Folks, our response to Tim Tebow caving in to the “Gay Thought Police” is coming soon. Here is First Baptist Church of Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress’ wonderful response to the controversy Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013 at the church. It has been very encouraging to watch Jeffress (with God’s help) so effortlessly turn “lemons into lemonade” on this story. When even “TMZ Live” sides with Pastor Jeffress over Tebow on the story (a TMZ host said Tebow “wussed out on this one”), you know something interesting is afoot in the culture. My sense is that even as “gay power” grows in America — with all its accompanying intolerance and anti-Christian bigotry — there is also rising a societal disgust with speech-stifling political correctness. Maybe truly hate-filled homosexual militants like Wayne Besen (who smears Jeffress as a “hate pastor” HERE) are actually helping the pro-family movement. Let’s hope so. — Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth

‘Defend Marriage Lobby Day’ today in Springfield aims at stopping bill in House

This will never be a “marriage,” no matter what laws are changed.

Dear AFTAH Readers,

Today (Wed., Feb. 20th) is Defend Marriage Lobby Day in Springfield, Illinois, as pro-family citizens rally in the state capital against a homosexual “marriage” bill proposed by the Democrats for our state.  Our friends at Illinois Family Institute organized this special day to help citizens express their unyielding support for real, natural marriage (one man, one woman) in the Land of Lincoln — which is already reeling from previous pro-homosexual laws.  The “gay marriage” bill, SB 10, passed the state Senate on Feb. 14 with the votes of 33 Democrats and one lone Republican, Sen. Jason Barickman (Bloomington), so it is critical to stop the bill in the House. The Democrats who run Illinois — from Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel to Gov. Pat Quinn — have made passing a “gay marriage” bill a TOP PRIORITY, so please get involved on the side of “Nature and Nature’s God” to thwart their efforts!

TAKE ACTION — Illinois Citizens: Please attend the Lobby Day today if you are able: there is a 10:30 AM rally outside the Capitol Building in Springfield (401 S. 2nd Street, Springfield, IL), followed by lobbying.  IFI will help you lobby your representative if you’ve never done it before!  See their site for more details: http://illinoisfamily.org/politics/lobby-day-instructions-what-to-expect-on-feb-20th/.  For those in Chicagoland, Kathy Barnette of Truth Exchange still has room on her bus for the trip to Springfield; see the Truth Exchange site.

If you cannot make the trip, make sure to call or write your State Representative and voice your opposition to the “gay marriage” bill.  Call the Springfield Capitol Switchboard at 217-782-2000.  Find you elected officials HERE.

We already know the ramifications of legalized homosexual “marriage” from other states like Massachusetts:

• Religious liberty and freedom of conscience (i.e., the freedom to oppose homosexuality) will be repressed by the state in the name of “gay rights”; Illinois has already experienced this under our “Civil Unions” law [see the case of the Walders’ bed-and-breakfast in Paxton, IL].  Despite the current bill being amended to protect churches and religious institutions, business owners — even devout Christians — who cater to weddings (such as banquet hall owners and photographers) could be forced to use their facilities or expertise to celebrate homosexual “marriages”;
• Liberal teachers, especially in public schools, will be emboldened to promote homosexual relationships to students in the classroom; homosexual teachers will be given a platform to discuss their “marriages” and to model homosexuality as normal, natural and good to students. Parents will have a harder time stopping the promotion of homosexuality in schools;
• Homosexual “sex ed” will gain ground in Illinois schools. Under the radical egalitarian idea that all relationships are morally “equal” and worthy of marriage, “safer gay sex” will be taught non-judgmentally alongside (normal) heterosexual sex. “Abstinence until marriage” (which regrettably is not the norm but only the ideal for most Illinois health classrooms) would apply to homosexual- and bisexual- as well as “straight” students — despite the reality that all homosexual sex is inherently immoral.  High-risk and unnatural practices like anal sex will be mainstreamed in our schools. (Could teaching the truth that sex between men is linked disproportionately to HIV and various sexually-transmitted diseases lead to charges of “anti-gay discrimination”?) And deviant lesbian sex will be taught for girls who in the future might “marry” a woman.
• Businessmen will be forced to recognize and subsidize their employees’ immoral same-sex “marriages”; a form of this is already happening under Illinois’ “Civil Unions” law;
• Society will be corrupted as unequal things are treated as equal; children will be further confused as the law (which is a teacher, as the saying goes) creates a Brave New Morality that officially “weds” sinful, unnatural and changeable behavior to the noble and life-sustaining institution of marriage;
• Homosexual activists will be energized to use the homosexual “marriage” law to pressure citizens to approve of their lifestyle and step up their crusade to stigmatize, demonize and discredit pro-family Christians and moral opponents of homosexuality.  Groups like AFTAH that embrace wholesome, godly morality will be vilified as “hateful and bigoted.” And, as we have witnessed in Massachusetts, the push for ever more extreme “LGBT rights” would be propelled by enactment of “same-sex marriage” — including “transgender” activism in schools.
• Legalized homosexual “marriage” will help “normalize” homosexual adoption, thus consigning greater numbers of innocent children to be raised in households that are motherless or fatherless by design.

