Meanwhile, others credit God with helping them overcome homosexuality

Ray Boltz back when he was not publicly defying God’s Word. The Christian artist and father of four now says being homosexual “is the way God made me.” 

By Peter LaBarbera

Last week, I was at the Family Research Council’s “Values Voter Summit” in Washington, D.C., where I was struck by how many former homosexuals I encountered in the space of a three day visit. I had breakfast with my good friend Jim, who is happily married and has left homosexuality so far behind that he told me he can barely believe that was how he once lived.

Then there was Anthony Falzarano, a veteran former homosexual who is out with a new book about his life, And Such Were Some of You. (Anthony — who has attended the funerals of many homosexual friends from his old life — was accompanied by his beautiful daughter Mary Victoria, who is alive today because he stopped living the “gay” lie.)

And I met Anthony Glover, an African American man whose road to overcoming homosexuality was solidified by a scary experience of almost committing sodomy with a homosexual man who was HIV-positive. (Yes, some homosexual men intentionally try to infect others with HIV.)

Also stopping at our Americans For Truth booth at the FRC summit was Grace Harley, a former (female-to-male) “transgender” who is now a Christian advocating for healthy change in Maryland.

Amidst all this, I picked up a copy of The Washington Blade, D.C.’s main homosexual newspaper, only to find a long story on former Christian Gospel singer Ray Boltz, who has sold out Jesus by embracing a false “gay” identity after living a life as a married family man. (Self-styled “queer” activists will say that Boltz was living a lie, but his four children do not owe their existence to a “gay” lifestyle.) I read the entire Blade story, but all you really need to know is in the final paragraph:

“This is what it really comes down to,” [Boltz] says. “If this is the way God made me , then this is the way I’m going to live. It’s not like God made me this way and he’ll send me to hell if I am who he created me to be … I really feel closer to God because I no longer hate myself.”

Wow, talk about presumption! This talented man is lost and he needs our prayers. Boltz may “feel” closer to God, but if you believe the Scriptures, he’s farther than ever from Him. We understand that the radical “gay” movement exalts its collective “feelings” over the Bible’s clear teaching — and certainly they are not alone in that regard — but each of us must choose between the truth and lies every day, and homosexual behavior is egregiously sinful, according to God’s Word. (See www.robgagnon.net if you are tempted to rationalize away the Bible’s clear condemnation of homosexual practice.) You just can’t sugarcoat that verdict, although these days even many Christians try.

Biblical love balances compassion and condemnation of sin

The following talk, “God’s Plan for the Gay Agenda,” was given by John MacArthur on his Christian radio program Grace to You (copyright 2004; all rights reserved). We will post more of MacArthur’s teachings and those of other Christian leaders in the future. This 2004 sermon — even more applicable today than it was fours years ago — was posted on the Bible Bulletin Board by Tony Capoccia. Emphasis is added below:

God’s Plan for the Gay Agenda

By John MacArthur

If you’ve been watching the headlines over the past six months, you may have noticed the incredible surge of interest in affirming homosexuality. Whether it’s at the heart of a religious scandal, political corruption, radical legislation, or the redefinition of marriage, homosexual interests have come to characterize America. That’s an indication of the success of the gay agenda. But sadly, when people refuse to acknowledge the sinfulness of homosexuality—calling evil good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20)—they do so at the expense of many souls, perhaps even their own.

How should you respond to the success of the gay agenda? Should you accept the recent trend toward tolerance? Or should you side with those who exclude homosexuals and decry the sin? The Bible calls for a balance between what some people think are two opposing reactions—condemnation and compassion. Really, the two together are essential elements of biblical love, and that’s something the homosexual desperately needs.

Homosexual advocates have been remarkably effective in selling their warped interpretations of passages in Scripture that address homosexuality. When you ask a homosexual what the Bible says about homosexuality—and many of them know—they have digested an interpretation that is not only warped, but also completely irrational. Pro-homosexual arguments from the Bible are nothing but smokescreens—as you come close, you see right through them.

‘Gay’ groups condemn Bush for giving general Presidential Medal of Freedom

“General Pace did nothing wrong in stating his moral and religious opposition to homosexual acts as immoral….Pace also said adultery is wrong, and yet I don’t see two ‘pro-adultery’ organizations out condemning him.” –Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth

Here is more evidence of the sheer hatred that fanatical homosexual activists have for Judeo-Christian teachings on sex. Gen. Peter Pace’s “crime”? He affirmed the historic teachings of his Catholic faith that homosexual sex is immoral. You’d have to be blind or brainwashed not to see the goal of homosexual militants: intimidate good people and especially public servants into silence on the moral question of homosexual practice. AFTAH is mentioned in the following Cybercast News Service article, “Homosexual Activists Oppose Medal for Retired General,” excerpted below:

Homosexual Activists Oppose Medal for Retired General
By Randy Hall
CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor
June 19, 2008

(CNSNews.com) – Two homosexual advocacy groups are criticizing the decision to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to retired General Peter Pace. He’ll be honored on Thursday.

“Honoring General Pace with the country’s highest civilian award is outrageous, insensitive and disrespectful to the 65,000 lesbian and gay troops currently serving on active duty in the armed forces,” said Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), in a news release on Wednesday. …

“Honoring General Pace for using his personal prejudice to meddle with military matters is just plain wrong,” PFLAG [Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays] added. “There should be no medal for bigotry and intolerance.”

Folks, in many ways I think Michael Savage is one of the freest voices in America. He talks boldly about things — e.g., America’s moral rot — that even other “conservative talkers” handle with politically correct euphemisms and timid, secular-based “spin.” (Some leading conservative talk show hosts refuse to confront the “gay” activist juggernaut, ro do so only on the margins — whatever happened to “conserving” our Judeo-Christian sexual ethic?) The item below is by “Media Matters,” which produces an astonishing amount of media criticism, most of it advancing left-wing agendas, including government-enforced acceptance of homosexuality.

Savage is not a Christian — I once heard a fascinating interview he did with the late Jerry Falwell in which he respectfully disagreed with the Gospel — but in many respects he puts Christians to shame with his frank truth-telling about our American culture, which is on life-support, morally and religiously speaking. In a country where even self-professed evangelical Christian leaders and Catholic bishops are now joining the “gay-positive” bandwagon (see this item on evangelicals Tony and Peggy Campolo, and this one ), sometimes it takes an outsider to tell the hard truths. One of those truths is that pro-homosexual activists have indeed invade the schools and youth culture (MTV is now a “gaycame in and indoctrinated a nation of children in a couple of generations, while mom and dad were at work saving up for their plasma TVs.

You can contact Savage here:

Michael Savage Is Right — Children’s Minds Are Being Raped by the Homosexual Mafia

Savage: “The children’s minds are being raped by the homosexual mafia”
http://mediamatters.org/items/200806180005

Responding to a caller who said, “I had to explain to my young son why these two men were holding hands the other day,” radio host Michael Savage stated, during the June 16 broadcast of The Savage Nation, “You’ve got to explain to the children … why God told people this was wrong.” He went on to say, “You have to explain this to them in this time of mental rape that’s going on. The children’s minds are being raped by the homosexual mafia, that’s my position. They’re raping our children’s minds.”

During a discussion about gay marriage with a previous caller, Savage said: “It’s not a joke when you pervert an institution like marriage, which is in trouble enough. It’s not a joke.” He added, “Our children are being destroyed by this.” He went on to say of gay marriage, “It’s a very important story. The children don’t know what to make of it. Children nine, 10 are saying, ‘I’m gay.’ They don’t know what it even means.” He added: “It’s a giant propaganda machine trying to pervert children.”

Talk Radio Network, which syndicates Savage’s show, claims that Savage is heard on more than 350 radio stations. The Savage Nation reaches at least 8.25 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it one of the most listened-to talk radio shows in the nation, behind only The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Sean Hannity Show.

