Former lesbian and VENUS Magazine publisher Charlene Cothran published this letter online, which she received from a former contributing writer to the then-pro-homosexual VENUS magazine:

I can say, too, I am changed.

 

I am very happy for you because you have found a relationship with God and he does what He always does; He changes people.  I have been where you are, my calling is to teach and He changed me in so many ways.  I did not know that God was going to fully change me when I stopped writing for you.  I just knew God wanted me to change and I could not teach and write for your magazine in its form and focus.   I can say, too, I am changed.  I am no longer in the life, it happened in a blink of an eye and it was not what I thought he would change but he did.   I had my alone time but that is what God does, he will take you away so you have to depend totally on him.  When I came out of wilderness I had a missionary from my church befriend me.  It was great.  Having said that, if you want me, and will allow me to write for you again I would love to.

 

I love you with the Love of Christ,

 

Lavonia-New York,
Olympic Silver Medalist
Former Contributing Writer for [the old] VENUS Magazine

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P.S. Please be a part of the wonderful story of former lesbian Charlene’s Cothran’s rebirth in Christ by subscribing to her magazine VENUS — which has been transformed from a publication that celebrated “gays and lesbians” to one that tells that stories of people like herself who have overcome homosexuality with God’s help. Subscriptions to VENUS are $19.95 per year for four issues. — Peter LaBarbera

From the AFTAH mailbox, an exchange with an apparently homosexual reader that will enlighten you…

Received from a reader on Mar 20, 2007:

Heterosexuals Are Just as Twisted as Homos… Pair Sentenced for Sex in Front of Girl By Associated Press Mon Mar 19, 4:54 PM

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A mother and her boyfriend were sentenced to three years probation on Monday for having intercourse in front of the woman’s 9-year-old daughter to teach the girl about sex. Chief Family Court Judge Jeremiah S. Jeremiah Jr. sentenced Rebecca Arnold of Woonsocket, and her boyfriend, David Prata, to probation and a three-year suspended sentence after they pleaded no contest to a felony child neglect charge. The judge said he wanted to spare the young girl, now 11, from testifying, according to Michael Healey, a spokesman for Attorney General Patrick Lynch. During an investigation by the state child welfare authorities, Prata, 33, said he and Arnold, 36, had sex “all the time” in front of the child and that “we don’t believe in hiding anything.” He told an investigator that they did not force the girl to watch. The allegations surfaced in December 2004 after the girl went to live with her father in North Adams, Mass., after spending the summer with her mother in Woonsocket. A teacher called a child abuse hotline to report that the girl said her mother and her boyfriend had sex in front of her. Woonsocket police arrested the couple February 2005.

Peter LaBarbera’s reply:

Many twisted heteros, too….So what? The difference is ALL homosexual acts are perverse.

From the reader:

Yeah I agree ALL homosexual acts are perverse – that’s why it’s fun!

Peter LaBarbera’s reply:

Fun for a time, [John]. A judgment day comes for us all. Do you believe in God?

From the reader:

I do – but not the one you have faith in. When judgment day comes and I find out The God I believe in isn’t “The True God” and I’m punished for not repenting for my sins. I will walk into the mouth of Hell with pride in my heart knowing that I lived my life the way I know I was meant to live it and if that means eternal torment – then so be it.

Earlier this week we explored the immorality of the homosexual practice of “rimming“; here we have a story of a man who likes to have “sex” with horses and deer. Disgusting, you say? Immoral? Why so? On what objective authority does our secular society still condemn bestiality? Isn’t it simply a personal, alternative choice?

The fact is that humans are hard-wired to distinguish normal, natural behaviors from depraved, wicked acts. God instilled man with a conscience whereby we know, intuitively and with confidence, that acts of righteousness evoke joy and that other acts are wicked and morally reprehensible…at least we recognize that until we start to rationalize, unless the conscience has been seared, hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. Nearly everyone understands that having “sex” with animals is appalling — there is no organized, multi-million dollar movement to advance the rights of those with a sexual proclivity for livestock (at least not yet), no claim that they were “born that way.”

The same God who condemns bestiality as “perversion” also calls homosexual acts “detestable.” His morality is the one upon which our nation’s laws were founded. If Christian morality is exiled, whose morality will become our standard?

