By J. Matt Barber

Posted by Concerned Women for America, Sept. 14, 2007

“They feel kind for a season, but remain blind to all reason.” — Matt Barber, just now

Such is the nature of political correctness. And in that spirit, lawmakers — who are purportedly sane — plan to take us all on a “long strange trip” through a mystical fantasyland where the impossible is possible and the objectionable is obligatory.

A vote is expected soon on H.R. 2015, the so-called “Employment Non-Discrimination Act” (ENDA). If passed, the bill would grant special employment rights and protected minority status to individuals who define themselves based upon chosen sexual behaviors and others who — among other things — suffer from clinical self-delusion. It would force employers to abandon their First Amendment civil rights at the workplace door.

More on that later…

In the meantime, two stories. One is fiction, the other is real. Both are fantasy:

Sean was a redheaded, freckled lad of pure Irish descent. Growing up, he always felt something was wrong. He didn’t like green beer, corned beef hash or any of the other things the Irish were supposed to like. Rather, he was fascinated by African-American culture and eventually made the self-determination that he was, in fact, a black man trapped in a white man’s body. No, not like Vanilla Ice, Eminem or other posers; Sean actually believed it.

There were others who felt the same way, and a movement was formed. They called themselves “transracial.” They made up fancy, official sounding terms like “race identity” and “race reassignment surgery.” They demanded special rights and government-mandated benefits such as affirmative action and reparations.

Okay, that hasn’t happened yet (that I know of). The whole idea is pretty ridiculous, right?

Try this on for size:

Sean was a burly truck driver. Growing up, he always felt something was wrong. He preferred Barbie to G.I. Joe and didn’t like football or the other things boys were supposed to like. Rather, he got twitterpated by the way pantyhose felt against his skin and eventually made the self-determination that he was, in fact, a woman trapped in a man’s body.

There were others who felt the same way, and a movement was formed. They called themselves “transgender.” They made up fancy, official sounding terms like “gender identity” and “gender reassignment surgery” and demanded they be granted special rights and government-mandated benefits.

Get the picture?

 Author David Blankenhorn

By Peter LaBarbera 

David Blankenhorn of the Institute for American Values — who has done tremendous work in defending the institution of marriage and in making the case against “same-sex marriage” — has now proclaimed the “equal dignity of homosexual love.” This has earned him high praise from a leading homosexual “same-sex marriage” advocate, Jonathan Rauch. Watch their 3-minute video debate segment on “Bloggingheads.tv,” “Does opposing gay marriage make you a homophobe?” online here: http://bloggingheads.tv/video.php?id=386&cid=2311.

How utterly tragic is this pronouncement by one of the world’s leading marriage advocates — who should know better than to go out on limb on the homosexual issue, apparently in solidarity with his homosexual friends and associates. (Click HERE to read Princeton professor Robbie George’s review of Blankenhorn’s latest book, The Future of Marriage, in National Review.)

On what basis and authority does Blankenhorn make this astounding claim about homosexuality? He is part of a growing trend of prominent “conservatives” (a label which Blankenhorn rejects) and self-professed Christians who have decided that they disagree with what the Bible says about homosexuality.

At least Blankenhorn is honest enough to state openly that he disagrees with the Word of God — most people at his level are not, preferring to play a double-game of proclaiming their fealty to Biblical truth, reason and tradition while actually undermining them all. On page 210 of The Future of Marriage, Blankenhorn writes:

“I am a Christian, I take the Bible seriously, and I know what the Bible says about homosexuality. I disagree with the Bible on this point. Or if you’ll permit me, I believe that Jesus’ teachings are inconsistent with the idea that today in the United States we should judge people as blameworthy just for being gay or lesbian.”

That puts Blankenhorn’s latest statements on homosexual “love” in perspective. Let’s hope and pray that he returns to truth on this issue, and that his friend Jonathan Rausch leaves homosexuality behind.

   The photo at right appeared in the homosexual newspaper Dallas Voice’s story on Allyson Smith, who attended the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists (NLGJA) conference in San Diego representing Americans For Truth. Smith received a lot of attention at the annual event as a lone voice opposed to homosexuality. The NLGJA event is financed and sponsored each year by “mainstream” media corporations, including FOX News, which also recruited there. 

The following article first appeared on the blog of Mike Heath, who directs the Christian Civic League of Maine, and who is Chairman of the Board of Directors at Americans For Truth. As one who has both attended several National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) conferences (openly, as a critic), and even spoken as a panelist at one, I will add that the NLGJA events have an odd mix of activism and journalism. They prominently feature activists like Besen who can fairly be described as pro-homosexual culture warriors, but they also are attended by professional journalists who claim to be objective, mostly as open homosexuals. (I would suspect that the typical media consumer has no clue that the NLGJA reporter they’re reading, watching, or listening to is “gay.”) 

