Today's Cultural Warfare Update

[solarbird]

Blogger talks about (and links directly to) a report on fundamentalist harassment of Jews in the Air Force Academy;

The unchallenged "statistic" on CNN last week wherein a Texas anti-gay activist claimed queers were 11 times more likely to molest children than straights came from Our Friend, Paul Cameron, and the Wall Street Journal debunks it;

FotF attacks the Interfaith Alliance as attacking the "Nation's Christian Roots";

Today's Focus on the Family Family News in Focus is again missing stories - five listed, three actually in the broadcast;

ACTION ITEM urging targeted calls and letters of support for a Federal anti-marriage amendment in the new Citizen Magazine, published by FotF;

Two Concerned Women for America action items in a single article - one on Federal abortion legislation, one on judicial nominees;

CWFA's Robert Knight's comments at Anti-marriage, anti-GBLT rally in Maine on April 28th;

Seattle PI article on anti-gay, anti-marriage eastside preacher Hutcherson - the one who lobbied Microsoft to drop support for state-wide anti-discrimination law.


----- 1 -----
April 29, 2005
Onward Christian Airmen

http://www.balloon-juice.com/archives/005013.html

Last week I reported on the toughest 44 Jews in the world, referring to the 44 Jews who were opressing nearly 3800 airmen at the Air Force Academy. Of course, they were doing nothing of the sort, but rather were themselves the subject of abuse from proselytizing evangelicals who attend, teach, and run the Academy. The report listed up to 55 complaints, and if Barry Lynn's Americans United (a group I generally treat with great skepticism) is correct, the situation is worse than I even imagined:

Religious intolerance is systemic and pervasive at the U.S. Air Force Academy and, if nothing changes, it could result in "prolonged and costly" litigation, according to a report issued Thursday by a group advocating strict separation of church and state.
The 14-page report listed incidents of mandatory prayers, proselytizing by teachers, insensitivity to religious minorities and allegations that evangelical Christianity is the preferred faith at the institution.

"I think this is the most serious, military-related systemic problem I have ever seen in the decades I've been doing this work," said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "There is a clear preference for Christianity at the academy, so that everyone else feels like a second-class citizen."

The actual report can be found here (.pdf), and some of the abuses listed include the following:

[Moreat URL]


----- 2 -----
THE NUMBERS GUY
By CARL BIALIK
The Wall Street Journal

Debate Over Gay Foster Parents
Shines Light on a Dubious Stat
April 28, 2005

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB111461604615918400-H9jeoNklah4m52vbH6Iaa2Gm4,00.html

Last week, the Texas House of Representatives passed a child-services bill with an amendment that would make Texas the first state in the nation to prevent same-sex couples from becoming foster parents. The state Senate passed a conflicting bill without that measure, and the two bodies are debating how to proceed.

The proposed ban attracted national media attention, and several "pro-family" groups seeking to drum up support for the bill have been circulating some troubling stats about gay parents. Among the most striking, stated during a CNN program: children in foster homes with same-sex parents are 11 times as likely to be sexually abused as those with heterosexual parents.

To get on CNN, that number snaked through a twisting path, from a little-noticed Illinois study published by an antigay scientist/activist in a psychological journal, to several conservative Web sites, to, finally, the attention of a Texas activist who presented her misinterpretation of the study on national television, essentially unchallenged. It's a textbook example of how flawed numbers can gain national attention if advocates work hard enough -- especially when there aren't widely-known conflicting estimates.

I'll start at the end of the number's path and try to unravel it to the source. Cathie Adams, president of the Dallas-based Texas Eagle Forum advocacy group, appeared April 21 on CNN in a debate segment about the proposed Texas law. Her designated sparring partner was Randall Ellis, executive director of the Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of Texas. "We also have got to look at research that does show that children in same-sex couple homes are 11 times more likely to be abused sexually," Ms. Adams said during the live segment. "And I think that that is not an issue that can be ignored. It is a proven fact and that was a research study done in the state of Illinois that has not, as the state of Texas has not, even asked that question."

