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Freedom in the Balance: Will the Government of the United States of America force people of faith like Jack Phillips to use their talents and privately-owned business to honor and serve “marriages” based on immoral homosexual behavior? Click to enlarge. Photo: Alliance Defending Freedom.
Folks, here is a neat video on the Jack Phillips Supreme Court case by Elizabeth Johnston, the “Activist Mommy” despised by the Left because she is an effective and fearless Christian, conservative truth-teller. It strikes me as un-American that our simple freedom as citizens of this nation, founded on religious liberty, to associate with whomever we want and publicly live by our moral and spiritual beliefs now hangs by the thread of the whims of a few Supreme Court Justices.
All eyes are on Justice Anthony Kennedy, who, though appointed by Ronald Reagan, has earned hero status on the pro-LGBTQ Left for his consistent, pro-homosexual record on the Court. Where will Kennedy, who authored the God- and Constitution-defying 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision imposing counterfeit “same-sex marriage” on all 50 states, come down on Phillips’ conscience-based refusal to participate through his cake shop in the celebration of disordered homosexual “weddings”? [Read the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s superb dissent on ObergefellHERE.]
Social conservatives warned that legalizing so-called “same-sex marriage” would result in escalating State and cultural oppression against religious people and institutions–ironically, in the name of “civil rights,” “diversity,” and “equality.” Now that is happening with horrific consequences for principled Christians like Phillips and Barronelle Stutzman. The media- and Democratic Party-enabled “Gay” Revolution has advanced to the point where it is now working to effectively criminalize faithful Christians and other moral dissenters by preposterously comparing them to racist bigots and treating them accordingly.
The leading legal crusader for homosexual “marriage,” Evan Wolfson, said, “I’m not in this just to change the law. It’s about changing society.” Indeed. Now the question is: are we going to let the pro-LGBTQ Lobby and the Government destroy our First Amendment liberties in the service of a godless, radical egalitarian agenda that regards the public expression of biblical faithfulness as just one more component of “anti-gay discrimination”? We’ll see, but to say that a lot rides on this case would be an understatement. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera
Changed Life: Stephen Black of First Stone Ministries and Restored Hope Network once lived his life as a “gay” man [see his powerful video testimony HERE]. Now he helps others leave the homosexual lifestyle. Stephen will give four presentations on understanding homosexuality and reaching out to those trapped in sexual sin and gender confusion—in the love and truth of Jesus Christ. Full banquet details HERE. Sign up for just $25 for both days HERE.
Dear AFTAH Supporters,
Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) is holding its annual banquet this Friday, Oct. 20, followed by a “Teach-in” Saturday, Oct. 21. There will be a total of four presentations by our keynote speaker, my friend Stephen Black, a godly Christian man who came out of homosexuality and now helps others do the same. [See his powerful video testimony HERE.] We also have an “all-star” Q-&A panel Saturday featuring: Denise Shick, whose father told her he wanted to be a “woman” when she was a young girl; stellar writer Laurie Higgins of Illinois Family Institute; and AFA-Pennsylvania pro-family warrior Diane Gramley.
This Teach-in is ideal for anyone with loved ones trapped in homosexual and/or transgender lifestyles. Like all our events, it will be highly educational and spiritually uplifting—loaded with information that you can put to use in your life and relationships. It is only $25 for both days and will be held at Grace for Life Bible Church in Naperville, Illinois, Oct. 20-21. Full details are HERE.
WHEN: Banquet with casual dinner (catered by Portillo’s) is Friday, Oct. 20, 6:00-9:30 PM. Doors open at 5:30 PM Friday, and 8:30 AM Saturday. Teach-in seminars led by Stephen is Saturday, Oct 21, 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. A casual lunch will be served Sat., and the Q&A panel begins at 1:30 Sat.
WHERE:Grace For Life Bible Church, Naperville, Illinois (west of Chicago), 7S201 S. River Rd., Naperville, IL. [at the corner of River Rd. and Aurora Ave.; entrance is on River Rd. across the street from “Safety Town” and the Naperville PD.]
