By Peter LaBarbera

Folks, Dr. Michael Brown gave an excellent presentation at AFTAH’s monthly dinner-lecture last week. We hope to post a YouTube on Dr. Brown’s succinct and compelling response to my question on the “Big Three” hostile questions thrown at Christians who defend the Bible’s prohibitions against homosexual conduct:

1. “But Jesus Christ never said anything about homosexuality”;
2. “Why should we believe the Old Testament says about homosexuality when it also bans wearing polyester and eating shellfish?”; and
3. “You Christians are so judgmental.”

Dr. Brown, a world renowned biblical scholar, hit it out of the park. He also challenged what he calls the “celebration of ambiguity”in describing neo-evangelicals’ and the “Emergent Church’s” evasive and equivocating — and unbiblical — positioning on the issue of homosexuality.

Brown specifically challenged Chicago evangelical Andrew Marin (right), founder of the Marin Foundation and author of “Love Is Not an Orientation.” Brown praised Marin for wanting to reach out to homosexuals and the portions of the book in which Marin relays personal stories of homosexuals he has encountered who have been hurt by the Church. But he was highly critical of Marin’s misuse of Scripture in interpreting verses dealing with homosexuality.

Brown said of the Emergent Church — which is much more accepting of homosexual identity, uses the controversial term ”gay Christian,” and generally scolds Christians for actively condemning homosexuality and the “gay” political/cultural agenda: “Their cure is worse than the sickness …. [they] have shown more solidarity with [homosexual] people than with God.”

“How are we helping anyone when we make the clear unclear … the unambiguous ambiguous? … How is that love?” Brown asked, calling on Christians to share the full truth of the Gospel in love. After first noting that Christians need to repent for neglecting to lovingly share God’s salvation plan with people caught up in homosexuality, Brown warned against believers falling into a “soulish sympathy” for homosexuals that overrides Biblical truth and their Christian conscience. [AFTAH will be offering a DVD of Brown's talk; write americansfortruth@comcast.net for more information.]

“There is a fundamental denial of the power of the Gospel,” Brown said, noting that a key requirement of being a disciple of Christ is to “deny yourself.”

Brown — who strongly urged Christians to humble themselves and repent for not offering the grace and love of Christ to homosexual friends and acquaintances — will be writing a review of Marin’s book for AFTAH. We will also transcribe Brown’s important critique of Emergent philosophy in a future post.

DISCLAIMER: I have not read Marin’s book yet, but have been deeply troubled by his chameleon-like approach to ministry and his watered-down Gospel as it relates to the issue of homosexuality. Marin — a self-described former “bible-bangin’ homophobe” who moved to Chicago’s homosexual “Boystown” community to reach homosexuals after three of his friends “came out” to him as “gay” – turned on me last year after we both appeared on a Moody Radio broadcast in Chicago.

After our mutual appearance on Moody’s WMBI Radio, I posted a sympathetic Moody commentary about it by WMBI’s Julie Roys. After we republished Roys’ piece, Andrew and his wife pleaded with me to take it off AFTAH’s website to accommodate their covert-like approach to ministry (an approach that has earned him criticism and distrust from both homosexual activists like Michaelangelo Signorile and biblically faithful Christians). After I rejected his appeal, Marin did an online interview on ExGayWatch, a homosexual activist website, to supposedly “clear the record” and distance himself and his work from Americans For Truth.

Marin’s turnaround came just days after he praised me enthusiastically on Moody Radio for “[taking] the bullet for all of us” in opposing the homosexual activist movement. Predictably, ExGayWatch used Marin’s interview as an opportunity to bash my alleged “shameless self-promotion.” I was appalled that Marin would use a blatantly anti-biblical website — one bitterly hostile to the truth that Jesus Christ can help homosexuals leave the lifestyle – to undermine a fellow Christian believer.

(I have worked with Andrew before: in 2006 he once almost appeared at a press conference that I organized as executive director of Illinois Family Institute — comprised of local pro-family leaders confronting the “Gay Games,” which were being held in Chicago. Marin supported IFI’s efforts — which included a Gospel outreach to Gay Games participants – but he pulled out as a speaker at the press conference, fearing that his public stance would hurt his ministry.)

Below is Marin’s startling post on the ”gay”-affirming site, ExGayWatch. I say “startling” because Marin — who regularly works with Moody Bible Institute and is promoted through sympathetic Moody Radio interviews – now seems intent on muddying up the Bible’s clear truth: that homosexual practice is sinful yet changeable through Christ. Dr. Brown noted the exact same tendency in Marin’s book, which he critiqued at AFTAH’s talk.

Needless to say, Christians like Marin who equivocate on biblical truth will be championed by the same homosexual activists who viciously (and erroneously) denounce AFTAH and groups like us as “hateful.”

The highly “ambiguous” Marin “Is Homosexuality a Sin?” piece below is actually a long comment posted on the same ExGayWatch thread that contains his self-serving online interview with homosexual activist David Roberts. To be honest, I was so disturbed by Marin’s actions that I could not bring myself to listen to his XGW interview, but now that he’s “out of the closet,” as it were, with his “Love is an orientation” approach toward homosexuality, it’s time to review his comments and correct the record ourselves. We will respond point-by-point to Marins’ take on what transpired with WMBI and his dubious exegesis of Scripture.

I do not believe — or at least I hope — that the equivocating Andrew Marin, who seems ashamed of the Gospel of Christ (at least as applied to homosexuality),  represents Moody Bible Institute’s approach towards the homosexual issue. Moody has faithfully served the Lord for decades. And I regret that despite Julie Roys’ hopeful commentary, we must now openly oppose Marin’s habit of downplaying the sin of homosexuality — forgiveness for which is part of the great transforming work of Christ!

Dr. Brown is absolutely right: there is a great need for ministry-minded Christians to lovingly share the Gospel with practicing homosexuals, but they should never resort to publicly obfuscating or denying biblical Truth to carry out that mission. Please pray for Andrew Marin – that he will return to the truth on this issue, including the parts that are politically incorrect. – Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth

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DL Moody once preached:

That’s the trouble with the sinners in Chicago.  They’ve turned against God, broken His commandments, trampled His law under their feet, and their sins hang upon them; until they show signs of repentance their sin will remain.  But the moment they see their iniquity and come to God, forgiveness will be given them and their iniquity will be taken out of their way.  Said a person to me the other day, “It is my sin that stands between me and Christ.” “It isn’t,” I replied, “it’s your own will.” That’s what stands between the sinner and forgiveness.  Christ will take all your iniquities away if you will. Men are so proud that they won’t acknowledge and confess before God.  Don’t you see on the face of it, if your boy won’t repent you cannot forgive him, and how is God going to forgive a sinner if he don’t repent? If He was allowing an unrepentant sinner into His Kingdom, there would be war in Heaven in twenty-four hours.  You cannot live in a house with a boy who steals everything he can lay his hands on.  You would have to banish him from your house.

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Andrew Marin’s Post on ExGayWatch

Andrew Marin’s comment posted on the homosexual activist website “ExGayWatch,” on April 24th, 2008:

Hello Everyone,

I am part of the subject of this post [referring to his online interview] and I wanted to say a few things. First, I appreciate the opportunity that I was given by David to explain what happened. I also appreciate everyone’s comments, and I want to let all of you know that I want to be as open and transparent as I can possibly be.

With that in mind I would like to address Bob’s concerns one by one because I am not trying to hide anything from anyone. I want to be honest about my life, my experiences and my organization – and so here are detailed answers for each of the concerns that were raised.

1. To explain my verbiage of “love” and “not judging” and how that influences our “educational work”:

As I said on the interview, my view of love is lived out through the following definition – love is a tangible and measurable expression of unconditional behaviors that no matter who you are, what you say or what you do I have your back 110% and will never leave or give up on your salvation/belief in God. I believe that the word love has become a trivial word coming from the Christian community to gays and lesbains because too often Christian expressions of love has become conditional. My goal is to unconditionally be apart of, and involved in people’s lives to overcome that negative perception and truth of what “love” has become. The Father is unconditional; Jesus is unconditional; and so to do I want to follow that example whether or not there is any “change” because at the end of the day only God can allow someone into heaven. So why not seek validation from the One who can bring eternal validation. Humanly opinions have no bearing on heavenly judgment, and therefore my wish is to take those humanly judgments away and focus on our Lord and let Him do as He sees fit for each of our lives. Therefore our entire educational work is based off of this premise.

2. Is homosexuality a sin?

Does anyone else ever wonder why when it comes to the most divisive topic in the church today that most questions revolve around one word, yes or no answers? I started to think about that, and I’ve come to the conclusion that both sides ask those same yes or no questions at the beginning so they can then label you and place you on their side, or the opponent’s side. This is nothing more than an expression of an “us vs. them” mindset. Building bridges cannot happen through an us vs. them mindset. Therefore, is homosexuality a sin?

I have three clear answers:

1. Romans 3:23 – we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God

2. James 2:10 – in God’s eyes, if you have committed one sin you have committed them all

3. Matthew 7:1-2 – the measure you use to judge others will also be used to judge you

Theologically I believe that sin has been propitiated to us all through the Original Sin, and we are all born sinful into a sinful world. My position is that it is time to elevate the conversation past what is always fought about and shift our mind-frames to belief and communication with the Creator. If we can focus on a tangible expression of love, belief and a humbled understanding of ourselves, and each other’s point of view as valid to their experience – in our lives and our sexuality (from both sides) –then we can advance the worship and dialogue past negative debates and onto more important eternal issues. I strongly believe that we are all on the same plain constantly learning and growing in our lives and faith trying to figure this life out. The unique juxtaposition is that we will never figure it out and have to live by that same faith to continue on another day, in what many times is a non-felt security by God. We know He’s there and yet there are times, especially during the extremes of when things are great and when things are horrible, that we don’t feel Him. Hebrews 11:1 states that faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. I feel as though it is my job to tangibly reach out to the GLBT community and apologize for what has happened in the past – and then help both sides to move forward to bring faith and spiritual reconciliation to a community evangelical Christians have traditionally only fought against.

3. Where do I stand of civil rights issues such as marriage equality?

I let the politicians handle the politics. I head a religious organization that is solely focused on religion and spirituality and to a bridge being built between time-tested opposing communities. I believe that politics does not have to enter into every conversation. I understand that many of the “religious right” have placed themselves in the middle of political debates and agendas, as well as many on the “left” have done the same. I will do neither. I have been put here for spiritual things, and that is my only focus. When our government decides either way, I will so live by those laws and not argue, disagree or fight in either direction. My world is not of this world because of what is to come.

4. “If I love gays, why do I oppose gay rights?”

