ENDA Paves the Way: John Berry (left), President Obama’s openly homosexual director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, says that once the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is “enacted and signed into law, it is only a matter of time” before the rest of the administration’s sweeping homosexual and transsexual activist agenda will become law.

TAKE ACTION: write (preferably not just by e-mail) and call your U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senators at 202-224-3121; 202-225-3121; www.congress.org) and urge them to oppose this radical big-government legislation that would strip away Americans’ foundational right to act on their religious and moral beliefs.

The following is excerpted from the homosexual newspaper Washington Blade (emphasis added):

_________________________________

ENDA should be top priority – Berry

Says ‘Don’t Ask,’ DOMA repeal should also be pursued

By CHRIS JOHNSON, Washington Blade
September 28, 2009

The highest-ranking openly gay appointee in the Obama administration is encouraging LGBT Americans to make passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act their No. 1 priority and said its success would place within reach other civil rights goals.

John Berry, director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, called for greater focus on ENDA on Saturday following his keynote address at Out for Work’s national convention at the Westin City Center Hotel in D.C.

Berry advocated for the importance of ENDA — and identified repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the Defense of Marriage Act as other priorities — in response to an audience member’s question about possible legislative issues on the horizon and criticism that President Obama isn’t moving quickly enough on LGBT issues.

“The most important thing we can do right now is we got to … secure the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act — and it’s got to include full transgender protections,” Berry said. “I believe that if we all concentrate our efforts where it needs to be concentrated, which is on the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, we can get the job done.”

Other pro-LGBT legislation can be more easily achieved, Berry said, if Congress were to pass ENDA.

“If we can get ENDA enacted and signed into law, it is only a matter of time before all the rest happens,” he said. “It is the keystone that holds up the whole bunch, and so we need to focus our energies and attention there.”

Berry was confident that there are enough votes in the House to pass a fully inclusive ENDA, but said a question remains over whether there are 60 votes in the Senate to end a filibuster.

“We’re very close to the 218 [votes in the House],” Berry said. “We’re within spitting distance, and I think we will get it. We are not as close on the 60 in the Senate, but we will be, and this will happen, so I think it’s going to take that focal energy point.”

The OPM director commended Obama for being “clearly on the record” in support of ENDA. …

Berry said Defense Secretary Robert Gates has “an open mind” on repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” but that the secretary also has to work to “balance some things,” such as military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Still, the OPM director noted that administration support alone is insufficient to overturn the law.

“This administration strongly supports the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ but in the end, having the president say that without 218 votes in the House and 60 in the Senate don’t get you far,” Berry said.

Also high among Berry’s priorities is overturning DOMA. The OPM director criticized Congress for passing the law in 1996 and said it was enacted for bad reasons.

“It was motivated only by hate, it was motivated by discrimination, it is a base law and it should be repealed,” Berry said.

Berry noted that Obama has called DOMA [discriminatory] and urged for its legislative repeal, but the OPM director added the best way toward overturning the law would be through the courts and not Congress.

“I will tell you personally I believe that I think the courts will strike this down before Congress will have to repeal it legislatively,” he said. “And thank goodness because, in this case, the backbone is not there in Congress.”

Support for repealing DOMA through litigation echoes the position of gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) on the issue. Frank has not signed on as a co-sponsor to the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill that would repeal DOMA, because he said Congress should tackle other LGBT priorities and a pending lawsuit against the statute better addresses the issue….

Rev. Kristopher Okwedy, a Nigerian immigrant, thought he would have the freedom to proclaim Biblical truth about homosexuality in the “the land of the free and home of the brave,” but alas, New York City politicians banned his billboard (left). Judge Sonia Sotomayor joined a Second Circuit order that denied Okwedy’s free speech. The ruling was obviously hostile to religion despite the Court’s claim otherwise. 

________________________

American Family Association Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 26, 2009

SOTOMAYOR: It’s okay for Government to ridicule Holy Bible

In 2003, Judge Sonia Sotomayor joined a Second Circuit order that excused government hostility toward religion.  In 2000, Rev. Kristopher Okwedy and Keyword Ministries, Inc. –– a Christian Church –– put up a billboard sign quoting a verse of the Holy Bible, Leviticus 18:22, that says, “Thou shall not lie with a male as with a female –– it is an abomination.”  The sign included the postscript, “I AM YOUR CREATOR.”  After three days and much public outcry, Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari called the display “mean spirited” and said the Bible verse “conveys an atmosphere of intolerance which is not welcome in our Borough.”  He then attempted to have the sign removed or covered up.

Okwedy and Keyword Ministries sued in federal court, contending that Molinari’s statements violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, i.e., that the government must remain neutral in matters of religion.  The district court dismissed the case and Okwedy appealed.  A Second Circuit panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals that included Judge Sotomayor found no Establishment Clause violation because Molinari’s statement did not target a particular religious denomination or disapprove of religion.

“The U.S. Supreme Court has stated unequivocally that government must remain neutral in matters of religion,” said AFA General Counsel Patrick J. Vaughn.  “Judge Sotomayor joined a summary order that said it’s okay for government to condemn the Bible,” he added.  Don Wildmon, Chairman of American Family Association, observed that Sotomayor’s opinion “places a judicial stamp of approval on the comment of renowned communist Karl Marx that ‘religion is the opiate of the masses’ and further would permit a government official to say that the Bible is akin to Aesop’s Fables.”  Wildmon added that Sotomayor’s appointment to the Supreme Court would have “grave consequences for religious freedom.”

The case is Okwedy v. Molinari, 01-7941 (2d Cir. 2003) (unpublished summary order). To read a terrific albeit dated article about Okwedy and his billboard, see Stephen Crampton’s 2006 piece, “Okwedy’s Oddysey: The Bible as Hate Speech,” in Renew America.

American Family Association is a pro-family advocacy organization with over 2.5 million online supporters.

TAKE ACTION: call or write your U.S. Representative and Senators and urge them to oppose all efforts to homosexualize the United States Armed Forces. Call 202-225-3121 or 202-224-3121 or go to www.congress.org.

Contact:  jmattbarber@comcast.net

DATE: June 8, 2009

Lynchburg, VA – Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs with both Liberty Counsel and Liberty Alliance Action issued the following statement today on news that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the military’s prohibition against homosexual conduct within the ranks of the armed forces. The high court refused an appeal from former Army Captain James Pietrangelo II, who was discharged after his superiors learned that he self-identified as “gay”:

“This is a military victory of a different sort,” said Barber. “Today our armed forces triumphed over the enemy of moral relativism; an enemy that seeks to replace military wisdom with San Francisco vice. This is a victory for our fighting young men and women and for the nation.

“The military is no place for such radical social experimentation; especially during a time of war. As polls continue to prove, the vast majority of military leaders and personnel agree. It has long been established that to enlist those who define themselves as ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’ would both disrupt unit cohesion and harm troop morale.

“In an age of rampant judicial activism it’s refreshing to witness some commonsense judicial restraint. This decision by the Supreme Court should once again remind everyone that, contrary to the propaganda fomented by the organized homosexual lobby, homosexual temptation and the destructive but changeable homosexual lifestyle must not be confused with neutral and immutable characteristics such as race or gender for purposes of assigning special government minority status or protections.

“It is properly illegal, for instance, to ban African-Americans from serving in the armed forces. It is neither illegal nor discriminatory, however, to disallow an African-American who ‘loudly and proudly’ chooses to engage in distractive, destructive and deviant sexual behaviors. Today’s decision hammers home that reality.

“I’m speaking from personal experience,” continued Barber. “I served twelve years in the Army National Guard. During basic training a young man who later turned out to be homosexual was discharged after making unwanted advances toward other soldiers and for inappropriately touching several while they slept in the barracks.

“A lengthy investigation ensued. Troops were pulled away from their regular training to answer questions. It was a tremendous distraction for our entire platoon. This incident most definitely disrupted unit cohesion and harmed troop morale.

“Still, although today’s news is good news, the battle is far from over. For the good of the country and in the interest of national security, President Obama should heed the wisdom of the high court and our military leadership. He should cease his ill-advised efforts to force the military to implicitly sanction sexual deviancy by allowing it to occur. He should leave Don’t Ask Don’t Tell alone.”

My friend Randy Thomasson (left) of SaveCalifornia.com expects at partial victory for pro-natural-marriage forces on Prop 8 Tuesday. — Peter LaBarbera. Randy writes:

As you’ve probably heard, the California Supreme Court will file its Prop. 8 ruling on Tuesday at 10 a.m. There’s no more praying or influencing you can do to effect the decision, because the seven justices’ opinions are already in writing.

SaveCalifornia.com expects a “half right, half wrong,” convoluted decision that allows some 18,000 homosexual “marriages” performed before Nov. 4 to remain legally valid, but after Election Day permitting the granting of marrriage licenses only to a man and a woman.

