If you don't want to miss anything posted on the Americans For Truth website, sign up for our "Feedblitz" service that gives you a daily email of every new article that we post. (This service DOES NOT replace the regular email list.) To sign up for the Feedblitz service, click here.
After a hiatus, AFTAH is back on the air. This podcast [click HERE to listen], recorded May 16, 2013, is Part One of our interview with Mormon pro-family activist Stephen Graham, founder of Standard of Liberty, a group based in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Graham discusses the Mormon Church’s (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) retreat on the homosexualist agenda — especially after the LDS Church was hammered by the pro-“gay” Left for funding and supporting the Prop 8 constitutional amendment to protect marriage in California as one-man, one-woman. At about the 8:18 point on this audio, Graham cuts to the root of the Mormon pullback in resisting the overarching “gay” agenda (including “same-sex marriage”): a fear that bad publicity will limit the ability of its farflung missionaries to engage potential converts.
Graham describes his disappointment with Mormon Church leaders for failing to stand resolutely against the liberalization of the current Boy Scouts of America (BSA) policy prohibiting openly homosexual Scouts. AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera, co-host John Kirkwood and Graham agree that had LDS leaders done so — given the Mormons’ huge sway with the Scouts — the potential for BSA capitulation on the homosexual issue would have been greatly diminished. LaBarbera references a Mother Jones article about the LDS Church cuttin back on funding anti-“homosexual marriage” state ballot measures in 2012, and Graham says the MJ article is accurate. The discussion ends with a focus on how the fear of losing corporate funding led to the Scouts’ proposed policy change — and how pro-family companies like Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby should step in and offer to make up any lost corporate grants to the BSA.
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.
AFTAH’s Peter LaBarbera speaking at IFI rally against homosexuality-based “marriage.” He is holding a “children’s” book, “King & King,” that promotes same-sex “marriage” to innocent children. The book is about a prince who “marries” another prince, rather than a princess. A man disrupted the speech, yelling out to LaBarbera and demanding to know if he wanted to “round up” homosexuals and put them in camps. Photo: IFI. Click on photos to enlarge.
The following is adapted from a speech I gave Saturday (May 11, 2013) at a rally in Western Springs, Illinois, home district to State Rep. Jim Durkin (R). The rally was one of several sponsored by the Illinois Family Institute to educate citizens on the threat of “same-sex marriage” legislation in Springfield. Despite Democratic super-majorities in both House and Senate, the homosexual “marriage” bill (SB 10} has stalled in the Illinois General Assembly. A coalition of Christians — Black, White and Latino — is leading the charge against SB 10, against a far better funded pro-homosexual opposition in Springfield. IFI is to be commended for holding back the media-backed push for same-sex “marriage” against much-better funded pro-homosexual opponents. Click HERE for their Resource Page on homosexual “marriage.” — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH
______________________________
Good afternoon, thank you for coming and thanks to IFI for sponsoring these marriage rallies.
I have a question for you today: do you fear God or do you fear man? If you fear God, you will shudder at the thought of attaching the noble, life-giving, God-ordained institution of Marriage to a deviant sexual lifestyle – homosexuality – that God Himself condemns as sin.
But if you fear man, you will worry about being Politically Incorrect – or being called a “bigot” or a “homophobe,” simply because you believe Marriage is what it is: a sacred union between a man and a woman.
I stand before you today as one who fears God. But I also fear for this once-great State of Illinois – that more and more kicks God to the curb. Yes, the Land of Lincoln has become the Land of Liberals, and liberals are destroying this state, and this Nation.
We’re here today to fight against the secular progressives’ latest social experiment – marriage (so-called), based on homosexuality, which God calls an abomination. Liberals and homosexual activists call this “Marriage Equality,” but we know there’s nothing “equal” about it. Two men or two women cannot produce children without the assistance of heterosexuality, so enough about “Marriage Equality.” It’s just not equal.
But it’s not just liberal Democrats promoting this bad idea, it’s liberal Republicans like Pat Brady, who finally stepped down as Chairman of the Illinois GOP. Let’s be clear: when Mr. Brady – a close friend of Representative Jim Durkin – came out for homosexuality-based “marriage” (so-called), he did not just come out against the clear language of the Illinois Republican Platform (which calls for a state constitutional amendment to preserve Marriage as one-man, one-woman). No, Brady came out against God’s natural plan for Marriage.
