“There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

Hark! the herald angels sing,

Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) has declared that passage of the LGBTQ “Equality Act”–essentially adding homosexuality and transgenderism as the bases for new federal “civil rights”–a top priority in 2019.

Click HERE to listen to today’s interview between Jim Schneider of VCY America’s “Crosstalk” and AFTAH president Peter LaBarbera. The program description is below. Read Prof. Robert Gagnon’s article on the evangelical groups’ compromise in support of federal LGBTQ rights HERE.

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Evangelical Groups Adopt LGBT Compromise

Posted: 18 Dec 2018 02:58 PM PST

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones. –Psalm 116:15

Brian Sean Fitzpatrick, 1960-2018.

The following is adapted from email conversations between my good friend and former AFTAH adviser Brian Fitzpatrick and his fiancée, Trinka Jeffery. The night of December 4, 2018, Brian passed away suddenly, at 58, to be with his Savior, Jesus. On a personal note, Brian was my best friend a really terrific guy who loved and served God. I am sad that we will no longer be able to talk, hang out and laugh together here on earth, but I know he is in a much better place. And I am grateful for what God did in his life. Minor edits, additions and web links have been made for the sake of clarity and to provide additional resources. I will see you again one day, my friend!  – Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH.org; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera

Note: There is a memorial service for Brian on Saturday, Jan. 5th at the Philippine International Bible Church in Laytonsville, MD. Reception: 3:00 pm; service 3:30.
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Introductory note:

I’m Trinka Jeffery, Brian Fitzpatrick’s fiancée.  

Brian had a story that he would want you to know. Much of our courtship was in writing, and I’ve compiled his story, using his own words.

Please … will you enjoy a last little visit with Brian, with me?

I asked Brian how he came to know God the Father and his Son personally, and this is what he told me:

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From Atheist Scoffer to Christian Believer: The Testimony of Brian Fitzpatrick

As shared with Trinka Jeffery, August 13, 2017…

By Brian Fitzpatrick

I was not someone who would easily convert. It happened on a singles retreat, which I went to mostly because they were going to play softball. I brought a bat along in case somebody tried to baptize me in a river.

I grew up in a Catholic family, but at age 12 we studied Greek mythology in school, and it occurred to me that the Greeks believed in their gods just as I believed in Jesus and Mary, but both couldn’t be true.

My catechism teachers had no answers. So I decided to become an atheist. (OK … maybe partially so I wouldn’t have to get up on Sunday mornings.)

My parents weren’t pleased, and we fought over it for three years. At 14, I was required to be confirmed. I chose the confirmation name Thomas (for doubts), but this was forbidden because “it would kill your grandfather.” So I was confirmed as Michael because I thought the spelling was cool.

At age 20 or so, I read some philosophy and logic and learned that you can’t prove a negative, therefore you can’t prove God does not exist, therefore my atheism was irrational. So I became an extremely skeptical agnostic.

The first time somebody witnessed to me, it was a man from Campus Crusade [for Christ, later renamed Cru] during my freshman year in college. I was a rather bitter atheist, full of disdain for these hicks and very confident in what I didn’t know. I didn’t even let them in my dorm room. I stepped into the hallway and verbally fenced for 45 minutes or so: “How do you know this is true” and so forth.  Eventually they left and I went down the hall to the opposite stairway and ran ahead of them to the room of two fellow iconoclasts. “The God Squad is on the way!”

Brian Fitzpatrick (1960-2018)

Folks, I tweeted this Dec. 5:

Yesterday [Dec. 4] my best friend, Brian Fitzpatrick, passed away suddenly. He was a great man. Though weak physically, he had a tremendous heart for God, and lived for Him. I will miss him, but am comforted knowing that he is now in the glorious presence of his Savior, Jesus Christ.

In addition to being like a brother to me, Brian was a big part of Americans For Truth. He was a strong influence on AFTAH becoming more biblically and morality-focused in our approach to the LGBTQ “culture war.”  (He would say, and I’m paraphrasing: “The less the Bible is mentioned in the public square, the less relevant it becomes to Americans and the larger culture.”)

