This spring, I told you about David and Jason Benham, a pair of twin brothers and real estate brokers who lost a planned show on HGTV after People for the American Way discovered a history of Islamophobic and homophobic statements so sordid that no on-air disclaimer would have even begun to fix it. Among other things, they claimed that Islam had “a demonic agenda” and was “the enemy attacking America.” Later on, it emerged that they had actively tried to deep-six a gay pride festival in Charlotte. No doubt you wondered–who in the world could raise a child with this kind of hate?
Well, wonder no more. The Benhams are the sons of veteran religious right activist Flip Benham, the national director of Operation Save America, which is the bulk of the old Operation Rescue. He took over Operation Rescue in 1994 and began broadening it from a pro-life group to a broader religious right outfit. After a legal dispute with Troy Newman, the head of a former affiliate, Benham changed his group’s name to Operation Save America. Even by religious right standards, Benham is a loathsome character. For instance, he actually had the gall to call the memorial service for the Sandy Hook victims a farce because it wasn’t Christian enough for his liking–even though at least two of the victims were Jewish and one was a Sikh. And in 2011, he was slapped with 18 months probation for distributing “wanted” posters with an abortion provider’s name and address printed on them. Benham and his cronies also took pictures of the doctor’s house and the inside of his clinic. Well, he gave another example of just how loathsome he was last week, when he saw fit to crash some of the first same-sex weddings that took place in Charlotte after a federal judge struck down North Carolina’s ban on same-sex marriage.
The Mecklenburg County Register of Deeds office had closed for the day by the time federal district judge Max Cogburn’s historic ruling was issued. But a number of LGBT couples were waiting at the doors when the office opened on October 13. According to Q-Notes, Benham, who lives in nearby Concord, was one of three anti-gay protesters who were on hand to disrupt the weddings. Apparently he got so disruptive that several people raised a large rainbow flag to block his view. He didn’t go quite as far as a protester who waved a Bible in the air and cursed several times. Still, crashing a wedding is pretty low. Indeed, I’m finding it hard to see how this is any different from Westboro Baptist Church picketing funerals. But then again, we’re talking about an outfit that maintained it was just obeying God when it stalked that abortion provider. Small wonder that he’s too extreme even for the GOP–he’s a member of the far-right Constitution Party.
Granted, Benham’s actions didn’t cross the line into outright illegal conduct, as was the case in 2011. But how would he feel if anyone crashed one of his sons’ weddings? As little as I think of those two, I would never even consider crashing one of their weddings. No matter where you stand on gay rights and same-sex marriage, Benham’s behavior here was beyond despicable.
Sadly, we may be seeing more of this in the future. Last year, two supposedly mainstream religious right leaders called for Christian photographers and cakemakers to respond to gay customers with tactics that sounded like they were ripped straight from Westboro Baptist Church’s playbook. Gordon Klingenschmitt, whom you may know as the ex-Navy chaplain who was forced out of the Navy for wearing his uniform at a White House protest, suggested that Christian photographers who work at gay weddings ought to write anti-gay Bible verses on the photos. And Kevin Swanson of Generations with Vision, one of the more popular Christianist podcasts, said that Christian cakemakers ought to write Leviticus 20:13 on the cakes used at gay weddings–in effect, telling gays to die. When I saw these, I asked a question on Daily Kos–are the Phelps clan’s tactics becoming mainstream behavior for the religious right? Judging by Benham’s actions last week, it looks like the answer may be yes.
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Darrell Lucus, also known as Christian Dem in NC on Daily Kos, is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
