brunn, was a well-known white supremacist with a documented history of attacks on blacks, Jews, and the federal government. Scott Roeder, the man charged in the May 31 assassination of Kansas abortion provider Dr. George Tiller is purported to have been a member of an antigovernment militia in Montana during the mid-1990s.

One conservative religious leader, Frank Schaeffer, who quit in disgust over the extremist doctrine he and his colleagues preached, has been active in a new movement warning about the rising danger of domestic terrorism by right-wing fringe groups. Schaeffer's evangelical-leader father, Francis Schaeffer, wrote a best-selling book titled, "A Christian Manifesto," in which he equated legal abortion to the Holocaust. Between the Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Frank Schaeffer about the danger he sees in the failure to challenge right-wing hate groups inciting violence and the media outlets that amplify their message.

Frank Schaeffer is author of "Patience With God," and "Crazy for God." Visit his website at www.frankschaeffer.com. Contact a coalition fighting extremist violence at stopdomeesticterror.com

Related Links:

* The Southern Poverty Law Center at www.splcenter.org or (334) 956-8200
* "The Year in Hate: Number of Hate Groups Tops 900," The Southern Poverty Law Center, Intelligence Report, Spring 2009

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