"That's a bold statement," said CNN anchor Kyra Phillips, who gave Mr. Ellis a chance to respond. At first he called Ms. Adams's assertion "completely uncredible" and "completely absurd," but later he conceded he hadn't heard of the study before. Ms. Phillips didn't revisit the claim.

Ms. Adams told me that her source for the claim was an article she had read on the conservative site WorldNetDaily, about a study published in February by Paul Cameron, chairman of the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Family Research Institute, a group that says homosexuality is a major public-health threat. In the journal Psychological Reports, Dr. Cameron analyzed cases of sexual abuse committed against foster children and children in subsidized adoption homes, as reported to Illinois's Department of Children and Family Services from 1997 to 2002. There were 270 reports, and 34% of those were same-sex in nature: committed by a male adult against a male child, or a female adult against a female child. Dr. Cameron called those homosexual acts of abuse, and, citing several studies, including a joint report by the University of Michigan and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, concluded that gays make up between 1% and 3% of the adult U.S. population. "Thus, homosexual practitioners were proportionately more apt to sexually abuse foster or adoptive children," Dr. Cameron wrote.

[More at URL]


----- 3 -----
Nation's Christian Roots Attacked
by Josh Montez, correspondent
Focus on the Family
April 29, 2005

http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0036372.cfm

A left-leaning group called the Interfaith Alliance is protesting the influence of Christianity in U.S. history.

A liberal action group has challenged the views of a well-known conservative who points in detail to the influence Christianity has had on U.S. history.

David Barton, founder of Wallbuilders, regularly gives tours of the U.S. Capitol to spotlight the faith-based underpinnings of key moments in American history. But the Interfaith Alliance—a group from the religious left—recently objected to a Barton excursion, accusing him of revising history.

The tour in question was for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, but the alliance didn't complain to Barton—they went to the media.

"They seem to be committed to a fairly active goal of secularism," Barton said. "What I do is simply walk through the Capitol and pull out religious documents that are already depicted in the Capitol and show the originals."

Representatives for the Interfaith Alliance did not respond to an interview request.

Gary Bauer, president of American Values, said if anyone is revising history, it's not Barton.

[More at URL]


----- 4 -----
Family News in Focus
Monday, May 02, 2005
Focus on the Family

* Republicans blamed for Capitol Hill's out-of-control spending
1. "Remember the party that used to favour limited government? Some fiscal conservatives and a freshman Senator... the Grand Old Spending Party." "Biggest spending increases since Lyndon Johnson." CATO institute calls for "return to the basic principles of fiscal conservatism." "Republicans are, I think, too focused on... ways to protect their majority status." American Enterprise Insitute agrees, not sure there's "a single strategy to bring back restraint" but thinks number one is they "have to stop lying to themselves." Tom Coburn is the freshman Senator.

* Washington to fight human trafficking – not just overseas, but also here at home
2. "Sex trafficking is a global concern." Targets "consumers of the sex... trade." "Worldwide, it's estimated that as many as 800,000 people are trafficed across borders every year."

* High School Prom music has changed over the years
3. "Bigger schools, all they want to hear is their hard-core gangster rap... and harder-core heavy metal." Suggests "not letting kids go at all."

* U.S. House tries to shut down over-the-border abortions – will Senate approve?
NO STORY

* Appeals court reverses decision – allows lesbian pastor in sexual relationship back into United Methodist Church
NO STORY


----- 5 -----
Contact these "red"-state Senators who oppose a constitutional amendment
Citizen Magazine
May 2005
Focus on the Family

http://www.family.org/cforum/citizenmag/departments/a0036357.cfm

Here's a list of nine "red-state" Democrats in the U.S. Senate—representing states that President Bush carried in 2004 and who oppose a federal marriage amendment that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Contact them by letter, phone or e-mail (through their Senate Web sites listed below or through the Legislative Action Center at www.citizenlink.org) and let them know you support legislation defending natural marriage.

