The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission has previously partnered with the radical Humane Society (they do not operate animal shelters; they advocate for an end to modern animal husbandry and vegetarianism in an agenda every bit as extremist as PETA) to create the Every Living Thing animal rights campaign. Spearheading their 2015 animal rights push was feminist, egalitarian, and “abortion isn’t murder” Karen Swallow Prior, who had stated that Michael Vick made her more upset than abortionists. Helping Prior in that effort was Charles Camosy, who currently serves on the board for Democrats for Life. The video in question helped the one-time ERLC partner, Charles Camosy, as he made controversial statements likening animal abuse to human abortion and calling fetuses “human animals.” The ERLC took down the video after criticism and claimed that posting it (they also produced it) was an accident.
Somewhere, Winston is toiling away at the Ministry of Truth, flushing the video down the memory hole.
Dan Darling, of the ERLC, posted the following on the ERLC website…
Yesterday, the team I lead at the ERLC posted a video on our website about the way humans should think about animals. Bottom line up front: this video does not reflect our views on the subject. It was an accident and an honest mistake but an embarrassing one nonetheless, and I’d like to apologize for allowing this video to post and for the understandable confusion it created.
The fact is, while the ERLC may bristle at the term “human animal” and (after criticism) shun the comparison of animal rights to abortion, the ERLC produced the video and it is in keeping with the agenda of the Every Living Thing campaign that the ERLC created. Darling continues…
How did this happen? This video was one of hundreds of hours of videos we capture each year at the March for Life. After interviews like this are recorded, a video technician we contract with edits the videos, applies some graphics, and uploads it to a private Vimeo page for ERLC staff to then review. At this point, my communications team combs through the hundreds of videos to determine whether they would be fitting to publish (a process that takes months). Often, we’ll find the videos useful and helpful, and we’ll post them online. Occasionally, though, we’ll review a video and choose not to publish it because it doesn’t align with our mission. In this case, this week, one of the members of my team accidentally posted this video which had not yet been reviewed, never would have been approved, and never should have been posted. It had been uploaded to the Vimeo page for review months previously, so to some it appeared as if the video had been public for quite some time. In actuality, it was not accessible to anyone but the ERLC staff until it was posted online this week. This was a careless, but nonetheless honest mistake, and I along with my entire team will make sure a mistake like this never happens again.
Riiight. I guess you can believe that if you want to. However, the fact is the Every Living Thing campaign in which – again – the ERLC already partnered with Camosy, is in complete alignment with his brand of an all-encompassing “pro-life” moniker. In fact, Russell Moore has been busy redefining what it means to be pro-life himself. Furthermore, the ERLC was the one that produced the video, meaning at one point in time, they thought it was a good idea.
To his credit, Darling was uncharacteristically clear for the ERLC, which typically speaks only in layers of nuance and moral ambiguity….
This, of course, is not an excuse but merely the explanation I believe is owed. This was a public mistake, and I believe it deserves an equally public explanation and apology. This was an instance of clumsiness that led to understandable confusion. It caused people of good will to ask reasonable questions. Ultimately, this is my responsibility, and I apologize. This won’t happen again.
The reality is that the ERLC had already partnered with Camosy to push his radical animal rights agenda. The damage has already be done. And frankly, it was done without any criticism besides that of Pulpit & Pen, this guy from Missouri, and a few others. In 2015, few had caught on that the ERLC was driving the Convention hard left. People are now paying attention.
And that’s a good thing.
