LGBT

Joseph Farah, the editor of WorldNetDaily, laments about the gains of the gay-rights movement. According to Farah, the Lawrence v. Texas decision which said that state anti-sodomy laws were unconstitutional was a tragedy for the country because it effectively stopped states from criminalizing sin. He claims that “from murder, to theft, to adultery, to child molestation,” people have “the right and the duty” to make laws banning “sinful behavior,” including sodomy. He insists that gay people and their allies are simply inventing new rights and that the LGBT community is only using the marriage debate “to demonstrate they are ‘oppressed’” because they have “no real interest in marriage”:

Take a 5,000-year-old institution ordained by God that has worked all over the world and trash it because some a group of sinful, prideful people with no real interest in marriage wants to use it to demonstrate they are "oppressed."

Keep in mind, it was the federal government that made all this inevitable with the Supreme Court case Lawrence v. Texas, in which it presumed to tell the people of that great republic they had no business enforcing laws against sodomy. Justice Antonin Scalia predicted in short order the ruling would open the door to something unimaginable a decade ago – same-sex marriage. He was right.

That's how sodomy moved from being a sin 10 years ago to being a "right."

It's not a right. It's a sin. And, in a civilized, self-governing society, when the majority of people ban sinful behavior – from murder, to theft, to adultery, to child molestation – they have the right and the duty to legislate against it. Courts have no business overruling the will of the people on such matters by dreaming up "rights" that are to be found nowhere in the Constitution, the Bible or the history of mankind.

• Texas Freedom Network: Tell Gov. Perry: Stop Using Faith as a Weapon.
• Sofia Resnick @ Washington Independent: Personhood Mississippi sends daughter of rape victim on tour to garner support for abortion criminalization measure.
• Zack Ford @ Think Progress: Focus On The Family President Jim Daly Concedes On Marriage Again: ‘Yeah, It’s Over.’
• Towleroad: Rick Santorum Says He Supports Federal Constitutional Amendment to Ban Same-Sex Marriage.
• Steve Rendall @ FAIR: WaPo's False Equivalence on Founder Misquotes.

The Family Research Council has released new prayer targets, and the group is urging activists to pray to stop the New York state legislature from passing a marriage equality bill. The FRC insisted that activists should not only support opponents of marriage equality, but also pray that those who “seek to shred the fabric of our nation’s moral order be defeated in the next election!”

In addition, the group denounced a new effort by Health and Human Services chief Kathleen Sebelius that fights bullying and anti-gay discrimination. In a recent speech, Sebelius said that Cabinet departments were working together “to create ways to decrease bullying and to establish programs and ideas to aid victims” and said that her department will work to create “a health care system that understands the unique needs of LGBT adults and youth.” FRC, a leading opponent of anti-bullying policies which protect LGBT youth, called on activists to pray against “government efforts to promote harmful and sinful sexual practices among our youth and instead determine to stand courageously against these misguided efforts which can only lead to God's judgment!”

Next Tuesday, June 14 at Noon, Christian leaders from many denominations and non-denominations will meet on the steps of New York City Hall to rebut Mayor Bloomberg's call for same-sex "marriage." New York City Bishop Joseph Mattera says, if taken today, the bill would fail by 3-4 votes. But Mayor Bloomberg is using his bully pulpit as a bludgeon to influence legislators (see City Action Coalition, Bloomberg, Cuomo).

• May God give courage to New York's pro-marriage Senators. May they handily defeat this effort to overturn the natural order in this state and our nation. May God's New Yorkers arise to pray and stand! May the members of New York's legislature who blindly or intentionally seek to shred the fabric of our nation's moral order be defeated in the next election! (Ps 11:3; Eze 33:1-9; Mt 7:15; Rom 1:32; Eph 6:10-18; 1 Th 5:21-22)

…

Secretary Sebelius also announced creation of a new federal interagency taskforce to partner the Departments of HHS, Education, Agriculture, Defense, Interior and Justice to develop strategies and programs to fight bullying. She said the new national health law will make health care workers "culturally competent" to deal with LGBT patients and that HHS is working with the federal child welfare system to "place LGBT children in loving homes." Homosexual activist and Department of Education appointee Kevin Jennings served as moderator of the event. The U.S. Department of Education sponsored the summit. Take time to read the Christian Post coverage (see Christian Post).

