Threatening note, "Shut Down Lively, is written on large brick thrown through the glass door of Christian Liberty Academy Oct. 15th. Pro-homosexual militants lied about Scott Lively and then demanded that the AFTAH banquet honoring him be shut down.

This is Part Two of my interview with Scott Lively [listen HERE], founder of Defend the Family International and recipient of this year’s AFTAH’s “American Truth Teller” award. This interview was pre-recorded and aired Oct. 22, 2011. Lively, author of “The Pink Swastika” and other books, was the main target of the Oct. 15 terr0r-attack against Christian Liberty Academy, host of the Americans For Truth banquet. We discuss this “homo-fascist” (or “homo-communist”) assault, and the escalation of the “Gay” Lobby’s campaign against religious freedom. Part One of the Lively interview is HERE; there will be a total of four interviews with this veteran of the pro-family struggle to resist the growth of homosexual power in the USA. – Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

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10-22-11, Scott Lively, Part Two

Pastor Calvin Lindstrom

The following is a statement by Calvin Lindstrom, pastor of the Church of Christian Liberty (affiliated with the Christian Liberty Academy, and based in Arlington Heights, Illinois), at press conference at CLA, October 20, 2011. The press conference was called by Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, and was atttended Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH Board Member Matt Barber, and other pro-family speakers. For background on the Oct. 15 pro-homosexual terror-attack against CLA, go HERE. For background on the Gay Liberation Network’s pre-banquet hate-campaign against Lively and AFTAH, go HERE. Lindstrom’s statement:

Good afternoon and welcome everyone to the Christian Liberty Academy. I am Pastor Calvin Lindstrom of the Church of Christian Liberty. Christian Liberty Academy is a ministry of the Chaurch of Christian Liberty.

In light of the threat and act of hate and violence directed against the school, Scott Lively, and Peter LaBarbera, I would like to make four points.

First, I would again like to thank the Arlington Heights Police Department for their thorough response to the act of hate and threat made against us. They exercised professionalism, courtesy, and due caution. You can imagine that after the attack there was uncertainty and great concern. The presence of the AHPD helped bring a measure of calm. I am thankful to God for the response of the AHPD. We have thanked them in various ways already, but it is important to express our appreciation for their service.

Second, right from the beginning the banquet on Saturday was cast in a negative light. An article in a local paper was headlined – Gay rights opponent in Arlington Heights Saturday.

Attention was brought to the banquet not by the Christian Liberty Academy but by the Gay Liberation Network which issued a press release condemning Scott Lively and announcing that they would be protesting his appearance.

So from the beginning the banquet was cast as a controversial event held at Christian Liberty Academy. Dr. Scott Lively, a very honorable man, who currently ministers in Springfield, Massachusetts, is portrayed as an opponent of gay rights rather than a pro-family speaker and minister to the needy and downtrodden. Yes, Dr. Lively has spoken and written on the issue of homosexuality, but that is not the entire focus of his work as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I am not in anyway blaming the media for the attack, but from the beginning a peaceful event was portrayed as being controversial and cast in a somewhat negative light. Because of this, the Christian Liberty Academy was also from the beginning portrayed in a suspicious way. Why would we allow such a controversial subject to be hosted in our building?

It should also be noted that the local press downplayed the direct attack and threat against Dr. Scott Lively. I am not here to berate the press, but Scott Lively was the specific brunt of the attack on our facility. This was not brought out as clearly as it should have been because of selective editing of the information that was presented to the press.

Third, it is extremely important to point out the slander directed against Scott Lively and Peter LaBarbera. They have repeatedly been identified as a part of hate group just because one liberal organization [Southern Poverty Law Center] calls them such. This is very serious business in an age of misunderstanding and raised tensions. This is one of the reasons why the Church of Christian Liberty has allowed our facilities to be used by Peter LaBarbera and his organization. He has been the subject of lies, slander, and misrepresentation.

I am not naïve. I do realize the work Peter LaBarbera and others do is viewed as being controversial, but if no one comes to the defense of a person who is under attack, how is that a good thing? I wish other local churches and organizations welcomed Peter LaBarbera to speak. Some have, but many are afraid to do so. We have welcomed Peter not to gain attention for ourselves but to stand with someone who has unfortunately often had to stand alone.

Related to this point, a number of people have suggested that Peter LaBarbera or Scott Lively to gain attention committed the attack on the school. This is absolutely ludicrous and needs no further reply.

Fourth and finally, it should be clearly realized that the position that Peter LaBarbera, Scott Lively, and the Church of Christian Liberty hold in relationship to homosexuality and the Bible is the historic position of the Christian faith. There is absolutely no doubt about this despite what many are trying to suggest today. A person is free to read the Bible and say that he or she doesn’t like what it says about homosexuality. But a person is not free to twist the truth of God’s Word.

I say this because it relates to the controversy that is being addressed today. Why should it be controversial for the Christian Liberty Academy to host speakers who are in agreement with the historic principles of the Christian faith?

I believe that what is being threatened in our society today is the clear message of God’s Word -– both God’s Law and Gospel.

The entire message of Scripture is clear. Homosexual acts are an abomination in God’s sight. This is not some outdated Old Testament concept but the clear teaching of the New Testament. This is the witness of God’s Law.

The witness of the gospel is that there is hope of salvation for all sinners. The work of Jesus Christ has turned away the wrath of God and has satisfied the righteous demands of God’s Law. All men and women are called to trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation and to turn
as best they can from their sins and find complete forgiveness of sins.

This is the message that we seek to communicate clearly to our students. This is the message of true hope that we seek to share with the community of Arlington Heights and the world.

WARNING: vulgar language on graphic

Hate-note sent by pro-homosexual militant that accompanied stone brick pavers thrown through the glass doors at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, Illinois -- in a failed effort to intimidate CLA from hosting an Americans For Truth banquet. Scoot Lively is the pro-family veteran who was honored at banqet with the 2011 AFTAH "American Truth Teller" award. Click on graphic to enlarge.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Illinois, Oct. 19, 2011 – Pro-homosexual activists attacked the Christian Liberty Academy early October 15th – throwing two large, concrete brick pavers through its glass doors with a hate-note attached– and then issued an online statement claiming responsibility for the crime. The attackers demanded that CLA “shut down” a banquet it was hosting later that evening for the “homophobic hate group,” Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH). But their main target was pro-family veteran Scott Lively, who was honored at the event.

“This is just a sample of what we will do if you don’t shut down Scott Lively and AFTAH … [F**k] Scott Lively. Quit the homophobic [sh*t]!” read the note that accompanied the bricks thrown through CLA’s doors. The apparent “hate crime” against CLA did not deter the Christian school from hosting the banquet for AFTAH, which presented its 2011 ”American Truth Teller” award to Lively, founder of Defend the Family International and the author of “The Pink Swastika.”

Brick paver thrown the window of Christian Liberty Academy, with message, "Shut Down Lively." Pro-family veteran Scott Lively received AFTAH's 2011 "American Truth Teller" award.

Lively was targeted in the online statement for allegedly condoning violence against homosexuals in Uganda. (This is a false charge: Lively, like AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera, condemns all violence and genuine hatred against homosexuals.) The following excerpt is from the statement posted on the leftist Chicago Independent Media Center website:

“These chunks of concrete were thrown through these windows and doors for two reasons: to show that there is a consequence for hatred and homophobia in our community and to directly cause this event to be shut down. If this event is not shut down, and the homophobic day trainings do not end, the Christian liberty academy will continue to be under constant attack.”

After Arlington Heights police came to the scene, they cased the CLA building — a large, former public high school — with bomb-sniffing dogs, according to CLA Pastor Calvin Lindstrom. As it turned out, the assailants apparently did not enter the building.

Taking credit for a crime

The extraordinary aspect to this case is that pro-homosexuality activists boldly took credit for the attack, in an online statement that remains on the leftist “Chicago Independent Media Center” website — signalling a new brazenness by homosexual activists. What follows is a screen shot of the statement [link HERE] taking responsibility for this act of domestic terrorism. It was posted early in the morning of Oct. 15 – just a few hours after the brick-throwing attack by an anonymous author, “PISSED” (This same statement was e-mailed to Christian Liberty Academy, Americans For Truth’s LaBarbera, Scott Lively and others):

Here is the URL link for the Chicago Independent Media Center statement, which was still live as of Oct. 19: http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/95060/index.php.

The above statement repeats the extreme rhetoric and accusations against Lively by the Gay Liberation Network (GLN), a Chicago-based, Marxist homosexual activist group that routinely demonizes AFTAH and protests AFTAH events – including last year’s three-day Truth Academy. In the weeks leading up to the banquet, GLN announced that it would protest the AFTAH banquet. — and falsely accused Scott Lively of condoning violence against homosexuals in Uganda (and also Americans For Truth President Peter LaBarbera of honoring a man (Lively) who supports violence against homosexuals). The charge is slanderous as both Lively and LaBarbera — like every major pro-family advocate who works on the homosexuality issue — have repeatedly and consistently opposed violence against homosexuals.

At the banquet and a speaking event Friday and Grace Gospel Fellowship Church, Lively reiterated that he steadfastly opposed the death penalty provisions in Ugandan sex-crimes legislation — which has been simplistically translated by homosexual activists as the “Kill the Gays” bill. To read his previous rebuttal of the false GLN accusations, go HERE.

Lively follows American Family Association founder Don Wildmon and Ken Hutcherson, pastor of Antioch Bible Church and pro-traditional marriage advocate, as a recipient of the AFTAH “American Truth Teller” award.

GLN has denied involvement in the attack on Christian Liberty Academy — which is being investigated by Arlington Heights police. The Chicago Tribune reports that the case is not being treated as a “hate crime.” AFTAH, like most conservative Christian groups, opposes “hate crimes” laws — but questions why the attack on CLA is not categorized as a “hate crime” when it appears the victims (including the Christian Liberty Academy), have been targeted based on their religious beliefs about homosexuality. Both the Illinois and federal “hate crimes” laws consider religion and “sexual orientation” a protected category. Attacks targeting homosexual persons are routinely investigated as “hate crimes” from the outset.

Homosexuals blame AFTAH for crime

Shattered glass entrance door at CLA after pro-homosexual assault.

In the wake of the violent attack on the Christian school, homosexual militants immediately sought to cast doubt on the assault –  by claiming that it was likely the work of Americans For Truth About Homoseuxuality. Homosexual blogger Joe Jervis of the “Joe.My.God” blog took the lead, immediately charging on his Twitter account that LaBarbera had staged a fake “hate crime” as a publicity stunt leading up to the AFTAH banquet. Jervis has accused other pro-family groups with staging attacks against themselves. Other “gay” advocates denounced the attack on CLA and said it would only hinder the homosexual activist movement.

On the Chicago Independendent Media Center website containing the attacker’s statement taking credit for the crime, Jervis desperately posted this comment:

Does anybody know the person supposedly behind this post? This is an open and unmoderated site from what I can see. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to learn that LaBarbera and his foul cohorts staged this entire thing.

Lively recalls fake “gay” hate crime

Ironically, at both his talks for Americans For Truth, Lively recounted the amazing story from the early 1990′s of an infamous PRO-homosexual ”hate crime” hoax staged by a lesbian, Azalea Cooley – to fight a conservative statewide ballot measure known as ”Measure Nine,” which would have made it unconstitutional for the state to promote homosexuality. Lively served as statewide  media director for Oregon Citizen’s Alliance (OCA), a Christian group that sponsored Measure Nine, and recalled how Cooley, a black, supposedly wheelchair-bound lesbian, claimed 21 cross-burnings in her front yard after the campaign for Measure Nine was launched.

In the final days of the campaign, after the perpetrators of this series of “hate crime” were never caught, two rogue policemen decided to investigate for themelves; as they staked out Cooley’s home one night, they watched as she came out walking into her front yard holding a can of gasoline, and lit a cross on fire. According to Lively, strategically-placed homosexual activists within Oregon’s law enforcement agencies — including “gay” relatives of powerful officials — likely helped derail the proper investigation of Cooley’s antics.

But, as Lively told the AFTAH audiences Friday and Saturday, “it gets better.” The astounding fraud should have received saturation media coverage across the state, but instead was covered seriously only in Cooley’s hometown of Portland. To end the campaign, Measure Nine’s opponents held a massive “March Against Hate” ending in Portland — the final mobilization against the “evil” OCA ballot meaure. And who was heading up the march as a symbol of the progressive struggle against Religious Right “hate”? … Azalea Cooley, riding in her wheelchair.

“It is the central (but patently false) narrative of the left that all criticism of homosexuality leads inevitably to violence and murder.” – Scott Lively, recipient of AFTAH’s 2011 “American Truth Teller” Award; from his essay, “Murdering Uganda”

“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.”—Jesus Christ, in Matthew 5:11 (NASB)

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Moody pastor Erwin Lutzer is being pressured by a hateful homosexual group to pull out as keynote speaker for AFTAH's Oct. 15 banqet.

Come out and support Scott, Dr. Lutzer and AFTAH! Please join us this Saturday, Oct. 15th at the AFTAH banquet with Dr. Lutzer (doors open at 6:00 PM at Christian Liberty Academy, 502 W. Euclid Ave., Arlington Heights, IL; tickets $10; $20 at the door). Dr. Lutzer will address the escalating persecution against Christians under pro-homosexuality laws. (Dr. Lively also will give a brief speech as we present him with the 2011 AFTAH “American Truth Teller” award.)

Friday speech by Lively: There is a second opportunity to hear Scott Lively, who will give a speech Friday, Oct. 14 at 7:00 PM at Grace Gospel Fellowship church in Bensenville, IL, (located on Route 83 just north of I-290)  The event is FREE but there will be a freewill offering taken for Americans For Truth – to help us combat homosexual extremism as typified by GLN.  This event will include time for Q & A with Scott.  Thank you for standing with us!

________________________________________

By Peter LaBarbera

Dear AFTAH Readers,

A Chicago Marxist group, Gay Liberation Network, is pressuring Moody Church Pastor Dr. Erwin Lutzer to pull out as keynote speaker at the Americans For Truth banquet this Saturday because AFTAH is honoring Scott Lively, who GLN falsely claims has a “history as a vicious gay basher.” At the October 15 event, AFTAH will present Lively with its 2011 “American Truth Teller” award for his years of defending truth on the homosexual issue.Scott Lively has been the target of a malicious homosexual campaign of lies claiming he supports violence against homosexuals.”]

Scott Lively has been the target of a malicious homosexual campaign of lies claiming he supports violence against homosexuals.

