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UPDATE on this story: Chicago Sun-Times religion columnist Cathleen Falsani — author of a controversial column titled, “Sigh of Relief over Falwell’s Death” — contacted Americans For Truth late Friday afternoon for the sole purpose of requesting that we remove her copyrighted photo from our website (which we did). When AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera sought to engage Falsani in a discussion about her anti-Falwell column, she curtly said she was only calling for the “legal purpose” of removing the photo. “I’m not interested in engaging in dialogue with you,” she said.
When LaBarbera countered that this was odd since Falsani is a “reporter” who talks to people for a living, Falsani replied that she is not a reporter, but a columnist. (As you can read below, she was only recently relieved of her reporting duties at the Sun-Times.)
Said LaBarbera, “This story only gets weirder: a religion columnist cruelly trashes a conservative minister days after his death, then refuses to discuss her column with a critic. It seems Cathleen Falsani can dish it out but she can’t take it. We echo Illinois Review editor Fran Eaton’s call for Falsani to be fired as a Sun-Times religion columnist. As one who is obviously bigoted against Bible-believing religious traditionalists, she should not be writing on religion for a major metropolitan daily.”
In fact, my very first thought upon hearing of the Rev. Falwell’s passing was: Good. And I didn’t mean “good” in a oh-good-he’s-gone-home-to-be-with-the-Lord kind of way. I meant “good” as in “Ding-dong, the witch is dead.” — Cathleen Falsani, “Sigh of Relief over Falwell’s Death,” May 18, Chicago Sun-Times
I wrote Cathleen Falsani to say how sad it is that a religion columnist would so cruelly denounce and defame a man shortly after his death. (More of that HERE.) The Religious Left — of which one could now safely say Falsani is a member — prides itself on its compassion, but when it comes down to it, they can be quite mean and guilty of the same harshness and “hate” of which they accuse others. It reminds me of the pro-abortion-rights liberals who fancy themselves as compassionate people who look out for the downtrodden (“the little guy”) — and yet can’t face their own hypocrisy in zealously defending the “right to choose” to kill society’s most helpless people: the unborn.
Sometimes Christian-identified writers and reporters go overboard in attacking Biblical traditionalists to show their media peers that they’re not a tool of the stereotypical “religious right.” Maybe that’s what happened here. Whether or not that’s the case, it’s tragic that Falsani, a Wheaton College grad, has sunk to this level. This is an ugly and tacky piece of writing that exposes the hypocrisy of self-righteous liberals and the disdain of the media for traditionalist Christian leaders.
Like many in the Fourth Estate, Falsani needs sensitivity training and would surely benefit from a sabbatical at Falwell’s Liberty University. She should be removed as the Sun-Times’ religion columnist (at least she is no longer a religion reporter for the paper), but that won’t happen because most of the paper’s staff probably loved her column. Nothing like beating up on the ‘fundies,’ dead or alive, to burnish your credentials in the media. (Now, writing a fair column about a man or woman who has left homosexuality behind, through the power of the same Christ that Falsani professes to follow, that’s another story….)
Congratulations, Cathleen: you scored some more points with the Left, but you did so at the price of your own dignity, your Christian testimony, and to the detriment of your once noble profession.— Peter LaBarbera
The following is excerpted by Media Research Council’s “NewsBusters” blog, by Tim Graham (emphasis added). You can read Graham’s entire piece by clicking HERE, and Falsani’s nasty column HERE):
It might not be surprising for liberal blog commenters or talk-radio callers to denounce Rev. Jerry Falwell upon his death, but it’s a little more surprising when it comes to a professed Christian who’s religion columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. Cathleen Falsani reflected on her first reaction about hearing Falwell was “relief” and compared him to gangster TV character Tony Soprano:
Knowing I didn’t have a deadline to meet that day, my first thoughts were not of what to say or write.
In fact, my very first thought upon hearing of the Rev. Falwell’s passing was: Good.
And I didn’t mean “good” in a oh-good-he’s-gone-home-to-be-with-the-Lord kind of way. I meant “good” as in “Ding-dong, the witch is dead.”
