Family restaurant puts executive on board of homosexual chamber

By Bob Unruh
© 2008 WorldNetDaily, March 30, 2008

Full story at www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=60168

Following the link from the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce’s website leads to a promotional for children’s Happy Meals at the McDonalds website

McDonald’s restaurant’s, famed for the Golden Arches, Ronald McDonald and kids meals, has signed onto a nationwide effort to promote “gay” and “lesbian” business ventures.

The company, which is listed on the website of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce as a “corporate partner and organization ally” for an undisclosed financial contribution, also recently placed one of its executives on the NGLCC board of directors.

Earlier this month, the chamber confirmed that Richard Ellis, vice president of communications of McDonald’s USA, was elected to the special interest chamber board.

“We could not be more delighted with the addition of Richard to the Board,” said NGLCC co-founder Justin Nelson. “Richard brings his extensive experience in communications and public affairs to a dynamic team of leaders.”

Said Ellis: “I’m thrilled to join the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce team and ready to get to work. I share the NGLCC’s passion for business growth and development within the LGBT community and I look forward to playing a role in moving these important initiatives forward.”

Click HERE for the entire WND story, “McDonald’s Sign on to ‘Gay’ Agenda”

Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern (R) issued the following statement today regarding a 30-minute meeting she had yesterday with representatives from the pro-homosexual group PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). Kern said PFLAG’s account of the meeting — which has been spread around on homosexual websites — misrepresented her statements and intent:

As a state representative who is always willing to meet with any and all of my constituents on any issue with an open and sincere dialog, it is apparent from the statement released by PFLAG that their “open dialog” was for the purpose of politicizing the conversation to their benefit.

While I did meet with PFLAG in what was a cordial and polite meeting, they have taken my statements and have spun them to make it appear that I am backing off my comments that homosexuality is a sin. As a Christian who believes in the authority of God’s Word, I will never retract my comments that homosexuality is a sin.

PFLAG has also spun my words to say that I am in favor of “sexual orientation” laws. I unequivocally do not support “sexual orientation” laws. While I do not advocate employers going on a witch hunt to fire homosexual employees who are performing their jobs in a manner just like any heterosexual employee, I do not support laws that would force employers to check their First Amendment rights to freedom of religion, speech, and association at the workplace door.

Since PFLAG has shown their lack of integrity by misinterpreting my statements from our meeting to fit their agenda — thus revealing their purpose of open dialog to be just a means of seeking to weaken my position and strengthen theirs — I see no benefit in having future meetings with them.

God’s Word does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever [Hebrews 13:8]. His Word expresses His moral character. Therefore, my opinion also will not change.

State Rep. Sally Kern
Oklahoma House of Representatives
Oklahoma City, OK
March 28, 2008

Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s leading homosexual pressure group, says the federal ban on accepting blood donations from “men who have sex with men” is “discriminatory.”

By J. Matt Barber

Modern science sometimes serves to validate timeless Biblical truths (not that objective truth needs validating). Romans 6:23 contains two such truths. It provides flip sides to a priceless coin, offering us both a blunt warning and an enduring promise: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Far too often we toss this coin, gambling heads-or-tails with our own best interests. We all sin, but because Christ willingly paid the penalty — suffering death on the cross in our stead — we are redeemed. We need only believe in Him and the gift of eternal life is ours. We can confess our sins, repent (which includes making every effort not to repeat those sins) and move on.

The following was published by American Family Association founder and chairman Donald Wildmon. Congratulations to AFA for holding Ford accountable through determined grassroots action. Ford executives’ willingness to alienate millions upon millions of pro-family consumers to pander to a tiny, vocal homosexual minority was a marketing mishap from the beginning:

Don Wildmon writes:

I have some good news for you! AFA is suspending its two year boycott of Ford Motor Company. The conditions of the original agreement presented in fall 2005 have been met. We reached the conclusion that Ford had met the conditions of the agreement based on monitoring for several months. Individuals are free to purchase Ford vehicles again.

