Click on graphic to enlarge. Homosexual web activist website "All Out" lobbies PayPal to drop AFTAH and other pro-family groups as alleged "anti-LGBT extremists." The petition reads, "PayPal must act immediately to shut down their accounts and ban all sites that promote anti-LGBT hate."

TAKE ACTION NOW: a new homosexual web campaign is urging the internet payment company PayPal to drop AFTAH and other pro-family organizations as so-called “extremists” that “promote anti-LGBT hate.” Please help defend Americans For Truth from being dropped by PayPal in response to this anti-Christian pressure campaign.

1) Go to PayPal’s website and make a much-needed gift to AFTAH to support our work. Or do so through the AFTAH website at www.americansfortruth.com/donate/. Mail a check to AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522.

2) Write or call PayPal and urge them to STAND FOR FREEDOM and NOT give in to this intolerant pressure campaign by homosexual activists; use PayPal’s online “Comment Card” HERE, or post a note to the PayPal blog.  Or use their Contact Page HERE (note, the latter seems to favor comments by people holding a PayPal account).  Here is the Contact Page for PayPal’s parent company, e-BAY Inc.

Please THANK PayPal for initially siding with religious freedom so far [as reported HERE by the homosexual website Pink News] and not abruptly caving to All Out’s demands.  Urge them NOT to punish Christian and pro-family advocates – which could potentially alienate millions of potential PayPal customers.

3) Also, sign the LifeSiteNews petition to PayPal defending AFTAH and other pro-family targets by going here: http://www.profamilyfreedom.net/

4) Send this message to your friends and contact list to educate them on the anti-Christian and censorious nature of the homosexual movement. “Gay” activists no longer want “Tolerance”; now they want Dominance even if it means smearing pro-family people as “haters” and destroying our cherished religious freedoms.  

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By Peter LaBarbera

Dear AFTAH Reader,

Every day brings more evidence that the Homosexual Lobby is all about kicking pro-morality people (mostly committed Christians) who disagree with homosexual behavior OUT of the public square. More and more observers are seeing this for what it is: homo-fascism. Last week we learned of a homosexual web campaign called “All Out” that is targeting the payment service company PayPal for doing business with Americans For Truth and nine other groups — which it smears as ”extremists” who “promote anti-LGBT “hate.” Here is the wording of their All Out petition:

PAYPAL: END THE ONLINE HATE TRADE
Tell PayPal: Put Hate Out of Business

“PayPal officially states that its users ‘may not use the PayPal service for activities that [...] promote hate, violence, racial intolerance’ but PayPal has become a favorite payment service for anti-LGBT extremists all over the world. PayPal must act immediately to shut down their accounts and ban all sites that promote anti-LGBT hate.”

In an adjoining article, the grammatically-challenged All Out writes:

Thanks to PayPal, its [sic] easier than ever to send and receive money across currencies and continents – but it is also PayPal’s responsibility to make sure this technology doesn’t fall in the wrong hands. Anti-LGBT extremists all over the world are currently using PayPal to fundraise for their dangerous cause.

Not only is it against PayPal’s rules to promote promote [sic] “hate, violence, [and] racial intolerance,” hate groups also damage PayPal’s brand and credibility. We ask that PayPal join the fight against online hate and immediately shut down the accounts of anti-LGBT extremist groups using the service.

Already, All Out boasts that 35,000 people have sent web-generated letters to PayPal using All Out’s user-friendly web form. Among the other targeted groups beside AFTAH are Scott Lively’s Abiding Truth Ministries [Lively will be a speaker at AFTAH’s banquet outside Chicago on Oct. 15^th] and the Catholic group Tradition, Family, and Property. Also on the list is Brazilian expatriate and pro-family hero Julio Severo [Julio’s blog is written in Portuguese].

Here is All Out’s description of AFTAH:

Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (United States): This groups [sic] claims homosexuality is a “lethal behavior addiction,” a “dangerous” practice that is “neither normal nor benign.” 

PayPal cites religious freedom but takes complaints

The British “gay” website Pink News reports that in response to All Out’s pressure campaign, PayPal is declining to immediately revoke the pro-family groups’ payment accounts on the grounds of religious freedom:

“PayPal does not allow the use of its service for activities that promote hatred, violence or racial intolerance. We take very seriously any cases where a user has incited hatred, violence or intolerance because of a person’s sexual orientation.

“However, we also take into account the rights of free speech and freedom of religion. Balancing these conflicting rights is often difficult, and so we assess possible infringements objectively against our Acceptable Use Policy.

Pink News reports this continuation of the statement by PayPal – made more ominous by the fact that both AFTAH and Severo have already received e-mails from PayPal requesting more information about their accounts:

“While we can’t comment on any specific accounts because of customer confidentiality, we regularly review organizations and websites that use our service, and stop working with those that break our Acceptable Use Policy. We also enable people to report suspected breaches of this policy on our website.”

AFTAH will be following this story closely, and we are grateful that the pro-family news site LifeSiteNews is launching an online petition campaign of its own, www.ProFamilyFreedom.net, to defend Americans For Truth and the other targeted organizations against this homosexual pressure campaign.

______________________________

Facts and thoughts on this latest homosexual intimidation campaign:

1) Homosexual activists are doing all they can to push Bible-believing Christians and moral-minded people who believe homosexuality is wrong OUT of the public square;

2) “Gay” militants are in the vanguard of the Left’s war on biblical Christianity and religious freedom in the United States.  By labeling Christians as “haters,” they cruelly demonize people of faith – and encourage the outrageous idea that longstanding Christian and Bible-based beliefs are “extreme” and beyond the pale;

3) One of the tactics that homosexual militants are using is to pressure corporations and politicians to distance themselves from allegedly “hateful” groups (read: groups that rightly condemn homosexual practice as sinful or disordered — yet changeable — behavior);

4) Encouraged by media sycophancy and a lack of press accountability that feeds their success, homosexual militants are now working overtime to sell the public on the absurd notion that groups like AFTAH that adhere to traditional, biblical teachings on homosexuality are the hateful equivalents of racist fringe groups like the KKK or Neo-Nazis. This propaganda tactic gained significant traction when the left-leaning Southern Poverty Law Center – long known for exposing racist hate groups like the Klan – last year labeled AFTAH and other mainstream pro-family groups like the Family Research Council “hate” groups;

5) Predicated on such spurious analogies, the current “All Out” campaign against PayPal claims that groups like AFTAH foment violence against homosexuals. However, Americans For Truth has from its inception condemned violence and (real) hatred against homosexuals. We believe Christians should reach out to homosexuals with the Gospel truth, in the love of Christ. We believe that ALL people have dignity as human beings, but that persons should not be defined by immoral, unnatural – and changeable — sexual and gender behaviors;

6) AFTAH has condemned unbiblical and nasty messages like Fred Phelps’ (Westboro Baptist Church) “God Hates Fags.” And we have noted the contrast between Christians, who encourage men and women to abandon the homosexual lifestyle (as so many have) and “fundamentalist” Muslims who advocate the death penalty for homosexuals. (Not all Muslims hold this view.)

7) It is no longer advisable to laugh off, dismiss or ignore the activist homosexual/liberal lobby’s escalating campaign to demonize Christians and punish groups like Americans For Truth. That is because everyday Americans are being influenced by the liberal media, which enable groups like the SPLC and All Out by failing to call into question their preposterous analogies, lies and hateful smears against Christians. We must fight back with the Truth and engage our politically enemies in a dogged, “house-to-house” battle to preserve our liberties and our ability to operate freely in the public square. To do so, contact PayPal and see the “Take Action” steps at the top of this article.

Thank you for standing with Americans For Truth. God bless you.

 – Peter LaBarbera (americansfortruth@gmail.com)

Illinois Department of Employment Security document affirming that Matt Barber was NOT fired for misconduct at Allstate Insurance Co. It states that Allstate fired Barber "because AN OUTSIDE ORGANIZATION HAD COMPLAINED ABOUT AN ARTICLE HE HAD WRITTEN WHILE ON HIS OWN TIME." Click on graphic to enlarge.

By Peter LaBarbera

Below is a longer version of an article I posted in Facebook responding to homosexual activist Alvin McEwen, who repeated an oft-used bit of “gay” misinformation about Allstate’s 2005 firing of pro-family advocate Matt Barber. (Barber sits on the Americans For Truth Board, is Associate Dean at Liberty University School of Law, and is Director of Cultural Affairs for the Liberty Counsel.) Alvin is a bitter fellow who — although purporting to factually correct alleged pro-family falsehoods — regularly dishes them out himself (go HERE to see him viciously slander me as “Porno Pete”). In posting a response to an AFA column by pro-family writer Jerry Newcombe (reprinted at bottom), McEwen writes:

Sorry but Mr. Newcombe is inaccurate about one part. Matt Barber used his company’s computer AND identified himself as an employee of the company [Allstate] in his column. That’s why he was fired.

Funny how I heard these same spurious “talking points” about Matt Barber’s firing from the mouth of Rick Garcia — formerly Illinois’ top homosexual activist before he was ousted by Equality Illinois. We were on a Chicago TV news program together and I was making the point that conservative Christians are now more likely to lose their jobs or face punishment on the job than homosexuals.

Of course, had Matt been a homosexual activist who was abruptly terminated after writing a column on his own time about “gay pride,” the liberal/”gay” outrage would have been through the roof – and Alvin would not be repeating Allstate’s misleading corporate “spin” as he does above.

Following is my correction of Alvin McEwen’s erroneous and tendentious “correction”:

Matt Barber is a good friend of mine, a Christian man of high integrity, and a Board Member for my organization, Americans For Truth. As one living in Illinois who was intricately familiar with Matt’s case, I want to set the record “straight” here and correct the lies that homosexual activists like Alvin McEwen repeatedly spew about his unjust firing.

Homosexual activist Alvin McEwen pushes a lie about the abrupt firing of Matt Barber by Allstate.

Barber was fired after writing a column (which was published by conservative websites) against the homosexual agenda — on his home computer, on a Saturday. He did NOT identify himself as an employee of Allstate, but a third-party blog publisher did so by mistake. A staffer with the homosexual lobby group Human Rights Campaign then “reported” Barber’s web article to Allstate’s HR depart, and Matt immediately was called in on a Friday afternoon. Ironically, he was told that Allstate “celebrates diversity,” and that his (traditional) values did not reflect those of Allstate. Barber was suspended and informed that he likely would be fired for writing the column. He was then escorted by Allstate security guards off the corporate grounds. Monday morning, Barber was canned over the telephone.

The Illinois Department of Employment Security [see graphic above] investigated the firing and found Barber innocent of misconduct; IDES made this judgment (emphasis theirs): “The claimant was discharged from ALLSTATE INS. CO. because AN OUTSIDE ORGANIZATION HAD COMPLAINED ABOUT AN ARTICLE HE HAD WRITTEN WHILE ON HIS OWN TIME.”

Furthermore, even if Barber had used his company laptop for personal use (which he did not), Allstate policy allowed such personal use — especially for employees who traveled frequently, as did Barber.

Barber sued Allstate and as the trial date approached, Allstate frantically contacted Matt’s attorneys and begged for a cash settlement so that the details of his discriminatory firing would not become public.

Needless to say, Allstate had to pay Barber a very significant sum of money to make the embarrassing scandal go away. Had the case gone forward, Allstate’s blatantly anti-Christian (and anti-conservative, anti-family) employment policies would have been exposed. This would have included Allstate’s self-serving lies designed to discredit Barber, which were disseminated to the media — and which Alvin McEwen cynically regurgitates here. — Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth.

__________________________________

Column by Dr. Jerry Newcombe in AFA “One News Now”:

Must All Our Opinions Be Politically Correct?

By Dr. Jerry Newcombe,
Reprinted from OneNewsNow, 8/25/11

Those were his opinions, although they were not politically correct, and for expressing them, he was canned from the Fortune 500 company.

Thankfully, today, he works as an attorney fighting for religious liberties with the Orlando-based Liberty Counsel.

Liberty Counsel has now defended someone else, who got in trouble for expressing his own opinion, on his own time, with his own computer.

Last year’s “Teacher of the Year” at Mount Dora High School in central Florida (Jerry Buell) was suspended as a teacher because on his Facebook page, he expressed his disapproval of New York’s adoption of same-sex marriage.

Buell has for 22 years had a spotless record. But Chris Patton of Lake County Schools said, “We took the allegations seriously.”