I have never commented on gay rights so I am not sure where that statement is coming from – this is the first time. Just because I was connected by a third party to LaBarbera does not mean I agree or disagree. Others can continue to fight over politics, I just wish to focus on being as best of a representation I can to the one true God.

5. “In a Reader interview I flunked both tests”

The link to the Reader article is
http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/andrewmarin/

and if so inclined, please read it in its entirety. I believe that all quotes need further context, but becuase this issue was brought up here is a direct quote from that article:

The Marin Foundation takes no official position on gay marriage or gay adoption, although Marin praised one of his gay students who took in foster children from a third world country with his partner. And he says there’s no reason gays shouldn’t serve in the military. But these familiar debates are, for Marin, “nitpicking,” so mired in the realm of politics and worldly power that they detract from his broader spiritual mission. “I’m not political,” he insists. “I’m religious.”

6. There are other denominations that affirms the GLBT community so why do you need a “ministry”?

First, The Marin Foundation is not a ministry. We are an organization that is not connected to a church or denomination. We work with 9 different denominations in fact, including Episcopal and UCC churches. We are here because there are many people in the GLBT community who are frightened of church – the building, the dogma, the stigma that comes with the name. As a non-profit organization we are not a church, and therefore a safe place for people to come to talk, be validated as a child of God, listened to and not have to feel like they are being preached to or tied down to one thing or the other. Many people in the GLBT community who participate in our organization say that is the reason they go to us and not a church. Also, the Episcopal and UCC are traditionally liturgical in their approach. We have found that there are many GLBT people who were raised in evangelical homes and wish for that same environment. The Marin Foundation is one of the ways to return into spiritual things that are more comfortable for them then attending a church of any particular denomination. My denomination is the belief in God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit who love me as their child.

7. Bob [Schwartz, of the hard-left Gay Liberation Network] called me an “unabashed homophobe” and that I am a “velvet-gloved hammer of antigay bigotry and discrimination.”

I in deed was, for the first 19 years of my life a homophobe. There was no two-ways about it. But to call me that now, with so many people in the GLBT community who love and respect me and the work that I do through The Marin Foundation who has helped so many GLBT people who have been really hurt by religion, is off base. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and after I read Bob’s post I had an epiphany this morning.

“I need to release the burden of having to feel like I have to convince people who don’t like me, of the things that I know are true in my life whether they agree or not.”

This might seem like old hat to all of you reading that, but my problem is that I take way too much too personally. So when I am insulted it really hurts my soul. I’m not a hardened season veteran of this issue that insults don’t hurt. I don’t have people call me names everyday of my life, so it stings when it does happen. Maybe it’s because I’m younger than most who are already involved, maybe I am naive? I don’t know. But regardless of where it comes from the reason I felt that I needed to write all of these issues down was to clear my conscious of being saddened by what Bob said.

I believe now, that I have covered all of his major points. I am very open to peaceful discussion and I look forward to continuing this very important dialogue.

Thank you very much.

[Marin posts again in the discussion on ExGayWatch; you can also listen to his interview in which he opposes AFTAH's Peter LaBarbera; go to: http://www.exgaywatch.com/wp/2008/04/labarberas-shameless-self-promotion-may-damage-a-real-ministry/]

PRESS RELEASE by the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH)
August 6, 2009

Contact: David Pruden, Phone: (888) 364-4744

NARTH’s Press Release on APA Gay and Lesbian Task Force Report

As a scientific and professional organization the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) welcomes all responsible discussion and investigation into the important psychological factors surrounding homosexuality. The gay and lesbian task force report just released at the American Psychological Association (APA) convention in Toronto suggests no change in the clearly established APA policy that client self-determination is the crowning principle of all ethical mental health treatment. Respect for religious diversity demands that psychologists and mental health professionals give as much weight to belief as they do to sexual identity.

NARTH appreciates that the APA stressed the importance of faith and religious diversity. Unfortunately, however, the report reflects a very strong confirmation bias; that is, the task force reflected virtually no ideological diversity. No APA member who offers reorientation therapy was allowed to join the task force. In fact, one can make the case that every member of the task force can be classified as an activist. They selected and interpreted studies that fit within their innate and immutable view. For example, they omitted the Jones and Yarhouse study, the Karten study, and only gave cursory attention to the Spitzer study. Had the task force been more neutral in their approach, they could have arrived at only one conclusion: homosexuality is not invariable fixed in all people, and some people can and do change, not just in terms of behavior and identity but in core features of sexual orientation such as fantasy and attractions.

With regard to possible negative effects of therapy, as in all provisions of psychological care, the possibility exists that the client may not be happy with the outcome. We believe the report indirectly supports the findings published in the current Journal of Human Sexuality that reveal no significant ill-effects of therapy. Further, if some clients are dissatisfied with the therapeutic outcome, as in therapy for other issues, the possibility for dissatisfaction appears to be outweighed by the potential gains. The possibility of dissatisfaction also seems insignificant when compared to the substantial medical, emotional, and physical risks associated with homosexual behavior.

NARTH would suggest that these medical and emotional risks, along with the incongruity of homosexual behavior with the personal and religious values of many people will continue to be the motivation for some individuals to seek assistance for their unwanted homosexual attraction.

###

NARTH is a professional, scientific organization that offers hope to those who struggle with unwanted homosexuality. As an organization, it disseminates educational information, conducts and collects scientific research, promotes effective therapeutic treatment, and provides referrals to those who seek assistance. NARTH upholds the rights of individuals with unwanted homosexual attraction to receive effective psychological care and the right of professionals to offer that care.

“Gay men have the opportunity to engage in sex with more people than do most heterosexual men, and some practices common among gays — especially rimming [oral-anal stimulation] and anal intercourse — are highly efficient ways of transmitting disease.” — Homosexual writer Jack Hart, Gay Sex: A Manual for Men Who Love Men (Allyson Publications: 1998), pp 212-213.

Government: Regulate this!  The homosexual bathhouse Steamworks -- an anonymous sex club for men who have sex with men that operates in Berkeley, Chicago, Seattle, Toronto and Vancouver — offered “student discounts” during Spring Break 2009 ($5 off to 18-and-older young men who presented a student ID). Why is the government allowing the open promotion — even to youth — of behavior that is a causative factor in a number of sex diseases including HIV? “Gay” web sites are blasting AFTAH for calling for a comprehensive federal study into the health risks of homosexual sex.

By Peter LaBarbera

Folks, as we could have predicted, pro-homosexual websites are blasting AFTAH’s call for a comprehensive federal investigation into the health risks of homosexual behavior — and our comparison to how the government has warned Americans about the dangers of smoking and taken direct action against it in the name of public health (bans against indoor smoking, etc.). I even got named “Creep of the Week” by the Michigan homosexual newspaper Between the Lines. (Talk about creepy: offering teenage boys “student discounts” at homosexual bathhouses, and taking innocent children to raunchy “gay pride” parades — now that’s creepy.)

Homosexual activists are petrified of taking a serious, objective look at the health risks surrounding “gay” sex — it’s almost as scary to them as the public becoming informed of the many satisfied “ex-gay” men and ex-lesbians living happy lives free of homosexuality. Their own writers occasionally acknowledge the disproportionate risks of “gay” sex (see quote above) — and the early deaths of homosexual men, especially well-known homosexuals who could afford the best health care money can buy, are an obvious indicator. This is one of the Pink Elephants in the room that policymakers must address, and we think an impartial, authoritative study is long overdue.

Here’s a People for the American Way report attacking AFTAH that says that I have called homosexual sex more dangerous than smoking, which I did not claim in our original report. In fact, I think some “gay” behaviors like sodomy are more dangerous than cigarettes — although there are many variables here that make comparisons difficult. But the point here is not what Peter LaBarbera thinks — or making a direct comparison to smoking — but to get the government or at least some academicians who are not in the tank for the “gay” lobby to objectively assess the health risks of homosexual sex (especially among MSM, men who have sex with men). The FDA’s explanations of the ban on homosexual men from donating blood are the closest thing approximating that. (And by the way, note that the “gay” “Creep of the Week” article advocates ending the sensible homosexual blood donation ban.)

Certainly, many homosexual ideologues and straight fellow travelers are in denial of the obvious link between homosexual male sex and STDs, and they have a special political interest in covering up this reality. But the rest of us have a right to know the facts, and there’s a whole nation out there that is largely ignorant on these matters. Meanwhile, public school educators, counselors and bureaucrats are promoting “GLBT” — homosexual, bisexual, and transgender — identities to impressionable youth, who certainly deserve the full truth about the health risks of these behaviors — political correctness be damned.– Peter LaBarbera, www.americansfortruth.org

__________________________________

AFA’s One News Now reports [click HERE and click on "Hear Report" button to listen to the report]:

Info on Homosexual Health Risks Squelched
Charlie Butts – OneNewsNow – 7/30/2009

Americans for Truth about Homosexuality president Peter LaBarbera tells OneNewsNow it only makes sense because the government will investigate the dangers of such habits as smoking and work to curb it. He cites information released by the Food and Drug Administration.

“[Men who have had sex with men since 1977 have] an HIV prevalence rate 60 times higher than the general population, 800 times higher than first-time blood donors, and 8,000 times higher than repeat blood donors,” LaBarbera says.

The pro-family activist also notes an increased level of STDs and hepatitis.

“The people have a right to know about the health risks of homosexual activity just like they had a right to know about the health risks of smoking,” he contends. “There was a huge effort to cover up the risks of smoking, just like there’s a massive politically correct effort today to hide the true health risks of homosexual sex — and the people have a right to know about that.”

LaBarbera especially wants to warn school children who are being taught to accept the homosexual lifestyle as normal and healthy.

He did not have to die so young: Homosexual activists and websites became irrational when AFTAH linked Russell Groff’s premature death from HIV/AIDS at age 26 to his practice of homosexual behavior. “Gay” power in society, abetted by the liberal media, must not stop the truth of the immense health risks of male homosexual sex from reaching the public.

By Laurie Higgins

Homosexual activist Wayne Besen of the oddly named Truth Wins Out described Dr. Michael Brown’s group of evangelists (the “God Has a Better Way” campaign responding to the Charlotte, N.C. “gay pride” parade) as “uninvited locusts” descending on Charlotte. With that description in mind, I wonder how conservatives should describe the thousands of participants in “pride” parades and “fairs” who pollute our streets with illegal nudity and public sex acts to which law enforcement agents, who are paid by the public to enforce laws, turn a blind eye.

