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USCCR chairman Martin Castro says “religious freedom” and “religious liberty” are “code words” for “discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy”
Truth Teller: Linda Harvey of Mission America is the keynote speaker at AFTAH’s annual dinner-banquet Friday, Oct. 28 at Grace Gospel Fellowship Church, in Bensenville, IL. Full banquet details HERE.
Folks, here is another excellent column by our AFTAH 2016 banquet keynoter, Linda Harvey of Ohio-based Mission America. Click the banner ad above for full details on the dinner-banquet Friday, October 28 (only $25 per person). This column was first published by WND. To read all of Linda’s WND columns, go here.
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The Left to Christians: Your Turn in the Closet
By Linda Harvey, 9-20-16
They want us to believe it’s “peaceful coexistence.” Others call it an unjust declaration of war.
The federal U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) just published a scandalous report that scorns authentic Christian faith and recommends severe restrictions of its full expression by American citizens – expression protected by the First Amendment.
The report, “Peaceful Coexistence: Reconciling Nondiscrimination Principles with Civil Rights” [get PDF here], is another Washington agency telling Christians it’s their turn in the closet. Now that homosexuals and transvestites are “out,” their desires, plans, demands and delusions take priority.
Religious exemptions, the commission report contends, “infringe” on civil rights. But hold on. Commission Chairman Martin Castro in this report unlawfully equates “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” demands to legally established U.S civil rights. Actual U.S. civil rights law bars discrimination about race, color, religion, sex, national origin and disability status.
No law designates homosexuality and gender confusion as federally protected civil rights. Just like the disguise of a “drag queen,” the rationale for much of this report is a lie.
States that have foolishly passed homosexual and gender rebellion “non-discrimination” laws have their own civil rights agencies. Let those states invent bogus recommendations to further restrict citizens’ concerns over the mandatory embrace of “LGBT” behaviors, ramping up the use of law as a weapon to fine Christians, get them fired, or close their businesses.
Sen. Cruz: “The religious liberty threat is real. They are coming for each of us, and Kim Davis is only the first.”
Folks, this is a wonderful and enlightening exchange between talk show host and author Mark Levin and GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz on the situation of Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused post-Obergefell to issue official homosexual “marriage” licenses under her name due to her Christian beliefs. Davis was jailed yesterday and faces likely stiff penalties, if not extended jail time. This interview was recorded yesterday, September 3, 2015. Levin eviscerates the “rule of law” argument frame advanced by the Left and even many “conservatives” who do not seem to be willing to admit that the Supreme Court of the United States itself declared it above the “rule of law” by taking the issue of marriage away from the people. (Kentucky citizens voted by a whopping 75 percent in favor of a “one man/one woman” constitutional amendment in 2004.) — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH
Victim of Homo-Fascism: Lakewood, CO baker Jack Phillips has lost 40 percent of his business after closing down the wedding cake part of his business so as not to be forced to make a cake celebrating a homosexual-sin-based “wedding.” To read an in-depth 2014 article documenting the battle between freedom of conscience and homosexual “rights,” go HERE. Read the Appeals Court ruling against Phillips HERE.
[Read the Colorado Court of Appeals ruling against Jack Phillips HERE]
Folks, we suspect that ‘homo-fascism’ of the sort that these two homosexual activists are perpetrating against Lakewood, Colorado baker Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, will prevail when it is appealed to the state’s supreme court. The question is: when will the U.S. Supreme Court finally take a case like this (or the Huguenins’ photography case in New Mexico) pitting religious liberty against homosexuality-based “rights.” That decision ultimately will either protect religious freedom in these United States of America or deal it a critical blow. Meanwhile, we’re losing these cases at the lower courts (and state supreme courts), while the ACLU, which purports to defend “individual rights,” is celebrating the negation of Phillips’ freedom not to violate his strong Christian beliefs. [See CBN video below, and ADF background on the case HERE.]
Is it just a coincidence that homosexualism and “progressivism” are leading the assault on religious freedom in America? Hardly. This case isn’t about “rights” or “discrimination” or “equality.” It’s about homosexual activists’ resentment of God and biblical truth and their obsessive drive to compel others to honor their sinful sexual behavior–perhaps to quell their guilty conscience–using the force of law. Apparently many LGBT activists and allied “progressives” are willing to kill liberty itself to accomplish that goal. — — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH: @PeterLaBarbera
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“[F]or citizens like Jack Phillips, the court has created a novel exception to the First Amendment — you’re entitled to believe, but not entitled to act on those beliefs. You’re not free if your beliefs are confined to your mind. What makes America unique is our freedom to peacefully live out these beliefs. “–ADF attorney for Jack Phillips
The local CBS4 News reports:
‘The Ruling Is Wrong’ Says Baker After Losing Appeal Of Wedding Cake Case To Gay Couple
August 13, 2015 1:48 PM
DENVER (CBS4) – The Colorado Court of Appeals has sided with a gay couple in the fight over a wedding cake saying a baker cannot cite religious beliefs in refusing service.