Apparently, the allegations are that Buell is unfit to serve as a teacher in that he doesn’t agree with same-sex “marriage” about which he says (correctly), that it contradicts what the Bible says about marriage.

Patton went on to say, “All teachers are bound by a code of special ethics (and) this is a code ethics violation investigation.”

Buell was amazed at the charges: “It was my own personal comment on my own personal time on my own personal computer in my own personal house, exercising what I believed as a social studies teacher to be my First Amendment rights.”

I guess the First Amendment only applies these days to expressing politically correct opinions. Especially on an issue like same-sex marriage.

Remember Miss California in 2009?

Carrie Prejean appeared on her way to possibly winning the Miss USA pageant, until she made the fateful mistake of expressing a politically incorrect view on same-sex “marriage.”

When asked her views on same-sex marriage, she replied: “Well, I think it’s great that Americans are able to choose one way or the other. We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. And, you know what, in my country, in my family, I think that, I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, no offense to anybody out there. But that’s how I was raised and I believe that it should be between a man and a woman.”

For that, it would appear she lost out on any chance of winning.

The moral of the story?

If your opinion is politically incorrect — especially on an issue like same-sex “marriage” — you’re best off keeping it to yourself. So much for the sacred right of conscience.

But this is America, and the sacred right of conscience is … well, just that, sacred.

Thomas Jefferson declared, “Almighty God has created the mind free.” Any attempt to force people into opinions they don’t share is wrong. Especially in America. Not that we’ve always gotten it right. But the ideal is great, and we seem to be losing that in our time.

The settlers of this country and the founders highly valued the sacred right of conscience. British North America was first settled by Christian dissidents seeking to worship Christ according to the dictates of conscience.

Dissident Puritan leader, Rev. Roger Williams, who out-Puritaned the Puritans in his goal to be a purist, founded Rhode Island on the premise that it would be a haven for people with various opinions: “I desired … it might be for a shelter for persons distressed for conscience.”

Williams stated, “the doctrine of persecution for cause of conscience, is most evidently and lamentably contrary to the doctrine of Christ Jesus the Prince of Peace.”

In 1648, in their document The American Church Manual, the Puritans wrote, “God alone is Lord of the conscience.”

In 1701, when William Penn founded the colony named in honor of his father (Pennsylvania), he declared in the charter, “Almighty God being the only Lord of Conscience,” therefore, the right of conscience was to be protected.

It’s still protected. You don’t see the Amish being drafted into our military.

In 1776, when Pennsylvania became a state, they stated in A DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE COMMONWEALTH OR STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA, that “no authority” was in any way to interfere with “the right of conscience in the free exercise of religious worship.”

Examples like this from our history abound.

Perhaps some of the greatest affirmations of the sacred right of conscience come from George Washington himself. In 1789, President Washington said to a group representing the United Baptist Churches of Virginia:

“If I could now conceive that the general Government might ever be so administered as to render liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution….”

Why? Because Washington believed “that any man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.”

George Washington and other founders said we must never violate the sacred right of conscience — certainly not for merely holding and stating unpopular opinions.

Thankfully, a positive outcome took place in Florida on the case of the Teacher of the Year on the very day of this writing. He prevailed, as did common sense. But why did he go through the whole ordeal in the first place?

_____________________________

Dr. Jerry Newcombe is the senior producer and host of the television program, “Truth That Transforms with Dr. D. James Kennedy” (formerly “The Coral Ridge Hour”). He has also written or co-written 21 books, including “The Book That Made America: How the Bible Formed Our Nation.” Jerry co-wrote (with Dr. Peter Lillback) the bestselling, “George Washington’s Sacred Fire.”

Frank Turek

Editor’s Note/Correction: our original story labeled Frank Turek as an “employee” of Cisco Systems. Turek was in fact a vendor with Cisco (with high marks for his performance). Thus he lacked the protections of an actual employee. This does not detract from the main story of Cisco’s hypocrisy and anti-Christian bigotry (we call it homo-fascism), which led Turek to be fired abruptly for his private, pro-traditional-marriage advocacy — by a company that champions “diversity.”  — Peter LaBarbera

_________________________________

Below is a reprint of a Townhall.com column by Christian apologist Frank Turek, an eloquent defender of natural (i.e., real) marriage – who was recently fired as a vendor by Cisco Systems (408-526-4000) due to his off-the-job, pro-family advocacy. Turek’s sudden firing was instigated by a homosexual fellow-employee at Cisco who — acting like a homo-fascist — turned in Turek to the Cisco authorities (actually an HR exec), despite the latter’s stellar and completely professional work record.

Conservative columnist Mike Adams has written three terrific pieces about “diversity”-touting Cisco’s outrageous action. (Read them in order HERE, HERE and HERE.) Needless to say, if Turek were a practicing homosexual who had been canned, this would be a huge media story and Cisco would be contracting with the services of GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation).

I have never met Mr. Turek – I’ve only read some of his excellent columns – but I gather that he is a compassionate man who models the Christian ideal of speaking the Truth boldly, in love. One reason I deduce this is that while attending (undercover) the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force “Creating Change” meeting earlier this year, I listened as a homosexual activist described (to a room full of fellow “gay” activists) a church talk given by Turek that he had attended as a critic. The homosexual advocate described Turek’s presentation and demeanor as kind and bereft of malice. This particular LGBT activist works diligently to convert Christians to a pro-“gay rights” mindset, and yet – even as he opposed Turek’s ideas – he found no hatred for homosexuals in the man. (You can buy Turek’s book, “Correct, Not Politically Correct: How Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ Hurts Everyone” HERE; and watch him debate atheist Christopher Hitchens HERE; also see Turek’s outstanding Christian youth site here: http://crossexamined.org/.)

The bottom line for Christians and opponents of homosexuality who are not silent about their moral beliefs? If it’s OK to fire Frank Turek merely because he disagrees with homosexuality and “same-sex marriage,” then you, too, are vulnerable. Christians and all defenders of sexual normalcy: we have no other choice but to fight back against the emerging liberal homo-fascism — unless you are content to live as a muted serf in the land of the “free.” – Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org 

Write Cisco here:

Mr. John Chambers
Office of the President
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Mail Stop SJC10/5/4
300 East Tasman Drive
San Jose, California 95134

Phone: 408-526-4000; hit “0″ for operator

________________________________________

Frank Turek’s column in Townhall: 

Sex at Work?

6/28/2011  Townhall.com

Are you supposed to have sex at work? I guess it depends on your profession, but for most of us the answer is “no.” Why then is corporate America obsessed with training about sex?

As described in several recent columns by Mike Adams, I was fired as a vendor by Cisco for my conservative beliefs about sex and marriage even though my beliefs were never expressed on the job. When a homosexual manager found out on the Internet that I had authored a book giving evidence that maintaining our current marriage laws would be best for society, he couldn’t tolerate me and requested I be fired. An HR executive canned me within hours without ever speaking to me. This happened despite the fact that the leadership and teambuilding programs I led always received high marks (even from the homosexual manager!).

How could an experienced HR professional commit such a blatant act of discrimination unless the Cisco culture was decidedly tilted left? Why didn’t Cisco’s relentless emphasis and training on “inclusion and diversity” serve to prevent this? Maybe it’s because “inclusion and diversity” means something different to corporate elites than to normal Americans. That’s why their training didn’t prevent the problem but actually created an environment of intolerance that led to the problem.

Cisco’s chief “Inclusion and Diversity” officer, Ms. Marilyn Nagel, had trouble on the phone defining what “inclusion and diversity” actually means at Cisco, so she sent me several links from the Cisco website. As in our conversation, I found no specific definition on the website but plenty of platitudes, such as Cisco is committed to “valuing and encouraging different perspectives, styles, thoughts, and ideas.”

If that’s the case, then why not value my “perspectives, styles, thoughts and ideas?”

Because only certain perspectives, styles, thoughts and ideas are approved, you see. “Inclusion and diversity” to corporate elites actually means exclusion for those that don’t agree with the approved views. Whoops, there goes “diversity.”

Shouldn’t the real intent of Cisco’s value of “inclusion and diversity” be to ensure that people in that diverse workforce work together cordially and professionally even when they inevitably disagree on certain political, moral or religious questions? It would seem so. In a large multicultural workforce, people need to work together despite political or religious differences. That’s a noble and necessary goal. It’s totalitarian, however, to subject people to “diversity” training and corporate sponsorships that go beyond teaching respect for people to advocacy of what they do in bed.

All employees should treat one another with kindness and respect because they are fellow human beings, not because of their sexual behavior. If people are to be respected simply on the basis of their behavior, then none of us qualify for respect because we have all behaved badly on occasion.

So instead of trying to force all employees to accept any sexual behavior—especially something as controversial as homosexuality—the inclusion and diversity police should be urging us to treat all people with respect simply because we are human beings. That’s all you need to be productive at work anyway.

But as soon as you start telling people from different religious and cultural backgrounds what they must think about homosexuality, you will offend and create conflict andr resentment. As a Christian, I am commanded to respect all people. That’s what I was doing at Cisco. But don’t tell me that I have to respect and celebrate what people do in bed. Don’t tell me that I must violate my conscience or my God in order to make widgets. That’s not only immoral and un-American; it’s manipulative and stupid. How does accepting homosexual behavior have anything to do with job productivity? Are we supposed to have sex at work?

There simply is no business reason to judge my beliefs about sexual behavior or anyone else’s. And even if some corporate nanny could dream up a reason, it would not justify the assault on an employee’s conscience or religion.

Notice that Cisco did not have a problem with my behavior. My job performance was deemed excellent, and I was “inclusive and diverse” by working in a respectful manner with people of all moral, religious and political views.

Cisco had a problem with my thoughts. Although I certainly accepted homosexuals, I committed the thought crime of disagreeing with homosexual behavior and homosexual political goals. So despite all their talk about “inclusion and diversity,” Cisco deemed my thoughts about something irrelevant to the workplace as grounds for immediate exclusion. Do you think they would have excluded me if I had pro-same-sex marriage thoughts? Of course not—that’s an approved view that Cisco actually sponsors (even though they deny it).

But people who don’t accept homosexual behavior don’t have to work at Cisco then!

True, they don’t. But if Cisco or any other company wants to make it a requirement that every employee and vendor personally accept the behavior of homosexuality or homosexual political goals such as same-sex marriage, then tell us directly. Broadcast it to the world. Cisco can’t and won’t because such a requirement would be a clear violation of the religious protections codified in the Civil Rights Act, and it would result in a mass exodus of employees and customers.

Instead, they create an oppressive culture of political correctness under the false banner of “inclusion and diversity” to achieve the same ends. They tell the world that they value and encourage “different perspectives, styles, thoughts, and ideas” while they punish or intimidate into silence people who have “different perspectives, styles, thoughts, and ideas.” While Cisco executives would never admit this, their actions reveal this twisted truth: Cisco values homosexual behavior more than honesty, freedom of religion and freedom of conscience.

Is it the same at your workplace? Are you tired of having to hide your conservative or religious beliefs as if you live in a totalitarian state rather than America? If you continue to cower in silence before an intolerant militant minority, it will only get worse. To paraphrase Edmund Burke, “All that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing.” It’s time to do something—speak up.

Apple Inc. has dropped two pro-family "apps" from its iPhone following protest campaigns by homosexual activists.

TAKE ACTION: Contact Apple Inc regarding its open hostility to faith-based customers defending traditional morality and its capitulation to homosexual activists. Call 408-996-1010.

Apple Inc.
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014
408-996-1010

By Peter LaBarbera

On Wednesday, Apple Inc. succumbed to a web-based homosexual lobbying blitz demanding that it drop an “app” for the ex-”gay” ministry Exodus International from its iPhone. This capitulation is only the latest to reward a creeping ’homo-fascism’ that is spreading across America and the world — and which is integral to the wider LGBT activist strategy of demonizing and marginalizing religious people opposed to homosexuality. We don’t use this term lightly — the Homosexual Lobby’s hardball strategy is built on lies, intimidation and even bullying of well-meaning, compassionate Christians and religious people who simply disagree with the practice of homosexuality.

