If you don't want to miss anything posted on the Americans For Truth website, sign up for our "Feedblitz" service that gives you a daily email of every new article that we post. (This service DOES NOT replace the regular email list.) To sign up for the Feedblitz service, click here.
Folks, this is by no means a blanket endorsement of Comedy Central’sSouth Park–which is pretty much an Equal Opportunity Offender and often vulgar. But here the creators nailed it on the growing phenomenon of liberal “safe spaces” designed to “protect” college students and other fragile “progressives” from ideas they don’t like. This 2-minute video has more than 2.2 million views on YouTube; my favorite line is at :53:
“people that support me mixed in with, more people that support me and say nice things…”
Shoebat slams LaBarbera as “filthy pig” for denouncing his holy-war approach toward homosexualism
Ted Shoebat
“[W]e do not have the right to take the law into our hands and attack homosexual men and women. And if you have God’s heart of love and you want to see them saved and transformed, why would you want to beat them up?”–Dr. Michael Brown
______________________
Dear AFTAH Readers,
I support my friend and Christian leader Dr. Mike Brown in exposing the reckless rhetoric of Christian Ted Shoebatfor condoning anti-homosexual violence. For my entire professional career in the pro-family and conservative movements, I have eschewed violence and real hatred against people caught up in homosexuality–and I’m not going to change now.
Recently, Shoebat viciously attacked yours truly as as a “filthy pig” because I–like Dr. Brown, Matt Barber and Linda Harvey and many other pro-family leaders–criticized his “holy war” approach toward the homosexual agenda. (See video below captured by the pro-homosexual organization People For the American Way’s “Right Wing Watch.“) [See the new Shoebat video criticized by Brown HERE; more on this controversy will follow.]
Some of my friends in the movement opposed to Big Gay Inc have opined that Shoebat sounds more like a fundamentalist Muslim than a Christian with his irresponsible rhetoric. Jihadist, Sharia-loving Islamists–not faithful Christians–advocate stoning homosexuals and pushing them off of tall buildings. Shouldn’t we emulate our Savior, Jesus Christ, who said to the Pharisees who were about to stone a woman they caught in adultery:
“Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8; see Matthew Henry commentary HERE)
And to the woman shown mercy the Lord said:
“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
We must, as Dr. Brown often says, Resist the homosexual-bisexual-transgender agenda, while Reaching Out to homosexuals with the Gospel and love of Christ. Having said that, I am not like one of those namby-pamby evangelicals or “cafeteria Catholics” who seeks an accommodation with homosexualism. Shoebat below derisively references “Chick-fil-A Christians”–but AFTAH was almost alone in challenging Chick-fil-A C.O.O. Dan Cathy’s regrettable 2014 capitulation to Political Correctness when he decided to “step back from the gay marriage debate.” This effectively sold out the many thousands of Christians who stood in line at CfA restaurants on “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” in 2012 to defend Cathy’s right to speak out for Truth in the Public Square. But more importantly, Cathy sold out his God. Not coincidentally, one of the people who advised Cathy to retreat on marriage was Shane Windmeyer, a homosexual activist (the founder of Campus Pride) whom Cathy had befriended.
Loving sinners biblically should not abet a sin movement, and going silent on homosexualism does just that.
In contrast, Mike Brown is not seeking the world’s favor. He ably works to achieve the right balance of loving homosexual and gender-confused strugglers while bravely challenging the LGBTQ-IAAM (“It’s All About Me”) sin lobby. Shoebat’s rhetoric not only justifies thuggery against homosexuals and does harm to the Gospel, as Mike states. It also makes it easier for “gay” radicals and their allies to advance legislation like the Criminalizing Christianity Act (aka LGBT “Equality Act”)–thus inadvertently helping them to extinguish the voice of believers in the culture. All in the name of “stopping anti-gay violence and hate.” — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; @PeterLaBarbera
Mike Brown writes:
___________________________________
No, Theodore Shoebat, Jesus Would Not Have Killed Gays
In a very troubling video, Theodore Shoebat, son of former Muslim Walid Shoebat, has claimed that if “sodomites” had walked into the temple of Jerusalem, Jesus would have killed them.
This is absolutely outrageous, totally unscriptural and downright dangerous.
Mr. Shoebat, I urge you to repent.
To be perfectly clear, I agree with Theodore that homosexual practice is detestable in God’s sight (as stated plainly in the Scriptures); I totally oppose same-sex “marriage”; and I firmly believe that homosexual activism is the principle threat to our freedoms of religion, speech, and conscience.
