Sutherland Statement on Salt Lake City Nondiscrimination Ordinances and LDS  [Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] Support

In response to the November 10, 2009 decision of the Salt Lake City Council to adopt changes in Salt Lake City’s nondiscrimination ordinances, and to comments presented that evening by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), the Sutherland Institute issued the following statement:

The LDS Church, like all religions in Utah, has a vital role to play in making Utah a better place to live, work, and raise a family.  Sutherland’s important role is to help elected officials craft sound, principle-based public policy toward that same end.  We recognize the growing differences between religious and secular cultures within Salt Lake City and commend the LDS Church for its earnest desire to keep cultural and political tensions to a minimum.

As a public relations opportunity, the LDS Church’s statement before the Salt Lake City Council may assuage the minds and soften the hearts of advocates of “gay rights” in Utah.  As a policy statement, it is problematic.  The approved ordinances before the Salt Lake City Council are unsound in principle, clarity, and effect.

We have learned from California and other states that the meaning of marriage will die by a thousand cuts.  Each new inclusion in the law of such vague terms as “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” represents a mounting threat to the meaning of marriage.  Of course, each one, singly and in isolation, does no violence to the meaning of marriage.  However, the legal debate is far ahead of such parochial analysis.  Unfortunately, homosexual activists seeking to redefine the meaning of marriage — as well as activist courts seeking to do the same — do not view these types of ordinances singly or in isolation but as a pattern of public opinion to justify radical changes to law as we saw in California.

As we have stated previously, we hold that the approved ordinances are vague, dangerously broad, and unjust to the parties they seek to regulate.

We, once again, call on the Utah State Legislature to overturn these local ordinances on the basis of sound public policy.

On October 12, 2009, Sutherland Institute published a statement addressing the then-proposed changes in Salt Lake City’s nondiscrimination ordinance.  Read it by clicking here.

A Shocker from Salt Lake City:

The LDS (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Church now officially endorses so-called “gay rights” laws, specifically a Salt Lake City law prohibiting “discrimination” on the basis of “sexual orientation” (homosexual behavior) and “gender identity” (cross-dressing).

From the official LDS Church website: http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/church-supports-nondiscrimination-ordinances

ASSOCIATED PRESS: “Mormons throw support behind gay-rights cause”

DESERET NEWS: “Mormon church supports Salt Lake City’s protections for gay rights”

Astoundingly, both the Massachusetts and California supreme courts expressly and specifically cited their states’ identical “sexual orientation” laws regarding employment and housing as a legal justification for their rulings legalizing so-called homosexual “marriage.”  That indisputable fact alone renders the Church spokesman’s claim that its endorsement of the “sexual orientation” ordinance poses no threat to marriage to be utter nonsense, especially since the Church’s new position will certainly boost homosexual activists’ ongoing efforts in the Utah Legislature to enact an identical state law.

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Goodridge v. Mass. Dept. of Health: “Several amici suggest that prohibiting marriage by same-sex couples reflects community consensus that homosexual conduct is immoral. Yet Massachusetts has a strong affirmative policy of preventing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. See G.L. c. 151B (employment, housing, credit, services); G.L. c. 265, § 39 (hate crimes); G.L. c. 272, § 98 (public accommodation).” Page14 at: http://fl1.findlaw.com/news.findlaw.com/cnn/docs/conlaw/goodridge111803opn.pdf

California Supreme Court, In Re: Marriage Cases: “See, for example, Civil Code section 51 (barring sexual orientation discrimination in the provision of services by any business establishment); Government Code sections 12920 (barring sexual orientation discrimination in employment), 12955 (barring sexual orientation discrimination in housing)… In light of this recognition, sections 1 and 7 of article I of the California Constitution cannot properly be interpreted to withhold from gay individuals the same basic civil right of personal autonomy and liberty — including the right to establish, with the person of one’s choice, an officially recognized and sanctioned family — that the California Constitution affords to heterosexual individuals.” pp 68-69 at: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/archive/S147999.PDF

