The National Coalition of American Nuns has issued an open letter encouraging “all Catholic citizens to vote their own consciences in the November elections.” Two of their seven points are supportive of homosexuality and same-sex “marriage” even though the Catholic church stands squarely against such.

4. We believe that citizens in committed relationships – whether marriages or civil unions – should retain all rights consonant with their state including, but not limited to, adoption of children, ownership of property, inheritance, health, and end-of-life decisions.

7. We pledge ourselves to initiate, invite, and support deepening actions on behalf of social justice, particularly as these impact women, racial/ethnic minorities, and gay or lesbian persons.

Catholic Citizens has posted a “heresy update” regarding this letter.

LifeSite News has published a related story entitled American Nuns’ Group Voter’s Guide Favours Abortion, Homosexuality.

Once again we renew our call for the closure of all sex clubs and bathhouses, which as, this article shows, are helping to victimize straight spouses who are unaware of their partner’s secret perversions.– Peter LaBarbera

The following is excerpted from Double Lives on the Down Low, by Benoit Denizet-Lewis, published Aug 3, 2003, by The New York Times Magazine:

…In its upper stories, the Flex bathhouse in Cleveland feels like a squash club for backslapping businessmen. There’s a large gym with free weights and exercise machines on the third floor. In the common area, on the main floor, men in towels lounge on couches and watch CNN on big-screen TV’s.In the basement, the mood is different: the TV’s are tuned to porn, and the dimly lighted hallways buzz with sexual energy. A naked black man reclines on a sling in a room called ”the dungeon play area.” Along a hallway lined with lockers, black men eye each other as they walk by in towels. In small rooms nearby, some men are having sex. Others are napping.

There are two bathhouses in Cleveland. On the city’s predominantly white West Side, Club Cleveland — which opened in 1965 and recently settled into a modern 15,000-square-foot space — attracts many white and openly gay men. Flex is on the East Side, and it serves a mostly black and Hispanic clientele, many of whom don’t consider themselves gay…

Today, while there are black men who are openly gay, it seems that the majority of those having sex with men still lead secret lives, products of a black culture that deems masculinity and fatherhood as a black man’s primary responsibility — and homosexuality as a white man’s perversion. And while Flex now offers baskets of condoms and lubricant, Wallace says that many of the club’s patrons still don’t use them.

Wallace ticks off the grim statistics: blacks make up only 12 percent of the population in America, but they account for half of all new reported H.I.V. infections. While intravenous drug use is a large part of the problem, experts say that the leading cause of H.I.V. in black men is homosexual sex (some of which takes place in prison, where blacks disproportionately outnumber whites). According to the Centers for Disease Control, one-third of young urban black men who have sex with men in this country are H.I.V.-positive, and 90 percent of those are unaware of their infection…

Many of the men at Flex tonight — and many of the black men I met these past months in Cleveland, Atlanta, Florida, New York and Boston — are on the Down Low, or on the DL, as they more often call it. Most date or marry women and engage sexually with men they meet only in anonymous settings like bathhouses and parks or through the Internet. Many of these men are young and from the inner city, where they live in a hypermasculine ”thug” culture. Other DL men form romantic relationships with men and may even be peripheral participants in mainstream gay culture, all unknown to their colleagues and families. Most DL men identify themselves not as gay or bisexual but first and foremost as black. To them, as to many blacks, that equates to being inherently masculine.

DL culture has grown, in recent years, out of the shadows and developed its own contemporary institutions, for those who know where to look: Web sites, Internet chat rooms, private parties and special nights at clubs. Over the same period, Down Low culture has come to the attention of alarmed public health officials, some of whom regard men on the DL as an infectious bridge spreading H.I.V. to unsuspecting wives and girlfriends. In 2001, almost two-thirds of women in the United States who found out they had AIDS were black.

With no wives or girlfriends around, Flex is a safe place for men on the DL to let down their guards. There aren’t many white men here either (I’m one of them), and that’s often the norm for DL parties and clubs.

Continue reading at The Balm in Gilead…

Remember when Rick Garcia of Equality Illinois told the Naperville Sun that he didn’t know what goes on in Steamworks (a Chicago homosexual bathhouse)? Maybe this story and the one above on the “down low” will help him understand:

It’s no secret that gay bathhouses are associated with gay sex, said Earl Pike, executive director of the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland.

And studies show that bathhouse users are more likely to test positive for HIV than other gay men.

– Excerpted from Bathhouse Image Worries Cleveland Gay Leadership, by Robert L. Smith, published Jun 2, 2006, by The Plain Dealer

If Garcia genuinely desires to “defend and protect” homosexual men, he should join Americans for Truth in calling for the city of Chicago to SHUT DOWN THE BATHHOUSE.

David French, attorney for MSU social work graduate Emily Brooker, is blogging at National Review Online about the Brooker v Missouri State University case:

There is a good article in this morning’s USA Today regarding the Alliance Defense Fund’s lawsuit against Missouri State. I have been giving several interviews about the case, and I am consistently asked two things: (1) are you saying that students can refuse assignments?; and (2) is this case “just” an academic-freedom dispute, or is it more than that?

First — to clear up any confusion — this is not a case about a student who is merely asked to play “devil’s advocate” in a classroom exercise. Of course teachers can ask you to debate and discuss various ideas from all sides of a dispute. During law school, several of my professors presented hypothetical cases and then asked us to write the majority opinion and the dissent in the case. The plaintiff, Emily Brooker, was not merely asked to think about all sides of an issue or argue different sides in class, she was asked to make an ideological argument in a contentious cultural issue to the state government. Moreover, she was supposed to argue for a position that violated her religious beliefs.

And this gets us to the real heart of the case: the magnitude of the constitutional violation. This is not “just” an academic-freedom dispute but instead represents an attempt by an academic department to pass into the “final frontier”…of university indoctrination. For more than 20 years now, conservative, libertarian, and even many liberal critics of the academy have decried the tendency of universities to silence dissenters. Many of these same critics have also decried one-sided course instruction and a faculty culture that leans overwhelmingly left. By silencing dissent and ensuring that only one side is heard, the university certainly “indoctrinates” students (as that term is commonly understood). But this case is something more. Here, the university goes beyond censorship, beyond one-sided instruction, and invades the student’s most basic right to freedom of conscience. It is not enough to silence students. Instead, the department must force individuals to voice their agreement with the governing ideology.

It is no exaggeration to call this system “Orwellian.” At the end of 1984 (spoiler alert for those who haven’t read the book), Winston Smith not only says that he loves Big Brother; he means it. Missouri State was going to force Emily Brooker to publicly support the campus’s reigning leftist ideology, and the punishment that resulted from the Star Chamber hearing was entirely designed to make sure that she meant it. After all, how could Emily follow the university’s command to “lessen the gap” between her own beliefs and the so-called “ethics” of the social-work profession but by changing her mind and heart?

Excerpted from School ‘Ethics’ Group Punishes Student for Opposing Homosexual Adoption, by Jim Brown, published Nov 1, 2006, by Agape Press:

…According to news reports, Dr. Frank Kaufman — an assistant professor in MSU’s School of Social Work on the Springfield campus and a member of the Faculty Senate at MSU — assigned his students a project promoting homosexual foster homes and adoption. The students were required to write and individually sign a letter to the Missouri legislature in support of homosexual adoption. Emily Brooker says she refused to sign the letter because of her religious convictions, and alleges she was punished for taking that stand.

Brooker says the school subjected her to a grievance hearing where school officials told her she had violated three of the “Standards of Essential Functioning in Social Work Education”: diversity, interpersonal skills, and professional behavior. The social work student is now suing the university for a violation of her First Amendment rights. Her attorney, David French with the Alliance Defense Fund, claims his client was interrogated for two-and-a-half hours by faculty members about the matter.

“She was brought into a hearing where she was denied any access to a recording of the hearing, any advocate in the hearing, and subjected to a grilling,” says French. The attorney says Brooker was asked questions like “Do you think I’m a sinner?” and “Do you think gays and lesbians are sinners?”

French describes the entire situation as “really an amazing case.” He explains that at the December 2005 hearing she was “punished, forced to undergo close monitoring for the rest of her career at the university, and forced to write things, again, that she disagreed with in order to graduate.”

The ADF attorney says many public universities are requiring student to adopt leftist positions in order to obtain a social work degree. “The social work programs are saying that, in order to be a social worker, in order to get a degree, you’re going to have to agree with the university’s stance on various issues,” he shares, “including issues regarding homosexual ‘marriage,’ including issues regarding the entire diversity-tolerance agenda.”

Continue reading at Agape Press…

A reader reacted to a quote cited here:

“Have the churches that sponsor Hell Houses forgotten that the New Testament teaches us to ‘love your neighbor as yourself?’ Have they forgotten that Jesus taught that we must love and include everyone? Cloaking hate in Christian language does not mean that it is not hateful or harmful. Religious leaders know that sexual difference is a blessed part of our endowment. These Hell Houses are fear-based education at their worst; their homophobic and anti-choice messages must be exposed.” — Rev. Debra W. Haffner

His response to Ms. Haffner…

You need to read the book of Jude [written by the half-brother of Jesus Himself] which is in the New Testament. Love is not a temporal thing; it is eternal. If the New Testament is to be believed then using fear to save someone from eternal damnation is an act of love because you snatch them from the fire by fear. (Jude 1:23) It is neither loving nor kind not to tell someone that they are standing in the railroad tracks when a train is coming just because they don’t believe in trains.

Jude 1

1:1 Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, [and] called:

1:2 Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.

1:3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort [you] that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

1:4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

1:5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.

1:6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

1:7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like * * manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

1:8 Likewise * * also these [filthy] dreamers defile the flesh * *, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.

1:9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

1:10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.

1:11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

1:12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds [they are] without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

1:13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

1:14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,

1:15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard [speeches] which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

1:16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling [words], having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.

1:17 But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;

1:18 How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.

1:19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.

1:20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,

1:21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

1:22 And of some have compassion, making a difference:

1:23 And others save with fear, pulling [them] out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

Agape <>< Mark Rouleau Rockford, IL

This pastor put in writing what I have repeatedly said to friends regarding the UCC’s “God Is Still Speaking” campaign. Hebrews 1:1 says…

Long ago, at many times and in many ways,
God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
but in these last days *He has spoken* to us by his Son…

There is no new revelation on divorce or pre-marital sex or adultery or homosexuality; there is no other name by which we must be saved. “God has spoken.” – Sonja Dalton

LET IT BE KNOWN:

As Jesus did not come to change the law, but to fulfill it, His obedient Church has no authority to change the ancient laws prohibiting fornication and adultery, nor those prohibiting homosexual acts. It was Jesus who affirmed the old teaching that a MAN cleaves to a WOMAN, husband to wife, in a sanctified union. Those who teach otherwise – including the President, officers, delegates and ministers in the United Church of Christ – are Satan’s false prophets and blind leaders who lead the unwise and naive to the Pit of Sheol. We have heard their protestations of holiness, but Jesus has taught us it is not those who say, “Lord, Lord,” who will enter the Kingdom, but those who do God’s will.

The God who is still speaking is not one whose word changes with our whims – but who changes us instead, to willingly listen and eagerly do what we have read in the holy scriptures inspired by the Lord – indeed, who through them has already spoken!

Rev. Albert W. Kovacs, Pastor
Hungarian Reformed Church
Woodbridge, New Jersey

From: John Grigsby
To: Blue Ridge Leader
Subject: Note (not letter) to editor – re: event tonight
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2006 06:01:45 -0700 (PDT)

Dear Editor,

I called Don Prange, pastor of St. James United Church of Christ in Lovettsville, which is sponsoring a “Faith and Life Forum” tonight (Wednesday, Oct 25th), where “Gay and Lesbian partners will share their stories”.  I offered to find, for Pastor Prange, Christians involved in ex-gay ministries, in order to open the forum up to a wider body of opinion.  Specifically, I intended to invite Regina Griggs…  Regina was agreeable to participating.

Pastor Prange told me that he would no more “invite George Bush defending (presumably  U.S.) Imperialism” or “Satan himself” to the podium than invite ex gays.  No, I am not making this up, and by the way I was very polite to him.

He also told me that Jesus wouldn’t have opened up a place at the podium for the Pharisees, and when I asked him what he thought about other familes, specifically polyamourous ones, he had no problem with legalizing them as well. 

I don’t think the media does a good enough job of covering this issue, so I’m offering up his answers to my questions as an example of what I think the media might want to ask, which is what the opponents of the Marriage Amendment support.  When we are talking about the Unitarian Universalists and the ACLU, you might be surprised how close they are to Pastor Prange’s views.

Best regards,

John Grigsby