Your support of the boycott played a key role in convincing Ford to cease its significant support of the homosexual agenda. During the 24 months the boycott was in effect, Ford sales dropped an average of 8% per month. The boycott was not entirely responsible for the drop in sales, but it played a very significant role.

A total of 780,365 individuals signed AFA’s Boycott Ford petition.

The original agreement contained four items:

• Ford would not renew current promotions or create future incentives that give cash donations to homosexual organizations based on the purchase of a vehicle.
• Ford would not make corporate donations to homosexual organizations that, as part of their activities, engage in political or social campaigns to promote civil unions or same-sex “marriage.”
• Ford would stop giving cash and vehicle donations or endorsements to homosexual social activities such as Gay Pride parades.
• Ford would cease all advertising on homosexual Web sites and through homosexual media outlets (magazines, television, radio) in the U.S. with the exception of $100,000 to be used by Volvo. The Volvo ads would be the same ads used in the general media and not aimed at the homosexual community specifically.

A few minor issues remain, and we will continue to bring these to the attention of Ford. But basically Ford has met the terms of the agreement. We are therefore suspending the boycott.
Thank you for caring enough to get involved. If you feel our efforts are worthy of support, would you consider making a small tax-deductible contribution? Click here to make a donation [to AFA].

Sincerely,

Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman American Family Association

DiversityInc magazine co-founder Luke Visconti (lvisconti@diversityinc.com) showed his own (modern) bigotry and disrespect for people of faith by comparing Americans For Truth president Peter LaBarbera to a 19th Century Christian slavery advocate because LaBarbera opposes homosexuality and pro-homosexual corporate policies. The strongly pro-“gay” DiversityInc disinvited the AFTAH founder to a “Religion in the Workplace” panel discussion after pro-homosexual panelists threatened to boycott the discussion if LaBarbera was allowed to participate.

By Peter LaBarbera

Dear Christian or morality advocate who opposes homosexuality:

Did you know that in the eyes of some liberal, pro-homosexual advocates, you are the moral equivalent of the KKK? Actually, this is nothing new: radical “gay” activists have been making this absurd and hateful analogy for years. This is why I tell religious people all the time: disabuse yourself of the idea that homosexual activists and their liberal fellow travelers “respect” your faith or your right to live it out in the public square. They don’t; they despise your Bible-centered morality, and are quite willing to demonize you for it.

Increasingly, the liberals’ contempt for Christians and religious traditionalists is “out of the closet,” even as they continue with their hollow pleas for ‘tolerance’ and ‘diversity.’

I sent the following note to DiversityInc Executive Editor Barbara Frankel, in response to a column by Luke Visconti, co-founder of DiversityInc, explaining why they were justified in disinviting me to their “Religion in the Workplace” panel discussion. Essentially Visconti’s argument is this: “There is no need to balance human rights,” especially since I [and by extension, other pro-family leaders opposed to homosexuality] am the moral equivalent of slavery advocates.

Frankel and DiversityInc did allow me a full-page column to express my disappointment with their decision to drop Americans For Truth from their panel (see below), to which Visconti was responding.

Visconti’s column cites a 19th Century pastor who used the Bible to justify slavery, and claimed that I am his modern-day equivalent. He also cites the Ku Klux, fascism and other evil or misguided causes which were defended by Christian leaders. (We apologize but the DiversityInc site is having problems so we are not able to provide excerpts of his column at this time.)

In response to my incredulous question to Ms. Frankel — “As an opponent of homosexuality, I am the moral equivalent of a slavery advocate?” — Visconti wrote me:

To answer your question: Yes.

There’s one point on which I agree with you: The discussion should have been in person. I appreciate you taking the offer of writing the column.

Here is my note to Frankel:

Barbara, so that’s it?… As an opponent of homosexuality, I am the moral equivalent of a slavery advocate? I shudder at the arrogance — and insulting bigotry — of your “white guy” founder, Luke Visconti [Visconti has a column in his magazine called, “Ask the White Guy”]. I suppose my African-American friends who agree with me on marriage and sexuality issues are also to be compared with slavery advocates?

