Editor’s Note:  While I’ve reposted a number of articles that Mike Heath has written over the years, I’m pleased to announce with this article that Mike is going to be a regular contributor to Americans for Truth.  Mike is an outstanding Christian father and leader in Maine — as the former executive director of the Maine Christian Civic League. He sent this article out to his e-mail list this morning.  I encourage you to read it all the way to the end.  Mike takes no prisoners in this article. He is uniquely qualified to provide this honest perspective from inside our movement.  He needs our support.  Click here to visit Mike’s website and subscribe to his email.  He was one of the first in the movement many years ago to see the value of using broadcast e-mails in communicating truth.  Thanks in advance for reading all the way to the end! — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

The hero from the new movie “For Greater Glory”

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By Michael S. Heath

I apologize for taking so long to write. Click here to read my last email to you, which was sent on April 30, 2012.

In that article I write candidly about my history of ministry in Maine. I encourage you to take a few moments to click through to the link and read the article again. It is important to understanding what I am going to write to you today.

I don’t mention in that article a group formed by the Maine Legislature many years ago called “The Ethics Commission.” I need to write about that this morning. Their existence provides a bit of explanation for why I haven’t been writing to you as often as I would like.

The Ethics Commission

They exist, in part, to provide a guarantee to Maine people that corruption isn’t happening in government — that everything in politics is above board … ethical. They provide this service to the public by forcing lobbyists, politicians, Maine citizens, businesses, corporations — everybody in America really — to fill out many, many forms and meet lots of deadlines if they choose to influence Maine politics. The forms, some of them dozens of pages in length, and governed by language only a lawyer working with his accountant could love (or understand) require the disclosure of everything related to finances including the names, addresses and business connection of donors. The ACLU has argued in the past that this is unconstitutional. The National Organization for Marriage is making the same argument now in court. I haven’t checked recently but I think they are still in court fighting the State of Maine over the 2009 vote on “marriage.” Their attorney, Jim Bopp, charges hundreds of dollars an hour for his services. They’ve been in court for years, and the case hasn’t completed the appeal process.

I’ve been in the headlines before as leader of the Christian Civic League of Maine charged with being unethical. It’s impossible to win those headlines when you are a religious leader. The press prints the accusations, but not the results (when you are exonerated).

The following is Part Two of our interview with Peter Sprigg [click HERE to listen], Senior Fellow in Policy Studies at the Family Research Council. This was recorded June 21, 2012. [Go HERE for Part One and HERE for the archive section containing all AFTAH interviews.] Sprigg goes into further analysis of the Mark Regnerus study on homosexual parenting. He and AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera and Grace Gospel Fellowship pastor John Kirkwood also discuss the radical decision by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan not to defend the state’s marriage law.

CORRECTION note from program: In the beginning of this interview, there is a discussion of egregious, pro-homosexual media bias, focusing on CNN’s Soledad O’Brien. In the first of two CNN clips, we play O’Brien interviewing Dr. Fred Luter, the new — and first African American — president of the Southern Baptist Convention. LaBarbera mistakenly attributes a quote by libertarian Republican Margaret Hoover, another guest on the progam, to O’Brian. As you can see from the CNN clip HERE, it is Hoover, not O’Brien, who refers to homosexuality (“inclusiveness of gay Americans”) as “a new civil rights issue.” Then O’Brien condescendingly instructs Luter that his position on homosexual “marriage” puts him in “direct opposition to President Obama.” We apologize for the error.

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 or two to load.)  OR right click the link then “save target as” to download the whole show.

6-21-12, Peter Sprigg, Part Two

How ‘non-discrimination’ laws are used to discriminate against people of faith

First published by WorldNetDaily, June 15, 2012; this is the first half of Linda’s column; read the whole column on WND HERE:

Relatively few self-identified homosexuals get “married,” even when same-sex unions become legal. But perhaps that was never the main point anyway.   Respectability is what they are seeking. But to achieve this goal for behaviors that never can be intrinsically respectable, the power to massage the truth and to silence opponents is critical. How do you gain power? Restrict the rights of your enemies to express an opinion opposing homosexuality and same-sex “marriage.”