When Besen said that “the notion that gay people in conservative North Carolina needed Brown to educate them about religious fundamentalism was farcical,” he revealed his ignorance about Biblical and Historical Theology. Although the belief that homosexual acts violate God’s will is a belief held by “fundamentalists,” it also integral to all orthodox theological traditions and has been since the beginnings of the church. His ignorance is not surprising, however, since Besen is a member of the homosexual activist movement that regularly makes numerous ludicrous exegetical claims, including the claims that Ruth and Naomi and David and Jonathan had homosexual relationships.

Then Besen makes a patently false assertion when he states that homosexual activists are “falsely accused of working to undermine freedom of religion.” He may want to read the words of Georgetown University lesbian law professor, Chai Feldblum who writes that when same-sex “marriage” is legalized, conservative people of faith will lose religious rights.

Besen’s clouded vision is manifest in this description of a group of Christians engaged in evangelism: “Most alarming are these charlatans’ deliberate perpetuation of paranoia by trumpeting alleged religious persecution that exists only in their warped minds.” Perhaps Besen should talk to the Christian infertility doctors in California whom a lesbian sued when their religious convictions prevented them from inseminating a lesbian. Or perhaps he should talk to the Christian owners of a New Mexico photography studio who were sued and fined for “discrimination” when their religious beliefs prevented them from photographing the commitment ceremony of two homosexuals.

Perhaps Besen (left) should talk to the Christian mother in Alameda, Cal., whose public school is introducing pro-homosexual resources to first-graders next year. The school is refusing to notify parents prior to the presentation of these resources and is refusing to allow parents to opt out. Or perhaps he should talk to me about the efforts of change.org to get a hotel to break a legal contract with Illinois Family Institute because of our religious conviction that homosexual acts are immoral. Sounds remarkably like religious persecution to me.

What is confusing in Besen’s diatribe are these two seemingly contradictory claims: first, he said, “Brown tries to cover his tracks by sprinkling his apocalyptic rhetoric with calls for non-violence. Good orators, however, understand the principle of ‘layering’ messages. If in one sentence you speak of violence and in the next of non-violence, the listener will almost always embrace the words that support his or her belief system.” This clearly implies that Dr. Brown “spoke of violence in one sentence.”

But shortly thereafter, Besen said, “Brown, of course, doesn’t actually have to make an overt pitch for mayhem,” which seems to imply that Dr. Brown did not, in fact, “speak of violence.”

Besen takes issue with the proposition that the movement to normalize homosexuality tampers “with the foundations of human society.” Surely, he knows that this belief is not unique to Dr. Brown. It is widely held by theologians from most denominational traditions and by many legal scholars, philosophers, political commentators, sociologists, psychologists, and ordinary people of all educational backgrounds and walks of life. Many, many people view heterosexual marriage between one man and one woman who together produce and nurture future generations of children to be the foundational institution of any healthy society. Once society divorces marriage from children and marriage from gender, the institution becomes meaningless and the culture dies.

Besen goes on to say in his apoplectic way that “It is time for Brown and his comrades to abort their increasingly hostile and combative tactics before it leads to more wanton death.” This tactic of misrepresenting any public opposition to the ideologies and political actions of homosexual activists and their supporters as hate mongers, fomenters of violence, and bigots is the stock-in-trade of the “LGBT” movement. The logical implication of the argument that the expression of opposition to one group’s moral claims represents hatred, bigotry, and incitement to violence, however, would be that Besen’s words represent hatred, bigotry, and incitement to violence against Christians, and Orthodox Jews, and Muslims, and secular conservatives.

Besen’s screed is laden with overheated, inflammatory, intolerant rhetoric. Kudos to Dr. Brown for doing what faith leaders should have done decades ago. Let’s hope more brave men step forward.

One last point on another topic: I noticed that Besen (shown with the bullhorn at right) refers to Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth as “Porno Pete” which I also find ironic in light of the homosexual community’s purported opposition to name-calling.  It’s not just ironic; it’s hypocritical. It’s just one more revelatory sign of the intellectual and ethical vacuity of the homosexual movement.

Laurie Higgins is the Director of Illinois Family Institute’s Division of School Advocacy.

I sent a version of the following letter to Jeff, who wrote Americans For Truth in February urging us to respect the “civil rights” of homosexuals (who he believes are born that way). Jeff’s letter is beneath mine at bottom. — Peter LaBarbera:

Peter LaBarbera’s Letter to Jeff:

…Jeff, I doubt the accuracy of your numbers (I believe 1-3 percent of the population is homosexual), but did you know that there are many men and women who once identified as “gay” or “lesbian” who left that lifestyle and are now living happy lives free of homosexuality?  I respect them and their choices; do you? Have you ever met a former homosexual or read one of their testimonies?  If not, here’s a website for you to visit: www.exodus.to.  (Keep in mind that homosexual activists like Wayne Besen (www.truthwinsout.org) relentlessly demean, ridicule and even harass former homosexuals and the whole idea of “ex-gays” — strange conduct from a group that demands tolerance and respect from others.)

We disagree on the morality of homosexual practice, it’s that simple. I don’t ask you to “respect” all my decisions and behaviors — or my arguments — but I do ask you to respect my freedom to live according to my conscience, in a nation founded on religious freedom. And though as a Christian I respect the dignity of all human beings (who are made in the image of God), I will never respect the choice to embrace homosexual/bi/trans behavior — any more so than I would respect people self-identifying by any other sexual sin. (Of course, there are no Adultery Pride Parades.)

That said, speaking as a sinner myself, I have no use for people who hate homosexuals — who need the hope and grace of the Gospel like everyone else.  Rather, I would ask people practicing homosexuality to consider the possibility that they are wrong about this behavior (and their “gay” self-identity), and to be open to the possibility of leaving it through a relationship with Jesus Christ. (Of course, people can leave homosexuality and other sinful patterns without God, but I have found that the most satisfied ex-gays are those who have embraced Christ; see http://www.redeemedlives.org/index.asp, a ministry led by another ex-gay, Mario Bergner.)

So the gist of this debate is: do I and others like me have the right not to approve or subsidize behavior we consider immoral and changeable — or will that right be stripped from us in the name of “LGBT rights”?  Should a small businessman, say an Orthodox Jew with 25 employees, be required by the state to subsidize the homosexual relationships of his employees against his will?  You see, this is far different from traditional civil rights — based on unchangeable skin color — which perhaps explains why African Americans are the strongest sub-group in opposition to “same-sex marriage.”

Besides, the science isn’t in on the supposed “gay gene” so why do you assume it’s fact? (Check out the American Psychological Association’s recent retreat on the alleged innateness of homosexuality: http://www.washblade.com/2009/7-10/news/national/14849.cfm.)

Since you “care about freedom,” will you stand up strongly for the liberty of all Americans to live by their moral and religious beliefs, even if you don’t agree with or understand them?  I hope so.

Thanks for taking the time to write, and sorry for the late reply. We get thousands of emails a month and many are not as respectful as yours.

Sincerely,

Peter LaBarbera
President
Americans For Truth About Homosexuality
www.aftah.org

July 17, 2009

——————————————————————————–

Jeff’s Letter to AFTAH:

From: Jeff H. [mailto:--------]
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 12:59 PM
To: americansfortruth@comcast.net
Subject: introduction

Hi,

I am a straight man, married for 30 years. As an entrepreneur and capitalist I have created thousands of jobs. I am no “left wing” radical.

About 5% of the people of the world are gay or lesbian, one out of twenty people. Just as you and I didn’t pick our sexuality, they didn’t pick theirs. Their “agenda” is the agenda of civil rights. It is also my agenda and the agenda of everyone who cares about freedom.

It would be great if you were to respect all humans regardless of what their genes are, and fight for human rights for everyone.

Thank you for your time.

- Jeff

Opinion piece by J. Matt Barber [Note: Barber will be keynoting Americans For Truth's fund-raising banquet on Sat., Oct. 24 in suburban Chicago]

The highly contentious “nature vs. nurture” debate over whether “gay” penguins choose the homosexual lifestyle or are hatched that way has reached a hard boil.

San Francisco’s Fox affiliate KTUV reports: “The San Francisco Zoo’s popular same-sex penguin couple has broken up.

“Male Magellan penguins Harry and Pepper have been together since 2003. The pair nested together and even incubated an egg laid by another penguin in 2008, but their relationship hit the rocks earlier this year when a female penguin, Linda, befriended Harry after her long-time companion died.

“Zookeepers say Harry and Linda are happy and were able to successfully nest this year,” reported KTUV.

But not everyone is celebrating Harry and Linda’s newfound love. Some believe there can be no such a thing as an “ex-gay” penguin. Upon news of Harry’s decision to fly the same-sex-coop, outspoken pro-homosexual activist and anti-ex-gay crusader Wayne Besen cried fowl:

“Attempts to change sexual orientation are patently offensive, discriminatory by definition, theologically shaky, uniformly unsuccessful and medically unsound!” exclaimed a visibly angry Besen. “There is no ‘ex-gay’ sexual orientation. Harry is simply in denial. He’s living what I call the ‘big lie.’”

When asked if heterosexual penguins can become gay, Besen replied, “Well, um, sure. It happens all the time. But in that case it’s just the penguin embracing who he really is. Penguin pride is quite a courageous thing to witness, what with all the mean-spiritedness and homophobia among Penguo-Americans and everything. Once gay, always gay! You know; birds of a feather and all that.

“See,” continued Besen, “medical science has conclusively determined that, while still eggs, many of the more effeminate penguins sometimes get a bit scrambled, so to speak, due to what’s called ‘Homospheniscus Magellanicus Inheritus’ or, as it’s commonly referred: ‘The Gay Penguin Gene’ (GPG).

“No, seriously. It’s science,” insisted Besen. “Harry’s as gay today as he’s ever been. Mark my words. It’s just a matter of time until he ends up slinking around some back alley gay bar in the Castro District, strung out on meth.”

As is customary, Besen – along with a lathered-up handful of equally irate anti-ex-gay blowhards – intends to raucously picket Harry’s Zoo holding area – megaphones in hand – to protest what Besen called, “the tremendous political setback an ever-increasing number of ex-gays pose to our furiously ambitious political agenda. I really, really wish they’d just go away.”

Meanwhile, Pepper has also had difficulty accepting Harry’s decision to embrace natural sexuality. According to KTUV, Harry’s relationship with Linda “did not go over well with Pepper, who became violent.” Zookeeper Jennifer Katz lamented that “Pepper is by himself now.”

Still, it appears that Pepper has yet to hit rock bottom. In recent days he has reportedly been spotted waddling around the zoo’s public men’s room, skulking in stalls and inexplicably tapping his flipper. There’s even speculation that, as things continue to spiral, he may consider a run for political office.

