Today's Cultural Warfare Update
Sep. 22nd, 2005 12:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdUS government tells Texas court to give immunity to Pope Benedict XVI regarding sexual abuse cover-ups in the Catholic church;
Don Feder, mid-level fundamentalist leader, tosses in his two cents: Katrina was God's Punishment for evacuations of Jewish settlements in Gaza, queers, and a few other things;
National Review argues that John Roberts is setting up to rule against Roe v. Wade;
New ruling from the Pope is that gayfolk (particularly men) are inherently psychologically disordered and incapable of celibacy, and therefore must be kept out of all church seminary (and related) positions, regardless of actual behaviour;
Kennedy rails against Federal relief funds going to religious schools; I'm just continuing to watch these so-called conservatives not to say word one against this so-called conservative president who has increased discretionary spending by more than LBJ;
Missouri judge blocks anti-abortion law pending outcome of lawsuit;
National Center for Health Statistics showing more youth engaging in "alternative" sex (FotF's word) - teenage women in particular; FotF wonk claims that the study is being released to discredit abstinence-only education;
FotF applauds major new Justice Department push against "obscenity";
FotF pleased at outcome of UN goals; "sexual and reproductive rights" removed from final language;
FotF prints Concerned Women for America wonk Warren Throckmorton's gleeful column about how after only six years, one of "America's leading gay couples," a pair of NY Central Park Zoo penguins, have "broken up"; for what it's worth, 85% of penguin pairings last one year only, so six years is extraorindary, but the whole thing is so fucking stupid and just downright mean that I guess that's kind of pointless;
FotF ACTION ITEM to exempt religious Head Start money receivers from anti-discrimination law in hiring - they want religious receivers of federal money to be able to be able to engage in currently-illegal religious hiring discrimination;
FotF protects anti-marriage-rights rally in Massachusetts, part of collecting signatures for an anti-marriage state amendment - the previous one failed in the legislature this year;
Maine refuses Federal money over abstinence-only education requirements; FotF calls it an "anomaly";
Brazilian Episcopal Bishop defrocked; FotF claims it was over his opposition to ordaining a gay bishop in the US church and make dark implications about coercion and money;
FotF encourages fundamentalists to use the Human Rights Campaign's list of GBLT-friendly businesses to form a personal boycott list;
FotF ACTION ITEM to continue pressuring Governor Schwarzenegger to veto the California marriage rights bill while simultaneously complaining about about pressure from GBLT groups to not veto it;
Puerto Rico may pass bill allowing same-sex marriages performed in other states to be recognised there, while not allowing them locally; FotF urges against, of course;
One of two CWA "take that, fags" articles about NY Central Park Zoo's gay penguin couple breaking up; also plugs the "March of the Penguins" documentary movie as evidence of creationism;
Concerned Women for America ACTION ITEM against anti-job-discrimination protections for GBLT Federal employees;
Georgia legislator trying to make it harder for Gay-Straight Alliance clubs to get members;
Traditional Values Coalition scare story about QUEERS CONTROLLING THE MEDIA;
Washington State's Faith and Freedom network: education is useless without the Bible, must be based on it in all areas.
----- 1 -----
Pope should be immune from lawsuit, U.S. says
Benedict XVI accused of conspiring to cover up sexual molestations
Updated: 1:59 p.m. ET Sept. 20, 2005
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9409047/
ROME - The U.S. government has told a Texas court that Pope Benedict XVI should be given immunity from a lawsuit accusing him of conspiring to cover up the sexual molestation of three boys by a seminarian, court documents show.
Assistant U.S. Attorney General Peter Keisler said in Monday’s filing that as pope, Benedict enjoys immunity as the head of a state — the Vatican. He said allowing the lawsuit to proceed would be “incompatible with the United States’ foreign policy interests.”
There was no immediate ruling from Judge Lee Rosenthal of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston, who has been presiding over the case. However, the Supreme Court has held that U.S. courts are bound by such “suggestion of immunity” motions submitted by the government, Keisler’s filing says.
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
DID GOD WHACK NEW ORLEANS? A THEOLOGICAL INQUIRY
GrassTopsUSA Exclusive Commentary
By Don Feder
http://www.grasstopsusa.com/091405.html
Was Katrina a warning – the ultimate wake-up call for a morally somnolent nation? Even religious conservatives are afraid to speculate, so successfully have we been cowed by a culture of disbelief.
[...]
For secularists, the following is coincidence. For the faithful, well, as Richard Dreyfuss says in “Close Encounters of The Third Kind” -- “I think this means something."
· Katrina hit New Orleans one week to the day after the Sharon government carried out the forced removal of some 9,500 Jewish residents of Gaza and parts of Samaria. This was done under pressure from Washington. (“I will curse those who curse you.”) On the day Katrina made landfall, bodies were being removed from Jewish cemeteries in Gaza, to prevent Palestinians from desecrating the remains. Israeli bodies were disinterred; American bodies floated in the streets of New Orleans.
· 9,500 Jews were driven from Gaza. Most are still homeless. Roughly half-a-million Americans were displaced by Katrina. Based on America’s population ratio with Israel (about 50-to-1) this is roughly equivalent.
· Numerology is important in traditional Judaism. Each Hebrew letter is assigned a number value. Many scholars believe the Bible has hidden codes that can be unlocked by this device. Written in Hebrew, Katrina has a numerical equivalent of 374. There are two relevant passages that share this number -- “They did unto thee evil” (Genesis, 50:17) and “The sea upon land” (Exodus 14:15).
· “Katrina” comes from the Greek meaning “to purify.” New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas observed, “Maybe God is going to cleanse us.”
· Katrina hit New Orleans days before the scheduled Southern Decadence – an annual orgy celebrating alternative death-styles, characterized by nudity and public copulation. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, welcomed the freak-fest with the following proclamation: “There is no place like this on Earth! Southern Decadence XXXII is an exciting event. We welcome you and know that you can anticipate great food, great music and great times in New Orleans.” Not to mention great sodomy.
[More at URL]
----- 3 -----
What John Roberts really said
by Edward Whelan
National Review Online
September 19, 2005, 11:36 a.m.
http://www.nationalreview.com/whelan/whelan200509191136.asp
Judge Roberts's chief strategic objective in his confirmation hearing was to secure the support of Chairman Specter — a vocal supporter of Roe v. Wade — without losing the support of conservative Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. It is a testament to Roberts's skills as an advocate that his remarks at his confirmation hearing on abortion and stare decisis have been understood by Specter and many other supporters of Roe as suggesting that he would not vote to overrule Roe. What seems not to have been noticed is that Roberts in fact deftly repudiated Specter's notion that Roe is some sort of "super-duper precedent" entitled to "super stare decisis." In so doing, he marked the path for the eventual overruling of Roe.
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
Personality Disorder
Andrew Sullivan
September 16, 2005
Long URL here
"PERSONALITY DISORDER": According to the latest Vatican leak - to a far-right news service called "Catholic World News" - the new Pope will issue an edict banning all gay men from entering seminaries and the priesthood some time next month. The edict applies to all gay men, even if they are celibate, even if they would make great priests, and even if they have been chaste for over a decade. Money quote:
[...]
The text, which was approved by Pope Benedict at the end of August, says that homosexual men should not be admitted to seminaries even if they are celibate, because their condition suggests a serious personality disorder which detracts from their ability to serve as ministers.
[...]
To recap: the Church's official position (as of 1986) is that homosexual persons are not sinful; they are "made in the image and likeness of God" and the notion that they cannot control their sex lives is, in the words of then-Cardinal Ratzinger, an "unfounded and demeaning assumption." The new position is that this "unfounded and demeaning assumption" is now the truth. All gay men are suffering from a "serious personality disorder" and constitutively unable to maintain chastity and perform their duties as priests. What, one wonders, is the nature of this "serious personality disorder"? How does it prevent gay men from being productive members of society? If all gay priests "suffer" from this, then why are any of them still allowed to serve the Church? These are questions lay Catholics must demand of their leaders, as even some arch-conservatives already are. When a group of human beings are demonized not for what they do but for who they are, then we have a right to know exactly what the Pope means.
BIGOTRY SHARPENED: We don't have the final document yet so we don't know whether this blast from 1940s psychology will be enshrined in the document. Let's hope it won't. But I'm not hopeful. This is, after all, a clarification of the new Benedict XVI position on gays: they they are moral Untermenschen, somehow sick in their very souls, disordered to commit sin, people who must be cast out to cleanse the Church of evil. (The structure of the argument is very similar to that which for so long applied to Jews in Catholic teaching.) The conflation of homosexuality with pedophilia and the equation of celibate, faithful gay priests with compulsive child-molesters is integral to this new policy. In a word, it is inconsistent with previous teaching and morally appalling.
