Today's Cultural Warfare Update
Mar. 3rd, 2006 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdCanadians should pay particular attention to the last item in today's list. It's prefixed with five asterisks. UK readers should be aware that Creationism-as-science is showing up on their shores now too.
Missouri's HCR13 would declare Christianity the official majority religion and "protect the majority's right to express their religious beliefs";
Anti-cloning, anti-genetic-research, anti-genetic-engineering, anti-transhumanism initiative in Missouri also will define a zygote as human life and a "natural person" under the law - no doubt intended to use Frankenstein-scare language to bring an attack against genetic research and abortion;
Alliance between American fundamentalist theocrats and orthodox socially-conservative Jewish leaders results in an important theological opinion: Falwell, Gary Bauer, and several others assert that Jews can get to heaven without acknowledging Jesus; Bauer wouldn't do it without a sign-off from Dobson, since Bauer heads the Family Research Council, which has strong direct ties to Focus on the Family; [UPDATE: See below; Falwell is denying the report]
Creationism wars show up in Britain, with evangelical conservatives and conservative Muslims both attacking evolutionary theory and pushing young-earth Creationism;
Focus on the Family lays covering fire for Alito after his letter to them (seen in the previous CWU);
Las Vegas contractor starts anti-evolutionary-theory state constitutional amendment initiative;
Focus on the Family goes all "Who, little ol' us? Why, it's just a thank-you note" regarding Alito's letter;
Kentucky passes stricter "waiting period" legislation on abortion;
Focus on the Family pushes anti-gay "reparative therapy"; Dr. Warren Throckmorton, a regular Concerned Women for America wonk establishing himself as a regular spout-pot for anti-gay material, is quoted extensively;
Fundamentalists who pushed through abortion ban in South Dakota all surprised that people are pissed off about it; includes ACTION ITEM to urge South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds to sign the bill into law;
Mississippi House of Representatives passes abortion ban - bans all abortions except to save the life of the mother and in cases of rape or incest - but does not include a health exception; fundamentalists annoyed about the rape-or-incest exceptions -- "God does not make mistakes" -- but not enough to be unhappy about the bill;
Fundamentalist petition campaign protesting Brokeback Mountain's Oscar nominations to be delivered to Academy;
Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM to complain to CNN after Wolf Blitzer repeatedly referred to "Reverend" Dobson instead of "Doctor" Dobson in a report about the Alito letter;
Concerned Women for America ACTION ITEM condemning Alaska Senator Ted Stevens for not pushing hard enough on his "indecency" bill - he says he doesn't have enough votes; CWA wants senators contacted;
Concered Women for America's Robert Knight condemns Colorado "Reciprocal Beneficiary Bill" which lets people who can't marry designate each other as reciprocal beneficiaries - it's not even up to the level of a civil unions bill - on the basis that it benefits queers, and "homosexuality is immoral, unhealthy, preventable and changeable" and that law should only support relationships their religion supports - "marriage and family law should serve only to protect and support the God-created, marriage-based family";
CWA's Robert Knight on "The 'Gaying' of American Entertainment"; blames gay people in general and Lawrence v. Texas for Mormon polygamy;
CWA's Robert Knight condemns Chad Allen (the actor who played missionary pilot Nate Saint in the movie End of the Spear") for his GBLT activism, blames him for the economic failure of the film, pushes "ex-gay" bullshit Exodus International;
Agape Press covers a lawsuit against a Michigan initiative banning so-called "partial birth" abortion procedures;
American Family Association ACTION ITEM: "New Video Game Teaches Our Kids to Kill Police Officers"
Involuntary teen-oriented gay "therapy" camps, as have been described here in earlier Cultural Warfare Updates, get defended by the American Family Association and Focus on the Family;
American Family Association report says Jerry Falwall is denying that Jews can get into heaven without Jesus; also, they imply that anti-bullying efforts may be a violation of "the alleged separation of Church and State" - note their use of the word "alleged" - if you think these guys aren't theocrats, wake the fuck up;
ACLJ (Pat Robertson's theoconservative legal group modeled after the ACLU with an intentionally-confusingly-similar acronym) wants Illinois to pass a law letting pharmacists refuse to dispense emergency contraception;
Not all fundamentalists are happy with the "Biblical Literacy Project" - James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries calls it "relativistic" and "the typical liberal approach to the Bible";
Alliance Defense Fund describes North Carolina "The New Gay Teenager" seminar as "homosexual advocacy" and in violation of the Constitution; remember, anything not explicitly condemnation is, in theocon language, "promoting homosexuality";
Traditional Values Coalition reports on lawsuit by a group of parents upset about an anti-bullying/safety campaign that includes GBLT kids, saying it "promotes the homosexual agenda" to say, presumably, that you can't beat up the fags; Concerned Women for America through the 90s made a habit of defending gaybashing as a "normal and natural reaction" to queers, and while they've gotten away from being quite that explicit about it, it's still just hanging around waiting to get picked up again; they link to an earlier TVC report calling the anti-harassment programme "pro-homosexual training";
Here's a link to said article calling anti-harassment programmes "pro-homosexual training";
WorldNetDaily reports that the "Vatican's top exorcist" has condemned Harry Potter as satanic again;
Focus on the Family Canada praises Federal Court of Appeal Judge Marshall Rothstein, new appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada;
***** Focus on the Family Canada links to the French Conservative party report asserting that queers shouldn't get marriage rights; ACTION ITEM to contact your MPs and quote this report a lot to try to get a revote in parliament to eliminate marriage rights for GBLTfolk; also notes that it says that it's important to keep gay people from being able to "procreate."
----- 1 -----
State bill proposes Christianity be Missouri’s official religion
12:28 AM CST on Friday, March 3, 2006
By John Mills, News 4
KMOV-TV, St, Louis
http://www.kmov.com/topstories/stories/030206ccklrKmovreligionbill.7d361c3f.html
Missouri legislators in Jefferson City considered a bill that would name Christianity the state's official "majority" religion.
[...]
The resolution would recognize "a Christian god," and it would not protect minority religions, but "protect the majority's right to express their religious beliefs.
The resolution also recognizes that, "a greater power exists," and only Christianity receives what the resolution calls, "justified recognition."
State representative David Sater of Cassville in southwestern Missouri, sponsored the resolution, but he has refused to talk about it on camera or over the phone.
[More at URL]
----- 3 -----
The Elliot Institute
Initiative Text
Current as of 3 March 2006
http://www.elliotinstitute.org/initiative.htm
Be it resolved by the people of the State of Missouri that the Constitution be amended:
One new article is adopted and added to be known as Regulation of Human-Animal Crossbreeds, Cloning, Transhumansim, and Human Engineering Is Reserved to the People
Section 1. Findings Regarding the Threat of Unregulated Human Engineering
1. Scientific discoveries and advances in genetic engineering have now made it possible to clone human beings, to genetically alter human beings for the purpose of eliminating disease or adding new biological features, and to create genetic hybrids using both human and animal genes.
2. Proponents of transhumansim, neoeugenics, and human engineering have proposed ideas that would drastically alter society in known and unknown ways. Among other proposals, proponents of human engineering have suggested the following:
[More at URL]
----- 3 -----
Falwell: Jews can get to heaven
By ILAN CHAIM
Mar. 1, 2006 4:17 | Updated Mar. 1, 2006 7:41
The Jerusalem Post
Long URL elided
An evangelical pastor and an Orthodox rabbi, both from Texas, have apparently persuaded leading Baptist preacher Jerry Falwell that Jews can get to heaven without being converted to Christianity.
Televangelist John Hagee and Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg, whose Cornerstone Church and Rodfei Sholom congregations are based in San Antonio, told The Jerusalem Post that Falwell had adopted Hagee's innovative belief in what Christians refer to as "dual covenant" theology.
This creed, which runs counter to mainstream evangelism, maintains that the Jewish people has a special relationship to God through the revelation at Sinai and therefore does not need "to go through Christ or the Cross" to get to heaven.