___________________________

Matt Barber is an attorney concentrating in constitutional law. He serves as Director of Cultural Affairs with both Liberty Counsel and Liberty Alliance Action. Send comments to Matt at jmattbarber@comcast.net. (This information is provided for identification purposes only.)  Barber will be the keynote speaker at AFTAH’s fund-raising banquet on Saturday, October 24 at the Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, Illinois, northwest of Chicago (see below).

Matt Barber to Keynote AFTAH Fund-raising Banquet on October 24th

NOTE: The date of our banquet has been changed to Saturday, Oct. 24th:

SAVE THE DATE, Saturday Oct 24: Please save the evening of Saturday, October 24 to attend Americans For Truth’s banquet. Our featured speaker is Matt Barber, culture warrior for Liberty Counsel and author of the column below. Matt is quite a guy, to say the least. He’s gone from being a professional heavyweight boxer, to being fired by Allstate Insurance Company in 2005 because he wrote an online article – on his own time — critical of organized homosexuality, to his current position as one of America’s leading defenders of natural marriage and family. AFTAH got rave reviews for its last banquet; you won’t want to miss this one! The event will be held outside Chicago, in Arlington Heights, IL. Write us for more information at aftahangela@gmail.com or americansfortruth@comcast.net. We hope to see you there!

– Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, www.aftah.com

Who Is the Real Hateful Bully? Professional homosexual-hater-of-EX-gays Wayne Besen (left) got in former homosexual Greg Quinlan’s face and spewed vulgarities at Quinlan, accusing him of “still having gay sex” before being led away by security.

How fascinating that Wayne Besen (left) is given the opportunity to appear on FOX News, of all places [this YouTube clip features Besen whining about a hilarious Snickers ad that was pulled], to critique alleged “homophobic” attitudes and speech toward homosexuals — when he has such a well-deserved reputation for being one of the nastiest “queer” activists in the business. (Besen is the guy who came up with the deceptive smear “Porno Pete” to demonize yours truly — as if I have some prurient interest in homosexual pornography rather than a desire to expose the hyper-promiscuity celebrated within the homosexual male subculture. Wayne knows this is a lie but he continues to use it–strange conduct for the founder of a group called “Truth Wins Out.”) TAKE ACTION: forward this article by my friend Greg Quinlan to FOX’s Bill O’Reilly (oreilly@foxnews.com) and urge him to reconsider his use of an accomplished anti-Christian bigot (who especially hates public ex-gays like Greg) as a talking-head “expert” on “tolerance.”– Peter LaBarbera, www.americansfortruth.com

Greg writes:

PFOX (Parents and Friends of Gays and Ex-Gays)

Gays Hating Ex-Gays

By Greg Quinlan, April 5 2009

What happens when ex-gays dare to come out of the closet?  When I helped staff the exhibit booth for the Ex-Gay Educators Caucus at the National Education Association conference in June 2006, Wayne Besen, the former spokesperson for the gay Human Rights Campaign, approached our booth and began to insult us for having the audacity to live as heterosexuals.  He took photos of our booth for his ex-gay bashing website which targets the ex-gay community for ridicule and harassment.  Mr. Besen and gay rights organizations do not believe ex-gays are entitled to the same rights and respect that gays currently enjoy.  They picket ex-gay conferences and protest vigorously against ex-gay equal access.

n his continuing zeal to discredit the ex-gay community, Besen likes to bully ex-gays by insisting that we still look “gay.”  When he was Director of Communications for the Human Rights Campaign, Besen delighted in telling me to “butch up” so “normal people” wouldn’t think I’m still “gay.”  See his emails for yourself at http://pfox.org/Human-Rights-Campaign-Hate-Against-Ex-Gays.pdf

At the conference, Besen stuck his finger in my face and called me a “fu*king faggot,” “fu*king c**ksucker,” “fu*king fag bastard,” “fu*king nellie fairy,” and so on.  I guess he skipped the tolerance class where school kids learn to appreciate diversity and gays.  “You’re still having gay sex,” he yelled at me.  We had to call security to escort him out of the convention hall because we were scared for our safety.

Hate against ex-gays like me is all too common.  What’s going to happen when Congress passes the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and national Hate Crimes Act for gays, as Obama has promised?  With their hate officially protected by law, gay rights groups will force ex-gays into the closet.  Homosexuals will determine heterosexuality by censoring any ex-gay speech or behavior they disagree with as “hateful,” “discriminatory,” “intimidation,” “bullying,” “dangerous,” or leading to “spiritual and physical violence.”  We know because this is what they already label us.  Fighting “hate” and “discrimination” against gays has become a euphemism for attacks against ex-gays and their supporters.

Think twice, America.  Do you want to give gay activists like Besen the right to hate under the guise of a “civil rights” protection?  Besen has now aligned himself with Lambda Legal, the nation’s oldest and largest attorneys group “working for the civil rights of lesbians and gay men.”  Lambda Legal has offices and lawyers across the country.  [See AFTAH's story about Lambda Legal's role helping to keep men practicing deviant sex with other men in public places out of trouble.]

While you still can, please stand up for the equal rights of the ex-gay community.  Unpopular minorities like former homosexuals deserve the right to be free and out in society.  The violence and hate spewed against heterosexuals after they voted against genderless marriage last fall is proof that a politically powerful and wealthy group like homosexuals can scare us into silence.  Let’s not be silent.

###

See http://pfox.org/about_us.html for more information about the ex-gay community.

Greg Quinlan is a director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX).  Mr. Quinlan is available for media interviews at 804-453-4737 or p-fox@pfox.org

This article may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety only.

Americans For Truth sent the following e-letter today to Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, and cc’d to pro-family leaders across the country. Homosexual militant Wayne Besen (left) is once again attacking the Pope — one of his many targets among those who espouse traditional Judeo-Christian morality. Tonight Laura Ingraham subbed for Mr. O’Reilly:

Dear Mr. O’Reilly, why are you helping gay extremist Wayne Besen project a false “moderate” image?…

… Dear Mr. O’Reilly, homosexual activist and “Truth Wins Out” founder Wayne Besen plays nice and respectable on your show, but he is one of the most hateful, anti-religious bigots in the overall homosexual activist movement. I write today because I believe that if you were aware of his full record, you might not want him on your program – except perhaps in one of those interview segments in which you expose the hard Left. Besen regularly lies about pro-family advocates, cynically equates sincere defenders of historic, Judeo-Christian sexual mores (such as Dr. James Dobson) with “hate” and vile prejudice — and practically stalks ex-gay leaders like Greg Quinlan (cc’d above) in his fanatical campaign to discredit the well-observed reality that homosexuals can change and leave that lifestyle.

Besen certainly is not the responsible and respectful gay spokesman he pretends to be on your show, and he benefits greatly from the moderate image that comes from being a frequent guest on FOX. At the very least, I would expect you to do a segment grilling Besen, in tough O’Reilly tradition, on some of his extreme statements and tactics – such as when he had to be escorted from a convention after harassing an “ex-gay” booth and getting in the face of Quinlan, screaming at him in an obscenity-laden tirade. Or when he not only accused Dr. Dobson of being “hateful” but also of contributing to “hate violence” against homosexuals – in a “Truth Wins Out”-sponsored campaign to deny Dobson’s entrance into the Radio Hall of Fame. (Ironically, a year earlier the same Besen did all he could to discredit a real victim of physical assault – after a homosexual activist angrily attacked an ex-gay man volunteering at a PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays) booth at a fair in Arlington, Virginia. Besen’s baseless insinuation that the victim was lying was ultimately disproved when an Arlington police officer confirmed that the ex-gay man was attacked, and that his assailant had to be escorted out of the fairgrounds. Imagine how Besen would have decried the “hate crime” had the victim – and not the victimizer – been a homosexual.)

Thank you for challenging Besen — in your most recent interview with him about anti-Prop 8 protests — on his preposterous claim of “just wanting to be left alone,” For Wayne Besen to say such a thing – after his mean-spirited harassment of critics; his penchant for slandering good people and revered Christian leaders like Dr. Dobson as fomenters of “hate violence,” and his ends-justifies-the-means campaign to discredit healthy change and time-tested morality — is the height of irony. Thank you for all the good work you have done in exposing left-wing “loons” – a description Wayne Besen has well earned with his particularly nasty brand of intolerance in the service of homosexual “rights.”

Sincerely,

Peter LaBarbera

President, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality

Cc: Regina Griggs, PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays); Peter Sprigg, Family Research Council; Tom Minnery and Kermit Rainman, Focus on the Family; Matt Staver and Matt Barber, Liberty Counsel; Sandy Rios, Culture Campaign and FOX contributor; Robert Knight, Coral Ridge Ministries; Brent Bozell and Tim Graham, Media Research Center; Gregg Quinlan, New Jersey Family Policy Council; Joseph Farah and Bob Unruh, World Net Daily; Don Irvine and Cliff Kincaid, Accuracy in Media; Michael Heath, Maine Family Policy Council; Randy Thomasson, Campaign for Children and Families; Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families; David Smith, and Laurie Higgins, Illinois Family Institute; Phil Burress, Citizens for Community Values; Rick Scarborough, Vision America; Gary Glenn, AFA-Michigan; Don Wildmon and Buddy Smith, American Family Association; Dean Byrd and David Pruden, NARTH (National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality); Jack Roeser and John Biver, www.ChampionNews.net; Linda Harvey, Mission America; Stephen Bennett, Stephen Bennett Ministries; Scott Lively, Abiding Truth Ministries; Joe Glover, Family Policy Network; Brian Camenker, Mass Resistance.

Following is the e-alert Besen sent out earlier today announcing his appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor”:

——————————————————————————–

From: Wayne Besen [Truth Wins Out]
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 12:27 PM
To: [recipient]
Subject: TWO’s Wayne Besen on O’Reilly Factor TONIGHT (8PM EST)

Please tune in at 8PM EST to the Fox News Channel. Truth Wins Out’s founder Wayne Besen will appear to discuss the Pope’s comments that condoms make the AIDS epidemic worse.

“You can’t resolve it with the distribution of condoms,” the pope told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane headed to Yaounde, Cameroon, where he will begin a seven-day pilgrimage on the continent. “On the contrary, it increases the problem.”

How many people is this man willing to see die to defend his outdated dogma? Can the Pope show us a population where HIV increased because of condom use? Of course not!

Tune in TONIGHT. (The show re-broadcasts at 11PM EST.)

Truth Wins Out | P. O. Box 25491 | Brooklyn | NY | 11202

Yvette Cantu Schneider, husband Paul and their two children. Yvette was once a committed lesbian but recently she and Paul celebrated their ninth wedding anniversary. Homosexual activists like Wayne Besen ridicule Christian ex-homosexuals like Yvette with their slogan, “Pray away the gay” — which trivializes healthy change and God’s redemptive work in the lives of men and women.

