Schools

After Education Secretary Arne Duncan sent a letter declaring that Gay-Straight Alliances and similar groups are protected under the 1984 Equal Access Law, which was passed with the help of Religious Right activists, the Religious Right was unsurprisingly enraged. Many anti-gay organizations forcefully oppose the creation of such clubs, and the Family Research Council even urged schools to encourage clubs that support ex-gay therapy. Now, American Principles In Action (APIA) is denouncing Duncan’s letter as a threat to “the innocence” of children.

APIA is the political arm of the American Principles Project, an anti-gay group that is best known for launching the boycott of the Conservative Political Action Conference over the participation of GOProud and the alleged sidelining of the social conservatives. Even though APIA took on leading conservative groups with its CPAC boycott, recently presidential candidates Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Gary Johnson and Rick Santorum signed up for their Iowa “Tea Party Bus Tour.”

In a statement, the APIA charged Secretary Duncan with bullying for supporting students who want to form clubs that actively fight school bullying and harassment. The group instead claimed that it was part of the Obama Administration’s “sexual agenda” and need to “pander to the gay lobby,” requesting the Supreme Court overrule the decision:

Today, American Principles in Action (APIA) criticized Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan for another attempt to bully local schools into accepting the Administration’s sexual agenda. On June 14, he sent a “Dear Colleague” letter notifying schools across the country that they are prohibited from denying the formation of “Queer-Straight” and “Gay-Straight” Alliance groups.

“This is a situation where local school boards have been making their own decisions about how to protect the students entrusted to their care,” said Andy Blom, Executive Director of APIA. “It is simply unacceptable for Sec. Duncan to push local school districts around and force them to accept their sexual agenda, especially when case law is so conflicted on the issue.”

In his letter, Secretary Duncan backed up his decision by citing a July 2008 decision made in Gonzalez vs. School Board of Okeechobee County where a Florida federal judge prohibited the local school board from preventing a Gay-Straight Alliance Group from forming under the Equal Protection Act.

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“What we really need is for the Supreme Court to weigh in to protect the ability of local school districts to manage the innocence of their children without interference from federal courts,” said Blom. “Instead, Sec. Duncan has used yet another opportunity to pander to the gay lobby. It is time for the Supreme Court and Congress to step forward and reign in this overaggressive Department of Education.”

Taking a page from right-wing pseudo-historian David Barton, Rick Joyner is out with a new series about how the country’s schools are trying to root out Christianity from America. Joyner, the leader of the Oak Initiative and Morning Star Ministries, warned during the program that religious freedom in America is on the decline and that the education system is part of a “massive assault on the Untied States.” Joyner even alleged that history textbooks have eliminated the role of the Founders in American history and replaced them with a discussion of Muslims in America.

Watch:

A self-proclaimed “ex-gay” official with Focus on the Family’s California affiliate, in response to Los Angeles’s recognition of LGBT Heritage Month in June, has called on the city to create a day honoring “ex-gays.” The Focus chapter, called the California Family Council, earlier this year slammed anti-bullying initiatives for allegedly “push[ing] a homosexual message” and attacked efforts to incorporate gay and lesbian historical figures in the school curriculum.

Speaking to the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow, Jim Domen, who leads the CFC’s outreach to clergy and was a staunch supporter of Proposition 8, said the government should honor people like him who “changed our lives” by becoming ‘ex-gays’:

Pastor Jim Domen, a staff member with the California Family Council, sees obvious disparity in the city's proclamation.

"I'm ex-gay," he tells OneNewsNow. "And so when I hear people celebrating, 'Oh, we're doing the LGBT month,' and those types of celebrations, I want to ask the question: 'Well, when does the state, when does the county of Los Angeles respect those who are ex-gay? When do we celebrate ex-gay month?' We've gone down this road -- it's not good -- and we've changed our lives. When does the state recognize that?"

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Domen contends the city is essentially siding with those working to reverse that initiative, which upholds traditional marriage in the state.

"We continue to see this in our government leadership," he laments, "and it's heartbreaking when the people have spoken and yet elected officials will -- via their power or what have you -- choose to go against the will of the people."

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)

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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)

On May 31st, RWW first reported that during The 700 Club Pat Robertson likened his fight against Muslim civil rights to the fight against Nazis and Adolf Hitler, which was followed by a spurious denial by Christian Broadcasting Network. Such egregious comments are no surprise coming from Robertson, who in the past argued that “Islam is not a religion” and Muslims should be treated like “some fascist group.”

Robertson: I was thinking, you know, if you oppose Muslims, what is said? Well, you're a bigot, right? Terrible bigotry. I wonder what were people who opposed the Nazis. Were they bigots?

Meeuwsen: Well, in that day I think they were looked down upon and frowned upon.