But that thought — good riddance, I suppose — was not meant to be cruel or malicious. [!]After all, the faith that the Rev. Falwell and I share teaches us that he was, at that moment, in a far better place, with Jesus in heaven, and not roasting on a spit in Hell’s kitchen.
By shrugging off his mortal coil, the Rev. Falwell had ceased to suffer the pain of humanity.
Still, I’m not particularly proud of my knee-jerk reaction. But there it is….
My initial reaction to the Rev. Falwell’s death was, and remains, relief — not unlike the ease I felt when a particularly nasty bully who used to spit at me on the playground and threaten to beat me up after school moved to another town.
The Rev. Falwell was a spiritual bully. He was the Tony Soprano to Pat Robertson’s Paulie Walnuts.
How on Earth can a religion columnist compare a televangelist to a malicious mob boss and killer? We could understand the typical Elmer Gantry comparisons, but Tony Soprano? Including Robertson on the list suggested clearly that was Falsani believes is that conservatism and orthodoxy are “bullying” and that liberalism and relativism brings true spirituality and harmony with God.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
On hearing of the death of Jerry Falwell (read pro-family tributes to him HERE), I was reminded of an incident that revealed his heart, as a Christian and as a human being. Homosexual activists heaped instantaneous (and horrifyingly wicked) scorn upon this man of God — in a way that only seems to confirm what he said about their movement.
Their sickening behavior also confirms what the Bible says about God giving up unrepentant homosexuals to a “reprobate” (also translated depraved and debased) mind (Romans 1:28).
But before we get into the homosexuals’ vicious response to Falwell’s death, a history lesson: conservative icon Richard Viguerie states in his tribute to the Moral Majority founder:
“With the death of Dr. Jerry Falwell, the conservative movement has lost one its founders and key leaders. Dr. Falwell was one of the main architects of the conservative movement in the 1970s and 1980s. His work and leadership played an indispensable role in the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.
“For decades, the conservative movement stood on a two-legged stool and won few elections. But when Dr. Falwell became an integral part of the movement, he led tens of thousands of ministers, along with millions of their followers, into the voting booths to support vital conservative causes. This provided the third leg of the stool, which allowed conservatives to level the political playing field with the Left.
“Without Dr. Falwell, there would be no meaningful conservative movement. He was a true history-maker in our nation.”
And now, on to the “Immoral Minority’s” reaction:
John Aravosis, a homosexual blogger who certainly fits the bill, called Falwell a “hateful pig,” inspiring a slew of even nastier comments on his “Americablog” site. Said one: “Too bad [Falwell’s death] wasn’t more prolonged and painful.” Wrote another: “Now cross your fingers for Pat Robertson to join him in Heaven soon.” Many of the remarks are too vulgar to reprint here.
As is the trend on the Left these days, many of the anti-Falwell posters used religious condemnations to make their point: “The gates of hell swing open and Satan welcomes his beloved son,” wrote Amanda Marcotte, a “Pandagon” blogger who became a short news story herself after it was revealed that she had been hired by Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards — but who now, after being fired by Edwards, is once again free to spew her venom.
Homosexual activist Wayne Besen, the former spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, the world’s largest “gay” lobby group, wrote on his site, next to an altered photo of Falwell (how mature, Wayne…): “Won’t the good preacher be shocked when he finds himself at the gates of Hell this morning! Man, I would love to post that video on YouTube. I must go now and mourn, as I can hardly contain my sorrow.”
Poor, pitiful Wayne. More proof that nobody hates like the Left in this country.
Some homosexual activists in San Francisco even held a public celebration of Falwell’s death — a spectacle that more savvy “gay” leaders warned would backfire.
The latter were right. As libertarian Bill Barnwell writes in a piece titled, “Celebrating the Death of Jerry Falwell”: “I cannot recall a time I read about Falwell making statements where he laughed off or celebrated the death of a gay person.”
Besen, Aravosis and their ilk hate in the name of their twisted version of “tolerance,” but Falwell was no hater — as most Christians who disagree with the homosexual cause are not haters but good people simply trying to follow God’s unchanging moral law.
