Americans for Truth about Homosexuality

 NOTE: Rep. Blunt penned a column on the majority’s ENDA legislation this week for Human Events, available HERE. His speech on the floor of the House can be viewed on YouTube by clicking HERE. Call 202-225-6536 or go to his website HERE to thank Congressman Blunt for standing up for religious freedom and educating the nation on how ENDA will undermine it. If we had more Congressmen like Blunt, our freedoms would not be in jeopardy.

Majority’s ENDA Bill Takes Dead Aim at Religious Freedom

Legislation creates conflict between one’s right to religious freedom, and another’s right to sue you for exercising it

WASHINGTON – House Republican Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.) issued the following statement today after Democrats failed to secure a veto-proof majority on the so-called Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), a bill that would erode one’s right to religious freedom by strengthening another’s right to sue you for practicing it:

“The structure of the bill before us today is eerily similar to legislation we’ve seen from this majority all year: a favorable, purposefully misleading title applied to a bill that’s poorly assembled and oblivious to its own consequences. 

“In this case, the so-called ‘Employment Non-Discrimination Act’ creates a legal quagmire for employees who practice, or even acknowledge, their religious beliefs – depending on where they happen to work, and subject to judicial interpretation. In the process, it erodes a basic, fundamental right bestowed upon us by our Creator – and a right guaranteed to every American under the U.S. Constitution.

“As a former president of a Baptist college in Missouri, supporters of this bill have been quick to assure me that its most onerous provisions would not apply to that school. But no such exemption is available for Christian bookstore owners, as an example, or any other small business in which people of faith and deep religious conviction are relied upon as an integral part of the workforce.

“Thankfully, Republicans secured the votes necessary this afternoon to uphold a presidential veto. It’s my hope now that this Congress can move forward on the real priorities affecting American families. Though a clear boon to trial lawyers, this bill does not meet that standard.”

NOTE: Rep. Blunt penned a column on the majority’s ENDA legislation this week for Human Events, available HERE. His speech on the floor of the House can be viewed on YouTube by clicking HERE.

By Sonja Dalton

Do not be deceived:

• Ruth (a woman) was married to Naomi’s son (a man) until he died — ie, Ruth was in a heterosexual marriage with a man who died, not in a “committed same-sex relationship” with her mother-in-law. Maybe Mr. Miner and Mr. Connoley should finish reading the Old Testman book of Ruth to learn that, after being widowed, she re-married her kinsman-redeemer, Boaz (a man), and that the natural offspring procreated by their heterosexual marital sex is included in the lineage of Christ. The story of Ruth has absolutely nothing to do with homosexuality.
• The word in Matthew 8:5-13 for the centurion’s servant is “pai’ß” which is rendered servant because that is what it means. End of story.
• Homosexuality, like all sin, is primarily a spiritual disorder. Here is the “Gay-Friendly” Gospel: With sacrificial love for all sinners, Jesus Christ came as a physician to heal the spiritually sick — and He still offers healing today, including to homosexuals. But He demands repentance from sin, not self-justification while continuing in sin.

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The following is excerpted from Reading the Bible the Gay-Friendly Way, by Will Kilburn, published Nov 26, 2006, by Boston Globe:

In the battle over gay rights and same-sex marriage, those who oppose both often cite Biblical passages which, they believe, clearly state that homosexuality is wrong.

Trying to rebut this view is a movement led by people who are both gay and Christian who say that the Bible is on their side.

“Most people think that the attitude of gay Christians is, ‘Who cares what the Bible says?’ when in reality, we care deeply what the Bible says,” said the Rev. Jeff Miner , pastor of the Jesus Metropolitan Community Church , a gay-friendly congregation in Indianapolis. He led a forum on the topic last weekend at Arlington Street Church. “We think there are a lot of powerful, affirming things that are in the Bible that have been ignored.”

Those affirming messages were detailed by Miner and forum co-leader John Tyler Connoley in their 2002 book, “The Children are Free: Reexamining the Biblical Evidence on Same-sex Relationships.” The book served as the text for the forum, sponsored by an array of gay-friendly local church groups, which drew about 200 people.

Most of the forum was devoted to passages that the authors say treat homosexuals and heterosexuals equally. In the Old Testament, claim the authors, Ruth’s covenant with Naomi, which includes the memorable phrase, “Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live,” actually refers to a committed same-sex relationship. They also offered a different interpretation of a story that appears in both Matthew and Luke, in which a centurion asks Jesus to heal a man who is typically identified — misidentified, says Miner — as the centurion’s servant.

