In another post we will publish Prof. Rob Gagnon’s response to Richard Cohen’s new and curiously “gay”-affirmative approach to the homosexual issue.  – Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

Warren,

I certainly don’t think Richard Cohen or anyone needs to apologize for stating the obvious truth that “Change [away from and rejecting homosexuality] is possible.” If we were to apologize for everything that “offends” hardened LGBT activists, we’d be apologizing 24/7.

The question is, when will YOU apologize for affirming homosexuality as an acceptable (or innocuous) identity — while claiming (falsely) to uphold biblical orthodoxy? When will YOU repent for working hand-in-hand with “gay” activists who are diametrically opposed to the Christian worldview on homosexuality as an overcomable sexual sin (and an abomination) — by actively discrediting the need AND potential for wholesome change away from same-sex behavior and indulging same-sex desires?

You should either publicly apologize for undermining Scriptural (and observable) Truth — or renounce your claims to be faithful to historic Christian sexual teachings. This request is made more urgent by your employment with an evangelical institution, Grove City College, which purports to be “authentically Christian” — something few biblically-faithful observers of your recent flirtation with pro-”gay” advocacy would accuse you of being. 

I can document all the above statements concerning your conduct and “gay”-affirming advocacy, which has caused widespread consternation and confusion in Christian circles, and within the pro-family movement. You (or anyone) may publish this if you wish. 

Sincerely,

Peter LaBarbera 

Americans For Truth About Homosexuality
www.aftah.org 

Cc: pro-family leaders

Following is Warren Throckmorton’s daily e-mail for today (or view online HERE)::

From: Warren Throckmorton <ewthrockmorton@gcc.edu>

Date: Tue, 01 Nov 2011 13:08:35 +0000

To: <americansfortruth@gmail.com>

Subject: Warren Throckmorton

International Healing Foundation Comes Out?

Posted on www.wthrockmorton.com  Oct. 31, 2011

Or something.

Richard Cohen’s International Healing Foundation has re-invented itself as a LGBTQU (U for unwanted) organization on a new website called Coming Out Loved.

On Coming Out Loved, gay affirming people can find a page full of LGB resources as well as an apology from Cohen:

We at IHF wish to offer a sincere, heartfelt apology to everyone in the LGBTQ community who may have been hurt by our message of “change.” As the director of IHF, I apologize and ask your forgiveness. I did not realize that by stating, “Change is Possible,” some would be offended. That was the furthest thing from my heart and mind. To think that our message of “change” would cause further pain to LGBTQ youth and adults is painful to imagine … I am deeply and profoundly sorry.

Really? Is this a sign of the apocalypse?

Whatever it is, I doubt it is going very far. The website also has the old references to same-sex attraction being caused by environment and family background, and to treatment to resolve “unwanted same-sex attraction.” NARTH’s protocol for change therapy is there along with the old list of reparative therapists for referral. Cohen is still offering his book Coming Out Straight, one of the most direct promotions of the change paradigm ever. Moreover, Chris Doyle is speaking this weekend at the NARTH conference, along with a speaker who promotes criminalization of homosexuality.

Perhaps I am cynical, but the changes just look like business as usual along with a parody of gay affirming therapy.

This is photo from Warren Throckmorton's blog taken from Ricard Cohen's online video. To watch the actual video with Richard Cohen, go to Intenational Healing Foundation's website at www.gaytostraight.org.

But then again, in the promo video for the new attitude, there is a rainbow flag. (Note [in photo of video at left] the flag circled in the screen cap to the left).

I am looking forward to seeing reaction from AFTAH, PFOX, Liberty Counsel, JONAH and the like.

Seriously, if the IHF crew want to be taken seriously, they need to explain more about how and why they are expecting people to trust them. Also, if the same touch therapy and pillow beating protocols are on the table, then taking a neutral stance is still not enough to address concerns about their work.

Dear Readers,

We Republicans have often found ourselves on the wrong side of civil rights struggles since the 1960s, but there was a reason that Martin Luther King, Jr.’s father is said to have supported Republicans.

Republicans were historically the party ever-expanding freedom to disenfranchised minorities, from newly liberated slaves to giving women the right to vote. Susan B. Anthony was a Republican. By supporting the [pro-homosexuality American Foundation for Equal Rights trial against California's Proposition 8 upholding traditional marriage as between a man and a woman] we have an opportunity to establish our historic credibility on civil rights issues once again. But we should support marriage equality because it is the right thing to do.

Gays and lesbians are our friends, neighbors, doctors, colleagues, sisters and brothers. Does it sit well with you that because of their sexual orientation, a factor outside one’s control, that they should have less rights and protections in the eyes of the law?…

That’s why the Supreme Court, in 1967 Loving v. Virginia, legalized interracial marriage –six years after our current president was born to an interracial couple. At that time 73% of the population opposed “miscegenation.” How long would it have taken to change popular opinion, for the minority to democratically win their constitutional rights? As Martin Luther King, Jr. famously asserted, “Justice delayed is justice denied.” 

Note that the above excerpt is taken from Hoover’s column, “Why I’m Joining the Fight for Marriage Equality.”  on the Fox News website.  Yes, folks, something is rotten in the state of Denmark – and what’s rotten is that morally-challenged libertarian Republicans are pushing Danish values on the Grand Old Party.  (Actually, Hoover – a “Cultural Warrior” on Bill O’Reilly’s “The O’Reilly Factor” (oreilly@foxnews.com) is to the left of Denmark, which was the first country to recognize homosexual “Civil Unions” but still has not legalized same-sex “marriage.”)  Please help me to ask FOX News to treat the issue of homosexuality and the aggressive, anti-Christian, anti-religious-freedom “Gay” Agenda more seriously than they do now.  Ask that FOX NOT marginalize conservatives, Christians and morality advocates who stand on principle against the pro-homosexuality agenda.

FOX Contact Info: 

Brian Lewis, Executive Vice President
Corporate Communications
Phone: 212-301-3331
Fax: 212-819-0816
E-Mail: brian.lewis@foxnews.com 

Irena Briganti, Senior Vice President
Media Relations
Phone: 212-301-3608
Fax: 212-819-0816
E-Mail: irena.briganti@foxnews.com

______________________________________________________

AFTAH in the news: the following is reprinted from the excellent pro-family website “LifeSiteNews” (emphasis added):

News Corp., parent company of Fox News, to publish mag promoting gay ‘marriage’

by Jeremy Kryn, LifeSiteNews: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/news-corp-parent-company-of-fox-news-to-publish-mag-promoting-gay-marriage

NEW YORK, NY, September 6, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Fox News’ parent company, the conservative-leaning, Rupert Mordoch-owned News Corporation, is preparing to publish a magazine devoted to homosexual “marriage” in the wake of its legalization in New York.

The September 29 debut of “WEDDING Pride” by News Corp.’s Community Newspaper Group has drawn fire from both homosexual supporters, who have slammed the move as a transparent case of financial opportunism, as well as conservatives concerned about what the move says about the future of News Corp and Fox.

“It has come to my attention that News Corp, parent company to virulently homophobic Fox News and NY Post doesn’t apparently hate the gays enough to not make a buck off them, if the opportunity presents itself,” quipped one writer on the liberal Daily Kos blog.

Peter LaBarbera of Americas for Truth about Homosexuality said, however, that “Conservative and faith-based Americans do not look to Fox to promote sin.”

“And yet, every time Fox promotes homosexuality, that’s exactly what they’re doing; they’re promoting bad morality.”

“I think the problem is Fox News is based in New York City, which is a gay Mecca,” he said, noting that while other news networks devoted considerable time to reporting on a New York Senate vote to legalize homosexual “marriage,” the cable news channel devoted zero segments to the vote or to the governor signing the measure into law.

WEDDING Pride is to be a high-end, glossy publication and is to have an initial distribution of 35,000 in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Ad prices in the magazine are to range from $850 for a quarter page to $3,120 for a back cover.

Concerns about the direction Fox News was taking in regard to homosexual issues were also raised in 2006 when the news agency was listed as a “Feature Level” sponsor of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) annual convention after donating $10,000 to the event.

LaBarbera expressed to LifeSiteNews his fear that Fox News may “go neutral” on social issues.

“People expect Fox to avoid the typical liberal media bias on issues like homosexuality,” he said. “Already, Fox supports the NLGJA, and frequent Fox Bill O’Reilly guest Margaret Hoover is a strong advocate for homosexual ‘marriage.’”

LaBarbera said that there is reluctance on the part of most Fox News programs to treat the homosexual agenda as a serious threat to religious freedom.

““We certainly hope that News Corporation’s support of homosexual ‘marriage’ does not presage a tilt by Fox News in that direction,” he said.

FOX Contact Info:

Brian Lewis, Executive Vice President, Corporate Communications
Phone: 212-301-3331
Fax: 212-819-0816
E-Mail: brian.lewis@foxnews.com

Irena Briganti, Senior Vice President, Media Relations
Phone: 212-301-3608
Fax: 212-819-0816
E-Mail: irena.briganti@foxnews.com

____________________________________________________

Sign up for the AFTAH Banquet Saturday, Oct. 15th — Dr. Erwin Lutzer Keynotes!

Ex-Transsexual Walt Heyer and Pro-Family Hero Scott Lively to Attend!

We’re excited to announce that former transsexual Walt Heyer [see our 4-part AFTAH interview with Walt at http://www.aftah.com/americans-for-truth-hour/] and his wife Kaycee will be attending the banquet. Also, pro-family hero Scott Lively (author of “The Pink Swastika”) will be attending!

• Who: Dr. Erwin Lutzer, Senior Pastor, Moody Church, Chicago, Illinois. Pro-family culture warrior Scott Lively will also be honored at the banquet
• When: Saturday, October 15, 2011; doors open at 5:30 PM.
• Where: Christian Liberty Academy, 502 W. Euclid Ave., Arlington Heights, IL 60004, northwest suburb of Chicago.
• What: Dinner banquet to raise funds for Americans For Truth About Homosexuality. Expect a delicious dinner, wonderful speeches and a contingent of homosexual protesters outside the building chanting lies about AFTAH.
• Cost: $10 per person in advance; $20 per person at the door. Sign up for $10/person online at www.americansfortruth.com/donate/ (use PayPal if possible); or mail your check to: Americans For Truth, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-552. RSVP/inquiries to americansfortruth@gmail.com. Please consider buying extra tickets for your friends, family and co-workers!

For more information on the banquet: http://americansfortruth.com/2011/08/23/moody-pastor-dr-erwin-lutzer-to-keynote-aftah-banquet-october-15/

________________________________________________

Help AFTAH Expose Homosexual Lobby Misinformation!

1. Make you gift of $250, $100, $50, $25 or whatever you can give to www.americansfortruth.com/donate/, or mail your check to: Americans For Truth, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522.
2. Sign up for our dinner-banquet 6:00 PM Saturday, Oct. 15th – at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, IL — featuring revered Moody senior pastor Dr. Erwin Lutzer.  Tickets are just $10/person (and $20/person at the door).  Buy 5 tickets ($50) or 10 tickets ($100) for your friends and family for this exciting Truth Telling event!  (RSVP to americansfortruth@gmail.com.)
3. Send this story to your network of family, friends and co-workers, introduce them to AFTAH, invite them to the Oct. 15 banquet, and ask them to consider supporting our life-changing work;
4. Pray for AFTAH as we prepare for some big changes that will lay the foundation for the long-term health of our VITAL ministry.

Dr. Michael Brown, author of "A Queer Thing Happened to America," says true biblical love cannot bury the truth that homosexual behavior and relationships are sinful.

This is the fourth and final part of AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera’s interview with Dr. Michael Brown, author of “A Queer Thing Happened to America.”  This aired May 14, 2011. [Click HERE to listen.] Brown, director of Coalition of Conscience, and LaBarbera discuss the proper approach of telling the “truth in love” to people practicing homosexuality. Brown espouses a “Reach Out and Resist” approach of lovingly reaching out to homosexuals with the Gospel while steadfastly resisting the agenda to normalize homosexual, bisexual and transgender behavior through the law and culture.

