Radical progressive front group apologizes for listing philanthropist doctor as an extremist

(NaturalNews) Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a left-wing activist organization that purports to be a protector of civil rights and a guardian against "extremism," made a huge mistake in recent days when the organization labeled one of the most accomplished, humble men in America as a threat to our society.

As reported by The Daily Caller, the SPLC once said that retired neurosurgeon and potential 2016 Republican presidential contender Dr. Ben Carson was an anti-gay extremist who could not be trusted -- a label that the progressive organization was forced to recant.

"Under intense scrutiny after it was revealed that the civil rights organization had lumped Carson in with the likes of KKK members and other zealots on its 'extremist watch list,' the SPLC announced... that it was scrubbing Carson's name," The DC reported.

Just who is 'extreme'?

In the wake of the scandal, the SPLC issued this apology^[PDF]:

In October 2014, we posted an "Extremist File" of Dr. Ben Carson. This week, as we've come under intense criticism for doing so, we've reviewed our profile and have concluded that it did not meet our standards, so we have taken it down and apologize to Dr. Carson for having posted it.

Nevertheless, the SPLC hedged its apology, couching it with additional language that still casts Carson as "extreme," simply because he holds traditional views that run afoul of the left-wing rhetoric that the organization claims passes for "mainstream" thought:

We've also come to the conclusion that the question of whether a better-researched profile of Dr. Carson should or should not be included in our "Extremist Files" is taking attention from the fact that Dr. Carson has, in fact, made a number of statements that express views that we believe most people would conclude are extreme.

"God's in the mix"

Here are some of Carson's "extreme" positions:

-- "Marriage is between a man and a woman. It's a well-established pillar of society and no group be they gays, be they NAMBLA [North American Man/Boy Association, a group advocating pedophilia], be they people who believe in bestiality -- it doesn't matter what they are, they don't get to change the definition."

-- "I think people have completely taken the wrong meaning out of what I was saying. First of all, I certainly believe gay people should have all the rights that anybody else has. What I was basically saying is that as far as marriage is concerned, that has traditionally been between a man and a woman, and nobody should be able to change that."

-- "[I]f we can redefine marriage as between two men or two women or any other way based on social pressures as opposed to between a man and a woman, we will continue to redefine it in any way that we wish, which is a slippery slope with a disastrous ending, as witnessed in the dramatic fall of the Roman Empire."

-- "If you look in the writings of a lot of the neo-Marxists, when they talk about the New World Order, they say there's only one stick in the mud: the United States. How do you get them out of the way, or how do you change them? And they said there were two fundamental things, their Judeo-Christian faith and their strong families. Those were the things that had to be attacked and those things have been systematically attacked over the last several decades."

These are the same positions that then-Sen. Barack Obama once championed during a campaign Q & A at Saddleback Church. "God's in the mix," Obama said, after defining marriage as "a union between a man and a woman."

Sources:

http://dailycaller.com

https://www.youtube.com