U.S. House Republican Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, reaffirmed the threat such “sexual orientation” laws pose to marriage in commenting on the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), legislation which would add “sexual orientation” to federal civil rights laws regarding employment.  If enacted, Boehner said, ENDA would “put activist judges in the position of imposing same-sex marriage and civil union laws on states. Simply by using ENDA as the basis of their decisions – just as state Supreme Courts have done with state-level ENDA laws in the past – liberal judges will be empowered under this legislation to single-handedly undermine state and federal marriage laws across the country. I’m disappointed that the Majority turned back a straightforward proposal offered by House Republicans to protect state and federal marriage laws from being overturned, modified, or restricted by activist judges as a result of this deeply flawed legislation.” http://republicanleader.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=78178

Such laws have also been used to discriminate against and punish individuals and businesses who refuse to approve of homosexual behavior and cross-dressing.

It is difficult to believe that LDS officials could be so grossly ignorant of the demonstrably proven threat such laws pose to marriage and to the religious freedoms of the individual, special exemptions for “religious organizations” and the government notwithstanding.  It’s further astounding that church officials would endorse a law banning “discrimination” based on “gender identity,” rendering it illegal for an employer to refuse to hire a man because he (1) dresses as and claims to believe he’s a woman; and (2) demands on that basis to use the women’s restroom at work.

It’s notable in contrast that the Catholic Church refuses to endorse forcing such “sexual orientation” laws on the rest of society just because homosexual activists are politically calculating enough to (at least temporarily) exempt churches. [Editor's Note: in certain areas such as Maine, Catholic bishops or leaders have endorsed homosexual activist laws against the teachings of their Church; such backing in heavily Catholic states usually makes the difference in passage of pro-homosexual legislation.]

From a Vatican directive instructing Catholic bishops to oppose so-called “sexual orientation” laws: “Where a matter of the common good is concerned, it is inappropriate for church authorities to endorse or remain neutral toward adverse legislation even if it grants exceptions to church organizations and institutions. The church has the responsibility to promote family life and the public morality of the entire civil society on the basis of fundamental moral values, not simply to protect herself from the application of harmful laws.”  http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDFHOMOL.htm

We deeply sympathize with the shock that will no doubt be felt by many members of the LDS Church who do understand the implications of so-called “sexual orientation” laws and have expended great effort to oppose them and to educate others.

For example…

Meridian Magazine / The Place Where Latter-day Saints Gather: “Of course, the problem here is that the term ’sexual orientation’ has no innate meaning (in contrast with ‘race’, which does) and no historic or community value (such as ‘religion’) and would require the Utah State Legislature to fabricate its definition.  In other words, adding the term ’sexual orientation’ to Utah law, as demanded (by homosexual activists), would give lawyers standing to attack employers and property owners.” http://www.ldsmag.com/ideas/090204six.html

United Famlies International: “We adamantly oppose the UNHRC sexual orientation provisions for three reasons: 1. Attempts to legalize same sex marriage around the world would be substantially strengthened if homosexual behavior becomes an internationally recognized ‘human right.’” http://meridianmagazine.com/familywatch/040319newsletter.html

UFI brochure on “Sexual Orientation,” perhaps the best and most comprehensive single source on the subject we’ve ever seen… http://unitedfamilies.org/products/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=17

By Peter LaBarbera

I sent the note below to homosexual journalist Rex Wockner after reading his photo-story on the anti-Mormon “kiss-in” protest yesterday in San Diego. (See AFTAH’s report condemning the event HERE.) Turns out this is just one of many “kiss-ins” that have targeted the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) church after a male homosexual couple was arrested for trespassing on LDS church property in Salt Lake City after (if you believe LDS officials) flaunting their homosexuality. My goodness, that’s right up there with Jim Crow and anti-black segregation of the past — not. “Those big, bad churches won’t let us celebrate our deviant sexuality!” Oh, the heterosupremacy of it all!

