Christian

LISTEN: CWA Interviews LaBarbera on Wheaton College Speech by Controversial Religious Leftist Jim Wallis

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

Click HERE to listen online to Concerned Women for America’s interview probing Wheaton College’s invitation to “Religious Left” icon Jim Wallis, who questions God’s description of homosexual behavior as an “abomination” and sympathetically describes homosexual activist Mel White as a “gay Christian.”  Liberal Evangelical leader Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners Magazine, spoke at Wheaton College this week. Wallis is controversial within evangelical circles because much of what he advocates runs counter to Biblical principles. Although not invited to speak on the issue, Wallis advocates civil unions and “blessing” ceremonies for homosexual couples. Matt Barber, CWA’s Policy Director for Cultural Issues, says Wallis’ biblical revisionism must be challenged. He speaks with Peter LaBarbera, President of Americans for Truth who attended the Wallis speech, and Dr. Mike Brown, Director of The Coalition of Conscience in Charlotte, North Carolina, who has debated Jim Wallis previously.

The broadcast also deals with a 2007 Wheaton panel on “HIV and Morality” that featured Harry Knox, a homosexual activist with the Human Rights Campaign who believes that his homosexuality is a “gift from God, one for which I am very grateful. And it would fly in the face of my respect for God to give that gift back.”

You can also download the broadcast by visiting CWA’s website and scrolling down to the title, “Wheaton College Hosts Controversial Speakers.”

Wheaton Parent Reflects on Inviting Religious Left Speaker Jim Wallis to College

Monday, February 25th, 2008

By Laurie Higgins 

I, as a parent of two Wheaton students, was concerned about the recent invitation by Wheaton College’s Center for Applied Christian Ethics (CACE) to Jim Wallis to speak. I was concerned in that it followed close on the heels of the appearance at CACE of Harry Knox, director of the Religion and Faith Program of the [homosexual activist organization] Human Rights Campaign (HRC), and the campus visit of Soulforce [another homosexual activist group] whose members were permitted to distribute literature on campus. Some of us who deeply love Wheaton College were, with reason, concerned that Wallis might have attempted, like Harry Knox, to efface the violation of God’s design and moral order that homosexual conduct represents. We were not only concerned about the ostensible pedagogical purposes for which Wallis was invited, but also concerned that he might deviate from those purposes to discuss homosexuality, as did Harry Knox who had been invited to discuss HIV, but moved considerably beyond the topic of HIV to discuss his own homosexuality.

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Should Christians Support Same-Sex Unions as a Matter of Justice? Dr. Michael Brown Responds to Jim Wallis

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008

dr_michael_brown.jpg Dr. Michael Brown says that Jesus Christ did not simply accept outcasts, He changed them, and that evangelical leftist Jim Wallis has “lost sight of the fact that homosexual practice is always wrong.” (Wallis today, in parrying off a question about the Biblical view of homosexuality as sinful, said, “Abomination is a pretty strong word.”) Wheaton College has invited Wallis to speak tonight to its Center for Applied Christian Ethics. TAKE ACTION: to contact Wheaton College President Duane Litfin regarding Wallis’ speech, e-mail duane.litfin@wheaton.edu. Or call and ask for President Litfin’s office during office hours at 630-752-5000.

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TAKE ACTION: we urge all those who love and appreciate Wheaton College’s great contributions to the advancement of Gospel of Jesus Christ to contact Wheaton College President Duane Litfin (duane.litfin@wheaton.edu) regarding the college’s invitation of evangelical leftist Jim Wallis as a speaker. Wallis favors homosexuals “rights” legislation including “civil unions,” and takes issue with the Biblical text of homosexual behavior as a sinful “abomination.” At the very least, you can suggest that Wheaton now invite an orthodox Christian speaker like Dr. Brown who is faithful to the Bible, to counter Wallis’ more socialist, revisionist, pro-homosexual-activist worldview. E-mail Wheaton President Duane Litfin at duane.litfin@wheaton.edu. Or call and ask for President Litfin’s office during office hours at 630-752-5000.