Wayne’s predictable jibes are far less important than the question of whether openly (or “closeted”) homosexual journalists can cover homosexuality-related issues with any semblance of objectivity and fairness. — Peter LaBarbera 

A ‘Christian Crusader’ amidst the World of ‘Gay Journalism’
By Mike Heath | September 7, 2007

Most of us don’t even know that there is such a thing as a homosexual press.  If someone told us there was one we’d look at them askance and wonder which airport bathroom stall they just crawled out of.  Alas, not only is there such a thing … it is thriving.  How do I know?  It wasn’t FoxNews that told me.  Turns out FoxNews sponsors the homosexual press, and recruits from their ranks.  Fox was one among many familiar news sources who showed up to sponsor the National Gay and Lesbian Jounalist Association convention in San Diego a couple weeks ago.

One intrepid truth teller took time to show up.  Allyson Smith, a San Diego resident, attended the entire conference representing (openly) Americans For Truth.  It is important to know that Allyson lives in San Diego.  Truth tellers about homosexuality in the west have learned to live on fund-raising fumes.  It is harder to raise funds for truth telling about homosexuality than it is for Larry Craig to figure out his “intent.”  If Smith didn’t live in San Diego, the important and underrated organization Americans for Truth wouldn’t have had anybody at the conference.  They don’t have the money.  It is easy to raise money by loving all things gay, hating gays or helping gays.  It is hard to raise money to tell the truth about the so-called “gay” movement.

Send your check today to Americans for Truth by visiting their website HERE.

UPDATE: after Donna Garner sent the message below, she did some more research on Wal-Mart’s “Gay & Lesbian” books section of its website and found that the corporation had not changed as much as she thought. Here is her subsequent ‘Correction’:

TAKE ACTION: Contact Wal-Mart by phone at 1-800-WALMART or through their online feedback page; thank them for moving in a pro-family direction but ask them to stop marketing offensive books that promote homosexual behavior, especially to youth. There are plenty of places to get these books: a “pro-family” corporation need not aggressively pursue this market.

Donna Garner writes: Now I am really sorry that I gave Wal-Mart a “pass” on their online offerings.  Last night when I was searching, I typed in the words “homosexuality” and “homosexuals” into the Wal-Mart search box. This is the same way that I had searched last summer and found so very many. 
 
This morning someone who is far wiser than I am has written me back and said these horrible teen homosexual books are still online at Wal-Mart [examples: The Best Gay Love Stories 2005, It’s in Her Kiss (see cover above), Queer Cowboys, Best Lesbian Love Stories 2005, etc.] and can be located by going through the following or by typing in the word “gay” into the search engine.  I should have thought to do that.  Please forgive my ignorance.

We still need to hold Wal-Mart responsible, and I will send my letters to the Wal-Mart executives as soon as I have time to get them written.
 
Here is what the wiser person wrote to me this morning: 
 
“In the Search box, choose Books from the drop down menu, but don’t type a search term in the menu.  Then click Find.  When it brings up a new screen, look on the lefthand side under SHOP BOOKS.  You will see in the list Gay & Lesbian.  Click on that.  In the next screen, it says Featured Categories.  Right under that is a section Gay & Lesbian Fiction, with a photo of a book Walk Like A Man.  Just below that book, just below the Add To Cart button, it says See all fiction.  Click on the word fiction.  It will take you to the Gay and Lesbian Fiction listings.”

__________________________

Donna Warner’s original message: Super-activists like Donna Garner and pro-family organizations like American Family Association — which led the charge against Wal-mart’s pro-homosexual drift — had a lot to do with this hopeful marketing shift. — Peter LaBarbera

TAKE ACTION: Contact Wal-Mart by phone at 1-800-WALMART or by through their online feedback page, and thank them for moving in a pro-family direction. 

By Donna Garner

Not only has Wal-Mart actually stopped funding Planned Parenthood and has been taken off the Life Decisions International Boycott List, but I believe the Wal-Mart online bookstore has been cleaned up also.
 
I went to the Wal-Mart online bookstore and typed in “homosexuality.”  Earlier this summer when I typed in that word, there were some 500+ books on the subject.  Now there are only 99 [there are actually over 400–Ed.].  I scrolled through all 99, and most of them are either about homosexuality and Christianity or homosexuality in history, art, foreign countries, etc. I wish many of them were not being sold by Wal-Mart, but I have to say that the really horrible homosexual novels and perverted books which teens might be lured into reading are no longer on the list [see note above on that]. 
 
Praise God!  I really do believe Wal-Mart has had a change of heart. The boycott did get their attention, and the Lord has answered our prayers. 
 
Thanks to all of you who joined in the boycott of Wal-Mart.  It took all of us working together to make a difference. God’s people are a mighty army!
 