[Editor's note: This account is disputed by Falwell; see below]
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
Academics fight rise of creationism at universities
* More students believe Darwin got it wrong
* Royal Society challenges 'insidious problem'
Duncan Campbell
Tuesday February 21, 2006
The Guardian
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,1714171,00.html
A growing number of science students on British campuses and in sixth form colleges are challenging the theory of evolution and arguing that Darwin was wrong. Some are being failed in university exams because they quote sayings from the Bible or Qur'an as scientific fact and at one sixth form college in London most biology students are now thought to be creationists.
Earlier this month Muslim medical students in London distributed leaflets that dismissed Darwin's theories as false. Evangelical Christian students are also increasingly vocal in challenging the notion of evolution.
In the United States there is growing pressure to teach creationism or "intelligent design" in science classes, despite legal rulings against it. Now similar trends in this country have prompted the Royal Society, Britain's leading scientific academy, to confront the issue head on with a talk entitled Why Creationism is Wrong. The award-winning geneticist and author Steve Jones will deliver the lecture and challenge creationists, Christian and Islamic, to argue their case rationally at the society's event in April.
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
ALITO SAYS THANK YOU; LIBERALS CRY FOUL
A simple note of appreciation turns into a media storm.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
by Pete Winn, associate editor
March 2, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039713.cfm
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is the subject of
controversy for sending a thank-you note to Focus on the
Family Founder and Chairman Dr. James Dobson.
But that controversy appears to have been ginned up by the
same liberal activists who opposed the recently confirmed
justice's nomination to the high court.
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
Nevada May Consider Evolution Constitutional Amendment
SUMMARY: Amendment would require teachers to acknowledge the controversies.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 2, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039712.cfm
A proposed constitutional amendment in Nevada would
require teachers to tell students there are many
unanswered questions about the theory of evolution.
Opponents claim it's a thinly veiled attempt to allow
intelligent design into the schools, but the man behind
the idea, Steve Brown, a masonry contractor from Las
Vegas, said that's not what he's after.
"I'm not promoting intelligent design or creationism," he
told Family News in Focus. "The amendment simply says
'students must be informed that although most scientists
agree that Darwin's theory of evolution is well-supported,
a small minority of scientists do not agree.' "
[More at URL]
----- 7 -----
COMMENTARY: THANK-YOU NOTES AND CARICATURES
The media can't figure out how to handle a thank-you note.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 2, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/commentary/a0039714.cfm
We honestly didn't see it coming.
Focus on the Family has a culture of sending thank-you
notes. So, it was ordinary in a daily-routine sort of way
to receive one. Granted, this one garnered a little more
attention because the understated gothic letterhead read
simply "Supreme Court of the United States" and at the
bottom was the indecipherable signature of the newest
associate justice.
But still, it was a thank-you note, and our main reaction
here at Focus was "How nice and how thoughtful of someone
as busy as Samuel Alito to take a moment to write us."
[More at URL]
----- 8 -----
Kentucky Legislators Strengthen 24-Hour Abortion Waiting Period
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 2, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
Kentucky lawmakers approved legislation Tuesday that that
would require women to receive counseling in person 24
hours in advance of an abortion and to be told of the
risks of the procedure, The Courier-Journal reported.
Republican Sen. Katie Stine, the bill's sponsor, said the
legislation is designed to clarify a 1998 law that
requires women to receive information about abortion one
day in advance.
Currently, women must call a recorded message, but Senate
Bill 125, which was approved on a 34-3 vote, would require
the information to be given in person.
"The goal of this legislation is that women are given all
the facts," Stine said. "Now, my own belief is -- and I
can't be certain of this -- that once women are given all
the facts, many of them may decide to have the child
instead."
The House State Government Committee unanimously approved
its own version of the bill which now heads to the full
House.
----- 9 -----
HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVISTS LAUNCH NEW ATTACK ON EX-GAY MOVEMENT
Pro-family groups reaffirm that change, though not easy, is possible.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 3, 2006
by Pete Winn, associate editor
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039736.cfm
Pro-family groups today defended the ex-gay movement and
the truth that homosexuals can change from a broadside
assault launched Thursday by the National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force (NGLTF).
The activist group released a report that claimed
reparative therapy is ineffective -- charging groups that
recommend efforts to prevent homosexuality among teenagers
with causing the youth harm.
Matt Foreman, NGLTF's executive director, specifically
singled out Focus on the Family and Exodus International,
claiming the groups "demonize young people" and "prey on
the fears of parents" through conducting programs like
Love Won Out.
"This report exposes the extent to which these zealots
will go," he said, "including reformulating their ex-gay
snake oil at the expense of vulnerable children and young
adults."
[...]
Dr. Warren Throckmorton, professor of psychology at Grove
City College in Grove City, Pa., said there is no basis
for the wild claim that therapy for homosexuals causes
harm.
[More at URL]
----- 10 -----
Abortion Ban Supporters Hit by Vandalism
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 3, 2006
by Wendy Cloyd, assistant editor
SUMMARY: South Dakota pro-lifers are targets of eggs and
threatening calls.
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039731.cfm
Pro-abortion activists in South Dakota have apparently
begun punishing supporters of an abortion ban.
The bill to ban abortion sailed through both houses of the
state Legislature last month and is now at the governor's
desk awaiting his signature
Leslee Unruh, founder of the Alpha Center, a
pregnancy-resource agency, fought hard to get the message
to lawmakers that abortion kills innocent babies and hurts
women.
She said she and her family have now become targets.
Her house has been splattered with eggs. She's had coat
hangers arrive in her mailbox. Someone placed dead animals
on the property of her husband's chiropractic clinic,
leading some employees to fear coming to work. She's
received extremely threatening calls in the middle of the
night, a ton of hate mail, and her favorite coffee shop
told her not to come back.
"They said, 'We have a choice as to who we serve, and we
choose not to serve you,' " she said. "They were careful
to emphasize the word 'choice.' "
Unruh said she knew some people would be upset by the ban,
but she's shocked at the level of the anger.
[...]
TAKE ACTION: The bill to ban abortion is on the desk of
South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds. If you live in South
Dakota, please contact him today and ask him to sign the
bill. You can find an easy-to-use e-mail form in the
CitizenLink Action Center.
http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/bio/?id=8031&lvl=S&chamber=G
[More at URL]
----- 11 -----
Mississippi Lawmakers Vote to Ban Most Abortions
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 3, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
The Mississippi House voted Thursday to ban abortion, with
exceptions for pregnancies that endanger the mother's life
or in cases of rape or incest.
According to The Associated Press, the bill passed 94-25
and now moves to the Senate. Republican Gov. Haley Barbour
has said he would sign the bill.
"How many millions of souls are crying out that's been
killed because of this hideous practice called abortion?"
Rep. Eric Robinson, R-Quitman, said during the House
debate.
Notably, no lawmakers stood to argue in favor of abortion
on demand.
The bill originally contained only an exception to save
the life of the mother, but the additional exceptions were
added by a 62-56 vote.
Rep. Deryk Parker, D-Lucedale, argued that there should be
no abortions allowed in cases of rape or incest.
"God does not make mistakes," Parker said. "Regardless of
how conception takes place, life begins at conception."
If the bill is passed, anyone performing an abortion could
be punished by a $5,000 fine and up to a year in prison.
----- 12 -----
61,000 Upset 'Brokeback' Got More Oscar Nods Than 'Narnia'
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 3, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
Nationwide outrage that "Brokeback Mountain" received more
Oscar nominations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences than "The Chronicles of Narnia" garnered more
than 61,000 signatures of protest.
"Narnia" received three nominations, each for technical
aspects, not for artistic achievement. "Brokeback
Mountain" received eight.
Dr. Gary Cass, executive director of the Center for
Reclaiming America, directed the letter of protest to Sid
Ganis, president of the Academy.
"The Academy's nomination of this film has little to do
with honoring great moviemaking. Instead, it is just a
high-profile attempt to mainstream the homosexual agenda,"
the letter reads. "That this movie uses the classic symbol
of the American male -- the cowboy -- to promote this
agenda is offensive to the vast majority of Americans."
Cass said Americans can't give Hollywood a free pass and
allow it to push the gay agenda on the nation while it
ignores family-friendly films.