DETAILS ON WALLIS SPEECH: tonight (Tuesday) at Wheaton College (Billy Graham’s alma mater in Wheaton, IL): Free and open to the public, the lecture will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Kresge Room, located in the east wing of the Edman Memorial Chapel at Washington and Franklin streets in Wheaton (campus map). http://www.wheaton.edu/news/events/events_07_08/02.19.08_CaceWallis.html

The following statement (emphasis added) was issued by Dr. Michael Brown, at the request of Americans For Truth, in response to evangelical leftist Jim Wallis’ writings in favor of homosexual “civil unions” laws:

As Christians, it is only natural for us to side with the outcast, to be moved with compassion for those whom society rejects, to reach out to the marginalized and disenfranchised, just as Jesus, our Master did, setting an example for us to follow. In fact, in the words of Prof. Jeffrey Siker, many gay-affirming theologians argue that “Jesus’ merciful attitude of inclusion should be a guide to the contemporary church,” specifically with regard to the gay and lesbian community, the outcasts and marginalized of today. (See Homosexuality and Religion: An Encyclopedia.)

Left-leaning, Christian author Jim Wallis espouses a similar position, arguing in his newest book, The Great Awakening, that “justice” requires us to support (and even bless) same-sex unions. After all, many of these couples have been devoted to each other for years, yet they remain stigmatized by both the world and the church, bereft of the most basic benefits extended to married couples (from hospital visitation rights if their partner is on his or her death bed, to the ability to collect their partner’s social security payments after death). And, to add insult to injury, many of them are committed, churchgoing people. How can we harden our hearts to their plight? Surely, justice – let alone the example of Jesus – would require us to recognize their unions and fight for their “rights.” Or would it?

Having heard the stories of many such couples, it’s easy to sympathize with their pain, and certainly, they deserve our compassionate understanding, forcing us to explore issues such as hospital visitation rights and the like. But the questions remain: What would Jesus do and what would justice require?

To help jar us back to reality, consider this quote from the late John Hopkins professor, John Money:

“Pedophilia and ephebophilia [referring to sexual attraction felt by an adult toward an adolescent] are no more a matter of voluntary choice than are left-handedness or color blindness. There is no known method of treatment by which they may be effectively and permanently altered, suppressed, or replaced. Punishment is useless. . . . One must simply accept the fact that they do exist, and then, with optimum enlightenment, formulate a policy of what to do about it.”

To be sure, I am not comparing homosexuals with pedophiles, but it is striking that almost identical arguments are used by advocates of homosexual practice – just substitute the word “homosexuality” for “pedophilia” and “ephebophilia” in Dr. Money’s quote – yet we categorically reject pedophilia and ephebophilia as wrong, regardless of the claims that they are innate and immutable. On what basis, then, should we sanction same-sex unions, even monogamous, non-abusive, long-term unions? Are they not also wrong in God’s sight? Where does Scripture even hint that “abusive” same-sex relationships (such as pedophilia) are wrong but “non-abusive” ones are right?

Former American Psychological Association president and gay rights advocate Dr. Nicholas Cummings recently critiqued the APA’s endorsement of same-sex marriages, asking, “Does any serious scientist regard as evidence the following: loving relationships are mentally healthy, gay marriage is a type of loving relationship, therefore gay marriage is mentally healthy. Good grief! This statement is so elastic it could be stretched to justify polygamy, marriage to your own mother, or even your lovable pet dog.” Yet parallel arguments are now being advanced in the name of biblical justice. How can this be?

Wallis and others seem to have lost sight of the fact that homosexual practice is always wrong, representing a fundamental violation of God’s order, and they appear to have forgotten that God’s ways (which, from creation, have included male-female unions only) are always best. Yes, true justice requires us to recognize that He knows what is best for the family and for society and that His standards are ultimately in everyone’s best interest – be they heterosexual, homosexual, or other. In fact, agreeing with His standards is the path to liberation, even for those involved in same-sex relationships.

