November 2011

PFAW Foundation Letter to Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio Regarding the Hide/Seek Art Exhibit

November 17, 2011

Most Reverend Nicholas DiMarzio
Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn


Dear Bishop DiMarzio:

I am concerned by your recent comments about the newly installed Brooklyn Museum exhibit, "Hide/Seek," specifically its inclusion of the work A Fire in My Belly by the late David Wojnarowicz. While I share your concern for religious liberty and religious tolerance, we disagree about the role of religious liberty in the arts.

Right Wing Round-Up

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 11/17/2011 6:50 pm

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 11/17/2011 6:40 pm
  • For some reason, Rick Perry thought it would be beneficial to his presidential campaign to challenge Nancy Pelosi to a debate.

  • We imagine that ridiculous stunts like this can't be doing much for his anemic fundraising.

  • Speaking of campaigns that seem to have no idea what they are doing, Herman Cain suddenly cancelled a scheduled interview with The Union Leader in New Hampshire.

  • Mike Huckabee will unveil an anti-abortion documentary next month in Iowa and has invited all the presidential candidates to join him for the event.

  • Bryan Fischer says "secular fundamentalists have their own version of Sharia law, which differs little from the Sharia law of Islamic fundamentalists."

  • Finally, FRC prays that the Supreme Court will strike down health care reform: "Please pray for each member of the Supreme Court during the weeks and months ahead. May God rule in this case, among the top 10 Supreme Court cases in American history, and may ObamaCare be ruled unconstitutional!"

CWA Protests LGBT Youth Conference To Stop "The Indoctrination And Recruitment Of Our Children"

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Thursday, 11/17/2011 5:20 pm

Kenda Bartlett, National Field Director for Concerned Women for America, asked members to read about the work of CWA Home Team Captain Jeanne Sparks, who every year attends the PrideWorks Annual LGBTQ Youth Conference in Tarrytown, New York. Bartlett said that Sparks will distribute literature from the ‘ex-gay’ group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) on the purported dangers of being gay. Sparks was particularly worried about the emphasis on questioning youth at this year’s conference, warning, “The student who falls into the "Questioning" category at this event does not stand a chance.” “Pray that parents will be alerted to the dangers of the 'Gay,' Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN) as it seeks to infiltrate our schools and the school curriculum,” Sparks asked CWA members, “Pray that people will rise up and speak out against this indoctrination and recruitment of our children.”

On Thursday, November 17, hundreds of New York high school students will attend the PrideWorks Conference at the Double Tree Hotel in Tarrytown, New York. PrideWorks is a conference for lesbian, "gay," bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth and their allies. PrideWorks' mission is to inform our communities about the realities of growing up "gay," lesbian, bisexual or transgender, and to inspire them to respect and support LGBT people and advocate for positive change.

Jeanne Sparks, Concerned Women for America (CWA) Home Team Captain, has attended this conference since 2006. "I have also been following this since 2006, when I attended the conference and listened to Dani Neusom, a civil rights lawyer, call parents, preachers, and anyone who believes that homosexuality is unnatural and that you can change 'bigots and homophobes.' She says that in a hundred years Southern Baptists are going to have to apologize to the 'gay' community. Since then I have been on the outside giving out written testimony of those who have been changed by the power of God, giving out Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) information and important statistics from the Centers for Disease Control regarding men having sex with men (71 percent of new HIV/AIDS diagnoses are with men who have sex with men). I wonder if they will tell them that statistic in the workshop on AIDS?"

The keynote speakers for the conference are two transgender lawyers. They will be speaking to between 500-600 attendees - mostly high school students and some middle school students. Most of the workshops have gone beyond homosexuality. Transgender advocacy and normalcy is being taught and promoted. LGBT has recently been changed and is now LGBTQ with the "Q" standing for "questioning." The student who falls into the "Questioning" category at this event does not stand a chance.

…

"The Bible and the LGBTQ Community" will explore "the language of religion, especially the selective use of 'proof' texts from both Hebrew and Christian Scripture which has long been used to support bigotry and discrimination against LGBTQ people. What does the Judeo-Christian Bible really say and how can it speak to those who use Sacred Literature to exclude rather than include people based on their sexual orientation?"

The workshop description for "'Fixing' What's Not Broken: The Damage of Reparative Therapy and the Ex-Gay" states, "We hear it all the time: 'Jesus can cure you of your homosexuality.' Yet, when the research is done, we find that no one has really 'prayed the gay away.' In fact, most people attending 'change' groups end up harmed and feeling much worse than when they went in. Dr. Rix, an ex-gay survivor and author of Ex-Gay No-Way: Survival and Recovery from Religious Abuse will lead a lively and insightful workshop for anyone to attend."

Jeanne Sparks will be there. "This year, since the conference is on private property, I will not be close to the kids or have a table. I will be on the streets, while the buses arrive and when they leave. I will be there at lunch time and hope that some who see me there and who are questioning or seeking will come out to me. I have spoken to kids who were raised in Christian homes. Pray for me on Thursday, November 17; pray that God would send others to labor with me; pray that parents will be alerted to the dangers of the 'Gay,' Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN) as it seeks to infiltrate our schools and the school curriculum. Pray that people will rise up and speak out against this indoctrination and recruitment of our children."

FRC Warns Against "The President's Perverse Agenda"

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Thursday, 11/17/2011 3:20 pm

The Family Research Council in yesterday’s Washington Update pounced on language in the Defense Authorization bill “repealing the military's sodomy ban” following the end of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. “While liberals couldn't be bothered to consider amendments protecting religious liberty or marriage, they did find time to advance the President’s perverse agenda,” the group told members, “If the bill passes, our troops will have Congress’s approval to introduce sodomy in the ranks.”

The group also alerted members of a purported attempt by Democrats to “sneak an amendment onto the Defense bill to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).” However, a spokesman for the repeal bill’s chief sponsor Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) told Metro Weekly’s Chris Geidner that “it is not true that Sen. Feinstein is ‘threatening to attach [DOMA repeal] to the Defense Authorization Bill.”

The fiscal year may have kicked off on October 1, but the Senate is just now getting around to funding its departments. After the Armed Services Committee approved the Defense Authorization bill back in June, our sources tell us that Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) could bring the spending measure to the floor as early as this week. Unfortunately for our troops, the bill hides a lot more than appropriations. Buried deep in the Pentagon's budget is one major change in Defense policy. As part of the mark-up, the Senate included language repealing the military's sodomy ban. That's right. While liberals couldn't be bothered to consider amendments protecting religious liberty or marriage, they did find time to advance the President's perverse agenda. If the bill passes, our troops will have Congress's approval to introduce sodomy in the ranks.

There's also a distinct possibility (as we mentioned last week) that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) could try to sneak an amendment onto the Defense bill to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). While there's no confirmation that she'll go through with it, Feinstein would have to scrounge up 60 votes just to attach the anti-marriage bill onto the final legislation. That's a tall task in this Senate climate where many incumbent Democrats don't want to be seen voting for sodomy and against marriage!

Minnery Offers Look Into Religious Right Presidential Forum

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Thursday, 11/17/2011 2:30 pm
Tom Minnery of Focus on the Family’s political arm CitizenLink appeared on The Janet Mefferd Show yesterday to preview the Thanksgiving Family Forum, the “family discussion with the Republican Presidential Candidates” that CitizenLink is hosting in Iowa on Saturday along with The Family Leader and the National Organization for Marriage. Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum are all slated to appear at the forum moderated by Minnery and Republican pollster Frank Luntz.

Minnery told Mefferd that the moderators will ask questions about what a president will do if “we end up with a welter of different definitions [of marriage] in different states,” and what the candidates think about “the last words in that oath of office…‘so help me God.’” In fact, the oath does not include the words, “so help me God,” but the phrase has been used according to tradition.

We have decided that wouldn’t it be wonderful for at least one presidential debate to have the candidates respond to questions of the heart, questions of the soul. For example, I’ll just give you one of the questions we’ll be asking them: If you are elected president you will be taking the oath of office, the last words in that oath of office will be ‘so help me God,’ what will that mean to you? We’ll be asking them how much they believe that the institution of marriage as one man and one woman is important to the country and what will they do if we end up with a welter of different definitions in different states, is that the realm of action for a president to take or will he leave a bunch of different definitions around the country, he or she, so those are the kind of questions we’ll get at.

However, “questions of the heart” and “questions of the soul” apparently do not pertain to multiple allegations of sexual harassment and assault.

Later in the interview, Minnery said that there is even “room for people who do not hold an orthodox Christianity,” referring to the two candidates who are not attending the forum: Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, who both just so happen to be Mormons. He said that if Christians “prize Thomas Jefferson,” then it is possible that they can vote for a presidential candidate who is not a Christian but at least has a Christian “worldview.”

Just saying one is a Christian is not sufficient, one has to understand: what is your worldview? How do these moral and soul-matters play out in the policies that you will support when you are in the White House? There is room for people who do not hold an orthodox Christianity, we prize Thomas Jefferson, but I don’t think anybody would say he was an orthodox Christian in his beliefs. He did so much because he understood freedom, he understood the nature of a Creator and the blessings of a Creator as beneficial to the country, so people have to look beyond simply the response to the question, ‘is someone a Christian,’ because I would say, for one thing, I cannot remember an election cycle in which there were so many people trying to get the nomination for one party who professed to be Christians. So just saying you’re a Christian is not enough.

Abramoff: Ralph Reed Was "A Tap Dancer And Constantly Just Asking For Money"

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 11/17/2011 1:56 pm

Last year, Alan Colmes had Ralph Reed on his radio program talking about his latest novel.  During the interview, Colmes asked Reed about his work with Jack Abramoff, which Reed defended, saying the work "was outstanding, I'm proud of it, and it advanced sound public policy."

Reed told Colmes that when he worked with Abramoff, he made it clear that he would not accept any payment that derived from gambling revenues and that Abramoff arranged to have him paid from non-gambling revenues.

Last night, Colmes had Abramoff on his program and asked him about Reed's claims, which Abramoff laughed off as "ridiculous":

Colmes: Does that accurately represent what happened?

Abramoff: No. Not at all.

Colmes: In what way?

Abramoff: It's ridiculous. I mean, even the tribes that had other business, 99% of their revenue came from gaming. But a lot of those tribes had nothing but gaming.

Colmes: So, in other words, Ralph Reed was saying "hey, I'll work with you but I don't want to be paid with gambling money, I'm too clean for that." But are you saying that conversation never happened?

Abramoff: No. Never happened. Ralph didn't want it out that he was getting gambling money and, frankly, that was his choice and I think it was a big mistake.

Colmes also asked Abramoff what he meant in his infamous email to his partner Michael Scanlon that Reed "is a bad version of us," which Abramoff explained meant that Reed was "a tap dancer and constantly just asking for money."

Robertson Says Obama Has A Muslim "Inclination"

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Thursday, 11/17/2011 1:15 pm

On The 700 Club today, Pat Robertson floated the debunked conspiracy theory that President Obama went to a madrassa in Indonesia when he was a child and said that the president has a Muslim “inclination.” Earlier this year, the televangelist’s son and heir apparent Gordon Robertson also made the false claim that Obama used to be a Muslim. Discussing Obama’s recent trip to Indonesia to take part in the ASEAN conference, the elder Robertson said that Obama’s mother, who raised him, “just sort of flitted around,” leaving him to be influenced by his “Kenyan socialist” father. This upbringing, Robertson claims, gave the president “a warped perspective of what needs to be done to make America the greatest nation on earth.”

Watch:

Robertson: You know Lee the thing that somehow concerns me, they say he’s going back to the place that he spent his childhood, he spent four years in Indonesia, I don’t know if he was trained in a madrassa, one of those Muslim schools, but nevertheless that is his inclination. His father was a Kenyan socialist and he talks about the roots of his father. So he’s got an African and an Indonesian background. I don’t know what his mother was doing; she just sort of flitted around. But nevertheless, this may give him a warped perspective of what needs to be done to make America the greatest nation on earth.

