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

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.

_____________

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!

By Peter LaBarbera 

The same homosexual activist group, Gay Liberation Network (GLN), that led a pressure campaign to oust Americans For Truth from the hotel where it held its successful banquet Friday night, is now spreading lies about the number of attendees — saying that “40-50″ people came when in actuality over 110 people packed out the banquet room at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Lombard for the successful event.

GLN’s lie has surfaced on lesbian blogger Pam Spaulding’s site and presumably others as well. (We’re anxiously awaiting ”The Pam’s” correction….) As you might imagine, the prodigious Gay Fib Machine is quite busy when it comes to smearing Americans For Truth, about which they are quite obsessed.

The GLN’s Andy Thayer — who led a contingent of what looked like about 10 or fewer scruffy protesters at our event Friday, somehow determined that “There were only about 40-50 people in attendance” at our banquet. But Thayer and his small band of followers were kept off the Embassy Suites property; they were forced to hold their protest signs (one slammed the “Bigot Banquet”) on the nearest big road (Butterfield Rd.), at least 50 yards from the hotel — so we’re not sure how they got their curious crowd estimate.

A couple of homosexual men did come to the banquet room to harass us after the event had ended and many people had left, so maybe that explains it.

The Gay Liberation Network has some warped priorities, to be sure: while it crusaded against the “hateful” Americans For Truth — even trying to knock us from our hotel – it recently praised Miller Beer for sponsoring the deplorable, sadomasochistic “Folsom Street Fair,” at which hundreds of men walked around totally nude and where orgies on the streets and various “consensual” beatings went undisturbed by San Francisco police.

Here’s more falsehoods from GLN’s Thayer, as relayed by Spaulding:

I doubt they were getting anywhere near $50/person from their paltry attendance, as one of our people went in to scope it out and was told by a person at the door that all that was needed to get in was a free reservation.  No way they covered their overhead, let alone raised any money.  

Truth be told, all of our guests paid their $50, and many much more, so thankfully we had a good night raising funds for our cause of answering “gay” activist lies in the culture.  

I did have an interesting conversation with one GLN protester. As I was in the parking lot, a woman popped out of her car, hugged me and proclaimed — smirk on her face — that she loved me. I hugged her back and told her that I loved her, too. But when I touched her, another woman (perhaps her partner?), still sitting in the car, called out: “Don’t touch him, he’s diseased.”

Diseased? I wish that poor, deluded woman would have come in to hear Charlene Cothran’s wonderful presentation about overcoming homosexuality rather than stand outside with the GLN’s ridiculous signs: she’s welcome to call me any time and I’ll put her in touch with Charlene, who once, too, let anger and ideology keep her from the truth.

Folks, the homo-fascists over at the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network are cheering Miller Brewing Company for sponsoring the recent San Francisco perversion-fest known as the “Folsom Street Fair.” At the same time, they engaged in a (failed) grassroots lobbying campaign to cancel Americans For Truth’s reservation with the Embassy Suites Hotel in Lombard, Illinois — where we held a very successful banquet Friday, Oct. 5.

So let’s review the GLN’s position:

• Nudity-filled, sex-in-the-streets Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco, where men masturbated themselves and other men in public, and whipped and spanked one another for the crowds, where Christianity-mocking “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,” drag-queen “nuns” welcomed attendees: GOOD EVENT, WORTHY OF SUPPORT, KUDOS TO MILLER BEER! 
• Peaceful Americans For Truth banquet attended mostly by Christians; our first speaker, Charlene Cothran, described how God took her out of her past life as a homosexual activist, and how she now has the peace of Christ and wants to help others find it; our second speaker, David Parker, described his legal campaign to have public schools inform parents before their young children are exposed to pro-homosexuality-themed books and curricula: HATEFUL, EVIL EVENT, MUST BE PROTESTED; SHOULD BE BARRED FROM HOTEL!

We hope you get a sense of the folly of homosexual activist “tolerance” and the irrationality and hatred of the Left in general. Perhaps if we publicly embraced nudity and perversion like Folsom, GLN would have called off its protest of our event. Anyway, here’s GLN’s and Schwartz’s September 28 e-mail letter commending Miller Beer for financing the sick San Francisco Folsom Street Festival (emphasis added):

“Thanks for Backing Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco” 

 

Julian Green
Miller Lite Beer
 
Dear Sir:
 
It has come to my attention that your company is under attack for sponsoring the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco.  The attack is emanating from such outfits as the Catholic League and Americans for Truth.  The Catholic League has as one of its directors, the laughable Alan Keyes, who embarrassed Illinois Republicans when he lost by the widest margin of any Illinois senatorial election.  Americans for Truth is a gang of far-right bigots who attack gays by saying we all ought to change into straight people through Jesus, and who would deny us equal civil rights.  Both groups portray themselves as victims as they go about preaching hate and discrimination.
 
The Catholic League and Americans for Truth want to impose one standard of behavior on everyone, a standard divined from ancient texts and a mythical “natural law, a standard that denies women control over their bodies and gay people the rights due to all citizens.
 
Please ignore these strident voices of intolerance and bigotry.
 
BOB SCHWARTZ
Gay Liberation Network, Chicago

By Peter LaBarbera 

Many homosexual activists love verbally bashing Bible-believing Christians who oppose “gay rights” – calling them various names and insulting them by comparing them to racists and, in the case below, white supremacists. Of course, they rarely use the latter technique against African-American Christians like Harry Jackson, who are increasingly vocal in speaking out against the homosexual activist agenda.

