AFTAH News Release, Dember 18, 2010

Contact: Peter LaBarbera: 630-717-7631; americansfortruth@gmail.com

Sen. Joe Lieberman's phoney piety is exposed by his emergence as a leading crusader in Congress for the homosexual agenda.

CHICAGO – As most Americans shop and begin making preparations for Christmas or their religious holiday, the U.S. Senate, led by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (independent), is busy securing a vote to effectively homosexualize our Armed Forces.  [Call your Senators at 202-224-3121 to oppose the repeal of the law banning open homosexuality in the military (commonly called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”).]

Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, which opposes the “gay” activist agenda, said today’s vote, potentially clearing the way for repealing the military ban, is the most important homosexuality-related congressional vote ever held: “If the lame-duck Congress succeeds in ‘gaying down’ our military this weekend, it will take a disastrous leap toward “mainstreaming” deviant, sinful homosexual conduct – not just in the military but in larger society — thus further propelling America’s moral downward spiral.

“This is a needless injection of sexual politics into our Armed Forces,” LaBarbera said, noting that the President’s own DoD report on implementing the Repeal reveals:

• 23.7 percent of surveyed Service members (38.1 percent of Marines) said repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” would cause them to “leave [the military] sooner than I planned” or “think about leaving sooner than I had planned”;

• 44.3 percent of combat veterans (59.4 percent of Marines) said that having an open homosexual in their immediate unit in the field or at sea would “Negatively” or “Very Negatively” affect their “unit’s effectiveness at completing its mission”;

Calling the Repeal a “civil rights measure,” Lieberman said, “The days should be over when we let civil rights measures be filibustered so they can’t be adopted.’’

LaBarbera observed:

• Shame on Joe Lieberman – who professes to adhere to ancient Jewish moral law – for confusing the noble civil rights cause with an agenda that seeks to normalize destructive homosexual behavior. Lieberman is wrong: homosexuality is not the basis for “civil rights,” which In the past has been based on unchangeable skin color – not sexual misconduct that can be resisted or changed (as evidenced by thousands of former homosexuals who now live happy lives in accordance with God’s will);
• Americans are tired of religious phoneys like Lieberman – politicians who use their religion as a PR prop while actively undermining its moral dictates. Claiming to be an “observant” Jew, Lieberman wears his religion on his sleeve (perhaps he will walk, not drive, on the Jewish Sabbath Day today to cast his pro-homosexuality vote!).  Stealing the moral authority of “civil rights” is the only way Lieberman can rationalize his role as a crusader for the ‘Gay’ Lobby on Capitol Hill — when His religion, a form of Orthodox Judaism, condemns homosexual acts as an “abomination”;
• There are no “ex-Blacks”; there are many ex-“gays.” This helps explain the difference between President Truman’s noble reform to racially integrate African Americans into the military – and President Obama’s misguided push for open homosexuals in the military, which is really about pandering to his liberal, pro-“gay” political base.

Said Brian Camenker, founder of the pro-family group Mass Resistance, who attends an Orthodox synagogue in the Boston area:

“Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who has the incredible chutzpah to call himself an Orthodox Jew, will desecrate the holy Sabbath to go to work – the U.S. Senate – and vote to force the integration of homosexuality into the U.S. military. He is a shameful disgrace and an embarrassment to Orthodox Jews everywhere.”

“[A blog article] supposes that I ever quoted Leviticus that homosexuality is an abomination.  That never happened.  I repeat: that never happened.  I never said that.  I don’t believe that….

“In fact, I was one of the earliest radio hosts to support organizations such as PFLAG (you know, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and other efforts to encourage openness and acceptance of gays in their own families, much less society.”  – Dr. Laura Schlessinger, “Setting My Record Straight about Gays,” June 22, 2010, Schlessinger’s blog

The famous radio host, "Dr. Laura" Schlessinger, now praises the radical homosexual group PFLAG (Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). In 2000, homosexual militants targeted Schlessinger with a cyber-boycott because she said (correctly) that homosexuality is a "biological error."