Fischer: Rush Limbaugh Has Been "Intimidated" And "Compromised" By The Homosexual Lobby

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 11/17/2011 1:08 pm

In an amazing display of anti-gay synergy, the AFA's Bryan Fischer and "A Queer Thing Happened To America" author Michael Brown hosted something of a joint radio program yesterday whereby the two hosts were patched in together while each hosting their respective programs, essentially making each host a guest on the other's program.

These two leading anti-gay activists came together in this manner in order to discuss Brown's recent column speculating that Rush Limbaugh is afraid to blame the Penn State child molestation scandal on homosexuality because he is afraid of angering the gay lobby.

Brown gave Right Wing Watch a nice little shout-out around the 21:35 mark, noting that we regularly post their latest anti-gay statements.  And then, after Brown had left, Fischer continued to talk about it, saying that Limbaugh has been "compromised" by the homosexual lobby when he had Elton John sing at his wedding:

I mean, you talk about the people who are the real bullies on the playground, it's the homosexual lobby. They're pushing everybody around. They've even intimidated, apparently, Rush Limbaugh into craven silence. So that's an enormous sort of recognition of the power of the homosexual lobby that even somebody like Rush Limbaugh, who prides himself on the fact that he can't be intimidated by anybody, I mean, he has been driven to utter and absolute silence by the homosexual lobby.

Now I believe Rush got compromised - it's one of the reasons why you listen to Focal Point, by the way - Rush completely compromised on the homosexual agenda. He got compromised on the homosexual agenda when he paid Elton John a million bucks to sing at his wedding. I mean, he was done at the point. Elton John, one of the most prominent homosexuals on the planet, in a civil union with some guy in the UK, he's buddy-buddy with Rush now, so Rush is not going to go out there and say anything against the homosexual movement, against the homosexual lobby, against homosexual activists. So he's compromised on the issue.

One of the reasons why you listen to Focal Point [is] because we're not going to be bullied by the homosexual lobby.

GOP State Rep: Actually, Americans Are Pretty Lazy

Submitted by Josh Glasstetter on Thursday, 11/17/2011 12:20 pm

Republican State Rep. Josh Byrnes of Iowa took to Politico’s Arena today to say exactly what President Obama did not. The president is under attack by Rick Perry and other Republicans for supposedly saying that Americans are lazy. However, he never said anything of the sort, as even Rick Perry surely knows. He was talking about efforts to win foreign investment, not the American people.

That hasn’t stopped Iowa Rep. Josh Byrnes from bravely agreeing with the president on what he never said. Byrnes does in fact think Americans are lazy, or at least the tens of millions of American unemployed:
 
I might have to partially agree with President Obama on this one. I don't think Americans as a whole are lazy, but we have some pockets of Americans that appear lazy. Ironically, the president has helped enable some of these pockets by doing things like extending unemployment benefits.
 
In other words, the president is “enabling” lazy Americans by providing unemployment benefits. In reality, the nearly 10% of Americans who are unemployed are living on the edge of ruin, struggling to pay mortgages and put food on the table while looking for work from companies that are slow to hire and governments that are being forced to lay off more and more workers. But Byrnes thinks we’re coddling them. He also seems to think that unemployed Americans could get jobs if they really wanted to, but unlike our “immigrating ancestors” they’re too proud:
 
There are jobs out there and I think the problem is that some people think some of these jobs are beneath them. When you are unemployed I don't think there should be any job "below" you. In truth it's probably more of an ego or perception issue than being lazy. Thank goodness our immigrating ancestors to the United States didn't have that attitude.
 
Byrnes cites a less than impressive array of evidence in making his case:
 
We have a huge skills gap issue in this country and there is absolutely no reason why some of our able bodied unemployed can't take these jobs. In good old Riceville, Iowa (population 900), they had an ad for 40+ welders. They make garbage trucks and cement trucks and they can't find enough welders.
 
Note to Byrnes: With all due respect to the good people of Riceville, the US economy is a bit more complicated than that.