What about the fact that Jesus reached out to the disenfranchised and marginalized? To be sure, in doing so, He rebukes a lot of our stiff religiosity, a religiosity that is afraid to get its hands dirty. But let’s read the Gospels rightly: Jesus did not simply accept the outcasts, He changed them. Yes, He touched the leper, but that touch healed him. Yes, He ate with the prostitutes and tax-collectors (who were notoriously dishonest), but He didn’t encourage them to be better prostitutes and more proficient tax-collectors, He transformed their lives and brought them to repentance.

The inclusion Jesus practiced and that we must practice today is a transformational inclusion. Otherwise, we are hurting people more than we are healing them, and that is certainly not the path of justice.

Michael L. Brown holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University. He is the director of the Charlotte-based Coalition of Conscience and president of FIRE School of Ministry in Concord, North Carolina. He can be reached by phone at: 704-782-3760; and by email at: ministry@icnministries.org

Brown is involved in reaching out to the gay and lesbian community of Charlotte while at the same time working to resist the gay activist agenda, and he is a speaker for the Focus on the Family “Love Won Out” conferences, focusing on mobilizing communities for godly activism. He has produced two extensive DVD series, “Homosexuality, the Church, and Society,” and “Can You Be Gay and Christian?” and he recently debated Harry Knox, director of Religion and Faith for the (homosexual activist group) Human Rights Campaign. His book, A Queer Thing Happened to America, is scheduled for release in 2009.

Brown has preached around the world and appeared on numerous TV and radio programs, and is a published Old Testament scholar, a leading Jewish Christian apologist, and the author of twenty books. His website is: www.revolutionnow.org.

QUOTE: Jim Wallis: ‘Abomination Is a Pretty Strong Word’

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008

“Abomination is a pretty strong word.”

— Leftist evangelical writer Jim Wallis, as part of his reponse to a question by Peter LaBarbera (of Americans For Truth) on the Christian Moody Radio Network in Chicago, February 19, 2008. Wallis, who is on a book tour and is speaking tonight (Feb. 19) at Wheaton College, was asked how he reconciles his support for granting civil rights based on homosexuality —  including government-sanctioned “civil unions” — with the Bible, which calls homosexual behavior an “abomination.” Wallis says supporting “gay” rights — he opposes homosexual “marriage” — is a “justice issue.”  He said in the Moody interview that there is a debate and questions over the meaning of the word “abomination,” yet he said (correctly) that the Bible is very clear about the need to help the poor.

For clarity’s sake, here are a few major Bible translations of the Old Testament Levitical prohibition on homosexual sodomy (men having sex with men), Leviticus 18:22; click HERE for the Bible Gateway site and then you can choose whatever Bible translation you want. This is among the commandments given by God to Moses regarding unlawful sexual relations (emphasis added); as always, we remind our readers that this sin, like any sin, can be overcome and forgiven through faith in Jesus Christ (1 Cor 6:9-11):

  • You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination. (Lev. 18:22; New American Standard Bible; NASB)
  • Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. (King Jame’s Version, KJV)
  • Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. (New International Version, NIV)
  • Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman. It is a detestable sin. (New Living Translation)
  • You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. (English Standard Version, ESV)
  • It is disgusting for a man to have sex with another man. (Contemporary English Version)

Wheaton College Invites Leftist, Pro-Homosexual Evangelical Jim Wallis to Speak

Friday, February 15th, 2008

jim_wallis-2-speaking.jpg  Wheaton College speaker Jim Wallis says affirming homosexual couples is a “justice issue.” See the Wheaton  announcement here: www.wheaton.edu/news/events/events_07_08/02.19.08_CaceWallis.html

By Peter LaBarbera 

With polls showing more evangelicals — especially younger evangelicals — warming to the idea of voting Democratic (despite the party’s rigid pro-abortion-on-demand and pro-homosexuality agendas), we found this item of interest: this coming Tuesday, Wheaton College will be hostng liberal evangelical advocate Jim Wallis as a featured speaker at the college’s Center for Applied Christian Ethics (CACE). See the CACE announcement here: www.wheaton.edu/news/events/events_07_08/02.19.08_CaceWallis.html