Looking at Wockner’s photos of the over-indulged homosexual (and a few heterosexual) kisser-protesters, I suppose my characterization of this strange event as “Perversion Coercion” was a bit over-the-top — since it doesn’t appear as if the LDS church is going to be “coerced” anytime soon by this hapless lot mocking the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God outside those white temple fences. (But make no mistake: there is a long and sordid history of “queer” harassment of and attacks on churches and religious opponents.)

What is over-the-top, however, is the liberal (“mainstream”) media treating every “queer” protest and event as important news. (Meanwhile, Associated Press and all national media skipped our coalition press conference in Chicago against President Barack Obama’s “gay” agenda — held on the very day that Obama was capitulating to the “Gay” Lobby by signing an Executive Order supporting “domestic partners.”) If homosexual activists do succeed in destroying the influence of the church and ushering in the oxymoronic notion of government-supported homosexual “marriage,” the woefully biased American media will be able to claim major credit.

Here’s my note to Wockner:

Hey Rex, 25 media people at the anti-Mormon “kiss-in”? …

… according to your report. That’s almost more than the number of protesting kissers [30] themselves! Every pro-family leader I know would be shocked if half that many media showed up at one of their events. … So who’s got the power now?  The “gay victim” charade is getting a wee bit old given the media’s and Hollywood’s ubiquitous promotion of all things homosexual and transgender.

Hope you’re well. Here’s my take on Empowering Spirits’ silly call for “dialogue” at a protest designed to mock and defy Mormon values: http://americansfortruth.com/news/fk-the-mormons-homosexual-group-stages-another-kiss-in-at-a-mormon-temple.html#more-2957

– pl

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

By Peter LaBarbera

Dear Readers,

Imagine this nightmare scenario: four days ago, your family received a letter out of the blue from a homosexual activist organization notifying you, in “respectful” language, that your family is the target of a protest. Upset that you sent money to support Proposition 8 in California — reinstating marriage as between a man and a woman — the “gay” group informs you that about ten homosexual couples will show up on the sidewalk in front of your house on July 22nd (today) at 5:00 PM and engage in prolonged same-sex kissing with each other.

Wielding their public deviance as a political tool, the militant “gay” protesters call their event a “kiss-in” — knowing that you regard their homosexual behavior as unnatural and immoral, that it makes you extremely uncomfortable, and that it will embarrass you in front of your neighbors (and the media, whom they called in). Nevertheless, they assure you that they “respect” you and your religion and that they are happy to engage in “dialogue” with you in between their lip-locking acts of homoerotic defiance.

Well, your nightmare is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’ (LDS) reality as they face another homosexual “kiss-in” protest at their San Diego temple this evening. After reading the Associated Press story about the San Diego “kiss-in” on the “gay” news site “355Gay.com,” I posted the following comment responding to it:

Homosexual activists are the ultimate hypocrites when it comes to “tolerance.” You see nothing wrong with offending the religious sentiments and moral beliefs of Mormons with your obnoxious “kiss-in” outside an LDS temple. Then you cry foul when religious people offend you with their heartfelt beliefs that same-sex “marriage” is wrong. The only good that comes from your incessant religion bashing is that it reveals your true hatred for traditionalists to the wider public. Stop lying by telling Americans that your “respect” their faith teachings and the right to live them out in the public square. You clearly do not.

Going to the “Empowering Spirits Foundation” website, I found this incomprehensibly self-serving description of their homosexuality-celebrating “kiss-in”:

This is to be a peaceful rally to encourage dialogue between LDS [Mormon] officials and those seeking equal rights. Love unites, and we will join together to not only display our endless support for equality, but for those with differing opinions, including the LDS church. We’ve also invited officials from the Mormon Church to engage in dialogue with us through this letter.

Please refrain from any profanity during the protest and do not bring signs that demean any religious organization, including the LDS church.