I also share Theodore’s abhorrence of the abusive acts of homosexual predators, just as I abhor the abusive acts of heterosexual predators.
At the same time, I categorically reject his encouragement of violent acts against homosexual men and women, and I renounce his statement that Jesus would have killed homosexuals who walked into the temple.
Christopher Doyle, founder and president of Voice of the Voiceless, came out of the homosexual lifestyle and is now happily married with children. Doyle is a professional counselor who helps others find freedom from homosexuality. Read his testimony, and a Mercator interview with Doyle. To support the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, which is defending JONAH against the well-funded SPLC, go HERE.
This article first appeared in the Christian Post, June 17, 2015
This Monday marked the second full week of testimony in the “Trial of the Century”, pitting Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH), a small, New Jersey-based Jewish non-profit organization, against the $340 million dollar Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
At issue are SPLC’s claims that JONAH committed consumer fraud by supposedly guaranteeing four former clients that they could go from “gay” to “straight” in 2-4 years. SPLC recruited these clients to sue JONAH in what has become another installment in the nationwide effort to prevent individuals with unwanted same-sex attractions from accessing counseling.
But SPLC’s case is unraveling at the seams, and the lies that mark this trial should be a lesson for the nation.
First, last Wednesday, under cross-examination by attorney for the defense Charles LiMandri of the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, Dr. Carol Bernstein, an expert witness for the plaintiffs and a well-known psychiatrist and Vice Chair of the New York University (NYU) School of Medicine, conceded that sexual orientation is fluid and can change. She went on to state that she has not conducted any research on the effectiveness of sexual orientation change effort (SOCE) therapy or familiarized herself with any studies looking at harm from such efforts.
Additionally, when asked about the particular type of counseling, psychodrama, that JONAH uses in its practice, Dr. Bernstein replied that it was not a well-respected counseling modality, despite that fact that Columbia University, where she attended, offers a course for undergraduate students on the method, a fact of which she was unaware.
Folks, the following is a promotional piece written by WND.com for the March 2015 edition of its print magazine, Whistleblower. Go HERE to subscribe to Whistleblower–there is a bonus offer for new subscribers–or go HERE obtain just a single copy of the “Hate Racket” issue. To order by phone, call WND at 800-496-3266 (800-4WND-COM). You can also email WND at support@wnd.com.
As an occasional writer for Whistleblower (and WND), I highly recommend the magazine. It is well worth the $39.95 subscription price. Editor David Kupelian does a terrific job in offering a comprehensive take on a critical issue from various perspectives–in this case, the SPLC’s cynical “hate” scam, which has AFTAH among its targets. My family subscribes to Whistleblower and I encourage you to do the same. Or, at the very least, get this “Hate Racket” issue for $7.50 and share it with others. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera
__________________________________
THE HATE RACKET: How one group cons government into equating Christians and conservatives with Klansmen and Nazis – and rakes in millions doing it!
It never has made sense, and most Americans are at a loss to explain it.
Why – in an era when virtually all violent extremism and terror activity in the U.S. comes from those in the grip of radical Islam – is the government obsessed with “rightwing extremism”?
Likewise, why are the major news media always looking for – one could almost say hoping for – evidence that “rightwing extremists” are the culprits in high-profile terror attacks, as proven by network news reports absurdly suggesting the Boston Marathon bombers and the Aurora, Colo., movie theater mass shooter were actually “rightwing extremists” or “tea party” members.
Even the Obama-era Department of Homeland Security and FBI have been preoccupied with threats of “rightwing extremists,” warning law enforcement to watch out for unstable constitutionalists, radical pro-lifers, violent Second Amendment advocates, “anti-immigrant” activists and, especially, returning military veterans.
With genuine mega-threats to the American homeland looming daily from murderous, genocidal jihadists, why the fixation on phantom “rightwing extremists”?
Meet the Southern Poverty Law Center. This super-wealthy public-interest law firm headquartered in Montgomery, Ala., which decades ago made a name for itself by fighting the Ku Klux Klan, today presents itself as the nation’s premier defender of civil liberties and protector of the innocent from violent extremism. Behind this veil, however, today’s SPLC is revealed to be the wellspring and dominant think tank for outrageously defamatory leftwing attacks on individuals and organizations that embrace traditional Judeo-Christian values.
