Note in this story by the Christian Civic League of Maine yet another connection between the United Church of Christ (UCC) and perversion. The UCC has an appalling left-wing record (check THIS out) — including its 2006 merger with a Dallas mega-church, the Cathedral of Hope, which caters to homosexuals. (We hear that the UCC is still searching for a partnering church that cater to swingers….) So why doesn’t the UCC just go all the way and start offering its very own “How to Be Homosexual” workshops for youth?

For the sake of accuracy, we also recommend a name-change to UCS: United Church of Sodom. Enough with this phony “Christ” talk. We envision a host of liberal Protestant mergers under the UCS banner beginning with proud homosexualist bishop (Vicky) Gene Robinson and his wayward Episcopal Church. In fact, Robinson could be the annual keynote speaker at the How to Be Homosexual workshops.

Congrats to the Christian Civic League of Maine and Mike Hein for their great work in exposing this anti-Christian “workshop.” — Peter LaBarbera

PS. For a great website countering the UCC’s liberal-left baloney, go to http://ucctruths.blogspot.com/. Yes, there are UCC attenders who are still faithful to the Bible as God’s revealed truth.

____________________________

Maine ‘Queer’ Boys’ Workshop Canceled

by Mike Hein, Christian Civic League of Maine

May 14, 2008

Maine’s Boys to Men organization unceremoniously canceled their 2008 conference’s “Queer, Questioning, Quiet: Developing Gender Identity & Male Sexual Orientation” workshop on May 13. The group’s Executive Director, Layne Gregory, cited “lack of interest” and participation from the boys attending the conference as the reason for the boys’ homosexual workshop cancellation.

Bill Gregory, a retired United Church of Christ minister and member of the group’s Board of Directors, initially speculated that the cancellation was initiated by the workshop’s homosexual youth leaders, the Proud Rainbow Youth of Southern Maine (PRYSM). “Almost always, when we have a workshop cancellation, it’s due to the presenters not being able to attend [the conference],” said Mr. Gregory.

“[The boys' homosexual workshop] was canceled due to lack of interest, lack of participation,” said Boys to Men Executive Director Layne Gregory later. She noted that the Christian Civic League of Maine’s reporter “was one of the only ones” to register for the “Queer” boys’ workshop. Not discouraged by the cancellation, she went on to say, “We feel it is important to offer this kind of thing each year at our conference.”

Boys to Men Americorps VISTA Program Intern Meghann McCluskey added more detail to the cancellation explanation stating that there was only one other person besides the League Record reporter who expressed an interest in attending the boys’ homosexual workshop, despite the hundreds of pre-schoolboys who attended the annual conference.

McCluskey acknowledged that the Boys to Men organization did know about the national publicity that surrounded the boys’ homosexual workshop, primarily through the League Record’s “Transgender Teaching on Tap for Maine Boys” article and WorldNetDaily.com “Class for Kids: How to be Homosexual” article. She said the group was not aware of the more recent “Homo-Grown Heroes” commentary by Olivia St. John, also published on WorldNetDaily.

A listing of the Boys to Men Conference 2008 morning workshops can be seen at
www.cclmaine.org/PDF_Files/BoysToMenConference2008MorningSession.pdf.

While the “Queer, Questioning, Quiet” homosexual boys’ workshop did not take place, other workshops were held at the conference, including one led by Planned Parenthood of Northern New England representatives. The “Real Life. Real Talk. Sex in the Movies” morning workshop attracted fifty young boys.

Led by Lauren Grousd, a PPNNE Project Coordinator, and Jason Barriault, a senior at Cheverus High School and PPNNE Teen Council member, the workshop encouraged the pre-teen boys to “take some risks” regarding sex and to “respect differences of oppinion [sic].” Handouts at the PPNNE-led workshop asked parents to “Host a Sex Ed House Party” where “[Parents] invite your friends over, and [Planned Parenthood] supplies teen sexuality info and facilitates the discussion.”

