Excerpted from ECUSA’s Incoming Leader: Homosexuality Not a Choice, Jesus Not the Only Way, by Jody Brown and Allie Martin, published Nov 2, 2006, by Agape Press:

Where does [Katharine Jefferts-Schori] stand on the issue of homosexuality? The Episcopal Church has been embroiled for years in a debate over the ordination of homosexual clergy and “blessing” ceremonies for same-sex couples. Jefferts-Schori supports both — and in fact, she voted in 2003 to confirm her denomination’s first openly homosexual bishop, V. Gene Robinson. She told AP that she does not believe the Bible condemns “committed” homosexual relationships. God, she says, made some people “gay.”

“Sexual orientation is pretty clearly defined at a very early age, before the age of reason. It’s not a choice,” she said. “In that case, a person of faith would need to say that it’s a piece of how one is created.” Consequently, she says, the Church should offer what she calls “a sacramental container” to help homosexuals find “holy ways of living in relationship.”

Scriptures in the Bible about homosexual acts being sinful, she says, are misunderstood. “They’re not about what today we see as mature human beings entering into committed relationships with each other on a full and equal basis,” says Jefferts-Schori, who believes such “committed” relationships can be blessed. “The religious community’s job, really, is to help all human beings find healthy and whole and holy ways of living in relationship.”

Run, Don’t Walk
Canon David Anderson is president of the American Anglican Council, a group of conservative clergy and lay people from the Episcopal Church. Anderson says he’s not surprised at the recent comments by Jefferts-Schori, and offers what he sees as the only option for those still in churches aligned with ECUSA.

“I think they need to run, not walk, to the exit and find an orthodox Episcopal church,” suggests Anderson.

According to Anderson, the Episcopal Church cast off biblical beliefs long ago in favor of postmodernism. Jefferts-Schori’s comments, he claims, is merely in harmony with that. “Her remarks with regard to the plurality of ways to God are consistent both with what she has said before and with what the top level of leadership in the Episcopal Church has been saying now for probably a decade,” says Anderson.

Continue reading at Agape Press…

You, too, can make a difference – and here’s how…

October 26, 2006

Mr. Lee Scott
CEO, Wal-Mart
702 SW 8th Street
Bentonville, AK 72716

Dear Mr. Scott:

My husband and I have written to you before to tell you how very disappointed we are that you have led Wal-Mart into a pro-homosexual stance. Because we know what the medical consequences of homosexual activities are, we are worse than disappointed that you have chosen to tarnish the wonderful family friendly reputation of Wal-Mart in order to chase after the business of a small percentage of the American public.

The medical consequences are clear:

• The Centers for Disease Control reports (Statistics and Surveillance, Table 11, end of 2004) that 87% of all full-blown AIDS cases are the result of homosexual practices and/or drug use while only 11% have occurred through heterosexual contact.

• HIV statistics cannot be trusted because as of 2004, only 33 states reported HIV data. Among the 17 states which did not report HIV data are California which has more same-sex couples than any other state in the country (Houston Chronicle, 7.10.06, “Gay-Rights Fight Turns to San Francisco Appeal).

• Dr. Ruth Jacobs, MD stated in an article in The Washington Times (5.8.05):

“Homosexuals account for less than 3 percent of the population. Yet in 2003 men having sex with men accounted for more than 63 percent of newly reported HIV cases in males. Gay and bisexual men account for 10 percent of all new hepatitis A infections and 15-20 percent of all new hepatitis B infections in the United States…”

• Dr. Ronald Stall, Ph.D., research chief for of HIV/AIDS prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, has said:

‘Substance abuse is pervasive among gay men and is so intricately intertwined with epidemics of depression, partner abuse and childhood sexual abuse that adequately addressing one issue requires attention to the others as well. … We have at least four epidemics going on among gay men that are associated with each other and making each other worse.’ (Internal Medicine News March 1, 2004 Volume 38:5 ‘Drug Use Pervasive Among Gay Men.’)”

• When 1,177 HIV-positive men were interviewed about the number of sex partners in a year, these homosexuals admitted they had had from 1 to 500 partners (“The Dangerous Nature of Homosexuality,” J. Michael Sharman, 8.7.06).

You have left us no choice but to boycott Wal-Mart and to tell our friends and acquaintances to do the same. I would encourage you not to ignore those of us families who believe strongly in traditional family values. We have big Internet networks, and the word is spreading all across our country that Wal-Mart has redone its image and is courting business from the homosexual lobby.

You may think that Wal-Mart’s sales have dropped off because of the pressure from labor unions, but what you really need to know is that there are thousands of us out here who have stopped shopping at Wal-Mart because of your pursuit of the homosexual agenda. Some of us may not have said anything but have quietly stopped shopping at Wal-Mart. Others of us are more verbal about our outrage.

In our minds Wal-Mart has lost its clean family image. We used to try to change people’s minds when they would say something derogatory about Wal-Mart. Now we agree with them and shop elsewhere.

Enclosed you will find copies of the receipts showing that our family has spent $835.41 (from 9.7.06 – 10.22.06) at other stores and gas stations. We used to make most of our purchases at Wal-Mart but not any more.

Sincerely,

Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Garner
Hewitt, TX

Once again we renew our call for the closure of all sex clubs and bathhouses, which as, this article shows, are helping to victimize straight spouses who are unaware of their partner’s secret perversions.– Peter LaBarbera

The following is excerpted from Double Lives on the Down Low, by Benoit Denizet-Lewis, published Aug 3, 2003, by The New York Times Magazine:

…In its upper stories, the Flex bathhouse in Cleveland feels like a squash club for backslapping businessmen. There’s a large gym with free weights and exercise machines on the third floor. In the common area, on the main floor, men in towels lounge on couches and watch CNN on big-screen TV’s.In the basement, the mood is different: the TV’s are tuned to porn, and the dimly lighted hallways buzz with sexual energy. A naked black man reclines on a sling in a room called ”the dungeon play area.” Along a hallway lined with lockers, black men eye each other as they walk by in towels. In small rooms nearby, some men are having sex. Others are napping.

There are two bathhouses in Cleveland. On the city’s predominantly white West Side, Club Cleveland — which opened in 1965 and recently settled into a modern 15,000-square-foot space — attracts many white and openly gay men. Flex is on the East Side, and it serves a mostly black and Hispanic clientele, many of whom don’t consider themselves gay…

Today, while there are black men who are openly gay, it seems that the majority of those having sex with men still lead secret lives, products of a black culture that deems masculinity and fatherhood as a black man’s primary responsibility — and homosexuality as a white man’s perversion. And while Flex now offers baskets of condoms and lubricant, Wallace says that many of the club’s patrons still don’t use them.

Wallace ticks off the grim statistics: blacks make up only 12 percent of the population in America, but they account for half of all new reported H.I.V. infections. While intravenous drug use is a large part of the problem, experts say that the leading cause of H.I.V. in black men is homosexual sex (some of which takes place in prison, where blacks disproportionately outnumber whites). According to the Centers for Disease Control, one-third of young urban black men who have sex with men in this country are H.I.V.-positive, and 90 percent of those are unaware of their infection…

Many of the men at Flex tonight — and many of the black men I met these past months in Cleveland, Atlanta, Florida, New York and Boston — are on the Down Low, or on the DL, as they more often call it. Most date or marry women and engage sexually with men they meet only in anonymous settings like bathhouses and parks or through the Internet. Many of these men are young and from the inner city, where they live in a hypermasculine ”thug” culture. Other DL men form romantic relationships with men and may even be peripheral participants in mainstream gay culture, all unknown to their colleagues and families. Most DL men identify themselves not as gay or bisexual but first and foremost as black. To them, as to many blacks, that equates to being inherently masculine.

DL culture has grown, in recent years, out of the shadows and developed its own contemporary institutions, for those who know where to look: Web sites, Internet chat rooms, private parties and special nights at clubs. Over the same period, Down Low culture has come to the attention of alarmed public health officials, some of whom regard men on the DL as an infectious bridge spreading H.I.V. to unsuspecting wives and girlfriends. In 2001, almost two-thirds of women in the United States who found out they had AIDS were black.

With no wives or girlfriends around, Flex is a safe place for men on the DL to let down their guards. There aren’t many white men here either (I’m one of them), and that’s often the norm for DL parties and clubs.

Continue reading at The Balm in Gilead…

Remember when Rick Garcia of Equality Illinois told the Naperville Sun that he didn’t know what goes on in Steamworks (a Chicago homosexual bathhouse)? Maybe this story and the one above on the “down low” will help him understand:

It’s no secret that gay bathhouses are associated with gay sex, said Earl Pike, executive director of the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland.

And studies show that bathhouse users are more likely to test positive for HIV than other gay men.

– Excerpted from Bathhouse Image Worries Cleveland Gay Leadership, by Robert L. Smith, published Jun 2, 2006, by The Plain Dealer

If Garcia genuinely desires to “defend and protect” homosexual men, he should join Americans for Truth in calling for the city of Chicago to SHUT DOWN THE BATHHOUSE.

From Homosexuality & Pedophilia, by Cliff Kincaid, published Nov 2, 2006, by Accuracy in Media:

In connection with media coverage of the Mark Foley sex scandal, the pro-homosexual media enforcers have been attempting to refute the idea that there is any connection between homosexuality and pedophilia. Yet Foley targeted young boys. This is something you are not supposed to write or talk about because it undermines the cause of homosexual rights.

Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth says, “…isn’t it telling most of the tiny number of homosexual male U.S. Congressmen have been caught in sex scandals-remember Barney Frank, who let his male lover, a hustler, run a prostitution ring out of his D.C. apartment? And Massachusetts Rep. Gerry Studds, who had sex with a 17-year-old boy and then turned his back on fellow House Members during the censure vote against him? And Bob Bauman, who in 1980 was charged with soliciting a 16-year-old boy for sex?”

Adding it up, LaBarbera says, “Let’s see: three homosexual Congressmen involved in sexual seductions of minor boys-ages 16, 17, and 17 (Foley). And yet homosexual activists ridicule anyone who suggests there is a predatory or pedophilic component to male homosexuality…”

On October 2, when the supposed right-wing Fox News Channel aired a “debate” on the matter of the Foley scandal, the two sides were represented by liberal Democrat Bob Beckel, who got caught in a prostitution scandal, and lesbian Republican Tammy Bruce.

“Being homosexual has nothing to do with attraction to children,” declared Bruce. “I agree. I agree,” Beckel said.

A letter to Allyson Smith and Americans for Truth…

From: Nick B
Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2006 10:47 AM
To: americansfortruth@comcast.net
Subject: [AFT Web Site] What’s wrong with you?

The following message was sent from the Americans for Truth Web site:

I learned this morning that you people have gotten the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence kicked out of our local church. Why do you want to prevent organizations that serve the homeless, hungry, and sick from getting the help they so desperately need. The Sisters raise alot of money that is all given back to the community. You have stopped this. Why? Are you really filled with so much hate that you have no room for Christ’s love? You aren’t going to give one dime to help any of these people- to feed them, house them,heal them. Neither will the local Catholic Archdiocese. You all are false prophets who use Christ’s name to hurt others. You are the devil for trying to get people to deny the creation that God made them. You seek to hurt people that you deem lower than you- that is the work of the devil. If you feel better when you harm others that is on you. But don’t hurt others in the name of Christ. A Real Christian

Allyson Smith’s eloquent response…

Dear Nick B.,

Thank you for writing to Americans for Truth. It’s good to hear from you.

However, I’m afraid you have gotten your facts wrong. Neither I nor Americans for Truth got the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence “kicked out” of Most Holy Redeemer parish in San Francisco’s homosexual Castro district. We did not stop the bingo games; the San Francisco Archdiocese did. Your quarrel is with them.

After learning of the games from another source, I as a faithful Catholic simply wrote an open letter to pastor Stephen Meriwether, with a copy to the Archdiocese, demanding the games be stopped because they make a mockery of our crucified Lord Jesus Christ Who died to save sinners, including me and all homosexuals, and because they flout authentic Catholic doctrine which declares that homosexual acts are acts of deep depravity. I am not the only person who did so. Orthodox Catholics from throughout the United States
contacted the Archdiocese after learning of this situation.

You are also off-base in assuming that Americans for Truth wants to prevent organizations from serving the homeless, hungry, and sick — yes, including those who are sick with HIV/AIDS due to their own personal, preventable behaviors. But there are other ways to help such people than by holding sexualized bingo games in a Catholic parish hall with men who dress up in drag nun costumes and give away pornographic DVD and sex toy prizes.

In April 2005, I prayed at the hospice bedside and witnessed the holy death of a former homosexual friend who died of the AIDS scourge. The difference in his case is that he amended his life and sought forgiveness from Jesus Christ for his former sinful life before he passed away. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence not only refuse to repent; they parade their sin openly in “gay pride” events and other venues, including Most Holy Redeemer parish.

Jesus Christ forgave the woman caught in adultery, but he also told her to go and sin no more. (John 8:3-11). He offers the same forgiveness to all, if we will take Him up on His invitation to turn away from iniquity. All of us are sinners. No one is higher or lower than anyone else in that respect, because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

“Real Christians” recognize sodomy as an egregious sin that destroys individual lives and entire societies. Real Christians turn away from homosexuality and refuse to condone, rationalize, or abet it. I pray you will do the same.

Allyson Smith