“That story’s often preached about in straight churches,” said Miner, but “nobody bothers to mention that the Greek word used to describe the sick man is the word used in the ancient world to describe your same-sex partner.”

Both Miner and Connoley said they had to leave the relatively conservative churches of their childhoods when they came out as gay, Connoley spending two years in so-called “ex-gay therapy,” in which homosexuality is treated as a mental disorder. Similar conflicts, both internal and external, were recounted by some of the organizers of the forum.

“My primary goal was to provide an opportunity for people who are gay, bisexual, transgender, to come and be affirmed and to be loved,” said Sam Gloyd , 60, an Arlington Street Church congregant who came out as gay when he came to Boston for graduate school 20 years ago.

Gloyd says he got the idea for the forum partly in response to a conference held in Boston last year by the Colorado Springs-based group Focus on the Family . Called “Love One Out,” the event, held at nearby Tremont Temple Baptist Church, offered instruction to families on how to convert a gay relative back to heterosexuality. While some protested on the street, Gloyd chose to go inside and hear what the group had to say, a move that turned painful a few hours later. “I wasn’t just traumatized, I was re-traumatized, because for 40 years of my life I lived this trauma of feeling like I was unacceptable to God,” he recalled. “So it was inspiration from that conference that sort of spurred me on to say we need to offer some alternative voice to this hateful message that’s masked in love.”

That alternative voice doesn’t sway the Rev. Ray Pendleton, pastor of Tremont Temple Baptist Church, where the “Love One Out” event was held.

“The Biblical view of sexuality is pretty clear,” he said. “It says that genital sexuality is to be expressed between a man and woman in the context of marriage, period.” Pendleton was careful to make a distinction between homosexual orientation and the practice itself. “When you look at what the Bible teaches, the Bible doesn’t talk about orientation; the Bible talks about behavior.”

Continue reading at Boston Globe…

Matt Barber on MSNBC!

Matt Barber, CWA’s Policy Director for Cultural Issues, recently appeared on MSNBC Live debating Harry Knox from Human Rights Campaign on comments made by Rev. Al Mohler that there is a biological basis for homosexuality. Click HERE to watch!

From Ex-”Gays” Say Science Can’t Change Morality, by Michael Foust, published Mar 20, 2007, by Baptist Press:

The leaders of two ex-gay ministries say that even if scientists someday find a biological basis for homosexuality, such behavior will nonetheless be immoral and the Bible’s condemnation of it will still stand.

Tim Wilkins (pictured left) of Cross Ministry and Alan Chambers (pictured right) of Exodus International were responding to comments by Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr., whose online article about a possible biological basis for homosexuality caused a small media storm.

Both Wilkins and Chambers say they agree with Mohler’s main point — that a biological basis would do nothing to change the discussion over homosexuality’s immorality. Wilkins and Chambers formerly were homosexual. The two men e-mailed their responses to Baptist Press.

“Many people, including evangelicals, mistakenly believe that if a ‘gay gene’ or a hormonal factor is discovered, such news would mean homosexuality is natural and thus acceptable,” said Wilkins, who is married and has three daughters. “But … natural is not normal.”

Chambers, who is married and has a son and a daughter, agreed.

“Science will never trump the word of God,” the president of Exodus International said. “We already know that we are physically, biologically and spiritually fallen creatures, so in a sense finding a biological link to homosexuality wouldn’t be a huge surprise. However, susceptibility isn’t the same as inevitability. Our genetics aren’t a tyranny over us.

“Just because something is genetic doesn’t make it moral, optimal or healthy,” Chambers added. “Research has suggested that there is a biological link to alcoholism and kleptomania, but as a society we aren’t advocating for the rights of alcoholics or those with a compulsion to steal. For that matter, neither are those who are battling those addictive behaviors.”

Read the rest of this article »

From Was It Something I Said?, by Dr. Albert Mohler, published Mar 16, 2007:

Well, never doubt the power of the media. My recent article on homosexuality ignited a firestorm in the public square. Why? We may never know — but the controversy represents both a challenge and an opportunity.Several thoughts:

I must admit much frustration about the way many in the media have handled the issue. Headlines proclaimed “Seminary President Says Babies Born Gay” — something I neither believe nor said. Other articles and reports claimed that I suggested that homosexuality may be genetic in origin and that genetic therapies should be used to create customized and corrected babies. I never even mentioned genetic therapies or germ-line experiments, and I am adamantly opposed to genetic therapies of such a sort — real or hypothetical. Reading these reports and headlines was a painful and exasperating experience. If I believed those things attributed to me, I would not agree with myself and would condemn myself…

