Brian Tashman's blog

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.

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.

Roger Schlafly, the son of Phyllis Schlafly, took to the Eagle Forum blog today to attack new legislation that would push states to impose penalties on people who do not report child abuse to the police. Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) proposed the bill in the wake of the scandal at Penn State, where a former graduate assistant reportedly failed to report to the police an apparent sexual assault on a child that he had witnessed. In his blog post, Schlafly contends that such a law would create “a nation of snitches,” and that the “mandatory reporting law is a direct attack on the autonomy of the American family.” He even hypothesizes that the case against ex-Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky is “bogus” and part of a “witch-hunt,” writing: “I would not be surprised if this Penn State witch-hunt concludes by the state paying millions of dollars in bogus lawsuits, and no one found guilty of anything. Plus a horrible new anti-family law.”

Traditional British and American law does not require citizens to report crimes that they witness. We are not a nation of snitches. If your neighbor is illegally smoking dope, you do not have to say a word.

Most people are happy reporting a crime against a child, because the child is usually unable to speak up for himself. But the mandatory reporting laws go way beyond that. They require reporting suspicions.

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Penn State officials have been charged with a crime for not reporting a similar allegation against Sandusky in 2002. The entire case hinges on the memory and credibility of McQueary, but now he has changed his story and says that he reported it to the police. There is no physical or other hard evidence of abuse. According to Sandusky, the child involved will testify that McQueary is lying about what he claimed to have seen.

Meanwhile, the legal, financial, spiritual, and emotional toll of false accusations is enormous. Families are unjustly busted up every day from overzealous CPS workers. The blog Legally Kidnapped has news everyday of the damages causes by CPS.

The mandatory reporting law is a direct attack on the autonomy of the American family. Many parents have practices that provoke the disapproval of others. All it takes is one anonymous call to CPS, and a govt social worker will knock on the door and threaten to put the kids in foster care. There is no due process. The upshot is that know-nothing social workers are redefining how American children are to be reared, and this is a change for the worse.

And it is only going to get worse, as the Democrats want to expand the mandatory reporting.

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I would not be surprised if this Penn State witch-hunt concludes by the state paying millions of dollars in bogus lawsuits, and no one found guilty of anything. Plus a horrible new anti-family law.

WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah is adding his name to the growing list of Religious Right leaders who blame gays and lesbians for the child abuse scandal at Penn State. In today’s editorial, Farah maintained that “an environment conducive for predators of children is being created” by advocates for gay rights, arguing, “The more our society condones and glorifies aberrant sexual behavior, the more of it we will see.” Farah insists that since homosexuality is no longer “perceived as sexual perversion,” child predators will have more prospects to harm children:

The lines between right and wrong sexual behavior have been moved. They were moved, in most cases, without legislation, without an expression of the popular will and in spite of the contradictory religious beliefs of the majority of Americans. They were moved sometimes by judicial fiat, through the pressures and propaganda of powerful cultural institutions and through the intimidation and thuggery of a self-interested minority.

Some may find this hard to believe, but even through the 1960s sexual revolution, homosexuality was perceived as sexual perversion. That began to change only in the 1970s, when the American Psychological Association, under political pressure, changed the very definition of homosexuality from a disorder to an identity.

No longer did God decide for America what was sinful behavior. Ever since, every man and woman has done what is right in his own eyes.

We may not fully understand the details of what Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky did or didn't do to young boys in locker rooms and showers, though he does admit inappropriate behavior. But the real question is how he did it for so long without consequences.

But now that being accused of homophobia is considered an offense, while practicing homosexuality is considered a virtue, should it really surprise anyone that such behavior would go unreported or unchallenged for so long?

In an age when government schools are actually teaching children how to perform homosexual acts and that there is nothing wrong with them, it would seem that an environment conducive for predators of children is being created under the watchful eye of the state and the media. Remember also that Penn State is a public university. There is probably no institution more conscious of the new "sin" of homophobia than the American college campus. There are few imaginable offenses more grievous than homophobia in that environment. One pays a price for exhibiting any symptoms of this dread disease – especially in academia.

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The more our society condones and glorifies aberrant sexual behavior, the more of it we will see. Period. End of story.

I know many people don't want to hear this. There is a big price to pay stating it this simply. But you don't change what has been sinful behavior into appropriate behavior with a wave of a magic wand. You don't change the morals of a nation through judicial activism. You don't use the heavy hand of government to create new moral codes without very severe consequences. You don't allow social engineers to get their way through bullying tactics and coercion.