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AFTAH Interviews Lobbyist Ralph Rivera on Threat of Homosexual ‘Marriage’ Bill in Illinois

Original post: http://americansfortruth.com/2013/02/11/aftah-interviews-ralph-rivera-on-threat-of-homosexual-marriage-in-illinois/

[NOTE: this interview occurred BEFORE the Illinois homosexual “marriage” bill, SB10, was amended prior to passage Feb. 14. The amended bill precludes churches and religious institutions from being forced to host homosexual “marriage” celebrations in their building. However, this amendment applies only to explicitly religious institutions; Christian- and other moral-minded business-owners could still be forced to host homosexual “marriage” ceremonies and related celebrations under the bill despite their deeply-felt opposition to “gay marriage.” — Peter LaBarbera]

This interview [click HERE to listen] with Illinois pro-family lobbyist Ralph Rivera was conducted on February 4, 2013. Rivera is a lobbyist for the Illinois Family Institute – which is sponsoring a Defend Marriage Lobby Day against the homosexual “marriage” bill in Springfield on Wednesday, Feb. 20th. Along with AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera and co-host John Kirkwood (of Grace Gospel Fellowship church), Rivera discusses the pro-homosexual-”marriage” bill looming in the state’s General Assembly. (The Illinois Senate is reportedly slated for a floor vote on the bill on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14.)

Rivera explains the bill’s threat to religious liberty — e.g., how in its original draft (likely to be amended) it would force churches and religious institutions that rent their facilities to the public to host homosexual “weddings.” There is also a discussion of how legalized “gay marriage” effectively forces pro-homosexual ”lessons” into public schools. In addition, the three discuss the Boy Scouts of America’s proposed change allowing openly homosexual Scoutmasters and Scouts. Rivera is also a longtime pro-life lobbyist for Illinois Citizens for Life.

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.

2-4-13, Ralph Rivera

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Help AFTAH Stand for TRUTH: Make a Tax-Exempt Gift Today!

AFTAH will never back down or be intimidated by the intolerant and hateful (and anti-Christian”) “Gay” Lobby. Your gifts help us carry out our critical mission.

All gifts to Americans For Truth are fully tax-deductible according to the IRS.  To give online, go to: www.americansfortruth.com/donate/. Or send your regular-mail donation to:

AFTAH
PO Box 5522
Naperville, IL 60567-5522  

Join the Monthly “Truth Team”: Please consider becoming a monthly “Truth Team” donor to AFTAH by pledging a monthly gift to AFTAH of $25, $50, $100, $250 or whatever you can.  Sign up online at: www.americansfortruth.com/donate/ or e-mail us and we’ll help you set up a monthly giving plan that suits your needs: americansfortruth@gmail.com.

Pastor James Taylor

This is the first of a two-part interview [click HERE to listen] with James Taylor, pastor of University Christian Church in Norman, Oklahoma. It was recorded Jan. 17, 2013. Taylor attended, with AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera, a federally- and state-sponsored conference on substance abuse and homosexuals, held December 12, 2012 in his hometown of Norman. Here is Americans For Truth’s original story on the one-day “LGBTQ2I Summit” conference, which Taylor describes as “nothing more than … a pep rally for the GLBT [Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender] community.” Taylor bristles at the analogy of conference speaker and (male-to-female) transsexual Celeste Flemming comparing “transgenders” being denied the use of opposite sex restrooms (e.g., due to women not wanting to share a restroom with biological males who want to live as “women”) — to Blacks being denied the use of “whites-only” restrooms. He describes how he came to the defense of conservative Oklahoma State Senator Sally Kern (R), who was mischaracterized by the keynote speaker at the conference as being on a “which hunt” against homosexuals. There is also a discussion about a heretical, pro-homosexual “What does the bible say about homosexuality?” flier passed out at one of the sessions attended by Taylor.

LaBarbera also comments on Wayne Besen’s interview opposite Family Research Council’s Peter Sprigg on CNN — about the Inaugural prayer controversy involving Georgia Pastor Louie Giglio.

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.

