Gay marriage is about more than Adam and Steve

Mocking Marriage: “Grey’s Anatomy” star T.R. Knight (left), 35, with his 19-year-old boyfriend, Mark Cornelson. Knight says “it’s very important to honor marriage,” and is happy he now can “marry” in California. Here at AFTAH, we believe this relationship can never “honor marriage” because it cannot be marriage. Maggie Gallagher writes that the “same-sex marriage” movement is all about demonizing critics of  homosexuality (mostly people of faith) as the moral equivalent of racists.

“Here’s the conclusion I’ve come to after four-plus years of active participation in the same-sex-“marriage” debate: Gay “marriage” is not primarily about marriage. It’s also not about Adam and Steve and their personal practical legal needs. It is about inserting into the law the principle that “gay is the new black” — that sexual orientation should be treated exactly the same way we treat race in law and culture.” — Maggie Gallagher

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We commend this incisive essay on the California “gay marriage” question by Maggie Gallagher, a national leader on the issue. We’ve taken the liberty of adding quote marks around “marriage” and “wedding,” as in same-sex “marriage,” in our ongoing attempt to preserve the real meaning of words. Below are excerpts; the essay can be read in full on National Review HERE.

By Maggie Gallagher

Today [June 17], California same-sex couples are rushing to the altar. But this November, California voters will have their chance to say “I do” or “I do not” to gay marriage.

In the meantime, what have we learned about what gay “marriage” will mean for gays, for marriage, and for the wider society? In just the last few months, a newly confident same-sex-“marriage” movement is becoming more open and revealing about the answers.

The Heinz website reports regarding the company’s withdrawal of this homosexual-themed ad (picture at left; Contact Heinz HERE):

Heinz Unit in the UK Withdraws TV Commercial for Deli Mayonnaise

LONDON, England–June 23–BUSINESS WIRE–Heinz UK today confirmed that it withdrew a UK TV commercial for Deli Mayo last week following consumer feedback. The advertisement was no longer on air in the UK as of Friday, June 20.

“It is our policy to listen to consumers. We recognize that some consumers raised concerns over the content of the ad and this prompted our decision to withdraw it,” said Nigel Dickie, Director of Corporate Affairs for Heinz UK.

“The advertisement, part of a short-run campaign, was intended to be humorous and we apologize to anyone who felt offended,” said Dickie.

The Deli Mayo TV advertisement in the UK was created as a humorous take on a slice of life and featured a genuine New York deli chef taking the place of a mum preparing great tasting sandwiches in the kitchen using UK Deli Mayo.

Women who want to be men march shirtless to display their flat chests after ‘transgender’ breast removal surgeries

CAUTION: VERY DISTURBING. This is a woman who had her (healthy) breasts removed to appear like the transgender “man” she wants to be. “Transgender” is the “T” to which homosexual activists refer when they promote “GLBT youth.” The pro-family organization MassResistance took this photo during a recent June 7 “transgender pride” parade in Northampton, Massachusetts. Click HERE for the full MassResistance report on this perverse parade.

The shocking photo-story by our good friends at MassResistance is one of the most tragic things I have ever seen. Once before at a transgender conference in Washington, D.C., I witnessed the pitiful spectacle of “transgender men” — that is, women who want to become “men” — showing off their flattened chests after their healthy breasts were removed in accordance with their perceived “gender identity.”

My heart aches for this poor woman — yes, woman — who is so deceived that she has permanently mutilated her own body to pursue a false “gender identity.” This is what happens when (wo)man’s “feelings” and confusion — and ideology — are elevated above nature itself, not to mention God.

The following is excerpted from a WorldNetDaily article, “Criminal Crackdown Targeting Christians,” about Colorado’s radical new pro-homosexuality, pro-gender-confusion law, which contains a provision banning publication of “discriminative matter”:

Criminal Crackdown Targeting Christians

‘Biggest danger is to religious conscience of business owners’

By Bob Unruh, © 2008 WorldNetDaily, June 16, 2008

When a Christian pastor in Canada wrote a commentary on the Bible’s perspective on homosexuality, a government commission ordered him to renounce his faith and apologize. When a family-owned photography studio in New Mexico refused, on religious grounds, to take pictures at a same-sex ceremony, the fine for such “discrimination” was $6,600. Now the experts say Colorado is joining in the repression of the practice of Christianity.

‘Gay’ groups condemn Bush for giving general Presidential Medal of Freedom

“General Pace did nothing wrong in stating his moral and religious opposition to homosexual acts as immoral….Pace also said adultery is wrong, and yet I don’t see two ‘pro-adultery’ organizations out condemning him.” –Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth

Here is more evidence of the sheer hatred that fanatical homosexual activists have for Judeo-Christian teachings on sex. Gen. Peter Pace’s “crime”? He affirmed the historic teachings of his Catholic faith that homosexual sex is immoral. You’d have to be blind or brainwashed not to see the goal of homosexual militants: intimidate good people and especially public servants into silence on the moral question of homosexual practice. AFTAH is mentioned in the following Cybercast News Service article, “Homosexual Activists Oppose Medal for Retired General,” excerpted below:

Homosexual Activists Oppose Medal for Retired General
By Randy Hall
CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor
June 19, 2008

(CNSNews.com) – Two homosexual advocacy groups are criticizing the decision to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to retired General Peter Pace. He’ll be honored on Thursday.

