This is part B of our response to “Out in Scripture” (from the pro-homosexuality Human Rights Campaign) by for Sept 17, 2006, by Americans For Truth writer Sonja Dalton:

“Out in Scripture” makes the following assertion about Psalm 116:1-9:

The psalmist in Psalm 116:1-9 expresses a similar strength and gratitude. In spite of distress, persecution, affliction, even death, God delivers and is merciful to those whose whole lives are grounded in God (116:5-6). What a valuable word for the LGBT community! When one claims the truth of one’s core identity in God — whether that core is known through being a teacher or in claiming the fullness of one’s God-given gender identity or sexual orientation — divine support is available.

And so we must ask: Is “homosexuality,” “bisexuality,” or “transexuality” a grounded, God-ordained identity?

Let us open our Bibles and examine what the Creator has revealed about the God-ordained identity of humankind…

Please read this outstanding article by our friend Linda Harvey in its entirety, and then forward it to every Christian elder/pastor, preacher, youth minister, Bible class teacher, and parent you know!

From A Seven-Point Plan to Protect Christian Youth Against Homosexuality, by Linda Harvey of Mission America, published Sept 26, 2006, by LifeSite News (and posted in full here with permission):

Linda Harvey is the Founder and President of Mission America, which focuses on homosexuality and its destructive impact on youth. Linda told LifeSiteNews.com she is a convert to Christianity and left her former life as a ‘liberal’ during which she was even a volunteer for Planned Parenthood. This message is primarily directed to Christian familiies and youth and is given from the perspective of a believer in traditional, authentic Christian moral and spiritual principles.

It may already be too late. As students return to school this fall, we are sadly reminded that the campaign to normalize homosexuality in their minds continues incessantly. But Christian kids will be okay, because they know it’s wrong. Or so we think.

It’s not necessarily so. What is your church doing to equip kids about this specific issue? Is there any time we are “suppressing the truth” through silence? How are we teaching them to deal with the onslaught of misinformation available to them everywhere, from what they believe are trustworthy sources?

There’s a lot at stake. Everyday, the following scenes are being played out in the lives of ordinary American kids:

• An emotionally vulnerable boy or girl is seduced into participating in homosexual acts by a peer or an older homosexual
• A confused young person dwells on and begins to believe privately he/she was “born” homosexual, after hearing it implied endlessly in our culture.
• An adolescent turns way from authentic Christian faith, becoming convinced the Bible’s message on homosexuality is hateful, primitive or an incorrect translation.
• A boy or girl wrongly advises a friend that it’s okay to be ‘gay’ and a Christian at the same time.
• A troubled teen believes a sex change would solve his or her problems, and begins to dress and act as the opposite sex.
• A curious, poorly supervised teen discovers, and becomes sexually aroused by, homosexual pornography on the Internet. He/she incorrectly concludes that such arousal reveals an inborn homosexual nature.

These aren’t the unchurched kids. We’re talking about the private interior lives of pre-teens and teens who are sitting in youth groups in Christian churches all over this country. They’re hearing one distorted message from the culture. The truth that could rescue them from the darkest and the most destructive of beliefs, concerns, and stresses over this issue, is a rare jewel, seldom revealed to them.

Homosexuality is secretly destroying the Christian faith of millions of teens, whether they are involved in the behavior or not, and adult Christians seem to be oblivious. Our silence spells the final spiritual death sentence for many of them.

If we are to save this generation, we must act now.

Here’s our Seven Point Plan for equipping Christian youth on the issue of homosexuality:

This is the second installment in our series of responses to “Out in Scripture,” Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) attempt to do the impossible: re-interpret the Bible to be in support of homosexual behavior (sin).

By Sonja Dalton

The primary text for the Sept 17 HRC’s Out in Scripture Commentary is Isaiah 50:4-9a:

The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

Who was this one called to minister to the weary and to warn the unfaithful? Was he a homosexual? The “Out in Scripture” commentary claims, “Isaiah 50:4-9a offers the testimony of one who knows herself to be called by God.” Is that true?

No, certainly not.

This book of prophecy is the inspired testimony of the bearded male prophet, Isaiah, to a rebellious Judah – of whom he says in chapter 1:

If the LORD of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have become like Sodom and become like Gomorrah. Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!… [God Himself speaking:

“I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly…

When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you;

even though you make many prayers, I will not listen…“

So, in likening the rebellious character of Judah to the rampant homosexuality in Sodom and Gomorrah, the prophet Isaiah (like all of God’s prophets, apostles, and teachers) affirmed God’s design for human sexuality (faithful marriage) and overtly condemned homosexual practice.