Lively sent me (and Dr. Lutzer) the following two letters in response to GLN leader Bob Schwartz’s outlandish claims. A verbatim copy of the contents of the GLN letter, sent to Lutzer by certified mail September 27, 2011, follows Scott’s letters below.

In his letter to Lutzer, GLN’s Bob Schwartz writes:

“Are you aware of Lively’s history as a vicious gay basher?…In addition, as you may know, LaBarbera’s organization [AFTAH] and Lively’s Abiding Truth Ministries are both described as ‘hate groups’ by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Are these the kinds of organizations with which you wish to associate the Moody Church? …[W]e take you at your word when you say you oppose violence against gays. We therefore assume that you would not want to be associated with those, like Lively and LaBarbera, who either support violence outright, or honor those who do.”

This is a monstrous lie. From the beginning of my involvement in the homosexuality debate, I – like Scott – have repeatedly and consistently condemned all violence and genuine hatred directed at homosexuals. So when Schwartz and the GLN urged Pastor Lutzer not to “[associate] with those, like Lively and LaBarbera, who either support violence outright, or honor those who do” – they slandered me as well as Scott.

The chutzpah of the Chicago-based GLN and its co-leader, Bob Schwartz, is hard to overstate – for it was Schwartz himself who once made a thinly-veiled threat of violence against this writer as I was standing in opposition to a Chicago “gay youth” event in downtown Chicago (as then-Executive Director of Illinois Family Institute). Schwartz pointed to a few Chicago policemen standing nearby and told me that if it weren’t for the presence of my “friends” (the police), he would push me into oncoming traffic. Since I began writing about the incident, Schwartz has never denied making the nasty remark. Of course, had it been the other way around and I’d made the same violence-tinged threat against a homosexual advocate like Schwartz, there likely would have been “hate crimes” charges filed against me!

From the Gay Liberation Network website: crass anti-Christian bigotry and distortion of biblical truth. Click on graphic to enlarge.

The Gay Liberation Network is one of the most vicious and extreme homosexualist organizations I have ever encountered.  They hatefully smeared Dr. James Dobson’s good name and accused him of “hate speech” when he was inducted into the Chicago-based Museum of Broadcast Communications’ Hall of Fame.  And they blasted Dr. Lutzer as a “hater” simply because he wrote a book against same-sex “marriage.”  (The GLN protesters even disparaged the venerable Moody Church as a “House of Hate”!) Also, see Bob Schwartz’s letter HERE supporting the University of Illinois’ firing of Catholic professor Ken Howell because he taught the Catholic, natural law opposition to homosexual practice (who was later reinstated).

Thus, it is completely in line with GLN’s malicious track record to see them cruelly malign and lie about Scott – a godly and courageous Christian man – as a “vicious gay basher.”  Still, as one who has also been lied about on a regular basis by homosexual militants, it grieves my heart to see this good man portrayed as evil (Isaiah 5:20).

We are grateful to Dr. Lutzer for not giving in to this deceitful and despicable GLN campaign against Lively — who daily models the Christian’s noble calling to speak Gospel truth in love – and who has been mercilessly demonized by the liberal media and LGBT activists for boldly proclaiming the unswerving truth about homosexuality, year in and year out.

Peter LaBarbera
Americans For Truth About Homosexuality
www.aftah.org
E-mail: americansfortruth@gmail.com

___________________________________________

Letter to Dr. Lutzer from Scott Lively Oct. 10, 2011:

Dear Peter [LaBarbera],

As you well know, I am a Bible-believing Christian who abhors violence against anyone, and have never advocated violence or hatred against homosexuals.  You may recall that when we first met in Framingham, MA in 1992, my wife and I and our four young sons had for several months been nursing a former homosexual man with AIDS in our own home.  He lived with us until his death from that horrific disease later that year.  I have worked with dozens of people seeking an exit from that lifestyle over the years, including my own sister (who repented and overcame it), and have worked with men seeking recovery from homosexuality in my inner-city church in Springfield, MA.  The website of my Springfield mission is www.redemptiongate.org.

GLN leader Bob Schwartz once told AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera that he would like to push him into oncoming traffic.

While I am compelled by Christ to love those who struggle with homosexual sin as individuals, I am also strongly opposed to the homosexual political agenda, which I view as an existential threat to Christian civilization around the world.  I have long considered myself a missionary to the global pro-family movement and have ministered in more than two dozen countries as a university lecturer, consultant to government officials and advisor to pastors and Christian leaders.  As you know, I hold a Juris Doctor degree from Trinity Law School, a TH.D. from the Pentecostal Assemblies of God, and a Certificate in Human Rights from the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

One of the countries in which I have ministered is Uganda.  I was keynote speaker at their first national pro-family conference, sponsored by the Minister of Ethics and Integrity in 2002(?).  My wife and I returned the following year to help the movement develop, and in 2009 I was invited to give a seminar to government officials and other community leaders about the homosexual issue.  They were planning to draft legislation to curb the rapid spread of homosexuality in the country.

The text for my lectures was based entirely on my textbook ”Redeeming the Rainbow: A Christian Response to the ‘Gay’ Agenda” which was then in manuscript form but has since been published in print form and in PDF; the latter is downloadable without charge at http://www.defendthefamily.com/rtr/.  I have also attached a copy.  You will not find a single sentence in this book that promotes hatred or violence against homosexuals.

During my 2009 trip I also addressed members of the Ugandan Parliament in their national assembly hall.  My advice to the MPs regarding the law they were contemplating but had not yet drafted was to focus on rehabilitation of homosexuals and not punishment.  I urged them to become the first government in the world to develop a state-sponsored recovery system for homosexuality on the model we have in the United States for alcoholism.

In contradiction to my advice, a few months after the seminar an MP introduced a bill to criminalize homosexuality.  The terms of the bill were harsh, as is very common in African countries, including capital punishment for a category of crimes called “aggravated homosexuality.”  That category was aimed at pedophilia and sexual abuse of disabled persons but was inartfully worded so as to potentially also encompass simple homosexuality.

I do not support capital punishment for any sex crimes, let alone simple homosexuality, which I view as a treatable behavioral disorder, and so I opposed the bill.  I was nevertheless accused in the international media of not only endorsing the bill but of advocating for it.  These false accusations were not deterred by my written responses which attempted to set the record straight.  The first was an editorial titled “The Death Penalty in Uganda” and the second was a copy of my letter to the Ugandan Parliament together with its response.  They are published on my website here  http://www.defendthefamily.com/pfrc/newsarchives.php?id=4480922  and here http://www.defendthefamily.com/pfrc/newsarchives.php?id=3261726.

I am no stranger to persecution for my commitment to Biblical truth, and over the twenty plus years I have worked primarily in this ministry I have been maligned and slandered to an extreme degree.  This is a tactic of all leftists but especially of the “gays,” who are the most adept and vicious of all in the use of malicious propaganda, as should be no surprise to any Christian familiar with Romans 1:26-31.

Following the introduction of the Uganda Bill I was personally attacked as the supposed “mastermind” behind it in feature stories in the New York Times, London Guardian, Canadian National Post, ABC News, and PBS, among others.  Later, not once, but twice, when supposed homosexual activists in Uganda were killed, it was implied by the liberal western media that I was responsible.  In both cases the accusations were published before the facts were even known to the police.  In both cases the deaths were later proved to be unrelated to the passions surrounding the Ugandan bill.  The first killing turned out to be the work of pagan witch doctors involved in some bizarre ritual.  The original story is no longer on the Ugandan news site but the following item from a “gay” blog admits their facts were wrong (while casting themselves as victims of a “hoax”):    http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/candacechellew-hodge/2930/hoax_underscores_urgency_for_lgbt_people_in_uganda/.

The second case, involving the grisly murder of Ugandan homosexual activist David Cato, turned out to be a crime of passion by a male prostitute whom Cato had bailed out of jail and taken to be his houseboy:   http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ihVH6Ahnbnhdo3CqrEDT3mCBknKg?docId=CNG.9057dbf4f3db02f92ea39216b26eb623.8a1

In neither of these cases was an apology written, nor was a correction on the facts made; neither did ANY mainstream media outlet issue a retraction of the false implication that I was somehow involved in these killings.

In the two years since the propaganda campaign against me was launched, I have received hundreds if not thousands of hate mails, including a plausible death threat which led to judicial action by the police.  I have been shunned as a resource by several Christian organizations (and numerous pastors), and my church has been picketed numerous times and a rock thrown through the front window once.  One time a man stuck his head in the door during my sermon to yell “Scott Lively is a murderer.”  I was also attacked on the front page of the Boston Globe in a purely gratuitous ”hit piece,” centered on the Ugandan story, designed to discredit my Christian mission in Springfield.

I am fully content to know that those who desire to live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution and I have not shrunk, nor will I shrink from standing boldly for the truth of God’s word, come what may.  Neither will I succumb to the urge for revenge or hatred toward those who hate and attack me with such hysteria.  They truly know not what they do.

I must, however, exhort my fellow Christians not to allow themselves to be influenced by the propaganda nor intimidated by the harassment tactics of LGBT activists.  It has always been the case that the cause of Christ is advanced only through selfless courage in the face of determined opposition.  Not even the gates of hell can prevail against us when we abide unshakably in Him.  Even today believers must stand fast to the point of death in some places in the world.  How can we dare to shrink from our challenge when we face merely slander by our foes and shunning by weaker brothers?

Many Blessings,

Scott

__________________________________________

Below is a short, subsequent message from Lively regarding the Gay Liberation Network’s cynical claim that he “justified anti-gay violence” toward Uganda’s most prominent pro-homosexuality activist; we have attached a copy of Scott’s piece, “Murdering Uganda,”

Hi Peter,

My prior message covers all the aspects of this letter except the accusation that I justified violence in Uganda.  Their quote is from my attached essay “Murdering Uganda” which shall serve as a complete rebuttal to their misrepresentation.  Please forward this to Pastor Lutzer along with my prior message to you.

In Jesus,

Scott

__________________________________________

Murdering Uganda

By Pastor Scott Lively, J.D., Th.D.

President, Defend the Family International

www.defendthefamily.com

Uganda is being murdered.  The nation once called “The Pearl of Africa” by Winston Churchill, a lush and beautiful country as fertile as the Nile Delta.  It is the nation that retained its self-rule through centuries of African colonialism, the society that survived even the atrocities of the cannibal cultist Idi Amin, the culture that has been thriving in Christian revival for over a dozen years.

This great and honorable nation, alone in Africa to have all but conquered the scourge of AIDS  through abstinence — and whose First Lady led a holy gathering of thousands of believers on the eve of the millennium, dedicating her homeland “to Jesus Christ for a thousand years” — this Uganda, a shining light in the Dark Continent, is being murdered.

The murderers are the lavender Marxists, the now-global network of sexual revolutionaries bent on remaking the entire world in their own perverted image, whose juggernaut has toppled even once mighty Britain, crushing under their lavender boots after eight centuries the symbol of its Christian power: the Magna Charta, whose first principle had proclaimed, “The English church must be free!”  These revolutionists of Sodom, who march triumphantly through all the major cities of the western world to flaunt their defeat of moral law, and who hold both Hollywood and the heart of America’s president in their iron grip: these very same zealots have fixed their malevolent gaze on Christian Uganda.

Uganda is the only country in the world with a national holiday commemorating its rejection of sexual perversion.  Every June 3 it honors the 22 young men and boys who were tortured and roasted alive in 1886 by homosexual King Mwanga, because they refused to submit to sodomy.   Is it any wonder, then, that Uganda has reacted violently against the army of agitators, led by George Soros, who now seek to re-homosexualize Ugandan culture?

It is as if the militant ranks of “Code Pink” were transported back to 1890s America to agitate for “sexual freedom.”  Our great grandparents would not have countenanced this.  There would have been violence, as there has now been in Uganda.  And that is, of course, the strategy: the agents provocateur are goading unsophisticated natives into over-reacting, while the “gay” media lie in wait to catch the images and spin the propaganda that is even now poisoning the gullible against the Ugandans.

Ugandan homosexual activist David Kato was recently beaten to death with a hammer, a horrific crime.  These very media rushed eagerly to judge this a hate crime and to blame those, like me, who have spoken against homosexuality in Uganda.  It is the central (but patently false) narrative of the left that all criticism of homosexuality leads inevitably to violence and murder. Yet the killer has now been caught and confessed that he was a live-in male prostitute who murdered Kato for failing to pay him as promised.  The “gay” hate-narrative has failed, the Ugandan rejection of “gay” culture has been vindicated, and the finger-pointing media have pulled quietly back into the shadows — for now.

There is indeed evil in Uganda today, but it is not the reaction of Christian and Moslem citizens to the rape of their culture. It is the pink-gloved hand of western powers that are cutting the throat of Africa’s most God-fearing country, and one of the world‘s most promising Christian democracies.

______________________________________

Gay Liberation Network letter to Dr. Erwin Lutzer, filled with falsehoods against Scott Lively and Peter LaBarbera:
Gay Liberation Network

4404 N. Magnolia, #420, Chicago, IL 60640

LGBTLiberation@aol.com
www.GayLiberation.net
773-209-1187

September 27, 2011

Pastor Erwin Lutzer

The Moody Church

1635 N. LaSalle Street

Chicago, IL 60614

Via certified mail, restricted delivery

Dear Pastor Lutzer:

We in Gay Liberation Network are aware that you are the scheduled main speaker at an October 15 fundraising dinner of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality. Do you know that one Scott Lively is to be honored at that dinner by Peter LaBarbera. Are you aware of Scott Lively’s history as a vicious gay basher?

LaBarbera identifies Lively as a “veteran Christian culture warrior who has been leading the resistance against the homosexualist juggernaut—in the USA and across the world.” LaBarbera says Lively has “suffered greatly for doing good and honoring God and His Truth.”

“Honoring God and His Truth”?

Scott Lively journeyed to Uganda in 2009 with other US evangelical gay bashers to stage a “Seminar on Exposing the Homosexual Agenda” even though homosexuality was already illegal in that nation. Lively helped stoke anti-gay animus by playing the “child molestation” card, asserting that gays are “looking for other people to prey upon, and that went they see someone from a broken home, it’s like they have a flashing neon sign over their head…male homosexuality has not traditionally been adult to adult, it’s men adult to teenager….The gay movement is an evil institution.”

It was following Lively’s “seminar” that legislation was introduced into the Ugandan parliament that would impose the death penalty for so-called aggravated homosexuality.” All gay meetings would be banned under this draconian measure, and heterosexuals could be jailed as well for any advocacy of homosexuality or defense of gay people. Please note that Scott Lively has supported this further criminalizing of homosexuality, even as some evangelicals like Rick Warren have distanced themselves from it. (Lively advised against death sentences for Ugandan gays, since it could result in “public sympathy” for them; he prefers forced “rehabilitation.”)

