Anti-Gay

• Is the author of Uganda's anti-gay bill going to be attending the National Prayer Breakfast? There are conflicting reports.
• Is there a political litmus test for football coaches now?
• Good As You: A vote for Scott Brown is a vote for the National Organization for Marriage.
• TPM: Conservative Vision Ascendant In Latest TX History Textbooks Draft.
• It looks like nearly 3 in 4 Americans don't want to see Sarah Palin run for President.
• Finally, check out Rick Scarborough on last week's "The Daily Show":

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Last year, Bishop Harry Jackson declared war on Washington DC in an effort to prevent the District from recognizing marriage equality.  He's fought it every step of the way and repeatedly lost, but he's not giving up and yesterday brought together dozens of pastors and right-wing activists for a "National Marriage Summit" to plot strategy for the battled in DC and across the nation:

Christians nationwide are mobilizing to oppose gay marriage as a landmark trial under way in California seeks to determine whether limiting marriage to one man and one woman is constitutional.

...

San Diego pastor Jim Garlow, who led California's Yes on 8 campaign, joined 100 church leaders in Washington, D.C., Monday for a National Marriage Summit aimed at developing strategies to preserve traditional marriage nationwide and to protect DOMA, which President Obama has said he hopes to repeal.

Convened by Bishop Harry Jackson, a Maryland pastor and chairman of the Stand4Marriage DC Coalition, the summit began Monday and ended Tuesday with a press conference on Capitol Hill lobbying Congress to uphold DOMA. Participants included Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and the Rev. Sammy Rodriquez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

"The institution of marriage is in grave danger," said Jackson, who has been at the forefront of a battle to keep gay marriage from becoming law in Washington, D.C.

"The redefinition of marriage will permanently impact businesses, education and the family unit without the voice of the residents being heard, and all traditional marriage supporters need tools to confront the battles ahead," Jackson added.

The group of mostly African-American ministers also delivered a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and Congressional Black Caucus Chair Barbara Lee calling on lawmakers to allow District of Columbia residents to vote on the definition of marriage. They also want Congress to veto a bill passed in December that legalized gay marriage in the district. The measure is currently awaiting a required 30-day congressional review.

Jackson also showed up on CBN yesterday to discuss the effort, where he accused his opponents of engaging in "reverse prejudice and intimidation" and said the solution was for everyone to speak out because "there is no way they can target all of us."  The Marriage Summit, he explained, was designed to get Black pastors involved in the fight against "radical gay activists" who are "going to try to enforce and impose their will on the rest of the nation by hijacking the democratic process and keeping the people from voting":

UPDATE: According to this separate CBN report, the summit also featured Rep. Steve King and Lou Engle:

After their two-day summit, they took their message to Capitol Hill, where a couple of lawmakers joined them to say they will fight hard in Congress for traditional marriage.

"Everything that we are as a people is taught to the next generation through that foundation stone of marriage between a man and a woman," said Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. "And if this civilization is going to survive and prosper and go to the next level up to its destiny, then we're going to have to have the kind of relationships that have built this country and built this civilization, and that's marriage."

"Law restrains certain things," said Lou Engle, founder of the organization, The Call. "Once law is removed it opens the floodgate, proliferates it and makes it commonplace. It mainstreams it into education and everything else. That's the difficulty we have with gay marriage."

"Marriage will probably be abandoned in the future if we go this way and that's not good for children," Engle added.

It has now been more than a week since Lisa Miller disappeared with her daughter Isabella rather than abide by a court order transferring custody to her former partner, Janet Jenkins, due to Miller's consistent refusal to abide by custody arrangements, and still her attorneys at Liberty Counsel remain "unavailable for comment."

But others on the Right are weighing in and they seem utterly unwilling to condemn Miller's actions.  Take, for instance, this blog post by Victoria Cobb of the Virginia Family Foundation:

The circumstances of this case are as heart wrenching as they are frustrating. It is our belief that the courts have failed to apply the law correctly, relying on Vermont’s civil union statute over Virginia’s constitution and the federal Defense of Marriage Act that is supposed to protect Virginia’s marriage laws. Instead, judges at nearly every turn have ignored our law in favor of Vermont’s.

..

One thing is for certain, the homosexual lobby’s attempts to portray civil unions as something less than marriage have been destroyed by their own words.

It’s interesting to note that I was asked over and over again by CNN about Lisa’s decision to “violate the court order,” but I was never once asked about the judges in this case who over and over again violated Virginia law. Instead of asking about Lisa’s actions, we should ask how judges simply can ignore the parts of the law and constitution they don’t like in favor of other parts.