This follows on CACE last September inviting homosexual “gay christian” activist Harry Knox to speak at a panel discussion on “HIV and Morality,” as a representative of the (traditional-Christian-bashing) homosexual activist group Human Rights Campaign. You may recall that it was Knox who, in a TV debate with CWA’s Matt Barber (watch it HERE), called his homosexuality an “unchangeable gift from God, one for which I am very grateful. And it would fly in the face of my respect for God to give that gift back.” (We insensitive Bible-thumpers at AFTAH called that “Satan’s Talking Points.”)

If I’m not mistaken, Harry talked about his relationship with his male partner at the Wheaton panel discussion, which was titled, “Thy Kingdom Come: Christian Moral Engagement in the World.” I don’t believe there was much if any critical “engagement” of Knox when he brought up his homosexual relationship. What a pity. (You can listen to the discussion by going HERE and clicking on the “HIV and Morality Panel” links; there is Part One and Part Two.)

I’m reading Wallis’ new book, “The Great Awakening” (introduction by pro-abortion-rights, pro-homosexuality Jimmy Carter), and I’m not quite sure how Wallis can square his own “applied Christian ethics” with the inspired and authoritative Word of God, which is hardly nuanced on the sin of homosexual behavior. Of course, Wallis, as a leading light of the Religious Left, has plenty of his own criticisms of us on the “Religious Right.”

It would seem appropriate that Wheaton College — as one of the most respected and Biblically faithful Christian colleges in the United States– would at the very least allow equal time for an orthodox evangelical spokesman who is more in line with Christian conservatives on moral issues– perhaps even a stellar representative like Rev. Al Mohler, who surely will not be voting for the Democrats this November.
 

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Ex-Lesbian Charlene Cothran Tells AFTAH Banquet that ‘Born Gay’ Claim Is ‘Vicious Lie’

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

Wows Americans For Truth Audience with Testimony of Leaving Behind 29 Years of Lesbianism 

charlene_cothran_aftah_banquet_1.jpg 

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Get a DVD of Cothran, Parker Speeches at AFTAH Banquet!

All proceeds will go to help the work of Americans For Truth 

To order a complete DVD (or CD) of both Charlene Cothran’s and David Parker’s outstanding talks, make an online donation of at least $25 postpaid to Americans For Truth (please use the online form to specify ‘2007 Banquet DVD’. You can substitute an audio CD but you must request this specifically. To order by regular mail, send your check or money order specifying “2007 Banquet DVD” (or CD) to: Americans For Truth, P.O. Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522. 

Bulk Orders available (all postpaid): 2 for $40; 3 for $55; 4 for $70; add $10 for each additional DVD or contact us (630-717-7631) for large bulk order pricing. 

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NOTE:  What better occasion than the homosexual activists’ misguided “National Coming Out Day” (October 11th every year) to publish Charlene Cothran’s testimony — representing a “coming out” story that we who agree with God on homosexuality can get behind? To contact Charlene, write editor@venusmagazine.org.

By Peter LaBarbera

Folks, Americans For Truth’s banquet Friday night was a wonderful event that exceeded our expectations. We packed out our banquet room at the Embassy Suites Hotel – which was actually a fallback location for our event after another hotel had abruptly cancelled our reservation – and everything went smoothly, despite the small “gay” protest outside.

(Click HERE to read about how Gay Liberation Network and other homosexual activists – obsessed as they are with smearing Americans For Truth – are now lying about our banquet numbers, saying that as few as 30 people attended our banquet (do I hear 20?…) when our room was actually packed out with more than 110 attendees.)