Sen. Evan Bayh, Indiana
Write: 463 Russell Bldg., United States Senate, Washington, DC 20510; Phone: 202-224-5623; District offices: Indianapolis, 317-554-0750; Evansville, 812-465-6500; Fort Wayne, 260-426-3151; Jeffersonville, 812-218-2317; Hammond, 219-852-2763; South Bend, 574-236-8302; Web: http://www.bayh.senate.gov; Next election: 2010

Sen. Tim Johnson, South Dakota
Write: 136 Hart Senate Office Bldg., Washington, DC 20510; Phone: 202-224-5842; District offices: Aberdeen, 605-226-3440; Rapid City, 605-341-3990; Sioux Falls, 605-332-8896; Web: http://Johnson.senate.gov; Next election: 2008

Sen. Mary Landrieu, Louisiana
Write: 724 Hart Senate Office Bldg., Washington, DC 20510; Phone: 202-224-5824; District offices: New Orleans, 504-589-2427; Baton Rouge, 225-389-0395; Shreveport, 318-676-3085; Lake Charles, 337-436-6650; Web: http://landrieu.senate.gov; Next election: 2008

Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas
Write: 355 Dirksen Senate Bldg., Washington, DC 20510; Phone: 202-224-4843; District offices: Little Rock, 501-375-2993; Jonesboro, 870-910-6896; Fort Smith, 479-782-9215; Texasarkana, 870-774-3106; Web: http://lincoln.senate.gov; Next election: 2010

Sen. Ben Nelson, Nebraska
Write: 720 Hart Senate Office Bldg., Washington, DC 20510; Phone: 202-224-6551; District offices: Omaha, 402-391-3411; Lincoln, 402-441-4600; Chadron, 308-430-0587; Scottsbluff, 308-631-7614; Web: http://www.bennelson.senate.gov; Next election: 2006

Sen. Bill Nelson, Florida
Write: 716 Hart Senate Office Bldg., Washington, DC 20510; Phone: 202-224-5274; District offices: Orlando, 407-872-7161; Tampa, 813-225-7040; Miami-Dade, 305-536-5999; Tallahassee, 850-942-8415; West Palm Beach, 561-514-0189; Jacksonville, 904-346-4500; Broward, 954-693-4851; Fort Myers, 239-334-7760; Web: http://www.billnelson.senate.gov; Next election: 2006

Sen. Mark Pryor, Arkansas
Write: 257 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510 Phone: 202-224-2353; District office: Little Rock, 501-324-6336; Web: http://pryor.senate.gov; Next election: 2008

Sen. Harry Reid, Nevada
Write: 528 Hart Senate Office Bldg., Washington, DC 20510; Phone: 202-224-3542; District offices: Carson City, 775-882-7343; Las Vegas, 702-388-5020; Reno, 775-686-5750; Rural Nevada Mobile Office, 775-772-3905; Web: http://reid.senate.gov; Next election: 2010

Sen. Ken Salazar, Colorado
Write: B40-A Dirksen Senate Office Bldg., Washington, DC 20510; Phone: 202-224-5852; District office: Denver 303-455-7600; Web: http://Salazar.senate.gov; Next election: 2010

Editor's note: In the March 2005 edition, we reported efforts in 27 states to define marriage through state constitutional amendments. We failed to list contact information for the amendment effort in Maryland. Here it is:
Association of Maryland Families, 8028 Ritchie Hwy, Ste. 315, Pasadena, MD 21122; phone: 410-760-9161; fax: 410-760-5985; e-mail: director@mdfamilies.org ; Web: www.mdfamilies.org


----- 6 -----
Young mothers need your help! Take Action!
Concerned Women for America

http://congress.cwfa.org/cwfa/issues/alert/?alertid=7489656&type=CO

Dear Friend,

We have two urgent action items to bring to your attention. Please keep reading for two easy ways to influence the future of our nation today!

1) Please act today - Young mothers need your help to protect them and their unborn!

A House Committee heard a heartbreaking story about a young girl forced to have an abortion by her boyfriend's family during testimony to support the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (H.R. 748). Adults are preying on young girls by crossing state lines to avoid parental consent and notification laws.

As early as tomorrow (Wednesday), the House of Representatives could be voting on H.R. 748! If signed into law, H.R. 748 (also known as CIANA) will make it a federal offense to avoid parental consent or notification laws by transporting a minor across state lines to obtain an abortion. (You can read our press release here: http://www.cwfa.org/articles/7423/MEDIA/life/index.htm)

Take Action Today!