"Your agenda is even more obvious when considering that
movies like 'The Chronicles of Narnia,' that have themes
that resonate with most Americans," he said, "are
virtually ignored by the Academy."
The letter, along with the 61,061 signatures, will be
delivered to the Academy today. The 78th Annual Academy
Awards ceremony is Sunday.
----- 13 -----
Dr. Dobson Wants You to Set CNN Straight
Network keeps calling him "Reverend"
Focus on the Family
Editor's Note
March 3, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
Focus on the Family Chairman Dr. James Dobson asked
listeners to his daily radio show today to set CNN -- and
particularly Wolf Blitzer -- straight on what to call him.
In a rather slanted report about a thank-you note Dr.
Dobson received from new Supreme Court Justice Samuel
Alito on Wednesday's edition of Blitzer's "Situation Room"
program, a reporter referred to Focus' founder as
"Reverend Dobson" five times in only a few seconds of
airtime.
It's not an uncommon mistake for the media to make, but
Dr. Dobson -- who, for the record, is a licensed
psychologist with a Ph.D. in child development -- says CNN
shouldn't still be making it.
"Would somebody out there please write Wolf Blitzer at CNN
and remind him of what we have told him about 50 times?
That I am not a reverend and he ought to know that by
now?" Dr. Dobson asked on today's broadcast. "If I were a
minister, I'd be honored to say so, but I'm not."
He even suggested a creative way to refer to Blitzer when
writing a letter: "You might address your correspondence
to Archbishop Blitzer."
We've made it easy for you to do as Dr. Dobson asks. Just
visit the link below -- and click the "Go" button at the
top when you get there -- to compose an e-mail that will
be delivered directly to Blitzer's workstation at CNN.
http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/issues/alert/?alertid=8541436&type=CU
----- 14 -----
Sen. Stevens Needs to Build a Bridge to Decency
Concerned Women for America3/2/2006
By Jan LaRue, Esq. Chief Counsel
Stevens’ refusal to move a decency bill shows his ‘decency’ hearings are a sham.
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/10236/LEGAL/pornography/index.htm
Has anybody forgotten the outrage over CBS’s 2004 Super Bowl halftime program featuring Janet Jackson’s feigned “wardrobe malfunction”? Viewers kicked-off 525,000 complaints to the FCC, more than any other show in broadcast history has produced.
Apparently Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is suffering a selective-memory-malfunction and needs a reminder that Americans continue to want Congress to pass legislation that strengthens the FCC’s enforcement efforts by increasing the fines for violators.
Stevens says he doesn’t see any of the four indecency-related bills stalled in his committee, including boosting indecency fines and enforcement, going forward: “As far as I'm concerned, none of them have enough support for us to move as long as this process works,” as he is quoted in Broadcasting and Cable (December 12, 2005).
[...]
If you’re sick of Stevens’ stall on S. 193, let him know and let your senators know, too.
[More at URL]
----- 15 -----
Colorado Reciprocal Beneficiary Bill Stalls in State Senate Committee
Concerned Women for America
3/2/2006
By Robert Knight and Jan LaRue
Measure would expedite some benefits to nonmarried couples, including homosexuals.
Editor's Note: This article was revised and updated on March 3, 2006.
Analysis
A Colorado Senate committee has stalled on a 3-3 vote a controversial bill that would establish Reciprocal Beneficiary Agreements (RBAs) for people ineligible to be married, including homosexual couples.
Concerned Women for America opposes the bill because we believe it cheapens marriage and gives the appearance of appeasing homosexual activists, which is neither desirable nor possible to do.
Also, despite some proponents’ insistence that all of the RBAs are already available via durable power of attorney, the bill actually creates a new right to health benefits currently available only through traditional family relationships. The latest version of the bill also creates a death benefit now available only to widows, widowers and dependent children. As such, the bill takes several advantages unique to marriage and conveys them to nonmarital relationships.
[...]
CWA opposes the bill for several reasons.
1. It implies that family-based marriage law is in and of itself a form of discrimination that needs a remedy. We believe marriage and family law should serve only to protect and support the God-created, marriage-based family.
2. It provides incentives for people to avoid marriage, and since it bars opposite-sex couples from getting these incentives, it appears to be geared toward appeasing homosexual activists.
3. The law should not chip away at the unique benefits of marriage by granting such benefits to other relationships, even the “two elderly sisters” that are often cited as the reason behind the bill, even though there is no substantial group other than homosexual activists pressing for such benefits.
4. Laws should not directly or indirectly facilitate homosexual relationships, since homosexuality is immoral, unhealthy, preventable and changeable.
[More at URL]
----- 16 -----
The ‘Gaying’ of American Entertainment
Concerned Women for America
3/3/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/10240/CFI/misc/index.htm
Are you having trouble relating to many of the things being offered as entertainment? Entertainment elites are increasingly homosexual. That could explain a slew of plays, movies, and television shows that feature “gay” humor, “gay” characters, and promiscuous lifestyles. Some of the latest offerings include a new HBO reality series on polygamists and an off-Broadway production featuring a homosexual Charlie Brown. Bob Knight, Director of CWA’s Culture & Family Institute, tackles these subjects. Click here to listen.
["Can you imagine Peanuts with Charlie Brown - as a homosexual?" Robert Knight: "Just recently [gays] went after the American cowboy with Brokeback Mountain and Willie Nelson singing that song about cowboys secretly frequently fond of each other, now we see them with a play in New York City called 'Dog Sees God,' I guess it's a play on words somehow, but it's all about Peanuts, the comic strip, drawn by Charles Schultz for years. Here's how an article in The Advocate magazine starts, "'What if Charlie Brown was gay, and fell in love with sensitive piano-playing Schroder?' That's the central question asked by the off-Broadway play Dog Seas God, a black-humour takeoff on the beloved Charles Schultz comic "Peanuts." The comics are now 10 years older and puberty has morphed them into personae quite different from their former selves, starting with their names. They've turned Pig Pen, the little boy who's surrounded by a cloud of dust, into a homophobic clean-freak who carries around a hand dispenser of Purel, blanket-lover Linus now is named Van, and he's a Buddhist pot-head, but most shocking of all is the play's inciting event, Snoopy has died." So they kill off Snoopy. But this is just they want to take everything that's good and decent and twist it to their own purposes, and this is one more example of that."
"They change it just enough to avoid legal entanglements... that would be my guess.. but to summarise it all, the reviewer says, "'Dog Sees God' is a fun romp for anyone who doesn't mind seeing their beloved Peanuts characters tarnished by alcohol, sex, and violence." Well, I mind, I've been a Peanuts fan for years, and, so... but the Advocate is actually full of show-biz news this week..."
"Here's a new show called Big Love, which is debuting on HBO, and it's about a man with three wives. And remember how for years the gay activists have told us, oh, you know, we're not talking about polygamy, that has nothing to do with validating homosexuality, well, they got, the gay creators, Mark Olson and Will Sheffers, Big Love, HBO's latest Sunday night serial debuts March 12th, it's "engrossing peak at the love that dare not speak their name," that's a play on the homosexual phrasing, "the love that dares not speak its name," so you have them exploring every kind of perversion imaginable and trying to mainstream it. You know, we've seen lawsuits develop because of the homosexual marriage cases, the polygamists are now coming forth in Utah and Arizona and filing lawsuits saying that if the US Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas said that all morality is essentially private, then how can the state require marriage to be the union of just a man and a woman? Why limit it just to two? Their logic is pretty good, because the court really opened the door wide for that kind of fallout."
"[Desperate Housewives has] a kid on the show named Andrew, who's the son of Bree, who's the redhead I guess, who is very straight-laced, and is ashamed that her son has come out as gay, but he's played by this guy Shaun Piefrom(?!) and he's featured in The Advocate this month, and they have an interview with him, and listen to this quote from him, Here's the question, "Do you feel a responsibility to portray Andrew a certain way?" And Shawn says, "No, not necessarily, I think what's great about Andrew is they developed him as this," and I'll use an expletive, "teenager who is terrible to his mother, hits old ladies with this car, and also happens to be gay. They don't make him this typical weak gay character, and I think that's good, because it's saying that even if you're gay, you can still be strong and confident." Excuse me, hitting old ladies with cars, being horrible to your mother is strong and confident? What a perverse view of masculine confidence."