TAKE ACTION: Write Dr. Laura Schlessinger through her blog and urge her to stop promoting the homosexual activist group PFLAG. Respectfully ask her to instead support PFOX, a pro-family support group for parents and friends of ex-gays (and gays). Also urge her to refrain from sanctioning homosexual relationships, which are always wrong, and to instead use her powerful voice to support the ex-gay movement. Another way to contact Schlessinger is through her website, DrLaura.com, but you have to join first to e-mail her this way. Or you can write: webmaster@drlaura.com.
The call-in line for Dr. Laura’s radio show is 1-800-DR-LAURA (800-375-2872). (Calls must come between 11:30 and 3:00 PM Pacific Time Monday-Friday.)

______________________________________

By Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

I’m sad to report that Dr. Laura Schlessinger – the “Dr. Laura” of radio moralist fame — has chosen to sell out the truth about homosexuality because she either: 1) stopped believing it; or 2) couldn’t take the pressure or the potential loss of income and prestige resulting from hostile “gay” activism.

Note that I did not say that Schlessinger has sold out on opposing “gay marriage.” She hasn’t, and still publicly defends traditional marriage. But she has reversed course on homosexuality, which is by far the more politically incorrect battle these days. Let’s face it, “protecting marriage” in our “gay”-saturated culture is a much easier task than opposing the extremist homosexual agenda — which Dr. Laura knows better than anyone because she herself was savaged by ’GLBT’ cultural bullies ten years ago for describing homosexuality as unnatural.

(I want to stress that Schlessinger’s retreat on homosexuality does not negate her immense contributions to the culture in teaching people to take responsibility for their own lives, and in helping to build healthy marriages and families. For example, I know just from conversations with friends and family that her book, The Proper Care & Feeding of Husbands, has blessed many women and, by extension, their husbands and marriages.)

‘Gay’ Cyberwar Target

A decade ago, Schlessinger was the target of a “gay” activist cyber-campaign after she referred on her show to homosexuality — not “gay people,” as was widely misreported — as a “biological error.” Of course, Dr. Laura was right: as we’ve noted, Nature itself clearly discriminates against homosexuality; just look at the skyrockeing sexual diseases including HIV among “men who have sex with men.” Or observe the simple biological fact that any child can understand: that two men or two women alone cannot produce a child without borrowing from heterosexuality, as it were.

Indeed, homosexual “equality” can never be more than a mere political slogan.

Because Schlessinger reasonably asserted on radio that homosexual practice is deviant, she and her new TV show were targeted by a vicious homosexual boycott campaign that ultimately led to the TV show being canceled. To get an idea of the massive cyber-boycott unleashed against her, visit the the archive of the website “StopDrLaura.com,” created by homosexual militant and blogger John Aravosis. Going down the list of the StopDrLaura actions and “victories” on their home page is a valuable lesson in the dedication and fanaticism (and cruelty) of homosexual activists. One item even approvingly cites a column by feminist lawyer Gloria Allred speculating on whether the demonized Dr. Laura could have been sued for “discrimination” under California’s “sexual orientation” law for making her remarks critical of homosexuality (see 9/27 item “Could Dr. Laura Be Sued?”).

Homosexaul activists mocked Dr. Laura and took her comments about homosexuality being a "biological error" out of context to demonize the talk show host. Their boycott of Dr. Laura's advertisers led to her TV show being cancelled -- a campaign that surely has had a chilling effect on other radio talk show hosts. This photo -- note the message, "Are you a BIOLOGICAL ERROR?" -- is taken from the "StopDrLaura.com" archive website.

The cyber-boycott worked to perfection, but Schlessinger made it worse by proceeding to take out not one but two full-page ads in the Hollywood newspaper Variety to apologize (as a then-Orthodox Jew) to the “gay community.” If life were fair, it should have been the intolerant ”queer” activists like Aravosis apologizing to Dr. Laura, but unfortunately, politics and cultural warfare often reward bullies.  The Variety ads were a pathetic capitulation — especially coming from a tough-talker like Dr. Laura who did nothing wrong. It was sort of like the abused schoolboy paying and praising his tormenters for not stealing his lunch on Friday after they did so every other day of the week.