Lakewood baker Jack Phillips, who owns Masterpiece Cakeshop, refused to make a wedding cake for Charlie Craig and David Mullins in 2012 saying it was against his religious beliefs. The couple married in Massachusetts but planned to celebrate in Colorado.
Craig and Mullins then sued Phillips and the court found that he violated the law preventing businesses from discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Honor Our (Phony, Sin-Based) “Marriage” or We’ll Sue You! Homosexual activists David Mullins (left) and Charlie Craig discuss their court victory against Christian baker Jack Phillips with local CBS news. Click to enlarge. Go here to view CBS4 broadcast online.
Phillips tried to appeal that order arguing that it violated his First Amendment rights. Both sides made their case to the Court of Appeals in July and the court took until now to rule in favor of the couple.
“We feel like the court today affirmed the argument that we have been making that the treatment we received at Masterpiece Cakeshop was both illegal and wrong,” Mullins said.
“The court basically validated what we’ve been fighting this whole time,” Craig said.
New law explicitly denies conscience protections for small business owners; LGBT Lobby not appeased — demands full ENDA-type legislation for Indiana
Appeasement Emboldens ‘Gay’ Lobby: Graphic for homosexual activist group Human Rights Campaign demands more pro-homosexual legislation in Indiana following the Republican-led legislature’s and Gov. Mick Pence’s capitulation negating the state’s Religious Freedom law. Click on HRC.org graphic above to enlarge.
By Peter LaBarbera
In a stunning, politically-correct turnaround following a week of LGBT protests and media and business opposition, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence yesterday signed into law a pro-homosexual legislative “fix” of the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)–effectively turning it into Indiana’s first statewide homosexual “rights” law.
The language of the revised RFRA crafted by Indiana’s Republican House and Senate leaders and signed into law by Gov. Pence stipulates that the new RFRA “does not authorize a provider to refuse to offer or provide services, facilities, use of public accommodation, goods, employment, or housing” to any Indiana citizen on the basis of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity”–in addition to the usual criteria such as race, sex and disability. [See the full language HERE.]
When asked specifically at a press conference yesterday if the revised RFRA legislation could be used to defend the besieged owners of an Indiana pizza shop who told a reporter that theoretically they would not serve a homosexual “wedding,” Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma said:
“We can unequivocally say that RFRA cannot be used to discriminate against anyone.”
The law still protects churches and religious, non-profit organizations from being forced to participate in homosexual “weddings”–but not everyday small businessmen like the owners of the Indianapolis cookie stand “Just Cookies.” In 2012, the Christian owners of Just Cookies declined on principle to make “rainbow cookies” for a homosexual student group at Purdue University-Indianapolis. “Gay’ activists led a campaign against the company using Indianapolis’ “sexual orientation” statute; ultimately the owners settled with the city without paying damages. [To read about other conscience victims of the homosexual agenda, see this WND Whistleblower article by the author.]
“It also appears that under the changes released today, it may be impossible for a business or individual to even make a claim under RFRA [the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act] of an infringement of their religious liberty in many parts of Indiana.”–Micah Clark, AFA-Indiana
Micah Clark, executive director of American Family Association of Indiana–and a wonderful pro-family advocate who does outstanding work in the Hoosier State–sent the following e-letter to his constituents today–after new proposed language surfaced amending the state’s new religious freedom law:
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Friends,
As you know, over the weekend, Governor Mike Pence began discussing a clarification of Indiana Senate Bill 101. This was due to the mass misinformation and fear campaign mobilized against it and against our entire state. He did not ask for a change to a newly enacted statute which has been proven, established and non-controversial language for 22 years.
The actions taken by the Indiana General Assembly do not clarify our Religious Freedom Restoration Act’s purposes or goals. Our legal advisors tell us that it actually changes our law in a way that could now erode religious freedom across Indiana. If this revised law does not adequately protect religious liberty for all, it is not really a religious freedom act.