And the real question is this: If we as a society still believe that bestiality is immoral, why are we so foolishly embracing “proud” homosexuality as “moral” — when it clearly cannot be? — Sonja Dalton

(For more on the Biblical parallels between God’s condemnation of homosexuality and that of other sexual sins like bestiality and incest, see Professor Rob Gagnon’s website at www.robgagnon.net. Gagnon is one of the world’s leading authorities on “The Bible and Homosexual Practice,” and has written a scholarly book by the name.)

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Excerpted from Man Faces Probation in Animal Abuse Case, by Anna Kurth, published Mar 20, 2007, by The Daily Telegram:

A Superior man convicted of having sexual contact with a dead deer was given probation Tuesday in Douglas County Circuit Court…

Hathaway was found guilty of mistreatment of an animal in April 2005 after killing a horse with the intention of having sex with it…

“The type of behavior is disturbing. It’s disturbing to the public. It’s disturbing to the court,” Lucci said.

Continue reading in The Daily Telegram…

I am witnessing my friend’s unique path to holiness: a remarkable instance of grace working through a broken earthly vessel, making all things new, and leading to fullness of life. I think how blessed I am that I’ve been fortunate enough to witness it and find inspiration for my life in his struggles.

This piece is heart-rending yet beautifully hopeful. Please take the time to read it in full (it’s only posted in part here) — and then to pray for all the young men who are struggling to overcome and to please their Maker.

But don’t stop there: If you are a Christian man, please look around at church for the boys with no dads, for the boys with troubled homes, for the ones who just don’t fit in that well. Put your arm around the shoulder of a vulnerable young man and encourage him. Invite him over for Sunday lunch or to watch a ballgame; ask him to help you with a chore. You may be saving both his life and his soul. — Sonja Dalton

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Excerpted from Struggling Alone, by Ryan T. Anderson, published Feb 2007 by First Things:

He came out to me in an email. I’ve known him for years, long enough that I can’t remember when we first met, and we were recently emailing back and forth about our lives, our futures-the kind of stuff separated friends discuss. Along the way he mentioned, in an aside, that he had some – lingering troubles he had to work his way through. My reply asked for an explanation-and that’s when he told me.

Over the past three years, “Chris” (let’s call him) has experienced a pronounced attraction to other males-for one old friend from high school in particular. A crush, maybe, or an infatuation. Whatever it was, he knew it wasn’t healthy. And though he had never acted on the attraction, he explained, it led to fantasies and lusts he didn’t want. So he made a resolution never to embrace them as essential to his identity or accept them as permanent or untreatable-a resolution he has kept practically alone, without the support of community, family, or friends. Over the course of many phone calls and emails, he shared with me his reflections on what he thought had created his problem of same-sex attractions. He described an “exceedingly close, best-friendly relationship” to his mother, often serving the role of her sole confidant, and a subsequent alienation from his father. Relationships with his friends, he thought, also contributed, as he suffered through “deeply hurtful rejection” by male peers, along with “oscillations between reverence for and fear of typically masculine” classmates. Once puberty hit, this took on sexual connotations, as Chris began experiencing “eroticized desire” for traits he found in other males that he himself lacked…

What he described seemed an accurate summary of the person I have known for years. So when he pointed to the likely causes and said he was seeking help in addressing them, I was supportive. “I would be untrue to myself if I simply accepted this condition right now,” he wrote. “I would be denying what I’ve come to believe — what I believe I know — to be the causes and potential cures of this condition in my case.” Some people say that change isn’t possible, but he thinks that with God all things are, and he at least wants to try to do his part.

To express your appreciation to Indianapolis Colts Coach
Tony Dungy for his firm stand, click HERE.

From Dungy Affirms Opposition to Same-Sex ‘Marriage’, by Kevin Jackson, published Mar 21, 2007, by The Christian Post:

Tony Dungy, the Christian coach of this year’s Super Bowl champions, clearly laid out his position against same-sex “marriage” Tuesday night.

In front of a crowd of 700 at the Indiana Family Institute (IFI)’s banquet, the Indianapolis Colts coach agreed with IFI’s position of defining a marriage as being between a man and a woman.