When asked about controversial pro-”gay” Grove City College professor Warren Throckmorton and others who support “civil unions” and pro-homosexual “sexual orientation” laws as an alleged outworking of Christian compassion, Brown says faithful Christians cannot support the idea of legal ”civil rights” based on sinful behavior.  He assails the non-biblical approach of “Love Is An Orientation” author Andrew Marin, a liberal Chicago evangelical living in Boystown who seems reluctant to affirm clear Scriptural teachings that homosexual behavior is always sinful. Brown also prays for “Chaz” Bono, the daughter (Chastity) of Sonny and Cher who has gained immense sympathetic media attention surrounding her tragic quest to become a “man.”

Special “A Queer Thing” Offer: Michael Brown’s book “A Queer Thing Happened to America” is available through AFTAH at a discount price fo $25 (including shipping and postage). Make a $25 gift online at www.americansfortruth.com/donate/; or mail your $25 donation requesting the book to: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522.

HOW TO LISTEN: This is an mp3 file, supported in most operating systems by Windows Media Player, Quick Time and/or I-Tunes.  Do not use Real Player.  It is not supported and there may be difficulty listening with it.  Left click once on the link below to play.  (Please be patient, depending upon the speed of your internet connection it may take a moment or two to load.)  OR right click the link then “save target as” to download the whole show. 

5-14-11, Dr. Michael Brown

Jay Bakker

Note: here is a previous AFTAH article on homosexuality-affirming apostate Jay Bakker: “The Latest Bakker Scandal”. We hope Jay repents and gets back to defending Bible truth rather than subverting it. (Did you know that God spoke personally to Jay and told him that homosexuality is not a sin? Quick, launch a massive recall of all those “homophobic” Bibles so they can be updated with Bakker’s politically correct “truth”!) And don’t get me started on confused Wheaton College alum Cathleen Falsani, praised HERE by renegade “evangelical” Brian McLaren (never a good sign). Phil Magnan is right on below: God does not enable sin but in His great love and mercy helps repentant sinners overcome it [listen to our interview with former homosexual DL Foster HERE]. Those who shill for “gay christianity” (small ‘c’) are denying Jesus Christ’s – God’s –power to transform the lives of humbled sexual sinners. – Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

_________________________________

God’s Grace Doesn’t Lead Us into Sin

By Phil Magnan, President, Biblical Family Advocates

It isn’t as though you want to throw stones at this guy. I truly pity Jay Bakker and the people he met in this article in the liberal Huffington Post. Bakker, the son of the past televangelist, Jim Bakker, is so lost in his interpretation of what grace really means. If you read the article, it’s an eye opener of what we are up against — in which, so-called preachers are leading others into sin. Bakker pastors his own church but according to this article, he is sliding into apostasy with the best of intentions.

You can tell that the “drag” crowd about which Bakker writes yearn to be accepted, but on their terms and not on God’s terms. Jesus came into the world to call sinners to repentance; not acceptance to live in sin. We truly need to reach out to the lost, including the homosexual community. But real love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, it rejoices in the truth. (1 Corinthians 13:6)

You see, when people live in the real truth, it will set them free! But when you think that grace leads you to sin more, you do not have grace at all. In fact, Jesus said He would declare that He never knew us if we embrace sin. There is no question that we all want grace and forgiveness from God; but the grace He gives enables and teaches us to deny ungodliness.

As the scripture says in Titus 2:11-15; “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority Let no one disregard you.”

These false shepherds are leading people into sin as they have transformed the grace of God into license for sin. As Jude 1:4 affirms: “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

I would implore all pastors and believers alike to consider the fact that God has indeed called us to liberty; but that liberty should not be used as an opportunity for the flesh, but through real love serve others. (Galatians 5:13) Helping others to practice sin is one of the greatest acts of disservice we can do to our neighbor. So how are we walking in love if we cause one another to stumble into the bondage of sin?

___________________________________

Excerpt from Jay Bakker’s article in Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-bakker/finding-jesus-in-drag_b_812159.html

Finding Jesus, in Drag

Cathleen Falsani (aka God Girl) caused quite a stir here at HuffPost when she cited my new book “Fall to Grace” as evidence of a potential “great gay awakening” in the evangelical church.

The response was heated: 1,400 posts (and counting) filled with everything from enthusiastic support, to reasoned dissent, to emoticon-happy vitriol. Things got so unruly at Cathleen’s own website that she shut down the comments thread and posted an instructional video on how to administer hugs.

This column isn’t the space for a blow-by-blow account of the biblical passages on homosexuality. (For that, you’ll have to check out my book. Nudge, nudge.) Instead, I’d like to challenge readers with a story about my own struggle to overcome the fear of judgment and live grace.

During a trip to California a few years back, my then-wife Amanda and I were invited out to a drag show by RuPaul, the famous drag queen (recording artist, supermodel, VH1 talk-show host, etc.) who did the voice-over for the 2000 documentary about my mom, The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

The invitation came at a delicate moment in my own spiritual evolution. I was working my way toward becoming a gay-affirming pastor — someone who welcomes gay people into the church without asking them to compromise their love or lifestyle — but I hadn’t yet declared this position publicly. Frankly, I was really nervous about how the Christian magazines and festival organizers and even some of my Christian friends would react if they knew I’d been to a drag show.

I came up with lots of excuses not to accept the invitation: I told myself that I was trying to gradually bring conservative Christians around to a more loving and understanding attitude toward our LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) brothers and sisters in Christ. And I thought that meant not reinforcing stereotypes or inflaming fears about the gay community — and you don’t get more flaming than a RuPaul drag show!

In the end, I decided to overcome my fears and go. (When the queen of drag queens invites you to a drag show, you really don’t have a choice.) Thank God I did.

When we arrived at the club, RuPaul said hello and ushered us in past the crowd thronging outside. There were about ten of us in the VIP area. It was a very hip group including risqué celebrities like Dita Von Teese, the famous burlesque dancer who was married to the singer Marilyn Manson. The first half of the show passed without incident. Then, during intermission, I stepped outside to have a cigarette. While I was standing there, one of the drag queens — a seven-foot tall black man in heels who was wearing a massive replica of the Eiffel Tower on his head — approached to say that he was a preacher’s kid too and that he had grown up in the church. He went on to explain how much he loved my mom and how worried he was about her cancer.

“Please tell your mom that I’m praying for her and that I love her,” he said, Eiffel Tower bobbing as he spoke.

“Well, let’s get a picture together so I can show my mom who you are,” I said, letting my guard down a little and taking a photo with him. Stubbing out my cigarette, I went back inside for the second half of the show.

Near the end of the show, a drag queen got up onstage and began spotlighting the famous people in the crowd: “Dita Von Teese is here!” (cheers). “And RuPaul is here!” (cheers). And all of a sudden he said, “Did anyone here ever watch the Praise the Lord ministry?”

I thought, Oh, no, here it comes. But half the crowd raised their hands and cheered (and chuckled). I think they were expecting someone to come out and impersonate my mom or something. “Well, Jim and Tammy’s son, Jamie, is here,” the emcee said. And suddenly, this huge spotlight hit me.

As I blinked into the blinding light, the emcee asked teasingly, “Are you straight?”

“Yeah,” I said, blushing and pointing a thumb at my wife, Amanda.

“Lucky girl,” the emcee said.

And then the emcee got real serious. Standing there in high heels and a sparkly dress, he said: “You know, this is where Jesus would be if He were alive today. Jesus hung out with the tax collectors and the prostitutes and the sinners … ” He then launched into a three-minute speech about how Jesus loved everybody without judgment.

Then he looked back up at me and asked, “Jay, are you still doing your church?”

“Yeah,” I answered.

“Oh, that’s so wonderful. Best of luck to you on that.” And everybody clapped.

So there I was, stunned, not knowing what to make of this. One minute a drag queen was making cracks about whether I’m gay, and the next minute he was saying these really amazing things about Jesus and grace. I looked over at Amanda, not knowing what to expect, and she had tears in her eyes.

To read the rest of the Huffington Post article, go HERE.

“Would CPAC bring in an organization specifically devoted to promoting abortion and pretend it’s conservative?

Shame on CPAC for defending the absurd proposition that one can be ‘conservative’ while embracing moral surrender – in this case the idea espoused by GOProud of the government granting ‘rights’ and benefits based on sinful sexual conduct long regarded as anathema to biblical and Judeo-Christian values.” – Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH, quoted in WorldNetDaily.com

TAKE ACTION: There is nothing “conservative” about promoting homosexual behavior in the name of “civil rights.” Contact American Conservative Union (703-836-8602) and urge them to live up to their name and stop “gaying down” conservatism by embracing pro-homosexuality activism through CPAC. (ACU has allowed the homosexual activist group GOProud to be a sponsor at its Conservative Political Action Conference, to be held Feb. 10-12, 2010 in Washington, D.C.) ACU’s offices are closed for the holiday, but you can leave them a message on their voicemail or through their website contact page.

_______________________________________

WorldNetDaily.com reports:

Biggest conservative names bidding goodbye to CPAC

Participation of homosexuals, financial mismanagement cited

By Brian Fitzpatrick
© 2010 WorldNetDaily; 12/27/10

Two of the nation’s premier moral issues organizations, the Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America, are refusing to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference in February because a homosexual activist group, GOProud, has been invited.

“We’ve been very involved in CPAC for over a decade and have managed a couple of popular sessions. However, we will no longer be involved with CPAC because of the organization’s financial mismanagement and movement away from conservative principles,” said Tom McClusky, senior vice president for FRC Action.

“CWA has decided not to participate in part because of GOProud,” CWA President Penny Nance told WND.

FRC and CWA join the American Principles Project, American Values, Capital Research Center, the Center for Military Readiness, Liberty Counsel, and the National Organization for Marriage in withdrawing from CPAC. In November, APP organized a boycott of CPAC over the participation of GOProud.

The American Conservative Union, longtime organizers of CPAC, disclosed just before Christmas that GOProud would be considered a “participating organization,” the second highest level of participation. As a “participating organization,” GOProud has a voice in planning the conference.

The decision followed two hotly contested CPAC board votes over GOProud. The first vote ended in a tie. The outcome of the second vote has not been officially disclosed, but a source at ACU leaked the decision favoring GOProud to the media.

ACU is also currently struggling through an embezzlement scandal, in which the ex-wife of ACU Chairman David Keene is suspected of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the organization. Diana Carr, ACU’s former bookkeeper, was fired in January 2010.

Nobody from ACU was available to comment, as the organization’s offices are closed for the holiday season.

“Excellent. It is gratifying to see FRC and CWA respond appropriately to CPAC’s moral sellout of allowing GOProud as a sponsor,” said Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, the nation’s best-known organization dedicated exclusively to opposing the homosexual political agenda.

“By bringing in GOProud, CPAC was effectively saying moral opposition to homosexuality is no longer welcome in the conservative movement,” said LaBarbera. “Would CPAC bring in an organization specifically devoted to promoting abortion and pretend it’s conservative?” LaBarbera has formerly participated in CPAC, but said he may protest the conference this year.

“Shame on CPAC for defending the absurd proposition that one can be ‘conservative’ while embracing moral surrender – in this case the idea espoused by GOProud of the government granting ‘rights’ and benefits based on sinful sexual conduct long regarded as anathema to biblical and Judeo-Christian values,” LaBarbera added.

“[ACU has] gone libertarian, that’s their focus,” said Mat Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, a public interest law firm. “Libertarianism is right on the economy, often wrong on national defense, and doesn’t care about social conservatism. Libertarians only respect one leg of the Reagan revolution, and you can’t stand for long on one leg.”