The real Falwell: hugging homosexuals
Back in 1999, under the threat of a large protest from from Mel White — founder of the “gay” group Soulforce and an evangelical writer who left his wife and family to pursue a sexual relationship with a man — Falwell agreed to host a joint media event with White at his famous Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. There was a contingent of mostly homosexual students and activists there to cheer on White, and a corresponding crowd of Liberty University students and pro-family advocates, including myself, backing Falwell’s position.
After the media event, the main participants and the “gay” Soulforce activists and kids went to unwind at a banquet room where pastries and drinks were served. And that is where the stereotype of Jerry Falwell as “homophobe” and “hatemonger” fizzled before everyone’s eyes, but especially those of the young “gay” activists.
In the corner of the room, Mel White conferred with his strategists — probably upset that the event did not turn out to be as useful a “gay” propaganda event as he had hoped. White nervously looked over at Falwell in the center of the room, but the contrast between the two men’s demeanors could not have been more pronounced. For there was the gregarious Falwell, wearing a huge smile and laughing, putting his big arms around the Soulforce kids as he posed for one souvenir “celebrity” photo after another.
This was not just a show for the crowd — the media weren’t even present — this was the real deal. Falwell was like a big teddy bear having a genuine good time playing host and showing Christian love to the confused Soulforce kids who, I’m sure, were experiencing a bit of cognitive dissonance.
I did not know Jerry Falwall personally, but from my experience that day at his church, I don’t think there was a hateful bone in his body. As Tony Perkins of Family Research Council said yesterday, Falwell was “a very, very loving, friendly, happy guy,” much loved by the students at the Liberty University, which he founded.
The following is excerpted from LifeSiteNews.com, a must “go-to” site for pro-family advocates and citizens no matter what country you live in. Needless to say, you would have heard a lot more about this huge Italian rally had it been an “anti-Bush” protest against the war, or maybe a pro-“gay marriage” protest. The people “get it” regarding marriage and family; the secular media are obsessed with political correctness. One wonders how the political/cultural equation over homosexuality would be different if the media’s coverage were anything close to being fair rather than overwhelmingly pro-“gay”-activist as it is in most of the West today.— Peter LaBarbera
ROME, Italy, May 14, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Italians from across the country poured into Rome May 12 to join in a demonstration against a law that would give legal recognition to homosexual couples–reports showed up to 1.7 million people overflowed the St. John Lateran piazza. Organizers initially expected to draw about 100,000.
The proposed legislation would give homosexual couples–and unmarried heterosexual couples–similar rights to those of married couples, stopping just short of legalizing homosexual marriage.
“Living together is not family,” protester Anna Manara told the Associated Press.
“A commitment such as marriage cements the bond, while other models make it easier to be together and therefore end up making it less valuable.”
While the pro-family demonstration was backed by the Vatican and Italy’s Catholic bishops, it was organized by lay people independently of the Church. The “mind-blowing” success of the event is an outstanding example of the power held by ordinary citizens when sufficiently mobilized in support of traditional values, said Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, a priest in Rome who is the moderator of the Catholic Online Forum (see blogsite: http://wdtprs.com/blog/2007/05/winners-and-losers).
“The importance of this event is not merely that when left to their own devices the Italian people will support traditional values in great numbers, giving the lie to the script presented by the intellectuals in the press. It also means in concrete terms that the traditional values laity can organize and achieve results.”
“The success of “Family Day” also highlights a now deeply entrenched trend not only in Italy, but in the West: the marginalization of the Church from the public square,” Fr. Zuhlsdorf said. “Nearly everywhere the Church’s is being denied its right to speak freely. Committed Catholic and other religious politicians and public figures are pressured never to make reference to their religious convictions. The constant mantra is that religion should be a purely private matter than has no influence on public policy. Be religious, fine. But you may never act outwardly on your interior opinions.”
Publicity shot for Brokeback Mountain: not appropriate for adults, much less for young kids in the classroom
WARNING: offensive descriptions of unnatural acts that should NEVER be promoted to children
CHICAGO (AP) – A girl and her grandparents have sued the Chicago Board of Education, alleging that a substitute teacher showed the R-rated film “Brokeback Mountain” in class.