The most destructive weapons deployed to this end are sexual-orientation and gender-identity “non-discrimination” laws. The Senate just held its first hearings on ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and many states and municipalities continue to be confronted with this unneeded legislation. As they hear the pleas about someone being fired “just for being ‘gay’ or ‘transgender,’” politicians would be wise to review the history.

Such policies routinely clobber people of faith who don’t agree with same-sex “marriage” or with the open expression of this behavior in the workplace, in schools and in public accommodations, by people who often lack good sense and good judgment. The cost of disagreement? Just your job, your reputation, your bank account and/or your religious liberty.

And we know where the “Gay”-Activist-in-Chief stands on religious freedom, right? Obama is leading the charge on restroom rights for radicals as well. June is once again “Pride” month, and the White House issued a glowing proclamation of support for this noble cause, which Obama thinks is “stronger than hate.” So there you have it.

“You will not acknowledge the freedom of those who seek change”

Homosexual activist Wayne Besen of "Truth Wins Out" viciously attacks people who have overcome homosexuality in their lives--like former lesbian Janet Boynes. To order Boynes' book, go to www.JanetBoynesMinistries.com.

The following is an open letter to “Truth  Wins Out” (TWO), a homosexual activist organization that attempts to discredit the observed truth that people practicing homosexuality can change their dominating sexual attractions (and behaviors). This letter was sent to members of the California state Assembly, which is considering SB 1172 — passed in late May by the state Senate — banning “sexual orientation” change therapy (also know as “reparative therapy”) for homosexual youth. The letter’s signers are: myself [Peter LaBarbera, Founder and President of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH)], Wayne Lela, Founder of H.O.M.E. (Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment), and John McCartney, Jr., an AFTAH Board Member and advocate with the Citizens Concerned About Media, also based in Chicago.

TWO viciously demonizes “ex-gays”; typical is TWO founder Wayne Besen’s crass and demeaning characterization HERE of former lesbian Janet Boynes as an “ex-gay fraud” and “con artist.” Significantly, much of Besen’s and TWO’s efforts are directed at denying media visibility to people like Boynes who have overcome homosexuality in their lives. You can also listen HERE to Besen’s embarrassingly unprofessional appearance last year opposite me on liberal radio host Barry Lynn’s talk show, “Culture Shocks”: in addition to repeatedly calling me “Porno Pete” (a nasty smear he concocted) on air, Besen exposes his own folly of trying to “prove” homosexuals cannot change by admitting that he hasn’t (and of course cannot) monitor every former homosexual. (Besen and his small outfit evidently hadn’t been tracking successful Chicago former lesbian Linda Jernigan.)

I wish to add, for myself personally as a Christian who has monitored the homosexual movement for two decades, that some people trapped in homosexuality HAVE experienced rapid and, many would say, miraculous change away from homosexuality — mostly (but not always) through spiritual regeneration in Jesus Christ. However, that should not be the expectation of every person seeking sexual healing and transformation. As in all areas of life, each person brings his or her own unique circumstances, struggles, beliefs and personality to the process of overcoming adversity, sin and addictions in their life. And the lingering effects of temptation, abuse/family dysfunction and indulged, habitual sin — of whatever stripe — usually last a lifetime.

Urges “gays” trapped in sexual sin to “snatch up” God’s free gift of salvation and forgiveness through Christ

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (John 3:16-21, English Standard Version of the Bible)

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Friday, June 15, 2012

This column first appeared in WorldNetDaily (WND.com). We have added links to the original piece:

AN OPEN LETTER TO HOMOSEXUALS

By Matt Barber

I write this not to professional homosexuals. That is to say, not to members of the well-funded, politically powerful homosexual activist lobby. They will mock and reject my words outright. They will twist and misrepresent what I say to further their own socio-political agenda. That’s fine. It’s to be expected. It merits little more than a yawn and an eye roll.

