January 16, 2012

Contact: Peter LaBarbera; americansfortruth@gmail.com

Raleigh pastor Dr. Patrick Wooden rejects the comparison of black civil rights to sinful and unnatural homosexual behavior.

MONTGOMERY, Alabama – A coalition of African American pastors and pro-family Christian and Jewish leaders is holding a press conference at noon tomorrow (the day after Martin Luther King Day) outside the headquarters of the Southern Poverty Law Center — to protest the SPLC’s smearing of pro-family groups that oppose homosexual activism as “hate groups”:

WHERE:  Outside the SPLC headquarters, 400 Washington Ave., Montgomery, Alabama

WHEN:  Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, noon, Central Standard (Montgomery, AL) Time

WHO:  Scheduled speakers:

• Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH), Chicago, IL (the SPLC has smeared AFTAH as a “hate group”);
• Dr. Patrick Wooden, pastor, Upper Room Church of God in Christ (COGIC), Raleigh, NC;
• DL Foster, founder, Gay Christian Movement Watch, Atlanta, GA;
• Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs, Liberty Counsel, Lynchburg, VA;
• Tim Johnson, Fredrick Douglass Foundation, Washington, D.C.;
• Rachel Conner, representing Abiding Truth Ministries (smeared by SPLC as a “hate group”)
• Pastor Glen Sawyer, New Mt. Zion Church of God in Christ, Elizabeth City, NC
• Pastor Wil Nichols, Victorious Praise Fellowship COGIC, Durham, NC
• Pastor Jon Robinson, Kingdom C.O.M.E. Ministries, Clairton, PA
• Pastor Kenneth Jefferson, Greater Harvest COGIC

The following pro-family leaders and groups will issue supporting statements:

• Rabbi Yehuda Levin, Rabbinical Alliance of America;
• Laurie Higgins, Illinois Family Institute (smeared as “hate group”)
• Arthur Goldberg, author, “Light in the Closet: Torah, Homosexuality, and the Power to Change”;
• Linda Harvey, Mission America, Columbus, OH
• Brian Camenker, Mass Resistance, (smeared as “hate group”)

Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans For Truth, which is sponsoring the press event, recently interviewed Pastor Wooden, who said that the SPLC’s gambit of labeling mainstream pro-family groups that oppose homosexual activism as “hate groups” is seriously damaging the SPLC’s credibility. Wooden also debunked the “civil rights” analogy used by “gay” activists, saying it is wrong to compare “my beautiful blackness” with homosexual perversion.

LaBarbera said the SPLC is engaged in a thinly-veiled, one-sided campaign to demonize adherents of traditional Judeo-Christian morality. He noted that despite the considerable hatred and anti-Christian bigotry emanating from homosexual activists (e.g., Dan Savage’s vile hate-site, Santorum[dot]com), the SPLC has never labeled a “gay” organization or website as “hateful.”

Charlene Cothran of TheEvidenceMinistry.org can never become "ex-Black," but she is thriving as a former lesbian. Cothran lived 29 years as a lesbian and "gay" leader before accepting Jesus Christ and leaving the lifestyle. If RNC Chairman Michael Steele were to take the time to meet people like Charlene, he might retract his unfortunate comparison of homosexuality to race.

TAKE ACTION: 1) Call or write Michael Steele at the RNC and urge him to meet with former homosexuals like Charlene Cothran (right), per PFOX’s press release below). Write chairman@gop.org or call 202-863-8500; and 2) Read this web alert by the radical homosexual group GLAAD targeting ex-”gay” Richard Cohen and use the contact information provided to urge CNN (404-827-1500) to continue featuring ex-gays and critics of homosexuality every time they feature a “gay” activist on their network. How can the ‘Gay’ Lobby talk about “diversity” when they are orchestrating campaigns designed to censor former homosexuals?

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Michael Steele, meet Charlene Cothran. As a former lesbian and one-time leading homosexual activist who now ministers to others seeking to leave that destructive and sinful lifestyle, Charlene might disabuse you of the notion that homosexuality is like race (see PFOX release below).

I recently had the opportunity to present at a Florida church alongside Charlene, who spoke at AFTAH’s 2007 banquet. She is now four years out of the homosexual lifestyle and has a powerful testimony of transformation through Jesus Christ. (Incidentally, Charlene is not a big fan of “Reparative Therapy” and relies on obedience to the Word of God as the primary instrument of change.)

Mr. Steele, you will never meet an “ex-African American” or a “former Latino,” but you can easily get to know some former self-identified “gays” — and you should, to put the issue of homosexual behavior in its proper perspective.