Incredibly, a tiny Sexual Sin Lobby–  purporting to represent perhaps 1-2 percent (or less) of any given population — presumes to dictate to the rest of us what is and is not acceptable speech, ideas, and conduct with regard to homosexuality and same-sex “marriage.” (They even claim to be the arbiter of what is ”love” and “hate.”) The failure of the national media — stuck in “gays-as-victims” mode – to question the growing pro-LGBT intolerance, demonization, and oppression of adherents to Judeo-Christian  moral teachings, itself contributes greatly to the persecution of people of faith.

How absurd that in a nation still split on the morality of homosexuality (despite the media’s and Hollywood’s relentless pro-homosexual bias), only groups that encourage the embrace of this unhealthy and unnatural behavior are to be tolerated and receive corporate and government support. Even more ridiculous is the idea of affixing a ”civil rights” label to homosexual militants like ”Truth Wins Out” (TWO) who are devoted to crushing the civil rights and voice of opposing pro-family advocates. Good is evil. Evil is good (Isaiah 5:20). (Click HERE and especially HERE to read TWO’s rationale for opposing the Exodus iPhone app; it is typical of homosexual activist arguments that conflate disagreement with TWO’s pro-homosexual ideology with “hate.”)

Exodus’ ‘niceness’ gets them nowhere

There are some interesting side stories and ironies to this second of two Apple cave-ins to LGBT pressure-campaigns. One is that Exodus International — a leading umbrella group for people desiring to abandon homosexual practice or resist unwanted same-sex desires – has gone out of its way (too far, in our view) NOT to offend homosexual activists. And look where it got them. In fact, a while back Exodus declared that it was disengaging from the ”Culture War” over homosexuality (in favor of ministry pursuits) – yet now it is thrust right back into it. This is a lesson for all naive Christians who think that by somehow sidestepping the cultural battle over homosexuality, it won’t rage on,  with homosexual activists attempting to muzzle the Gospel.

Christians and moral-minded Americans MUST actively defend truth on this issue against the many “gay” lies (even the activist term “gay” is a lie…) — and realize that the end-game of the LGBT movement (not all, but many self-styled “queer” activists) is to shut down critics and alternative voices on this issue – first in the private sector, and then using Government power. Aggressive homo-fascism hates dissent, religious or otherwise. For goodness sake, 31 out of 31 states provided the opportunity have voted down “same-sex marriage,” and yet opposition to same sex marriage is now widely derided as “hate” by all major homosexualist organizations!

What Exodus’ well-intentioned leaders — and millions of “ministry-minded” Christians — do not understand regarding this cultural debate is that no matter how “nice” you are to the likes of TWO, the only thing that counts is that you oppose homosexual behavior. Though Christians must lovingly extend the Gospel of grace and salvation through Jesus Christ to all sexual strugglers, we also must stand against the growing tyranny engendered and envisioned by pro-homosexual militants. The expanding list of victimized Christians [click HERE and HERE] makes clear: our very freedom to act on our beliefs and to preach the full Gospel to all sinners, including people practicing homosexuality, is in danger. (Of course, LGBT activists claim to support religious freedom, but what good is liberty if we cannot publicly proclaim and act upon our historic biblical beliefs about sex, marriage and family?)

Cultural bullies

Far from being victims, the best way to think of name-calling homosexual activists like TWO’s Wayne Besen is as bullies: the more you try to appease them – e.g., by constantly apologizing for alleged “anti-gay hate” in the Church, or adopting the dubious semantics of “gay rights” and “gay” identity (at the expense of biblical fidelity) – the more they sense weakness, leading them to castigate and target you all the more.

A sexual/gender movement built upon the Big Lie that changeable sexual perversion is the basis for: a) a healthy identity; and b) ”civil rights” has zero respect for the religious beliefs and freedoms of citizens committed to God’s Truth. And, of course, any “civil rights” movement that aggressively seeks to deny the civil and religious liberties of others is, well, not a civil rights movement at all.

Truth Wins Out: the real haters

Demonizaton of opponents is critical to the LGBT campaign to push Christians and moral critics of homosexuality out of the cultural debate over homosexuality. Take special note of “Truth Wins Out’s” preposterous characterization of Exodus as “hateful and bigoted.” Any rational observer who compares TWO’s and Exodus’ rhetoric will see who the real “haters” are, and it’s not Exodus. TWO regularly engages in extreme, ad hominem, and blatantly anti-Christian rhetoric. (Wayne Besen proudly came up with the ugly “Porno Pete” smear to tar this writer.) Substituting “gay” ideology for reality, they simply deny the existence of former homosexuals — and then they have the gall to accuse others of “dehumanization.” (Recall that homosexual activists once chanted, “We here, we’re queer, get used to it!”…) TWO actively demonizes anyone who goes public about overcoming homosexuality in their life – and especially mocks those who claim to have done so with the divine help of Christ. (Besen’s snarky attack-slogan for Christian, ex-homosexual overcomers is “Pray Away the Gay.”)

Media enablers

Homosexualist intolerance would not so easily flourish if the “mainstream” (liberal) media were not almost completely sold out to the “gay rights” cause. Too often reporters and editors cater to the left-wing notion that ideas (especially Christian ones) are hateful, as opposed to actual actions and speech that are objectively caustic, hateful and mean-spirited.  The lack of media accountablity enables and empowers homosexual activists’ who employ an end-justifies-the-means rationale to fight and vilify the “haters” — including shutting down their speech.

To be sure, the Gay Thought Police’s penchant for squelching the opposition’s voice isn’t new — over a decade ago homosexual activists led by GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) lobbied major media to deny ads featuring happy ex-”gays” — but there is a special intensity to the current censorship campaign, perhaps due to the media’s suffocating political correctness.

Precious few journalists are willing to call out the Homosexual Lobby on its totalitarian-like, censorious approach to ideas and biblical/religious truths that it does not like, so we must. Christians need to wake up and stay fully engaged in this raging Culture War before it is too late and our freedom to disagree with homosexuality is destroyed.

Fellow advocate of godly morality, please understand this: militants on the homosexual-bisexual-transgender Left hate you enough to shut down your voice anywhere they can. If you value Truth and your constitutional, God-given freedom to defend it, do not let them.

–Peter LaBarbera, www.AFTAH.org; write me at americansfortruth@gmail.com

____________________________________________

The following is reprinted from LifeSiteNews; March 23, 2011; [to sign up for LifeSite's e-News updates, go HERE]

Apple pulls ex-gay app after complaints from gay activists

CUPERTINO, California, March 23, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Apple has now pulled the iPhone application that caused such a stir this week after the homosexual activist group Truth Wins Out (TWO) complained that it was “hateful and bigoted.”

This marks the second time that Apple has pulled an app because it promoted a traditional Christian view of homosexuality. In November of last year Apple pulled an app created for the Manhattan Declaration, a pro-life and pro-family document signed by nearly 500,000 people. The app was attacked because it opposed same-sex “marriage.”

The recent app, created by the international Christian ex-gay ministry Exodus International and available through Apple’s online iTunes store, originally received a 4+ rating from Apple, meaning that it was found to contain no objectionable content. The app provided a gateway to the ministry’s news, blog, podcasts, and other social networking and resource materials.

Exodus International denied that the app was aimed at “curing” homosexuality, as was claimed by its critics.  “In no way shape or form is our message about trying to cure or do we try to promote that type of methodology or message,” Jeff Buchanan, Exodus International’s Senior Director of Church Equipping & Student Ministries, told The Christian Post.

“This is a label that has been put forth by opponents to the application to serve as propaganda in order to stigmatize and really label the application in a false way and provoking a response such as you are seeing with the application.”

Meanwhile, TWO and Change.org praised Apple for removing the app.  “Apple made a wise and responsible decision to dump an offensive app that demonized gay and lesbian people,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “The real winners today are LGBT youth who are safer and less at risk for receiving Exodus’ malice and misinformation.”

“We’re thrilled that Apple has removed this ‘gay cure’ app from the iTunes store after more than 150,000 people signed this petition,” said Mike Jones, Editor at Change.org, the platform used by TWO to launch the petition. “The message Apple is sending here is clear: there is no place for ‘ex-gay therapy’ on the Apple platform.”

TWO claimed the app “relied on twisting legitimate research” to “dehumanize LGBT people” and by dropping the app, Apple joined the line of “every respected mental health organization in the nation.”
“We are disheartened at the fact that there are activists who are rising up to silence our voice on the Exodus iTunes platform,” Exodus’ Buchanan said on Tuesday. “We want to ask that there would be fair and equal representation of religious belief on this platform.”

“We are helping those who have unwanted same-sex attractions. Those who are gay or identify themselves that way, in no way, shape or form are we trying to speak to their position or trying to impose anything upon them,” he said.  “Exodus believes the opposite of homosexuality is not heterosexuality. It is holiness. We promote the belief that one can live a life that is congruent with their faith. That is our mission – period.”

Contact:

Apple Inc.
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014
408.996.1010

From today’s AFTAH e-newsletter; go HERE for contact info for Chili’s and parent company Brinker International — which is a “National Corporate Partner” of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force:

Dear Readers,

This is not just another e-mail about boycotting yet another irresponsible corporation.  It’s about educating the nation on the incredibly extreme and unhealthy agenda of the pro-Homosexuality-Bisexuality-Transsexuality Lobby — and holding company executives accountable for financing that agenda.  Last week in Minneapolis, I and a few other pro-family advocates went undercover at the annual “Creating Change” grassroots homosexual conference put on by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.  There were more than 2,000 LGBT activists in attendance!  Some of the “change” we heard advocated in the various workshops, and which we will document in the days and weeks ahead, was shocking.  Yet this agenda is one that the left-leaning media refuse to examine, much less expose. So AFTAH will do the media’s job for them by laying out the Gay Task Force’s extremist vision, which includes:

• Taxpayer-financed “sex change” operations for transsexuals (not to do so is “discrimination” against “transgenders”);
• Using polling, focus groups and emotional arguments to persuade evangelical Christians to ignore Scripture and accept homosexuality-based “rights”;
• Using the tragedy of homosexual youth suicides to shame Christians into stop calling homosexuality sinful;
• Celebrating sadomasochism (consensual sexual violence and degradation) and “kinky”/fetish sexual behaviors
• Pro-homosexuality lessons for grade school kids (because waiting until middle school is too late to reach them); 
• “Non-judgmental condom advocacy for young men in the name of HIV prevention — and even being non-judgmental in “safe sex” training when it comes to bizarre/disgusting “fetish” behaviors
• Predicting not just a future “gay” president of the United States but also a “bi” and a “transgender” president! (I’ll withhold the jokes…);
• “[F--k--g] with gender,” and celebrating bisexuality and “genderqueer” lifestyles (see this definition for latter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genderqueer);
• Using “gender identity” laws to pressure businesses to bend to the transgender agenda of “Gender-Neutral Restrooms” — to replace the old-fashioned variety with an “M” or an “F” on the door.

There is much, much more — the homosexual Task Force puts the “D” back in “Deviance,” that’s for sure.  Stay tuned as we lay out the “change” that this high-powered organization and “Friend of Barack Obama” is promoting for America — with help from Chilis restaurants, Wells Fargo, Southwest Airlines, and other major corporations.  God bless you and thanks for standing with us! – Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth, www.aftah.org; americansfortruth@gmail.com. 

Every year, the powerful homosexual activist group Human Rights Campaign puts out a "Buyer's Guide" to advance its goal of gaining corporate support for the homosexual-bisexual-transsexual activist agenda.

Link for homosexual activist group HRC’s 2011 “Buying for Equality” Guide: http://www.hrc.org/buyersguide2011/

Periodically, we’ll post Americans For Truth President Peter LaBarbera’s ”Tweets” or Facebook entries on the AFTAH main page. We’ll clean up the Twitter abbreviations, and occasionally also post responses. Note as well that the most recent Twitter posts will be continuously published and updated on the “Pete’s Tweets” bar at left.  To follow Americans For Truth  LaBarbera on Twitter for frequent updates and quick comments on the pro-homosexuality agenda, go HERE; to see LaBarbera’s Facebook page, go HERE. The following Tweet was posted Feb. 8, 2011 in the morning:

Use this pro-lgbt [lesbian, gay, bi, trans] Human Rights Campaign (HRC) “Buyer’s Guide” to see which corporations are the most sold out to the homosexual agenda: http://bit.ly/heFPjk

Should American consumers and taxpayers subsidize body-disfiguring "Sex Reassignment Surgeries" for gender-confused individuals? Above is Autumn Sandeen, a man who left his wife and kids to become a transsexual activist. Sandeen's ex-wife told AFTAH that she discovered his perverse cross-dressing desires when she found a dress that wasn't hers in the clothes dryer. Click on photo to enlarge.

