HARTFORD — This week, Connecticut Comptroller Kevin Lembo says his office has been deluged with out-of-state emails and phone calls after he questioned whether a Mississippi-based charity should be disqualified from receiving donations through the state employee annual charitable giving campaign.
"I'm getting about two to three e-mails a second into my inbox,” Lembo said from his office on Tuesday.
Lembo said callers supporting the American Family Association swamped his office's switchboard on Monday and Tuesday. As of Wednesday, Lembo's office had received over 10,000 emails.
It all started when a radio host on American Family Radio put a message out to listeners around the country, calling for them to e-mail and call Lembo’s office, saying he "discards Christian beliefs." American Family Radio is a division of the American Family Association.
The group is based in Mississippi, but it has a presence in Connecticut with the state-sponsored charitable giving campaign. State employees are able to donate money from their paycheck to hundreds of charities. AFA is one of them.
A state employee had asked why the group, known for conducting anti-LGBT boycotts of stores like Target, was among 700 charities workers can donate to through payroll deductions. The campaign's rules require groups abide by anti-discrimination requirements.
“We got a complaint from an employee and they asked us to look into whether the American Family Association was an appropriate charity to be in the state employee campaign,” said Lembo.
Lembo recently informed AFA about the rule and how he's investigating the group's practices. Specifically, he asked them last week for documentation to ensure compliance with Connecticut's anti-discrimination laws, he said.
"There's a difference between speech and discrimination policy right?” said Lembo, “so my letter to the AFA is asking them to forward to us, which is required by their contract with the plan, copies of their non-discrimination agreements."
FOX 61 was able to speak with AFA’s Public Policy Analyst, Abraham Hamilton, over Skype, who called the letter “alarming.”
"It appears that the communication coming from the Comptroller's Office is if you have religious beliefs, if you actually believe and stand on the Bible, you are not welcome to stand in the public square,” said Hamilton, “we just find that to first of all be unconstitutional and second of all to be un-American."
Hamilton says Connecticut has considered AFA a charity since the year 2000.
"You have an elected official, a government official, using his office to literally attempt to intimidate and to startle Christian organizations,” said Hamilton, “because the letter is chilling not only for the American Family Association, but for all Christian organizations around the country that adhere to biblical beliefs concerning marriage and human sexuality."
AFA is calling on the comptroller to retract the letter and issue an apology.
Lembo believes AFA is mischaracterizing his letter. Lembo says he was simply asking for information.
"The folks that are writing and calling seem to be from Mississippi and Tennessee and Virginia,” said Lembo. “These are not my constituents and with all-do respect and I don't really care what they think about how I do my job. I've sworn an oath to the people of Connecticut to uphold the state laws and constitution."
AFA is known as a conservative group. It’s goal, listed on its website, is to be a “champion of Christian Activism”.