More recently, Lively justified anti-gay violence when Uganda’s leading gay advocate was murdered. Lively wrote, “It is as if the militant ranks of ‘Code Pink’ were transported back to 1890s America to agitate for ‘sexual freedom.’ Our great grandparents would not have countenanced this. There would have been violence, as there has now been in Uganda [emphasis added by Schwartz]

In addition, as you may know, LaBarbera’s organization [AFTAH] and Lively’s Abiding Truth Ministries are both described as “hate groups” by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Are these the kind of organizations with which you wish to associate the Moody Church?

Although our differences with you are sharp and distinct, due to your opposition to marriage equality for lesbian and gay people, we take you at your word when you say that you oppose violence against gays. We therefore assume that you would not want to be associated with those, like Lively and LaBarbera, who either support violence outright, or honor those who do.

We hope, therefore, you will rethink your decision to appear at LaBarbera’s banquet. Whatever your decision, we will be at the Christian Liberty Academy to protest those who oppose our equal rights, and particularly those who countenance violence against our community or participate in honoring those who do.

Truly yours,

Bob Schwartz

For the Gay Liberation Network

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Biography of Dr. Scott Lively

Dr. Scott Lively is President of Defend the Family International, a United States-based human rights organization which defends family values and religious freedom. An attorney, author and ordained minister, Dr. Lively is a staunch advocate of what he terms “Masculine Christianity,” — a scripturally-rooted doctrine of Christian cultural and political assertiveness.  Dr. Lively is also an internationally recognized expert on the global homosexual movement, which he identifies as a leading threat to Christianity in the modern age.

Education:

Dr. Lively holds the degrees of Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from Trinity Law School in Santa Ana, California, and Doctor of Theology from the School of Bible Theology Seminary and University in San Jacinto, California.  He also holds a Certificate in Human Rights, from the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

Published Works:

Redeeming the Rainbow: A Christian Response to the “Gay” Agenda, (2010);

My Life in His Hands: A Testimony of God’s Grace and Goodness (2007);

The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party, 4^th Edition (2002), with co-author Kevin E. Abrams;

The Poisoned Stream: “Gay” Influence in Human History (1996);

Seven Steps to Recruit-Proof Your Child (1997);

Why and How to Defeat the “Gay” Movement (2001);

Defeating “Gay” Arguments With Simple Logic (2003);

Balance in the Classroom: A teacher’s guide to explaining the pro-family viewpoint in non-religious terms (2003);

Reprobate Theology: the homosexual seduction of the American Church (2003).

Professional History

Senior Pastor, The Coffee House Church, Springfield, MA, 2010-Present.

Founder and President, Redemption Gate Mission Society, Springfield, MA 2008-Present, www.redemptiongate.org;

Founder and President, Abiding Truth Ministries (parent-organization of Defend The Family International), 1997-Present, www.defendthefamily.com;

Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Lively, Ackerman & Cowles Law Firm, 2003-2006.

Founder and Chairman, The Pro-Family Law Center, 1999-2006.

State Communications Director, Oregon Citizens Alliance, 1989-1997.

Personal History

Raised in a home shattered by the mental illness of his father, Scott Lively became an alcoholic at age 12, a drug addict by 14, was homeless at 16.  After sixteen years in the throes of addiction, several of them as a penniless drifter, Scott was miraculously healed and delivered in prayer in 1986, going on to become a leading Christian social activist and later an attorney and pastor. Scott is married to Anne, and has four grown sons.

You may reach Dr. Lively through his website at www.defendthefamily.com or by writing to Abiding Truth Ministries, PO Box 2373, Springfield MA 01101.

Larry Klayman (left) and Bradlee Dean (right), announce their $50 mllion lawsuit against Rachel Maddow and MSNBC.

The following link is to a July 27, 2011 press conference in New York City announcing a lawsuit against lesbian MSNBC host Rachel Maddow for falsely implying that Bradlee Dean, founder of You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, a Minnesota-based Christian ministry – favored killing homosexuals. Dean’s attorney is well-known conservative Larry Klayman.

Following the video is a press release for the event:

To watch the video on YouTube go here: youtube:http://youtu.be/qkHmXxyACUk]

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Suit Prays for Damages in Excess of $50 Million for Slander and False Light

(New York, New York). Tomorrow, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International, Inc., a foundation dedicated to restoring morality and values in the nation’s youth, will sue MSNBC, Rachel Maddow and others who defamed its founder, Bradlee Dean. A press conference will be held to announce the suit at the above location at 11 am on July 27 at the Midtown Executive Club (NY Press Club)

Bradlee Dean and his attorney will speak at the press conference.

Bradlee Dean, a renowned hard metal rocker who came to Christ after suffering a hard life as a young boy, has dedicated his life to this mission, a mission that has been under attack by liberal media since its inception.

In the course of his ministry, Dean once made a statement on radio criticizing his fellow Christians for not taking a stronger stand about the gay rights lobby promoting homosexuality in the schools. He made a strong reference to Muslims taking the issue more seriously in the context of Shariah law, but did not condone their practices. It was Bradlee’s intent to focus attention on the issue, not to advocate harm to anyone.

Despite the very clear disclaimer by Bradlee Dean on his ministry’s website and elsewhere regarding the false accusation that he was calling for the execution of homosexuals, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and others seized on and accused Dean on her show of supporting the killing of homosexuals, as is the practice in some radical Islamic countries. This seriously has harmed Dean and the ministry, who pride themselves on respect and love for all people.

In an interview earlier this year, MSNBC’s president Phil Griffin admitted that the network, to boost its ratings, caters to the so-called “progressive left”. This explains the malicious attacks on Bradlee Dean and his ministry, which are being used to harm the presidential campaign of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who is a conservative Christian.

In the past, Dean and his ministry have been complemented by presidential candidate Michele Bachmann (who prayed for the ministry) for their work in promoting values for the nation’s youth. The left wing media’s effort to defame Dean is an obvious way to try to harm Bachmann’s presidential prospects, who they fear and despise. Other left wing media outlets have followed MSNBC and Maddow in their slanderous efforts. This suit may just be the first in a series of cases meant to protect the fine reputation of Dean and his ministry.

The lawsuit is filed by attorney Larry Klayman, the founder of Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch, in DC Superior Court and seeks in excess of $50 million in damages. However, money is not the issue. “This case is filed as a matter of principle,” stated Klayman. “We need more Bradlee Deans in the world and hateful left wing television commentators must be made to respect not only his mission but the law,” he added.

For more information contact Jake MacAulay: cell: 763 234 2757; jake@sonsoflibertymedia.com

All givers to AFTAH of $100 or more will receive a hard-cover copy of the late Dr. Charles Socarides' book, "Homosexuality: A Freedom Too Far." Gifts must be made online or postmarked by midnight Friday, Dec. 31st to receive a 2010 tax deduction.

“You are a worthless dishonest lying hypocritical piece of excrement, and your God is going to have words with you someday.”

 

“You have “gay face”. Gay face is a certain look that some gay people have. your face is perfect to have a [XXX] inserted into your [XXXXX] and [XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX] across your eyeballs.”

 

– Two of the hundreds of hate missives sent by pro-homosexuality activists to Americans For Truth in 2010 

 

The Real ”Haters” Hate AFTAH?  Folks, Americans For Truth is on the receiving end of an incredible amount of real HATRED from homosexual activists — evil and vile letters like the above that neither we nor any pro-family advocate I know would ever even consider sending to a homosexual or a “gay” organization.  And yet WE are dubbed a “hate group” — because we actively oppose the Homosexual-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transsexual movement.  Please help us at www.americansfortruth.com/donate

Year-End Gifts to AFTAH: Americans For Truth has received a generous $10,000 matching gift that we hope to completely match in this vital, year-end giving period.  Your donation must be received online or postmarked by midnight Dec. 31st (Friday night) to be counted as a tax deduction for 2010!   Please make your year-end “Match” donation of $1,000, $500, $100, $50 or whatever you can give to: www.americansfortruth.com/donate/ — or mail your gift to: Americans For Truth, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522.

FREE BOOK with $100 Gift: If you send a tax-deductible gift to AFTAH of $100 or more, you will receive a free hard-cover book, Homosexuality: A Freedom Too Far, by the late Charles Socarides.

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December 2010

Dear Americans For Truth Supporter,

I hope you are having a blessed Christmas and holiday season — and I’m sorry to have to expose you to the daily demonization and hatred that Americans For Truth experiences at the hands of homosexual activists every day.  Let us pray that 2011 will be a year in which America as a nation – and each of us in our own lives — moves closer to God, as we daily seek to honor His Son, the King of kings, Jesus Christ.  Happy New Year!

This was a tough year, but there was an especially ominous gambit coming from the Left in 2010: the escalating campaign to demonize AFTAH and other Christian pro-family organizations as “official hate groups” – so that the media (and ill-informed Americans) will treat us like they treat racist fringe groups!   Of course, defending historic biblical morality is not “hate,” but our foes hate God’s Truth on this moral issue, so to them it is no big deal to promote one more falsehood to destroy us!

We must fight on and NEVER give in an inch to their evil lies.  Please consider making a generous year-end donation to Americans For Truth to help us match a new $10,000 “Match Grant” from a generous donor – to support our mission to do exactly what the Homosexual-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transsexual Lobby and their liberal-Left and Big Media allies fear most: proclaim the Truth about the destructive homosexual lifestyle and the ‘Gay’ Lobby’s well-funded, anti-Christian campaign to normalize it. 

This has been a most exciting and productive year for AFTAH:

• We held our debut “Truth Academy: Chicago 2010” in August – a three-day conference with 21 wonderful lectures that is certainly one of the most comprehensive teaching conferences on the Homosexual Agenda ever held — not just in the USA, but in the world.  AFTAH brought in leading pro-family experts from across the country for what was, by all pro-family accounts, a phenomenal “teach in” on the various aspects of this issue.  A radical homosexual group in Chicago organized a huge and noisy protest against the conference, held at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, IL.  “Gay” bloggers sent spies into the Academy and accused us of “teaching hate” to students.  Audio- and video-tapes of the Truth Academy can be ordered HERE.  Our next Academy will be held in Columbus, OH this April — as a joint project with Mission America.
• AFTAH reached millions of Americans with the “truth about homosexuality” through media interviews and press appearances.  
• AFTAH launched its weekly radio show, the “Americans For Truth Hour.”  I conducted in-depth interviews with over two dozen front-line pro-family activists on the homosexual issue, including: Matt Barber, Bob Knight, Rob Gagnon, Elaine Donnelly, Laurie Higgins and Linda Harvey – and former “gays” like D.L. Foster and Linda Jernigan.  All our interviews are available online and have encouraged and informed tens of thousands of truth-starved people worldwide!
• AFTAH tirelessly fought radical homosexual legislation and Big Media’s overwhelming pro-“gay” bias.  We also have exposed the shocking embrace of homosexual “rights” by some evangelicals, such as wayward Grove City College professor Warren Throckmorton.  AFTAH is now forced to spend significant time and resources holding Christians and conservatives accountable when they stray from historic Judeo-Christian sexual morality.
• AFTAH exposed the folly of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s smear campaign against Americans For Truth and other pro-family organizations as “hate groups.”  AFTAH led in educating Americans on the REAL and awful “hate” that emanates from the LGBT Lobby.  

This year’s setbacks have only strengthened my resolve to better educate and mobilize against the “Queer” juggernaut – which is corrupting our youth and is in the vanguard of undermining our precious religious freedom.  To that end, AFTAH is planning an exciting new web project for 2011 to teach “inconvenient truths” about the homosexual agenda.  We need your help to finance this project; stay tuned.

Thank you so much for standing with Americans For Truth.  Please pray for us and ask the Lord what you can do to advance the truth about this most Politically Incorrect of all issues.  Your tax-deductible gifts will be doubled thanks to our new Matching Grant, so please be as generous as you can.  AFTAH is small as non-profit organizations go, but we deliver a lot of “bang” for the buck.  God bless you as we seek to uphold divine Truth in this season when we worship the One who IS the Way, the Truth, and the Life, Jesus Christ, who came to earth to save us from our sins.

Sincerely in Christ, 

Peter LaBarbera,

President and Founder, AFTAH; email: americansfortruth@gmail.com

P.S.  If you send a tax-deductible gift to AFTAH of $100 or more, you will receive a free hard-cover book, Homosexuality: A Freedom Too Far, by the late Charles Socarides. And remember: the deadline for counting your gift as a 2010 tax deduction is midnight, Friday, Dec. 31st!

“I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father but through Me.” – John 14:6

The SPLC's Mark Potok oversees the organization's de facto "campaign of defamation" painting groups like AFTAH that oppose homosexuality as "hate groups." Potok admits that the SPLC has never identified a single "gay" group as hateful even though militant homosexual organizations like ACT UP and Bash Back! have targeted churches with vicious attacks.

TAKE ACTION: Contact the Senate Judiciary Committee (members listed HERE; Senate Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121) — and the House Committee on Homeland Security (202-226-2616; members listed HERE; House Switchboard: 202-225-3121) and urge them to investigate the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) working relationship with the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. The leftist SPLC is now slandering conservative, Christian and Tea Party groups by mislabeling them as “hate groups” on a par with genuine, fringe hate groups like the KKK.  American taxpayers should insist that the federal government have no role in legitimizing the SPLC, which has politicized “hate” and turned it into a fund-raising business to demonize conservatives – including mainstream pro-family groups that oppose homosexual activism. To read an in-depth report exposing the SPLC’s unethical practices, go HERE.

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Below is a useful article by Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute — on the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) preposterous smear-job against mainstream pro-family groups (including AFTAH, IFI, Family Research Council, and AFA) as “hate groups” because we oppose homosexuality and LGBT (“gay”) activism. Technically, the SPLC would argue that AFTAH and the other groups opposed homosexuality in the wrong way, but let’s be honest: ideologically speaking, the SPLC is so deeply committed to pro-”gay” advocacy that it considers suspect any organization that opposes pro-LGBT activism. Predictably, the left-wing, pro-homosexual echo chamber is using the SPLC’s “findings” to discredit pro-family groups.

Indicative of the SPLC”s tendentious and polemical “hate reporting” is its description of this writer as a “longtime gay-basher.” Using such semantics, that would make SPLC staffers like Mark Potok “longtime Christian bashers.” To read an excellent set of reports on the SPLC’s escalating “campaign of defamation” against conservatives and traditionalists, read this special Social Contract Journal edition.

