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

HOW TO LISTEN: This is an mp3 file, supported in most operating systems by Windows Media Player, Quick Time and/or I-Tunes.  Real Player is not supported and there may be difficulty when attempting to listen with it.  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.

10-22-11, Scott Lively, Part Two

New York City homosexual activist blogger Jeremy Hooper (right) and his boyfriend/"husband" can attend AFTAH's banquet Saturday, but they will not get our $50 Married Couples Discount, even though they went through a legal "marriage" ceremony in Connecticut.

When:  Saturday, Nov. 13, 2010; 6:00 PM; doors open at 5:30.

Who/What: Pastor Ken Hutcherson, keynote speaker. Catering by Maggiano’s Little Italy. Hutch is founder of the “Mayday for Marriage” rallies, a former NFL linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks, and pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, WA. [More info on Hutch HERE.] There may also be a testimony by a former lesbian who now helps others change through the Gospel of Christ.

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

Tickets:  $75 per person (after Nov. and at the door. Married couples discount (one man/one woman only!): $100 per couple, no matter when you sign up.  Pay online at www.americansfortruth.com/donate. Or mail your check to: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522. Pastors attend FREE; sponsor a pastor with your extra gift of $50!

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Yes, AFTAH Discriminates…in Favor of Real Marriage

By Peter LaBarbera, President of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality:

Dear Readers,

It struck me yesterday as I was reviewing my recent e-pitch for our AFTAH banquet — this Saturday, Nov. 13^th at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights — that I wasn’t quite clear about the “discriminatory” intent of our invitation. Well, I wouldn’t actually use that word, but our fanatical homosexual activist opponents certainly would. You see, AFTAH is offering a Married Couples Discount for the banquet of $100 per married couple – a savings of $50 off the cost for last-minute registrants (and those at the door), who normally would have to pay $75 per person (or $150 per couple).

Here’s what I forgot to mention in the e-mail: our Married Couples Discount is available only to legitimately married couples (one man, one woman) – not homosexual “couples” playing house and pretending to be “married” as they practice a changeable and destructive lifestyle that defies their loving Creator and mocks the bedrock institution that they’ve politically appropriated in the name of “equality.”

And no: we will absolutely NOT give our discount even to those coupled homosexuals possessing legal “marriage” certificates from the following states: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire and California. Those pieces of paper – though efficacious to garner marriage-like benefits and status in those corrupt states — are bogus in the eyes of God and in light of America’s Judeo-Christian moral tradition – as they make a mockery of the very institution they are meant to “equalize.”

So to the ACLU I say: go ahead and sue us, because unlike those sorry states, Americans For Truth will not incentivize blasphemous and phoney “marriages.” (As Clint Eastwood said, Go ahead, make my day. We’ll count on our good friends at Liberty Counsel to defend us.)

Homosexuals welcome

This is not about “hate,” as so many (hateful) homosexual activists allege, but principle. A little discrimination can be a good thing, to quote my friend and Wisconsin pro-family advocate Ralph Ovadal (who has been brutally assaulted by “tolerant” pro-”gay” activists while defending truth on this issue). We all “discriminate” (definition: use good judgment) in healthy ways — e.g., choosing where to send our children to school –  and that’s exactly what the current societal effort to preserve marriage in our profane culture is all about.

If I and AFTAH hated homosexuals, we wouldn’t welcome (non-disruptive) people practicing homosexuality to come to our banquet. (A radical, lying Marxist homosexual group, the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network, is leading a protest outside of the event.) I want them to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ as presented by our keynote speaker, Pastor Ken Hutcherson. [Listen to my recent interviews with Ken on the Americans For Truth Hour Here: Part 1; Part 2; and Part 3.] But homosexually-joined couples will have to fork over the extra 50 bucks if they choose to come.

‘Gay equality’ vs. true liberty

Election results for three Iowa Supreme Court judges who supported "gay marriage" and then were rejected Nov. 2 by the state's voters. Thankfully, Iowans showed "discriminating" judgment in favor of preserving real marriage. Click on graphic to enlarge.

Consider this a lesson in how homosexual “marriage” laws destroy the freedom of religious- and moral-minded Americans to live out their faith. Say you are an orthodox Jew and you own a business in Iowa (where in 2009 seven arrogant and socially left judges imposed counterfeit “marriage” on that state’s citizens; three of those judges were denied retention on Nov. 2!). You are a family-oriented guy trying to recruit good workers, so you offer generous employee benefits to all your married employees. Then one of your female homosexual employees takes advantage of the outrageous 2009 Iowa Supreme Court ruling by “marrying” another woman.

Under Iowa’s new marriage law, if you offer marriage benefits to your other employees, you must now extend those benefits equally to your homosexually “married” employees. So you face a choice: either get rid of the benefits for all married employees or join the Sin Subsidizing business with your hard-earned entrepreneurial profits. Fearing lawsuits and the well-heeled “Gay” Lobby, I’m afraid that most employers will probably go for the second option.

Note that in any state where the government rewards homosexual “domestic partners,” “civil unions” – or counterfeit “marriages” – the taxpayers, too, become subsidizers of homosexual misconduct.

Nature discriminates against homosexuality

Healthy, God-honoring societies do not subsidize and encourage destructive behaviors – especially through noble institutions like marriage. Yet that’s where America is heading, thanks to the work of revolutionary homosexual activists and their liberal allies.

The charter for the United States of America – our Declaration of Independence – references the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God.” Nature, created by God, obviously discriminates against homosexuality (who can doubt this—can two men make a baby together?). That is because homosexuality is not part of God’s plan — unlike marriage, His wonderful design for a man and a woman to “become one” and unite to make a family.

In fact, our true rights come from God and are consistent with His natural, created order – not sexual perversion! Liberty was never intended to advance unnatural sin, but the godly good. As England’s Sir William Blackstone –the father of English common law, and hence American law – wrote (emphasis added):

By the absolute rights of individuals we mean those which are so in their primary and strictest sense; such as would belong to their persons merely in a state of nature, and which every man is entitled to enjoy, whether out of society or in it . . . . Human laws define and enforce as well those rights which belong to a man considered as an individual, as those which belong to him considered as related to others.

For the principal aim of society is to protect in the enjoyment of those absolute rights, which were vested in them by the immutable laws of nature; … Hence it follows that the first and primary end of human law is to maintain and regulate these absolute rights of individuals . . . .

The absolute rights of man, considered as a free agent, endowed with discernment to know good from evil, and with power of choosing those measures which appear to him to be most desirable, are usually summed up in one general appellation and denominated the natural liberty of mankind. This natural liberty consists properly in a power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, unless by the law of nature; being a right inherent in us by birth, and one of the gifts of God to man at his creation, when he endued him with the faculty of free will.

It is fascinating that with the growing acceptance of homosexuality and other sexual sins in our increasingly decadent, post-Christian culture, we once again face the very threat that Thomas Jefferson feared – and which inspired our First Amendment: governments encroaching on Americans’ free exercise of religion. The homosexual activists’ desperate push for affirmation, lately aided by the State, has driven them into the realm of persecuting others by arguing that their newfound “right” to practice homosexuality (in all its manifestations, including homosexual-led families) supersedes the natural liberty of others NOT to accept, much less subsidize, ungodly conduct.

We must not allow government to suppress our natural, God-given liberties for the pursuit of an egalitarian agenda that posits a false “equality” between two things — real, man-woman marriage and counterfeit homosexual “marriage” — that are anything but equal.

Our nation just had a momentous election in which many politicians who were pro-homosexuality and pro-abortion were thrown out. Still, our work defending God’s Truth will only become more important after a new Congress is sworn in.  So why not get energized on Saturday, Nov. 13 by coming to the Americans For Truth banquet at Christian Liberty Academy in Arl. Heights, IL, to hear our keynote speaker, Pastor Ken Hutcherson?  “Hutch” will psych you up to stand boldly for Truth in the Culture War — but more important than that, he will motivate you in your spiritual life to pursue godliness through Jesus Christ!

EARLY SIGN-UP DISCOUNT: Tickets for the banquet are $75 per person (after Nov. 8) and at the door. Married couples (one man, one woman only!) get a discount and can attend for $100 per couple. Please RSVP to americansfortruth@gmail.com and let us know you are coming — or that your pastor is coming for free.  You can make your gift online at www.americansfortruth.com/donate  or send your check to: Americans For Truth, P.O. Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522.

I greatly enjoyed my three AFTAH Radio Hour interviews with Hutch (see link info below to listen), but I was also humbled, and even a bit shamed at one point in the exchange.  Here’s a guy with cancer weakened by daily ‘chemo’ treatments — and he still spends a lot more time in the Word of God than I do.  I barely know Hutch, but already he has caused me to reevaluate my priorities in life and inspired me to more diligently pursue godliness.

And when it comes down to it, isn’t that what America needs?  Time spent to learn God’s will and then the humble obedience to follow it.  Politics can only take us so far, especially in a deeply morally compromised and “proud” nation that is leaving God behind. 