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
Senate Liberal Works Against Bush School-Help Plan
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
September 19, 2005
SUMMARY: Plan to help students at both private as well as
public schools opposed by Kennedy.
http://www.family.org/cforum/feature/a0037968.cfm
Pro-family education groups and lawyers are pleased with
President Bush's announcement last week that Hurricane
Katrina emergency education funding would go to both
private and parochial schools, but they are also worried
that Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., is trying to quash the
effort.
In his speech from New Orleans last Thursday, the
president announced $1.9 billion in federal relief for
students; that amounts to $7,500 per pupil that would
follow all displaced children, regardless of where they
end up. Specifically, $488 million would go to students in
private schools -- either secular or religious.
[...]
"I applaud the president for his announcement of federal
funds to serve the educational needs of the children
displaced by Hurricane Katrina," Kennedy said, in a
statement, "but I am extremely disappointed that he has
proposed providing this relief using such a politically
charged approach. This is not the time for a partisan
political debate on vouchers."
Politically charged approach?
"Kennedy's reaction is absolutely outrageous and
inexcusable," Bolick said. "What he's saying is that we're
going to help all of the victims of Hurricane Katrina,
unless the educational life preserver they find is at a
religious or secular private school. That is blatantly
discriminatory -- and it's a real shame. "
Bolick said it is ironic that Kennedy would say that
"these families need real relief, not ideological battles
that threaten to slow down their recovery," when it is the
senator who is introducing ideology.
More than 60,000 of the 372,000 children displaced by the
hurricane, Bolick said, were already attending private
schools when the hurricane struck -- and are being singled
out and denied help which they desperately need.
He also pointed out that no one seems to have a problem
with the fact that all displaced college students are able
to use their federal financial aid at any school -- public
or private.
Gary McCaleb, an Alliance Defense Fund attorney, told
CitizenLink we have had decades of programs involving
federal aid to private schools, including the GI Bill,
through which soldiers have been able to take federal
vouchers to the schools of their choice -- whether public,
private, Christian or even trade schools.
"The Supreme Court has held quite clearly," McCaleb said,
"that when you have a program which provides benefits
even-handedly and mutually as far as religion is
concerned, and if individual choice ultimately drives
those benefits to a private school, there is no
constitutional issue there."
McCaleb said Kennedy and those who believe in the
so-called separation of Church and state should be
thinking practically here -- not in terms of liberal
ideology.
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
Judge Blocks Missouri's Pro-Life Parental Consent Law
Focus on the Family
September 19, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
A federal district judge blocked the enforcement of
Missouri's stricter parental consent law Friday, just one
day after Republican Gov. Matt Blunt signed it into law,
TBO.com reported.
The law would require any teen seeking abortion services
to be accompanied by a parent to ensure she has consent.
It also allows parents to sue anyone who helps a child
younger than 18 to get an abortion without their consent.
Janet Crepps filed the lawsuit on behalf of Springfield
Healthcare Center Inc., claiming the new law would mean an
end to abortion services at the health center.
Judge Nanette Laugherty agreed and said language
surrounding just who can be sued under the new law is too
vague. She said it "threatens an immediate chilling effect
on all abortion counseling within Missouri and nearby
states."
Jessica Robinson, spokeswoman for the governor, said he
looks forward to debating the law's merits in further
court proceedings.
"We stand by this good pro-life law that will reduce they
number of abortions in our state," Robinson said.
----- 7 -----
Report: Teens Are Engaging in Sexual 'Alternatives'
Focus on the Family
September 19, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
A study released by the National Center for Health
Statistics claims teens are engaging in both oral and
lesbian sex at a greater rate because they view these
practices as a "safer" alternative, hoping to avoid
pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease, SFGate.com
reported.
According to the study more than half of teens, ages 15 to
19, have engaged in oral sex; looking specifically at
those 18 and 19, it jumps to 70 percent.
The study also found the number or women engaging in
lesbian relationships has almost tripled from studies done
in 1992, jumping from four percent then to 11 percent
today.
William Mosher, lead author of the study, said the
increase suggests a possible shift in sexual practices.
Oral and homosexual sex are seen "as safer alternatives
than (vaginal) sex with men," he said. "If seen as a
safer alternative, it is an interesting response to the
campaigns to reduce teen pregnancy and to reduce sexually
transmitted diseases and HIV."
Linda Klepacki, R.N., M.P.H., analyst for sexual health
for Focus on the Family Action, said the interpretation of
the data is important to understanding such a study.
"What this study showed is that there is a percentage of
teens who have oral sex along with sexual intercourse,"
she said. "But it is a very small percentage of teens who
are having oral sex exclusively."
Klepacki said releasing information in a way such as this
is meant to discredit what teens are actually doing.
"The truth is that as time goes on more teens are choosing
to remain sexually abstinent -- less than half of teens
are having sexual intercourse," she said. "The final data
for 2003 released on Sept. 8 from the CDC showed that teen
birth rates declined for the 12th straight year to another
historic low. Abstinence education is working and teens
are choosing the best health choice. They are choosing to
remain abstinent from sex."
----- 8 -----
FBI Team to Take on Obscenity
by Wendy Cloyd, senior editorial coordinator
Focus on the Family
September 20, 2005
SUMMARY: Experts say the new "porn squad" shows the
Justice Department is getting serious about prosecution.
http://www.family.org/cforum/feature/a0037985.cfm
The FBI has formed a new team to aid the Justice
Department in the battle against obscenity -- a sign,
experts say, that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is
serious about his promise to prioritize such prosecution.
Gonzales, who told the Senate during his confirmation
hearings that he would be tough on pornographers, assigned
the FBI the task of forming a team to join the obscenity
task force already in place.
The new anti-obscenity team will consist of a supervisor,
eight agents and support staff -- the squad would gather
evidence against "manufacturers and purveyors" of
obscenity.
Jan LaRue, chief counsel for Concerned Women for America,
said FBI involvement is a necessary part of obscenity
enforcement.
"We need the FBI to be part of the investigation -- along
with other federal agencies tasked with enforcing these
specific laws," she said. "Obscenity prosecution usually
involves other crimes such as tax evasion, using the U.S.
Mail, using the Internet (and) all modes of interstate
commerce. So you need experts who are trained specifically
and have experience working together to make the
enforcement really viable."
Pat Trueman, senior legal counsel for Family Research
Council and former chief of the Child Exploitation and
Obscenity Section in the Justice Department, said this
shows that Gonzales and the FBI director believe obscenity
prosecution is a priority because of the damage it's doing
to our society.
[...]
"After twelve years of relatively no prosecutions, you've
finally got the Justice Department to say 'This is
important'," Trueman said. "I think you'll find that many
people who otherwise didn't know obscenity was wrong or
against the law will wake up to the fact that it is and
something will be done about it."
[More at URL]
----- 9 -----
U.N. Goals Adopted with Some Surprising Exceptions
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
September 20, 2005
SUMMARY: Pro-life and pro-family efforts pay off in final
draft.
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0037980.cfm
After months of meetings, the Millennium Development
Summit culminated with a document outlining the United
Nations' goals to combat poverty. Noticeably missing from
the final draft was language alluding to "sexual and
reproductive rights."
The final copy does contain a call for "ensuring equal
access to reproductive health," but experts say that's a
significant change from the global access to "reproductive
rights" proposed in earlier drafts.
Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human
Rights Institute, said abortion advocates will still
insist that means abortion, but he said it's a step in the
right direction.
[...]
Thomas Jacobson, U.N. analyst with Focus on the Family,
said Haiti's prime minister, who spoke at the summit,
claimed that 50 years of U.N. aid had made "no noticeable
change" in his country's predicament.
"Then I found it ironic that he called for support for the
Millennium Development Goals and for more funding,"
Jacobson said.
[More at URL]
----- 10 -----
COMMENTARY: SILO RAINS ON THE PENGUIN PRIDE PARADE
One of America's A-list gay couples has broken up.
by Warren Throckmorton, Ph.D.
Focus on the Family
SUMMARY: One of America's A-list gay couples has broken
up.
http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/commentary/a0037990.cfm
No, it's not Rosie and Kelli. It's Roy and Silo. Roy and
Silo are male penguins. Chinstrap penguins to be exact.
About six years ago, Roy and Silo set up housekeeping
together in New York's Central Park Zoo. They courted and
attempted to mate and by all accounts were fairly
inseparable. They even adopted a child together. Roy and
Silo hatched little Tango a couple of years ago and raised
her as their own.
However, recently Silo has become perhaps the world's
first documented ex-gay penguin. He has moved out of his
nest with Roy and taken up with Scrappy, a hot little bird
who recently moved in from Sea World Zoo in San Diego. I
guess he was wishing for a California girl.
For those who have pointed to Roy and Silo as models for
us all, these developments must be disappointing. Some gay
activists might actually be angry.
When zoo keepers in Germany attempted to force male pairs
of endangered penguins to mate with females, they received
hate mail from gay-rights groups. Finally, in a bow to the
pressure the zoos relented and stopped their breeding
efforts.
Chief among the chagrinned may be the authors of a
children's book about the Roy and Silo and their adopted
daughter called, "And Tango Makes Three."
About the book, The School Library Journal gushed, "This
joyful story about the meaning of family is a must for any
library."
Publisher's Weekly wrote that Silo and Roy's love story
provides a picture of "non-traditional families that
youngsters can understand. This tender story can also
serve as a gentle jumping-off point for discussions about
same-sex partnerships in human society."
I think now that jumping-off point has become less gentle.
No word yet from the New York Times that ran a story on
the pair called "The Love that Dare not Squeak its Name."
The article suggested that gay rights might hinge on
penguin pride. "Gay groups argue that if homosexual
behavior occurs in animals, it is natural, and therefore
the rights of homosexuals should be protected," wrote
Denitia Smith, author of the article.
With Silo and Scrappy picking out curtains together, will
gay-rights groups now acknowledge that sexual orientation
changes? The concept of gay-penguin permanence painted by
the Times and "And Tango Makes Three" now seems more like
fiction than public policy signpost.
So should former homosexuals among us say, "I told you
so?"
[More at URL]
----- 11 -----
Call to Action on the Head Start Amendment
Focus on the Family
ACTION ITEM
[Received in email; no URL]
The U.S. House of Representatives is likely to consider
the School Readiness Act this week, a bill to reauthorize
the Head Start Program.
Unfortunately, H.R. 2123, as it passed out of committee
did not contain hiring protections for faith-based
organizations. This is important, because without such
protection, it is possible federal money could be removed
from religious groups which administer the early childhood
education program -- especially if the groups require
their staff and personnel to profess certain religious
beliefs.
Amanda Banks, federal issues analyst for Focus on the
Family Action, said pro-family, conservative congressmen
plan to offer an amendment during floor consideration that
would protect faith-based organizations.
"Without the faith-based amendment," Banks said,
"religious groups would be forced to relinquish their
civil liberties. Many religious groups have adequate
resources to participate in the Head Start program, and it
would be unfortunate if they were not allowed to
participate."
TAKE ACTION: Please contact your House member and ask him
or her to support the anticipated faith-based hiring
protection amendment to the School Readiness Act, H.R.
2123.
For help in contacting your representative, visit the
CitizenLink Action Center:
http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/dbq/officials/
----- 12 -----
Massachusetts Churches Stage One-Day Marriage Push
Focus on the Family
September 20, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
Churches opposed to gay marriage in the Bay State are
preparing for "Protect Marriage Sunday" on Oct. 2 -- a
one-day signature-gathering blitz aimed at collecting
enough names to send a 2008 ballot initiative banning
same-sex marriage to the Legislature.
The Boston Globe reported that defenders of marriage need
roughly 66,000 signatures by Thanksgiving. They've set a
goal of 120,000, to have enough even if some are
disqualified.
"As faithful citizens, we have a moral obligation to
defend the truth, no matter how counter-cultural or
unappreciated our convictions might be," Bishop George W.
Coleman of Fall River wrote to parishioners in a Sept. 12
letter. "The time is upon us to take a stand and to act,
lovingly but firmly, to restore and defend the truth about
marriage."
Backers of the petition drive were buoyed by last week's
defeat in the Legislature of a separate 2006 measure that
would have outlawed gay marriage but created civil unions.
"We have a high level of confidence, and it's going to be
a fun time," said Kris Mineau, president of the
Massachusetts Family Institute, a group leading the
initiative effort. "Our strategy is to let the people
vote."
----- 13 -----
Maine Won't Take Federal Abstinence Dollars
Focus on the Family
September 20, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
The Pine Tree State is refusing to use available federal
funds to teach an abstinence-based sex-education program
because the federal guidelines do not include the teaching
of so-called "safe sex," The Morning Sentinel reported.
Though Maine has received federal abstinence funds in the
past, state officials did not apply for the available
$165,000 during the current fiscal year and indicated they
do not intend to seek the $161,000 available in the next.
Dr. Dora Anne Mills, the state's public health director,
said that by accepting federal funding, the state is
limited in the type of sex education it can teach.
"(Federal) money has to be part of an abstinence-only
program," Mills said. "You can't talk about comprehensive
reproductive information."
She said the government guidelines state that sex should
be limited to marriage and that makes it hard to educate
youth who have entered the gay lifestyle.
Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation said Maine's
decision to forgo government funding is out of the norm.
"It's definitely an anomaly," Rector said. "I think
abstinence is basically gaining ground all the time."
----- 14 -----
BRAZILIAN BISHOP DEFROCKED FOR STANDING UP FOR TRUTH
The ordination of a gay bishop in the U.S. is having
repercussions worldwide.
Focus on the Family
September 21, 2005
http://www.family.org/cforum/feature/a0037993.cfm
by Pete Winn, associate editor
SUMMARY: The ordination of a gay bishop in the U.S. is
having repercussions worldwide.
A major Anglican bishop in Brazil has been defrocked
because he opposed the installation of American homosexual
Bishop Gene Robinson -- and said so publicly.
The archbishop of Brazil, Orlando Santos de Oliveira, has
ousted the Rt. Rev. Robinson Cavalcanti.
Cavalcanti is a solid evangelical and opposes the
recognition of homosexual clergy, according to the Rev.
Canon Ellis Brust of the American Anglican Council, who
has been following the situation.
"Cavalcanti took a strong stand in support of the historic
Anglican Christian faith," he said, "which upholds
traditional biblical morality, especially in the area of
human sexuality -- and has come under a significant amount
of fire."
Indeed, Cavalcanti actually came to the United States and
took part in a service -- alongside four Episcopal bishops
-- supporting American churches and ministers who are
opposed to Robinson's ordination, and who are opposed to
the Diocese of Ohio, which supports gay priests.
Marcus Throup, an Episcopal missionary to Brazil currently
in the U.S., said Cavalcanti is one of many clergy kicked
out for opposing the ordination of homosexuals.
[...]
Throup believes the American church may have influenced
the defrocking. He said the Brazilian church has strong
ties to ECUSA.
"Most of the current funding does come from the Episcopal
Church in the States," he said.
Brust said there's no direct evidence the pro-gay U.S.
church pulled strings leading to Cavalcanti's removal. But
he agreed the archdiocese of Brazil has been well-funded
with U.S. dollars for decades.
Moreover, an Episcopal gay-activist group, Integrity, has
actively been sending people and dollars to Brazil.
What's very clear, Brust said, is that persecution of
Anglicans who support the traditional teachings of the
church on sexuality has spread worldwide from the U.S.
"It seems to be another example of the pattern which says,
'If you don't agree with us, we will use coercion to
control you,' " he said.
[More at URL]
----- 15 -----
More American Companies are Enforcing Gay Policies
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
September 21, 2005
SUMMARY: Experts say a ranking list can be used two ways.
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0037995.cfm
A record number of companies are giving in to the gay
agenda, according to an annual ranking by the pro-gay
Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
[...]
In rating the most and least gay-friendly companies, the
survey revealed that corporate America is increasingly
abandoning family values, but experts say families can use
the same list to make informed choices of where to do
business.
[...]
Peter LaBarbera, executive director of the Illinois Family
Institute, is encouraging people to use the list to
identify family-friendly businesses.
"BP America is a 100 percent pro-homosexual company,"
LaBarbera said. "Now that tells me buy my gas at Exxon.
If you see a BP, go the extra mile to get to Exxon."
[More at URL]
----- 16 -----
Pressure Tactics Used to Get Gay-Marriage Bill Signed
Focus on the Family
September 21, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
Gay-rights groups in California are stepping up efforts to
influence Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign the
same-sex-marriage bill passed by the California Assembly
Sept. 9 -- a bill he threatened to veto, SFGate reported.
Equality California organized efforts across the state
this week. Tuesday, children being raised by homosexuals
carried 40,000 signed postcards in red wagons to the
governor's office asking him to sign the bill. Thursday
the group plans to run television spots in Los Angeles and
Sacramento urging the same.
Though the Assembly passed the gay-marriage bill almost
two weeks ago, the bill is being "held at the desk," a
term that means it has not been released by the clerk and
sent to the governor.
According to Assemblyman Ray Haynes, the Legislature is
invoking this seldom-used tactic in hopes the governor
will change his mind and sign the bill into law.
Schwarzenegger has expressed concern over signing the bill
because it may conflict with Proposition 22, a
voter-approved measure passed in 2000 defining marriage as
a union between a man and a woman.
Haynes advice is to continue to encourage the governor to
veto the bill.
