We have a problem in the United States with hate.

We saw this last week in Charlottesville, whether it be racism or anti-Semitism, whether it be the KKK or neo-Nazi. Those are hate groups, and they have no place in the United States and they should be condemned without mincing words without any equivocation.

But we have a problem when organizations label good groups as hate groups. We see this with the Southern Poverty Law Center. It’s labeling good groups that it disagrees with as hate groups.

So, it labeled the Alliance Defending Freedom, a public interest law firm that just this year won a Supreme Court case 7-2 defending religious liberty. It labeled that group as a hate group because it disagrees. It labeled the Family Research Council, a think tank here in D.C. that defends marriage and the family. It labeled that group as a hate group.

Five years ago, a shooter walked in the Family Research Council and started shooting because he found it listed as a hate group on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s website. CNN itself reported this fact four years ago when the shooter was convicted of domestic terrorism.

It’s irresponsible for CNN today to be simply reprinting the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate map as if it’s fact. It destroys the label of hate and it trivializes the real evil that is out there. This isn’t news. This is simply lefty propaganda.

Ryan T. Anderson, Ph.D., is the William E. Simon Senior Research Fellow in American Principles and Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation, where he researches and writes about marriage, bioethics, religious liberty and political philosophy. Anderson is the author of several books and his research has been cited by two U.S. Supreme Court justices in two separate cases. Read his Heritage research. @RyanTAnd

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