“[GOProud is] why Liberty Counsel and Liberty University dropped out of CPAC,” Staver told WND. “Last year Liberty University was a CPAC sponsor, and we worked on a committee selecting speakers. We were not informed that GOProud was a consponsor. They were brought in at the eleventh hour, and we learned about it in a homosexual blog.”

Liberty Counsel responded by sending a protest letter to the ACU.

“We said GOProud is not a conservative organization,” said Staver. “They are undermining the military” by promoting open homosexuality, and “undermining marriage” by opposing the Defense of Marriage Act, which preserves the traditional definition of marriage by limiting it to one man and one woman.

“Anything that undermines marriage also undermines our freedom and economy,” said Staver. “It is contrary to our fundamental values to have as a cosponsor an organization that promotes same-sex marriage.”

“GOProud doesn’t fit in any of the areas of conservatism within CPAC,” Staver continued. “We asked CPAC to disassociate themselves from GOProud, but they refused to.

“The only way we would return to CPAC now is if CPAC openly disassociated itself from GOProud and carried on a pattern of activity that convinces us they are truly broad-based conservatives.”

Both FRC and Liberty Counsel said they would direct their efforts to rival conferences that respect moral conservatism.

“This year we will not be cosponsors or exhibit at CPAC,” said Staver. “We are focusing on other events that are more conservative, like the Awakening 2011 conference at Liberty University this spring. For the next two years we will be cosponsoring the FRC Values Voters Summit. We’re going to refocus our resources on events that promote the three legs of Reagan conservatism, social, economic and national defense.”

“We will to work to ensure that the Values Voters Summit continues as the premier conservative gathering in Washington, D.C.,” FRC’s McClusky told WND.

Voter Guide put out last year by the Massachusetts Family Institute shows then-candidate Scott Brown promising to SUPPORT the current "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy banning open homosexuals in the military. Now, as Senator, Brown has flip-flopped and pledged to vote for the Repeal of the military's "gay" ban. Brown's treachery has emboldened Democrats and pro-Repeal forces seeking to make the radical change in the lame-duck Congress.

TAKE ACTION: Urge Sen. Scott Brown to honor his promise to the Massachusetts Family Institute NOT to support repeal of the existing ban on open homosexuality in the Armed Forces (see graphic from MFI scorecard above).  Call or fax Sen. Brown’s office at the following numbers (Congressional Switchboard: 202-224-3121); e-mail him HERE:

Washington, DC office:
317 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4543
Fax: (202) 228-2646

Local Office:
2400 JFK Federal Building
15 New Sudbury Street
Boston, MA 02203
Phone: (617) 565-3170
Fax: (617) 723-7325

Folks, so much for this Tea Party-backed Republican and the comeback of political integrity. By reneging on his promise to support DADT (and abandoning conservatism on other issues), Scott Brown shows that he is just like so many other politicians: using the conservatives and religious voters to get elected — then pursuing the agenda of powerful, liberal special interest groups. The GOP is doomed as a major party if it follows the RINO (Republicans In Name Only) lead by caving on social issues  — although this is also a military/security matter. That’s because America already has a party devoted to Abortion-on-Demand and Homosexuality – the Democrats.

And here’s a memo to Tea Partiers: state promotion of aberrant sexual lifestyles IS a Tea Party issue — which you will learn (the hard way) if the Big Government Gay agenda succeeds and the Pentagon is turned overnight into the world’s biggest pro-homosexual advocacy organization. Certainly our Founding Fathers led by Gen. George Washington would have been aghast at the idea of “forcing integration of homosexuality into the United States military,” as my good friend Brian Camenker of Mass Resistance aptly puts it below.

House Repeal Roll Call: To view the House Roll Call on Wednesday’s vote to overturn the military’s ban on open homosexuality, in which 15 Republcans and 15 Democrats voted out of step with their Party, go HERE. Camenker is correct: people from all over America should call Brown because he received nationwide support as a candidate. But more importantly, everyone who cares about the military needs to call their two U.S. Senators NOW (202-224-3121), as an expedited Repeal vote in the Senate is imminent. – Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

______________________________________

Emphasis Camenker’s below:

Scott Brown announces full support for repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”

Abandons conservative base

POSTED: Dec 12, 2010, republished from Mass Resistance website

US Senator Scott Brown has announced on Friday, Dec. 3 that he now supports the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” – effectively forcing the integration of homosexuality into the United States military.

In a sleazy, dishonest lame-duck move, the Democrats in Congress are desperately trying to repeal the law in the waning days before the new Republican-laden Congress takes over on Jan. 1. A considerable number of left-wing pro-homosexual Democrats were defeated in the Nov. 2 elections, and Brown (and the others) know that the repeal has virtually no chance once the newly elected members of Congress get in.

The bill has already passed the House and is in the Senate. Although Brown has voted to delay the bill slightly, that is only for strategic purposes. He has said he will support the bill as soon as certain “horse-trading” takes place. A final vote could come any day.

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Happier times. Scott Brown (center) is mobbed by supporters in Littleton the day before the election last January. How many of these people would still show up? [MassResistance photo.

Much more than just “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”
The term “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” merely refers to an executive order by President Bill Clinton to circumvent the actual US law passed by Congress in 1993 which completely bans homosexuals from the military.

The 1993 law they are attempting to repeal (USC Section 654, Title 10) states:

“The presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability.”

Furthermore, this repeal is part of a larger Defense Appropriations Bill. That bill also includes language to allow taxpayer funded abortions in US military bases around the world. [Editor's Note: the Repeal bill to allow open homosexuality in the military  is now a stand-alone bill.]

Thus Brown, who campaigned on being the “41st vote” against the Obama agenda, could end up being a deciding vote to pass this key Obama promise to the homosexual movement. (And the abortion movement.)

Earlier this year Brown abandoned the Republicans and was the deciding vote on Obama’s massive financial reform bill. (Currently, Brown has voiced support for the Obama administration’s invasive and unnecessary TSA airport nude scans and pat-downs which angers many conservatives.)

Conservative base stunned

Nevertheless, Brown’s decision on “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” (DADT), which he publicly announced last Friday, has stunned and angered his conservative base in Massachusetts. Pro-family and pro-life activists feel particularly betrayed. Back in 2004, it was pro-family and pro-life activists who converged from around the state and worked around the clock to help then-state rep Brown win the grueling special March 2 state senate election against Angus McQuilken by 51%-47%. And it was pro-family and pro-life activists who supported Brown early on in his US Senate race early on when he was 25 points behind Martha Coakley and nobody else would take him seriously. But those days are long gone.

Mass Resistance’s conversation with Brown’s Washington, DC office

On Wednesday afternoon Brian Camenker of MassResistance spoke at length with Brandon Acheson, a staffer in Brown’s Washington, DC office who has been explaining Brown’s position on this issue to constituents since the announcement. It was very disappointing, to say the least. It appears that Brown has become just another disingenuous, disconnected Washington politician.

Here’s some of what Brandon told us:

• Brown’s statement in the MFI voter guide. Brandon indicated he didn’t know who MFI was and that Brown never authorized any statement about his position — that it must have been a miscommunication. “Sen. Brown never made a firm commitment that he would vote against it,” Brandon told us. However, MFI’s president, Kris Mineau, told that Boston Herald, “When Sen. Brown ran for election, he said he would support the current policy of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’” In fact, MFI worked closely with Brown and hosted several events for him in this campaign. They even hold a birthday party for him each year (even though he’s pro-choice). Interestingly, in that same article the Herald also reported that:  “Brown’s spokeswoman, Gail Gitcho, said Brown changed his tune after President Obama ordered the Pentagon to review the policy. At that point, Brown said he would keep an open mind to its finding, which came out this week.”
• Sleazy lame-duck session. We asked Brandon why Brown doesn’t support waiting a few weeks and letting the newly elected Congress decide this — that using a lame-duck session was offensive to people. He avoided answering the question directly, but indicated that Brown had no problem with a lame-duck session passing controversial bills. But he’s insisting that two things get passed first: (1) full extension of the Bush-era tax cuts, and (2) a bill to continue funding the federal budget. Both of those appear to be in the works as part of the horse-trading going on to get this bill passed.
• Repealing the current law makes bold statement. Repealing the current law (see text above) makes the statement that homosexuality is compatible with US military service. Does Brown agree with that? Brandon wouldn’t answer that. Instead, he said that Brown has been in the military for 31 years and is comfortable with his position. (Would he be comfortable showering next to someone sizing him up?  Well, we didn’t ask that.)
• 41st vote against Obama agenda? We reminded him that Brown ran as “number 41″ and his base back home read that as their protection against the Obama agenda being pushed on them. But now Brown seems to be doing just the opposite. Brandon wouldn’t comment on that, either. He seemed to indicate that Brown was not concerned about opposition from conservatives back home, or the concept that they were his “base” of support.
  Needless to say, the entire conversation was depressing and angering.

What should YOU do right now?
Call now — Sen. Brown needs to hear from you loud and clear.

Every politician needs to hear from the people, especially his base. He’s certainly been hearing from the homosexual lobby (see below). He REALLY needs to hear from you.

Call Brown’s Washington DC office at 202-224-4543. (It’s more effective than calling his Boston office, which told us they are not knowledgeable on this issue — although they do register the number of calls they get.)

You can also email him HERE.  [See additional contact info above.]

EVERYONE across the country should do this, since Sen. Brown got support (including millions of dollars in small donations) from across the country. Tell them that if Brown supports the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” you will actively campaign against him in 2012 (or whatever else you think is appropriate).

It only takes five minutes, but it’s worth it.

Leave a message if you have to. In this short time frame it’s the only thing that will get his attention. (And you can bet that the homosexual lobby is doing the same thing — see our report HERE!)

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. — Romans 12:2

Vicky Gene Robinson, move over. There’s a new spiritual fraud in the pulpit. The liberal media and pro-”gay” advocates are applauding “Bishop” Jim Swilley for declaring his homosexuality at his church. (If there’s one thing that secular, left-leaning reporters like more than “gay” Republicans, it’s homosexual “Christians.”) I will have more comments on Swilley’s interview with fawning CNN anchor Don Lemon (himself a pro-homosexuality activist who was homosexually molested as a boy). See also D.L. Foster’s piece over at Gay Christian Movement Watch, “Bishop Jim Swilley fasttracking the gay christian lie.”

Pray for Swilley — that he would cease and repent of his rebellion against his Creator. But also pray against his evil and unconscionable attempt to synthesize changeable sexual sin with Christianity, thus deceiving the Body of Christ and untold millions with his world-conforming testimony. Swilley needs to feel shame (not “gay pride”) for advocating sin as an identity, but right now he appears preoccupied with becoming the latest “gay christian” (small “c”) celebrity. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

Editor’s Note: In the One News Now article below, when I made the comment, “Most boys don’t think about sex,” I was referring to very young boys. I am always perplexed to hear adult homosexual men talk about how they “knew they were gay” from a very young age, say, five years old. Normally, boys don’t even know what sex is, much less homosexuality, in their early years, so such comments in an of themselves seem to indicate dysfunction, at best, or victimhood at the hands of a predator, at worst, in the young lives of these homosexually identified men. – PL 

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American Family Association’s “One News Now” reports:

LaBarbera: GA Pastor Swilley ‘Christianizing’ Sin
By Charlie Butts
OneNewsNow – 11/17/2010

A Georgia mega-church pastor has come out of the closet as a homosexual, but the head of a group dedicated to exposing the homosexual activist agenda thinks the “bishop” is compromising God’s Word.
 
Fifty-two-year-old Jim Swilley of the Church In The Now, an inter-denominational Christian church in Conyers, has stated that the September suicide of a Rutgers University student prompted him to unveil his secret life to his congregation.