Americans For Truth received the following two e-mails via our website after our recent posts mentioning Matt Barber’s firing by Allstate in 2005. Note the crude, concocted e-mail address in the first hate message, which we redacted below (AFTAH regularly gets emails from cowardly, “insult-and-run” activists who block the reply to their message):

From: Illinois Resident [mailto:wouldntyouliketoknow@[f–k]you.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 9:40 PM
To: americansfortruth@comcast.net
Subject: [AFT Web Site] Bigots

 

I read through your hate speech filled website and saw that some bigot was fired for gay bashing. GOOD! Let this send a message!

________________________

—–Original Message—–
From: Non scrivetemi [mailto:nonscrivetemi@pboxmix.winstonsmith.info]
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 10:41 PM
To: americansfortruth@comcast.net; peterlabarbera@comcast.net
Subject: Matt Barber DESERVED to be FIRED by ALLSTATE INSURANCE

 

Allstate is a reputable company, Matt Barber is an IDIOT.
Peter please quit distorting the Truth!

 Today’s corporate employees are more likely to be fired or punished for OPPOSING homosexuality than for “being gay.” In 2005, Matt Barber was fired by Allstate in 2005 after writing a column opposing homosexuality. A staffer at Human Rights Campaign, the powerful homosexual group now crusading for the federal ‘ENDA Our Freedom’ bill, “reported” Barber’s column to an Allstate staffer, leading to Barber’s firing. Call Congress today at 202-224-3121, or go to www.congress.org, to urge your Representative to oppose ENDA, HR 3685.

NOTE TO READERS: Proposed amendments to H.R. 3685, the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) approved by the Rules Committee for a vote on the House floor — probably tomorrow — do little to address the bill’s core problem: it tramples on the rights of Christian and moral-minded businessmen by creating new federal employment rights based on aberrant sex (or at least the inclination toward homosexuality/bisexuality). AFTAH released the following media advisory today:

Americans For Truth
http://www.americansfortruth.org/

November 6, 2007

Contact: Peter LaBarbera: 630-717-7631

Americans For Truth Says ENDA, H.R. 3685, Would Lead to Religious Persecution

Christian Newswire. NAPERVILLE, Illinois — Americans For Truth President Peter LaBarbera today urged Christian, Muslim and other moral-minded Americans to “wake up to the tremendous threat that the ‘ENDA Our Freedom’ Bill, H.R. 3685 (Employment Nondiscrimination Act), poses to their religious and First Amendment freedoms.” H.R. 3685 could be debated on the House floor today. [It now appears the vote will be Wednesday, Nov. 7.]

See Americans For Truth’s paper, “14 Good Reasons to Oppose HR 3685, the ‘ENDA Our Freedom’ Bill.”  Call Congress at 202-224-3121 or go to www.congress.org.

“In an era when homosexuals are being hired – not fired – for “being gay” — and when Christians are already being punished or fired by corporations like Allstate for opposing homosexuality, ENDA would lead to further harassment of faith-motivated employees by creating federal ‘rights’ based on homosexuality and bisexuality,” LaBarbera said.

He offered this example as to how ENDA would codify discrimination: “Take an orthodox Jewish entrepreneur who owns a large day care center. He can now factor in his morality about homosexuality as a sin. (He rejects the idea of innate, innocuous “sexual orientation.”) Under ENDA, if his company were to grow to 15 or more employees, he would lose his right to consider his own religious and moral beliefs in hiring/firing decisions. A bisexual with good credentials who does not get hired might sue him for “discrimination.” (If he’s an outspoken pro-marriage advocate, he might be targeted for a “gay” lawsuit.) The government’s politically correct view of homosexuality could force this man, and hundreds of thousands like him, to violate their conscience. It’s Big Government with an amoral twist and, incidentally, a homosexual activist lawyer’s dream.”

