Truth Academy vs. ‘Gay’ Thought Police – LifeSiteNews Coverage

Prof. Robert Gagnon, the world's leading authority on the Bible and homosexuality, will be giving three lectures at the Truth Academy.

The ‘Truth Academy: Chicago 2010’ begins in one week, Thurs., Aug. 5 – Sat., Aug. 7, at the Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, IL. See complete Academy info and speakers schedule HERE. RSVP at americansfortruth@gmail.com. Sign up and pay online at www.americansfortruth.com/donate.
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From the wonderful, must-read pro-family news site, LifeSiteNews [click HERE to subscribe to their daily e-mails]:

How to Fight the Gay Agenda: Pro-Family Group Organizes Three-Day Conference

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

July 27, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The pro-family organization Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) has scheduled a three-day conference on fighting the homosexual political agenda in the United States.

The Americans for Truth Academy will be “probably one of the most comprehensive pro-family conferences on homosexuality ever to occur in the United States,” according to Peter LaBarbera, the organization’s founder and president.

LaBarbera told LifeSiteNews (LSN) that he decided to organize the conference to counteract the large number of similar events held by homosexualist activists.

“I have a little Irish blood but I’m also Italian, and when political correctness and the thought police tell you what not to do it only makes me want to do more of it, and so in this case the gay thought police are basically saying the issue is over and there is no other side, and so I thought we have to start educating people on the agenda,” said LaBarbera.

“The gay movement has made significant headway through personal instruction and firsthand training.  They’ve got the Creating Change Conference from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which trains thousands of people per year. We’re completely outgunned on this issue,” said LaBarbera. “We face a variety of homosexual activist groups that have set specific purposes whereas we try to deal with the issue with our generalized pro-family groups, which do good work on homosexual issues but don’t do enough.”

Noting that the pro-life movement has been successful in communicating its message to younger generations, LaBarbera says that the same has to be done regarding homosexuality.

“Clearly what the pro-life movement has accomplished is they’ve changed the paradigm, and they’ve gotten people thinking about the life of the unborn child, about the human rights issues at stake, about the innocent victims of abortion on demand, and I think what has not happened on the homosexual issue is the basic talking points of the pro-gay movement have not been addressed adequately,” LaBarbera told LSN.

Lamenting that young people have been “brainwashed” by homosexualist propaganda, LaBarbara says he intends to “reach them with some in-depth training because they’re completely ignorant … The polls show that young people are more pro-life and more pro-gay at the same time. And I think that speaks volumes about the problem that we’re in and the long term debt that we face on this issue unless we educate people on what’s really at stake with the debate.”

The Academy will run from August 5 through August 7 at the Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, Illinois.  Speakers will include Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel, who was famously fired from his job with an insurance company for opposing homosexual activism on his own time, and Professor Rena Lindevaldsen, a law professor at Liberty University and defender of ex-lesbian Lisa Miller against her former lover’s attempts to take custody of her daughter. Professor Robert Gagnon of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, an expert on the Biblical teaching on homosexuality, will also speak.

Homosexual groups schedule protest

Homosexual activists have already scheduled a protest for the event, claiming that AFTAH is teaching “hate,” a charge repeated by the ultra-leftist People for the American Way, and strongly denied by LaBarbera.

“We’re not haters, we’re people who simply disagree with homosexuality, profoundly, we believe it is immoral, that it’s changeable, that it’s unnatural, that it’s against God,” he said.  “We don’t shrink from those beliefs.  But to equate the advocacy of those beliefs with hatred is itself an act of bigotry and hatred against people of faith and against people of moral persuasion.”

LaBarbera says he is aware of the preparations to protest his event, and will have security on hand to prevent the disruptive tactics historically used by gay activists to intimidate those opposed to their agenda.

“We already know the Gay Liberation Network, which is a radical homosexual hate group, has announced that they’re going to protest us. … we expected that,” LaBarbera told LSN.  “The reason that we did not open this event up to gay activists who want to attend … is that there is a history of homosexuals using direct action to disrupt and intimidate people.  We’re not going to tolerate that here.”

“We are taking some precautions, there is be security.  If anybody does try to disrupt this they will be ushered out,” he said.

Related links:

Americans for Truth Academy conference information