Orwellian “dialogue”

Let’s deconstruct the Empowering Spirits’ Orwellian Gayspeak. They are rubbing their perversion in the face of a church in the name of “respectful dialogue.” “Don’t offend the Mormon church by swearing,” they say, as though they truly respect the Mormons’ morality, “but it’s fine to flaunt your homosexual behavior outside their temple even though LDS teachings regard homosexual acts as sinful … Because it’s all about “dialogue,” you know.”

The poor “gay” activists are totally caught up in their own self-righteous delusion that their cause somehow approximates a “civil rights” movement. Yes, they even seem to believe that their homo-fascist stunts are “respectful” toward their targeted victims. And they are so convinced that their misguided goal of legalizing homosexual “marriage” is noble that they employ a crude ends-justifies-the-means approach to everything, including harassing a church.

Definition of marriage is ‘trivial’?

In this portion of a letter sent to LDS President Thomas Monson just three days before the scheduled “kiss-in,” Empowering Spirits Executive Director A Latham Staples characterizes the LDS teaching on marriage as a mere “pious triviality”:

Surely by now, the Church understands the value of teaching tolerance…Differing sides may not always agree, but we must not focus on pious trivialities as this corrupts our society.

Preserving the age-old definition of marriage as a “pious triviality”? This isn’t respect. It’s contempt. It’s not “dialogue” but coercion. Call it Perversion Coercion, it you will, and the goal is to intimidate religious people and churches into submission. And ex-”gay” Christian activist James Hartline has it right when he says that Empowering Spirits would never try to pull a “kiss-in” stunt like this in front of a mosque. That might upset the preposterous “gay-Muslim” alliance that will disintegrate when everyday adherents of Islam realize that the Homosexual Lobby despises their religion, too — or at least the part that teaches that homosexual acts are always wrong.

Here’s the AP story (which reads more like a “gay” press release) in 365Gay.com, followed by the posted comments as of last night, in which some react with a four-letter cuss word to express their attitude toward the Mormons’ defense of natural marriage:

___________________________

San Diego group plans ‘kiss-in’ at Mormon temple
By The Associated Press
07.21.2009 1:33pm EDT

(Salt Lake City) A gay rights group plans to stage a mass kissing demonstration outside the San Diego Mormon temple as a show of support for a gay couple cited for trespassing in Utah after sharing a kiss on church property.

The Empowering Spirits Foundation says the “kiss-in” is intended as a peaceful rally to encourage dialogue between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the gay community.

The event is scheduled for Wednesday evening at the temple near La Jolla, Calif.

It would be the third kissing demonstration held since Matt Aune and Derek Jones were cited for trespassing on the church-owned Main Street Plaza on July 9 in Salt Lake City.

The couple refused to leave the plaza when security guards who saw the kiss said the behavior was inappropriate.

___________________________

Posted Comments (expletives cleaned up by AFTAH):

* Samantha said (July 21st, 2009 at 1:39 pm):

Good for them!

* Lorion said (July 21st, 2009 at 1:59 pm):

Go for it. ..and do make it a community ‘even’t ALL couples invited.

* Peter said (July 21st, 2009 at 2:01 pm):

Let’s see EVERY POSSIBLE COMBO in that crowd – kissing till the cows come home!!!!

* Allan said (July 21st, 2009 at 2:52 pm):

I’ve come across this letter from the organization holding the rally to the church, which I think fully describes the intent of the rally. It’s a peaceful rally to encourage dialogue with the church, not a protest. I must admit that A. Latham Staples is very eloquent in his attempt to engage in conversation with LDS officials.

http://www.empoweringspirits.org/PRDocServer/LDS_Unity_Rally_072009.pdf

* Michael said (July 21st, 2009 at 4:17 pm):

This is awesome. I always thought it would be really fun to do something like this on the one day a year the temples open to the public for tours. Have gays and lesbians walk through as couples and hold hands etc. [F**k] the mormons. They suck.

* Matteo said (July 21st, 2009 at 4:45 pm):

@ michael: don’t you see that saying “[f**k] the mormons, they suck” is just as ignorant and ultimately pointless as people on forums who say “[f**k] the gays, they suck.”