Restore the rights of parents over predatory adults by calling your representative and urging them to vote in favor of H.R. 748, the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act. Enter your zip code in the box at right to send a prepared e-mail to your representative. Or, call them through the Capitol Hill Switchboard at (202) 225-3121. (To find your representatives, click here.)

2) Save the Judicial Nominations Process!

For the past 214 years, Republicans and Democrats have worked together to ensure that every judicial nominee received an up-or-down vote. But in the last Congress, Democrats initiated a brand new obstruction method: a judicial nominations filibuster.

This method is neither constitutional nor protected by tradition. Nor is it the same as a legislative filibuster. A judicial nominations filibuster was never allowed by our Founding Fathers and is still unconstitutional! It is time for this game with our nation's judicial system to stop.

We must call on Congress to fulfill their Constitutional duty in a timely manner by giving an up-or-down vote to judicial nominees. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) has the power to bring a vote to the floor to end, once-and-for-all, the judicial nominations filibuster. Please urge him to make that happen soon!

Take Action!

Contact Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) and urge him to bring this issue to the calendar before the May recess. You may call him at (202) 224-3344 or e-mail him by filling out his contact form here: http://frist.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=AboutSenatorFrist.ContactForm. Please ask him to bring up the vote to end the judicial nominations filibuster.

Please also contact these key players and urge them to vote to end the filibuster for judicial nominees:

Mike DeWine (R-Ohio): (202) 224-2315
Gordon Smith (R-Oregon): (202) 224-3753
John Warner (R-Virginia): (202) 224-2023
Susan Collins (R-Maine): (202) 224-2523
Olympia Snowe (R-Maine): (202) 224-5344
Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska): (202) 224-4224
Lincoln Chaffee (R-Rhode Island): (202) 224-2921


----- 7 -----
How Do 'Sexual Orientation' and 'Gender Identity' Affect Public Policy?
4/29/2005
Concerned Women for America

CWA's Knight addresses the Marriage for Maine Rally.

http://www.cwfa.org/articles/8021/CFI/family/index.htm

Remarks of Robert Knight
Director, Culture & Family Institute, an affiliate of Concerned Women for America
Marriage for Maine Rally
April 28, 2005
As a Maine native, I am greatly encouraged by this turnout and because Mainers refuse to give in on this crucial issue. I have been debating this issue on college campuses, from Cornell to Berkeley, and Maine often comes up. People ask, “How did they do it? How did they defeat ‘gay rights’ twice in referendums, when the rest of New England has knuckled under?”

Well, it didn’t happen by chance. Maine stands apart because Maine has courageous leadership, and I am proud to stand here today with Christian Civic League of Maine Executive Director Mike Heath and Maine Grassroots Coalition leader Paul Madore, two champions who refuse to be cowed by a hostile press, a hostile education establishment, and even some hostile business owners. CWA’s volunteers, including Maine’s new state director, Charla Banley, who is here today, are pleased to work alongside these gentlemen as they take back Maine for the people.

The liberals say this issue is about tolerance, but it’s really about tyranny. If the “gay rights” movement succeeds in all they want, we will see the criminalization of Christianity. People with traditional moral values will find themselves on the wrong side of the law.

May God bless you and God bless Maine.

I’ve been asked to talk briefly about how “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” affect public policy.

Actually, it runs far deeper than public policy. Homosexual activists invented the term “sexual orientation” during the 1970s specifically to re-order our thinking about sexuality. For a more detailed look at this, you can go to www.cwfa.org and download my paper, Sexual Orientation and American Culture. 1

Although most people see “sexual orientation” as a neutral term, in the sense that everyone has a “sexual orientation,” the phrase is a radical departure from the truth and a direct challenge to the Judeo-Christian worldview. “Sexual orientation” carries this meaning: You are born with certain desires; you cannot overcome them, and these desires therefore validate any actions that flow from them.

In other words, if you’re born “gay,” bisexual or transgender, you have no hope for change, so society needs to accommodate you. The activists promote this view two ways: First, they argue that people who engage in certain sexual behavior should get special rights that others don’t. Second, they work to require that the rest of society, starting in the schools, is reeducated to regard homosexuality as normal and even desirable.