“Honoring General Pace with the country’s highest civilian award is outrageous, insensitive and disrespectful to the 65,000 lesbian and gay troops currently serving on active duty in the armed forces,” said Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), in a news release on Wednesday. …

“Honoring General Pace for using his personal prejudice to meddle with military matters is just plain wrong,” PFLAG [Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays] added. “There should be no medal for bigotry and intolerance.”

Sent today via the AFTAH website: “gay” e-mail No. 13,479 suggesting that Americans For Truth President Peter LaBarbera is a secret homosexual because he criticizes homosexual activism. “Ralph” writes:

My God, what a dreadful website this is. Full of misinformation about Gays & Lesbians. Dearest Peter, you\’re a repressed self-hating homosexual. It\’s painfully obvious: It\’s just a matter of time when when you\’ll be outed. Remember basic high school psychology? Anyone who obsesses about something like homosexuality is probably feeling guilty or ashamed about something they\’ve done in the past. So fess up Pete, what are you ashamed of?

As with so many of such emails that we receive at AFTAH, our e-response to “Ralph” (“How illogical and silly, but thanks for regurgitating this cliche”) bounced back. Apparently anonymity really brings out the tiger in these homosexual harassers.

Folks, in many ways I think Michael Savage is one of the freest voices in America. He talks boldly about things — e.g., America’s moral rot — that even other “conservative talkers” handle with politically correct euphemisms and timid, secular-based “spin.” (Some leading conservative talk show hosts refuse to confront the “gay” activist juggernaut, ro do so only on the margins — whatever happened to “conserving” our Judeo-Christian sexual ethic?) The item below is by “Media Matters,” which produces an astonishing amount of media criticism, most of it advancing left-wing agendas, including government-enforced acceptance of homosexuality.

Savage is not a Christian — I once heard a fascinating interview he did with the late Jerry Falwell in which he respectfully disagreed with the Gospel — but in many respects he puts Christians to shame with his frank truth-telling about our American culture, which is on life-support, morally and religiously speaking. In a country where even self-professed evangelical Christian leaders and Catholic bishops are now joining the “gay-positive” bandwagon (see this item on evangelicals Tony and Peggy Campolo, and this one ), sometimes it takes an outsider to tell the hard truths. One of those truths is that pro-homosexual activists have indeed invade the schools and youth culture (MTV is now a “gaycame in and indoctrinated a nation of children in a couple of generations, while mom and dad were at work saving up for their plasma TVs.

You can contact Savage here:

Michael Savage Is Right — Children’s Minds Are Being Raped by the Homosexual Mafia

Savage: “The children’s minds are being raped by the homosexual mafia”
http://mediamatters.org/items/200806180005

Responding to a caller who said, “I had to explain to my young son why these two men were holding hands the other day,” radio host Michael Savage stated, during the June 16 broadcast of The Savage Nation, “You’ve got to explain to the children … why God told people this was wrong.” He went on to say, “You have to explain this to them in this time of mental rape that’s going on. The children’s minds are being raped by the homosexual mafia, that’s my position. They’re raping our children’s minds.”

During a discussion about gay marriage with a previous caller, Savage said: “It’s not a joke when you pervert an institution like marriage, which is in trouble enough. It’s not a joke.” He added, “Our children are being destroyed by this.” He went on to say of gay marriage, “It’s a very important story. The children don’t know what to make of it. Children nine, 10 are saying, ‘I’m gay.’ They don’t know what it even means.” He added: “It’s a giant propaganda machine trying to pervert children.”

Talk Radio Network, which syndicates Savage’s show, claims that Savage is heard on more than 350 radio stations. The Savage Nation reaches at least 8.25 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it one of the most listened-to talk radio shows in the nation, behind only The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Sean Hannity Show.

From the June 16 edition of Talk Radio Network’s The Savage Nation:

SAVAGE: San Francisco, Tina, welcome to The Savage Nation.

CALLER: Well, you make a really good point, Michael, and you have a great show, but I still think that you’re not wise in being so adamant about these gay marriages. What difference does it make what they do? You’re going to work yourself to a big heart attack like Tim Russert and —

SAVAGE: No, I won’t work myself into a big heart attack. I’ll tell you why: because the truth will set me free. It always has.

CALLER: But —

SAVAGE: Aren’t you tired of the propaganda that every newspaper you pick up today shows old, ugly women getting married?

CALLER: Well, as a matter of fact, yes, I think that should be a private thing. But I also think —

SAVAGE: Well, why do you suppose every newspaper in America is showing this story?

CALLER: They have an agenda, of course, but still —

SAVAGE: Well, I have an obligation as a social commentator to say enough is enough, I’ve had enough of it. Just as I had enough of the Tim Russert worship on Friday. I had enough of it. I had enough of Obama a year ago — he looks like Alfred E. Neuman to me.