So please come to our AFTAH banquet.  Tell a friend about it.  Bring your children.  (Pastors can come for FREE; sponsor your pastor with an extra $50 gift!)   If you are a homosexual, come (as long as you don’t plan on disrupting our event)!  But most importantly, bring your brain and your heart and have them ready to be challenged!  As anyone who has attended our events knows, they are not schmaltzy affairs but are loaded with Truth — because we try to live up to our name, Americans for TRUTH About Homosexuality.  In a way, AFTAH with its uncompromising message is the conscience of the pro-family movement on the homosexual issue — that’s why we seek out leaders like Hutch who have shown that they value Truth more than Political Correctness, and loyalty to God more than worldy praise. 

I hope to see you at CLA in Arlington Heights on Saturday, Nov. 13.  You will be blessed by coming, I can assure you of that. – Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

P.S. Please read the WND column below by Hutch, who asks why — if America cares about teaching our kids to be healthy — we don’t educate them on the massive health risks associated with homosexual behavior!  

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Online links to Americans For Truth Hour Radio interviews with Pastor Hutcherson (links contain short descriptions of each show):

• Week 3 (aired Oct. 23, 2010); http://americansfortruth.com/news/part-three-interview-with-dr-ken-hutcherson.html
• Week 2 (Oct. 16): http://americansfortruth.com/news/part-two-interview-with-pastor-ken-hutcherson.html
• Week 1 (Oct. 9): http://americansfortruth.com/news/part-one-aftah-interview-with-dr-ken-hutcherson-aftah-banquet-speaker.html

Americans For Truth Hour Archive page: http://americansfortruth.com/americans-for-truth-hour ; other interviews: Dawn Stefanowicz, Matt Barber, Bob Knight, Linda Harvey, Laurie Higgins, Pete Lines, Linda Jernigan, Pastor Calvin Lindstrom and Lynn Thomas, Col. Dick Black, Prof. Rob Gagnon, Ryan Sorba, Prof. Rena Lindevaldsen, John McCartney and Wayne Lela, Amy Contrada, Brian Camenker, Mike Heath and Michael Glatze.

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Info on AFTAH Banquet:

Who: Pastor Ken Hutcherson, Pastor, Antioch Bible Church, Redmond, WA, former NFL linebacker (Dallas Cowboys, Seattle Seahawks)

When: Saturday, Nov. 13, 2010; 6:00 PM; doors open at 5:30

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

Tickets: $50 per person if purchased by Mon., Nov. 8; $75 after that and at the door. Pay online at www.americansfortruth.com/donate. Or mail your check to: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522. Pastors attend FREE; sponsor a pastor with your extra gift of $50!

RSVP: Send us an e-mail at ameicansfortruth@gmail.com. Phone: 630-717-7631.

Extra info: Don’t be intimidated by the announced protest at our banquet of the Gay Liberation Network — a Chicago-based, Marxist homosexual hate organization.  They picket all of our events.  GLN hates AFTAH because they know that we will never give in to their lies and intimidation, and that we will always proclaim the truth: that homosexual practice is wrong but changeable and forgivable through Jesus Christ!

Background on Hutch: Ken Hutcherson is a former NFL football player, but most importantly he is a man of God who has proven himself a faithful ambassador for his Savior, Jesus Christ.   You may have heard him interviewed on the Rush Limbaugh Show.   “Hutch” founded and pastors Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, Washington (home of Microsoft).  He organized two massive “May Day for Marriage” rallies – in Seattle and Washington, D.C. – to defend traditional marriage.  He took on the pro-homosexual “Day of Silence” in his child’s school by sponsoring a large counter-rally – which led to him and his family being persecuted by homosexual activists.  That did not deter Hutch, who continues to speak out boldly against the homosexual agenda while extending the Gospel to people trapped in homosexuality.
 
Come hear how the Lord delivered Hutcherson from his racism and hatred, and how this godly man looks to everything — even his current battle with cancer — to conform himself to the image of Jesus Christ.  Bring your pastor (for free) to hear Hutch’s challenge never to back down from God’s Truth in the fight against evil!

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Column by Hutcherson in WorldNetDaily.com:

‘Transgender, Transsexual and Trans fats’

WorldNetDaily, Posted: August 18, 2010, 1:00 am Eastern

By Ken Hutcherson

In June I bought a full-page ad in our local gay newspaper during gay-pride week to bring attention to a lifestyle that is protected even though proven to be dangerous and unhealthy. If something is deemed unhealthy, it does not take a public vote before school boards, cities, the federal government and many parents take whatever steps are necessary to eliminate access to that danger.

How many times have you heard the unfairness, hatred and the mistreatment of trans fats? It is thought that trans fats may be unhealthy, along with sugar and salt. And the list of unhealthy food choices grows daily.

The Centers For Disease Control has said and proven that the homosexual lifestyle is unhealthy and dangerous to those who participate in it. I will prove that point a little later in this article. The evidence cannot be argued – ignored, yes, but not debated.

Where is the public outcry when this dangerous lifestyle choice is promoted by schools, cities, states, courts and the federal government? Where is the evidence that we care about homosexuals when a judge overturns the decision of 7 million voters who passed Proposition 8, and is applauded for encouraging many to marry while living this hurtful lifestyle? We stand strong on the danger (albeit highly debatable) of certain foods that we suspect might be injurious to our health but turn a blind eye to homosexuality, which inarguably kills its participants.

The National Day of Silence, sponsored by GLSEN, took place at schools across the country again in April. According to GLSEN’S website, “On the National Day of Silence hundreds of thousands of students nationwide take a vow of silence to bring attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and even harassment in their schools.” In other words, the purpose of the day is to stand in solidarity with homosexual victims.

The illusion that the homosexual lifestyle is a normal way of living has been successfully propagated by promoting a “victim” image for homosexual persons and by the pseudo-science alleging a “gay” gene. Evidence does show that homosexual persons are indeed victims – but overwhelmingly of their own behavior, not that of others. Why do cities, states and our federal government help these victims by celebrating with them in gay-pride events, and why do schools celebrate an entire day during the National Day Of Silence? For those who are so health conscience, if you are truly interested in removing those things that are dangerous to society, you need to examine the question of why the deadly homosexual lifestyle is protected.

Why is the lie about the existence of the gay gene and the falsehood that homosexuals are not able to change because they were born that way so widely promoted? Think about this common-sense scenario: If a man ever got pregnant, could anyone say from that day forward that it is impossible for men to get pregnant? The answer is a resounding “no.” You would never again be able to say it is impossible. Using the same logic, if one homosexual ever changed and got out of that lifestyle, can the statement be made that it is impossible for homosexuals to change?

The answer is again a resounding “no!” You would never again be able to say it is impossible. We know of many homosexuals, and I am friends with many, who have gotten out of the homosexual lifestyle by one decision – to stop. One of the most famous ones is the breakup of Ellen Degeneres and Ann Heche. Ann broke it off with Ellen and married a man and is living a heterosexual lifestyle at this very moment. I am black, was born black and will die black – I assure you of that. I can’t even take a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, because it is obvious who I am. I have never met an ex-black man (even Michael Jackson could not accomplish that), but I have met countless ex-homosexuals who are living a victorious heterosexual life. Why do we allow the lie to continue to be perpetrated, and why do we keep encouraging homosexuals to stay in this deadly lifestyle?

I have read the Constitution and cannot find anywhere that it protects same-sex marriage. If the Constitution does not protect same-sex marriage, then how can a judge in California declare Proposition 8 unconstitutional? It is a perversion of the Constitution to give protection to a group that can move in and out of that group just by making a conscious decision.

According to the Centers For Disease Control website as of June 12, 2010:

• The No. 1 risk factor for contracting HIV/AIDS is and always has been homosexual sex.
• 56,000 new cases of HIV/AIDS are diagnosed each year in the U.S.
• As of 2006, there were 1 million people living with HIV/AIDS, up 11 percent from 2003.
• Homosexual/bisexual individuals are seven times more likely to contemplate or commit suicide.
• Homosexuals die decades earlier than heterosexuals.
• Nearly one-half of practicing homosexuals admit to 500 or more sex partners, and nearly one-third admit to 1,000 or more sex partners in a lifetime.
• Individuals who have ever engaged in homosexual sex are prohibited from donating blood.

Legislators around the country are considering banning sugar and fatty foods in schools, removing salt and butter from restaurants and want to control what temperature you can have in your own homes, because they fear the potential of health problems. Perhaps they should consider banning the promotion of a lifestyle that the Centers For Disease Control has determined actually causes HIV/AIDS. On the Day of Silence, an entire school day is set aside to ensure every young, impressionable student is exposed to homosexuality. Does this really make sense to you?

As parents, school board members, city councilors and judges, why are we excited about promoting this lifestyle?  If any other lifestyle produced the previously quoted statistics, would we be having a day to celebrate it?

