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TAKE ACTION: You can write to talk show host Glenn Beck at me@glennbeck.com or contact him through his program’s website HERE.
EDUCATE YOURSELF: Read the awful Proposition 8 decision by homosexual Judge Vaughn Walker HERE, and read about how New Mexico Christian photographer Elaine Huguenin was victimized by lesbian activists HERE.
Below is a YouTube of Glenn Beck’s recent appearance on FOX News’ Bill O’Reilly’s show — in the wake of a judge striking down Prop 8 in California as unconstitutional. Beck dismissed homosexual “marriage” as not being a serious national threat to America [our response to Beck follows the video and the jump]:
Here are some reasons why Glenn Beck is not just wrong — but has it completely backwards regarding the escalating threat that homosexual activism, culminating in court-imposed “gay marriage,” poses to America’s children and our First Amendment liberties:
1) Just as reported homosexual Judge Vaughn Walker overruled the expressed will of California voters (twice expressed) against “same-sex marriage,” federalized homosexual “marriage” would override the documented will of the people in the 31 states that have already voted — some by huge margins — to preserve marriage in the law as what it is: between one man and one woman.
Throckmorton asserts that proclamations of truth constitute a “considerable offense” [against people practicing homosexuality]. Someone should ask him if he thinks Paul’s “vilification” of homosexuality constitutes a “considerable offense.” — Laurie Higgins
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By Laurie Higgins, for Americans For Truth
Grove City College professor Warren Throckmorton has written a self-serving and exploitative analysis of Letter # 7 in C.S. Lewis’ classic The Screwtape Letters, which Throckmorton correctly sees as a warning to Christians not to allow cultural issues to supplant the central message of the Gospel.
The problem is that Throckmorton uses Lewis’ prescient warning to chastise only those Christians who work tirelessly to counter the spate of lies spewed by the culture on the topic of homosexuality, lies which even our public schools have been recruited to disseminate.
Throckmorton writes as follows:
Screwtape encourages his apprentice to foster devotion to a cause. This then takes him further away from the real encounter with God and the faith relationship. Indeed, if Wormwood’s human “patient” can put movements and organizations and crusading ahead of all else then he is of no real threat to Screwtape.
I think this passage provides caution to those who believe fighting the culture war is Christian ministry. When fighting the culture war becomes more important than a witness to the gospel, then the mischief really begins. Specifically, in the past several years, I have seen people who are so concerned with the “gay agenda” that they overlook cult involvement in people because they are “ex-gay.” Some here in the US who are willing to tolerate the very unChristian stance of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill because, in Lou Engle’s words, ”Uganda has become ground zero” in the fight against the gay agenda.…
Some might argue that I am just as guilty because of my advocacy against the Uganda bill. And I would not take that criticism lightly. My view is that freedom of conscience is necessary for the Church to have the greatest impact. Advocacy for that position is important business but it is not the main business. I doubt that such advocacy will lead anyone away from the redemptive business of the church. On the other hand, my great concern is that culture warring lulls people into feeling that that the cause justifies the considerable offense that comes with vilifying those the church yearns to reach.
Homosexual activists are using the schools to indoctrinate very young children in the idea that homosexuality "is just one more kind of love," to quote from the homosexual picture book, "Daddy's Roommate." Many Christians still are unaware of how aggressively pro-homosexual "change agents" are pushing their unbiblical agenda in schools.
The follow public prayer was offered by AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera’s yesterday on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. It was part of the national repentance event, “May Day: A Cry to God for a Nation in Distress,” organized by Faith2Action’s Janet Porter:
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Dear Heavenly Father,
Forgive our nation for our sexual sin. Forgive us for our excessive “tolerance” as a nation – and, as individuals, for the creeping sins, sexual and otherwise, that we have “tolerated” in our own lives. Father, forgive us for not hating sin like you hate sin. And forgive us for confusing merciful love for homosexuals with ungodly acceptance of homosexual behavior itself.
Indeed, it is a long, secular road that America has traveled from “abomination” to “gay.” Forgive us for caring more about the prideful words of men than the eternal Word of God. But Father, forgive us most of all for doing so little to protect the next generations of young people from a sexual sin movement known – deceptively – as “Gay.”