From the June 16 edition of Talk Radio Network’s The Savage Nation:

SAVAGE: San Francisco, Tina, welcome to The Savage Nation.

CALLER: Well, you make a really good point, Michael, and you have a great show, but I still think that you’re not wise in being so adamant about these gay marriages. What difference does it make what they do? You’re going to work yourself to a big heart attack like Tim Russert and —

SAVAGE: No, I won’t work myself into a big heart attack. I’ll tell you why: because the truth will set me free. It always has.

CALLER: But —

SAVAGE: Aren’t you tired of the propaganda that every newspaper you pick up today shows old, ugly women getting married?

CALLER: Well, as a matter of fact, yes, I think that should be a private thing. But I also think —

SAVAGE: Well, why do you suppose every newspaper in America is showing this story?

CALLER: They have an agenda, of course, but still —

SAVAGE: Well, I have an obligation as a social commentator to say enough is enough, I’ve had enough of it. Just as I had enough of the Tim Russert worship on Friday. I had enough of it. I had enough of Obama a year ago — he looks like Alfred E. Neuman to me.

CALLER: It’s a joke, whether you’re gay or straight, it’s mostly a joke, but the thing is we don’t want you to get all —

SAVAGE: It’s not a joke when you steal an institution as fragile as marriage and you pervert it with a mockery. It’s not a joke. It’s not a joke when you pervert an institution like marriage, which is in trouble enough. It’s not a joke. Our children are being destroyed by this.

CALLER: Well —

SAVAGE: I disagree with you totally. It’s a very important story. The children don’t know what to make of it. Children nine, 10 are saying, “I’m gay.” They don’t know what it even means. It’s a giant propaganda machine trying to pervert children. That’s my opinion.

Monterrey, California. Tom, what’s you’re opinion?

CALLER: Yes, I’m calling from the People’s Republic of Monterrey, and I had to explain to my young son why these two men were holding hands the other day and he said, “Dad, didn’t they say that that’s wrong in the Bible?” And I said, “Yes, they did, and yes it’s wrong” and yes to everything that he had to say about it. And I told him, I said, “That’s the wrongest thing you’ve ever seen besides the rest of the politicians and the media and CNBC.” Because —

SAVAGE: You’ve got to try to explain to the children why the — why God told people this was wrong. You’ve got to explain to them, to the children, how it twists everything. Just take them down to a duck pond and show them a boy duck and a girl duck and then show the ducklings and say to them, “There must be a boy duck and a girl duck for there to be babies.” It’s the same with a dog, puppies come from a mother duck — a mother pup, a mother dog. There needs to be a boy dog and a girl dog. You have to explain this to them in this time of mental rape that’s going on. The children’s minds are being raped by the homosexual mafia, that’s my position. They’re raping our children’s minds.

CALLER: I’m not buying into it, which is — I found was pretty neat, but, hey I enjoy your show, keep —

SAVAGE: Well, good, unless somebody else does. Well, OK, you don’t care about it. To me it matters. To me it matters. It’s just that the media is afraid of them or owned by them, and everyone’s catering to them. It’s like catering to Al Sharpton. You see the story that came out on him? You haven’t seen the story all over the media? Can’t report it, why? Because he’s not a white man? So suddenly he’s allowed to do things to companies like Jesse Jackson did for years — without producing a product or a service? Just by threatening a boycott, they give him money? Well there was a name for it when Al Capone was around. I guess that’s gone, gone with the wind, everyone’s afraid in the corporate world, plus it’s not their money anyway. They’re not playing with their money, they’re playing with your money. So the CEOs who run the companies do whatever they want to do with the money including buying off potential boycotts.

Homosexual activist Mel White and his group Soulforce seek to combat “religious homophobia” (read: overturn the Christian Church’s historic understanding that homosexual acts are sinful). Michael Brown argues in the Point/Counterpoint essay below that church meetings with Soulforce and other homosexual activists can be productive, partly by showing that Christians can “talk civilly with those who differ with us.”

This is a Point/Counterpoint debate on the question of whether Willow Creek Community Church (in South Barrington, Illinois) and other mega-churches should have met with the pro-homosexual activist group Soulforce, which aims to “cut off homophobia at its source – religious bigotry.” Our friend Dr. Michael Brown argues that such meetings can be used — with proper discernment — for Christian outreach and to dispel false notions that the Church harbors a “phobia” toward homosexuals. Click here for Sonja Dalton’s commentary expressing the opposite point of view: “Willow Creek Church Should Not Have Met with Soulforce.”

We will allow each writer to respond to the other’s arguments, and we welcome input from our readers, too; write us at americansfortruth@comcast.net. (Sorry, but we’re not interested in publishing pro-homosexuality pieces — there are plenty of “gay” websites for that.) You may write Brown or Dalton through the AFTAH website or by e-mailing americansfortruth@comcast.net:

_____________________________

By Michael L. Brown, Ph.D.

Point/Counterpoint [click HERE for an opposing viewpoint by Sonja Dalton]

There are a number of good reasons why Christian leaders have refused to meet with Soulforce delegations, including:

1. Soulforce leaders use these meetings for their own purposes, putting their particular spin on the meeting for the media;
2. Soulforce sets its own agenda, and Christian leaders are under no obligation to go along with that agenda;
3. Since the Soulforce leaders claim to be Christians, welcoming them could be in violation of injunctions such as 1 Cor 5:9-13 and 2 John 10-11;
4. Despite the ongoing requests for dialogue, it can be doubted whether Soulforce is truly interested in hearing what our side has to say;
5. We are damned if we do meet and damned if we don’t, since if we do meet, we are accused of softening our stance against homosexual practice; if we don’t meet, we are painted as bigots. Why then even entertain Soulforce’s request to meet?

In light of such concerns, many Christian leaders have declined to meet with Soulforce delegations, and I certainly respect their decisions. Indeed, this is often the path of wisdom. It can be argued, however, that under certain circumstances, meetings with Soulforce leaders can be biblically based as well as used for positive gospel purposes.

This lesbian couple traveling with Soulforce — the “Rasmus-Ford family” — says, “God created us [as lesbians] exactly as we are with purpose and intention.” Should mega-churches like Willow Creek have agreed to meet with a homosexual activist group whose goal is to “cut off homophobia at its source – religious bigotry”? Sonja Dalton (below) says NO and Michael Brown says YES (under certain conditions).

This is a Point/Counterpoint on the question of whether Willow Creek Community Church (in South Barrington, Illinois) and other mega-churches should have met with the pro-homosexual activist group Soulforce, which aims to “cut off homophobia at its source – religious bigotry.” Below is a commentary by my good friend Sonja Dalton, who argues AGAINST such meetings. Click HERE to read an opposing column by Dr. Michael Brown, who says they can be used — with proper discernment — for Christian outreach.

We will allow each writer to respond to the other’s arguments, and welcome input from our readers, too; write us at americansfortruth@comcast.net. (Sorry, but we’re not interested in publishing pro-homosexuality pieces — there are plenty of “gay” websites for that.) Footnotes are at bottom:

_______________________________

Willow Creek Church Should Not Have Met with Soulforce

Point/Counterpoint [to read Michael Brown’s opposing column, click HERE]

By Sonja Dalton

A fundamental question has been lost amid the sensation over the recent meeting between Willow Creek leadership and pro-homosexuality activists affiliated with the group Soulforce:

Did Pastor Bill Hybels have Biblical authority to welcome, meet with, and dine with Jay Bakker and Soulforce?

First, let’s examine who these Willow Creek “guests” [1] were…

Jay Bakker (right) is the cigarette-puffing, tattooed, punk-rocker son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker; he’s the star of the Sundance Channel series “One Punk Under God” and “pastor” of the “gay”-affirming Revolution NYC [2]. He is quoted as having said:

“…I felt like God spoke to my heart and said ‘[homosexuality] is not a sin.’” [3]

(You might want to pencil that into your Bible, somewhere near Leviticus 18:22 or I Corinthians 6:9-11. Or not.)