As Barb Anderson of the (potential future “hate” group?) Minnesota Family Council and I discussed in Part One of our AFTAH Radio Hour interview [click HERE to listen], the SPLC’s cynical “hate” dragnet is growing so wide that we have almost reached the point where if a pro-family group is NOT INCLUDED on the SPLC’s “hate” list, it must be slacking off in resisting the destructive homosexual agenda. I write “almost” because some of our good friends such as Liberty Counsel and Campaign for California Families have not yet officially been designated “haters”; their time will come. Of course, the truth is, nobody “hates” like the American Left — especially militant homosexual activists.

I like Laurie’s reference to the “Morality Police”; how ironic that the Left has become the mirror of what it hates:  the societal “moral” scold. Remember that the dogmatists on the Left once screamed against the “Religious Right”: “Don’t impose your morality on the rest of us!” Now it’s the pro-”queer” Left that works diligently to “impose its immorality” on America using every dirty tactic ever conceived by Saul Alinsky (e.g., “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it”; see this piece). I half expect Potok or SPLC co-founder Morris Dees to show up in Wheeling, West Virginia, claiming to “have in my hand the names of 57 newly designated anti-gay hate groups….”

Prior to Americans for Truth About Homosexuality’s “graduation” to full-fledged SPLC “hate” group, we were labeled a “hate” website by the SPLC — after a very… well, bigoted and hateful Marxist homosexual organization, the Gay Liberation Network (GLN), “reported” us to the Alabama-based SPLC. (You know those Communists are all about love, tolerance and honesty … one GLN leader, Bob Schwartz, a self-described Trotskyite, told me at a Chicago protest that he’d push me into oncoming traffic if it weren’t for the cops standing nearby; Schwartz has never denied making the threatening remark. I hereby report the GLN to the SPLC as a “hate” group for targeting sincere Christians with its slanderous and bigoted vilifications and protests.)

No hateful homosexuals?

You will recall that earlier this year SPLC Intelligence Project director Mark Potok confirmed to me via e-mail that no “gay” advocacy group has ever made the SPLC’s “hate” list — despite the fact that miltant homosexual organizations like ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) have engaged in numerous planned assaults against churches and other political opponents. (In 1989, as part of a huge protest againset then-Cardinal John O’Connor, ACT UP members stormed St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City during a Sunday mass; it was a particularly ugly, anti-Catholic attack in which protesters screamed and tossed condoms in the air, and even stomped on a consecrated wafer believed by Catholics to be the Body of Christ. More recently, in 2008, the homosexual activist group Bash Back! staged an invasion of a large evangelical church in Lansing, Michigan; the church was specifically targeted for its outspoken belief that homosexual practice is sinful and that “gays” can leave that lifestyle through faith in Jesus Christ. [Regarding that point and the SPLC's #10 "myth" below, we must ask: does the Southern Poverty Law Center "hate" former homosexuals?] A thorough investigation into the pro-homosexual “hatred” unleashed against Prop 8 supporters in California – especially churches — is in order.)

In the ensuing months since I corresponded with Potok, the SPLC appears not to have made even a token move to identify homosexual activist hate groups and websites (gay activist Dan Savage’s shockingly evil “Santorum.com” comes to mind [Warning: highly offensive content] — while it greatly expanded its list of alleged pro-family alleged “hate groups.” This contradiction alone demonstrates the SPLC’s extreme bias and the folly of taking seriously its self-appointed role as an objective, impartial hate-monitoring organization.

Higgins deftly exposes the shoddy “research”  of the SPLC (as we at AFTAH have personally experienced; the incompetent researchers for SPLC’s “Intelligence Report” initially confused me with Paul Cameron of the Family Research Institute). All this would be comical except that the SPLC is taken seriously by the liberal media and is used as an informational resource by the federal government’s Department of Homeland Security, so please take the action steps above.

Always remember: defending biblical morality is not ”bigotry” and disagreeing with homosexual activists is not “hate.” Thanks for standing with AFTAH for truth amidst all the politically correct lies. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org; write us at americansfortruth@gmail.com

Laurie Higgins writes:
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The Morality Police at the Southern Poverty Law Center

Evelyn Schlatter, Southern Poverty Law Center author of "hate groups" article

By Laurie Higgins, Illinois Family Institute

Oh, for the good old days when the term “hate group” referred to groups that actually hated someone. Now the term “hate group” refers to any group that expresses political, philosophical, moral, or theological beliefs with which the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) disagrees.

Last week, the SPLC released the winter issue of Mark Potok’s ironically named “Intelligence Report.” The article, “18 Anti-Gay Groups and Their Propaganda,” by Evelyn Schlatter lists 18 organizations as “anti-gay” groups with 13 of those to be added to their formal list of “hate groups.” The American Family Association, Family Research Council, and the Illinois Family Institute are three of the 13 that will be included on a list with neo-Nazi organizations.

Schlatter explains that the “propagation” of “known falsehoods” about homosexuality will result in organizations being included on the SPLC’s “anti-gay” list and perhaps also their “hate groups” list. Here are the “known falsehoods” that she and co-author Robert Steinback cite in the companion article “10 Anti-Gay Myths Debunked”:

1. If an organization claims that homosexuals “molest children at far higher rates than heterosexuals,” it goes on the SPLC’s “hate groups” list.
2. If an organization says that “same-sex parents harm children,” it goes on the SPLC’s “hate groups” list.
3. If an organization claims that “people become homosexual because they were sexually abused as children or there was a deficiency in sex-role modeling by their parents,” it goes on the SPLC’s “hate groups” list.
4. If an organization claims that “homosexuals don’t live nearly as long as heterosexuals,” it goes on the SPLC’s “hate groups” list.
5. If an organization claims that “homosexuals controlled the Nazi Party and helped to orchestrate the Holocaust,” it goes on the SPLC’s “hate-groups” list.
6. If an organization claims that “hate crime laws will lead to the jailing of pastors who criticize homosexuality and the legalization of practices like bestiality and necrophilia,” it goes on the SPLC’s “hate groups” list.
7. If an organization claims that “allowing homosexuals to serve openly would damage the armed forces,” it goes on the SPLC’s “hate groups” list.
8. If an organization claims that homosexuals “are more prone to be mentally ill and to abuse drugs and alcohol,” it goes on the SPLC’s “hate groups” list.
9. If an organization claims that “no one is born a homosexual,” it goes on the SPLC’s “hate groups” list.
10. If an organization claims “Gay people can choose to leave homosexuality,” it goes on the SPLC’s “hate groups” list.

Under each of these “myths,” Schlatter and Steinback offer analyses and evidence of such poor quality that their arguments wouldn’t pass muster in many high school English classes in which there are actual standards for logic and use of evidence. I will examine just a few of the many problems in their analyses, which in turn will reveal the intellectual and ethical vacuity that pervades the SPLC.

Same sex parents harm children

The SPLC thinks that the belief that same sex parents harm children constitutes hatred. The first problem is that Schlatter and Steinback fail to define harm. If one believes that homosexuality is morally flawed, then a household centered on a morally flawed relationship cannot be beneficial.

It is entirely possible that a brother and sister in an incestuous relationship or that polyamorist parents could raise children, providing for their physical needs, comforting them, and teaching them their ABCs. But most of society believes that such relationships would harm children because they would teach children that incest or polyamory are morally permissible. Would Schlatter and Steinback include organizations on their “hate groups” list that propagate the belief that incestuous parents or poly-parents harm children?

The SPLC and many homosexuals are outraged over any comparison of homosexuality to adult consensual incest or polyamory because they view homosexuality as moral and incest and polyamory as immoral. But no one is obligated to accept the SPLC’s flawed comparison of homosexuality to race or to accept their moral assumptions. After all, who is the SPLC to impose their moral views on all of society? Why are IFI’s moral beliefs about homosexual acts hateful and the views of those who oppose incest or polyamory legitimate? Why do IFI’s moral beliefs about volitional homosexual acts land us on the “hate groups” list, while the moral beliefs of those who oppose incestuous parents or poly-parents do not land them on the “hate groups” list?

Homosexual parents teach their children that gender is irrelevant to marriage and to parenting. They teach them that homosexual acts are inherently moral. And they deliberately deprive children of either a mother or a father. Those corruptions of truth and essential human relationships harm children.

Childhood molestation, innateness (“born that way”) and homosexuality

The one point about which many on both sides of the homosexuality debate agree is that the causes of same-sex attraction are not known. Many believe that same-sex attractions result from a complex interaction of biologically shaped predispositions and environmental factors. If we do notknow the causes of same-sex attraction, and if some of the factors that contribute to it are environmental experiences, how can anyone declare that childhood molestation never contributes to the development of same-sex attraction? And if childhood molestation may contribute in some cases to the development of same-sex attraction, how can it constitute hatred to say so?

Oprah, an inveterate promoter of all things homosexual, recently did two powerful programs about men who were molested as children. One of her guests was a therapist who has treated hundreds of men who were molested as children. He stated that one result of the sexual molestation of boys is “sexual orientation confusion.”

Schlatter and Steinback also assert that it’s hateful, false, and mythical to say “no one is born homosexual,” and then virtually their entire analysis reveals that there is no research proving that people are “born homosexual.” Schlatter and Steinback write, “a great many studies suggest that it is the result of biological and environmental forces.”

Following their repeated assertions that there is no proof that homosexuality is congenital, Schlatter and Steinback suggest the false dichotomy that if people do not choose their same-sex attraction, they must be “born that way,” completely ignoring two essential truths. First, the fact that people do not choose their feelings does not mean that such feelings are biologically determined. Second, freely chosen behaviors that emerge from feelings shaped by biological influences are not automatically moral.

IFI has consistently said that although no one chooses their feelings, people do choose how to respond to them. Saying that people ought not to act upon same-sex attraction is no more hateful than saying that people ought not to act upon unchosen, powerful, persistent attractions to pornography, multiple people, or their siblings. All moral beings have to decide which of their unchosen, powerful feelings are morally legitimate to act upon.

Homosexual men and shortened life spans

Under the “myth” about the shortened life spans of homosexual men, Schlatter and Steinback made the following statement:

Bob Unruh, a conservative Christian journalist who left The Associated Press in 2006 for the right-wing, conspiracist news site WorldNetDaily, said shortly before the federal law was passed that it would legalize “all 547 forms of sexual deviancy or ‘paraphilias’ listed by the American Psychiatric Association.” This claim was repeated by many anti-gay organizations, including the Illinois Family Institute.

Either because of Schlatter’s and Steinback’s poor research or lack of ethics, they failed to include the fact that exactly one week after making the error regarding the DSM, writer Kathy Valente posted a correction which is still on our website. It reads as follows:

In the article entitled “Hate Crimes Bill Moves to Senate” (5/5/09), we mistakenly stated that the American Psychiatric Association’s actual definition of “sexual orientation” includes paraphilias. The APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) classifies “sexual orientation” as heterosexual, homosexual, and bi-sexual. The 547 mental disorders called paraphilias specifically involve non-human objects, physical pain, or unwilling partners as in pedophilia. IFI apologizes for the error.

I hope and assume that Schlatter and Steinback will demonstrate the integrity and professionalism that Ms. Valente did by publishing a correction and apology.

In their argument that talking about the shorter life spans of homosexual men constitutes an act of hatred, Schlatter and Steinback focused on research by Paul Cameron, while completely ignoring research by the well-respected International Journal of Epidemiology that found the following:

[W]e demonstrated that in a major Canadian centre, life expectancy at age 20 years for gay and bisexual men is 8 to 21 years less than for all men. If the same pattern of mortality continued, we estimated that nearly half of gay and bisexual men currently aged 20 years would not reach their 65th birthday. Under even the most liberal assumptions, gay and bisexual men in this urban centre were experiencing a life expectancy similar to that experienced by men in Canada in the year 1871.

The authors of this article, upset that conservative groups disseminated this troubling fact, issued an update that said, “if we were to repeat this analysis today the life expectancy of gay and bisexual men would be greatly improved. Deaths from HIV infection have declined dramatically in this population since 1996.”

Though mortality rates have dropped due to improved treatment protocols, HIV infection rates for “men who have sex with men” (MSM) are soaring. According to the CDC, “While CDC estimates that MSM account for just 4 percent of the U.S. male population aged 13 and older, the rate of new HIV diagnoses among MSM in the U.S. is more than 44 times that of other men.”

I wonder if Schlatter and Steinback are planning on publishing an addendum to their article in which they address HIV infection rates for homosexual men, or perhaps they’re going to include the CDC on their “hate groups” list.

Nazism

Schlatter claimed erroneously that I “compared homosexuality to Nazism,” which makes me wonder if she even bothered to read the articles in which I referred to Nazism. Here’s an excerpt from one:

Although genocide and homosexual acts are both sins, in man’s economy–and my own belief system–genocide is a far greater sin. And although I believe that all sin represents rebellion against God, I believe that homosexuality and genocide are by nature distinct….I never posited that homosexuals were the moral equivalents of Nazis. Rather, I compared the rationalizations church leaders offered for the silence of the church in the face of the evil of Nazism to the rationalizations church leaders offer for the silence of the church in the face of the evil of using public schools to promulgate destructive, erroneous views of homosexuality….The feckless or deceitful claim that I said homosexuals are equivalent to Nazis makes no more sense than claiming that someone who says the church should address both the sin of murder and the sin of gossip are saying that murderers and gossips are morally equivalent.

Sin in the closet

The SPLC believes it’s an act of hate to say that homosexuality should remain in the “in the closet.” Ms. Schlatter quoted an article in which I said, “There was something profoundly good for society about the prior stigmatization of homosexual practice…. [W]hen homosexuals were ‘in the closet,’ (along with fornicators, polyamorists, cross-dressers, and ‘transsexuals’), they weren’t acquiring and raising children.”

Many people believe that immoral behavior should be concealed from the public rather than paraded about or publicly celebrated. For example, many people–perhaps most–do not want polyamorists’ or cross-dressers’ behavior to be public where children can see it. Does the SPLC view those who don’t want their children to see manifestations of polyamory or cross-dressing as haters?

And many people believe that children have a fundamental right to be raised by the biological parents who procreated them. Many people, including Roman Catholics, Muslims, Orthodox Jews, and Protestants as well as people who follow no faith tradition, believe it is immoral for homosexuals to adopt or use in vitro fertilization and surrogacy to acquire children. Do they all deserve to be labeled “haters”?