Sure, as we eventually progress to equal rights, we shouldn’t snub groups that are routinely hostile to people who identify as LGBT. We should be the bigger men and women and progress graciously. We should certainly be as open-minded, honest, and positive as (a) we would like people to be with us and (b) the doctrine of the people who seek to halt our rights.

The letter written by the people who are organizing this event reflect those sentiments and I believe progress will be made faster and less hatred will be felt on all sides the more we keep our hearts and minds open.

Ultimately we are working for the open inclusion, freedom, dignity and rights for everyone prescribed by our constitution, are we not?

Hatred can’t be defeated by hatred, nor fire deflected with more fire. Heaping more fire onto the pile will just cause everything to burn together.

* Jay said (July 21st, 2009 at 5:09 pm):

Good. We need more direct action. We have been too passive too long. Too many of us are too comfortable in the back of the bus. We need to stand up for our rights more aggressively.

* John said (July 21st, 2009 at 5:20 pm):

Well said Matteo! The GLBT community needs to take the high road, where there is less traffic.

Calling people names does not change minds and will not win the P.R. battle for these civil rights.

For many Mormons, this was simply a trespassing/private property issue. For GLBT people this was about equal treatment, respect and fairness.

If we just yell and scream at each other, we might feel better in the short term, but in the long term we won’t get to where we way we want to go.

If you want love and respect, you need to give love and respect.

* Porter said (July 21st, 2009 at 5:20 pm):

This is good news thats what this world is lacking love it the only thing thats universal and it wont be denied !!

* Gary A. said (July 21st, 2009 at 6:22 pm):

I second thaat, [F**K] THE MORMANS, THEY SUCK

* John said (July 21st, 2009 at 9:18 pm):

Ditto what Michael says: [F**K] THE MORMONS!

TAKE ACTION: Contact Utah Senate President Michael Waddoups and other GOP Utah Senate leaders and urge them to reinstate Utah St. Sen Chris Buttars (right) and NOT to punish him for speaking his mind against the aggressive and often hateful homosexual activist movement. Use the following contact information: e-mail: waddoups@utahsenate.org (other GOP State Senate leader e-mails HERE); Waddoups’ senate office: (801) 538-1407 or Utah Senate switchboard: 801-538-1035. Support Buttars at dcbuttars@utahsenate.org.

___________________________

By Peter LaBarbera

Folks, I don’t know which aspect of this story is more preposterous: the notion of anti-Christian, homosexual lobby groups like Human Rights Campaign (HRC) — with their long history of demonizing people of faith as hateful bigots — setting themselves up as arbiters of responsible speech; OR … the specter of Republican Party leaders bending to pro-Democratic HRC’s pressure tactics.

My good friend Matt Barber (a Board Member of AFTAH) is correct below: if the Republican Party’s leaders think they are going to succeed in the long run by caving in to the Left’s version of “tolerance,” then we’re looking ahead at decades of Democrat Party rule in these United States. You simply cannot appease the homosexual activist movement, and groups like HRC are now engaged in a campaign of intimidation against pro-family lawmakers nationwide. Their unsubtle campaign attempts to classify any discussion of organized homosexual activism as a “threat” as beyond-the-pale hate speech leading to violence. More ominously, savvy homosexual moneymen like Tim Gill are targeting pro-family legislators for defeat using out-of-state “gay” PAC bundling, and it’s working [see this 2007 NPR story, "Wealthy Gay Donors a New Force in Politics," featuring Americans For Truth].

Chris Buttars is hardly alone: remember Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern, who was trashed by hateful homosexuals across the country for a speech she gave identifying the “Gay” Lobby as a serious threat to our nation? (Kern easily won reelection last year despite the hate campaign.) There have been other pro-family lawmakers who have been targeted in what is becoming a new “gay” direct-action political tactic of Intimidate, Demonize and Isolate Politically. (Take note of how the Left tried to erroneously paint Buttars as a racist; here’s a link with Buttars’ response.)

