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Congratulations to American Family Association of Indiana Executive Director Micah Clark and other pro-family leaders in the state for passage of SB 101, which hopefully will help protect the freedom of conscience of Indiana citizens for decades to come. I also read a good piece on Reason.com by Scott Shackfork debunking the main objection to the bill–which homosexual and transgender activists are smearing as the “Indiana Right to Discriminate” law.
Pro-homosexual and pro-transgender laws discriminate against people of faith and morality and women desiring privacy in public restrooms, respectively, but I suppose that kind of discrimination is tolerable to the Left because it accelerates the “gay” and “progressive” transformation of society. Thank God that defenders of liberty are fighting back. Below Clark answers some of the lies against SB 101. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera
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Hobby Lobby Bill Has Been Sent to Governor Pence
By Micah Clark, AFA of Indiana
Yesterday Senate Bill 101 cleared the last procedural step before going to the Governor’s office. After the bill passed the Indiana House on Monday by a solid 63-31 vote, the Senate voted on the concurrence motion with another strong vote of 40-10.
The bill is now headed to the Governor’s office. Yet, this movement has not stopped the silliness surrounding this tested legislation. Yesterday, I even had a call at the AFA-IN office that nearly takes the cake, though it is hard to get beyond the vile allegation that this would allow people of faith to bomb abortion clinics. The confused caller was worried that our Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) could be used to keep certain people of faith from being allowed to drive on the Indiana toll roads.
The hostility of the far Left never ceases to amaze me. Ironically, one thing this debate has revealed is the deep hostility that is out there against people of faith. It practically makes the case as to why SB 101 is needed. If you still doubt that those on the political Left and those in the homosexual activist movement want to force all people, including those with deep religious conviction, to embrace the homosexual agenda, then you haven’t paid close attention to this debate over religious liberty.
There have been so many lies repeated in the media and by opponents on this legislation that it is difficult to know where to start. Perhaps the best way, though, by no means comprehensive is to address a few things in bullet points. Here I go:
“A license to discriminate” – perhaps the biggest lie about this law is that it is a vehicle for discrimination. As I noted in the AFA-IN donor newsletter, Indiana Family Voice, SB 101 is only discriminatory if we radically redefine discrimination, which many liberals and homosexuals clearly want to do. This law does not allow a person of faith to deny service to someone, nor should it. No Christian bakery owner should say that people involved in homosexual behavior couldn’t shop in their bakery. That, in my opinion is wrong, un-Christian and discriminatory unless the patron is misbehaving ( i.e. “no shirt, no shoes, no service“). However, when a customer seeks special participation from the baker, asking him or her to specially decorate a “gay” wedding cake and come set it up at a homosexual wedding, then there is a very different line crossed, and a problem for most people of faith. However, while SB 101 could be cited as a defense in such a case, as could the 1st Amendment, courts thus far have not seen RFRA as very compelling in such cases.
The world is overflowing with deception (good is evil, and evil is good), false religions and doctrines forged in Hell. Among the world’s false religions, there are none more sinister – in my opinion – than those that claim the name of Christ while espousing all kinds of unbiblical error and even things the Lord calls abomination. While other false religions are no less dangerous to the eternal spirits of those beguiled by them, it is supremely detestable when false gospels are presented under the name of Jesus.
Jesus is the Son of God, and He is God. He came to earth to offer Himself as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. We are all accountable to God for our sins. We are all born in sin, and we each struggle with sin all our lives (at least those of us who recognize our sinfulness struggle with it, but others may not consider it at all). Jesus lived a sinless life as God in the flesh, and his willing sacrifice on the cross was perfect and acceptable to cover the sins of anyone who would believe in Him. Jesus is the only way – the only way – for man to be reconciled to God. He died so we could be free from sin, not be “out and proud” of our sin! The devil knows this and wants to prevent as many people from being saved as he possibly can, so he has labored from the beginning of Christ’s earthly ministry to infiltrate the church, to infuse it with his evil, subtle deceptions and myriad divisions. He has been greatly successful.
Today, we see rampant apostasy in many so-called Christian churches. There are plenty of denominations and churches that have created their own set of man-made traditions and regulations apart from Scripture, and in some cases, contrary to it. When churches that purport to be Christian rely on anything other than the Bible alone for revelation of God’s plan for mankind, then error is inevitable. When the Rock is not your foundation (no, the Rock is not Peter; it’s Jesus), then you will be prone to swallow all manner of false teachings.