Our [Save California] news release from Friday afternoon is below. To be reminded of what the justices said during the Prop. 8 hearing on March 5, click HERE. Full Save California release follows:

_________________________________________

SaveCalifornia.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 22, 2009

California Supreme Court Expected to ‘Half Uphold’ Prop. 8
Thomasson: “This voters’ rights case, which never should have gone to court, will likely be decided half right and half wrong.”

Sacramento, California — The March 5 hearing on Proposition 8 provided the strongest indication of how the California Supreme Court is going to rule this Tuesday, says a pro-family veteran of the war for marriage in California.

Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, has been steadfastly defending marriage rights for one man and one woman since 1994. Nearly three months ago at the Prop. 8 hearing in San Francisco, Thomasson was inside the Supreme Court building to witness what the justices said during three hours of oral arguments.

“This voters’ rights case, which never should have gone to court, will likely be decided half right and half wrong,” Thomasson said. “During oral arguments, Justices George and Kennard made it clear that, like it or not, they had to go with the voters, which would put them with three other justices — Baxter, Chin and Corrigan — who upheld man-woman marriage last year. At the same time, nearly all of the judges ignored the straightforward, retroactive effect of Prop. 8, which specified that the only valid marriage in California ‘is’ between a man and a woman, ‘regardless of when’ the marriage was performed.”

“Bottom line,” Thomasson said, “it’s virtually guaranteed that the court will rule that only man-woman marriages could be performed after the vote on Prop. 8, but that nearly four months of homosexual ‘marriages’ performed before the election day will still be recognized. This would be half right and half wrong, not giving the Constitution or the voters the respect they deserve.”

Prop. 8 proponents’ rebuttal arguments in the voter information guide stated: “Your YES vote on Proposition 8 means that only marriage between a man and a woman will be valid or recognized in California, regardless of when or where performed.” “‘Regardless of when…performed’ obviously means that pre-existing same-sex ‘marriages’ are not valid in light of Prop. 8,” Thomasson said. “Why is it so hard to understand what the words ‘is’ and ‘when’ mean?”

Prop. 8 was approved last November by 52.3% of California voters. It added Section 7.5 to Article 1 of the California State Constitution, reading, “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” The vote of the people overruled the California Supreme Court, which, on a 4 to 3 vote, had invented “same-sex marriages” in May 2008.

– end –

SaveCalifornia.com is a leading West Coast nonprofit, nonpartisan organization representing children and families. We stand for marriage and family, parental rights, the sanctity of human life, religious freedom, financial freedom, and back-to-basics education.

Will Obama Nominate a “Gay” Supreme Court Justice? Liberal opinion-makers like Mark Halperin of MSNBC (left) now treat homosexuality as an element of “diversity” that should be celebrated by society. See YouTube video and interview transcript below. TAKE ACTION: Urge Sen. Sessions (202-224-4124) to oppose the confirmation of pro-homosexuality (activist) justices to the U.S. Supreme Court and all federal courts.

By Peter LaBarbera

Welcome to the new “Sexual Diversity” landscape created by decades of homosexual activism — with its essentially anti-Christian, anti-Biblical ethos. Liberal opinion-making elites like MSNBC’s Mark Halperin below now treat homosexual perversion (oops, sorry, “sexual orientation”) as part of America’s “minority” tapestry — eligible for all the “diversity” demands — read: quotas — of other (genuine) minority groups. Identity politics and affirmative action are bad enough with real minorities; they will become unbearable once expanded to include advocates and practitioners of changeable sexual sin — which is what an open and proudly “gay” Supreme Court justice would be.

Please watch the YouTube video clip below of an interview yesterday morning (May 7) between Halperin and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the new highest ranking Republican in the Senate Judiciary Committee following the party switch of Sen. Arlen Specter. Note how Halperin eagerly pushes the “homosexuality-as-diversity” line — which Sen. Sessions attempts to fend off with his “gay tendencies” remark. With all due respect to the senator, if that’s the best that conservatives can do, we will be squashed by liberal and libertarian advocates of proud homosexuality in this debate.

Imagine: what Senator is going to have the guts to challenge the idea that it is “wrong for a justice to be disqualified because of ‘who he is’” — to quote the now widely accepted but biblically false homosexual-activist cliché? There is a deeply personal and emotional level of activism in anyone who self-identifies as “openly gay” — as opposed to one who struggles against the unwanted pull of homosexuality — because that person flips timeless morality on its head. The unapologetic “gay” person has his or her whole life and, indeed, eternal destiny invested in the idea that Judeo-Christian teachings against homosexual behavior as sinful should be discarded. An openly homosexual judge “not promoting any agenda personal, religious or moral” — how absurd and naive!  A transcript of the MSNBC exchange between Halperin and Sessions follows the video:

Transcript of MSNBC “Morning Joe” interview between Mark Halperin and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), May 7, 2009:

MARK HALPERIN: Senator, big opportunity for you here in the national spotlight coming up when these hearings get underway.  You told Neil Cavuto — we just saw just now — that you could vote for a pro-choice nominee, in theory. A couple of people at least supposedly under consideration are openly gay. Could you vote for an openly gay justice, which we’ve never had before?

SEN. SESSIONS:  Well, … it depends on their personal ethics and standards, and their legal skill and ability. I don’t think a person who acknowledges that they have gay tendencies is disqualified per se [from] the job. We’ll just have to see–

HALPERIN: Would you welcome that as a diverse thing that we haven’t had in American history?

SESSIONS: Well, I don’t think that we should be thinking like that for the United States Supreme Court. We need to be looking for a person that can gain full respect of the American people, who can apply the law fairly, when they put on that robe will be non-partisan and non-biased — not promoting any agenda personal, religious or moral, and follow the law faithfully. Those are critical components in this magnificent rule of law we have in the Supreme Court.

Contact: Matt Barber: jmattbarber@comcast.net

DATE: April 27, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Iowa Governor Should Tell Court ‘Thanks but No Thanks’

Lynchburg, VA – Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs with both Liberty Alliance Action and Liberty Counsel* released the following statement today encouraging Iowa Governor Chet Culver to honor his obligation to uphold the Iowa Constitution and refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex pairs.

“In Baker v. Nelson, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to imagine there exists a ‘constitutional right’ to ’same-sex marriage.’ It held that if the Court were to create such a right, it would amount to an unconstitutional act of ‘judicial legislation.’ With its recent opinion charging that such a right exists and ordering that, starting today, marriage licenses be given to homosexual duos, the Iowa Supreme Court has done just that. It has co-opted the role of both the legislative and executive branches of government and has presumed to unconstitutionally create and administer law from the bench.

“This presents the perfect opportunity for Iowa Governor Chet Culver – who publicly opposes ‘gay marriage’ – to give the Iowa Supremes and the American people a much needed lesson in ’separation of powers.’  The constitutional process cleverly provides intrinsic checks and balances to avoid tyrannical governance from any one branch of government,” said Barber. “The Iowa Supreme Court has attempted to fundamentally redefine the millennia-old definition of natural marriage in direct conflict with the constitutionally codified will of the people and the legislature. It doesn’t get much more tyrannical than that.

“For any new law to be properly implemented, either the people of Iowa – through ballot initiative – or the state legislature would have to affirmatively create that new law. And, of course, if such a law arrived on the Governor’s desk by way of the legislature, he has every right to either sign it or veto it.

“In this instance, the court has arbitrarily and unilaterally attempted to circumvent the constitutionally prescribed process and constructively impose a new law on the people of Iowa. It has issued an ‘opinion’ and an opinion is just that. The Court has no constitutional means or right to enforce its unconstitutionally imposed opinion. If the Judiciary is supreme lawmaker, then it renders the other two branches of government politically impotent. Why even have executive and legislative branches of government if we ultimately live under a judiciocracy?” asked Barber.

“Governor Culver has an opportunity to do what former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney refused to do when given the same chance. That is, to uphold his state Constitution and become a champion to ‘we the people’ in the process. Culver should tell the Iowa Supreme Court, ‘thanks but no thanks’ and immediately order that no further marriage licenses be given to any couple that does not meet the common sense requirements properly in existence since the day the Iowa Constitution was drafted.”

*Titles provided for identification purposes only.

###

Contact: Matt Barber: jmattbarber@comcast.net

DATE: April 27, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Iowa Governor Should Tell Court ‘Thanks but No Thanks’

Lynchburg, VA – Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs with both Liberty Alliance Action and Liberty Counsel* released the following statement today encouraging Iowa Governor Chet Culver to honor his obligation to uphold the Iowa Constitution and refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex pairs.

“In Baker v. Nelson, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to imagine there exists a ‘constitutional right’ to ’same-sex marriage.’ It held that if the Court were to create such a right, it would amount to an unconstitutional act of ‘judicial legislation.’ With its recent opinion charging that such a right exists and ordering that, starting today, marriage licenses be given to homosexual duos, the Iowa Supreme Court has done just that. It has co-opted the role of both the legislative and executive branches of government and has presumed to unconstitutionally create and administer law from the bench.

