Pranksters using the name of a Christian media resource have sent unsuspecting Web users to a gay porn site, according to a news release posted on Dec. 16 at Movieguide.
Movieguide, text at the site says, “is a ministry dedicated to redeeming the values of the mass media according to biblical principles, by influencing entertainment industry executives and helping families make wise media choices.”
The site is operated by Dr. Ted Baehr, who said in the release, “This is a criminal attack on our ministry.”
Added Dr. Baehr, “We are looking at legal and criminal action.
“But, in the meantime, we urgently ask all of our partners and supporters to please pray that no one will be fooled by these attacks and that the attacks will stop.”
Movieguide rates films according to a two-tiered approach. The “Quality” of a film is assessed based on its degree of proficiency in production; a second rating, for “Acceptability,” rates films according to the “world view” that they reflect.
Movieguide seeks to promote the production of films that will rate high on the “Acceptability” rating based on their Christian perspectives, as opposed to other “world views” such as secularism, non-Christian belief systems, or a gay “world view.”
Dr. Baehr serves as the chairman of the Christian Film and Television Commission, which was established in 1986 by Baehr himself.
Right-wing religious and socially conservative pundits and Internet publications have seized on recent demonstrations against the anti-gay amendment Proposition 8, which revoked marriage rights from California’s gay and lesbian families, to paint GLBT Americans as “violent” and “anti-Christian.”
In the case of the fake email claiming to be from Movieguide, a similar stance was taken by the genuine site, with the press release stating, “In recent weeks, numerous Christian groups, churches and supporters of California’s Prop. 8 in favor of traditional marriage have experienced vicious attacks and hate mail, including death threats, from homosexual, left-wing activists and followers.”
The release did not actually say that there was evidence that the pranksters were gay, or that the site was targeted because of Proposition 8, which was narrowly approved by voters after a hugely expensive propaganda campaign characterized by misleading and false assertions, including claims that churches in Massachusetts–the first state to provide marriage equality to gay and lesbian families–had been persecuted for refusing to perform same-sex weddings.
A suspicious fire on Dec. 12 at the Wasilla, Alaska church attended by Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin was instantly blamed on gay arsonists, though no evidence exists at this time that the fire, if deliberate, was set by gays.
Nor is there any evidence that the church was targeted, as right-wing religious publications have speculated, because of its having promoted an “ex-gay” event in Anchorage.