In a court action this week, attorneys for MSNBC host Rachel Maddow asked a federal judge to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed by Bradlee Dean, a former Christian rocker turned anti-gay preacher, on the grounds that it was a deliberate attempt to censor and/or intimidate Maddow by subjecting her to the burdens of defending against a meritless claim. The legal vehicle for this petition is known as SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation).
In Dean’s complaint he alleged that Maddow had defamed him when she broadcast a segment on his commentary on Islam and homosexuality. It’s not surprising that he should consider his own words to be tantamount to defamation. Here is the whole statement by Dean with the parts Maddow quoted in bold:
“Muslims are calling for the execution for homosexuals in America, this was just released yesterday and it shows you that they themselves are upholding the laws that are even in the Bible, the Judeo Christian God. They seem to be more moral than even the American Christians do. Because these people are livid about enforcing their laws, they know homosexuality is an abomination. And I continually reach out to the homosexual communities on this radio show, and I warn them, which ones love? Here you have Obama condemning it behind the backs of the homosexuals but to their faces he’s promoting it. I say this to my gay friends out there the ones that continuously nitpick everything I say. Hollywood is promoting immorality and the God of the Heavens in Jesus names is warning you to flee from the wrath to come, yet you have Muslims calling for your execution. If America won’t enforce the laws, God will raise up a foreign enemy to do just that’s what you’re seeing in America today. Read Leviticus 26 America.”
There is little leeway for any interpretation other than that Dean was praising the moral superiority of extremist Muslims who advocated executing homosexuals. He even went further to offer his Biblical analysis that radical Islamists were fulfilling the will of God by attacking the United States. While Dean made a disclaimer that he was not calling for the execution of gays, it was an irrelevant gesture. No one had accused him of calling for executions, just for saying that Muslims were doing so and that they were “more moral” as a result.
Maddow’s response to the suit was that she had not defamed Dean because she had reported factually and that her comments were constitutionally protected speech. The facts appear to support her position. It would be surprising if this suit were permitted to go forward. But even Dean should hope that the judges dismisses the suit. Could he really want to generate more publicity for his views that he is now characterizing as harmful to his reputation?
The fact that a turd like Bradlee Dean is still prancing around talking about “his Lord” and spreading hate – and hasn’t been hit by lightning or something equally Old Testament-y – is a terrific argument that there is no God.
The problem isn’t that he said it. The problem is that he’s right. This is the Christianity that no one wants to practice, but it is the Christianity that is in the Bible. Everyone just wants to pick and choose the parts that fit their political agenda. “I’m against gay marriage because God condemned it in the Bible.”
Er, No. God said they should be stoned and women should be killed if they are raped and didn’t cry out for help (or if they were caught being raped, paid for their trouble) and children should be publicly caned. Let’s hear Pat Roberson preach that sick crap.
And the convenient that was in the Old Testament so it doesn’t count stuff? A) Not all of it. B) That is a new excuse to make Christianity more missionary friendly, it’s such a crock.
And when Maddow wins, I hope Dean’s lawyer is sanctioned for bringing a frivolous suit before the court.
Not sure I agree – they’d play the victim card (they’ll do it anyway, but a fundraising drive to pay the sanctions might make it profitable…
From Dean Bradlee’s deposition: “That thar smartypants eyeglass woman on the teevee machine went and said what I said, word for word and now dogs and little children and everyone just points at me in the street and laughs. If THAT ain’t slander I don’t know what is.”
Isn’t amusing that this irrational dolt tells Rachel to “read Leviticus” on homosexuality when, in the same chapter, he’s told to never shave his beard, never eat shellfish, and a laundry list of other don’t people like him cafeteria shop for support in their condemnation of others. It’s like misinterpreting the story of Lot in Sodom, not knowing that the original sin of the Sodomites was not homosexuality but xenophobia, then pointing to the tale without referencing Lot’s father-daughter incest a short few verses later.
You’re really going out on a limb by suggesting that these hypocritical morons actually have any knowledge (or use logic). C’mon, let’s not get crazy here.
I’d say that includes knowledge of their own sacred text, which they’re mostly content to keep on the shelf and have blow-dried zealots with spittle-flecked chops tell them what’s in it.
If you’re going to be a RAY-publican Christianist gutterball
propagandist it helps if you come from a culture of lying
and BS. In this culture the bigger the BS the bigger the man.
So Maddow doesn’t make it easy to post a viewpoint. Well here I am. Maddow is an extreme left wing passing herself off as a centrist. Yes, the right wing is a satanic organization that is here to buy elections and rape the middle class. Clearly Obama and the other “neutrals” are unbiased and not bought and paid for by lawyers and other left wing richies like soros.
Read for yourself and don’t just listen to twisted talking points like hers.