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Former “gay” Stephen Black addresses Americans For Truth “Teach-in” Oct. 20. Black said he grew up feeling “shame” after twice being molested as a boy by adult homosexual male predators. AFTAH presented Black with its 2017 American Truth Teller Award. Black runs First Stone Ministries in Oklahoma City and is Board Chairman of Restored Hope Ministries. Click on photo to enlarge.
The following videos cover the full Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) banquet and Teach-in, held October 20-21, 2017 at Grace For Life Bible Church in Naperville, Illinois. Our featured speaker was Stephen Black, who shares from his experience as an ex-“gay” man who was twice victimized as a boy by homosexual adult male sex predators–yet whose life was radically transformed by a relationship with Jesus Christ. Stephen, who has become a good friend, is the author of Freedom Realized: Freedom from Homosexuality & Living a Life Free From Labels.
[Special Double-Resource Offer to Help AFTAH: receive Stephen Black’s book “Freedom Realized” PLUS a 2-DVD set of the entire 2017 AFTAH conference for your gift to AFTAH of $40 or more (postpaid). Give online or send your check to: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522. Or order the book alone for $20 postpaid or the 2-DVD video set alone for $25 postpaid.]
Black is executive director of First Stone Ministries in Oklahoma City and Board Chairman of Restored Hope Network–two wonderful Christian ministries that reach out to the “sexually broken” from a biblical perspective. His testimony and others at the conference are a reminder of the politically incorrect truth that homosexuality can be overcome as in person’s life, and that Jesus Christ is alive and still in the life-transforming business.
Like all AFTAH banquets and educational events, this was a tremendous time of learning as our speakers–each a truth warrior in his or her own right–confronted the myths and lies of the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) lobby. Stephen’s love for Jesus and his call for obedience in the Church to the gospel of Christ alone was compelling, but please take the time to watch all five videos below. And please share them far and wide to educate your network of friends. And to help us, if you are able, please support Americans for Truth with your donations, perhaps with our Special Offer below. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera
This story contains all videos from the conference. We will isolate out separate portions of the conference in forthcoming posts.
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Here are some introductory teaching remarks opening night by my pastor and our host, Grace for Life Bible Church pastor Steve Schroeder (Video 1 of 5):
The following are my (Peter LaBarbera’s) opening remarks Oct. 20, followed by Stephen Black’s banquet night “overview” presentation (Video 2 of 5):
Here is the opening of the Saturday Teach-in, including remarks by LaBarbera. Black, who received the 2017 AFTAH American Truth-Teller Award the previous night, comes to the stage at the 29:00 mark (Video 3 of 5):
In this segment, two men who came out of homosexuality, Darren and Jeff, share their testimonies. Note the cruelties growing up faced by Darren and the sexual abuse and family dysfunction (and the miracle!) in Jeff’s story. Stephen Black then gives his final presentation (Video 4 of 5):
[Special Offer to Help AFTAH: receive Stephen Black’s book “Freedom Realized” PLUS a 2-DVD set of the entire 2017 AFTAH conference for your gift to AFTAH of $40 or more (postpaid). Give online or send your check to: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522. Or order the book alone for $20 postpaid or the video set alone for $25 postpaid.]
Folks, this is a short, edited and condensed interview I did Oct. 21, 2017, with my friend and AFTAH’s 2017 banquet speaker Stephen Black, about his new book “Freedom Realized: Freedom From Homosexuality and Living A Life Free From Labels.’ Stephen is executive director of First Stone Ministries and Board Chair of Restored Hope Network–two wonderful Christian ministries. The book is available for a donation of $20 or more to Americans For Truth; give safely online or send your gift noting the book offer to: AFTAH, P.O. Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; americansfortruth@gmail.com; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera
There are lots of hidden gems in the pro-family movement because we don’t have the media helping us get the word out. Frank Worthen, the dean of the “ex-gay” movement, is one of them. This interview occurred at the 2015 conference of the Restored Hope Network, the ex-“gay” umbrella group that replaces Exodus International (which imploded through failed, unbiblical leadership). RHN Executive Director Anne Paulk conducts this interview, which is also posted on her YouTube channel.
Frank was “in” the homosexual lifestyle for 25 years and he’s been “out” of homosexuality and married for decades. Think about that. How many times have you heard the lie that people cannot overcome the pull of homosexuality? That being “gay” is “who they are”? That people are “born gay,” etc.? Also, note how a religious man whom Frank respected sought to confirm him as a homosexual. How evil is that? Please share this interview with your network of friends–especially young people swimming in cultural myths and falsehoods about disordered sexuality.
