I hope that those of you within driving distance of Chicago are going to Illinois Family Institute’s (IFI) fundraising banquet this Tuesday featuring former presidential candidate and Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.  The event is this Tuesday, October 6 at the Crowne Plaza O’Hare at 5440 N. River Road, in Rosemont, Illinois, beginning at 6:30 p.m.  Tickets ($100/person) will NOT be sold at the door, so if you want to attend, you must call Kathy at IFI BY NOON MONDAY at 708-781-9328.  More info at www.illinoisfamily.org.  As a former executive director of IFI, I am so proud of Dave Smith, Laurie Higgins, and the whole IFI team — and all that Illinois Family Institute has done for life, families, and marriage in Illinois.  That includes leading the way in defeating a huge “gay” push for “civil unions” in Springfield this year.  Please join me in supporting this outstanding organization (an affiliate of American Family Association) by attending their banquet.  At the same time, you’ll benefit from hearing one of the few Republican leaders who isn’t afraid to talk enthusiastically about God and moral truths.  I’ll see you there! — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

P.S.  We understand that the Christian-bashing, Marxist radicals over at Gay Liberation Network will be protesting IFI’s banquet. Now we know IFI must be doing something right.

President Obama continues his pro-homosexuality pandering in a September 28 “Family Day” proclamation — by including children raised by a “same-sex couple” in a list of types of “American families” (see bolded text below). Of all the family types he lists, only one — homosexual-led “families — intentionally creates motherless or fatherless households. There is no moral equivalence between children raised without a mom or dad due to a tragedy (death of a spouse, divorce, a father who abandons his family, etc.) and the same caused by two homosexual adults who defy nature by borrowing from heterosexuality to produce a child — and then dispense with God’s wise provision of mother-father parenthood to raise it.

This is the obvious difference between Obama’s “families” that social liberals refuse to acknowledge, or make relevant to public policy. “Queer” parenting and “gay” adoption are a part of radical social experiment in progress — and innocent children are the guinea pigs. Who can know the effect on a young child being raised by two homosexual men like Gay Adoption Poster Boy Dan Savage — who boasts of the “three-way” sex he and “husband” Terry engaged in while parents of an adopted boy. (News flash for the naive: “gay monogamy,” at least for men, is largely a farce.)

Christians must reach out with Gospel in love but avoid “soulish sympathy” for practicing homosexuals, says Bible scholar

By Peter LaBarbera

Folks, Dr. Michael Brown gave an excellent presentation at AFTAH’s monthly dinner-lecture last week. We hope to post a YouTube on Dr. Brown’s succinct and compelling response to my question on the “Big Three” hostile questions thrown at Christians who defend the Bible’s prohibitions against homosexual conduct:

1. “But Jesus Christ never said anything about homosexuality”;
2. “Why should we believe the Old Testament says about homosexuality when it also bans wearing polyester and eating shellfish?”; and
3. “You Christians are so judgmental.”

Dr. Brown, a world renowned biblical scholar, hit it out of the park. He also challenged what he calls the “celebration of ambiguity”in describing neo-evangelicals’ and the “Emergent Church’s” evasive and equivocating — and unbiblical — positioning on the issue of homosexuality.

Brown specifically challenged Chicago evangelical Andrew Marin (right), founder of the Marin Foundation and author of “Love Is Not an Orientation.” Brown praised Marin for wanting to reach out to homosexuals and the portions of the book in which Marin relays personal stories of homosexuals he has encountered who have been hurt by the Church. But he was highly critical of Marin’s misuse of Scripture in interpreting verses dealing with homosexuality.

Brown said of the Emergent Church — which is much more accepting of homosexual identity, uses the controversial term “gay Christian,” and generally scolds Christians for actively condemning homosexuality and the “gay” political/cultural agenda: “Their cure is worse than the sickness …. [they] have shown more solidarity with [homosexual] people than with God.”

“How are we helping anyone when we make the clear unclear … the unambiguous ambiguous? … How is that love?” Brown asked, calling on Christians to share the full truth of the Gospel in love. After first noting that Christians need to repent for neglecting to lovingly share God’s salvation plan with people caught up in homosexuality, Brown warned against believers falling into a “soulish sympathy” for homosexuals that overrides Biblical truth and their Christian conscience. [AFTAH will be offering a DVD of Brown’s talk; write americansfortruth@comcast.net for more information.]

This is an important column by Scott Lively (left), and a crucial subject for the Church — especially in this era in which confusion about biblical truth is rampant. I’m to the point where I change the radio station out of principle (and aggravation) whenever I hear a wispy male Christian song that sounds like a femmy, religious version of the Bee Gees. Certainly, Christian men should be more jazzed about fighting for Truth in the Culture War than they are about succeeding in business and watching sports. — Peter LaBarbera, www.americansfortruth.org
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Lively writes:

Masculine Christianity

By Scott Lively, DefendTheFamily.com Alert

Scripture teaches in Genesis that when God created man in His image, He created us male and female. The implication is that God’s character spans the full spectrum of masculine and feminine qualities. This attribute is also revealed in the person of Jesus, born as a male, but manifesting both masculinity and femininity in His actions. When exhibiting feminine qualities, Jesus was more nurturing and relationship-oriented than any woman. When exhibiting masculinity, Jesus was more forceful and results-oriented than any man.

Americans For Truth is pleased and honored to welcome Dr. Michael Brown (left) — a world renown Christian apologist and dynamic pro-family defender of Biblical truth on homosexuality — at its monthly dinner-lecturer tomorrow — Thursday, September 17, at 6:00-9:00 PM — at our office at 25W560 Geneva Rd., in Carol Stream, IL. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to learn from a world renown Christian apologist (author of 20 books) and dedicated pro-family advocate who shatters all the stereotypes about Christians opposing the “gay” agenda. You will be blessed by this man of God who has such a strong heart for proclaiming both the truth about homosexual activism and the love of Christ that sets all men and women — including homosexuals — free.