Chilling effect from rewarding bullies

The StopDrLaura web campaign was the first of its kind targeting a radio talk show host and its success certainly had a chilling effect on other talk shows. As we have often bemoaned, these days even most “conservative” talkers carefullly avoid taking on the homosexual activist movement, and some, like self-described “Happy Conservative Warrior” Mike Gallagher, have thrown up the white flag of surrender on the homosexuality debate. (Curously, Gallagher complains when “conservatives” sell out on issues that he cares about.)

I can almost hear Dr. Laura telling one of her callers: “You never reward bullies.” But that’s exactly what she has done, and she continues the appeasement with her sporadic attempts to disprove a false claim arrising from the cyber-boycott: that she  “hates gays and lesbians.” (Memo to Dr. Laura: why even bother to answer this straw-man smear? When you chastise your callers who are practicing adultery or fornication, does that mean you “hate” adulterers and fornicators?)

Promoting PFLAG, promoting homosexuality

As part of her perverse penance, Schlessinger — who once was a convert to Orthodox Judaism but left that religion in 2003 — now champions the radical homosexual organization PFLAG (Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). PFLAG supports “gay marriage” and promotes the anti-biblical notion that homosexual practice is not sinful; in fact, it expends a lot of resources undermining Scriptural truth about homosexuality and marriage.

PFOX President Greg Quinlan, a former homosexual and one-time “gay” activist, recently outlined some of PFLAG’s anti-Christian activities in his speech to PepsiCo’s shareholders meeting highlighting PepsiCo’s financial support of PFLAG:

PepsiCo, Inc. is the leading corporate sponsor of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, known as PFLAG. PFLAG’s latest publication, a religious guidebook, instructs its members to protest against religious conferences which feature ex-gay speakers like me. PFLAG’s religious guidebook even directs members on how to create picket signs for these protests. It also urges members to hold press conferences and issue press releases against ex-gay religious events “to remind people that there is more than one faith message.”

My church welcomes the ex-gay community. Why does Pepsi fund groups like PFLAG that disrupt Christian events which support former homosexuals like me? Why does PepsiCo fund an organization like PFLAG which issues religious publications urging readers to undermine other religions with which PFLAG disagrees? Why does Pepsi fund hate? Why?

We must ask: why is Dr. Laura giving free publicity to a group that encourages hostility against Bible-believing Christians and wars against God’s wonderful, created order for sex and marriage? In leaving Orthodox Judaism, why did Schlessinger also throw out biblical truths, such as the Old Testament’s prohibition of homosexual acts as an abomination (detestible)? Is Dr. Laura smarter than God?

I have not listened to Schlessinger’s show in a while (she’s not on a major network in Chicago), but I’m concerned with what her 2008 blog post below says about her apparent countenancing of homosexual relationships:

“When I helped a young male caller with his ‘boyfriend’ problems — which are no different in their content from ‘girlfriend’ problems: common sense, fears, communication, I got a spate of letters….”

So it doesn’t matter if a man has a boyfriend or a girlfriend? Really, Dr. Laura? A moralist who purports to defend absolute Bible morality cannot treat homosexual relationships as if they are OK because they are deeply immoral. Instead, she should tell such a homosexual: “You need to get out of that relationship and seek help in abandoning homosexual practice, which is wrong. There are plenty of places to get help, whatever your religious persuasion is, or even if you are not religious.” [See these ex-gay or change-oriented websites: NARTH; First Stone Min.; Exodus International; Regeneration Min.; Charlene Cothran's Evidence Ministries; Linda Jernigan's RescuingHomosexuals.net; and JONAH.]

PFLAG vs. PFOX

PFLAG relentlessly attacks pro-family groups, especially the one that Dr. Laura should be promoting: PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays). PFOX correctly believes that you can love your child without approving of his or her homosexual, bisexual, or “transgender” lifestyle. My friend, PFOX President Regina Griggs, has a homosexual son and she loves him as any mother would her son – I know, because I’ve had many conversations with Regina. She understands — as Dr. Laura surely would agree – that loving your child does not mean accepting everything he or she does. Regina loves her son but will never accept his homosexuality as part of “who he is.” She prays he will join the tens of thousands of “ex-gays” who have left this dead-end lifestyle behind. (Listen to my interview with ex-lesbian Linda Jernigan HERE.)

