Here is another indication of the underlying intent of Religious Right (RR) groups. The RR has given itself over to a strange ideology and political, social, and theological fundamentalism (little “f”). They no longer reflect the Christian faith, in my humble opinion. They are not even conservatives in the classical sense.
A new organization of “family-values” organizations in Georgia have banned together to form the “Coalition for Clean Baseball” to try to stop the sale of the Atlanta Braves to a person they don’t like. I don’t necessarily like what this guy does for a living (amassing a fortune of around 4 billion dollars) – he is a large distributor of pornography (according to this new coalition).
This group has a right to advocate for their position against porn, and frankly I would support advocacy against pornography, but what concerns me is that they are taking upon themselves the role of arbiters of who is and who is not worthy or eligible to buy and sell in Georgia and regarding the national organizations nationwide.
There was a time when men held that women were not worthy of owning land. Not too long ago, certain groups determined that blacks were not worthy to buy and sell certain assets within our nation. Now, these groups are deciding that this man is not morally worthy and should be ineligible to buy the Atlanta Braves. What if a gay person was attempting to buy the Braves – would this group mount a nation campaign to keep this “reprobate homosexual” from engaging in the economic process?
You can see what would happen if these people (who are defaming the Church and the cause of Christ) every truly obtained power. Just wait, this kind of thing will only increase. It just depends on whether their influence will continue to cause people in power to listen to them. Their true intent is being slowly laid out before the American public, and while many Americans can and do agree with some of their policies, this kind of thing (the interference with commerce) goes too far. Who is next on their list of people who are not worthy of buying and selling within the United States? They can only become more extreme.

July 11, 2006
Campaign Launched to Stop Porn Magnate from Buying Atlanta Braves
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Baseball, apple pie and pornography?
A Colorado billionaire wants to buy the Atlanta Braves baseball team. But a pro-family grassroots campaign in Georgia is springing up to oppose the purchase because of the way he made his fortune.
Major League Baseball owners will meet Aug. 8-10 in New York City in a regularly scheduled meeting. They may discuss whether John Malone’s company, Liberty Media, can buy the struggling Braves from Time Warner.
No one doubts Malone’s financial resources. The Englewood businessman, one of the world’s richest men, is estimated by Forbes Magazine to be worth $4 billion.
But Stephen Adams, associate editor of Focus on the Family’s Citizen magazine, says Malone is not what he appears to be — and doesn’t deserve to own the Braves.

“He has the public reputation of being a Donald Trump-kind of dealmaker or Rupert Murdoch-style media magnate,” Adams said. “Indeed, he plays in that heady environment. But there’s another side to his business that most people don’t know. He is one of the biggest pornographers in America.”
Adams will chronicle Malone’s connections to white-collar pornography in an upcoming issue of Citizen.
“John Malone has been responsible for promoting sexually explicit video for decades,” Adams said. “First, with a company called Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI), which was residential community-franchise cable TV, and now with On Command, which supplies porn films to a million hotel rooms in America.”
Malone’s company, Liberty Media, would reportedly get the Braves and an undisclosed amount of cash, in exchange for some shares in Time Warner and a half-ownership in the Court TV cable network.
The transaction is more about reducing income taxes, than bettering baseball, Adams asserted — and Malone would not be expected to hold onto the team for very long if he got the keys to the owner’s box.
But for tomahawk-chopping fans, any stretch of time with a pornographer at the helm is a dagger aimed at the heart of their beloved Braves.
Sadie Fields, state chairman of the Christian Coalition of Georgia, said several pro-family organizations have banded together to oppose Malone.
“We have formed the Coalition for Clean Baseball,” Fields told CitizenLink from her office in Atlanta. “It is made up of Christian Coalition of Georgia, Georgia Family Council and the Georgia chapter of Concerned Women for America.
“We believe that baseball is still the national pastime,” she said. “It is a sport for families and children to enjoy, and we want to ensure that whoever owns the Braves here in Atlanta believes in those same principles.”
Randy Hicks, executive director of the Georgia Family Council, said he doesn’t believe the Malone deal would be in the best interest of baseball or Atlanta.
“At a time when Major League Baseball has such a tainted image because of steroids and other recent incidents,” he said, “it doesn’t make sense that they would welcome one of the largest distributors of pornography into the Major League Baseball family.”
What can stop the deal from going through?
“I think public outcry can,” Hicks said. “I think if you get the right people expressing concern — not only about their own community, but about the reputation of baseball — perhaps Commissioner Bud Selig and the owners will back off the whole idea.”
The big problem for the grassroots campaign, according to Hicks, is that few people have any idea about Malone’s connections to porn.
“If you listen to sports-talk radio in Atlanta, which I do fairly frequently, it’s not as if they are talking about Liberty Media a lot,” Hicks said. “In fact, John Malone’s name rarely comes up, so this is under the radar for most fans.”
However, Phil Burress, president of the Ohio-based Citizens for Community Values, has long known about Malone’s connection with the porn business.
“Our paths crossed with Malone many years ago here in the Cincinnati market, when he controlled TCI, and they were dealing in hard-core pornography,” Burress told CitizenLink. “We’re well aware of who this man is.”
A die-hard Cincinnati Reds fan, Burress said he’s outraged any Major League Baseball team could be bought by a white-collar pornographer.
“The fact that he is trying to buy the Atlanta Braves is something that just repulses me,” the anti-porn activist said.
If Malone is allowed to become the Atlanta owner, Burress wonders who might be next.
“Cincinnati is home to (Hustler magazine publisher) Larry Flynt,” he said. “How would baseball respond if Larry Flynt tried to buy the Cincinnati Reds? If John Malone is going to buy the Braves, then who could say ‘No’ to Larry?”