God’s condemnation of sin is not determined by science, but by God’s Word. The Bible could not be more clear — all forms of homosexual behavior are expressly condemned as sin. In so doing the Bible uses its strongest vocabulary and places this condemnation in the larger context of the Creator’s rightful expectation of our stewardship of the sexual gift. All manifestations of homosexuality are thus representations of human sinfulness and rebellion against God’s express will. Nothing can alter this fact, and no discovery in science or any other human endeavor can change God’s verdict…

In 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 the Apostle Paul condemns an entire list of sins, including explicit references to homosexuality. Then he reminds the church, “such were some of you.” The complete text reads: “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” [1 Corinthians 6:11]. God brings glory to himself through the salvation of sinners — and Paul includes homosexuality in that list…

Continue reading at Dr. Mohler’s Blog…

By Sonja Dalton

A gender confusion activist responds to the firing of a “transgendered” faculty member — a male now living/dressing as a woman — by a private Christian university:

Dr. Albert Mohler is quoted in Gender Issues at the Heart of Culture War (published Nov 23, 2004, by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood) as saying:

“The issue of gender, in my estimation, is at the very center of the target of our secular age and postmodern world,” Mohler said. “It is also at the very center of the target of where we see theological accommodation is taking us, not only in the body of divinity, but also in the complex of the comprehensive truthfulness of God’s Word. What we are looking at here is an assault upon God’s glory.“

So, Danny Baker, we offer you a few examples of Scriptural authority that address “changing genders” and we pray that you will consider them soberly:

So God created man in His own image,
in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them.

– Genesis 1:27

The Bible describes a strict gender binary — only two sexes, male and female. God did not create a “FTM trans-male” and a “MTF trans-female” or a “genderqueer” or a “two-spirit” person. He created man and woman, and that is what He blessed.

Notice that Scripture says whoever — a completely inclusive term that leaves no room for justifying alternate behavior, even despite confused emotions, discomfort or dissatisfaction, or intense desire. This passage teaches that whoever (i.e., anyone, all, no matter who) cross-dresses, whoever mutilates their natural sexual organs in order to emulate the opposite sex, is an abomination to the LORD your God — not to “trans-phobic, hateful, judgmental Christians,” but to Jehovah God who created them.

After all, Christians are merely repentant sinners, formerly alienated, enemies of God ourselves, so how could we as redeemed sinners rightly look at another sinner as an abomination to us? No, we as Christians look with compassion, we warn of God’s impending final judgment, and we urgently invite all to share in the mercy which we ourselves so desperately need and for which we are so grateful: Come and see how Jesus Christ can transform your mind and your life!

Excerpted from Transgender Professor Fights Dismissal at Christian School, published Feb 2007, by Associated Press:

Julie Nemecek has long, manicured fingernails and wears a blond wig, makeup and dangling earrings.

She’s also legally a man.

Julie, formerly John, says she gained a lot emotionally after starting to live openly as a woman in recent years — cross-dressing, getting hormone therapy and, a week ago, legally changing her name. But she lost something as well: her job.

Spring Arbor University, a small, evangelical Christian school…, fired the 55-year-old associate professor earlier this week…

In a recent statement, the school said: “Our curriculum integrates faith in all aspects of our liberal arts education, and we expect our faculty to model Christian character as an example for our students.”

…After the Nemeceks’ three grown sons moved out, John started researching gender issues in 2003. He was diagnosed with gender identity disorder, decided he could no longer live a lie and told his shocked wife.

Joanne, 55, didn’t know if she could stay in the marriage, especially when John wanted to transition further into living as a woman. She thought John’s lifestyle was sinful but eventually changed her mind after learning more about his condition…

Being Julie, however, hasn’t been easy.

Read the rest of this article »

Dr. Albert Mohler addresses the recent ruling by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America regarding their reluctant expulsion of openly homosexual “pastor” Bradley Schmeling from St. John’s Lutheran Church in Atlanta. The congregation’s “Trial Update” page declares Schmeling’s homosexual relationship with Darin Easler, a former ELCU “pastor” now seeking ordination in the apostate United Church of Christ. Unfortunately, while recognizing that Schmeling is in violation of church policy, the committee also suggests that the policy should be changed to accommodate openly and practicing homosexual clergy.

Listen online as Dr. Mohler encourages “pitchfork rebellion” — the laity standing firmly for Truth:

Feb 9, 2007

Homosexuality in the Church: Is It Time for a New Reformation?

Also, Dr. Mohler recommends a book called Sex and the Supremacy of Christ, edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor: