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“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.”– 2 Timothy 4:3
Dear false prophets, false teachers and Christian apostates of every stripe:
We’ve all heard this phrase: “You know who you are!” It’s an expression typically levied in the context of some corrective admonition, intended for some person or persons, busy about some misbehavior. While sent via certified mail, this is one of those rare open letters to whom the preponderance of intended recipients have, somehow, managed to convince themselves, and one another, that they’re not even home. Most of you decidedly do not know who you are. You’re living on Deception Lane.
Indeed, this letter, for many who read it, will be marked “return to sender.” Such is the nature of deception. Those who labor beneath it have become so accustomed to its crushing weight that they’ve lost all sense of it. It is my humble hope and simple prayer that, if this is you, upon reading this letter the Holy Spirit might, instead, plant a seed of revelation in your soul and water it with His word of life and truth, so that, for you, it might blossom to repentance and right-standing with God the Father.
Dr. Michael Brown will address the hot topic of “gay Christianity” as the keynote speaker at AFTAH’s fundraising banquet Sat., Oct. 25, at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, IL.
“And so, once more, we see the fundamental error of ‘gay Christianity,’ namely, people interpreting the Bible through the lens of their sexuality rather than interpreting their sexuality through the lens of the Bible.”— Dr. Michael Brown, author of “Can You Be Gay and Christian”
Dear AFTAH Supporters,
I am very excited about our upcoming banquet Saturday, October 25, featuring Dr. Michael Brown, author of the new book, Can You Be Gay and Christian?: Responding With Love and Truth to Questions About Homosexuality. I want you to come and bring your friends and family (tickets are only $20/person or $25 at the door), because you will equip yourself to go out and answer tough questions about your faith as it applies to the sin of homosexuality in your wider circles.
The article below is reprinted from the Charisma News blog. I must confess that I had not heard of Vicky Beeching until her “coming out” as a “gay Christian.” Please pray for her, as she is deluded. (About a year ago, Beeching endorsed the anti-biblical idea of homosexual “marriage”–as a Christian.)
I hope Ms. Beeching reads Dr. Brown’s book. He is as good as any Christian leader I know at balancing truth and love on this issue–demonstrating the tremendous mercy and grace of Jesus Christ to people caught up in homosexuality, while uncompromisingly upholding Scripture, which unequivocally condemns homosexual behavior.
So here is what I want you to do: 1) buy Dr. Brown’s new book, Can You Be Gay and Christian?; 2) make plans to come to the AFTAH banquet Sat., Oct. 25; 3) consider sponsoring a Table of 10 for just $200 and fill it up so we can maximize the impact of Dr. Brown’s presentation. Give online at www.aftah.com/donate/ or send your check to: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522. Thank you and God bless. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera
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How Should We Respond to Vicky Beeching?
Vicky Beeching
By Dr. Michael Brown
Believers throughout the English speaking world were shocked and saddened to hear that Vicky Beeching, a greatly loved songwriter and worship leader, has announced that she is gay. How should we respond?
1. This should not be about your own feelings. When you sing to God words of worship and praise that someone else has written, it’s easy to feel betrayed when that person lets you down. So it’s understandable that some believers are asking, “How could she do this to us?”
Is America More Perverse than Sodom?AFTAH’s Peter LaBarbera told WVCY’s “Crosstalk” that in some ways “America has surpassed Sodom” in our celebration of sexual immorality and heinous perversions. Here an older man poses for a photo with his three younger male “dog slaves” at the recent San Francisco “Up Your Alley” sadomasochistic street fair. See AFTAH photo-story HERE. Click on photo to enlarge. Photo: Peter LaBarbera/AFTAH.
On August 4, 2014, I was interviewed by WVCY’s Crosstalk America to discuss the latest advances of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) agenda. Here is the MP3 Audio Link to the 53-minute interview. And below is VCY’s web description of the interview. In our next post we will discuss how People for the American Way’s “Right Wing Watch” selectively edited its excerpts of the interview (good-bye context!) in an attempt to make me look more extreme. [See my Tweets HERE-1, HERE-2, and HERE-3 on RWW’s “leftist editing.”] — Peter LaBarbera; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera
Peter LaBarbera is president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH.org).
In the past it was reported that one in ten individuals was said to be homosexual. In fact, in 2011 there was a Gallop Poll indicating that Americans thought that 25% of the population was homosexual. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has now released a survey indicating that 1.6% of the adult population is gay and lesbian with .7% being bisexual. This means the LGBT community only makes up 2.3% of the total American population. [See AFTAH story on the 2.3% figure HERE.]
Jim and Peter also discussed:
A new executive order signed by President Obama that applies to businesses that do business with the government that bans “discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.”
A veteran news editor at the Newton, Iowa, Daily News released for writing a column on his personal blog objecting to a gay-friendly Bible version.
A new pre-sex anti-AIDS drug [PrEP; Truvada] for homosexuals.
A San Francisco supervisor has introduced a resolution to have the city make a statement to the Food and Drug Administration that it’s time to let homosexuals donate blood.
Minnesota Vikings special teams coordinator punished for expressing alleged anti-gay sentiments.
The latest pro-gay news among Christian publishers.
Sears float awarded “best business entry” in Chicago gay pride parade. See video on AFTAH.org HERE]
The U.N. will now recognize the same-sex marriages of its staffers.
Homosexual activists are hiring a so-called “gay” pastor to lobby against the Mississippi laws.
Audio Link to VCY America “Crosstalk” interview by Jim Schneider with Peter LaBarbera:
Add Sears to the list of corporations that shamelessly pander to the Homosexual Lobby as part of their marketing plan. Below are comments I made about Sears’ LGBT sellout in my recent radio interview Monday with VCY America’s “Crosstalk” program. We can thank Brian Tashman and the left-wingers at Right Wing Watch for the transcription of my remarks, which they found offensive but which I enthusiastically stand by [more on RWW’s selective editing later]:
“There goes Sears,” LaBarbera said. “I watched the video; it’s just so sad and tragic to me. The Bible says ‘there’s a way to seems right to a man but the end of that way is death,’ basically. Attaching the perversion of homosexuality, which God called an abomination, detestable behavior, attaching that to marriage is just ungodly. It’s sad to see corporations celebrating this to get more sales and we’ll see if Sears suffers for this capitulation to the homosexual activist movement.”
In related news, Target joined a legal brief in support of homosexual “marriage,” thus officially joining other corporations like Starbucks adopting this anti-biblical position. Below is the official Sears video of its Chicago “Gay Pride” homosexual “marriage” float. –Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH.org:
President Obama signing two Executive Orders advancing homosexual and transgender “rights.” One adds “gender identity” to the existing federal nondiscrimination policy (joining “sexual orientation”). The other–addressed by Dr. Michael Brown below–compels federal contractors to abide by federal pro-LGBT nondiscrimination mandates. Obama declined to include a strong religious exemption in the latter Order. Photo: White House; click to enlarge.
The following is excerpted from an online appeal by pro-family author and advocate, Dr. Michael Brown to President Obama, in response to Obama signing an Executive Order designed to advance “gay rights”–and which is bereft of a strong religious exemptions as requested by a coalition of religious leaders. Dr. Brown–whose book A Queer Thing Happened to America is essential reading for those hoping to understand the far-reaching LGBT agenda–will be the keynote speaker at AFTAH’s banquet October 25th at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, Illinois. This article first appeared in Charisma magazine.
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President Obama, You Have Crossed a Dangerous, Unprecedented Line
9:00AM EDT, 7/22/2014 Michael Brown, Charisma, In the Line of Fire
President Barack Obama on Monday signed an executive order banning “discrimination” by federal contractors against LGBT people, allowing for no religious exemptions of any kind.
Dear Mr. President,
I write to you today as a concerned citizen of our great nation, standing as a witness against your historic actions on the morning of July 21, 2014, actions which I hope you will one day repudiate with deep remorse and regret.
I am referring, of course, to your signing an executive order Monday banning “discrimination” by federal contractors against LGBT people, allowing for no religious exemptions of any kind.
This was an outrageous act of discrimination against religion in the name of anti-discrimination—an act of bullying people of faith in the name of the prevention of bullying.
How can you, as a man who professes to be a person of faith and a follower of Jesus, throw religious Americans—in particular Christians—under the bus?
How can you attempt to force Christians, Jews, Muslims and others to violate fundamental aspects of their moral codes in order to appease a small but powerful special interest group, one that is not, in fact, suffering daily economic hardship by being fired from their jobs because of their sexual orientation or expression?
Have you forgotten entirely that our nation was founded on the concept of religious freedom?
Court’s defense of religious liberty for profit-making companies could help Christian small businessmen oppressed by “gay rights” laws
Current U.S. Supreme Court: left to right in back: Sotomayor, Breyer, Alito, Kagan. Front, left to right: Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, Kennedy, Ginsburg. Alito wrote the Hobby Lobby decision, and Kennedy is lionized by “gay” activists for writing last year’s decision striking down DOMA. Click to enlarge.
By Peter LaBarbera
It’s easy to understand why hard-core feminists with their frenzied, overblown “War on Women” rhetoric would be outraged by the Supreme Court upholding Hobby Lobby’s right as a Christian-run corporation not to be forced to provide abortifacients to its employees through an Obama-care mandate. (See Hillary’s misinformation on the decision HERE.) But why are liberal “gay” activists freaking out over the Hobby Lobby ruling?
The case was never about denying women birth control, but you wouldn’t know that from the “reporting” by liberal media and hyperventilating “progressive” bloggers. Hobby Lobby still provides 16 forms of birth control as a health benefit to its employees, but its founders—along with another Christian-owned corporation, Conestoga Wood Specialists—sued HHS over being forced to provide four contraceptive methods that could terminate a fertilized egg.
Hobby Lobby’s founders, David and Barbara Green, are committed Christians who believe that life begins at conception and should be protected. To quote the Court decision, “Hobby Lobby’s statement of purpose commits the Greens to ‘[h]onoring the Lord in all [they] do by operating the company in a manner consistent with Biblical principles.’” So strong is the Greens’ commitment to Jesus Christ that they have lost countless millions of dollars in profits over the years by closing their 500 craft stores nationwide on Sunday.
Now, one would think that obtaining cheap, subsidized contraception would be low on the priority list for homosexuals, seeing that two men or two women by themselves cannot produce a child. Nevertheless, Big Gay Inc is in a tizzy over the Supreme Court decision—because Burwell vs. Hobby Lobbyisn’t really about contraceptives but rather whether Americans like the Greens will be free to live out their religious convictions.
Immediately after the decision, feminists flew into a rage, circulating crude versions of Justice Ginsburg’s dissent and distortions about women being denied birth control by their “male bosses.” Too bad most Americans will never read the actual Hobby Lobby decision—which lays out two diametrically opposed, competing visions about freedom of conscience and the role of government in these United States.
Freedom of conscience vs. Big Government
Hobby Lobby’s owners, David and Barbara Green, seek to use their business to glorify Jesus Christ. Their 500 stores across the country are closed on Sundays, costing the Greens many millions of dollars in profits.
On the side of preserving and even expanding Americans’ religious liberty were five judges: Alito, Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia and Thomas. In his concurring opinion Kennedy writes:
“In our constitutional tradition, freedom means that all persons have the right to believe or strive to believe in a divine creator and a divine law. For those who choose this course, free exercise is essential in preserving their own dignity and in striving for a self-definition shaped by their religious precepts. Free exercise in this sense implicates more than just freedom of belief….It means, too, the right to express those beliefs and to establish one’s religious (or non-religious) self-definition in the political, civic, and economic life of our larger community.”
On the other side—of Big Government overriding citizens’ religious beliefs, restricting conscience exemptions to federal mandates, and putting federal power behind expanded access to entitlements–were Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Breyer and Kagan. In fact, Ginsburg spends nearly two pages in her dissent [see pp. 24-25] defending the idea that Obama-care’s provision of subsidies for IUD’s (intrauterine devices) –one of the four contraceptives resisted by Hobby Lobby as a potential abortifacient—is a “compelling government interest.”
As much as Ginsburg believes the majority’s “immoderate” reading of Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) is too broad, hers is too narrow: she ends by arguing that exemptions under the RFRA should be limited to explicitly religious organizations—leaving for-profit Christian businessmen like the Greens unprotected.
The bigger government gets–in both its “social justice” mission and the amount of goodies it gives out as “entitlements”—the greater the threat to Americans’ right to freely exercise their faith. This is precisely why homosexual activists are nervous about Hobby Lobby’s victory. If the nation’s highest court grants that even very large “closely held” family businesses like Hobby Lobby (which has more than 13,000 employees) possess a religious liberty claim under RFRA, then surely small family businesses like Elane Photography in New Mexico—owned by Jonathan and Elaine Huguenin—should have the right not to use their creative talents to serve homosexual “weddings,” which violate their Christian faith.
I just talked with our lawyer Michael Weber (part of Tom Schuck’s NSWB lawfirm). The trial date for Peter LaBarbera and I for witnessing at the University of Regina will be October 29, 2014. We were charged with Mischief after we set up abortion signs and one sign saying “Sodomy is a sin,” on the public walkway at the University of Regina back on April 14th. Approximately 20 or so pro-abortion and pro-homosexual protesters set up a counter protest across from us. Notwithstanding that I have two Court of Queen’s Bench decisions affirming my right to protest on public university campuses, Peter and I were arrested and charged and the pro-abortion/pro-homosexual protesters were allowed to continue with their demonstration unmolested.
No ray of sunshine, no warm ocean breeze rustling through the palm leaves can bring cheer to Isla Vista. A cloud of sorrow covers the picturesque college town and seeps though every fastened gate, through every locked and bolted door, and pierces every bewildered heart.
Nothing is more precious than the life of a young woman who eagerly awaits the joys of life. And no hurt exceeds the pain of a father or mother who sees a cap and gown replaced by a funeral shroud.
America should weep bitter tears over this. America must. Like the Prodigal Son who abandoned his father’s ample table to feed on the husks of swine, America has exchanged traditional views on marriage and the family for an unworkable code of sexual liberation. Under this dubious code, each man and woman becomes a law unto himself. If anyone doubts this, let him contemplate the words of the perpetrator. In his final message to society, Elliot Rodger declared himself to be beyond the commands and prohibitions of any law, human or divine.
Elliot Rodger’s understanding of human existence and sexual morality was gleaned at random from pop culture, lurid movies, and violent video games. Far from regarding women as a helpmate, life-long companion, and future mother of his children–which is the Christian view of marriage–Rodger saw women as a potential sexual conquest, a sort of prey.
In my 30-year battle for the family and marriage, insofar as God gave me the strength and wisdom to do so, I warned of the extreme danger which results from a wrong understanding of human sexuality. My warnings were rejected, both by society at large and by the pro-family movement, as alarmist, intolerant, and divisive.
