The FBI has officially severed its relationship with the Southern Poverty Law Center, a progressive nonprofit long criticized for labeling conservative and Christian organizations as “hate groups.”
In a statement posted on X, FBI Director Kash Patel said all ties between the federal law enforcement agency and the SPLC “have been officially terminated.” Patel accused the organization of abandoning its original mission writing, “The Southern Poverty Law Center long ago abandoned civil rights work and turned into a partisan smear machine.”
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As reported by The Christian Post, Patel also condemned the SPLC’s widely circulated “hate map” calling it a tool that “has been used to defame mainstream Americans and even inspired violence.”
The SPLC’s “hate map” lists hundreds of conservative and Christian organizations it deems “hateful.” Among those targeted was Turning Point USA whose CEO Charlie Kirk was assassinated Sept. 10. The SPLC issued a statement following the killing declaring, “The Southern Poverty Law Center unequivocally condemns the shooting of Charlie Kirk and all forms of violence,” adding that “violence is never acceptable.”
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Earlier this year the SPLC accused Turning Point USA of “sowing and exploiting fear that white Christian supremacy is under attack” and seeking to maintain a “white-dominated male supremacist Christian social order.”
The SPLC has faced similar criticism before. In 2012 the Family Research Council was targeted by a gunman who had cited the SPLC’s hate map. FRC President Tony Perkins later said the SPLC had created a “reckless climate” that encouraged violence.
The FBI’s partnership with the SPLC was also questioned last year after an internal memo from the bureau’s Richmond Field Office referenced the SPLC when warning about “radical-traditionalist Catholic ideology.” The FBI later retracted the memo saying it “did not meet the exacting standards of the FBI.”
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Former FBI agent Kyle Seraphin who leaked the document said the agency had already been distancing itself from the SPLC over the past decade because of its “blatant partisan blindness.”
James Lasher, a seasoned writer and editor at Charisma Media, combines faith and storytelling with a background in journalism from Otterbein University and ministry experience in Guatemala and the LA Dream Center. A Marine Corps and Air Force veteran, he is the author of The Revelation of Jesus: A Common Man’s Commentary and a contributor to Charisma magazine.