COST: Just $25/person to attend either or both events. Table of 10 at banquet for $250. Separate gift offerings will be taken both Friday and Saturday. Mail check to: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522 — or pay online HERE
RSVP and AFTAH contact info: americansfortruth@gmail.com, or call 312-324-3787.
AFTAH Reboot
This year’s banquet is a little different from past ones in that it launches what is essentially AFTAH’s “reboot” as an organization. For the last year, I have been writing full-time for LifeSiteNews.com, an excellent pro-family news site for which I will continue to write blog articles. But my Americans For Truth work in the last year has been limited mainly to doing dozens of interviews on conservative and Christian media relating to LGBTQ issues [see HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE]. Moral-minded conservatives are big fans of AFTAH because we are direct and honest in speaking the truth about homosexual-bisexual-transgender activism, in the love and grace of Christ.
Beginning at the Friday banquet [casual dinner catered by Portillo’s], I will again be devoting my full energies to AFTAH, which I formed more than two decades ago (an offshoot of my “Lambda Report”) and has always been my first love when it comes to opposing Big Gay and its cheerleading media enablers. (We veterans of the fight against the LGBTQueer lobby could tell Donald Trump a few things about “fake news.”)
Our website will return to doing that for which AFTAH is known (and which drives LGBT militants and the Left crazy): telling the hard truths about homosexuality and “transgenderism” that so many others—even people on our side—are often unwilling to tell. Yes, that includes publishing disturbing (albeit boxed-out) photos of unsavory “gay” events that remind us why, for centuries, homosexuality has been regarded as deeply immoral and an unnatural perversion.
America Corrupts the World: Even under Trump, the American Embassy in Kingston, Jamaica flies the LGBTQ-activist “rainbow flag” under Old Glory. But Jamaicans know that immoral “gay-” and “transgender” “rights” inherently destroy real freedoms. Photo: Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society, June 2017.
Folks, the following column was published Sunday in the Jamaica Gleaner. It is written by Shirley Richards, a wise Christian advocate for genuine rights and moral truth whom I had the privilege of meeting in Jamaica when I spoke there in 2013. Below Richards ably explains the difference between genuine rights based on a moral philosophy, rooted in timeless Judeo-Christian truth–and counterfeit “gay/transgender rights,” which “compete with, and undermine, fundamental human rights and freedoms.”
Smart Jamaicans–and peoples all over the world–are trying to learn from the USA’s and the West’s failed experiment of creating sodomy-based “rights,” which became the foundation for the modern Western abomination of “same-sex marriage.” Meanwhile, the United States and other decadent Western nations–and leftist organizations like the George Soros-funded Human Rights Watch–are pressuring Jamaica and many other nations to join our illicit “rights” revolution.
At right is a current photo of the American Embassy in Kingston, flying the LGBT “rainbow flag” (as it did under Obama)–thereby telegraphing to this small nation that, even under Trump, we will use our immense political and economic power to “persuade” them to embrace a system of newfangled legal “rights” that inherently destroys liberty. Let’s hope we don’t prevail, and that Donald Trump gets America out of the business of exporting the immoral, anti-Christian LGBT “rights” revolution. — @Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth; see my LifeSiteNews articles here.
___________________
Majority view on gay rights must have sway
By Shirley Richards
Published in Jamaica Gleaner, June 11, 2017
In an article written by Dr. Carolyn Gomes published [in the Jamaica Gleaner] on Sunday, May 28, 2017, she stated, in relation to the development of the [Jamaican] Charter of Rights: “The Parliament, however, appears to be timid. It has not acted on the recommendation to ensure that all citizens are protected from discrimination on the basis of disability, health status, if they speak Patois, have a mental illness, or are different in sexual orientation and gender identity.”
These were recommendations made by various interest groups. They were debated by the joint select committee of Parliament on the Charter of Rights (Constitutional Amendment) Bill and decisions were made to accept or reject accordingly.
The Parliament had then, and still does have, a responsibility to allow for citizens to make submissions, but there was, and still is, the corresponding responsibility to sift submissions and to decide which ones are in the best interests of the country. Parliament must examine all the relevant studies and data. They must also have an understanding of the impact of these decisions on the country both now and in time to come and be satisfied that such decisions are in fact for the good of the country.