What the homosexual “Log Cabin Republicans” and “GOP Proud” activists want from you and from the Republican Party is to be treated as a legitimate “minority” — even though the purpose of their organizations is to build acceptance for immoral behavior and an illegitimate lifestyle choice. Strangely, if people practicing homosexuality comprise a “minority,” then it is one whose numbers shrink at the expense of another “minority”: ex-homosexuals. The same cannot be said of Blacks, Latinos, or any other real minority.

(And please do not equate deviant-sex-affiliation or homosexual practice with religion as some kind of behavior-based “minority” deserving rights; America was built on refugees from other, oppressive lands seeking religious freedom — so religious liberty is sacrosanct here. Moreover, from the beginning our Judeo-Christian-based legal system proscribed sodomy, so how can it be a “constitutional right”?)

RNC Chairman Michael Steele

P.S. Memo to GLAAD, Wayne Besen, Ex-Gay-Watch, Tim Kincaid, Warren Throckmorton (the “gay” bloggers’ favorite Christian professor, it seems), and the rest of the gang at “Focus on the Failures” — my term for those who regularly cast doubt on the ability of People Practicing Homosexuality to experience profound lifestyle change: you might want to examine Charlene Cothran’s website. She is over lesbianism, she’s not looking back and she is helping many others find freedom in Christ! (Ironically, Besen actually wrote an article attacking ex-gays for Cothran’s magazine, Venus, back when it was devoted to affirming homosexuality among African Americans.)  Check out her 2007 speech at AFTAH HERE and her website HERE. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

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Our friends at PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays) write:

RNC Pays for Lesbian Erotica While Refusing to Meet with Ex-Gays

Contact: Christopher Doyle, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) at PFOX@pfox.org

[Note from AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera: Please support PFOX with your tax-deductible donations; dollar for dollar, this is one of the most effective pro-family groups on the planet; sometimes it seems as they get more done with their tiny budget to challenge the GLBT juggernaut than gigantic pro-family organizations; go to http://pfox.org/donate.html and make your gift today!]

Washington D.C. — “Michael Steele, chair of the Republican National Committee, has consistently refused to meet with members of the ex-gay community,” said Greg Quinlan of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX).  “Now we know why. The RNC would rather use donor funds for its staff to watch lesbian erotica at nightclubs than help support individuals who wish to leave homosexuality.”

In last year’s interview with Gentleman’s Quarterly magazine, Steele compared being homosexual to being Black, and was quoted as doubting that ex-gays exist.  PFOX offered to meet with Steele on numerous occasions to show him that ex-gays do exist and explain the process of individual change.  To date, Steele has refused to meet with members of the ex-gay community, including African-American former homosexuals.  In the past, ex-gays have met with Ed Gillespie, one of Steele’s predecessors.

“It’s no wonder the RNC continues to lose factions of its members, such as Tea Party conservatives,” said Christopher Doyle, a former homosexual and PFOX board member.  “Michael Steele would be better off if he extended ex-gays a place at the table rather than paying his staff to watch lesbians dance on it at strip clubs.”

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Remember to read the PFOX blog regularly for ex-gay views and news. See http://pfox-exgays.blogspot.com/

I suppose the radical Rush-haters might speculate that in allowing an African American to host his show, Limbaugh is merely creating a public cover for his racism. But I think the truth is that Rush is color-blind and instead is serving his huge audience by letting them listen to and learn from one of America’s most popular conservatives, one with a gift for explaining economics to the public.

The last time I heard Williams guest-host for Rush — a few weeks ago — he was interviewing Thomas Sowell, the brilliant conservative writer and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. Sowell (left) who also happens to be black. I have been a conservative for 25 years and I have never heard a fellow (white) conservative say anything demeaning or racially tinged about either Williams or Sowell, or Alan Keyes or Michael Steele, etc.  True conservatives value ideas — and when brilliant men and women put forth good ideas, they could care less about the skin color of the person offering them.

So as far as the current Rush controversy goes, all I can say is: if Limbaugh is a “racist,” he sure is an incompetent one. — Peter LaBarbera, www.americansfortruth.org

P.S. Since we’re on the subject of Rush, one day on these pages we’ll have to tell the full story of how “El Rushbo” got “zapped” by ACT UP, a homosexual group know for its “direct action” tactics — when he was substituting for the old CBS Pat Sajak Show. That intolerant act of “gay” thuggery — which is mentioned in this Wikipedia entry on Rush (footnote #49) — certainly contributed to Rush downplaying the homosexual issue in the years that followed.