If you don't want to miss anything posted on the Americans For Truth website, sign up for our "Feedblitz" service that gives you a daily email of every new article that we post. (This service DOES NOT replace the regular email list.) To sign up for the Feedblitz service, click here.
— Leftist evangelical writer Jim Wallis, as part of his reponse to a question by Peter LaBarbera (of Americans For Truth) on the Christian Moody Radio Network in Chicago, February 19, 2008. Wallis, who is on a book tour and is speaking tonight (Feb. 19) at Wheaton College, was asked how he reconciles his support for granting civil rights based on homosexuality — including government-sanctioned “civil unions” — with the Bible, which calls homosexual behavior an “abomination.” Wallis says supporting “gay” rights — he opposes homosexual “marriage” — is a “justice issue.” He said in the Moody interview that there is a debate and questions over the meaning of the word “abomination,” yet he said (correctly) that the Bible is very clear about the need to help the poor.
For clarity’s sake, here are a few major Bible translations of the Old Testament Levitical prohibition on homosexual sodomy (men having sex with men), Leviticus 18:22; click HERE for the Bible Gateway site and then you can choose whatever Bible translation you want. This is among the commandments given by God to Moses regarding unlawful sexual relations (emphasis added); as always, we remind our readers that this sin, like any sin, can be overcome and forgiven through faith in Jesus Christ (1 Cor 6:9-11):
You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination. (Lev. 18:22; New American Standard Bible; NASB)
Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. (King Jame’s Version, KJV)
Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. (New International Version, NIV)
Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman. It is a detestable sin. (New Living Translation)
You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. (English Standard Version, ESV)
It is disgusting for a man to have sex with another man. (Contemporary English Version)
With polls showing more evangelicals — especially younger evangelicals — warming to the idea of voting Democratic (despite the party’s rigid pro-abortion-on-demand and pro-homosexuality agendas), we found this item of interest: this coming Tuesday, Wheaton College will be hostng liberal evangelical advocate Jim Wallis as a featured speaker at the college’s Center for Applied Christian Ethics (CACE). See the CACE announcement here: www.wheaton.edu/news/events/events_07_08/02.19.08_CaceWallis.html
This follows on CACE last September inviting homosexual “gay christian” activist Harry Knox to speak at a panel discussion on “HIV and Morality,” as a representative of the (traditional-Christian-bashing) homosexual activist group Human Rights Campaign. You may recall that it was Knox who, in a TV debate with CWA’s Matt Barber (watch it HERE), called his homosexuality an “unchangeable gift from God, one for which I am very grateful. And it would fly in the face of my respect for God to give that gift back.” (We insensitive Bible-thumpers at AFTAH called that “Satan’s Talking Points.”)
If I’m not mistaken, Harry talked about his relationship with his male partner at the Wheaton panel discussion, which was titled, “Thy Kingdom Come: Christian Moral Engagement in the World.” I don’t believe there was much if any critical “engagement” of Knox when he brought up his homosexual relationship. What a pity. (You can listen to the discussion by going HERE and clicking on the “HIV and Morality Panel” links; there is Part One and Part Two.)
I’m reading Wallis’ new book, “The Great Awakening” (introduction by pro-abortion-rights, pro-homosexuality Jimmy Carter), and I’m not quite sure how Wallis can square his own “applied Christian ethics” with the inspired and authoritative Word of God, which is hardly nuanced on the sin of homosexual behavior. Of course, Wallis, as a leading light of the Religious Left, has plenty of his own criticisms of us on the “Religious Right.”
It would seem appropriate that Wheaton College — as one of the most respected and Biblically faithful Christian colleges in the United States– would at the very least allow equal time for an orthodox evangelical spokesman who is more in line with Christian conservatives on moral issues– perhaps even a stellar representative like Rev. Al Mohler, who surely will not be voting for the Democrats this November.