What happened at Penn State is a tragedy. Worse, it's likely a series of tragedies that will impact the lives of people for years to come.

Let's stop acting like idiots by addressing symptoms of a much deeper problem when most everyone knows why we're seeing an explosion of predatory sexual acts on innocent children everywhere – in churches, in schools and in academia.

Robert Spencer took to In The Market with Janet Parshall yesterday to decry the purported adoption of Islamic law in America as proved by a hotel’s decision to cancel a conference featuring Spencer, Pamela Geller and other anti-Muslim activists. Spencer again accused progressive groups, namely the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League, of promoting “smears and defamation,” arguing that “far-left groups” are “enemies of free speech and are in league with Islamic supremacists to curtail our freedom of speech and to demonize and to marginalize anybody that dares to speak the truth about jihad and Islam.” Spencer, who frequently rails against the civil rights of Muslims, went on to say that Americans have become victims of the “self-enforcement of Islamic law and the internalization of Islamic norms.”

Steve Eckley, who is some sort of functionary in Amerimar Enterprises, which is the corporation which owns the Hutton Hotel in Nashville, and he told reporters that he was cancelling the conference because my colleague Pamela Geller and I were speaking, he singled us out. Even though there was a large roster of speakers, lots of people speaking, he picked us out and mentioned us both by name, nobody else, and said that the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League had complained about us and that that was another reason he was dropping the conference. This is actually even more disturbing because not only is he caving into threats but he is accepting, uncritically, these simply smears and defamation by far-left groups that are enemies of free speech and are in league with Islamic supremacists to curtail our freedom of speech and to demonize and to marginalize anybody that dares to speak the truth about jihad and Islam. So he is just furthering their narrative and abetting its spread by banning the conference, but that was what he said.

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It’s the self-enforcement of Islamic law and the internalization of Islamic norms of what’s acceptable to speak about and what isn’t. And American authorities like this sap at the hotel are willingly and unwittingly obeying and toeing the line, and not realizing that once we start down that road, pretty soon quite a few more of our freedoms are going to be eroded away than he probably expects.

Michael Brown, the author of A Queer Thing Happened To America, dedicated his Monday radio show to equating the child abuse scandal at Penn State University to SB 48, the California law that ensures that history textbooks include the contributions of prominent LGBT figures. He said that while people are outraged over the crimes allegedly committed by Jerry Sandusky, “it is equally outrageous that gay activists want us to celebrate, in history, men who are known for similar acts in their own lives, be they consensual, or other.”

Listen:

Remember that SB 48, mandating the celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender history in all California schools for all children in all grades is now law. The outrage over the alleged pedophile acts of Sandusky is only matched by the gay silence over the pedophile acts of Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman and others. Why the extreme outrage, the absolutely rightful outrage, the absolutely correct outrage over the alleged acts of Jerry Sandusky, and yet this teaching about people who had similar interests, you’re gonna now celebrate them in our children’s schools, this is outrageous.

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I want to make clear, that while there is outrage, rightful outrage, absolutely rightful outrage, sickeningly grievous outrage over the reports of the alleged acts of Jerry Sandusky on boys and young men, it is equally outrageous that gay activists want us to celebrate, in history, men who are known for similar acts in their own lives, be they consensual, or other.

As first reported on Right Wing Watch, Daniel Avila, the “marriage guy” of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, had argued that Satan was responsible for homosexuality. Avila later apologized and resigned for his comments, but he has at least one outspoken defender in the Religious Right: Renew America columnist Michael Bresciani. In earlier columns, Bresciani claimed that “the entire gay and lesbian community is guided by a powerful demon spirit who is subordinate to Satan” and that gay rights are prompting “the rise of the antichrist and the final judgments of God against a rebellious and totally reprobate generation.” Today, Bresciani wrote in defense of Avila, contending that gays and lesbians are part of a demonic hierarchy:

The demoniac of Gadara (Lk 8: 26f) was said to have, not one devil, but an entire legion of devils. That is about 6,000 devils in that one man alone. What makes us think that there are not enough devils for everyone in our world who steps into Satan's kingdom? One third of the angels departed from the presence of God when Satan left. That could be a number we could not fully imagine. Satan needs every one of them to fulfill his temporary job description, which is, 'god of this world.' (2 Cor 4: 4)

There is little doubt that his kingdom is a powerful hierarchy made of ruling angels, demonic spirits and lesser spiritual minions. Their task is to encourage and engage all who want to live outside of the will of the Living God. Why would the perversions of man including the homosexual lifestyle be left out of his hierarchy? Even without a sound biblical theology this is just dumb.

In fact, the Bible clearly indicates that rather than being a bunch of idiot spirits that are sent to inhabit and haunt old houses, demons are sent to seduce, deceive, possess and eventually destroy the unsuspecting souls of men and women.

Only two conclusions can be reached. One is that Mr. Daniel Avila who resigned his position as an on staff advisor in the subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, a part of U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, quit for nothing. He had hit the nail squarely on the head but took to running under the pressure of public opinion. A little less Catholic dogma and a whole lot more of scriptural grounding might have saved his job, or at the least gotten him fired with his dignity intact, in God's eyes.

The other conclusion is that Satan is doing a good job within the gay community. Since Jesus exclaimed that in heaven no one would continue to be married (Mt 22: 30) but they would be as the angels of God, what would make anyone believe that there are unions in hell? There are no men trapped in the body of a woman or women trapped in the body of a man in hell. All there is; is people trapped in the flames of eternal hell fire.

Former military chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt, who performed an exorcism on a lesbian service member who sought his counseling after she was raped, appeared on The Janet Mefferd Show yesterday, where he declared that “Christians no longer have a sacred place to worship” following the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Klingenschmitt was discussing a decision by the Pentagon that permitted same-sex marriages in bases where they are legal by giving chaplains the right to “participate in or officiate any private ceremony, whether on or off a military installation, provided that the ceremony is not prohibited by applicable state and local law.” The Pentagon also said that “determinations regarding the use of DOD real property and facilities for private functions, including religious and other ceremonies, should be made on a sexual-orientation neutral basis, provided such use is not prohibited by applicable state and local laws.”

But Klingenschmitt falsely claims that this opens the door to same-sex marriages in all fifty states, including states where they are illegal. He warned that chaplains now do “not have the option to keep his sacred space, and keep the chapel, from being desecrated” by same-sex weddings:

Mefferd: What is the condition now, since the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, what is the story now on what is going on for Christian chaplains within the military and the kind of pressure they are facing on the homosexual issue?

Klingenschmitt: Well it’s getting worse, not better. Last month, the Pentagon issued very strict guidelines that mandate, mandatory, all chapels in all fifty states on military bases must be opened up to homosexual weddings now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell has been repealed. You can get, if you’re a gay couple, you can get a license from Massachusetts and have a wedding in a military chapel in Texas or any of the fifty states and that is supposed to be protected. Well that means that Christians no longer have a sacred place to worship. A Catholic chapel, a Protestant chapel, must be opened up or the chaplain who refuses to do that will be punished for disobeying disorders, or discriminating against homosexual weddings. Of course, the chaplain may have the option to not preside at the wedding ceremony itself but he does not have the option to keep his sacred space, and keep the chapel, from being desecrated.

Indiana-based talk show host Peter Heck on Monday railed against Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s appointment of Ellen DeGeneres as “Special Envoy for Global AIDS Awareness,” saying that it is “unbelievable” for Clinton to appoint a “practicing homosexual” to the post. Blaming the gay community for the AIDS epidemic, Heck argued that progressives are “mind-numbingly ignorant” and said “their political agenda is going to be all about the advancement of sexual anarchy, the sexual anarchy crusade.” “The most important thing to Hillary is not stopping AIDS, it’s not stopping HIV,” Heck said, “no, no the most important thing is a political agenda.”

Listen:

How can the White House possibly be encouraging homosexuality in our schools? That’s what they’re doing, they are encouraging kids to persevere in homosexuality, they are encouraging kids to embrace the lifestyle of homosexuality with the promise of ‘it gets better.’ Once you’re an adult practicing homosexual relationships, then it will be better than just being a kid practicing homosexual relationships. I said how can the White House encourage this when you see the health statistics that just came out of the CDC that show the massive uptick in AIDS, or HIV, from those that engage—particularly young men, school age and a little bit older—in homosexuality. So on the heels of that, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton named Ellen DeGeneres, who is a practicing homosexual, a ‘Special Envoy for AIDS Awareness.’ Now I don’t laugh at this, I guess we could, just because it’s unbelievable, it’s unbelievable that the CDC comes out with a report saying homosexuality is clearly linked to an uptick in AIDS, and then when one of our liberal leaders, Hillary Clinton, decides to appoint a special envoy for global AIDS awareness, she turns to someone who practices homosexuality.