"Mark Cherry is the creator of Desperate Housewives, he's an out homosexual producer, and this is , here's another question for Shawn, "You attended Cracked XMas, a fund-raiser for the Trevor Project, a gay youth hotline, are there any other ways you show support for gay youth?" Quote. "I've done a lot of fundraisers and events supporting gay rights and gotten involved in things through Mark Cherry, I feel raising awareness about gay rights is important." In other words, Mark Cherry is turning this kid into a gay activist, even though he's straight. So I, the influence in Hollywood can't be denied, they're pretty much running Hollywood now, they're not just merely influencing it, they're in the driver's seat, and if you wonder why you can't relate to so many prime-time shows anymore, or even movies churned out of Hollywood, it's because of who's in the driver's seat. They probably don't share your values."
----- 17 -----
‘End of the Spear’ Actor Not Sorry for Activism
Concerned Women for America
3/3/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/10243/CFI/misc/index.htm
Chad Allen, the actor who played missionary pilot Nate Saint in the movie “End of the Spear” is unapologetic for his homosexual activism according to an interview in the latest issue of The Advocate. Bob Knight, Director of CWA’s Culture & Family Institute, has more on this and its impact on the movie’s box office. Click here to listen.
[Robert Knight: "Chad Allen is the actor who played the Christian missionary Nate Saint who gets killed by natives with other missionaries, but the controversy erupted because Chad Allen turns out to be a homosexual activist, and when they first cast him, the producers of the film didn't know that, but once they cast him, they found out, they went ahead with it, even though it was pointed out to them that he did use his platform as an actor to promote homosexuality. A lot of people have questioned the wisdom of that, and there's been a great debate among [sic] Christian circles about how far to go to accommodate non-believers in Christian projects.
"And I think now that a little time has passed and we can look at what's happened, I'd have to come down on the side of those who say, "No, that wasn't such a good idea, having Chad Allen in such a prominent role," because he has used it as a platform, and I think this interview titled "Chad Allen's Not Sorry" is indicative of that."
"I think [Chad Allen] did [have an impact], because it had high production values, and was expected to be a hit. The critics treated it very nicely... it should have been in the theatres longer, but I think a lot of people, when they found out that Chad Allen was using it as a vehicle to promote homosexuality, they didn't give the film a chance. And I'll acknowledge... I haven't seen the film, I was planning to see it, and I found out it had left the theatre already... maybe I'll have to get it on DVD... but Chad Allen senses has said (?) things like... in the interview in The Advocateof March 14th ... the question was, "You've said, you wanted this film to bridge the divide between gay people and people of faith; is that mission still feasible given the backlash from conservative Christians?" Chad's answer is, "It's not just my mission; it's my accomplishment. We've done it. I'm surrounded by an enormous amount of letters and emails and phone calls from people publicly supporting me who are Christians, who are saying to me, 'look, we're getting to witness first-hand the meanness of gone on in the name of Jesus Christ for a long time.'" In other words, the people who uphold traditional Biblical morality are considered mean, and those who feel we have to cave in on the gay issues are the nice ones. And Chad Allen is openly saying, this is great, it gave him an opportunity to push this message, that you're mean if you don't along with homosexuality, and you're nice if you do."
"He talked a little bit about his own beliefs, he said I'm a deeply spiritual person, but he said, religion still makes me squeamish, I grew up a Catholic boy. And then he talks about drifting from the Catholic church, and then he said, "I've studied Buddhism, Hindu philosophy, native American spirituality, and it's all coagulated. I've taken pieces of it to build my current spiritual understanding. My greatest hope is that when we die we get to experience God and let go of all judgments and preconceived notions and ideas of separation" - in other words, any moral standards - "I think that anything that comes with fear attached or judgement attached, it can't be of God."
"In Proverbs 9, verse 10, it says, 'the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy one is understanding.' And also, if the 10 commandments aren't judgments, I don't know what they are. They're a clear delineations between right and wrong. Those are judgments. It seems Chad Allen wants to wallow in a kind of a soft mist of non-judgmentalism in which nothing's really truly right or wrong anymore, so therefore nobody could clearly say that something like homosexuality is something you shouldn't be doing. And I can understand his desire for that, because he's trapped in this persona, he's convinced himself, he has a gay identity, he probably thinks he was born that way, and you know, I am hoping, along with the producers of the film, that he's had enough exposure to compassionate Christians that he will see that some of his notions about Christians are wrong, and that it's not a matter of hate to oppose homosexuality and that there is hope for change. I'm hoping that Chad Allen will get together with some people who have come out of homosexuality, like people at Exodus International, or Stephen Bennett, whom we've had on many times, who can tell him look, I used to believe the way you did, but let me tell you, there's something much greater, much better."
----- 18 -----
Commentary & News Briefs
Agape Press
March 1, 2006
Compiled by Jody Brown
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/12006h.asp
One year ago today a coalition of abortion proponents that included Planned Parenthood and the ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging a piece of legislation in Michigan that they said would violate the right to have and perform abortions. Yesterday the Thomas More Law Center, based in Ann Arbor, filed a brief on behalf of that measure, the Michigan Legal Birth Definition Act -- an initiative brought about by nearly half a million voters' signatures and passed by both of the state's legislative chambers, effectively circumventing the need for their pro-abortion governor's approval. According to the Law Center, the Act defines the moment when a human being is born and therefore a person under the law -- effectively banning partial-birth abortion in Michigan. "States have the right to draw the line between abortion and infanticide," says Robert Muise, the Law Center attorney handling the case. "[This Act] defines the point at which a child is a person under the law and therefore entitled to rights, including the most basic right to life." In its brief with the Six U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Law Center is asking that a lower-court ruling stopping the Act from taking effect be overturned. Both the Michigan attorney general and the petition drive sponsor, a group known as STTOP (Standing Together To Oppose Partial-birth abortion), appealed that lower-court decision last fall to the Sixth Circuit. [Jody Brown]
[More at URL]
----- 19 -----
New Video Game Teaches Our Kids to Kill Police Officers
American Family Association
Active as of 3 March 2006
http://www.afa.net/petitions/issuedetail.asp?id=188
One of the major outlets selling "25 to Life" is Best Buy. Send an email to Best Buy asking them to discontinue carrying "25 to Life."
An ultra-violent video game known as 25 to Life has been released by the video giant Eidos. In this game, marketed to our children, players can assume the role of a gang member who is encouraged to execute drive-by shootings of police officers and to use civilians as human shields.
Eidos considers this new game entertainment. To celebrate the killing of police officers as entertainment is a sick concept. No matter, Eidos is making money.
[More at URL]
----- 20 -----
Focus, Exodus Respond to 'Gay Task Force' Criticism of Reparative Therapies
By Jody Brown
American Family Association/Agape Press
March 3, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/afa/32006g.asp
(AgapePress) - Two conservative, faith-based organizations are responding to charges by a homosexual group that they are hurting teens who are struggling with same-sex attraction by offering parents therapies to turn their children away from homosexuality.
The research director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute believes some religious-based programs are damaging to homosexual teens. In an interview with Associated Press, Jason Cianciotto suggests that religion is being used inappropriately to help individuals overcome unwanted same-sex attractions.
"Religion cannot be an excuse for placing people in situations where they may be harmed ... particularly minors who are unable to make decisions for themselves," Cianciotto says. He claims some people who have undergone "ex-gay" conversion therapy have suffered lasting damage, including "depression and even attempted suicide or social isolation from their family and friends, and spiritual harm in terms of being excommunicated from their home churches."
