Here’s how FOXNews.com lead with its story on the Dallas Cecil Sinclair story (emphasis added). The story ends up including a fair representation of the church’s viewpoint, but the headline and lead paragraphs unfairly make the church look cruel and petty. The true story is that the church could not abide a memorial service that would glamorize the homosexual lifestyle. Here’s the headline and beginning of the FOX story, which unfortunately is all many busy people wil read:

Texas Megachurch Cancels Memorial for Gay Navy Vet
Saturday, August 11, 2007

ARLINGTON, Texas —  A megachurch canceled a memorial service for a Navy veteran 24 hours before it was to start because the deceased was gay.

Officials at the nondenominational High Point Church knew that Cecil Howard Sinclair was gay when they offered to host his service, said his sister, Kathleen Wright. But after his obituary listed his life partner as one of his survivors, she said, it was called off.

“It’s a slap in the face. It’s like, ‘Oh, we’re sorry he died, but he’s gay so we can’t help you,'” she said Friday….

Click HERE for the rest of the FOXNews.com story on the Cecil Sinclair controversy

If you think the homosexual activist movement and liberal media are going to lay off churches and religious groups as they promote legal rights based on homosexual sexual behavior and gender confusion (“transgender rights”), read this terrific piece by Paul Edwards.

By all indications, High Point Church in Arlington, Texas, had the right balance of love/compassion and Biblical truth, but it didn’t matter: the pro-homosexuality crowd and “mainstream” media still went after them. (Even FoxNews.com misled readers with its headline for the story.) Here is the church’s official statement on the Cecil Sinclair affair.

TAKE ACTION by CLICKING HERE to send the church a supportive e-mail and by sharing this story with your family, friends, pastor, priest or religious authority to educate them on the threat that pro-“gay” activism poses to people of faith and our freedoms.– Peter LaBarbera

__________________________

From radio talk show host Paul Edwards’ “God and Culture” blog:

The Gay Vet Memorial Flap: It’s the Lifestyle, Stupid!

By Paul Edwards

Posted August 14, 2007

The Main Stream Media wants you to believe that a conservative evangelical church deep in the Bible belt has refused to bury a Gulf War veteran because he was gay. Some in the Christian media want you to believe that the church hasn’t shown the love of Jesus to a dead man’s family. Neither is anywhere near the truth.

Here are the facts. High Point Church, a non-denominational church in Arlington, Texas, had been praying for Cecil Sinclair after Cecil’s brother, Lee (the only member of the Sinclair family who was a member of the church) requested prayer for his brother who had been awaiting a heart transplant. When Cecil Sinclair’s health became critical last week, the family called a staff member from the church to be with them at the hospital. In the hospital, in the moments immediately following Mr. Sinclair’s death, the family asked the staff member if the church would be open to holding a memorial service for their loved one. The staff member assured them the church would be available to help the family in any way appropriate, a response any pastor would give in that situation.

Cecil Sinclair was not a member of High Point Church, yet this church selflessly and sacrificially ministered to his family in the wake of his death, preparing and delivering food for the family and one hundred relatives and friends, along with many other expressions of kindness. The church offered to produce a video retrospective of Mr. Sinclair’s life for use during the memorial service. When the family provided the pictures to the church it was then that the church learned of their intention to make the memorial service a celebration of Cecil Sinclair’s gay lifestyle. One of the photos provided by the family “showed a man with his hand touching another man’s genitalia,” along with other inappropriate photos, according to a statement on the High Point Church website.

“If you hear of a brand or sect of Lutherans who are embracing wickedness and evil, look for the ELCA label.” — Mike Hein 

By Mike Hein, Christian Civic League of Maine

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America’s (ELCA) recent affirmation of its acceptance of homosexuality in its clergy is beyond unfortunate.  It’s beyond wrong. 

It is apostasy, pure and simple.  And it isn’t appreciated by this Bible-believing Lutheran.

