Religious Right

Religious Right activists have been vigorously fighting a California bill that would make sure textbooks address the role of LGBT figures in the state’s history, even going so far as to urge parents to take their kids out of public schools if the bill is signed into law. Save California has warned of “sexual brainwashing” and a “tsunami of perversity” if the legislation passes, and now the virulently anti-gay Traditional Values Coalition is calling for people across the country to protest the bill. Benjamin Lopez of the TVC told Charisma that the bill represents politicians “messing with the minds and the innocence of children for their own twisted benefit”:

The FAIR Act, written by self-admitted homosexual state Sen. Mark Leno of San Francisco, will force all California schools to use textbooks and instructional materials that include homosexual, bisexual and transgender teachings. Despite its name, the Traditional Values Coalition says there is nothing fair, accountable, inclusive or respectful about it.

“The state of California is on the verge of financial collapse,” Benjamin Lopez, legislative advocate for Traditional Values Coalition, told Charisma News. “The last thing we need is to make an unnecessary expenditure to promote the gay lifestyle in California’s schools.”

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“The victory and the nail in the coffin for the gay agenda” would be if there was a “ a groundswell across the country demanding textbook companies say no to gay teachings in textbooks,” Lopez explains. Lopez and the Traditional Values Coalition urge everyone to help stop the law from passing before it gets voted on at the State Assembly. “If they’re California residents, we want them to absolutely bombard the state assembly with phone calls, letters, emails and faxes, demanding that legislators reject SB 48,” Lopez pleads.

“For people across the country—for everyone outside of California looking in—they’ve got to think, 'As California goes, so goes the nation.' We need people outside of California to write their local legislators saying, 'Don’t even consider doing what they’re doing in California.'

“My very stern plea is for people ... to take action. [Lawmakers are] messing with the minds and the innocence of children for their own twisted benefit. If that doesn’t bug you, I don’t know what will,” Lopez says.

Rabid anti-choice activist Clenard Childress, who believes that gay rights are a sign of the End Times, is now comparing advocates of LGBT equality to the people in the Bible that called for Jesus' death. Wrongly suggesting that the American Psychological Association believes that homosexuality is a choice (the group says the opposite), Childress also claims that gays and lesbians can't claim to have civil rights "because your sexual orientation could be flawed." Childress writes:

The Roman Empire had been occupying and subjugating Israel for multiple years along with the religious elite. They were enslaved to man outwardly and sin inwardly and blind to both. Certainly at that point, Jesus saw the futility of trying to reach that audience with truth, yet out of compassion he persisted. The elites were determined to twist and malign the facts to accommodate their lifestyle, though in error. They lived in a vacuum of denial refusing to see the obvious. When truth is ignored, or denied, the course often taken by those in denial is to first obfuscate, then defame, diminish, and finally denounce the messenger. This crowd resorted to using the "N-word" of that day: "Samaritan," and even went so far as declaring that Jesus was the devil. Sound familiar?

It is similar today, for instead of examining the data, this generation's elites combat truth with ideology, character assassination, deception, and of course, denial. The two defining issues of the day which will determine the course of our culture, and the destiny of our nation, are abortion and homosexuality... Pro-choice, and homosexual and lesbian activists, all claim their cause is a Civil Rights issue. Yet the "Civil Rights" of the unborn children are being denied, and it is intellectually dishonest to claim a "right" for yourself, and by so doing, deny the rights of someone else, especially when that someone is an unborn infant. These individuals are completely wrong because you do not give Civil Rights to sexual orientation because your sexual orientation could be flawed. "Civil Rights" are based on "Birth Rights," and according to the APA, homosexuality and lesbianism is an acquired behavior, not something like the color of your skin — something you're born with. You were not born homosexual, so sexual preference is not a Civil Right — it's a preference.

Religious Right groups are launching another billboard campaign against Planned Parenthood for allegedly committing genocide against the African American community. Following billboards featuring Barack Obama and a young black girl reading "The Most Dangerous Place For An African American Is In the Womb," anti-choice organization are out with a new billboard accusing Planned Parenthood of targeting the black community for extermination. The leadership of the latest California billboard campaign even likened the work of the women's health group to the ongoing genocide in Darfur:

The Issues4Life Foundation and The Radiance Foundation, launch a TooManyAborted.Com abortion awareness and pro-adoption themed campaign, entitled "BLACK&BEAUTIFUL." This Black American led initiative exposes Planned Parenthood's racist and eugenics-based history and unaltered course. Sixty (60) "BLACK&BEAUTIFUL" billboards are placed throughout Oakland.