[More at URL]
----- 21 -----
Commentary & News Briefs
March 3, 2006
American Family Association/Agape Press
Compiled by Jody Brown
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/afa/32006h.asp
...The executive director of Jews for Jesus is coming to the defense of Rev. Jerry Falwell in the wake of a controversial report in a Jewish newspaper. The Jerusalem Post reported this week that Falwell had decided that God has given Jewish people an exemption when it comes to requiring faith in Christ in order to enter heaven. Falwell categorically denied the report, saying that anyone who knows him knows that he believes Christ is the only way to heaven. David Brickner of Jews for Jesus says he applauds the Lynchburg, Virginia, pastor for standing firm on the exclusivity of the gospel message of salvation through Christ alone. But Brickner says the incident illustrates an "ongoing agenda" among certain Jewish leaders who he says want to "undermine Christian evangelism by trying to shape Christian theology." But the strategy is not working, he adds. "Some Jewish leaders just don't understand how central to evangelical Christianity is the teaching that Jesus Christ is the exclusive Savior for all people, including Jews," Brickner states. And conservative leaders like Falwell, says the Jews for Jesus leader, "still represent the mainstream in evangelical circles." [Jody Brown]
[...]
...A Presbyterian minister in San Rafael, California, being tried by the church for marrying two lesbian couples in violation of church teachings says she was following her conscience and the couples' wishes. Rev. Jane Spahr, a lesbian and homosexual rights activist, is accused of official misconduct for conducting the ceremonies in 2004 and 2005. As the first witness in her trial before a church judicial commission, Spahr testified that while she knew the Presbyterian Church USA reserves marriage for a man and a woman, she used the language the couples wanted when she presided over the nuptials. Spahr could face anything from a rebuke to being forced to leave the ministry if she is found guilty. [AP]
...New York University is the site for the first teacher training program jointly sponsored by two prominent pro-homosexual groups -- one educational, the other religious. GLSEN (the Gay Lesbian & Straight Education Network) and the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) have announced they are teaming to train what they describe as "allies in education" on how to address "anti-gay bias" in schools. The groups claim school officials are often reluctant to intervene in "incidences of anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender name-calling and harassment" because they do not know what to do. Through the "Training of Trainers" program, the groups say they hope to "encourage, enlighten, and empower [educators] to make change." GLSEN and MCC say they plan to have seven more training presentations around the country. There is no report on whether groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union or Americans United for Separation of Church and State plan to challenge the constitutionality of the training on the grounds it may violate the alleged separation of church and state. [Jody Brown]
[More at URL]
----- 22 -----
Attorney Hopes Illinois Will Pass Measure Protecting Pro-Life Pharmacists
ACLJ Lawyer Wants to See Healthcare Workers' Right of Conscience Restored
By Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
March 3, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/afa/32006f.asp
(AgapePress) - Pro-family forces are urging concerned Christians in Illinois to encourage their lawmakers to approve a law that would protect the state's pharmacists who, for faith or conscience reasons, refuse to dispense emergency contraceptives.
The House bill known as HB 4346 would address a rule change initiated by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich that forces pharmacists and pharmacies across the state to dispense "Plan B" emergency contraceptives, also known as the "morning-after pill."
Many individuals object to the dispensation and use of these drugs, which contain high doses of the hormones found in other oral contraceptives, because it is believed that the morning-after pill may sometimes work by preventing the implantation of a fertilized embryo. Some pro-life advocates feel using a drug to prevent implantation is unethical, as it effectively results in the death of the early-stage embryo.
[More at URL]
----- 23 -----
Coral Ridge Leader Labels Bible Text for Schools 'Relativistic'
By Jim Brown
American Family Association/Agape Press
March 2, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/afa/22006e.asp
(AgapePress) - A well-known Christian pastor is denouncing a controversial new Bible curriculum designed for public schools which he says encourages students to question whether the Bible is the inspired Word of God.
The Virginia-based Bible Literacy Project has been promoting a new textbook for public schools called The Bible and Its Influence. Among respected evangelicals who have endorsed the BLP's curriculum are Prison Fellowship founder Chuck Colson and Ted Haggard, president of the National Associations of Evangelicals. A school district near San Antonio, Texas, recently approved The Bible and Its Influence for its use. But state legislatures in both Alabama and Georgia have recently rejected proposals to approve the textbook for use as an elective Bible course in high school English and social studies programs.
Dr. D. James Kennedy, senior minister of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, sits on the advisory board of the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, a group that supports use of the Bible itself as a text in public school Bible classes. Kennedy explains why he does not endorse the BLP text.
"It is relativistic. It's the typical liberal approach to the Bible," says the Florida pastor. "When I was in a half-liberal seminary, it's a kind of thing that they pushed all the time, the purpose of which is to undermine the students' confidence and faith in the teachings of the Bible and in the Word of God."
[More at URL]
----- 24 -----
ADF Demands NC Governor's School Drop Course on 'Gay' Teenagers
By Jim Brown
American Family Association/Agape Press
March 2, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/afa/22006c.asp
(AgapePress) - A Christian attorney says a homosexual advocacy seminar for students at the North Carolina Governor's School, a prestigious, six-week summer program for academically gifted and talented high school students, was offered in violation of state and federal law.
The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has sent a letter to North Carolina school officials, demanding they stop offering "The New Gay Teenager," a seminar presented to elite high school scholars last summer at the North Carolina Governor's School facility in Winston-Salem, known as Governor's School West or GSW. Some parents claim the two instructors who led the seminar encouraged students to question Bible passages condemning homosexuality.
[...]
Johnson also believes the GSW "New Gay Teenager" seminar, as presented, may have violated the Constitution of the United States by demonstrating antagonistic attitudes toward religious beliefs opposing homosexual behavior. "From what we know of what took place in this seminar and potentially in other seminars involved with the Governor's School there," he notes, "they encourage students to question their religious faith. And, in some cases, instructors even indicated an outright hostility towards religious beliefs and traditions."
[More at URL]
----- 25 -----
Parents Sue Over Forced Pro-Homosexual ‘Safety’ Workshop
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2628
March 2, 2006 – Parents of Kentucky children forced to undergo “safety” training that promotes the homosexual agenda have filed a lawsuit to opt out their children.
Federal Judge David Bunning says that students in Boyd County Schools have no religious or free-speech rights to opt out of an ACLU/Gay Straight Alliance diversity training program.
The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) is representing three parents who are challenging mandatory homosexual diversity training. The ADF may appeal Bunning’s decision to the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
[More at URL]
----- 26 -----
Kentucky Children Forced To Take Pro-Homosexual Training
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2619
February 23, 2006 – Children in Ashland, Kentucky have no religious or free-speech rights to opt out of pro-homosexual anti-harassment training, according to Federal Judge David Bunning. According to Bunning, “there is simply no basis for an opt-out” because the anti-harassment program is “rationally related to a legitimate educational goal, namely to maintain a safe environment.”
[...]
Homosexuals typically use the “safe schools” ploy to invade schools with Gay Straight Alliance recruiting clubs. In fact, TVC’s report, “Homosexuals Recruit Public School Children” quotes the head of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network who admitted that “safety” is a tactic used to homosexualize schools.
[More at URL]
----- 27 -----
Top exorcist condemns 'Harry Potter'
'No doubt signature of Prince of Darkness in these books'
Posted: March 3, 2006
10:27 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49097
The Vatican's top exorcist has condemned J.K. Rowling's best-selling "Harry Potter" series as leading children to the devil.
Rev. Gabriele Amorth said: "You start off with Harry Potter, who comes across as a likeable wizard, but you end up with the devil. There is no doubt that the signature of the Prince of Darkness is clearly within these books."
[More at URL]
----- 28 -----
Rothstein upholds judicial "restraint"
Focus on the Family (Canada)
Today's Family News
March 3, 2006
http://www.fotf.ca/tfn/misc/030306_02.html
Federal Court of Appeal Judge Marshall Rothstein, who was appointed Wednesday by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to the Supreme Court of Canada, believes that the role of the courts is to apply the law as set down by Parliament – and not to create new law.
Answering questions earlier in the week from MPs during a first-ever public hearing for a Supreme Court nominee, CanWest News reported that the former Winnipeg lawyer and university professor said he agreed “absolutely” with Harper that the appropriate “judicial temperament” is – in Rothstein’s words – to “apply the law, not depart from it and not invent it.”
