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“The problem is not having this orientation,” [Pope Francis] said. “We must be brothers. The problem is lobbying by this orientation, or lobbies of greedy people, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies. This is the worse problem.” — BBC report, “Pope Francis: Who am I to judge gay people?”
Today the media were in another spasm of homosexual promotion, as news accounts of Pope Francis’ comments on not judging “gay people” “reported” that the pope was launching a new era of welcoming homosexuals, even “gay priests.” We turn to our good friends at LifeSiteNews — a Catholic Canadian pro-family website — to clarify Pope Francis’ widely-reported remarks concerning “gay people.”
I am immediately struck by two aspects to this story:
As always we have a huge nomenclature problem on the homosexual issue: many people are still confused between the idea of people struggling against homosexual tendencies — and modernist, homosexual activist ‘Gayspeak’ that pushes the notion that a certain subset of people (in every society) “are gay” — i.e., that their natural, inborn “sexual orientation” is homosexual and nothing can be done about it. Obviously, the LGBT lobby and their liberal media allies want us to believe that the Catholic Church and indeed all institutions will move inexorably toward accepting the latter proposition, which they define as truth. However, this concept runs counter to not just Catholic doctrine but the historic teaching of Christianity on sexual sin. (See www.RobGagnon.net.)
Note the bolded passage above: despite the media hubbub, by condemning “lobbying by [homosexual] orientation,” Pope Francis essentially disqualifies ALL pro-homosexual (“gay rights”) advocacy and legislation.
You can read the full LifeSite story HERE. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH
This interview with John Stemberger [click HERE to listen], founder of OnMyHonor.net, was recorded today, July 18, 2013. Stemberger describes the formation of a new boys organization that will provide a wholesome alternative to the pro-homosexual Boy Scouts of America (BSA). [Watch an introductory video HERE.] The new boys organization [later named “Trail Life USA”] will be devoted to building good character among boys, centered on biblical principles. The new group holds its first national convention this September after holding a recent planning meeting of national pro-family leaders in Louisville, Kentucky. Stemberger, who is also president and general counsel of the Florida Family Policy Council, led the grassroots coalition effort to stop the Scouts’ tragic cave-in allowing openly homosexual youth members. (He explains how the BSA voting process on the proposed pro-“gay” change was weighted heavily in favor of the Scouts, in part because BSA leaders would not reveal who was voting.)
Stemberger clarifies the membership requirements for boys — saying that no immoral sexual behavior or advocacy of any kind will be tolerated in the new organization. He said if a boy struggles with same-sex issues (or other issues), it will be seen as a “ministry opportunity” in the organization — which, unlike the Scouts, will be explicitly Christian. (Membership will be open to boys of all religions and backgrounds.) Regarding the BSA, he said that within a couple of years, it will be driven by the courts to allow openly homosexual adult Scoutmasters, which will further cripple that once-noble organization. Stemberger said the BSA was done in by the paid “professionals” who ran the organization, who ultimately were not dedicated to upholding the BSA’s principles. Click HERE for Part Two of this interview. [Click HERE for Matt Barber’s column on the opening convention of Trail Life USA.]
HOW TO LISTEN: This is an mp3 file, supported in most operating systems by Windows Media Player, Quick Time and/or I-Tunes. Real Player is not supported and there may be difficulty when attempting to listen with it. Left click once on the link below to play. (Please be patient, depending upon the speed of your internet connection it may take a moment to load.) OR right click the link then “save target as” to download the whole show.
“In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.” (Romans 1:27)
Below is the “official” promotional poster for the Folsom Street Fair, an annual, sadomasochism-celebrating street festival in San Francisco. The “fair” is notorious for its open-air perversions, mocking of religion [also see this], sadistic whippings, “master-slave” couples, and full nudity — and the latter will be allowed again this year due to an exemption granted to FSF to a new anti-public-nudity law passed by city supervisors. Words can barely convey the evil captured by this image — a rebellious wickedness that comes from glorifying sin in defiance of the wholesome boundaries for sex established by God. Folsom is also the creepy cousin of “gay pride” and “diversity” — there would be no Folsom Street Fair were there not first a “gay” revolution, with its ground zero in the homosexual Mecca of San Francisco. Click on the graphic to enlarge, if you must. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH
A new San Francisco law banning public nudity makes an exceptions for the homosexual-dominated outdoor “leather” festival, Folsom Street Fair. Click to enlarge.
Even FOX News is biased in favor of homosexual “marriage”
Shepard Smith has demonstrated his pro-homosexual bias on air as a FOX News anchor.
The following Skype interview by America’s Survival founder Cliff Kincaid with AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera aired on AS’s Roku channel June 26, 2013. The two discuss the Supreme Court’s striking down of Section 3 of DOMA and the Court’s Prop 8 ruling. In discussing the media’s strong pro-“gay” bias, LaBarbera reports that a major Pew Research Center study of media coverage on homosexual “marriage” found that even FOX News’ reporting was biased in favor of “same-sex marriage.”
Kincaid then reveals that veteran FOX News anchor Shepard Smith has for the third year in a row been listed (along with Matt Drudge) in the homosexual magazine OUT‘s “Power 50” list of the 50 most powerful homosexuals in America. (Smith is not publicly homosexual, nor is Drudge — but neither was CNN’s Anderson Cooper when he was similarly listed for years by OUT — only to “come out” as a public homosexual last year.)