Excerpted from Presbyterian Megachurch Leaves Denomination over Gay Policy, published Aug 31, 2006, by Associated Press:

Just over one-thousand members of Kirk of the Hills Presbyterian Church turned out and voted 967-to-36 to affirm a vote by church elders to leave.

The group then voted to request affiliation with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church…

The decision to change affiliations comes after the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) adopted a policy that some pastors say will allow gay pastors in the church.

Continue reading at Christian Post…

Excerpted from How Britain is Turning Christianity into a Crime, by Melanie Phillips, published Sept 7, 2006, in The Daily Mail (UK):

…The problem for Christianity is that it holds that homosexuality is wrong. This, however, it is no longer allowed to say because it treats a minority practice as sinful. So it can no longer uphold a central tenet of its own faith without being accused of prejudice.

…Author Lynette Burrows received a warning from the Metropolitan Police merely for suggesting that gay people did not make ideal adoptive parents. The former leader of the Muslim Council of Britain, Sir Iqbal Sacranie, also had his collar felt by police after he said that homosexuality was harmful.Notably, in his case the matter was swiftly dropped. If there’s one thing that terrifies our PC police even more than being called homophobic, it’s being called Islamophobic — even though Islamic fundamentalism poses a real threat to the human rights of gay people.

If this wasn’t all so frightening, it would be hilarious.

Christians, by contrast, get very different treatment. An elderly evangelical preacher, Harry Hammond, was convicted of a public order offence after he held up a poster calling for an end to homosexuality, lesbianism and immorality. Although he had been the victim of a physical attack when a crowd poured soil and water over him, he alone was prosecuted.

And Lancashire pensioners Joe and Helen Roberts were interrogated by police for 80 minutes about their ‘ homophobic’ views after they had merely asked their local council to display Christian literature alongside gay rights leaflets in civic buildings.

Christianity is fast becoming the creed that dare not speak its name…

The ‘diversity’ agenda, in other words, is a fig-leaf for an attack on Christianity…

This attack on Christianity…is not merely a threat to freedom of speech and religious expression. It is a fundamental onslaught on the national identity and bedrock values of this country — and as such will destroy those freedoms which Christianity itself first created.

Continue reading in The Daily Mail…

Excerpted from Ban on Gay Rabbis May Be Lifted, by Rachel Zoll, published Sept 7, 2006, by Associated Press:

A key Conservative Jewish leader is organizing talks nationwide to tell synagogues that the movement will likely roll back its ban on ordaining openly gay rabbis by year’s end.

He and two religious law experts joining him at the meetings are trying to help congregations prepare for the confusion and discomfort to follow.

…The effect of the contradictory actions will be that local Jewish communities have more freedom. Conservative seminaries, along with the movement’s estimated 750 synagogues and more than 1,000 North American rabbis, will get to decide which policy to follow.

…For Conservative Jews seeking more rigorous observance, the Orthodox branch has become a popular choice. The Orthodox strictly adhere to traditional interpretations of Jewish law, prohibiting women and gays from becoming rabbis.

Continue reading…

Excerpted from American Baptists Boot Pro-Gay Church, published Aug 30, 2006, by UPI:

A group of Baptist churches in Michigan has cut ties with one of their congregations for its approval of homosexuality.

Woodside Church, Flint’s oldest Baptist church, has become the first Baptist church in the state to be disaffiliated from American Baptist congregations because of its progressive views on homosexuality, the Flint (Mich.) Journal said Tuesday.

By a vote of 18-3, churches in a 10-county area that are part of the American Baptist Churches USA, a national denomination, elected to sever all ties with Woodside, which also is affiliated with the left-wing United Church of Christ.

Continue reading at Religion & Spirituality Forum…

Pray for Jerusalem.

Excerpted from Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade Set for September 21, by Gudrun Schultz, published Aug 29, 2006, by LifeSite News:

The International Gay Pride Parade has been rescheduled to take place in Jerusalem on September 21, Israel National News Arutz Sheva reported today.

The weeklong homosexual celebration was originally planned for August, but was postponed due to the outbreak of violence in Lebanon.

The homosexual activist organization Open House announced the date for the planned event in defiance of concerted international opposition from Jewish and Islamic religious leaders, and the Vatican. The event has been condemned as an affront to the millions of faithful worldwide who consider Jerusalem to be a holy city.

“The event is scheduled to take place literally days before the Jewish New Year, a time of deep spiritual introspection for all Jewish people,” Rabbi Yehuda Levin, with the organization Jews for Morality, told LifeSiteNews.com. “It is inappropriate, so inappropriate, for them to flaunt their disrespect for thousands of years of Jewish tradition.”

Rabbi Levin called on Jewish, Muslim and Christian faithful to exercise passive resistance to the event by joining ranks and physically blocking the parade route, “to protect the holy soil of Jerusalem against this spiritual rape.”