Robertson: Why can't we speak out against an institution that is intent on dominating us and imposing Sharia law and making us all part of a universal caliphate? That's the goal of some of these people. Why is that bigoted? Why is it bigoted to resist Adolf Hitler and the Nazis and to say we don't want to live under Nazi Germany? We didn't hesitate to say the truth, tell the truth about the Nazis, tell the truth about Hitler, tell the truth about fascism, tell the truth, if you will, about communism. But, oh, it's bigoted if you speak out against a force that is slowly but surely trying to exercise domination over the world.

Now, Anti-Defamation League head Abraham Foxman wrote a letter to Robertson taking him to task for his anti-Muslim comments and his comparison of Muslims to Nazis, saying, “the answer to your question may be found within your own statements.”

Dear Mr. Robertson:

We were deeply disturbed by your remarks on the May 31 edition of The 700 Club concerning Muslims in Europe and America following a segment on the growing construction of mosques on the European Continent. You asked the question, why is it bigoted if one speaks out "against an institution that is intent on dominating us and imposing Sharia law and making us all part of a universal Caliphate? That is the goal of some of these people. Why is that bigoted? Why is it bigoted to resist Adolf Hitler and the Nazis and to say that we don't want to live under Nazi Germany?"

Your statements here were troubling on several levels. For one, the suggestion that Muslims who, as you put it, "come into Europe and build their mosques" and "come into America and set up their schools and madrassas" are doing so in an effort to "exercise domination over the world" is a false notion based on hateful stereotypes of Islam. While you did qualify your statement with "some of these people," you then pre-empted it with a series of generalizations. In fact, many if not most Muslims in Europe and in America immigrated to find a better life for themselves and to freely practice their faith. Sure, there is a minority of Muslims with extreme views. But the overwhelming majority of Muslims rejects these views and wants little more than the ability to practice their faith openly and freely and to be accepted as contributing members of society. It is wrong to paint all Muslims with such a broad brush, or to portray all Muslims as extremists as you have done here.

Second, the notion that Islam is something that needs to be opposed in the same manner as people resisted Adolf Hitler and the Nazis is outrageous and offensive. Nazism was a racist and genocidal political movement unlike any other in history, responsible for the massacre of six million Jews and millions of others in the Holocaust. One simply cannot and should not lump Muslims into the same category as Hitler.

So in response to your question about why is it bigoted for people to "oppose Muslims," to me the answer is clear: It is bigoted when one assumes the worst about an entire faith based on the beliefs of a few; it is bigoted to paint all Muslims (or for that matter, Christians or Jews) with the broadest of brushes when in fact you are talking about a many-faceted and culturally diverse belief system; it is bigoted to suggest that the Islamic faith has nefarious and sinister plans to take over majority Christian nations when this is false at its core. Sadly, the answer to your question may be found within your own statements, which I believe should be categorically rejected by all reasonable people.

Sincerely,

Abraham H. Foxman

National Director

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.

As we noted last week, Bryan Fischer has made it his new cause in life to prove that "the number one class of people who are committing hate crimes today are homosexual activists."

Fischer bases this idea upon a definition of a hate crime that he took off us USLegal.com, which reads:

"A hate crime is usually defined by state law as one that involves threats, harassment, or physical harm and is motivated by prejudice against someone's race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, sexual orientation or physical or mental disability."

Fischer has seized upon the phrases "harassment" and "religion" and is now basically using them to declare anything and everything he doesn't like to be a "hate crime."

Last week it was situation with Peter Vidmar, who stepped down from his position with the 2012 U.S. Olympic team over his support for Proposition 8, and today is it some case involving a doctor in England:

If facing harassment because others have prejudice against your religion is a hate crime, then Dr. Richard Scott of the U.K. is the latest victim of the P.C. police.

He is facing an official sanction from the professional medical body in England, the General Medical Council (GMC) for having the effrontery to suggest to a patient that nurturing his spiritual life might be one part of a holistic course of treatment.

It makes no difference to the Tolerance Nazis that study after study has shown the beneficial health effects of faith in God and prayer, or that Dr. Scott only broached the subject with this patient after a lengthy consultation, and after medical checks had been performed and referrals for further care were arranged.

Nope, the Torquemadas of the left want to put Dr. Scott on the rack and punish him despite his unblemished 28-year record and despite the fact the patient in question is still seeking care at his clinic and so himself is apparently not criminally offended in the least.

This case doesn't even have anything to do with gays, so Fischer is now claiming that it is "secular fundamentalists" who are committing this particular hate crime.

The interesting thing about this new development is that Fischer intentionally overlooks the other elements of the definition of a hate crime, most notably the listing of "sexual orientation."

And given that, in Fischer's view, basically any criticism or pressure put on any conservative or Christian is "harassment" and therefore a "hate crime," let us point out that Fischer and the AFA led the charge to fire Kevin Jennings and impeach Judge Vaughn Walker, solely because they were gay:

AFA calls for resignation of Kevin Jennings, “Safe and Drug Free Schools” head

The American Family Association today called for the resignation of Kevin Jennings, the head of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools in the Department of Education.