“This presents the perfect opportunity for Iowa Governor Chet Culver – who publicly opposes ‘gay marriage’ – to give the Iowa Supremes and the American people a much-needed lesson in ’separation of powers.’  The constitutional process cleverly provides intrinsic checks and balances to avoid tyrannical governance from any one branch of government,” said Barber. “The Iowa Supreme Court has attempted to fundamentally redefine the millennia-old definition of natural marriage in direct conflict with the constitutionally codified will of the people and the legislature. It doesn’t get much more tyrannical than that.

“For any new law to be properly implemented, either the people of Iowa – through ballot initiative – or the state legislature would have to affirmatively create that new law. And, of course, if such a law arrived on the Governor’s desk by way of the legislature, he has every right to either sign it or veto it.

“In this instance, the court has arbitrarily and unilaterally attempted to circumvent the constitutionally prescribed process and constructively impose a new law on the people of Iowa. It has issued an ‘opinion’ and an opinion is just that. The Court has no constitutional means or right to enforce its unconstitutionally imposed opinion. If the Judiciary is supreme lawmaker, then it renders the other two branches of government politically impotent. Why even have executive and legislative branches of government if we ultimately live under a judiciocracy?” asked Barber.

“Governor Culver has an opportunity to do what former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney refused to do when given the same chance. That is, to uphold his state Constitution and become a champion to ‘we the people’ in the process. Culver should tell the Iowa Supreme Court, ‘thanks but no thanks’ and immediately order that no further marriage licenses be given to any couple that does not meet the common sense requirements properly in existence since the day the Iowa Constitution was drafted.”

*Titles provided for identification purposes only.

###

It’s comical to watch homosexual activists call others liars — even as they promote the colossal falsehood that denies the “queer” threat to Americans’ religious liberties and freedom of conscience. Heck, HRC staffers have cut their teeth demonizing faith-based pro-family advocates as bigots on a par with vile racists of the past — while working to squelch our voice in the public square. (I wonder if HRC staffer Darryl Herrschaft got bonus pay for kicking me off a “DiversityInc” panel discussion on “Religion in the Workplace” in 2007.) Worst of all, they maliciously link pro-family and church speech to violence against homosexuals in their cynical campaign to pass “hate crimes” legislation. Make no mistake: if HRC’s agenda is enacted at the federal level, your freedom to live by your beliefs will take a big hit. Please support NOM’s work. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.com

“Activist judges in Iowa proved once again today how right the American Family Association of Michigan was to call for a preemptive Marriage Protection Amendment constitutionally securing the definition of one-man, one-woman marriage in our state, and how right the people of Michigan were to overwhelmingly approve it. … Homosexual activists will of course now parade counterfeit ‘marriages’ through the streets of Des Moines for a while, as they did in California, but eventually the people of Iowa will have a chance to vote on the issue, and the result will be the same there as in Michigan and 29 other states.”

Note in the Michigan Messenger article that Illinois is viewed as a likely state for a court challenge like Iowa that produced the “gay marriage” decision:

—————————

MICHIGAN MESSENGER
Lansing, Michigan
April 3, 2009

Michigan gay rights advocates praise Iowa’s same-sex marriage court ruling

by Todd A. Heywood

The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday morning struck down a state law restricting marriage to one man and one woman, and many Michigan residents are hailing the ruling that makes the Hawkeye State the first in the Midwest to OK same-sex marriage. However, the case will have little direct impact on Michigan.

“This is a great opinion,” said Jay Kaplan, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan’s Gay Lesbian Project. “This was a unanimous decision from Iowa’s Supreme Court and the first time we have a favorable opinion in the Midwest.”

“While the ruling itself is significant, the reasoning behind the unanimous decision is insightful, fair, and thorough,” said Julie Nemecek, co-director of Michigan Equality, a Lansing-based LBGT rights organization.

“It’s a different scenario there,” Kaplan said. “Iowa doesn’t have a constitutional amendment like we do. Its civil rights laws cover LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] people, and the make-up of its Supreme Court is different than what we have here. We’d have to repeal our constitutional amendment, replace several justices on the Michigan Supreme Court before we’d be able to see a decision like this here.”

Michigan voters passed a constitutional amendment in 2004 that banned gay marriage and other same-sex unions.

Still, Kaplan said, other states can look to Iowa’s ruling. “I think it sets a good template for states that are similarly situated to Iowa (in terms of laws, courts, etc.), and we may see more developments in marriage equality in the Midwest (possibly a successful challenge in Illinois in the future) — so that the successes are not just limited to the coasts.”

As gay rights groups across the country hail the ruling, opponents are not as happy.

Gary Glenn, the president of the American Family Association of Michigan, opposed the ruling.
“Activist judges in Iowa proved once again today how right the American Family Association of Michigan was to call for a preemptive Marriage Protection Amendment constitutionally securing the definition of one-man, one-woman marriage in our state, and how right the people of Michigan were to overwhelmingly approve it,” he said. “Homosexual activists will of course now parade counterfeit ‘marriages’ through the streets of Des Moines for a while, as they did in California, but eventually the people of Iowa will have a chance to vote on the issue, and the result will be the same there as in Michigan and 29 other states.”

According to Lynda Waddington over at Michigan Messenger’s sibling site, The Iowa Independent, state law there does not have any residency requirements for marriage. This means same-sex couples could begin going to the Hawkeye State to get married, as was seen last year when California legalized same-sex marriage.

The Iowa Supreme Court judges are appointed by the governor, approved by the state Senate, then serve one year. At the end of the year they face a judicial retention election.

April 3, 2009                    Contact: Peter LaBarbera: 630-717-7631

CHICAGO– Today’s Iowa Supreme Court decision imposing “same-sex marriage” as a constitutional “right” is an assault on not just the Judeo-Christian moral foundations of that state, but also on the God we ask to “Bless America” — and the common-sense, pro-family values of the Midwest, said Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality.

LaBarbera, who is also on the board of Protect Marriage Illinois, issued the following statement regarding the court’s reckless decision:

“Today Iowa becomes the first state not on either of the nation’s two liberal coasts to impose counterfeit, homosexual ‘marriage’ or its mischievous twin, ‘civil unions,’ on its citizens through judicial tyranny. To call this decision bankrupt is to understate its perniciousness. The evil genius of the pro-sodomy movement is that it targets noble institutions like marriage and adoption in the name of ‘rights,’ and then perverts and uses them to normalize aberrant and destructive behaviors.

“Homosexual ‘marriage’ is wrong because homosexual behavior itself is wrong and destructive – as proved by its role in the needless, early deaths of countless ‘gay’ men. We must shake loose of the secularists’ and libertarians’ amoral nonchalance regarding ‘same-sex marriage’ by asking questions like this: how exactly would two men consummate their ‘gay marriage”’ Answer: by engaging in what one Founding Father, Noah Webster, writing in saner times, rightly defined as a ‘crime against nature.’

“’Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,’ said abolitionist Wendell Phillips, and the evidence keeps pouring in that the entire homosexualist agenda is at war – not just with our nation’s Biblical heritage – but with the freedoms that made the United States of America great and blessed among nations. When the courts order society to effectively pretend that changeable sexual misbehavior is a ‘civil right,’ the law itself becomes perverted by punishing people of faith for their proper opposition toward deviant sex. The battle between ‘gay rights’ and religious freedom is a ‘zero-sum’ game – as even lesbian Georgetown law professor Chai Feldblum admits.

“I’m afraid that the pro-family movement – eager to provide secular, public-policy arguments against ‘gay marriage’ – has failed to convey the monstrous evil of expanding, state-sanctioned homosexualism in our midst.  Our Creator is pure, perfect and holy, and homosexual behavior is diametrically opposed to His will for people’s lives and His purpose for sex within the healthy boundaries of marriage, for the procreation of children. This same God graciously provides a way out of this sinful lifestyle through His son Jesus Christ, a path many former homosexuals have taken – including those now living in real (man-woman) marriages.

“It is high time for pastors, in Iowa and across the land, to shake off their stifling, politically correct timidity and again become the prophetic voices for Truth they were called to be: by boldly warning Americans – Christian and non-Christian alike — about the perils of our growing accommodation with the sins of proud homosexuality, and sex outside marriage in general.”

March 4, 2009; www.LC.org

San Francisco, CA – [Today, March 5] the California Supreme Court will hear arguments regarding Proposition 8, which defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Shortly after the amendment passed, three lawsuits were filed at the California Supreme Court by same-sex marriage advocates, claiming Proposition 8 is itself unconstitutional. Liberty Counsel has represented the Campaign for California Families defending the state’s marriage laws since 2004 and has argued at the trial, appellate and state Supreme Court levels. Liberty Counsel also filed an amicus brief at the California Supreme Court in defense of Proposition 8.