"I would let him know that is what you want him to do," he
wrote in a letter to constituents. "The more pressure we
can exert, the more likely he is to follow through with a
veto."
TAKE ACTION/FOR MORE INFORMATION: For a detailed look at
the Calif. gay marriage bill and an easy way to contact
Gov. Schwarzenegger, please see the previous CitizenLink
article, "Urge Schwarzenegger to Veto Gay-Marriage Bill."
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0037876.cfm
----- 17 -----
Puerto Rico Next on Same-Sex Marriage Hit List?
Focus on the Family
September 21, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
If a proposed change to the Civil Code in Puerto Rico is
passed, gay marriage will be recognized throughout the
commonwealth. According to the San Juan Star, Progressive
Party affiliates have recommended an amendment to a 1999
law refusing recognition of out-of-state same-sex
marriages.
"A marriage should be considered valid to the extent that
it is valid in the state where it took place," the change
reads. "A marriage that . . . is not considered valid in
the state where it took place or in the state where the
individuals had their first residence as a married couple,
can still be considered valid if it is regarded as valid
in any other state."
If passed, the change would force Puerto Rico to recognize
the same-sex marriages of residents who marry in other
states then return home.
The 1999 ruling came in response to Hawaiian lawmakers
allowing same-sex marriage. Some Puerto Rican officials
seem to be unaware of the law's effects.
"I will not support anything that goes against what we
are," said Jose Gonzalez, a member of the drafting
committee.
----- 18 -----
Wedding March of the Penguins?
9/22/2005
By Robert Knight
Concerned Women for America
Silo’s defection throws cold water on “gay” animal theory.
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/9009/CFI/family/index.htm
This article, published on September 22, 2005, on WorldNetDaily.com, is reprinted with permission.
Just when you thought it was safe to stock up on sardines and bottles of Arctic water for the coming “gay” penguin wedding boom, one of the most prominent “gay” penguins has to spoil it.
You may have heard by now that Silo, one half of the allegedly homosexual penguin couple at New York’s Central Park Zoo of Roy and Silo, has left Roy for a young female named Scrappy. This is not a hoax. The New York Post broke the story on September 16 in an article titled, “Chilly Willies.”
Before reporting this to you, I wanted to make sure the story was true. Sure enough, Fox News confirmed it, although Newsweek and The New York Times had yet to weigh in.
The Times has been annoyed of late because the hit movie March of the Penguins is stubbornly heterosexual and pro-family with nary a “gay” penguin in sight. This brings joy to conservatives and stings the conscience of liberals who preach that everything evolved randomly, with no particular design or Designer.
As for Roy, as is probably the case with the Times, he’s inconsolable. He keeps staring at a wall. No word on the current mental state of Tango, the female hatchee from the egg that Roy and Silo raised as their own after trying to hatch a rock given to them by the zookeepers. Hey, nobody said Roy and Silo were penguin rocket scientists. And still, they rated a children’s book, And Tango Makes Three, which schools are supposed to give to kids to persuade them that you don’t need a mom and a dad.
For homosexual activists, embarrassment over this penguin breakup has to rank right up there with Anne Heche leaving Ellen DeGeneres and marrying – a man. Or Julie Cypher leaving Melissa Etheridge. Or Elton John leaving his current domestic partner and marrying – wait, that hasn’t happened yet.
[More at URL]
----- 19 -----
House Panel Adds ‘Sexual Orientation’ to Federal Workplace Policy
9/22/2005
Robert Knight
Concerned Women for America
Long URL here
The Committee on Government Reform in the U.S. House of Representatives has approved the addition of homosexuality to federal workplace policy, as a part of the Child Safety Act (H.R. 3132), a bill that strengthens penalties on sex offenders. The move comes after the actions of U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch, rightly pointed out that the category of homosexuality was not a part of the law. Robert Knight, Director of CWA’s Culture & Family Institute has more on how you can counter this effort by the homosexual lobby. Click here to listen.
To make your voice heard, call your Representative via the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.
[Robert Knight: "Last year, US Special Council Scott Bloch, and appointee of President Bush... noticed that Congress had never passed a law including sexual orientation [as a protected class]... so when Mr. Bloch courageously ... wasn't going to enforce automatic case reviews based on sexual orientation, because Congress hadn't authorised it. He was hit with all sorts of grief from the press and from homosexual activists; the White House kind of gave him a little slap at a press conference, but didn't really rescind his policies... the homosexual activists said okay, we'd fix it, we'll actually add it to the law. So just the other day, a House committee, the House Committee on Government Reform chaired by Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, unanimously passed a bill adding sexual orientation to Federal workplace policy, meaning it would cover Federal workers. When you figure that half the committee, actually a little bit of a majority on the committee, are Republicans, and it went through allegedly on a unanimous vote, you've got to ask yourself, "What is going on?"
"He just said, 'What does the law say?'" Claims it wasn't devious and that homosexuals "would" notice something like that. "Sexual orientation has never been a protected class for civil rights.... Congress has never passed a law adding it as a suspect class... and yet the Clinton administration acted as if it had been law." "This doesn't mean employees who have a homosexual problem won't have their cases reviewed by his office, it's just they won't have an automatic review as someone would on a racial complaint..."
"We have to push back. We have to alert people that there is a very real attempt here to add this... if you create a new civil rights category and Congress does it... it would power the homosexual agenda right up to the gay marriage issue." "Part of the mindset is to say that this has been law for years and it has been defended by administration for decades... it was only the Clinton administration who created this thing."
"People need to call Capitol Hill and let their Congressmen know they don't want the full house to vote for this, and if they do, they want it defeated; those if you who have any input into Congressional leadership out to ask, 'What is going on here?'" Talks about the hate-crimes bill, how that passed too, and they both passed, "in a Republican-controlled House of Representatives! Some hard questions have to be asked of our representatives!"
----- 20 -----
Gay Straight Alliance Club Faces Opposition In Georgia
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2437
September 22, 2005 –Georgia State Senator Ralph Hudgens is promoting legislation that will require parental permission for students to join school clubs or other extracurricular activities. He introduced it this year, but it will be heard next year.
Hudgens says he hopes his bill will discourage membership in GLSEN-sponsored Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) clubs on junior high and high school campuses. According to Hudgens, “homosexuality, as far as I’m concerned, is a learned behavior. It’s not genetic—they’ve never been able to prove that there’s a gene that causes it. It’s something that is learned.”
Learn more about GLSEN’s dangerous agenda by purchasing The Agenda by Rev. Louis P. Sheldon.
GSA clubs threaten the health and well-being of at-risk teens who will be recruited into a life-threatening behavior. Read and distribute TVC’s report, “Homosexuals Recruit Public School Children”, “Homosexual Child Molesters,” and the Pro-Family Law Center’s publication, “The Legal Liability Associated With Homosexual Education In California Public Schools.”
[More at URL]
----- 21 -----
Who’s Spinning Your News?
Homosexual Journalists Meet In Chicago
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2436
September 22, 2005 – The National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association begins its national conference in Chicago from September 22-25.
The theme of this year’s conference is “Out in the Heartland,” and will feature panels and sessions by homosexual journalists. The organization is establishing its own Hall of Fame to honor homosexuals who have been influential in the media. This will include Thomas Morgan III, a New York Times editor who, in 1989 served as president of the National Association of Black Journalists.
The conference will honor Meredith May, a correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle as homosexual journalist of the year. Homosexual journalists from numerous newspapers and TV stations from around the U.S. will participate in this event, including Wall Street Journal reporter Steven Gray.
For a who’s who of homosexual journalists who control what you read in the media, access the NLGJA’s press release: "Lesbian & Gay Journalists Convene in Chicago".
Read TVC’s report, “The Overhauling Of Straight America,” that describes how homosexuals planned on using the media to shape public opinion to accept homosexuality and to vilify opponents of the agenda.
Purchase a copy of Rev. Sheldon’s new book, The Agenda, to learn more about the dangers that homosexual activism poses to religious freedom, speech, and the family.
----- 22 -----
NOAH WEBSTER: Education Is Useless Without the Bible
Faith and Freedom Network
September 16, 2005
Long URL here
While liberal secularists work tirelessly to expel God and the Bible from education, the father of public education in America, Noah Webster, has always disagreed with them.
Not only did he say that, "Education without the Bible is useless," but he also said, "The Bible is America's basic textbook in all fields."
He also said, "The moral principles and precepts contained in Scripture ought to form the basis of all of our civil constitutions and law ... the religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and his apostles ..."
And now, in the tradition of Noah Webster, our Founding Fathers, and others, the National Council on Bible Curriculum for Public Schools (NCBCPS) has released new course work for the classroom and has started a national campaign to get it placed in schools.
