Update: Most of the TVC associated sites in this post have now been substantially altered or no longer accept referral traffic from Ex-Gay Watch. In response I have posted google cache backups of all links cited.

TVC-affiliated desecration of MuhammadI’m sorry to post this graphic which is definitely NOT one of mine. If you don’t wish to view the image I’ll just tell you it’s a banner ad created by an ugly and hateful site called AlainsNewsletter.com which encourages its readers to place the image on their personal homepages. It features an image of the Prophet Muhammad superimposed onto toilet paper.

I find it ugly, degrading, offensive, and I’m not even Muslim. The only reason I’m showing it to you is because the Traditional Values Coalition admits sending out emails on behalf of AlainsNewsletter.com. In fact, AlainsNewsletter.com is edited by the founder of the TVC’s internet consultant. This same consultant also handles mass email distribution systems for NARTH.

On my personal yahoo email I subscribe to only two religious-right mailing lists, the TVC and AFA. Recently I started receiving this ultra-whackjob email publications from AlainsNewsletter.com so I assumed this was some new offshoot of the TVC which is known to do that sort of thing. Then of course I saw the offensive graphic and recognized stylistic similarities between it and some stuff I’ve seen on the TVC website and suspected a connection. There’s a whole page of offensive graphics here. (Google Cache backup.) It was worth asking up front so I shot off an email to the TVC:

Hey somehow I ended up on the email list for this thing called Alains Newsletter that seems to be related to the TVC. Is this a new side ministry you’ve got going or did you sell my email to them? I rather enjoy reading it, I’m just trying to figure out how I started receiving it.

Yours in Christ,
Dan

This is of course the only time in my life I have ever signed an email that way. Evidently somebody at the TVC was working on the sabbath because I got this reply a couple minutes later:

Alain works for TVC, but this is an independant [sic] project.

WE [emphasis theirs] sent out the email on his behalf.

TVC

Of course I took a screen capture of the email which includes the header.

“Contributors” listed on AlainsNewsletter.com include Rev. Louis P. Sheldon (Google Cache) and Stephen Bennett’s past guest J. Matt Barber. (Google Cache)

So who is this Alain? How do you pronounce his name? And what happened to the apostrophe? I can only help you with the first question.

Now as far as I can tell, Alain is employed by the an internet consulting/hosting company called XYZ123 Inc. which is contracted by a variety of religious right organizations set up their web pages and send out mass emails. XYZ123 often attaches this logo of a large headed baby to the bottom of emails and webpages they have worked on such as this one for the TVC.
miles_avatar.gif

But the relationship gets far more cozy than that. The TVC homepage currently has a large vertical banner ad for ThisIsWhatIbelieve.com and the top item on the endorsements page (Google Cache) of ThisIsWhatIBelieve.com reads:

Traditional Values Coalition

It is absolutely essential that Christians tell their elected officials how they think on the important issues of the day. And, it’s also important to remind these officials that biblical morality is the foundation upon which our nation was built.

Our country is experiencing a moral meltdown because we have rejected God and His moral laws in politics—and every other area of life. We must return to our biblical roots if our nation is to survive.

ThisIsWhatIBelieve.com is performing a valuable service by informing our elected officials of their duty before God.

Rev. Louis P. Sheldon
Chairman
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org

At the bottom of the page is a banner ad for AlainsNewsletter.com and the XYZ123 logo.

If you wish to support ThisIsWhatIBelieve.com the support page (Google Cache) invites you:

You can send a check to:

The This Is What I Believe Project
PO Box 28
Wapiti WY, 82450

Note that address. According to a WHOIS query of whois.opensrs.net, ThisIsWhatIBelieve.com lists:

Administrative Contact:
Lange, Alain alain@xyz123.org
PO Box 28
Wapiti, WY 82450

Not surprisingly whois.opensrs.net has the registry for AlainsNewsletter.com:

Registrant:
alains newsletter
PO Box 28
Wapiti, WY 82450

What appears to be an old version of XYZ123’s website on Google Cache makes the company appear to be a one-man operation. However it should be noted that site address is xyz123.org and is registered to a Mark Langlois in California who could simply be a proxy.

In summary: It appears Alain Lange runs a and created XYZ123 Inc., the TVC’s internet consultant. XYZ123 has projects which the TVC has openly endorsed, created the offensive graphic which began this post and is so cozy with the TVC that the TVC is willing to not-so-openly send out emails promoting his hateful website. One has to wonder what the TVC’s official position would be on graphics even more extreme than their own.

What’s NARTH’s connection to Alain’s operation? Although they never appear to have supported any of his hateful endeavors directly they do contract with him for mass email distribution as evidenced by this Google Cache of a NARTH email. Note the baby logo at the bottom of the message.

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