The most important reason this lifestyle is such a concern is because it keeps those living the life from accepting the saving grace of Jesus Christ. I am so very concerned about our nation because God will turn a nation over to judgment for sexual sin. With the recent court decision in California and with our nation embracing and celebrating this dangerous and unnatural lifestyle, we are courting disaster. I think we are close to judgment my friends, and I love this nation too much to stay silent.

Oh, by the way, God wants His rainbow back!

__________________________________

Dr. Kenneth L. Hutcherson is the senior pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Kirkland, Wash. He is also a former NFL linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks.

Pastor Calvin Lindstrom

In this interview, which aired Saturday, August 14, 2010, we talk with Pastor Calvin Lindstrom of the Church of Christian Liberty, affilated with the Christian Liberty Academy (CLA) in Arlington Heights, Illinois. CLA hosted the debut AFTAH Truth Academy. Also on the program is Lynn Thomas, creator of Cao’s Blog and a conservative activist in Illinois. The two discuss the successful Truth Academy and the angry protest against it led by the Marxist homosexual hate group Gay Liberation Network. (Thomas compares the protesters to spoiled children having a fit.)

In the interview, the guests and Americans For Truth President Peter LaBarbera discuss the attendees’ and speakers’ outreach to Eric Posey, one of the pro-homosexual “spies” who attended the Truth Academy. Far from hating and ejecting this young homosexual activist, several attendees spent hours talking with him out of evident care for his soul. Pastor Calvin also discussed the need for more pastors to get informed on and involved in the battle over homosexuality — as the GLBT movement is the leading spear in the Left’s war on American religious freedom. To order CDs of DVCs of the full Truth Academy, go to our Online Order Form.

By the way, CLA — which is one Christian institution that does not cower before the noisy and intolerant Left — will also be hosting the 2010 fundraising banquet for Americans For Truth, scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 13th. Keynoting the AFTAH banquet will be former NFL football star Ken Hutcherson, who pastors Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, WA.   

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.

8-14-10, Lynn Thomas & Pastor Cal Lindstrom, 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….):

Prof. Robert Gagnon, the world's leading authority on the Bible and homosexuality, will be giving three lectures at the Truth Academy.

The ‘Truth Academy: Chicago 2010′ begins in one week, Thurs., Aug. 5 – Sat., Aug. 7, at the Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, IL. See complete Academy info and speakers schedule HERE. RSVP at americansfortruth@gmail.com. Sign up and pay online at www.americansfortruth.com/donate.
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From the wonderful, must-read pro-family news site, LifeSiteNews [click HERE to subscribe to their daily e-mails]:

How to Fight the Gay Agenda: Pro-Family Group Organizes Three-Day Conference

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

July 27, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The pro-family organization Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) has scheduled a three-day conference on fighting the homosexual political agenda in the United States.

The Americans for Truth Academy will be “probably one of the most comprehensive pro-family conferences on homosexuality ever to occur in the United States,” according to Peter LaBarbera, the organization’s founder and president.

LaBarbera told LifeSiteNews (LSN) that he decided to organize the conference to counteract the large number of similar events held by homosexualist activists.

“I have a little Irish blood but I’m also Italian, and when political correctness and the thought police tell you what not to do it only makes me want to do more of it, and so in this case the gay thought police are basically saying the issue is over and there is no other side, and so I thought we have to start educating people on the agenda,” said LaBarbera.

“The gay movement has made significant headway through personal instruction and firsthand training.  They’ve got the Creating Change Conference from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which trains thousands of people per year. We’re completely outgunned on this issue,” said LaBarbera. “We face a variety of homosexual activist groups that have set specific purposes whereas we try to deal with the issue with our generalized pro-family groups, which do good work on homosexual issues but don’t do enough.”

Noting that the pro-life movement has been successful in communicating its message to younger generations, LaBarbera says that the same has to be done regarding homosexuality.

“Clearly what the pro-life movement has accomplished is they’ve changed the paradigm, and they’ve gotten people thinking about the life of the unborn child, about the human rights issues at stake, about the innocent victims of abortion on demand, and I think what has not happened on the homosexual issue is the basic talking points of the pro-gay movement have not been addressed adequately,” LaBarbera told LSN.

Lamenting that young people have been “brainwashed” by homosexualist propaganda, LaBarbara says he intends to “reach them with some in-depth training because they’re completely ignorant … The polls show that young people are more pro-life and more pro-gay at the same time. And I think that speaks volumes about the problem that we’re in and the long term debt that we face on this issue unless we educate people on what’s really at stake with the debate.”

The Academy will run from August 5 through August 7 at the Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, Illinois.  Speakers will include Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel, who was famously fired from his job with an insurance company for opposing homosexual activism on his own time, and Professor Rena Lindevaldsen, a law professor at Liberty University and defender of ex-lesbian Lisa Miller against her former lover’s attempts to take custody of her daughter. Professor Robert Gagnon of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, an expert on the Biblical teaching on homosexuality, will also speak.

Homosexual groups schedule protest

Homosexual activists have already scheduled a protest for the event, claiming that AFTAH is teaching “hate,” a charge repeated by the ultra-leftist People for the American Way, and strongly denied by LaBarbera.

“We’re not haters, we’re people who simply disagree with homosexuality, profoundly, we believe it is immoral, that it’s changeable, that it’s unnatural, that it’s against God,” he said.  “We don’t shrink from those beliefs.  But to equate the advocacy of those beliefs with hatred is itself an act of bigotry and hatred against people of faith and against people of moral persuasion.”

LaBarbera says he is aware of the preparations to protest his event, and will have security on hand to prevent the disruptive tactics historically used by gay activists to intimidate those opposed to their agenda.

“We already know the Gay Liberation Network, which is a radical homosexual hate group, has announced that they’re going to protest us. … we expected that,” LaBarbera told LSN.  “The reason that we did not open this event up to gay activists who want to attend … is that there is a history of homosexuals using direct action to disrupt and intimidate people.  We’re not going to tolerate that here.”

“We are taking some precautions, there is be security.  If anybody does try to disrupt this they will be ushered out,” he said.

Related links:

Americans for Truth Academy conference information

Gay Liberation Network's Bob Schwartz supports the University of Illinois' firing of Catholic professor Kenneth Howell. Imagine how different his reaction would be if it were a "gay" professor fired for explaining "gay rights" to his students.

I received the following note yesterday from Bob Schwartz, a leader of the Gay Liberation Network in Chicago. Schwartz is a self-described Trotskyite (communist) and is the fellow who bragged that he worked to get AFTAH’s website labeled as a “hate site” by the Southern Poverty Law Center:

From: [Bob Schwartz, Gay Liberation Network]
Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2010 20:55:16 -0400
To: <americansfortruth@comcast.net>
Subject: Kenneth Howell
Here are AFTAH’s two stories on Howell’s firing:

Just a note to advise you that I asked the new U of I president to support the termination of antigay bigot “natural law” [Prof. Kenneth] Howell.

Bob Schwartz

Here is my reply to Schwartz:

From: [Peter LaBarbera} americansfortruth@comcast.net to [Schwartz]
Date: July 13, 2010
Subject: Re: Kenneth Howell

Bob…If this happened to a homosexual prof who affirmed gay rights to his students (in a class about the GLBT Movement), you and GLN would be crying “discrimination!” to the media and holding protest vigils at U of I. But I’ve come to expect such hypocrisy from you guys. “Tolerance for me but not for thee.”…

Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality

Here are two AFTAH articles on the University of Illinois-Howell termination scandal:

• U. of Illinois’ President Hogan Says Kenneth Howell Firing Under Review
• The E-Mail that Got Dr. Kenneth Howell Fired at U. of Illinois

New York City homosexual activist Joe Jervis recklessly claims that the Americans For Truth Academy "will train young people how to properly hate faggots and dykes and foster violent crimes against them." Jervis, here protesting California's pro-traditional-marriage amendment, routinely conflates moral opposition to homosexuality with hatred.

Jervis wildly claims that the Americans For Truth Academy “will train young people how to properly hate faggots and dykes and foster violent crimes against them.”

Folks, it didn’t take too long for homosexual activists to smear the Americans For Truth Academy, which will be held in Carol Stream, Illinois, August 5-7. Here is one particularly inane and mean-spirited post by atheist “gay” leatherman Joe Jervis, who runs the blog “Joe.My.God.” With clockwork-like regularity, homosexual activists resort to their favorite lie: that civil speech opposing homosexuality in the public square leads to violence against homosexuals. (Such claims form the basis for demands to banish said speech; of course, vicious and nasty attacks on Christians somehow do not qualify as “hate” nor lead to violence against people of faith….)

Experienced pro-family followers of AFTAH who have read Jervis’ J.M.G. blog know that if there were such a thing as a Hate-O-Meter scale, few could hope to score as high as Joe and his perverted friends (see some examples of their bigoted bile below). Even so, after AFTAH’s website was labeled a “hate site” by the Southern Poverty Law Center — on the recommendation of the Marxist, cop-hating, Christian-bashers over at Chicago’s Gay Liberation Network — Jervis and pals dutifully took up our challenge and labeled every pro-family group they could think of as also being a “hate” group. Get the message? Oppose homosexuality (publicly) and you are automatically a “hater.”

