IMMIGRATION:
LIE: Mexican immigrants are overrunning our country – TRUTH: According to Pew Research undocumented Immigrants from Mexico have declined since 2009 by almost 1 million. (8)

LIE: We need a border wall – TRUTH: A majority of undocumented immigrants are not coming over the border but instead overstaying their visas. (6)

LIE: Undocumented Immigrants don’t pay taxes and are a drain on society – TRUTH: They pay $11.6 Billion in taxes, (3) and add $2 Trillion to the nation’s GDP. They also pay into social security while rarely receiving benefits. Children of immigrants are 5% more likely to go to college than resident children. (6)

LIE: Immigrants increase crime rate – TRUTH: Actual numbers show there is NO increase in the percentage of crimes when comparing residents and immigrants and in fact crime rates have decreased 12% since 1980 even though immigration from non-border countries has increased. (5)

SEXUAL ASSAULT:
LIE: Women exaggerate the prevalence of sexual assault. – TRUTH: 1 in 5 women are raped. This number is not generally disputed, and often considered low. 63% of assaults are not reported and 90% of college student assaults are not reported. (4) A sexual assault happens every 107 seconds. (10)

LIE: Men are in danger of false charges. – TRUTH: Of the 321,500 (7) annual assaults that are reported, 2-10% are either unprovable or false charges, similar to any other felony. (4) (10)

LIE: Wearing revealing clothing, behaving provocatively, or drinking a lot means the victim was “asking for it”. – TRUTH: The perpetrator selects the victim ~ the victim’s choices don’t mean they’re consenting to sexual activity. (10)

LIE: Sexual assault is an act of lust and passion that can’t be controlled. – TRUTH: Sexual assault is about power and control and is not motivated by sexual gratification. (10)

LIE: Transgender people commit sexual assault in bathrooms. – TRUTH: Transgender people are 3% more likely to be sexually assaulted. (7) There have been ZERO reported cases of Transgender people assaulting someone in a bathroom. (8)

FREE PRESS “in quotes”:
LIE: “It is the press, above all, which wages a positively fanatical and slanderous struggle, tearing down everything which can be regarded as a support of national independence, cultural elevation, and the economic independence of the nation.” ― Adolf Hitler
TRUTH: “A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad.” ― Albert Camus

LIE: “One of the things I’m gonna do, and this is only gonna make it tougher for me, and I’ve never said this before, but one of the things I’m gonna do if I win… is I’m gonna open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money. We’re gonna open up those libel laws. “With me, they’re not protected, because I’m not like other people…We’re gonna open up those libel laws, folks, and we’re gonna have people sue you like you never get sued before.” – Donald J. Trump
TRUTH: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. – 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

LIE: “The FAKE NEWS media is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American people. SICK!” – Donald J. Trump
TRUTH: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” – Thomas Jefferson

ABORTION Christian Viewpoint:
LIE: Abortion is murder according to bible – TRUTH: There is no such claim and in fact there is only one mention of abortion in the entire bible… Numbers 5:27 says that “bitter waters” were used to induce miscarriage which was considered just and necessary in certain circumstances. (1) (2)

LIE: Life begins at conception. Jeremiah 1:5 and Psalm 139:13-14 are often given to support the idea of life beginning at conception but are in reality shedding a light on the fact that our omnipotent God has known us since creation and His timing is not our timing. It’s a huge leap to make those verses anti-abortion. – TRUTH: Life begins at first breath… Genesis 2:7 & Ezekiel 37:5-6 God’s breath of life; Job 33:4 Breath gives life. (1) (2)

LIE: A fetus is more important than a woman. TRUTH: Exodus 21:22 While both have value, a woman’s life has greater value than a fetus (1) (2)

CHRISTIAN AUTHORITY and LGBT:
LIE: Fundamentalist Evangelicals are the only real Christians. TRUTH: There are 31,000+ Christian denominations with 5 major “families”; Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, Pentecostal and Evangelical. (11) The numbers are disputable but the point is that there is no church that can claim absolute truth in any matter without thousands of objections. There are often highly educated members of each denomination that claim to have insight into the true meaning of the bible and spiritual relationship, but there is absolutely no way to fact check this before our deaths.

LIE: LGBT people are an abomination and any association is implied approval of their lifestyle. TRUTH: Sexual orientation and gender identity are not a choice or lifestyle. The 7 bible verses that supposedly refer to “homosexuals”, a word not used in English translation until 1946, were for the most part referring to non-consensual relationships between a person of power and usually a child or effeminate male and are not referring to loving, monogamous relationships. Many Christian denominations support this hermeneutic and love LGBT people dearly and consider them valued and faithful members of their congregations. I acknowledge that this can be a controversial subject, however, we must draw the line when it comes to legislative endorsement of discrimination. A person should never be an outcast because they were born different from the majority and any effort to deny basic human rights is not representative of Christian thought or societal freedom. (1) (12)

Citations:
(1) Holy Bible- Verses from Genesis, Exodus, Numbers and Job (NSV English translation)
(2) The Bible Tells Us When A Fetus Becomes A Living Being (2012) http://www.thechristianleftblog.org/blog-home/the-bible-tells-us-when-a-fetus-becomes-a-living-being
(3) The Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy (2016) – https://itep.org/wp-content/uploads/immigration2016.pdf
(4) National Sexual Violence Resource Center (2015) https://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/publications_nsvrc_factsheet_media-packet_statistics-about-sexual-violence_0.pdf
(5) The Myth of Criminal Immigrant (2018) – https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/03/30/upshot/crime-immigration-myth.html
(6) Facts on Immigration (2017) https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/reports/2017/04/20/430736/facts-immigration-today-2017-edition/
(7) Victims of Violence: Statistics (2015) – https://www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence
(8) Pew Research Center/FacTank (2017) – http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/27/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/
(9) Statistics show… (2015) https://mic.com/articles/114066/statistics-show-exactly-how-many-times-trans-people-have-attacked-you-in-bathrooms#.Yh7qkyMNp
(10) Sexual Violence Myths and Facts  https://www.ourresilience.org/what-you-need-to-know/myths-and-facts/
(11) How Many Christian Denominations  https://www.answers.com/Q/How_many_Christian_denominations_are_there
(12) The Trevor Project – https://www.thetrevorproject.org/trvr_support_center/lgbtq-religion/#sm.00001glpgmh8v4ekvqhtkoge774wt

I want to point out that I have much more documentation than is listed here but didn’t want the citations to be pages long. I chose the most relevant ones for each statement.