Frank Kameny, the homosexual activist icon who was fired by the federal government in the 50′s and who is currently being honored by the Smithsonian Museum as an American ”civil rights” pioneer, coined the term “Christianofascists” to describe groups like Americans For Truth and Concerned Women for America that oppose homosexual activism. Something tells me that Kameny’s anti-Christian smear will not be found in the new Smithsonian’s exhibit about his life – since the academic world, like so many in the media, protects homosexual activists by hiding their more radical associations and beliefs.

(Kameny once addressed a meeting of NAMBLA – North American Man/Boy Love Association, the notorious pederasty group. Another American “gay” founding father, Harry Hay, enthusiastically defended NAMBLA’s right to march in “gay pride” parades.)

Here in Chicago, we have our very own accomplished Christian-bashers — Equality Illinois’ Rick Garcia — who called his own Catholic Cardinal (Francis George) a “bigot” — and, to a greater degree, the Gay Liberation Network, whose Bob Schwartz has a talent for name-calling like few on the Left. 

The easy thing to do would be to dismiss Schwartz and the GLN as part of the vast left-wing network of Christian-haters, and that they are. But as you read this latest rant from Bob, keep in mind that Schwartz’s virulent anti-Christianism is only stating forcefully what many homosexual activists and their allies believe.

Moreover, under government-sponsored pro-homosexuality (“sexual orientation”) laws, those who oppose homosexuality ARE treated as “bigots,” which is why “sexual orientation” legislation like ENDA (the Employment Nondiscrimination Act) is so dangerous. In Western tradition, the law was intended to punish wrongdoers, not people agreeing with God and acting in defense of natural law and time-tested religious and moral beliefs. Does “gay liberation” equate to oppression of religion?

My responses to Schwartz’s comments are in blue:

Poor, beleaguered Peter LaBarbarian. [cute, Bob] Not long after being denied space in a Naperville Holiday Inn for his banquet of bigots [more name-calling -- falsely equating pro-family Americans who oppose homosexuality with rank bigotry], the “Americans For Truth About Homosexuality” leader, the would-be il duce of the hard core antigay right-wing, has taken another hit.  Organizers of a diversity in the workplace panel have disinvited the homo hater [disagreement is not hate, Bob], after three other panelists said they would not participate if LaBarbera did.
 

It is good to hear that HRC’s Daryl Herrschaft and others will not appear with hate mongers [more name-calling] who don’t believe we have a right to even exist [Gay Martyr Syndrome: looks like Bob and friends are "existing" quite fine; we simply don't believe that people are defined by aberrant sexual behaviors, and of course we believe that homosexuals can change and abandon the lifestyle, as so many, like our Oct. 5 banquet speaker, Charlene Cothran, have], much less enjoy equal rights with other Americans ["equal rights" based on what? How you have sex? That's not in the Constitution]. 
 

People like LaBarbera ought to be treated in the same way as those preaching white supremacy or that Jews are Christ killers who need to convert to Christianity. [Another misleading and hateful statement by Bob and GLN, laced with a profound bigotry against sincere Christians and all people -- religious or otherwise -- who believe homosexual behavior is wrong. Here he resurrects past societal injustices to justify his own errant lifestyle. I hate anti-Semitism and racism as much as Bob or anyone else; those issues have nothing to do with Americans' views on the moral questions surrounding homosexuality and gender confusion.]
 

LaBarbera rails against “anti-Christian bigotry.”  This is a sham, a cover for hate hiding behind stained glass windows.  Many religious people held fervent beliefs that Jews and African Americans just didn’t rank up there with the better people, the chosen of god. People who believe and advocate for these things today are shunned as bigots. [Once again, Bob erects his twin straw men of racism and anti-Semitism, knowing full well that we at Americans For Truth abhor both these ills. The practice of homosexuality is shameful, and its celebration more so. Disagreeing with homosexual behavior is nothing more than agreeing with God.]

Note how Bob Schwartz equates the defense of historic Judeo-Christian morality with “hate.” We encourage readers to pray for Bob, who, is a very bitter and angry man. Readers can contact Dennis Igoe, General Manager of the Holiday Inn Select in Naperville, at dennis@naperselect.com or 630-505-4900.

___________________________ 

E-mail subject header: “Thank you for cancelling bigot banquet”

Dennis Igoe
Manager, Naperville Holiday Inn
Naperville, Illinois
 
Dear Mr Igoe:
 
It has just come to our attention that you canceled a banquet by “Americans For Truth,” an antigay hate organization.  We thank-you for doing so, given that antigay hate under the guise of religion is still hate.  Similarly, anti-immigrant hate under the guise of patriotism is the real agenda of the Minuteman Project, a group barred from another Holiday Inn in Crystal Lake.
 
No doubt Peter LaBarbera had our organization, Gay Liberation Network, in mind when he informed you that “homosexual organizations” might picket his hate fest.
 
It has become the cant of bigot organizations like Americans For Truth to cry that there is “anti-christian discrimination” at work whenever anyone stands up for fair play, such as in this instance of a private corporation refusing to provide a platform for rank bigotry.
 
Sincerely yours,
 
BOB SCHWARTZ
Gay Liberation Network
 
Copy: Americans for Truth