“This man is not a good role model for the nation’s children, nor will he fairly represent all Americans due to his spiteful attitude toward evangelical Christians,” said AFA President Tim Wildmon.

Time to impeach Judge Vaughn Walker

Contact your representative today and urge him to start impeachment proceedings

August 5, 2010

Yesterday (August 4), U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker single-handedly overturned California's Prop. 8, which elevated protection for one-man, one-woman marriage to its state constitution.

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Judge Walker's ruling is not "good Behaviour." He has exceeded his constitutional authority and engaged in judicial tyranny.

Judges are not, in fact, unaccountable. They are accountable to Congress, which can remove them from office.

Impeachment proceedings, according to the Constitution, begin in the House of Representatives. It's time for you to put your congressman on record regarding the possible impeachment of Judge Walker.

If Peter Vidmar stepping down and some foreign doctor facing possible discipline are examples of "hate crimes," what just what is the AFA prolonged and orchestrated campaign to get two gay public servants fired from the jobs?

And can I point out that Islam is also a "religion" ... and Fischer has been leading a full-blown crusade against Muslims for years now.

So by Fischer's own standard, he is personally guilty of committing hate crimes on a daily basis. 

Mission America, led by anti-gay activist Linda Harvey, is out with a long and frenzied rant (“special report” ) against the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and its anti-bullying policies. Harvey, who said that gay-rights advocates use “demonic manipulation” to make kids gay and are to blame for suicides among gay teens, claims that every parent should be worried about GLSEN unless they “don’t care about their kids being drawn into early deviant sexual activity, or learning to approve of sinful, God-defying behaviors.” The group also had a warning for GLSEN: “because they are innocent and vulnerable, it has traditionally been a criminal offense to corrupt a child.”

Previously, Harvey derided GLSEN’s anti-bullying Day of Silence as a “Hitler Youth Product,” and now Mission America says, “when you think GLSEN, think ‘children and bodily fluids’”:

Do parents want their children exposed to homosexuality at school? Most parents would answer vehemently, “No!” In fact, they did so in a WND/Wenzel poll.

Every child is precious and valued by God. But like all humans, children can be led into sin. And because they are innocent and vulnerable, it has traditionally been a criminal offense to corrupt a child. Jesus thought so, too, and talked about millstone penalties and such (Matthew 18:6, Luke 17:2).

And parents appreciate these laws and cultural norms that protect the young. Mission America believes it’s important to warn parents about threats to the safety of their children.

GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, poses as a “gay rights” and “anti-bullying” group for youth, going to bat for them on issues like discrimination. But GLSEN is actually a threat to children, unless parents don’t care about their kids being drawn into early deviant sexual activity, or learning to approve of sinful, God-defying behaviors without the parents' knowledge.

To put it bluntly, when you think GLSEN, think “children and bodily fluids.” Yes, it’s that bad.

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Now, one wonders why a “respected” group among whose sponsors are Cisco Systems, CitiBank, Wells Fargo, American Express, Goldman Sachs, IBM, Mass Mutual, and let’s not forget the National Education Association, would even think about ignoring parents to interact directly with kids on such a personal and controversial issue. How can they get away with blatant indoctrination, sexual enticement, radical activist training, even soliciting the opinions of minors for sketchy, internally-constructed and analyzed school climate surveys, where no parental permission is needed to interview a sixth-grader about homosexual identity via the Internet?

Simple. They want access to kids, they want to normalize homosexuality, and they will use children to do it as long as parents/schools let them. The gatekeepers are not watching, so all kinds of mischief is happening.

David Barton’s interview with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show was filled with the usual gimmicks and distortions we have come to expect from the Right’s favorite pseudo-historian, but also came with a big surprise: Barton told Stewart that he supported the right of a Muslim-majority jurisdiction that could hypothetically want to implement Sharia law. This clearly contradicted Barton’s past opposition to Sharia law, yet it helped Barton represent himself on The Daily Show not as a partisan Christian Right activist but as someone who generally supports religious influence in government:

Stewart: Do you feel like the majority in a locality should be able to determine…
Barton: Yes, yes, and here in New York City, there’s schools that are 100 percent Hasidic Jewish, and I think they should be allowed to have Hasidic Jewish practices there because all 100 percent kids are…
Stewart: So you would allow, like, let’s say Dearborn, Michigan was majority Muslim…
Barton: And it is.
Stewart: Are you all right with Sharia law and the whole business…
Barton: Sure, sure.
Stewart: Well, that’s consistent.
Barton: But for somebody from the outside to come in and say “I don’t like this, you can’t do it” that’s what I have trouble with.

Now, Barton is walking back from his comments during his WallBuilders Live radio show with Rick Green. Barton and Green explain that he didn’t realize Stewart asked him about Sharia law. Rather, Barton says he answered a different question that Stewart did not ask, and has therefore been completely consistent:

Maybe antics like this are why real historians don’t take Barton seriously.