A copy of the handout can be seen at www.cclmaine.org/PDF_Files/BoysToMenConference2008PPNNEevents.pdf.

Our survival as a democracy is in our hands. We too must come out of the closet of cloistered Christianity and come to the rescue of our constitutional rights.

By Lee Taylor

Gay pride was not born in a vacuum. Timing and social upheaval formed the vortex in which it was born and bred. Hanging from the shirttails of the Civil Rights, women’s liberation, and anti-war movements, it exploited the vulnerability of a nation in turmoil. Fueling its fraudulent claims and outrageous demands from our national guilt complex and introspective conflict of values, the Gay Liberation Front exploded onto the American scene. The soul-searching ‘60’s exposed a nation fraught with self-doubt, self-recrimination, anxiety, addiction and ideological conflict, a nation at odds with itself. The sexual revolution accelerated the erosion of both marriage and the family as we struggled with the values and priorities of our national identity.

We were still recovering from the Viet Nam War and had only begun to realize the implications of racial integration when homosexual opportunists executed a strategically timed and targeted blitzkrieg on American society. We were caught napping, and the initial homosexual coup was a resounding success. Adopting the Civil Rights, anti-war and women’s liberation movements as its own, forming its political platform by drawing heavily from each, the Gay Liberation Front took aim at our Christian values and democratic institutions.

Beginning with the 1970 Annual Convention of the American Psychiatric Association, held in San Francisco, exploiting the guerrilla theater tactics of disruption, threats and verbal abuse, the storm troopers of the Gay Liberation Front established a political beachhead within the medical arena, which, in 1973, eventuated in the “normalizing” of homosexuality. Through meticulous design and systematic orchestration, the Gay Liberation Front quickly expanded its political base by enlisting the services of the public media in establishing a new, politically ingenious, homosexual vocabulary. Designed to eliminate all negative connotations and supply its arsenal with symbolism more seductive in the promotion of its agenda, gay semantics discovered respectability for a terminal life style. Capitalizing on the potent political clout of the public media and entertainment industry, the homosexual campaign expanded to include federal, state and regional politics, legislative, judicial and executive branches of government, government health agencies, institutions, research centers and foundations, the military, mainstream religion, and the politicizing/dogmatizing of science and education, subsidized by federal and state tax revenue in the war against American institutions. Within less than a quarter of a century, one per cent of the population had taken the rest hostage, a politico-moral coup unprecedented in the history of this country.

Gay pride history, methodology, alliances, agenda, political conquests and ultimate goals are no secret. This information has been made available in abundance from both sides of the battlefield, easily accessed, extensively researched and documented. The baffle cry of gay pride is blatantly clear: “We’re here! We’re queer! And we’re going to win!” We can read it in the gay, secular and religious press. Homosexuals are out of the closet and parading their perversion in the streets. They are highly motivated, well financed, politically astute, effectively organized, and dedicated. To underestimate the capacity or goal of this enemy is to guarantee defeat. They have thrown down the gauntlet, hurling their deadly agenda directly in the face of this nation’s democratic institutions, constitution and family values. We are under attack and will not survive unless we fight! We have been ambushed on all major fronts and our ability to prevail has already been severely sabotaged. How did this happen? In what way have we nurtured the enemy we now must defeat? We are a young, adolescent nation, and the chapter we are now writing has been written before by much older nations, nations which no longer exist. They too danced to their demons and were buried by them. Is it too late for us to learn from history, or will we follow this diabolical trail to our own demise?