It’s called “tough love, “and Dr. Laura of all people should understand this concept – which makes it all the more galling that she now promotes the homosexualist group PFLAG with its artificial brand of homosexuality-affirming “love.” 

Now that I think of it, I challenge you, Dr. Laura, to invite Regina Griggs to your home and learn a few things about true love, and then give her an on-air interview to compensate for your radio promotion of PFLAG.

PFLAG promotes gender confusion in kids

I wonder if Dr. Laura has an any clue how extreme PFLAG is. In addition to propagandizing for homosexuality, PFLAG recklessly promotes “transgender” identities in children; see their booklet “Our Trans Children” HERE. (“A trans child can be treated with puberty blockers to suppress development of the secondary sexual characteristics of the birth sex.” — p. 5.) Here’s more from PFLAG’s “Our Trans Children” booklet:  

“If your child has come out to you [as transgender] before or at the beginning of puberty, you may consider puberty blockers. …They are completely reversible, so if the blockers are withdrawn, puberty begins. This allows your child to mature with their affirmed gender identity or revert back to their birth sex if they desire.If your child is ready for irreversible treatment (usually at 16 years or older) the absence of those unwanted secondary sex characteristics will make their full transition much easier and less expensive. ”  

How sad that a woman like Dr. Laura who claims to defend biblical morality, and who has done so much good in urging men and women to stop feeling sorry for themselves and to face their problems head-on, now boasts that she recommends a homosexual organization like PFLAG, which urges parents to “block” their child’s puberty as a way to help the child “transition” into a deviant, unnatural identity.

Who knows how many desperate parents with gender-confused children PFLAG has led astray!  

Dr. Laura needs to “do the right thing” (to quote her mantra) and stop pretending that homosexuality is OK and shilling for misguided ‘GLBT’ groups like PFLAG. It will take courage — of the sort she constantly encourages in her callers — but she should switch from supporting PFLAG to supporting PFOX and other groups that affirm God’s natural created design for men and women.

Dr. Laura needs to take personal responsibility for defecting away from truth on the homosexual issue. Pandering to an organized sin movement — however aggressive and skilled it is at intimidating and bullying good people – is not befitting a moralist like Schlessinger who counsels others to obey God and take the tough road toward living right.

Read Goldberg’s thoughts on “gay marriage” below:

________________________________________

Gay ‘Marriage’: Bad Science, Bad Politics

[Note: we have taken the liberty of putting quotation marks around "marriage" when used in a homosexual or "group marriage" context. We also added a web link for "polyamory." --Ed.]

By Arthur Goldberg and Michelle Cretella
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH STATE
June 19, 2009

Legislation is presently pending in the New Jersey state legislature to approve same-sex “marriage.” There is a strong effort by gay activists and their allies to push such a bill through the legislature rather than asking the citizens of the state to vote for its approval. Because informed public policy decisions should be based on rational judgment grounded in fact rather than fiction, it is helpful to review a few of the key considerations relevant to this debate.

Nearly every argument favoring same-sex “marriage” is based on the belief that homosexual orientation is inborn and immutable. Thus, the argument often is made that just as interracial marriage gained approval so, too, should gay “marriage.”

But sexual orientation is not like skin color; it is not genetic. An avowed lesbian, Dr. Anne Fausto-Sterling, professor of developmental biology and gender studies at Brown University, admits “[Although the claim that homosexuality is genetic] provides a legal argument that is, at the moment, actually having some sway in court, [f]or me, it’s a very shaky place. It’s bad science and bad politics.”

No genetic earmark distinguishing homosexuals from heterosexuals has ever been identified. Homosexuals and heterosexuals are genetically indistinguishable. As stated in a British medical journal, “From an evolutionary perspective, genetically determined homosexuality would have become extinct long ago because of reduced reproduction.”