Kincaid also discusses Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan’s alleged lesbianism, and LaBarbera describes the rise of a new “ex-gay” Christian umbrella group (Restored Hope Network) that replaces the now defunct Exodus International — which cravenly abandoned its defining mission of helping men and women abandon homosexuality. You can watch the interview on America’s Survival’s YouTube channel here: http://youtu.be/Si8SuFujq0M
This interview with pro-family advocate (and AFTAH Board Member) Matt Barber was taped June 27, 2013. It focuses mainly on the Supreme Court decision striking down Section 3 of DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, which was passed overwhelmingly by Congress in 1996 and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Barber is Associate Dean of the Liberty University School of Law and Vice President of Liberty Counsel Action. He writes a weekly column for WND.com, and was thrust into the pro-family movement after being suddenly fired by a Fortune 500 corporation in 2005 after writing a column on his own time critical of homosexual activism.
HOW TO LISTEN: This is an mp3 file, supported in most operating systems by Windows Media Player, Quick Time and/or I-Tunes. Real Player is not supported and there may be difficulty when attempting to listen with it. Left click once on the link below to play. (Please be patient, depending upon the speed of your internet connection it may take a moment to load.) OR right click the link then “save target as” to download the whole show.
My good friend and conservative Culture War hero Randy Thomasson of SaveCalifornia.com (Campaign for Children and Families) analyzes the Supreme Court’s decision on Proposition 8 [to watch on YouTube, go HERE]:
Folks, here’s a clip from my appearance June 20, 2013, on American Family Radio’s “Focus Point with Bryan Fischer,” discussing the implosion of Exodus International under Alan Chambers and the rise of Restored Hope Network in its place. Click HERE to watch it on YouTube. Beneath the video (after the jump) is Restored Hope’s response to the closure of Exodus. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH
The institutional failure of Exodus International — under the tragically unbiblical leadership of Alan Chambers (above) — has nothing to do with God not being able to help homosexuals (like all sinners) change. A new Christian umbrella group for people overcoming homosexuality, sexual sin and gender confusion — Restored Hope Network — has risen up to take Exodus’ place. Several former Exodus ministry leaders have already joined Restored Hope.
“The point is that the language of ‘sexual orientation’ is an imposition today on much of what the Bible says about sexuality.” — Rev. Mark Creech
OKLAHOMA CITY — The following is a long excerpt from an outstanding column by Rev. Mark Creech, published June 22 by Renew America. Some of my comments on Exodus International’s stunning collapse are quoted in the piece. Exodus imploded because its Executive Director, Alan Chambers, and his staff succumbed — in a very cult-like way — to bad theology (see Prof. Rob Gagnon’s report critiquing Chambers’ “cheap grace” errors HERE). Chambers was talking and acting more and more like a pro-homosexuality activist — odd behavior for a supposed Christian leader. But what Creech’s article alludes to is that the modern semantics surrounding the “homosexuality debate” — sexual orientation, gay, homophobia, gender identity, marriage equality, etc. — are built on worldly concepts that run contrary to Scripture.
In future posts I will describe my wonderful and moving experience here in the great state of Oklahoma attending the annual conference of Restored Hope Network (RHN) — which God raised up to do the noble, life changing ministry work that Exodus once did. (Several Exodus-affiliated “ex-gay” ministries already have joined Restored Hope, and others soon will follow.) Know this: Exodus’ and Chambers’ downfall — though a momentary propaganda boon for deceitful, often vicious, homosexual militants like Wayne Besen [he “applauds” Alan HERE]– is only an institutional failure, driven by foolish pride. The timely rise in its stead of Restored Hope shows that Jesus Christ isstill very much in the business of redeeming and radically transforming sinners — and of course that includes men, women and young people caught up in the sin of homosexual behavior.
May we all pray that the Lord will bless Restored Hope Network abundantly. You can find out more about them HERE and financially support RHN HERE. Rev. Creech’s full column can be found HERE. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH
It is considered a landmark announcement, proof that the cultural winds are shifting in favor of the acceptance of homosexuality by the evangelical community. Exodus International, a ministry devoted to helping people overcome same-sex attractions is shutting down. Alan Chambers, the ministry’s president, is apologizing for much of the hurt he believes the ministry has caused the LGBT community.
Chambers, who now rejects the view that sexual orientation can be changed through the Gospel, wrote that he believes there is a sense in which his apology is for the whole church. “[I]f the church is a body, with many members being connected to the whole, then I believe that when one of us does right we all do right, and when one of us does wrong we all do wrong,” he said. “We have done wrong, and I stand with many others who now recognize the need to offer apologies and make things right.” [1]
But Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention takes umbrage with Chambers’ apology, arguing: “I think there is a tendency to see Exodus folding as a parable of Christian capitulation and ethic. That is not what is happening. Instead what you have is an organization that has some confusion about its mission and purpose…What is not happening here, is an evangelical revision of a biblical sexual ethic.” [2]
Peter LaBarbera, who leads Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, would agree with Moore. When OneNewsNow recently asked LaBarbera about Exodus shutting down, he said, “I think Alan Chambers, who basically ruined the organization, had no choice because the affiliates were leaving. All the people who support the truth that homosexuals can change and overcome this perversion through Jesus Christ were leaving Exodus.” [3]
LaBarbera, who called Exodus’ closing one of the greatest tragedies he had witnessed in the pro-family movement, also shared where he believes the ministry made its fatal mistake. He said, “Homosexuality is about behavior, and behaviors can be changed with the help of God and through Christ…That’s what Exodus used to be about. But once they started talking about so called ‘gay sexual orientation,’ as if this is the inherent state of somebody’s being, they got in trouble.” [4]
LaBarbera makes a critical point that raises a fundamental question: Is the concept of “sexual orientation” biblical? It is my contention that this expression, which finds its source in modern psychology and is so easily bandied about, doesn’t have a biblical leg to stand on.