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Walter B. Hoye II, President of the Issues4Life Foundation, a Black American leader committed to ending abortion, has raised awareness nationwide. "The impact of abortion in the Black Community is the Darfur of America," Hoye declares, citing the 15 million Black American lives that have been aborted since 1973.

The Radiance Foundation's co-founder, Ryan Bomberger, created the TooManyAborted.Com campaign and is an adoptee and adoptive father. "Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion chain, is a failure. They haven't budged the national unintended pregnancy rate since 1995 but are relentlessly dedicated to increasing their annual share of abortions. They heavily advocate a singular 'choice' that feeds their $1 billion dollar tax-payer subsidized budget," Bomberger says.

• The San Antonio Express-News reports that "when it comes time to giving, [Governor Rick Perry] doesn't come close to the biblical guidance of tithing."
• CNN gives Tony Perkins space to explain what the Religious Right wants in a Republican presidential nominee.
• David Barton has endorsed Ted Cruz.
• Gary Cass claims that Prop 8 would have passed by even more but that "Attorney General Jerry Brown intentionally described Proposition 8 on the ballot in a misleading way."
• I am pretty sure that President Obama is going to refuse the offer to come together and pray with Wiley Drake.
• Finally, Janet Porter warns you to beware that Lamb you are eating; it was probably "offered first to idols, in this case to the false god of Islam."

Laurie Cardoza-Moore, the head of the Christian Zionist group Proclaiming Justice to the Nations (PJTN), blames President Obama’s recent speech on the Mideast crisis for the deadly tornado outbreak in May. Cardoza-Moore is a Tea Party and anti-Muslim activist who is funding the lawsuit to block the construction of a mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, which argued that Islam is not a religion and that consequently Muslims shouldn’t have the constitutional right to build a house of worship. Congresswoman and likely presidential candidate Michele Bachmann addressed PJTN last year just before Cardoza-Moore held a fundraiser for her campaign, and Religious Right radio host Janet Parshall won the group’s “Tree of Life” award earlier this year.

Like Janet Porter, another Christian Zionist leader who said President Obama’s approach to Israel and support for legal abortion caused the tornado outbreak, Cardoza-Moore holds Obama responsible for the recent tornadoes and the resulting deaths of hundreds of Americans:

The head of a pro-Israel group says that country's prime minister has replaced the president of the United States as leader of the free world.

Laurie Cardoza-Moore, president of Nashville-based Proclaiming Justice to the Nations (PJTN), is trying to mobilize Americans to take a stand for the nation of Israel. (See earlier story) She is concerned that Muslim countries are trying to muster U.N. support for a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood, which could be approved by the General Assembly in September.

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The PJTN president believes that Obama's treatment of Israel has already had consequences.

"President Obama is bringing us down. If you look at what happened after Obama made that speech, look at the weather patterns that we had. Day after day, horrific tornadoes [came] blazing across this country [and] hundreds of people [lost] their lives," she recalls. Cardoza-Moore adds that history shows that every nation that has ever turned its back on Israel was brought down to ruin.

In another stinging defeat for the burgeoning “personhood” movement, a Louisiana personhood bill which would ban all abortions was defeated in the state legislature. The legislation, sponsored by Republican State Rep. John LaBruzzo, was hailed by Personhood USA as one of their best chances to pass a personhood law this year.

Personhood legislation gives legal rights to zygotes, banning all abortion without exception along with procedures to treat problem pregnancies, certain forms of contraception, and even in-vitro fertilization. Incidentally, the federal Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funds for abortion procedures, was the rationale used by the bill’s opponents to table the measure to send it back to committee. Personhood USA lamented that “The Hyde Amendment had a chilling effect on prolife legislators.”

Personhood USA is still counting on Mississippi voters to pass a personhood amendment this November, a referendum backed by other Religious Right groups like the American Family Association and Liberty Counsel along with top Republican politicians. The Mississippi effort is led by a proponent of Christians creating their own separate, theocratic country in America. In 2006 and 2008, personhood amendments were overwhelmingly defeated in Colorado.

The Associated Press reports:

A Metairie lawmaker's attempt to force a direct challenge to the Roe v. Wade decision by banning abortion outright in Louisiana was derailed Wednesday to the House budget committee.