1-17-13, Pastor James Taylor, Part One

Tony Perkins debating Barney Frank on MSNBC. The Homosexual Lobby is pushing hard to discredit Perkins, even twisting his words to make him appear hateful and irrational. They are lobbying media NOT to have him on as a guest. (They do the same to AFTAH and other groups opposing the “gay” activist agenda.) There remain two sides to the homosexuality debate. Journalistic balance and fairness require that media not cave in to homosexual activist pressure, nor rely on biased LGBT misinformation specifically crafted to marginalize Christian conservative leaders.

By Peter LaBarbera

In our recent post of “20 Resolutions” for pro-family advocates battling the “gay” activist agenda in 2013, Number 6 is: “Recognize, dismiss and counter homosexual activists’ lies and propaganda.” One common homosexual activist deception is to transform any criticism of homosexual behavior or “gay” activism into a general attack on “gay people.”

You will note from the video below how the leading homosexual activist media-lobbying group, GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), twists Family Research Council President Tony Perkins’ words. Speaking at a May 3, 2001 conference, Perkins said:

“Those that understand the homosexual community — the activists — they are very aggressive … everything they accuse us of they are in triplicate. They’re [intolerant], they’re hateful, they’re vile, they’re spiteful…Our response to them should be one of love and of compassion….We’ve got to be very careful to guard our hearts — that we in the midst of this battle don’t become so [callous], that we realize they’re not the enemy. The enemy is simply using them as pawns. They are held captive by the enemy….”

Now look at how GLAAD mischaracterizes the above quotation on its website page attempting to discredit Perkins as a media commentator:

Here is the short Perkins video courtesy of People For the American Way’s  (PFAW) “Right Wing Watch” (which, unlike GLAAD, actually correctly describes Perkins as talking about homosexual “activists”) [YouTube URL: http://youtu.be/hfNVgJ4rwMo]:

This photo showing the massive scope of the Paris rally is from the Facebook page of organizing group “La Manif Pour Tous” (“The Demonstration for All”). Click on photo to enlarge, and see additional photos and video below.

Who would have thought that an anti-“gay marriage” rally in France would draw at least 340,000 people and possibly much more — and that support for homosexual “marriage” would drop precipitously in the polls? (French support for same-sex “marriage” reportedly fell from 65 percent to 52 percent — though I don’t trust polls and suspect that most surveys overstate support for the pro-homosexual agenda.) Check out these photos and a video of this amazing and historic rally — held in Paris on Sunday, January 13. Beneath the YouTube video (after the jump) there is an excerpt from an AP report on the rally, which includes a police estimate of 340,000 people attending the massive rally (organizers claimed 800,000 marchers).

Note too that the organizers of the rally folded a message of opposing “homophobia” into their pro-natural-message campaign (e.g, see the marcher holding the “Friend of Marriage Not Homophobia” sign at 1:09 of this 3-minute video). This viewpoint is far from one that AFTAH would put forward, but nevertheless the rally shows how unpopular the dominant LGBT goal of homosexual “marriage” is even in highly secularized countries like France. — Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth

PS. The huge rally in socialist-run France and the plummeting “gay marriage” poll numbers speak volumes about the “gay” activist propaganda line that LGBT victories are “inevitable.” They are not.

YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/embed/LUeFZcCdpGE

It’s time to get beyond defensive, naive and just plain bad thinking in the face of aggressive and deceitful homosexual activism…

Homosexual activists like Dan Savage — creator of the vile “Santorum.com” website mocking and “redefining” former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum — get a free pass in the pro-“gay” media, while Christian pro-family groups like AFTAH are labeled “hate groups” by the same media. Too many pro-family advocates are still defensive about fighting this expanding evil in our midst — which now directly threatens Americans’ cherished freedom of conscience. Click on graphic to enlarge but be forewarned: it is vulgar and exceedingly nasty.

Today we begin a 20-part AFTAH series offering resolutions for “Culture Warriors” and everyday Americans who oppose the highly organized and well-funded LGBT agenda. For you novices out there, ‘LGBT’ stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender – the modern sin movement built around the affirmation of deviant (homosexual) sex and gender confusion.

Each day, AFTAH will publish an essay explicating a “resolution” that addresses a bad intellectual habit or “gay” talking point that many well-intended Americans have fallen for — e.g., indulging in the false guilt that is aggressively cultivated by our adversaries. We will expose the lies, leftist tactics and erroneous thinking that are at the root of people’s ideological and spiritual compromise in the face of ardent “gay” activism.

What follows is a rough list of our resolutions for the New Year. There will be some overlap, but each entry stands alone as an answer to erroneous thinking that buys into homosexual activist canards. Please pass them on to your friends, family members, and co-workers; they are intended for anyone who is worn down by society’s ubiquitous “gay”-affirming propaganda. Let’s face it: we all are affected by media manipulation on the homosexual issue and need to get back to confidently defending what’s right.