Finally, we need to continue to pray for Lisa, Janet — and perhaps most importantly Isabella — in this entire mess. It’s difficult to predict the effect this situation will have on Isabella’s future, but it’s hard to believe that it will be positive.

Instead of condemning Miller for violating court orders and disappearing with her daughter, Cobb lays the blame entirely on the judges.

But that is nothing compared to this truly remarkable screed by Deacon Keith Fournier in Catholic Online in which he blames everyone and everything but Miller for the current situation:

This tragic case sets up what is called a conflict of laws issue, pitting the law of one State against another. This specter hangs over many such homosexual relationships as the patchwork of court enforced schemes of calling them a “marriage” unfolds. It is a deliberate result of the strategy of cultural revolutionaries in the Homosexual Equivalency movement who are setting up what they hope will be their vehicle for enforcing their cultural revolution Nationally through the Courts ... These activists are advancing their Cultural Revolution not by vote of the people but by judicial and legislative fiat in a kind of new alchemy ... These new Caesars call a relationship which is constitutively incapable of accomplishing the ends of marriage to be a marriage ... They have developed a verbal strategy and a legal strategy. Their goal is to use the Police Power of the State in order to force a new social and legal order whether we all want it or not.

...

Lisa Miller is a mother who could no longer stand to see her child force fed what she contended was poison. She felt that after each visit the harm that was being inflicted on her daughter was increasing. The record indicates that even though Lisa asked the Vermont Judge to listen to evidence of the violent reactions of Isabella after each of these few visitations, the Judge refused. He treated this case like an ordinary domestic breakup between a husband and a wife. After all, that is what happens when a State treats such living relationships in a manner equivalent to marriage.

...

The Lisa Miller Case brings together the misuse of fertility technology, the new Cultural Revolution, the threat of Judicial Tyranny and the assault on the authority of the Family in a case of monumental societal implications. It sounds a clear warning which must be heard before it is too late.

It seems that the unrelenting opposition to all things gay is rendering those on the Right fundamentally incapable of so much as acknowledging that disappearing with your child might be a rather improper reaction to a court ruling that you do not like. 

Amazingly, anti-gay groups are simultaneously trumpeting a story about an Illinois woman who wants to take her children to live with her partner in Oregon, calling it "radical, subversive, insidious, pernicious, and stupefying."

Unbelieveable.

• Big donors are not happy with RNC Chair Michael Steele and are withholding donations, to which he defiantly replies "fire me or shut up."
• According to WND, Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., is a Birther and "has written to President Obama asking him to prove his eligibility to hold the office of U.S. president."
• The World Congress of Families says it is standing Don Schmierer, who was one of three Americans mentioned in the recent New York Times article against the anti-gay legislation in Uganda.
• The Susan B. Anthony List, Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, Eagle Forum and others are planning a press tour to pressure House Democrats to kill healthcare reform over the issue of abortion.
• Finally, Rep. Mark Kirk insists that he is not gay.

• Pam's House Blend reports that Oklahoma's Sally Kern is trying to make it harder to get divorced in her state.
• Good As You covers Mike Heath's recent appearance on Wallbuilders Radio.
• Richard Pombo is back and TMP provides a look back at his ethical troubles.
• Steve Benen notes that Michele Bachmann's anti-Census crusade could potentially end up costing her her seat in Congress.
• Joe.My.God takes great pleasure in the fact that Glenn Beck is at war with the Birthers.
• Towleroad reports that marriage equality in Iowa is safe, at least for this year.
• Finally, Alvin McEwen exposes the latest nonsense from Cliff Kincaid, who claims that the outcry over Uganda's anti-gay bill is all part of a conspiracy to save Kevin Jennings.

• In times of trouble, remind me not to turn to Brit Hume..
• Rick Warren needed $900,000 in end-of-the-year donations and got $2.4 million instead.
• The New York Times examines the role that three American anti-gay activists played in the creation of Uganda's death penalty for gays effort.
• Apparently, Oklahoma Republicans are going to attempt to "opt-out" of federal hate crimes laws. Good luck with that.
• The Washington Monthly explains how David Barton, Don McLeroy, and other Texas conservatives are rewriting your kids’ textbooks.
• You know, if GOProud has a problem with WorldNetDaily's reporting, they ought to take it up with WND, not Good As You.
• Finally, I never fail to be amazed at the sort of outrageous things conservatives can get away with saying.

David Keene, head of the American Conservative Union, which puts on the Conservative Political Action Conference every year, has responded to the complaints from anti-gay activists who are demanded that the gay conservative group GOProud be removed from the list of CPAC co-sponsors, by refusing to do so but assuring them that GOProud will not be allowed to speak at the event and that the CPAC's overwhelmingly anti-gay bias would not be undermined by GOProud's presence: 

Keene admitted GOProud "has signed on as a CPAC co-sponsor, but will have no speakers and we told them that, in fact, since opposition to gay marriage, etc are consensus positions (if not unanimous) among conservatives, these topics are not open to debate." 

