“To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the Lord is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it.” — Jeremiah 6:10

Spending time reading Scripture (and I don’t spend near the time I should), helps one gain perspective on what truly ails the United States of America. Of all our problems, America’s godlessness and our defiance of biblical Truth (coupled with biblical illiteracy) is our most serious. In many quarters, we have moved from apathy toward the Word of God to utter contempt for it (think: “gay pastors”). We think we’re smarter than God, but we’re not, and our foolish pride will bring us to ruin if we don’t humble ourselves as a nation and repent.

Our national immorality is merely a symptom of a much deeper problem: our rebellion against God. Any nation that glorifies sin tempts God’s holy and righteous judgment. But the very ideas of sin and judgment are ridiculed by the secularists (on Left and Right) who have gained considerable sway over our politics and culture in the U.S. But look back in American history: our leaders feared God and called Americans to repent. (See President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Proclamation “Appointing a Day of National Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer”; can you even imagine Obama doing that?)

Here is a photo from Iowa by Markel Peters. Isn’t it beautiful? Consider it a representation of God and Country. The day (April 3, 2009) that homosexual “marriage” (so-called) was imposed on the people of Iowa — smack in the middle of America’s heartland — was a huge victory for those waging war against godly values (and hence against God) in our nation. Linking the divine institution of marriage to the perversion of homosexuality, and then pretending that these “unions” can achieve God’s blessing, is nothing short of blasphemy on steroids. Domesticated Sin is still sin. No wonder the God-defying Left was ecstatic to see such a uniquely “queer” agenda take hold in the Midwest, once known for its biblical ethos and common sense. [More commentary after photo; click on photo to view enlarged]

As with other issues, the homosexuality debate often pits Urban versus Rural America. Rural America possesses wisdom, tradition and respect for the Bible — while Urban Liberals (and Libertarians), with their haughty irreverence and “tolerance” for radical sexual and gender ideologies, fancy themselves open-minded sophisticates. (Of course, experience tells us that left-wingers and homosexual activists are among the most intolerant and close-minded of all people — witness their irrational and hateful reactions to happy ex-“gays” — but that’s another story.)

Modern liberalism is a “religion,” but one whose “priests rule by their own authority,” not God’s — and its practitioners (both secular and religious) “love it this way” (Jeremiah 5:31). On the homosexual front, a vast array of Religious Left activists are now promoting “gay marriage” and the acceptance of homosexuality as not sinful and even a moral good. Evil is repackaged as good (Isaiah 5:20) as we are told that homosexual “orientation” is a “gift from God” (see my “Satan’s Talking Points” piece). I love American ingenuity, but not when it is applied to rationalizing sin.

How do we respond? Christians must lay hold of the authority of Scripture and preach it to a nation of sinners who are so distracted and out of touch with God that they are ignorant of their own peril. The antidote to pride is going back to biblical basics, preaching the life-changing Gospel of Jesus Christ, the “hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). The antidote to secular cynicism and hate is the Love of God, embodied in the same Christ who requires our humility to accept His gift and be saved:

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) 

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

[See God’s wonderful plan of salvation HERE.]

Just like the corn that comes up year after year in America’s Heartland, we too will reap what we sow as a nation. Christians who are sold out uncompromisingly to biblical truth may emerge as a small minority in this country, but they will be the only minority that holds the key to the restoration of our great nation. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; americansfortruth@gmail.com

This is how the Left takes over institutions: inept Army misconstrues “God Hates Fags” message with American Family Association’s Christian opposition to homosexuality

U.S. Army Smears Christian Americans: In this chilling photo acquired by Fox News reporter Todd Starnes, you can see the U.S. Army instructor’s slide with “American Family Association” (AFA) at the top. On the photo accompanying it is a sign reading, “No Special Laws for Fags,” from one of the Westboro Baptist Church’s notorious protests. AFA, like AFTAH and every major Christian pro-family group, has denounced Westboro and its unChristian message. See AFA’s video responding to the Army’s smear below. Photo: Fox News.

