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A relatively new person on the victim list is Julea Ward, a graduate student at Eastern Michigan University’s (EMU) School of Counseling who was expelled from the program because she said that as a counselor she could not affirm a client’s homosexual relationship due to her belief in Jesus Christ and biblical morality. Ward is being helped by Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a Christian legal defense group. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org. This is an ADF video:
STUDENT/PASTOR AFTAH BANQUET DISCOUNT:sponsor your pastor or teenage students (and their friends) for $25 — half off the regular banquet price of $50/person — to attend AFTAH’s banquet Saturday, Oct. 24 at 6:30 PM at the Christian Liberty Academy outside Chicago, featuring Matt Barber as keynote speaker. Sign up online using the “Banquet Sign-up” link at www.americansfortruth.com/donate/, or send your check for $50/person or $25 per sponsored student or pastor to: Americans For Truth, P.O. Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522. Write americansfortruth@comcast.net or call 910-308-7619 if money is a problem for a student or pastor to attend.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (Daniel 3: 16-18)
By Peter LaBarbera
Folks, in the few years I have known Matt Barber — I met him in 2005 after he was fired by Allstate Insurance Company after writing an article on his own time critical of homosexuality — I have come to see him is an antidote of sorts for the ills besetting the “anti-homosexual-agenda” movement. (Calling it “anti-gay” makes it sound like we’re against people when we really oppose destructive, unnatural and changeable behaviors that for centuries have been prohibited according to Judeo-Christian moral teachings; “gay” self-identity is a very new concept, historically speaking.)
Barber’s contribution to our noble cause should not be underestimated: he is just as unapologetic and aggressive for biblical truth as hell-bent activists like Kevin Jennings and HRC’s Joe Solmonese are for their evil agendas. That’s why coming to see him at AFTAH’s banquet on Saturday, October 24 will be so good for your soul. Each of us needs to have our batteries recharged to fight the anti-Christian Left — and there is no force, short of Muslim extremists perhaps, that poses a greater threat to our God-given American liberties than the homosexual/transsexual activist juggernaut.
By celebrating this “queer” organization, the president honors a new form of bigotry that equates Bible-believers and even pastors with “hate”
Promoting Human Wrongs in the Name of Human Rights: HRC and its president, Joe Solmonese, love to smear defenders of traditional marriage and the Bible’s teaching on homosexuality (including preachers) as “haters” and “extremists.” Barack Obama demeans the office of the presidency of the United States by celebrating this radical and profoundly anti-Christian organization.
President Barack Obama is telegraphing his left-wing sympathies and defiance of America’s historic, Judeo-Christian-based morality to the world. The same man who didn’t have time for the National Day of Prayer has worked into his busy schedule a keynote address at a fundraiser Saturday for the world’s largest homosexual lobby group — one that glories in its anti-religious bigotry (masquerading as tolerance, of course). Yes, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is really all about Human Wrongs — whether it’s demonizing as “extremists” Americans who are simply trying to protect the age-old definition of marriage; crusading for legislation that denies our First Amendment right to defend normalcy and Judeo-Christian mores; lobbying for taxpayer funding of transsexual “sex-change” mutilations operations; or its ongoing attempt to redefine the clear Word of God to serve the sinful cause of “proud” homosexuality. (HRC’s Harry Knox — an Obama “faith council” appointee — outrageously calls his own homosexuality a “gift from God.”) At bottom is the HRC press release below highlighting Obama’s address Saturday evening.
Christians must reach out with Gospel in love but avoid “soulish sympathy” for practicing homosexuals, says Bible scholar
By Peter LaBarbera
Folks, Dr. Michael Brown gave an excellent presentation at AFTAH’s monthly dinner-lecture last week. We hope to post a YouTube on Dr. Brown’s succinct and compelling response to my question on the “Big Three” hostile questions thrown at Christians who defend the Bible’s prohibitions against homosexual conduct:
“But Jesus Christ never said anything about homosexuality”;
“Why should we believe the Old Testament says about homosexuality when it also bans wearing polyester and eating shellfish?”; and
“You Christians are so judgmental.”
Dr. Brown, a world renowned biblical scholar, hit it out of the park. He also challenged what he calls the “celebration of ambiguity”in describing neo-evangelicals’ and the “Emergent Church’s” evasive and equivocating — and unbiblical — positioning on the issue of homosexuality.