Folks, every time I think I’ve seen it all regarding the Homosexual Lobby’s fanatical demands, they come up with something new that dumbfounds me in its astonishing arrogance and chutzpah. Check this out: the anti-Christian, anti-Bible (and yes, anti-God) homosexual lobby group Human Wrongs Rights Campaign (HRC) has added coverage for transsexual sex-change operations to its 2012 Corporate Scorecard criteria. These perverse criteria gauge how compliant major corporations are to HRC’s radical homosexual/bisexual/transsexual agenda. The D.C.-based lobby organzation wants at least $75,000 in “health” coverage for tranny sex-change operations for the corporation to get a perfect rating. 

HRC is led by well-paid secular bigot Joe Solmonese, who also is DEMANDING an apology from the Mormon Church because a church official affirmed Mormon teachings on the sin of homosexuality. HRC’s hugely-funded PAC is deeply involved in elections across the country: you can check out how your Congressman and Senators rated on the homosexual agenda criteria by linking to their Congressional Scorecard. 

The following is an excerpt of what HRC stipulates for its revised 2012 Corporate Scorecard “Criteria 3.0″ (yes, they upgrade them periodically, like Microsoft Windows) under “Health Insurance for Transgender Employees and Dependents”). If a corporation agrees to this for 2012 – and all of HRC’s other homosexual/transsexual demands [see this AFTAH article on the current rating criteria] – it gets a 100 percent rating: 

“Where available for employees, the following benefits should all extend to transgender individuals, including for services related to transgender transition (e.g., medically necessary services related to sex reassignment):  

• Short term medical leave
• Mental health benefits
• Pharmaceutical coverage (e.g., for hormone replacement therapies)
• Coverage for medical visits or laboratory services
• Coverage for reconstructive surgical procedures related to sex reassignment” 

This is social insanity, and further proof that modern liberalism is completely bankrupt in its escalating kowtowing to deviance and enthusiastic promotion of sex/gender confusion. If corporate executives allow themselves to be “bullied” by HRC into covering these tragic, body-disfiguring procedures for the severely gender-confused, they will cause more men and women to commit this ultimate rebellion against their Creator. The harsh truth is: American corporations are incentivizing sin and self-destructive behavior, and ultimately our culture’s descent into evil. These”Sex Reassingnment Surgeries (the PC term for them) are horrifying and the ultimate Crime Against Nature — we’ll described them in future posts. [If you must, go to this "Transgender" website where they are described with photos, but BE WARNED: it is beyond gross and upsetting.]  

Suffice it to say that I have great pity for anyone who would even consider doing this to his or her body – they desperately need help and God’s love — but you and I should NEVER be forced to subsidize these sickening operations — and especially not with our tax dollars. (Next week: how the Obama administration is telling LGBT activists to lobby for “sex change” operations to be covered under “Obama-care.”) 

One last thing: just as homosexual militants insist on propagandistic, pro-”gay” programs in schools to stop “bullying,” they want Americans to subsidize transsexual sex-change operations in the name of ending “systematic discrimination” against “transgenders.” No doubt the left-leaning media will echo their demands. Are you feeling manipulated yet? Me, too. – Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

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The following article mentioning AFTAH is from American Family Association’s news service, One News Now; [to subscribe to ONN's Daily News Briefs, click HERE]:  

Activist: HRC Engaging in Corporate ‘Blackmail’

A prominent pro-homosexual group isn’t satisfied with benefits already being offered by 337 major American businesses to their homosexual employees. 

By Charlie Butts – OneNewsNow – 10/20/2010 3:55:00 AM 

General Motors, Bank of America, IBM, Ford Motor, AT&T, Walgreen Co., Target, Citigroup — those companies (and scores more) got a 100-percent favorable rating on the 2010 Corporate Equality Index [PDF], an annual business ranking published by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest homosexual activist organization in the country. [Caution: The previous links go to a pro-homosexual website]
 
But HRC is now demanding those corporations offer unlimited healthcare coverage for transgender employees — or lose the highest ranking offered under the Corporate Equality Index. Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality tells OneNewsNow the group is simply escalating “its blackmail campaign against businesses.”
 
“In order to get a 100-percent rating, you now have to provide funding for sex-change operations for transsexuals,” he explains. “So…they keep ramping up the demands to get the 100-percent rating, knowing that companies are bragging about having the rating.”
 
Which, according to LaBarbera, means that people who spend money with those firms are helping underwrite that health coverage.

The Americans for Truth spokesman says even more to be concerned about. “An official in the Obama administration is also telling gay activists to lobby for transsexual sex-change operations to be covered under ObamaCare,” he claims.
 
LaBarbera points out that homosexuals represent one to three percent of the total population — and transsexuals are only a fraction of that group.
 
In an interview with CitizenLink, the president of the National Association for Research and Therapy for Homosexuality urged caution regarding HRC’s costly new requirement. “Medical treatments for transgender issues are very risky procedures — and it’s an irreversible path to take,” said Dr. Julie Hamilton. “There should be a lot more research done before these types of procedures become the main path to take.” 

This perverse rendition of the iconic Iwo Jima WWII photo replaces Old Glory with the "gay" rainbow flag, and Marines with shirtless "gay" men. It represents all that's wrong with selfish homosexual activism. American fighting men died to preserve freedom, here and abroad -- not for their fellow citizens to be forced by government and activist courts to subjugate their religious and moral beliefs to the celebration of homosexuality as a newly discovered "civil right."

Folks, this story out of Indianapolis is Elaine Huguenin — the New Mexican Christian photographer fined for not shooting photos at a lesbian “commitment ceremony” — all over again. Arrogant liberals steeped in ”gay” ideology think they have the right to FORCE people of faith to help celebrate homosexuality — even with their own private businesses. They don’t — not in a truly free country, anyway. 

The Tyranny of Forced Homosexual Affirmation is wrong and against the principle of God-given liberty that defines America. A Christian cookie-maker shouldn’t be forced to make cookies celebrating homosexuality in violation of his creed not to abet sin — in the same way that a “gay”-activist-owned bakery shouldn’t be forced to make cookies for Americans For Truth or AFA. 

This is why the homosexual agenda presently is a greater threat to American freedom than Sharia Law, as I said on Facebook. (Homosexual bloggers typically responded with emotional attacks on me and AFTAH rather than deal with the freedom-vs.-”gay rights” issue.) Are men and women across America being forced to deny their Christian beliefs to get an education and even getting fired due to aggressive Muslim activism and pro-Islam “special rights’ laws? No. 

Are Christians from California to Massachusetts being forced to deny their beliefs or face government or corporate punishment for NOT affirming homosexuality? Yes they are — and it’s time for the media to take this civil rights crisis (anti-religious discrimination in the name of a false tolerance) seriously. How gratifying it is to see Indiana citizens getting it — and saying “No!” to “superior rights” for homosexuals. Please support Micah Clark’s and AFA of Indiana’s important work. – Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org 

___________________________________________________ 

Indianapolis Bakery Scandal Update!!

“Call to Action” from AFA-Indiana Director Micah Clark on Friday, Oct. 1: 

Dear Friends, 

I want to give you an update on the “great cupcake scandal of 2010” occurring in the capitol city, before the weekend hits. 

Many of you may have read the alert from our national office about the family-owned small business called “Just Cookies.”   This bakery leases space in the City Market Building owned by the city of Indianapolis. 

Just as we warned the Indianapolis City-County Council five years ago, and as we have recently warned cities like Fort Wayne, Goshen and South Bend, these sexual orientation and gender identity ordinances are a threat to religious freedom and the rights of conscience of employers and employees. We now have yet another disturbing example of the misuse of these bad laws.  (Remember the Boy Scout headquarters eviction in the City of Philadelphia?) 

Just Cookies was approached by some local homosexual demands group activists and asked to make a special order of cupcakes designed with homosexual rainbows for the “National Coming Out Day.” This is an event sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, DC.   It exists solely to encourage homosexual behavior among students and kids.   (Let’s not even begin to get into the discussion about recruitment and radical agendas here.) 

The owners of Just Cookies declined this special order, which required their design talents being used to embrace this controversial and morally questionable event. The activists could have purchased cookies and other items off the shelf, but wanted something specific for their event at a local university. The homosexual demands groups saw a “no thank you” as “discrimination” simply because the owners didn’t want any part of promoting the homosexuality among kids. 

The issue really exploded this week when this news broke and the Mayor’s office took the side of the homosexual demands crowd and threatened to evict Just Cookies from the City Market for “discrimination” after their having been in that location for twenty years. 

In other words, the City is (was) attempting to compel the owners to be a part of a political event with deep spiritual, moral, and physical health ramifications! 

Here’s the latest on this situation: 

1) You have responded to the alert I helped draft with AFA President Tim Wildmon. As of this moment over 3,069 people have sent an e-mail to the mayor’s office to complain about possible punishment of Just Cookies!   Perhaps hundreds of others have also called Mayor Ballard’s office based upon what I am hearing. 

2) Just Cookies sold out of cookies twice yesterday after this story wound up on the front page of the Indianapolis Star and our email alert went out. People were lined up ten deep at times just to encourage the owners and to say thank you for standing for our values! 

3) We have helped get the Alliance Defense Fund and the Liberty Counsel, two of the top religious liberty law groups in the nation, in touch with the owners of Just Cookies. 

4) I have had numerous opportunities to defend your values on this matter in various media outlets over the last 24 hours. I have done interviews as far away as California and as near as Fox 59 TV on this matter. 

5) We now have differing reports that the protest planned for noon today [Friday] by the homosexual demands groups outside of Just Cookies was canceled or was so small it failed to have any impact. 

What you can do now: 

I have been flooded with calls and email asking what you can do to help stand up against government coercion, religious liberty infringement, and homosexual activist bullying. 

• First, pray for the Stockton family, owners of Just Cookies. This is a whole new world for them. They never imagined this type of controversy or reaction would ever touch their business and family.
• Second, pray that the Mayor’s office will see that Hoosiers’t be intimidated into using their business to advance an agenda that violates their beliefs. The Constitution is supposed to protect Americans from being forced to promote political messages and moral ideas against their will. The Mayor’s office should drop the idea of eviction and the Indianapolis Human Rights Commission should drop this matter, as it is not about actual discrimination.
• Third, the next time you’re downtown Indianapolis, stop by and buy some cookies at Just Cookies and say “thank you” for standing for what is right.

Lastly, I do not think that I have made this appeal all year to our weekly email list. Your financial support of AFA of Indiana is vitally important. This has been a difficult financial year for us in the midst of growing demands upon this organization.   You can give a tax-deductible online donation by clicking here: or mail one to our office: AFA of Indiana, P.O. Box 40307, Indianapolis, IN 46240. 

We currently have a shortfall of about $5,000 in year-to-date giving from this point last year that we need to make up before November 1st and the critical year-end giving month of December.  Your gift to help us catch up would be greatly appreciated. 

Thank you, 

Micah Clark
Executive Director, American Family Association of Indiana

Would Ann Coulter speak at an event for “Republicans For Responsible Porn Use,” or “Republicans for Higher Taxes,” or Republicans for Choice (Abortion) -- if such groups took legitimately conservative positions on other issues like gun rights?

Contact: Peter LaBarbera: 630-717-7631; e-mail: AmericansForTruth@gmail.com ; August 10, 2010

CHICAGO — Americans For Truth About Homosexuality President Peter LaBarbera today urged conservative pundit Ann Coulter to reconsider her appearance at “Homocon,” a September event for the homosexual Republican group GOProud. 

LaBarbera said: 

As a fan of Ann Coulter, it pains me to see her cave in to political correctness and lend credibility to the phony homosexual “conservatives” over at GOProud. Worse, Coulter is sending a dangerous message to young Americans that homosexuality is OK. (It’s actually a sin.) Fully half of GOProud’s top 10 federal priorities center on using the Government to advance homosexuality, including: 

#4 – “Repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’” – Homosexualizing the military is reckless, especially in wartime. GOProud claims to defend “individual liberty,” but what about the privacy rights of normal soldiers who don’t want to bunk and shower with men who lust after other men? Moreover, if DADT is repealed, the military will become a massive government bureaucracy for pro-homosexual “diversity” – subjecting millions of tradition-minded servicemen to Orwellian, same-sex propaganda to enforce its new lavender crusade. (Chaplains: beware.) 