The group’s primary modus operandi? Demonize and defame mainstream conservatives, Christians and Jews by lumping them together with genuine haters like neo-Nazi Skinheads and the Ku Klux Klan. Then highly publicize those “Hatewatch” lists and “Hate Maps,” soliciting millions of dollars in donations to help SPLC combat all those supposed rightwing “haters” and “extremists” out there.
Not a Hater: Austin Ruse of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM). Ruse’s group has been slandered by the leftist SPLC as a “hate group.”
By Peter LaBarbera
The pro-LGBT Left’s “hate” game is a cynical exercise in demonization and manipulation: by smearing people and organizations that oppose homosexual “marriage” or “gay” activism as “haters,” they seek to establish a narrative that delegitimizes any opposition to homosexualism as the moral equivalent of racism. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has turned this spurious tactic into a money-making machine–see the current issue of WND’s Whistleblower magazine, “The Hate Racket.”
Finally people of faith are fighting back: American Family Association has created an “[Anti-Christian] Bigotry Map” in response to the heavy-handed SPLC’s farcical “Hate Map,” on which AFTAH and more than a dozen other pro-family organizations are listed.
Below is an example of how homosexual activists like Joe Jervis, creater of the Joe.My.God blog, play the SPLC hate card against pro-family advocates. Note Jervis’ headline:
“Haters Are Thrilled that Italian Designers Dolce & Gabbana Oppose LGBT Rights”:
The alleged “hater” to which Jervis refers is not hateful at all. Austin Ruse is a Breitbart writer, a dedicated Catholic family man and the president of Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, which fights for pro-life and pro-family values at the United Nations. Ruse is a smart and capable guy–but his organization, like AFTAH, has been slandered by the SPLC as a “hate group” [see the map’s New York listings; AFTAH is found in the map’s Illinois listings].
Folks, I’ve taken the extraordinary step of asking some pro-life and pro-family leaders and friends to vouch for me in the face of a leftist attempt to dislodge me as a speaker at the upcoming Saskatchewan Pro-Life Association event April 11-12. [See AFTAH story HERE.] The following note is from Joe Scheidler, one of my personal heroes and the founder of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League. Scheidler’s “Truth Tours” featuring placards with photos of unborn babies victimized by what the liberals call “choice” have educated countless tens of thousands of people across America as to the murderous reality of abortion-on-demand.
Thanks to Joe and all the wonderful leaders and advocates who have come to my defense regarding the Canada trip. The Left is whipping up hysteria in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, and sadly more than a few pro-lifers are confused about the false charge of “hate” leveled against me. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH
_________________
Joe Scheider writes:
I called the Saskatchewan Pro-Life Assn. and told Loraine what a great guy Peter is and that we have worked with him over the years and that being picketed by a bunch of homosexuals will bring publicity to his talk and to get word to the people in charge to greet him with open arms. She said she’d pass on my message of support. They have been getting lots of calls, letters, e-mails, etc. Best.-Joe
Another scalp for Big Gay Inc. means diminishing freedom of conscience for Americans
Ideology over Performance: Brendan Eich is extremely qualified to be Mozilla”s CEO. He just thinks the wrong way about the preservation of natural marriage–according to LGBT militants–igniting a homosexual activist campaign against him.
By Peter LaBarbera
In the type of story that has become all too common, the Los Angeles Timesreports: “Just days after taking the job, Brendan Eich has resigned as chief executive of Mozilla, the maker of Firefox, after coming under fire for his 2008 support of Proposition 8, the California constitutional amendment that disallowed the marriage of same-sex couples in the state.” That prompted this comment by a smart reader (“brdcstr”):
So Mozilla promotes a lifelong employee based upon his skills and leadership qualities, presumably after an exhaustive search, only to fire him a week into his tenure based upon a donation he made to a cause they differed on?
What are they running over there, a business or a social club? Sounds like the type of company that only welcomes monolithic thinking.
I would be willing to bet that the cackling hyena who asked for his resignation voted for Obama in 2008… When he was opposed to gay marriage, before he was for it.
Gotta a love the liberals who falsely pride themselves as being tolerant, as long as you agree with them. If not, they would prefer to silence your voice instead of engage in debate to promote dialogue and better understanding.
Time to go uninstall my Firefox browser. Like the company, it keeps crashing, rendering it useless.
