Brett VanAsdlen

WorldNetDaily in its story, “Teen facing ‘hate crime’ count over spat,” picks up on our story yesterday on the “hate crimes” prosecution of Parkland College student-athlete Brett VanAsdlen. Click HERE to TAKE ACTION on this case. From the WND story:

Rona Lee VanAsdlen told WND in an interview today that she’s been asked by legal counsel not to talk about the specifics of the case.

But she said the case is a trial for the family.

“We’re just getting persecuted here, I guess, and we have to fight,” she said. “I just ask for prayers. My son will really have to fight and prove his innocence.”

She identified the state’s “hate crimes” as the problem.

“This would never have even been an event if this was another heterosexual male and he had a conflict with, and that’s just unfair,” she said. “I am a conservative Christian, and my son is. All we are doing is asking for prayers and support from people that may be opposed to this sort of thing happening.

“This has just uprooted our whole life, and I don’t know that it’ll ever be the same. I don’t know that, even if everything is dropped, that it’ll ever be the same,” she said.

Selective prosecution illustrates danger of ‘hate crimes’ laws

Brett VanAsdlen

TAKE ACTION: 1) Urge Champaign County, Illinois State’s Attorney Julia Rietz (phone: 217-384-3733) to drop the government’s one-sided felony “hate crimes” prosecution against 18-year-old student-athlete Brett VanAsdlen — based on the inconsistent and likely exaggerated claims of Steven Velasquez, a homosexual University of Illinois (U of I) student who may have initiated physical contact with VanAsdlen. Already, Brett is being smeared as violent “gay-basher” by Velasquez and pro-homosexual activists in the media. Pray for Brett and his family.

2) Call or write WCIA-3 TV, the local CBS affiliate, and urge them to be fair in their coverage of this unfortunate story. Call (217) 373-3650 and ask for Producer Nancy Foreman. WCIA reporter Amanda Evans has led the TV coverage of the story, but her reporting appears to heavily favor Velasquez. It is wrong to smear the reputation of young man by airing all the accusations against him without presenting the other side of the story.

_____________________________

By Peter LaBarbera

CHAMPAIGN-URBANA, Illinois — Two young men — one homosexual, one heterosexual — tell very different stories about an argument that occurred late on a Friday night (April 11) in this college town, but only one — the straight student-athlete — faces a felony “hate crime” conviction with a maximum penalty of up to three years in prison.

Brett VanAsdlen faces a Class 4 felony hate crime after originally being charged with aggravated battery following an incident in which he pushed 20-year-old homosexual University of Illinois student Steven Velasquez to the ground. The critical question is: why did he push Velasquez and who was aggressor? VanAsdlen’s family says it was Velasquez who — after Brett made a comment about Velasquez and his homosexual partner — first “got in Brett’s face,” to which Brett responded by pushing Velasquez away. Velasquez claims that Brett attacked him unprovoked because of his homosexuality.

You can read and watch WCIA-TV’s initial, one-sided account of the incident featuring an interview with Velasquez HERE — which set the tone for those seeking to portray VanAsdlen as a violent hate criminal.

By Stephen Black and Chris Morrison

Chris Morrison of First Stone Ministries credits Sally Kern with lovingly and graciously helping him in his walk out of homosexuality.

Folks, one of the temptations for Christians looking for new approaches to the homosexual issue is to assert or imply that they possess more Christian love for people involved in homosexual behavior — or that they are being more Christ-like — than other Christians who take a strong, principled stand against the “gay” activist agenda. We deal with such condescension all the time here at Americans For Truth, even though I would be the first to admit that I do not love sinners nearly as I ought, according to Christ’s dictates.

In our view, some Christians unfairly piled on following the “gay”-led assault on Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern, echoing homosexual activist criticisms of her without taking the time to get to know this fine woman and her motivations. I put Grove City College’s Warren Throckmorton — who snidely lectured Kern on the Golden Rule on his blog (“Maybe gays are having a hard time with the love thing when they are considered a worse threat than terrorists. Go figure.”) — in this camp. (We’ll have our own questions for Warren and his unorthodox ideas in future posts.)

What I discovered in defending Sally was that she is nothing like the evil, bigoted caricature that homosexual activists, led by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, sought to create in their web-driven campaign to destroy her. Sally actually has a wonderful Christian heart — but those who know her best, such as Stephen Black and Chris Morrison of First Stone Ministries, both former homosexuals, understood that all along, as this beautiful essay testifies. — Peter LaBarbera

The Untold Story about Rep. Sally Kern

by Stephen Black and Chris Morrison from First Stone Ministries

The Untold Story of Irony
Washington’s political gay elitists with the Victory Fund edited Oklahoma State Representative Sally Kern’s comments from a closed door meeting given in a January speech of this year. They edited down the comments to what they considered the most inflammatory sound bites. Their cunning plan was to upload the edited comments to YouTube in hopes of enraging gay people and their supporters. This plan, they thought, would further the “Victory Fund” gay political cause and bring in funds for their political machine. Over and over they emphasize that Rep. Kern’s speech demonstrated hatred towards gays. What they failed to mention – or include in the sound bites – is the truth, that Rep. Sally Kern said we must love the homosexual. Her message was not about bashing gays. The mainstream liberal media outlets seem to be unconcerned about what was been left out, and unmotivated to seek the whole story, responded predictably. They thrive on bad news and smear tactics of conservatives, so they picked up the story immediately and replayed the inflammatory comments. The story was worldwide overnight! Sally Kern was labeled hateful, bigoted, anti-gay, an evil homophobe and so many other names that are so vile, I cannot repeat.

There is a yawning chasm between the values and priorities we piously claim as our national heritage and those we have chosen to live by.