# 7 – “Opposing any anti-gay federal marriage amendment.” Coulter must know that America might be just one Supreme Court justice away from legalizing oxymoronic homosexual “marriage” – which would undermine religious freedom in every state in the nation. A Federal Marriage Amendment could be the only way to stop this Roe v. Wade-like disaster. And since when did state-enforced homosexual “marriage” – with its corrosive effect on liberty and linkage to Homosexuality Promotion in schools — become “conservative”? 

GOProud's flier for Ann Coulter appearance Sept. 25 in New York City.

GOProud is non-committal on ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act), which would federalize workers’ “rights” based on homosexuality and gender confusion. A truly conservative organization would fight this federal power grab — and GLBT lawyers’ dream legislation — tooth and nail. Ann, are you aware that these days it’s Christians like Julea Ward and Matt Barber who defend biblical truth – not “gays” – who are victims of corporate discrimination? 

One must ask Coulter, who professes Christianity: 

• Would you speak at an event for “Republicans For Responsible Porn Use,” or “Republicans for Higher Taxes,” or Republicans for Choice (Abortion) — if such groups took legitimately conservative positions on other issues like gun rights?
• Does God condemn only Democratic “men who lie with a male as one lies with a woman” – while giving Republican sodomists a pass?

Homosexual practice may be hip in New York City, but objectively it is always wrong and unnatural, and often unhealthy. Thankfully it’s also changeable, as proved by thousands of ex-gay men and ex-lesbians. Ann: why don’t you speak instead at a conference for former homosexuals? It’s not PC, but it would be far more consistent with your conservative principles than celebrating GOProud – which works directly against the Republican Party’s pro-family and pro-marriage platform. 

Please reconsider and nix your GOProud talk — in the name of true conservatism.­

Teenage boy in McDonald's-France TV ad pines after another boy in his all-boys school. McDonald's COO Don Thompson says the ad will not run in the USA. But as a Christian he should be concerned that the corporation is promoting sinful, unhealthy sexual lifestyles to young men in any country.

TAKE ACTION: You can write McDonald’s HERE or call 1-800-244-6227; or write: McDonald’s Corporation, Attn: Jim Skinner and Don Thompson, 2111 McDonald’s Dr., Oak Brook, IL 60523.

By Peter LaBarbera

Folks, perhaps you’ve seen the YouTube of this wicked McDonald’s TV commercial in France, featuring a homosexual teenage boy in love with another member of his all-boys school. (His out-of-touch, hopelessly ‘heterosexist’ father still thinks of his son as a potential lady’s man.) Since I saw the ad a while ago, I have stopped eating at McDonalds — which has had the added bonus of helping to keep my already protruding gut from officially being designated as “super-sized.”  

To a significant degree, McDonald’s with its high-calorie fare has always been in the business of promoting unhealthy lifestyles; now it has added unhealthy sexual lifestyles to the mix. To be sure, McDonald’s does not include promoting wholesomeness and time-tested Judeo-Christian morality among its “core values.” In a contorted defense of the fast food giant’s marketing practices, McDonald’s Chief Operation Officer Don Thompson told the Chicago Tribune in March that the French ad will not  be running in the USA. But the “Come as You Are” commercial has received wide publicity and gotten over two million hits on YouTube, so that’s a small comfort to Americans who have no interest in promoting youth homosexuality when they buy a Big Mac, or a Happy Meal for their young children.

Here’s FOX’s Bill O’Reilly segment on the French commercial — note how O’Reilly repeats the old homosexual-activist myth that “gays are ten percent of the population” — followed by more commentary and a McDonald’s-France letter defending it:  

As you can read in the Tribune interview, excerpted below, Thompson is a very public Christian, which is a good thing. But I find it deeply disturbing and hypocritical that he apparently is not troubled by McDonald’s' promotion of sinful and deviant behavior to young people — as long as it occurs in France where homosexuality is much less controversial than in the United States.

Of course, Thompson is a company man, so he has to toe the line in his public statements. But Christianity is not divided by national borders and he must know that promoting wrong and unhealthy sexual lifestyles to French teenage boys is every bit as evil and reckless as promoting sinful lifestyles to American boys. (Are you getting a feel for how post-modern, pro-homosexual Corporate America is corrupting the souls of its devoted employees?) 

[TAKE ACTION: You can write McDonald's HERE or call 1-800-244-6227; or write: McDonald's Corporation, Attn: Jim Skinner and Don Thompson, 2111 McDonald's Dr., Oak Brook, IL 60523.]

McDonald's COO Don Thompson

Changeable, male homosexuality is not “who you are” but is more rightly understood as a high-risk perversion – as evidenced by its disproportionately high linkage to various sexually transmitted diseases including HIV. (The “rate of new HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men (MSM) is more than 44 times that of other men,” the CDC reported in March. “The rate of primary and secondary syphilis among MSM is more than 46 times that of other men,” it reported.) Getting by on the technicality that this youth-corrupting ad is only running in another (more decadent, less religious) country is the coward’s way out of a shameful PR disaster for the fast-food behemoth. And that defense has only alienated both sides of the debate: pro-”gay” advocates are upset that the McDonald’s-France commercial is not running in the U.S.   

McDonald’s and its CEO, Jim Skinner (and COO Don Thompson) owe an apology to French moms and dads — and French young people — for promoting the unnatural, disease-producing homosexual lifestyle to French boys as some kind of innocuous, natural — and “cool” — identity. Until that apology comes, I am avoiding the famed Golden Arches. If you join me, it will be one of the healthiest corporate boycotts you ever engage in — but please make sure that you pay a visit to your local McDonald’s manager and franchise owner — to personally inform them of the reason that you are not eating there anymore. (Show them the YouTube ad.) Then they can relay your message of concern up the corporate ladder.

Thanks for standing up for moral sanity and truth against Corporate America’s increasingly brazen promotion of sexual immorality, in the name of that modern, Orwellian euphemism, ”diversity.” – Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org   

P.S. Memo to pro-homosexuality activists: if you want to negate our boycott: have at it! The Big Macs, fries and Quarter-Pounders, dripping with grease and loaded with fat-producing calories, are there to be eaten. Here’s a caloric rundown of some popular McDonald’s menu items, courtesy of Shapefit.com:

Big Mac: 570 calories
Quarter Pounder: 430 (w/cheese: 530 c.)
Large French Fries: 540 c.
Crispy Chicken Deluxe Sandwich: 500 c.
File-O-Fish Sandwich: 470 c.
Big Xtra! Hamburger: 710 c. (w/ cheese 810 c.)
Oreo McFlurry: 570 c.
Sausage McMuffin w/ Egg Sandwich: 440 c.
Chicken McNuggets 9-piece: 430 c.

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Here is a clearer YouTube version of the McDonald’s ad (after it starts playing, you may need to close the “Google Ads” box so you can better view the English subtitles):

_______________________________________________________

Tribune Interview with McDonald’s COO Don Thompson:

Excerpt from Chicago Tribune reporter Michael Oneal’s June 13, 2010 interview with McDonald’s COO Don Thompson. Note that Thompson’s response begs the question: just what are McDonald’s “core values” if they include promoting the acceptance of youth homosexuality to the wider culture? (Emphasis added below:)

Tribune: A French TV ad featuring a gay teen and his father has stirred some controversy — not there, but here. Can you talk about that?

Thompson: It is an example that markets, cultures are very different around the world. (For instance), I’ve never shied away from the fact that I’m a Christian. I have my own personal beliefs and I don’t impose those on anybody else. I’ve been in countries where the majority of the people in the country don’t believe in a deity or they may be atheist. Or the majority of the country is Muslim. Or it may be the majority is much younger skewed. So when you look at all these differences, it’s not that I’m to be the judge or the jury relative to right or wrong. Having said that, at McDonald’s, there are core values we stand for and the world is getting much closer. So we have a lot of conversations. We’re going to make some mistakes at times. (We talk) about things that may have an implication in one part of the world and may be the cultural norm in another part of the world. And those are things that, yes, we’re going to learn from. But, you’re right, that commercial won’t show in the United States.

Tribune: How has it done in France?

Thompson: Interestingly enough, there have been no negatives coming out of France. The brand is a local brand and different things will occur in different parts of the world. We just have to make sure that we understand the impact one action may make on another part of the world.

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[TAKE ACTION: You can write McDonald's HERE or call 1-800-244-6227; or write: McDonald's Corporation, Attn: Jim Skinner and Don Thompson, 2111 McDonald's Dr., Oak Brook, IL 60523.]

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McDonald’s-France Reply to American Customer Concerned over Pro-Homosexual Ad

The following letter was sent by McDonald’s France in response to an  American customer who wrote to express his concern over the corporation’s homosexuality-affirming TV ad:

July 5, 2010

Mr. ________________,

I have received your letter regarding our advertising film “Come as You Are.”

The ad you’re referencing is one of a series of ads called “Come as You Are” which recognizes the diversity of McDonald’s customers in France.

The campaign was designed to communicate the true McDonald’s experience in France: a place where you can be yourself, whatever your state of mine, your background; a place where you can feel free of constraints, a place where you can ‘Come as You Are.’ Since its launch, the campaign has acheived high awareness and it has been received positively by the majority of the French public.

The goal with this new phase of the campaign is to continue to build on the emotional connection created between the brand and the French [public. By] going beyond a simple description of our customers we actually tell their stories, capturing their personality and their emotions.

Through these films McDonald’s pays tribute to the diversity of its customers and the richness of their stories.

I hope you’ll better understand the aim of your [sic] “Come as You Are” communications campaign.

Your [sic] sincerely,

Nathalie Febvre
Customer Services Department
McDonald’s France Services

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

_______________________________________________________

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”

__________________________________________________________

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

Why should you spend your hard-earned consumer dollars on the products of a company like Progressive Insurance that promotes "pride" in immoral homosexual behavior? Progressive lists the various big-city "gay pride" parade dates on its special, pro-homosexual "Faces of Pride" website.

[The following message was sent out to AFTAH e-subscribers May 20, 2010:]

Folks, Jamil Adair of Horizon City, Texas, has given us permission to reprint his excellent letter to Progressive Insurance, which he sent after reading our article, “Progressive Insurance Co. Promotes Homosexuality.” (And Jamil approved the printing of his full address: here is one American who does not cower in fear of homosexual activist bullies.) Click HERE to read Jamil’s letter.

This is how we regain our culture: taking one principled stance at a time, and using our considerable power as consumers to defend morality and truth.  In the last decade or so, the corporate world was essentially ceded to the “gay” lobby without much of a fight — while pro-family advocates were busy opposing the homosexual activist political agenda in Washington, D.C.  Now look at the tragic result: major corporations are using their immense resources to promote sexual immorality and gender confusion throughout society.  And the agenda they are financing wars against Biblical values and directly threatens YOUR religious freedom.

One wonders: what have the Christian employees been doing all these years at companies like Progressive?   Why haven’t more people of faith spoken up in their place of employment — urging their superiors not to waste valuable corporate resources to fund and promote the homosexual and transsexual agenda?  And why aren’t more Christians and moral advocates demanding true corporate “diversity” — which includes respecting those employees who support real (man-woman) marriage and who oppose homosexual practice and gender confusion?

It’s time to stop whining and making excuses about the past and to start sending this very clear message to “gay”-pandering corporate execs: We’re not going to just sit back and take it while you use OUR consumer dollars to promote immorality to the public.  Jamil shows us the way with his letter to Progressive.

TAKE ACTION: Go HERE to read a short AFTAH piece about how the homosexual lobby group Human Rights Campaign uses its rigged “Corporate Equality Index” to pressure corporations like Progressive Insurance into ever greater advocacy and financing of the homosexualist agenda.

Find other sellout corporations: you can also go directly to HRC’s website to view their complete corporate “Gay Index” and see for yourself which other major U.S. companies have sold out to HRC’s anti-Christian agenda.  Here’s the HRC link: http://issuu.com/hrcworkplace/docs/hrc_corporate_equality_index_2010.

Call Progressive (even if you don’t do business with them) at 1-800-PROGRESSIVE (800-776-4737); or fax your own letter to 800-229-1590.  (A Progressive phone/e-mail contact page is HERE.)   And work with AFTAH to contact other “100-percent-pro-homosexual” corporations and avoid spending your hard-earned $$$ on their products.