By Peter LaBarbera

I don’t know if Sodomitic Spinmeister Wayne Besen of “Truth” Wins Out invented the silly slogan “pray away the gay” to slam the observable reality that homosexuals can leave the lifestyle (as countless thousands have), but he is busy promoting it. The following is taken from Besen’s new column criticizing President-elect Obama for picking evangelical pastor Rick Warren to say the invocation on Inaugural Day:

After all, Warren has a program to “help” homosexuals “pray away the gay” and played a prominent role in passing Proposition 8, which prohibits same-sex couples from marrying in California. He has even compared same-sex couples marrying to incest and child abuse.

Now what’s Besen’s goal here? Obviously, to ridicule the notion of healthy change for homosexuals, but with the added bonus of playing to secularist, anti-Christian cultural biases and caricatures — which Wayne himself stokes at every opportunity.

Some observations:

• There are lots of men and women who once identified as “gay” or “lesbian” who left the lifestyle and are living contented and fulfilled lives in their post-homosexual identities.  My friend Yvette Cantu Schneider just celebrated her ninth anniversary — Yvette was once a proud lesbian [see her testimony HERE] but now is happily married to husband Paul, and they are the parents of two beautiful children. (Yvette also testifies that she has no lingering sexual attraction toward females);
• Many “ex-gays” and former lesbians appear to have come out of homosexuality through a religious experience — others not. In Yvette’s case, she experienced a born-again relationship with Jesus Christ. That involved prayer and repentance, to be sure, but to dismiss such profound experiences as “praying away the gay” is to cynically trivialize a most powerful spiritual transformation;
• We don’t know about “the gay,” as Besen puts it, but profound change like that experienced by Yvette and former homosexual D.L. Fostor — creator of the Gay Christian Movement Watch website –provides serious anecdotal evidence that serious change in homo-sexual behavior and attractions IS possible. This is hardly a surprise to evangelical Christians, whose lives testify to the power of Jesus Christ to overcome ANY sin — including horrible addictions like drugs and alcoholism. (Imagine deriding AA — which has a spiritual component — as “praying away the drunk.”) We trust that most Bible-believing Christians would agree that there is no reason to treat homosexual conduct/ideation as some “special sin” that cannot be overcome like other behavioral sin patterns.
• Back to the notion of “the gay”: as we’ve written before, the evil genius of the “gay” construct is that it turns changeable, sinful and destructive behavior into personhood — i.e., an innocuous trait; ditto for “sexual orientation,” which implies that one has no control over aberrant sexual feelings and indulging those feelings. (It’s “who I am,” homosexuals say, as if deviant sexual propensities are intrinsically part of their nature; the corollary follows: “if it’s who I am, and I was born this way, how could it be wrong?”) The reason homosexual activists like Besen despise happy “ex-gays” like Yvette and DL is that they shatter the rigid, “fundamentalist”-like “gay identity” paradigm and suggest that all “homosexuals” (including Wayne) have the ability to stop practicing (wrong) homosexual behaviors. Taking personal responsibility for your actions — as countless men and women have by repenting of their past homosexual lifestyle and abandoning same-sex behavior — means, ultimately, that nobody has to be (act) “gay.” Choice IS involved in the embrace of homosexuality. Here we could spend several hundred pages discussing feelings versus behavior and lingering same-sex attractions, etc.  (Besen and others allege that ex-homosexuals really are only curtailing behaviors, but that they remain essentially “gay.”) But the bottom line is that all people struggle with temptations and sinful desires that they should not give in to (lust, greed, selfishness, etc.); this does not require that we assign an identity to those feelings/struggles and remove culpability from the person for indulging them;
• Lastly, to assert that men and women working with God through repentance and prayer CANNOT experience deep change is an affront to our Savior, Jesus Christ. When homosexual activists flip nature on its head and insist that their aberrant feelings and conduct are natural (and not sinful) and that the Bible is the problem  — or at least the way it has been interpreted by multitudes of “homophobic,” bigoted Christians down through the centuries — they insult their Creator, who created men and women for one another, and who has already proven His awesome, transformative power in the lives of countless sinners from the beginning.

Taking all the above into account — and the sheer animosity that so many homosexual activists like Besen have for Christians and religious people who refuse to compromise the Bible to accommodate a pro-homosexuality agenda — it becomes obvious what “pray away the gay” is: another arrogant attempt by homosexual militants to discredit faithful Christians and subvert Biblical Truth, and to affirm their destructive lifestyle as natural, normal and good — no matter what their loving Creator says.

Former homosexual DL Foster and his beautiful family. Foster created the website “Gay Christian Movement Watch” to monitor the subversive attempt by homosexual activists to argue that the Bible and Christianity actually affirm their sinful lifestyle choice.

By Peter LaBarbera

We received an e-mail about yesterday’s piece on the first-ever homosexual band in the Inaugural Parade from Alonzo, a homosexual advocate who — although passionate about his beliefs — always remains civil.

By the way, and for the record, AFTAH does not allow comments to be posted on our website precisely because of the sheer viciousness, vulgarity and ad hominem, hate-filled attacks that characterize so many messages against us from pro-homosexual activists. Responding to the lies and smears would take all of our time. Uncivil homosexual activists would love that.

Porno Pete?

As veteran AFTAH readers know, one of the favorite, ongoing “queer” lies against me is that I am a secret homosexual or, worse, a covert aficionado of (unspeakably evil and revolting) homosexual S&M and pornography. Hence the nasty slam against me concocted by homosexual spinmeister Wayne Besen: “Porno Pete.” (I suppose if you use the logic of ‘Wayne’s World,’ someone who exposes abortionists secretly yearns to slaughter innocents in the womb — and Wayne himself, who monitors and exposes allegedly fraudulent “ex-gays” through his comically named Truth Wins Out — is a closeted fundamentalist Christian who TiVos every episode of “The 700 Club” while pretending to fight for Queer Liberation.)

Yep, aside from the murderous Islamic jihadists, it seems nobody hates (or lies) like the Left, and nobody on the Left hates like the homosexual militants. If you doubt me on this, take a detour into Loony Liberal Land for a few minutes and read the comments responding to one of Besen’s attacks on me and Americans For Truth. In another piece, mean-spirited even by Besen-esque standards, the Professional Homosexual Agitator (PHA) goes after ex-homosexual Greg Quinlan for getting divorced — exploiting Quinlan’s family tragedy without knowing the facts of the situation, his personal hatred for Greg oozing from sentence after sentence.

Another of my favorite Homosexual Hate Sites — and a quick-and-easy resource for finding examples of nastiness and anti-Christian bigotry — is lesbian blogger Pam Spaulding’s Pam’s House Blend. Yet as out there as Spaulding is, and she’s out there, Pam’s blogging buddies’ comments make her seem almost respectable by comparison: see this piece about AFTAH Board Member Matt Barber and me counter-protesting a Chicago “gay marriage” rally — rife with personal insults and the same, old “they must be gay” attacks. (Funny, it seems that accusing someone of being “gay” is the biggest insult that radical homosexuals can hurl at their opponents.) Can you imagine trying to deal with daily submissions from such bitter extremists? We can’t, and we won’t.

Below, Alonzo responds to my post yesterday post on the homosexual band marching in Barack Obama’s Inaugural Parade, followed by my answer:

_______________________________________
From: [Alonzo]
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 12:43 PM
To: americansfortruth@comcast.net
Subject: Transgender Twirlers[Cites sentence from AFTAH article, "Transgender Twirlers: Homosexual Band to March at Obama's Inaugural Parade":] “Question: what deserving, hard-working high school band from Anytown, USA was bumped out by the homosexual marchers in the intense competition to march in the Inaugural Parade?”

Are you implying that because the band is GLBT [gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered] they aren’t hard working?

It must really burn you that we have a President that sees value in ALL AMERICANS not just the straight Christian ones.

_______________________________________

Peter LaBarbera responds:

I’m sure the GLBT band works very hard, Alonzo. The point is, does their presence bump out a high school band? Keep in mind that you believe homosexuality is moral (or innocuous, not sure which) and I believe its practice is immoral, so obviously my side views it as a shame that a band centered around immoral conduct (and advocacy) would bump out an innocent, “nonpolitical” [high school] band.

Does that help? Have a Merry Christmas, Alonzo!

This mob assault occurred following the passage of Proposition 8 restoring traditional marriage in California. Homosexual activists are deriding the successful ballot measure as “Prop H8″ (hate)  — but look at the hatred on display below in what is supposedly America’s most “tolerant” city. This criminal assault is also significant in that “gay” activists routinely charge Christians and pro-family groups — and most recently Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family — with fomenting “hate violence.” Clearly, “hate violence” and threats committed by vengeful homosexual militants against religious people and churches is on the rise following California’s electoral repudiation of “gay marriage” on November 4th. — Peter LaBarbera. www.aftah.org

The Eye-witness account of the incident is posted beneath the YouTube video:

Posted November 14, 2008

Eye-witness account by posted with YouTube video by member of Christian group:

I went to the Castro (the homosexual district of San Francisco) like we usually do on Friday nights.

Normally, we sit on 18th and Castro, and someone plays the guitar, and we all worship God.

Sometimes a person will yell at us, or maybe a few. Sometimes people will ignore us. Sometimes people will let us pray with them.

This time was not a normal night. It was the first time we’d been back in the Castro to do our normal outreach since California Proposition 8, which defined marriage as “one man with one woman,” was passed. We played the guitar and sang together and worshiped the Lord. After just singing and worshiping God for a while, Roger decided that we should all hold hands in a circle and continue singing. So we did.

Someone (actually a person who came up and hugged and kissed some of us whom he knew from the past) convinced some people that we were there to protest against the “No on 8″ campaign.

Then some guy who was dressed up like one of the sisters — The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is a group of men who dress up like nuns and call themselves the spiritual authority of the Castro — took a curtain-type thing (Which I think they use to curse people) and wrapped it around us.

Then a crowd started gathering. We began to sing “Amazing Grace,” and basically sang that song the whole night. (At some points we also sang “Nothing but the Blood of Jesus” and “Oh the Blood of Jesus.”) At first, they just shouted at us, using crude, rude, and foul language and calling us names like “haters” and “bigots.” Since it was a long night, I can’t even begin to remember all of the things that were shouted and/or chanted at us. Then, they started throwing hot coffee, soda and alcohol on us and spitting (and maybe even peeing) on us.