In determining what is in the “best interests” of the country, they cannot afford to disregard the voice of the people. Specifically, the members of the House of Representatives are there to represent the people, not to foist their own viewpoints on the people, a point Justice Minister Delroy Chuck, as a member of said House, may do well to remember. As the late [First Premier of Jamaica] Norman Manley, QC, said on the occasion of the passage of the 1962 [Jamaican] Constitution:
“As a politician, sir, I would be the first person to acclaim every instance in which the public succeeds in having their way … for we, sir, are their servants and are here to execute their will.”
Non-discrimination
As it relates to the issue of “sexual orientation”, the joint select committee (1999-2001) debated the request by the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays to protect ‘sexual orientation’ as grounds for non-discrimination. The committee expressly decided not to protect this term. The committee was concerned about the impact of such a term on the institution of marriage and on parenting.
On April 1, I spoke at a Texas Mass Resistance conference in Austin that was put on by my good friend Brian Camenker, founder of national Mass Resistance, and Texas MR leader Robert Oscar Lopez–both brilliant pro-family strategists. Here is my presentation, dealing with the Human Wrongs Rights Campaign’s (HRC)’s ongoing pressure campaign to get major corporations to promote the radical LGBTQ agenda. Most Americans haven’t a clue about how successful HRC’s pro-perversion “CEI” (Corporate Equality Index) campaign has been. It even has an explicit anti-family component that punishes a corporation with negative points if it supports, say, a pro-national-marriage ministry. You can watch the other speeches at this excellent event on the main MR site. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera
Under Obama, homosexual activist groups like Equality Florida used the White House Easter Egg Roll to promote homosexuality-based “marriage.”
By Peter LaBarbera
Most people think of the annual White House Easter Egg Roll as a special event for children, but under the Obama presidency, it took on a dual, political purpose as another excuse to promote sexually aberrant “LGBT” lifestyles and “gay parenting.”
That is apparently not happening this year at the Easter Egg Roll under President Trump, and some LGBTQ activists are hoping that’s only because the Trump administration is just getting started. The Egg Roll will be held today (Easter Monday) on the White House lawn, and is expected to draw 20,000 people, according to the New York Times, in an article about how behind the Trump team is in pulling it together.
The Washington Blade, a D.C. newspaper for homosexuals, reported April 12 that, “Because of the event’s emphasis on family, the [White House] Easter Egg Roll in years past has served as a vehicle to promote LGBT families and their children at times when relationship recognition was threatened by efforts to ban same-sex marriage or progressing as litigation seeking marriage equality proceeded through the courts.”
Folks, it looks like the case of Barronelle Stutzman–the Christian florist who was sued by two “marrying” homosexual men and the Washington State Attorney General because she would not create a floral arrangement for their “wedding”–is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
On Feb. 16, the Washington State Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Stutzman of a lower court decision and ruled that “the government can force her—and, by extension, other Washingtonians—to create artistic expression and participate in events with which they disagree,” according to Alliance Defending Freedom, which is handling Stutzman’s defense (see more info below video). [Read the court’s decision HERE.]
Below is a background video on Barronelle’s case created by ADF. You will note from this 2016 court filing that ADF et al are defending Stutzman on “artistic freedom” grounds. We at AFTAH are not attorneys but we do know this: in a free society, anyone–Christian florist, Muslim cake-maker or atheist wedding chair-supplier–should have the liberty not to use their business to celebrate homosexuality-based “marriage,” which we, as Christians, regard as sin on steroids.
We hope that this kind, brave and faithful woman prevails at the Supreme Court. If she doesn’t, you can stop singing that America is the “land of the free.” — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH [more background after jump and video]
President Trump is keeping in place a special international LGBT “envoy” established by Obama who is charged with promoting the acceptance of homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism abroad in the name of U.S. foreign policy.
The reinstatement of Randy Berryas Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons is another defeat for pro-family advocates who were counting on Trump to remove homosexual activists from the foreign affairs bureaucracy.
