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Becket Fund Releases Study of Religious Liberty Implications of Same-sex ‘Marriage,’ Surveys Anti-Discrimination Laws in 50 States
November 24th, 2008
In the United States of America, nobody — Christian or otherwise — should ever be forced to support or subsidize immoral homosexual relationships against their moral beliefs. Religious exemptions may appear to be a short-term solution to the problem of “competing rights” between traditional American liberties and newfangled “gay/transgender rights” laws, but in the long run they will not preserve true freedom in America.
From the Becket Fund website (emphasis added). We’ve left the word (same-sex) “marriage” without quotation marks, which we would normally insert to clarify the false notion that two people of the same sex can marry. Also, we would note that the issue of “competing liberties” — as stated below — existed with the passage of the first pro-homosexuality “sexual orientation” law — long before same-sex “marriage” became an issue.
Becket Fund is well intentioned in its advocacy of strong religious exemption laws, but Americans For Truth supports the full repeal of all sexual orientation laws as fundamentally incompatible with historic American freedoms. One problem with religious exemptions is that they leave out the non-religious opponents of homosexuality — essentially creating a new set of “special rights” for religious people — the right to live by one’s moral beliefs. Secular foes of aberrrant sexual and gender behaviors should not lose that same right.
Another problem is that such exemptions give pastors and (officially) religious organizations an incentive to pull out of the cultural struggle over the normalization of homosexuality — even as Christian and religious businessmen are being forced to violate their own freedom of conscience under pro-“gay” laws. Exemptions may appear to be a short-term solution but they are not the answer; reasserting the primacy of historic, genuine American freedoms over newly-theorized “rights” based on homosexual misbehavior and gender nonconformity is. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org
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Becket Fund writes Nov. 10, 2008:
Becket Fund Releases Study of Religious Liberty Implications of Same-sex Marriage, Surveys Anti-Discrimination Laws in 50 States
Over 350 separate state anti-discrimination laws would likely be affected by the legal recognition of same-sex marriage, according to a new study by The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
The Becket Fund surveyed over 1,000 state anti-discrimination laws — specifically those prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender, or marital status — to assess how those laws would affect religious dissenters to same-sex marriage if same-sex marriage were legally recognized.
The study found that all 50 states prohibit gender discrimination in some way, and only 37 states have explicit religious exemptions to these provisions, many of them quite narrow. This lack of robust exemptions could become a problem if (as has happened in some instances) religious objections to same-sex marriage are treated as a kind of gender discrimination. In addition, 33 states prohibit at least some discrimination based on marital status, and only 13 of these states provide religious exemptions, some with a wide latitude of exemption, others with only narrow exemptions. Of the 20 states that prohibit sexual orientation-based discrimination, 18 provide exemptions for religious objection.
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Letter: Dr. Neil Clark Warren and eHarmony.com ‘Caving into Evil’
November 21st, 2008See AFTAH story, “eHarmony Sells Out after Homosexual Complaint Files Using New Jersey’s Special Rights Law.” Jan of Crystal Lake, Illinois sent the following letter to eHarmony.com:
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From: Jan
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 5:34 PM
To: ncwarren@eharmony.com [Dr. Neil Clark Warren, founder, eHarmony.com]
Subject: unbelievableDear Mr. Warren:
I was absolutely shocked that you would cave into the homosexual agenda, by offering date-matching for homosexuals on your “Christian” dating website. They have their own dating websites which I understand to be extremely X-rated.
I have several single and widowed friends who use your website. I will be sending an e-mail to them about your caving into EVIL and that they should not use your website — ever again.
Extremely disappointed,
Jan
Crystal Lake, IL
eHarmony.com Sells Out after Homosexual Activist Files Complaint using New Jersey’s Special Rights Law
November 20th, 2008Boy Scouts fought same homosexual law, and won in Supreme Court
E-PERVERSION.COM? Born-again Christian Neil Clark Warren and the company he founded, eHarmony.com, have capitulated to a New Jersey “sexual orientation” complaint using the state’s homosexual “rights” law– by expanding its dating service to homosexuals. The Boy Scouts fought the same law rather than cave on their principles. Click HERE for the settlement and HERE for a news release by New Jersey’s Attorney General. TAKE ACTION: write Warren at ncwarren@eharmony.com.