The photo at right is of Brian speaking at our rally June 26, 2018 in front of the Supreme Court marking the third anniversary of the devastating, God-dishonoring Obergefell v. Hodges ruling on that effectively imposed homosexuality-based “marriage” on the nation. Brian leaves behind his parents and family, and fiancée, Trinka. They were to be married in May. I’ll have more on Brian’s life in an upcoming piece. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; Twitter; @PeterLaBarbera

This interview by LifeSiteNews founder and publisher Steve Jalsevac with conservative Catholic apologist Peter Kreeft is excellent. Kreeft concisely summarizes the weakness of modern American Christianity in the face of two much bolder foes: the LGBTQueer movement and fundamentalist Islam. Watch the full nine minutes: [to sign up for LSN’s superb daily pro-life/pro-family news email, go HERE]. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera

The full LifeSiteNews story on the Kreeft interview can be found HERE.

Social media giant cites “safety” concerns and being “respectful,” but by not respecting and tolerating Christian conservatives’ views, is Facebook guilty of ‘hate’ and bigotry?

Facebook ‘hates’ conservatives (or at least their ideas): This is the notice AFTAH received Sunday from Facebook. Jason Salamone is an administrator of the AFTAH FB page. We are appealing the decision. Facebook has “unpublished” AFTAH’s or Americans For Truth President Peter LaBarbera’s pages on previous occasions. 

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AFTAH in the News:

Read about it on LifeSiteNews: [click HERE]
Read about it on WND: [click HERE]

Fight Leftist Censorship; donate securely to AFTAH online: [Click HERE], or mail a gift to: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522

Folks, leftist social media censorship is accelerating, because “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Lord Acton). On Sunday, [Nov. 18, 2018,] Facebook took down–“unpublished”–AFTAH’s (Americans for Truth About Homosexuality) Facebook page, saying we violated their “hate” standard. We are appealing the decision but unlike Twitter, Facebook does not even let the groups they banish make a case for why the ban is wrong and should be reversed. This ban is beyond Orwellian: Facebook provides no specific examples of *how* our AFTAH posts violated their alleged “hate” standard, but you can see what sort of posts “triggered” these progressive-techie snowflakes HERE, or below.

I tweeted this:

From Twitter: [Sunday] the cowardly yet proficient anti-conservatives at Facebook took down (“unpublished”) our AFTAH (Americans For Truth) FB page, citing violations of their spurious “hate” standards. We are appealing. Look for a piece on this in WND…

Of course, the “hate” charge is spurious and ultimately effectively precludes all MORAL opponents of homosexuality from using Facebook. AFTAH, a Christian educational organization, has from its inception condemned real hatred and violence against homosexuals (or anyone). We have long denounced groups like Westboro Baptist Church with its preposterous “God Hates Fags” message. Please help us spread the word on this cowardly social media censorship of ideas that run counter to “progressive” sacred cows. Thanks. — Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera

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Here is an example of an Americans For Truth post that Facebook deemed “hateful”; see full story HERE:

Queer Role Models for Kids? A self-styled “drag queen” (this is a man) holds a copy of “Princess Boy,” a “children’s” picture book promoting gender confusion about a boy who “likes to wear his princess tiara,” etc. This introduction from the opening page of the “Drag Queen Story Hour” website reads: “Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH) is just what it sounds like–drag queens reading stories to children in libraries, schools, and bookstores. DQSH captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models. In spaces like this, kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restriction and imagine a world where people can present as they wish, where dress up is real.”

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Folks, one of the dirtiest secrets of the homosexual-bisexual-transgender (aka “gay”) activist movement is that it has been sexualizing and corrupting children, in some form or another, from the beginning. Back when homosexualist power was a tiny sliver of what it is today, LGB(T) activists tried to hide that element of their agenda. But now that they dominate society at the elite level, with zero accountability from the media, their contempt for the innocence of even very young children is “out of the closet.”

For the “T” lobby these unconscionable Story Hours are a “three-fer”: they get to mock real women, indoctrinate innocent, impressionable children, and mainstream “queer” deviance all at the same time! But the main motivation, it seems, is for pro-LGBTQueer parents (especially homosexuals themselves) to transmit their decadent values to their children. Thus “gay parenting” serves as a catalyst for the wider corruption of kids in the culture. My friend Gina Miller ably tackles this disturbing new brand of perversion-promotion below. — Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera

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Standing Against ‘Drag Queen Story Hour’

By Gina Miller, first published Sept. 14, 2018

Last Saturday, I was part of a protest against a “Drag Queen Story Hour” being held at a public library in Mobile, Alabama. These events, which are happening in libraries and public schools all across the nation, are one of the newer weapons in the homofascist arsenal, and they target little children from three to eight years old.

