Breaking: Grand Haven Cross Critic Has A Disturbing History Of Bullying Christians-And Profiting From It

By Brandon Hall
(Email him at WestMiPolitics@Gmail.com)

Warning: Unfortunately, this story contains explicit language that may be offensive to some readers. 
I apologize, but felt the quotes were important to the story and needed to be exposed.

Kolekole Pass Cross, Pre-Mitch Kahle

>>>The Cross was built in 1962 and stood on the hill for decades without incident...until Mitch Kahle had his way. Then it was destroyed.

I'm not talking about Grand Haven's Dewey Hill Cross, also founded in 1962-I am talking about the Kolekole Pass Cross, a Cross erected on a military base in Hawaii in remembrance of soldiers, dismantled after a demand letter from Kahle in 1997.

The Kolekole Pass Cross is just one casualty on Kahle's long hit-list of Anti-Christian attacks.

Families grieving the death of loved ones killed in an accident, 9-11 victims, monuments to fallen soldiers, and kids trying to put on a concert for poor Africans are some of Kahle's other victims.

Kahle, who dubs himself a "civil rights activist," now has his cross hairs aimed at Grand Haven, claiming his demand that the Grand Haven City Council remove the Cross on Dewey Hill or provide him a forum to display his politically motivated causes is all about "equal access."

In actuality, Kahle is nothing but a belligerent bully who is now trying to bring his disturbing, ruthlessly hateful agenda to Grand Haven. It's business as usual for Kahle-he profits by intimidating people to conform to his demented, bigoted demands.



Kahle has a long history of bullying Christians-shockingly so. In one instance, he was taken to task by Bill O'Reilly for suing a high school because of a poem:

Kahle's anti-Christian activism has its roots in Hawaii, where he is well known for ruthlessly attacking every aspect of Christianity in the state.

Grand Haven, make no mistake: Mr. Kahle won't stop with the Cross-he wants the Nativity Scene on display for Christmas gone, and who knows what other entities Kahle will target...

How can one make such a statement? Kahle's history is clear: he despises every facet of Christianity and seeks to destroy any mention of it every opportunity possible. 

Since 1997, Kahle has successfully fought for "the removal of church descriptions from the official Honolulu city Web site, the removal of crosses from various locations around O'ahu, and limitations placed on the use of nativity scenes in the annual Honolulu City Lights program."

Such actions caused Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris to label Kahle "the Grinch who stole Christmas."

Kahle also forced the cancellation of a school charity concert benefiting poor kids in Africa. You won't believe this:

Christmas Grinch? Atheist Gets Hawaii DOE to Halt Winter Charity Concert Just Hours Before the Show

"Moanalua High School students in the award-winning orchestra have proudly raised $200,000 over the last 6 years through their annual holiday concert.

These students, who have performed at Carnegie Hall in New York three times, don’t keep the money to buy new instruments, travel abroad or help their school.

Instead, they send $30,000 they raise every year overseas to a well-known charity, Mercy Ships, which is currently housing American doctors in Africa on a medical mission. These doctors help the poorest of residents – some who have never seen a doctor – with urgent medical and dental needs.

It is the students’ gift to the world during the holidays and their chance to make difference for others in need.

Moanalua High School Orchestra

The seventh annual fundraiser was set for this weekend, and students have been practicing for months to ensure their performance was perfect.

But an atheist activist, who has shown up to protest city hall Christmas tree lighting ceremonies as well as city council hearings and legislative events where there is prayer, has turned up as their Christmas Grinch and put a stop to the kids’ best-laid plans just hours before the show.

Mitch Kahle, founder of Hawaii Residents for Separation of Church and State, wrote a letter to the Department of Education on "Freedom from Religion Foundation" stationary on December 3 demanding state officials stop the concert. He claimed the public high school was in cahoots with New Hope, one of Hawaii’s largest Christian churches.

It’s true that some of the New Hope parishioners volunteered to sell tickets or work on the set. But the concert is run by school staff and features its students, and tickets are sold both on campus and by phone. One hundred percent of the proceeds go to Mercy Ships. Historically, Mercy Ships, which has been the beneficiary of the concert for 4 years, used the $30,000 from Moanalua's concert to get another $30,000 from matching donors.

“People are assuming this is a New Hope event when it is not. They cancelled a high school event,” said Chad Brownstein, a volunteer with the concert, graduate of the school and employee of New Hope.

“For the people at New Hope, this not an issue because they (activists) are not fighting against New Hope. But the students had practiced and rehearsed and were excited to do it.”