There are laws which govern everything in our universe, absolute laws, waiting to be discovered and respected, designed by the Creator for the unfolding of creation. These laws are immutable, in noncompliance with the reckless egoic ultimatums of any political, religious or moral invention. These laws work with or without our approval. They are completely reliable. To the extent that we understand and follow them, we live and are fulfilled. We have been far more successful discovering and obeying the laws of physics than the laws of our souls. We have become far more familiar with outer space than inner space. The values and priorities taught and lived by the Son of God have all but died on the back burner of American culture, quite predictably leaving us all but dead. Our blind, pretentious egos may come dressed in religious rhetoric from either the right or the left, but the laws of God don’t bow to politically correct values and priorities. The mandate of Jesus Christ was not to appear successful or sound dedicated. It was to follow Him. If we had been following the values and priorities which we’re so fond of claiming in our Judeo-Christian patriotism, over half our marriages would not have ended in the divorce court, and our families would not be suffering the tragic fragmentation, dysfunction and alienation they now suffer. These two institutions were in major trouble long before we first heard the word “gay.”

It wasn’t the integrity and social responsibility of followers of Jesus Christ who created the need for a Civil Rights movement in America. It was the hypocrisy of those who claimed freedom and justice for all but their Black brothers and sisters. For that rejection of our democratic and Christian values we paid and continue to pay a very painful price. We were forced to confront our pious, patriotic pretense, to choose between our “omnipotent” egos and God’s laws for our survival.

There is a yawning chasm between the values and priorities we piously claim as our national heritage and those we have chosen to live by. We have a time-honored tradition of moral schizophrenia, a hero-worshipping, egoic, success cult, which we have traditionally concealed within the garment of Judeo-Christian patriotism. We raise our hymns of God and country to the sky, but the laws of God, which govern our existence and chance of survival, remain constant in spite of our ‘holy” gestures. Possibly we are just beginning to discover that our hi-tech goddess is not worthy of worship, that we are being forced to choose between success and survival, between the profit margin and the preservation of our race. We live in an image culture where nothing fails like success. It was into this moral schizophrenia that the gay pride movement most effectively opened fire, establishing an appealing rationale for its momentum.

It is much too late for the hermeneutics of pious patriotism. This has failed to convince Native Americans, Blacks, Mexican Americans, or any minority group experiencing the violence inherent in our pretense. Gay activists have made political hay out of such empty semantics. The sacred institutions of marriage and family have been under attack for decades, and born-again Christians and those at the opposite end of the politico-religious spectrum have not been exempt from the consequences. Our banner may be a different color, our politics a different stripe, our semantics a different sound, but we have played the success cult game to the edge of a national abyss, and it has been our self-serving egos, not the Spirit of God, who have been in the driver’s seat. To blame gay activists for destroying marriage and family values is tantamount to blaming a sinking ship on the rats which desert it. We, by default, share in this blame game.

Borrowing from over four centuries of politico-religious suffering in Northern Ireland, the 1993 Seattle Gay Pride Parade declared a Holy War on all who opposed their agenda. Quite consistent with the all too familiar political strategy of piggybacking much older, historically significant struggles for justice, implying legitimacy and power through association, the gay pride movement now demands a complete restructuring of American institutions and ideology in compliance with its agenda. The tactics of tyranny are in place. The values and institutions essential for the survival of American democracy are the target. As Christian people with a mandate to follow Jesus Christ, we are challenged to move quickly beyond our religious rhetoric and walk our talk. We have no other choice. Our options are being systematically eliminated. We must become strategically and aggressively involved at the local, state, and national level in every political organization, every government institution, agency, bureau and lobby. We must consistently impact our local school board meetings, city council, precinct caucuses and health services. We must recognize religious organizations which have become advocates for the gay agenda and cut off all forms of support. We must counterattack the public media and entertainment industry, demanding an end to their pro-gay agenda, boycotting their sponsors. We must act out of educated awareness, integrity and compassion in this war. The most socially responsible and compassionate way to defeat this enemy is to destroy its agenda and treat its disease. Our survival as a democracy is in our hands. We too must come out of the closet of cloistered Christianity and come to the rescue of our constitutional rights, our democratic form of government, our family values and our diminishing freedom. We must follow the mandate of God’s laws and ACT.

Lee Taylor is a Bellingham, Washington-based writer who was once a United Church of Christ minister who was forced to resign for refusing to perform “same-sex marriages.” He can be reached at leetaylor411@comcast.net.

