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Christians must reach out with Gospel in love but avoid “soulish sympathy” for practicing homosexuals, says Bible scholar
By Peter LaBarbera
Folks, Dr. Michael Brown gave an excellent presentation at AFTAH’s monthly dinner-lecture last week. We hope to post a YouTube on Dr. Brown’s succinct and compelling response to my question on the “Big Three” hostile questions thrown at Christians who defend the Bible’s prohibitions against homosexual conduct:
“But Jesus Christ never said anything about homosexuality”;
“Why should we believe the Old Testament says about homosexuality when it also bans wearing polyester and eating shellfish?”; and
“You Christians are so judgmental.”
Dr. Brown, a world renowned biblical scholar, hit it out of the park. He also challenged what he calls the “celebration of ambiguity”in describing neo-evangelicals’ and the “Emergent Church’s” evasive and equivocating — and unbiblical — positioning on the issue of homosexuality.
Brown specifically challenged Chicago evangelical Andrew Marin (right), founder of the Marin Foundation and author of “Love Is Not an Orientation.” Brown praised Marin for wanting to reach out to homosexuals and the portions of the book in which Marin relays personal stories of homosexuals he has encountered who have been hurt by the Church. But he was highly critical of Marin’s misuse of Scripture in interpreting verses dealing with homosexuality.
Brown said of the Emergent Church — which is much more accepting of homosexual identity, uses the controversial term “gay Christian,” and generally scolds Christians for actively condemning homosexuality and the “gay” political/cultural agenda: “Their cure is worse than the sickness …. [they] have shown more solidarity with [homosexual] people than with God.”
“How are we helping anyone when we make the clear unclear … the unambiguous ambiguous? … How is that love?” Brown asked, calling on Christians to share the full truth of the Gospel in love. After first noting that Christians need to repent for neglecting to lovingly share God’s salvation plan with people caught up in homosexuality, Brown warned against believers falling into a “soulish sympathy” for homosexuals that overrides Biblical truth and their Christian conscience. [AFTAH will be offering a DVD of Brown’s talk; write americansfortruth@comcast.net for more information.]
‘Drowning out opposing views’ is the Left’s modus operandi in San Francisco
Ironic Indignation: will Speaker Pelosi work use her unprecedented influence to stop the anti-Christian intolerance and gross incivility toward people of faith in her own congressional district?
Recently, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) accused Americans protesting Obama-care at congressional townhall meetings of engaging in “un-American” conduct. Wrote Speaker Pelosi August 10: “These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task [health care reform] for decades.”
Speaker Pelosi, representing the intolerant glass house of San Francisco, should hardly be throwing stones with her selective outrage designed to discredit Americans opposed to expansive government. In her city, “shouting down” opponents has become an art form for the Left. Below is a video by veteran homosexual activist Michael Petrelis, founding member of the homosexual extremist group ACT UP, in which Petrelis shouts down an Americans For Truth-led coalition protest last year condemning San Francisco’s allowance of public nudity and sex in the streets (i.e., at the annual deviance sex-fest known as the Folsom Street Fair). Note in this homosexual activist video how the police officer ignores my plea for speech rights and allows Petrelis to disrupt our press event. — Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth
In future posts, we’ll have more on Pelosi’s subsequent ironic pleas for civility. Note the vulgar Petrelis’ simulation of a sex act on a banana and his enthusiastic defense of public sex and nudity in his city. In most other cities, police put a distance between opposing sides so that each can exercise its right to speak out. Shown in the video are AFTAH’s Peter LaBarbera (asking police to prevent Petrlelis from disrupting the press conference), Diane Gramley of American Family Association of Pennsylvania, and Linda Harvey of Mission America. The coalition press conference occurred September 27, 2008, a day before the perverse “Folsom Street Fair,” which again “tolerated” public nudity.