My belief that it would be better for society if homosexuality were not publicly affirmed, normalized, or celebrated no more constitutes hatred of homosexuals than does other people’s belief that polyamory should not be publicly affirmed, celebrated, or normalized constitute hatred of polyamorists.

Ex-gays

The SPLC states that saying people can choose not to act on same-sex attraction or that they can leave a homosexual lifestyle constitutes hatred of homosexuals. Following that logic, what does it mean when someone says people can leave a polyamorous lifestyle or that they can choose not to act on their powerful attractions to multiple people? And what does it say to the hundreds of men and women who have abandoned their homosexual lives that the SPLC says discussing such a path is an act of hatred?

Conclusion

No longer is hate defined as, well, hatred. Anyone who finds the SPLC’s analogies faulty; their research selective; their concealing of inconvenient facts troubling; or their unproven, non-factual moral beliefs wrong, is now guilty of hatred.

The SPLC holds the unproven, non-factual belief that homosexuality is moral and arrogantly demands that all of society agree, or be silent, or be labeled a “hate group.” That strikes me as a strange manifestation of tolerance or respect for speech rights and diversity. Ironically, the SPLC has become the oppressor.

The SPLC hopes that their smear campaign will silence conservatives so that only the SPLC’s moral views will be heard in the public square. No one should allow the unprincipled bullying tactics and specious reasoning of the SPLC to intimidate them into silence. The SPLC’s ontological and moral beliefs about homosexuality are not facts, and dissent from the ethically impoverished SPLC’s beliefs does not constitute hatred.

Please take time to read this comprehensive indictment of the SPLC from the Social Contract Journal, which dedicated its spring 2010 issue to exposing the SPLC.

And if that’s not enough, click HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Why doesn't the media -- or the SPLC -- call homosexual activist Dan Savage a "hater" given his history of hate-filled attacks against Christians?

This interview [click HERE to listen] with Barbara Anderson of the Minnesota Family Council aired Nov. 27, 2010. Anderson is a writer and researcher for the MFC specializing in education issues. Here she discusses some of the incredible abuses that have gone in the name of education – including teaching young children about anal sex and other homosexual practices in the name of being “inclusive.” Americans For Truth President Peter LaBarbera and Anderson discuss the privileged role that the liberal group SIECUS (Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S.) plays in American sex education — while the vast majority of parents remain ignorant of SIECUS’ radical agenda. We’re not going to give it away: you simply have to listen to this interview to believe the incredible things that are being taught to kids in the name of safety, diversity and tolerance. This is the first of three interviews.  

In the opening monologue, LaBarbera discusses an incredibly hateful stunt done several years ago by homosexual activist Dan Savage against Pennsylvania’s Republican former U.S. Senator, Rick Santorum. The discussion on “Savage Hate” is in the context of AFTAH now “officially” being labelled a “hate group” by the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center. Savage created an obscene definition for “Santorum”  — a gross byproduct of anal sex – and then set up a website with that creation, Santorum.com [Warning: graphic content].  Anderson says Savage’s deviant definition “truly is a reflection of the kind of perverted thinking of these people … They are not only trying to silence the opposition; they are trying to destroy the opposition.”  LaBarbera asks why the likes of Savage “aren’t ever called haters by the media?”  

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

11-27-10, Barb Anderson, All

The following is video of the August 5 protest against the AFTAH Truth Academy by a coalition of pro-homosexuality groups led by the Marxist Gay Liberation Network. The Chicago-based GLN attempted to smear the Truth Academy as “teaching hate,” but the real hate came from some of the protesters — not Truth Academy instructors like Ryan Sorba (featured prominently in this video). Several Academy presenters including Matt Barber, Greg Quinlan and AFTAH founder Peter LaBarbera joined Sorba in wading into the crowd, engaging various protesters on the question of “hate.” The first video below was shot by Illinois conservative Lynn Thomas, creator of Cao’s Blog, and Janet Aldrich [a second YouTube follows the jump]:

This video of the protest was shot by Lynn Thomas; in it Gay Liberation Network co-leader Bob Schwartz says hopefully about Truth Academy instructor Cliff Kincaid — who exposed GLN’s deep linkage with pro-Communist organizations like the Sparticist League: “maybe he could get hit by a car” (now that’s tolerance….):

The Gay Liberation Network's Bob Schwartz celebrated U. of Illinois' firing of Catholic professor Kenneth Howell (above) -- strange behavior for a group that crusades against "discrimination."

The homosexual hate group Gay Liberation Network (GLN) — whose co-leader Bob Schwartz celebrated the University of Illinois’ recent firing of Catholic professor Kenneth Howell — has announced that it will protest the AFTAH Truth Academy, which will be held Aug. 5-7 at the Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

GLN is a Marxist-oriented street protest group that attempts to equate Judeo-Christian opposition to homosexuality with “hate” — and which uses its protests to intimidate businesses from hosting pro-family events. For its extreme anti–Christian bigotry and hateful rhetoric — including vicious ad hominem attacks against pro-family critics (e.g., calling AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera “Satan’s Lover”)  – we label GLN a homosexual hate organization.

GLN, formerly the Chicago Anti-Bashing Network, once smeared the historic Moody Church in Chicago as a “House of Hate” because Moody’s revered pastor, Erwin Lutzer, wrote a book critical of “same-sex marriage.” GLN has repeatedly pilloried Chicago’s Catholic leaker Cardinal Francis George with similar accusations because George defends Catholic teachings on sex and marriage.

Beyond that, Schwartz once told LaBarbera — who was protesting a “gay youth” rally in downtown Chicago as then-executive director of Illinois Family Institute – that if it weren’t for the police standing nearby, he would push him into the busy street. (Schwartz has never denied making this comment after it was reported by IFI.) LaBarbera maintains that had such a veiled violent threat been made against a homosexual by a conservative or Christian, it could have been the basis for a criminal charge under Chicago’s ”hate crime” law.

Thus it is a great irony that the nasty GLN played a proud role in lobbying the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center to label AFTAH a “hate site.”

Here is an excerpt of GLN’s ludicrous attempt to distort the Truth Academny’s true purpose:

Youth should not be taught to hate their peers and thus fuel the cycle of self-loathing, depression and suicide which too many LGBTQ youth experience. Bigotry must be vocally and publicly opposed, especially when haters try to recruit young people.

Gay Liberation Network activists specialize in name-calling. Ironically, the Marxist-oriented, Christian-bashing hate group played a role in lobbying the Southern Poverty Law Center to label AFTAH a "hate" website.

Defending historic Judeo-Christian moral truths and the natural family is not “hate.” Teaching young people to revere biblical teachings and God’s natural design for the family — and how to answer GLBT misinformation in the public sphere – is not “bigotry.” However, GLN’s vicious name-calling and ugly condemnations of traditionalists as “haters” — and its regular lies about religious leaders who oppose homosexual practice – is a form of secular, anti-Christian bigotry. This neo-intolerance must be resisted at every turn by the avid participation of pro-family Americans at events like the Truth Academy.

“Peter LaBarbera has unveiled the instructor list and official curriculum for his upcoming three day anti-gay hatefest/”truth academy” … and it is pretty much going to be the gay-hatingest thing you have ever seen.”

Wow. “Gay-hatingest.” Reactionary liberals are expanding their smear-term lexicon. Seriously, though, most people on the Left are not quite willing, yet, to define anyone who disagrees with homosexuality as “hateful” — although they might call them “homophobic” (an artificial construct whose elastic definition has evolved to meet the needs of pro-”gay” liberals). I’m sure there are exceptions, but I suspect that most “gay”-affirming people would not automatically label anyone who believes that homosexuality is immoral — or that homosexual sex is unnatural – as “haters.”

However, if you reflect that moral opposition in the public square — if you defend the age-old position that homosexuality is wrong – then suddenly you become, yes, “hateful.” Hard to win that argument: ME: pro-gay, loving and tolerant. YOU: anti-gay, hateful and intolerant. Is this what now passes for discourse in dumbed-down America? Give me the old-fashioned liberals who might disagree with AFTAH’s beliefs forcefully but who at least understand that name-calliing is no substitute for an argument.

Morality is not “hate” and defending the historic Judeo-Christian sexual ethic is not “bigotry.” Homosexuality is wrong, and a controversial moral and religious issue involving behavior. It is wholly unlike race: there are no “ex-Blacks” or “ex-Asians”; there are thousands of former homosexuals — people like our Truth Academy instructor Greg Quinlan, who once considered himself “gay” before leaving the lifestyle. The evidence is overwhelming that homosexual practice — especially among men — is a big factor in the spread of diseases like HIV. In a free society, we debate moral issues, and we discuss public health issues arising from dangerous behaviors. Does PFAW hold that it is OK to crusade for acceptance of homosexuality, but “un-American” and ”hateful” to oppose it civilly?

Maybe “Senior Fellow” Kyle, who edits PFAW’s “Right-Wing Watch” blog, and his pro-homosexual allies can explain it for us:  Is every American who opposes homosexuality hateful — or just those who defend that position in public? When does moral disagreement become “hate”? (I know, I’m a fool for trying to reason with the Left….)

Meanwhile, below are the Truth Academy curriculum and speakers, not one of whom has a hateful bone in his or her body. Please spread the word on this wonderful opportunity to educate citizens about an activist movment that reveals its own brand of hatred and bigotry – and intellectual bankruptcy — by castigating its critics and Judeo-Christian morality itself as “hateful.” – Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

P.S. We’ve just learned that the “loving and tolerant” folks over at (Marxist) Gay Liberation Network — whose intemperate rhetoric might make even PFAW blush (see GLN applauding the firing of a Catholic professor HERE) – are planning to picket the Truth Academy.

___________________________________________

Americans For Truth Academy

Tentative Speakers Schedule

Thursday, August 5 – Saturday, August 7, 2010

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

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

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

THURSDAY

Welcoming Remarks, Peter LaBarbera, President, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality: “From gay pride to gay tyranny”

10:10 – 11:10 – Prof. Rena Lindevaldsen, Liberty University School of Law: “History of modern ‘gay’ activism and the courts”

11:20-12:20 – Matt Barber, Liberty Counsel; Board Member, AFTAH: “Masculine Christianity: a non-defensive approach to the Culture War over homosexuality”

1:20-2:20 – Ryan Sorba, Young Conservatives of California: “The ‘born gay hoax”

2:30 – 3:30 – Laurie Higgins, Illinois Family Institute: “Using reason and logic in answering pro-homosexuality arguments”

3:40-4:40 – Arthur Goldberg, JONAH (Jews Offering Healthy Alternatives to Homosexuality), author, Light in the Closet: Torah, Homosexuality, and the Power to Change: “Can gays change? Is gay parenting good for kids? Presenting the research on homosexuality”

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

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

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

7:45 – 9:15 – Greg Quinlan, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX); Pro-Family Network: “An Ex-Gay Christian Discusses Love, Truth and Homosexuality”

FRIDAY

9:00 – 10:00 – Cliff Kincaid, America’s Survival, Accuracy in Media: “The battle over blood: ‘gay’ health risks and public policy”

10:10 – 11:10 – Prof. Rena Lindevaldsen, Liberty University School of Law: “The zero-sum game: homosexuality-based ‘rights’ vs. religious and First Amendment freedoms”

11:20-12:20 – Laurie Higgins, Illinois Family Institute: “Corrupting children, politicizing schools: the homosexual youth agenda”

1:20-2:20 – Arthur Goldberg, JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality: “The gender confusion agenda: ‘transgender rights’”

2:30 – 3:30 – Prof. Robert Gagnon, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary: “From abomination to ‘gay’: answering ‘queer theology’ — Old Testament”

3:40-4:40 – Prof. Rena Lindevaldsen, Liberty U. School of Law: “The legal strategy to stop homosexual ‘marriage’: triumphs and pitfalls”

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

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

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

7:45 – 9:15 – Robert Knight, Coral Ridge Ministries; author, Radical Rulers: The White House Elites Who Are Pushing America Towards Socialism: “From destroying DOMA to homosexualizing the military: Obama’s radical homosexual/transsexual agenda for America”

SATURDAY

9:00 – 10:00 – Prof. Robert Gagnon, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary: “’Jesus never said anything about homosexuality’”: answering ‘Queer Theology’ — New Testament”

10:10 – 11:10 – Robert Knight, Coral Ridge Ministries: “Destructive legacy: Alfred Kinsey and the (Homo)Sexual Revolution”

11:20-12:20 – Greg Quinlan, PFOX, Pro-Family Network: “The big, pink plan for a lavender culture”/”How to lobby effectively”

1:20-2:20 – Cliff Kincaid, America’s Survival; Accuracy in Media: “Combating pro-homosexual media bias, confronting pro-gay ‘conservatives’”

2:30-3:40 – Prof. Robert Gagnon, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary: “Agreeing with God: a truly biblical approach toward ‘out and proud’ homosexuality”

3:50-4:50 – Ryan Sorba, Young Conservatives of California: “Confronting the zeitgeist: new strategies to turn around younger Americans on ‘gay rights’”

5:00-6:00 – Matt Barber, Liberty Counsel, AFTAH Board Member: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Bleed: stopping Obama’s campaign to homosexualize the U.S. military”

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

Pro-family Christian Julio Severo fled his home country of Brazil to avoid state prosecution and harassment on "homophobia" charges. Would Severo be granted U.S. asylum like Brazilian homosexual Augusto Pereira de Souza?

By Peter LaBarbera

Homosexual websites are celebrating that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has granted asylum to 27-year-old Brazilian homosexual Augusto Pereira de Souza, who claims he would face torment and violent attacks if forced to return to his country.

I wonder what would happen if Julio Severo (right), the outspoken Brazilian Christian advocate who fled his country due to escalating oppression against critics of homosexuality, were to apply for applied for U.S. asylum. An article in the “Queerty” blog claims that Brazil is “one of the world’s most violently anti-gay countries … with 180 reported LGBT murders in 2008 alone.” I do not know the accuracy of this information. But here is the problem: already Queerty and other pro-homosexuality activists are citing the case of Souza (whose asylum claim was secured by three students at Columbia Law School’s Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic,” Queerty reports) as good news for Ugandan homosexuals who might want to make similar claims.

Is the United States of America under President Obama going to become the magnet for foreign homosexuals and “queer” activists the world over? AFTAH has condemned draconian punishments against homosexuals (such as “solutions” prescribed by radical Islamists). However, America and the West have no right to impose their decadent, perversion-celebrating values on the rest of the world, and other countries certainly have the right to criminalize homosexual behavior just as it was criminalized in the United States prior to the Supreme Court’s activist Lawrence v. Texas decision. (Anti-sodomy laws remain on the books in many states and laws that do not solely ban homosexual sodomy have NOT been struck down; here is a Wikipedia article which — despite that website’s strong pro-homosexual bias — describes the sodomy law situation in all 50 states.)