Editor’s Note regarding AFTAH’s Christian rhetoric: Americans For Truth is an openly Christian organization, perhaps more so than most pro-family groups. So we do use Scripture and even mention Jesus Christ in our work. However, the moral and practical principles we espouse are generally universal and have wide appeal — even for the agnostic who is moral-minded and recognizes that homosexuality is unnatural and should not be encouraged by governmental and cultural elites. AFTAH is supported by people of all religions and no religion, and we welcome anybody who agrees with our mission of returning to wholesome sexuality in (real, man-woman) marriage.

I hope you benefit from AFTAH’s resolutions. This list can be expanded upon, so we invite you to send us your own ideas; send your e-mail to: americansfortruth@gmail.com. May the Lord help you to speak out boldly for the Truth — in genuine, God-fearing love — in 2013! – Peter LaBarbera, www.AFTAH.org

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20 Resolutions for Pro-Family Advocates Battling the Homosexual-Transgender Agenda in 2013

1) Get OFF the defense, and back on offense – (get rid of that false guilt and incapacitating ambivalence; YOU are defending Truth; homosexual activists are promoting immorality, self-deception and lies).

2) Follow God and not man (shore up your biblical beliefs) – do you fear God or the reaction of people?

3) “Question Authority”: Don’t trust elites – even “conservatives” — on the homosexual issue (e.g., Newt Gingrich’s recent capitulation urging a GOP accommodation on “marriage equality”). [See Numbers 9 and 12.]

4) Get back to the BEHAVIOR and its consequences (try Googling “MSM [men who have sex with men], CDC [the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], HIV” or “MSM, CDC, Syphilis”…)

Janet Boynes, who abandoned the lesbian lifestyle, is one of thousands of men and women who have overcome homosexuality. In 2012, LGBT advocates showed their intolerance by pushing for laws that ban ex-gay change therapy for minors.

From the website of NARTH (National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality):

Emergency Court Injunction Halts SB 1172!

December 26, 2012m NARTH.com

NARTH and several of our organization’s clinicians who are represented by Liberty Counsel received an early Christmas present late Friday when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the California ban on change therapy (SB 1172) and granted an injunction pending our appeal. The law, scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2013, would have prevented our young clients from continuing counseling to diminish or eliminate unwanted same-sex sexual attractions, behavior or identity.

NARTH has been fighting the California legislative efforts to deny families the right to seek therapy for their children experiencing unwanted homosexual attractions for almost a year. It began with a month’s long opposition to a bill introduced by state Senator Ted Lieu  that went through several committee hearings, a number of amendments and changes by the legislature, and finally passage through both houses of the state legislature. NARTH sent a delegation to testify in those hearings and spent many hours contacting legislators explaining why we believe the bill would be both harmful and unconstitutional.

MIDNIGHT DEADLINE for Tax-Exempt, Year-End Gifts to AFTAH:  All gifts to Americans For Truth are fully tax-deductible according to the IRS.  To count your gift as deductible for your 2012 taxes, give online at www.americansfortruth.com/donate/ by midnight Central Time today (Dec. 31st).  Or postmark your regular-mail donation by today (Dec. 31st) and mail to: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522.  Please consider becoming a monthly “Truth Team” donor to AFTAH.

** AFTAH is looking forward to aggressively and non-defensively confronting the Homosexual, Bisexual and Transgender Lobbies in 2013.  Thank you for making our work possible with your donations and prayers! **

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Scott Lively

Folks, being called a “pro-family hero” by Scott Lively is humbling, and a great honor.  See below where Scott lists AFTAH as among his “Top 10 Pro-Family Heroes” for 2012.”

In recent years nobody has been on the receiving end of more lies, slanders and all-around wickedness at the hands of homosexual activists than Scott Lively.  I don’t think the average Joe American could even comprehend what Scott has gone through — merely because he stands against the lies and myths of the Homosexual Movement.  And yet he fights on undeterred because he knows that as a follower of Christ devoted to the Truth of God’s Word, he will be persecuted.  I know Scott and he is nothing at all like the evil, hateful caricature that “gay” activists have made him out to be.

AFTAH presented Scott with its “American Truth Teller” award for 2011 because he exemplifies the sacrificial spirit of truthful, Christ-like resistance to the LGBT Sin Movement — which is based on one of the greatest frauds ever perpetrated against mankind: that homosexuality is natural (for some people), innocuous, “who you are,” and the basis for “civil rights.”  Scott Lively is a true cultural hero, and a decent, great Christian man who loves homosexuals enough to tell them the Truth.