The events are grotesque spectacles of men dressed garishly as “women” reading “children’s” books (that include feminist, homosexual and “transgender” themed stories) to little ones
whose parents foolishly choose to bring them. A December 2016 column by a writer for the DailyWire reports that the “Drag Queen Story Hours” were spawned by homosexual and feminist groups in New York and San Francisco, in response to Donald Trump’s election in 2016.

“I will never give up on God’s truth.” — Peter Huizenga

Peter Huizenga, 1939-2018

By Peter LaBarbera

Peter Huizenga, one of the finest men I have ever met (or will meet), passed away last month (May 2) and is now with his Savior, Jesus.

Peter was an amazing man, and I simply was not prepared to hear the news that he would no longer be with us.  I don’t handle death very well, especially since my mother passed away suddenly 12 years ago from leukemia without us even being able to talk.  So I’ve been ruminating on what I would like to write about Peter, but here is a start.

I have such tremendous respect for Peter Huizenga, from whom I learned so much.  Mostly I learned COURAGE.  Because after getting to know Peter over the years as an Illinois pro-family activist, I came to assume and trust that Peter would always be on the side of aggressively defending Truth.  In a world gone mad, that was very reassuring.

I loved Peter Huizenga, and he loved Americans For Truth.  He and his lovely wife of 50 years, Heidi, faithfully and generously supported us over the years.  Peter embodied the wholesome, industrious, God-honoring roots of his Dutch ancestry. His grandfather, Harm Huizenga, immigrated to the United States from The Netherlands in 1893 at age 23 and settled in Chicago.  Entering the garbage business along with other Dutchmen, his entrepreneurial spirit and hard work laid the groundwork for the Waste Management, Inc. empire that spans the world today.

Peter was a man possessing straightforward, no-nonsense moral clarity and convictions of the sort that are sorely lacking in today’s America—especially in the business community in which he and his family thrived.  In an age in which corporate execs finance “gay” groups and events willy-nilly so they can check off the pro-LGBTQ box to score “diversity” points, Peter never flinched from helping those fighting this destructive, anti-Christian social revolution.  What a rarity in the business world–which itself speaks volumes about why America is in such desperate spiritual and moral straits.

Another thing about Peter is that he actually cared.  He never stopped working to push Illinois’ notoriously dysfunctional GOP in a more conservative direction, a thankless task if there ever was one. Peter had a brilliant mind and he was a good strategist, but most importantly he never wavered from his conviction that the organized homosexuality (“gay”) movement was against God.  In that sense, we were kindred spirits.  He liked how AFTAH fought the LGBTQ agenda directly and non-defensively, bereft of politically correct pretending that somehow the battle is not about homosexuality.  It is.

At the last AFTAH banquet that Peter attended, two years ago at John Kirkwood’s Grace Gospel Fellowship church in Bensenville, IL, we spoke afterward outside the church.  I thanked him for so faithfully standing with AFTAH, and with me.  Then he said matter-of-factly, “I will never give up on God’s Truth.”  I’m not quite capturing the specialness of the moment, but it was vintage Peter Huizenga.  In a world of sellouts, he wouldn’t even consider such treachery to his God.  That’s how I want to be, and I hope that’s how you want to be.  I’m getting chills just recalling that conversation in the dark of night, and it will forever live in my memory.

Why is it that more Christian men do not love biblical truth enough to live it out like Peter did, and see it as their duty to stand with God, even when the going gets tough in a culture spiraling downward?  I suppose it’s because we sinners are comfortable and weak, and usually we care more about what others think as opposed to what the Lord says clearly in His Word. we

My friend Jim Finnegan, a pro-life stalwart and another of those old-timers who never had to be persuaded to fight a movement that glorifies sexual perversion as a “civil right,” had this to say about Peter Huizenga:

“A good and holy man. I had last seen him here in Naples [Florida] for a fund-raiser for [conservative Illinois gubernatorial candidate] Jeannie Ives against “Rotten Rauner” [Illinois’ socially liberal Republican governor, Bruce Rauner]. A huge loss for the pro-life, pro-marriage, pro-freedom of speech movement, and more. This one hurts.”

A huge loss, indeed, but now he has triumphed in passing on to paradise with Jesus.  Peter, I will miss you.  I wish I had a chance to say good-bye, but we will meet again.  My condolences to Heidi, their four children, and the extended Huizenga family, whose existence is another lasting legacy of this very good man who touched the lives of so many others.

“Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.”

(1 Corinthians 16:13-14, NASB)