...

"I know that there are those who are as opposed to the sinner as the sin, but our view is that CPAC is inclusive and welcomes all of those who agree with us on most issues. I don't know the GOProud people personally, but we find it difficult to exclude groups because of disagreements on one or two issues no matter how important many of us believe those issues to be … other examples: we have pro-life and pro-abortion co-sponsors, advocates of restrictive and more open immigration, supporters and opponents of the war in Afghanistan and supporters and opponents of some of the restrictions adopted in the war on terror since 9/11," he continued.

"Some of these issues draw significant support on both sides of the question from the broad movement and these we often debate at CPAC … trade policy, immigration are example … while others like abortion are consensus positions and while we accept those who differ from the consensus, we see no reason for further debate. Gay issues fall within this category," he said.

Of course, anti-gay activists aren't buying it and instead see it as proof that the conservative movement is being infiltrated by socialists:

"I would have thought the American Conservative Union would have had a higher standard for groups that cosponsor their pivotal annual event," [radio host Adam] McManus told WND. "If there's one time when conservatives need to be getting their message right and need to be clear about what they believe, it's right now amidst the Obama socialist push."

As we reported a few weeks back, anti-gay activists in Texas had mobilized in an effort to defeat gay Houston mayoral candidate Annise Parker but failed.

Via Alan Colmes, we get this story from ABC 13 in Houston of what happened on election night when Eric Story, a supporter of one of Parker's opponents, lead the gathering in prayer and said they could not stand idly by and allow Parker's lifestyle to become accepted and warned that Houston was going to come under God's judgment: 

Last night, Colmes had Story, who is himself running for Congress, on his radio program to defend his position.  Story insisted that Parker had "flaunted" her lifestyle, a lifestyle that is "contrary to God's word."  He went on to insist America is a "Christian nation" and declared that he would "never be accepting of this lifestyle" and that nobody who is gay could ever be a good role model because, again, "it is contrary to God's word."

He likewise defended his statement that when any society becomes supportive of the gay lifestyle, God renders judgment upon it and warned that God would do so to Houston.  Then, for some reason, Story blamed Fox News for the fact that voters in Houston didn't know that Parker was gay.

The interview then got even more bizarre when Colmes quoted Story as saying that "when a city or a state or a nation accepts the homosexual lifestyle, history tells us that destruction follows, that judgment follows" to which Story strenuously objected because Colmes mistakenly quoted him as saying "holy judgment follows."  Apparently the fact that Colmes added "holy" to the quote was greatly offensive to Story, even though Story readily admitted that that is exactly what he meant and exactly what he believes will happen to Houston, which he likened to Sodom and Gomorrah:

Dave Welch, executive director of the Houston Area Pastor Council, was deeply involved in the anti-gay campaign run against Houston mayoral candidate Annise Parker:

“The bottom line is that we didn't pick the battle, she did, when she made her agenda and sexual preference a central part of her campaign,” said Dave Welch, executive director of the Houston Area Pastor Council, numbering more than 200 senior pastors in the Greater Houston area. “National gay and lesbian activists see this as a historic opportunity. The reality is that's because they're promoting an agenda which we believe to be contrary to the concerns of the community and destructive to the family.”

Welch said he had “no doubt” there would be numerous independent advocacy efforts urging voters not to choose Parker, most of which would involve mail.

But their effort failed and Parker won the election over the weekend ... and for that, Welch feels it is necessary to apologize to America for failing to stop the "enemy" from taking control:

I have to first of all ask forgiveness of the rest of the country on behalf of those in Houston who were entrusted with choosing godly leaders and failed to do so. As I have stated often, the first responders in that line are the churches who profess Christianity and adherence to the Bible as our authority. We let our position on the wall be breached by the enemy.

Now to the business of learning from our mistakes and failures – and it was a failure of the church as well as the Republican Party in Houston, in that order. There are some essential lessons that this provides, as all elections do, and those lessons are universal to every city and state.

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I believe the questions of the hour for pastors in every city are as follows:

1. Does it matter to God who governs us?

2. Does it matter if the laws of our land conform to or violate God's standards of justice?

3. Do we as Christians have personal and corporate responsibility
for choosing godly leaders?

4. Are we willing to call out and equip men of ability, reputation, character, integrity and proven faith to serve in governing positions?

5. Are we willing to establish a clear, bold and unquestioned priority of voting consistently and biblically for every voter in our churches?

Our recipe for transformation is simple, but will cost us the same as our ancestors of faith and country – everything.