Indeed, taking the question further, more than 100 scientific studies indicate that change of sexual orientation is possible for many motivated individuals. The father of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (the Bible of psychiatry), Dr. Robert Spitzer, changed his own lifetime view. He published a study in 2003 confirming that many dissatisfied homosexuals are able to make substantial long-term changes in orientation.

Another premise of the same-sex “marriage” debate claims homosexual coupling involves stable, long-term relationships equivalent to heterosexual marriages. Drs. David McWhirter and Andrew Mattison, both openly homosexual, studied 156 male couples who had lived together for 20 years or more. To their dismay, they found that the longest period of sexual monogamy for those couples was five years; the average was under two years.

Within the gay subculture, the concept of monogamy is simply not synonymous with sexual exclusivity. Gay activist Andrew Sullivan writes: “homosexuals have a need for extramarital outlets.” Lesbian writer Camille Paglia notes how gay magazines glamorize “the bigger bang of sex with strangers” and advocate “monogamy without fidelity” in same-sex couplings.

The instability of same-sex relationships and prevalence of polyamory cannot be attributed to social discrimination or “homophobia.” During the 1990s many gay-affirming countries legalized same-sex “marriage.” The instability of homosexual relationships, however, remained unchanged. For example, a 2003 Dutch study found the average male homosexual partnership lasted only 1.5 years (Compare that figure to a CDC U.S. study of heterosexual marriages showing 50 percent of heterosexual marriages lasting 15 years or more.) Similarly, a 2004 Swedish study found that homosexual unions had a 50-percent higher divorce rate than heterosexual unions.

Inherent health risks of the gay lifestyle present another issue. Life expectancy for men who have sex with men, according to a 1997 International Journal of Epidemiology study is eight to 20 years less than that of heterosexual men. There is also a higher rate of intimate partner violence between same-sex couples.

Higher parent mortality and promiscuity increased rates of domestic violence and greater rates of divorce are not healthy for children. Consequently, acceptance of gay “marriage” requires a disregard for the best interests of children. It follows logically that if marriage is defined merely by “who we love” regardless of what is in the best interest of children, then the government has no right to discriminate against those with other sexual orientations including orientations toward children or animals. This is why advocates of pedophilia, group “marriage,” bestiality and incest cite gay “marriage” victories as their own. It is also no coincidence that within 10 years of legalizing same-sex “marriage” every Scandinavian country legalized polygamy.

Clearly, New Jersey has an interest in promoting and protecting traditional marriage. Decades of research demonstrate that children fare best physically, emotionally, and academically when nurtured by a married mother and father. Fatherless families, in particular, are associated with higher rates of violence, poverty, delinquency, substance abuse, sexual promiscuity, and teen pregnancy, all of which cause an increase in tax dollars required to fund remedial social programs. Clearly, if Americans want to improve the economic health of our nation and maximize the well-being of our children, traditional marriage must be strengthened.

The European experience, however, demonstrates that same-sex “marriage” weakens the institution overall. Every Scandinavian nation legalizing same-sex “marriage,” for example, has seen an unremitting decline in traditional marriage rates, and a surge in cohabitation and out of wedlock births. Predictably, the cost of social programs in those countries has risen sharply.

To summarize, homosexuality is not genetic like skin color. Interracial marriage never changed the definition of marriage; marriage remained the exclusive and faithful union of one man and one woman. Defending traditional marriage is not bigotry. Defending traditional marriage protects the greater common good for everyone — including those with homosexual attractions.

Arthur Goldberg, J.D., C.R.S., is the author of “Light in the Closet: Torah, Homosexuality, and the Power to Change.” Michelle Cretella, M.D., is chair of the Sexuality Committee, American College of Pediatricians. Here’s a description of the book, available at Amazon.com:

Light in the Closet: Torah, Homosexuality, and the Power to Change by Arthur Goldberg Can homosexuals transform their sexuality? Torah, Talmud and time-tested advances in gender psychology answer YES! The Co-Director of JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality) tells how. This groundbreaking book explodes the “gay gene” mystique, offering hope, compassion, direction and vitally needed information to gay strugglers, their families, friends, and surrounding community.

