Good.

The noxious leftwing provocateurs known as the Southern Poverty Law Center have been slapped with a lawsuit over their recently published “hate map.”

While the map listed many legitimate hate groups (I discussed the map, here), it also stretched the boundaries of the word, “hate,” and listed some conservative or Christian organizations as “hate groups,” simply based on their belief in traditional marriage.

In fact, the small percentage of hate groups categorized as “anti-LGBT” are really just simple conservative organizations that promote a Biblical definition of marriage, along with other conservative ideological thought, and the SPLC has stretched the true definition of “hate” to include “anybody who doesn’t think like us.”

Hence the need to use wise and reasoned discernment when considering anything from the SPLC.

D. James Kennedy Ministries filed a lawsuit this week in federal court in Alabama alleging that the SPLC “illegally trafficked in false and misleading descriptions of the services” offered by the ministry, subjecting it to “disgrace, ridicule, odium, and contempt in the estimation of the public.” “These false and illegal characterizations have a chilling effect on the free exercise of religion and on religious free speech for all people of faith,” said president and CEO Frank Wright in a Wednesday statement.

But then, that’s been the goal of liberal groups for some time, now.

Also named in the lawsuit are Amazon and GuideStar. The ministry alleges that the online retailer has excluded it from its Amazon Smile charitable-giving program, according to AL.com. The charity tracker GuideStar ran afoul of conservative nonprofits this year when it included and then removed the SPLC “hate group” tag from its listings.

And, as I pointed out, D. James Kennedy Ministries is lumped in with other, legitimate hate groups, like the Nation of Islam or various neo-Nazi groups, simply because of their stance on gay marriage or traditional sexual mores.

“After having given the SPLC an opportunity to retract, we have undertaken this legal action, seeking a trial by a jury of our peers, to preserve our own rights under the law and to defend the religious free speech rights of all Americans,” Mr. Wright said. Another conservative group tagged as “anti-LGBT,” the Alliance Defending Freedom, called last month for a retraction after ABC News picked up the “hate group” tag, citing the SPLC. SPLC president Richard Cohen responded by saying that the ADF “spreads demonizing lies about the LGBT community in this country and seeks to criminalize it abroad. If the ADF had its way, gay people would be back in the closet for fear of going to jail.”

Somebody should explain to Cohen the difference between America and Chechnya.

There is, in fact, no move to outlaw homosexuality. Christian groups are not promoting the imprisonment of, nor the execution of homosexuals.

What these groups are doing is promoting what they believe – traditional marriage. SPLC’s characterization is just false.

Jerry Boykin, vice president of the Family Research Council and a former Army Delta Force commander, applauded the DJK ministry for “its effort to expose the truth about the Southern Poverty Law Center.” “The SPLC is an organization that is an attack dog of the Left, they are not a neutral arbiter that is calling balls and strikes,” said Mr. Boykin in a statement. “They are on the field playing, pushing an agenda, and anyone who opposes them is slandered and slapped with a hate label.”

Absolute truth.

Who knows how far this lawsuit will go? Ideally, some of the other groups lumped in with the “hate map,” simply for holding to a religious or conservative belief (that, ultimately, harms no one) should all join in, putting pressure on the group and sending a message to other leftwing organizations.

For D. James Kennedy Ministries, I wish them much success.