Double Standard for “Gay” Appointees? If a conservative Republican presidential appointee had told gays to “drop dead” and said, “[F**k] ’em” to the religious left — in a church — he would be dumped in a heartbeat due to liberal media pressure. But Kevin Jennings — who wears his hatred of religious conservatives on his sleeve as America’s leading activist “promoting homosexuality” in schools — is so far untouched as Obama’s “Safe Schools” deputy in the Department of Education. TAKE ACTION: urge your Congressman and Senators (202-224-3121; www.congress.org) to push for this dismissal of this troubled man whose abject bigotry and reckless promotion of wrong and unhealthy lifestyles make him a poor role model for children.
Peter LaBarbera
Check out FoxNews.com’s first major piece on the controversy surrounding Kevin Jennings, President Obama’s “Safe Schools” Education Department appointee and the nation’s leading activist promoting homosexuality in schools. Much of the article’s information against Jennings — including Brian Burt’s firsthand piece from a GLSEN conference exposing Jennings’ open desire to “promote homosexuality” in schools — came from Americans For Truth’s work (and that of our previous publication, Lambda Report).
What the FOX report left out was that Jennings used the F-word in 2002 to convey his hatred of the “religious right,” in a church no less. He says he can’t recollect” making the comment. Back in 2002, Americans For Truth and this writer (then writing for Concerned Women for America), obtained the audio tape from Jennings talk at the liberal Marble Collegiate Church in New York City — which I transcribed for the 2002 report by CWA below. (The tape has since been misplaced and FOX won’t report Jennings’ church expletive until an audio of the speech is produced.)
This is an important column by Scott Lively (left), and a crucial subject for the Church — especially in this era in which confusion about biblical truth is rampant. I’m to the point where I change the radio station out of principle (and aggravation) whenever I hear a wispy male Christian song that sounds like a femmy, religious version of the Bee Gees. Certainly, Christian men should be more jazzed about fighting for Truth in the Culture War than they are about succeeding in business and watching sports. — Peter LaBarbera, www.americansfortruth.org
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Scripture teaches in Genesis that when God created man in His image, He created us male and female. The implication is that God’s character spans the full spectrum of masculine and feminine qualities. This attribute is also revealed in the person of Jesus, born as a male, but manifesting both masculinity and femininity in His actions. When exhibiting feminine qualities, Jesus was more nurturing and relationship-oriented than any woman. When exhibiting masculinity, Jesus was more forceful and results-oriented than any man.
Americans For Truth is pleased and honored to welcome Dr. Michael Brown (left) — a world renown Christian apologist and dynamic pro-family defender of Biblical truth on homosexuality — at its monthly dinner-lecturer tomorrow — Thursday, September 17, at 6:00-9:00 PM — at our office at 25W560 Geneva Rd., in Carol Stream, IL. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to learn from a world renown Christian apologist (author of 20 books) and dedicated pro-family advocate who shatters all the stereotypes about Christians opposing the “gay” agenda. You will be blessed by this man of God who has such a strong heart for proclaiming both the truth about homosexual activism and the love of Christ that sets all men and women — including homosexuals — free.
WHO:Dr. Michael Brown, director of the Charlotte, NC -based Coalition of Conscience and president of FIRE School of Ministry in Concord, North Carolina. Dr. Brown, who holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University, is the world’s foremost Messianic Jewish apologist. (Messianic Jews are Jews who believe in Jesus Christ (who was Jewish!) as their Messiah.) Brown is the author of 20 books and in 2010 will publish “A Queer Thing Happened to America,” which exposes the extremist teachings of “queer theology.”
WHAT: AFTAH’s monthly dinner-lecture: Dr. Brown will be preaching on how faithful Christians are called to both RESIST the radical homosexual activist agenda and REACH OUT in grace and love with the Gospel of Jesus Christ to men and woman practicing homosexuality.
WHEN:Thursday, Sept. 17, 6:00-9:00 PM. Casual dinner begins at 6:00, followed by Dr. Brown’s talk from 7:00-9:00. There will be a time for Q&A after a mid-talk break for refreshments. A free will donation will be taken to cover the cost of the event. This event will be videotaped and a tape will be offered by AFTAH for purchase.
WHERE: AFTAH’s office at 25W560 Geneva Rd., in Carol Stream, IL. We are located on Geneva Rd., just west of Gary Rd.; (Carol Stream is next door to Wheaton in Chicago’s western suburbs.) Look for the “Kingsland” sign out front and park in the rear.