Our Declaration of Independence speaks of “Nature and Nature’s God.” Attaching unnatural and wrong behavior to marriage is an offense against Nature and Nature’s God. And when you defy Nature, bad things happen. Listen to this shocking quote from the federal Centers for Disease Control last December: CDC estimates that MSM – that’s “Men who have Sex with Men” – “represent approximately four percent of the male population in the United States, but male-to-male sex accounted for more than three-fourths (78 percent) of new HIV infections among men and nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of all new infections in 2010 (29,800).”
Our government should be warning against the dangers of homosexuality, not trying to call it “marriage.”
Exodus leader Alan Chambers works directly with “gay” activists to undermine pro-family Christians
John and Anne Paulk — on the cover of Newsweek magazine in 1998. Recently, Paulk renounced the “ex-gay” movement that he once led. Anne, however, has stayed faithful and is now involved with Restored Hope Network, which has risen up in response to Exodus International’s “gay”-affirming turn away biblical truth. See current photo of John Paulk below.
“Exodus [International] used to focus on how Jesus leads persons out of homosexuality. Now Exodus appears to celebrate those who return to it.”— Andy Comiskey
TAKE ACTION: As you can see from Andy Comiskey’s piece below, Exodus International is no longer a trustworthy “ex-gay” organization for Christians who respect the Bible’s authority. But there is now a biblically-faithful Christian alternative to Exodus: Restored Hope Network (RHN). Although AFTAH supported Exodus for two decades, it has tragically embraced a “gay”-affirming ideology that distorts the wonderful grace of God and, ironically, pushes the defeatist message that most homosexuals cannot change their “sexual orientation.”
I have publicly challenged Exodus President Alan Chambers to find “gay” “sexual orientation” in the Bible; he has not responded. Moreover, Chambers now not only eschews getting involved in “culture war” over homosexuality — Exodus no longer even takes a stand on the blasphemous notion of homosexuality-based “marriage” — but he also urges other Christians to follow suit.
Although AFTAH would rather focus its attention on the aggressive homosexualist agenda, we cannot ignore the escalating confusion and falsehoods advanced by Exodus International under Chambers’ failed leadership. Recently, Chambers called me a “viper” on Twitter (get the Pharisee allusion?) following yet another episode that exposed his newfound pro-homosexual radicalism. In a shocking development that some are calling “Chambers-gate,” the Exodus leader stunned me and other activists by secretly cc’ing homosexual activist Jeremy Hooper in an email thread that included manypro-family leaders. (Details will be forthcoming; here’s one of Hooper’s pieces on the episode; here’s the piece in left-leaning Salon.com).
At the same time, Chambers secretly cc’d evangelical renegade and Grove City College professor Warren Throckmorton — another pro-family-“defector”-turned-pro-homosexual-apologist who, like Alan, is popularizing the dangerous idea that nearly all homosexuals who try cannot change. Talk about denying Jesus’ power (but more on that later).
Talking up “gay Christianity” — another Chambers shift away from truth — is unbiblical, but many believers are unaware of Exodus’ new radical worldview. Americans For Truth urges you to inform your Christian friends about Exodus’ pro-homosexual turn and ask them to support the fledgling Restored Hope Network however they can. Here’s some useful information:
Below is wonderful response to Exodus VP Randy Thomas’ fawning piece on John Paulk by former homosexual Andy Comiskey, founder of Desert Stream Ministries. We also have reprinted excerpts from the Thomas piece, “John Paulk’s Shocking Secret,” below. — Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth
Coach notes rapid desensitization of Americans toward homosexuality
Folks, Coach Dave Daubenmire of Pass the Salt Ministries is one of a kind. It was a pleasure to be interviewed by the Coach — a man’s man whose old-fashioned moral frankness may be out of step with today’s culture but is so much more refreshing than the pablum coming from some “Christians” and “conservatives” these days. I love Coach’s point — as politically incorrect as it is true — at around the 22:25 mark regarding what parents fear most. Also note:
Coach’s comments on TIME magazine’s indecent “gay kiss” cover and what it says about desensitization in the USA (10:30);
my comments on Larry Kramer and “gay” men who look back “fondly” on their own molestation (27:35); and
the section on the sinister pro-pedophilia “B4UAct” website (“NAMBLA with a PhD”), which mimics homosexual activist talking points to advance the agenda of the “Minor Attracted People” movement.