[More at URL]
Don Feder, mid-level fundamentalist leader, tosses in his two cents: Katrina was God's Punishment for evacuations of Jewish settlements in Gaza, queers, and a few other things;
National Review argues that John Roberts is setting up to rule against Roe v. Wade;
New ruling from the Pope is that gayfolk (particularly men) are inherently psychologically disordered and incapable of celibacy, and therefore must be kept out of all church seminary (and related) positions, regardless of actual behaviour;
Kennedy rails against Federal relief funds going to religious schools; I'm just continuing to watch these so-called conservatives not to say word one against this so-called conservative president who has increased discretionary spending by more than LBJ;
Missouri judge blocks anti-abortion law pending outcome of lawsuit;
National Center for Health Statistics showing more youth engaging in "alternative" sex (FotF's word) - teenage women in particular; FotF wonk claims that the study is being released to discredit abstinence-only education;
FotF applauds major new Justice Department push against "obscenity";
FotF pleased at outcome of UN goals; "sexual and reproductive rights" removed from final language;
FotF prints Concerned Women for America wonk Warren Throckmorton's gleeful column about how after only six years, one of "America's leading gay couples," a pair of NY Central Park Zoo penguins, have "broken up"; for what it's worth, 85% of penguin pairings last one year only, so six years is extraorindary, but the whole thing is so fucking stupid and just downright mean that I guess that's kind of pointless;
FotF ACTION ITEM to exempt religious Head Start money receivers from anti-discrimination law in hiring - they want religious receivers of federal money to be able to be able to engage in currently-illegal religious hiring discrimination;
FotF protects anti-marriage-rights rally in Massachusetts, part of collecting signatures for an anti-marriage state amendment - the previous one failed in the legislature this year;
Maine refuses Federal money over abstinence-only education requirements; FotF calls it an "anomaly";
Brazilian Episcopal Bishop defrocked; FotF claims it was over his opposition to ordaining a gay bishop in the US church and make dark implications about coercion and money;
FotF encourages fundamentalists to use the Human Rights Campaign's list of GBLT-friendly businesses to form a personal boycott list;
FotF ACTION ITEM to continue pressuring Governor Schwarzenegger to veto the California marriage rights bill while simultaneously complaining about about pressure from GBLT groups to not veto it;
Puerto Rico may pass bill allowing same-sex marriages performed in other states to be recognised there, while not allowing them locally; FotF urges against, of course;
One of two CWA "take that, fags" articles about NY Central Park Zoo's gay penguin couple breaking up; also plugs the "March of the Penguins" documentary movie as evidence of creationism;
Concerned Women for America ACTION ITEM against anti-job-discrimination protections for GBLT Federal employees;
Georgia legislator trying to make it harder for Gay-Straight Alliance clubs to get members;
Traditional Values Coalition scare story about QUEERS CONTROLLING THE MEDIA;
Washington State's Faith and Freedom network: education is useless without the Bible, must be based on it in all areas.
----- 1 -----
Pope should be immune from lawsuit, U.S. says
Benedict XVI accused of conspiring to cover up sexual molestations
Updated: 1:59 p.m. ET Sept. 20, 2005
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9409047/
ROME - The U.S. government has told a Texas court that Pope Benedict XVI should be given immunity from a lawsuit accusing him of conspiring to cover up the sexual molestation of three boys by a seminarian, court documents show.
Assistant U.S. Attorney General Peter Keisler said in Monday’s filing that as pope, Benedict enjoys immunity as the head of a state — the Vatican. He said allowing the lawsuit to proceed would be “incompatible with the United States’ foreign policy interests.”
There was no immediate ruling from Judge Lee Rosenthal of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston, who has been presiding over the case. However, the Supreme Court has held that U.S. courts are bound by such “suggestion of immunity” motions submitted by the government, Keisler’s filing says.
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
DID GOD WHACK NEW ORLEANS? A THEOLOGICAL INQUIRY
GrassTopsUSA Exclusive Commentary
By Don Feder
http://www.grasstopsusa.com/091405.html
Was Katrina a warning – the ultimate wake-up call for a morally somnolent nation? Even religious conservatives are afraid to speculate, so successfully have we been cowed by a culture of disbelief.
[...]
For secularists, the following is coincidence. For the faithful, well, as Richard Dreyfuss says in “Close Encounters of The Third Kind” -- “I think this means something."
· Katrina hit New Orleans one week to the day after the Sharon government carried out the forced removal of some 9,500 Jewish residents of Gaza and parts of Samaria. This was done under pressure from Washington. (“I will curse those who curse you.”) On the day Katrina made landfall, bodies were being removed from Jewish cemeteries in Gaza, to prevent Palestinians from desecrating the remains. Israeli bodies were disinterred; American bodies floated in the streets of New Orleans.
· 9,500 Jews were driven from Gaza. Most are still homeless. Roughly half-a-million Americans were displaced by Katrina. Based on America’s population ratio with Israel (about 50-to-1) this is roughly equivalent.
· Numerology is important in traditional Judaism. Each Hebrew letter is assigned a number value. Many scholars believe the Bible has hidden codes that can be unlocked by this device. Written in Hebrew, Katrina has a numerical equivalent of 374. There are two relevant passages that share this number -- “They did unto thee evil” (Genesis, 50:17) and “The sea upon land” (Exodus 14:15).
· “Katrina” comes from the Greek meaning “to purify.” New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas observed, “Maybe God is going to cleanse us.”
· Katrina hit New Orleans days before the scheduled Southern Decadence – an annual orgy celebrating alternative death-styles, characterized by nudity and public copulation. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, welcomed the freak-fest with the following proclamation: “There is no place like this on Earth! Southern Decadence XXXII is an exciting event. We welcome you and know that you can anticipate great food, great music and great times in New Orleans.” Not to mention great sodomy.
[More at URL]
----- 3 -----
What John Roberts really said
by Edward Whelan
National Review Online
September 19, 2005, 11:36 a.m.
http://www.nationalreview.com/whelan/whelan200509191136.asp
Judge Roberts's chief strategic objective in his confirmation hearing was to secure the support of Chairman Specter — a vocal supporter of Roe v. Wade — without losing the support of conservative Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. It is a testament to Roberts's skills as an advocate that his remarks at his confirmation hearing on abortion and stare decisis have been understood by Specter and many other supporters of Roe as suggesting that he would not vote to overrule Roe. What seems not to have been noticed is that Roberts in fact deftly repudiated Specter's notion that Roe is some sort of "super-duper precedent" entitled to "super stare decisis." In so doing, he marked the path for the eventual overruling of Roe.
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
Personality Disorder
Andrew Sullivan
September 16, 2005
Long URL here
"PERSONALITY DISORDER": According to the latest Vatican leak - to a far-right news service called "Catholic World News" - the new Pope will issue an edict banning all gay men from entering seminaries and the priesthood some time next month. The edict applies to all gay men, even if they are celibate, even if they would make great priests, and even if they have been chaste for over a decade. Money quote:
[...]
The text, which was approved by Pope Benedict at the end of August, says that homosexual men should not be admitted to seminaries even if they are celibate, because their condition suggests a serious personality disorder which detracts from their ability to serve as ministers.
[...]
To recap: the Church's official position (as of 1986) is that homosexual persons are not sinful; they are "made in the image and likeness of God" and the notion that they cannot control their sex lives is, in the words of then-Cardinal Ratzinger, an "unfounded and demeaning assumption." The new position is that this "unfounded and demeaning assumption" is now the truth. All gay men are suffering from a "serious personality disorder" and constitutively unable to maintain chastity and perform their duties as priests. What, one wonders, is the nature of this "serious personality disorder"? How does it prevent gay men from being productive members of society? If all gay priests "suffer" from this, then why are any of them still allowed to serve the Church? These are questions lay Catholics must demand of their leaders, as even some arch-conservatives already are. When a group of human beings are demonized not for what they do but for who they are, then we have a right to know exactly what the Pope means.
BIGOTRY SHARPENED: We don't have the final document yet so we don't know whether this blast from 1940s psychology will be enshrined in the document. Let's hope it won't. But I'm not hopeful. This is, after all, a clarification of the new Benedict XVI position on gays: they they are moral Untermenschen, somehow sick in their very souls, disordered to commit sin, people who must be cast out to cleanse the Church of evil. (The structure of the argument is very similar to that which for so long applied to Jews in Catholic teaching.) The conflation of homosexuality with pedophilia and the equation of celibate, faithful gay priests with compulsive child-molesters is integral to this new policy. In a word, it is inconsistent with previous teaching and morally appalling.
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
Senate Liberal Works Against Bush School-Help Plan
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
September 19, 2005
SUMMARY: Plan to help students at both private as well as
public schools opposed by Kennedy.
http://www.family.org/cforum/feature/a0037968.cfm
Pro-family education groups and lawyers are pleased with
President Bush's announcement last week that Hurricane
Katrina emergency education funding would go to both
private and parochial schools, but they are also worried
that Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., is trying to quash the
effort.