Here in America, we realize that sodomy may never be criminalized in San Francisco, where men are allowed to walk the streets fully naked. But if more conservative locales or states choose to do so according to their local community standards, that SHOULD be their prerogative (ditto for legislative attempts to ban abortion or “partial-birth” infanticide). And if liberals are concerned about the death penalty being imposed against homosexuals, and rightly so, they should also be concerned about public policy that promotes homosexual behavior with all its attendant, even life-threatening, consequences.

A good place for America to start “re-criminalizing” would be to ban all bathhouses and sex clubs were sex is allowed to go on in a commercial establishment. “Gay” and straight. See this AFTAH article about ex-”gay” Christian advocate James Hartline’s successful campaign in San Diego to close down a local homosexual bathhouse.

Augusto Pereira de Souza (center)

For more on Brazil: go HERE to read a LifeSite article about the socialist Brazilian President’s “hate speech” plans. And go HERE to read Julio Severo’s blog. To subscribe to LifeSiteNews’ daily news feed, go HERE, and to subscribe to OneNewsNow’s daily news brief, go HERE. — Peter LaBarbera, www.americansfortruth.org

One News Now reports:

__________________________________________

Asylum for Homosexual Perverts U.S. policy
By Charlie Butts – OneNewsNow – 4/6/2010

A homosexual from Brazil has been granted asylum in the United States because he fears mistreatment in his home country over his sexual orientation.

According to LifeSiteNews.com, 28-year-old Augusto Pereira de Souza — as a result of the ruling — will be allowed to work and receive Social Security benefits in the U.S., and eventually will be permitted to apply for permanent residency. De Souza had submitted testimony that he had been verbally harassed by a policeman and, on a separate occasion, been chased by “skinheads” who were armed with baseball bats.

Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality finds the case astounding because Brazil, he notes, is one of the most pro-homosexual countries on the map. He says Christians are the target of animosity in Brazil if they speak out against homosexuality.

Peter LaBarbera”I happen to have a friend, Julio Severo, who left Brazil in fear for being prosecuted as a Christian under the anti-homophobia mechanisms that are being set up in that country,” he explains.

The Americans for Truth spokesman admits he finds it hard to believe that de Souza had anything to fear in Brazil over his choice in favor of homosexuality.

“It’s not becoming a friendly place for people who believe homosexuality is wrong,” he says, “and so this is just preposterous that the United States is accepting a Brazilian homosexual on that basis.”

LaBarbera adds that since Brazil is becoming “a homosexual dream country,” it is a perversion of U.S. asylum policies to grant Brazilian homosexuals the privilege of coming to America over fears of persecution for their lifestyle.

“When you say that your organization is no more hateful than the Catholic church, we have a rare point of agreement. You are both haters.” — Bob Schwartz, Gay Liberation Network

The Catholic Church should also be on the "hate" list, says Bob Schwartz of the Gay Liberation Network.

Bob Schwartz, a leader of the Gay Liberation Network, a Marxist “direct action” group that reportedly lobbied the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to mislabel Americans For Truth as a “hate” website, sent the e-mail below to AFTAH through our website. Schwartz describes himself as a Trotskyist (after Bolshevik Leon Trotsky, who advocated worldwide communist revolution before being assassinated by a Soviet agent in Mexico in 1940). Communists have such a long and storied history defending human rights and individual rights and dignity, you know.

Note that you don’t have to agree with the Catholic Church’s handing of its homosexual/pedophile crisis (most Catholics I know do not) to see the absurdity of labeling the church a “hater” because it defends traditional sexual morality and natural marriage between a man and a woman. The folly of the SPLC’s expanding “hate” dragnet is that it threatens to engulf all religious/moral opposition to homosexuality. Indeed, it would be revealing to query the top 25 “GLBT” activist across the nation and ask them if they would also label, as Matt Barber pokes fun HERE, the following as “hate groups”: Family Research Council, AFA, the Roman Catholic Church, Focus on the Family, the Southern Baptist Convention and ADF. (I posed the question to one young “gay” activist, Alex Blaze, HERE, and received no response.)

[Homosexual activists] Wayne Besen/Evan Hurst/Joe Jervis/Jeremy Hooper/Rea Carey/[insert GLBT activist here]: take up the challenge!

Yes, we’re all “haters” now (except the likes of Schwartz, despite his bully tactics and GLN’s ugly, anti-Christian bigotry). And just like ObamaCare is padding the rolls of the IRS to keep Americans in “compliance” with government “health” mandates, perhaps the SPLC needs an infusion of Obama stimulus funds to expand its already large staff and huge budget to accommodate its “reporting” on the ever-expanding “hate” network.

Note Schwartz’s reference to an article in the Naperville (Ill.) Sun, reprinted below.  The headline for the print edition of this story was changed from “Local anti-gay group rejects ‘hate site’ tag” to “Web site called hateful by civil rights group.” The task ahead, to demonstrate that the SPLC is more of a pro-homosexual, left-wing advocacy group than an honest “civil rights” organization, is a necessary but difficult one. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

GLN’s Schwartz writes:

______________________________________________
From: [Bob Schwartz, Gay Liberation Network]
Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 1:26 PM
To: americansfortruth@comcast.net
Subject: Fwd: [GLN Organizers] LaBarbera Says Group “No More Hateful Than the Catholic Church”

When you say that your organization is no more hateful than the Catholic church, we have a rare point of agreement.  You are both haters.  Hopefully, Ratzinger’s cover-ups of criminal pedophiles will result in more people leaving the gay- and woman-hating Church of Rome.

Bob Schwartz

_______________________

Naperville Sun article:

Local anti-gay group rejects ‘hate site’ tag

March 27, 2010

By JENETTE STURGES  jsturges@stmedianetwork.com

Naperville-based Americans for Truth About Homosexuality describes itself as “dedicated to exposing the homosexual activist agenda.”

Others just describe the group as “hateful.”

The anti-gay group was called out by civil rights group Southern Poverty Law Center for operating a “hate site,” one of 670 identified by the SPLC in its latest issue of their publication, Intelligence Report.

President of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality Peter LaBarbera says he has “taken issue” with that, and is asking for a public apology from the organization and a debate with its president, Mark Potok. His organization, he says, while against homosexuality, is not a hate group. “You can disagree without being hateful,” LaBarbera said.

The Southern Poverty Law Center did not add Americans for Truth About Homosexuality to its yearly listing of hate groups, which this year includes 932 groups including the anti-gay Family Research Institute, chapters of the Ku Klux Klan and the Nation of Islam. Also included on this year’s list of hate groups is Downers Grove-based anti-gay Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment.

But the content of AFTAH’s Web site did warrant the listing, according to Booth Gunther, public affairs coordinator at SPLC.

The AFTAH Web site, www.americansfortruth.com, is largely a collection of articles from across the Web focused on homosexuality that “defend historic Judeo-Christian moral norms,” according to the site.

The Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network, which contacted SPLC to have Americans for Truth About Sexuality added to the list, however, contends that the site, the group and its president spread inciting misinformation about homosexuality.

“Mr. LaBarbera has not only opposed marriage rights, he’s opposed equal employment and equal access. If that criterion were ever applied to other groups, the would be called a hate group,” said Andy Thayer, co-founder of the Gay Liberation Network.

Those who label the site as a “hate site” point to the repeated inclusion of research by Paul Cameron, psychologist at the Family Research Institute whose writings have claimed gays and lesbians are more likely to be child molesters and criminals, as well as the site’s association of homosexuality to everything from crystal meth to the North American Man/Boy Love Association.

Still, LaBarbera contends that his organization and its Web site are no more hateful than the Catholic Church.

As for a public apology or debate, the SPLC says there’s none coming.

“He can debate all he wants,” said Gunther. “We stand by our designation.”

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/2125076,Local-anti-gay-group-hate-tag_NA032610.article

Pictured above is the 'hateful' and 'violence-prone' Matt Barber, Board Member of Americans For Truth, in his days as a professional boxer.

By J. Matt Barber

Though always left of center, the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) once had a reputation as a fairly objective civil rights group. Founded by direct-marketing millionaire Morris Dees and partner Joseph Levin Jr. in 1971, the SPLC made important and honorable contributions to many of the historic civil rights gains of the 20th Century. According to its own materials, the SPLC was “internationally known for tracking and exposing the activities of hate groups.”

Alas, “power corrupts,” as it goes, and the SPLC, having amassed tremendous power and wealth over the years, has regrettably become corrupt to its core. By way of an ever-escalating wave of “us-versus-them” money-grubbing schemes, Today’s SPLC has morphed into a far-left political activist outfit, famous for promoting a panoply of extreme liberal causes.

Ken Silverstein, writing for Harper’s Magazine, addressed this untoward metamorphosis in 2000:

“Today’s SPLC spends most of its time – and money – on a relentless fund-raising campaign, peddling memberships in the church of tolerance with all the zeal of a circuit rider passing the collection plate. ‘He’s the Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker of the civil rights movement,’ renowned anti-death-penalty lawyer Millard Farmer says of Dees, his former associate, ‘though I don’t mean to malign Jim and Tammy Faye.’

“The American Institute of Philanthropy gives the Center one of the worst ratings of any group it monitors,” continued Silverstein. “Morris Dees doesn’t need your financial support. The SPLC is already the wealthiest civil rights group in America, though [its fundraising literature] quite naturally omits that fact. … ‘Morris and I…shared the overriding purpose of making a pile of money,’ recalls Dees’ business partner, a lawyer named Millard Fuller (not to be confused with Millard Farmer). ‘We were not particular about how we did it; we just wanted to be independently rich.’” (You say Fuller. I say Farmer. The two Millards say “call the whole thing off.”)

So, what happens when a dragon slayer – paid per dragon head – runs out of real dragons to slay? Well, he invents new ones, of course. Gotta keep those sprinklers-a-sprinklin.’ (According to Harper’s, “Dees bought a 200-acre estate appointed with tennis courts, a pool, and stables.” SPLC’s 2008 Form-990 shows net assets of over 219 million at the beginning of that year. Yup, there’s a spate to be made in the hate trade.)

Silverstein explains:

“The Ku Klux Klan, the SPLC’s most lucrative nemesis, has shrunk from 4 million members in the 1920s to an estimated 2,000 today [year 2000], as many as 10 percent of whom are thought to be FBI informants. But news of a declining Klan does not make for inclining donations to Morris Dees and Co., which is why the SPLC honors nearly every nationally covered ‘hate crime’ with direct-mail alarums full of nightmarish invocations of ‘armed Klan paramilitary forces’ and ‘violent neo-Nazi extremists…’

Self-described Trotskyite and longtime AFTAH-basher Bob Schwartz of Gay Liberation Network lobbied the SPLC to name Americans For Truth a "hate" group.

But as the real dragons dry-up, new dragons emerge: “Tea Party” conservatives; Evangelical Christians; anti-abortion zealots and anti-gay bigots (read: pro-life and pro-family traditionalists); and, of course, gun-toting, knuckle-dragging 2nd Amendment rednecks. All bundled together – courtesy of the SPLC and Janet “the system worked” Napolitano – in that neat little pejorative package know as – Dun-Dun-Dun! – THE RIGHT-WING EXTREMIST! (You know, basically Middle America.)

So, sadly – shamefully, really – today’s SPLC has become nothing more than a “non-profit” extension of the black helicopter, Huffpo-wing of the Democratic Party – a gaggle of partisan hacks bent on lining their pockets, defaming good people (along with the bad) and filling DNC coffers. (SPLC Director Mark Potok even doubles as a Huffington Post columnist. Seriously. They make it that easy.)

The real problem lies in the fact, however, that the SPLC holds itself out as an objective monitor of potentially violent or subversive hate groups. It presents to municipal, state and federal law enforcement, regular “intelligence files” and an annual “Year in Hate” report. Ostensibly, these reports contain facts – even actionable intelligence – aimed at helping law enforcement officials prevent and/or monitor potentially violent criminal activity.

Then? Perhaps. Now? Not so much.

In recent years the SPLC reports have been utterly tainted – weaponized and used against the leftist group’s ideological and political adversaries. This is a despicable, bad faith abuse of others’ good will, and of the SPLC’s past reputation.

Case in point: Recently, the SPLC came under fire for comparing the “Tea Party” movement and other grassroots conservatives to “terrorists.” Potok slandered “Tea Party” goers, suggesting that “they are shot through with rich veins of radical ideas, conspiracy theories and racism,” and are widely linked to “hate” and “vigilante groups.” Of course there are always a few nuts in any movement, but clearly Potok’s intent was to defame tens of millions of patriotic “Tea Partiers,” simply because he disagrees with them.

It was earlier reported that Janet Napolitano and the Department of Homeland Security relied upon similar reports by the SPLC in preparing the DHS’ own slanderous – now infamous – “Right Wing Extremist” report. You may recall: it painted pretty much all conservatives with that broad, multi-colored brush of “domestic terrorism.” (The report was later pulled, and Napolitano forced to apologize in shame.)

Even more recently, the SPLC launched another in a series of politically motivated attacks against a well-respected Christian organization. The group arbitrarily tagged as an official “hate group” Americans for Truth about Homosexuality (AFTAH).

AFTAH promotes biblical morality, opposes the radical homosexual activist lobby and publicly decries both violence and hatred against homosexuals or anyone else. Although it has been in operation for a number of years, the SPLC only recently labeled AFTAH a “hate group” after being pressured by the Chicago-based “Gay Liberation Network” to do so.

GLN is a fringe group of self-described Marxists and sexual anarchists best known for disrupting peaceful Christian gatherings with raucous, bullhorn-laden protests. In a twist most ironic, GLN leader Bob Schwartz once threatened AFTAH founder Peter LaBarbera in front of witnesses, telling him that if the police weren’t present at a rally, he would have pushed LaBarbera into oncoming traffic. (“Hate crime, anyone?” Love that “tolerance” and “diversity.” Where’s the SPLC when you need them?)

You can only cry wolf so many times before people begin to ignore you. Today, the SPLC’s “hate group” reports have begun to resonate almost exclusively within a far-left echo chamber. Newsflash: Moveon.org wants Bush tried as a “war criminal,” Charlie Sheen thinks the U.S. government was behind 9/11 and, yes, the SPLC has once again awarded its now meaningless “hate group” distinction to yet another conservative organization with which it is admittedly – in every way – both politically and ideologically opposed. Who would’ve thunk it?