Our two keynote speakers, Charlene Cothran and David Parker, were riveting and held the audience in rapt attention until the evening’s end – as I have rarely seen at such an event. Charlene’s heartfelt testimony (portions of which are excerpted below) about how God drew her from her (very “successful”) lesbian lifestyle had so many wonderful lessons to teach: the faithfulness of God; the answered prayers of a faithful mother; the possibility of radical change in the life of even a longtime homosexual (Cothran had lived 29 years as a lesbian); and the need of loving Christians to reach out to homosexual strugglers trying to leave the lifestyle.

Charlene had the Americans For Truth audience laughing right off the bat when she said:

If you had told me two years ago that I would be a featured speaker at the Americans For Truth about Homosexuality banquet, I would have laughed in your face! Because I was one of those girls who would have been outside across the street with the gang trying to prevent this from happening. But God has a way of bringing us full circle, doesn’t He?  

Full circle, indeed. As a leading African-American homosexual activist and the most successful minority publisher in the “gay” world with her Venus Magazine – which she now uses to spread the Gospel of Christ Cothran once partnered with a host of homosexual activist groups to advance that cause: Human Rights Campaign (back then it was called Human Rights Campaign Fund); the National Black Gay and Lesbian Leadership Forum; the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; and PFLAG (Parents, Friends and Families of Lesbians and Gays), to name a few.

Many of those groups do everything they can to hide the truth from the public that men and women like Charlene are walking away from homosexuality.

Cothran continued:

“It was right here in Chicago … back in 2003 at a ‘gay pride’ event – out in Bryant Park, on a sunlit afternoon where I should have been the proudest lesbian out there….At any other pride event, I was always very proud to be there. … But on this day a shame fell on me, and something spoke in my spirit and said: ‘This is that road that’s leading to destruction, and you are on it.’ And it was such a loud voice that I could no longer ignore that what I was doing and how I was living was wrong.

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David Blankenhorn Affirms ‘Equal Dignity of Homosexual Love’; ‘Gay’ Activist Jonathan Rauch Applauds

Monday, September 17th, 2007

david_blankenhorn.jpg Author David Blankenhorn

By Peter LaBarbera 

David Blankenhorn of the Institute for American Values — who has done tremendous work in defending the institution of marriage and in making the case against “same-sex marriage” — has now proclaimed the “equal dignity of homosexual love.” This has earned him high praise from a leading homosexual “same-sex marriage” advocate, Jonathan Rauch. Watch their 3-minute video debate segment on “Bloggingheads.tv,” “Does opposing gay marriage make you a homophobe?” online here: http://bloggingheads.tv/video.php?id=386&cid=2311.

How utterly tragic is this pronouncement by one of the world’s leading marriage advocates — who should know better than to go out on limb on the homosexual issue, apparently in solidarity with his homosexual friends and associates. (Click HERE to read Princeton professor Robbie George’s review of Blankenhorn’s latest book, The Future of Marriage, in National Review.)

On what basis and authority does Blankenhorn make this astounding claim about homosexuality? He is part of a growing trend of prominent “conservatives” (a label which Blankenhorn rejects) and self-professed Christians who have decided that they disagree with what the Bible says about homosexuality.

At least Blankenhorn is honest enough to state openly that he disagrees with the Word of God — most people at his level are not, preferring to play a double-game of proclaiming their fealty to Biblical truth, reason and tradition while actually undermining them all. On page 210 of The Future of Marriage, Blankenhorn writes:

“I am a Christian, I take the Bible seriously, and I know what the Bible says about homosexuality. I disagree with the Bible on this point. Or if you’ll permit me, I believe that Jesus’ teachings are inconsistent with the idea that today in the United States we should judge people as blameworthy just for being gay or lesbian.”

That puts Blankenhorn’s latest statements on homosexual “love” in perspective. Let’s hope and pray that he returns to truth on this issue, and that his friend Jonathan Rausch leaves homosexuality behind.