The lawsuit claims that Jessica Turner, 12, suffered psychological distress after viewing the movie in her 8th grade class at Ashburn Community Elementary School last year….
Alas, more corruption of youth at the hands of pro-homosexual activists. The movement that once asked just to be left alone is now pushing homosexuality on middle school students. In Chicago, a substitute teacher — no doubt a liberal “change agent” hell-bent on advancing her version of “tolerance and diversity” — showed the homosexual propaganda film “Brokeback Mountain” to her 8th-grade class (see full story below). Now the school is facing a $500,000 lawsuit. Let’s hope and pray that Jessica Turner’s grandparents prevail and that their legal action sends an expensive lesson to liberal educators nationwide — one that future Tolerance Tyrants (like Ms. Buford) seeking to manipulate young minds cannot ignore.
I saw Brokeback Mountain in the theater because I had to. It is a highly effective propaganda film well-suited to exploit today’s widespread confusion over “sexual orientation” and “same-sex love.” The film is about two male cowboys who “fall in love,” and features a sudden sodomitic encounter in a tent that is, well, let’s just say, biological and medical fantasy. The film, of course, seeks to advance the fiction that “gay” romantic love is just like the normal variety except with different genders. But that ignores, for one thing, the terrible damage that sodomy (i.e., anal sex) exacts on the body. That’s why many male initiates into homosexual sex get high on drugs or alcohol first — to dull the pain (and the shame) of this unnatural and sinful behavior.
If Brokeback were honest, one of the guys involved in the scene depicting the crime against nature (how sodomy was once regarded back when men were men) would be howling in pain louder than a coyote, rather than just rolling over and going to sleep. But, hey, we wouldn’t want to spoil the cultural elites’ pro-“gay” party by telling Americans about the pain and consequences stemming from homosexual behavior, would we?
It’s sort of like how many schools nowadays teach kids about HIV/AIDS without mentioning the “inconvenient truth” that this awful disease in America is strongly linked to “men who have sex with men” (MSM). (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that through 2006, “MSM account for approximately 45% of newly reported HIV/AIDS diagnoses and nearly 54% of cumulative AIDS diagnoses.”)
Predictably, in Brokeback, one of the male lovers is savagely murdered by homosexual-hating hetero cowboys — another lesson I’m sure the militant Chicago teacher wanted to impress on her captive audience: if you disagree with the homosexual lifestyle, you are a “hater” and mean-spirited “homophobe.” Never mind that the vast majority of people who oppose homosexual behavior do not hate people but merely agree with God about harmful and changeable behaviors that do not define a person; and decent people are rightfully outraged at the idea of promoting this dangerous homosexual lifestyle to impressionable children.
We have no choice but to be aggressive with the truth, because our foes are so aggressive in promoting their lies — even to innocent kids in the classroom. I’m afraid that in our society, even children brought up well by moral-minded parents will have drunk some of the pro-“gay” Kool-Aid by the time they reach adulthood — so saturated is our culture with politically correct, activist nonsense on this issue.
Here’s the May 13 AP story on Brokeback Mountain being shown to 8th-graders in Chicago:
CHICAGO (AP) – A girl and her grandparents have sued the Chicago Board of Education, alleging that a substitute teacher showed the R-rated film “Brokeback Mountain” in class.
The lawsuit claims that Jessica Turner, 12, suffered psychological distress after viewing the movie in her 8th grade class at Ashburn Community Elementary School last year.
The film, which won three Oscars, depicts two cowboys who conceal their homosexual affair.
Turner and her grandparents, Kenneth and LaVerne Richardson, are seeking around $500,000 in damages.
“It is very important to me that my children not be exposed to this,” said Kenneth Richardson, Turner’s guardian. “The teacher knew she was not supposed to do this.”
According to the lawsuit filed Friday in Cook County Circuit Court, the video was shown without permission from the students’ parents and guardians.
The lawsuit also names Ashburn Principal Jewel Diaz and a substitute teacher, referred to as “Ms. Buford.”
The substitute asked a student to shut the classroom door at the West Side school, saying: “What happens in Ms. Buford’s class stays in Ms. Buford’s class,” according to the lawsuit.
Richardson said his granddaughter was traumatized by the movie and had to undergo psychological treatment and counseling.
In 2005, Richardson complained to school administrators about reading material that he said included curse words.
“This was the last straw,” he said. “I feel the lawsuit was necessary because of the warning I had already given them on the literature they were giving out to children to read. I told them it was against our faith.”
Messages left over the weekend with CPS officials were not immediately returned.
The power of the radical homosexual movement in Europe has just been shown. The European Parliament just voted to condemn Poland on what they term “homophobia.” What was Poland’s crime? The Polish Prime Minister said that Polish school children should not be subject to “homosexual propaganda.”
Polish authorities have also resisted demands from radical homosexuals that they be allowed to march in the streets. If you live in any major city you know these marches where leather boys and pedophiles march freely and disruptively through the streets.
The response of the European Parliament was to pass a resolution calling these sensible actions “hate speech” and asks competent legal authorities to take action against these officials and the government of Poland.
This is outrageous and all people of good will must stand with the Polish people against the radical homosexual movement in the European Union.
The petitions will be delivered to the Polish authorities on Thursday, May 10. I will personally deliver them to Polish Members of the European Parliament and to members of the Polish government when I am in Warsaw for the World Congress of Families.
We only have a few days to get as many names as possible. I urge you to go to www.c-fam.org/handsoffpoland.php and sign the petition, then send this message to everyone you know. We need to deliver thousands of names of supporters from all over the world. I especially urge those in the EU countries to get this message to everyone you know. We must tell the radicals in the European Union to keep homosexual hands off of Poland!
PS Poland stands almost alone in the European Parliament against an enormous coalition of radicals. Poland needs our help right now. Please sign the petition at www.c-fam.org/handsoffpoland.php and help Poland fight back.
Hunter College professor Kenneth Sherrill says police arrests of men having homosexual sex in Atlanta’s public restrooms is a “perversion” — not the vile acts themselves.
Atlanta police, looking for luggage thieves, stumbled upon men engaging in homosexual sex acts in airport public restrooms. A sad and pathetic story of men’s lives out of control. “The new restroom dragnet has led to the arrests of more than 30 people in three months for indecent exposure and public sex acts at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport,” AP reports.
Now look at how “gay” activist and Hunter College professor Kenneth Sherill responds in the AP story (below). Sherrill criticizes — not the men committing degrading acts in public places — but the police, calling the undercover arrests in the airport restrooms a “perversion of rational law enforcement activities.” Several observations:
Various homosexually-oriented websites publicize locations — across the nation and the world –where men can engage in anonymous homosexual acts with other men in public restrooms, highway rest stops, parks, etc.
Many of these men do not identify as “gay”; they have wives or girlfriends who know nothing of their secret double life — women whose lives are put in potentially life-threatening danger by their spouse’s high-risk homosexual adulteries;
Children visit these same public restrooms and parks — how many have walked in on men engaging in perverse acts? Also, we’ve received many reports over the years of used condoms being left behind in “public sex” spots such as parks; can’t the authorities keep these known locations clean of public perversion?
Some leading homosexual activists and groups actually defend “public sex” — even as a “right” of sorts. In 1998 in Pittsburgh, I was kicked out of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s annual “Creating Change” conference — as I was sitting in the audience listening to a panel led by the webmaster for the leading homosexual “cruising for sex” website. Imagine: the second most powerful homosexual group in America — one that lays claim to the mantle of the noble “civil rights” movement — endorsing public perversions of this sort.
Kenneth Sherrill’s disgraceful comments show once again how out of touch left-wing intellectuals are with the average citizen, and how selfish homosexual activists put their interests above the common good. Only a radical “gay” professor (Sherrill has also done work for the Task Force) could manage to take a story about men getting busted for committing vile sex acts with other men in public bathrooms — and say that the police action to catch these men is a “perversion”! Sort of makes you wonder what Professor Sherrill is teaching the youngsters in his care. — Peter LaBarbera
Arrests Up in Atlanta Airport Restrooms Restroom Patrols of Atlanta Airport Meant to Stop Baggage Theft Result in Indecency Arrests
By DANIEL YEE
ATLANTA Apr 12, 2007 (AP)— At the world’s busiest airport, plainclothes officers patrolling public restrooms in search of luggage thieves have instead uncovered a rash of other, more sordid crimes.
Airport restrooms apparently have become such popular meeting places for men looking for sexual trysts with other men that they have been suggested several times as meeting places in personal ads on the Web site Craigslist.
“Hey … I’m stuck at the airport from 5 p.m. and I’m looking for a good time …,” one ad reads. In another, the person posting says he is stuck at the airport for three hours in the evening and is looking for “discreet, quick action.”
The new patrols were started to stop theft, not catch people in sex acts, police officials say.
Officers started monitoring the restrooms after figuring out that thieves were pulling bags off baggage-claim carousels and taking them into toilet stalls to comb through them.
“We’re trying to provide a safe environment for everyone at the airport,” said Officer Joseph Villafane, a police spokesman. “We’re not out to get all that it’s just we encounter it.”
Among those arrested is Ed Wall, the board chairman of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. An officer said he saw Wall having oral sex with another man. Wall, who has temporarily stepped down from his post, has maintained his innocence. A court date has not been set.
The other court cases are pending.
James Cates, a clinical psychologist, said airport indecency arrests usually involve people getting caught performing sexual acts. He said it illustrates compulsive behavior known as exhibitionism.
“They’re not a lot different from any compulsion … it’s just that this kind of behavior can be offensive to people and can be traumatizing,” said Cates, who counsels and performs psychological testing on sex offenders and people with sexual disorders. “They’ve got to have the thrill and as they keep not getting caught or reported, the thrill gets less and less. It has to become more risky and daring to keep the thrill up.”
Still, some say the airport police should have better things to do than stake out restrooms.
“Police have far better things to do with their time than to arrest people for this,” said Kenneth Sherrill, professor at Hunter College of The City University of New York. “Being ‘sex police’ in bathrooms strikes me as a perversion of rational law enforcement activities.”
Atlanta’s is not the only airport to have had restroom-related arrests. Former Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry was ordered to pay $35,000 in damages to a custodian who said he shoved her and exposed himself to her in a bathroom at Baltimore-Washington International Airport in 2000. A year later, a county judge in Michigan was arrested at Detroit Metro Airport for allegedly exposing himself to an undercover officer, although a district attorney decided not to prosecute.
The Atlanta airport police efforts may be working, as new personal ads have on Craigslist have warned people to be careful.
“Do NOT do anything at the airport,” one posting from March 29 reads. “If you want to hook up, do it outside the airport! Have fun but be smart about it. It’s not worth going to jail for the night and having your face put on the news.”
After being “cc’d” on the latest hateful e-mail sent by Bob Schwartz of the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network — calling Illinois Family Institute (my former employer) the “Illinois Fascist Institute” for opposing a pro-homosexual federal “Hate Crimes” law — I sent the following e-note to Schwartz. We ask the same question of Human Rights Campaign’s Joe Solomonese, NGLTF’s Matt Foreman and all homosexual activists: would they support laws — and government actions — to censor speech opposed to homosexuality?