Give me just 100 pastors like Coach Daubenmire scattered across America and you wouldn’t recognize this nation! Please support the Coach and his ministry. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH
PS. Let me anticipate a homosexual activist criticism of my comments — which of course will be distorted — around the 14:00-15:00 minute mark. I am not “reassured” (14:40) that homosexual men contract so many diseases related to their perversion, in the sense of taking some sort of heartless satisfaction from their suffering. Rather, I am reassured that Nature and the practical realities of the homosexual lifestyle affirm God’s revealed truth about this sin. As I say in the interview, “The real world is backing up what the Bible says about homosexuality.” This should further motivate Christians to lovingly share God’s free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ to people caught up in homosexual behavior. More information follows the interview….
This interview was published by NewsWithViews.TV on Apr 11, 2013. Coach writes:
“Peter LaBarbera of www.AmericansForTruth.org joins Coach Dave for an in-depth discussion of the homosexual agenda and how ‘marriage’ is just their latest assault on traditional values. Listen to this riveting, no-holds-barred discussion.”
AFTAH defends natural marriage at Illinois Republican Party Central Committee meeting Saturday. Pat Brady is the outgoing head of the IL-GOP who angered the Party’s grassroots by outrageously embracing homosexuality-based “marriage.” Click on photo to enlarge.
By Peter LaBarbera
Hey folks, for half the day Saturday I stood inside the Tinley Park Convention Center with about 50 pro-family conservative Republicans — to protest at the quarterly Central Committee meeting against elitist corruption within the Illinois Republican Party. We were united against IL-GOP Chairman Pat Brady, who endorsed the (stalled) “same-sex marriage” bill despite the clear and principled IL-GOP platform stance affirming REAL marriage (see language below). Pro-family stalwart Karen Hayes and I held high an AFTAH banner that read, “Pat Brady Must Go; Marriage: One Man, One Woman,” and distributed an information Alert on “Why the IL-GOP Must Never Abandon its Pro-Natural Marriage Platform.”
It was exhilarating to stand with so many Illinois patriots, yet exhausting and aggravating as we were forced, like disobedient children, to wait three hours for a chance to make our voices heard to the assembled Committeemen. [Click HERE to watch a video of the exiled conservatives featuring activist Bill Kelly.] After the long wait, I and few others were finally allowed to make public comments (for just two minutes per person). But after fewer than 10 people had spoken Brady suddenly ended the session — again silencing the voices — if not the spirits — of some of the hardest-working Republicans in the state. They deserved much better.
As you can read from the Chicago Tribune account below, Brady was not voted out Saturday, but apparently he is being eased out within six weeks. After the meeting, a Central Committeeman told a group of us that “everybody got the message…There wasn’t a vote [on Brady] but there was a vote.” Translation: even GOP VIPs as notoriously out-of-touch with the grassroots as the men and women running Illinois’ Republican Party realize they can’t keep Brady at the helm for long.
And that is the best news I take away from Saturday’s dysfunctional GOP gathering: even in Illinois, where conservatives are as beaten down and disrespected as in few other states, principled Republicans and citizens (many Tea Partiers) are calling out their political “leaders” for abandoning time-tested moral values. And not just Republicans: don’t forget that it is pressure from pro-natural-marriage Democrats that has kept the Democrat-dominated General Assembly in Springfield from voting in counterfeit “gay marriage.”
One of the high points at the Tinley Park meeting occurred when a Republican official was reading from resolutions and actions just enacted by the Republican National Committee (RNC). The final RNC resolution he read was one reaffirming the national Republican Party plank defending natural marriage — and instantaneous and sustained applause erupted in the room. Clearly, supporting marriage as God ordains it — one man, one woman — is a very popular, foundational plank for Republicans. Ditching it would be a mistake of incalculable proportions — like the Party becoming “pro-choice” on abortion.