Thus it is with the Presbyterian USA group, which voted this week to add the acceptance of sodomite “marriage” to its constitution. This follows on the heels of a 2011 vote that saw the group amend its charter to accept the ordination of unrepentant homosexuals to leadership position in its churches.
The following open letter by Heather Barwick, a happily married mother of four, was originally posted on The Federalist website March 17, 2015:
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Dear Gay Community: Your Kids Are Hurting
I loved my mom’s partner, but another mom could never have replaced the father I lost.
Gay community, I am your daughter. My mom raised me with her same-sex partner back in the ’80s and ’90s. She and my dad were married for a little while. She knew she was gay before they got married, but things were different back then. That’s how I got here. It was complicated as you can imagine. She left him when I was two or three because she wanted a chance to be happy with someone she really loved: a woman.
My dad wasn’t a great guy, and after she left him he didn’t bother coming around anymore.
Do you remember that book, “Heather Has Two Mommies”? That was my life. My mom, her partner, and I lived in a cozy little house in the ‘burbs of a very liberal and open-minded area. Her partner treated me as if I was her own daughter. Along with my mom’s partner, I also inherited her tight-knit community of gay and lesbian friends. Or maybe they inherited me?
Either way, I still feel like gay people are my people. I’ve learned so much from you. You taught me how to be brave, especially when it is hard. You taught me empathy. You taught me how to listen. And how to dance. You taught me not be afraid of things that are different. And you taught me how to stand up for myself, even if that means I stand alone.
I’m writing to you because I’m letting myself out of the closet: I don’t support gay marriage. But it might not be for the reasons that you think.
Children Need a Mother and Father
It’s not because you’re gay. I love you, so much. It’s because of the nature of the same-sex relationship itself.
Growing up, and even into my 20s, I supported and advocated for gay marriage. It’s only with some time and distance from my childhood that I’m able to reflect on my experiences and recognize the long-term consequences that same-sex parenting had on me. And it’s only now, as I watch my children loving and being loved by their father each day, that I can see the beauty and wisdom in traditional marriage and parenting.
Same-sex marriage and parenting withholds either a mother or father from a child while telling him or her that it doesn’t matter. That it’s all the same. But it’s not. A lot of us, a lot of your kids, are hurting. My father’s absence created a huge hole in me, and I ached every day for a dad. I loved my mom’s partner, but another mom could never have replaced the father I lost.
I grew up surrounded by women who said they didn’t need or want a man. Yet, as a little girl, I so desperately wanted a daddy. It is a strange and confusing thing to walk around with this deep-down unquenchable ache for a father, for a man, in a community that says that men are unnecessary. There were times I felt so angry with my dad for not being there for me, and then times I felt angry with myself for even wanting a father to begin with. There are parts of me that still grieve over that loss today.
Alabama Supreme Court Ruling on Marriage Stands Firm
Montgomery, AL – A week after the Alabama Court issued its ruling informing all Probate Judges that they must comply and cease issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, the federal judge who purported to overturn Alabama’s marriage laws in January has turned down the opportunity to challenge the statewide ruling of the Alabama Supreme Court. Federal Judge Callie Granade’snew order recognizes that her prior ruling only required Alabama Probate Judge Don Davis to issue marriage licenses to four same-sex couples who were plaintiffs in the federal case. The Alabama Supreme Court’s statewide ruling now prohibits all Alabama probate judges, including Judge Davis, from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Judge Davis had requested a stay of Judge Granade’s prior ruling because of the statewide Alabama Supreme Court order. The plaintiffs in the federal case, although they had already received the licenses they sought, urged Judge Granade to order Judge Davis to disregard the Alabama Supreme Court and issue marriage licenses to all same-sex couples who may ask. Judge Granade denied the stay requested by Judge Davis, but also declined to order him to disregard the Alabama Supreme Court.
“We are pleased that the Alabama Supreme Court’s order is being respected and followed throughout the State of Alabama,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, which filed the suit leading to the statewide ruling. “The federal court has no authority to force the Alabama Probate Judges to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and that lack of authority has been admitted by the federal court. The law in Alabama is clear. Marriage is only between one man and one woman. Other states should follow the lead of Alabama,” Staver concluded.
Liberty Counsel represents Alabama Policy Institute (“API”) and Alabama Citizens Action Program (“ALCAP”) in the Alabama Supreme Court case.
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Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.
Not a Hater: Austin Ruse of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM). Ruse’s group has been slandered by the leftist SPLC as a “hate group.”
