The American Family Association name sounds like a warm cuddly group. Don’t however let that name fool you, instead judge them by their actual actions. In reality they are a group of right-wing religious fanatics who devote vast sums of money attacking the basic human rights of marginalised people.
Based out of Tupelo, Mississippi they tick the boxes you might perhaps anticipate now that you know they are right-wing religious fanatics …
- Opposed to LGBT rights
- Opposed to basic reproduction health care
They are flagged by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.
Let’s not dwell too much on that and dive rapidly into what has happened.
The Lawsuit
On Tuesday Sept. 5 their ex-employee Robert Chambers formally filed his bombshell lawsuit against the AFA in the US District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. Mr Chanbers had previously been their vice president of policy and legislative affairs from 2015 until they finally fired him in Sept 2022.
That was an almost seven year run.
Via this link is a copy of the 19 page document that has been filed.
The essence of it is this – Mr Chambers is accusing the AFA of sexually harassing him and also of retaliating against him when he complained about that harassment.
Just to make this wholly clear to you. This rather significant VP male on the AFA legal team is accusing other male members of the AFA staff of sexually harassing him. Remember that this is a group that is vigorously anti-gay. In other words, this is a lawsuit that reveals that wafting from within this supposed bastion of Christian morality is the distinct stench of gross hypocrisy.
Now hang on tight and buckle up because from here forward things are going to get rather wild.
Statement of Facts
Let’s dip into the statement of facts. This is section of a legal document filed with the court. The initial statement here is the Plaintiff, Mr Chambers, explaining that Ronald Cook, the AFA Director of Localization was sexually harassing him …
Rather obviously, when this happened, he complained to other senior staff at the AFA. They asked him to fill in an incident report which he did. He was also advised that there had been complaints by others regarding sexual misconduct by Mr Cook.
Then nothing happened.
Mr Chambers then followed up on multiple occasions to report more of the same behaviour and asked when something was going to be done about this.
The plaintiff also notes that this was not his first complaint that resulted in no action being taken.
He had also previously complained that the AFA had failed to file their IRS Form 990 for three years in a row and that action against them was imminent if they did not address this.
This is not simply a story regarding incompetent, there is also deliberate fraud in play. In addition to complaining about the missing 990 forms he also complained that …
… and the action that was taken to resolve this was … yep, nothing at all. They simply ignored all his complaints.
He had also previously raised a concern regarding possible embezzlement of funds during a meeting and followed that up with emails to put this formally into writing and suggested the need for a proper audit going back as far as 2015 … yep, once again totally ignored.
He had sincerely believed that being honest and reporting accounting irregularities would result in decisive action and that he would face no retaliation … oh how wrong he was to embrace such a thought despite them have a published whistleblower policy.
He had rather foolishly assumed integrity and honesty, and neglected to realise that this is the AFA, a place where basic human decency and honesty is not part of their corporate DNA.
Can it get weirder than all this?
Well yes, indeed it can.
Buckle up once again, because now we have this raw gem of utter insanity …
Apparently that lady shared her weird dream with rather a lot of people, and by doing so greatly damaged the reputation of Mr Chambers within his wider group of friends, his church congregation, and his Sunday school groups.
Why was anybody taking her weird dream seriously?
They Fired him
On Sept 22nd 2022, after once again complaining about Mr Cook’s sexual harassment of him, they finally took decisive action – they fired the victim.
Apparently AFA then went on to manufacture a reason for them firing him. They claimed it was the result of a “disagreement of philosophy“.
Er yes, no kidding. He did not like being hit on by another guy, and they were apparently OK with this.
So what happens now?
This is what the lawsuit is asking for …
A Few Further thoughts
You might indeed be tempted to feel that Mr Chambers has been rather hard done by here, but pause that thought. Don’t forget that he happily worked for a hate group for almost seven years helping them to discriminate against minorities and women. He himself has hurt a lot of people via the promotion of the AFA religious fanaticism.
The fact that this has all come to light now and that it will go through the court is the real good news here. It will not only expose them and reveal to their donors who they really are, but I’m more than delighted to clap in delight as these immoral lunatics rip each other to shreds and burn all their cash in legal fees doing do.
I would like to think that Mr Chambers wins and gets a very large settlement, and that then both greatly distracts the AFA and also decimates their funds, but I suspect what will actually happen is a bit of mud flinging from both sides followed by an under-the-table settlement that sweeps it all under the rug.
Meanwhile … well yes, like you, I’m not really shocked in any way at all by the discovery that the AFA turns out to be allegedly staffed and run by financially corrupt individuals who quite happily cover up sexual misconduct.
Others writing about this
- Roys report (A Christian run website) : Former American Family Association VP Sues Christian Right Group for Alleged Sexual Harassment
- Religious News Service: Former AFA vice president sues Christian right group for alleged sexual harassment
- Friendly Atheist: Former American Family Association VP sues AFA for same-sex sexual harassment