According to the Newton Citizen, Swilley’s announcement last month was not a surprise to many members of the church. “There are two things in my life that are an absolute. I did not ask for either one of them,” he reportedly told his congregation. “Both of them were imposed on me. I had no control over them. One was the call of God on my life…the other thing was my sexual orientation.” He continued to explain that he had struggled with his sexual orientation his whole life, always attempting to come to terms with that and his faith in God.

“This so-called ‘Bishop’ Swilley is a very confused man,” laments Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH). “He thinks he’s being honest about — quote — ‘who he is,’ but actually, he’s compromising the Word of God and he’s Christianizing sin, which is impossible.”

LaBarbera contends Swilley should step down from his ministerial position, stop preaching the Word of God, and repent of his sin and the advocacy of it. Swilly has shared that his congregation has been supportive of his coming out for the most part, but the AFTAH president is not surprised that some members of his church have left.

“There’s no doubt in the Bible about whether homosexual practice is a sin,” the conservative advocate points out. “He says he knew he was — quote — ‘gay’ since he was a boy. Most boys don’t think about sex, much less homosexuality, so we’re wondering what happened in his early life. Obviously, he’s a confused man.”

LaBarbera emphasizes that homosexuality it is not condoned in Christianity, so Swilley has “set about rationalizing his sin, which is very dangerous business.” Swilley is the father of four children and is now divorced after a 20-year marriage. His former wife still works for the church.

DL Foster, ex-homosexual and founder of Gay Christian Movement Watch (www.gcmwatch.com), and author of "Touching a Dead Man" (www.TouchingaDeadMan.com)..

This third and final part of my interview with D.L. Foster aired Saturday, Nov. 13.  [CLICK HERE to listen.] It was pre-taped a few days before that.  Foster is the founder of Gay Christian Movement Watch (www.gcmwatch.com), which monitors (from a critical perspective) the heretical ”gay christian” movement. Commenting on the current media hype over “gay” youth suicides,” Foster accuses the Homosexual Lobby of using children to advance their agenda: and the media is a partner in it.”  Regarding homosexuals in the military, Foster asks: “There are thousands of people that are discharged from the military for all types of reasons…Why is it a national crisis … because some ‘gay’ servicemenber that knows Arabic is kicked out of the Army?”

Foster also describes how overcoming homosexual sin in a person’s life is possible without “reparative therapy.” He says, “The issue of homosexuality is not a therapy issue, it’s a sin issue — and you cannot ‘counsel’ sin out. It must be repented of.” He does cite the role of Christian discipleship through which a mature believer who is familiar with the struggle of homosexuality counsels and helps another Christian in the overcoming process. Listen to Part One HERE of the Foster interview and Part Two HERE. Contact info: you can reach DL Foster at his ministry website HERE. You can also order his book, Touching a Dead Man, HERE. Please point others to DL’s sites and support his important work. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

HOW TO LISTEN: This is an mp3 file.  Left click once on the link below to play.  (Please be patient, depending upon the speed of your internet connection it may take a moment or two to load.) OR right click the link then “save target as” to download the whole show. 

11-13-10, Pastor D.L. Foster, All

Twitter post by close NOM ally Louis Marinelli, Sept. 9, 2010.

Wayne Besen’s hateful sidekick over at the comically-named Truth Wins Out, Evan Hurst, speculates that AFTAH pulled a post from today because we did not want to offend National Organization for Marriage (NOM). Yes, and no. We pulled the post because a Tweet we thought was produced by NOM was actually put up by a NOM ally, Louis Marinelli (who was heavily involved in NOM’s multi-city ”Summer for Marriage Tour”). The tweet, shown at right, is unfortunate – coming as it does from a pro-family leader who should know better – but much less so than if it had been produced by the leading advocacy group for traditional marriage. I apologize for the error. We will have more on this story later. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

What is the bigger threat to freedom in America, presently? a) Sharia Law; or b) the anti-religious homosexualist agenda (including legalized “gay marriage”)? If you answered “b,” you are correct. Tell that to the conservative and ‘liberal-tarian’ pundits who are silent on the intolerant government-gay agenda and yet very vocal on the threat of Islamic radicalism.

Think about it. Here’s one Christian man who was targeted by the Homosexual Thought Police, but was ultimately vindicated. – Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

Hopefully Andrew Marin (above) will heed the criticism of Prof. Rob Gagnon, the world's leading authority on the Bible and homosexuality.

Folks, I am delighted to be interviewing my friend Prof. Robert Gagnon on the Americans For Truth Hour (the first of three segments aired Saturday, Aug. 4) – following his much-acclaimed instruction at the AFTAH Truth Academy last month. Below Gagnon takes young Andrew Marin (of the Marin Foundation) to task for distorting the Bible regarding the proper Christian approach toward homosexuality.

Those of us in Chicago are well aware of Marin’s chameleon-like attempt to have it both ways on homosexuality — claiming to be biblical orthodox on this issue and yet appearing petrified to utter the words “homosexual behavior is sinful” if a practicing homosexual might be within earshot. With the publication of his book, Love Is an Orientation, Marin appears to be hardening his heart on this issue by sinking ever deeper into the waters of pro-”gay” advocacy (much like Tony Campolo, who endorses the Marin Foundation, Brian McLaren, who wrote the Foreword to Marin’s book, and Grove City College Prof. Warren Throckmorton).

It’s all very sad. I have invited Marin to appear as a guest with Gagnon on the radio show, but have not yet heard back from him. We’ll have much more on this story. Kudos to Gagnon for holding professing — yet straying — Christians accountable on the issue of the Bible and homosexual practice.  Click HERE to read Gagnon’s 24-page paper. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

The liberal media just eat it up when a sin movement (in this case, organized homosexuality) officially goes “bipartisan.” Check out this excerpt from (the giddy) The Atlantic. I suspect that The Atlantic’s (and CBS News’) Marc Ambinder — while sympathetic to the Stupid Republican Party’s current pro-homosexuality tack — wouldn’t agree with our description of homosexuality as sinful. Just a hunch, though. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

P.S. I just learned that a group of carefully-selected, right-leaning theologians are working on a version of the Bible (RSV – Republican Standard Version) that reinterprets all passages dealing with homosexuality so that only Democratic same-sex erotic behavior is proscribed. Whew. For a moment there, I thought these Republicans had decided that they were smarter than God.

Ambinder writes (emphasis added):

Top GOP Party Strategists Attending Log Cabin Event

Suddenly, it’s becoming less of a stigma for bigwigs to associate with gays in the Republican Party. Not only has former RNC chairman Ken Mehlman’s 9/22 fundraiser for gay marriage rights attracted numerous high-octane Republican donors and activists, but Sen. John Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and Rep. Pete Sessions, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee will help the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay GOP group, raise money for its political action committee. (Part of this story was first reported last month.)

A glossy pamphlet advertising the Log Cabin Republicans’ national dinner at the Capitol Hill Club highlights an hour-long cocktail gathering with the two party committee chairs, both strong opponents of gay rights. But their attendance will add to the coffers of the LCR’s political action committee, which endorses Republicans who support gay rights.

The LCR national dinner, which follows the private fundraiser, will include Sessions, Rep. Judy Biggert, Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. The Daily Caller’s Tucker Carlson will serve as Master of Ceremonies.

The Log Cabin Republicans’ Mission Statement proclaims fidelity to conservative principles like a “strong national defense” and “limited government” before it discusses marriage rights and an “inclusive definition of the family.” But in practice, the group does not endorse candidates who oppose gay rights…. [continued HERE]

Read the rest of The Atlantic article HERE.

Ryan Sorba speaking at the Truth Academy.

Part Two of our interview with Ryan Sorba, a young conservative who spoke at AFTAH’s Truth Academy outside Chicago Aug 5-7. This aired August 28, 2010. In this segment Sorba discusses how some leading lights on the American Right are pulling back from the fight against the organized homosexual agenda. LaBarbera reads from a column by blogger and commentator Matt Lewis about how young conservatives support sassy pundit Ann Coulter speaking before the homosexual Republican group GOProud. Lewis quotes pundit S.E. Cupp, who asserts that “Conservatism and gay rights are actually natural allies.” Sorba says Cupp, as a purported “conservative,” is involved in a self-contradiction and has a false conception of liberty.

“Homosexual acts are unjust,” says Sorba, and “sodomy is contrary to Scripture.” He says there is no more a “constitutional right” to sodomy than there is a “constitutional right” to drop acid in the privacy of your own home. He compares the twisted, contradictory idea of “homosexual marriage” to a “square circle,” and says it has nothing to do with true conservatism, which is designed to preserve what is good and noble. Sorba and LaBarbera also say pro-family advocates should stop using the word “gay,” which suggests intrinsic identity rather than changeable behavior.

HOW TO LISTEN: This is an mp3 file.  Left click once on the link below to play.  (Please be patient, depending upon the speed of your internet connection it may take a moment or two to load.) OR right click the link then “save target as” to download the whole show.

8-28-10, Ryan Sorba, All

Tentative Speakers Schedule

Thursday, August 5 – Saturday, August 7, 2010

Location: Christian Liberty Academy, 502 W. Euclid Ave., Arlington Heights, IL 60004;

Cost: Adults: $149 for 3-day conference; Single day rate: $50/day; Married couples discount: $199 for full conference; Youth: $99 (scholarships available to attendees ages 14-25)

Contact info/queries/RSVP: E-mail americansfortruth@gmail.com ; phone: 630-717-7631; more background information HERE.

Truth Academy Instructors:

• Matt Barber, Liberty Counsel ; Board Member, AFTAH
• Cliff Kincaid, America’s Survival; Accuracy in Media
• Prof. Robert Gagnon, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, author, The Bible and Homosexual Practice
• Arthur Goldberg, Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH), author, Light in the Closet: Torah, Homosexuality, and the Power to Change
• Laurie Higgins, Illinois Family Institute
• Robert Knight, Coral Ridge Ministries; author, Radical Rulers: The White House Elites Who Are Pushing America Towards Socialism, keynote presenter
• Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality
• Prof. Rena Lindevaldsen, Liberty University School of Law
• Greg Quinlan, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX); Pro-Family Network
• Ryan Sorba, Young Conservatives of California

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THURSDAY, AUGUST 5 (Day One)

All presentations are 45 minutes followed by 15 minutes of Q & A.  There will be a panel discussion and Q & A on Thursday and Friday, and a special evening presentation each of those evenings.

8-9:30 – Light breakfast;  Registration

9:30 – 10:00 – Opening Prayer, Calvin Lindstrom, pastor, Church of Christian Liberty;

Welcoming Remarks, Peter LaBarbera, President, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality:

“From gay pride to gay tyranny”

10:10 – 11:10 – Prof. Rena Lindevaldsen, Liberty University School of Law:

“History of modern ‘gay’ activism and the courts”

11:20-12:20 – Matt Barber, Liberty Counsel; Board Member, AFTAH:

“Masculine Christianity: a non-defensive approach to the Culture War over homosexuality”

12:20-1:20 – Lunch Break; light lunch provided

1:20-2:20 – Ryan Sorba, Young Conservatives of California:

“The ‘born gay hoax”

2:30 – 3:30 – Laurie Higgins, Illinois Family Institute:

“Using reason and logic in answering pro-homosexuality arguments”

3:40-4:40 – Arthur Goldberg, JONAH (Jews Offering Healthy Alternatives to Homosexuality), author, Light in the Closet: Torah, Homosexuality, and the Power to Change:

“Can gays change? Is gay parenting good for kids? Presenting the research on homosexuality”

4:50-6:00 – PANEL DISCUSSION and Q & A:

Theme:  “Can the effort to ‘mainstream’ homosexuality in American culture be stopped?”