Then, a group of guys surrounded us with whistles, and blasted them inches away from our ears continually. Then, they started getting violent and started shoving us. At one point a man tried to steal one of our Bibles. Chrisdene noticed, so she walked up to him and said, “Hey, that’s not yours, can you please give it back?” He responded by hitting her on the head with the Bible, shoving her to the ground, and kicking her. I called the cops, and when they got there, they pulled her out of the circle and asked her if she wanted to press charges. She said, “No, tell him I forgive him.” Afterwards, she didn’t rejoin us in the circle, but she made friends with one of the people in the crowd, and really connected heart to heart.

Roger got death threats. As the leader of our group, people looked him in the eyes and said, “I am going to kill you,” and they were serious. A cop heard one of them, and confronted him. (This part is kinda’ graphic, so you should skip the paragraph if you don’t want to be offended.) It wasn’t long before the violence turned to perversion. They were touching and grabbing me, and trying to shove things in my butt, and even trying to take off my pants – basically trying to molest me. I used one hand to hold my pants up, while I used the other arm to hold one of the girls. The guys huddled around all the girls, and protected them. Soon after, the cops came and stood between us and the mob.

When it was getting more heated, the cops [said warnings] like, “You guys should leave.” and Roger said “We want to stay.” Someone tried to steal my backpack, but I tapped a cop on the shoulder and said “Hey, that’s my bag.” and he got it from him and gave it to me. Others weren’t so lucky. Probably half our team got their jackets stolen. Eventually, as the crowd was getting more and more uncontrollable, the cops were afraid for our lives, so they escorted us to our van. (The cops were very nice to us from start to finish.) Our van was parked pretty far [away] because it was hard to find parking that day. As the cops escorted us, the mob followed us, until the cops formed a line and held off the people so we could drive away.

We took the long way home, just in case anyone tried to follow us. When we got home, we prayed and sang more, and then prayed over each other. Please know my heart. All of what we do is for the Love of Jesus Christ, and the love for those in the Castro. The Bible says to love God, and then love people. We can only love because He loved us first. We can’t hate the people because they are just broken and blinded by the spirit of this age. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against Principalities and Powers. It’s not a political thing, we just love the people. This is the raw footage of the walk from 18th and Castro Street to our car. It was only the very tail end of the night and says that we were all about Prop 8… when in reality we had nothing to do with Prop 8 this night.

Homosexual gadfly Wayne Besen is begging for money to fly to Alaska to embarrass Gov. Sarah Palin and promote the lie that homosexuals cannot change. And Associated Press is happy to parrot Besen’s line ridiculing healthy change for homosexuals.

‘News’ Release
Americans For Truth
www.americansfortruth.org

September 9, 2008

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

Secular City, USA — The alternative new media and old establishment media alike are swarming around startling revelations concerning Alaska Governor and GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s church in Alaska.

Huff-And-Puff Post has learned that Wasilla Bible Church, where Palin worships, actually believes the Bible that Christ came to earth as a man, professed to be God Himself and forgave peoples’ sins, and performed miracles that only God could do, like raising Lazarus from the dead. Wasilla doctrine teaches that this same Jesus now sits at the right hand of His Heavenly Father and lovingly intervenes in the lives of human beings.

“We have discovered that these brainwashed Christianists who cling to their religion and their guns also cling to fairy tales about Jesus as some prayer-answering ‘savior,’” said Arianna Huff-and-Puff, publisher of the online H&P Post. “It’s one thing to believe that this unseen God-man Jesus helped create the world and performs miracles in the lives of his followers — like healing drug addicts and transforming the hearts of hardened criminals. But believing that He can help also people leave homosexuality – what are they, nuts?!”

Associated Press reports ominously that Wasilla Bible Church supports programs to help men and women overcome homosexual desires. AP, consistent with its well-earned reputation as Always Politically-correct, chose to use the homosexual pejorative “Pray Away the Gay” to describe Wasilla’s ex-“gay” ministry.

AP also quotes New York City-based homosexual gadfly Wayne Besen: “’I think gay Republicans are going to run away’ if Palin supports efforts like the prayers to convert gays.” Oh well, there go 379 homosexual activist Republican votes for McCain – while millions of pro-family, Sarah-Palin-loving Republicans applaud ministries that offer godly, healthy change to homosexual strugglers.

But Professional Anti-Christian Activist Besen is not deterred. Oblivious to the thousands of former homosexuals worldwide who live happy lives shorn of their false “gay “identity, he is now begging his followers for money so he can fly to Anchorage to protest a “Love Won Out” conference promoted by Wasilla Bible Church and sponsored by Focus on the Family. LWO conferences – a favorite target of homosexual militants and anti-“Christianists” everywhere — feature “born again” former homosexuals sharing their hopeful testimonies.

“Speaking of ‘Praying Away the Gay,’ perhaps now is the time for concerned Americans to pray that Besen receives only enough funds to purchase a ONE-WAY ticket to Alaska,” said Americans For Truth president Peter LaBarbera. “Sure, that’s putting a heavy burden on Alaska’s citizens, but the lower 48 states and Hawaii then would be free of Besen’s tiresome anti-Christian bigotry and preposterous crusade to ‘prove’ the impossible: that homosexuals (like all other sinners) can’t change.”

Note to humorless secular media elites and homosexual activists: this release is a spoof, but the parts about AP’s biased reporting and Besen’s “anti-ex-gay” Alaskan Adventure are true.

Concerned Women for America’s Martha Kleder writes:

The California legislature is considering a bill that would create a state holiday honoring Harvey Milk, the first openly “gay” city supervisor for San Francisco who was gunned down in 1978. Peter LaBarbera, President of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, introduces us to Gerard Dols, a man who both knew Harvey Milk and who now knows the Lord. Dols was befriended by Milk when he was a youth, struggled with rejection by the greater homosexual community following Milk’s murder, and later accepted Christ and left the homosexual lifestyle. Dols shares his testimony and his thoughts on “the mayor of Castro Street.” Listen HERE ; Download HERE.

The following is adapted from my response to a letter from a pro-homosexual activist who wrote AFTAH, making the usual obnoxious charges: that I am a “pornographer” (for exposing San Francisco’s government-tolerated public street depravities) — and, of course, that I am a secret homosexual (”You are gay and part of you knows it and HATES it”). It’s all par for the course when you cover the loving and tolerant GLBT community. — Peter LaBarbera

Note to hostile “gay” activist:

You worry about getting your gay allies in San Francisco to stop having sex in the streets, then you can deal with Zombietime, which is a non-Christian site that exposes all the nutty goings-on re: that World Famous Gay Mecca — and which exposed the San Francisco depravities just as they were. That’s called documenting heinous public perversions — not “porn.”

“My, my, you are full of hate… Let’s see, using your (il)logic: if I’m gay, then are you a conservative evangelical Christian, since you obviously monitor and oppose us earnestly. How ludicrous.

[After I recommended in a previous e-mail that he visit the website of ex-"gay" Christian Stephen Bennett, the writer calls Bennett "beyond RETARDED." He writes, "I pray for you. May God have mercy on you."]

[I continue:]

Grow up, [-----] I’m not really interested in your twisted opinions about “porn,” nor am I very interested in your prayers because they are nullified by your deep rebellion against God (if you are indeed a practicing homosexual). If that’s the case, you hate God’s moral law on sex as much as some guy cheating on his wife and trying to justify his bad behavior. Be a man and admit it — you hate God’s law on sex.

One thing I find so annoying about so many “queer” activists is they want to have it both ways: they want to practice and/or defend sodomy and homosexuality — revealed throughout Judeo-Christian history as sinful — yet they also want to call themselves faithful Christians. Can’t have it both ways.

Does God have the right to oppose homosexual behavior? Please answer that theoretical question. And perhaps you shouldn’t delude yourself that you are a Christian, because Christians don’t defend sodomy and other sexual sins.

NOTE: we’ll have more on the Willow Creek-Soulforce story in upcoming posts. The following was posted on the Chicago Tribune religion reporter Manya Brachear’s blog, “The Seeker,” which contains a report on Willow Creek’s meeting last weekend with Soulforce homosexual activists.

By Peter LaBarbera

I wonder: is transcendent truth conditional on the age of the person receiving it? Either homosexual behavior is a changeable sin or it is not — 1,000 years ago, today, and 1,000 years in the future. The Word of God is clear that it is. I have met far too many EX-gays to believe that homosexuality is some fixed identity (”orientation”) into which people are born — and most of these FORMER gay men and ex-lesbians testify to the power of Jesus Christ in setting them free from homosexuality.

That last part is the Good News of the Gospel that Soulforce and its traveling band of revisionist “pro-gay christians” does not want to hear, as they falsely claim that Christianity is compatible with homosexuality. That is why I and another Christian were outside Willow Creek Community Church last Sunday with a message that the case is closed on whether homosexuality is a (changeable) sin.

There was a time not too long ago when being “pro-choice” was very trendy, and opinion leaders thought the abortion debate was pretty much over (and pro-lifers had lost). Then came ultrasound and other developments and now it is the pro-abortion side that is on the defensive, and which loathes talking about the humanity of the unborn. (Try finding the word “abortion” on NARAL’s [formerly National Abortion Rights Action League] website.)

To the young people reading this I ask: what gives you the right to redefine age-old Biblical morality on sex? Did you learn something new that God didn’t know when He inspired the Bible? Have you ever met someone who overcame homosexuality through Christ? Could it be that due to your unprecedented exposure to pro-”gay” messages in the culture that your thinking is off-kilter on this issue? What gives you the authority to proclaim homosexuality and “gay” relationships OK? And wouldn’t each of us sinners like to take our own favorite sin, decide it’s not a sin and instead call it part of our basic identity — and even part of our “civil rights”?

The irony of “softer” evangelicals who complain about the “Religious Right” focusing too much attention on homosexuality as some special sin is that they are guilty of the very same thing: by being far too cavalier about homosexuality and accepting of same-sex relationships when God Himself is neither. (That is, if you believe the Bible: see Prof. Rob Gagnon’s website for clear Scriptural evidence on the Bible and homosexual practice: www.robgagnon.net.)

God in His grace changes drunks, drug addicts, gossipers, philanderers, liars, cheats, thieves, white-collar criminals, pornographers, and … people caught up in homosexuality. Deny that, and you deny Jesus Himself.

Would Willow Creek have agreed to a (forced) meeting with activists claiming that using pornography is not a sin, or that the “swinging” lifestyle is OK with God? No way. I think they bowed to Soulforce’’s pressure to “dialogue” because this particular sin, as Greg aptly calls it, enjoys a certain worldly favor that most others do not. Christ said His followers would get persecuted for following Him, and these days that includes being smeared as a “bigot” or a “homophobe” — and being accused of “spiritual violence” by the savvy activists at Soulforce — merely for agreeing with God that homosexual behavior is a sin that can be overcome through Jesus Christ.