The Lord Jesus Himself warned us against putting the eternal destinies of children in danger. Yet that is what we have allowed to happen on our watch in this, the most blessed nation on earth. We barely put up resistance as the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Networkset up pro-homosexual student clubs – first in our high schools, next in our middle schools – and one day (God forbid) they will try to set up these homosexual booster clubs in our elementary schools.
“When you look back from a pro-life perspective, what were the gains there?” he asked, noting President Ronald Reagan’s judicial choices. A generation later, “we see a bit of fatigue. We don’t see the results for the energy, the money, everything else that’s been poured into the political sphere,” said [Focus on the Family CEO Jim] Daly … “We as a Christian community need to refocus a bit on what’s important in the culture. For us, it’s family. That’s our mission.”
Yet it’s clear Daly, who has met with gay activists, sees diminishing returns in continuing the culture wars.
“I’m not fearful that change will happen in America. It will happen. … I don’t know what will happen with same-sex marriage, but I’m not going to be discouraged if we lose some of those battles,” he said, noting that for “98 percent” of people, traditional marriage will remain relevant.
“It’s going to be difficult in this culture and the way the demographics are going right now,” he went on. “You look at the under-35 age group. I think it’s splitting 60-40 support for same-sex marriage. There’s a lot of people in the U.S. [who] basically come to the conclusion that this is something between two adults. I will continue to defend traditional marriage, but I’m not going to demean human beings for the process.” — Excerpted from AOL News online article about Jim Daly, Focus on the Family’s new CEO; “Dobson’s Successor Gives Mega-Ministry New Focus.”
Daly’s softness on public policy must be understood in the context of the ongoing evangelical retreat in the Culture War (typified by the book UnChristian). Many Christians are more concerned with the Church’s “image” than they are with confronting lies in the culture and standing against secular threats like “Gay” and Abortion Lobbies. They claim that Culture War activism hinders the Gospel. But I have found that there are certain questions that “Soft” Evangelicals are hard-pressed to answer:
“How can a Christian even in the service of mental or psychological consonance be open to a client assuming a same-sex identity when this therapist knows that consonance comes at the cost of his or her client’s eternal life?” — Laurie Higgins
Mark Yarhouse, Professor of Psychology, Regent University
Folks, it’s a heckuva long road from “abomination” (Leviticus 18:22) to “gay” (no Scriptural citation possible). Note the critical difference between acknowledging in a free society that people have the free will to make bad choices (i.e., embrace sin) — and respecting the sinful choices of such individuals as a “valued identity.” Laurie Higgins is right: Mark Yarhouse’s (and Warren Throckmorton’s) “Sexual Identity Therapy” puts Christian professionals in the dangerous position of doing the latter. Here is Yarhouse’s defense of SIT, “Understanding Sexual Identity Therapy.” And here is his and Throckmorton’s paper, “Sexual Identity Therapy: Practicing Guidelines for Managing Sexual Identity Conflicts.”
The following is excerpted from WorldNewsDaily.com. We’ve already noted Focus on the Family’s illogical and unprincipled position on judges and homosexuality [see pro-family veteran Gary Glenn’s assessment HERE]. How ironic would it be if the ministry launched by the so widely respected James Dobson — which is now taking its biblical worldview “Truth Project” into hundreds of thousands of churches nationwide — were to suddenly lose its zeal for defending Truth against the Forces of Evil in the Culture War?! If the new, “kinder gentler” Focus translates into one that will present less of an obstacle to the wicked pro-abortion and pro-homosexuality movements, then Pastor Hutcherson is right about the direction of this ministry. It just seems implausible that after all its work to date, Focus will be able to retreat in any meaningful way from the Culture War.