What is worse, unlike our current law, this new language’s impact is something upon which few attorneys or legal scholars will likely agree.
We have also been advised that it is possible that the proposed changes may no longer protect a company like Hobby Lobby from participation in abortion matters. One of the primary motivations behind SB 101 was to protect the rights of conscience for business owners regarding their beliefs about abortion.
It also appears that under the changes released today, it may be impossible for a business or individual to even make a claim under RFRA of an infringement of their religious liberty in many parts of Indiana.
On the positive side there is some language left which protects Hoosiers from a government action against their religious beliefs.
We understand that legislators have been threatened with significant economic harms and bullied in many ways. We understand that Indiana has been unfairly harmed by blatant lies and a misinformation campaign around something for which RFRA laws have never been successfully used. We do not blame legislators for wanting to protect Indiana from a mob mentality. political opportunism, and mass hysteria.
AFA of Indiana is asking Governor Pence to veto these changes for the above reasons and because they went far beyond what he asked the legislature to do. If you would like to contact the Governor’s office, you can call 317-232-4567.
Thank you, and please continue to pray for this matter, our leaders, and our great state.
LGBT Activist Mocks the Lord: above is a Tweet sent out just before Christmas by influential Indiana “gay” activist Bil Browning. Secular leftists mock Christians and the Christian faith by referring to Jesus Christ as “Jeebus.” AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera responded on Twitter to Browning’s bigotry. See full Twitter exchange HERE.
“If government can compel a Christian or Orthodox Jewish businessman to participate in a ceremony that attaches sinful homosexuality to “marriage,” then the State can compel ANY American citizen or institution to violate ANY of their cherished beliefs. That is the essence of tyranny.”
In the wake of a pro-LGBT, media-driven campaign against Indiana’s new Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), Gov. Mike Pence and leaders of the Indiana legislature are backtracking to appease the liberal political mob that has cynically recast the law as the “License to Discriminate.”
Good people everywhere are now intimidated from speaking plain truths about the homosexual-bisexual-transgender agenda. Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) is not. The distortions and media hype attacking Indiana’s religious freedom law are obfuscating some key fundamentals in this debate. It is not the purpose here to dig into the “legaleze” about the law (for that, see this Reason.com piece) but rather to expose the core hypocrisy of pro-LGBT progressives on “discrimination.”
Homosexual activists and their sycophants in the media (e.g., CNN’s homosexual anchor/activist Don Lemon) are cunningly building upon their distortions of the RFRA to demand a pro-homosexual special-rights law in the Hoosier State.
It would be the cruelest of ironies if the media-driven backlash against Indiana’s religious freedom law were used to push through a statewide “gay rights” law in Indiana. Such pro-homosexual laws and corporate policies have been the engine driving PRO-LGBT DISCRIMINATION against people of faith for decades—all in the sweet-sounding name of “equality.” For example, the “gay” movement’s bullying of the Boy Scouts of America began with a lawsuit that relied upon New Jersey’s pro-homosexual “sexual orientation” law.
The pro-family movement has long referred to so-called nondiscrimination laws based on “sexual orientation” and ”gender identity” as “special rights” because genuine civil rights are not based on disordered, immoral sexual behavior and gender confusion. These Orwellian laws and corporate policies actually foment discrimination in the name of “non-discrimination.” That’s liberalism for you.
Our cherished American freedoms come ultimately from God, as recognized by our national charter, the Declaration of Independence, which appeals to “Nature and Nature’s God.” Homosexual behavior–which cannot produce life–is against both. Witness the grossly disproportionate STD rates linked to “men who have sex with men.”
It is ludicrous to posit “civil rights” based on homosexuality and gender rebellion as “constitutional.” But it is downright un-American to argue—as many LGBT activists do—that in a nation founded by people fleeing religious oppression, “rights” based on sexual sin should trump Americans’ freedom to uphold biblical sexual morality and real marriage between a man and a woman.
The LGBT Lobby and the media have raised the issue of potential discrimination in Indiana. Let’s talk about discrimination.
With the rise of “gay power” in the West has come an abundance of victims of pro-homosexual Political Correctness. All over the world, Christians and moral-minded citizens have been victimized by a liberal, elitist pro-homosexual orthodoxy that increasingly brooks no dissent. The media have trivialized the zero-sum conflict between “gay rights” and freedom of conscience as being merely about wedding cake bakers–but the escalating “LGBTyranny” goes far beyond that:
Congratulations to American Family Association of Indiana Executive Director Micah Clark and other pro-family leaders in the state for passage of SB 101, which hopefully will help protect the freedom of conscience of Indiana citizens for decades to come. I also read a good piece on Reason.com by Scott Shackfork debunking the main objection to the bill–which homosexual and transgender activists are smearing as the “Indiana Right to Discriminate” law.