The 65-30 vote of the House to send Rep. John LaBruzzo's bill to the House Appropriations Committee could shelve the measure for the legislative session.

"This would basically defeat the bill by running out the clock," LaBruzzo said. Only two weeks remain in the legislative session. LaBruzzo is proposing to define a fetus as a person from the moment of conception, which would ban abortion entirely, in violation of current federal law. Anti-abortion groups are split on the worth of the idea.

Lawmakers who supported sending the bill to the Appropriations Committee cited the possibility it could jeopardize $4.5 billion in federal health care funding Louisiana receives for its Medicaid program. A financial analysis said the proposal would put Louisiana at odds with a 1976 federal law requiring Medicaid to cover abortion services to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape or incest. Rep. Jim Fannin, D-Jonesboro, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, pushed for the diversion of the bill.

"I am truly and completely opposed to abortion, but that's off the table," he said.

LaBruzzo, R-Metairie, disagreed with the financial analysis done by the Legislative Fiscal Office.

Last night, we released a fact sheet on the groups and individuals that Texas Governor Rick Perry partnering with in organizing his "The Response" prayer rally ... and we can now add John Hagee to that list, as he reports in this video posted to his YouTube channel that he was part of a recent conference call for organizers and is asking supporters to join him at the event in August:

Pat Robertson and the Christian Broadcasting Network have been heavily promoting the so-called “Teavangelicals,” or the ties between the Religious Right and the Tea Party. Following a report by David Brody, who hosted a panel on “Teavangelicals” at the Faith and Freedom Coalition summit, on the religious views of Tea Party activists Jenny Beth Martin of Tea Party Patriots and Amy Kremer of the Tea Party Express, Pat Robertson claimed that God sent the Tea Party to stop America from sliding into “chaos.”

Watch:

I believe God loves America. I believe He remembers the sacrifice of past generations and how they’ve stood up and how this country has been a beacon of freedom around the world, and He doesn’t want this country to go into chaos. It’s heading that way, but is the Tea Party His answer? It would be. It’s almost like the humor of God that He’s going to bring a bunch of housewives in to change the government, isn’t that great?

According to the Des Moines Register, Republican presidential candidates Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Gary Johnson and Rick Santorum will take part in Iowa’s Tea Party Bus Tour. The bus tour is led by a coalition of right-wing groups: the Leadership Institute, FairTax Nation, and the American Principles Project’s affiliated groups, Preserve Innocence and American Principles in Action.

Founded by noted anti-gay activist Robert George, the group is also closely linked to the Manhattan Declaration and the National Organization for Marriage, which it worked with to defeat marriage equality in Maine. Thomas Peters, the APP’s communications director, even participated in a conference tied to the notoriously anti-Semitic Polish broadcaster Tadeusz Rydsyk of Radio Maryja.

The APP is best known for instigating the boycott of this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference due to its inclusion of GOProud, a group of gay conservatives, and rallied other Religious Right organizations to leave the summit.

Preserve Innocence is the APP’s education watchdog and is mainly a voice against comprehensive sex education and anti-bullying programs. The group outspokenly opposed the role of Kevin Jennings, the White House’s outgoing Assistant Secretary for the Department of Education’s Office of Safe & Drug Free Schools and the founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, asserting that his views represent a “moral atrocity”:

Kevin Jennings aggressively advocates using our schools to teach children—including young children—about homosexuality and homosexual practices. He is the author of a Foreword to a book called Queering Elementary Education, and as the former Director of GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Educational Network), he supports a radical agenda that includes bringing sexual liberationist teachings into public schools. That’s what he means by “queering” elementary education.

“Queering” our elementary schools means destroying the innocence of our children. Please help us to stop that moral atrocity from happening.

The APP also bizarrely claims that President Obama was establishing “death panels” and working with Planned Parenthood to encourage students to have abortions:

“There is a frightening disconnect between what American parents believe their children should be taught about sex and by whom, and the liberal, even promiscuous sex education the Obama administration wishes to inflict upon our children through Planned Parenthood”, stated Andy Blom, Executive Director of the American Principles Project and American Principles in Action. “But this goes beyond sex education. This is opening the doors of our schools and their health programs to the nation’s largest abortion provider.”

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President Obama’s Health Care plan threatens babies through Government mandated, taxpayer funded abortion. It threatens parental rights, pre-teens and teenagers through Planned Parenthood SBHC sex indoctrination. It threatens the elderly and disabled through rationed health care and end-of-life “Death Panels.”