Folks, this news release highlighting the emerging “Changed” Movement of “Formers”–ex-“gay” men, ex-“lesbians,” and ex-“transgender” individuals who now identify with Jesus Christ–first appeared in Christian Newswire. They will be holding a media event tomorrow (Wed., Oct. 30, 2019) on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Please visit the Changed Movement website and support this organization, and this heart-warming and most politically incorrect Christian truth movement, with your prayers, energy and gifts.–Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH.org; @PeterLaBarbera

______________________________

NEWS PROVIDED BY
Church United
Oct. 28, 2019

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2019 /Christian Newswire/ — “Formers” (those who no longer identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning) representing every state in the Union have selected 15 Former LGBTQ people to travel to Washington, D.C. October 28 – November 1 to address concerns about LGBTQ-focused legislation such as bill H.R. 5, which passed in the House in May, and H.R 3570, which was introduced in late June.

Although dubbed “The Equality Act,” Formers understand the bill is an unnecessary concession to the false idea that members of the gay community are marginalized. In fact, LGBTQ-identifying people have always had options in how they participate in broader culture. Nothing constrains them from participating in culture on a normal level. Unlike with the African American community, who have centuries of culturally driven abuse and forced destabilization, those who identify as LGBTQ have been empowered in our modern society as scientists, literary giants, and even politicians when they have chosen not to prioritize their sexual mores.

Meanwhile, H.R. 3570, dubbed the “Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act of 2019,” mirrors a similar bill proposed by California lawmakers but withdrawn by its author after heavy pressure from the state’s religious leaders, including Church United and Formers. Written by California Congressman Ted Lieu, the bill would ban conversion therapy nationwide and prohibit any advertising referencing to the ability to change or reduce sexual orientation or gender identity. The House resolution further minimizes the lives of thousands of Formers by declaring “there is no scientifically valid evidence that supports the practice of attempting to prevent a person from being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or gender nonconforming” adding that conversion therapy is “substantially dangerous to an individual’s mental and physical health, and has been shown to contribute to depression, self-harm, low self-esteem, family rejection, and suicide.”

America does not need anti-discrimination laws or bans against treatment for those seeking to live out their faith biblically; we need a renewed belief in the dignity and beauty of all of humanity in its diversity. America CAN model for the world what it looks like to value one another despite our differences without government intrusion or enforcement.

Bills like H.R. 5 will impact the private, public, religious, academic and government sectors. This proposed law would change the existing Civil Rights Act to redefine “sex” as gender identity and sexual orientation among the list of classes (e.g., race, color, religion, sex and national origin). There would be NO exemptions for individual believers or faith communities. H.R. 5 will empower the Federal Government to levy punishment on any individual or organization with a dissenting ideological view. It is the beginning of the end of religious liberty and free speech in America.

For Formers, bills like H.R. 5 and H.R. 3570 block our rights to follow our own convictions. It enforces the false belief that one cannot change and that one has no choice but to embrace LGBTQ identity and behaviors.

African American Former, Edward Byrd, who identified as Sexually Androgynous, from Maryland shared: 

“Honestly, my life has been changed because I was able to be open about my struggle with the LGBTQ identity. Through counseling and other avenues, I was able to process through rape, abuse and gender identity. If I had not had these options I might not be alive today! Now I am on a path of Faith and Freedom.”

Latin American Luis Ruiz, Pulse Nightclub Survivor, said:

“If this bill would become law, we will not be able to build our organization, Fearless Identity, that brings hope and understanding to the LGBTQ communities and the church through education and biblical teaching. We support a judgment-free environment for anyone that wants to seek change, and the freedom to do so without fear of retribution or lawsuits because LBGTQ change is possible.”

 African-American California Bishop Ed Smith, Zoe International, who leads scores of churches in California and the United States said, 

“I support every persons’ right to choose their own course of life which often requires them to make personal changes in their core beliefs and lifestyle. Following Jesus is no different.

‘……If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.’ MarK 8:34 ESV

“This bill is reverse discrimination, imposing LGBTQ community values upon all Americans, especially upon the churches of all denominations, who for centuries have offered hope to everyone who desires a life change to serve their God. Life is all about choices, even in our sexual orientation.”

 Jeffrey McCall, a former transgender woman from Georgia, shared: 

“As someone who used to live in and relate to the world around me as a man-yet identified as a lesbian-I am thankful I had a choice to refuse the LGBTQ label and get the help I needed to align myself with my Christian faith. I don’t want these rights taken away from others like me.”