TAKE ACTION: Call or write your U.S. Congressman and Senators and demand a congressional investigation into the Obama administration’s use of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s spurious “hate” propaganda in the military and other government agencies to smear God-fearing Americans as “domestic haters.” For the House, call 202-225-3121; for the Senate, call 202-224-3121. Or write through the Contacting the Congress website.

By Peter LaBarbera

With all the efficiency of the U.S. Post Office, the United States Army and Armed Forces under Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama are working to redefine Christian and religious traditionalists who oppose homosexuality as “haters.” This story about an Army instructor’s woefully inaccurate “lesson” labeling both American Family Association and Family Research Council “domestic hate groups,” was broken by Fox News’ Todd Starnes. It is chilling: note in the photo above that accompanies the Fox story you can see on the Army instructor’s slide with a Westboro Baptist Church protester holding a patented WBC sign with the word “Fags” on it. And note the heading on the slide: American Family Association.

As AFA’s Tim Wildmon and Bryan Fischer explain in the video below, no Christian ministry uses the derogatory term “Fags,” and AFA, FRC — and AFTAH and a bunch of other pro-family organizations — all have denounced Fred Phelps’ and Westboro’s bizarre “God Hates Fags” message and tactics.

Reports Starnes on FoxNews.com:

Several dozen U.S. Army active duty and reserve troops were told last week that the American Family Association, a well-respected Christian ministry, should be classified as a domestic hate group because the group advocates for traditional family values.

The briefing was held at Camp Shelby in Mississippi and listed the AFA alongside domestic hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazis, the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam.

This is what happens when the Left starts taking over institutions: they go after their enemies in the service of a warped ideology. And Truth, in this case, Judeo-Christian (Biblical) truth about homosexuality, and its defenders are the enemy. Wildmon is right: the evil, far-left Southern Poverty Law Center — with its preposterous, contrived “Hate Map” smearing conservative pro-family groups across the USA as somehow comparable to the KKK — is the source of this contemptible demonization of moral Americans. (Note that AFTAH is among the groups smeared as a “hate group” by the SPLC.) The SPLC and like-minded Cultural Marxists have their hooks in the Obama administration, and that translates into the de facto “Criminalization of Christianity,” to quote Janet Porter’s book by the same name.

When you adopt the philosophical position that opposition to homosexual behavior (a perversion and a sin) is morally analogous to racist bigotry, the result is this brand of crass ideological subversion. The Pentagon — which as AFTAH predicted is becoming the world’s largest “gay advocacy” organization under Obama and the “progressives” — now sees as one of its roles rooting out “anti-gay bigotry” among the troops. Here’s the problem: racism and homosexualism (proud homosexual advocacy and conduct) are both sins; opposing either of them is not. In fact, opposing sin and offering the redemption of the Gospel for it is a righteous act.

In essence then, the Pentagon under Obama and the Democrats are at war with Nature and Nature’s God [see America’s charter, the Declaration of Independence] — for God through Scripture has declared homosexual practice as sinful (yet changeable; see 1 Corinthians 6:9). (And Nature confirms this verdict shared by other major religions, as seen in the confluence of disease and homosexual sex.) Using your tax dollars, the U.S. Armed Forces are working hand-in-hand with Secular Left extremists to corrupt the morals and minds of our men and women in uniform — no matter what self-righteous, SPLC-spoon-fed rationalizations they employ to justify their mendacious “state propaganda.”

Take a look once more at the chilling photo above. Is this what we’ve been reduced to in Year 237 of the noble American experiment? Army soldiers being forced to surreptitiously report the anti-Christian bigotry of their superiors — and their own government — to the outside world? State bureaucrats mislabeling patriotic, Christian organizations like AFA — representing many millions of God-fearing Americans — as “domestic hate groups”?