Don’t get me wrong. Again, in the past, the SPLC has actually done some good by identifying and monitoring real hate groups such as the KKK, neo-Nazis and Skin Heads.

But now, regrettably, the SPLC has traded in its limited usefulness for radical left-wing activism. It has become much like that which it previously sought to expose. Today it uses the very tactics employed by white nationalists and other bona fide hate groups to malign large groups of people whom the SPLC most decidedly “hates.”

It’s nauseatingly transparent. With empty, ad hominem attacks and pejorative “hate group” smears, the SPLC strives to politically marginalize its ideological opponents. It’s a cynical “guilt-by-false-association” scheme, through which the SPLC hopes – in the public mind’s eye – to equate Christians, “Tea Party” conservatives and other traditionalists to the KKK and neo-Nazis.

Still, in going after Americans for Truth, the GLN surprisingly betrayed its SPLC ally by publicly acknowledging SPLC’s nefarious tactics. GLN boasted that this was the strategy all along. The Gay Liberation Network’s stated goal in goading the SPLC to label AFTAH a “hate group” was to “help assist” in AFTAH’s “political marginalization.”

Of course, by kowtowing to an already deeply marginalized GLN; by so obviously abusing its once-respectable reputation; and by spending its last remaining political capital on such folly, the SPLC has only succeeded in further marginalizing itself.

But, as they say: What’s good for the goose… Let’s try it on for size. It’s a “hate group,” mudslinging good time! In exercise of the SPLC’s trademark “I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I” criterion for arbitrarily determining “hate group” status, I hereby declare the Southern Poverty Law Center an “anti-Christian, anti-conservative hate group.” There, it’s official. Try it. It’s fun!

But seriously, if AFTAH is a “hate group,” then so is Liberty Counsel, Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, American Family Association, the Southern Baptist Convention and the Roman Catholic Church. Any group that observes and defends traditional sexual morality would have to be labeled such.

Heck, for that matter, so would the U.S. Armed Forces, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA. These groups publicly expose the undeniable medical and societal pitfalls associated with the homosexual lifestyle and, therefore, must be “hate groups,” right?

Of course, like any bully, the SPLC only goes after those it believes it can push around. But really, it confers a badge of honor upon every legitimate Christian and conservative organization it so disingenuously mislabels “hate group.” It’s a tacit admission by the SPLC that these groups represent a political threat; that their activities undermine the SPLC’s not-so-thinly-veiled, left-wing agenda. (Kind of like winning a conservative Grammy.)

Indeed, I can’t speak for the many conservative and Christian organizations and ministries with which I’m associated. And of course I hate absolutely no one. Nonetheless, I’d like to officially request that the SPLC add my name to its spurious “anti-gay hate list.” It’s good for one’s conservative and biblical bona fides.”

____________________________________

(Hater Matt Barber hatefully sits on the hate-filled board of the official SPLC “hate group” Americans for Truth.)

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.)

Homosexual activist Wayne Besen screams with a bullhorn into the window of Boston's Park Street Church, which was hosting an "ex-gay" seminar last April. Will the SPLC investigate virulent anti-Christian activists like Besen in its ostensible campaign against "hate"? How would the SPLC react if right-wing conservatives were to terrorize a homosexual church in the same way?

Well, now I think I’ve seen it all. A Chicago-based Marxist “direct action” group, the Gay Liberation Network (GLN) — which smears Chicago’s historic Moody Church as a “House of Hate,” attacks Catholic Cardinal Francis George as a “homophobe,” and compares the Boy Scouts to racist fringe groups  — has successfully lobbied the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to label AFTAH’s website a “hate site.” The GLN and its co-leader, Bob Schwartz, know a thing or two about hate: in 2005, Schwartz told me, as I was standing in opposition to a “gay youth” event in downtown Chicago, that he would have pushed me into the busy city street were it not for the presence nearby of my “friends,” the police. (Read my 2005 account as Executive Director for Illinois Family Institute HERE; imagine if I had made such a veiled, physical threat against Schwartz: I probably would have been arrested on “Hate Crime” charges right then and there.)

There are few things as sinister, and as cynical, as the Left’s manipulation of “hate” as a political weapon to malign Christians and patriotic, conservative Americans. Thankfully, it seems the only people taking the SPLC seriously anymore are the liberal media and hardened, ‘Move On’-types on the Left. The SPLC is a spent force when it comes to moral authority — and even some honest liberals are seeing through its disingenuous campaign to redefine morality as “hate” and “bigotry.” (Don’t look to the SPLC to investigate homosexual haters like Wayne Besen’s notoriously nasty “Truth Wins Out” anytime soon; Besen is shown at right screaming with a bullhorn into the window of Park Street Church in Boston; click here to read the MassResistance story on the shocking 2009 demonstration.)

GLN's Bob Schwartz knows about "hate" ....

The Left is so steeped in its own ideology and self-righteousness that it is oblivious to how out of step it is with everyday Americans. Sure, there are haters on the right like Fred (“God Hates Fags”) Phelps (who despicably pickets U.S. soldiers’ funerals, and whom AFTAH has repeatedly condemned). But there are far more haters on the Left, and they are much better organized and dangerous to American liberty than those on the opposite end of the political spectrum.

On behalf of Americans For Truth, I am gratified at the outpouring of support we have received from pro-family advocates across the country in response to the SPLC’s shenanigans. We’ll say it again: to defend historic Judeo-Christian moral norms is not “bigotry,” and to disagree with homosexual activists is not “hate.” You can contact the Southern Poverty Law Center HERE. God bless you. – Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org; e-mail us: americansfortruth@comcast.net>

Matt Barber’s statement on the SPLC follows the jump:

____________________________________

Statement by Matt Barber, Board Member, Americans For Truth, and Director of Cultural Affairs, Liberty Council:

Contact:  jmattbarber@comcast.net

Date: March 23, 2010

SPLC Fritters Away Last Traces of Credibility

LYNCHBURG, Va. – The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) – a far-left organization famous for promoting a panoply of extreme liberal causes – has launched yet another politically motivated attack against a well-respected conservative organization. The SPLC has arbitrarily tagged as a “hate group” Americans for Truth about Homosexuality (AFTAH). Most recently, the SPLC came under fire for comparing the “Tea Party” movement and other grassroots conservatives to “terrorists.”

AFTAH is a Christian organization that promotes biblical morality and publicly decries both violence and hatred  against homosexuals. Although it has been in operation for a number of years, the SPLC only recently labeled AFTAH a “hate group,” after being pressured by the Chicago-based “Gay Liberation Network.” (GLN is a fringe group of self-described Marxists and sexual anarchists best known for disrupting peaceful Christian gatherings with raucous, bullhorn laden protests.)

Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs with Liberty Counsel, commented: “You can only cry wolf so many times before people begin to ignore you. Newsflash: Moveon.org wants Bush tried as a ‘war criminal,’ Charlie Sheen thinks the U.S. government is behind 9/11 and, yes, the SPLC has once again awarded its now meaningless ‘hate group’ distinction to another conservative organization with which it  is admittedly – in every way – both politically and ideologically opposed. Who would’ve thunk it?

“In the past, the SPLC has actually done some good,” continued Barber. “By identifying and monitoring  real   hate groups such as the KKK, neo-Nazis, and Skinheads, the SPLC once provided information to local law enforcement which was sometimes useful in preventing and investigating subversive and violent activity.

“Unfortunately, in recent years the SPLC has traded in its limited usefulness for radical left-wing activism. It has become exactly   MUCH LIKE [??]  that which it previously sought to expose. It now uses the very tactics employed by white nationalists and other bona fide hate groups to malign large groups of people  whom the SPLC most decidedly ‘hates.’

“It’s nauseatingly transparent ,” said Barber. With empty, ad hominem attacks and pejorative ‘hate group’  smears, the SPLC strives to politically marginalize its ideological opponents. It’s a cynical ‘guilt-by-false-association ‘ scheme, through which the SPLC hopes – in the public mind’s eye – to equate Christians, ‘tea party’ conservatives and other traditionalists to the KKK and neo-Nazis.

“Amazingly, in going after Americans For Truth, the GLN  betrayed its SPLC ally by publicly acknowledging its nefarious strategy. It publicly boasted that this was the strategy all along.  The Gay Liberation Network’s stated goal in  goading  the SPLC  to  label AFTAH a ‘hate group’ was to ‘help assist’ in AFTAH’s ‘political marginalization.’ Of course, by kowtowing to an already deeply marginalized GLN; by so obviously abusing its once-respectable reputation; and by spending its last remaining political capital  on such folly, the SPLC has only succeeded in further marginalizing itself.

“It’s a ‘hate group,’ mudslinging good time!” joked Barber.  ” Let’s try it on for size. In exercise of the SPLC’s trademark ‘I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I’ criteria for determining ‘hate group’ status, I hereby declare the Southern Pov Law Center an officeal  ‘anti-Christian, anti-conservative hate group.’ Try it, it’s fun.

“But seriously,” continued Barber, “If AFTAH is a ‘hate group,’ then so is  Liberty Counsel, Focus on the Family, Family Research Council,  American Family Association, the Southern Baptist Convention and the Roman Catholic Church. Any group that observes and defends traditional sexual morality would have to be  labeled such . Heck, for that matter, so would the U.S. Armed Forces, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA. These groups publically expose the undeniable medical and societal pitfalls associated with the homosexual lifestyle and, therefore, must be ‘hate groups ,’  right?

“Of course, like any bully, the SPLC  only goes after those it believes it can push around. But really, it confers  an honor upon every legitimate Christian and conservative group  that it so disingenuously labels as a ‘hate group.’  This is a tacit admission by the SPLC that these groups represent a threat; that their activities undermine the SPLC’s not-so-thinly-veiled, left-wing agenda.

“I can’t speak for the organizations with which I’m a affiliated and, of course, I hate absolutely no one,” concluded Barber. “Nonetheless, I’d like to officially request that the SPLC add my name to its apurious ‘anti-gay hate list. ‘ It’s good for one’s biblical bona fides.”

(Matt Barber currently, and proudly, sits on the board of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality.)

Focus on the Family web ad rejected by the NCAA.

Behold the latest pathetic capitulation to the Homosexual Lobby by a “mainstream” American institution, the NCAA. It is corporate cowardice of this nature that breeds homo-fascism, a term describing aggressively intolerant homosexual activism that will come to be understood by Americans — as larger and larger portions of the culture cave into the idea that disagreeing with or offending homosexuals (people practicing homosexuality) is beyond the pale. From a logical, historical and spiritual perspective, such an assertion is preposterous, but in the current zeitgeist, emotion, secularism and sheer intimidation trump reason, tradition, and spiritual truth.

Whoever would have thought that 1-3 percent of the population — united around the practice of deviant, unhealthy sex — could command such power? (Only in a declining society, we maintain.) Focus on the Family employs a “soft” resistance to the aggressive “queer” movement (too soft, in our view); if they can’t place an innocuous ad on the NCAA website, then no group defending traditional sexual morality can.

And the hucksters (homosexual and straight) who push the “gay” agenda do so in the name of “diversity.” What a sham. Memo to homosexual extremists: keep demanding such bans on opposing viewpoints — and cheer loudly whenever a pro-normalcy group is silenced! The more you do, the more the American people will see your true colors — which do not match a rainbow’s but rather the oppressive black of a censor’s pen. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.ogl

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– The following is reprinted from OneNewsNow, the news ministry of American Family Association; subscribe to ONN’s daily news briefs HERE and their e-alerts HERE.

NCAA nixes family ad, Focus ‘befuddled’

The NCAA has withdrawn Focus on the Family’s banner ad on its website, apparently because of the organization’s stance on homosexual relationships.

Associated Press reports the National Collegiate Athletic Association heard from some of its members that the banner conflicted with the organization’s policy of inclusion, regardless of sexual orientation. The ad — part of the pro-family group’s “Celebrate Family – Celebrate Life” campaign — was pulled without any notice, according to Focus on the Family’s Gary Schneeburger.

“We’re a little befuddled, I guess is the best way to say it, that an ad that clearly that was not controversial,” he responds. “It was not even political — it was simply about a father wanting the best for his son….”

The ministry spokesman suggests the banner ad was taken down “not…because the ad itself was offensive, but because the very existence of Focus on the Family apparently to some people is offensive.”

The major governing body of college sports says ads must be in agreement with NCAA principles, and its own standards allow it to exclude advertising and advertisers that it deems “do not appear to be in the best interests of higher education and student athletes.”

“What that tells us,” says Schneeburger, “is that we’re not allowed to advertise our family help services because we have biblical values on issues like marriage.” And if such material were “all of a sudden labeled hate speech,” he says “we have deeper problems in our country than we even know.”

Schneeburger points out that Focus spends 90 percent of its budget on parenting and marriage resources, and only 10 percent advocating on behalf of the unborn and for traditional marriage. The supposedly controversial Super Bowl ad featuring Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam, was part of Focus’s “Celebrate Family – Celebrate Life” campaign.

WARNING: OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE

The following is the complete text of the Nov. 4, 2009 post, “Haters vs.Haters: Peter LaBarbera Attacks Maine’s Stand for Marriage,” by homosexual activist Joe Jervis on his “Joe.My.God.” blog (he took down the post yesterday). The post contains violence-oriented and -threatening comments against me and AFTAH, Maggie Gallagher, founder of the National Organization for Marriage, and Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel by some of Jervis’ readers. We have not changed a single word, so you will read some vulgar and obscene comments.

After the story broke open yesterday, Jervis took down the post [at http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2009/11/haters-vs-haters-peter-labarbera.html], claiming the threatening posts were a “joke” and that our and Matt Barber’s efforts to expose the threatening post was an “obvious attempt to intimidate me and my readers.” Actually, we just sought to expose the extremist rhetoric that could lead a deranged homosexual to kill. We would not fault homosexual advocates to do the same regarding irresponsible and threatening “conservative” rhetoric.

Jervis claims that the comment posted by “Tex” is “clearly a joke,” but as you can see from his two comments below, Tex clearly is serious about the need for violence against Christians to advance the “gay rights” agenda.

Jervis also writes that he’s taken down the controversial only “for the time being,” but “After I’ve thoroughly reviewed all the comments, it’ll go back up.” AFTAH would never post anything encouraging violence against homosexuals — in fact we have denounced such rhetoric; we don’t understand why Jervis feels the need to rationalize comments that endorse homosexual violence against Christians. (Click HERE to read about the phone-in death threat against Maine pro-family veteran Mike Heath, who is also the Board Chairman of AFTAH.)