[More at URL]
----- 29 -----
Government study affirms marriage
Focus on the Family Canada
Today's Family News
March 3, 2006
http://www.fotf.ca/tfn/family/stories/030306.html
For the sake of the children involved, a new French parliamentary report concluded that marriage should not be extended to include same-sex couples, LifeSiteNews.com reported in February.
“Marriage,” the 450-page study affirmed, “is not merely the contractual recognition of the love between a couple; it is a framework that imposes rights and duties . . . designed to provide for the care and harmonious development of the child.”
Commissioned by the president of France’s National Assembly, it recommends against any move by France to legalize gay marriage, gay adoptions or the use of new reproductive technologies that would enable same-sex couples to procreate.
[...]
Take Action Suggestion> In the upcoming debate and dialogue in Canada about restoring the definition of marriage, you may find this French report to be an asset in explaining to your MP why you believe marriage should legally be changed back to its opposite-sex definition.
[More at URL]
Missouri's HCR13 would declare Christianity the official majority religion and "protect the majority's right to express their religious beliefs";
Anti-cloning, anti-genetic-research, anti-genetic-engineering, anti-transhumanism initiative in Missouri also will define a zygote as human life and a "natural person" under the law - no doubt intended to use Frankenstein-scare language to bring an attack against genetic research and abortion;
Alliance between American fundamentalist theocrats and orthodox socially-conservative Jewish leaders results in an important theological opinion: Falwell, Gary Bauer, and several others assert that Jews can get to heaven without acknowledging Jesus; Bauer wouldn't do it without a sign-off from Dobson, since Bauer heads the Family Research Council, which has strong direct ties to Focus on the Family; [UPDATE: See below; Falwell is denying the report]
Creationism wars show up in Britain, with evangelical conservatives and conservative Muslims both attacking evolutionary theory and pushing young-earth Creationism;
Focus on the Family lays covering fire for Alito after his letter to them (seen in the previous CWU);
Las Vegas contractor starts anti-evolutionary-theory state constitutional amendment initiative;
Focus on the Family goes all "Who, little ol' us? Why, it's just a thank-you note" regarding Alito's letter;
Kentucky passes stricter "waiting period" legislation on abortion;
Focus on the Family pushes anti-gay "reparative therapy"; Dr. Warren Throckmorton, a regular Concerned Women for America wonk establishing himself as a regular spout-pot for anti-gay material, is quoted extensively;
Fundamentalists who pushed through abortion ban in South Dakota all surprised that people are pissed off about it; includes ACTION ITEM to urge South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds to sign the bill into law;
Mississippi House of Representatives passes abortion ban - bans all abortions except to save the life of the mother and in cases of rape or incest - but does not include a health exception; fundamentalists annoyed about the rape-or-incest exceptions -- "God does not make mistakes" -- but not enough to be unhappy about the bill;
Fundamentalist petition campaign protesting Brokeback Mountain's Oscar nominations to be delivered to Academy;
Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM to complain to CNN after Wolf Blitzer repeatedly referred to "Reverend" Dobson instead of "Doctor" Dobson in a report about the Alito letter;
Concerned Women for America ACTION ITEM condemning Alaska Senator Ted Stevens for not pushing hard enough on his "indecency" bill - he says he doesn't have enough votes; CWA wants senators contacted;
Concered Women for America's Robert Knight condemns Colorado "Reciprocal Beneficiary Bill" which lets people who can't marry designate each other as reciprocal beneficiaries - it's not even up to the level of a civil unions bill - on the basis that it benefits queers, and "homosexuality is immoral, unhealthy, preventable and changeable" and that law should only support relationships their religion supports - "marriage and family law should serve only to protect and support the God-created, marriage-based family";
CWA's Robert Knight on "The 'Gaying' of American Entertainment"; blames gay people in general and Lawrence v. Texas for Mormon polygamy;
CWA's Robert Knight condemns Chad Allen (the actor who played missionary pilot Nate Saint in the movie End of the Spear") for his GBLT activism, blames him for the economic failure of the film, pushes "ex-gay" bullshit Exodus International;
Agape Press covers a lawsuit against a Michigan initiative banning so-called "partial birth" abortion procedures;
American Family Association ACTION ITEM: "New Video Game Teaches Our Kids to Kill Police Officers"
Involuntary teen-oriented gay "therapy" camps, as have been described here in earlier Cultural Warfare Updates, get defended by the American Family Association and Focus on the Family;
American Family Association report says Jerry Falwall is denying that Jews can get into heaven without Jesus; also, they imply that anti-bullying efforts may be a violation of "the alleged separation of Church and State" - note their use of the word "alleged" - if you think these guys aren't theocrats, wake the fuck up;
ACLJ (Pat Robertson's theoconservative legal group modeled after the ACLU with an intentionally-confusingly-similar acronym) wants Illinois to pass a law letting pharmacists refuse to dispense emergency contraception;
Not all fundamentalists are happy with the "Biblical Literacy Project" - James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries calls it "relativistic" and "the typical liberal approach to the Bible";
Alliance Defense Fund describes North Carolina "The New Gay Teenager" seminar as "homosexual advocacy" and in violation of the Constitution; remember, anything not explicitly condemnation is, in theocon language, "promoting homosexuality";
Traditional Values Coalition reports on lawsuit by a group of parents upset about an anti-bullying/safety campaign that includes GBLT kids, saying it "promotes the homosexual agenda" to say, presumably, that you can't beat up the fags; Concerned Women for America through the 90s made a habit of defending gaybashing as a "normal and natural reaction" to queers, and while they've gotten away from being quite that explicit about it, it's still just hanging around waiting to get picked up again; they link to an earlier TVC report calling the anti-harassment programme "pro-homosexual training";
Here's a link to said article calling anti-harassment programmes "pro-homosexual training";
WorldNetDaily reports that the "Vatican's top exorcist" has condemned Harry Potter as satanic again;
Focus on the Family Canada praises Federal Court of Appeal Judge Marshall Rothstein, new appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada;
***** Focus on the Family Canada links to the French Conservative party report asserting that queers shouldn't get marriage rights; ACTION ITEM to contact your MPs and quote this report a lot to try to get a revote in parliament to eliminate marriage rights for GBLTfolk; also notes that it says that it's important to keep gay people from being able to "procreate."
----- 1 -----
State bill proposes Christianity be Missouri’s official religion
12:28 AM CST on Friday, March 3, 2006
By John Mills, News 4
KMOV-TV, St, Louis
http://www.kmov.com/topstories/stories/030206ccklrKmovreligionbill.7d361c3f.html
Missouri legislators in Jefferson City considered a bill that would name Christianity the state's official "majority" religion.
[...]
The resolution would recognize "a Christian god," and it would not protect minority religions, but "protect the majority's right to express their religious beliefs.
The resolution also recognizes that, "a greater power exists," and only Christianity receives what the resolution calls, "justified recognition."
State representative David Sater of Cassville in southwestern Missouri, sponsored the resolution, but he has refused to talk about it on camera or over the phone.
[More at URL]
----- 3 -----
The Elliot Institute
Initiative Text
Current as of 3 March 2006
http://www.elliotinstitute.org/initiative.htm
Be it resolved by the people of the State of Missouri that the Constitution be amended:
One new article is adopted and added to be known as Regulation of Human-Animal Crossbreeds, Cloning, Transhumansim, and Human Engineering Is Reserved to the People
Section 1. Findings Regarding the Threat of Unregulated Human Engineering
1. Scientific discoveries and advances in genetic engineering have now made it possible to clone human beings, to genetically alter human beings for the purpose of eliminating disease or adding new biological features, and to create genetic hybrids using both human and animal genes.
2. Proponents of transhumansim, neoeugenics, and human engineering have proposed ideas that would drastically alter society in known and unknown ways. Among other proposals, proponents of human engineering have suggested the following:
[More at URL]
----- 3 -----
Falwell: Jews can get to heaven
By ILAN CHAIM
Mar. 1, 2006 4:17 | Updated Mar. 1, 2006 7:41
The Jerusalem Post
Long URL elided
An evangelical pastor and an Orthodox rabbi, both from Texas, have apparently persuaded leading Baptist preacher Jerry Falwell that Jews can get to heaven without being converted to Christianity.