This flows over to businesses as well. In California, companies that will not subsidize homosexual relationships are forbidden to contract with the state. This means that Christian, Jewish and Muslim employers, whose faith tells them that homosexuality is wrong, are forced to choose between God and Caesar, which is not supposed to happen in our free America. It is tyranny masquerading as tolerance, and it began when the California legislature adopted a “sexual orientation” law.

Maine’s version is particularly dangerous because it incorporates “transgenderism,” which can be almost anything you want it to be. Here’s one definition:

People who do not identify with the gender roles assigned to them by society based on their biological sex," encompassing "all those who choose not to conform to society's often stereotypical notions of gender expression, including transsexuals, cross-dressers, two-spirit people, and drag queens and kings. 2
Three years ago, New York City amended its Human Rights Ordinance to include “gender identity,” defined as: “an individual’s sense of being either male or female, man or woman, or something other or in-between.” Well, at least the streets are cleaner.

All of this sexual extremism militates against the Judeo-Christian view, as articulated in the Bible, which says that we are all sinners, and that we all fail to conform to God’s plan for human life, including sexuality. But we can be redeemed and alter our behavior to follow more closely to God’s plan, which is to channel sex exclusively into marriage, regardless of our temptations. Nobody is born “gay,” or bisexual or transgender. There is no credible scientific evidence to that effect. But many, many people have overcome unwanted temptations, and if we are to be a compassionate people, we need to emphasize the good news of hope, not hopelessness.

When public officials and company executives add the term “sexual orientation” to any policy, they are rebuking the Judeo-Christian worldview and saying that it is wrong. They may not think they are doing this, but it has that practical effect, and the tracks are set in place for the runaway train that is the radical homosexual agenda. And once it becomes law, it is everyone’s business.

[More at URL]


----- 8 -----
Monday, May 2, 2005
Pastor holds the line on gay unions
Hutcherson under fire for his hand in Microsoft decision

By JOHN IWASAKI
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/222495_hutcherson02.html

KIRKLAND -- The man who claims to have changed Microsoft Corp.'s position on gay rights saw new faces at his church yesterday -- visitors who charged him with promoting hate.

Such confrontations are becoming routine for the Rev. Ken Hutcherson, who rocketed into the national spotlight last year as an organizer of mass rallies supporting traditional marriage and opposing same-sex unions.

Now his role in the recent Microsoft drama, in which the software giant stopped supporting a gay rights bill before it was narrowly defeated in the Legislature, is heightening attention -- and criticism.

Felicia Mueller, who organized a visit by gay rights activists to Antioch Bible Church yesterday, said, "We hope we will plant the seed, and maybe they'll start to question their pastor's message of hatred toward us."

Hutcherson was not intimidated.

"There's a thin line between being confident in God and being extremely egotistical," he said. "People who know me know that I love God and am not afraid of any man who walks on Earth."

Hutcherson, 52, briefly played pro football nearly 28 years ago. The 270-pounder still carries the image, and sometimes the lingo, of a linebacker.

"God became my coach. The Bible became my playbook. I run the plays the way they're written. That's my life. I have no personal agenda."

It's as plain as that for the man known as Hutch, whose no-nonsense yet jovial personality attracts people, even as his denouncement of homosexuality (though not, he says, homosexuals) draws slings from detractors.

He was labeled a bigot a year ago yesterday for organizing Mayday for Marriage, a rally at Safeco Field meant to uphold marriage as a God-designed union between a man and a woman. The event drew more than 20,000 people. Five months later, he spearheaded a similar gathering that brought more than 100,000 to the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

[More at URL]

Comments

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

WSJ debunked a queer basher? Heh. Their ed board is pretty righty; they seem preoccupied with the Vatican and the military.

[solarbird]

Paul Cameron is a joke. And he's got quite the paper trail. I'm amazed anyone keeps trying to rehabilitate him, after several expensive and laughable collapses of court cases fundamentalists tried to build on his "data" in the mid and late 90s - and yet, they keep trying, because he says what they want to hear.

[avram]

Yeah, their editorial section is way right-wing, but their journalism section is sane.