Pro-homosexual and pro-transgender laws discriminate against people of faith and morality and women desiring privacy in public restrooms, respectively, but I suppose that kind of discrimination is tolerable to the Left because it accelerates the “gay” and “progressive” transformation of society. Thank God that defenders of liberty are fighting back. Below Clark answers some of the lies against SB 101. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH; Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera
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Hobby Lobby Bill Has Been Sent to Governor Pence
By Micah Clark, AFA of Indiana
Yesterday Senate Bill 101 cleared the last procedural step before going to the Governor’s office. After the bill passed the Indiana House on Monday by a solid 63-31 vote, the Senate voted on the concurrence motion with another strong vote of 40-10.
The bill is now headed to the Governor’s office. Yet, this movement has not stopped the silliness surrounding this tested legislation. Yesterday, I even had a call at the AFA-IN office that nearly takes the cake, though it is hard to get beyond the vile allegation that this would allow people of faith to bomb abortion clinics. The confused caller was worried that our Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) could be used to keep certain people of faith from being allowed to drive on the Indiana toll roads.
The hostility of the far Left never ceases to amaze me. Ironically, one thing this debate has revealed is the deep hostility that is out there against people of faith. It practically makes the case as to why SB 101 is needed. If you still doubt that those on the political Left and those in the homosexual activist movement want to force all people, including those with deep religious conviction, to embrace the homosexual agenda, then you haven’t paid close attention to this debate over religious liberty.
There have been so many lies repeated in the media and by opponents on this legislation that it is difficult to know where to start. Perhaps the best way, though, by no means comprehensive is to address a few things in bullet points. Here I go:
“A license to discriminate” – perhaps the biggest lie about this law is that it is a vehicle for discrimination. As I noted in the AFA-IN donor newsletter, Indiana Family Voice, SB 101 is only discriminatory if we radically redefine discrimination, which many liberals and homosexuals clearly want to do. This law does not allow a person of faith to deny service to someone, nor should it. No Christian bakery owner should say that people involved in homosexual behavior couldn’t shop in their bakery. That, in my opinion is wrong, un-Christian and discriminatory unless the patron is misbehaving ( i.e. “no shirt, no shoes, no service“). However, when a customer seeks special participation from the baker, asking him or her to specially decorate a “gay” wedding cake and come set it up at a homosexual wedding, then there is a very different line crossed, and a problem for most people of faith. However, while SB 101 could be cited as a defense in such a case, as could the 1st Amendment, courts thus far have not seen RFRA as very compelling in such cases.
We at Americans For Truth certainly concur with Tony Perkins: the Democrats are playing a dangerous game by pandering to special interest groups (in this case radical feminists and homosexual activists) who seek to trample over Americans’ religious liberty and freedom of conscience. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 16, 2014
CONTACT: FRC Press Office, through Family Research Council
Conscience Crushing Bill Demonstrates Senate Democrats’ Wrong Priorities
July 16, 2014
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Family Research Council (FRC) urged the U.S. Senate to reject legislation proposed by Senate Democrats that would overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby/Conestoga Wood ruling. The decision upheld religious liberty and protected the conscience rights of those family businesses that object to being forced to pay for drugs that have the potential to kill an unborn child.
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins made the following comments:
“The world is falling apart, along with the U.S. economy, and yet Senate Democratic leaders think the future of the free world hinges on employers being forced — under the threat of crippling fines — to provide drugs that have the potential to kill an unborn child.
“Rather than address the problems in the Middle East, grow the GDP, or create jobs, Senate liberals are plowing ahead with their ridiculously unfair mandate that puts the jobs, livelihoods and healthcare of millions of Americans in jeopardy.
“Senate Democrats are insisting that family businesses be given two non-choices: either violate your deeply held moral beliefs and comply by paying for drugs and services to which you object, or pay crippling fines of up to $100 per day, per employee, for non-compliance.
“The Supreme Court Court reaffirmed that freedom of conscience is a long-held American tradition, and said that government cannot impose a law on American citizens that forces them to violate their beliefs in order to hold a job, own a business, or purchase health insurance. Apparently, Senate Democrats have forgotten that in America you have a right to exercise your own conscientious beliefs, and the government doesn’t have the right to trample them,” concluded Perkins.