Come to think of it, Anne Paulk, who herself came out of lesbianism and who is doing terrific work running RHN, is another one of those gems. Please support Restored Hope Network with your prayers and gifts–and buy Frank’s books. They would make a wonderful gift to anyone who struggles with same-sex attractions or claims a “gay” identity. Yes, lasting, wholesome change for homosexuals is possible! Frank Worthen is proof of that. But more importantly, his life is a shining testimony to the love, mercy and grace of Jesus:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” — 2 Corinthians 5:17-18
“It’s All About Me and my gender self-expression”: A cross-dressing “straight” man in a black dress and pumps poses holding his baby daughter–for his gender-nonconforming blog, “His Black Dress.” We covered the child’s eyes because she is an innocent victim of her dad’s selfish obsession with dressing in female clothing. When it comes to aberrant lifestyle movements, “It’s All About Me”–i.e., the twisted, self-centered desires of adults–rather than the what’s best for children and society.
One of the characteristics of Identity- and Victim Politics–especially the brand catering to aberrant sex and gender agendas–is its spectacular self-absorption. Belief in divine Absolute Truth is dying in America, seemingly in inverse proportion to demands that society “understand” and empathize with a myriad of aggrieved, subjective human “my truths”—in this case the ever-evolving “gay” movement.
According to the BBC, the unwieldy acronym LGBTQQIAAP, which is sure to expand in the coming years, if not months, stands for:
L – lesbian: a woman who is attracted to other women
G – gay: a man who is attracted to other men or broadly people who identify as homosexual
B – bisexual: a person who is attracted to both men and women
T – transgender: a person whose gender identity is different from the sex the doctor put down on their birth certificate
Q – queer: originally used as a hate term, some people want to reclaim the word, while others find it offensive. It can be a political statement, suggest that someone doesn’t want to identify with “binaries” (e.g. male v female, homosexual v straight) or that they don’t want to label themselves only by their sexual activity
Q – questioning: a person who is still exploring their sexuality or gender identity
I – intersex: a person whose body is not definitively male or female. This may be because they have chromosomes which are not XX or XY or because their genitals or reproductive organs are not considered “standard”
A – allies: a person who identifies as straight but supports people in the LGBTQQIAAP community
A – asexual: a person who is not attracted in a sexual way to people of any gender
P – pansexual: a person whose sexual attraction is not based on gender and may themselves be fluid when it comes to gender or sexual identity
There are other versions of the perverse Big Alphabet, as Barbwire.com founder Matt Barber calls it. One is LGBTQIAPK, which stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersexual, Asexual, Pansexual and Polygamous, and Kinkiness–with “kinkiness” incorporating: sexual sadism/masochism; bondage; consensual sexual violence (e.g., whipping, electro-torture); “fisting” (don’t ask…); eroticized humiliation and degradation, slave-and-master “relationships,” etc. How’s that for liberal diversity?
‘It’s All About Me’–Family man says he is a little girl: People worldwide have been horrified by the story of Paul Wolscht–who left his wife and seven children to pursue a “transgender” identity as a “six-year-old girl”–his twisted alter ego: “Stefonknee.” See AFTAH story and Steven Crowder video HERE.
Below I will talk about adding a few more letters to the LGBTQEtc. equation: IAAM – It’s All About Me, because when you boil it down that is the essence of the “gay/bi/trans” agenda. Whether it is campaigning against FDA restrictions on homosexual male blood donations in the name of “gay equality”–when the blood ban policies are actually about mitigating dangers associated with high-risk, disease-ridden man-on-man sex; or homosexual “dads” in an Allstate commercial who adopted a baby girl to suit their wants while intentionally depriving her of a mommy–we face a movement that takes self-abortion to new heights. Tragically, they leave many victims in their wake–such as the seven children and wife of 52-year-old Paul Wolscht–who abandoned them to pursue his twisted “gender identity” as a “six-year-old girl,” “Stefonknee.” [See AFTAH story and excellent Steven Crowder video HERE.]
By the way, no matter which acronym you choose, there is one group that is always left out in the “progressive’s” letter-amalgams: EX-homosexuals: people who have left sex and gender deviance behind to embrace a God-honoring sexuality that naturally matches their bodies. [See David Kyle Foster’s outstanding ministry, Mastering Life Ministries and the Restored Hope Network.]
