Mass Resistance web site shut down after homosexual activist threatens web hosting company

by Mass Resistance

The MassResistance website was completely shut down last week after a homosexual activist and convicted sex offender threatened the web hosting company, and the company caved in. Although the site has finally come back up, (after nearly three days of being down) the activist has now sent a threat to the owner of the owner of MassResistance's new hosting company.
 

Adam Flanders is a well-known homosexual activist in Maine who has been convicted of molesting a 14-year-old boy and is a registered sex offender. In January 2007, Flanders wrote and publicly distributed a shocking letter describing the sexual acting out at a "gay youth" organization, including adult men having sex with boys. Flanders delivered the letter to local police departments, the local media, and pro-family groups. Now, five years later, Flanders had a change of heart and wants it removed from pro-family sites that have posted it. He has intimidated every pro-family group  into removing it -- except MassResistance.
 

The vicious "SWATing" tactics now being used against conservatives

Known as "SWATing," Flanders' action can be seen as part of a disturbing new strategy being used around the country to stifle free speech by viciously harassing conservative web sites, bloggers, and writers, by going after the individuals personally. This includes threats, frivolous lawsuits, false police crime reports, phony harassment filings, other various acts of terror and intimidation. Flanders has filed a false harassment complaint in a Maine District Court against Brian Camenker of MassResistance, personally, and the judge unbelievably agreed to the restraining order! In Massachusetts, a far-left pro-homosexual group has filed a lawsuit against Pastor Scott Lively for international "crimes against humanity" because of his pro-family activism.

Flanders has indicated in his emails that he is working in concert with radical homosexual groups around the country.

Web hosting company for MassResistance site caves in

On Monday afternoon, June 11, HostExcellence, located in Kentucky, decided to accommodate Flanders' demand that they shut us down. The MassResistance website -- which has been up for nearly 15 years -- suddenly disappeared from the Internet.
 

Despite the fact that we had been hosted by HostExcellence for nearly eight years without any problems, the company was resolute. When HostExcellence began getting threats from Flanders they ordered us to take the material down or be shut down. We were contacted by Craig Witten, who works in the company's legal department, with that directive. (Strangely, we were first told he was a lawyer, then they said he's not a lawyer.) We explained to Witten the background of the situation, but he told us that doesn't matter. He said that shutting us down is simply a business decision. The company doesn't want to risk getting into a legal fight with those people, he said.

We suggested to Witten that by siding with a sex offender against a pro-family group helping parents, the company risks angering other pro-family people across the country, and sending a message that people's sites aren't safe from the ire of radicals like Flanders. Witten said that wasn't a concern of theirs. He added that the decision was final, and there's no one else at the company that we, or anyone, could talk to further about it. (This policy apparently reflects the sentiments of company president, Fathi Said.)

Threat to owner of MassResistance's new web hosting company

By Wednesday evening we had found a new hosting company and had finished most of the painstaking task of restoring the large MassResistance website onto its servers.

As soon as the new site was up, Flanders traced the server addresses to identify the company. He then sent two chilling personal emails to the owner, also located in New England. The first email contained a series of legal fabrications about MassResistance. In the second email, Flanders listed the company owner's full name, his home address, and his business address. (It was clearly meant to frighten him.) Flanders said he was giving him 24 hours to take down the MassResistance site. Flanders also threatened that he would begin various immediate legal actions against the owner personally, saying he was "personally culpable" and would be seeking "personal damages" from him.

The new web hosting company's owner is a committed Christian, and so far is standing tall on this. He knows that Flanders has no actual legal basis for his claims. But Flanders' range of threats and enraged intimidation tactics are naturally very worrisome to him and his family, to say the least.

Fighting back: Liberty Counsel steps up to help MassResistance!

As soon as word had gotten out that HostExcellence was considering shutting down MassResistance site, we got a call from Richard Mast, an attorney at Liberty Counsel! Liberty Counsel is a preeminent pro-family pro-bono law firm that has done great work around the country.

This past week Attorney Mast has put in a lot of work on behalf of MassResistance. He sent a strongly worded letter to the company president outlining the legal risks of their action against MassResistance, and has since spoken to a "real" attorney there. (We'll see what happens.) He has also communicated with authorities in Maine regarding Flanders, and is helping us with legal strategies to deal with him and his actions.

Local Maine attorney needed now for this: Help us find one!

From research so far, Flanders has likely broken a number of state and possibly federal laws in his harassment actions and abuse of the legal process. And his outrageous and frivolous harassment suits (which he's continuing to file) need to be confronted.  But unless we have attorneys to do this, it won't get done.

There's only so much Liberty Counsel can do (or has the time to do) from its offices in Florida and Washington, DC.  Someone who is aggressive and knowledgable is needed on the ground in Maine to get the job done there, in the courtroom. This is an immediate need because we must move fast.

To our supporters in Maine: please help with this if you can.

(There is actually one "pro-family" attorney that national groups have used a lot.  But we talked to him at length.  He takes a fairly moderate approach to these issues, and is not too interested in fighting this. We've seen too much of that among "pro-family" attorneys, unfortunately.)

Conservative media picks up on story

This story is starting to pick up steam. On both Monday and Tuesday, MassResistance was interviewed on the Bryan Fischer show on the American Family Association radio network. We were also interviewed on the Dr. Michael Brown Show, also syndicated across the country. Later that week were on radio in Maine.

In addition, WorldNetDaily did two articles on this last week -- but unfortunately both have been taken down (See #2 below.)

The time to fight back is now!

The pro-family movement has a long history of simply taking a defensive posture when confronted by radical activists. That has not served us well. At best, it temporarily "holds the line." Left-wing groups like GLAD and the ACLU, on the other hand, are always hyper-aggressive and willing to take us on with every creative strategy they can think of.  The "gay marriage" decisions and the legal attack on DOMA are just two recent examples, also going back to the removal of all religious expression from schools.

You can take this to the bank: If Flanders is allowed to get away with this, his radical cohorts across the country will soon all be doing the same, and much worse. The time to fight is now.

In fact, the First Amendment covers legitimate news reporting and political opinion for everyone -- even if homosexual activists don't like it. Or, at least it's supposed to.

Soon after our site went down our office got a phone call from a web hosting company in a foreign country across the ocean. They said they'd be happy to host us if it's become too dangerous in America. We're thinking seriously about it. But has it really come to that?