Brown specifically challenged Chicago evangelical Andrew Marin (right), founder of the Marin Foundation and author of “Love Is Not an Orientation.” Brown praised Marin for wanting to reach out to homosexuals and the portions of the book in which Marin relays personal stories of homosexuals he has encountered who have been hurt by the Church. But he was highly critical of Marin’s misuse of Scripture in interpreting verses dealing with homosexuality.
Brown said of the Emergent Church — which is much more accepting of homosexual identity, uses the controversial term “gay Christian,” and generally scolds Christians for actively condemning homosexuality and the “gay” political/cultural agenda: “Their cure is worse than the sickness …. [they] have shown more solidarity with [homosexual] people than with God.”
“How are we helping anyone when we make the clear unclear … the unambiguous ambiguous? … How is that love?” Brown asked, calling on Christians to share the full truth of the Gospel in love. After first noting that Christians need to repent for neglecting to lovingly share God’s salvation plan with people caught up in homosexuality, Brown warned against believers falling into a “soulish sympathy” for homosexuals that overrides Biblical truth and their Christian conscience. [AFTAH will be offering a DVD of Brown’s talk; write americansfortruth@comcast.net for more information.]
ALA Bias Denies Kids the Truth about Change: Don’t expect to find ex-lesbian Janet Boynes’ book, “Called Out: A Former Lesbian’s Discovery of Freedom,” in your local public library. But you might want to purchase a copy and donate it to your library. If you do so, try gauging the imbalance on homosexuality resources in the library. In many libraries, there are many homosexuality-affirming books and few on the other side. To read more on Boynes, go HERE; visit her website HERE.
The following news release is by PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays):
American Library Association Asked to Condemn Banning of Ex-Gay Books
West Bend, WI — Despite public opposition, the West Bend Community Memorial Library continues to stock gay books for children and teens while neglecting books by ex-gay authors.
Many of the gay books promote homosexual behavior to youth and are the subject of protests by concerned parents, whose request to have the books moved to the adult section were denied.
SAVE THE DATE: Thurs., Sept. 17th: Please save the date of Thursday, September 17 for AFTAH’s next dinner-lecture, featuring Dr. Michael Brown (left), whose “God Has a Better Way” Gospel outreach project in Charlotte, N.C., was the main subject of this CWA interview. There will be a dinner served at 6:00 and the talk with Q&A beginning at 7:00 PM. Invite your pastor as this will be an important discussion!
Homosexual “pride” events and street fairs are growing in number and size. A number of them are also becoming increasingly risqué despite their public nature; except in Charlotte, North Carolina. There, Dr. Michael Brown and the Coalition for Conscience have been taking a stand for truth while actively and civilly reaching out to those attending the “gay” pride gathering. Just this month, 500 Christians came to Charlotte to pray, worship and share the Gospel with those at the event, and proclaim that God Has a Better Way. Dr. Brown joins Peter LaBarbera from Americans for Truth in comparing the events in San Francisco and Chicago with those in Charlotte. Listen | Download
“Coalition of Conscience” crowd of more than 500 prepares to offer Gospel witness at homosexual “pride” event in Charlotte, N.C. Their message: “God has a better way.” See www.godhasabetterway.com.
Dear Readers,
I commend to you my friend Dr. Michael Brown’s and the Coalition of Conscience’s response to the “gay pride” movement in Charlotte, N.C. In a speech last week to Reclaiming Oklahoma for Christ, I said that the appropriate Christian response to homosexual/”trans” activism and homosexual strugglers is a tightrope walk — balancing a witness for truth on the one side and the gracious love of Christ for sinners on the other. I too often fall off that tightrope, but Michael hangs on it as well as any pro-family leader I have observed in the last 20 years. (My only cautionary note is Brown’s use of the term “homophobia” [see this excellent NARTH analysis] — an artificial construct that is now so elastically defined that almost any rejection of homosexualist goals (including same-sex “marriage”) can be and is deemed “homophobic” by “gay” activists and the liberal media. That said, his point it correct: it is wrong to fear and hate men and women trapped in homosexuality — people who need God’s love and grace.)