Selective prosecution illustrates danger of ‘hate crimes’ laws

Brett VanAsdlen

TAKE ACTION: 1) Urge Champaign County, Illinois State’s Attorney Julia Rietz (phone: 217-384-3733) to drop the government’s one-sided felony “hate crimes” prosecution against 18-year-old student-athlete Brett VanAsdlen — based on the inconsistent and likely exaggerated claims of Steven Velasquez, a homosexual University of Illinois (U of I) student who may have initiated physical contact with VanAsdlen. Already, Brett is being smeared as violent “gay-basher” by Velasquez and pro-homosexual activists in the media. Pray for Brett and his family.

2) Call or write WCIA-3 TV, the local CBS affiliate, and urge them to be fair in their coverage of this unfortunate story. Call (217) 373-3650 and ask for Producer Nancy Foreman. WCIA reporter Amanda Evans has led the TV coverage of the story, but her reporting appears to heavily favor Velasquez. It is wrong to smear the reputation of young man by airing all the accusations against him without presenting the other side of the story.

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By Peter LaBarbera

CHAMPAIGN-URBANA, Illinois — Two young men — one homosexual, one heterosexual — tell very different stories about an argument that occurred late on a Friday night (April 11) in this college town, but only one — the straight student-athlete — faces a felony “hate crime” conviction with a maximum penalty of up to three years in prison.

Brett VanAsdlen faces a Class 4 felony hate crime after originally being charged with aggravated battery following an incident in which he pushed 20-year-old homosexual University of Illinois student Steven Velasquez to the ground. The critical question is: why did he push Velasquez and who was aggressor? VanAsdlen’s family says it was Velasquez who — after Brett made a comment about Velasquez and his homosexual partner — first “got in Brett’s face,” to which Brett responded by pushing Velasquez away. Velasquez claims that Brett attacked him unprovoked because of his homosexuality.

You can read and watch WCIA-TV’s initial, one-sided account of the incident featuring an interview with Velasquez HERE — which set the tone for those seeking to portray VanAsdlen as a violent hate criminal.

There is a yawning chasm between the values and priorities we piously claim as our national heritage and those we have chosen to live by.

Our survival as a democracy is in our hands. We too must come out of the closet of cloistered Christianity and come to the rescue of our constitutional rights.

By Lee Taylor

Gay pride was not born in a vacuum. Timing and social upheaval formed the vortex in which it was born and bred. Hanging from the shirttails of the Civil Rights, women’s liberation, and anti-war movements, it exploited the vulnerability of a nation in turmoil. Fueling its fraudulent claims and outrageous demands from our national guilt complex and introspective conflict of values, the Gay Liberation Front exploded onto the American scene. The soul-searching ‘60’s exposed a nation fraught with self-doubt, self-recrimination, anxiety, addiction and ideological conflict, a nation at odds with itself. The sexual revolution accelerated the erosion of both marriage and the family as we struggled with the values and priorities of our national identity.

We were still recovering from the Viet Nam War and had only begun to realize the implications of racial integration when homosexual opportunists executed a strategically timed and targeted blitzkrieg on American society. We were caught napping, and the initial homosexual coup was a resounding success. Adopting the Civil Rights, anti-war and women’s liberation movements as its own, forming its political platform by drawing heavily from each, the Gay Liberation Front took aim at our Christian values and democratic institutions.

Dr. Mike Brown of ICN Ministries

The following is from our friends at ICN Ministries, led by Dr. Michael Brown. To see a preview of Harry Knox’s (and HRC’s) homosexualist theology, see our story, “VIDEO: Satan’s Talking Points? HRC’s Harry Knox Claims Homosexuality Is ‘Gift from God’ in MSNBC Debate with CWA’s Matt Barber,” where you can watch the MSNBC debate on YouTube. For more on Mike Brown, see his response to Christian Left leader Jim Wallis on same-unions HERE.

ICN Ministries writes:

We are pleased to announce that for a 24 hour period, from 6:00 AM May 5th until 6:00 AM May 6th, you will be able to watch a free webcast of the important debate between Dr. Michael Brown, Director of the Coalition of Conscience, and Mr. Harry Knox, Director of Faith and Religion for the Human Rights Campaign, on the topic of “A Christian Response to Homosexuality.” The Coalition of Conscience is a network of Christian leaders and believers working together for moral and cultural change through the gospel; the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is the world’s largest homosexual advocacy group.

This historic debate took place on February 14th at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center in Charlotte, NC with more than 300 in attendance. In February of 2007, Dr. Brown delivered a lecture series at the Blumenthal on “Homosexuality, the Church, and Society,” focusing on the work of the HRC on the final night. This drew a direct response from Joe Solmonese, president of the HRC, who publicly challenged Brown at the HRC’s fund-raising dinner in Charlotte. As a result of that public challenge, Dr. Brown suggested that both sides put the issues on the table in a mutually respectful way, leading to this year’s debate.

To view the webcast, go to www.revolutionnow.org and click on Watch the Brown-Knox Debate between 6:00 AM May 5th and 6:00 AM May 6th. This is an event you don’t want to miss!

For DVD copies of the debate, go to: http://store.icnministries.org/videoanddvds.html.

Blessings and grace,

The ICN Staff

New Book by Macel Falwell Dispels Media Myths of Preeminent Preacher

Contact: Kevin McVicker, 703-739-5920, 800-536-5920, kmcvicker@sbpublicaffairs.com

WEST MONROE, La., April 24 /Christian Newswire/ — One year after his passing, Jerry Falwell’s wife of forty-nine years, Macel Falwell, gives a candid and heartfelt look at the life of one of America’s most influential religious and political leaders.

In Jerry Falwell: His Life and Legacy (Howard Books, May 2008), Mrs. Falwell describes Rev. Falwell in a way that the mainstream media never would. She details his unfailing optimism, his deep generosity, his vision as the founder of Liberty University and the Moral Majority and as a loving husband and father.

The book paints a portrait of a passionate man determined to spread the Gospel. We see the Falwells establish their Thomas Road Baptist Church in an old soda bottling plant in 1956. Rev. Falwell prayed for new members and went out and knocked on every door in town to invite his neighbors to Sunday services. Continued HERE …

Click HERE to read the entire Christian Newswire release

Sent today (April 14, 2008) to the Americans For Truth website:

“I am so tired of listening and reading your CHRISTER AGENDA! You want to take over the world and make us all succumb to a fairy tale that has no proof at all whatsoever. Do not press your beliefs into my life. If you dont want to be gay then dont [sic]. But you better accept me being [here] and an equal. You have rights that were granted to you just because you are an ignorant and uneducted CHRISTER [sic] that loves jeebus for christs sake [sic]. Why should you have protected rights over others? Your arguments are ridiculous and irrational. You are a bigot and a fraud. STOP YOUR AGENDA!!!!!!! I hate all of you for what you say and will fight you ever day of my life. So will all of my friends and associates.”

T. Clay Rooker

Houston, Texas

AFTAH responds: Then unsubscribe from our e-mail newsletter and don’t go to our website, Mr. Rooker. It’s that simple. I feel your hate. — Peter LaBarbera

Rooker replies: I do not go to your bigoted hate-filled website you stupid moron.  Do you not realize that your drivel is posted all over the net on other websites.  God damn you are stupid. Did you even go to college or even have a high school diploma.   You feel my hate?   I fell your stupidity and ignorance.

Good Morning America promotes the latest gay gene study, and marginalizes the opposing scientific voice by labeling him as religious.

By Robert Knight
Culture and Media Institute
March 28, 2008

ABC’s Good Morning America hit a grand slam on March 28 for the homosexual activist movement by airing a profoundly misleading segment that asks, “Can a Baby Be Gay?” A longer segment ran on 20/20 that evening.

Convincing the public that some people are “born gay” is a central strategy of homosexual activists, who are being aided by a compliant media that routinely fails to examine such claims. If sexual behavior is hard-wired like race, then moral considerations can be swept aside, homosexuality declared a “civil right” and governments can move against people who believe homosexuality is wrong.

The Good Morning America story follows the script proposed in the gay strategic manual After the Ball, by Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen. The two Harvard-trained PR experts set out to “overhaul straight America,” which was the title of an article out of which After the Ball was born as a full-length book in 1989.

By Peter LaBarbera

My friend and Americans For Truth Board Chairman Mike Heath, who also serves as Executive Director of the Christian Civic League of Maine, sent out the message below about Good Friday and “Hate.” Mike can relate to Oklahoma’s beleaguered State Rep. Sally Kern, as like her, he and his wife Paulie have been vilified and demonized by Maine’s pro-homosexual lobby for years as outspoken Christian, pro-family advocates.

I love Easter. The Christ whose sacrificial death we commemorate and whose resurrection we celebrate on Easter Sunday is real and alive, but His redemptive work in everyday people’s lives only rarely makes Fox News. Just today I received a call from a Christian man who had left the “gay” life behind and has been married for 16 years; he and his wife are raising their children, much like countless other married couples raising families. Another wonderful ex-“gay” story that belies the homosexual propaganda myth that homosexuals can’t change, but which probably will never appear in the media.

Rep. Sally Kern assigned bodyguard after homosexual threats; trusts in God to protect her

www.cwfa.org/multimedia.asp

Folks, I strongly urge you to listen to this radio program, and then contemplate the malevolence of homosexual activists who even went so far as to falsely label Oklahoma legislator Sally Kern’s son Jesse as “gay” to further their hate campaign against her. Click HERE to listen to the interview–Peter LaBarbera.

Concerned Women for America published this on March 14:

Oklahoma State Representative, Sally Kern (R), is under attack by anti-Christian homosexual hate groups, such as the so-called “Human Rights Campaign” and the “Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund,” for addressing the dangers posed to American culture by militant homosexual activism and celebration of the homosexual lifestyle. These groups have dispatched their minions in an effort to intimidate and embarrass Rep. Kern. Investigators are even looking into potential death threats against the lawmaker and she has been assigned a bodyguard. Matt Barber, CWA’s Policy Director for Cultural Issues, spoke with Rep. Kern and with Peter LaBarbera, President of Americans for Truth, about the hateful words and thinly veiled threats Rep. Kern has been forced to endure over the past few days. Click HERE to listen to the online program.