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:

…The divine revelation is eternal ethic and thereby will not condone homosexual practice. Those running counter to this revelation will answer to God’s wrath in this life and at death at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

TAKE ACTION – You may send a note of support to Ron Warren, who rightfully recommends removing Bradley Schmeling from his position of authority.

——————————

Excerpted from Homosexual Lutheran Pastor Charged, by Grant Swank, published Jan 20, 2007, by The Conservative Voice:

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America concluded at its 2005 conclave that sex was to be practiced within marriage. Also, such sex was not open to homosexual lifestyles. All this is because the Bible ethic is against sex outside of marriage and prohibits homosexual activities.

Bradley Schmeling, pastor, St. John’s ECLA, Atlanta, makes known that he is homosexual and now has a partner. The congregation agrees that he should continue as minister. In fact, the parishioners had a party celebrating his formal announcement of partnership with a “lifelong companion.”

Bishop Ronald Warren, Southeastern Synod, told Schmeling to resign. Schmeling said he would not resign. “Disciplinary proceedings against him for violating church rules barring sex outside of marriage” have begun. That means Schmeling confronts a hearing composed of a dozen ELCA members deciding his fate…

If the committee concludes him to be defrocked, he would no longer be “recognized as an ordained minister in the ELCA,” per AP. If the congregation still calls him their spiritual leader, the church then could be disciplined…

Throughout the divine revelation right and wrong are set forth by God Himself. Consequently, for those espousing homosexual lifestyles as divinely blessed is to expose their biblical ignorance and theological liberalism, the latter basically given to writing one’s own religion.

Other denominations dealing with this matter include the Presbyterian Church, United Methodist Church, American Baptist Convention and segments within the Mennonite framework. Denominations which accept homosexuality as ethically legitimate include the Unitarian Society, United Church of Christ (Congregational), and the Episcopal Church of America.

Continue reading at The Conservative Voice…

Likewise, here in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago, “Parish Minister” Julie Denny-Hughes of Palatine’s Countryside Unitarian Universalist “Church” passionately defended the use of “Perks of Being a Wallflower“ by teachers in District 214. “Perks” is written at a third or fourth grade reading level, but was planned for a high school class. Should you find this “book” on your child’s required or recommended reading list, you might be interested to know that it offers quite an education in masturbating with a hot dog, forced oral sex, forceable sodomy, voyeurism, attempted drunken sex with a dog, and so on. (Read the excerpts for yourself.)

We’ve heard quite enough from the UCC and Unitarian leaders. Where are the Bible-believing pastors and youth ministers (the ones like Pastor Vincent Fields)? Their voices are sorely needed. – Sonja Dalton

New low in narrow-mindedness
By Reverend Richard Malmberg/ Guest column
Published Nov 15, 2006, in Newton Tab

Flaunting his biases with characteristic reliance on hearsay information, Tom Mountain accused Franklin School Principal Cindy Marchand of overreacting to an irate parent. As a Franklin parent, I know her to be a competent and knowledgeable principal. She was right to defend her staff, especially such a dedicated and professional social worker as Laura Perkins. Further, Ms. O’Shea should have been reprimanded for humiliating a Franklin family and attempting to derail a school meeting to press her own agenda. Other parents present at Curriculum Night confirm that Ms. Marchand handled an awkward situation calmly and capably. I generally try to ignore Tom Mountain’s weekly bitter tirades. They do little to edify, and nothing to enhance the civility of public discourse in Newton. At the risk of responding in kind, I have to say that his column in the Nov. 8 TAB reached a new low in mean-spirited narrow-mindedness.

I have had kids in Franklin School for more than eight years, and had numerous contacts with the family whose presence seems to so outrage Mr. Mountain and Ms. O’Shea. It might surprise them both that my first conversation with the parent who underwent gender reassignment took place at a Little League game. Our sons were on the same team. As we sat in our folding chairs, we had a friendly and stimulating conversation. When I told him I was a minister, the conversation turned to Biblical scholarship. He (then still living as a man) was obviously quite well-read and genuinely interested in the subject. I learned that he is an active lay leader in his own church.