Per Jervis’ piece below, “Porno Pete” is a smear term against yours truly invented by another hypocritical homosexual militant, Wayne Besen, and circulated by fellow “gay” activists (who simultaneously condemn name-calling against homosexuals — go figure). One of the things we will teach at the ongoing AFTAH Academy is that while homosexual activists demand respect and tolerance from others, they consistently dish out vitriol and invective against their opponents — all the while cynically equating historic, Judeo-Christian moral truths with hate, bigotry and “homophobia.”

I challenge readers to get a sampling of the demented, ad hominem attacks that proliferate on Jervis’ homosexualist site and see if there is anything comparable on AFTAH’s website or that of any other mainstream, pro-family organization, such as Family Research Council. Go HERE for more info on the Academy. – Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

___________________________

Here’s Jervis’ twisted entry on the AFTAH Academy, followed by some hateful, perverted and intolerant comments responding to his item:

Porno Pete LaBarbera has just announced the formation of the “Americans For Truth Academy,” which will train young people how to properly hate faggots and dykes and foster violent crimes against them. For a mere $99 donation, you can buy a budding young bigot a Scholarship In Hate™.

… The usual cast of knuckle-dragging douchenozzles have signed on to be LaBarbera’s Professors of Hate: Robert Knight (Coral Ridge Ministries), Matt Barber (Liberty Counsel), Laurie Higgins (Illinois Family Institute), Greg Quinlan (PFOX), etc. The first Three Day Hate™ will take place August 5th-7th in Porno Pete’s luxuriously appointed basement dungeon headquarters outside of Chicago.

_________________________________________

Comments on Jervis’ site following article:

ANLAGUY:

How can that [the AFTAH Academy] be a tax deductable [sic] function? or is that just another lie they tell them so they will sign up? How can they have a seminar on [teaching] hate to people and the government NOT get involved.

———————–

INKKY JET:

HEIL!

I want to attend and watch the live demo with Porno Pete and Bam bam Barber [Matt Barber, an AFTAH Board Member and AFTAH Academy speaker] when they demonstrate sodomy and fisting; their two most favourite [sic] activities.

HEIL!

———————–

LYMIS:

“Okay, boys, pay attention. When someone touches you like THIS it’s really bad. Who needs to see that again?”

———————–

RICK CABRAL:

The important questions have yet to be asked! Will the pornmaster be sharing his rich cache of porno material? Will there be “helping hand” beat-off sessions during and afterwards? Are there shower facilities or must participants bring wetwipes and sanitizing lotion? How are attendees supposed to prepare properly without these clarifications?

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.)

P.S.  We understand that the Christian-bashing, Marxist radicals over at Gay Liberation Network will be protesting IFI’s banquet. Now we know IFI must be doing something right.

*      *     *

“For those who support the hotel in this, imagine that the tables were turned. Suppose it was a homosexual group that had been turned down by the hotel because of ‘negative publicity.’ Would you still support the hotel’s right to discriminate in this fashion? Sauce for the goose…”

– Comment by “Springer” posted at Daily Herald article (reprinted below), “Anti-gay group sues Naperville hotel, alleges discrimination”

_____________________________

Anti-Christian Discrimination OK? Imagine the hue and cry that would have erupted had the Holiday Inn Select hotel (left) in Naperville, Ill., canceled a “gay” organization’s scheduled banquet after its leader told the hotel that some Christians might protest the event.

Dear AFTAH Readers,

Below are two local articles on AFTAH’s just-filed lawsuit against a Naperville, IL Holiday Inn hotel for canceling our banquet two years ago out of fear of “gay” protests.

We hope you can make it to this year’s AFTAH banquet on Sat., Oct. 24 at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, IL — featuring culture warrior and former professional heavyweight boxer Matt Barber, who was fired by Allstate Insurance Co., after writing an article against homosexual “marriage” on his own time. Tickets are $50 each. A table of 10 is $500. More information here: http://americansfortruth.com/news/matt-barber-to-keynote-aftah-banquet.html; book your seat now at www.americansfortruth.com/donate.

Also, don’t forget our the dinner-lecture at our Carol Stream office Thursday, Sept. 17 featuring Michael Brown, who is going to talk about how to walk that fine line of reaching out to homosexuals with the Gospel of Christ while resisting the radical “gay” political/cultural agenda. I am really looking forward to this talk. Click HERE for more info. RSVP to aftahangela@gmail.com or americansfortruth@comcast.net. (Donations will be accepted at the event to cover costs.)

Lastly, AFTAH has now crossed the half-way mark in our goal of matching a generous donor’s $20,000 grant. Please help us go all the way with your tax-deductible donation to AFTAH at www.americansfortruth.com/donate or by mailing your gift to: Americans For Truth, P.O. Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522.  Thank you!

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

——————————————————————————–
(Suburban Chicago) Daily Herald story:

Link: http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=316820

Anti-gay group sues Naperville hotel, alleges discrimination

August 27, 2009

By Christy Gutowski | Daily Herald Staff

Peter LaBarbera said he was just being honest when he told the Naperville hotel event planner to expect protesters outside his anti-gay group’s upcoming banquet.

His truthfulness, though, may have led to his own undoing.

Americans For Truth About Homosexuality recently filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against Holiday Inn Select, 1801 N. Naper Blvd.

The Carol Stream-based group alleges its Oct. 6, 2007 fundraiser was canceled by the hotel six weeks earlier because of the group’s religious beliefs against homosexuality.

LaBarbera did not have a written contract, and no money was exchanged, but he said organizers verbally worked out details of the 100-person event, including the menu, during two meetings.

LaBarbera said hotel management told him the reservation was canceled due to “potential negative publicity.” AFTAH filed its discrimination suit Aug. 21.

“It’s always easy to come up with excuses,” said LaBarbera, AFTAH’s executive director, “but the real truth is they didn’t like our message. If you allow this sort of hecklers’ veto, you’re sanctioning discrimination.”

The banquet was planned at the hotel on the same night as a couple’s wedding. The Naperville Holiday Inn Select is independently owned and operated. Managers there said they had not been served with the lawsuit, and could not comment.

Georgia-based InterContinental Hotels Group owns the Holiday Inn brand. AN IHG spokeswoman said the cancellation decision was made solely by local hotel management. “IHG is very concerned about any claim of discrimination at any hotel bearing the Holiday Inn name,” said Sarah-Ann Soffer, media relations manager, in a statement. “IHG condemns unlawful discrimination in all of its forms. Since this matter is the subject of pending litigation, we have no further comment at this time.”

The national AFTAH organization, which is devoted to countering the gay agenda, ended up holding its banquet one day earlier at a Lombard hotel. Activists with the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network often protest AFTAH events, LaBarbera said.

The suit seeks an unspecified amount from the hotel in damages and attorney fees.

“We simply want to send a message that it might be easier to discriminate against a small Christian group, but it’s no less acceptable,” said Jason R. Craddock, AFTAH’s attorney. “We don’t want corporate America to continue in its belief that it’s OK to discriminate against unpopular points of view.”

_________________________________________

Naperville (IL) Sun story:

Link: http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1739100,Christian-group-sues-Naperville-hotel_na082809.article

Christian Group Sues Naperville Hotel

August 28, 2009

By KATHY CICHON [kcichon@scn1.com]

Even though two years has passed since the incident occurred, a conservative organization has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against a Naperville hotel.

“Ultimately it would be easy just to ignore it and walk away,” said Peter LaBarbera, president and founder of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality. “(But) it’s really not right to succumb to this sort of hecklers’ veto.” ….

On Friday the Carol Stream-based Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, which describes itself as “a group dedicated to exposing the homosexual activist agenda,” filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Holiday Inn Select, 1801 N. Naper Blvd., Naperville.

The lawsuit stems from the cancellation of a banquet Americans For Truth planned to hold Oct. 6, 2007, at the Holiday Inn Select. While working on the menu several weeks before the event, LaBarbera told the hotel the banquet may draw protesters from the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network, which describes itself as “a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered direct action group.” According to LaBarbera, a Naperville resident, the group frequently protests Americans For Truth activities.

According to a 2007 Sun article, that information led the Holiday Inn Select to reconsider. With a wedding in the other ballroom, the hotel canceled the Americans For Truth event.

“For the safety and security of all of our employees and guests, we decided that it is not a function that we wanted to have based upon the potential of having a protest,” said general manager Dennis Igoe at the time.

There was no written contract for the banquet, LaBarbera said Thursday.

