Americans for Truth

Christians must reach out with Gospel in love but avoid “soulish sympathy” for practicing homosexuals, says Bible scholar

By Peter LaBarbera

Folks, Dr. Michael Brown gave an excellent presentation at AFTAH’s monthly dinner-lecture last week. We hope to post a YouTube on Dr. Brown’s succinct and compelling response to my question on the “Big Three” hostile questions thrown at Christians who defend the Bible’s prohibitions against homosexual conduct:

1. “But Jesus Christ never said anything about homosexuality”;
2. “Why should we believe the Old Testament says about homosexuality when it also bans wearing polyester and eating shellfish?”; and
3. “You Christians are so judgmental.”

Dr. Brown, a world renowned biblical scholar, hit it out of the park. He also challenged what he calls the “celebration of ambiguity”in describing neo-evangelicals’ and the “Emergent Church’s” evasive and equivocating — and unbiblical — positioning on the issue of homosexuality.

Brown specifically challenged Chicago evangelical Andrew Marin (right), founder of the Marin Foundation and author of “Love Is Not an Orientation.” Brown praised Marin for wanting to reach out to homosexuals and the portions of the book in which Marin relays personal stories of homosexuals he has encountered who have been hurt by the Church. But he was highly critical of Marin’s misuse of Scripture in interpreting verses dealing with homosexuality.

Brown said of the Emergent Church — which is much more accepting of homosexual identity, uses the controversial term ”gay Christian,” and generally scolds Christians for actively condemning homosexuality and the “gay” political/cultural agenda: “Their cure is worse than the sickness …. [they] have shown more solidarity with [homosexual] people than with God.”

“How are we helping anyone when we make the clear unclear … the unambiguous ambiguous? … How is that love?” Brown asked, calling on Christians to share the full truth of the Gospel in love. After first noting that Christians need to repent for neglecting to lovingly share God’s salvation plan with people caught up in homosexuality, Brown warned against believers falling into a “soulish sympathy” for homosexuals that overrides Biblical truth and their Christian conscience. [AFTAH will be offering a DVD of Brown's talk; write americansfortruth@comcast.net for more information.]

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Americans For Truth is pleased and honored to welcome Dr. Michael Brown (left) — a world renown Christian apologist and dynamic pro-family defender of Biblical truth on homosexuality — at its monthly dinner-lecturer tomorrow — Thursday, September 17, at 6:00-9:00 PM — at our office at 25W560 Geneva Rd., in Carol Stream, IL. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to learn from a world renown Christian apologist (author of 20 books) and dedicated pro-family advocate who shatters all the stereotypes about Christians opposing the “gay” agenda. You will be blessed by this man of God who has such a strong heart for proclaiming both the truth about homosexual activism and the love of Christ that sets all men and women — including homosexuals — free.

RSVP to aftahangela@gmail.com (847-722-5330) or and you can get additional information by calling 630-717-7631 or e-mailing americansfortruth@comcast.net. I hope to see some of you tomorrow evening!  — Peter LaBarbera, www.americansfortruth.org

Here are the event details:

WHO:  Dr. Michael Brown,  director of the Charlotte, NC -based Coalition of Conscience and president of FIRE School of Ministry in Concord, North Carolina. Dr. Brown, who holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University, is the world’s foremost Messianic Jewish apologist. (Messianic Jews are Jews who believe in Jesus Christ (who was Jewish!) as their Messiah.) Brown is the author of 20 books and in 2010 will publish “A Queer Thing Happened to America,” which exposes the extremist teachings of “queer theology.”

WHAT:  AFTAH’s monthly dinner-lecture: Dr. Brown will be preaching on how faithful Christians are called to both RESIST the radical homosexual activist agenda and REACH OUT in grace and love with the Gospel of Jesus Christ to men and woman practicing homosexuality.

WHEN:  Thursday, Sept. 17, 6:00-9:00 PM.  Casual dinner begins at 6:00, followed by Dr. Brown’s talk from 7:00-9:00.  There will be a time for Q&A after a mid-talk break for refreshments.  A free will donation will be taken to cover the cost of the event. This event will be videotaped and a tape will be offered by AFTAH for purchase.

WHERE:  AFTAH’s office at 25W560 Geneva Rd., in Carol Stream, IL.  We are located on Geneva Rd., just west of Gary Rd.; (Carol Stream is next door to Wheaton in Chicago’s western suburbs.)  Look for the “Kingsland” sign out front and park in the rear.

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Reverse Discrimination? How’s this for a timely story for Labor Day — highlighting the current reality that Christians and traditionalists who oppose homosexuality are more likely to be fired or disciplined for their beliefs than homosexuals are for “being gay.” TAKE ACTION: Call your Congressman and Senators next week (202-224-2131; 202-225-3121; www.congress.org) and urge them to oppose ENDA — the Employment Nondiscrimination Act — which would federalize “sexual orientation” law and greatly expand government power to promote the “gay” agenda. ENDA would become a tool for the Left to use the state to force Christian and moral-minded business owners to promote and subsidize homosexuality and transsexuality against their will.

FoxNews online reports:

Soap Actress Says She Was Fired Because of Religious Beliefs

Friday , September 04, 2009
By Lauren Green

If you tuned in to the soap “One Life to Live” this week, you may have noticed there’s been a change of character. One character in particular.

Actress Patricia Mauceri says she was fired and abruptly replaced for objecting to a gay storyline because of her religious beliefs.

