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.

So why won’t the government move to close down “gay” sex clubs and teach about the special dangers of homosexual sex in schools? 

Close down the gay sex clubs? Homosexual sex is dangerous — the CDC says “gay” and “bi” men are 50 times more likely than other groups to have HIV. And yet homosexual sex clubs flourish across the country. At left is Steamworks, a Chicago homosexual bathhouse where men go for anonymous sex with other men. This is a photo taken at the 2005 “Market Days” street fair, at which Steamworks advertises itself like any other business. Why doesn’t the government move to close down such perversion centers as public health hazards, given the overwhelming evidence of the dangers of male homosexual sex? 

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So much for gay “equality.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — the U.S. government agency tasked with guarding Americans’ health — has finally put a number on the massively increased HIV risk associated with “men who have sex with men” (MSM): “gay” and “bi” men are 50 times more likely to have HIV. This does not mean that the Obama administration, like the Bush administration before it, will take some tough, politically incorrect steps necessary to prevent AIDS — like closing down homosexual bathhouses and gay (male) sex clubs in major cities, and educating teenagers on the hugely disproportionate health risks associated with homosexual sex. The relentless pandering by federal, state and local governments to “gay” activists even as these same agencies fight diseases specifically linked to homosexual sex is one of the greatest public policy follies of our time — indeed, of history itself.

The issue in this ongoing “culture war” is not the cause of homosexual “orientation” — or merely the legality of “same-sex marriage.” It’s homosexual behavior itself — and whether government should promote it or discourage it, or be neutral. I say discourage it, since the evidence keeps pouring in that conduct which has been proscribed as immoral down through centuries of Judeo-Christian tradition is also highly dangerous. Now if the CDC will only stop blabbering on about “homophobia” and start telling the truth — that the rectum is not a sexual organ, after all, and that we must take tough measures against “gay” promiscuity — America will become a healthier place. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.com

The following is excerpted from the homosexual newspaper Washington Blade:

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Gay, Bi Men 50 Times More Likely to Have HIV

CDC reports hard data at National HIV Prevention Conference

By DYANA BAGBY, Washington Blade
Aug. 28, 2009

ATLANTA — Gay and bisexual men account for half of new HIV infections in the U.S. and have AIDS at a rate more than 50 times greater than other groups, according to Centers for Disease Control & Prevention data presented at the National HIV Prevention Conference this week in Atlanta.

Dr. Amy Lansky of the CDC presented research at the Aug. 24 plenary in which the CDC estimated in the U.S. there were 692.2 new HIV cases in 2007 per 100,000 men who have sex with men.

The loony left gets loonier: AFTAH in the news

Liberals love shaking their tiny fists at God, but some day they’ll have to face Him. We wonder what’s coming next from the creative leftists at Ben & Jerry’s — pending, of course, Vermont’s further slide into moral chaos:

Lime Against Nature
Bisexual Butter Pecan
Strawberry for Swingers
Man-Boy Munch ‘n Crunch
Catamite Carmel
Two Moms Macadamia
Rumpy Road
Polyamory Peach
Neapolitan Nancy-Boy
Fabulous Fudge Nut
Transgender Twirl
Berry Berry Promiscuous
Chunky Chickenhawk
Apple Adultery Delight

Oh, the possibilities are about as varied as the colors of the rainbow! American Family Association’s One News Now reports:

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An Ice Cream Company Is Celebrating Homosexual “Marriage” in Vermont

By Charlie Butts – OneNewsNow – 9/1/2009
Same-gender marriage is now legal in The Green Mountain State, and Ben & Jerry’s has announced that it will temporarily change its “Chubby Hubby” ice cream to “Hubby Hubby” in honor of homosexual marriage. Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality tells OneNewsNow that companies like Ben & Jerry’s neglect to talk about the dangers of the lifestyle.

“We simply want to send a message that it might be easier to discriminate against a small Christian group, but it’s no less acceptable … We don’t want corporate America to continue in its belief that it’s OK to discriminate against unpopular points of view.”
— Americans For Truth attorney Jason Craddock

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“For those who support the hotel in this, imagine that the tables were turned. Suppose it was a homosexual group that had been turned down by the hotel because of ‘negative publicity.’ Would you still support the hotel’s right to discriminate in this fashion? Sauce for the goose…”

— Comment by “Springer” posted at Daily Herald article (reprinted below), “Anti-gay group sues Naperville hotel, alleges discrimination”

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Anti-Christian Discrimination OK? Imagine the hue and cry that would have erupted had the Holiday Inn Select hotel (left) in Naperville, Ill., canceled a “gay” organization’s scheduled banquet after its leader told the hotel that some Christians might protest the event.

Dear AFTAH Readers,

Below are two local articles on AFTAH’s just-filed lawsuit against a Naperville, IL Holiday Inn hotel for canceling our banquet two years ago out of fear of “gay” protests.

We hope you can make it to this year’s AFTAH banquet on Sat., Oct. 24 at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, IL — featuring culture warrior and former professional heavyweight boxer Matt Barber, who was fired by Allstate Insurance Co., after writing an article against homosexual “marriage” on his own time. Tickets are $50 each. A table of 10 is $500. More information here: http://americansfortruth.com/news/matt-barber-to-keynote-aftah-banquet.html; book your seat now at www.americansfortruth.com/donate.

Also, don’t forget our the dinner-lecture at our Carol Stream office Thursday, Sept. 17 featuring Michael Brown, who is going to talk about how to walk that fine line of reaching out to homosexuals with the Gospel of Christ while resisting the radical “gay” political/cultural agenda. I am really looking forward to this talk. Click HERE for more info. RSVP to aftahangela@gmail.com or americansfortruth@comcast.net. (Donations will be accepted at the event to cover costs.)

Lastly, AFTAH has now crossed the half-way mark in our goal of matching a generous donor’s $20,000 grant. Please help us go all the way with your tax-deductible donation to AFTAH at www.americansfortruth.com/donate or by mailing your gift to: Americans For Truth, P.O. Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522.  Thank you!