We also suspect that Focus may be feeling the pull of George Barna’s polling research denigrating “religious right” activism (e.g., Barna Group President David Kinnaman’s and Gabe Lyon’s influential yet painfully shallow book UnChristian) and the appeasing liberal Christian “Emergents” — both of which appeal to younger generations of Christians who eschew the polarizing “culture war.” In that regard, Focus has a choice: does it follow the worldly culture trends driven by these new generations — who, although they probably are loathe to admit it, are indoctrinated in politically correct, “gay”-tolerant attitudes? Or does it recommit itself to educating these youth and standing boldly for timeless truths no matter where the culture is headed? (We realize there are many Christians who advocate quitting the cultural war against social evils, but they never have a good answer to this question: what about the hugely funded and powerful Homosexual, Abortion and Porn Lobbies that never quit; do we simply abandon America’s cultural/political landscape to them in a free society?)
I think Dr. Dobson would have opted for the latter, tougher course. That’s why he — like Hutcherson — is a target for hateful “queer” activists like Wayne Besen. Jim Daly may be less hated than Dobson, but that does not mean he will be more effective as a soldier in God’s Army. — Peter LaBarbera, www.AmericansForTruth.org
TAKE ACTION: Contact Grove City College (President Richard Jewell: 724-458-2500; rgjewell@gcc.edu) and ask them if GCC professor Warren Throckmorton’s unorthodox views on homosexuality represent “authentically Christian” teachings on this issue. (GCC advertises itself as a solid, “authentically Christian” institution.) Request a written response as to whether Throckmorton’s writings on and approach toward homosexuality honor Grove City’s Christian charter “rejecting relativism and secularism.” Please share the response you receive with us at americansfortruth@comcast.net.
A broad coalition of pro-family groups recommends that parents keep their children home on the deceptive, pro-homosexual “Day of Silence,” to be observed this year on April 16, 2010, but one “gay”-affirming counselor started what he calls the “Golden Rule Pledge” instead.
Yet, the “Golden Rule Pledge” actually functions as a disinformation tool and a divisive wedge in schools and among Christians. It is insidiously misleading and would bring harm to kids. It grieves me to take this position, but there’s no choice, because lives are at stake.
Dr. Warren Throckmorton (pictured above), a self-labeled “christian” counselor at Grove City College [contact GCC HERE], has indicated on a radio show he does not object to homosexuality when a person feels comfort with the lifestyle. My concern is that he may be communicating this to youth and college students whom he counsels, because his “Golden Rule” project takes a stand tolerant of this destructive and sinful behavior by encouraging student “respect.”
Update: since the publication of this piece in 2009, Randy Thomas has strayed back into homosexuality (while still claiming, against the entire counsel of Scripture, that he remains a faithful Christian. His former boss, Alan Chambers, has presided over the implosion of Exodus International as a Christian “ex-gay” ministry–through the embrace of of a heresy labeled “Hyper-Grace” by our friend Dr. Michael Brown, who wrote a book about it. In 2015, Chambers ridiculously opined that God is “cool” with homosexual “marriage.” AFTAH now (highly) recommends Restored Hope Network, an umbrella group of ex-“gay” ministries that includes many former Exodus members. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH, Dec. 2, 2016
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By Peter LaBarbera
Folks, a few days ago we ran a story about CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference)allowing a homosexual activist group to be a co-sponsor, in which I quoted my friend (and AFTAH Board Member) Matt Barber offered a colorful description of homosexual sodomy. It was appropriately dismissive toward this “detestable” act (Leviticus 18:22) once known as a “crime against nature,” Matt’s point was obvious: no true “conservative” can support or celebrate homosexual perversion or the LGBT agenda, in any way.
Well, thanks to the politically correct overreaction of Randy Thomas and Alan Chambers of Exodus International (an ex-“gay” umbrella group), Liberty Counsel (Barber’s current employer) issued an apologetic statement that was not fully accurate in that it left out a key fact: Matt’s ownership of the bold sodomy description. This could create the impression that Barber might not have made the comment, which he did.
Today Matt issued his own clarification (emphasis added):
“This is for clarification only. As affirmed in Liberty Counsel’s statement, neither I nor anyone with Liberty Counsel ever publicly ‘wrote or made’ the comment in question – an unapologetically direct and accurate depiction of the sin of sodomy (a sin that God directly and accurately calls both an ‘abomination’ and ‘detestable’). Some years before I began working with Liberty Counsel, I made the comment in private conversation with Peter LaBarbera. At the time, Peter asked if he could ‘quote me on it’ and I said yes.