“I appreciate the stance they’re taking,” he said, according to the Indianapolis Star, “and I embrace that stance.”

Before the awards dinner, several pro-homosexual and gay rights groups had criticized Dungy for attending the event. IFI, which has affiliations with Focus on the Family, has been a major voice in supporting a marriage amendment that is currently in the Indiana House, legally defining marriage as one man and one woman. The gay rights groups felt the professional football coach should stay away from all politics.

“We’re not anti-anything else,” explained Dungy, according to USA Today. “We’re not trying to downgrade anyone else. But we’re trying to promote the family – family values the Lord’s way.”

The coach went on to say that his comments should not be looked at as “gay bashing,” but that everything he said should be looked at from his foundation on faith.

Dungy attended the banquet held in Carmel, Ind., about 20 miles north of Indianapolis, to receive the group’s “Friend of the Family” award. Past recipients include Shirley Dobson, co-founder of Focus on the Family, and former federal independent counsel Kenneth Starr.

During his speech, the night’s honoree said he was not ashamed to be at the event.

“IFI is saying what the Lord says,” explained Dungy, according to USA Today. “You can take that and make your decision on which way you want to be. I’m on the Lord’s side.”

By Sonja Dalton

Do not be deceived:

• Ruth (a woman) was married to Naomi’s son (a man) until he died — ie, Ruth was in a heterosexual marriage with a man who died, not in a “committed same-sex relationship” with her mother-in-law. Maybe Mr. Miner and Mr. Connoley should finish reading the Old Testman book of Ruth to learn that, after being widowed, she re-married her kinsman-redeemer, Boaz (a man), and that the natural offspring procreated by their heterosexual marital sex is included in the lineage of Christ. The story of Ruth has absolutely nothing to do with homosexuality.
• The word in Matthew 8:5-13 for the centurion’s servant is “pai’ß” which is rendered servant because that is what it means. End of story.
• Homosexuality, like all sin, is primarily a spiritual disorder. Here is the “Gay-Friendly” Gospel: With sacrificial love for all sinners, Jesus Christ came as a physician to heal the spiritually sick — and He still offers healing today, including to homosexuals. But He demands repentance from sin, not self-justification while continuing in sin.

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The following is excerpted from Reading the Bible the Gay-Friendly Way, by Will Kilburn, published Nov 26, 2006, by Boston Globe:

In the battle over gay rights and same-sex marriage, those who oppose both often cite Biblical passages which, they believe, clearly state that homosexuality is wrong.

Trying to rebut this view is a movement led by people who are both gay and Christian who say that the Bible is on their side.

“Most people think that the attitude of gay Christians is, ‘Who cares what the Bible says?’ when in reality, we care deeply what the Bible says,” said the Rev. Jeff Miner , pastor of the Jesus Metropolitan Community Church , a gay-friendly congregation in Indianapolis. He led a forum on the topic last weekend at Arlington Street Church. “We think there are a lot of powerful, affirming things that are in the Bible that have been ignored.”

Those affirming messages were detailed by Miner and forum co-leader John Tyler Connoley in their 2002 book, “The Children are Free: Reexamining the Biblical Evidence on Same-sex Relationships.” The book served as the text for the forum, sponsored by an array of gay-friendly local church groups, which drew about 200 people.

Most of the forum was devoted to passages that the authors say treat homosexuals and heterosexuals equally. In the Old Testament, claim the authors, Ruth’s covenant with Naomi, which includes the memorable phrase, “Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live,” actually refers to a committed same-sex relationship. They also offered a different interpretation of a story that appears in both Matthew and Luke, in which a centurion asks Jesus to heal a man who is typically identified — misidentified, says Miner — as the centurion’s servant.

“That story’s often preached about in straight churches,” said Miner, but “nobody bothers to mention that the Greek word used to describe the sick man is the word used in the ancient world to describe your same-sex partner.”

Both Miner and Connoley said they had to leave the relatively conservative churches of their childhoods when they came out as gay, Connoley spending two years in so-called “ex-gay therapy,” in which homosexuality is treated as a mental disorder. Similar conflicts, both internal and external, were recounted by some of the organizers of the forum.