When contacted Thursday, the Holiday Inn Select said it has no comment at this time. Atlanta-based InterContinental Hotels Group, which owns the Holiday Inn brand, issued the following statement:

“InterContinental Hotels Group, owner of the Holiday Inn brand, is very concerned about any claim of discrimination at any hotel bearing the Holiday Inn name. IHG condemns unlawful discrimination in all of its forms. The Holiday Inn Select Naperville hotel is independently owned and operated. IHG does not dictate local hotel operating policy for such franchised properties other than to require all hotels bearing its trademarks to comply with all applicable governmental requirements. In addition, IHG expects every Holiday Inn hotel to make every reasonable effort to promptly resolve all guest complaints. The cancellation decision in this matter was made solely by the local hotel. Since this matter is the subject of pending litigation, we have no further comment at this time.”

Saying it was unfairly treated because of its religious beliefs, LaBarbera said the group felt compelled to take action to prevent similar situations in the future and send a message to other hotels.

“We want something to come of it so hotels like Holiday Inn think twice before succumbing to anti-Christian (sentiment),” LaBarbera said.

LaBarbera said Naperville prides itself on tolerance, and that a “pro-family, pro-marriage” group deserves the same as other groups. If his group had been a gay rights or other organization, the situation never would have happened, he said.

“Tolerance is a two-way street,” LaBarbera said.

The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of damages.

“We don’t really have a dollar amount at this time,” said Jason Craddock, a New Lenox-based attorney representing Americans for Truth. “The most important thing is the message.”

________________________________________

To sign up for AFTAH’s Feedblitz service to receive notice of all AFTAH web postings, click http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=126361

Tom Dart, Sheriff of Cook County, Illinois, shows his support for the homosexual agenda by fielding a float and marching in the 2009 Chicago Gay Pride Parade (June 28, 2009). Ten minutes later in the parade, a radical leftist homosexual organization holds up a banner that reads, “Gay Pride Means Fight Cops.” Note that the faces of the young men holding up the cop-hating banner are covered with Intifada-like headdresses.  More description is after the jump and under the video ….

… This footage was shot by Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, as we make our belated entrance into the world of YouTube. As is typical, the 2009 Chicago “Pride” parade featured participants violating the Chicago Public Morals Law, e.g., a presumed transsexual “female” baring his/her breasts riding atop a float block after block on Halsted St (much like I witnessed at the 2007 Chicago “Pride” march). Keep in mind that there were many children at the parade — and this year children from Chicago’s Nettelhorst Elementary School actually participated in the homosexual parade at the request of their parents.

Also, this footage of Sheriff Dart’s float was shot directly in front of a 24/7 homosexual bathhouse called “Steamworks,” (at 3246 Halsted in Boystown, Chicago), where men go for anonymous, deviant sex with other men. Perhaps Dart should focus less on “gay pride” and more on enforcing decency laws — and closing down Chicago perversion centers like Steamworks that  facilitate the spread STDs by enabling reckless homosexual promiscuity. Call Sheriff Dart at 312-603-6444, or e-mail: sheriff@cookcountysheriff.org. Thanks for taking action. — Peter LaBarbera, www.americansfortruth.com

Folks, this is a wake-up call to stop “civil unions” in Illinois. Call your state representative and senator today or tomorrow morning (find your lawmakers at www.congress.org). Homosexual lobbyist Rick Garcia (left) predicts passage of faux “gay marriage” (“civil unions”) in our state, but Garcia could be bluffing. And he’s hardly a truth-teller: some years ago he lied to told the Daily Herald that he didn’t know what goes on in the 24/7 homosexual bathhouse down the street from his office in “Boystown,” Chicago. (He called it a “health club” — good one, Rick.)  Kudos to Illinois Family Institute for its battle against “civil unions” and all the fine work it has done in the Land of Lincoln opposing the campaign to turn aberrant sexual behavior into a “civil right.” — Peter LaBarbera

P.S. What is the “AIDS Foundation” doing lobbying for homosexual “civil unions”?

IFI writes:

__________________________________

Homosexual Lobbyists More Determined Than Ever To Pass “Civil Unions”

By Kathy Valente, Policy Analyst, Illinois Family Institute

Take ACTION: Contact your state representative (www.congress.org) to preserve natural marriage in Illinois!!  [Call the Capitol Switchboard in Springfield at 217-782-2000; you can find all of your state and federal representatives by plugging in your 9-digit zip code or address at www.congress.org.]

Rick Garcia, gay lobbyist for Equality Illinois, said yesterday that he “absolutely” foresees both the House and Senate passing HB 2234, the civil union bill, as early as next Tuesday or Wednesday. It’s no secret that Governor Pat Quinn supports the bill and is likely to sign it into law.

If Garcia is right, Illinois will soon bestow its blessing upon homosexual couples, extending to them the same benefits as marriage, only under a different name.

According to CapitolFaxBlog.com, “Equality Illinois has nine lobbyists working as either full-time staffers or contractors to encourage lawmakers to vote in favor of civil unions. Other groups assisting in passing the measure include the American Civil Liberties Union, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and the Service Employees International Union…” (Emphasis added.)

Take ACTION: Please look up your state representative HERE and then call your state representative to ask him/her to please vote ‘NO’ on HB 2234 and, instead, pass a constitutional amendment to preserve marriage and its unique benefits for one man and one woman.

If they receive dozens of calls from their constituents, they might tell their leadership not to allow the bill to be called. This would be a public record of their vote to be used against them. They fear losing their next race.

We don’t want to cry wolf, but we also don’t want to take for granted that the bill won’t pass. It’s a tug-of-war. There are far too many unethical lawmakers who lack a strong moral compass and who too easily bow to the powers that fill their coffers.

Additional Action:

1. Forward this email to everyone on your Illinois email list.

2. Print and make copies of this half-sheet flyer to pass out at your church, school, among friends and neighbors, etc.

This bill can be stopped, but only if you will make the 2 calls to your state representative and state senator AND if you will pass this information to others. It’s our responsibility to tell those who represent us how we want them to vote. This is still a government “of the people, by the people and for the people.”

The only difference between marriage and “civil unions” is in name. The rights and privileges would be the same.

Bob Schwartz of the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network supports Wright State University’s ban against the Campus Bible Fellowship. The Christian campus group opposes Wright’s “nondiscrimination” code, which would force it to abandon its faithfulness to Scripture by allowing unrepentant homosexuals as members. Schwartz previously claimed to oppose laws criminalizing Christian speech — yet he favors banning groups because he  considers them “bible bigots.” Would Schwartz and GLN (which AFTAH considers to be an anti-Christian hate group) allow a tax-supported public university to dictate ITS membership standards if it operated on a college campus?

AFTAH was copied on the following e-mail letter from Bob Schwartz of the left-wing Gay Liberation Network, based in Chicago, to Wright State University President David Hopkins. Schwartz sent his letter following Americans For Truth’s reprint of a press release by the Foundation for Individual Rights (FIRE) , which is fighting to overturn Wright State’s oppressive policy of forcing Campus Bible Fellowship to violate its faith creed in order to stay on campus. Note at bottom Schwartz’s clarification in response to a question from this writer.

Please study this series of e-mails and links [Wright State story HERE and Schwartz's previous statement against censorship HERE] and see if you can comprehend how Schwartz can simultaneously hold two seemingly contradictory positions:

1. he “opposes” government censorship against Christian speech (for which AFTAH wrote that “we are pleasantly surprised that the GLN leader is not an outright advocate of censorship”);
2. while he supports a government-funded school banning a Christian group for, effectively, sticking to its Biblical faith creed.

Hint: if you love the First Amendment, you won’t like Bob’s “clarification.” By banning Campus Bible Fellowship, Wright State has censored CBF’s speech. [TAKE ACTION HERE, or contact Wright's President, David Hopkins, at david.hopkins@wright.edu.] All of this begs the question: why would anyone expect the American Left — which has carried water for totalitarian governments the world over — to understand and honor religious liberty and First Amendment freedoms in the United States?– Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth, www.aftah.com

Here is Schwartz’s letter to Wright State President David Hopkins and BCC’d  to Americans For Truth, sent following AFTAH’s posting of the FIRE press release:

_________________________________________

From: [Bob Schwartz, Gay Liberation Network]
Sent: Sunday, March 08, 2009 1:55 PM
To: americansfortruth@comcast.net
Subject: Bible Bigots at Wright University

[To Wright State University President David Hopkins; link added]

Dear Mr. Hopkins:

No doubt you have received angry messages from bible bigots claiming that “religious freedom” is being compromised by the banning of the hate group from campus.

Racists and women haters have claimed religious sanction for their beliefs and discriminatory acts.  Gay and lesbian people deserve the same respect and protection accorded to other groups.

Please maintain the ban on the Campus Bible Fellowship.

BOB SCHWARTZ [of Gay Liberation Network]

Chicago

_________________________________________

Here is our follow-up with Schwartz and then his “clarification” equating a group maintaining Biblical standards against homosexuality with “hate speech”:

—–Original Message—–
From: Peter LaBarbera, Americans for Truth, americansfortruth@comcast.net
To: [Bob Schwartz, Gay Liberation Network]
Sent: Mon, 9 Mar 2009 8:35 am
Subject: RE: Bible Bigots at Wright University

…. And this does seem like a retrenchment from your other email (which I posted on AFTAH) in which you say you defend opposition speech.