Berry is a career foreign service officer who speaks Spanish and Arabic. He was given the “LGBT Envoy” position of in 2015, to the applause of LGBT activists. Berry is also a homosexual and “gay” activist himself dedicated to seeing other nations adopt an immoral, modern Western legal system that grants “rights,” including marriage, based homosexuality and gender deviance.
Strike Three
This is Strike Three for Trump in terms of major pro-homosexual actions after his election:
He said in an interview as President-elect that SCOTUS’ homosexual “marriage” ruling, Obergefell, is “settled” law (it’s not, any more than Roe v. Wade is, or the pro-sodomy-law Bowers v. Hardwick decision was);
He now continues Obama’s pro-LGBTQ foreign policy promoting unnatural behaviors and sexual sin as “human rights.”
On the plus side, Trump has discontinued Obama’s policy of pushing transgender bathroom and locker room “rights” in public schools (allowing gender-confused boys in girls’ private spaces). And he nominated a conservative judge, Neil Gorsuch, to the U.S. Supreme Court, although we have no idea how Gorsuch would rule on LGBTQ issues, assuming he gets in.
Those Days Are Gone….for LGBTQ activists. Although Trump has already made some key capitulations to the LGBTQueer agenda, he has also disappointed homosexual and gender-confusion activist in major ways. Obama’s immoral LGBTQ legacy is astonishing and much of it will be hard to undo. This Newsweek cover accompanied an adoring 2012 piece on Obama by homosexual writer Andrew Sullivan.
Think of it as payback for Obama refusing to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) after “bullsh–ting” the American people on “gay marriage” in his 2008 run for president (to quote his top aide). Remember how Obama conned voters into thinking he was a pious believer in marriage as one man, one woman? (Mr. Rainbow Halo will have to answer to God for that some day, and much more.)
Now a note to AFTAH’s readers and supporters: if you haven’t figured it out yet, here is our approach toward President Trump and the LGBTQueer agenda: “Don’t really trust, and verify.” When he does right, like in NOT pushing gender confusion in schools, we will praise him. When he advances the “gay/trans” agenda, through action or non-action, we will criticize him.
I say this as a Cruz guy in the primaries who voted for Trump Nov. 8, and who would do so again: it is my longstanding conviction that God doesn’t give a pass to “Republican-backed” Sin Movements. Morality and biblical Truth know no party. So all you diehard, Trump-can-do-no-wrong fans: don’t bother urging us to go easy on Trump or look the other way when he enables homo-immorality, because we simply cannot–especially after hammering pro-sin Democrats all these years.
Here’s a “Washington Watch” piece with some good background on the Obama transgender order by Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council. Following that is the reaction to AG Jeff Sessions’ action by the Human Wrongs Rights Campaign (HRC), the world’s largest and most powerful homosexual-bisexual-transgender lobby group. God bless. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera
If you thought President Trump hit the ground running, you should see Jeff Sessions. The new attorney general was probably still unpacking his office when he got to work turning the page at the Justice Department after eight years of scandal. First up? The Obama bathroom mandate for public schools.
Less than 48 hours after his confirmation, Sessions’s DOJ made it clear the agency was under new management by refusing to defend the controversial order to let students of both sexes use any locker room, shower, or restroom they want. Since last May when President Obama shocked the country with his decree, the issue has been working its way through the courts — thanks to a huge pushback from states like Texas. By summer’s end, a federal judge agreed with parents: the Obama administration had overstepped its boundaries. In a huge win for the Constitution and common sense, Reed O’Connor blocked the rule from taking effect, at least temporarily. Frustrated, the Obama attorneys asked the court to lift its ban in every state except the 13 who sued the government over it. O’Connor refused, insisting:
“It is clear from Supreme Court and Fifth Circuit precedent that this Court has the power to issue a nationwide injunction where appropriate. Both Title IX and Title VII rely on the consistent, uniform application of national standards in education and workplace policy. A nationwide injunction is necessary because the alleged violation extends nationwide,” he wrote. “Should the Court only limit the injunction to the plaintiff states who are a party to this cause of action, the Court risks a ‘substantial likelihood that a geographically-limited injunction would be ineffective.”