Panelists:  Rena Lindevaldsen, Matt Barber, Laurie Higgins, Ryan Sorba, Arthur Goldberg, and Greg Quinlan, Cliff Kincaid; Moderator: Peter LaBarbera

Special Thursday evening presentation (Q & A will follow talk):

7:45 – 9:15 – Greg Quinlan, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX); Pro-Family Network:

“An Ex-Gay Christian Discusses Love, Truth and Homosexuality”

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 6 (Day Two)

8:00-9:00 – Light breakfast; Registration

9:00 – 10:00 – Cliff Kincaid, America’s Survival, Accuracy in Media:

“The battle over blood: ‘gay’ health risks and public policy”

10:10 – 11:10 – Prof. Rena Lindevaldsen, Liberty University School of Law:

“The zero-sum game: homosexuality-based ‘rights’ vs. religious and First Amendment freedoms”

11:20-12:20 – Laurie Higgins, Illinois Family Institute:

“Corrupting children, politicizing schools: the homosexual youth agenda”

12 :20-1:20 – Lunch Break; light lunch provided

1:20-2:20 – Arthur Goldberg, JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality:

“The gender confusion agenda: ‘transgender rights’”

2:30 – 3:30 – Prof. Robert Gagnon, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary:

“From abomination to ‘gay’: answering ‘queer theology’ — Old Testament”

3:40-4:40 – Prof. Rena Lindevaldsen, Liberty U. School of Law:

“The legal strategy to stop homosexual ‘marriage’: triumphs and pitfalls”

5:00-6:00 – PANEL DISCUSSION and Q & A:

Theme:  “Returning the debate to behavior – getting off the ‘GLBT’ playing field”

Panelists:  Rena Lindevaldsen, Matt Barber, Laurie Higgins, Ryan Sorba, Arthur Goldberg, Cliff Kincaid, Robert Knight, Robert Gagnon, Gregg Quinlan; Moderator: Peter LaBarbera

Special Friday evening keynote presentation (Q & A will follow talk):

7:45 – 9:15 – Robert Knight, Coral Ridge Ministries; author, Radical Rulers: The White House Elites Who Are Pushing America Towards Socialism:

“From destroying DOMA to homosexualizing the military: Obama’s radical homosexual/transsexual agenda for America”

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SATURDAY, AUGUST 7 (Day Three)

8:00-9:00 – Light breakfast; Registration

9:00 – 10:00 – Prof. Robert Gagnon, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary:

“’But Jesus never said anything about homosexuality’”: Answering ‘Queer Theology’ — New Testament”

10:10 – 11:10 – Robert Knight, Coral Ridge Ministries:

“Destructive legacy: Alfred Kinsey and the (Homo)Sexual Revolution”

11:20-12:20 – Greg Quinlan, PFOX, Pro-Family Network:

“The big, pink plan for a lavender culture”/”How to lobby effectively”

12:20-1:20 – Lunch Break; light lunch provided

1:20-2:20 – Cliff Kincaid, America’s Survival; Accuracy in Media:

“Combating pro-homosexual media bias, confronting pro-gay ‘conservatives’”

2:30-3:40 – Prof. Robert Gagnon, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary:

“Agreeing with God: a truly biblical approach toward ‘out and proud’ homosexuality”

3:50-4:50 – Ryan Sorba, Young Conservatives of California:

“Confronting the zeitgeist: new strategies to turn around younger Americans on ‘gay rights’”

5:00-6:00 – Matt Barber, Liberty Counsel, AFTAH Board Member:

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Bleed: stopping Obama’s campaign to homosexualize the U.S. military”

6:00-6:20 – Closing remarks, Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth

“[A blog article] supposes that I ever quoted Leviticus that homosexuality is an abomination.  That never happened.  I repeat: that never happened.  I never said that.  I don’t believe that….

“In fact, I was one of the earliest radio hosts to support organizations such as PFLAG (you know, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and other efforts to encourage openness and acceptance of gays in their own families, much less society.”  – Dr. Laura Schlessinger, “Setting My Record Straight about Gays,” June 22, 2010, Schlessinger’s blog

The famous radio host, "Dr. Laura" Schlessinger, now praises the radical homosexual group PFLAG (Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). In 2000, homosexual militants targeted Schlessinger with a cyber-boycott because she said (correctly) that homosexuality is a "biological error."

TAKE ACTION: Write Dr. Laura Schlessinger through her blog and urge her to stop promoting the homosexual activist group PFLAG. Respectfully ask her to instead support PFOX, a pro-family support group for parents and friends of ex-gays (and gays). Also urge her to refrain from sanctioning homosexual relationships, which are always wrong, and to instead use her powerful voice to support the ex-gay movement. Another way to contact Schlessinger is through her website, DrLaura.com, but you have to join first to e-mail her this way. Or you can write: webmaster@drlaura.com.
The call-in line for Dr. Laura’s radio show is 1-800-DR-LAURA (800-375-2872). (Calls must come between 11:30 and 3:00 PM Pacific Time Monday-Friday.)

______________________________________

By Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

I’m sad to report that Dr. Laura Schlessinger – the “Dr. Laura” of radio moralist fame — has chosen to sell out the truth about homosexuality because she either: 1) stopped believing it; or 2) couldn’t take the pressure or the potential loss of income and prestige resulting from hostile “gay” activism.

Note that I did not say that Schlessinger has sold out on opposing “gay marriage.” She hasn’t, and still publicly defends traditional marriage. But she has reversed course on homosexuality, which is by far the more politically incorrect battle these days. Let’s face it, “protecting marriage” in our “gay”-saturated culture is a much easier task than opposing the extremist homosexual agenda — which Dr. Laura knows better than anyone because she herself was savaged by ’GLBT’ cultural bullies ten years ago for describing homosexuality as unnatural.

(I want to stress that Schlessinger’s retreat on homosexuality does not negate her immense contributions to the culture in teaching people to take responsibility for their own lives, and in helping to build healthy marriages and families. For example, I know just from conversations with friends and family that her book, The Proper Care & Feeding of Husbands, has blessed many women and, by extension, their husbands and marriages.)

‘Gay’ Cyberwar Target

A decade ago, Schlessinger was the target of a “gay” activist cyber-campaign after she referred on her show to homosexuality — not “gay people,” as was widely misreported — as a “biological error.” Of course, Dr. Laura was right: as we’ve noted, Nature itself clearly discriminates against homosexuality; just look at the skyrockeing sexual diseases including HIV among “men who have sex with men.” Or observe the simple biological fact that any child can understand: that two men or two women alone cannot produce a child without borrowing from heterosexuality, as it were.

Indeed, homosexual “equality” can never be more than a mere political slogan.

Because Schlessinger reasonably asserted on radio that homosexual practice is deviant, she and her new TV show were targeted by a vicious homosexual boycott campaign that ultimately led to the TV show being canceled. To get an idea of the massive cyber-boycott unleashed against her, visit the the archive of the website “StopDrLaura.com,” created by homosexual militant and blogger John Aravosis. Going down the list of the StopDrLaura actions and “victories” on their home page is a valuable lesson in the dedication and fanaticism (and cruelty) of homosexual activists. One item even approvingly cites a column by feminist lawyer Gloria Allred speculating on whether the demonized Dr. Laura could have been sued for “discrimination” under California’s “sexual orientation” law for making her remarks critical of homosexuality (see 9/27 item “Could Dr. Laura Be Sued?”).

Homosexaul activists mocked Dr. Laura and took her comments about homosexuality being a "biological error" out of context to demonize the talk show host. Their boycott of Dr. Laura's advertisers led to her TV show being cancelled -- a campaign that surely has had a chilling effect on other radio talk show hosts. This photo -- note the message, "Are you a BIOLOGICAL ERROR?" -- is taken from the "StopDrLaura.com" archive website.

The cyber-boycott worked to perfection, but Schlessinger made it worse by proceeding to take out not one but two full-page ads in the Hollywood newspaper Variety to apologize (as a then-Orthodox Jew) to the “gay community.” If life were fair, it should have been the intolerant ”queer” activists like Aravosis apologizing to Dr. Laura, but unfortunately, politics and cultural warfare often reward bullies.  The Variety ads were a pathetic capitulation — especially coming from a tough-talker like Dr. Laura who did nothing wrong. It was sort of like the abused schoolboy paying and praising his tormenters for not stealing his lunch on Friday after they did so every other day of the week.

Chilling effect from rewarding bullies

The StopDrLaura web campaign was the first of its kind targeting a radio talk show host and its success certainly had a chilling effect on other talk shows. As we have often bemoaned, these days even most “conservative” talkers carefullly avoid taking on the homosexual activist movement, and some, like self-described “Happy Conservative Warrior” Mike Gallagher, have thrown up the white flag of surrender on the homosexuality debate. (Curously, Gallagher complains when “conservatives” sell out on issues that he cares about.)

I can almost hear Dr. Laura telling one of her callers: “You never reward bullies.” But that’s exactly what she has done, and she continues the appeasement with her sporadic attempts to disprove a false claim arrising from the cyber-boycott: that she  “hates gays and lesbians.” (Memo to Dr. Laura: why even bother to answer this straw-man smear? When you chastise your callers who are practicing adultery or fornication, does that mean you “hate” adulterers and fornicators?)

Promoting PFLAG, promoting homosexuality

As part of her perverse penance, Schlessinger — who once was a convert to Orthodox Judaism but left that religion in 2003 — now champions the radical homosexual organization PFLAG (Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). PFLAG supports “gay marriage” and promotes the anti-biblical notion that homosexual practice is not sinful; in fact, it expends a lot of resources undermining Scriptural truth about homosexuality and marriage.

PFOX President Greg Quinlan, a former homosexual and one-time “gay” activist, recently outlined some of PFLAG’s anti-Christian activities in his speech to PepsiCo’s shareholders meeting highlighting PepsiCo’s financial support of PFLAG:

PepsiCo, Inc. is the leading corporate sponsor of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, known as PFLAG. PFLAG’s latest publication, a religious guidebook, instructs its members to protest against religious conferences which feature ex-gay speakers like me. PFLAG’s religious guidebook even directs members on how to create picket signs for these protests. It also urges members to hold press conferences and issue press releases against ex-gay religious events “to remind people that there is more than one faith message.”

My church welcomes the ex-gay community. Why does Pepsi fund groups like PFLAG that disrupt Christian events which support former homosexuals like me? Why does PepsiCo fund an organization like PFLAG which issues religious publications urging readers to undermine other religions with which PFLAG disagrees? Why does Pepsi fund hate? Why?

We must ask: why is Dr. Laura giving free publicity to a group that encourages hostility against Bible-believing Christians and wars against God’s wonderful, created order for sex and marriage? In leaving Orthodox Judaism, why did Schlessinger also throw out biblical truths, such as the Old Testament’s prohibition of homosexual acts as an abomination (detestible)? Is Dr. Laura smarter than God?

I have not listened to Schlessinger’s show in a while (she’s not on a major network in Chicago), but I’m concerned with what her 2008 blog post below says about her apparent countenancing of homosexual relationships:

“When I helped a young male caller with his ‘boyfriend’ problems — which are no different in their content from ‘girlfriend’ problems: common sense, fears, communication, I got a spate of letters….”

So it doesn’t matter if a man has a boyfriend or a girlfriend? Really, Dr. Laura? A moralist who purports to defend absolute Bible morality cannot treat homosexual relationships as if they are OK because they are deeply immoral. Instead, she should tell such a homosexual: “You need to get out of that relationship and seek help in abandoning homosexual practice, which is wrong. There are plenty of places to get help, whatever your religious persuasion is, or even if you are not religious.” [See these ex-gay or change-oriented websites: NARTH; First Stone Min.; Exodus International; Regeneration Min.; Charlene Cothran's Evidence Ministries; Linda Jernigan's RescuingHomosexuals.net; and JONAH.]