This is how mind-numbingly ignorant the left makes itself, they neuter their intellects, they just totally ignore evidence that does not support their political agenda, they have decided their political agenda is going to be all about the advancement of sexual anarchy, the sexual anarchy crusade. That is what they have made their political movement about. So whatever the other consequences are, whatever else has to be trampled in the process, even if it means the health of people, it doesn’t matter, the most important thing to Hillary is not stopping AIDS, it’s not stopping HIV, no, no the most important thing is a political agenda.

David Noebel, the founder of Summit Ministries, wrote a column in WorldNetDaily yesterday holding the Obama administration and supporters of gay rights responsible for the child abuse scandal at Penn State University. Noebel is a fierce critic of the Civil Rights Movement and a former leader of the Christian Crusade, the Religious Right group whose founder, Billy James Hargis, had his own sex scandal at his American Christian College. According to Noebel, the allegations that former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky molested dozens of children could serve witness to “the demise of moral relativism at the hands of liberalism's most cherished activity – homosexuality.”

However, Sandusky is married to a woman with children, and is not a homosexual. In fact, the American Psychological Association determined that “homosexual men are not more likely to sexually abuse children than heterosexual men are,” and as Psychology Today notes, “no true pedophile is attracted to adults, so neither homosexuality nor heterosexuality applies.”

But Noebel contends that societal acceptance of homosexuality will ultimately lead to the acceptance of pedophilia, a claim frequently voiced in Religious Right circles, and argues that the Obama Administration is advancing the goals of pedophiles. “Not only is there a scandal at Penn State, but there is a scandal in the White House and the secretary of education’s office as well,” Noebel writes referring to Kevin Jennings, the openly gay, former administration anti-bullying czar who has been the focus of a right-wing smear campaign, “Only morally deficient individuals would allow Kevin Jennings within a million miles of children!”

Noebel concludes that Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are just “as guilty as Jerry Sandusky” for appointing Jennings to the anti-bullying post, warning that the “Obama/Duncan/Jennings trio will violate millions of innocent children for decades to come.”

As the Penn State University child sex-abuse scandal grows, the Wall Street Journal addressed the ethical implications, albeit in a somewhat backhanded way: "It's also something of a relief that in a culture as libertine as ours at least some behavior – sexual exploitation of children – is still considered deviant" (Nov. 10, 2011, A-20).

Could it be that there is still an ethical absolute? Wouldn't it be ironic to witness the demise of moral relativism at the hands of liberalism's most cherished activity – homosexuality? Yes, Virginia, there is truth after all. It is always ethically wrong for a grown man to violate a 10-year-old boy.

The scandal centers on Jerry Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant football coach, whose alleged pedophilic acts involved boys (8 at present, but the count is rising) as young as 10. His sexual abuse of these boys is not fit family reading material, making it difficult to fully comprehend the seriousness of the case. Indeed, the subject of homosexual activity is likewise difficult to discuss in public. Neither practice provides table talk material. Both are deviant, degenerate and disgusting.

Homosexuality in America is now out of the closet, front and center (and has been for some time). Now homosexual man/boy activity (pederasty) is under the microscope, its normality, genetic implications and social acceptance being examined.

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And we must not forget that the president of the United States, Barack Obama, via Arne Duncan, appointed Kevin "queering elementary education" Jennings on May 19, 2009, as assistant deputy secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, praising him as being "uniquely qualified for his job."

However, on Nov. 12, 2011, Obama announced in reference to the Penn State scandal that "our first priority is protecting our kids." Not only is there a scandal at Penn State, but there is a scandal in the White House and the secretary of education's office as well. Only morally deficient individuals would allow Kevin Jennings within a million miles of children!

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So the president of the United States and the secretary of education may decry the scandal at Penn State, but they themselves are as guilty as Jerry Sandusky! Sandusky may have violated a dozen or two or even hundreds of young boys, but the Obama/Duncan/Jennings trio will violate millions of innocent children for decades to come.

The president of Penn State was fired for allowing his Jerry Sandusky to get away with molesting the innocent; the president of the United States deserves the same treatment for allowing his Kevin Jennings and Department of Education to do the same to America's innocent elementary school children!