Mauceri played the recurring role of Carlotta Vega on “OLTL” for the last 14 years. But when she objected to how the writers wanted her deeply religious character, a Latina mother, to handle a storyline involving homosexuality, she objected. And for that she claims she was fired.

Mauceri, 59, a devout Christian, told FOX News that character Vega’s gay-friendly dialogue was not in line with the character she helped create by drawing on her own faith.

“I did not object to being in a gay storyline. I objected to speaking the truth of what that person, how that person would live and breathe and act in that storyline,” she said. “And this goes against everything I am, my belief system, and what I know the character’s belief system is aligned to.”

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“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 … We don’t want corporate America to continue in its belief that it’s OK to discriminate against unpopular points of view.”
– Americans For Truth attorney Jason Craddock

*      *     *

“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!

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Reaffirms stance that homosexual behavior is ‘intrinsically sinful’

Following is the statement of the president of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in response to certain actions of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:

August 24, 2009

The two largest Lutheran church bodies in the United States are the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) with 4.8 million members and The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) with 2.4 million members.

On Friday, Aug. 21, the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to open the ministry of the ELCA to gay and lesbian pastors and other professional workers living in “committed relationships.”  In an earlier action, the assembly approved a resolution that commits the ELCA “to finding ways to allow congregations that choose to do so to recognize, support, and hold publicly accountable life-long, monogamous, same-gender relationships.”

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod has repeatedly affirmed as its own position the historical understanding of the Christian church that the Bible condemns homosexual behavior as “intrinsically sinful.” It is therefore contrary to the will of the Creator and constitutes sin against the commandments of God (Lev. 18:22, 24,20:13; 1 Cor. 6:9-20; 1 Tim 1:9-10; and Rom. 1:26, 27).

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Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter.
(Isaiah 5:20)

Editor’s Note: we have received several letters in response to this post asking us to clarify that the “Lutherans” in question represent only the liberal Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) — and not the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, which is the Lutheran denomination that rejects homosexual clergy and remains faithful to Scripture and the historic tenets of the Christian faith. 

By Peter LaBarbera

The recent vote by liberal Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) — the liberal “Lutheran” denomination — to embrace homosexual clergy is yet another sign of America’s spiritual and moral confusion, and how far down the of road of social decay we have traveled. [Click HERE to read the response to ELCA by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.] The New York Times reports:

By a vote of 559 to 451, delegates to the denomination’s national assembly in Minneapolis approved a resolution declaring that the church would find a way for people in “publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous same-gender relationships” to serve as official ministers. (The church already allows celibate gay men and lesbians to become members of the clergy.)

If you take the Bible seriously and thus reject as unscriptural the modern, “gay” activist construct of homosexuality as a benign “sexual orientation,” then you might join me in asking: would the ELCA ever have a vote on hiring pastors addicted to pornography? Would the ELCA deliberate on whether pastors practicing adultery or incest should be welcomed into the fold? Certainly not, yet all of these, like homosexuality, are sexual sins. Once again, homosexuality gets a special indulgence from liberals who, sadly, have lost faith in the Bible as inerrant, divinely authored Truth — and Jesus Christ’s ability to help lift people out of sin.

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State senate candidate Obama unequivocally supported legalizing same-sex “marriage” in 1996

Obama Was For “Same-Sex Marriage” (and he Still Is): Above is a graphic that appeared in the Chicago homosexual newspaper Windy City Times — showing a “gay” questionnaire revealing Barack Obama’s explicit support for “legalizing same-sex marriage,” as a candidate for Illinois State Senate in 1996. Obama would later adapt his position because “strategically,” he understood that Republicans would use his radical support for homosexual “marriage” against him. Click on graphic to enlarge.

By Peter LaBarbera

Barack Obama sure has a strange way of showing his much-touted support for traditional “marriage.” On Monday, Obama’s Justice Department filed a legal brief against DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, which was signed into law by the last Democrat to occupy the Oval Office: Bill Clinton. Weeks before that, Obama’s administration had defended DOMA, setting off a flurry of protests from his gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender-whatever allies.

DOMA — which only Congress can repeal — passed overwhelmingly in 1996 with bipartisan consensus (a mere 14 Democratic Senators voted “No”). It protects states from being forced to recognize out-of-state “gay marriages.” Its growing unpopularity among Democrats signals the near-complete moral collapse of the party of Harry S Truman, who surely would bristle at the Dems’ current overwhelming support of abortion-on-demand and homosexuality as non-negotiable, litmus-test issues.

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Leaving their mark: pro-homosexual activists in Maine spray-painted “666″ in red on the sign of the Christian Civic League in 2005. Click on photos to enlage.

By Peter LaBarbera

Here’s a bit of history on “gay” activist intolerance — representative of what has gone on for decades across the country whenever citizens try to resist the homosexual activist agenda using the freedoms we possess as Americans. These are photos of a sign for the Christian Civic League of Maine in front of their headquarters that was defaced during the League’s successful 2005 drive to repeal a “gay rights” law using Maine’s “People’s Veto.” Under the Veto, citizens can repeal legislation passed by the Maine legislature through a statewide ballot vote. Multiply this harassment by a thousand and you will understand what proponents of Proposition 8 were up against in California.

This may seem like a minor act of vandalism (note the number “666,” symbolic of Satan, spray-painted in red), and it is, but applying our “Gay-Christian” Substitution Test puts it in proper perspective. Can you imagine the yelling and screaming (and government hate crimes charges?) that would have ensued had Christian activists defaced a sign on the private property of Equality Maine (the state’s leading homosexual group), or the Maine Civil Liberties Union? Exactly.

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