Americans For Truth sent out the following e-letter today to: Dr. Neil Clark Warren, founder of the eHarmony online dating company; eHarmony’s management team; and various pro-family groups and leaders (listed at bottom). We refer you to WorldNetDaily’s story, “eHarmony to Match ‘Gays,’” detailing the company’s capitulation to New Jersey following a “discrimination” complaint by a homosexual activist. Some excerpts from the WND story are at bottom. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org
TAKE ACTION: Contact Dr. Neil Clark Warren at ncwarren@eharmony.com. An eHarmony contact page and blog for comments can be found HERE (several management e-mails listed bounced back).
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Subject: Dr. Warren et al, you sold your soul (or at least eHarmony’s)…
Importance: High
FR: Peter LaBabera, Americans For Truth
TO: Dr. Neil Warren, founder of eHarmony, and eHarmony’s Management:
Dr. Warren et al, you sold your soul (or at least eHarmony’s)…
… It is a shame that you chose not to follow the lead of the Boy Scouts of America by standing up for your legal rights as a moral company that believes in REAL marriage – one that would not promote homosexuality and ungodly, unhealthy relationships. (You will recall that the Scouts, too, were challenged under New Jersey’s “sexual orientation” law, but New Jersey was overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court.) I suppose this means you have now officially joined the list of Companies Promoting Immorality (CPI) – a growing list, indeed. How tragic that eHarmony’s resources – and your good name — will be used to advance the cause of homosexual behavior, a changeable sin.
You could have set an example to Christians and freedom-loving Americans everywhere by fighting on principle for your company’s First Amendment right not to be bullied into submission by a politically correct state bureaucracy. Instead, you capitulated. In addition to hurting the cause of Christianity, you have damaged the cause of freedom and particularly religious freedom in America. It appears that eHarmony is no longer a “match” for Integrity.
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Pro-Family Response to California Supreme Court Agreeing to Hear Challenges to People’s Vote on Prop. 8
November 20th, 2008Thomasson: “If the court disobeys the constitution by voiding Prop. 8, it will ignite a voter revolt.”
Sacramento, California — In response to today’s decision by the California Supreme Court to hear the challenges to Proposition 8, the California Marriage Amendment, Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, a leading California-based pro-family organization, issued the following statement:
“It’s unfortunate that the judges are giving time to the mushy, subjective arguments of homosexual activists who reject the clear reading of the constitution and the clear reading of Proposition 8. If the court disobeys the constitution by voiding Prop. 8, it will ignite a voter revolt. It will also threaten the validity of all future constitutional amendments.
“The court is playing with fire by threatening to destroy the people’s vote on marriage. The California Constitution clearly says that the voters have the right to alter the highest law of the land. It’s the beauty of the American system of government. The four Supreme Court justices who unconstitutionally invented homosexual ‘marriages’ — Ron George, Joyce Kennard, Kathryn Werdegar and Carlos Moreno — seem to be ignoring the fact that the people get the last word, not the judges.
“The clear reading of the constitution, as well as California’s legal and legislative history, tells us there is a world of difference between a constitutional amendment and a constitutional revision. Proposition 8 is a single-subject, voter-initiated amendment, not a legislature-initiated, multi-issue, whole-scale revision that alters many sections of the state constitution.
“If Prop. 8 gutted the constitution, why is it only one subject in one section of the constitution? If Prop. 8 doesn’t stand, then our constitution doesn’t mean anything, the people’s vote doesn’t mean anything, marriage has been utterly disrespected, and judges lied when they swore to uphold the constitution. Prop. 8 must stand, because the constitution is above the judges, not the other way around.
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President-Elect Obama Lays Out Pro-Gay Agenda
November 20th, 2008We would add to Citizenlink’s list below that President-elect Obama is on record supporting:
- the more liberal version of ENDA that includes “gender identity” (transsexual “rights”);
- changing immigration law to treat homosexual couples (i.e., same-sex lovers abroad) like married couples;
- expanding federal AIDS spending despite the disproportionate government monies spent on this behavior-driven disease compared to other serious maladies such as Alzheimer’s and heart disease;
- federal recognition of homosexual “civil unions”; and
- using the president’s bully pulpit to advocate for homosexual adoption and other homosexual activist policy goals.