The legal question is simple, as the California Supreme Court previously stated:

1. Is the amendment “an enactment which is so extensive in its provisions as to change directly the ‘substantial entirety’ of the Constitution by the deletion or alteration of numerous existing provisions?”; or
2. Does the amendment “change … the basic plan of California government, i.e., a change in its fundamental structure or the foundational powers of its branches?”

The answer to both questions is “No!” The California Supreme Court also stated: “The right of initiative is precious to the people and is one which the courts are zealous to preserve to the fullest tenable measure of spirit as well as letter.” And as the California Supreme Court said in its May 15, 2008, decision, “the provisions of the California Constitution itself constitute the ultimate expression of the people’s will.” In re Marriage Cases, (2008) 43 Cal.4th 757, 852.

Liberty Counsel’s brief argues that invalidating Proposition 8 would have a devastating effect on the constitutional rights of those who exercised their right to vote on the initiative. The California Supreme Court should continue to honor a cornerstone of California’s constitutional foundation – separation of powers. If the Court does not uphold Proposition 8, it will no longer be anchored to the bedrock principles that have held this state republic together for 150 years. Instead the court, legislatures, and voters would be left standing on shifting sand to be tossed about by the winds of social and political change. Liberty Counsel’s brief also argues that Proposition 8 invalidates all same-sex marriages entered into prior to November 4, 2008, because Prop 8 states that only marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized in California.

Mathew D. Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, commented: “The Constitution cannot overrule itself. When the people passed Proposition 8, it became part of the state Constitution and no judge, irrespective of how high or mighty, may stand above the rule of law. After the passage of Proposition 8, only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. In the same way that the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished a slaveholder’s title and the Prohibition Amendment divested the right to sell liquor, Proposition 8 makes same-sex marriage licenses invisible and void.”

How Many More eHarmony “gay” sellouts under ENDA? Neil Clark Warren, founder of eHarmony.com, lost his courage and settled rather than fight a homosexual lawsuit filed under New Jersey’s “sexual orientation” law. So now Warren and eHarmony.com are facilitating immoral homosexual unions. If a federal ENDA bill becomes law, it will greatly enhance the power of homosexual activists to force businessmen and employers to accommodate and subsidize homosexual relationships against their will. The very freedom of Christians, Muslims and other moral-minded citizens to disagree with homosexuality hangs in the balance. 

TAKE ACTION: Answer the pro-homosexual lobby campaign! Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and have them connect you to your Representative (based on your zip code). Tell them: “I am a constituent and I would like you to please tell Representative _______ that I strongly OPPOSE the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) — which threatens Americans’ basic freedom to live out their faith and disagree with homosexual behavior. I also oppose expanding federal “hate crimes” law to add “sexual orientation” and opening up our Armed Forces to open homosexuality — especially during a time of war. Then, call back and leave messages with your two Senators too! Contact their local offices, which you can find through www.house.gov and www.senate.gov. 

__________________________________

By Peter LaBarbera

OK, everyone, vacation is over. Americans For Truth is back on the beat, fresh from being denounced and mocked by various pro-sodomy “queer” blogs at the end of 2008 (what an honor — more on that later). Below, please read an appeal for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) from a major homosexual activist group — and then DO THE OPPOSITE by calling your U.S. Congressman and Senators and urge them to vote AGAINST the ENDA bill.

We’re calling ENDA — a top priority for the Homosexual and Transsexual Lobbies — the “ENDA’ Our Freedom” Bill because it poses a severe threat to Americans’ First Amendment freedom to disagree with homosexuality. ENDA would be used to force small- and medium-sized businesses to subsidize immoral homosexual unions — and that’s un-American!

Here’s a paper I wrote for AFTAH on ENDA, but if you’re too busy or too lazy to read that, here’s how to think of ENDA:

Remember the recent outrage over eHarmony.com’s sellout to homosexual activism — when evangelical Christian founder Neil Clark Warren agreed to create a “gay” dating website under the auspices of eHarmony? Well, that sellout, unnecessary and misguided as it was, came at the point of a gun. And the “gun” was New Jersey’s state version of ENDA: a pro-homosexual “nondiscrimination” law. That very same New Jersey “sexual orientation” law was used to launch the legal assault against the Boy Scouts of America’s fundamental right to live by its own creed and NOT allow homosexual (or atheist) Scoutmasters.

Thankfully, the Boy Scouts (unlike eHarmony.com) did not capitulate and the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately preserved their freedom of association in a 5-4 decision that surely would have gone the other way if just one more liberal justice of the sort favored by President-elect Obama (and many other powerful Democrats) were seated on the Court.

Like the Boy Scouts’, our freedom to disagree with sexual immorality hangs in the balance. We must work hard against ENDA and the entire “queer” legislative agenda in Washington, D.C. The other side sees this as their moment and is engaged heavily in the fight to make homosexuality and gender confusion a “civil right.” And they have a new, pro-homosexual president, the liberal media and increased Democratic strength in Congress on their side. But never forget what they lack: the truth.

Let’s be blunt: the effort to mainstream homosexuality in American law and culture is evil, destructive to faith, marriage and the natural family and — like abortion-on-demand — part of an anti-God agenda. President-elect Obama is a deeply conflicted man on the homosexual issue — or at least he should be if he’s not. Obama professes Christianity but he has distorted Scripture (or minimized its importance) on the sin of homosexuality. However, he was elected with the overwhelming support of religious African Americans and many others who profoundly disagree with the homosexual “civil-rights” paradigm. (In California, Blacks carried both Obama and Prop 8 to victory.) Always remember: there are zero “former” African-Americans or “ex-Hispanics”; there are lots of happy ex-”gays” and former “lesbians” — evidence that homosexuality is about changeable behavior, not some inborn identity. (See former lesbian Charlene Cothran’s heartwarming testimony HERE.)

I was a poll-watcher on Election Day and I saw the tremendous pride of Blacks voting for the man who would become the first African-American president to lead these United States. One Black woman in her late-thirties was beaming as she voted for the first time. A tall African-American man came in and pronounced to the whole room (standing in front of the befuddled election officials): “I’m here to vote for BARACK OBAMA!” I did not vote for Obama due to his liberal agenda (I’d vote for a Black conservative in a heartbeat) but applauded in my heart the symbolic shattering of the idea — stoked by the Left — that America is a racist nation. We are not.

But racism and homosexual conduct do have something in common: they are both destructive sins, yet changeable through God’s grace.

Now we at AFTAH call on all Obama supporters — especially people of faith — who disagree with the notion that homosexuals’ supposed “right” to be affirmed supersedes the liberty of the rest of America to live by their our own moral and religious beliefs — please make your voices heard! Let President Obama know that the oppressive homosexual activist and “gay marriage” is not part of the “change” you wanted.

The clear reality is this: the homosexual agenda is more about AFFIRMING HOMOSEXUALITY and UNDERMINING JUDEO-CHRISTIAN VALUES than correcting injustice. There is no epidemic of homosexuals being fired; in fact, they are increasingly being courted by major corporations –  while it is faith-based employees like Matt Barber (an AFTAH Board Member, fired by Allstate in 2005) who face reprisals for opposing homosexuality and who are forced to endure faith-assaulting, pro-homosexuality/pro-transsexual “diversity” propaganda on the job.

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TAKE ACTION: PLEASE DO THE OPPOSITE OF THIS “GAY” ACTIVIST ALERT FROM THE RADICAL LEFTIST “NATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN TASK FORCE”:

Congress Swears In Today! Let them know you care about ENDA!
Filed by: Guest Blogger
January 6, 2009 12:00 PM

Editors’ Note: Guest blogger Rea Carey is Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund.

Today, January 6, Members of Congress raise their right hand and swear to uphold the Constitution as they begin the new legislative session.

Let’s make sure the first thing they hear about is the importance of an Employment Non-Discrimination Act that protects all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

In DC, make their phone ring! Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and have them connect you to your Representative (based on your zip code). Tell them: “I am a constituent and I would like you to please tell Representative _______ that I strongly support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that would ban discrimination against all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.”

Then, call back and leave messages with your two Senators too!

At home, set up a visit!
Request an in-person meeting for you and other community members with your two Senators and your Representative (or their staffs) in their home district offices. You can call the district offices to request these meetings but they often want you to fax a meeting request. To find contact info for district offices, go to www.senate.gov and www.house.gov.

Sample meeting request letters, and other talking points and resources for your meetings, are available in the following toolkits [Note: the following are pro-homosexual resources]:

The Task Force ENDA Grassroots Toolkit [pdf]
National Center for Transgender Equality’s Making Your Voice Heard [pdf]
PFLAG’s Bringing the Message Home

Let us know!

Let us know how your meeting went. Go to unitedenda.org and fill out the Lobby Report Form to tell us whether your Representative and Senators expressed support.