Thanks in advance for taking a stand for God’s truth in a culture that has bought into many lies of the Sexual Revolution.  God bless you. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

P.S.  Write us at americansfortruth@gmail.com or americansfortruth@comcast.net, and if you can, send a tax-deductible donation to support AFTAH’s work at www.americansfortruth.com/donate/.  And please pray for us.

Related AFTAH articles:

• “Human Rights Campaign’s Pro-Gay ‘Corporate Equality Index’ Rating System”
• “Texas Man Cancels Progressive Insurance Policy over Promotion of Homosexuality”
• “Ex-Gay Greg Quinlan of PFOX Challenges Pro-Gay PepsiCo Execs on Lack of Diversity”
• “Progressive Insurance Co. Promotes Homosexuality”

Progressive's website boasts of the company's 100-percent ranking on the Human Rights Campaign's rigged pro-homosexual "Corporate Equality Index."

Jamil Adair of Horizon City, Texas, has given us permission to reprint his excellent letter to Progressive Insurance, which he sent after reading our article, “Progressive Insurance Co. Promotes Homosexuality.” Call Progressive at 1-800-PROGRESSIVE (800-776-4737) or fax your own letter to 800-229-1590.  (A Progressive phone/e-mail contact page is HERE.) And go HERE to read up on the homosexual  lobby group Human Rights Campaign’s rigged “Corporate Equality Index” — which is used to pressure corporations like Progressive into ever greater advocacy and financing of the homosexualist agenda.  — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

___________________________________

May 15th, 2010

Mr. Jamil J. Adair
700 Paseo De Suerte Dr.
Horizon City, Texas 79928

Progressive Insurance
Department 0561
Carl Stream, Illinois 60132

(800) 229-1590 FAX [to Progressive Insurance Co.]

REFERENCE: CANCELLATION NOTICE (POLICY # [469----2-0])

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing this letter to advise you that I am canceling my automobile insurance policy effective June 1st, 2010. It was brought to my attention that “Progressive Insurance” has adopted a controversial policy of openly endorsing and supporting the Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, Transgender (GLBT) movement.

The GLBT agenda violates my core fundamental beliefs. Please allow me to clarify this … I am a firm supporter of equality; when it pertains to one’s ethnicity, skin color, natural gender, or age. I adamantly oppose the oppression of any human being, by any individual, or group. I am a man of principle and a man who seeks to bring about peace. In layman’s terms, I am the bigger kid on the playground that pulled the “bully” off the smaller kid.

What I am opposed to in this situation is not a person, nor a group of people, but rather an “Action.” An Action that I find to be repulsive and a shock to the conscience. Not only because of my spiritual beliefs, but by my instinctive and natural human ability to decipher between what is right and what is wrong.

Having said that… I do not instill my personal beliefs upon others and respect the God-given right that we all share to set our course and make decisions for ourselves.

Frankly, I could care less what others do in their private time. I do not ask and I do not want to know. It is a discussion that should be left outside of the main streets of our society and confined to the privacy of one’s own home.

However, rather than leave this controversial “Action” to the confines of one’s own personal life, your company has publicly elected to endorse a movement that seeks to promote an “Action” that I find to be unnatural, immoral, and contrary to any teachings I would want my children exposed to.

The GLBT movement seeks to pursue a public campaign, whose primary goal is to re-define what I am naturally programmed to believe. Therefore, I ask you: Why would your respected organization support a movement that forces such an offensive position upon my family and me, with little to no regard for my religious, moral, or natural beliefs?

Progressive Insurance: It may appear that I am merely one man … but my message resonates within the hearts and minds of millions, upon millions, of Americans who firmly believe what I believe. For every ONE GLBT member that you support, there are FOUR HUNDRED more of us, standing together, in opposition. I have passed this information to every member of my family, church group, and contact list. You will be receiving many more cancellation letters shortly.

Sincerely,

Jamil J. Adair

The above is taken from the Progressive Insurance Company website marketing outreach to "proud" homosexuals. Progressive's "Faces of Pride" ad campaign features old photos and paintings like the above positively depicting homosexuality, coupled with commentary bemoaning that people once had to hide their homosexuality. Progressive is wrong to promote homosexual lifestyles, which are immoral, often unhealthy, and condemned by God. Contact Progressive at 1-800-PROGRESSIVE (800-776-4737; hit '0" for operator)

_____________________________________

Americans For Truth About Homosexuality begins its ongoing project highlighting “100%” pro-homosexual/pro-’transgender’ corporations as measured by a leading “gay” lobby group

Promoting "Gay Pride": Progressive's Facebook marketing page for homosexuals lists "gay pride" parades across the nation. It is irresponsible and wrong -- and sends a terrible message to children -- to promote homosexual behavior, which is immoral and condemned by God (who offers change and redemption through Jesus Christ: see 1 Corinthians chapter 6). The above photo of go-go boys atop a float at a homosexual "pride" parade is a typical scene at any big-city "pride" event. We added the box and text.

By Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

Like many other major corporations, executives at Progressive Casualty Insurance Company (1-800-PROGRESSIVE, or 1-800-776-4737; hit “0″ for operator) are betting that they will get more business marketing to people practicing homosexuality than they will lose from people who oppose homosexuality. Progressive has launched a new web- and print-based marketing outreach to homosexuals called “Faces of Pride,” in which they affirm homosexual relationships and boast of their 100-percent ranking with the homosexual lobby group Human Rights Campaign’s “Corporate Equality Index”. States Progressive:

“Corporate Equality for All

“We’re proud of our perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index. That’s because we’re always striving to be a company that celebrates diversity in everything we do.”

To view Progressive’s web page dealing with homosexuality, go here: http://www.progressive.com/glbt/

How HRC’s rigged rating system works

To earn a perfect 100-percent ranking with HRC and its “Corporate Equality Index” for 2010, a corporation must meet five sets of “positive-behavior” criteria and avoid one set of “negative” behaviors. The bulk of HRC scorecard’s involves getting points for implementing “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” nondiscrimination policies and providing corporate benefits to homosexual/transgender employees and their same-sex partners. To view the HRC requirements on the organization’s website, go to page 5 on this online PDF document.

1. Criterion 1 requires that the corporation establish a “sexual orientation” corporate nondiscrimination policy and engage in “diversity training” to implement it. (AFTAH readers will be well aware that such “training” usually propagates only a homosexualist ideology and makes no room for teaching respect for and understanding of moral or religious opponents of homosexual behavior.)
2. Criterion 2 requires the same nondiscrimination policy and diversity training based on “gender identity and expression.” To get 5 points and the full credit in this category (15 points possible), HRC stipulates that: “2c)
   Offers transgender-inclusive insurance coverage for at least one type of benefit: At least one: Counseling by a mental health professional; pharmacy benefits covering hormone therapy and other associated lab procedures; medically necessary surgical procedures such as hysterectomy; or short-term leave for surgical procedures.”;
3. Criterion 3 requires provision of various domestic-partner health insurance and other benefits (providing “adoption assistance” helps fulfill one part of this section);
4. Criterion 4 requires the corporation to support a homosexual employees resource group or “diversity council.”

The combination of Criteria 5 and 6 essentially locks an aspiring “100-percent pro-homosexual” corporation to aggressively affirm homosexuality with company dollars AND not do anything that could be construed as “anti-gay”:

• Criterion 5: “Engages in appropriate and respectful advertising and marketing or sponsors LGBT community events or organizations”
• Criterion 6: Employer exhibits responsible behavior toward the LGBT community; does not engage in action that would undermine LGBT equality

Progressive Insurance Co.’s advertising campaign fulfills Point #5 above. However, if Progressive executives were to balance their homosexuality-related giving by, say, making a gift to Americans For Truth or PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays), they would immediate lose their perfect rating with HRC for “undermining LGBT equality.” Or imagine a company supporting a state amendment to preserve the historic definition of marriage as between a man and a woman — it would lose its perfect HRC rating for engaging in activity that “undermines LGBT equality.” (HRC and all homosexual organizations crusade for same-sex “marriage” using the euphemism of “marriage equality.”)

HRC cannot tolerate real diversity

There is little doubt of the accuracy of this assertion — i.e., the rigidity by which HRC applies its stipulation that business NOT “undermine” the homosexual agenda (“gay equality”). HRC actively works to ban opposing moral viewpoints from “diversity” sessions. AFTAH readers will recall that in 2007 it was HRC that stepped in and pressured DiversityInc magazine to dis-invite this writer from a “Religion in the Workplace” discussion (to which HRC staffer Daryl Herrschaft had also been invited). DiversityInc’s editor had asked me to speak representing the perspective of faith-based employees who believe homosexuality is wrong. But such true “viewpoint diversity” was intolerable to HRC and Herrschaft, who threatened to boycott the panel discussion unless I as the lone conservative voice was dropped as a participant. Herrschaft’s intolerant gambit worked and I was dis-invited as a speaker.

In the same vein, HRC and other homosexual activists have strenuously fought any attempt to encourage corporations to fund PFOX as an “ex-gay” group for the purposes of fostering genuine diversity.

Progressive's website boasts of the company's 100-percent ranking with HRC, a homosexual activist group that is working to redefine Christianity to support homosexuality -- and which regularly demonizes as "haters" Christians and pro-family Americans who oppose the homosexual and transsexual agenda.

Surely, most Americans and people of faith are unaware of the carefully laid “trap” that HRC activists have set up to pressure corporations to do their bidding. Despite the controversial nature of homosexuality — and the fact that many millions of employees of various faith backgrounds (or no faith) regard homosexual behavior and relationships as immoral or unnatural — a company cannot achieve a balanced approach on this issue without losing its 100-percent HRC “Corporate Equality” rating.

Note also that the Corporate Equality Index’s transgender benefits requirement (2.c. above) was added in 2006 — pointing to an escalating set of requirements that corporations must fulfill to attain HRC’s “100-percent” designation.

It also should be noted that as part of its agenda, Human Rights Campaign has embarked on a “gay” theological campaign that seeks to reinterpret the Bible and Christianity as supporting homosexual relationships. This claim is completely at odds with Judeo-Christian history and tradition on the subject of homosexuality. (See AFTAH article: “VIDEO: Satan’s Talking Points? HRC’s Harry Knox Claims Homosexuality Is ‘Gift from God’ in MSNBC Debate with CWA’s Matt Barber.”) Moreover, HRC has routinely equated sincere religious religious and moral opposition to homosexuality with “hate,” thereby practicing its own form of bigotry — against people of faith who merely are trying to follow their conscience and God’s will.

Funding Homosexual "Pride": One of the criteria by which a corporation gets a perfect "100 percent" pro-"gay" HRC rating is by either funding homosexual events or organizations, or buying positive ads in homosexual publications. Thus, funding "gay pride" parades like the one shown above -- with all their attendant perversions -- is one way for a company to get a perfect HRC score. Scantily clad go-go boys like the above, riding atop a "gay pride" float, can be found at any big-city "pride" parade. We added the box to accentuate that to gain a perfect "gay" rating, corporations are required to finance the celebration of immoral conduct and lifestyles.

By Peter LaBarbera

Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) begins its project of regularly informing readers about “100-percent” pro-homosexual corporations, according to the rating system set up by the homosexual lobby group Human Rights Campaign (HRC). We will be updating this page with further details about the system, through which HRC is effectively pressuring companies to go along with — and subsidize — its radical pro-homosexual and pro-transsexual agenda.

To earn a perfect 100-percent ranking by HRC and its “Corporate Equality Index” for 2010, a corporation must meet five sets of “positive-behavior” criteria and avoid one set of “negative” behaviors. The bulk of HRC scorecard’s involves getting points for implementing “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” nondiscrimination policies and providing corporate benefits to homosexual/transgender employees and their same-sex partners. To see the HRC requirements, go to page 5 on this online PDF document.

1. Criterion 1 requires that the corporation establish a “sexual orientation” corporate nondiscrimination policy and engage in “diversity training” to implement it. (AFTAH readers will be well aware that such “training” usually propagates only a homosexualist ideology and makes no room for teaching respect for and understanding of moral or religious opponents of homosexual behavior.)
2. Criterion 2 requires the same nondiscrimination policy and diversity training based on “gender identity and expression.” To get 5 points and the full credit in this category (of the 15 points possible), HRC stipulates that: “2c)
   Offers transgender-inclusive insurance coverage for at least one type of benefit: At least one: Counseling by a mental health professional; pharmacy benefits covering hormone therapy and other associated lab procedures; medically necessary surgical procedures such as hysterectomy; or short-term leave for surgical procedures.”;
3. Criterion 3 requires provision of various domestic-partner health insurance and other benefits (providing “adoption assistance” helps fulfill one part of this section);
4. Criterion 4 requires the corporation to support a homosexual employees resource group or “diversity council.”