In his speech from New Orleans last Thursday, the
president announced $1.9 billion in federal relief for
students; that amounts to $7,500 per pupil that would
follow all displaced children, regardless of where they
end up. Specifically, $488 million would go to students in
private schools -- either secular or religious.
[...]
"I applaud the president for his announcement of federal
funds to serve the educational needs of the children
displaced by Hurricane Katrina," Kennedy said, in a
statement, "but I am extremely disappointed that he has
proposed providing this relief using such a politically
charged approach. This is not the time for a partisan
political debate on vouchers."
Politically charged approach?
"Kennedy's reaction is absolutely outrageous and
inexcusable," Bolick said. "What he's saying is that we're
going to help all of the victims of Hurricane Katrina,
unless the educational life preserver they find is at a
religious or secular private school. That is blatantly
discriminatory -- and it's a real shame. "
Bolick said it is ironic that Kennedy would say that
"these families need real relief, not ideological battles
that threaten to slow down their recovery," when it is the
senator who is introducing ideology.
More than 60,000 of the 372,000 children displaced by the
hurricane, Bolick said, were already attending private
schools when the hurricane struck -- and are being singled
out and denied help which they desperately need.
He also pointed out that no one seems to have a problem
with the fact that all displaced college students are able
to use their federal financial aid at any school -- public
or private.
Gary McCaleb, an Alliance Defense Fund attorney, told
CitizenLink we have had decades of programs involving
federal aid to private schools, including the GI Bill,
through which soldiers have been able to take federal
vouchers to the schools of their choice -- whether public,
private, Christian or even trade schools.
"The Supreme Court has held quite clearly," McCaleb said,
"that when you have a program which provides benefits
even-handedly and mutually as far as religion is
concerned, and if individual choice ultimately drives
those benefits to a private school, there is no
constitutional issue there."
McCaleb said Kennedy and those who believe in the
so-called separation of Church and state should be
thinking practically here -- not in terms of liberal
ideology.
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
Judge Blocks Missouri's Pro-Life Parental Consent Law
Focus on the Family
September 19, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
A federal district judge blocked the enforcement of
Missouri's stricter parental consent law Friday, just one
day after Republican Gov. Matt Blunt signed it into law,
TBO.com reported.
The law would require any teen seeking abortion services
to be accompanied by a parent to ensure she has consent.
It also allows parents to sue anyone who helps a child
younger than 18 to get an abortion without their consent.
Janet Crepps filed the lawsuit on behalf of Springfield
Healthcare Center Inc., claiming the new law would mean an
end to abortion services at the health center.
Judge Nanette Laugherty agreed and said language
surrounding just who can be sued under the new law is too
vague. She said it "threatens an immediate chilling effect
on all abortion counseling within Missouri and nearby
states."
Jessica Robinson, spokeswoman for the governor, said he
looks forward to debating the law's merits in further
court proceedings.
"We stand by this good pro-life law that will reduce they
number of abortions in our state," Robinson said.
----- 7 -----
Report: Teens Are Engaging in Sexual 'Alternatives'
Focus on the Family
September 19, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
A study released by the National Center for Health
Statistics claims teens are engaging in both oral and
lesbian sex at a greater rate because they view these
practices as a "safer" alternative, hoping to avoid
pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease, SFGate.com
reported.
According to the study more than half of teens, ages 15 to
19, have engaged in oral sex; looking specifically at
those 18 and 19, it jumps to 70 percent.
The study also found the number or women engaging in
lesbian relationships has almost tripled from studies done
in 1992, jumping from four percent then to 11 percent
today.
William Mosher, lead author of the study, said the
increase suggests a possible shift in sexual practices.
Oral and homosexual sex are seen "as safer alternatives
than (vaginal) sex with men," he said. "If seen as a
safer alternative, it is an interesting response to the
campaigns to reduce teen pregnancy and to reduce sexually
transmitted diseases and HIV."
Linda Klepacki, R.N., M.P.H., analyst for sexual health
for Focus on the Family Action, said the interpretation of
the data is important to understanding such a study.
"What this study showed is that there is a percentage of
teens who have oral sex along with sexual intercourse,"
she said. "But it is a very small percentage of teens who
are having oral sex exclusively."
Klepacki said releasing information in a way such as this
is meant to discredit what teens are actually doing.
"The truth is that as time goes on more teens are choosing
to remain sexually abstinent -- less than half of teens
are having sexual intercourse," she said. "The final data
for 2003 released on Sept. 8 from the CDC showed that teen
birth rates declined for the 12th straight year to another
historic low. Abstinence education is working and teens
are choosing the best health choice. They are choosing to
remain abstinent from sex."
----- 8 -----
FBI Team to Take on Obscenity
by Wendy Cloyd, senior editorial coordinator
Focus on the Family
September 20, 2005
SUMMARY: Experts say the new "porn squad" shows the
Justice Department is getting serious about prosecution.
http://www.family.org/cforum/feature/a0037985.cfm
The FBI has formed a new team to aid the Justice
Department in the battle against obscenity -- a sign,
experts say, that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is
serious about his promise to prioritize such prosecution.
Gonzales, who told the Senate during his confirmation
hearings that he would be tough on pornographers, assigned
the FBI the task of forming a team to join the obscenity
task force already in place.
The new anti-obscenity team will consist of a supervisor,
eight agents and support staff -- the squad would gather
evidence against "manufacturers and purveyors" of
obscenity.
Jan LaRue, chief counsel for Concerned Women for America,
said FBI involvement is a necessary part of obscenity
enforcement.
"We need the FBI to be part of the investigation -- along
with other federal agencies tasked with enforcing these
specific laws," she said. "Obscenity prosecution usually
involves other crimes such as tax evasion, using the U.S.
Mail, using the Internet (and) all modes of interstate
commerce. So you need experts who are trained specifically
and have experience working together to make the
enforcement really viable."
Pat Trueman, senior legal counsel for Family Research
Council and former chief of the Child Exploitation and
Obscenity Section in the Justice Department, said this
shows that Gonzales and the FBI director believe obscenity
prosecution is a priority because of the damage it's doing
to our society.
[...]
"After twelve years of relatively no prosecutions, you've
finally got the Justice Department to say 'This is
important'," Trueman said. "I think you'll find that many
people who otherwise didn't know obscenity was wrong or
against the law will wake up to the fact that it is and
something will be done about it."
[More at URL]
----- 9 -----
U.N. Goals Adopted with Some Surprising Exceptions
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
September 20, 2005
SUMMARY: Pro-life and pro-family efforts pay off in final
draft.
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0037980.cfm
After months of meetings, the Millennium Development
Summit culminated with a document outlining the United
Nations' goals to combat poverty. Noticeably missing from
the final draft was language alluding to "sexual and
reproductive rights."
The final copy does contain a call for "ensuring equal
access to reproductive health," but experts say that's a
significant change from the global access to "reproductive
rights" proposed in earlier drafts.
Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human
Rights Institute, said abortion advocates will still
insist that means abortion, but he said it's a step in the
right direction.
[...]
Thomas Jacobson, U.N. analyst with Focus on the Family,
said Haiti's prime minister, who spoke at the summit,
claimed that 50 years of U.N. aid had made "no noticeable
change" in his country's predicament.
"Then I found it ironic that he called for support for the
Millennium Development Goals and for more funding,"
Jacobson said.
[More at URL]
----- 10 -----
COMMENTARY: SILO RAINS ON THE PENGUIN PRIDE PARADE
One of America's A-list gay couples has broken up.
by Warren Throckmorton, Ph.D.
Focus on the Family
SUMMARY: One of America's A-list gay couples has broken
up.
http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/commentary/a0037990.cfm
No, it's not Rosie and Kelli. It's Roy and Silo. Roy and
Silo are male penguins. Chinstrap penguins to be exact.
About six years ago, Roy and Silo set up housekeeping
together in New York's Central Park Zoo. They courted and
attempted to mate and by all accounts were fairly
inseparable. They even adopted a child together. Roy and
Silo hatched little Tango a couple of years ago and raised
her as their own.
However, recently Silo has become perhaps the world's
first documented ex-gay penguin. He has moved out of his
nest with Roy and taken up with Scrappy, a hot little bird
who recently moved in from Sea World Zoo in San Diego. I
guess he was wishing for a California girl.
For those who have pointed to Roy and Silo as models for
us all, these developments must be disappointing. Some gay
activists might actually be angry.
When zoo keepers in Germany attempted to force male pairs
of endangered penguins to mate with females, they received
hate mail from gay-rights groups. Finally, in a bow to the
pressure the zoos relented and stopped their breeding
efforts.