Kahle's horrendous hit list doesn't end there. The article notes:

"He’s protested the police department using the words “so help me God” in their oath of office, and got the Honolulu Police Department to remove the words from the oath in September 2002.

He has intimidated Senate leadership into cancelling its daily prayer during the 60-working day session.

He’s pushed the Honolulu City Council leadership into cancelling only prayer a month typically held before its monthly meeting.

And when loved ones lost their family members on Mothers’ Day, May 9, 1999, during a tragic land slide at Sacred Falls park, and they posted eight small crosses by the roadside in remembrance, Kahle insisted the state remove them from the public sidewalk.

Kahle also takes credit for getting Boy Scouts programs and oath restricted on public school campuses in 2002,

Getting the phrase “I believe in God” removed from Navy youth cards...

Getting “God Bless America “removed from the tax department and health department facilities shortly after the 9-11-2001 terrorist attack on America...

Kahle, in front of thousands of children, tried to shout down the Buddhist and Christian religious leaders offering prayers ahead of a tree lighting."

Kahle, along with his wife Holly Huber, actually makes money off of his bullying. In one lawsuit, they made $200,000 off of churches trying to make the community better.

"(Kahle's)lawsuit claims the churches committed fraud by paying substandard rent to the public schools in which they meet, even though the school districts themselves agree the churches have consistently paid all agreed-upon rents.

“Churches who serve the neediest in their communities should be welcomed, not driven out by false accusations,” says Alliance Defending Freedom senior legal counsel Erik Stanley. “The claims in the lawsuit are false and are driven by an atheistic agenda that is hostile to churches. The undeniable fact is that these churches were at all times truthful, and they have paid all required rent to the schools.”

“These churches have not only faithfully paid all of their rent, they’ve sacrificially given much more in service and funding to the schools and communities they love,” adds co-counsel James Hochberg of Honolulu, one of nearly 2,300 allied attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom. “This lawsuit’s accusations are not only false; they are downright shameful.”

The atheists, Mitchell Kahle and Holly Huber, filed their suit, Kahle v. NewHope International Ministries, with Hawaii’s Circuit Court of the First Circuit under the state’s False Claims Act. The law allows whistleblowers with inside information to expose fraudulent billing by government contractors; however, the lawsuit fails to cite a single instance in which the churches submitted a false statement to defraud the government."

The Alliance Defending Freedom, a Religious Right legal group, intervened on the churches’ behalf. In a statement, an attorney for the group condemned the lawsuit. “Hawaii’s False Claims Act was never intended to bully churches into settlements when they did nothing wrong. Despite the settlement by some of the churches, this lawsuit never should have been brought in the first place,” said Erik Stanley.

Another article notes "Then Wednesday, Feb. 12, the Hope Churches announced that they would settle rather than undergo a costly legal battle. Through their parent company, the three churches will pay $775,000 of which $200,000 will go to plaintiffs Kahle and Huber for bringing the case to the courts. Despite the settlement, the churches never admitted to any fraudulent behavior."

Kahle also banked $100,000 after interrupting a prayer in the Hawaii State Legislature. 

He was involuntarily removed and sued-the State settled because they didn't want to have to deal with him in court, and the Legislature even passed a law giving the legislative security force more latitude in dealing with people like Kahle.

"Members of the Senate Public Safety, Government and Military Affairs committee chaired by Sen. Will Espero, meanwhile, were discussing a measure authorizing legislators to “take action against disorderly or contemptuous behavior or breach of the peace at the Legislature.”

Although the measure is informally known as the “Stop Mitch Kahle bill,” Espero said the measure “is not being considered for any single person, issue or organization."

VIEW VIDEO HERE. Holly Huber, the woman who shouts while Kahle is removed, is Kahle's wife and cohort in all of his dealings.

Huber and Kahle

Huber calls prayer at public meetings, ruled Constitutional by the Supreme Court, "coercion" and hates hugs, apparently. (View video)

She also calls Catholics "morally bankrupt" as she protests priests in another video. She is joined by Kahle, of course-they seem to have a particular disdain for Catholics.

Kahle also says that the Vatican "should be expelled from the UN and impose sanctions on Catholic churches worldwide."

In the same forum, he says "They really are sick people, the Catholics."

Perhaps that's why Patrick Downes, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Hawaii, says Kahle has a dubious agenda, is hostile to Christianity, and "goes out of his way ... to reassert his faith-phobia."

Kahle should be ashamed of himself for his ignorant, idiotic comments about Catholics. Nope. His comments get worse on an Internet forum for fans of Atheist author Richard Dawkins.