Culture War pacifists
In our nation’s more wholesome past, Absolute Truth was once the respected domain of the American Church—and many biblical moral standards like saving sex for (man-woman) marriage were shared by most everyone, including secular society. There was a grudging respect, even among the irreligious, for preachers, who were expected to be moral leaders and to inveigh against sin while offering the hope of the Gospel.
But today many churchmen and Christian leaders are more “Culture War pacifists” than moral leaders—they may love Jesus and love the Gospel but shy away from the publicly calling out sin (especially the LGBTQQIAAP variety). And they piously eschew the “Culture War,” encouraging Christians not to take part—a de facto unilateral surrender to a powerful Sin Movement that is radically transforming America, to quote Obama. In my mind, there is no reason why we should not match the resources and zeal of Big Gay Inc and Big Gender Confusion. (Liberal foundations gave an astonishing $129 million to fund LGBTQ groups in 2013.)
The Deviant Roots of a Sin Movement: Dr. Alfred Kinsey’s Table 34 showing timed “orgasms” for babies and young children–apparently supplied to him by a child molester. This table appears in Kinsey’s celebrated 1948 book, “Sexual Behavior and the Human Male,” which also greatly exaggerated the number of people practicing homosexual behavior in American society. Homosexual activists seized on Kinsey’s book to argue that homosexuality was widespread and normal. See AFTAH Point 12 below. Click on graphic to enlarge.
There will be revisions and additions to this list, but here is AFTAH’s first draft of core principles and beliefs.–Peter LaBarbera, President, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality
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1) Homosexual behavior and trans-gender rebellion are morally wrong as they defy Nature and Nature’s God.
2) Homosexuality is not the basis for a healthy self-identity; embracing homosexual or transgender lifestyles/behaviors is a very bad and destructive choice.
3) Homosexuality is about What You Do, not Who You Are. Everyone is responsible before God for his or her sexual conduct. “Sexual Orientation” and “Gender Identity”–the notion of an innate or inherent nature centered around proclivity toward sex- and gender-confusion–are the misguided foundations of self-serving “gay” ideology. These concepts seek to justify immorality by essentially removing one’s moral responsibility for his or her actions.
4) Homosexualism and gender confusion are not the basis for civil rights. Equating the campaign for homosexual “rights”and same-sex “marriage” to the Black civil rights movement insults Black Americans and their noble struggle against slavery and institutional racism (e.g., Jim Crow). Christians in past days were wrong to misuse the Bible to ban interracial unions. Interracial marriages produce beautiful children and families; homosexuality cannot produce life. Creating “rights” based on moral wrongs and sexual/gender perversions naturally undermines other people’s rights, especially the freedoms of religion and conscience enshrined in the United States Constitution. As John Adams, the second president of the United States and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, wrote: “[W]e have not government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion…Our constitution was made only for a moral and spiritual people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
5) All people as human beings created in the image of God deserve respect; all behaviors and ideologies do not.
6) Unlike race and ethnicity, homosexuality is not immutable: people can pursue virtuous change and leave aberrant sex- and transgender lifestyles behind. Oddly, the same LGBTQ activists who champion men and women who abandon their marital spouse and children to live a homosexual life–or the DNA-defying notion that people can change sexes–often excoriate and dehumanize EX-“gays.” Nevertheless, thousands of people have successfully left homosexuality behind, and their wholesome transformation should be celebrated. Legal and legislative efforts to ban pro-heterosexual change therapy for minors are cruel, antithetical to liberty and parental rights, and demonstrate the totalitarian mindset of homosexual advocates and their allies. [AFTAH highly recommends Restored Hope Network, an umbrella group of Christian ex-“gay” ministries.]
“I’ve not acted out homosexually in over 30 years,” says Black
[This post was modified 1-29-15]
The video below features the testimony of our friend Stephen Black, director of First Stone Ministriesand a Board Member of the ex-“gay” umbrella group Restored Hope Network(which replaced the failed “Exodus International”). It was produced by Pure Passion TV–a project of Mastering Life Ministries,founded by David Kyle Foster, himself a former homosexual. You can watch it on Vimeo HERE. Stephen’s testimony is highly relevant to the ongoing debate over ex-“gay” “Reparative Therapy” and legislative efforts to ban it for minors [see AFTAH release on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signing such legislation into law HERE].
Moreover, Stephen is a mature Christian whose life is a rebuke to those who deny that real change away from homosexuality is possible. It also stands in contrast to confused Christians like former Exodus staffer Randy Thomas—who curiously has declared himself “gay” again (“Could I see myself with a man? Yes.”)–even as he declares his enduring love for Jesus! Needless to say, the vicious homosexual activists at “Truth Wins Out” were quick to exploit Thomas’ egoistic declaration [HERE and HERE]. This is an Age of Apostasy, and we need steady voices like Black’s.
