In 2013, Dr. Ben Carson made the egregious sin of stating the marriage was between a man and a woman. That comment put him in the same category as the KKK and neo-Nazi activists, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which included Carson on their “Extremist Watch List” as “anti-LGBT.”

Now, the SPLC has acknowledged that that decision may have been a bit ‘extreme’ and has offered Carson a long overdue apology:

“In October 2014, we posted an ‘Extremist File’ of Dr. Ben Carson. This week, as we've come under intense criticism for doing so, we've reviewed our profile and have concluded that it did not meet our standards, so we have taken it down and apologize to Dr. Carson for having posted it.”

Some of Carson’s highly criticized remarks came from his book America: The Beautiful:

“[I]f we can redefine marriage as between two men or two women or any other way based on social pressures as opposed to between a man and a woman, we will continue to redefine it in any way that we wish, which is a slippery slope with a disastrous ending, as witnessed in the dramatic fall of the Roman Empire.”

He believes we shouldn’t mess with thousands of years of tradition? Call the police!

Carson’s beliefs in the traditional family structure may seem like the minority view in today’s culture, but they are his beliefs nonetheless. He has the right to share them without being demonized. Carson expressed this idea quite well Wednesday night on “The O’Reilly Factor” after the host suggested liberals define people as ‘civil rights abusers’ if they dare to defend traditional marriage:

“I don’t think most Americans actually believe that. We need to be in a place where people feel free to express themselves and not to be intimidated by political correctness It’s destroying our nation,” Carson continued, “and there is a reason that our founders, one of the very first amendment freedom of speech, freedom of expression.”

While the SPLC did apologize for labeling the successful doctor as an extremist, they also made sure to include those “controversial” comments which placed Carson on their list in the first place.

In a tragic irony, the SPLC, which insists its working to combat hate by targeting those who resist socially liberal agendas, has done little more than spew hate itself. In 2013, the man who tried to slaughter employees at the Family Research Council cited the SPLC as the organization that alerted him to the FRC's 'hateful' anti-gay marriage agenda.

The SPLC’s 'extremist' list, along with its obsession with tainting conservatives, needs to end.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this article suggested that employees at the Family Research Council had been killed in 2013 in the Chick-fil-A shooting. In reality, a hero guard named Leo Johnson helped stop the attack. In the midst of his bravery, he was shot in the arm. He was wounded but survived. We apologize for the error.