_________________________________________

From: [Bob Schwartz]
Sent: Monday, March 09, 2009 11:23 AM
To: americansfortruth@comcast.net
Subject: Re: Bible Bigots at Wright University

I am opposed to government imposed restrictions on free speech, as such restrictions are historically directed at left-wing oppositionists.  I consider bible based bigotry against gays to be hate speech subject to antidiscrimination policies as in the case of Wright State University.

The Georgia Republican Party has distanced itself from homosexual activist and Georgia Log Cabin Republicans president Jamie Ensley’s vicious comments calling Americans For Truth a “domestic terrorist group” and comparing us to Nazis, WorldNetDaily.com reported Friday. Conservatives and pro-family Republicans across the nation have expressed outrage at Ensley’s bigoted remarks, but some homosexual groups like the leftist Gay Liberation Network have commended them.  

[UPDATE ON THIS STORY: WorldNetDaily.com reports that the Georgia Republican Party has issued the following statement on the Jamie Ensley-Log Cabin Republicans controversy: "While a healthy debate on the issues can help strengthen us as a party, to use the word 'terrorist' to describe those that disagree with you is not appropriate." Georgia GOP spokesman Doug Reineke emphasized to WND that the Log Cabin Republicans "are an independent group not officially associated with the Georgia Republican Party." See the full WND story HERE and the AFTAH article containing Ensley's hateful e-mail to GOP Chairman Michael Steele HERE.]

________________________________________

Log Cabin Republican Jamie Ensley Comes Out of his Bigot Closet

By Laurie Higgins, reprinted from the Illinois Family Institute website.

An un-righteously indignant James Ensley, President of Georgia Log Cabin Republicans, has sent a vitriolic tirade against Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth to the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele. For those unfamiliar with Log Cabin Republicans, they are a homosexual political action group that is committed to subverting the Republican Party position on issues pertaining to “gay rights.”

Once again, the hypocrisy of the claims of homosexual groups’ commitments to tolerance is laid bare in all its ugliness in Mr. Ensley’s letter. He has charged Mr. LaBarbera and anyone else who shares the orthodox Christian, mainstream, historical view of homosexual behavior as immoral with being bigoted, anti-American, anti-Christian, fringe, radical, extremist domestic terrorists who shouldn’t have a voice in the Republican Party [see AFTAH piece HERE].
Here are some inconvenient truths upon which Mr. Ensley and other like-minded dogmatists might spend some time ruminating:

• There is no research proving that homosexuality is biologically determined: none.
• There is no research proving that homosexuality is ontologically equivalent to race or biological sex: none.
• It is no more anti-American to believe that homosexual behavior is immoral than it is to believe that polyamorous or incestuous behavior is immoral. I think it’s safe to assume that most, if not all, of our pro-American Founding Fathers believed homosexual behavior to be immoral. It would be fascinating to see what evidence Mr. Ensley would provide to justify his rather remarkable claim that beliefs about the immorality of homosexuality constitute anti-Americanism, particularly since those arguments tend to rely on the erroneous and unproven presupposition that homosexuality is ontologically equivalent to race.
• There is a body of thought emerging from the homosexual community called “queer theory” that holds that homosexuality is neither inherent nor immutable.
• Although homosexual feelings are not chosen, homosexual conduct is.
• Even behaviors that emerge from feelings that may be shaped in some way by biological influences are not automatically moral. All humans experience feelings that are likely shaped in some way by biology, but that existential reality does not mean that it is always and automatically morally legitimate to act upon those biologically influenced feelings.
• The view that homosexual conduct is moral is an unproven, ethical belief —not a fact.
• The belief that homosexual conduct is immoral does not constitute incitement to violence or hatred. It no more constitutes hatred of homosexuals than does the belief that polyamory or selfish behavior is immoral constitute hatred of polyamorists or selfish people.
• The belief that volitional homosexual behavior is immoral is not an extreme position. Throughout history, it has been the dominant cultural view and remains so both in this country and many other countries throughout the world.
• Ensley’s comparison of those who believe homosexuality is immoral to Nazis is a classic association fallacy, best known as “guilt by association.” He is implying that because conservatives believe that homosexuality is immoral and Nazis believed it’s immoral, then conservatives are equivalent to Nazis. It’s a fallacious and absurd non-argument. Surely, Mr. Ensley recognizes that he likely shares in common some views with some Nazis. The fact that conservatives believe that volitional homosexual behavior is immoral and that some Nazis believed that also does not prove that the belief itself is evil.
• It is not bigotry to believe that homosexual behavior is immoral. The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines a bigot as a person who is “obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially: one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance.” Clearly, there is a distinction between bigotry and moral views. Bigotry cannot simply refer to holding opinions or being in possession of moral precepts, for if it did, everyone but sociopaths would have to be considered bigots because everyone but sociopaths holds certain behaviors as moral and others as immoral. Moreover, “prejudice” refers to “an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason.” As such, opinions formed, even negative opinions, after careful consideration do not represent prejudice.

It appears that James Ensley just came out of his bigot closet, hurling pernicious charges —with no evidence—at not only Mr. LaBarbera but also at countless others who share the view that homosexual behavior is immoral behavior. In the future, it might behoove the ad hominem-hurling Mr. Ensley to study the art of argumentation.

Laurie Higgins is the Director of School Advocacy for the Illinois Family Institute and a frequent contributor to Americans For Truth.

The far left, Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network has been smearing Christians as “haters” for years. Here they shown in 2005 picketing the city’s beloved Moody Church, which GLN fanatically labeled a “House of Hate” because Moody pastor Erwin Lutzer wrote a book against homosexual “marriage.” Click to enlarge; photo by Dave Smith, Illinois Family Institute.

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News Advisory, Protect Marriage Illinois and Americans For Truth

November 15, 2008

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

CHICAGO – Peter LaBarbera, Board Member of Protect Marriage Illinois and president of Americans For Truth (www.aftah.org), issued the following statement in response to the national homosexual protest day against Proposition 8’s passage in California. LaBarbera joins Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel (www.lc.org) and a small group of Illinois pro-family advocates in Chicago to oppose the Chicago pro-homosexual-“marriage” rally today at Federal Plaza.

Statement by Peter LaBarbera:

We stand here today proudly in support of Prop 8 – which preserves the age-old definition of marriage as between and a man and a woman in California – and similar pro-traditional-marriage amendments that have passed in 30 states across the nation. Americans have spoken: they oppose the radical redefinition of marriage. We in Illinois hope to join the other states in passing a constitutional amendment to prevent activist courts from foisting “gay marriage” on our citizens.

Homosexual activists arrogantly reject the will of people and are trying to overturn their loss at the ballot box through the courts in California. If they succeed, it will create a constitutional crisis in California and sour citizens on the power of their vote – but that’s fine for homosexual activists because it’s always all about them. No wonder they regard all opposition to their “gay marriage” agenda as illegitimate, and even malign pro-family advocates – including African Americans who voted by 70-30 in California for Prop 8 – as “haters, bigots and homophobes.”

Gay activists talk a lot about “tolerance” but many do not practice what they preach. In the days since the election, America has watched as homosexual militants have escalated their anti-Christian and anti-religious attacks. Homosexual activists targeted the Mormon Church and other churches that supported Prop 8 with protests and even violence. A suspicious white powder was discovered at two Mormon temples and at a printing plant used by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic organization that supported and helped finance Prop 8’s successful campaign.

In Palm Springs, an elderly woman in favor of Prop 8 was assaulted by “gay” militants, and in Michigan, a lesbian anarchist group called “Bash Back!” stormed an Assemblies of God church and began throwing around condoms and engaging in vulgar behavior. So it’s no surprise that homosexual activists are going after the IRS non-profit charity status of opposing churches.

Incredibly, even after “No on 8” ran a vicious TV ad that was blatantly bigoted against Mormon missionaries, in the aftermath of the election “gay” activist accused Prop 8 of telling “lies” during the campaign. Here in Chicago, one of the main organizing groups for today’s homosexual protest is the Gay Liberation Network (GLN) — a group that regularly maligns Christians and smears churches as “haters” because they disagree with GLN about homosexuality. Defending marriage is not “hate,” and agreeing with the historic Judeo-Christian opposition to homosexual practice is not “bigotry.” Those like GLN who smear Christians as “bigots” and “homophobes” merely for standing up for their Biblical beliefs about the sanctity of marriage reveal themselves as hateful bigots. We need a Proposition 8 here in Illinois!