We understand that Sen. Chris Buttars is somewhat of a curmudgeon who comes from a different generation of Americans less apt to use politically-correct nuances and obey the speech codes set up by hypocrites on the Homosexual Left (who are among, of course, the most intolerant activists in the nation). But for Waddoups and the Utah State Senate GOP leadership to buckle to a group like HRC (see their pressure-letter against Buttars HERE) is unconscionable and a good example of why so many cynical conservatives call the GOP the “stupid party.”

The Republicans need to follow the example of their new chairman, Michael Steele, and get a backbone, and St. Sen. Chris Buttars should be reinstated to his post on the Judiciary Committee ASAP.

TAKE ACTION: Contact Utah Senate President Michael Waddoups and other GOP Utah Senate leaders and urge them to reinstate Utah St. Sen Chris Buttars and NOT to punish him for speaking his mind against the aggressive and often hateful homosexual activist movement. Use the following contact information: e-mail: waddoups@utahsenate.org (other GOP State Senate leader e-mails HERE); Waddoups’ senate office: (801) 538-1407 or Utah Senate switchboard: 801-538-1035. Support Buttars at dcbuttars@utahsenate.org. 

________________________________

Statement by Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs at Liberty Counsel (and Board Member of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality):

Contact: jmattbarber@comcast.net; February 24, 2009

Homosexual Activists Target Veteran Utah Legislator

Lynchburg, VA – During recent comments to a documentary film maker, Utah State Senator Chris Buttars observed that – as every major world religion and thousands of years of history have held – the homosexual lifestyle is immoral. Buttars further opined that militant homosexual activism poses a grave threat to American culture. Tens of millions of Americans and the majority of Utahns happen to agree.

Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs with both Liberty Alliance Action and Liberty Counsel*, released the following statement today in response to news that Utah Senate President Michael Waddoups has caved to pressure by an anti-Christian homosexual hate group (the “Human Rights Campaign”) and has taken punitive action against Buttars by removing him from his post as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“If you need a prime example of why the Republican Party is presently spiraling into the abyss of political irrelevancy, you need look no further than to Utah,” said Barber. “The conservative majority in both Utah and across the country is starved for leaders who will represent the traditional values upon which our great nation was founded, and who will do so boldly and unapologetically. Sen. Buttars has done just that. He was elected in Utah to represent his constituents and the conservative values they hold near and dear. He’s been tested and has passed that test. By bucking left-wing extremism and speaking truth in plain and simple terms, Buttars has shown true leadership. Although his comments certainly lacked in political correctness and were quite direct, they were acutely accurate. Wouldn’t it be nice if more politicians would speak directly and accurately?

“Unfortunately, Senate President Waddoups has failed the same test. He’s responded in exactly the wrong way. No one should be surprised that HRC and other radical leftists are calling for Buttars’ head on a silver platter. That’s what bullies do when they don’t like what they hear. The self-styled proponents of ‘tolerance’ and ‘diversity’ are the most intolerant and hateful among us.  They allow zero room for dissent and seek to destroy anyone who stands in their way.

“But what is troubling is that Senator Waddoups has played right into their hands. He’s given their radical left-wing agenda an illusory air of legitimacy. He had a golden opportunity to shine here by standing firmly behind Senator Buttars. He could have told these liberal extremists to take their extremism elsewhere. Instead, he threw Senator Buttars under the bus.

“Waddoups’ equivocation is a slap in the face to his own constituents. He’s indirectly told every American who holds a biblical view of sexual morality and who rightfully believes that radical homosexual activism poses a grave threat to our American culture, that they should be ashamed of these traditional beliefs – that they should keep these beliefs to themselves.

“Therefore, I’m asking that people contact Sen. Waddoups and respectfully request that he immediately reinstate Sen. Buttars to his post as chairman of the Judiciary Committee and publicly apologize to both Buttars and to the millions of Americans whose traditional values Waddoups has impugned,” concluded Barber.