CALLER: It’s a joke, whether you’re gay or straight, it’s mostly a joke, but the thing is we don’t want you to get all —

SAVAGE: It’s not a joke when you steal an institution as fragile as marriage and you pervert it with a mockery. It’s not a joke. It’s not a joke when you pervert an institution like marriage, which is in trouble enough. It’s not a joke. Our children are being destroyed by this.

CALLER: Well —

SAVAGE: I disagree with you totally. It’s a very important story. The children don’t know what to make of it. Children nine, 10 are saying, “I’m gay.” They don’t know what it even means. It’s a giant propaganda machine trying to pervert children. That’s my opinion.

Monterrey, California. Tom, what’s you’re opinion?

CALLER: Yes, I’m calling from the People’s Republic of Monterrey, and I had to explain to my young son why these two men were holding hands the other day and he said, “Dad, didn’t they say that that’s wrong in the Bible?” And I said, “Yes, they did, and yes it’s wrong” and yes to everything that he had to say about it. And I told him, I said, “That’s the wrongest thing you’ve ever seen besides the rest of the politicians and the media and CNBC.” Because —

SAVAGE: You’ve got to try to explain to the children why the — why God told people this was wrong. You’ve got to explain to them, to the children, how it twists everything. Just take them down to a duck pond and show them a boy duck and a girl duck and then show the ducklings and say to them, “There must be a boy duck and a girl duck for there to be babies.” It’s the same with a dog, puppies come from a mother duck — a mother pup, a mother dog. There needs to be a boy dog and a girl dog. You have to explain this to them in this time of mental rape that’s going on. The children’s minds are being raped by the homosexual mafia, that’s my position. They’re raping our children’s minds.

CALLER: I’m not buying into it, which is — I found was pretty neat, but, hey I enjoy your show, keep —

SAVAGE: Well, good, unless somebody else does. Well, OK, you don’t care about it. To me it matters. To me it matters. It’s just that the media is afraid of them or owned by them, and everyone’s catering to them. It’s like catering to Al Sharpton. You see the story that came out on him? You haven’t seen the story all over the media? Can’t report it, why? Because he’s not a white man? So suddenly he’s allowed to do things to companies like Jesse Jackson did for years — without producing a product or a service? Just by threatening a boycott, they give him money? Well there was a name for it when Al Capone was around. I guess that’s gone, gone with the wind, everyone’s afraid in the corporate world, plus it’s not their money anyway. They’re not playing with their money, they’re playing with your money. So the CEOs who run the companies do whatever they want to do with the money including buying off potential boycotts.

Homosexual activist Mel White and his group Soulforce seek to combat “religious homophobia” (read: overturn the Christian Church’s historic understanding that homosexual acts are sinful). Michael Brown argues in the Point/Counterpoint essay below that church meetings with Soulforce and other homosexual activists can be productive, partly by showing that Christians can “talk civilly with those who differ with us.”

This is a Point/Counterpoint debate on the question of whether Willow Creek Community Church (in South Barrington, Illinois) and other mega-churches should have met with the pro-homosexual activist group Soulforce, which aims to “cut off homophobia at its source – religious bigotry.” Our friend Dr. Michael Brown argues that such meetings can be used — with proper discernment — for Christian outreach and to dispel false notions that the Church harbors a “phobia” toward homosexuals. Click here for Sonja Dalton’s commentary expressing the opposite point of view: “Willow Creek Church Should Not Have Met with Soulforce.”

We will allow each writer to respond to the other’s arguments, and we welcome input from our readers, too; write us at americansfortruth@comcast.net. (Sorry, but we’re not interested in publishing pro-homosexuality pieces — there are plenty of “gay” websites for that.) You may write Brown or Dalton through the AFTAH website or by e-mailing americansfortruth@comcast.net:

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By Michael L. Brown, Ph.D.

Point/Counterpoint [click HERE for an opposing viewpoint by Sonja Dalton]

There are a number of good reasons why Christian leaders have refused to meet with Soulforce delegations, including:

1. Soulforce leaders use these meetings for their own purposes, putting their particular spin on the meeting for the media;
2. Soulforce sets its own agenda, and Christian leaders are under no obligation to go along with that agenda;
3. Since the Soulforce leaders claim to be Christians, welcoming them could be in violation of injunctions such as 1 Cor 5:9-13 and 2 John 10-11;
4. Despite the ongoing requests for dialogue, it can be doubted whether Soulforce is truly interested in hearing what our side has to say;
5. We are damned if we do meet and damned if we don’t, since if we do meet, we are accused of softening our stance against homosexual practice; if we don’t meet, we are painted as bigots. Why then even entertain Soulforce’s request to meet?

In light of such concerns, many Christian leaders have declined to meet with Soulforce delegations, and I certainly respect their decisions. Indeed, this is often the path of wisdom. It can be argued, however, that under certain circumstances, meetings with Soulforce leaders can be biblically based as well as used for positive gospel purposes.