Only after the “teachable moment” Mr. Mountain described did I learn through the Franklin grapevine that this other Little League dad was going through a gender reassignment. I confess that for a while after that, I felt a little awkward – my problem. I regret not being more openly supportive during what must have been a difficult time for their family. I admire the quiet dignity and courage they display through it all. They have not allowed the self-appointed sexuality police to harass them out of full participation in the community. Newton is fortunate to have such solid citizens, active in their congregation, supporting their kids, their school and pursuing happiness in our midst. Their modest refusal to hide makes our city safer for diversity.

I find it interesting that Mr. Mountain, champion of traditional family values, hints at snarky disbelief that this couple remained married after gender reassignment. With divorce rates what they are in our society, he should celebrate a durable commitment and intact family. Mindless devotion to a “Leave It to Beaver” mirage of “traditional family” is simply idolatry. Our fixation on an imagined norm undermines our ability to value real families whatever shape they take. We endanger the actual relationships that sustain us, while damaging our psychic and spiritual well-being. Consider the tragically self-loathing, self-destructive Rev. Ted Haggard. He crusaded against gay marriage in public, and engaged in risky gay sex and drug abuse in secret. This man of deep faith and extraordinary charisma was twisted by intolerant theology that had no room for the man God created him to be.

At our church, we celebrate marriage and we celebrate families. I define a marriage as two adults bonded in sacred loving covenant, creating a home, sharing a life, supporting and nurturing one another, whatever joys and hardships the world may send their way. Gender configuration of the parents is irrelevant to what makes a family. Since gay marriage became legal in Massachusetts, I have officiated at exactly one same-sex wedding. The couple had been members of our church longer than I have been pastor. At their wedding, a large number of the people in the pews were church members. The reception was held in our Fellowship Hall, and much of the food was provided by members of the congregation. Despite the fact that there were two brides, it was easily the most traditional, home-spun church wedding I have ever had the privilege of officiating. It offered refreshing contrast to so many weddings that seem to merely endure the religious significance of the ceremony in order to get some pictures in a pretty church before the real event, an outrageously expensive reception.

I had to laugh at Mr. Mountain’s indignation over Superintendent Young’s alleged failure to acknowledge Ms. O’Shea’s infant during their meeting. Had the superintendent doted over the baby, would Mr. Mountain have accused him of trying to avoid the issue? How many appointments should Dr. Young devote to listening to a one-note complaint from a parent he had already answered, albeit not the answer she wanted? Still, Mr. Mountain suggested that Newton Schools should bear the cost of private education for a student who functions adequately in a standard classroom. Budgets are already stretched to provide necessary services for students with real, diagnosable disabilities. One parent’s intolerance is a liability, not a disability.

Richard Malmberg is pastor at The Second Church in Newton, United Church of Christ, and chairman of the Newton Interfaith Clergy Association.

Creating Change closed with a thunderous speech by Bishop Yvette Flunder, founder and senior pastor of City of Refuge United Church of Christ in San Francisco, who spoke to the separation many LGBT activists feel from spiritual traditions, saying,

“Somebody stole God from some of us. Somebody reached down inside you and stole your spirit from you.”

But she encouraged activists not to abandon the spiritual dimension of the work they do for justice, saying,

“Activism that is rooted in spirituality can bust Hell wide open.”

The audience wildly applauded Flunder’s speech and left the conference with her words resonating as a spiritual call to all justice-seeking people:

“I challenge you, prophets, to stand up!”