The pro-homosexual Left has declared all-out ideological war on faith-based Americans who adhere to the historical, Judeo-Christian truth that homosexual acts are wrong and against God’s will. “Religious Left” activists are mobilizing their tremendous resources to advance the lie that homosexuality (sexual sin) and Christianity are compatible. (Homosexual “orientation” is now labeled a “gift from God” in one modern manifestation of Isaiah 5:20.) A Christian pastor and advocate, Scott Lively, who loves homosexuals enough to tell them the truth (that their sin struggle is not their identity) is accused in an international lawsuit of “Crimes Against Humanity,” and a Democrat-appointed judge allows the case to proceed.

Everywhere, it seems, truth is under assault, and we who love the truth must fight back or we will lose these United States of America in a rising tide of leftist tyranny. We must not let the God-rejecting Secular Left take over the country we love. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

Here is AFA’s video response to this latest Obama administration outrage [read full Starnes story HERE]:

Writes ChurchMilitant.TV: “Catholic investigative journalist and author, Randy Engel, joins Michael Voris of ChurchMilitant.TV to talk about her landmark book The Rite of Sodomy. Over the course of 1,300 pages and 3,000 footnotes, Engel explains the immensity of the homosexual subculture that has hijacked the Roman Catholic Church.” This program (“Mic’d up”) aired September 20, 2013.

Editor’s Note: I highly recommend Randy Engel’s book for any serious student of the organized homosexuality (“gay”) movement. I am not even a third of the way through it but already I have benefited tremendously from Randy’s insights and research. There is MUCH information in this book that homosexual activists and their allies do not want you to know! I also appeared as a guest on Michael Voris’ “Mic’d Up” program September 25th (2013) to discuss my America’s Survival report on Fox News’ pro-homosexual bias. We will post that video when it is available. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

Buy The Rite of Sodomy:
http://newengelpublishing.com/

Watch ChurchMilitant.TV’s investigative documentary on homosexuality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcmKHq…

Is the pope using language that is easily exploited by the aggressive Sin Movement that calls itself “gay”? Read his full interview HERE.

Dear AFTAH Readers,

Americans For Truth About Homosexuality works closely with conservative Catholics from across the nation, indeed the world, in opposition to the homosexual activist movement. It is my experience that wherever the Catholic Church still has influence, if the Church or its leaders takes a strong stand against pro-“gay” legislation, the bills usually fail — but if Church leaders compromise on doctrine or go AWOL (public policy-speaking), homosexual activists triumph.

Having said that, I acutely recognize — from my perspective as an evangelical (who was raised Catholic) — that there has always been a “friendly distrust” or competition between ministry and the defense of morality. Between Christians who believe that the primary role of believers is compassionate Gospel outreach to lost homosexuals — and “culture war” Christians who (although also loving the Gospel) see religious traditionalists as a crucial force resisting the Sin Movement of homosexuality that so profoundly threatens our culture.

In this context we ponder the meaning and ramifications of Pope Francis’ new rhetoric on homosexuality. Below we reprint portions of an article from our good friends at LifeSiteNews — a Catholic pro-life, pro-family news site and one of the top social conservative websites in the world — on Pope Francis’ much-discussed interview released yesterday [available HERE or as a PDF document HERE]. We note LifeSite’s apprehensive take that:

“Most major media are reporting the statements [by Pope Francis] as a direct challenge to the Church’s way of operating on the moral issues. The comments are very different from those of his two predecessors.”

Yesterday, I sent out the following cautionary tweet in response to the pope’s comments — both in the new interview and a previous one — about the Church being more “welcoming” and less judgmental toward homosexuals:

The tragic reality is that a lack of proper moral “judgments” toward and vigilance regarding homosexually-inclined priest candidates contributed greatly to the horrifying homosexual-predator crisis that has so devastated the Catholic Church. This was exacerbated by liberals such as Milwaukee’s notorious homosexual Archbishop Rembert Weakland (see my report for America’s Survival on Fox News’ pro-“gay” bias).