By Peter LaBarbera
The pro-LGBT Left’s “hate” game is a cynical exercise in demonization and manipulation: by smearing people and organizations that oppose homosexual “marriage” or “gay” activism as “haters,” they seek to establish a narrative that delegitimizes any opposition to homosexualism as the moral equivalent of racism. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has turned this spurious tactic into a money-making machine–see the current issue of WND’s Whistleblower magazine, “The Hate Racket.”
Finally people of faith are fighting back: American Family Association has created an “[Anti-Christian] Bigotry Map” in response to the heavy-handed SPLC’s farcical “Hate Map,” on which AFTAH and more than a dozen other pro-family organizations are listed.
Below is an example of how homosexual activists like Joe Jervis, creater of the Joe.My.God blog, play the SPLC hate card against pro-family advocates. Note Jervis’ headline:
“Haters Are Thrilled that Italian Designers Dolce & Gabbana Oppose LGBT Rights”:
The alleged “hater” to which Jervis refers is not hateful at all. Austin Ruse is a Breitbart writer, a dedicated Catholic family man and the president of Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, which fights for pro-life and pro-family values at the United Nations. Ruse is a smart and capable guy–but his organization, like AFTAH, has been slandered by the SPLC as a “hate group” [see the map’s New York listings; AFTAH is found in the map’s Illinois listings].
Join Pro-Life and Pro-Family activists at the Defense of the Texas Marriage Amendment Rally
WHEN & WHERE: Monday, March 23rd at 1:00 PM on the south steps of the State Capitol in Austin. Below is a video and letter by Dr. Steven Hotze, president of Conservative Republicans of Texas:
It’s time for Christians and conservatives to rise up and take a stand for God’s truth about marriage! We must draw a line in the sand.
This is a call to action. I am asking you to make whatever sacrifices necessary to attend the Defense of Texas Marriage Amendment Rally scheduled for Monday, March 23rd at 1:00 pm on the south steps of the Texas Capitol. Please encourage your family, friends and fellow church members to attend. You might consider taking busloads of people to the rally.
We have over 100 elected State Officials who are sponsoring this event. They are coming under attack by militant homosexuals. That is why Christians and conservatives must have a show of force to let these legislators know that we support them.
Marriage is a God ordained institution between a man and a woman and it is the fundamental foundation of families and of ordered societies: “For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24, Matt. 19:5).
In the November 8, 2005 General Election, the citizens of Texas passed, by an overwhelming margin of 76% to 24%, a Marriage Amendment to the Texas Constitution, Article 1, Section 32, which provides that “Marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman.”
A fierce battle for the soul of Texas has begun.The liberals and their pro-homosexual allies want to force Texans to redefine marriage and accept ‘homosexual mirage’ as morally right.
Like Anorexia? Transgendered (gender-confused) individuals like Bruce Jenner suffer from a mental disorder of “assumption”–says psychiatrist Dr. Paul McHugh–much like anorexics who, though unhealthily thin, believe they are “fat.” Click on graphic to enlarge.
This essay was first published in The Public Discourse, which I highly recommend. To receive Public Discourse e-alerts, go HERE. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera
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The Absurdity of Transgenderism: A Stern but Necessary Critique
By Carlos D. Flores
We should make public policy and encourage social norms that reflect the truth about the human person and sexuality, not obfuscate the truth about such matters and sow the seeds of sexual confusion in future generations for years to come.
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By now we are all undoubtedly familiar with the tragic suicide of Joshua Alcorn, the transgender teenage boy who, in late December, walked onto a freeway with the intention of ending his life. In an apparent suicide note, Joshua cites a host of reasons for why he was led to end his life, most prominent of which were his parents’ attempts to discourage his identifying as a girl and his being sent to therapists in an attempt to relieve these feelings. All of the problems that ultimately culminated in his suicide, writes Joshua, stem from the fact that, from the time he was a small child, he felt like a “girl trapped in a boy’s body.”
No sooner had Joshua’s heart stopped beating than the story of his suicide was seized by LGBT activists and pruned to advance a familiar narrative of a sexual minority fighting cultural oppression. Joshua’s parents immediately began to be chided as “repressive” and “bigoted” and even began to receive various threats from LGBT internet crusader-activists.