Criteria 5 and 6 essentially lock an aspiring “100-percent pro-homosexual” corporation to aggressively affirm homosexuality with company dollars AND not do anything that could be construed as “anti-gay”:

• Criterion 5: “Engages in appropriate and respectful advertising and marketing or sponsors LGBT community events or organizations”
• Criterion 6: Employer exhibits responsible behavior toward the LGBT community; does not engage in action that would undermine LGBT equality

TAKE ACTION: To contact PepsiCo North America, call 914-253-2000 (ask for the president’s office); to reach PepsiCo’s various regional offices, go HERE.

________________________________

PFOX News Release (PFLAG link added):

Speech by Greg Quinlan to the PepsiCo Board of Directors

May 5, 2010 Pepsi Shareholders Meeting

See http://pfox-exgays.blogspot.com/2010/05/indra-nooyi-and-pepsi.html

Ms. Indra Nooyi [PepsiCo chair], last year at this same event, you said that PepsiCo is “committed to diversity and inclusion without imposition of personal judgment.” So why does PepsiCo continue to fund organizations that hate ex-gays like me?

Former homosexual Greg Quinlan, president of PFOX

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?

Unlike the Coca Cola Company, PepsiCo refuses to divulge the exact amount of money it donates to various groups. This secrecy by PepsiCo leads to misuse of corporate funds. For example, PepsiCo says it gave ‘over $100,000′ last year to PFLAG, but refuses to specify the exact amount. In past years that amount has meant as much as half a million dollars. This means that Pepsi may be giving away $500,000 or more in corporate earnings to a controversial organization to help fund its religious viewpoint. Pepsi helps fund religious bigotry and hatred.

The Coca Cola Company lists the exact amounts of its corporate donations. Pepsi should do the same. Why is PepsiCo hiding this information? In the era of Bernie Madoff, Enron, bank failures and the like, Pepsi must be accountable; Pepsi must be transparent to her shareholders and customers. But you are not.

PepsiCo is listed on the PFLAG website as a founding sponsor of PFLAG’s so-called “Straight for Equality” program. This program is aimed at heterosexuals. It gives heterosexuals a list of 10 things they can do to be what they call, a “straight ally,” in their church.

This PepsiCo funded program also publishes a “Straight for Equality in Healthcare” manual for heterosexual doctors and nurses. This PFLAG manual misquotes medical associations in an attempt to discredit the ex-gay community. The manual also labels our lives as “snake oil” and “deceitful.” It makes a list of groups to avoid, called “Meet the Snake Oil Salesman.” Three ex-gay groups are listed. One of them is Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, PFOX. My name is Gregory Quinlan; I am the President of PFOX. I am an Ex-Gay man.

Madame Chair and Board of Directors, I can tell you that almost everything said about PFOX on p. A-29 of your PepsiCo funded manual is a lie. Why would you donate even one dollar to spread this kind of hate against people like me? I’m asking you here and now to correct these lies about PFOX on PepsiCo’s website so you can immediately undo some of the damage you have paid for.

Ms. Nooyi, you lead PepsiCo’s Diversity and Inclusion Governance Council. I don’t want to hear any more words from you about diversity and inclusion — I want you to actually practice it. [Applause]

As for Peggy Moore, who represents PepsiCo on the PFLAG Board Workplace Diversity Committee, she should be fired because she doesn’t know the first thing about diversity if she can’t respect people like me. And PepsiCo should resign immediately from PFLAG’s so-called Diversity Committee. Why would PepsiCo sit on a committee that defines diversity to only include those people whose religious ideology they agree with?

Ms. Nooyi and PepsiCo Board of Directors do you make these decisions because of replicated scientific studies supporting specific biological etiology for homosexuality? I can answer that for you. You can’t because there is zero evidence. ZERO that anyone is born homosexual.

Once again, I urge the PepsiCo Board of Directors, yes; each and every one of you, to do your jobs and hold PepsiCo to the ideals and standards it claims to follow. I shouldn’t have to come here year after year asking PepsiCo to stop funding hate against people like me.

The PepsiCo Charitable Contributions Shareholder Proposal asks PepsiCo to fully divulge its funding to groups and account for how the company’s charitable contributions are actually used, a reasonable request. Otherwise, PepsiCo’s actions will adversely affect its public image and goodwill.

Thank you. [Applause]
_____________________________________

Listen to the speech at http://pfox.org/Pepsico_5-6-10.mp3. Go HERE to donate to PFOX.

Remember to read the PFOX blog regularly for ex-gay views and news: http://pfox-exgays.blogspot.com/

TAKE ACTION: Urge your U.S. Congressman and Senators to oppose ENDA (S. 1584 in the Senate and H.R. 3017 in the House): 202-224-3121; 202-225-3121; www.congress.org.

By J. Matt Barber

Still suffering indigestion from an Obamacare forced feeding, America may yet have to choke down some bitter dessert. Democrats’ characteristically mislabeled Employment Non-Discrimination Act or ENDA (S. 1584 in the Senate and H.R. 3017 in the House) apparently will be under consideration relatively soon.

Rep. Barney Frank, Massachusetts Democrat, ENDA co-sponsor and one of two openly homosexual members of Congress, recently signaled to Boston’s Edge Web site that ENDA will be on the plate sometime after lawmakers return from Easter recess. “The fact is there was no chance of getting [Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi] to focus on this until health care was done. Health care is now done,” he said.

According to its leftist proponents, ENDA would merely insulate people who choose to engage in homosexual conduct (sexual orientation) or those who suffer from gender confusion (gender identity) against employment intolerance. In truth, however, this legislation effectively would codify the very thing it purports to combat: workplace discrimination.

ENDA would force – under penalty of law – Christian, Jewish or Muslim business owners to adopt a secular-humanist viewpoint, ignoring all matters surrounding sexual morality while making hiring and firing decisions. Unlike race or sex, homosexual and cross-dressing behaviors are both volitional and mutable. Nonetheless, and despite the reality that such conduct is in direct conflict with every major world religion, thousands of years of history and uncompromising human biology, ENDA would compel business owners with 15 or more employees to leave sincerely held religious beliefs at the workplace door and submit to the demands of the homosexual activist lobby.

This is government-sanctioned viewpoint discrimination. It is no different from forcing a deeply religious business owner to hire and accommodate an “out and proud” adulterous “swinger.” It directly alienates the unalienable rights of people of faith. It pits the government directly against the free exercise of religion and is, therefore, unconstitutional on its face.

During his second term, President George W. Bush issued a Statement of Administration Policy on ENDA, highlighting its unconstitutionality: “[ENDA] is inconsistent with the right to the free exercise of religion as codified by Congress in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).”

President Obama, however, has publicly endorsed the bill and promises to sign it into law should it pass. This is in perfect keeping with his demonstrated belief that the federal government’s constitutionally limited powers are more of a suggestion than a requirement. Mr. Obama has appointed at least one like-minded ENDA heavy. Chai R. Feldblum is a lesbian activist and sexual nihilist lawyer who in the past has publicly supported legalized polygamy and bisexual polyamory.

One of Mr. Obama’s recent 15 controversial recess appointments, Ms. Feldblum was sworn in on April 7 as a commissioner of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). As ENDA’s chief framer, Ms. Feldblum would be charged with its primary enforcement. This is the classic fox-guarding-the-henhouse scenario.

In the past, Ms. Feldblum has repeatedly and candidly summed up the mindset behind the bill. She has publicly stated that the battle between religious freedom and unfettered sexual license (aka homosexual “rights”) is a “zero-sum game,” meaning the two cannot possibly coexist in harmony. It’s a “winner takes all” approach.

When asked about the Christian business owner or religious organization that morally objects to hiring people openly engaged in the homosexual lifestyle, Ms. Feldblum snapped: “Gays win, Christians lose.” And where Americans’ constitutionally guaranteed right to religious liberty comes into conflict with the postmodern concept of homosexual “rights,” Ms. Feldblum has admitted having “a hard time coming up with any case in which religious liberty should win.”

Of course, her analysis is entirely arbitrary and completely unsupported by any reasonable constitutional interpretation or federal precedent. But to Ms. Feldblum, Comrade Obama and his kooky cadre of revolutionary advisers, little things like the U.S. Constitution and federal precedent are but obnoxious speed bumps on the fast track to a brave new world.

J. Matt Barber is director of cultural affairs with Liberty Counsel and author of the book “The Right Hook – From the Ring to the Culture War” (Freedom Press Canada Inc., 2009).

Greg Quinlan

Folks, Herr Herrschaft over at the “Human Wrongs Campaign” is building up quite a record for himself in shutting down dissent to the homosexual activist message. His homosexual comrades might call him The Enforcer: this is the fellow whose threat of a boycott at a 2007 DiversityInc Magazine panel on “Religion in the Workplace” succeeded in getting AFTAH knocked off the panel as the sole voice representing faith-based opposition to homosexuality. Isn’t it amazing how “queer” militants continually play the victim card to the public even as they aggressively lobby to squelch opposing views in the workplace and throughout society (all in the name of “diversity”!)? Kudos to Greg Quinlan and PFOX for exposing the raw hypocrisy of the GLBT Lobby. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

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Ex-Gay Addresses Disney Board of Directors

Contact:  Greg Quinlan, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX); 513-435-1125; PFOX@pfox.org

San Antonio, TX — Greg Quinlan of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) addressed the corporate directors of the Walt Disney Company at its annual shareholders meeting and asked them to approve a resolution to include ex-gays in Disney’s mandatory diversity training for employees.

“Disney’s diversity training emphasizes gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders, but fails to include ex-gays,” explained Quinlan.  “Ex-gays remain closeted because they are not protected by diversity policies and are subject to open disapproval.  Employees who support the ex-gay community are also not welcome to express their views.”

In response to the resolution asking for inclusion and diversity for the ex-gay community,  Daryl Herrschaft, director of the workplace project at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, was quoted by Daily Finance as saying that the resolution is “wrongheaded.”  The Human Rights Campaign, known as HRC, is the nation’s largest gay rights organization advocating for gay equality.

“How can HRC demand gay equality when it refuses to extend equality to others?” asked Quinlan.  “HRC demands that gays and transgenders be included in diversity policies, but belittles ex-gays who ask for the same rights that gays and transgenders currently enjoy.  HRC insists that men can change their gender to become the opposite sex, but refuses to acknowledge that men like me can change our sexual orientation from gay to straight.”

Every year the HRC Foundation issues a Corporate Equality Index which rates American companies on their equal treatment of gays, bisexuals, and transgenders.  HRC gave Disney a 100 rating, its highest score.  HRC rated Disney on its corporate nondiscrimination policy, diversity training, benefits, employee resource group and diversity council, advertising to gays, sponsorship of gay community events or organizations, and for not engaging in action that would undermine gay and transgender equality.

“Is it a conflict of interest for any corporation in this country to donate money or other form of support to HRC, which then rates those same corporations on corporate equality?” asked Quinlan in his speech to the Disney Board of Directors.

“Disney, your equality index score is -0- for ex-gays and their supporters.  You should treat former homosexuals with the same respect and benefits you give to gays and transgenders.”

“This week HRC is celebrating the first “gay marriages” in Washington D.C., our nation’s capital.  As gay couples in D.C. lined up to apply for marriage licenses, they wore HRC victory buttons.  But there is one victory in Washington D.C., that HRC did not celebrate.  And that is the judicial decision issued by the D.C. Superior Court last year, in a case brought by PFOX.  The Court ruled that ex-gays are a legally protected class under sexual orientation and therefore specifically protected from discrimination under the D.C. Human Rights Act.”

“PFOX calls on HRC to issue public statements condemning hatred and discrimination against the ex-gay community. Human rights demand no less.”

The Disney resolution needed a vote of 3% to pass for inclusion at next year’s meeting, and received approximately 2%.  Quinlan is gratified by the support he received from shareholders present at the meeting.  “Shareholders applauded, shook my hand and said it was about time this happened,” said Quinlan.