I’m sure we’ve missed some homosexual agenda items. But if you are a Christian and/or consider yourself pro-natural-family — and you voted for Mr. Obama — perhaps it’s time to start contacting him to urge him NOT to pursue these misguided policies. (We assume that many strongly religious Obama voters were at least partly — and perhaps willfully — ignorant of his liberal-left plank on the moral issues of homosexuality and abortion.) We don’t know if the messages will get to him, but here’s a contact page for the Obama transition team: http://www.change.gov/page/s/contact. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org
The Citizenlink story is below:
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Nobody Hates Like the Homosexual Left
November 19th, 2008Hello everyone,
I hate to ask you to do this, but please check out lesbian Pam Spaulding’s juvenile web story on our counter-protest against a Chicago pro-homosexual “marriage” rally — and the hate-filled comments from Pam’s followers on her “Pam’s House Blend” blog. I’ve worked with hundreds if not thousands of mostly Christian pro-family and pro-life activists over the years and I cannot imagine any of them writing anything that comes even close to the nastiness of these comments. More evidence that nobody hates like the Left.
Pam must be so proud of her intelligent readers….More on this coming, with photos…
‘H8ing’ the Christians: Video Shows Aftermath of Homosexual Mob Attack on Christians in San Francisco’s Castro District
November 18th, 2008The following is an edited version of the informational background accompanying a YouTube video showing the aftermath of a homosexual mob attack — including an alleged sexual assault — on a group of Christians that come to San Francisco’s Castro district every Friday to witness the Gospel. As the original note says, “This video was not posted by any member of the group in the video. However, below is an account [by] one of the team members who was there.”
This mob assault occurred following the passage of Proposition 8 restoring traditional marriage in California. Homosexual activists are deriding the successful ballot measure as “Prop H8” (hate) — but look at the hatred on display below in what is supposedly America’s most “tolerant” city. This criminal assault is also significant in that “gay” activists routinely charge Christians and pro-family groups — and most recently Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family — with fomenting “hate violence.” Clearly, “hate violence” and threats committed by vengeful homosexual militants against religious people and churches is on the rise following California’s electoral repudiation of “gay marriage” on November 4th. — Peter LaBarbera. www.aftah.org
The Eye-witness account of the incident is posted beneath the YouTube video:
Posted November 14, 2008
Eye-witness account by posted with YouTube video by member of Christian group:
I went to the Castro (the homosexual district of San Francisco) like we usually do on Friday nights.
Normally, we sit on 18th and Castro, and someone plays the guitar, and we all worship God.
Sometimes a person will yell at us, or maybe a few. Sometimes people will ignore us. Sometimes people will let us pray with them.
This time was not a normal night. It was the first time we’d been back in the Castro to do our normal outreach since California Proposition 8, which defined marriage as “one man with one woman,” was passed. We played the guitar and sang together and worshiped the Lord. After just singing and worshiping God for a while, Roger decided that we should all hold hands in a circle and continue singing. So we did.
Someone (actually a person who came up and hugged and kissed some of us whom he knew from the past) convinced some people that we were there to protest against the “No on 8” campaign.
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Illinois Citizens Rally in Support of Proposition 8; LaBarbera Assails Gay Activists’ Escalating Intolerance against Christians and Churches
November 15th, 2008“Defending Marriage Is Not ‘Hate,'” say pro-family advocates
The far left, Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network has been smearing Christians as “haters” for years. Here they shown in 2005 picketing the city’s beloved Moody Church, which GLN fanatically labeled a “House of Hate” because Moody pastor Erwin Lutzer wrote a book against homosexual “marriage.” Click to enlarge; photo by Dave Smith, Illinois Family Institute.
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News Advisory, Protect Marriage Illinois and Americans For Truth
November 15, 2008
Contact: Peter LaBarbera: 630-717-7631; americansfortruth@comcast.net
CHICAGO – Peter LaBarbera, Board Member of Protect Marriage Illinois and president of Americans For Truth (www.aftah.org), issued the following statement in response to the national homosexual protest day against Proposition 8’s passage in California. LaBarbera joins Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel (www.lc.org) and a small group of Illinois pro-family advocates in Chicago to oppose the Chicago pro-homosexual-“marriage” rally today at Federal Plaza.
Statement by Peter LaBarbera:
We stand here today proudly in support of Prop 8 – which preserves the age-old definition of marriage as between and a man and a woman in California – and similar pro-traditional-marriage amendments that have passed in 30 states across the nation. Americans have spoken: they oppose the radical redefinition of marriage. We in Illinois hope to join the other states in passing a constitutional amendment to prevent activist courts from foisting “gay marriage” on our citizens.
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