I dare say that a more sinister plot to undermine the Catholic Church and its reputation could not have been carried out had Satan’s earthly minions spent $100 million devising one:

1. Homosexual men take advantage of more lax standards to enter priesthood.
2. Homosexual priests and male Catholic school officials use their authoritative role to seduce and molest mostly male teenagers and boys.
3. Homosexuals like then-Archbishop Weakland and their sympathizers in the Church cover up priest abuses and transfer predators to new, unsuspecting parishes, where they molest more boys.
4. The homosexual-predator scandal blows up in the media — alienating millions of Catholics from the Church and doing untold damage to its reputation and moral, spiritual and political influence.
5. Homosexuals and liberal allies who advocate for acceptance of homosexuality turn around and say Church is now discredited because it harbored “pedophiles.” Meanwhile, Church officials resist full disclosure of the scandal, thus perpetuating it.
6. Lastly, “gay” activists and their liberal allies continue to insist that the male-on-boy priest abuse scandal has little or nothing to do with homosexuals — but rather was a “pedophile” or “ephebophile” (adult who is sexual attracted to adolescents) problem.

My hunch is that each and every one of those complicit Church apologists for homosexuality, like Weakland, would consider himself “more compassionate” and “more Christ-like” than “anti-gay Catholics” who have been scandalized by the homosexualist advances in their Church. Such is the arrogance of liberals. This despite the untold suffering of boys victimized by sexual deviants masquerading as pastoral guardians of others’ souls. (See Catholic writer Randy Engel’s Rite of Sodomy: Homosexuality and the Catholic Church — one of the best books ever written on homosexuality — and Leon Podles‘ Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church [available through AFTAH; see below to order].)

I will be appearing as a guest for five consecutive programs on “Faith & Freedom,” the online TV program of Liberty Counsel, a leading defender of Christian liberty in the United States. Here is the first of my five-part interview with Matt Barber, Vice President of Liberty Counsel Action (and an AFTAH Board Member). We discuss the Left’s latest effort to subvert biblical Christianity, Dan Savage’s NALT (Not All Like That) campaign. Along with the extremist Savage, NALT is co-sponsored by a number of pro-homosexual organizations, including “Truth Wins Out” run by Wayne Besen (a hater of ex-“gays” and a man not exactly known for his application of the Golden Rule). This aired September 19, 2013; AFTAH will post each segment daily. [Watch on YouTube HERE.] — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

Ex-football star and sports commentator Craig James was fired by Fox Sports Southwest as a college football analyst due to the following comments he made in the GOP candidates’ primary debate in 2012 in Texas. [See Michael Brown’s column on the firing.] This YouTube video from a homosexual publication Dallas Voice shows the large video screen above the candidates; those who are shown are, left to right: Ted Cruz (who won the Republican race and eventually became U.S. Senator from Texas; Craig James; former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert; and Leia Pettinger. The video opens with Cruz saying, “I have something against gay marriage”…:

Click on the above graphic to go to a printable PDF of Scott Lively’s “Fact Sheet on Uganda.”

Click on the link below or the graphic at right for a PDF “Fact Sheet on Uganda and Homosexuality,” by pro-family advocate Scott Lively — who has been sued by the Ugandan homosexual group SMUG (Sexual Minorities Uganda) — working with the far-left American group Center for Constitutional Rights — for “Crimes Against Humanity” for his Christian advocacy in that African nation. We’ve also reprinted the Fact Sheet below (after the jump).