Republicans will never “out-gay” the Democrats in pandering to a Sin Movement…
Sen. Rob Portman’s emotional conversion to the homosexual “marriage” cause — which he justified as supporting his homosexual son — plays into the liberal media and “gay” activist narrative that same-sex “marriage” is inevitable.
By Peter LaBarbera for Americans For Truth
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush – it seems everyone is embracing oxymoronic homosexual “marriage” these days, or so the liberal media would have us believe. Promoting sexual perversion in the name of “civil rights” is the trendy and “cool” thing to do. If you’ve heard it once you’ve heard it a hundred times: today’s youth (and we all know how wise and experienced they are) are overwhelming pro-“gay marriage” — so it is “inevitable.”
Even CPAC, the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, is getting in the game: last week it allowed the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) to sponsor an entire panel (“Rainbow on the Right”) devoted to homosexuals’ “inclusion” in the conservative movement. Sounding more like a Washington Post “conservative” than a real one, panelist and Post columnist Jennifer Rubin reportedly exclaimed at the panel how anti-homosexual-“marriage” Republicans “cannot be at war with America on the issues of fairness and equality.“ (Prominent opponents of the Homosexual Lobby were excluded from the CPAC-CEI panel.)
In the midst of the CPAC gathering, news broke that Sen. Portman had flip-flopped on homosexual “marriage” because his 21-year-old son Will is a homosexual. Thus Portman succumbed to the emotionalism and illogic that dominate post-Christian America. Employing some awful theology, he kicked God to the curb — as is becoming habit in a land that increasingly mocks its own national motto, “In God We Trust.”
Here is a dose of Politically Incorrect truth: homosexual behavior is sinful (read: always wrong in the eyes of God), unnatural, destructive and yet – thankfully – changeable. To become homosexual-affirming because someone you love announces he or she is homosexual is the antithesis of “tough love.” It’s like telling a loved one who is has a drug problem: “I love you so much that I’m going to send you a five ounces of cocaine every month, because that’s how much I care.”
An imperfect analogy, perhaps, but Portman’s tragic defection and moral weakness play right into the Left’s ubiquitous narrative that same-sex “marriage” is unstoppable. Don’t buy it. In politics and life, only death and taxes are inevitable. Remember that radical feminists used to say that the abortion debate was “settled”; now they’re losing that cultural battle for hearts and minds.
Bill Whatcott says he will go on distributing his pro-family and pro-life flyers despite the Canadian high court’s outrageous “hate speech” ruling against him.
Folks, as bad as things are in the United States with regard to Political Correctness, it seems they are always worse in Canada. Below, Christian pro-family activist Bill Whatcott comments on an outrageous Supreme Court of Canada ruling declaring his anti-homosexual-agenda fliers as “hate speech.” AFTAH is cited in one of the flyers, which can be viewed at the end of the court decision HERE.
Shocking as it may seem, Whatcott — a fearless pro-family advocate — might end up in jail simply for passing out flyers warning fellow Canadians about the aggressive agenda to normalize homosexual behavior.
This Orwellian ruling should be studied as a lesson in the incompatibility of “group rights” — especially those based on homosexuality — with true liberty. Whatcott cites this incredible bit of judicial doublespeak from the ruling:
“Truthful statements can be presented in a manner that would meet the definition of hate speech, and not all truthful statements must be be free from restriction.”
Stunning as that is, I find the most amazing claim in the ruling that supposed “hate speech” like Whatcott’s deserves to be banned because it could “silence” its target. Really? The homosexual activists are a lot of things, but “silent” sure isn’t one of them.
In an excellent piece analyzing the Whatcott decision, Canadian columnist Rory Leishman summarizes:
In short, with this Whatcott ruling, the Supreme Court of Canada has held that nothwithstanding the ostensible guarantees of freedom of expression and freedom of religion in the Charter, a Canadian can be found guilty of violating the prohibition on hate speech in a human rights code by making a statement even if (a) the statement is true; (b) the speaker did not intend to express hatred; (c) the speaker was expressing his or her honestly held religious conviction; and (d), there is no proof that the statement has caused any harm.