Matt Foreman, outgoing National Gay and Lesbian Task Force executive director admits, “HIV is a gay disease.”
URGENT ALERT TO HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVIST “FACT CHECKERS” AND “ANTI-HOMOPHOBIA” BLOGGERS EVERYWHERE: somebody straighten out homosexual activist Matt Foreman, outgoing executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, who had the temerity to admit the obvious: “HIV is a gay disease.” Next thing you know, Foreman — who is actually one of America’s most strident anti-Christian bigots … er, “gay” leaders — will be acknowledging that men and women practicing homosexuality can leave the lifestyle and lead contented lives outside the “gay” fold.
Government’s fault?
The Gay Thought Police need not be too alarmed: pro-family stalwart Gary Glenn of AFA-Michigan subsequently informed us that Foreman, talking to a Detroit homosexual newspaper, added this caveat to his statement about HIV and homosexuality: “I dont blame our community for the fact that MSM [men who have sex with men] still account for nearly three quarters of men living with HIV. I hold our government accountable.”
Whew, I’m glad Foreman straightened that out! For a moment there, I thought were were going to witness a major homosexual leader actually encouraging “gay” men to take responsibility for their own sexual (mis)behavior.
In a future post, we’ll address some of Foreman’s other remarks at Creating Change — which might cause conservatives consternation but which should have a sobering effect on the pro-family movement. (Here’s a clue: they’re gaining; we’re losing.) — Peter LaBarbera
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wed., Feb. 13, 2008
CONTACT: Gary Glenn 989-835-7978
National Gay & Lesbian Task Force Admits: “HIV is a Gay Disease”
Michigan family values group welcomes admission,
urges lawmakers to block homosexual “rights” legislation
DETROIT, Mich. — A Michigan family values organization Wednesday welcomed the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force’s startling admission that homosexual activity is predominantly responsible for the spread of the HIV virus in the U.S. and called on Michigan legislative leaders to block pending legislation that would give special “protected class” status to individuals who engage in such behavior.
Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force — in an address Friday to the National Conference on Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender Equality [“Creating Change”; see AFTAH article HERE] in Detroit — shocked attendees by calling HIV “a gay disease.” Despite medical data identifying homosexual activity among males as by far the largest single source of HIV infection in the U.S., homosexual activists have routinely have condemned conservative and public health organizations for characterizing the disease as being predominantly associated with and spread by homosexual behavior.
Foreman further shocked attendees by himself referring to such data, saying that “with 70 percent of the people in this country living with HIV being gay or bi[-sexual], we cannot deny that HIV is a gay disease. We have to own that and face up to that.”
TAKE ACTION: Watch the incredible CNN video below and click HERE to give feedback to CNN Headline News. See our comments on CNN’s bias beneath the YouTube video.
It is simply mind-boggling that CNN chose not to include another viewpoint on this story about the Colorado elementary school encouraging gender-confusion in an eight-year-old (biological) male student who thinks he’s really a girl. (Click HERE for the One News Now story citing AFTAH on this.) You will note that CNN interviews only the parent of another gender-confused child — a girl whom the mother refers to as “he” on the CNN video.
Interestingly, the mother (CNN caption: “parent of transgender child”), Kim Pearson, describes how her daughter “pretty much lived like a boy growing up … He [editor: she] was just … all around very masculine, and I didn’t discourage that. I just let him [editor: her] — I just went with it. And so he [she] didn’t have a lot of discomfort around it because he [she] was freely expressing himself. It wasn’t until his [her] body started changing that he [she] started having a lot of difficulty.”
Could it be that permissive parenting plays a major role in encouraging a gender-confused identity in a child? Pearson says she felt “relief” on hearing that her daughter claimed to have a male identity. Relief? A wiser parent might have sought professional help from someone not beholden to “transgender” activist ideology — to guide the troubled girl into accepting the wonderful body and sex that God gave her.
