THE Rev Donald E Wildmon, head of the of the American Family Association, hates porn. So much so that he cannot even bring himself to spell out the word, as this headline proves.
The headline appears above an “action alert” calling this week on all True Christians to demand that senators reject President Obama’s nomination of David W Ogden for the post of deputy Attorney General.
So what makes free speech and civil rights champion Ogden unsuitable?
According to Wildmon, “Ogden is no friend of the family”, because:
• As an attorney in private practice, David W Ogden has filed briefs pushing for gays in the military.
• He has litigated numerous obscenity and pornography cases on behalf of clients like Playboy, Penthouse, the ACLU and the largest distributor of hardcore pornographic movies.
In various cases, he has filed briefs opposing:
• Parental notification before a minor’s abortion
• Spousal notification before an abortion
• The military’s policy against public homosexuals serving in uniform
• The Children’s Internet Protection Act and the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act.
David W Ogden
Wildmon appears to have an ally in Patrick Trueman, a former Justice Department official during the first Bush presidency who is now in private practice who points out that Ogden:
Has been an activist in the support of a right to pornography, a right of abortion and the rights of homosexuals. It isn’t so much that he’s represented pornographers or that he’s been a porn attorney, but it’s his world view, and his world view reflects President Obama’s world view.
Other groups that have expressed their opposition include James Dobson’s Focus on the Family.
Two other nominees, Professor Dawn Johnsen and Thomas Perrelli are also generating opposition. Johnsen is associated with an abortion rights group while Perrelli represented the husband of Terry Schiavo who was the centre of a right-to-die case.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
February 8th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Why does it always have to come down to sex with these religious types? You have to wonder if they’re trying to suppress aspects of their own personalities they find distasteful.
I like what Obama’s doing if only for the amusement of watching xian fundies squealing on behalf of their whacky named associations. These people must come from joyless homes.
February 8th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
These same types have a real bug about the US signing up to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. (It will, so they say, take away parents rights and enable children to make their own choices about religion, as well as put the USA under UN Control …. etc
When I ran a short (to date) discussion on one of their blogs I was finally told that if I wanted to live in a communistic state that was fine but don’t criticise liberty-loving patriots of the USA who don’t. To which I responded that I live in a country which knocked off the head its king for wanting to be a Tyrant a good 140 years before they poured tea into a harbour to be independent of another king. They cannot argue rationally.
February 9th, 2009 at 9:23 am
The problem of having had a fundie president like George W. is that all these blow-hard leaders of extreme christian organizations have a very inflated idea of their own importance and believe that their opinion, however strange, counts for something. Well, let’s hope they are much mistaken in this new administration.
February 9th, 2009 at 10:04 am
Mr Ogden sounds like a reasonable, fair sort of chap – just the type of person the fundies hate. I hope Mr Ogden is appointed and uses his postion to curb the power of the zealots.