 Missouri’s Amanda Smith, a former lesbian added: 

“Vulnerable people deserve care. Individuals who struggle with their sexuality and self-perception around their gender deserve informed, compassionate attention of their choosing. I oppose H.R. 5 because, in the end, it would limit care and resources for people who want a particular type of assistance with these struggles. Making laws around ideologies and self-perceptions, rather than innate qualities like biological sex and race, sets a dangerous precedent. By infringing on other freedoms, particularly religious freedoms, this bill harms – even while it claims to help. I oppose this bill for the ways it would harm people whose stories are like mine and so many others I know.”

 Jim Domen, a former homosexual and Pastor/Founder of Church United in California, decried: 

“Sexual behavior should not be a protected civil right. Changing the Civil Rights Act would create a super class for anyone identifying as LGBTQ, usurping everyone else’s rights who are not LGBTQ or who disagree with the lifestyle because of religious beliefs. Ask anyone from a Super Minority (e.g., Formers) about the persecution, ridicule, and abuse they have encountered for changing previous behaviors/lifestyles in America. As currently proposed, H.R. 5, the ‘Equality Act,’ discriminates against Formers or others who practice a different sexual behavior than LGBTQ individuals.

“H.R. 3570 prohibits choice of therapeutic direction from a client – ‘I CHOSE not to be gay and my therapists helped affirm the direction I chose toward heterosexuality’ – this bill would deny anyone like myself from seeking freedom and help from licensed professionals. My psychological well-being as a heterosexual man and my family, are proof that the therapies I received were not fraudulent. My wife, biological daughters and son are not frauds.”

 For news conference details, inquires or media interviews with Former LGBTQ individuals from a specific state or evangelical bishops/pastors please contact Desare Ferraro at (714) 348-0808 or Desare@ChurchUnited.com. Photos and biographies of the 15 Formers are available upon request.

Church United with the CHANGED Movement (changedmovement.com) are California based non-profit organizations partnering together to protect the freedoms of Former LGBTQ identified individuals who have CHANGED. In 2018, both organizations took key roles in a strategy that used personal stories to preempt the enactment of pseudo-communistic philosophical legislation in California’s and Taiwan’s governments. Recent SOGI (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity) legislation has been authored by American legislators of Chinese descent: California’s A.B. 2943 (withdrawn in August 2018) by gay Assemblyman Evan Low; and S.B. 1172 (passed in 2012 and sponsored by then CA State Sen. Ted Lieu) and H.R. 3570 authored by Representative Ted Lieu (D-Torrance). Interestingly, Low and Lieu are both of Chinese descent (Taiwan, Province of China). Church United and 5 members of the CHANGED Team (including two Former LGBTQ Pulse Nightclub shooting survivors) will be flying to Wasington, D.C. directly from their tour in Taipei, Taiwan. In Taipei, 30 formerly LGBTQ identifiied people (Referred to as Rainbow Crossers in Asia) representing 30 nations petitioned an audience at the International Federation of Human Rights Conference, October 21-25. Their admittance to the IFHR as a people group was denied.

SOURCE Church United

CONTACT: Desare Ferraro, 714-348-0808, desare@churchunited.com

VCY America’s “Crosstalk” program Oct. 14 featured AFTAH president Peter LaBarbera discussing the recent CNN LGBTQ issues presidential forum with Crosstalk host Jim Schneider [Listen below]. LaBarbera was outraged in responding to a clip from the CNN event in which a 9-year-old biological girl who wants to be a “boy” (with her parents’ full approval, apparently) asked Sen. Elizabeth Warren a question. The pandering Warren tells the girl that as President of the United States she would not name her Education Secretary until the girl meets the nominee and approves of the choice.

Sadly, that was probably NOT the most radical exchange at the LGBTQ forum. Below is Crosstalk’s write-up of our interview:

Date:  October 14, 2019  
Host:  Jim Schneider  
?Guest:  Peter LaBarbera
MP3 ???| Order

Presidential Candidates Embrace LGBT Agenda

Peter LaBarbera is the president of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, a non-partisan educational group dedicated to exposing the homosexual-bisexual-transgender activist agendas.

On October 10^th, on the eve of National ‘Coming Out’ Day, the Human Rights Campaign and CNN sponsored the ‘Power of Our Pride.’  This event was a multi-candidate, Democrat ‘town hall’ forum that addressed LGBTQ issues and featured Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Beto O’Rourke, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and others.