I’m afraid that my friend Matt Barber, founder of Barbwire.com and an AFTAH Board Member, is correct [see his piece below]: the rising tide of ‘homo-fascist’ bigotry–or call it ‘homo-Marxist’ cultural aggression if you choose–threatens to destroy freedom in this great nation. Note that it is no longer just disagreeing publicly with homosexuality that triggers the powerful forces of Homosexual Indignation and Hate, but merely standing up for natural marriage (one man, one woman), as EX-Mozilla CEO Eich did in supporting California’s Prop 8 in 2008.
Eich, who gave $1,000 to help pass Prop 8, was joined by over seven million “homophobic bigots” in 2008–if you believe pro-homosexual fanatics. Prop 8 passed by a margin of 52.24-47.76 percent, with a popular vote of 7,001,084 in favor and 6,401,482 against.
A troubling pattern of homosexual activist intimidation, corporate or individual capitulation, and then self-censorship or mandated ideological compliance seems to be the West’s New Normal–in defense of the abnormal.
Mozilla’s politically correct baloney
Reading Mozilla’s Executive Chairwoman Mitchell Baker’sstatement on Eich’s resignation reminds me of the old Soviet propaganda: savvy citizens have to read through the obfuscatory lines (a fancy way of saying B.S.) to decipher the real meaning behind the DiversitySpeak. For example, there’s this:
Apply the “Sexual Sin Substitution” Test for Moral Clarity
OVERCOMING HOMOSEXUALITY:Dan Hitz (left) went from being a homosexual “terrified of true intimacy with a woman” — having grown up in a chaotic and dysfunctional home — to a family man with a wife and five children. Read his Christian testimony HERE and support the new ex-“gay” umbrella group, Restored Hope Network.
Part One (1-5)
By Peter LaBarbera
1) Decide Whether You are with God or Against Him … on the issue of homosexualism (out-and-proud homosexuality as a “civil right”) and sexual sin in general. These days there is no shortage of Secular- and Religious Left activists — and even self-professed “evangelical Christian” sellouts like apostate Jay Bakker — who will tell you that the Bible is ambiguous on homosexuality or even pro-homosexual. Nevertheless, the Word of God is crystal clear on this subject (see Romans 1 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, for starters). No faithful Christian can make a “biblical” case for accepting homosexual behavior. Thankfully, Jesus Christ has helped many men [e.g., Dan Hitz] and women [e.g., Anne Paulk] overcome homosexual attractions (see Point 4 below). Two great websites refuting “gay Christianity” are Prof. Robert Gagnon’s at www.RobGagnon.net and (former homosexual) DL Foster’s “Gay Christian Movement Watch” at http://www.gcmwatch.com.
2) Apply the “Sexual Sin Substitution Test” (S3T): if you wonder what the proper Christian approach is to any homosexual-related question, simply plug in another egregious sexual sin – incest, pornography use, adultery – for homosexuality and gay and then see if it makes any sense. The theological basis for this test is Leviticus 18, where God (through Moses) lops all the serious sexual sins (including bestiality) in together. (Is God “hateful” for making this association, or does He rather “hate” sins like homosexuality and incest that rebel against nature and its Creator?) Also, don’t fall for the snarky “gay” spin that seeks to dismiss Leviticus by equating its condemnation of sexual sins with the book’s list of ceremonial and dietary laws for Jews. As former homosexual Joe Dallas writes in his book, A Strong Delusion: Confronting the “Gay Christian” Movement (p. 178):
A commonsense approach to the Bible shows that certain ceremonial and dietary laws in the Old Testament…aren’t necessary to follow today. Christians are not, thankfully, under the Mosaic law (Galatians 3: 17-25). But the biblical commandments against homosexual conduct do not appear in the same sections as the dietary and ceremonial laws; in Leviticus…they appear alongside other sexual sins forbidden in both the Old and New Testaments (Lev. 18:22; 20:13).
Applying the S3T approach will give you renewed moral clarity — for example: why is nobody ever accused of being an “incest-phobe” or suffering from “adultery-phobia”? Should President Obama issue a “Porn-Users Pride Proclamation” every June to match his annual “Gay Pride Month” proclamation? Should schools allow “porn-using student clubs”? (There are thousands of “gay”-affirming student clubs in public and private schools across the United States.) What about legalizing incestuous “marriages”? Or celebrating at bawdy Lusters’ Pride Parades in major cities every June? Clearly, homosexuality is the “special sin” that is indulged in our morally degraded society because it has been so well-marketed, to the point where it is now widely treated as an innocuous identity and “civil right.”