Below is an excellent column by Joel Belz, founder of WORLD magazine, answering some of the current Christian gibberish critical of believers who fight for Truth in the public square. (Click HERE for the full column in WORLD.) While we’re at it, here are 20 more good reasons why Christians (or anyone) should never feel guilty about a single-minded focus in countering the homosexual/transsexual activist and pro-abortion lobbies:

1. Human Rights Campaign (largest pro-homosexual PAC);
2. National Gay and Lesbian Task Force;
3. Lambda Legal;
4. NARAL Pro-Choice American (formerly National Abortion Rights Action League, which cruelly defends even later-term abortions).
5. GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation;
6. GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network);
7. NOW (they manage to promote both lesbianism and abortion-on-demand);
8. MTV (obnoxious in its one-sided promotion of homosexuality, bisexuality, etc.);
9. Soulforce and other Bible-twisting, “queer theology”-promoting groups;
10. Radical, reason-challenged, pro-homosexual websites like young Jeremy Hooper’s Good As You blog, Wayne (“Anything But Straight”) Besen’s ‘ex-gay’-hating Truth Wins Out, and lesbian Pam (“Jeebus”) Spaulding’s Pam’s House Blend;
11. National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association;
12. EMILY’s List (a pro-abortion PAC)
13. Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (working to open up the military to homosexuals);
14. ACLU’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project;
15. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.)
16. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
17. Tim Gill (homosexual money-man)
18. Pro-homosexual activist groups like Equality Illinois fighting in all 50 states for radical legislation that undermines marriage;
19. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
20. PFLAG (Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians & Gays), a radical pro-homosexual group.

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Belz writes for WORLD:

Stop Apologizing!
It’s not always wrong to be a “single-issue” advocate

It’s become an increasingly frequent reminder to us evangelical Christians not to let our cultural identity be framed by “single issues.”

It was a reminder implicitly included in the “Evangelical Manifesto,” a document whose basic content we at WORLD have applauded but whose political direction I questioned in our last issue. Why are the Manifesto’s backers so ready to join the cultural left in suggesting a guilt trip for those evangelicals who have been preoccupied with the evils of abortion and same-sex marriage?

And if some argue that the rising generation of younger evangelicals is a bit embarrassed by what they think is an out-of-balance focus by their elders, and thinks it’s time to get equally exercised over issues like racism, economic justice, and the environment—well, if that’s the case with our twentysomethings and our teenagers, then maybe we need to go to work and do a better job of explaining to them why we’ve put the emphasis where we have for the last generation and why we believe that it’s time not to lower our voices.

Evangelicals shouldn’t be embarrassed to say boldly and clearly: Abortion and same-sex marriage are uniquely heinous sins. They rattle the foundations of a civilized society. They take a culture in a dreadful direction. We haven’t been wrong to say so. We aren’t fanatics.

Click HERE to read Belz’ entire column in WORLD

UPDATE: We learned June 26 from a Catholic, pro-family advocate who contacted the Chicago Archdiocese that AGLO has now been denied permission to march officially in this year’s homosexual “pride parade.” Stay tuned for more on this story.

[Click on photo to enlarge.] Topless transsexual bares his (presumably hormone-induced) breasts at last year’s (2007) Chicago “gay pride” parade. The “man” rode exposed like this for blocks along the parade route, as the crowd lining the streets cheered him on. Faithful Catholics in Chicagoland are outraged that a church-affiliated group called AGLO (Archdiocesan Gay and Lesbian Outreach) may march in this year’s homosexuality-celebrating parade. (AGLO is listed as #114 in the parade line-up.) Photo: AFTAH. Click HERE to contact the Archdiocese of Chicago regarding AGLO.

Folks, I cannot help but commend this brilliant response from my friend Gary Morella to the news that Chicago Cardinal George is allowing (at least for now) a so-called “gay Catholic”-oriented group called AGLO (Archdiocesan Gay and Lesbian Outreach) to march in this Sunday’s “Chicago Gay Pride” parade. (AGLO is listed as #114 in the parade line-up.) Morella is a Catholic pro-family, pro-life activist and research mathematician at Penn State, who catches enormous flack for his stubborn insistence on proclaiming truth at that academic den of iniquity.

Gary as a Catholic and I as an evangelical disagree on some points of theology, but we are completely in accord on the need to combat all worldly attempts to transform the sinful yet changeable behavior of homosexuality into some kind of inherent and innocuous “identity.” — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

P.S. I learned from my friend Susan Jordan, a Chicagoland Catholic, that AGLO has marched in other Chicago “gay pride” parades.

___________________________

Gary Morella (left) writes:

In regard to the report of a Chicago “AGLO” group marching in a “Gay Pride” parade, some seminal Catholic truths apply in regard to the “bottom line,” not the least of which is the following. The Chicago Archdiocesan Gay and Lesbian Outreach is misnamed. There is nothing “gay” about being inclined to unnatural acts that are so revolting as to cause extreme revulsion when accurately described! We are talking about sexual perversion that has not evolved to sexual deviance to sexual preference to sexual orientation, which is the politically correct lie of those practicing same in order to anesthetize society that they must accept the vices of a radical fringe under force of law – to heck with the common good! Rather, we’re talking about aberrant behavior that remains sexual perversion, regardless of the devil’s packaging! Accordingly, there is nothing Catholic about celebrating such perverse behavior that is condemned by traditional Catholic teaching rooted in Sacred Scripture, PERIOD! This truth should be obvious to anyone who is Catholic in more than name only in the recognition that the common good leads ultimately to a supernatural good in accord with God’s Divine Plan for His Creation. To thwart the common good is to do the work of the devil!

This begs the obvious question, why are Catholic frauds repeatedly allowed to cause public scandal to the faith with impunity? AGLO does not deserve to exist because, as an organization, it shamelessly promotes the commission of Mortal Sin which is anathema to Catholicism. Why can’t Cardinal George see that seminal truth? Just how much more scandal must be tolerated, putting souls at extreme risk of eternal perdition, before the plug is pulled on the AGLO liars? The Catholic goal should be the encouragement to leave, not live, homosexual lifestyles!

What is frustrating is that this decline in the Church could be thwarted by some very simple courageous actions on the part of bishops, in particular, Cardinal Archbishops as metropolitans for their Episcopal brethren, by taking the bull by the horns and saying, e.g., to the Archdiocesan Gay and Lesbian Outreach (AGLO) in Chicago, “You can no longer exist because your premise is counter to Church teaching in that you believe that one can live homosexual lifestyles and still be Catholic, which is a lie.” Are you listening, Cardinal George?

The traditional Church teaching on sins against nature is very clear using Sacred Scripture and Tradition in the form of statements from the Popes, Councils, Saints, and Apologists combined with the tradition of civil legislation to show the moral chasm that has resulted when the language of “pseudo charity” replaces the language of “tough love” for salvation’s sake. The result being that the necessary feelings of revulsion toward those proudly trumpeting their sodomite tendencies are no longer there opening the door for a misplaced compassion that such individuals do not deserve. They are differences between an ontological dignity to which all are entitled by virtue of being made in the image and likeness of God, and a moral dignity as a function of being endowed with an intellect and will whereby good can be accepted and evil rejected. Moral dignity does not exist for sodomites, a distinction that AGLO never makes using language that would have us erroneously believe that there exists something called the homosexual person, a concept which turns Catholic anthropology on its head making God, Who is Perfect Good, out to be a liar in creating man with a built-in one way ticket to hell in complete ignorance of the effect of the concupiscence due to Original Sin.

The clear consistent condemnation of homosexuality in Catholic teaching does not have to be needlessly qualified, which is something that Saints Peter, Jude, Pius V, Basil of Cesarea, Augustine, Aquinas, John Chrysostom, Gregory the Great, Peter Damian, Albert the Great, Bonaventure, Catherine of Sienna, Bernardine of Sienna, Peter Canisius, and the councils of Ancyra, Toledo, Nablus, and Third Lateran did not suffer.

Is it possible to be Catholic and be inclined to homosexual acts? The answer is yes as there is no guarantee that Catholics are not tempted to sin. It is better to ask, “Is it possible to remain a Catholic and live a lifestyle that equates sexual perversion with normality?” The answer is an unequivocal no. For to do so makes a mockery of Sacred Scripture which states emphatically that Jesus condemns the sin out of concern for the sinner’s eternal end. The same “good and gentle” Jesus who is readily quoted out of context by the contemporary disciples of “dignity” and “self esteem” also is the “just” Jesus who talked more about the consequences of grave sin than any other New Testament figure. He was especially discriminatory in this regard as while some ceremonial aspects of the old law were rescinded, the moral requirements were not.

Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For amen, I say unto you, till Heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall not pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven. For I say to you, that unless your justice abound more than that of the Scribes and of the Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 5:17-20)

But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a mill-stone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of scandals. For it must needs be that scandals come: but, nevertheless woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh. And if thy hand of thy foot scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life maimed or lame, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee with one eye to enter into life, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. (Matthew 18:6-9)

It is an oxymoronic contention that you can be a practicing homosexual and be Catholic. This is a violation of a fundamental philosophical principle in that “Something cannot ‘be’ and ‘not be’ at the same time in the same respect.” The Church’s clear teaching is that there is nothing “gay” about being inclined to proven self-destructive physically, psychologically, and especially spiritually, unnatural behavior that has also been proven to be changeable, i.e., there is no such thing as a homosexual orientation in an innate final sense. Such inclinations are to acts which the Church considers intrinsic moral evils, the inclination itself being objectively disordered because of the unnatural tendencies involved. To say otherwise is absurd!