Long ago, at many times and in many ways,
God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
but in these last days *He has spoken* to us by his Son…

There is no new revelation on divorce or pre-marital sex or adultery or homosexuality; there is no other name by which we must be saved. “God has spoken.” – Sonja Dalton

LET IT BE KNOWN:

As Jesus did not come to change the law, but to fulfill it, His obedient Church has no authority to change the ancient laws prohibiting fornication and adultery, nor those prohibiting homosexual acts. It was Jesus who affirmed the old teaching that a MAN cleaves to a WOMAN, husband to wife, in a sanctified union. Those who teach otherwise – including the President, officers, delegates and ministers in the United Church of Christ – are Satan’s false prophets and blind leaders who lead the unwise and naive to the Pit of Sheol. We have heard their protestations of holiness, but Jesus has taught us it is not those who say, “Lord, Lord,” who will enter the Kingdom, but those who do God’s will.

The God who is still speaking is not one whose word changes with our whims – but who changes us instead, to willingly listen and eagerly do what we have read in the holy scriptures inspired by the Lord – indeed, who through them has already spoken!

Rev. Albert W. Kovacs, Pastor
Hungarian Reformed Church
Woodbridge, New Jersey

Dear Editor,

I called Don Prange, pastor of St. James United Church of Christ in Lovettsville, which is sponsoring a “Faith and Life Forum” tonight (Wednesday, Oct 25th), where “Gay and Lesbian partners will share their stories”.  I offered to find, for Pastor Prange, Christians involved in ex-gay ministries, in order to open the forum up to a wider body of opinion.  Specifically, I intended to invite Regina Griggs…  Regina was agreeable to participating.

Pastor Prange told me that he would no more “invite George Bush defending (presumably  U.S.) Imperialism” or “Satan himself” to the podium than invite ex gays.  No, I am not making this up, and by the way I was very polite to him.

He also told me that Jesus wouldn’t have opened up a place at the podium for the Pharisees, and when I asked him what he thought about other familes, specifically polyamourous ones, he had no problem with legalizing them as well. 

I don’t think the media does a good enough job of covering this issue, so I’m offering up his answers to my questions as an example of what I think the media might want to ask, which is what the opponents of the Marriage Amendment support.  When we are talking about the Unitarian Universalists and the ACLU, you might be surprised how close they are to Pastor Prange’s views.

Best regards,

John Grigsby

By Sonja Dalton

The primary text for the Sept 17 HRC’s Out in Scripture Commentary is Isaiah 50:4-9a:

The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

Who was this one called to minister to the weary and to warn the unfaithful? Was he a homosexual? The “Out in Scripture” commentary claims, “Isaiah 50:4-9a offers the testimony of one who knows herself to be called by God.” Is that true?

No, certainly not.

This book of prophecy is the inspired testimony of the bearded male prophet, Isaiah, to a rebellious Judah – of whom he says in chapter 1:

If the LORD of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have become like Sodom and become like Gomorrah. Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!… [God Himself speaking:

“I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly…

When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you;

even though you make many prayers, I will not listen…“

So, in likening the rebellious character of Judah to the rampant homosexuality in Sodom and Gomorrah, the prophet Isaiah (like all of God’s prophets, apostles, and teachers) affirmed God’s design for human sexuality (faithful marriage) and overtly condemned homosexual practice.

In return for that word of Truth, Isaiah’s audience struck him, pulled his beard, and spat upon him. But God vindicated Isaiah before his enemies (verses 7-9) because Isaiah feared the LORD (verse 10). Isaiah warned that others must also walk in the light, trust in the name of the LORD, and rely on God -– or else they could expect to “lie down in torment.”

The good news for those currently practicing homosexuality appears just before the selected text, in Isaiah 50:2, where God Himself speaks:

Is My hand shortened, that it cannot redeem?
Or have I no power to deliver?