Instead, I write this to my fellow travelers in life – average, ordinary people, male and female, young and old – who happen to call themselves “gay.” I write this out of obedience to God.

It is my hope and prayer that you will consider what I have to say and take it at face value. My intentions are pure and my motives upright. If I can plant the seed of truth in just one person, and that seed begins to sprout, then I consider this letter a success.

I pray that you are that person.

The following are the remarks of Michael Heath, Co-Chairman of the Maine No Special Rights Campaign, on June 9, 2012, at the Lewiston City Hall Steps in Lewiston, Maine. Heath, Co-Chairman Paul Madore and No Special Rights are opposing a ballot initiative in November to legalize homosexual “marriage” in Maine:

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As our society continues her descent into the gloomy depths love compels us to come together here today.  The inky blackness of evil only appears solid.  The flicker of a solitary candle reveals the deception.  Light always forces darkness to flee.  Darkness has no power over light … and love.

Sodomy, and those who practice it, choose to live in the darkness.  First they convince themselves that evil is good, and then they must convince everyone else.

The siren song of sexual pleasure entices them from the righteous course God prepared for them in eternity.  The clanging song excites them for a minute, but the pleasure always flees before the moment passes.  And so it will be with Maine.

The most unloving and intolerant act we could choose to perform would be to not engage the people of Maine in a conversation about morality, sodomy and sin.  My heart is heavy, for the institution most capable of leading this conversation is itself now turning her head in the direction of the siren’s song.

The church must repent.  It must choose clarity and courage over political correctness and sin.

This is Part One of a three-part interview with Peter Sprigg [click HERE to listen], Senior Fellow for Policy Studies at the Family Research Council. This podcast was recorded June 14, 2012. Sprigg is the author of “Outrage: How Gay Activists and Liberal Judges Are Trashing Democracy to Redefine Marriage” (Regnery, 2004), and is co-editor of the FRC book “Getting It Straight: What the Research Shows about Homosexuality.” The bulk of this interview deals with the new study on homosexual parenting” by University of Texas scholar Mark Regnerus, appearing in the journal Social Science Research (June 10, 2012). The study found dramatic differences between children raised in normal, mom-and-dad families and those raised in lesbian-led households. Sprigg is also on the Board of PFOX (Parents & Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays). Joining program host Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth is Pastor John Kirkwood of Grace Gospel Fellowship Church in Bensenville, IL.

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 or two to load.)  OR right click the link then “save target as” to download the whole show.

6-14-12, Peter Sprigg, Part One

Ignacio Arsuaga of the Spanish pro-family group Hazte-Oir ("Speak Out"), which hosted the highly successful World Congress of Families VI conference in Madrid.

AFTAH’s Peter LaBarbera and Pastor John Kirkwood interview Ignacia Arsuaga [click HERE to listen], founder and president of the Spanish pro-family/pro-life group Hazte-Oir (roughly translated, “Speak Out”). Hazte-Oir did an outstanding job as the main local host joining with the Rockford, Illinois-based Howard Center to put on the World Congress of Families VI conference late May in Madrid. It drew more than 3,000 attendees, including representatives from Americans For Truth and 130 other pro-family groups from across the globe. This interview occurred May 31, 2012. Arsuaga discusses the failed pressure campaign by homosexual and leftist activists against the conference, and also how Madrid’s homosexual lobby targed Catholic Bishop Juan Antonio Reig Plà (of the diocese of Alcalá de Henares), after Reig Plà included homosexual behavior among other sins that war against the soul in a homily. Hazte-Oir and its followers rallied to support of Reig Pia, who received a standing ovation at the WCF conference. Arsuago, speaking here in his second language, English, discusses the state of the pro-family movement in Spain, and how his organizations mobilizes young people to stand for truth in the Culture War.

TAKE ACTON: Hazte-Oir needs help to cover a financial deficit from the huge undertaking of hosting an international conference. Please help them by making a donation at: http://congresomundial.es/help-us/.

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 or two to load.)  OR right click the link then “save target as” to download the whole show.

6-3-12, Ignacio Arsuaga