Other quotes from Kahle include: 

"Show me an evangelical Christian organization and I'll show you a fraud. They are all in it for the money and power over helpless and desperate people.

"Oh yes, there's a sucker baptized every minute."

"Driving churches out of the public square- Fine by me, I won't miss them at all,"

"The Religious Right already wants the death penalty for "fornicators, homosexuals, and blasphemers" so I'd guess the Taliban/Al-Qaida can be seen as being in league with the Republican Tea Baggers."

"If "God's in charge," he's one major fuck up! Tell me: why do Christians so consistently denigrate their notion of "God"? They make Him out to be meaner than Hitler and dumber than Sarah Palin. Is this the best they can imagine?"

"Volunteer Minister? That's like being a "volunteer panhandler"! WTF do "ministers" supposedly do anyway, except hold their hand out for money? F-ing losers!"

"Mother Teresa was a fraud. Virtually all of the millions of dollars raised to "help poor of Calcutta" was sent directly into Vatican coffers to pay off child molestation cases."

"Indeed. For me the word Christian is synonymous with arrogance. Claiming to have knowledge, refusing to provide evidence, and then demanding acceptance and respect is the highest form of ego."

"I'll blaspheme Ham's lord: Fuck Jesus!"

"Why not just abort Jesus for our sins? Perhaps that was God's original plan after all."

"These people (Christians) all think like 2nd graders (my apologies to 2nd graders)."

"Typical of the comments I read from many Christians on the Internet and in hate mail my organization has received over the years. It is mostly ignorant, hostile, laced with profanity and often includes threats of violence. I'd say intolerance is a trait that is common to many Christians, along with arrogance and hypocrisy."

"Hitler was undeniably a wacked-out Christian; a victim of childhood indoctrination (aka child abuse). No apologies for the genocide; he was definitely a monster, but there's no doubt Hitler was a product of his upbringing in a Christian society responsible for bringing the man to power."

Kahle's Facebook also streams anti-Christian rants ad nauseam.

In one post, he says "Prayer is the most failed experiment in human history."

In a speech, Kahle said that "I want to clarify that I always use the term “state and church,” not “church and state,” and that’s because the state is superior to church always. We need to remember that."

Scary stuff.

Kahle Mockingly
Dresses As Jesus To Protest Good Friday

Kahle also said "I am personally, deeply offended when I am forced to participate in some sort of a prayer. It causes a disconnect in my brain, and I have to say I actually get angry."

In Kahle's Orwellian world, Christianity is equal to RACISM!

"We don’t tolerate overt statements of racism, at a party, for example. You just don’t tolerate it. We have to sort of adopt that tactic when it comes to religion. This might be controversial to say, but religion is a form of discrimination. We have to say something against it."

Mr. Kahle, make no mistake: Grand Haven won't be bullied.

Attacking grieving families, 9-11 victims, monuments to fallen soldiers, and kids trying to put on a concert  is beyond the pale. Kahle's divisive, disgusting behavior will not stand in Grand Haven-we'll fight.

Kahle doesn't seem to grasp that fact-he seems delusional. 

After the recent "Community Conversation" hosted by the Grand Haven Tribune, Kahle took to  Facebook, writing, "At least 350 people attended our forum last night. Some in the crowd were a little unruly at first, but by the end of the evening our arguments had won most of them over."

We couldn't possibly have attended the same meeting-Kahle had a maximum of 15 supporters-and that's being charitable.

What's his goal with all this, aside from big lawsuit checks?

"To be saved from God's followers," he told a news website years ago.  

Grand Haven, it's time to speak out against the deplorable brand of hate and bigotry Kahle profits and thrives off of. He is an agent of hate-bottom line.

Don't give up on the Cross and let Mitch Kahle impose his disgusting, divisive, hateful ideology on Grand Haven-fight back. Contact Grand Haven City Council today. 

Kahle doesn't want a "community conversation," he wants to destroy the Cross on Dewey Hill and the Nativity Scene through a political and legal war. Well-he's got one! Unfortunately for Kahle, he picked the wrong town to mess with.

(View GH City Council contact info at the end of this article, "Cross Critic Demonstrates Ignorance of Grand Haven Government")

See also:

_______________________________________________________________________

Brandon Hall is a lifelong political nerd from Grand Haven, and is the Managing Editor of West Michigan Politics.

Email him at WestMiPolitics@Gmail.com

Facebook

Twitter

:)

Photo By Darlene Dowling Thompson