Televangelist John Hagee and Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg, whose Cornerstone Church and Rodfei Sholom congregations are based in San Antonio, told The Jerusalem Post that Falwell had adopted Hagee's innovative belief in what Christians refer to as "dual covenant" theology.
This creed, which runs counter to mainstream evangelism, maintains that the Jewish people has a special relationship to God through the revelation at Sinai and therefore does not need "to go through Christ or the Cross" to get to heaven.
[Editor's note: This account is disputed by Falwell; see below]
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
Academics fight rise of creationism at universities
* More students believe Darwin got it wrong
* Royal Society challenges 'insidious problem'
Duncan Campbell
Tuesday February 21, 2006
The Guardian
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,1714171,00.html
A growing number of science students on British campuses and in sixth form colleges are challenging the theory of evolution and arguing that Darwin was wrong. Some are being failed in university exams because they quote sayings from the Bible or Qur'an as scientific fact and at one sixth form college in London most biology students are now thought to be creationists.
Earlier this month Muslim medical students in London distributed leaflets that dismissed Darwin's theories as false. Evangelical Christian students are also increasingly vocal in challenging the notion of evolution.
In the United States there is growing pressure to teach creationism or "intelligent design" in science classes, despite legal rulings against it. Now similar trends in this country have prompted the Royal Society, Britain's leading scientific academy, to confront the issue head on with a talk entitled Why Creationism is Wrong. The award-winning geneticist and author Steve Jones will deliver the lecture and challenge creationists, Christian and Islamic, to argue their case rationally at the society's event in April.
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
ALITO SAYS THANK YOU; LIBERALS CRY FOUL
A simple note of appreciation turns into a media storm.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
by Pete Winn, associate editor
March 2, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039713.cfm
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is the subject of
controversy for sending a thank-you note to Focus on the
Family Founder and Chairman Dr. James Dobson.
But that controversy appears to have been ginned up by the
same liberal activists who opposed the recently confirmed
justice's nomination to the high court.
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
Nevada May Consider Evolution Constitutional Amendment
SUMMARY: Amendment would require teachers to acknowledge the controversies.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 2, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039712.cfm
A proposed constitutional amendment in Nevada would
require teachers to tell students there are many
unanswered questions about the theory of evolution.
Opponents claim it's a thinly veiled attempt to allow
intelligent design into the schools, but the man behind
the idea, Steve Brown, a masonry contractor from Las
Vegas, said that's not what he's after.
"I'm not promoting intelligent design or creationism," he
told Family News in Focus. "The amendment simply says
'students must be informed that although most scientists
agree that Darwin's theory of evolution is well-supported,
a small minority of scientists do not agree.' "
[More at URL]
----- 7 -----
COMMENTARY: THANK-YOU NOTES AND CARICATURES
The media can't figure out how to handle a thank-you note.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 2, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/commentary/a0039714.cfm
We honestly didn't see it coming.
Focus on the Family has a culture of sending thank-you
notes. So, it was ordinary in a daily-routine sort of way
to receive one. Granted, this one garnered a little more
attention because the understated gothic letterhead read
simply "Supreme Court of the United States" and at the
bottom was the indecipherable signature of the newest
associate justice.
But still, it was a thank-you note, and our main reaction
here at Focus was "How nice and how thoughtful of someone
as busy as Samuel Alito to take a moment to write us."
[More at URL]
----- 8 -----
Kentucky Legislators Strengthen 24-Hour Abortion Waiting Period
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 2, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
Kentucky lawmakers approved legislation Tuesday that that
would require women to receive counseling in person 24
hours in advance of an abortion and to be told of the
risks of the procedure, The Courier-Journal reported.
Republican Sen. Katie Stine, the bill's sponsor, said the
legislation is designed to clarify a 1998 law that
requires women to receive information about abortion one
day in advance.
Currently, women must call a recorded message, but Senate
Bill 125, which was approved on a 34-3 vote, would require
the information to be given in person.
"The goal of this legislation is that women are given all
the facts," Stine said. "Now, my own belief is -- and I
can't be certain of this -- that once women are given all
the facts, many of them may decide to have the child
instead."
The House State Government Committee unanimously approved
its own version of the bill which now heads to the full
House.
----- 9 -----
HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVISTS LAUNCH NEW ATTACK ON EX-GAY MOVEMENT
Pro-family groups reaffirm that change, though not easy, is possible.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 3, 2006
by Pete Winn, associate editor
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039736.cfm
Pro-family groups today defended the ex-gay movement and
the truth that homosexuals can change from a broadside
assault launched Thursday by the National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force (NGLTF).
The activist group released a report that claimed
reparative therapy is ineffective -- charging groups that
recommend efforts to prevent homosexuality among teenagers
with causing the youth harm.
Matt Foreman, NGLTF's executive director, specifically
singled out Focus on the Family and Exodus International,
claiming the groups "demonize young people" and "prey on
the fears of parents" through conducting programs like
Love Won Out.
"This report exposes the extent to which these zealots
will go," he said, "including reformulating their ex-gay
snake oil at the expense of vulnerable children and young
adults."
[...]
Dr. Warren Throckmorton, professor of psychology at Grove
City College in Grove City, Pa., said there is no basis
for the wild claim that therapy for homosexuals causes
harm.
[More at URL]
----- 10 -----
Abortion Ban Supporters Hit by Vandalism
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
March 3, 2006
by Wendy Cloyd, assistant editor
SUMMARY: South Dakota pro-lifers are targets of eggs and
threatening calls.
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039731.cfm
Pro-abortion activists in South Dakota have apparently
begun punishing supporters of an abortion ban.
The bill to ban abortion sailed through both houses of the
state Legislature last month and is now at the governor's
desk awaiting his signature
Leslee Unruh, founder of the Alpha Center, a
pregnancy-resource agency, fought hard to get the message
to lawmakers that abortion kills innocent babies and hurts
women.
She said she and her family have now become targets.
Her house has been splattered with eggs. She's had coat
hangers arrive in her mailbox. Someone placed dead animals
on the property of her husband's chiropractic clinic,
leading some employees to fear coming to work. She's
received extremely threatening calls in the middle of the
night, a ton of hate mail, and her favorite coffee shop
told her not to come back.
"They said, 'We have a choice as to who we serve, and we
choose not to serve you,' " she said. "They were careful
to emphasize the word 'choice.' "
Unruh said she knew some people would be upset by the ban,
but she's shocked at the level of the anger.
[...]
TAKE ACTION: The bill to ban abortion is on the desk of
South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds. If you live in South
Dakota, please contact him today and ask him to sign the
bill. You can find an easy-to-use e-mail form in the
CitizenLink Action Center.
http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/bio/?id=8031&lvl=S&chamber=G
[More at URL]
----- 11 -----
Mississippi Lawmakers Vote to Ban Most Abortions
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 3, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
The Mississippi House voted Thursday to ban abortion, with
exceptions for pregnancies that endanger the mother's life
or in cases of rape or incest.
According to The Associated Press, the bill passed 94-25
and now moves to the Senate. Republican Gov. Haley Barbour
has said he would sign the bill.
"How many millions of souls are crying out that's been
killed because of this hideous practice called abortion?"
Rep. Eric Robinson, R-Quitman, said during the House
debate.
Notably, no lawmakers stood to argue in favor of abortion
on demand.
The bill originally contained only an exception to save
the life of the mother, but the additional exceptions were
added by a 62-56 vote.
Rep. Deryk Parker, D-Lucedale, argued that there should be
no abortions allowed in cases of rape or incest.
"God does not make mistakes," Parker said. "Regardless of
how conception takes place, life begins at conception."
If the bill is passed, anyone performing an abortion could
be punished by a $5,000 fine and up to a year in prison.
----- 12 -----
61,000 Upset 'Brokeback' Got More Oscar Nods Than 'Narnia'
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
March 3, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
Nationwide outrage that "Brokeback Mountain" received more
Oscar nominations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences than "The Chronicles of Narnia" garnered more
than 61,000 signatures of protest.
"Narnia" received three nominations, each for technical
aspects, not for artistic achievement. "Brokeback
Mountain" received eight.