• May God help us to not to "bully" anyone, but to graciously yet urgently speak the truth in love to young people who are hurting themselves with the "LGBT" lifestyle. May believers across America not be "bullied" by our government's efforts to promote harmful and sinful sexual practices among our youth and instead determine to stand courageously against these misguided efforts which can only lead to God's judgment! (Pr 28:4-5; Mt 5:44-45; 18:6; Acts 5:28-29; Eph 5:1-13)

Christian Anti-Defamation Commission president Gary Cass is unsurprisingly outraged that Old Navy is selling pride shirts during June, LGBT Pride month, which would send some proceeds to the anti-suicide, anti-bullying It Gets Better Project. Cass recently released a staunchly anti-gay video telling gay and lesbian teens that “it doesn’t get better” and calling on them to “resist temptations.” Cass voiced support for a boycott of Old Navy in an interview with the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow over the pride shirt, and criticized the company for engaging in “a very immoral and very deadly topic”:

Gary Cass of DefendChristians.org says Old Navy is promoting a lifestyle that is in "complete rebellion against God."

"Rather just focusing on giving good products to their customers, they want to use their products now to advocate for a very controversial topic, much less a very immoral and very deadly topic," notes Cass.

The T-shirt designs include a white shirt with "Love Proudly" written in the colors of the rainbow, and a black shirt with rainbow-colored stripes. Cass tells OneNewsNow that an economic dent in the company's profits may be the only way to change things.

"Unfortunately we have to do the hard work of communicating our outrage, our frustration -- and then following that up with some kind of practical expression such as taking your business elsewhere," he suggests.

Last month, Peter LaBarbera used his radio show, Americans for Truth Hour, to highlight a speech given by Liberty University law professor Rena Lindevaldsen, who serves as Lisa Miller's attorney in her position with Liberty Counsel. Lindevaldsen, speaking against marriage equality, declared that Christians can’t compromise on the issue of LGBT rights because that would mean “deny[ing] the truth of the scripture” and “Satan obviously doesn’t want us to look at the truth of scripture.” This is just the latest in a long line of anti-gay statements from Liberty University and the affiliated Liberty Counsel, which in the past has claimed gay marriage is a fight against an "Antichrist Spirit" and would like to see President Obama impeached for extending leave to domestic partners. 

To accept homosexuality as healthy and normal necessarily means we as Christians deny the truth of the scripture. There is simply no sound biblical position of neutrality on this issue. As Christians we have to treat the Bible as our action plan, therefore we have to refuse to legitimate [sic] any actions that the Bible calls sin.

And that’s one reason as Christians we hear we should compromise on the marriage battle. Let’s allow civil unions. Let’s allow domestic partnerships. When we do that, however, we compromise on scripture by calling what God says is sin, good.

Our only options as Christians, if we’re going to adhere to scripture, is to fight for marriage and everything that’s included in that. We don’t want to give up all the rights of marriage and simply protect the name of marriage because that’s not what the Bible is about when you hear about marriage.

That’s also why we shouldn’t get out of the marriage business all-together which is what some Christians say. “Let’s just give it over to churches, let them marry who they want and government gets out of the business.” That’s not the way the government works though. Government in all areas of life seeks to steer people into conduct it thinks is good, and is helpful to society. And that’s why it is involved in marriage, because time and again marriage between one man and one woman has shown to be the most optimal environment for raising godly children who are productive citizens.

And so to get out of the marriage business, as I like to call it, altogether simply means there’s going to be a void. There’s going to be a vacuum. Something fills that void. In essence, evil will sweep in and run rampant on the issues of marriage, relationships, and homosexuality.

Satan obviously doesn’t want us to look to the truth of scripture. The truth of scripture is that God has a different plan than same-sex sexual conduct for your life.  And so if Satan and those who are essentially advancing his agenda do not what to shed light on the truth, we have to.