Yes, Ft. Hood changes everything because it is proof that Political Correctness can end up killing lots of innocent people. Actually, that’s nothing new: liberalism’s naivete and “softness” toward Communism contributed to the deaths of untold millions.

We’ve bolded the most offensive portions, including Fritz’s not-too-subtle “warnings” against violence that might also double as suggestions to the unstable. You can read Jervis’ post explaining his decision to remove the original post HERE — just be prepared to read some vile hate against me and other pro-family leaders if you scroll down to the comments. — Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, www.aftah.org

P.S. Note that committed AFTAH-hater Jervis often gets his facts wrong about Americans For Truth and me.  After all, he and other “gay” extremists continue to smear me as “Porno Pete” — as he does below — and claim without any evidence that I am a secret homosexual. Such are the malicious outpourings of reprobate minds. Thus, Jervis lies about the Maine press conference in which we participated — which he refers to in the first paragraph: in fact, it was very well-attended and covered by numerous print and broadcast media throughout Maine just days before the election that overturned “gay marriage” in the northeastern state.

________________________________________________________

The following is reprinted verbatim from Joe Jervis’ Joe.My.God blog, originally with this URL: http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2009/11/haters-vs-haters-peter-labarbera.html  [the link is dead as Jervis took down the post Nov. 9].

Main | Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Haters Vs. Haters: Peter LaBarbera Attacks Maine’s Stand For Marriage

Still stinging from their refusal to be seen in the same room with him and their later denouncement of his largely unattended Maine “press conference,” Porno Pete LaBarbera and his BFF Matt Barber are attacking Stand For Marriage for the one conciliatory message they issued during the campaign.

I agree with my good friend Matt Barber, who is also a Board Member of Americans For Truth in addition to his important work at Liberty Counsel. It is not ethical nor good strategy for the “pro-family” movement to promote one evil and public-policy disaster (changeable and sinful behavior as a government-backed “civil right”) to fight another (homosexual “marriage”). Yet that is precisely what the Yes on 1 campaign’s pro-domestic partnership ad called “It’s Possible” did. [Click HERE for AFTAH's election story.] Here again is the text of that misguided Yes on 1 ad used in Maine:

‘Abandoning traditional marriage entails real consequences, yet we want to be tolerant of gays. Maine’s Domestic Partnership laws provide substantial legal protection for gay couples. Any problems remaining can be addressed without dismantling traditional marriage. It’s possible to support the civil rights of all citizens and protect traditional marriage at the same time.’

We who claim to follow God are lacking in integrity if we promote the normalization of homosexuality as part of some (perhaps well-intentioned) utilitarian plan to ostensibly “save” traditional marriage. Indeed, the irony of the ad text above is that progressive concessions on “domestic partnership” and “civil unions” legislation will, in fact, dismantle traditional marriage. Yes on 1 PR consultant Frank Schubert’s compromising spin will pave the way for disaster in the pro-family movement, as it undermines our greatest strength: our commitment to the truth. It’s time to reject Political Correctness and get back to basics in the pro-family movement.

“We who claim to follow God…” Did you catch that? Those guys at Stand For Marriage aren’t real Christians because they don’t hate enough for Peter LaBarbera. They hate plenty enough for US, Petey.

Labels [Jervis' blog categories]: assholery, Maine, marriage equality, Matt Barber, Peter LaBarbera, religion, Stand For Marriage

posted by Joe [Jervis, creator of the "Joe.My.God" blog]   19 comments

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Guest says:
5 days ago, 11:42:36 AM
“He’s just sore because fatty matty [Matt Barber] experienced premature ejaculation when they heard the final result, and porno pete only got half a facial instead of the full spray.

________________________________________________________

Lars De says:
5 days ago, 11:48:33 AM
“And the fragmentation of the fundies has begun. Give them enough rope…..

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MarkOH says:
5 days ago, 11:48:37 AM
“What DOES this guy to for a living? Is he really making it on just spewing hate? Does he have another job to pay the bills? If not, I think someone needs to look into his organization.

________________________________________________________

laddie says:
5 days ago, 11:54:25 AM
“”changeable and sinful” huh?  What a dumbass!  He must be one of the advocates for reparative therapy.

________________________________________________________

dwerk says:
5 days ago, 11:55:25 AM
“Is there not a hetero woman out there who is dame enough to sex out these two simpering straight ninnies? Pete’n'Matt, the two most gey sex obsessed heteros on the planet need a real whore to grab them both by the balls and rekindle their hetero sex lives to the point where they will forget all about homo fags and our lives. Come on so called allies, where are the women who will take on these 2 sex-starved pantywastes and make them into real men again?

- – - – - – - – - – -

ColdCountry replies:
5 days ago, 12:07:28 PM
“Not on your life.

________________________________________________________

ColdCountry says:
5 days ago, 12:07:55 PM
“Will someone please give me a gun?

________________________________________________________

David L. Caster says:
5 days ago, 12:09:09 PM
“Rabid dogs come to mind.

________________________________________________________

Parsnip [http://www.funnyanimalbooks.com] says:
5 days ago, 12:11:27 PM
“They want us dead or in prison.  News at 11.

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Bud says:
5 days ago, 12:26:26 PM
“The American taliban has won again.  There is no difference between Christians and Muslims.  One in the same and both evil hateful bastards.

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Fritz says:
5 days ago, 1:08:31 PM
“What I fear is that once gay and lesbian people give up hope of achieving equality through nonviolent means, there will be radicals who will begin to hunt down haters like LaBarbera and Gallagher.

All is will take is a small group of radical zealots who are willing to kill for their cause.

This happens in all cases where people are oppressed and lack representation. Our president must wake up and prevent this from happening.

Otherwise, we will end up like Israel and Palestine. We will have gay and lesbian people strapping bombs to their chests and blowing up churches.

All it will take is one or two more losses like this. If marriage equality is taken away in one of the landmark states, we will see domestic terrorism arise very quickly.

There are people who will come to the conclusion that fear and death are the only weapons gay and lesbian people have at their disposal. Obama must step forward and prevent this from happening.

There are radicals who plant bombs and commit acts of terrorism for causes like the environment and animal rights. It is not out of the question that straight radicals could begin doing things like this on behalf of gay and lesbian people.

Injustice, oppression and a country where weapons and violence are common is not a good combination.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

tex replies:
5 days ago, 1:28:08 PM
“Fritz….you say this like it’s a bad thing?
Maybe a bit of well organized terrorism is just what we need, er, I mean “civil disobediance”…

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Fritz replies:
5 days ago, 1:50:12 PM
“I doubt that you’ll feel that way when some social misfit blows up a straight wedding and images of the bride in a bloodstained dress appears on the cover of Time.

These kinds of things are always horrible. They are always committed by people who are deranged zealots.

Unfortunately, there are deranged zealots in every population — including our own community.

In 1991, I witnessed gay and lesbian activists setting fire to buildings and beating people with baseball bats in Los Angeles.

Fear this. It will not be anything that you will applaud.

________________________________________________________

Alex in Idaho replies:
5 days ago, 1:28:25 PM
“While I understand the desire to fight back, if that really happens,  I’ll see you in the internment camp after the backlash starts, Fritz.  It’s happened before, and our opponents are masters at whipping up hate and hysteria.  (Sorry, feeling a bit paranoid today)

________________________________________________________

Fritz replies:
5 days ago, 1:44:33 PM
“Well, my mother, her parents and her siblings were held in the internment camp at Crystal City, Texas during WWII.

So, you are not being paranoid. You’re just seeing a little bit of history repeating.

________________________________________________________

the crustybastard [http://thecrustybastard.blogspot.com/] replies:
5 days ago, 3:09:12 PM
“I suggest we call them The Pink Panthers.

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David L. Caster replies:
5 days ago, 5:16:31 PM
“I get the reference, but don’t you think that Lavender Panthers is more appropriate?

________________________________________________________

tex says:
5 days ago, 2:01:47 PM
“Still not seeing this as a bad thing Fritz….How many photos of innocent gay people bludgeoned to near death have I seen lately?

Mixner talks about “Gay Apartheid”, but what he fails to mention is the 20 years of bloody revolt that went into the ANC revolution. There was literally blood running through the gutters. I know…I was there in ’88 through ’92, and believe me….they didn’t gain their civil rights through being passive.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Fritz replies:
5 days ago, 2:17:39 PM
“My point is that Obama’s leadership could prevent these kinds of things from happening.

Violence is always a bad thing. Suppose someone plants a bomb at a wedding of one of your family members.

Obama needs to step up and give LGBT people some of that hope for change that he used to win the election. If he doesn’t, there is a very real potential for violence.

I have been seeing people turning to radical language and ideas more and more — especially after the election.

Obama dangled a carrot of hope and then snatched it away. There are dangerous people who will react violently to that. Innocent people could get hurt.

When LGBT leaders start saying “enough” and calling on the community to take a stand, there will be a few who will take it to the extreme. This is how it has always been throughout history. Every movement has the potential for violence no matter how peaceful the core group.

AFTAH note on above graphic: Suggestion on homosexual activist Joe Jervis's blog by commenter "Tex" that violence against Christians isn't a "bad thing." Jervis claims Tex was joking but he is clearly serious as he suggests to Fritz that "maybe a bit of well organized terrorism is just what we need.""

Posted on WorldNetDaily [read full story HERE]: November 09, 2009
10:16 pm Eastern

By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

A homosexual blogger passed off as a “joke” a suggestion by a contributor to his website that there might be church bombings because of Christians’ refusal to support the homosexual lifestyle.

But several individuals named in the column are taking the threat seriously.

“That is what Fort Hood teaches us,” said Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, referring to the attack on the Texas Army base by a Muslim officer that killed 13 people and wounded 28.

LaBarbera was cited by name in the postings on the “joemygod” website run by homosexual advocate Joe Jervis.

“When people are talking about violence to pro-family proponents, you have to take it seriously,” LaBarbera said.

LaBarbera and Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel, who also is an active supporter of biblical marriage, confirmed to WND they notified authorities of the threats.

“The First Amendment gives you the right of free speech but it does not grant the right to claim you have a bomb in your luggage at the airport, it doesn’t give you the right to claim you have a bomb in a movie theater,” Barber said. “It doesn’t protect saying you’ll shut up these Christians up by strapping bombs [on] and blowing up churches.”

The recent postings, taken down “temporarily,” according to Jervis, came from “Fritz” and “Tex.”

Fritz’s comments came after voters in Maine last week made it the 31st out of 31 states to restrict marriage to one man and one woman. He wrote he was concerned about “gay and lesbian people” giving up on obtaining “equality,” and there would follow “radicals who will begin to hunt down haters like LaBarbera and Gallagher,” referring to Maggie Gallagher, a leading pro-family activist who runs the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy.

“All is will take is a small group of radical zealots who are willing to kill for their cause,” “Fritz” wrote. “This happens in all cases where people are oppressed and lack representation. Our president must wake up and prevent this from happening. Otherwise, we will end up like Israel and Palestine. We will have gay and lesbian people strapping bombs to their chests and blowing up churches.”

“Tex” responded, “You say this like it’s a bad thing? Maybe a bit of well organized terrorism is just what we need, er, I mean ‘civil disobedience.’”

LaBarbera said it is ironic in the wake of the “hate crimes” law signed by President Obama that provides special protections to homosexuals that attacks immediately began targeting Christians.

“It seems the more the gay movement achieves, the more hostile the activists become toward religious people,” LaBarbera said. “They know the religious and moral people are the last impediment to their full agenda.”

But he said Fort Hood teaches that targets should not ignore online rantings. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan wrote on the Internet of the conflict between his Muslim teachings and America’s war against terrorism before the attack Thursday. … [story continues at WND]

Click here to read the rest of the WND story: “Gay Blogger Calls Church-Bomb Threat a ‘Joke’”

WARNING: Offensive Images

Malice Targets Maggie: A photo of pro-traditional-marriage advocate Maggie Gallagher’s face is attached to a nude mannequin with “LIAR” written on the stomach — the rooftop creation of West Hollywood homosexual couple ChadMichael Morrisette and Mito Aviles. The deviant duo say the theme for their bigoted rooftop display is the “forces of evil 2009″ — seemingly oblivious to the nastiness of their crude attacks on religious and conservative leaders.

By Peter LaBarbera

Well, it’s Halloween again, so that means more über-tacky rooftop hate-displays by West Hollywood homosexual duo ChadMichael Morrisette and Mito Aviles. Delighted by their 15 minutes of fame last Halloween for infamously hanging a mannequin dressed up as Sarah Palin with a noose around her neck, the homosexual couple this year has broadened its hate campaign by loading their house’s rooftop with several new images attacking social conservatives.

Morrisette and Aviles painted “LIAR” on the stomach of a nude mannequin and attached as its head the face of Maggie Gallagher, the leader pro-family activist fighting “gay marriage.” Gallagher runs the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy and founded the National Organization for Marriage.

(Memo to liberal bloggers and media: please take care to spell Morrisette’s and Aviles’ names correctly when you write your nonjudgmental pieces about their “decorations” — and try not to think about how differently you would craft your piece were the story about “gay” leaders being cruelly depicted on a conservative couple’s rooftop.)

“The reason that ["Gallagher"] is naked is that we are exposing her lies,” Morrissette told Curbed LA.

In addition to the pitiably childish slam against Gallagher, the homosexual couple anti-religious creation features a chopped-in-half and bloodied, upside-down torso of a blond woman hanging from the roof — intended to be Carrie Prejean, the runner-up to Miss California 2009 who was infamously maligned by homosexual gossip columnist and pageant judge Perez Hilton because he didn’t like her sincere answer to a question about “same-sex marriage.”

ChadMichael Morrisette (left) and Mito Aviles stand proudly outside their home with its grotesque, anti-religious displays. Arrow from this "Curbed LA" article points to chopped and bloodied mock torso of "Carrie Prejean" hanging from their rooftop. Click on photo to enlarge.

Mormon missionaries also targeted in hate display.

Curbed LA reports: “Prejean is a ‘victim of Gallagher’s,’ according to Morrissette, because he says her image has been used by the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy.”

The West Hollywood attack-display also features a mock Mormon missionary (below) stuck and burning in a chimney flew — reflective of the larger “queer” activist movement’s disdain for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS)’ central role in passing Prop 8, a ballot amendment that reinstated traditional marriage in California.

Morrisette's and Aviles' handiwork from last Halloween: hanging of GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin in effigy. Some media reported on the incident but the "gay" angle went largely unreported. The anti-Paln stunt was not popular with the homosexual activist couple's neighbors.