“My primary goal was to provide an opportunity for people who are gay, bisexual, transgender, to come and be affirmed and to be loved,” said Sam Gloyd , 60, an Arlington Street Church congregant who came out as gay when he came to Boston for graduate school 20 years ago.

Gloyd says he got the idea for the forum partly in response to a conference held in Boston last year by the Colorado Springs-based group Focus on the Family . Called “Love One Out,” the event, held at nearby Tremont Temple Baptist Church, offered instruction to families on how to convert a gay relative back to heterosexuality. While some protested on the street, Gloyd chose to go inside and hear what the group had to say, a move that turned painful a few hours later. “I wasn’t just traumatized, I was re-traumatized, because for 40 years of my life I lived this trauma of feeling like I was unacceptable to God,” he recalled. “So it was inspiration from that conference that sort of spurred me on to say we need to offer some alternative voice to this hateful message that’s masked in love.”

That alternative voice doesn’t sway the Rev. Ray Pendleton, pastor of Tremont Temple Baptist Church, where the “Love One Out” event was held.

“The Biblical view of sexuality is pretty clear,” he said. “It says that genital sexuality is to be expressed between a man and woman in the context of marriage, period.” Pendleton was careful to make a distinction between homosexual orientation and the practice itself. “When you look at what the Bible teaches, the Bible doesn’t talk about orientation; the Bible talks about behavior.”

Continue reading at Boston Globe…

When you read this post, ask yourself: If “transsexuality” is a healthy lifestyle option, why is it necessary for the government (taxpayers) to extend grants for disease treatment and mental health counseling?

Excerpted from UCSF to Close Trans Programs, by Heather Cassell, published Mar 8, 2007, in Bay Area Reporter:

The University of California at San Francisco’s Transitions and Transgender Resource and Neighborhood Space projects are scheduled to close July 1 because grants that fund the programs are ending.

The only projects of their kind in the Bay Area, the closures will leave an estimated 1,300 transgender and gender variant people who have used the services during the past four years without anywhere to go.

The Transitions Project, housed under the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at UCSF, has an annual budget of $450,000…

But on July 1, the three major grants that fund the programs – including those from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Drug Abuse – will end, according to Susan Kegeles, co-director of CAPS.

Continue reading in Bay Area Reporter…

Note: We have a suggestion as to where these 1300 precious human beings should go: to a Bible-believing church where they can hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and be healed emotionally and spiritually.

When will the Catholic church hierarchy exercise Biblical church discipline and expel those who work directly against their teachings on homosexuality and extramarital sex? At the website for the Archdiocese of Birmingham, Nichols writes:

TAKE ACTION — Let Archbishop Nichols know that the issues are perfectly clear: Children should not be placed with unrepentant, practicing homosexuals. Agencies which exist to embody Christian teachings must not be compelled by government to act against their religious beliefs. Catholic adoption agencies should not be placing children with homosexuals or unmarried, cohabiting couples.

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Excerpted from Birmingham Archbishop: “Oh by the way,” Britain’s Catholic Adoption Agencies Already Adopt to Gay Singles, by Hilary White, published Jan 29, 2007, by LifeSite News:

…Archbishop Vincent Gerard Nichols of Birmingham admitted that his own adoption agencies were already adopting children to homosexual singles.

Nichols told the BBC’s Newsnight on Tuesday that his agencies were happy to place children with single gay people, just not couples. Catholic agencies are equally happy to place children with unmarried but cohabiting couples, despite clear and even more widely understood Catholic teaching on the sinfulness of such arrangements.

The announcement has frustrated those defending the rights of Christians to their conscience who are complaining that the laxity of their bishops has caused the argument to unravel.

One popular clerical Catholic blogger, Fr. Tim Finigan, a seminary professor and founder of a pro-life organisation for priests, wrote that while it might be possible for a Catholic adoption official to allow a child to be adopted by a person with homosexual temptations, it is impossible for a Catholic to agree to adoption to those who adhere to the “gay” philosophical and political outlook.

“I cannot see how it would be possible for a Catholic agency to place a child with someone who defined themselves publicly as ‘gay’, was regularly part of the gay ‘scene’, was involved in sexually active gay relationships, or opposed the teaching of the Church.”

Continue reading at LifeSite News…