I am a member of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), and a former member of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS).  As such, I can state with certainty that what the ELCA has been doing for years now, and what it continues to do, is not in the tradition of Martin Luther, the great Christian Reformer.

ELCA members are not in fellowship with the Missouri Synod or Wisconsin Synod Lutherans, and ELCA members are not recognized as Lutherans by either of these two more conservative, Bible-based denominations.  Nor are we in fellowship with Druids, Wiccans, New Age spiritualists, or any other non-Christian belief.  In reality, ELCA members are seen as little more than pagan deists by true Lutherans.

Statement by High Point Church in Dallas, Texas

Mr. Cecil Sinclair was not a member of High Point Church. Neither was anyone in his family except for the deceased’s brother, Lee Sinclair who is an employee of the church.

Lee recently requested the church to pray for his brother who was ill. The church prayed for Mr. Sinclair both enthusiastically and faithfully.

Lee called an employee of the church to inform him that his brother was in the hospital in critical condition. When the High Point Church employee arrived at the hospital, Mr. Sinclair had already passed. The church employee reached out to the family and tried to comfort them the best he could. The church did offer the family, free of charge, the use of its facility for the memorial service. It was not clear at this time that the family desired a memorial service that would openly celebrate the homosexual lifestyle of Mr. Sinclair.

The family requested that the church produce a video of Mr. Sinclair’s life for the memorial service. When the photos were presented to the church the day before the scheduled memorial service, there were some inappropriate images that alerted the church to the homosexuality of Mr. Sinclair. One photo showed a man with his hand touching another man’s genitalia. The phrase “like hugs and kisses” used by a staff member to describe to the pastor the blatant homosexual reference was mild at best.

The family desired an associate of an openly homosexual choir to officiate the service and for the choir to sing. They also desired an open microphone format to allow anyone in attendance to speak. High Point Church ministers would not be directing or have control over what was said or emphasized. It became clear to the church staff that the family was requesting an openly homosexual service at High Point Church – which is not our policy to allow.

The decision was made to retract the offer to host the memorial service based on the fact that the service requested would be an openly homosexual service celebrating the homosexual lifestyle. It is important to emphasize that this was not a funeral service with a body to be buried, but a memorial service. The family was informed of the decision.

The decision had nothing to do with the fact that Mr. Sinclair was a veteran. High Point does now, and has always, supported our men and women in the military. This decision was not based on hate, or discrimination, but upon principle and policy.

Chicago’s CBS affiliate joins other local media by fielding a float in the city’s annual “gay pride” parade.  It’s up to us to tell the truth about homosexuality as a sin that can be overcome — since the media and political liberals have decided to celebrate it, casting aside God’s Word. 

“Perhaps there is no sin which so deeply shows the depravity of man as this; none which would so much induce one ‘to hang his head, and blush to think himself a man.'” — Nineteenth-Century Christian Commentator Albert Barnes describing the “shameful sin of Sodom,” as condemned by the Apostle Paul in the Book of Romans.

By Peter LaBarbera 

Tonight, America witnesses the sad spectacle of the major Democratic presidential candidates gathering for a “debate” built around the acceptance of homosexuality. The “debate” is being sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the world’s leading homosexual pressure group, and HRC’s President, Joe Solmonese, will serve as one of the questioners. Needless to say, there will be no open critics of the homosexual activist agenda asking questions to balance Solmonese’s pro-“gay” queries.

The mere occurrence of this “debate”/panderfest has significance well beyond the realm of politics. The “pride” and arrogance of homosexual activists is swelling in direct proportion to their growing power in American culture. Who could have imagined this scenario in U.S. politics even a decade ago? Just remember: God is never mocked.

Fact is, a large swath of the American nation is fleeing God, Who, if you believe the Bible, is quite clear in His condemnation of all homosexual behavior as sin. (That hasn’t stopped liberal Lutherans affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Having already won the ordination of “gay”-identified clergy, the ELCA’s pro-“gay” wing pushed this week to build upon that heresy by fighting for the “right” of said clergy to be involved in “committed same-sex relationships.”) 