The United States, unlike Canada, has a First Amendment. But it is important to remember that Americans’ freedom to oppose homosexuality has already been greatly abridged — through our own Supreme Court decisions like the 1996 Romer v. Evans ruling striking down Colorado’s Amendment Two (through which citizens were attempting to block the very sort of “sexual orientation” rights that lead to discrimination against Christians).
Protecting homosexuality as a right and a “minority” erodes true liberty and historic Judeo-Christian morality. Please support Bill Whatcott in any way you can. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org
Homosexual protest boomerangs as targeted Texas pastor slams Political Correctness and winsomely proclaims the Gospel
New York Jets QB and public Christian Tim Tebow backed out of a scheduled speaking engagement at a Texas mega-church following “gay” protests that falsely and maliciously labeled that church and its pastor as motivated by “hate.” Tebow missed an opportunity to defend biblical truth.
By Peter LaBarbera, Special American For Truth Report
Many Christians and pro-family advocates were disappointed to learn that New York Jets QB Tim Tebow had backed out of a scheduled speaking engagement at the First Baptist Church in Dallas – following an online lobbying blitz by homosexual activists urging him to cancel because the church’s pastor is “anti-gay.”
Last Thursday, Tebow tweeted that he was pulling out of the April 28 appearance with First Baptist Pastor Robert Jeffress “due to new information that has been brought to my attention.” A conflicted Tebow reportedly told the Texas pastor that he would like to speak at the Dallas mega-church at some point in the future, but “he needed to avoid controversy right now for personal and professional reasons,” the liberal Daily Beastreported.
The Daily Beast article is gratuitously headlined: “Tim Tebow’s ‘Hate’ Pastor Responds to Quarterback’s Withdrawal.”
Turns out that Jeffress not only preaches that homosexual behavior is a sin — he also opposes Mormonism and some Catholic teachings. And, because he asserts that Jews (like everyone else) also need to have faith in Christ to go to heaven, Jeffress was also slandered as “anti-Semitic.” Translation: he is squarely within the long tradition of the Southern Baptist preaching, which holds that regenerative faith in Christ alone is required for salvation.
[Watch Pastor Jeffress’ powerful response to the Tebow controversy HERE, addressing his First Baptist Church of Dallas congregation last Sunday.]
Of course, Evangelicals, Catholics and Mormons have serious theological differences (although each teaches that homosexual behavior is wrong). But let’s be clear: the instigators of the controversy that culminated in Tebow’s unfortunate cave-in were the ‘Gay Thought Police’ – my name for the powerful and well-funded homosexual activist lobby that demonizes people who speak out against homosexuality as bigots, haters and “homophobes.”
Curiously, Tebow himself attends a Southern Baptist church in Jacksonville, Florida, First Baptist Church Jacksonville, which holds the same biblical beliefs as Jeffress’ church. With the Texas pastor ably refuting the absurd “gay” polemic that his is a “hate church,” even some secular liberals opined that Tebow had blown it with his First Baptist cancellation. In a remarkable interview with Jeffress, celebrity reporter (and Jewish homosexual) Harvey Levin, founder of the Hollywood-oriented TV show TMZ – hardly a right-wing sympathizer – concluded, “It sounds like Tebow wussed out on this one to me.”
Thus Tebow joins the list of other celebrities, conservatives, and Christians leaders who have succumbed to homosexual pressure campaigns. (Recently, Atlanta pastor Louie Giglio pulled out of the President Obama’s Inaugural ceremony, for which he had been invited to give the benediction, after pro-“gay” activists uncovered one of his sermons from the mid-90s critical of homosexual activism. Under attack from homosexual activists, Giglio opted not to defend Christian teaching on homosexuality — and took pains to assert that he hasn’t made the homosexual issue a priority in his ministry work and did not wish to be part of the national debate on the topic.)
This article was not easy for me to write. As a Tebow fan, I sincerely hope he reverses course and returns to speak at First Baptist. He is young and has a lot to learn — all the while being under the liberal media’s microscope. Nevertheless, I think Tebow also owes a public apology to Pastor Jeffress, who was put in a bad situation but handled it masterfully.