In my mind there are few things more insidious than confirming a false and deviant “gay” sexual identity in a young person who was once sexually abused by an adult homosexual predator. Yet under laws like New Jersey’s, parents of a victimized boy like Stephen Black once was would be BANNED from providing him with any therapeutic help that would “attempt to change” his “sexual orientation.” Watch this powerful video and you will understand why the Homosexual Lobby is so desperate to keep solid testimonies like his and David Kyle Foster’s from being heard in the Public Square. This runs 28 and a half minutes; it was posted in the Fall of 2014. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH.org
Not at All Like Normal Kisses: NFL draftee Michael Sam (left) kisses “boyfriend,” Vito Cammisano, on national TV after learning that he had been drafted by the St. Louis Rams. Ultimately, Sam got cut from the team, but he was lionized by LGBT activists and the media alike. AFTAH blocks homosexual kisses because they are indecent and glamorize immorality, which is especially harmful to children.
Folks, 2014 was another year of intense promotion by the media of all things “gay” and “transgender.” One beneficiary of that was an articulate college football player named Michael Sam, who became the first openly homosexual (“out”) man to be drafted by the NFL. When that moment came, Sam kissed his homosexual lover, Vito Cammisano, on national TV, sparking an awkward national debate about homosexual displays of affection.
Many–dare I say most–people did not care for the televised same-sex kiss, but few pundits took the principled, common-sense position of AFTAH: of course we treat homosexual PDAs (public displays of affection) differently than, say, a football player kissing his girlfriend on the field because (say it with me): HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVIOR, A SIN, IS ALWAYS WRONG, whereas heterosexuality is natural and normal.
Too many conservatives, including Bill O’Reilly and other talkers on Fox News [see my America’s Survival report on Fox News’ pro-“gay” bias HERE] allowed themselves to be hamstrung by political correctness to the point where they failed to admit the obvious: homosexuality is not normal; it’s a perversion–so we treat it differently than everyday (not excessive) displays of affection between a man and a woman. That’s especially the case when it comes to subjecting innocent children to the celebration of immorality that grieves God’s heart [See Romans 1 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-11]. [Note: see this biased AP piece on Sam curiously re-published by the “conservative” TheBlaze.com.]
Since it’s New Year’s Eve, we’re having a little fun here at AFTAH: below is a poem I wrote playing loosely off the lyrics, rhythm and meter of Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham” (you know, the one with “Sam I am”). Although it’s light, the message is serious: public celebration of perversion is indecent–and another harmful and obnoxious by-product of “gay” and “same-sex marriage” advocacy. Sure, I’ll be chided by humorless homosexuals and “progressive” hacks who bristle at anything characterizing homosexuality as immoral, destructive and changeable. But who cares: LGBTQ activists attack, slander and lie about AFTAH all the time anyway. So enjoy…or not. Happy New Year!— Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth; americansfortruth@gmail.com
P.S. On a very serious note, please pray for Michael Sam and others caught up in homosexuality, that they would accept Christ and become overcomers who leave their sinful lifestyle behind, as many others have [see this “Ex-Gay Truth” site].
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I Saw the Kiss by Michael Sam. It Made Me Mad. He Kissed a Man!
UPDATE: most major homosexual organizations, such as the Human Rights Campaign, have now followed the Task Force in adding “Queer” to their group’s name or mission. — Peter LaBarbera, Oct. 2017
A Special Announcement from AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera:
Warning: Some descriptions of unnatural homosexual acts and an offensive photo
“Queer” is an appropriate catch-all term for the myriad of LGBTQ sexual and gender perversions, including extreme transgenderism (even for young children), polyamory and sexual sadism
What used to be called the”gay agenda” is getting ‘queerer’ every day. Confident of victory, homosexual groups like the National LGBTQ Task Force and Human Rights Campaign are aggressively pushing ever more radical agendas in the false name of “equality”–e.g., laws banning pro-heterosexual change therapy and taxpayer funding for grotesque transsexual “sex change” operations
AFTAH will use “LGBTQueer” to designate homosexual-bisexual-transgender-“queer” activist agendas
Recently, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF)–the nation’s oldest homosexual activist organization–announced a name change to accommodate the never-ending permutations of out-and-proud “gayness” and gender confusion (our term for transgenderism). Their new name is “National LGBTQ Task Force” with the “Q” standing for “Queer”–a slang term once and sometimes still used against homosexuals that has been “reclaimed” by “gay” and “transgender” activists to defiantly describe their revolutionary movement.