Chief among the chagrinned may be the authors of a
children's book about the Roy and Silo and their adopted
daughter called, "And Tango Makes Three."
About the book, The School Library Journal gushed, "This
joyful story about the meaning of family is a must for any
library."
Publisher's Weekly wrote that Silo and Roy's love story
provides a picture of "non-traditional families that
youngsters can understand. This tender story can also
serve as a gentle jumping-off point for discussions about
same-sex partnerships in human society."
I think now that jumping-off point has become less gentle.
No word yet from the New York Times that ran a story on
the pair called "The Love that Dare not Squeak its Name."
The article suggested that gay rights might hinge on
penguin pride. "Gay groups argue that if homosexual
behavior occurs in animals, it is natural, and therefore
the rights of homosexuals should be protected," wrote
Denitia Smith, author of the article.
With Silo and Scrappy picking out curtains together, will
gay-rights groups now acknowledge that sexual orientation
changes? The concept of gay-penguin permanence painted by
the Times and "And Tango Makes Three" now seems more like
fiction than public policy signpost.
So should former homosexuals among us say, "I told you
so?"
[More at URL]
----- 11 -----
Call to Action on the Head Start Amendment
Focus on the Family
ACTION ITEM
[Received in email; no URL]
The U.S. House of Representatives is likely to consider
the School Readiness Act this week, a bill to reauthorize
the Head Start Program.
Unfortunately, H.R. 2123, as it passed out of committee
did not contain hiring protections for faith-based
organizations. This is important, because without such
protection, it is possible federal money could be removed
from religious groups which administer the early childhood
education program -- especially if the groups require
their staff and personnel to profess certain religious
beliefs.
Amanda Banks, federal issues analyst for Focus on the
Family Action, said pro-family, conservative congressmen
plan to offer an amendment during floor consideration that
would protect faith-based organizations.
"Without the faith-based amendment," Banks said,
"religious groups would be forced to relinquish their
civil liberties. Many religious groups have adequate
resources to participate in the Head Start program, and it
would be unfortunate if they were not allowed to
participate."
TAKE ACTION: Please contact your House member and ask him
or her to support the anticipated faith-based hiring
protection amendment to the School Readiness Act, H.R.
2123.
For help in contacting your representative, visit the
CitizenLink Action Center:
http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/dbq/officials/
----- 12 -----
Massachusetts Churches Stage One-Day Marriage Push
Focus on the Family
September 20, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
Churches opposed to gay marriage in the Bay State are
preparing for "Protect Marriage Sunday" on Oct. 2 -- a
one-day signature-gathering blitz aimed at collecting
enough names to send a 2008 ballot initiative banning
same-sex marriage to the Legislature.
The Boston Globe reported that defenders of marriage need
roughly 66,000 signatures by Thanksgiving. They've set a
goal of 120,000, to have enough even if some are
disqualified.
"As faithful citizens, we have a moral obligation to
defend the truth, no matter how counter-cultural or
unappreciated our convictions might be," Bishop George W.
Coleman of Fall River wrote to parishioners in a Sept. 12
letter. "The time is upon us to take a stand and to act,
lovingly but firmly, to restore and defend the truth about
marriage."
Backers of the petition drive were buoyed by last week's
defeat in the Legislature of a separate 2006 measure that
would have outlawed gay marriage but created civil unions.
"We have a high level of confidence, and it's going to be
a fun time," said Kris Mineau, president of the
Massachusetts Family Institute, a group leading the
initiative effort. "Our strategy is to let the people
vote."
----- 13 -----
Maine Won't Take Federal Abstinence Dollars
Focus on the Family
September 20, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
The Pine Tree State is refusing to use available federal
funds to teach an abstinence-based sex-education program
because the federal guidelines do not include the teaching
of so-called "safe sex," The Morning Sentinel reported.
Though Maine has received federal abstinence funds in the
past, state officials did not apply for the available
$165,000 during the current fiscal year and indicated they
do not intend to seek the $161,000 available in the next.
Dr. Dora Anne Mills, the state's public health director,
said that by accepting federal funding, the state is
limited in the type of sex education it can teach.
"(Federal) money has to be part of an abstinence-only
program," Mills said. "You can't talk about comprehensive
reproductive information."
She said the government guidelines state that sex should
be limited to marriage and that makes it hard to educate
youth who have entered the gay lifestyle.
Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation said Maine's
decision to forgo government funding is out of the norm.
"It's definitely an anomaly," Rector said. "I think
abstinence is basically gaining ground all the time."
----- 14 -----
BRAZILIAN BISHOP DEFROCKED FOR STANDING UP FOR TRUTH
The ordination of a gay bishop in the U.S. is having
repercussions worldwide.
Focus on the Family
September 21, 2005
http://www.family.org/cforum/feature/a0037993.cfm
by Pete Winn, associate editor
SUMMARY: The ordination of a gay bishop in the U.S. is
having repercussions worldwide.
A major Anglican bishop in Brazil has been defrocked
because he opposed the installation of American homosexual
Bishop Gene Robinson -- and said so publicly.
The archbishop of Brazil, Orlando Santos de Oliveira, has
ousted the Rt. Rev. Robinson Cavalcanti.
Cavalcanti is a solid evangelical and opposes the
recognition of homosexual clergy, according to the Rev.
Canon Ellis Brust of the American Anglican Council, who
has been following the situation.
"Cavalcanti took a strong stand in support of the historic
Anglican Christian faith," he said, "which upholds
traditional biblical morality, especially in the area of
human sexuality -- and has come under a significant amount
of fire."
Indeed, Cavalcanti actually came to the United States and
took part in a service -- alongside four Episcopal bishops
-- supporting American churches and ministers who are
opposed to Robinson's ordination, and who are opposed to
the Diocese of Ohio, which supports gay priests.
Marcus Throup, an Episcopal missionary to Brazil currently
in the U.S., said Cavalcanti is one of many clergy kicked
out for opposing the ordination of homosexuals.
[...]
Throup believes the American church may have influenced
the defrocking. He said the Brazilian church has strong
ties to ECUSA.
"Most of the current funding does come from the Episcopal
Church in the States," he said.
Brust said there's no direct evidence the pro-gay U.S.
church pulled strings leading to Cavalcanti's removal. But
he agreed the archdiocese of Brazil has been well-funded
with U.S. dollars for decades.
Moreover, an Episcopal gay-activist group, Integrity, has
actively been sending people and dollars to Brazil.
What's very clear, Brust said, is that persecution of
Anglicans who support the traditional teachings of the
church on sexuality has spread worldwide from the U.S.
"It seems to be another example of the pattern which says,
'If you don't agree with us, we will use coercion to
control you,' " he said.
[More at URL]
----- 15 -----
More American Companies are Enforcing Gay Policies
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
September 21, 2005
SUMMARY: Experts say a ranking list can be used two ways.
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0037995.cfm
A record number of companies are giving in to the gay
agenda, according to an annual ranking by the pro-gay
Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
[...]
In rating the most and least gay-friendly companies, the
survey revealed that corporate America is increasingly
abandoning family values, but experts say families can use
the same list to make informed choices of where to do
business.
[...]
Peter LaBarbera, executive director of the Illinois Family
Institute, is encouraging people to use the list to
identify family-friendly businesses.
"BP America is a 100 percent pro-homosexual company,"
LaBarbera said. "Now that tells me buy my gas at Exxon.
If you see a BP, go the extra mile to get to Exxon."
[More at URL]
----- 16 -----
Pressure Tactics Used to Get Gay-Marriage Bill Signed
Focus on the Family
September 21, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
Gay-rights groups in California are stepping up efforts to
influence Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign the
same-sex-marriage bill passed by the California Assembly
Sept. 9 -- a bill he threatened to veto, SFGate reported.
Equality California organized efforts across the state
this week. Tuesday, children being raised by homosexuals
carried 40,000 signed postcards in red wagons to the
governor's office asking him to sign the bill. Thursday
the group plans to run television spots in Los Angeles and
Sacramento urging the same.
Though the Assembly passed the gay-marriage bill almost
two weeks ago, the bill is being "held at the desk," a
term that means it has not been released by the clerk and
sent to the governor.
According to Assemblyman Ray Haynes, the Legislature is
invoking this seldom-used tactic in hopes the governor
will change his mind and sign the bill into law.
Schwarzenegger has expressed concern over signing the bill
because it may conflict with Proposition 22, a
voter-approved measure passed in 2000 defining marriage as
a union between a man and a woman.
Haynes advice is to continue to encourage the governor to
veto the bill.
"I would let him know that is what you want him to do," he
wrote in a letter to constituents. "The more pressure we
can exert, the more likely he is to follow through with a
veto."