Jeffrey writes via AFTAH’s website:

I’m a little concerned about your single-minded obsession about the particular sin of homosexuality. Sin is sin, whether its violating the law by speeding, child molestation, or drug dealing, the point is that it is all “missing the mark.” I understand that it’s easier to concentrate on the sins that we don’t have so much trouble with, but sin is sin, and if you can’t accept that you better start taking your own inventory! — Jeffery

Dear Jeffrey,

Americans For Truth is one of a handful of organizations that are merely responding to the many groups — spending tens of millions dollars more than our side — that have a “single-minded obsession” about PROMOTING homosexuality, which they do not regard as sinful. Do you recommend “unilateral disarmament” from our side in this ‘Culture War’ over homosexuality? Would you judge and condemn us for merely trying to put up a response to the “gay” activist juggernaut that is trying to radically redefine marriage, proselytize children in destructive, pro-homosexualist and gender-confused ideologies, subvert Scriptural teachings against homosexual sin, and deny — like so many flat-earthers — the existence of former homosexuals who have overcome this sin through Jesus Christ?

Also, just because we are trying to defend historic Judeo-Christian morality as it applies to this particular sin does not mean that I and other Christians do not take a daily “inventory” of our own sins and shortcomings. We all “fall short of the glory of God and are justified” — not by our own good works — but “freely by his grace through the redemption” of Jesus Christ (Romans 3:23). I suggest that until you have a good answer as to why people of faith should merely roll over to the Human Rights Campaign, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, GenderPAC and the hundreds of other homosexuality-celebrating organizations across the USA, you show us a little grace — or even better, help us in the battle to defend truth on this vexing issue.

Sincerely,

Peter LaBarbera
Americans For Truth
www.americansfortruth.org
americansfortruth@comcast.net

Please pray for justice and protection of this innocent child. You can commit to praying for the Millers at www.cwfa.org/millersign.asp. Below is Matt Barber’s original column on this sad situation:

You’re Not My Mommy!

By J. Matt Barber

This article was published by CWA on August 1, 2007:

The person trying to take Isabella away from her mother is entirely unrelated to the little girl and is essentially a total stranger.

Jesus said, “But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.” (Mark 10: 6-8, NKJV)

Virginia resident Lisa Miller – now a born-again Christian – and her beautiful five-year-old daughter Isabella find themselves immersed in a nightmarish custody battle. But this battle is unlike most others. The person trying to take Isabella away from her mother is entirely unrelated to the little girl and is essentially a total stranger. She’s lesbian Janet Jenkins, a woman with whom Lisa had at one time been homosexually involved.

By her own account, emotional problems brought on by a series of events — including abandonment by her father, abuse by her mentally ill mother and a decade long struggle with alcoholism now overcome — eventually led Lisa Miller into the lesbian lifestyle. In 1999, Lisa began a homosexual relationship with Jenkins after coming out of a legitimate marriage that ended in divorce.

In 2000, soon after Vermont became the first state to legalize homosexual “civil unions,” Miller and Jenkins made a weekend trek from Virginia to Vermont to enter into such a “union.” They then headed back to Virginia where they lived together.

In 2001, Lisa was artificially inseminated after the two decided to raise a child in an unnatural, deliberately fatherless home environment as self-deluded “wife” and “wife” — mother and “mother.”

In August of 2002, Miller and little Isabella, now just a few months old, moved to Vermont with Jenkins. However, things were unstable, and according to Lisa Miller, Jenkins was physically and emotionally abusive. “It was a troubled relationship from the beginning,” Lisa told World Magazine in a recent interview. “The relationship did not improve, as Jenkins — working as a nightshift security guard — grew increasingly bitter and controlling,” reported World.

About a year later, when Isabella was less than a year and a half old, Lisa ended her lesbian relationship, took her daughter back home to Virginia and filed for dissolution of her homosexual “civil union” back in Vermont.

And that’s when the nightmare really began.

Although Jenkins had no parental connection to Isabella (she was neither an adoptive parent, nor biologically related) she filed papers in Vermont in 2003 to try to take Isabella from her mother. Even though the child was conceived, born and living in Virginia, the Vermont court nonetheless held that it had jurisdiction. The legal battle has continued since that time, and incredibly, the court recently ruled that Jenkins possessed parental rights over Lisa’s daughter. It granted Jenkins regular and very liberal visitation. Isabella is now required to make the several hundred mile roundtrip journey from Virginia to Vermont every other week to visit a total stranger (Jenkins) who, according to reports, outrageously forces the confused and traumatized little girl to call her “momma.”

Rena M. Lindevaldsen, who is an attorney with Liberty Counsel and is representing Lisa and Isabella Miller, explains, “After Lisa ended her relationship with Janet, when Isabella was only 17 months old, Lisa became a born-again Christian. For the past three years, she has attempted to raise her child according to Biblical principles. According to recent filings by Janet, however, Janet believes that Lisa’s religious beliefs render Lisa incapable of properly parenting Isabella. As the fit, biological parent of Isabella, it is Lisa, not Janet, who has the fundamental right to decide how to raise her child and with whom she visits. Shockingly, when the Vermont courts declared Janet, a woman who is still actively involved in the homosexual lifestyle, to be Isabella’s parent and set a liberal schedule for visitation between Janet and five-year-old Isabella, the court did not even address Lisa’s fundamental parental rights.”

So Jenkins, a woman entirely unrelated to Isabella, and her attorneys are alleging that because Lisa is now a devout Christian, she is unfit to maintain custody of her own daughter. They filed a motion requesting a hearing to determine whether Isabella should be taken from her mother and given to Jenkins. Unbelievably, the judge granted that motion. The hearing is scheduled to take place on Friday, August 3 [2007; the judge rejected that request -- thank God -- but the Vermont Supreme Court recently granted joint custody; the Virginia case will determine whether Lisa Miller will be bound by the Vermont ruling].

But that’s only one in a series of inexplicable rulings by this Vermont court. The court has additionally ruled, essentially, that its own judicial authority is superior to that of both Virginia — which defines marriage as existing only between one man and one woman — and the federal government.

Lindevaldsen further explains, “The Vermont order declaring Janet to be Isabella’s parent is inextricably tied to the underlying civil union. Virginia statutes and a recent constitutional amendment prohibit recognition of any rights arising from same-sex relationships. Those laws, coupled with the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), should have led the Virginia Court of Appeals to refuse to give full faith and credit to the Vermont parentage and custody orders. Instead, the Virginia court declared that Virginia must recognize the Vermont orders. In other words, the Virginia court rendered meaningless the DOMA and the recently passed Virginia constitutional amendment. Based on this recent decision, policy decisions in Virginia on family and marriage now will be set by states like Vermont and Massachusetts.” The Virginia Supreme Court [decided to take the case on appeal].

Lisa and Isabella’s story tragically demonstrates that it’s all too often children who are ultimately victimized by state-recognized immorality. It’s the children who suffer when adults selfishly depart from God’s intended design for human sexuality and marriage — as reaffirmed by Christ’s teachings in the New Testament — and enter into counterfeit homosexual “civil-unions” or “same-sex marriages.”

Although Lisa and Isabella’s situation is both heartbreaking and unjust, it shouldn’t be at all surprising. In the name of so-called “gay rights,” the militant homosexual lobby has made its position crystal clear. The selfish individual interests of those who define themselves based upon a choice to engage in deviant homosexual behaviors supersede the best interests of everyone else … even children.

And certainly, where newfangled “gay rights” come into conflict with time-honored and constitutionally guaranteed First Amendment religious liberties, the demands of homosexual activists trump the First Amendment every time.

Lisa and little Isabella are just two of the latest victims of this radical and aggressive homosexual code of conduct.

Regrettably, there will be more.

Matt Barber is one of the “like-minded men” with Concerned Women for America. He is an attorney concentrating in constitutional law and serves as CWA’s policy director for cultural issues.

My friend and Americans For Truth Board Chairman Mike Heath, who also serves as Executive Director of the Christian Civic League of Maine, sent out the message below about Good Friday and “Hate.” Mike can relate to Oklahoma’s beleaguered State Rep. Sally Kern, as like her, he and his wife Paulie have been vilified and demonized by Maine’s pro-homosexual lobby for years as outspoken Christian, pro-family advocates.

I love Easter. The Christ whose sacrificial death we commemorate and whose resurrection we celebrate on Easter Sunday is real and alive, but His redemptive work in everyday people’s lives only rarely makes Fox News. Just today I received a call from a Christian man who had left the “gay” life behind and has been married for 16 years; he and his wife are raising their children, much like countless other married couples raising families. Another wonderful ex-”gay” story that belies the homosexual propaganda myth that homosexuals can’t change, but which probably will never appear in the media.

Most ex-homosexuals do not go around publicizing their former life, just as most Christians don’t go around discussing the destructive sins from which they were delivered by Christ. When was the last time you heard a believer talk like this: “Now let me tell you how I used to get rip-roaring drunk and behave like an imbecile two-to-three nights a week in college!”?

Jesus Christ heals drunks. He heals drug-addicts and gamblers, womanizers, perverts, malicious gossips, rapists and murderers, prostitutes, pimps and their lust-filled “clients,” greedy businessmen, lying politicians, secular leftists, secular rightists, libertines, abortionists and women who’ve aborted their babies, atheists, selfish jerks, compulsive liars, adulterers, you name it.

And of course, He heals men and women caught up in the homosexual lifestyle, like my friend Yvette Schneider, who once considered herself a proud lesbian and despised evangelistic Christians before she repented and accepted Christ as her Savior. (Yvette is now happily married with two children.) We’re all in the same boat: as I read in that supposedly “obscure” New Testament book, Romans: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

The idea of a (pro) “gay church” and “gay christians” makes about as much sense as starting a Porno Church and saying, “God can’t change porn addicts; they’re born that way.”

Come to think of it, I never was able to find that Gossipers’ Church I was looking for.

Throwing up the white flag of surrender on homosexuality — and treating it as some type of special condition that is not really a sin — elevates man’s feelings at God’s expense. It is to declare the resurrected Jesus Christ powerless when already He has miraculously turned around the lives of countless former “gays,” “lesbians,” “bisexuals” and “transgenders.” The shame of the (small-c) christian Left is that it waters down or negates Biblical truths to accommodate popular sins — rather than pointing desperate sinners to the true Savior who then transforms them, day by day, to be more like Him. (Note that we still may be tempted by besetting sins after accepting Christ, although Yvette says she never has “homosexual desires of any sort — physical or emotional.”)