Israel records homosexual “marriage” for first time

For the first time in history, Jerusalem has recorded the “marriage” of a homosexual couple. Two men who wish to be identified as “Binyamin and Avi Rose” were “married” in Canada over the summer of 2006 and moved back to Israel where their marital status is now being recorded through the Interior Ministry’s Population Registry. Israel’s highest Court ruled in November that same-sex “marriages” that have been legally performed in foreign countries will now be included in Israel’s records. Concerned Women for America (CWA) prays that the nation of Israel will embrace and defend the Biblical definition of one man, one woman marriage and not go down the slippery slope that seeks to destroy traditional marriage.

CWA’s Policy Director for Cultural Issues Matt Barber said,

“Christians, Jews and all people of faith from around the world will no doubt be saddened and shocked by this alarming development in Israel – as should anybody who recognizes the tremendous benefits conferred upon humanity by the institutions of legitimate marriage and family. It defies logic that the state of Israel would grant any official recognition to counterfeit ‘same-sex marriage.’

“God ‘made them male and female.’ The Biblical model irrefutably defines marriage as between one man and one woman. It provides that all sexual relations are to occur within the bounds of marriage.

“But this is not just a spiritual issue. Even within secular society, marriage has, by definition, joined male to female since time immemorial. Unless the Israeli government reverses course here, it has now inexplicably capitulated to the radical and destructive redefinition of marriage.”

Dr. Albert Mohler discusses the New York Times article on “transgender” children and also interviews Rabbi Bruce Ginsberg, cantor for the Congregation Sons of Israel in Woodmere, NY, regarding the controversy within conservative Judaism over interpretations of Scripture regarding homosexuality.

Click HERE to listen.

While the topic may be couched in gay rabbis and same-sex unions, the crux of the issue really is “how one views homosexual behaviour,” Meyers said in an interview…

Rabbi Kula, author of “Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life,” said the move toward liberalisation among Conservatives “is not something that came down from the top. It came from Jews in the pews … Jews who had homosexual children and wanted them to be rabbis.”

Continue reading in New Zealand Herald…

“Those who forsake the Law praise the wicked,
but those who keep the Law resist them.
Evil men do not understand justice,
but those who seek the Lord understand it fully.”
–Proverbs 28:4-5

Excerpted from Israeli High Court Orders ‘Gay Marriage’ Recognition, by Michael Foust, published Nov 21, 2006, by Baptist Press:

The land where Jesus once walked soon will recognize “gay marriage.”

In a landmark 6-1 decision, Israel’s Supreme Court Nov. 21 ordered the government to begin recognizing “gay marriages” from other countries, such as Canada. Although the decision doesn’t give homosexual couples the ability to “marry” within Israel’s borders, it nonetheless puts Israel at odds with countries such as Great Britain and the United States, neither of which recognizes foreign “gay marriages.” In fact, the U.S. government doesn’t even recognize “gay marriages” that occur within its borders in Massachusetts, the lone state where it is legal.

Four countries — Canada, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands — have legalized “gay marriage,” and a fifth one, South Africa, is expected to do so within days.

The ruling by the High Court of Justice — the name for Israel’s highest court — gives homosexual couples the same legal benefits as traditional couples, including tax breaks and the ability to adopt, The Jerusalem Post reported. The decision forces the government to register the “marriages” like it does any other marriages.

“We don’t have a Jewish state here. We have Sodom and Gomorrah here,” lawmaker Moshe Gafni told Israel’s Army Radio, according to the Associated Press. “I assume that every sane person in the state of Israel, possibly the entire Jewish world, is shocked, because the significance is … the destruction of the family unit in the state of Israel.”

The lawsuit was brought by five homosexual couples who were “married” in other countries and wanted to have their licenses recognized in Israel. One of the couples was Sefi Bar-Lev, 40, and Yaron Lahav, 29, the Toronto Star reported.