To understand the inherent conflict between “gay rights” and religious freedom, LaBarbera pointed to lesbian Georgetown professor Chai Feldblum’s 2005 Beckett Fund presentation, “Moral Conflict and Liberty: Gay Rights and Religion.” Unlike most homosexual activists, Feldblum at least recognizes that religious citizens have a valid moral claim in opposing homosexuality, yet she asserts that homosexuals also have a “moral” claim for their “civil rights” (including same-sex “marriage”). She calls the conflict between those two claims a “zero-sum” game.

“Feldblum says her ‘morality’ outweighs that of traditionalists. I would strongly disagree, seeing that this nation was founded by people seeking religious freedom. ENDA would take away Christians’ and others’ right to stand up for Biblical morality and live by the dictates of their own moral conscience,” LaBarbera said. 

 Eastman Kodak Company now gives preferential treatment to homosexual-owned “minority” subcontractors, and proudly gives funds to the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network. (GLSEN sponsored the notorious “Fistgate” workshop in 2000 and promotes homosexuality- and transsexuality-affirming lessons for grade schoolers.) Would Kodak be emboldened under an ENDA law to restrict “anti-gay” discussions or speech among its employees?

Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Professor Rob Gagnon, author of The Bible and Homosexual Practice, examines the potential assaults on liberty if the ENDA bill (Employment Nondiscrimination Act, H.R. 3685) becomes law. Gagnon’s paper, “Don’t ENDAnger Your Liberties in the Workplace,” is a must read, as it delves into the potential reactions (and over-reactions) of corporation managers to a federal law that bans “discrimination” based on homosexuality (“sexual orientation”). Check out these scenarios offered by Gagnon:

• Suppose in the lunchroom or at the water cooler you engage in a conversation about sexual ethics. If a fellow employee extols homosexual bonds and you express your moral reservations about such bonds, you or the company could be liable for an anti-discrimination lawsuit for creating an intimidating atmosphere in the workplace that adversely affects the standing of a person who is vocal about his or her homosexual activity.
• Let’s say that, in response to “diversity” posters, you post on your cubicle the text of Rom 1:24-27. Or in response to a corporate directive that you participate supportively in a “Coming Out Day” you respectfully decline because you find homosexual practice to be morally offensive. Or in an attempt to get exempted from the email list of the company’s “GLBT” organization (gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender) you send an email requesting to be removed from the list because you think homosexual practice is immoral. In all these circumstances, you are far more likely to be disciplined or fired, and to have no legal redress, with an “ENDA” in place than without it.
• As a means of protecting the company against “discrimination” lawsuits, your employer may require you to attend indoctrination seminars that stress that homosexuality is as morally neutral as race or sex; and, moreover, to participate in “coming out” celebrations in the workplace that affirm “sexual diversity.” Your employer may further prohibit, under penalty of termination, any conversation, written communication, or act that calls homosexual practice into question.
• While homosexual and bisexual persons will have their jobs protected under this act, your job status and advancement will have no such protections if you manifest “discriminatory” words against homosexual behavior. Indeed, not only will your religious convictions not be protected in a secular workplace, but also they will be treated as “bigotry” akin to racism and sexism. Corporations don’t generally hire or promote bigots. It is not good for business.
• Monitoring of “discriminatory” beliefs toward homosexual and bisexual persons could even extend, at least in the case of white collar employees, outside the workplace. For example, if a school teacher has published in a newspaper a letter that advocates that society not provide legal incentives for homosexual practice, or offers counseling for those seeking to come out of the homosexual life, the courts could rule (as the British Columbia Supreme Court ruled a couple of years ago) that the employer is entitled to take such discriminatory views into consideration in suspending or firing the employee.

Gagnon’s entire paper can be viewed in HTML format HERE or as a PDF document HERE. Also see Americans For Truth’s special report on ENDA, “14 Good Reasons to Oppose H.R. 3685, the ‘ENDA Our Freedom” Bill.”