RSVP to aftahangela@gmail.com (847-722-5330) or and you can get additional information by calling 630-717-7631 or e-mailing americansfortruth@comcast.net. I hope to see some of you tomorrow evening!  — Peter LaBarbera, www.americansfortruth.org

Here are the event details:

WHO:  Dr. Michael Brown,  director of the Charlotte, NC -based Coalition of Conscience and president of FIRE School of Ministry in Concord, North Carolina. Dr. Brown, who holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University, is the world’s foremost Messianic Jewish apologist. (Messianic Jews are Jews who believe in Jesus Christ (who was Jewish!) as their Messiah.) Brown is the author of 20 books and in 2010 will publish “A Queer Thing Happened to America,” which exposes the extremist teachings of “queer theology.”

WHAT:  AFTAH’s monthly dinner-lecture: Dr. Brown will be preaching on how faithful Christians are called to both RESIST the radical homosexual activist agenda and REACH OUT in grace and love with the Gospel of Jesus Christ to men and woman practicing homosexuality.

WHEN:  Thursday, Sept. 17, 6:00-9:00 PM.  Casual dinner begins at 6:00, followed by Dr. Brown’s talk from 7:00-9:00.  There will be a time for Q&A after a mid-talk break for refreshments.  A free will donation will be taken to cover the cost of the event. This event will be videotaped and a tape will be offered by AFTAH for purchase.

WHERE:  AFTAH’s office at 25W560 Geneva Rd., in Carol Stream, IL.  We are located on Geneva Rd., just west of Gary Rd.; (Carol Stream is next door to Wheaton in Chicago’s western suburbs.)  Look for the “Kingsland” sign out front and park in the rear.

Read the rest of this article »

By Laurie Higgins, reprinted with permision of Illinois Family Institute
 
Take ACTION: Contact your U.S. Representative (202-225-3121; www.congress.org) and urge him or her to oppose H.R. 2262 — “The Safe Schools Improvement Act.” Despite its innocuous-sounding title, this bill would actually promote the acceptance of homosexuality and gender confusion in schools.

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“Homosexualists see nothing wrong in compelling other people’s children to be exposed to implicit and explicit theories on the nature and morality of homosexuality because they believe their theories are facts.” — Laurie Higgins
 

H.R. 2262, “The Safe Schools Improvement Act,” was introduced in May, and in June it was referred to the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education. This bill would “amend the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act to include bullying and harassment prevention programs.” Anyone who has been paying attention knows that anti-bullying/safe schools curricula are now the central means by which pro-homosexual propaganda is secreted into public schools.

Milk-ing the Schools to Indoctrinate Kids: Almost by definition, students celebrating Harvey Milk Day in California will get the politically correct, Hollywood version of his life — e.g., that he was assassinated by a “murderous homophobe” (not true: Ray Sloan — the campaign manager and confidant of Milk’s killer, Dan White — was openly homosexual, and testified that White “supported nearly all of Milk’s gay-friendly resolutions,” according to a liberal San Francisco paper). Milk — who supported cult mass-murderer Jim Jones — is hardly an appropriate role model for children (see Dan Flynn’s City Journal article, “Drinking Harvey Milk’s Kool-Aid”). The Democrat-led push for a day honoring this homosexual activist of dubious character is only the most audacious example of pro-homosexuality liberals using the schools to indoctrination children. 

Folks, we have been slow to comment on all the Harvey Milk hype in our liberal-dominated popular culture — hype that is driving this push for an outrageous California bill that would effectively force students to celebrate a man famous for … being the first “out and proud” practitioner of homosexuality to win public office. (Oh boy: another marker for America’s Moral Meltdown.) The more one reads about Milk (see Dan Flynn’s excellent City Journal piece HERE) and the real story about his murder at the hands of Dan White (see caption above), the more preposterous becomes the idea of heralding him as a “civil rights” martyr.

Reverse Discrimination? How’s this for a timely story for Labor Day — highlighting the current reality that Christians and traditionalists who oppose homosexuality are more likely to be fired or disciplined for their beliefs than homosexuals are for “being gay.” TAKE ACTION: Call your Congressman and Senators next week (202-224-2131; 202-225-3121; www.congress.org) and urge them to oppose ENDA — the Employment Nondiscrimination Act — which would federalize “sexual orientation” law and greatly expand government power to promote the “gay” agenda. ENDA would become a tool for the Left to use the state to force Christian and moral-minded business owners to promote and subsidize homosexuality and transsexuality against their will.

FoxNews online reports:

Soap Actress Says She Was Fired Because of Religious Beliefs

Friday , September 04, 2009
By Lauren Green

If you tuned in to the soap “One Life to Live” this week, you may have noticed there’s been a change of character. One character in particular.

Actress Patricia Mauceri says she was fired and abruptly replaced for objecting to a gay storyline because of her religious beliefs.

Mauceri played the recurring role of Carlotta Vega on “OLTL” for the last 14 years. But when she objected to how the writers wanted her deeply religious character, a Latina mother, to handle a storyline involving homosexuality, she objected. And for that she claims she was fired.

Mauceri, 59, a devout Christian, told FOX News that character Vega’s gay-friendly dialogue was not in line with the character she helped create by drawing on her own faith.

“I did not object to being in a gay storyline. I objected to speaking the truth of what that person, how that person would live and breathe and act in that storyline,” she said. “And this goes against everything I am, my belief system, and what I know the character’s belief system is aligned to.”