Transgenderism and Gender Identity
I have not referred to Joshua by using female pronouns or by using his self-invented female name of “Leelah.” The reason I am not doing this is simple: Joshua was not a girl—he was a boy—and to address males with female pronouns or females with male pronouns is to contribute to our culture’s confusion about sexuality and the nature of the human person, which is literally leaving casualties in its wake. No amount of surgical mutilation of body parts, effeminate behaviors, or artificial female appearances can make a man a woman.
LGBT activists will respond in various ways to this. They might first respond by saying: “Okay, true enough: Joshua was biologically a male. But you have misunderstood our claim: we contend that his sex was male, yes, but his gender was female because he ‘identified’ as female.” The idea here is that people have a sex, which is either female or male and which one cannot choose. In addition to this, however, there is “gender,” or what sex one is more comfortable “identifying” as. The response to this is simple: Why think that what one “identifies as” is significant at all, especially to the extent that others should actively recognize or cater to such an identity, and especially when the identity one adopts is contrary to reality?
Homosexual leftist sends vulgar tweet to Dr. Ben Carson; Savage tells Duggars (and many others including AFTAH’s LaBarbera) to “F–k Off”
WARNING: Although we have blocked most of Dan Savage’s hateful profanity, this article contains offensive words and images as evidence of “gay” activist hate
LEFT-WING HATE GETS AN SPLC PASS: Only an absurdly biased “hate” arbiter like the SPLC would call Dr. Ben Carson an “extremist” yet ignore “gay” activist and anti-Christian bigot Dan Savage’s long record of viciously hateful antics. Savage (right) recently sent a vulgar, crude tweet to Dr. Carson (see below) because he was upset that Carson opined that homosexuality is a choice. The “Google Santorum” image on Savage’s t-shirt from this dated photo refers to the despicable “Santorum.com” campaign that Savage launched “redefining” Sen. Rick Santorum’s name as a disgusting byproduct of sodomy (see below). Despite Savage’s contemptible antics–he once intentionally tried to give a cold to then-GOP presidential candidate Gary Bauer by licking the doorknobs of Bauer’s campaign office–he has NEVER been cited for “hate” or “extremism” by the “anti-bias” Southern Poverty Law Center. Meanwhile, the SPLC called Dr. Carson an “extremist” and carefully monitors Carson’s public remarks for evidence of “hate.”
AFTAH is working to expose the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and other “anti-bias” and “diversity” charlatans on the Left. We are in an information-gathering stage of a project to expose and confront the SPLC’s wicked and bigoted “hate” narrative. (The SPLC has smeared AFTAH and many other pro-family organizations as “hate groups.”) The SPLC’s magazine, “Teaching Tolerance,” is sent at no charge to more than 450,000 educators–many in taxpayer-funded public schools–across the United States and Canada. The SPLC boasts that in addition, “tens of thousands of educators use our free curricular kits.” Contact your local K-12 schools–elementary, middle and high schools (public and private) — and inquire about the the use of “Teaching Tolerance” and other SPLC resources such as their new “anti-bias” curriculum, “Perspectives For a Diverse America.” Convey your concern about the SPLC’s egregious bias and please share your findings with AFTAH at americansfortruth@gmail.com or to Brad Wallis at connops@yahoo.com. Phone AFTAH at 312-324-3787.
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Why Hasn’t the SPLC Designated Dan Savage a Hateful “Extremist”?
By Peter LaBarbera
It says all you need to know about the Southern Poverty Law Center’s warped, arbitrary and maliciously unfair “hate” labeling system that the SPLC has never designated vulgar homosexual activist Dan Savage (or any homosexual activist, for that matter) as a hateful “extremist.” On Wednesday, after reports that Dr. Ben Carson affirmed that choice is involved in homosexuality (citing homosexual behavior by “straights” in prison), Savage tweeted this to Dr. Carson (blocked with a rainbow flag for decency here):
Here is a tweet where Dan Savage says “[F–k] the Duggars” because he was upset at the Christian family’s role in helping to pass a Fayetteville, Arkansas referendum preserving religious liberty (again, we blocked the F-word):
Here is Savage’s evil “Google-bomb” creation to redefine Sen. Rick Santorum’s last name as the byproduct of sodomy. This graphic is still found when you enter “Santorum.com” (as of March 6, 2105); Savage’s parallel “SpreadingSantorum” site–which comes up when you click the link in the nasty graphic below–comes up fifth on a Google search of “Santorum.” The graphic reads:
“santorum (san-TOR-um) n. 1. The frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the by-product of anal sex.”
Here the hateful Savage uses his standard F-bomb line against Josh Duggar:
