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Reaffirms stance that homosexual behavior is ‘intrinsically sinful’
Following is the statement of the president of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in response to certain actions of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:
August 24, 2009
The two largest Lutheran church bodies in the United States are the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) with 4.8 million members and The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) with 2.4 million members.
On Friday, Aug. 21, the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to open the ministry of the ELCA to gay and lesbian pastors and other professional workers living in “committed relationships.” In an earlier action, the assembly approved a resolution that commits the ELCA “to finding ways to allow congregations that choose to do so to recognize, support, and hold publicly accountable life-long, monogamous, same-gender relationships.”
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod has repeatedly affirmed as its own position the historical understanding of the Christian church that the Bible condemns homosexual behavior as “intrinsically sinful.” It is therefore contrary to the will of the Creator and constitutes sin against the commandments of God (Lev. 18:22, 24,20:13; 1 Cor. 6:9-20; 1 Tim 1:9-10; and Rom. 1:26, 27).
Say No to Taxpayer-Funded “Tranny-Care”: No American citizen should be forced to pay for body-disfiguring “sex-change” operations with his or her tax dollars. In this photo, the (biological) woman at right — her healthy breasts surgically removed to match her desired “male” identity — marches in a Boston “transgender pride” parade. Urge your Congressman and Senators (202-224-3121) to oppose Obama-care, which will end up funding abortions and these hideous “trans” mutilations. Photo courtesy MassResistance.
Folks, take a look at the shocking photo at left and the Idaho Statesman article sent our way by conservative blogger Clayton Cramer — about a transsexual prisoner who received a state-funded “sex-change” operation. I agree with Gary Glenn of American Family Association of Michigan about the absurdity of how words are twisted to accommodate the “trans” agenda.
Glenn remarks:
“One of the both most inane and insidious aspects of the ‘transgender’ issue is the mainstream media’s depiction of delusion as if it were reality…
“She cut off her own testicles.”
“She amputated the tip of her penis.”
These reporters must either have mush for brains or, in rare cases, feel like total idiots for being forced to report something so obviously inane.
But this is a delusion that the opposition will compel us all by force of law to treat as reality. And subsidize with our tax dollars.
Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter.
(Isaiah 5:20)
Editor’s Note: we have received several letters in response to this post asking us to clarify that the “Lutherans” in question represent only the liberal Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) — and not the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, which is the Lutheran denomination that rejects homosexual clergy and remains faithful to Scripture and the historic tenets of the Christian faith.
By Peter LaBarbera
The recent vote by liberal Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) — the liberal “Lutheran” denomination — to embrace homosexual clergy is yet another sign of America’s spiritual and moral confusion, and how far down the of road of social decay we have traveled. [Click HERE to read the response to ELCA by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.] The New York Times reports:
By a vote of 559 to 451, delegates to the denomination’s national assembly in Minneapolis approved a resolution declaring that the church would find a way for people in “publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous same-gender relationships” to serve as official ministers. (The church already allows celibate gay men and lesbians to become members of the clergy.)
If you take the Bible seriously and thus reject as unscriptural the modern, “gay” activist construct of homosexuality as a benign “sexual orientation,” then you might join me in asking: would the ELCA ever have a vote on hiring pastors addicted to pornography? Would the ELCA deliberate on whether pastors practicing adultery or incest should be welcomed into the fold? Certainly not, yet all of these, like homosexuality, are sexual sins. Once again, homosexuality gets a special indulgence from liberals who, sadly, have lost faith in the Bible as inerrant, divinely authored Truth — and Jesus Christ’s ability to help lift people out of sin.
Research presented by Cheryl Dobinson, MA, and Stewart Landers, JD, MCP, from their two separate studies was remarkably similar. Bisexuals reported suffering from depression and anxiety in higher rates than heterosexuals or lesbians and gay men. In terms of attempting or thinking of attempting suicide, bisexual men were 7 times higher, while gay men were 4 times higher, than straight men; bisexual women were 6 times higher, while lesbian women were 4 times higher, than straight women. An Australian study revealed that middle-aged bi women were 24 times more likely to engage in self harm, like cutting, than straight women, as a coping mechanism.
Dobinson’s research revealed that only 26% of bisexuals did not experience child sexual abuse. I’ll be getting more information on violence, domestic violence, and physical or sexual abuse, since she whizzed through a lot of that information and I don’t wish to misquote her findings.
The day began with an overview of the current research on bisexual health. Research shows that bisexual people — who make up about half of those who identify as GLB [Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual] — face huge health disparities. …
[‘Bisexual health researcher’ Cheryl] Dobinson and others said that stigma and biphobia certainly play a large role in why this population is impacted by certain health disparities at even higher rates than gays and lesbians.
Americans for Pedophile Advocacy? Dutch pedophilia advocate Theo Sandfort is a Fellow with the American Psychological Society (APA). As part of his “research,” Sandfort once interviewed 25 boys from between the ages of 10 and 16 who were in “sexual relationships” with adults. The adult predators took Sandfort to interview their underage sexual “parters” (i.e., their child victims). “For virtually all the boys … the sexual contact itself was experienced positively,” Sandfort duly reported. Not surprisingly, the APA, which has an overwhelming pro-homosexualist bias, has worked to cast doubt on the idea that people practicing homosexuality can make the healthy transition to heterosexuality.
Folks, Americans give far more credit to professional institutions like the American Psychological Society (APA) than they deserve. We forget the strong liberal, anti-faith bias of academia and especially the soft sciences — and the enormous cultural subversion that PC-driven professional organizations have engaged in over the years. (Groundbreaking “sexologist” Alfred Kinsey himself was a notorious pervert.) This includes, in the APA’s case, forays into the “study” of adult-child sex (pedophilia). Remarkably, as Lifesite’s Matthew Hoffman reports below, the APA continues its affiliation with known pedophilia advocate Theo Sandfort. Regardless of what it puts out on the (in)ability of people to change their “orientation” (translation: sexual practices, thoughts and habits), the APA has no moral authority on these matters given its documented conflict-of-interest stemming from an overwhelming pro-homosexualist bias. Conservatives should resist the temptation to cite the APA as authoritative when it happens to bend a degree or two in their direction. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org
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LifeSiteNews reports:
The Psychological Profession and Homosexuality: Lunatics Running the Asylum?
WASHINGTON, August 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) — A man goes to a psychologist with a problem. “Doctor,” he says, “I’m suffering terribly. I feel like a woman trapped inside the body of a man. I want to become a woman.”
State senate candidate Obama unequivocally supported legalizing same-sex “marriage” in 1996
Obama Was For “Same-Sex Marriage” (and he Still Is): Above is a graphic that appeared in the Chicago homosexual newspaper Windy City Times — showing a “gay” questionnaire revealing Barack Obama’s explicit support for “legalizing same-sex marriage” [point #6] as a candidate for Illinois State Senate in 1996. Obama would later adapt his position because “strategically,” he understood that Republicans would use his radical support for homosexual “marriage” against him. Click on graphic to enlarge.
By Peter LaBarbera
Barack Obama sure has a strange way of showing his much-touted support for traditional “marriage.” On Monday, Obama’s Justice Department filed a legal brief against DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, which was signed into law by the last Democrat to occupy the Oval Office: Bill Clinton. Weeks before that, Obama’s administration had defended DOMA, setting off a flurry of protests from his gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender-whatever allies.
DOMA — which only Congress can repeal — passed overwhelmingly in 1996 with bipartisan consensus (a mere 14 Democratic Senators voted “No”). It protects states from being forced to recognize out-of-state “gay marriages.” Its growing unpopularity among Democrats signals the near-complete moral collapse of the party of Harry S Truman, who surely would bristle at the Dems’ current overwhelming support of abortion-on-demand and homosexuality as non-negotiable, litmus-test issues.
WARNING: graphic descriptions documenting “gay” corruption of youth
Peter LaBarbera, president and founder of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, opens AFTAH’s June 17, 2009 press conference on President Obama’s radical homosexual agenda. LaBarbera exposes Obama’s hypocrisy on traditional marriage, and plays the infamous “Fistgate” audiotape revealing how — at a “gay youth” event — underage girls and boys were exposed to graphic verbal “how-to” lessons on “fisting” and other homosexual perversions. (Fistgate occurred at a “queer” youth panel as part of a 2000 conference sponsored by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network.) GLSEN founder Kevin Jennings was appointed by President Obama to head up the Dep’t of Education’s “Safe and Drug-Free Schools” agency. A DVD of the AFTAH press conference in Chicago is available for $20 postpaid. Designate “Obama press conference” with your online donation or send your check to: Americans For Truth, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522.