Take ACTION: Contact your U.S. Representative (202-225-3121; www.congress.org) and urge him or her to oppose H.R. 2262 — “The Safe Schools Improvement Act.” Despite its innocuous-sounding title, this bill would actually promote the acceptance of homosexuality and gender confusion in schools.
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“Homosexualists see nothing wrong in compelling other people’s children to be exposed to implicit and explicit theories on the nature and morality of homosexuality because they believe their theories are facts.”— Laurie Higgins
H.R. 2262, “The Safe Schools Improvement Act,” was introduced in May, and in June it was referred to the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education. This bill would “amend the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act to include bullying and harassment prevention programs.” Anyone who has been paying attention knows that anti-bullying/safe schools curricula are now the central means by which pro-homosexual propaganda is secreted into public schools.
Milk-ing the Schools to Indoctrinate Kids: Almost by definition, students celebrating Harvey Milk Day in California will get the politically correct, Hollywood version of his life — e.g., that he was assassinated by a “murderous homophobe” (not true: Ray Sloan — the campaign manager and confidant of Milk’s killer, Dan White — was openly homosexual, and testified that White “supported nearly all of Milk’s gay-friendly resolutions,” according to a liberal San Francisco paper). Milk — who supported cult mass-murderer Jim Jones — is hardly an appropriate role model for children (see Dan Flynn’s City Journal article, “Drinking Harvey Milk’s Kool-Aid”). The Democrat-led push for a day honoring this homosexual activist of dubious character is only the most audacious example of pro-homosexuality liberals using the schools to indoctrination children.
Folks, we have been slow to comment on all the Harvey Milk hype in our liberal-dominated popular culture — hype that is driving this push for an outrageous California bill that would effectively force students to celebrate a man famous for … being the first “out and proud” practitioner of homosexuality to win public office. (Oh boy: another marker for America’s Moral Meltdown.) The more one reads about Milk (see Dan Flynn’s excellent City Journal piece HERE) and the real story about his murder at the hands of Dan White (see caption above), the more preposterous becomes the idea of heralding him as a “civil rights” martyr.
Reverse Discrimination? How’s this for a timely story for Labor Day — highlighting the current reality that Christians and traditionalists who oppose homosexuality are more likely to be fired or disciplined for their beliefs than homosexuals are for “being gay.” TAKE ACTION: Call your Congressman and Senators next week (202-224-2131; 202-225-3121; www.congress.org) and urge them to oppose ENDA — the Employment Nondiscrimination Act — which would federalize “sexual orientation” law and greatly expand government power to promote the “gay” agenda. ENDA would become a tool for the Left to use the state to force Christian and moral-minded business owners to promote and subsidize homosexuality and transsexuality against their will.
Soap Actress Says She Was Fired Because of Religious Beliefs
Friday , September 04, 2009
By Lauren Green
If you tuned in to the soap “One Life to Live” this week, you may have noticed there’s been a change of character. One character in particular.
Actress Patricia Mauceri says she was fired and abruptly replaced for objecting to a gay storyline because of her religious beliefs.
Mauceri played the recurring role of Carlotta Vega on “OLTL” for the last 14 years. But when she objected to how the writers wanted her deeply religious character, a Latina mother, to handle a storyline involving homosexuality, she objected. And for that she claims she was fired.
Mauceri, 59, a devout Christian, told FOX News that character Vega’s gay-friendly dialogue was not in line with the character she helped create by drawing on her own faith.
“I did not object to being in a gay storyline. I objected to speaking the truth of what that person, how that person would live and breathe and act in that storyline,” she said. “And this goes against everything I am, my belief system, and what I know the character’s belief system is aligned to.”
By Peter LaBarbera
Brown specifically challenged Chicago evangelical Andrew Marin (right), founder of the Marin Foundation and author of “Love Is Not an Orientation.” Brown praised Marin for wanting to reach out to homosexuals and the portions of the book in which Marin relays personal stories of homosexuals he has encountered who have been hurt by the Church. But he was highly critical of Marin’s misuse of Scripture in interpreting verses dealing with homosexuality.