Barack Obama has promised a lot to self-styled “queer” activists: open homosexuality in the military, a federal “civil unions” law, “hate crimes” legislation, repealing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), enacting ENDA, etc. He has also pledged to use his bully pulpit as President to advocate for homosexual goals. Will pro-family Americans be able to put the brakes on Obama’s “gay agenda”?  Help AFTAH reach its goal of $5,000 in online donations by midnight tonight (central time) by making a tax-free gift at www.americansfortruth.com/donate/. Or become a monthly AFTAH Truth Team giver HERE.

Below are 10 good reasons to support Americans For Truth about Homosexuality as we head into a New Year.  Before we get to the 10 points, though here’s how to help us reach our goal of $5,000 in online donations by midnight tonight — we are three-fifths of the way there:

YEAR-END MATCHING GIFT: Go to our user-friendly giving page — ww.americansfortruth.com/donate/ — to make your tax-free donation using PayPal or your MasterCard or Visa.  ALL ONLINE GIFTS MADE BY MIDNIGHT CENTRAL TIME WILL BE COUNTED AS A TAX DEDUCTION ON YOUR 2008 TAXES! Or mail a gift here (postmarked by 12/31 if you want it to count for 2008; Jan. 1 and after will go toward 2009):  AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567.

TRUTH TEAM MEMBERSHIP:  To sign up as a Truth Team member by pledging $25, $50, $100, $250 or more per month to sustain AFTAH’s critical work, go HERE.

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Ten Reasons to Support Americans For Truth in 2009

By Peter LaBarbera

1. President-elect Barack Obama’s support for radical, pro-homosexual federal “hate crimes” legislation. Will homosexuals rise to the top of the politically correct hierarchy of victims in the United States?  Will pastors who teach correctly from the Bible that homosexual behavior is sinful be brought up as “accomplices” if someone who attends their church attacks a homosexual? All crimes involve hate at some level and all Americans — including homosexuals — deserve equal protection under the law without regard to special criteria.
2. Obama’s support for the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA), which would use federal power to force businesses to support homosexuality and subsidize homosexual employees’ relationships regardless of their faith- or morality-based opposition to homosexual conduct. Why should homosexuality-based “rights” (mandates) take precedence over Americans’ historic religious and First Amendment liberties?
3. Obama’s call to allow open homosexuality in the military — during wartime no less — and Obama’s promise to use the bully pulpit to advocate other pro-homosexual agenda goals such as homosexual adoption of children.  Will our Commander-in-Chief become the Gay-Propagandist-in-Chief? And what sort of homosexuality-affirming “Christianity” is Obama going to espouse (as he does in his book, Audacity of Hope)?
4. Obama’s pledge to work for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which was signed into law by Bill Clinton in 1996 and which protects states from being forced to recognize out-of-state “gay marriages.” Mr. Obama: please forget this radical promise and defend marriage as president if you truly believe that it should remain between a man and a woman!
5. Obama’s support for a federal “civil unions” bill – essentially “gay marriage” by another name.  Honoring homosexual unions and rewarding them with government benefits only undermines genuine marriage in society.
6. Obama’s promise to sign the radical “Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), which would eviscerate pro-life reform laws across the country that have helped save thousands of innocent unborn children’s lives.
7. The real possibility that the California Supreme Court will invalidate Proposition 8 – passed by the people of that state Nov. 4.  Do citizens’ votes count and do they have a right to stop liberal judges from imposing a radical redefinition of marriage by fiat?
8. Homosexual activists’ intolerance and anti-democratic behavior as exhibited following their loss on Prop 8 in California.  If homosexual militants behave like this now – declaring their counterfeit “marriages” a “constitutional right” and demonizing religious opponents as “hate-filled bigots” analogous to the KKK — imagine the potential for abuse should they gain federal power through passage of federal hate crimes and employment legislation (ENDA).
9. The ongoing, aggressive lobbying by the Gender Confusion Movement. Having learned well from their “gay’” allies, “transgender” activists seek to turn “gender nonconformity” into a legal civil right.  This would include the supposed “right” of a very young boy to come to school in a dress if he thinks he should be a girl.  (Now there’s an agenda item sure to be popular with most parents of school-age children….)  Memo to the Transgender Lobby: women do NOT want biologically-born men (wearing dresses and high heels) with male genitalia in their public restrooms—period.
10. The socially leftist media’s and Hollywood’s increasingly bold and arrogant promotion of all things “gay.”  When it gets so bad that Newsweek magazine runs a cover story positing (out of nowhere) that the Bible supports homosexuality-based “marriage,” the media has lost all perspective on this issue.  They are taking their cues directly from the homosexual lobby — which means increasingly they will be demonizing people of faith as “haters.”  And then they wonder why newspaper and magazine sales are down.  AFTAH will continue to speak out against the media’s and Hollywood’s secular bigotry.

There are many more reasons to support AFTAH but all involve our unshakable commitment to you to defend the truth against the homosexual activist agenda — boldly and without apology. The main question on this issue should not be: “What’s wrong with gay marriage?” or “How does my ‘gay marriage’ affect you?” but rather: “Why are all relationships built around unnatural, changeable, immoral and often unhealthy homosexual behavior somehow deserving of taxpayer-subsidized government recognition?  Or perhaps: “Why is it wise for our government to elevate and reward natural marriage and the mom-and-dad-with-children family over destructive, unmarried and unnatural relationships?”

The side that frames the issue wins the debate — and the pro-family side often loses because we allow radical, pro-homosexuality activists to frame the issue. Let’s get back to basics in 2009!

Thank you for supporting our important work! To give to AFTAH:

YEAR-END MATCHING GIFT: Go to our user-friendly giving page — ww.americansfortruth.com/donate/ — to make your tax-free donation using PayPal or your MasterCard or Visa.  ALL ONLINE GIFTS MADE BY MIDNIGHT CENTRAL TIME WILL BE COUNTED AS A TAX DEDUCTION ON YOUR 2008 TAXES!  Or mail a gift here (postmarked by 12/31 if you want it to count for 2008; Jan. 1 and after will go toward 2009):  AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567.

TRUTH TEAM MEMBERSHIP:  To sign up as a Truth Team member by pledging $25, $50, $100, $250 or more per month to sustain AFTAH’s critical work, go HERE.

Demonizing Christians in the name of “Tolerance” – The current “gay” activist campaign to demonize “Purpose Driven” pastor and author Rick Warren exposes the homosexual lobby’s totalitarian, anti-Christian impulse: this is is one sin movement that cannot be appeased and which is willing to destroy or silence ANYONE who gets in its way — be it Anita Bryant, Dr. Laura Schlessinger or now Rick Warren. America needs a fearless voice like Americans For Truth that UNAPOLOGETICALLY exposes the lies and bigoted, hardball tactics of the Homosexual Lobby. Help us make the most of a new matching gift by making your online gift of $100 (or whatever you can give) before midnight tomorrow: www.americansfortruth.com/donate/. Sign up to be an AFTAH Monthly Truth Team giver at www.americansfortruth.com/membership.php. Click on photo to enlarge.

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YEAR-END MATCHING GIFT: A generous Illinois supporter has just offered to match a limited number of $100 gifts to Americans For Truth through year’s end. Would you consider making a tax-deductible gift to Americans For Truth of $100 — or  $25, $50, $250 or even $500 or $1,000 — to help sustain AFTAH’s unique mission of standing boldly against the aggressive Homosexual Lobby’s lies?  Our goal is $5,000 in online gifts by year’s end. Go to our user-friendly giving page — www.americansfortruth.com/donate/ — to make your tax-free donation using PayPal or your MasterCard or Visa.  Or mail a gift here (postmarked by 12/31 if you want it to count for 2008; Jan. 1 and after will go toward 2009):  AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567.

TRUTH TEAM MEMBERSHIP:  To sign up as a Truth Team member by pledging $25, $50, $100, $250 or more per month to sustain AFTAH’s critical work, go HERE.

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“Scripture gives us no good reason why gays and lesbians should not be … married—and a number of excellent reasons why they should.” – Lisa Miller, Newsweek Religion Editor

HA HA …  CA Supreme Court rules the ban against same sex marriage is unconstitutional. – E-mail sent by “Matt Autio” to AFTAH May 15, 2008. Six months later, the high court ruling was overturned when California voters passed Proposition 8 re-establishing marriage as between a man and a woman. Now homosexual lawyers are appealing to the California Supreme Court to once again overturn the will of the people by invalidating the historic Prop 8 vote.

Dear Friend of Americans For Truth,

I hope you are enjoying the Christmas holiday as we ready ourselves for another New Year.  I’m writing to ask you to consider making a tax-free, year-end gift to Americans For Truth about Homosexuality (AFTAH) –– a leading group specializing in exposing and opposing the rich and powerful homosexual activist movement.  All gifts to AFTAH are tax-deductible for 2008 if postmarked by Dec. 31st or for 2009 if postmarked Jan. 1st or later.

Americans For Truth is known and respected by leading family advocates worldwide for our fearless truth-telling on the homosexual issue.  Long before the homosexual activist threat to our religious liberties became a hot issue in pro-family circles, AFTAH was warning Americans about the dangerous implications of reinventing “civil rights” based on destructive –– and changeable –– homosexual behavior.  We have been blessed as our website (www.americansfortruth.com) received over 600,000 page hits in November alone and over 6 million page hits in 2008. We now have faithful, daily readers all over the world — such as Leo from Italy — who rely on us for information on the homosexual agenda that they cannot get from the liberal, pro-“gay” media!

Because of our work, we are despised and hated by homosexual militants – although as Christians we do not hate them back!  (Check out this ongoing, nasty attack on me by just one of thousands of homosexual websites dedicated to justifying immoral behavior; this particular activist was infuriated that we had the audacity to link the tragic death of a 26-year-old homosexual man from AIDS to his embrace of the unhealthy homosexual lifestyle.)

Every day, AFTAH receives awful and often vulgar or blasphemous letters from homosexual zealots [see this "Kill. Christians" AFTAH article for a few examples.]  Many — including the vicious “queer” activist Wayne Besen — accuse me of being a closeted homosexual pervert (I’ve got many problems; that’s not one of them), and some say I will go to hell for opposing what in reality is a sin.

All this is very strange behavior for a movement espousing “tolerance.”  Nevertheless, despite all the liberal lies and hatred directed our way, Americans For Truth will never back down in defending marriage and your freedom to live by your Biblical or moral convictions.  I would sooner go to jail than deny God by celebrating what the Bible clearly calls sin (Romans 1). Hopefully it won’t come to that.

With Barack Obama coming to power, we defenders of moral truth will face many challenges.  Few Americans understand the depth of Obama’s commitment to the homosexual agenda.  He even called for repealing the Defense of Marriage Act (signed into law by Bill Clinton) and pledged to use the bully pulpit to promote homosexual adoptions.  I pray that Obama will NOT keep his promises to the ‘Gay’ Lobby but if he does, we will be ready to mobilize Americans in defense of marriage and freedom of conscience.

We must answer the media’s deceptions –– Newsweek even ran a cover-story making the absurd claim that the Bible supports homosexual “marriage”! –– as many brainwashed young people are buying into this agenda.  May God bless you as together we stand boldly for truth, speaking in the love and grace of Christ, who IS the Truth (John 14:6).

Thank you to all who through your generosity make AFTAH’s work possible. God bless. 

Sincerely,

Peter LaBarbera
President, Americans For Truth
americansfortruth@comcast.net
www.aftah.org
630-717-7631

P.S.  Everywhere you turn, Christians like Pastor Rick Warren are being demonized for defending marriage and God’s truth that homosexuality is wrong yet changeable behavior — as proven by the many ex-”gay” and former lesbians leading happy lives.  We are trying to match a generous $10,000 grant to AFTAH: could you help us with a year-end gift of $1,000, $500, $100, $50 or whatever you can give to support our vital work as a lonely voice for sanity on this issue?  To give online, go to www.americansfortruth.com/donate/.  Become a monthly Truth Team donor at: http://americansfortruth.com/membership.php.  All donations to AFTAH, a 501(c)3 charitable organization, are tax-deductible.  Thank you and God bless you!

REFERENCE ARTICLES:

‘Kill. Christians.’ and Other Nasty E-mails: Why they Hate Americans For Truth
http://americansfortruth.com/news/kill-christians-and-other-nasty-e-mails-why-they-hate-americans-for-truth-help-aftah-raise-5000-online-by-years-end.html

Obama’s Doublespeak on ‘Gay Marriage’
http://americansfortruth.com/news/obamas-doublespeak-on-%E2%80%98gay-marriage%E2%80%99.html

Besen Promotes Pray-Away-the-Gay Line to Discredit Ex-Homosexuals
http://americansfortruth.com/news/besen-promotes-pray-away-the-gay-line-to-discredit-ex-homosexuals.html

Tyrants of Tolerance Go after Obama for Inaugural Choice of Rick Warren
http://americansfortruth.com/news/tyrants-of-tolerance-go-after-obama-for-inaugural-choice-rick-warren.html

Transgendered Twirlers and “Porno Pete”: Why AFTAH Does not Allow Comments on this Website
http://americansfortruth.com/news/transgendered-twirlers-letter-and-why-aftah-does-not-allow-comments-on-this-website.html

Leading Expert on Bible and Homosexuality Rebuts Newsweek Article Claiming Bible Supports Gay ‘Marriage’
http://americansfortruth.com/news/leading-expert-on-bible-and-homosexuality-rebuts-newsweek-article-claiming-bible-supports-gay-marriage.html

Homosexual Parenting Advocate Dan Savage on Homosexual ‘Three-Ways’ and Nonmonogamy
http://americansfortruth.com/news/dan-savage-on-homosexual-threesomes-and-nonmonogamy.html

As we [celebrate] Christ’s birth, I am reminded of the words of John Quincy Adams. On July 4, 1837, he spoke these words:

“Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day? … Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer’s mission upon earth. That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity, and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of the fulfillment of the prophecies announced directly from Heaven at the birth of the Savior and predicted by the greatest of the Hebrew prophets six hundred years before?”

Adams was exactly right: America’s birth is directly linked to the birth of our Savior. In fact, the United States of America is the only nation established by Christian people, upon Biblical principles, and dedicated to the purpose of religious liberty. This truth is easily observed within America’s earliest history.

America’s forebears first established a written covenant with God as early as November 11, 1620, when they penned The Mayflower Compact. It states in part:

“In the name of God, Amen. … Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the General good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.”

The sentiments and statements of America’s founders make it clear that this nation has enjoyed a love and appreciation for the rights and freedoms recognized in Natural Law that is unique in the annals of human history. No other people have such a heritage.

One thing America’s founders could not envision was–after they had paid so terrible a price to purchase our liberties–that the time would come when their posterity would be denied the basic freedoms to publicly express their reverence for God. Never could they have imagined that the day would come when citizens of the sovereign states (each with a state constitution protecting religious liberty) would be denied their right to pray in school, or place Nativity scenes on public property, or hang copies of the Ten Commandments on courthouse walls.

I am also confident that America’s founders would be completely repulsed by the way the United States has jumped headlong into corporatism, socialism, and globalism. Democrats and Republicans alike have created a central government so large that it would be unrecognizable by any Founding Father. In addition, both Big Business and Big Religion have sold our great country down the proverbial river, as surely as there is a sun in the sky. Truly, our Founding Fathers must be rolling over in their graves.

Therefore, at this Christmas season, let us remember well the founding principles of these United States of America. Furthermore, let us renew with vigor the fight for freedom before our liberties and our heritage are gone altogether.

Merry Christmas!

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Chuck Baldwin is a pastor, columnist and radio broadcaster who was the 2008 presidential candidate for the Constitution Party. His website is www.chuckbaldwinlive.com. This column is archived at http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2008/cbarchive_20081223.html. If you appreciate this column and want to help Baldwin distribute these editorial opinions to an ever-growing audience, donations may now be made by credit card, check, or Money Order. Use this link: http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/donate.php

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“Down with Prop 8!”
Angry “gays” said it was all about “hate.”
Their hypocrisy uncanny,
They roughed up a granny
As for liberal court activism they wait.

– by Peter LaBarbera, www.americansfortruth.com

ALL GAY, ALL THE TIME: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force leader Rea Carey urged fellow homosexuals to promote “gay marriage” to family and friends over the Thanksgiving holiday. Carey is wrong: homosexual unions are NOT equal to real marriage — as proven by the fact that homosexual couples cannot produce children without help from heterosexuality.

Dear AFTAH Readers,

I suppose if you are a pro-homosexuality activist, there’s never a time that’s not appropriate to promote the acceptance of your lifestyle. In the e-message below, the new head of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund, Rea Carey, presses her group’s followers to turn Thanksgiving into a persuasive moment for homosexual “marriage” and same-sex “equality.” If only Christians were this “evangelistic”!

Carey’s letter is wrong and troubling on many levels. First, note how she chalks up as a Task Force “accomplishment” that the California Supreme Court is reviewing a ballot amendment voted in by the citizens of that state on November 4. The Task Force spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to defeat Prop 8 and lost — even after the California Attorney General changed the ballot language to make it more favorable to the homosexual side. Now the Task Force and other “gay” organizations are fighting democracy itself and undermining the integrity of a statewide vote. If they prevail and a few judges overturn the people’s expressed will, there will be a constitutional crisis in California that reverberates across the country.