“The new more inclusive name adds bisexual, transgender and queer to lesbian and gay in the form of LGBTQ,” the Task Force said in an October 8 press release. [Watch an accompanying Task Force video HERE.]
We at Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) rarely have anything good to say about the Task Force–a far-left organization that maligns defenders of Judeo-Christian morality as “haters” and celebrates all kinds of sex and gender perversions, including “polyamory” (multiple-partner sexual relationships) and sadomasochism. (Every year, the Task Force gives out a “Leather Leadership” award to honor its favorite sexual sadist.) However, in this instance we applaud the Task Force for taking a step toward semantic accuracy.
QUEER INDEED:Above is the new logo of the grassroots leftist “gay” organization formerly known as the “National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.” The “Q” stands for “Queer.” In addition to promoting homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism, the Task Force promotes a “Sexual Freedom” agenda that includes “polyamory” (multiple-partner sexual unions) and sadomasochism.
Henceforth, Americans For Truth will use the descriptor “LGBTQueer” instead of merely “LGBT” or even “LGBTQ” for the homosexual-bisexual-transgender-queer movement. For example, whereas in the past we would have described Human Rights Campaign–whose founder and (former) Board Member Terry Bean was arrested recently for allegedly sodomizing a 15-year-old boy–as an “LGBT lobby group,” we will now describe HRC as an LGBTQueer lobby organization. (For the record: a 65-year-old man sodomizing a 15-year-old boy is well beyond “queer.”)
By writing out “Queer” in the acronym, we mean to accentuate how that word is the best catch-all term to identify a movement that increasingly embraces any and all types of sex- and gender nonconformity (e.g., “genderqueer” as a self-identity; look it up HERE). At the same time, we avoid the sterile acronyms–however long they become–that serve to hide the radicalism and desensitize us to the extreme nature of the expanding LGBTQueer agenda.
Think about it: how often do we think of homosexual activist groups championing “Bisexuality”–the “B” in LGBT–when we hear that politically correct acronym? Most people don’t consider the wisdom of promoting “bisexual” identities as normative to schoolchildren, yet that is certainly a part of the “LG-Bisexual-T” education agenda.
On the other hand, even though the most accurate thing we could do is to write out “Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender-Queer,” that is far too cumbersome for daily use. Even the modern Greek-Latin construct “homosexual” is unwieldy, especially when used as a noun, compared to the popular and oversimplistic term “gay.” And while most LGBTQueer activists despise the word “homosexual” as anachronistic and “homophobic” (another manipulative LGBTQueer invention), we at AFTAH have used it because at least the H-word reminds us that we’re talking about sexual misbehavior, not some innocuous “gay” identity.
NO DIVERSITY FOR EX-‘QUEERS’: The late Anthony Falzarano, a former homosexual, turned around a defiant homosexual activist protest chant, by saying: “We’re here. We’re EX-queer. Get used to it!” Even as the “gay”/bi/trans movement makes room for all kinds of sexual/gender identities and fetishes under the rubric of “diversity,” it campaigns viciously against EX-“gays”–even lobbying lawmakers to ban pro-heterosexual change therapy. The new Gay Task Force slogan is “Be you,” but LGBTQueer activists routinely dehumanize former homosexuals rather than accept and affirm their life and identity choices. See the testimony of another successful EX-“gay,” Christopher Doyle, HERE.
Homosexualism and gender rebellion are not about “civil rights” but rather the practice of engaging in, justifying and celebrating immoral and perverse behaviors–which we on the side of Nature and Nature’s God rightly understand are not the basis for inherent, healthy identities. Sinful and confused behavior patterns are changeable–as testified by the many happy and successful ex-“gays” like Christopher Doyle, who give the lie to the LGBTQueer myth that “being gay” is “who you are.”
As the late ex-homosexual activist and my friend Anthony Falzarano used to say, taking liberties with a “Queer Nation” chant:
“We’re here. We’re EX-queer. Get used to it!”
Thus “LGBTQueer” seems to strike the appropriate balance of being easy to use–while highlighting the reality that the aberrant “L,” “G,” “B” and Transgender “T”–and whatever other letters of the alphabet are appropriated by Big Gay Inc to designate some new sexual/gender fad or fetish. They all fall under the rubric of “Queer” behavior, especially by historical Western, Judeo-Christian moral standards. AFTAH will encourage other organizations, leaders and blogs to join us in using and popularizing “LGBTQueer.”