Indeed God’s hand is not too short to save from condemnation the sexually immoral, the idolator, the adulterer, the homosexual, the thief, the greedy, the drunk, the malicious gossip, and the swindler. In I Corinthians 6:9-11, the apostle Paul says of the Christians in Corinth:

Such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

In other words, former homosexuals existed in Paul’s day, just like today. Paul goes on, in verses 12-19, to instruct those Christians regarding the need to change their lifestyles:

The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body… Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God. You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

God Himself speaks, as recorded in Isaiah 1:17-20:

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD:
“Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;
But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword;
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

In Part B of this article, we’ll examine “Out in Scripture’s” claims about Psalm 116:1-9:

The text celebrates the power available to those who stand in their God-ordained identity and calling… God delivers and is merciful to those whose whole lives are grounded in God (116:5-6). What a valuable word for the LGBT community! When one claims the truth of one’s core identity in God — whether that core is known through being a teacher or in claiming the fullness of one’s God-given gender identity or sexual orientation — divine support is available.

Is “homosexuality,” “bisexuality,” or “transexuality” a grounded, God-ordained identity? We’ll post our response shortly.

All Bible passages are from the English Standard Version (ESV) Bible.

A group of Baptist churches in Michigan has cut ties with one of their congregations for its approval of homosexuality.

Woodside Church, Flint’s oldest Baptist church, has become the first Baptist church in the state to be disaffiliated from American Baptist congregations because of its progressive views on homosexuality, the Flint (Mich.) Journal said Tuesday.

By a vote of 18-3, churches in a 10-county area that are part of the American Baptist Churches USA, a national denomination, elected to sever all ties with Woodside, which also is affiliated with the left-wing United Church of Christ.

Continue reading at Religion & Spirituality Forum…

By Nicholas Owen

…The July 29 parade lasted over three hours and included 185 contingents. Many entries featured scantily clad participants, mostly men, gyrating suggestively to loud, throbbing music. Float titles included “In Dmood for Decadence.” Simulated sex acts were performed in several entries, and many advertised gay bars, pornography vendors, and male prostitution businesses. A rider in the Rentboy.com convertible flashed the devil sign with his hand. Handouts to parade spectators included condoms, sexual lubricant samples, and literature promoting a pornographic web site. Numerous trash receptacles bearing the slogan “Got lube?” (advertising an anal sex lubricant) were placed along the parade route and in the festival venue inside Balboa Park.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a drag queen group in outlandish outfits parodying Catholic women religious, carried an “Asylum of the Tortured Heart” banner, mocking Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. At the Gay Pride festival, they provided crowd control and received an award for the “most outrageous contingent.”

A woman who was topless except for pasties walked alongside the parade. A man wearing a body thong covering only his genitals roller-skated by parade watchers in defiance of municipal code which prohibits nudity on public lands and defines it as being “devoid of an opaque covering which covers the genitals, pubic hair, buttocks, perineum, anus or anal region of any person, or any portion of the breast at or below the areola thereof of any female person.”

…Several law enforcement and government agencies participated in the parade or had a booth at the festival, including San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne, San Diego County Sheriff Bill Kolender, the San Diego Fire Department, the Chula Vista Police Department, the Oceanside Police Department, the Harbor Police, and the San Diego Regional Airport Authority.

…[S]ponsors included Hewlett-Packard, Wells Fargo Bank, Cox Communications, Viejas Casino, Sparkletts Water, Starbucks Coffee, Verizon, Sirius Satellite Radio Sempra Energy, iSOLD It, Great American Credit Union, Kaiser Permanente, Travelocity, Yahoo, Smirnoff, Bud Light, Avis Car Rentals, Glaceau Vitamin Water, and the Old Globe Theatre.

…Participating churches and synagogues included All Saints Parish and Saint John the Beloved Cathedral of the Catholic Church of America (not affiliated with the true Catholic Church); Dignity, another group using the Catholic label but not sanctioned by the Catholic Church; Christ Chapel of North Park; Saint Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral; Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Carlsbad; Temple Emanu-El and the Metropolitan Community Church, founded by a homosexual “leatherman.” Participating schools included San Diego State University, UCSD, Cal State University San Marcos, and the San Diego Cooperative Charter School.

Continue reading in San Diego News Notes…