TAKE ACTION/FOR MORE INFORMATION: For a detailed look at
the Calif. gay marriage bill and an easy way to contact
Gov. Schwarzenegger, please see the previous CitizenLink
article, "Urge Schwarzenegger to Veto Gay-Marriage Bill."
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0037876.cfm
----- 17 -----
Puerto Rico Next on Same-Sex Marriage Hit List?
Focus on the Family
September 21, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
If a proposed change to the Civil Code in Puerto Rico is
passed, gay marriage will be recognized throughout the
commonwealth. According to the San Juan Star, Progressive
Party affiliates have recommended an amendment to a 1999
law refusing recognition of out-of-state same-sex
marriages.
"A marriage should be considered valid to the extent that
it is valid in the state where it took place," the change
reads. "A marriage that . . . is not considered valid in
the state where it took place or in the state where the
individuals had their first residence as a married couple,
can still be considered valid if it is regarded as valid
in any other state."
If passed, the change would force Puerto Rico to recognize
the same-sex marriages of residents who marry in other
states then return home.
The 1999 ruling came in response to Hawaiian lawmakers
allowing same-sex marriage. Some Puerto Rican officials
seem to be unaware of the law's effects.
"I will not support anything that goes against what we
are," said Jose Gonzalez, a member of the drafting
committee.
----- 18 -----
Wedding March of the Penguins?
9/22/2005
By Robert Knight
Concerned Women for America
Silo’s defection throws cold water on “gay” animal theory.
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/9009/CFI/family/index.htm
This article, published on September 22, 2005, on WorldNetDaily.com, is reprinted with permission.
Just when you thought it was safe to stock up on sardines and bottles of Arctic water for the coming “gay” penguin wedding boom, one of the most prominent “gay” penguins has to spoil it.
You may have heard by now that Silo, one half of the allegedly homosexual penguin couple at New York’s Central Park Zoo of Roy and Silo, has left Roy for a young female named Scrappy. This is not a hoax. The New York Post broke the story on September 16 in an article titled, “Chilly Willies.”
Before reporting this to you, I wanted to make sure the story was true. Sure enough, Fox News confirmed it, although Newsweek and The New York Times had yet to weigh in.
The Times has been annoyed of late because the hit movie March of the Penguins is stubbornly heterosexual and pro-family with nary a “gay” penguin in sight. This brings joy to conservatives and stings the conscience of liberals who preach that everything evolved randomly, with no particular design or Designer.
As for Roy, as is probably the case with the Times, he’s inconsolable. He keeps staring at a wall. No word on the current mental state of Tango, the female hatchee from the egg that Roy and Silo raised as their own after trying to hatch a rock given to them by the zookeepers. Hey, nobody said Roy and Silo were penguin rocket scientists. And still, they rated a children’s book, And Tango Makes Three, which schools are supposed to give to kids to persuade them that you don’t need a mom and a dad.
For homosexual activists, embarrassment over this penguin breakup has to rank right up there with Anne Heche leaving Ellen DeGeneres and marrying – a man. Or Julie Cypher leaving Melissa Etheridge. Or Elton John leaving his current domestic partner and marrying – wait, that hasn’t happened yet.
[More at URL]
----- 19 -----
House Panel Adds ‘Sexual Orientation’ to Federal Workplace Policy
9/22/2005
Robert Knight
Concerned Women for America
Long URL here
The Committee on Government Reform in the U.S. House of Representatives has approved the addition of homosexuality to federal workplace policy, as a part of the Child Safety Act (H.R. 3132), a bill that strengthens penalties on sex offenders. The move comes after the actions of U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch, rightly pointed out that the category of homosexuality was not a part of the law. Robert Knight, Director of CWA’s Culture & Family Institute has more on how you can counter this effort by the homosexual lobby. Click here to listen.
To make your voice heard, call your Representative via the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.
[Robert Knight: "Last year, US Special Council Scott Bloch, and appointee of President Bush... noticed that Congress had never passed a law including sexual orientation [as a protected class]... so when Mr. Bloch courageously ... wasn't going to enforce automatic case reviews based on sexual orientation, because Congress hadn't authorised it. He was hit with all sorts of grief from the press and from homosexual activists; the White House kind of gave him a little slap at a press conference, but didn't really rescind his policies... the homosexual activists said okay, we'd fix it, we'll actually add it to the law. So just the other day, a House committee, the House Committee on Government Reform chaired by Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, unanimously passed a bill adding sexual orientation to Federal workplace policy, meaning it would cover Federal workers. When you figure that half the committee, actually a little bit of a majority on the committee, are Republicans, and it went through allegedly on a unanimous vote, you've got to ask yourself, "What is going on?"
"He just said, 'What does the law say?'" Claims it wasn't devious and that homosexuals "would" notice something like that. "Sexual orientation has never been a protected class for civil rights.... Congress has never passed a law adding it as a suspect class... and yet the Clinton administration acted as if it had been law." "This doesn't mean employees who have a homosexual problem won't have their cases reviewed by his office, it's just they won't have an automatic review as someone would on a racial complaint..."
"We have to push back. We have to alert people that there is a very real attempt here to add this... if you create a new civil rights category and Congress does it... it would power the homosexual agenda right up to the gay marriage issue." "Part of the mindset is to say that this has been law for years and it has been defended by administration for decades... it was only the Clinton administration who created this thing."
"People need to call Capitol Hill and let their Congressmen know they don't want the full house to vote for this, and if they do, they want it defeated; those if you who have any input into Congressional leadership out to ask, 'What is going on here?'" Talks about the hate-crimes bill, how that passed too, and they both passed, "in a Republican-controlled House of Representatives! Some hard questions have to be asked of our representatives!"
----- 20 -----
Gay Straight Alliance Club Faces Opposition In Georgia
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2437
September 22, 2005 –Georgia State Senator Ralph Hudgens is promoting legislation that will require parental permission for students to join school clubs or other extracurricular activities. He introduced it this year, but it will be heard next year.
Hudgens says he hopes his bill will discourage membership in GLSEN-sponsored Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) clubs on junior high and high school campuses. According to Hudgens, “homosexuality, as far as I’m concerned, is a learned behavior. It’s not genetic—they’ve never been able to prove that there’s a gene that causes it. It’s something that is learned.”
Learn more about GLSEN’s dangerous agenda by purchasing The Agenda by Rev. Louis P. Sheldon.
GSA clubs threaten the health and well-being of at-risk teens who will be recruited into a life-threatening behavior. Read and distribute TVC’s report, “Homosexuals Recruit Public School Children”, “Homosexual Child Molesters,” and the Pro-Family Law Center’s publication, “The Legal Liability Associated With Homosexual Education In California Public Schools.”
[More at URL]
----- 21 -----
Who’s Spinning Your News?
Homosexual Journalists Meet In Chicago
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2436
September 22, 2005 – The National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association begins its national conference in Chicago from September 22-25.
The theme of this year’s conference is “Out in the Heartland,” and will feature panels and sessions by homosexual journalists. The organization is establishing its own Hall of Fame to honor homosexuals who have been influential in the media. This will include Thomas Morgan III, a New York Times editor who, in 1989 served as president of the National Association of Black Journalists.
The conference will honor Meredith May, a correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle as homosexual journalist of the year. Homosexual journalists from numerous newspapers and TV stations from around the U.S. will participate in this event, including Wall Street Journal reporter Steven Gray.
For a who’s who of homosexual journalists who control what you read in the media, access the NLGJA’s press release: "Lesbian & Gay Journalists Convene in Chicago".
Read TVC’s report, “The Overhauling Of Straight America,” that describes how homosexuals planned on using the media to shape public opinion to accept homosexuality and to vilify opponents of the agenda.
Purchase a copy of Rev. Sheldon’s new book, The Agenda, to learn more about the dangers that homosexual activism poses to religious freedom, speech, and the family.
----- 22 -----
NOAH WEBSTER: Education Is Useless Without the Bible
Faith and Freedom Network
September 16, 2005
Long URL here
While liberal secularists work tirelessly to expel God and the Bible from education, the father of public education in America, Noah Webster, has always disagreed with them.
Not only did he say that, "Education without the Bible is useless," but he also said, "The Bible is America's basic textbook in all fields."
He also said, "The moral principles and precepts contained in Scripture ought to form the basis of all of our civil constitutions and law ... the religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and his apostles ..."
And now, in the tradition of Noah Webster, our Founding Fathers, and others, the National Council on Bible Curriculum for Public Schools (NCBCPS) has released new course work for the classroom and has started a national campaign to get it placed in schools.
[More at URL]
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-09-22 09:44 pm (UTC)I'm opposed to all this spending as well, you just know that there isn't a single congresscritter out there who is going to cut spending anywhere else to pay for it. But then it's not really their fault, they're just pandering to their constituents who are always in line for another government hand out. We need an amendment that just flat out bands all federal social spending, maybe right after the one about pigs having wings.