A Louisiana-based Christian ministry is pushing back after a Dec. 9 NBC News story insinuated it’s a “hate group.”

Jennifer Roback Morse, president of Ruth Institute, a global interfaith pro-family coalition, explained: “Using the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as its source, NBC reported that 14 ‘hate groups’ received a total of $4.3 million in COVID relief administered by the Small Business Administration.

“The Institute was one of the smallest recipients, receiving $30,000 through the Paycheck Protection Program, which allowed us to keep the lights on and pay staff salaries.”

SPLC currently lists 940 U.S. groups on its “Hate Map,” many of which are conservative Christian organizations committed to Biblical values.

“If fighting sex abuse, pornography and divorce makes us a hate group, so be it,” Morse said.

“… NBC relies on the Southern Poverty Law Center for the ‘hate group’ designation. This just means the Ruth Institute is a group the SPLC hates. Big deal. They raise a lot of money with their hate-mongering tactics. In 2018, their net assets were a half billion dollars.”

LifeSite joined Ruth Institute in launching an online petition demanding that NBC retract its story. And the petition went further, pointing out that SPLC’s “Hate Map” has been used as an excuse for violence in the past.

“Floyd Lee Corkins, who stormed the Family Research Council in 2012, cited the SPLC’s ‘Hate Map’ for how he chose his target,” the petition reads. “He shot the security guard. Corkins further stated that he intended to kill as many people as possible.”

The petition also highlights the fact that the NBC article failed to mention that Planned Parenthood state and local affiliates received more than $80 million in Small Business Administration loans.

“Apparently, NBC finds nothing hateful about killing unborn children,” LifeSite and Ruth Institute asserted.

As of Friday morning, the petition had more than 5,500 signatures.

Above: The NBC News bureau in Washington, D.C.

Photo: Sipa USA/Alamy Live News