Second, let’s address the misleading “gay” mantra of “equality.” Carey and fellow LGBT activists — and straight fellow travelers like libertarian Margaret Hoover (who masquerades as a conservative commentator on FOX) — like to plead for “marriage equality” for homosexuals. But it is easy to demonstrate that whatever homosexual “marriages” are, they are NOT equal to natural, God-ordained marriages. For one thing, there is the simple, indisputable fact that same-sex unions cannot produce children on their own. They can acquire children only with the help of heterosexuality and procreative-enhancing science, but they can’t reproduce or “have children,” as homosexual activists like to say. In contrast, normal marriages produce children and families without any help from homosexuality.

In their desperation to answer this obvious point on marriage and procreation, “gay” activists point to infertile hetero couples, who also need the help of science and adoption to create a family. “Should conservative commentator Pat Buchanan and his wife Shelley be denied marriage because they are childless?” they ask. But this is a silly argument. For one, infertile normal couples meet the basic requirement of marriage: a man and a woman. Secondly, when they seek to adopt children or benefit from reproductive science, they are merely mimicking the natural, complementary, mom-and-dad family — not creating intentionally motherless or fatherless homes and subjecting children to a radical reinvention of “family,” with two “dads” or two “moms.” Lastly, such straight, infertile couples desiring children turn to bountiful, procreative heterosexuality — not homosexuality, or apple trees for that matter — to fulfill their dream of a family.

So here’s a challenge to our homosexual critics: prove that same-sex “marriages” are EQUAL to the real deal given their procreative deficit, or stop this nonsense about “marriage equality.” (I understand that this is an unrealistic request;  if homosexuals and their liberal allies cared about the real meaning of words, they wouldn’t have called homosexual unions “marriage” in the first place.) As my friend John Shepard writes, “Aristotle may have been the first in recorded history to say in his Politics, ‘It is unjust to treat unequal things as equal.’ This is why it is patently unfair to treat homosexual sex as marriage. Heterosexuality is intrinsic to marriage. Marriage is consummated by heterosexuality, not sodomy.”

But back to Thanksgiving Day, which was established for Americans to give thanks to God for all His blessings in our uniquely blessed nation. That same God — the God of the Bible — opposes homosexual behavior as a sin (see Leviticus 18:22 in the Old Testament and 1 Timothy 1:10 in the New Testament). And He celebrates when someone trusts in Him and leaves sin behind (the sin of homosexuality, or any sin). Conversely, the advance of sin (e.g., the pro-homosexuality, -abortion, and -pornography agendas) in the United States or any society is not a “blessing” but a repudiation of our loving God. To use Thanksgiving as a homosexual lobbying day is a symbolic act of defiance appropriate to a movement that elevates its same-sex feelings and errant sexual desires over the revealed wisdom of our Creator.

One more point: people are tired of hearing pro-homosexuality messages all the time — at home, at work, during the holidays, on TV, at the movies — it’s “all gay, all the time” as we are bombarded with anti-God, anti-nature messages that equate a sexual relationship between two people of the same sex with “civil rights.” (The youth have it worse: now MTV is marketing a reality TV dating show involving beautiful bisexual female twins who each will choose their partner from a bevy of male and female contestants.) Enough already: the ubiquitous promotion of deviance is obnoxious and homosexuality is not a civil rights issue — as 70 percent of African American voters in California affirmed loudly and clearly by casting Yes votes for Prop 8.

The next time you are confronted with immoral homosexual advocacy, hold your ground, defend God’s wonderful created order of man and woman uniting in marriage — and if you are a Christian, defend your Savior. The God who made the universe can help people overcome sexual addictions and gender/sex confusion — but they have to humble themselves, lose that selfish “gay pride,” and repent of their sins as part of receiving God’s miraculous gift of transforming grace.

I hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving as we enter the season that celebrates Jesus Christ’s birth.

Peter LaBarbera
Americans For Truth about Homosexuality
www.aftah.org
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Here’s is Rea Carey’s “Thanksgiving Gay” message:

Dear [Task Force Follower],

It’s amazing what we’ve accomplished together these last few weeks.

The California Supreme Court has agreed to review the legal challenges to Proposition 8, and the protests and the actions of thousands in our community have forced the public eye on the inequality that LGBT people face every day.

But our fight is far from over. In fact, there’s one thing you can do this week to help move the needle even further.

Talk.

Talk to your family and friends when you sit down to Thanksgiving dinner. Talk to your co-workers when they ask what you are doing for the holiday. Talk to your neighbors when you stop to chat outside your apartment or home.

Tell them about your life, your relationships, how you feel about the state constitutional amendments. It seems simple, but far too many of us know how hard it can be to talk honestly about our lives. Telling our stories is what will make a difference in our pursuit of equality. Hearing from you, hearing about your life is what will change the hearts and minds of every American, one by one — starting with those closest to you.

So take the time this week to talk. Your story is important to this movement and it truly matters.

From all of us at the Task Force, I’d like to wish you and your loved ones a Happy Thanksgiving and thank you so much for your ongoing support.

Sincerely,

Rea Carey, Executive Director
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund

Press Release, November 25, 2008

www.LC.org

Miami, FL – Today, an activist Miami State Court Judge ruled that a 1977 Florida law that bans homosexual adoption is unconstitutional. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman claims that the law violates equal protection rights for homosexuals and that there is no valid reason to consider sexual orientation when approving adoption. The state has already filed an appeal. Liberty Counsel successfully defended the same law at the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which upheld the law banning homosexual adoption against a constitutional challenge.

The law has also been ruled to be constitutional by state courts of appeal. Although the decisions by the appeals courts are binding on the circuit judge, Judge Lederman lawlessly disregarded these legal precedents.

Earlier this month voters in Arkansas passed a law which bans unmarried heterosexuals and homosexuals from adopting children. In September, the Kentucky Court of Appeals strongly rebuked an activist lower family court for permitting a lesbian woman to illegally “adopt” her female companion’s child, in clear violation of both Kentucky law and the Kentucky Constitution. The higher court reaffirmed that in Kentucky, stepparent adoptions are only legal when the stepparent is married to a biological parent and that same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.

Most states ban homosexual adoption through legislation, regulation, or court precedent. These states ban adoption by homosexuals because the best interest of children is served by placing them in homes with a mom and a dad or where there is a likelihood of a mom and a dad. A homosexual home automatically excludes one gender, either the mom or the dad. Only a handful of states actually permit homosexual adoption.

Mathew D. Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, commented: “In the short term, this ruling by an activist judge is a tempest in a teapot. In the long-term it will be overturned on appeal. The law that bans homosexual adoption prefers that children be placed in a household with a mom and a dad. Homosexual adoption would permanently preclude a child from having the opportunity from having a mom and a dad. Moms and dads do matter to the well-being of children.”

Sacramento, California — In response to today’s decision by the California Supreme Court to hear the challenges to Proposition 8, the California Marriage Amendment, Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, a leading California-based pro-family organization, issued the following statement:

“It’s unfortunate that the judges are giving time to the mushy, subjective arguments of homosexual activists who reject the clear reading of the constitution and the clear reading of Proposition 8. If the court disobeys the constitution by voiding Prop. 8, it will ignite a voter revolt. It will also threaten the validity of all future constitutional amendments.

“The court is playing with fire by threatening to destroy the people’s vote on marriage. The California Constitution clearly says that the voters have the right to alter the highest law of the land. It’s the beauty of the American system of government. The four Supreme Court justices who unconstitutionally invented homosexual ‘marriages’ — Ron George, Joyce Kennard, Kathryn Werdegar and Carlos Moreno — seem to be ignoring the fact that the people get the last word, not the judges.

“The clear reading of the constitution, as well as California’s legal and legislative history, tells us there is a world of difference between a constitutional amendment and a constitutional revision. Proposition 8 is a single-subject, voter-initiated amendment, not a legislature-initiated, multi-issue, whole-scale revision that alters many sections of the state constitution.

“If Prop. 8 gutted the constitution, why is it only one subject in one section of the constitution? If Prop. 8 doesn’t stand, then our constitution doesn’t mean anything, the people’s vote doesn’t mean anything, marriage has been utterly disrespected, and judges lied when they swore to uphold the constitution. Prop. 8 must stand, because the constitution is above the judges, not the other way around.

“Marriage is, was, and should always remain a natural, beautiful relationship between a husband and a wife. Marriage between a man and a woman is an essential, beneficial role model for children to emulate.

“Fortunately, the California Constitution tells us ‘all political power is inherent in the people’ and that ‘they have the right to alter or reform it when the public good may require’” (California Constitution, Article II, Section 1).

Explaining the clear distinction between an amendment and a revision is University of California, Berkeley Department of Public Science Chairman Emeritus Dr. Eugene C. Lee, who, in 1991, wrote:

Specific changes to the California constitution may be proposed by amendment. Substantial changes may be proposed by a constitutional convention or by the legislature as constitutional revisions. Regardless of their origin, all changes must be approved by a majority of the electorate voting on the issue.