GLBT? How about God Loves the Business of Transforming sinners who relinquish their “gay pride” to humbly seek Him in repentance. Corny, but true. Jesus is good and holy. We are neither (Mark 10:18). That’s why we need Him on Easter and every day of the year. Good Friday and Easter are about God leaving His heavenly throne to come down to earth and die a shameful death on a cross, taking the punishment we deserve for our many sins. If you repent and believe in Jesus Christ, and follow Him, you will live eternally. I beg you to accept His priceless gift of salvation if you haven’t yet (see John chapter 3).

Have a Blessed Easter!

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:16-18)

Sincerely,

Peter LaBarbera
www.americansfortruth.org

Related posts:

Ex-Lesbian Yvette Schneider Testifies to ‘Complete’ and Permanent Change

Full Transcript of Oklahoma Rep. Sally Kern’s Speech

LaBarbera Assails Homosexual Hate and Intimidation Campaign against OK Lawmaker Sally Kern

Now for some Real Hate; Homosexuals Deluge Rep. Sally Kern with Mean, Vile Messages (WARNING: UNDELETED, VULGAR and CRUDE LANGUAGE)

LISTEN ONLINE/CWA: OK Lawmaker Under Vicious Attack by Anti-Christian Homosexual Hate Groups

‘Queer’ Quotes: Hating Jesus, and Selfishness Redefined
(Will Ellen DeGeneres campaign against the virulent anti-Christian hate among her fellow homosexuals?)
______________________

Mike Heath of the Christian Civic League of Maine writes:

‘Hate’

Today, Christians all over the world remember the slaughter of Jesus Christ. It is Good Friday. On this day 2000 years ago social, religious and governmental forces aligned against God. They tortured him, and hung him on a cross. He was nailed there until he died. He came to a gruesome and painful end.

Mankind hated him then. Do we hate him now?

Perhaps we are justified in concluding that we do hate Jesus Christ today. The recent experience of a pastor’s wife in Oklahoma offers an opportunity to reflect. She is also a state legislator.

Representative Sally Kern spoke plainly about homosexuality. Essentially, she described a societal sin that threatens our civilization. Most Americans share her views about sexual wrongdoing. All sex outside of marriage is morally wrong. She roots her belief in Christianity. She believes Jesus Christ.

She is now hated.

While I can’t recommend that you click on the following link because it contains language and ideas that are detestable I will provide the link for those who require proof of a most vile form of hatred aimed at Representative Kern.

Click here.

It would be a mistake to respond to these ideas in kind. It would be equally wrong to pretend that these ideas are somehow explainable, or that there is a reason for them. No reason exists for such evil. There is only one adequate response, and that is sacrifice.

That is what Good Friday is all about. Sacrifice.

This is the day God died … for you. His death provides all the power that we need to overcome the evil of sexual sin, and the despair that tempts everyone who is fearful of the consequences of such wicked ideas. The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is hope itself.

My good friend Peter LaBarbera has written a report on the verbal scourging of Representative Kern. I encourage you to read his report, and to choose the power of the cross in your life today.

Click HERE to read Peter’s report.

The following is an article by Nathan Neighbor of the ChristianResearchNetwork.info website, followed by my response (which is adapted from a comment I posted on their site; see this link). I believe Nathan’s is a good representation of the (naive) attitudes of so many Christians regarding the “culture war” over homosexuality. Many Christians, appropriately desirous of winning souls to Christ, are non-confrontational in public policy (or simply avoid or even abhor it altogether) – while our “gay” activist opponents are aggressive, highly skilled, and often ruthless in the political and cultural campaigns that they wage.

Nathan Neighbor writes (emphasis added):

In this article by Ingrid, she links to this website: Americans for Truth about Homosexuality.

I am interested in hearing your thoughts on the website. I am trying really hard to figure out why Christians are so obsessed with letting the world know the truth behind homosexuality. If I felt like they were doing it because they cared deeply about the people who live the lifestyle, and want desperately for them to experience the life that God designed for them, I would not have a problem with all of it. However, that is certainly not the vibe I am getting from these sites. They are more concerned about winning their debate than facilitating life transformation in the hearts of homosexuals. It’s basically saying “we don’t care about you, but we want you to know that we completely disagree with your lifestyle.”

And why is it just homosexuality. They act as if that is the BIG sin in the scriptures, dismissing all other destructive behaviors and choices. So, I will faithfully be waiting for the following websites to emerge, if these people are really trying to get biblical truth out there:

Americans for Truth about Lying

Americans for Truth about Gossip

Americans for Truth about Bitterness

Americans for Truth about Slander

Americans for Truth about Poverty

Americans for Truth about Widows

Or maybe these groups are not at all concerned about people who are far from God connecting to, and living out the life that God dreams for them, but simply condemning those they disagree with. Unfortunately we are now warring over truth, and not warring for the hearts of people. I don’t think that’s what God was hoping we would become.

_________________________

AFTAH’s Response:

By Peter LaBarbera 

Dear Nathan, to turn your words around, I wonder if you are concerned at all about us (Americans For Truth and those who share our viewpoint). Perhaps you might have asked us directly why we do what we do — or accurately reported the many articles evincing our Christian care for the homosexual struggler — rather than merely offer your own (distorted) speculations as to our motives.

Yes, we are deeply concerned about people practicing homosexuality, which is why we offer people the loving Gospel of Jesus Christ, Who, we sincerely believe, has helped thousands of people overcome entrenched homosexual sin, just as He has helped people overcome — and be forgiven for — those other besetting sins you mention.

(Incidentally, I believe Christian “born again” conversions, despite being ridiculed by many gay activist and media cynics, are responsible for many more people leaving the homosexual lifestyle than ex-gay “reparative therapy”; however, the latter also has helped many change: see www.narth.com)

As to merely castigating gays, I have no basis for pride or a sense of superiority in that I — as one who struggles with my owns sins — am in need of the same grace of Christ as they are. Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17)

As to why we focus on homosexuality, the simplest answer is that we are trying to counter (albeit with considerably less resources) the huge pro-”gay” movement, which seeks to normalize and build acceptance for homosexuality in the culture. Here are a few of the homosexual activist groups, each of which focuses solely on promoting GLBT (gay, lesbian, bi, trans) issues:

Human Rights Campaign
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
Lambda Legal
Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network
GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation)
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network
PFLAG (Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays)

The list goes on and on. Now I doubt you would deny that in a democracy, if these groups have a right to promote the acceptance of homosexuality — which we as Christians and adherents of other religious groups, and even many nonreligious people, believe is immoral — then we also have a right to organize and stand up for our point of view. It’s called the battle of ideas.

Moreover, the proliferation of groups rallying around the celebration of homosexuality is in marked contrast to the lack of groups devoted to the other sins you mentioned above. As far as I know, there is no Pro-Gossip Task Force, or even an Americans For Divorce Committee, so the homosexual agenda does stand out in that sense. (It seems the closest analogy would be the pro-abortion-on-demand and pro-pornography lobbies.)

Yes, we put out lots of articles defending historic Judeo-Christian norms on homosexuality, etc., but it pales in comparison to the information — we would call it misinformation — expounded by the overall GLBT movement.

We are simply trying to RESPOND to the other side’s crusade on this issue, just as pro-life groups are responding to Planned Parenthood, NOW [National Organization of Women], etc.. In other words, if we are “obsessed,” then our “gay” and “trans” opponents are all the more so, in that they spend far more time and money — specifically on the homosexual/transgender issue — promoting their ideology than the collective pro-family movement does opposing them. There are many, many more “pro-gay” activists than “anti-gay” activists — although I use that term advisedly in that we are ‘anti-gay’ only with regard to behavior. (We do not believe in “gay” personhood, i.e., as an inborn, natural or intrinsic identity.)

I personally believe that every homosexual “coming out” is a tragedy because it embraces the lie that “being gay” is “who I am.” Conversely, every “ex-gay” testimony is a wonderful sign of God’s goodness, His forgiveness, and His power. The growing “gay christian” movement denies the power of Jesus Christ to change lives, which is tragic in that we all know of people who have overcome terrible sins and addictions through Christ.

Funny how the same “gay” movement that gained such power and cultural acceptance through people communicating personal stories to others of their “gayness,” now spends so much time and effort questioning the existence of ex-gays.

To paraphrase Queer Nation (a very aggressive “gay” group in the 90’s), former homosexuals are “here, they’re no longer ‘queer,’ get used to it.”

As to your comment about “warring over truth, and not warring for the hearts of people. I don’t think that’s what God was hoping we would become” — what does this mean? We battle for truth in America and across the world. Christians seek to convert Muslims to the Truth of Christ’s Gospel, while Muslims seek to convert others to “their” truth. Both religions cannot be true; I believe Christianity and the Bible are true but, sadly, it seems many Muslims are more offended than Christians by sexual immorality. Our witness is tarnished.

In the same way, both the “gay” side and our side are in a struggle over truth, and how to define it. With the media mostly on the pro-homosexual side these days, groups like ours are in an uphill struggle, to be sure, but we are as convinced of our position as the “gay” activists are of theirs. And we shouldn’t be condemned for defending truth — God’s truth — in the public square.

The battle for Truth and the battle for men’s and women’s hearts is one and the same. We can do it in a spirit of the love of Christ — and that is what we try to do at Americans For Truth. Are we perfect? Far from it. But we’re trying to get some information out there in a culture where the media glamorizes sexual behaviors (homosexuality, sex outside marriage) that our Lord opposes as sinful. Perhaps we will step aside when the Human Rights Campaign, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and the other “gay” organizations fold up shop.  Best — pl

Peter LaBarbera
President, Americans For Truth about Homosexuality
www.americansfortruth.org 

Note that Joe’s life as a former homosexual gives the lie to the second tactical approach of the aggressive “gay Christian” movement, which he discusses below:

As the gay Christian movement continued finding allies in churches and secular circles, it also continued to follow the trends of the larger gay-rights movement. And the gay-rights movement’s most noticeable trend, from the mid-1980s into the 1990s, was aggression.

 

The AIDS epidemic, in full bloom by the mid ’80s, fueled a strident form of gay activism. Groups such as the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), Queer Nation, and the Lesbian Avengers caught the public’s eye as they staged boisterous demonstrations and invaded churches and corporations they considered to be “enemies.”

 

The gay Christian movement did not take long to develop its own style of aggression. Fundamental to its identity were two beliefs: Homosexuality is not unbiblical; and homosexuals can’t change, even if they want to. … 

  

   – The Gay Gospel, Joe Dallas p. 88; To order The Gay Gospel ($14), go to www.joedallas.com. Dallas is founder of Genesis Counseling, which seeks to “Reclaim Godly Sexuality through the Saving Work of Jesus Christ, The Sanctifying Work of the Holy Spirit and the Body Ministry of the Christian Church.” See their “Frequently Asked Questions About Sexual Addiction and Recovery from a Biblical Perspective.”