Memo to Christians tempted to backpeddle on moral issues: the ELCA’s treacherous debacle is further proof that the liberal, activist wing of ‘christianity’ cannot be appeased. It is man-centered, sin-tolerant, Bible-denying and always on the offensive; if you concede one point to this errant movement, it will only demand further concessions. Ditto for the aggressive homosexual lobby’s modus operandi in all aspects of culture. So it’s best not to give in one inch.

Man knows best? 

The sum and substance of the modern liberal, “gay”-affirming argument on homosexuality is that man thinks he knows better than God. Nothing new there — haughtiness and disobedience toward God fills the Bible’s pages.  But let’s not kid ourselves that America’s trendy embrace (tolerance) of homosexuality and, lately, gender confusion, is not a serious sign of our moral and spiritual decline as a nation.

“The sins which he proceeds to specify are the most indelicate, vile, and degrading which can be charged on man….Perhaps there is no sin which so deeply shows the depravity of man as this; none which would so much induce one ‘to hang his head, and blush to think himself a man.'”— Nineteenth-Century Christian Commentator Albert Barnes describing the “shameful sin of Sodom,” as condemned by the Apostle Paul in the Book of Romans. 

Below we look at the writings of Albert Barnes (1798-1870), a popular Presbyterian minister and Bible commentator who crusaded against slavery and lived to see it outlawed in the United States. Over a million volumes of Barnes’ commentaries on New Testament books were sold by 1870.

Note Barnes’s clear explication of the Biblical text against homosexual behavior (the modern notion of an innocuous homosexual “sexual orientation” hadn’t been invented yet).

Also, note Barnes’ discussion of the ancient phenomenon of homosexual pederasty in Greece and Rome.  Gee, it looks like NAMBLA (the North American Man/Boy Love Association), which marched in the early “gay pride” parades — a right which  “gay” American “founding father” and icon Harry Hay fought to defend — isn’t such an historical aberration after all? 

Ask yourself: what is the justification for discarding the historic Christian view laid out by Barnes against what the King James Bible calls the “vile affection” of sodomy? If there is none — i.e., no serious indictment to be made against Biblical truth in this area, as the leading Bible-and-homosexuality scholar Rob Gagnon asserts — then we need to get back to the basics on homosexuality. 

Thanks to the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, you can view Barnes’ entire commentary on Romans 1 online HERE, but below are some excerpts from Romans 1:26-28. Here are some passages from Albert Barnes’ commentary on Romans 1: 

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;  (Romans 1:26-28)

Knows decision unpopular but says he must abide by Bible

By WorldNetDaily.com, August 6, 2007

Motivated by Christian beliefs, a Canadian mayor refused to fly a rainbow “gay pride” flag at his town hall.

The decision by Bill Mills was backed by the town council of Truro, Nova Scotia, with a 6-1 vote Friday, reported the Canadian television network CTV.

“There are writings in the book of Romans chapter one, to name a few – basically I have to go with that conviction, and I know it’s not a popular one,” said Mills, who leads a town of about 12,000 people.

Mills contended he had a right to his opinion, but a local homosexual activist group called the decision a sign of homophobia in a government that should be secular.

Click HERE to read the rest of the article in WorldNetDaily

I’d encourage readers to check out Linda Harvey’s newly improved website for “gay school” issues, www.truthatschool.org. My good friend Linda is a national treasure for doing her best to alert the nation to the problem of dangerous ideologies (including the advocacy of homosexual, bisexual and transsexual lifestyles) being foisted on impressionable children. For that, of course, she has been vilified by homosexual activists who love to talk tolerance while they hate Bible-defending Christians with a vengeance. Linda’s main website at Mission America is www.missionamerica.com.