My note to Schwartz:
From:Americans for Truth [mailto:americansfortruth@comcast.net] Sent: Saturday, April 14, 2007 11:37 AM To:Bob Schwartz, Gay Liberation Network Cc: David Smith, Exec. Dir., Illinois Family Institute Subject: Hey Bob, admit it…
…. You’d love to censor groups like IFI and Americans for Truth, wouldn’t you? If you had the power, you’d want to shut us down or ban certain aspects of our speech and conduct? For example, would you favor a federal “anti-hate” law that would have made our last email (“Satan’s Talking Points” [ Human Rights Campaign’s Harry Knox Promotes Ultimate ‘Big Lie’ in MSNBC Debate with CWA’s Matt Barber]) illegal? Or am I wrong and you actually support freedom of speech in the USA on the homosexual issue (which does not include direct harassing threats or advocating violence)? Would you favor using anti-discrimination hate speech laws to curb anti-gay speech? Which speech if any would you censor? Do you support anti-“hate speech” laws in Canada and England that are rapidly criminalizing (“discriminatory”) speech critical of homosexuality and are resulting in Christians being sued for discrimination or being jailed because they publicly oppose homosexual behavior? Did you support the jailing of the pastor in Sweden, Ake Green (www.akegreen.org) [Green was arrested in 2003 and later sentenced to jail for preaching a sermon in his church against homosexual behavior as sin], or do you think he should not have been prosecuted and what the government did to him was an injustice? Since you’re charging us with being fascists, don’t we have a right to know? Would you use state power to restrict anti-gay speech, or not, and if so, under what circumstances?
Schwartz’s note to IFI:
Fwd: IFI Makes it Easy to Contact Congress Members to Back Hate Crimes Legislation
The kooks at the Illinois Fascist Institute want their followers to tell Members of Congress to oppose the recently re-introduced Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007. Charging that this bill would provide the dreaded “special protection” to gays, in fact IFI wants to retain the right to discriminate based upon some presumed divinely sanctioned hatred of gays.
Sorry, IFI, the Constitution and not a collection of ancient writings called the bible is the fundamental law of the United States.
While hate crimes legislation is by no means a panacea to counter antigay bigotry and violence, it does help isolate the haters, a fact at least indirectly acknowledged by IFI opposition to the bill which frames its hatred of gays as the “beliefs, thoughts and attitudes” of “religion.”
Thanks to IFI, there is easy access to Congressional contact information. Is that Christian generosity, or what!!
Bob [Schwartz, Gay Liberation Network, Chicago, IL] _______________________________________________
IFI E-Alert: New Hate Crimes (Thought Crimes) Legislation in Washington D.C.
(Federal Issue)
4/13/2007 3:00:00 PM
By David E. Smith, Executive Director -Illinois Family Institute
Bill would create special protection for homosexuals.
The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 (H.R. 1592) will be called for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives next week. This bill would extend existing federal hate-crimes laws that already cover crimes motivated by race, color, national origin and religion to include crimes based on “actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, disability and gender identity (including gender-related characteristics).”
ACTION: Contact your Congressman today and urge him/her to oppose this anti-religious piece of legislation and vote ‘NO’ on H.R. 1592. Hate crimes legislation is really “thought crime” legislation because it penalizes politically-incorrect beliefs, attitudes, and thoughts, rather than actual crimes. (Phone calls are the most effective means to communicate with elected officials.)
Bobby Rush (D-1st District)
202-225-4372
Jesse Jackson (D-2nd District)
202-225-0773
Daniel Lipinski (D-3rd District)
202/225-5701
Luis Gutierrez (D-4th District)
202-225-8203
Rahm Emanuel (D-5th District)
202-225-4061
Peter Roskam (R-6th District)
202-555-1212
Danny K. Davis (D-7th District)
202-225-5006
Melissa Bean (D-8th District)
202-225-3711
Janice D. Schakowsky (D-9th District)
202-225-2111
Mark Kirk (R-10th District)
202-225-4835
Jerry Costello (D-12th District)
202-225-5661
Judy Biggert (R-13th District)
202-225-3515
Dennis Hastert (R-14th District)
202-225-2976
Timothy Johnson (R-15th District)
202-225-2371
Don Manzullo (R-16th District)
202-225-5676
Phil Hare (D-17th District)
202-225-5905
Ray LaHood (R-18th District)
202-225-6201
John Shimkus (R-19th District)
202-225-5271
Legislate Thought Crimes Act?
The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 (H.R. 1592), which we’re calling the Legislate Thought Crimes Act, would add the words “sexual orientation, gender identity, gender and disability” to the existing federal code.