(*Titles provided for identification purposes only.)

###

 __________________________________

TAKE ACTION: Contact Utah Senate President Michael Waddoups and other GOP Utah Senate leaders and urge them to reinstate Utah St. Sen Chris Buttars and NOT to punish him for speaking his mind against the aggressive and often hateful homosexual activist movement. Use the following contact information: e-mail: waddoups@utahsenate.org (other GOP State Senate leader e-mails HERE); Waddoups’ senate office: (801) 538-1407 or Utah Senate switchboard: 801-538-1035. Support Buttars at dcbuttars@utahsenate.org. 

Gosh, I think Jesus Christ might be reconsidering his endorsement of the divine institution of marriage now that actor Jack Black (playing Jesus in the blasphemous video below) thinks it’s wrong to prevent two guys from getting hitched. I mean, after all, Black is the star of “School of Rock”; what greater cultural authority do we need than that? (Oh, I forgot: Ellen DeGeneres is also mad at Prop 8 — well that settles it: God is wrong!)

Here we have anti-religious bigotry and Hollywood snobbery at its worst. There are a lot of things funnier than this video, but one of them is the idea that a bunch of spoiled Hollywood actors have any moral authority on right vs. wrong, Christian truth, marriage, etc.  Note how money (alleged “gay” tourist $$$ for homosexual “weddings”) tops transcendent morality in the video. We’ll deal with the silly shellfish canard later. — Peter LaBarbera

• Lansing, Mich. » Services at an evangelical church were disrupted by members of an extremist group called Bash Back! An affiliated group claimed it poured glue into the locks of an LDS [Latter-Day Saints] church building near Olympia, Wash., and spray painted its walls. [Note: we went to a Bash Back! website and apparently there is a dispute over whether the Washington attack occurred and if so, whether it had a connection to the lesbian/anarchist group that carried out the Michigan church assault--AFTAH];
• Riverside, Calif. » Forty to 50 signs supporting Proposition 8 were found arranged in the form of a swastika on the front lawn of a Roman Catholic church.
• San Luis Obispo, Calif. » Vandals poured adhesive on a doormat, key pad and window at two LDS churches and peppered a nearby Assembly of God church with eggs and toilet paper.
• Sacramento » Ten area church buildings were vandalized, according to The Sacramento Bee.
• Orangevale, Calif. » An LDS chapel sign and walkways were tagged with the phrases, “No on 8″ and “hypocrites.”
• Arapahoe County, Colo. » The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a case of a Book of Mormon that was set on fire and left burning on an LDS church’s doorstep as a bias-motivated arson.
• Wasatch Front » More than seven LDS churches have had glass doors shattered, six of them by BB gunshots.
• LDS temples in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles » The temples, along with a Catholic Knights of Columbus printing press in Connecticut, all received packages with white powder substances in the mail.
• Syracuse » A Syracuse Junior High seminary was evacuated after a mysterious letter was sent to the building
• Weber State University » A plastic plant was lit on fire inside a Weber State University Institute building after an evening talk given by LDS Apostle Elder Boyd K. Packer.
• Farmington » Farmington police are looking for a person who spray painted “Nobody is born a biggot” (sic) on a concrete wall outside an LDS church.
• A Torrance, Calif.» A man is charged with a felony hate-crime assault for allegedly using an anti-gay marriage lawn sign to attack a gay man wearing a “No on 8″ button
• San Jose, Calif.» Police were called to a house in the southern part of town after homeowners reported their garage had been spray-painted with “No on 8″ messages. The homeowners had signs on their lawn supporting the measure
• Sacramento suburb » Police arrested three teens after finding 53 stolen “Yes on 8″ signs in their car
• Salt Lake City » A man reported his lawn sign, opposing the LDS church’s role in politics, was set on fire outside his home near 900 East and 900 South

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

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

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WorldNetDaily.com; posted November 14, 2008

Counterfeit Marriage and its Counterfeit Movement

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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