This is the article that appeared in the September 2023 edition of Catalyst, our monthly journal. The date that prints out reflects the day that it was uploaded to our website. For a more accurate date of when the article was first published, check out the news release, here.
As the fight for parental rights continues to gain momentum, and more importantly scores crucial wins, those in the forefront of this movement have received increased hostility. The most prominent of these groups is Moms for Liberty: left-wing activists have declared war on these moms.
Consider what happened in July at the Moms for Liberty “Joyful Warriors” Summit in Philadelphia. In the weeks leading up to the event, the Philadelphia chapter of ACT UP, a gay activist group with a history of violence, led several protests outside the Marriott demanding that the hotel cancel the event. Protesters “gave speeches, waved trans pride flags, and explained why it was so important to deny Moms for Liberty a space to tout their dangerously homophobic, transphobic rhetoric.”
During the event, protesters held up signs that insulted the group. One referred to them as the “nastiest skank b*tch[es] I’ve ever met.” Another called the group “fascist.” A couple blocks from the convention center, vandals spray painted graffiti on a crosswalk that read “F*ck off Nazi Moms!”
In large part, this vitriol is a direct result of a campaign to tarnish Moms for Liberty by secular progressive activists. This past June, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a radical left-wing organization, added Moms for Liberty to the group’s “hate map.” SPLC’s hate map includes many prominent conservative groups and equates them to the Ku Klux Klan. Additionally, GLAAD, a radical LGBT group, issued a warning that Moms for Liberty’s “advocacy has included calls for book bans, classroom censorship, and bans on teaching about slavery, race, racism and LGBTQ people and history.”
While leftist radicals portray Moms for Liberty as a scourge, the reality of the group is much different from the narratives concocted by their foes.
On January 1, 2021, Moms for Liberty, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, was founded by two former and one current Florida school board officials who were all mothers concerned about what their children were learning in schools.
Presently, Moms for Liberty has 285 chapters in 45 states and approximately 120,000 members. While the group does not have a demographic profile of its members, it mainly draws support from parents that are concerned about the state of education in their communities.
Initially, Moms for Liberty focused on the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly the closing of schools, facemask requirements, and vaccine mandates. More recently, members of the organization have taken leading roles in fighting Critical Race Theory and the radical LGBT agenda in the classroom.
As a 501(c)(4), Moms for Liberty is actively supporting candidates in school board races across the country. In 2022, Moms for Liberty chapters endorsed 500 school board candidates. The organization has a 50 percent win ratio nationwide. In its base of Florida, Moms for Liberty has an 80 percent win ratio.
The successful efforts of Moms for Liberty has made them into a powerful organization. For instance, nearly every Republican candidate for the White House has praised these moms, and the candidates have put aside their differences to rally to the group’s aid.
During the “Joyful Warriors” Summit, Former President Donald Trump praised the group claiming it is the best thing “that’s ever happened to America.” He went on to say that “Moms for Liberty is no hate group. You are joyful warriors, you are fierce, fierce patriots.”
At the same event, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis spoke in defense of the group saying, “I see that Moms for Liberty is coming under attack by the left, attack by the corporate media, protests out here in the streets….But I want to congratulate you for that because that is a sign we are winning this fight.”
But even with powerful allies, the enemies of parental rights in education continue to bash Moms for Liberty. Unsurprisingly, one of the favored lines of attacks on these moms is they are “Christian Nationalists.”
Consider that in the spring of 2022, a group called Defense of Democracy was founded with the sole purpose of counteracting Moms for Liberty. One of the founders said the goal of the organization was “to fight back against Christian nationalism.”
Similarly, McMaster University Public Intellectuals Project lamented that the Moms for Liberty advocates “for a White Christian nationalist view of the United States.” Likewise, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State ran a hit piece on Moms for Liberty titled “Mad Moms: A New Christian Nationalist Front Group Claims To Champion Parental Involvement In Public Education” decrying the group’s activities. Meanwhile, op-eds and articles have appeared across the nation lambasting these moms and their supposed ties to “Christian Nationalism.”
This effort to defame proponents of traditional Judeo-Christian values reveals a deep seated animus against people of faith taking an active role in society. Unfortunately, Moms for Liberty has become a target of this line of attack.
Ultimately, the same people seeking to indoctrinate children into supporting leftist causes are openly hostile to people of faith. They seek to eliminate not only parents having a say in their children’s education but people of faith taking part in public life. Fortunately, patriots and people of faith, like Moms for Liberty, are fighting back and winning.