Every candidate involved in the event supports the ‘Equality Act.’  Peter described it as ‘…the most dangerous piece of federal legislation on the LGBTQ side ever.  It would add sexual orientation and gender identity, those two phrases, into the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act.’  He went on to note that this would create special civil rights protections based upon immoral and changeable homosexual behavior and transgenderism.

Jim featured a number of quotes from the event and had Peter follow up with his comments.  Participants quoted included:

–A 9 year old biological girl who identifies as a boy asked a question of Senator Elizabeth Warren concerning transgender safety at school.  Part of Warren’s response indicated that she’s willing to allow this gender confused child to vet her secretary of education should she win the presidency.  

–Elizabeth Warren gave her response to a hypothetical situation where a supporter approaches her and says that they are old fashioned and that their faith teaches that marriage is between one man and one woman.

–Elizabeth Warren commented on allowing taxpayer dollars to go toward transition related transgender surgery.

–Beta O’Rourke agreed that religious institutions should lose their tax exempt status if they’re opposed to same-sex marriage.

–Cory Booker blamed right-wing extremists, white supremacists and hate groups for the majority of the terrorist attacks on America since 9-11.

Jim and Peter have much more to present, including comments from listeners, on this important election related edition of Crosstalk.

More Information:

www.americansfortruth.com

What began in the name of compassion escalated into “powerful, clamoring, vengeful and vindictive” aberrant-sex lobby

The following is an excerpt from The Quest for God: A Personal Pilgrimage, by Paul Johnson (pages 28-29). I must ask my fellow Americans: does this sound familiar?

Note: emphasis is added, and for readability I have also broken in half the paragraph beginning, “I believe….”–Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; @PeterLaBarbera

After a section in which Johnson discusses radical, worldly movements – race, sexual, environment and health politics — that collectively present an alternative to God and traditional religion:

“The radical agenda …with its strong appeal to the idealistic, as well as the materialistic, instincts of mankind, especially among young people, does constitute an alternative religion. Like any other form of humanism, it replaces God by man, and the welfare – or supposed welfare – of man, rather than the worship of God and obedience to his commandments, as the object of human existence and the purpose of society. That, of course, is its defect. The Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner once argued that it is the consciousness of God, the acceptance that there is power outside and above ourselves, to whom we owe allegiance and whose guidance we must follow, which essentially distinguishes mankind from other creatures. If belief in God were ever to fade completely from the human mind, we would not, Promethean-like, become masters of our fate; on the contrary, we would descend to the status of very clever animals, and our ultimate destiny would be too horrible to contemplate.

I believe this argument to be profoundly true, and corroborated by history, and what worries me about the new radical agenda is the danger that it will dehumanise man just as the totalitarian alternatives did, though no doubt in rather different ways. But there are further, related objections. All the items on the agenda lend themselves to extremism. Take, for instance, the issue of homosexuality, an important part of the sexual politics item. There were many of us, in the 1960s, who felt that there were grave practical and moral objections to the criminalisation of homosexuality, and who therefore supported, as happened in most Western countries, changes in the law which meant that certain forms of homosexual behavior ceased to be unlawful. Homosexuality itself was still to be publicly regarded by society, let alone by the churches, as a great moral evil, but men who engaged in it, within strictly defined limits, would no longer be sent to prison. We believed this change to be the maximum homosexuals deserved or could reasonably expect.

We were proved totally mistaken. Decriminalisation made it possible for homosexuals to organise openly into a powerful lobby, and it thus became a mere platform from which further demands were launched. Next followed demands for equality, in which homosexuality was officially placed on the same moral level as standard forms of sexuality, and dismissal of identified homosexuals from sensitive positions, for instance in schools, children’s homes, etc., became progressively more difficult. This was followed in turn by demands not merely for equality but privilege: the appointment, for instance, of homosexual quotas in local government, the excision from school textbooks and curricula, and university courses, passages or books or authors they found objectionable, special rights to proselytise, and not least the privilege of special programmes to put forward their views – including the elimination of the remaining legal constraints – on radio and television. Thus we began by attempting to right what was felt an ancient injustice and we ended up with a monster in our midst, powerful and clamouring, flexing its muscles, threatening, vengeful and vindictive towards anyone who challenges its outrageous claims, and bent on making fundamental – and to most of us horrifying – changes to civilised patterns of sexual behavior.

Here indeed we have sexual politics in action. And, as with other alternatives to God, the result is not human happiness, but human misery. The homosexual community, as they now styled themselves, by their reckless promiscuity during the 1970s and 1980s, helped to spread among their members the fearful scourge of AIDS, a killer disease of a peculiarly horrible nature, for which there is no cure, and no immediate likelihood of a cure….