Our survival as a democracy is in our hands. We too must come out of the closet of cloistered Christianity and come to the rescue of our constitutional rights.

By Lee Taylor

Gay pride was not born in a vacuum. Timing and social upheaval formed the vortex in which it was born and bred. Hanging from the shirttails of the Civil Rights, women’s liberation, and anti-war movements, it exploited the vulnerability of a nation in turmoil. Fueling its fraudulent claims and outrageous demands from our national guilt complex and introspective conflict of values, the Gay Liberation Front exploded onto the American scene. The soul-searching ‘60’s exposed a nation fraught with self-doubt, self-recrimination, anxiety, addiction and ideological conflict, a nation at odds with itself. The sexual revolution accelerated the erosion of both marriage and the family as we struggled with the values and priorities of our national identity.

We were still recovering from the Viet Nam War and had only begun to realize the implications of racial integration when homosexual opportunists executed a strategically timed and targeted blitzkrieg on American society. We were caught napping, and the initial homosexual coup was a resounding success. Adopting the Civil Rights, anti-war and women’s liberation movements as its own, forming its political platform by drawing heavily from each, the Gay Liberation Front took aim at our Christian values and democratic institutions.

“Evil” 18th Century “Neanderthal”?

CBS’s Lesley Stahl: “I’m surprised at how many people really, really hate you. These are some things we’ve been told: ‘He’s evil;’ ‘He’s a Neanderthal;’ ‘He’s going to drag us back to 1789.’ They’re threatened by what you represent and what you believe in.”

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia: “These are people that don’t understand what my interpretive philosophy is. I’m not saying no progress. I’m saying we should progress democratically.”…

Stahl: “But his critics argue that originalism is a cover for what they see as Justice Scalia’s real intention: to turn back some pivotal court decisions of the ’60s and ’70s. He’s been labeled a ‘counterrevolutionary.'”

— CBS’s 60 Minutes, April 27, 2008, as reported by Media Research Center’s “Notables Quotables,” May 5, 2008.

Anyone who has researched the subject of homosexuality knows that many of the most staunch advocates of homosexuality are those who hold a decidedly secular outlook. Conservapedia has an excellent article on atheism with 178 footnotes to many excellent sources. Conservapedia’s article, located HERE, is well worth reading.

By Peter LaBarbera

Beware lesbians with frying pans (if you care about free speech). Lesbian activists at Smith College stormed the “Born Gay Hoax” talk by Ryan Sorba, shutting it down. Photo: MassResistance.org.

Lesbian activists at Smith College just couldn’t stand by and let a young critic explain his views about the supposed innateness of homosexuality — so they stormed Ryan Sorba’s speech on the “Born Gay Hoax” and forced him to end it prematurely. Thus they decided for everyone in the room — supporters, foes, the curious and the undecided — whether Sorba’s arguments would be heard. Stalin would be proud.

Brian Camenker, Amy Contrada and the dedicated folks at MassResistance.org have captured the totalitarian episode on film for the world to see. Kudos to MassResistance for once again chronicling the anti-democratic antics of the “gay” Left for the record. It is absolutely shameful that Smith College and Massachusetts authorities would allow Sorba’s First Amendment rights to be neutralized in — of all places — the academy, which is supposed to be a place where opposing ideas can be debated freely.

Homosexual activists are afraid of critical ideas — e.g., ex-“gays” and facts about the immense health risks linked to same-sex practices — a sure sign that they are on shallow intellectual footing. Meanwhile, we have learned that the American Psychiatric Association has canceled a symposium, slated for Monday, on “Homosexuality and Therapy: the Religious Dimension,” featuring Grove City College’s Warren Throckmorton — after homosexual activist Episcopal Bishop (Vicky) Gene Robinson pulled out of the discussion. The homosexual newspaper Washington Blade reports that Robinson “canceled his plans to attend because he came to believe that making an appearance would validate the concept that sexual orientation can be changed.”

Dr. Mike Brown of ICN Ministries

The following is from our friends at ICN Ministries, led by Dr. Michael Brown. To see a preview of Harry Knox’s (and HRC’s) homosexualist theology, see our story, “VIDEO: Satan’s Talking Points? HRC’s Harry Knox Claims Homosexuality Is ‘Gift from God’ in MSNBC Debate with CWA’s Matt Barber,” where you can watch the MSNBC debate on YouTube. For more on Mike Brown, see his response to Christian Left leader Jim Wallis on same-unions HERE.

ICN Ministries writes:

We are pleased to announce that for a 24 hour period, from 6:00 AM May 5th until 6:00 AM May 6th, you will be able to watch a free webcast of the important debate between Dr. Michael Brown, Director of the Coalition of Conscience, and Mr. Harry Knox, Director of Faith and Religion for the Human Rights Campaign, on the topic of “A Christian Response to Homosexuality.” The Coalition of Conscience is a network of Christian leaders and believers working together for moral and cultural change through the gospel; the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is the world’s largest homosexual advocacy group.

This historic debate took place on February 14th at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center in Charlotte, NC with more than 300 in attendance. In February of 2007, Dr. Brown delivered a lecture series at the Blumenthal on “Homosexuality, the Church, and Society,” focusing on the work of the HRC on the final night. This drew a direct response from Joe Solmonese, president of the HRC, who publicly challenged Brown at the HRC’s fund-raising dinner in Charlotte. As a result of that public challenge, Dr. Brown suggested that both sides put the issues on the table in a mutually respectful way, leading to this year’s debate.

To view the webcast, go to www.revolutionnow.org and click on Watch the Brown-Knox Debate between 6:00 AM May 5th and 6:00 AM May 6th. This is an event you don’t want to miss!

For DVD copies of the debate, go to: http://store.icnministries.org/videoanddvds.html.

Blessings and grace,

The ICN Staff