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Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) leads the nation in providing outreach, education, and public awareness in support of families and the ex-gay community. Remember to read the PFOX blog regularly for ex-gay views and news. See http://pfox-exgays.blogspot.com/

Grove City College professor Warren Throckmorton -- who is on record affirming homosexuality as "natural, normal and healthy" despite the College's biblical faith charter -- has joined homosexual activists in crusading against Uganda's proposed Anti-Homosexuality law. Perhaps Throckmorton, who has lost his faith in the ability of Jesus Christ to help "homosexuals" leave the lifestyle, could learn something from the more biblically faithful Ugandans.

TAKE ACTION: contact Grove City College HERE and GCC President Richard G. Jewell (rgjewell@gcc.edu; 724-458-2500) and request a written explanation as to why they employ an activist professor who undermines the Bible’s clear teachings on homosexuality as a changeable sin (and not a natural “orientation”).

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Folks, I’ve been trying to avoid the Ugandan “Culture War” on homosexuality because I figure we’re busy enough with our own here in the USA. But that hasn’t stopped American homosexual activists and fellow travelers like Professor Warren Throckmorton of the “evangelical” Grove City College from insinuating themselves into the Ugandan situation. (Sadly, Warren has lost his faith in the ability of God to radically change homosexuals through Christ, and now busily works — even in Uganda! — to promote the faithless and disheartening message that most “gays and lesbians” cannot change their basic “orientation”; see his Uganda Independent column in which he makes that assertion HERE.)

Here’s the question I keep asking myself about the Uganda controversy: just what is it that qualifies the United States of America to lecture the Ugandans about homosexuality? Is it our public policy that enshrines immoral sexual behavior (oops: “sexual orientation”) and gender confusion (er…”gender identity and expression”) as a “civil right”? Is it our homosexual “marriage” laws that make a mockery of this divine institution (laws about which Prof. Throckmorton is curiously silent)? How about our pro-homosexuality educational propaganda in K-12 schools that corrupts young students’ minds in the name of “tolerance”? Or the 24/7 “gay bathhouses” and sex clubs that proliferate in urban centers across the United States to facilitate quick-and-easy (and anonymous) deviant sexual hook-ups? (“Come to America: where you can have all the safe sodomy you want! Discounts for students (no joke) and free condoms available for your perverted pleasure!”)

Tell me: does Uganda have something to learn from Christian “defectors” like the opportunistic Prof. Throckmorton — who is now a de facto promoter of homosexuality as normal, natural and healthy while ostensibly still claiming some sort of “Christian” mission at GCC? (Grove City College boasts in evangelical circles that it is “authentically Christian” — an advertising claim of diminishing accuracy the longer it abides likes of Throckmorton.)

[TAKE ACTION: contact Grove City College HERE and GCC President Richard G. Jewell (rgjewell@gcc.edu; 724-458-2500) and request a written explanation as to why they employ an activist professor who undermines the Bible's clear teachings on homosexuality as a changeable sin (and not a natural "orientation").]

Challenge to Accommodationists: I stand corrected if Prof. Throckmorton or any Grove City prof — indeed, any homosexual activist or pro-”gay” apologist — can show me anything resembling “sexual orientation” in the Bible as this concept is currently understood and posited in academia, the media and society.

Nope. What we’re seeing here is sheer Western activist arrogance. (Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media calls it “Homosexual Imperialism.”) I haven’t yet studied the proposed Ugandan legislation but I agree with Bob Knight’s analysis below — and AFTAH is clearly on record opposing draconian penalties for homosexuality like those imposed by jihadist Islamic radicals. But I do know this: Uganda would do well to avoid the example set by America of a cultural-elite-driven society that celebrates homosexuality (along with other sexual immoralities) — and then reaps the whirlwind that results, including the following:

• devastating (public) health crises that are prolonged by the politically correct protection of the very sexual misbehaviors that helped spread the disease in the first place;
• the proliferation of “gay” activist groups that war against Judeo-Christian values and cruelly smear people of faith who dare to defend those values;
• pro-homosexuality, politically correct indoctrination — even on the job — masquerading as “diversity” — i.e., the gradual replacement of Christian proselytization with the institutional advocacy of sin, disguised as tolerance;
• public immorality and annual “gay pride” parades that subject children to immoral displays including public nudity;
• the undermining of historic Judeo-Christian teachings on sex and marriage; “queer” theological attacks on the Bible and sacred texts due to their unambiguous teachings against homosexual acts;
• the rise of “gay”-sympathetic, anti-religious bigotry and even laws that criminalize the outworking of a biblically-informed conscience against homosexuality; legal and cultural harassment of moral-minded organizations like the Boy Scouts and Salvation Army that refuse to treat homosexuality as a civil right;
• the corruption and victimization of children — including ever younger “coming out” ages for children declaring their supposed “gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender” (“queer”) identity.
• turning the public schools into indoctrination zones for the “GLBT” ideology — all in the name of tolerance and “protecting kids”; the spread of “gay” school clubs, first to high schools, then to middle schools, and ultimately to grade schools.

As you can see, most of America’s “lessons” on homosexuality for Uganda are negative ones. Could it be that the more faith-filled and Bible-trusting African Christians have something to teach jaded Americans like Barack Obama and Warren Throckmorton about homosexuality?  – Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org ; send us your thoughts at americansfortruth@comcast.net

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The following is a column by Bob Knight in World Net Daily:

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All the bile that’s fit to print

Exclusive: Robert Knight hits N.Y. Times for ‘knee-jerk spasms’ targeting Christians

Posted on WND January 13, 2010

You cannot find a better example of selective outrage and character assassination than the Jan. 5 New York Times editorial, “Hate begets hate.”

This humdinger of a self-descriptive screed has it all: wild, unsubstantiated charges; villains; hysterical calls for action; and a smug, holier-than-thou tone that would put “Saturday Night Live”‘s Church Lady to shame.

At issue is Uganda’s proposed law criminalizing homosexuality. But the editorial’s real focus is crucifying Christians who had given talks in Uganda and any part of Christendom that has not bowed its knee to the gay gods.

The Times notes that “three evangelical Christians, whose teachings about ‘curing’ gays and lesbians have been widely discredited in the United States, helped feed this hatred.” The editorial names Scott Lively, Caleb Lee Brundidge and Don Schmierer, who “gave a series of talks” last March that “claimed that gays and lesbians are a threat to Bible-based family values.”

I don’t know Mr. Brundidge, but I do know Mr. Lively and Mr. Schmierer. Both are honest and courageous men who, out of Christian compassion, dare to tell the truth about homosexuality. For this, the Times brands them as hatemongers.

While Mr. Lively has written perceptively and passionately about countering the homosexual activists’ political and cultural agenda, there is no evidence of “hate.” Trying to steer someone away from destructive, immoral, changeable behavior is an act of love, not hate. And it is beyond absurd to label as a bigot a man like Don Schmierer, who supports AIDS ministries and reaches out to sexually conflicted people with the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ. Casting the gentle, soft spoken Mr. Schmierer as a “hater” is like calling Mother Teresa a foul-mouthed harpy.

These men discuss sexual behavior and its consequences for individuals, families and societies, and the blessings of God-given hope. As is typical for a fully owned subsidiary of the homosexual activist movement, the Times falsely claims that the Christian leaders oppose the people themselves. The Times has bought into and promoted the media-fed fiction that people are born gay, cannot change and therefore their volitional sexual behavior is synonymous with identity. In gay parlance, it’s “who they are,” not what they do.

This is nonsense. If we are defined by our sexual behavior, then men addicted to pornography are nothing more than “pornophiles.” It is homosexual activists who have insisted on making sexual desire the be-all and end-all of personal identity. They did this to hijack the moral capital of the black civil-rights movement, equating “sexual orientation” with immutable characteristics like skin color or ethnicity. One big problem remains for them, though. Skin color and ethnicity are morally neutral. Sexual behavior is fraught with moral, social and physical consequences and has been regulated by every society since time began.

The Times ignores the Christian men’s pointed criticisms of the proposed Uganda law and says, “We don’t have much hope that they will atone for their acts.”

Well, we don’t have a whole lot of hope that the Times will atone for its many portrayals of Christians as hate-filled bigots whenever the “gay” issue surfaces. They are following the playbook of “After the Ball,” a gay strategy manual from 1989 that instructs activists to “jam” opponents into silence through threats of guilt by association, outright smears and phony “scientific” claims that go unexamined. The strategy has worked brilliantly, as even conservative voices have been frightened into silence or into steadily ceding moral ground, circling the wagons only around the word “marriage.”

The Times is not alone, of course, in its relentless pursuit of homosexual orthodoxy. On Jan. 7, the Washington Post ran an editorial about Uganda entitled, “A barbaric proposal.” The Post editors, at least, did not engage in Christian bashing, and stuck to very real problems with the proposed law. They did repeat a gay mantra, however: “Being gay is not a choice.”

Science has by no means settled the issue. None of the highly publicized studies by gay researchers in the 1990s has been replicated, and several have been discredited. Then, too, there is the inconvenient existence of many people who engage in homosexuality for years and later embrace the straight life. The “ex-gay” movement is large and growing, but the media are keeping it one of the best-kept secrets out of deference to militant gay activists in the newsrooms.

Uganda has been in the cultural elites’ hot water before by bucking the U.S.-backed condom crusade in Africa and slashing its AIDS rate with campaigns for abstinence and fidelity. The current homosexuality bill is seriously flawed. It contains such overreaches as jail terms for people who do not report homosexual activity and life imprisonment for people who engage in the behavior. But the Times and the Post go beyond criticizing the harsher aspects of the law and attack the underlying concern of Ugandans to defend marriage and family, avoid the corruption of their children and put the brakes on AIDS and other diseases.

The Times and the Post warn that Uganda will become a “pariah” nation “shunned globally” if the law is passed. That may be so. But it might behoove the press to take a closer look at some other countries in Africa whose governments, in the grip of Muslim extremism, routinely cut off people’s heads merely for changing religions. Some nations, such as Egypt, have governments that look the other way as young Christian girls are abducted, raped and forced into Muslim marriages. Do these nations qualify as “pariahs”?

The Times’ editors need to come to terms with their knee-jerk spasms against evangelical Christians and others who defend family values. They routinely depict pro-marriage Americans as motivated solely by hatred and prejudice, never by genuine, heartfelt concerns.

In their editorial’s own words: “You can’t preach hate and not accept responsibility for the way that hate is manifested.”

If this is so, the next equipment the Times should order for its newsroom is … a mirror.

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Robert Knight is senior writer and correspondent for Coral Ridge Ministries and the author of “Fighting for America’s Soul” (Coral Ridge 2009) and the upcoming book “Radical Rulers.”

Posted by MassResistance October 30, 2009:

MassResistance reports: A Massachusetts man was fired from a national retail corporation because of his traditional beliefs on same-sex marriage.  Peter Vadala was formally dismissed from his job as second deputy manager of the Brookstone store at Boston’s Logan Airport on August 12, 2009, after a supervisor reported him to Human Resources regarding an incident two days earlier. Story continues under video, which was shot by our friends at MassResistance:

As Peter described the incident (see video above), he came to work on August 10 and began his day normally. A female manager from another store was in the store and began talking to Peter about her upcoming marriage.  When Peter asked “where is he taking you for the honeymoon,” she corrected him and said she was not getting married to “he” but to another woman.

Peter did not immediately react, but when the manager sensed Peter’s discomfort with the subject of same-sex “marriage”, the woman apparently continued bringing it up to Peter throughout the day, reiterating that she was getting married to another woman. Finally, after the fourth or fifth time she brought it up, Peter remarked that his Christian beliefs did not accept same-sex “marriage.” At that point the woman became very angry and bluntly told Peter that he needed to “get over it” and said that she would be immediately contacting the Human Resources department.

A few hours later Peter was notified by a Human Resources representative that he was suspended from work without pay, effective immediately. Two days later, on August 12, after some further interaction with the Human Resources department, he was formally notified that he was terminated from the company.

Brookstone’s termination letter to Peter states that “in the State of Massachusetts, same-sex marriage is legal.” It goes on to describe Peter’s actions as constituting “harassment” and that his comments were “inappropriate and unprofessional.” It further accuses him of “imposing” his beliefs upon others. … [continue at MassResistance site]

READ THE REST OF THE STORY on MassResistance’s website