“This is a great step forward. But we are still at the beginning,” Bar-Lev told the Star. “The law in Israel is opening up, but whether you are gay or heterosexual, the rule here is still that unless you want to marry the religious Orthodox way, you must still leave the country to get married. So there is more struggle ahead to win the right to have civil ceremonies in Israel. But today we can see there is momentum in the right direction.”

The United States has a law known as the Defense of Marriage Act preventing the federal government from recognizing “gay marriages.” Homosexual activists hope to see it overturned in court someday, but the major homosexual groups have yet to file suit, saying the legal timing isn’t right.

In Britain, a court ruled in July that the government isn’t required to recognize “gay marriages” from Canada.

The Israeli court ruling was issued nearly two weeks after a “gay pride” parade in Jerusalem was cancelled following pressure from Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders and concern over Islamic terrorist violence. Despite the cancellation, in recent years homosexual activists in Israel have won legal and political battles that activists in America have not. For instance, homosexuals in Israel can serve openly in the military. America’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy prevents such open service, with U.S. military leaders saying open service would harm morale and cohesion.

“[The decision] shows that the homosexual agenda is global,” Peter LaBarbera, president of the conservative organization Americans for Truth, told Baptist Press. “America may have to stand alone, but we stand alone in a lot of things.”

The Israel ruling, LaBarbera said, is another example of how “gay marriage” laws in one locality can have a broad impact.

“It is essential to do everything you can to protect marriage wherever you are — in a state or a nation. You have to take precautionary measures. Here in Illinois, [marriage amendment opponents] would tell us, ‘We already have a law [prohibiting gay marriage],’” said LaBarbera, whose organization is based in the state. “Well, you know full well that they want to change the law or get some sort of court edict to change the law.”

A key Conservative Jewish leader is organizing talks nationwide to tell synagogues that the movement will likely roll back its ban on ordaining openly gay rabbis by year’s end.

He and two religious law experts joining him at the meetings are trying to help congregations prepare for the confusion and discomfort to follow.

…The effect of the contradictory actions will be that local Jewish communities have more freedom. Conservative seminaries, along with the movement’s estimated 750 synagogues and more than 1,000 North American rabbis, will get to decide which policy to follow.

…For Conservative Jews seeking more rigorous observance, the Orthodox branch has become a popular choice. The Orthodox strictly adhere to traditional interpretations of Jewish law, prohibiting women and gays from becoming rabbis.

Continue reading…

]]> http://americansfortruth.com/2006/09/08/will-conservative-jews-embrace-homosexual-rabbis/feed/ 0 http://americansfortruth.com/2006/08/31/jerusalem-gay-pride-parade-set-for-september-21/ http://americansfortruth.com/2006/08/31/jerusalem-gay-pride-parade-set-for-september-21/#comments Fri, 01 Sep 2006 04:25:24 +0000 Sonja Dalton /the-bible-churches-glbtq/d-glbtq-pressure-within-churches/jerusalem-gay-pride-parade-set-for-september-21.html Pray for Jerusalem.

Excerpted from Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade Set for September 21, by Gudrun Schultz, published Aug 29, 2006, by LifeSite News:

The International Gay Pride Parade has been rescheduled to take place in Jerusalem on September 21, Israel National News Arutz Sheva reported today.

The weeklong homosexual celebration was originally planned for August, but was postponed due to the outbreak of violence in Lebanon.

The homosexual activist organization Open House announced the date for the planned event in defiance of concerted international opposition from Jewish and Islamic religious leaders, and the Vatican. The event has been condemned as an affront to the millions of faithful worldwide who consider Jerusalem to be a holy city.

“The event is scheduled to take place literally days before the Jewish New Year, a time of deep spiritual introspection for all Jewish people,” Rabbi Yehuda Levin, with the organization Jews for Morality, told LifeSiteNews.com. “It is inappropriate, so inappropriate, for them to flaunt their disrespect for thousands of years of Jewish tradition.”

Rabbi Levin called on Jewish, Muslim and Christian faithful to exercise passive resistance to the event by joining ranks and physically blocking the parade route, “to protect the holy soil of Jerusalem against this spiritual rape.”