Donna Garner
wgarner1@hot.rr.com

Our good friends at Concerned Women for America — Beverly LaHaye’s organization, which does so much to defend life and the family across these United States — have posted an online radio interview with Americans For Truth President Peter LaBarbera regarding Holiday Inn’s cancellation of our banquet. (We have secured another venue for the banquet, but the date is changed to Friday, October 5 — more information HERE.) 

TAKE ACTION:  1) To complain about Holiday Inn Select’s discriminatory treatment against people of faith and conservatives (another Holiday Inn cancelled an event for the Minuteman Project) — and their abrupt cancellation of Americans For Truth’s banquet reservation, write dennis@naperselect.com or call the hotel at 630-505-4900.
 

2) Call AFTAH’s Banquet Coordinator at 312-315-6152 to reserve a spot at the banquet on Friday, Oct. 5; or use our new and improved online credit-card donation page to sign up (there are more options and we no longer require you to use the Paypal system!);
 

You can also send your check for the banquet ($50/ticket or table of ten for $500) to AFTAH, P.O. Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522. Please pray that this event will be a success.

Click HERE to listen to the CWA interview online, or you can go to the CWA website to listen to the report. CWA writes:

No Room at the Inn

There is no room for Americans for Truth (AFTAH) at the Holiday Inn Select in Naperville, Illinois. The pro-family group was well into planning a fundraising banquet at that facility for October 6, when the Inn’s General Manager Dennis Igoe cancelled the group’s reservation citing safety issues for the hotel’s patrons. Those concerns stemmed from the possibility that homosexual activists would protest the event and resulting negative publicity for the hotel, not from AFT’s planned activities. Igoe’s actions were upheld by the Holiday Inn corporate offices, leaving AFT to scramble for alternate accommodations. Matt Barber, CWA’s Policy Director for Cultural Issues, speaks with Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth, on this situation putting it in context with the chain’s past actions.

 In case you were wondering why Americans For Truth had to change our banquet date from Oct. 6 to Friday, October 5, here’s the explanation: Holiday Inn Select Hotel in Naperville, Illinois, dropped our reservation due to the possibility of a “gay” protest against us. Here’s the story from American Family Association’s “OneNewsNow.” You can also listen to their story on the OneNewsNow website. 

_______________________________

Holiday Inn Dumps Christian banquet; Group Says Anti-Christian Discrimination at Play

By Jim Brown, OneNewsNow.com
August 29, 2007      

CLICK TO HEAR THIS STORY AT ‘ONE NEWS NOW’

Holiday Inn is being accused of anti-Christian discrimination for refusing to allow a Christian non-profit group to hold its annual banquet at one of its suburban Chicago locations.

Americans for Truth (AFTAH) had reached a verbal agreement with the Holiday Inn Select in Naperville, Illinois, to hold its October 6 banquet at the hotel. AFT had the reservation for several weeks, and both parties had even discussed the menu for the event.      

But when AFT executive director Peter LaBarbera told the banquet coordinator the event might draw a protest from homosexual activists, general manager Dennis Igoe dropped the reservation due to what he called “potential negative publicity to the hotel.” Florida-based Liberty Counsel then sent a letter to Igoe, informing him that his “cancellation of Americans for Truth’s reservation raises serious concerns of unlawful discrimination under the Illinois Human Rights Act which prohibits discrimination in places of public accommodation on the basis of religion.”

According to LaBarbera, Igoe’s decision to reject AFT was then ratified by Holiday Inn’s corporate offices. LaBarbera says he cannot imagine the hotel treating homosexual activists in the same manner. He calls this another example of Christians being treated as second-class citizens in U.S. society.

“It seems that there is now a sort of politically correct homosexual ‘heckler’s veto’ that’s forcing or persuading businesses to do things to decent people that they wouldn’t normally do,” he says.

LaBarbera states that it seems like America is becoming a “nation of cowards” due to political correctness.

“When a hotel chain is willing to cancel a Christian group’s event, due to a potential protest by a homosexual activist group, it’s a sad day in America,” says LaBarbera.

He says that although he believes his organization has grounds for a lawsuit, they probably will not because they have “plenty of other things to do,” he states. The AFT banquet will now have to find a new venue for the event, which has been rescheduled for October 5. The banquet will feature speaking appearances by former homosexual Charlotte Cothran and parents’ rights advocate David Parker of Massachusetts.

Mr. Igoe did not return OneNewsNow’s requests for an interview. A Holiday Inn hotel in the Chicago suburb of Crystal Lake recently succeeded in getting a judge to bar the Illinois Minuteman Project from holding a scheduled seminar at the hotel. The hotel cited concerns the anti-illegal immigration group might attract protests that would jeopardize the safety of its employees and customers.
Editor’s Note: The American Family Association is the parent organization of the American Family News Network, which operates OneNewsNow.com.

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