Americans For Truth Press Release
www.americansfortruth.org

Contact: Peter LaBarbera: 630-717-7631.

TAKE ACTION: Contact WTTW online or through their main switchboard at 773-583-5000; ask for WTTW CEO/President is Dan Schmidt and/or Programming Director Dan Soles. Or you can call WTTW’s “Member Services” phone number at 773-509-1111, ext. 6 (between 9-5:00 Central); hit “6” and you will get a live person; kindly communicate your opposition to WTTW’s pro-homosexual programming and the blatant anti-Christian bigotry that is part of it. Click HERE to find the PBS TV station in your area to check if they are engaged in the same “Gay Pride Month” biased programming and let us know what you find: americansfortruth@comcast.net.

__________________________________

AFTAH Condemns WTTW, PBS for Airing Anti-Christian Programming Celebrating Homosexuality During ‘Gay Pride Month’

NAPERVILLE, Illinois — Americans For Truth President Peter LaBarbera today accused the Chicago public TV station WTTW, and by extension the Public Broadcasting System, of using taxpayer monies to celebrate homosexuality and worse, air programs that displays flagrant anti-religious bigotry during “Gay Pride Month.”

“It is unconscionable that WTTW would show such blatant disregard for its faith- and tradition-minded viewers that it would use anti-Christian programs celebrating homosexuality for its fund-raising telethons,” LaBarbera said. “Public television must be impartial on controversial moral issues. We call on WTTW and PBS to balance their pro-homosexual programming with faith-based educational material from the other side, or stop it altogether.”

Last night (and apparently on June 1), WTTW used the documentary, “The Power of Harmony,” featuring the Dallas-based Turtle Creek Chorale, as a fund-raiser. It included:

• The homosexual men’s choir singing the song, “I Ain’t Afraid,” which contains the following refrain denigrating faithful Christians, Jews and Muslims: “I ain’t afraid of your Yahweh, I ain’t afraid of your Allah, I ain’t afraid of your Jesus, I’m afraid of what you do in the name of your God”;
• Repeated assertions that God made homosexuals that way and that portray Christians who disagree as hateful, ignorant or prejudiced. Said one homosexual man’s mother: “God created homosexuality. It’s just part of a person.” Historic Christian teaching holds that homosexual acts are sinful but that this behavior pattern – like other sinful lifestyles – can be overcome through faith in Christ;
• Testimonies by bitter “gay” men who despise and attack the religion of their upbringing because it does not sanction their lifestyle;
• A homosexual male couple adopting a Guatemalan baby.

Willow Creek Community Church’s chief of security (the man pointing and talking to police in the photo) became belligerent as he tried to deny Americans For Truth our First Amendment freedom to stand on a public sidewalk outside the entrance to the church grounds. Police informed him that he was wrong and that indeed we could stand with our banner on a public sidewalk. Our message responding to the homosexual activist (non-) “christian” group Soulforce was: “Homosexuality Is Sin. Case Closed — God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). Photo: Dan Musick.

NOTE: we’ll have more on the Willow Creek-Soulforce story in upcoming posts. The following was posted on the Chicago Tribune religion reporter Manya Brachear’s blog, “The Seeker,” which contains a report on Willow Creek’s meeting last weekend with Soulforce homosexual activists.

By Peter LaBarbera

I wonder: is transcendent truth conditional on the age of the person receiving it? Either homosexual behavior is a changeable sin or it is not — 1,000 years ago, today, and 1,000 years in the future. The Word of God is clear that it is. I have met far too many EX-gays to believe that homosexuality is some fixed identity (“orientation”) into which people are born — and most of these FORMER gay men and ex-lesbians testify to the power of Jesus Christ in setting them free from homosexuality.