In the case of the eight-year-old boy, to what future are the politically correct adults — parents and school authorities included — consigning him with their “caring” embrace of deviance? Could a body-mutilating “sex change” operation be down the road — funded by the taxpayers if the “GLBT” Lobby gets its way? In a saner era, it would be clear to all that the child — not society — has the problem. But what do we know? We’re just “trans-phobes.”
Also note that the Colorado school principal frames this as an issue of “diversity” — showing the elasticity of that term to include extremely disordered behavioral choices among even the youngest students. This story and the way it is being reported is a microcosm of America’s deep moral crisis.
Perhaps one day when historians write about the decline of the once-great American civilization, they will include this story about school authorities encouraging gender confusion in the life of a second-grade Colorado boy — and thereby helping to mainstream it to all his classmates. (Click HERE for WorldNetDaily’s story on the subject.) Here is the incredible story as reported by American Family Association’s One News Now (go HERE to listen and click “Hear Report”):
Colorado school encourages gender confusion in second-grader
Pro-family activist Peter LaBarbera says the case of a second-grade boy in one Colorado school who wants to be identified as a girl shows that the country has normalized deviance.
Staff at a public school in Highlands Ranch are preparing to accommodate the second-grader, who wants to attend classes dressed as a girl and be addressed with a girl’s name. The school will allow the boy to use a unisex bathroom, and they are giving parents packets of information on transgendered people.
Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth, says the real victims of the supposed “diversity policy” are the young man’s classmates. “If the parents are so misled to encourage their child in this gender-confused behavior, they should not be allowed to teach that same behavior to all the other students in the school,” argues LaBarbera. “I think it’s a terribly sad situation. This boy needs help, the parents need help, obviously.”
The pro-family advocate says it is also troubling that the pro-homosexual group “Trans-Youth Family Advocates” has been working with the school district. He says such groups are “in the business of mainstreaming gender confusion” — but somehow manage to work their way into the schools under the guise of being “consultants.”
New law ‘mainstreams sexual deviance among children’
Feb 7, 2008
Contact: E. Ray Moore, Jr., Chaplain (Lt. Col.) USAR Ret, Director of Exodus Mandate or Dr. Bruce Shortt, 803-714-1744. California Exodus contacts: www.Californiaexodus.org, press@californiaexodus.org
COLUMBIA, South Carolina, Feb. 7 /Christian Newswire/ — California Governor Schwarzenegger signed legislation mandating that public school children be indoctrinated to accept as normal the homosexual lifestyle and other forms of sexual deviancy. In the wake of the failed effort to obtain a referendum to repeal this legislation, a broad coalition of Christian grassroots organizations have endorsed the Campaign for Children and Families’ call for California families and churches to rescue their children from California’s public schools.
“Consensual slavery” and “leathersex” advocate Guy Baldwin addresses the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s “Creating Change” conference in Detroit Friday, after receiving the homosexual group’s “Leather Leadership” award. Baldwin is an expert on “master/slave relationships.” This photo is taken from a brief YouTube video of his speech.
Just in case you thought we were making it up that the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, one of the two leading homosexual activist organizations in the United States, presented an award for sadomasochism advocacy, here is the text of the NGLTF’s e-newletter Feb. 9 on its grassroots “Creating Change” conference:
Guy Baldwin Receives Leather Leadership Award
Guy Baldwin received the Leather Leadership Award today [Feb. 8] for his longtime work on behalf of the leather community. Mikel Gerle, International Mr. Leather 2007, presented the award to Baldwin, a Los Angeles-based psychotherapist, author and activist on behalf of “erotically uncommon people.” Accepting his award, Baldwin talked about how our community needs to be united against agents of intolerance. Watch here.
In 1987, Baldwin launched the DSM Project to mobilize mental health professionals worldwide to press for changes to the official clinical definitions that had long been used to label leather people, gay and otherwise, as pathological. The DSM Project succeeded with the publication of new and substantially improved language in 1993 in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).