Linda Harvey, founder of the fringe anti-gay group Mission: America, not only condemns the LGBT community but condemns anyone who isn’t condemning them. Harvey is also the host of the Mission: America Radio show, and last week she spoke out against pro-tolerance education:

Sex Change Pushed on Children

Recently, I read an outstanding article on the website American Thinker. It’s called The Left’s Dirty Little Secret. It exposed what has been obvious for a long time, that liberal values in schools and in our culture are leading to widespread sexual abuse of children. The author talks about the culture of Berkley, CA, during the hippie days of the 60s, how unsupervised kids in the bohemian communal living arrangements were often neglected, and so were vulnerable to abuse by drop-in friends or sketchy relatives.

These values have been dragged out into the mainstream and called everything else but what they are. Planned Parenthood calls it choice. The Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network, along with their close allies in the teachers’ unions call it safety. Promoting explicit sex practices to kids, with the rationale that they have a “right” to these practices, is one of the biggest con-jobs going and it’s a pedophile’s dream.

I’m sure the adult who wants to prey on a minor, either heterosexually or homosexually, appreciates the schools, media, and liberal churches persuading the kids themselves that all this is okay, that early sex is normal, and that adults who try to teach restraint or delay are really bigots who are violating your rights.

Well, the lunacy is rapidly expanding to new territory. We’ve talked about this before, but the boundary of gender is being breeched quickly with the transgender issue. Recently, even liberal California wasn’t ready for where some goofy educators wanted to take their kids. In Oakland’s Redwood Heights Elementary School, an outside anti-bullying consultant taught special lessons advocating gender confusion. The presentations were from a group called Gender Spectrum, who was paid $1500 with a grant from the California Teachers’ Union. The male presenter told grade schoolers that “gender identity is a spectrum, where people can be girls, feel like girls, they feel like boys, they feel like both, or they can feel like neither.” All 350 students in the school were subjected to these lessons, which the principal claimed would make a more accepting and welcoming environment for students who don’t conform to gender norms.

No, actually, they have just planted disturbing and harmful doubts about themselves within the minds of little children. I think that what we’re dealing with are deviant adults working out their considerably weird issues through children. Many parents objected, according to Fox News, and three families kept their kids home.

This gender change agenda is everywhere. Have you noticed? It’s pushed on us by teachers, Hollywood, popular musicians, even a few political figures. Numerous incidents over the past decade involve teachers who begin dressing and acting, all of a sudden, as the opposite gender. Two years ago, Ohio came very close to passing a bill, House bill 176, which would have forced homosexual and gender-bending behavior on all work places in the state, including schools. It passed the Democrat-controlled House, but thankfully not the Ohio Senate.

Friends, we must be vigilant against such corruption of our culture. So we wonder why some children are desperately insecure? God never intended for them to be so. He designed us marvelously as male and female, and we should celebrate those lovely and interesting differences. When adults who should know better want to sell these disturbed ideas to impressionable children, it’s up to us to their rescue. We must commit to keeping sexual orientation and gender identity language out of local, state, and national policies. This just opens the door to sin, confusion, and heartbreak.

For years now, Jim Garlow's wife has been battling cancer and recently had a setback that prompted Garlow to consider canceling his scheduled appearance at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference over the weekend.  Ultimately, at his wife's insistence, he kept his commitment and traveled to Washington DC where he delivered an address in which he likened marriage equality to children losing their parents on 9/11 and declared that America has cancer and that, come 2012, he hopes to be able to say that not only has his wife survived, but the nation has as well:

Every week, the Family Research Council issues a list of "prayer targets" which usually consist of political issues in the news that members of its "prayer team" should focus on for that week.

This week's list of targets includes the White House proclamation recognizing June as "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month":

Homosexual Agenda -- Tuesday, President Obama proclaimed June "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month." In the Proclamation, he boasts of his administration's achievements to advance the homosexual agenda: opening the Armed Forces to openly practicing homosexuals "for the first time in our Nation's history;" adding rules to eliminate discrimination against LGBT's in federal housing programs; giving federal rights to LGBT's to visit partners in the hospital; appointing homosexuals to top federal executive and judicial positions; targeting foreign laws that discriminate against LGBT's; leading a campaign to put "sexual orientation" in a U.N. resolution -- the first, ever, to specifically mention LGBT people. He further touted implementing and enforcing the Hate Crimes Prevention Act; efforts to reduce bullying and discrimination in schools; promoting the "It Gets Better" video; and his recommitment to increase funding for AIDS awareness and prevention.