PFLAG vs. PFOX

PFLAG relentlessly attacks pro-family groups, especially the one that Dr. Laura should be promoting: PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays). PFOX correctly believes that you can love your child without approving of his or her homosexual, bisexual, or “transgender” lifestyle. My friend, PFOX President Regina Griggs, has a homosexual son and she loves him as any mother would her son – I know, because I’ve had many conversations with Regina. She understands — as Dr. Laura surely would agree – that loving your child does not mean accepting everything he or she does. Regina loves her son but will never accept his homosexuality as part of “who he is.” She prays he will join the tens of thousands of “ex-gays” who have left this dead-end lifestyle behind. (Listen to my interview with ex-lesbian Linda Jernigan HERE.)

It’s called “tough love, “and Dr. Laura of all people should understand this concept – which makes it all the more galling that she now promotes the homosexualist group PFLAG with its artificial brand of homosexuality-affirming “love.” 

Now that I think of it, I challenge you, Dr. Laura, to invite Regina Griggs to your home and learn a few things about true love, and then give her an on-air interview to compensate for your radio promotion of PFLAG.

PFLAG promotes gender confusion in kids

I wonder if Dr. Laura has an any clue how extreme PFLAG is. In addition to propagandizing for homosexuality, PFLAG recklessly promotes “transgender” identities in children; see their booklet “Our Trans Children” HERE. (“A trans child can be treated with puberty blockers to suppress development of the secondary sexual characteristics of the birth sex.” — p. 5.) Here’s more from PFLAG’s “Our Trans Children” booklet:  

“If your child has come out to you [as transgender] before or at the beginning of puberty, you may consider puberty blockers. …They are completely reversible, so if the blockers are withdrawn, puberty begins. This allows your child to mature with their affirmed gender identity or revert back to their birth sex if they desire.If your child is ready for irreversible treatment (usually at 16 years or older) the absence of those unwanted secondary sex characteristics will make their full transition much easier and less expensive. ”  

How sad that a woman like Dr. Laura who claims to defend biblical morality, and who has done so much good in urging men and women to stop feeling sorry for themselves and to face their problems head-on, now boasts that she recommends a homosexual organization like PFLAG, which urges parents to “block” their child’s puberty as a way to help the child “transition” into a deviant, unnatural identity.

Who knows how many desperate parents with gender-confused children PFLAG has led astray!  

Dr. Laura needs to “do the right thing” (to quote her mantra) and stop pretending that homosexuality is OK and shilling for misguided ‘GLBT’ groups like PFLAG. It will take courage — of the sort she constantly encourages in her callers — but she should switch from supporting PFLAG to supporting PFOX and other groups that affirm God’s natural created design for men and women.

Dr. Laura needs to take personal responsibility for defecting away from truth on the homosexual issue. Pandering to an organized sin movement — however aggressive and skilled it is at intimidating and bullying good people – is not befitting a moralist like Schlessinger who counsels others to obey God and take the tough road toward living right.

UPDATE/Note to Readers: I have just called Sen. Lugar’s D.C. office (July 7, 2010) and an aide said that he has NOT issued a statement on the congressional effort to repeal the ban on homosexuals in the military – despite the Washington Blade report cited below. Now is the time for all conservatives — but especially those in Indiana — to contact Lugar and urge him to stay true to conservative principles on this issue. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH.org

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TAKE ACTION: Contact Sen. Dick Lugar [202-224-4814; e-mail him HERE] and urge him to oppose the homosexualization of the U.S. military, in a time of war — and to STOP pandering to the Homosexual Lobby. Lugar’s statewide office contact information is at the bottom of this email. Urge Sen. Lugar to support a filibuster of the Defense spending bill, with its provision to repeal the Armed Forces’ sensible homosexuality ban. Please pass this alert on to your friends and family living in Indiana.

A repeal measure passed by the House and contained in the Senate Defense spending bill would inject open homosexuality into the military without even waiting to hear from a (biased) review of the policy by Defense Sec. Robert Gates, which is slated for completion in December. Respectfully urge Sen. Lugar to respect the military by resisting the reckless experimentation with the Armed Forces. For the best information on this issue, go to the Center for Military Readiness website.

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By Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

Well, it appears veteran Sen. Dick Lugar [(202) 224-4814; e-mail him HERE; see statewide office contact info at bottom] is another Republican who has “grown” on homosexual issues — leaving wholesome, conservative Indiana values far behind. If the Washington Blade is to be believed, Lugar is not even willing to wait for Defense Sec. Robert Gates’ biased review on how (not whether) to implement President Obama’s homosexuals-in-the-military plan.

The Blade, a newspaper for homosexuals, reports that Lugar will not support a motion to strike language repealing the ban on homosexuals in the military (“Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell”). Here is an excerpt from the Blade (emphasis added), followed by statewide contact info for Sen. Lugar:

U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) told the Blade last week that he isn’t concerned about the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal language in the fiscal year 2011 defense authorization bill and wouldn’t support an effort to rid the legislation of the provision.

Asked whether he would support a substitute amendment or a motion to strike, Lugar replied, “No. I would just leave it as it is.”

Lugar said he would “presume” that he would vote against any filibuster of the defense bill as a whole, but expressed concern about the legislation being used as a vehicle for other costly programs unrelated to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

“The defense bill, as it stands, seems to me to be a good piece of legislation, but I think the issue was the additions that were not paid for in various other ways,” Lugar said.

Often regarded on Capitol Hill as a centrist Republican, Lugar voted in favor of hate crimes protections legislation after twice backing the Federal Marriage Amendment.

Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, said Lugar’s comments on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” are “good news.”

“That is consistent with what we have been hearing from his staff,” Sarvis said. “My view is that Sen. Lugar’s response is very encouraging.”

Lugar’s support for allowing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal language to stay in the defense bill could be a sign the provision would survive the legislative process once it reaches the Senate floor.

On May 27, the Senate Armed Services Committee voted to attach language leading to repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to the defense bill. But while the repeal language has been attached to the defense bill, a number of obstacles remain that could prevent the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” language from passing in the Senate.

One such obstacle is a filibuster of the defense bill as whole. Additionally, a substitute amendment or a motion to strike could strip the legislation of repeal language.

Mounting a filibuster of the defense bill would take 41 votes in the Senate. Such an effort would be politically challenging because pay for troops and defense programs are included in the larger bill….

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Statewide Offices of Sen. Dick Lugar

Southern Indiana

101 NW Martin Luther King Boulevard
Room 122
Evansville, Indiana 47708
(812) 465-6313 p
(812) 421-1883 f

Northeast Indiana

6384 A  West Jefferson Boulevard
Covington Plaza
Fort Wayne, Indiana 46804
(260) 422-1505 p
(260) 424-1342 f
 
Central Indiana

1180 Market Tower
10 West Market Street
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204
(317) 226-5555 p
(317) 226-5508 f
 
Northwest Indiana

175 West Lincolnway
Suite G-1
Valparaiso, Indiana 46383
(219) 548-8035 p
(219) 548-7506 f
 
Washington, D.C.

306 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-1401
(202) 224-4814 p
(202) 228-0360 f

“The liberal media might be expected to reject what God and common sense tell us about sexuality. But there is no excuse for the conservative brain trust to ignore this threat.” – Robert Knight

Talk show host Mike Gallagher has capitulated on most aspects of the homosexualist agenda, but still calls himself a "happy conservative." Gallagher supports repealing the ban on homosexuals in the military, and supports government benefits for same-sex "civil unions," but opposes homosexual "marriage."

Folks, our good friend Bob Knight of Coral Ridge Ministries is right. When “conservatives” like talker Mike Gallagher (right) stop being conservative on whatever issue is being debated, public policy disasters often result. In addition to contacting Congress on homosexuals-in-the-military, we need to be urging conservative media to get engaged in the fight to stop our Armed Forces from becoming the next “battlefield” for Sexual Correctness. More on AWOL “conservatives” later. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

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Conservative Media Fiddle While the Military Burns

By Robert Knight

Barney Frank and his friends are rolling their tanks through Congress while everyone is talking about something else.  As we reel from one crisis to the next, homosexual activists and their allies are muscling through their agenda, with nary a peep from the nation’s conservative talking heads.

This week, their target is the military. Soon, it will be passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would criminalize traditional morality in every workplace with 15 or more employees. After that, they will try to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act. Finally, they aim to pass an “anti-bullying” law that will threaten schools with losing federal funds if they refuse to force kids to read Heather Has Two Mommies and Gloria Goes to Gay Pride.  The agenda is breathtakingly ambitious, and would be unimaginable to previous generations.

These radical laws would be a watershed moment for socialists, who are at war with family and religion as impediments to a growing state. The pansexual Left senses triumph now for two reasons:

• First, the Obama-manufactured crisis-a-day has people terrified about where the economy is headed. The sheer magnitude of government takeovers and spending is dominating the Tea Party movement, and in fact, everybody.
• Second, homosexual activists and their media enablers have “jammed” the public debate. Hollywood, educators and the media continually deny the truth about homosexuality – that while all people are made in God’s image and are entitled to basic human rights – homosexuality is not in-born, is changeable, and is dangerous to the health and well being of individuals, families and communities. The militant advancement of gay activism poses the greatest threat to the freedoms of religion, assembly and speech within our borders.

Why aren’t more Americans properly concerned? You can have gay relatives, friends and colleagues and still understand that promoting sodomy as an affirmative action “right” is not a good thing. Americans used to get that. Perhaps the lack of resolve is because many conservative opinion leaders have run for the tall grass on this issue. By omitting it, they’re saying it really isn’t important.

When was the last time you heard a frank discussion about this on any of the top conservative talk shows, either on radio or television? Michael Savage is the only prominent talk show host to take it on, and he does it from Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco. How about Erick Erickson’s estimable Red State Morning Briefing? It’s vital, on-line reading, and I urge everyone to subscribe. And yet, while we’re on the verge of Congress’ raping the military to please a tiny, leftist lobby, the topic is nowhere to be found on Red State this week. Similarly, with a few exceptions, GOP leaders have been silent.

The gravity of allowing open homosexuality in the military cannot be overstated. It has the potential of destroying the all-volunteer force by discouraging recruitment, retention and shattering unit morale. Chaplains would find themselves muzzled on basic questions of morality and many would leave the services.  Recruits would undergo pro-homosexual “sensitivity” training. The already troubling problem of sexual misconduct would increase.

A 1993 report by the chief criminal investigator of the Army summarized 102 cases of homosexual misconduct in the army between 1989 and 1992. Twenty-nine of the incidents occurred in the barracks. Forty-nine incidents involved children. Five involved HIV-positive offenders. Nine occurred in either latrines or showers. Thirty-one cases involved soldiers with “a significant variance in pay grade,” such as sergeants preying on enlisted men. And this was during a time when the ban was in effect, including the question at induction, and before Clinton watered down the 1993 law with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” That law, by the way, which Congress passed overwhelmingly, explicitly bars people with the “propensity” to engage in homosexuality.

Reports like the above, and the astronomically higher incidences of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV among homosexual men, are ignored in any discussions of whether to lift the ban. Instead, the rhetoric of the civil rights movement is employed, as if being black or Hispanic or white is on a par with acting out homosexual desires. Unlike skin color or ethnicity, sex is inextricably tied to behavior, character and morality. Thus, the “civil rights” arguments are absurdly inapplicable. How about the civil rights of service people who will be forced to co-habit with those who might view them as sex objects? They can’t just “go home” at night. And no one has made the case that adding homosexuality to the mix will improve military readiness. The best they can do is say that they’ll try to minimize the damage.

From misreporting junk science about non-existent “gay genes,” to bashing people who believe that some behavior is simply wrong and unhealthy, the media are a fully owned subsidiary of the gay activist movement. They march in lockstep according to the dictates of the 1989 gay strategy manual After the Ball, which describes in detail how to vilify anyone who disagrees.

The liberal media might be expected to reject what God and common sense tell us about sexuality. But there is no excuse for the conservative brain trust to ignore this threat. If the gay rights activists get everything they want, thus transforming morality itself into a form of bigotry actionable under the law, we will see the criminalization of Christianity.