Legislative amendments, the method most commonly used, require a two-thirds vote in each house of the legislature. Initiative amendments may be placed on the ballot by a petition of registered voters equal in number to 8 percent of the total vote cast in the preceding gubernatorial election. By explicit language in the constitution concerning initiatives and by court interpretation with respect to measures arising in the legislature, amendments are required to be limited in scope. As far back as 1894, the California Supreme Court distinguished between a revision of the constitution and a mere amendment thereof (Livermore v. Waite, 102 Cal. 113). As reiterated in 1978, the court held that a revision referred to a “substantial alteration of the entire constitution, rather than to a less extensive change in one or more of its provisions” (Amador Valley Joint Union High School District v. State Board of Equalization, 22 Cal.3d 208).

Whether in the public and explosive setting of a constitutional convention, as in 1879, or in the relatively calm, almost academic environment of a revision commission some 90 years later, the revision process is intensely political….To be successful, revision requires gubernatorial as well as legislative leadership. Given the requirement of a two-thirds legislative vote, revision involves negotiation and compromise. The agreement implied in an extraordinary legislative vote does not guarantee popular support. Thus, an effective political campaign is essential. But even with a good campaign, success at the polls is not assured. Constitutional revision can be a high-risk endeavor and will continue to be so. These conclusions should be taken seriously in any legislative consideration of constitutional revisions. In addressing the current imperfections of the California constitution, the costs and risks of revision must be weighed carefully against the alternative of carefully targeted amendments.

– Eugene C. Lee, “The Revision of California’s Constitution,” April 1991, commissioned by the California Policy Seminar, University of California, Berkeley

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CAMPAIGN FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES (CCF) is a leading West Coast pro-family organization empowering citizens to live out their values. Sign up today for CCF’s FREE Email Bulletins at www.savecalifornia.com.

Your partnership empowers CCF’s innovative work on behalf of children and families in culture, media and government. Please support CCF by making a secure online donation or by sending your tax-deductible gift to:

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Randy Thomasson, President
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The far left, Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network has been smearing Christians as “haters” for years. Here they shown in 2005 picketing the city’s beloved Moody Church, which GLN fanatically labeled a “House of Hate” because Moody pastor Erwin Lutzer wrote a book against homosexual “marriage.” Click to enlarge; photo by Dave Smith, Illinois Family Institute.

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News Advisory, Protect Marriage Illinois and Americans For Truth

November 15, 2008

Contact: Peter LaBarbera: 630-717-7631; americansfortruth@comcast.net

CHICAGO – Peter LaBarbera, Board Member of Protect Marriage Illinois and president of Americans For Truth (www.aftah.org), issued the following statement in response to the national homosexual protest day against Proposition 8’s passage in California. LaBarbera joins Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel (www.lc.org) and a small group of Illinois pro-family advocates in Chicago to oppose the Chicago pro-homosexual-“marriage” rally today at Federal Plaza.

Statement by Peter LaBarbera:

We stand here today proudly in support of Prop 8 – which preserves the age-old definition of marriage as between and a man and a woman in California – and similar pro-traditional-marriage amendments that have passed in 30 states across the nation. Americans have spoken: they oppose the radical redefinition of marriage. We in Illinois hope to join the other states in passing a constitutional amendment to prevent activist courts from foisting “gay marriage” on our citizens.

Homosexual activists arrogantly reject the will of people and are trying to overturn their loss at the ballot box through the courts in California. If they succeed, it will create a constitutional crisis in California and sour citizens on the power of their vote – but that’s fine for homosexual activists because it’s always all about them. No wonder they regard all opposition to their “gay marriage” agenda as illegitimate, and even malign pro-family advocates – including African Americans who voted by 70-30 in California for Prop 8 – as “haters, bigots and homophobes.”

Gay activists talk a lot about “tolerance” but many do not practice what they preach. In the days since the election, America has watched as homosexual militants have escalated their anti-Christian and anti-religious attacks. Homosexual activists targeted the Mormon Church and other churches that supported Prop 8 with protests and even violence. A suspicious white powder was discovered at two Mormon temples and at a printing plant used by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic organization that supported and helped finance Prop 8’s successful campaign.

In Palm Springs, an elderly woman in favor of Prop 8 was assaulted by “gay” militants, and in Michigan, a lesbian anarchist group called “Bash Back!” stormed an Assemblies of God church and began throwing around condoms and engaging in vulgar behavior. So it’s no surprise that homosexual activists are going after the IRS non-profit charity status of opposing churches.

Incredibly, even after “No on 8” ran a vicious TV ad that was blatantly bigoted against Mormon missionaries, in the aftermath of the election “gay” activist accused Prop 8 of telling “lies” during the campaign. Here in Chicago, one of the main organizing groups for today’s homosexual protest is the Gay Liberation Network (GLN) — a group that regularly maligns Christians and smears churches as “haters” because they disagree with GLN about homosexuality. Defending marriage is not “hate,” and agreeing with the historic Judeo-Christian opposition to homosexual practice is not “bigotry.” Those like GLN who smear Christians as “bigots” and “homophobes” merely for standing up for their Biblical beliefs about the sanctity of marriage reveal themselves as hateful bigots. We need a Proposition 8 here in Illinois!

Envelopes with suspicious white powder were discovered at two Mormon temples, including this one in Salt Lake City, and a Knights of Columbus printing plant in Connecticut — probable “gay” terrorist retribution for the Mormons and the Catholic group’s strong support for Proposition 8 in California. “Queer” intolerance for dissent is out of control — but where are the “gay” leaders reigning in their fanatics? When asked on FOX News today about the escalating anger and protests targeting churches, Joe Solmonese of Human Rights Campaign — which has sought to link Christian pro-family groups to “hate violence” against homosexuals — could barely bring himself to say a negative word against the radicals on his side. Americans need to know: are the Justice Department and FBI watching out for coordinated acts of homosexual “hate violence” and churches, synagogues and mosques?

Matt Barber, who is director of Cultural Affairs with both Liberty Counsel and Liberty Alliance Action and associate dean with Liberty University School of Law — and  a Board Member of Americans For Truth — puts all the “queer” anger, intolerance, and even violence in perspective below. Send you comments to Matt at jmattbarber@comcast.net.

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WorldNetDaily.com; posted November 14, 2008

Counterfeit Marriage and its Counterfeit Movement

With a unified voice amplified several million-fold through the ballot box megaphone, African-Americans have spoken on the issues of marriage, family and human sexuality. Whether young or old, male or female, Democrat or Republican, blacks are justifiably fed up with the deceptive antics of the self-described and craftily contrived “gay rights movement.”

For decades now, well-organized, well-funded and highly influential “gay” political pressure groups have, with impertinence, hijacked the language of the authentic civil rights movement. In what amounts to a sort of soft racism, self-styled “queers” have disingenuously and ignobly hitched their lil’ lavender wagons to a movement which, by contrast, is built upon the genuine and noble precepts of racial equality and humanitarian justice.

An illegitimate offspring of the ’60s sexual revolution, the newfangled “gay rights” cult is today’s postmodern, sex-centric cause célèbre. Its core tenets include, among other things, mandated moral relativism, social androgyny and forced acceptance of a pleasure-based, though demonstrably destructive, lifestyle. Apart from practitioners of “the sin that dare not speak its name,” its devotees are in large part institutional fringe elitists confined to blue-state America who almost universally suffer the insufferable pangs of white guilt.

Like an addict jonesing for a hit, they long for that rush of self-righteous affirmation associated with belonging to something perceived as larger than themselves. Central to the movement’s success is the ability to draft adherents who are easily manipulated through superficial slogans, appeals to emotion via anecdotal parades of horribles, and a mindless propensity to conform to nonconformity.

By drawing artificial parallels between the systematic persecution experienced by blacks over centuries past to the inherent aversion most have toward biologically unnatural, traditionally immoral and objectively perverse sexual behaviors, the homosexual lobby trivializes and diminishes the African-American struggle for civil rights. It’s dishonest and offensive for people who choose to define their identity based upon aberrant sexual proclivities to compare sexual temptation and volitional sexual conduct to immutable and innocuous biological traits such as skin color.

“Don’t compare your sin to my skin,” goes the African-American mantra. Or, as influential black pastor Ken Hutcherson notes, “It has been said loudly and proudly that gay marriage is a civil rights issue. If that’s the case, then gays would be the new African-Americans. I’m here to tell you now, and hopefully for the last time, that the gay community is not the new African-American community.”

Understandably, blacks want all this nonsense to stop. Exit polls indicate that in the Democratic stronghold of “left coast” California, African-Americans – 96 percent of whom voted for Barack Obama – also voted to pass California’s marriage protection amendment (Prop by an overwhelming 70 to 30 percent. As luck would have it, the unprecedented turnout of black voters for Obama very likely tipped the scale and restored the enduring definition of natural marriage to the Golden State. This has made “gay” activists mouth-foaming furious.

Click HERE to read the rest of Barber’s column in WorldNetDaily [AFTAH will be posting this piece in its entirety tomorrow]