“Downplaying Homosexuality” Never Works — Getting Back to Basics

America the Decadent? Would previous generations have allowed homosexual propagandists to spread their ungodly message of male-to-male erotic love to young children — in schools — as this children’s picture book, ‘King & King,’ has been used to do?

QUESTION: How do we get back on the offensive in the Culture War battle against homosexual activism and gender confusion? Send your ideas to americansfortruth@comcast.net

Dear AFTAH Readers,

My friend Laurie Higgins below has hit on a microcosm of why our movement is on the brink of an astounding cultural defeat — the triumph of immoral same-sex behavior as a “civil right.” In the last decade, some of our leaders, and many conservatives, chose to “downplay” the very force — homosexualism — that was leading the assault on marriage, normalcy and children in our culture.

About three years ago, I sat in a roomful of evangelical leaders at a major ministry where it was taught that you should not criticize homosexual behavior in advocating against “same-sex marriage.” The “expert” speaker cited poll data and negative audience reaction to the issue being raised.

Meanwhile, with each passing year, the other side CELEBRATES homosexual and gender-confused lifestyles with ever greater fervor, and happily promotes the same to kids, as if they are doing God’s work (when it is actually Satan’s). Their play book is simple: always stay on the offensive, even when it comes to advocating “transgender” identity/behavior to children (e.g., the 2nd-grade Colorado boy who was encouraged to come to school in a dress). We moral-minded express the requisite shock and horror; they continue to move forward.

Tell me: which side is destined to win the Culture War according to these lopsided Rules of Engagement?

In the public policy arena, many on “our side” have already conceded “civil unions,” at least in blue states (the California Marriage Amendment that may get on the ballot expressly allows “civil unions”). Most GOP politicians are reluctant to even discuss homosexuality at all, which only emboldens the Democrats to be more pro-homosexual-agenda. You cannot win a debate if you are afraid to discuss the main issue — homosexuality. That’s like being pro-life but refusing to discuss the humanity of the unborn baby! (Please note the parallels: there was a time when the opinion polls favored pro-abortion feminists; now they favor pro-lifers — defeat is NOT inevitable, and Truth is more important than polls.)

In the corporate world, McDonald’s (phone: 1-800-244-6227) is hardly alone: like so many dominoes, companies are capitulating to the homosexualists — who continue to aggressively DEMAND “same-sex marriage” as a “civil right” with outrage in their voices. (See HRC’s report: http://www.hrc.org/documents/HRC_Corporate_Equality_Index_2008.pdf.) Meanwhile, a new book on youth attitudes published by Christian pollster George Barna accuses the Church of having an “anti-homosexual” image problem (see www.unchristian.org). Do you get it? WE’RE the problem, or should I say God’s Holy Word is, because, you know, our Lord is so embarrassingly “anti-gay” ….

Although I completely sympathize with the “soft” Christians’ desire to reach homosexuals for Christ, they seem to be saying that God can’t do that unless the Church becomes more worldly: “Give me a Gay-Tolerant Jesus so I won’t be hated by my liberal friends and the media.” To plead their case, they use pious-sounding arguments — and cite surveys correctly showing how homosexual-friendly today’s (brainwashed) youth are — but they are utterly Chamberlain-esque when it comes to the Culture War.

How strange: when the Homosexual Lobby is at the zenith of its power, some Christian leaders are calling for a retreat and scolding the “Religious Right,” which at least has tried to slow down the homosexual activist juggernaut. Whoever said Christians are called to surrender in the battle of good versus evil?

We must reject such defeatism and get back to the basics of why we are in this fight — explaining, in Christian love in line with Biblical truth:

• WHY homosexual behavior is always wrong, and often dangerous;
• WHY homosexual relationships — even those rare long-term, truly monogamous ones — are immoral, disordered, against God, and harmful to children (“gay adoption”);
• WHY it is public-policy madness to grant civil rights status based on changeable sexual behavior and gender identity disorders;
• WHY corporations should get out of the business of promoting ALL extra-marital relationships;
• WHY homosexualism is not “gay” but destructive to children; and
• HOW “sexual orientation” laws are fundamentally incompatible with religious and moral freedom.

And of course: how no man or woman — or teenager — has to be “gay” (positively homosexual): that’s a lifestyle choice which can be overcome with God’s help; see Stephen  Black’s wonderful testimony HERE.

We at AFTAH, or the other pro-family organizations, don’t have all the answers — that’s for sure. So please let me hear your thoughts on how our movement can regain the offensive in the ongoing battle against homosexualism. Write americansfortruth@comcast.net. Thank you and God bless.

Peter LaBarbera
Americans For Truth
www.americansfortruth.org
E-mail: americansfortruth@comcast.net

Below is Laurie Higgins’ e-mail:

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From: Laurie Higgins
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 8:35 AM
To: [pro-family allies]
Subject: Why I refuse to “downplay” homosexuality

A parent who objects to Angels in America suggested that those who object to the [homo-erotic] play should “downplay” the issue of homosexuality, to which I responded as follows:
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“The homosexual piece is downplayed at our great peril. At the Saturday meeting, I think I was the only person who addressed the homosexuality. I will not retreat from this because virtually everyone else is. Almost everyone I talk to says that they don’t care about the homosexuality; it’s the language and sex they care about. I think that’s both a strategic and moral error. If Angels is pulled from the curricula just because of the graphic sex and obscene language, then the faculty is free to continue to introduce resources that normalize homosexuality as long as the resources aren’t graphic and obscene.

“If no one stands with me, I will stand alone because, to borrow shamelessly the words of Martin Luther, ‘I can do no other. God help me.'”

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Christians need to understand that their cowardly retreat from expressing the view that homosexual conduct is wrong carries with it devastating consequences for individual lives, public education, parental rights, speech rights, and religious rights–let alone truth.

Those parents who refuse to address the presence of pro-homosexual resources and activities in public schools will be partly responsible when Illinois follows in the footsteps of Massachusetts and California in requiring the teaching of pro-homosexual material in kindergarten through high school with no parental notification and no opt-out. Yes, that means picture books about homosexuality for kindergartners.

Laurie Higgins is a writing instructor at Deerfield High School, north of Chicago.