It’s already happening in Great Britain, Scandinavia and in Canada, where the perversion of civil rights has led to Christians being hauled before human rights commissions for merely expressing a traditionalist view of sexual morality in public. And it’s begun in the U.S. as well, with the Boy Scouts being thrown out of schools, parks and United Way chapters, and a Christian couple fined by the New Mexico Human Rights Commission for declining to photograph a lesbian civil union ceremony. In New Jersey, the state removed the tax exemption for a Methodist seaside gazebo because the church did not want it used for  same-sex ceremonies contrary to Biblical morality. Equal Employment Opportunity Commissioner Chai Feldblum has said in reference to gay rights, “I’m having a hard time coming up with any case in which religious liberty should win.”

The military is a linchpin for all of society. It is a bastion of traditional values. Former communist David Horowitz recalls that during the ‘60s, radical leftists determined that if they could destroy the U.S. military, they could destabilize the rest of capitalist America. Two things could accomplish this, they said: Putting women into combat, and opening the armed forces to homosexuality.

Even for non-religious Americans, the strategy – and threat – ought to be clear. It’s time to get over fears of being called a “bigot,” and to stand up for what’s right for our military servicemen and women – and our country.

If conservative opinion leaders won’t talk about this, how will the rest of the country rally to defeat this leftist goal? We still can, but the hour is late.

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Robert Knight is Senior Writer and Correspondent for Coral Ridge Ministries and the co-author of Ten Truths About Socialism (dangersofsocialism.com). His is also the author of Radical Rulers: The White House Elites Who Are Pushing America Towards Socialism.

Grove City College Professor Warren Throckmorton

Throckmorton asserts that proclamations of truth constitute a “considerable offense” [against people practicing homosexuality]. Someone should ask him if he thinks Paul’s “vilification” of homosexuality constitutes a “considerable offense.” – Laurie Higgins

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By Laurie Higgins, for Americans For Truth

Grove City College professor Warren Throckmorton has written a self-serving and exploitative analysis of Letter # 7 in C.S. Lewis’ classic The Screwtape Letters, which Throckmorton correctly sees as a warning to Christians not to allow cultural issues to supplant the central message of the Gospel.

The problem is that Throckmorton uses Lewis’ prescient warning to chastise only those Christians who work tirelessly to counter the spate of lies spewed by the culture on the topic of homosexuality, lies which even our public schools have been recruited to disseminate.

Throckmorton writes as follows:

Screwtape encourages his apprentice to foster devotion to a cause. This then takes him further away from the real encounter with God and the faith relationship. Indeed, if Wormwood’s human “patient” can put movements and organizations and crusading ahead of all else then he is of no real threat to Screwtape.

I think this passage provides caution to those who believe fighting the culture war is Christian ministry. When fighting the culture war becomes more important than a witness to the gospel, then the mischief really begins. Specifically, in the past several years, I have seen people who are so concerned with the “gay agenda” that they overlook cult involvement in people because they are “ex-gay.” Some here in the US who are willing to tolerate the very unChristian stance of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill because, in Lou Engle’s words, ”Uganda has become ground zero” in the fight against the gay agenda.…

Some might argue that I am just as guilty because of my advocacy against the Uganda bill. And I would not take that criticism lightly. My view is that freedom of conscience is necessary for the Church to have the greatest impact. Advocacy for that position is important business but it is not the main business. I doubt that such advocacy will lead anyone away from the redemptive business of the church. On the other hand, my great concern is that culture warring lulls people into feeling that that the cause justifies the considerable offense that comes with vilifying those the church yearns to reach.

Dr. Throckmorton shrewdly pre-empts any challenge to his own complicity in the culture war, complicity which often seems to serve efforts to normalize homosexuality. Throckmorton proleptically introduces the challenge and responds to it by claiming meaninglessly that he wouldn’t take such a charge “lightly.” He attempts to efface the charge that he himself may be guilty of making “the world an end.”

Dr. Throckmorton asserts that “freedom of conscience is necessary for the Church to have the greatest impact. Advocacy for that position is important business but it is not the main business.” Huh?

What precisely is Dr. Throckmorton concealing here through his ambiguous rhetoric? Is he advocating for freedom of conscience regarding the morality of homosexuality? If so, who disagrees? Certainly the mere expression of theologically orthodox views about homosexuality does not diminish anyone’s “freedom of conscience.” Those who affirm homosexuality are as free to reject theologically orthodox moral propositions as the theologically orthodox are free to reject heresy.

Since this ambiguous phrase follows a reference to the Ugandan law, perhaps he actually thinks that what most alarms his critics is his obsession with it. Perhaps he is trying to divert attention from his ambiguous stance on the morality of homosexuality to the controversial Ugandan law, his opposition to which he may be mistaking for “Christian ministry.”

If so, Dr. Throckmorton needs to know that what most concerns his critics is that he may be on a crusade not merely to affirm that individuals should have the freedom to believe as they wish, but that he may also be on a crusade to affirm that homosexual practice is permissible for Christians, which would constitute a decidedly non-orthodox theological position.

Dr. Throckmorton continues: ”I doubt that such advocacy will lead anyone away from the redemptive business of the church.” In Dr. Throckmorton’s world, advocacy of “freedom of conscience” will not “lead anyone away from the redemptive business of the church,” but preaching the truth about homosexuality will.  Curiouser and curiouser.

It would be enormously helpful if Dr. Throckmorton would fight as tenaciously for the freedom and right of parents to protect their children from unbiblical ideas and images of homosexuality and Gender Identity Disorder in American public schools as he does to oppose laws in foreign countries.

Throckmorton further claims that “my great concern is that culture-warring lulls people into feeling that that the cause justifies the considerable offense that comes with vilifying those the church yearns to reach.”

There are a couple of points to be made in response to this stupefying statement.

• First, this statement implies that those who affirm homosexual acts as moral are not engaging in the culture war.
• Second, this statement employs the non-biblical, fallacious argument common among homosexualists that condemnation of volitional homosexual acts constitutes hatred or “vilification” of persons. One wonders how Dr. Throckmorton is able to expound any biblical truths regarding behavior if he believes that expressions of opprobrium constitute vilification of persons which, in turn, he believes impedes the redemptive business of the church.

Throckmorton asserts that proclamations of truth constitute a “considerable offense.” Someone should ask him if he thinks Paul’s “vilification” of homosexuality constitutes a “considerable offense.”

Does society’s “vilification” of pornography or pedophilia constitute a considerable offense against the porn-makers, porn-partakers, or pedophiles that the church hopes to reach?

Did Martin Luther King Jr.’s “culture-warring” against racism constitute a “vilification” and “considerable offense” against the racists that the he hoped to reach?  Did MLK Jr. mistakenly believe that fighting the “culture war” was a Christian ministry?

Of course, anyone who supplants the Gospel with philanthropic or political efforts is in error, but Throckmorton seems to suggest that those who oppose the homosexual agenda are somehow guiltier of this error than those who seek to normalize homosexuality.

The reality is that there are people whose work–their vocation–is to promote truth in the culture and to oppose the cultural and legal promotion of moral error. Some people are accountants, some veterinarians, some plumbers, some sales clerks, and some are “activists.” The fact that some men and women are called to activism for their vocation no more means they have lost sight of the most essential truth, which is the Gospel, than the fact that some are called to work as architects means that they’ve lost sight of the most essential fact of human existence: the Good News of Christ’s substitutionary work on the Cross.

In my estimation, there are far too few Christians who are willing to speak the truth in the public square. At different times in history, different biblical truths are attacked with particular ferocity. During the era of slavery and Jim Crow laws, biblical truth about the dignity and worth of African American women and men were attacked with special intensity. During those decades, an equally vigorous public response to the cultural lies that destroyed lives and families was necessary. Unfortunately, for far too many years, the white church failed to respond courageously.

Similarly, the church is failing now to respond with courage and vigor to the assault on  biblical truth about sexuality, marriage, and the family from the mainstream news media, Hollywood, Madison Avenue, the music industry, and public education. Throckmorton is right when he warns against mistaking bold proclamations about biblical morality for preaching the Gospel. He is wrong in trying to persuade Christians to remain silent in the face of perilous cultural lies.

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Laurie Higgins is a writer and analyst for the Illinois Family Institute. To listen to the AFTAH Hour’s recent radio interview with Higgins, go HERE for Part One, and HERE for Part Two.

Tom Minnery of Focus on the Family

With the upcoming Supreme Court vacancy, the question of homosexual judges is back in the news. Monday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said he could accept a nominee who is openly homosexual to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. On March 24, well before the announcement of Stevens’ retirement, AFTAH received this statement from Tom Minnery, Vice President of Public Policy at Focus on the Family. Minnery emphasized that the Focus clarification has been available to anyone who inquired about the controversial statements made last year by a Focus analyst to The Plum Line.

“This is not a new statement,” Minnery told AFTAH. “And we were quick to correct this mistake.”

The following is the clarification by Tom Minnery of Focus on the Family:

“It has been reported that we would not oppose any U.S. Supreme Court nominee over their ‘sexual orientation.’ Our Judicial Analyst [Bruce Hausknecht] made a statement to this effect in an interview with The Plum Line. To be honest, this is one of those conversations we’d like to ‘do over.’ We can assure you that we recognize that homosexual behavior is a sin and does not reflect God’s created intent and desire for humanity. Further, we at Focus do affirm that character and moral rectitude should be key considerations in appointing members of the judiciary, especially in the case of the highest court in the land. Sexual behavior–be it heterosexual or homosexual–certainly lies at the heart of personal morality.”

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Related Articles:

The Hill [Monday, April 12]: “[Sen.] Cornyn: Openly gay SCOTUS nominee might be acceptable”

By J. Taylor Rushing  -  04/12/10 06:59 PM ET

An openly gay nominee to the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court might be acceptable, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Monday.

Cornyn, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called on President Barack Obama to make a measured choice in filling the pending Supreme Court vacancy.

Cornyn, a former Texas Supreme Court justice, was initially reluctant when asked if he would support an openly gay nominee — as Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican, said last year he might.

“I’d have to think about that,” he said. “As long as it doesn’t interfere with their job, it’s not a particular issue.”

AFTAH: “Flashback:  Gary Glenn Assails Focus on the Family’s ‘Moral Retreat’ on Openly Homosexual Judges”

The Plum Line: Top Religious Right Group: We Won’t Oppose Gay SCOTUS Pick

In a move that will surprise gay activists and liberals, a spokesperson for Focus on the Family, a top religious right group, tells me that his organization has no problem with GOP Senator  Jeff Sessions‘ claim today that he’s open to a Supreme Court nominee with “gay tendencies.”

The spokesperson confirms the group won’t oppose a gay SCOTUS nominee over sexual orientation….

AFA’s OneNewsNow: “Should homosexuality be a ‘litmus test’ for high court?”

Ashley Horne, federal policy analyst at Focus [on the Family], says just like a nominee’s ethnicity and life experience, homosexuality should not be a litmus test.

“Someone’s sexual orientation or their preferences, none of these things should come into consideration when we’re talking about evaluating someone who will make decisions based on precedent under the law [and who will] practice judicial restraint,” Horne explains. “Those are the things we look at for whether or not someone would make a fit justice on the Supreme Court.”

Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, contends the position held by Focus on the Family is the equivalent of “moral retreat.”

“It’s not just the damage caused by Focus on the Family’s moral retreat on the issue,” Glenn argues. “[That explanation] will be used by homosexual activists and their allies in the media to further marginalize and delegitimize any pro-family organization that continues to take a biblical standard.” ….

Politico.com: “[Sen.] Sessions Could Support Gay Justice”

Ironically, Grove City Prof. Warren Throckmorton -- creator of the 2004 video "I Do Exist," about ex-"gays" -- now questions whether many former homosexuals who have experienced "durable change" in their basic attractions actually "do exist." Writes Throckmorton: "It is not appropriate to see the film as a testament to change of sexual orientation."