Also Tuesday, homosexual activist Joe Salmonese of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) announced his organization's "Call it Out" Campaign, a nationwide "effort to expose hatred -- not just on national TV, but in communities." HRC is creating a website where activists can register their accusations and complaints to silence any American who makes a public statement perceived as being "hostile" toward homosexuals or their agenda.

Meanwhile, U.S. efforts to promote homosexuality worldwide march on. FRCAction Senior V.P. Tom McClusky writes, "we are spending tax dollars on a Gay Bulgarian Film Festival (flyer here) [and] an "after show party... [W]hile the Administration is slow to defend oppressed Christians in Muslim and communist countries that are being killed for their beliefs, they took less then one day to condemn the Russian government for barring a homosexual pride parade in Moscow... [N]ew guidelines issued on Saturday...for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program... tax dollars will now be available to force acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle in [recipient] countries, with little regard for the beliefs in the targeted countries... [recipients are required to] endorse the behavior that leads to AIDS. When President Bush started PEPFAR it was probably one of the most effective international outreach programs in decades, largely due to the effort to work with the targeted countries on the best way to solve AIDS crisis. President Obama's colonialist approach is likely to lead to more countries rejecting U.S. aid..." (Proclamation; "Call it Out," International Gay Outreach).

* Pray that God will protect America from the spiritual effects of this evil Presidential Proclamation. May Christians -- who will be targeted by HRC's smear campaign -- enjoy God's protection. And may this administration's efforts to promote homosexuality overseas be resisted and defeated at home and abroad!

Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed the House Armed Services Committee Authorization bill, which included three amendments designed to delay the repeal of the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

With the Senate taking up the bill, Rep. Randy Forbes, along with Bishop Harry Jackson and a group of right-wing pastors, held a press conference to encourage the Senate to pass the pro-DADT amendments.

Attempting to seem semi-reasonable, Jackson began the conference by claiming that amendments intending to make the repeal of DADT more difficult and time-consuming weren’t about DADT itself, but instead about “clarity.”

That line of reasoning lasted all of 15 minutes. By the time Q&A rolled around, Jackson and the Religious Right figures that had joined him used all of the same tired arguments that have been used against DADT in the past. When asked if the repeal of DADT would hurt recruitment, Bishop John Neal claimed that he wasn’t sure, but what he was really worried about was the “close quarters” that soldiers have to share, and what would happen when there was “only one spigot” on the shower.

This again?

Multiple speakers claimed that “no one should be marginalized for their religious beliefs,” but they all seem to believe that marginalizing people for their sexual orientation is perfectly acceptable. One of the speakers, John Neil, went so far as to claim that the military discriminates all the time, by not allowing, for example, extraordinarily tall people to pilot cramped fighter jets. Because that’s exactly the same situation.

Despite their claims to be promoting the rights of chaplains, this group showed that their real goal was restricting the rights of the LGBT community, going so far as to assert that Martin Luther King Jr. would disapprove of same-sex marriage:

Jackson: There were members of his family who were for gay marriage, others were against. I know this: King basically spoke from two vantage points that he thought were very, very sacred within the American culture - one was the Bible and the other was the Constitution. And I think what we're dealing with here is that from a biblical perspective, King no doubt would have been with us biblically. And I think, again, the lines of what is exactly the right of an American to do, I've got a hard time believing that "the pursuit of happiness" crosses into some of these areas. So I think that King would be with us, as a preacher first.

Question: Just to clarify: you're saying Dr. King would be against gay marriage?

Jackson: Yes. Very specifically, yes. Because it's against what is clearly written in Scripture. And if you listen to any of his messages, that clarion call to scriptural accountability even to the point when his own house was firebombed and folks came up in Montgomery armed and ready to go fight folks, he said "no, no, no, we will turn the other cheek."

So there was not just a tacit biblical acceptance or kind of whitewashing, if I can use that phrase, certain kinds of behaviors and say this is Christian, this is not. I think there was an inherent commitment to those issues in our social culture.