The proposed Legislate Thought Crimes Act is different from current hate crimes law which permits federal prosecution of hates crime if the crimes were motivated by bias based on race, religion, national origin, or color, or because the victim was exercising a “federally protected right” (e.g. voting, attending school, etc.). This is because it would extend government protection and therefore official government recognition to sexual behavior as a legitmate protected class — a very dangerous precedent for U.S. law.
This bill removes the federally-protected activity requirement and adds “actual or perceived sexual orientation/gender identity,” gender and disability to the list of covered categories–bringing additional confusion to federal law. The proposed law would give unprecedented power to overzealous federal officials and liberal judicial activists who view opposition to homosexuality as “hate.”
Law would be homosexual tool
In short, this bill, if passed into law, could be used as a tool to advance the homosexual agenda through the enactment of federal laws that recognize homosexual behavior as civil right that needs special government protection. IFI will continually strive to educate people of the fact that unlike race, sexual orientation is a behavior that is changeable — as evidenced by the thousands of ex-“gays” living happy lives today.
“What’s clear from our experience and from science is that being gay or lesbian is an immutable, unchangeable gift from God, one for which I am very grateful. And it would fly in the face of my respect for God to give that gift back. It would simply be unethical and hurtful to our relationship with the Creator to give back gifts that God has given us….” — Homosexual activist Harry Knox of the “gay” lobby group Human Rights Campaign, on MSNBC debate 3-23-07
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness.– Old Testament prophet Isaiah (Is. 5:20)
Harry Knox promotes Big Lie for HRC
Please take five minutes to watch the fascinating online YouTube video above (click the “play” button on the screen) of a March 23, 2007 MSNBC debate between homosexual activist Harry Knox and pro-family warrior Matt Barber. The first time I watched this, I was flabbergasted at the gall of Knox, Director of the Religion and Faith Program for Human Rights Campaign (HRC, the world’s most powerful homosexual pressure group).
What better example of Hitler’s “Big Lie” technique than to transform homosexuality from an abominable sin and perversion … to a sickness … to a condition … to an inborn “orientation” that is actually a gift from God!
Yeah, that’s it — a wonderful gift that you’d never want to give back! (Strange how so many homosexual men are getting sick and dying in the prime of their life from practicing their supposed heavenly “gift.”)
I think we’ve discovered Satan’s Talking Points on homosexuality in the swank D.C. offices of Human Rights Campaign. HRC strategists understand that to neutralize America’s religious opposition to their destructive agenda, they must co-opt Christianity and the Bible itself.
The notion that homosexual “orientation” is a “gift from God” is the biggest lie in a “gay” arsenal filled with falsehoods — so start looking for that liberal echo chamber we call “the media” to begin giving it wide play.
The MSNBC debate was instigated by Al Mohler’s column (naively ill-timed, in my view) speculating on the possibility of hormone treatments to “fix” homosexuality in the womb if a genetic component to homosexuality were to be discovered.
By the way, Knox’s able opponent on the MSNBC debate, my good friend Matt Barber, is Policy Director for Cultural Issues at Concerned Women for America. Matt is a former professional heavyweight boxer (you can watch one his knockouts online on YouTube HERE) who was fired by the insurance giant Allstate after writing an online article — on his own time — critical of homosexual “marriage.” (Ironically, it was an HRC staffer who spotted Matt’s article and reported him to the Diversity Police at Allstate, leading to his firing. Oh, but I almost forgot: it is those poor, aggrieved homosexuals who are getting fired by the thousands “just for being gay” ….)
Matt is also former Corporate Outreach Director for Americans For Truth. We’re delighted that thanks to Allstate’s intolerance and pro-homosexual corporate agenda, he’s now “in the ring” in Washington, D.C., throwing rhetorical jabs on the side of God and truth.
Our next e-mail will discuss how adult homosexual activists like Knox and Soulforce’s Mel White are corrupting impressionable youth — a spiritual “crime” for which they will one day pay dearly if they don’t repent and turn away from their evil promotion of sexual sin.
Again, here is that YouTube link for the MSNBC debate featuring Harry Knox’s Big Lie about God. And please pray that God will lead the confused and lost Mr. Knox out of homosexuality.
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Harry Knox promotes Big Lie for HRC