Scott Lively – Uganda Fact Sheet–PDF link 

Scott Lively

Few people in the world have been lied about and demonized by homosexual activists as much as Lively. This Fact Sheet is merely the beginning of what must become a comprehensive effort to set the record straight. Clearly, the nefarious goal the CCR and its leftist/LGBT comrades in its legal harassment of Lively is to intimidate pro-family advocates everywhere from speaking out against the aggressive homosexual-bisexual-transgender agenda. In the Left’s playbook, the ends justify the means — but even for the Hard Left, charging a decent, Christian man like Scott Lively with “Crimes Against Humanity” — for his public advocacy — is beyond outrageous. In fact, it is evil and profoundly un-American. And yet, Clinton-nominated federal District Judge Michael Ponsor has allowed the SMUG lawsuit to proceed. We will be following this case closely. Please pray for Scott Lively. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

_________________________

Chris Christie sided with homosexual activism over parental rights in signing into a law a bill banning reparative therapy for minors in New Jersey.

AFTAH News Release; contact: Peter LaBarbera: 312-324-3787; americansfortruth@gmail.com

August 21, 2013

CHICAGO—Peter LaBarbera, President of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH.org), said today that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie succumbed to homosexual activist propaganda and myths in signing into law a bill that bans professional counselors in the Garden State “from attempting to change a minor’s sexual orientation.”

LaBarbera made the following points regarding Republican Christie siding with the “Big Gay Government” agenda by banning parents from helping their children overcome the destructive pull of homosexuality:

1) Christie cited the pro-“gay” American Psychological Association in claiming that efforts to change sexual orientation “can pose critical health risks” to children. But he strangely did not mention the existence of successful, happy former homosexuals. Nor did he acknowledge the widely-available data pointing to the myriad health risks associated with homosexual behavior itself – such as the rising HIV risk among “young men who have sex with men.”

2) Pro-family advocates call the New Jersey law – like a similar California law – a “Jerry Sandusky” law because it could ban parents from specifically seeking reparative therapy for their child even if the child was molested by a homosexual pedophile (the law’s language is ambiguous on this point [see comments following this blog post by pro-homosexual “evangelical” professor Warren Throckmorton]. Sadly, many “gay” men like CNN’s Don Lemon and MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts do not acknowledge the causative link between their molestation as boys by homosexual predators and their subsequent embrace of a deviant “gay” identity.

3) Lies and calculated LGBT disinformation have muddled the debate and confused the public over the issue of homosexuality and the potential for ex-“gay” change. Falsehoods often are repeated by the liberal media, such as AP’s report of the Christie bill-signing, which stated: “Lawmakers heard horror stories from some during hearings on the ban, including Brielle Goldani of Toms River, who testified she underwent electric shocks and was given drugs to induce vomiting after being sent to an Ohio camp at age 14 to become straight.” (Associated Press report, Politico, Aug. 20)

The problem is Goldani was lying, as was confirmed by Christopher Doyle, himself a successful ex-“gay” who counsels people to overcome unwanted homosexual desires. Doyle tried to track down the “Ohio camp” but discovered that it never existed. Needless to say, Doyle’s clarification did not garner near the attention of Goldani’s horrific yet spurious testimonial tale.

4) Christie is misinformed in claiming that homosexuals are “born gay”: efforts to confirm “born gay” junk science have failed — e.g., the much-heralded studies by homosexual-activist researchers Dean Hamer (1993) and Simon LeVay (1992) could not be replicated. (See www.mygenes.co.nz; Hamer, author of a media-touted “gay gene” study, now makes gay-advocacy documentaries.) Nevertheless, the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) cunningly includes the word “innate” in its “Stylebook” definition of “sexual orientation,” as revealed in the author’s report on pro-homosexual media bias for America’s Survival. (The NLGJA also collaborates with homosexual gadfly Wayne Besen, hater of “ex-gays” and creator of the “Pray the Gay Away” polemical smear.) Homosexual activists and liberals often fall back on the convenient “born gay” myth as a way of avoiding the reality that homosexuality – primarily environmentally influenced — is about immoral, unhealthy, and changeable behavior.

5) Christie’s statement (relying on his “born gay” belief) that homosexuality is not a sin is not only a repudiation of his own Catholic teachings on homosexuality. It is also a craven capitulation to the secular political correctness of this age that celebrates homosexuality and extreme gender confusion as “civil rights.”