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MUST SEE VIDEO: Charlene Cothran Overcomes Homosexuality: Come See Her in Chicago on Friday, Oct. 5

Wednesday, September 12th, 2007

charlene_cothran_venus_mag.jpg

Folks, you hear a lot of bad news these days, but here’s some very good news: men and women are leaving homosexuality and living a life in line with God’s moral precepts — not in rebellion against them. Click this “700 Club” link to watch a wonderful video segment about how God drew Charlene Cothran OUT of the homosexual activist movement. Cothran, who went from “gay” activist to Christian evangelist, will be speaking at Americans For Truth’s banquet on Friday, October 5, in Lombard, Illinois, outside Chicago. See below or click HERE for more details and how to sign up online.

I hope you can come hear Charlene on Oct. 5, and Massachusetts father David Parker, who is battling the dangerous homosexual pressure campaign to indoctrinate young schoolchildren in pro-homosexuality viewpoints — without their parents’ knowledge. This banquet will educate you with not one but two of the most compelling speakers in the world on the homosexual issue — and I promise that it will energize you in the fight for truth for the coming year. In the process, you will be supporting AFTAH’s mission of answering the lies of the “GLBT” (that’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender) movement, with information that the Political Correct media will not give you.

How to Sign Up for the Oct. 5 Banquet

Seats are filling up, so sign up today. You can do so using a VISA or MasterCard on our new Online Donations page HERE, or send a check for $50/seat (table of 10 for $500) to:

Americans For Truth
ATTN: Banquet Coordinator
P.O. Box 5522
Naperville, IL 60567-5522

You can also sign up using Paypal or your American Express or Discover card HERE. Call 312-315-6152 to place a credit order by phone or get more information.

One more thing: please consider buying a ticket for your pastor or priest to come to the banquet, and make arrangements for your teenage children, grandchildren, or their friends, to come. Many pastors are ignorant about these matters, or too timid to discuss them effectively from the pulpit. And so many young people these days are believing the lie that people are “born gay,” and that’s “who they are.” But in the case of Charlene, “being gay” is who she WAS.

Homosexuality is a changeable behavior, not a “proud,” inborn identity. Young people need to see real, live men and women who have overcome same-sex desires — to strengthen their faith in God, and help them to share this heartwarming truth with their peers.

So bring a teenager or college student to this banquet on Friday, October 5 to help inoculate them against pro-homosexual professors in college and against a pop culture that celebrates sexual experimentation and denigrates Biblical morality.

Watch this video about Charlene Cothran. Note how God turned her “pride” into shame: her transformation began when she felt ashamed at a “gay pride” event for African Americans, in Chicago! At the end of the video you can watch Pat Robertson’s heartfelt prayer for people caught up in homosexual sin. I don’t see any “hate” in this man who so many liberals love to … hate. Nope, instead I see the love of Christ for people who are going down the wrong road of homosexuality. In fact, none of the people of faith I know “hates” homosexuals; we simply disagree with them and want them to know the that same indescribable joy that lights up Charlene’s face, as you can watch on the video!

Charlene tells me that part of her new life is meeting all the pro-family leaders like Pat Robertson — people she once despised as a homosexual activist — and learning that they are kind-hearted folk who just believe the Bible and sincerely want men and women to find freedom through Jesus Christ.

It is a privilege to welcome Charlene back to Chicago, and this time without that sense of shame! I hope you can join me in hearing her God-glorifying testimony of COMING OUT … from homosexuality. See below or sign up online HERE, or CLICK THIS LINK for more information on the Oct. 5 banquet.

God bless you,

Peter LaBarbera

Americans For Truth

“Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.  Let all that you do be done in love.”  (1 Corinthians 16:13-14)

How to Sign Up for the Oct. 5 Banquet

Use your VISA or MasterCard on our new Online Donations page HERE, or send a check for $50/seat (table of 10 for $500) to:

Americans For Truth
ATTN: Banquet Coordinator
P.O. Box 5522
Naperville, IL 60567-5522

You can also sign up using Paypal or your American Express or Discover card HERE. Call 312-315-6152 to place a credit order by phone or get more information.


Support Americans for Truth about Homosexuality

Americans For Truth
P.O. Box 340743
Columbus, OH 43234

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