This is not a question of exclusion but rather one of unconditional love for man’s salvific eternal end that demands telling the Truth, Who is a Someone, not a something, per the beginning of the Gospel of John.

Catholics, above all clerics, ought to realize that by lying to people who need the full truth does nothing to help them. And it is a lie to have someone believe that they can be Catholic and have no problems with being inclined to acts, which if performed, lead to final spiritual ruin. That is playing with fire. The Church calls those inclined to homosexuality to leave, not live, their lifestyles. In order to do that the Church cannot lie about such inclinations being benign naturally, and especially spiritually, given the eternal truth of the Natural Law of God which is a participation in His Eternal Law.

Would so-called “Catholic” apologists for the homosexual lifestyle have us believe that Matthew 5:21-31 excuses any responsibility for living it because homosexuality is not explicitly referred to?

“You have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says ‘You fool!’ shall be liable to the hell of fire….You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart…It is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

It most certainly is. In particular, see Genesis 18:20-21, Romans 1:24-28, and the Epistle of Jude. Moreover, Jesus took the old law one step further and made the actions leading to the act as severe as the act itself. Are we to believe as Catholics that somehow homosexuality fell through the cracks in Sacred Scripture? Thus, from the Catholic standpoint, to imply that Jesus never said anything about being inclined to unnatural acts is Bible eisegesis with the consequences of Matthew 18:6.

To give a message to those inclined to homosexual acts that “they are OK as they are” is un-Catholic in the extreme given the above observations. It makes no more sense than to tell an alcoholic that you may continue drinking to get over alcoholism. Moreover, it is akin to giving a serial killer more bullets.

The Magdalenes of the Gospel were most certainly forgiven, but the words of Jesus following His forgiveness are conveniently forgotten. “Go and sin no more.” That is what it means to be Catholic. To make the attempt to live a Faith which will be mocked by the world. To imply that the homosexual lifestyle somehow has a Catholic blessing is tragic. It is tragic because souls are at stake — those living the lie and, especially, those telling it. For Catholics, that’s NOT love but REAL hate for their fellow man.

Lest we forget, Jesus Christ exists eternally as Second Person of the Blessed Trinity of the One True Triune God, i.e., as God Jesus destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, which is the first thing that should be remembered when the heinous lie that “Jesus never had anything to say about homosexuality” rears its ugly heads via the disciples of the devil! We are talking about a proven changeable lifestyle with the Grace of God that is physically, psychologically, socially, economically, and most especially spiritually ruinous!
As Ralph McInerny in Catholic Dossier has pointed out, obfuscation has reached the college campuses and campaigns are waged against something called “homophobia,” the net effect of which is to suggest that it is the judgment that homosexual acts are sinful that is sinful, not the acts themselves. In this effort, Scripture and magisterial documents are invoked as if they favored homosexuality as erroneously implied in many college editorials. One has a Catholic duty, it seems, not to state the Catholic message on the matter. During campus campaigns to give recognition to homosexual organizations, no mention is ever made of the serious health dangers that follow homosexual activity. And this on “smoke-free” campuses. Now it is the consequences of the vice that dare not speak their name.

Lenience toward homosexuality is only an aspect of the Dionysian frenzy that characterizes talk of human sexuality. Human persons need the sane and saving doctrine of the Catholic witness on homosexuality today more than ever. To give a stone where bread is asked for is unkind. The Church’s mission is not to conform to the world, but to stand in contradiction to it in order to save it. Given this seminal Catholic truth, AGLO is not saving anyone, and as such, deserves to be summarily condemned by Holy Mother Church. — Gary L. Morella, Catholic Activist

By Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH Exclusive

Steamworks, a 24/7 Chicago homosexual bathhouse where men go for anonymous sex with other men — one man said it is “like the Disneyland of gay sex” — is one of the sponsors of a “Queer Prom” tomorrow night for Latino homosexual youth.

A link for the bathhouse is found in web articles promoting the “Queer Prom,” which, ominously, is also open to adults to attend.

The item below in the Chicago homosexual newspaper Windy City Times (May 14, 2008) points to the problem of “gay youth” events, which too often expose impressionable and already sexually confused young people to the hyper-sexualized, adult (male) homosexual culture; note that the event is open to adults:

Queer Prom approaches

Get out your suits and dresses, because Queer Prom 2008 is May 23.

The dance for LGBTQ [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning] youth and friends will take place at the National Museum of Mexican Art, 1952 W. 19th, at 6:30 p.m. The event is co-sponsored by Radio Arte, the National Museum of Mexican Art, CALOR, Steamworks, the Association of Latino Men for Action, the Young Women’s Empowerment, Amigas Latinas, Latinos Progresando, Project Vida and Lambda Legal.

There is a $10 suggested donation for youth, and a $25 suggested donation for adults, but no one will be turned away due to lack of funds….

One click away

As you can see by viewing THIS LINK advertising the event, youth are a mere click away from the web page for Steamworks, which caters to men 18 years and older. It appears as if the bathhouse owners are doing smart public relations to attract future clients to their sex business.

Here is a description of Steamworks bathhouse from its website (a photo from the site is at left; emphasis added below):

“STEAMWORKS has been providing men 18 years & older with a clean, comfortable and stylish place to meet other men, relax, workout and play 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 30 years….

“With over 800 lockers and over 230 private rooms, combined with over 10,300 gallons of water in our hot tubs and almost 44,000 square feet of club space… as soon as you walk into any of our clubs, you are grabbed by that inescapable Steamworks sexual energy. Whether you are here hanging out, working out or making out, think of Steamworks as your free space on the game of life - a place where man2man interaction is not only accepted, but encouraged!”

On a homosexual, pornographic website dedicated to helping men find public sites across the country where they can anonymously “cruise for sex” with other men, a satisfied out-of-town customer happily described his sodomitic encounters (he lost track of how many) and said: “I recently traveled to Chicago and before going I came to [the homosexual "cruising" website] as I was looking for some hot experiences. Man! Steamworks is like the Disneyland for gay sex.”

Steamworks, located in Boystown, the Chicago “gay” neighborhood north of downtown, is part of a chain of homosexual bathhouses (the others are in Toronto, Seattle and Berkeley, California, near San Francisco). Although Illinois’ best-known homosexual activist, Rick Garcia, claimed in the media not to know what goes on at Steamworks (located down N. Halsted Street from his offices at Equality Illinois), bathhouses and sex clubs are fixtures of big cities with large homosexual populations. (See this blog post about bathhouses by homosexual activist Keith Boykin, and the interesting comments that follow.)

One big problem with bathhouses — and one of the reasons why Americans For Truth About Homosexuality supports the permanent closure of all bathhouses and commercial sex clubs — is that many men who do not identify as “gay” use them. Places like Steamworks make it easy for bisexuals or men with girlfriends or wives to secretly engage in perversions, thus putting their spouses at risk.

The following description of the “Queer Prom” is found on the website Think Pink Radio (where there is also a web link to the Steamworks website):

Chicago’s only queer prom for youth who want a chance to go to a fancy party as themselves (with a real date) is looking for volunteers. No need to go in a group or with a friend, this is a safe space for anyone in high school or college that identifies as some form of queer. Presented by Homofrecuencia and WRTE Radio Arte, this annual gala will take place at The National Museum of Mexican Art on Friday, May 23, 2008. Interested volunteers can go here and fill out the form. If you are young and just looking to party, tickets are (suggested donation) $10 for youth and $25 for adults. Queer Prom 2008: “Todos Me Miran” will be super fun and filled with tears of joy, as always. … –Stinky Pinky

Mario Diaz, a Hispanic American pro-family advocate and policy director for legal issues for Concerned Women for America, said, “It’s bad enough that there’s a prom which celebrates deviant and unhealthy sexual behavior. But the fact that it’s sponsored by an adult homosexual bathhouse where men meet for anonymous sex is appalling.

“This goes against everything that the Latino community stands for,” Diaz said. “Latino organizations should be working for a better future for Hispanic youth, not encouraging them to celebrate self-destructive behaviors and a lifestyle that God opposes.

“This is another reason why parents need to be involved in the lives of their children,” Diaz said. “Not one Hispanic family I’ve ever known would approve of their children being involved in this kind of activity.”

AFTAH Board Member Matt Barber, also with CWA, said, “I want to know what business adult homosexuals have co-mingling with impressionable youth at an event centered around sexuality. What are their intentions with these teenagers?”

Perhaps since this is an event open to adults, parents and concerned members of the community should attend to monitor the event and ensure that minors are protected.