The following is reprinted with permission from LifeSiteNews, a leading pro-life and pro-family news service: [To subscribe to their daily news feed, go HERE]

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, March 22, 2010, LifeSiteNews.com

GROVE CITY, PENNSYLVANIA, March 19, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) — A psychologist teaching at the conservative-Evangelical Grove City College has been making waves by endorsing same-sex civil union legislation, and claiming that homosexuals can live “normal, natural and healthy” lives.

In a recent interview with the Evangelical news service OneNewsNow (ONN), Dr. Warren Throckmorton reportedly said that “he opposes same-sex marriage but believes the Equal Protection Clause permits homosexual civil unions,” according to the news agency.

“Throckmorton says he personally holds a ‘traditional view of homosexuality and sexual ethics.’ However, when asked whether he believes homosexuality is ‘normal, natural and healthy,’ he said he could not answer that with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response,” ONN reported.

“He said ‘in a professional therapy situation’ it is accurate to say that ‘homosexuals can live normal, natural, and healthy lives that are free of mental illness,’” added ONN.

Although Throckmorton has been known in the past as a defender of the ex-gay movement and reorientation therapy, he has been distancing himself increasingly from those positions in recent years, and has even rejected the “Day of Truth,” in which high school students seek to inform their peers about the immorality of homosexual behavior, calling it “mischief,” and saying that it “builds more walls than bridges.”

Throckmorton’s defection from the ex-gay movement has been met with condemnation by Evangelicals. “Though he works for an evangelical institution, Pennsylvania-based Grove City College, which advertises itself on faith-based websites as ‘authentically Christian,’ Warren promotes a new, morally neutral paradigm on homosexuality that affirms people’s ‘Sexual Identity’ according to their feelings (and comfort level with same),” laments Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH).

“Hold on…. This is wholly against Scripture: there is nothing in the Bible or the long history of Judeo-Christian tradition that even hints at ascribing a morally-neutral or worse — a ‘valued identity’ — to sexual sin,” he adds.

Helping patients to form a gay “identity”

LaBarbera is referring to Throckmorton’s “Sexual Identity Therapy,” a framework for therapists treating patients who are conflicted about their sexual desires.

Published in 2007 by Throckmorton and fellow psychologist Mark A. Yarhouse [of Regent University], “Sexual Identity Therapy” affirms that the therapist should accept the values of the client, and then help the client to create a “sexual identity” that fits those values — including a “gay” identity, if it is in accordance with the client’s value system.

“Sexuality and moral values and attitudes are important aspects of personality. However, clients value each of these functions in different ways. We believe that the therapist should not attempt to persuade clients about how to value these dimensions but can assist clients to determine their own valuations,” write Throckmorton and Yarhouse.

They later add that “some religious individuals will determine that their religious identity is the preferred organizing principle for them, even if it means choosing to live with sexual feelings they do not value. Conversely, some religious individuals will determine that their religious beliefs may become modified to allow integration of same-sex eroticism within their valued identity. We seek to provide therapy recommendations that respect these options.”

Dr. Throckmorton’s Strange About-Face

In recent years, Throckmorton has done an about-face with regard to his position on homosexual reorientation therapy. Abandoning his previous stance of defending ex-homosexuals and reorientation therapy, he has begun to express skepticism that homosexuals can change in most cases. He has also begun to backpedal on his previous emphasis on the evidence in favor of environmental causes for homosexual orientation, instead asserting biological factors as an explanation for the phenomenon.

The “cause [of homosexual orientation] is a scientific mystery,” he wrote in a recent article for Britain’s Independent newspaper. “However, we do know that once established sexual orientation seems to be quite durable. Several studies have found brain differences between homosexual and heterosexual people.”

“While it seems unlikely that there is one biological or genetic cause for all homosexuals, there are data which suggest that genetic and hormonal factors during pre-natal development have some impact on our desires, in different ways for different people,” he added.

Throckmorton’s previous defense of the ex-gay movement even led him in 2004 to create a documentary, “I Do Exist,” allowing former homosexuals to give their testimony regarding their transformations. However, Throckmorton is now repudiating the film, using vague references to “changes” that has says have taken place since he produced it.

In a Frequently Asked Questions posting on his website about the documentary, Throckmorton writes that “the stories of the people involved were freely offered and reflected their experience at that time. Since then, more changes have taken place. It is not appropriate to see the film as a testament to change of sexual orientation. Rather, the video has a place in the history of the ex-gay movement and may be of interest to those who study that movement.”

“I believe it is important for me to say that I Do Exist is not a current depiction of what I believe to be accurate about sexual orientation,” he concludes.

In addition, Throckmorton has broken off his formerly friendly relationship with the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), which supports psychologists who offer sexual reorientation therapy to homosexuals.

Although he once cited studies by NARTH psychologists in his own writings, participated in conferences, and even accepted the organization’s Sigmund Freud Award, Throckmorton now regularly writes blog entries attacking the organization, after having canceled his last scheduled appearance at a 2006 NARTH conference.

Under fire from fellow Evangelicals

Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality has been denouncing Throckmorton’s new “Sexual Identity Framework” on his website.

“Folks, I had to laugh the other day when heretical Grove City College Assistant Prof Warren Throckmorton accused pro-family groups advocating a walkout on the nationwide, pro-homosexual ‘Day of Silence’ with ‘mischief.’ You see, ‘Mischief’ is Throckmorton’s middle name,” wrote LaBarbera in a recent post.

“Throckmorton’s and Regent University’s Mark Yarhouse’s ‘Sexual Identity Therapy’ model grants the possibility that some clients may come to embrace a positive ‘gay identity’ that ‘modifies’ their religious beliefs in such a way as to ‘allow integration of same-sex eroticism within their valued identity,’” wrote LaBarbera.

“Would you want your child counseled at Grove City College?” he asks readers. “How can an evangelical Christian college like Grove City that claims to follow the Bible affirm a ‘gay’ ‘sexual identity’ that values ‘same-sex eroticism’ — especially for a person struggling in his conscience against homosexuality?”

Former homosexual Michael Glatze, who once published the national magazine Young Gay America and now speaks out against the homosexual lifestyle, is condemning Throckmorton for his permissive stance towards homosexuality, and for distorting his own statements.

“He, like so many professing Christians, peddles a false gospel about homosexual sin that includes the lie that homosexuality ‘might be OK for some people.’ Of course, this false gospel will seem preferable for many because it requires less moral responsibility than the true gospel. But that does not make it right.”

“I have experienced Professor Throckmorton’s forked tongue, as he has pretended to seek ‘my side’ of the story various times, then turned around and told a biased side of the same story, in a public sphere, with the intention of discrediting my testimony and shaming my stance for Gospel truth,” writes Glatze.

Throckmorton has responded to LaBarbera’s criticisms by claiming that the American Psychological Association’s guidelines require him to take a neutral stand with regard to the sexual morality of the client. However, the texts he cites by the APA do not mention sexual morality, and do not prohibit value judgments by the therapists, only prohibiting the imposition of values that are not directly related to the therapy.

After agreeing to an email interview with LifeSiteNews, Dr. Throckmorton refused to answer the questions submitted, claiming they were “slanted.” The questions sent to Dr. Throckmorton, are available at this link [and are reprinted below]. His latest rebuttal to [AFTAH President] Peter LaBarbera can be found HERE.

Contact Information:

President Richard Jewell
Grove City College
724-458-2500
rgjewell@gcc.edu

Warren Throckmorton
Grove City College
ewthrockmorton@gcc.edu

Related Links (at bottom are additional AFTAH links):

Sexual Identity Therapy: Practice framework for managing sexual identity conflicts

______________________________________

Questions submitted to Dr. Warren Throckmorton by LifeSiteNews.com (for March 22, 2010 article; Throckmorton refused to answer the written questions, claiming they were “slanted”):

1. How have your views of human sexuality changed in the last few years?

2. In a previous article for LifeSiteNews.com, you defended the idea that homosexual orientation is caused by environmental factors.  Have you abandoned that idea?

3. In a recent article you defended the thesis that sexual orientation is biologically determined in the womb, by hormonal deficiencies.  Do you now believe that homosexual orientation is immutable?  [Note: Throckmorton's original statements only suggested that hormonal and other biological factors may influence homosexual orientation, and was therefore amended in a subsequent email.]

4. You now say that you think the equal protection clause gives homosexual couples the right to “civil union” status.  Can you clarify this position?

5. What is your opinion of sexual reorientation therapy now, and how has it changed?

You affirmed in your previous statement to LifeSiteNews (see below) that homosexuals can live “normal, healthy lives.”

6. Do you believe that sex acts between two men or two women are “normal and healthy”?

7. Do you believe that anal sex is normal and healthy?

8. Do you believe that oral sex is normal and healthy?

9. Do you believe that “sexual identity” is something that can be determined by the individual, or is it an objective fact about his nature?  Can a person adopt a “sexual identity” that is in conflict with his actual sex, and still be said to be rational and healthy?

10. Do you believe that moral principles in general are subjective, or are known only by one’s faith, or rather that they are based on human nature, and therefore objectively knowable by man?  If the latter is the case, why do you claim that the therapist is imposing his particular religion when he makes value judgments about human sexuality?

11. Do you believe that the Biblical prohibition against homosexual behavior is based on a mere decree of God, knowable only by faith, or that it is based on an objective harm, including a psychological and/or physical harm, that homosexual practices can cause?

12. Do you claim that the therapist cannot make value judgments in general about the actions of his client, or do you confine this neutrality only to sexual behavior? If the former is true, do you follow this position consistently, treating physical aggression against others in a value neutral way, criminal activity, etc, in your practice?  If the latter is true, on what basis do you confine this moral neutrality to sexual behavior alone?  If confined to sexual behavior alone, does it only apply to homosexual behavior, or does it also apply to bestiality and necrophilia for example?

13. Would you, for example, tell a client involved in bestiality that if his religion or worldview or value system permits bestiality or even condones it, that he can simply adjust his “sexual identity” to match his behavior? If not, why not, given the standard you have set for homosexual behavior?

14. Do you acknowledge that any political elements entered into the change of position of the APAs regarding homosexual sexual conduct and orientation?

15. Do you describe yourself as a heterosexual, a homosexual, or a bisexual?  Regardless of the category you attribute to yourself, do you experience same-sex attractions to a significant degree?

________________________________________

AFTAH Links:

Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) [a general link to Americans For Truth was provided by LifeSite, but below we add some of our recent articles and letters on the Throckmorton/Grove City controversy:

Is Grove City College Still ‘Authentically Christian’ if It Abides Pro-’Gay’ Professor Warren Throckmorton and his ‘Sexual Identity Therapy’? – http://tinyurl.com/GCCauthentic

Grove City Prof Warren Throckmorton Affirms Homosexuality as ‘Normal, Natural and Healthy’: http://tinyurl.com/throck-normal-natural

Higgins Has Questions about Prof. Throckmorton’s ‘Nuanced’ Position on Homosexuality: http://tinyurl.com/higginsthrock

Letter: Grove City Student Should Have Learned that God Disapproves of Homosexuality: http://tinyurl.com/studentthrock

Grove City College Student Scolds AFTAH for ‘Misleading’ People that ‘God Disapproves of Homosexuality’: http://tinyurl.com/scoldsAFTAH

Grove City College Prof Throckmorton Misapplies the Golden Rule on the ‘Day of Silence’: http://tinyurl.com/DOS-Throck

Virginia Parents Leery of Grove City College Due to ‘Prof. Throckmorton’s Open Advocacy of Homosexuality’: http://tinyurl.com/vathrock

Letter: ‘Warren Throckmorton Is Doing Great Damage to Reputation of Grove City College’: http://tinyurl.com/GCCdamage