Dr. Gary Cass, executive director of the Center for
Reclaiming America, directed the letter of protest to Sid
Ganis, president of the Academy.
"The Academy's nomination of this film has little to do
with honoring great moviemaking. Instead, it is just a
high-profile attempt to mainstream the homosexual agenda,"
the letter reads. "That this movie uses the classic symbol
of the American male -- the cowboy -- to promote this
agenda is offensive to the vast majority of Americans."
Cass said Americans can't give Hollywood a free pass and
allow it to push the gay agenda on the nation while it
ignores family-friendly films.
"Your agenda is even more obvious when considering that
movies like 'The Chronicles of Narnia,' that have themes
that resonate with most Americans," he said, "are
virtually ignored by the Academy."
The letter, along with the 61,061 signatures, will be
delivered to the Academy today. The 78th Annual Academy
Awards ceremony is Sunday.
----- 13 -----
Dr. Dobson Wants You to Set CNN Straight
Network keeps calling him "Reverend"
Focus on the Family
Editor's Note
March 3, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
Focus on the Family Chairman Dr. James Dobson asked
listeners to his daily radio show today to set CNN -- and
particularly Wolf Blitzer -- straight on what to call him.
In a rather slanted report about a thank-you note Dr.
Dobson received from new Supreme Court Justice Samuel
Alito on Wednesday's edition of Blitzer's "Situation Room"
program, a reporter referred to Focus' founder as
"Reverend Dobson" five times in only a few seconds of
airtime.
It's not an uncommon mistake for the media to make, but
Dr. Dobson -- who, for the record, is a licensed
psychologist with a Ph.D. in child development -- says CNN
shouldn't still be making it.
"Would somebody out there please write Wolf Blitzer at CNN
and remind him of what we have told him about 50 times?
That I am not a reverend and he ought to know that by
now?" Dr. Dobson asked on today's broadcast. "If I were a
minister, I'd be honored to say so, but I'm not."
He even suggested a creative way to refer to Blitzer when
writing a letter: "You might address your correspondence
to Archbishop Blitzer."
We've made it easy for you to do as Dr. Dobson asks. Just
visit the link below -- and click the "Go" button at the
top when you get there -- to compose an e-mail that will
be delivered directly to Blitzer's workstation at CNN.
http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/issues/alert/?alertid=8541436&type=CU
----- 14 -----
Sen. Stevens Needs to Build a Bridge to Decency
Concerned Women for America3/2/2006
By Jan LaRue, Esq. Chief Counsel
Stevens’ refusal to move a decency bill shows his ‘decency’ hearings are a sham.
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/10236/LEGAL/pornography/index.htm
Has anybody forgotten the outrage over CBS’s 2004 Super Bowl halftime program featuring Janet Jackson’s feigned “wardrobe malfunction”? Viewers kicked-off 525,000 complaints to the FCC, more than any other show in broadcast history has produced.
Apparently Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is suffering a selective-memory-malfunction and needs a reminder that Americans continue to want Congress to pass legislation that strengthens the FCC’s enforcement efforts by increasing the fines for violators.
Stevens says he doesn’t see any of the four indecency-related bills stalled in his committee, including boosting indecency fines and enforcement, going forward: “As far as I'm concerned, none of them have enough support for us to move as long as this process works,” as he is quoted in Broadcasting and Cable (December 12, 2005).
[...]
If you’re sick of Stevens’ stall on S. 193, let him know and let your senators know, too.
[More at URL]
----- 15 -----
Colorado Reciprocal Beneficiary Bill Stalls in State Senate Committee
Concerned Women for America
3/2/2006
By Robert Knight and Jan LaRue
Measure would expedite some benefits to nonmarried couples, including homosexuals.
Editor's Note: This article was revised and updated on March 3, 2006.
Analysis
A Colorado Senate committee has stalled on a 3-3 vote a controversial bill that would establish Reciprocal Beneficiary Agreements (RBAs) for people ineligible to be married, including homosexual couples.
Concerned Women for America opposes the bill because we believe it cheapens marriage and gives the appearance of appeasing homosexual activists, which is neither desirable nor possible to do.
Also, despite some proponents’ insistence that all of the RBAs are already available via durable power of attorney, the bill actually creates a new right to health benefits currently available only through traditional family relationships. The latest version of the bill also creates a death benefit now available only to widows, widowers and dependent children. As such, the bill takes several advantages unique to marriage and conveys them to nonmarital relationships.
[...]
CWA opposes the bill for several reasons.
1. It implies that family-based marriage law is in and of itself a form of discrimination that needs a remedy. We believe marriage and family law should serve only to protect and support the God-created, marriage-based family.
2. It provides incentives for people to avoid marriage, and since it bars opposite-sex couples from getting these incentives, it appears to be geared toward appeasing homosexual activists.
3. The law should not chip away at the unique benefits of marriage by granting such benefits to other relationships, even the “two elderly sisters” that are often cited as the reason behind the bill, even though there is no substantial group other than homosexual activists pressing for such benefits.
4. Laws should not directly or indirectly facilitate homosexual relationships, since homosexuality is immoral, unhealthy, preventable and changeable.
[More at URL]
----- 16 -----
The ‘Gaying’ of American Entertainment
Concerned Women for America
3/3/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/10240/CFI/misc/index.htm
Are you having trouble relating to many of the things being offered as entertainment? Entertainment elites are increasingly homosexual. That could explain a slew of plays, movies, and television shows that feature “gay” humor, “gay” characters, and promiscuous lifestyles. Some of the latest offerings include a new HBO reality series on polygamists and an off-Broadway production featuring a homosexual Charlie Brown. Bob Knight, Director of CWA’s Culture & Family Institute, tackles these subjects. Click here to listen.
["Can you imagine Peanuts with Charlie Brown - as a homosexual?" Robert Knight: "Just recently [gays] went after the American cowboy with Brokeback Mountain and Willie Nelson singing that song about cowboys secretly frequently fond of each other, now we see them with a play in New York City called 'Dog Sees God,' I guess it's a play on words somehow, but it's all about Peanuts, the comic strip, drawn by Charles Schultz for years. Here's how an article in The Advocate magazine starts, "'What if Charlie Brown was gay, and fell in love with sensitive piano-playing Schroder?' That's the central question asked by the off-Broadway play Dog Seas God, a black-humour takeoff on the beloved Charles Schultz comic "Peanuts." The comics are now 10 years older and puberty has morphed them into personae quite different from their former selves, starting with their names. They've turned Pig Pen, the little boy who's surrounded by a cloud of dust, into a homophobic clean-freak who carries around a hand dispenser of Purel, blanket-lover Linus now is named Van, and he's a Buddhist pot-head, but most shocking of all is the play's inciting event, Snoopy has died." So they kill off Snoopy. But this is just they want to take everything that's good and decent and twist it to their own purposes, and this is one more example of that."
"They change it just enough to avoid legal entanglements... that would be my guess.. but to summarise it all, the reviewer says, "'Dog Sees God' is a fun romp for anyone who doesn't mind seeing their beloved Peanuts characters tarnished by alcohol, sex, and violence." Well, I mind, I've been a Peanuts fan for years, and, so... but the Advocate is actually full of show-biz news this week..."
"Here's a new show called Big Love, which is debuting on HBO, and it's about a man with three wives. And remember how for years the gay activists have told us, oh, you know, we're not talking about polygamy, that has nothing to do with validating homosexuality, well, they got, the gay creators, Mark Olson and Will Sheffers, Big Love, HBO's latest Sunday night serial debuts March 12th, it's "engrossing peak at the love that dare not speak their name," that's a play on the homosexual phrasing, "the love that dares not speak its name," so you have them exploring every kind of perversion imaginable and trying to mainstream it. You know, we've seen lawsuits develop because of the homosexual marriage cases, the polygamists are now coming forth in Utah and Arizona and filing lawsuits saying that if the US Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas said that all morality is essentially private, then how can the state require marriage to be the union of just a man and a woman? Why limit it just to two? Their logic is pretty good, because the court really opened the door wide for that kind of fallout."
"[Desperate Housewives has] a kid on the show named Andrew, who's the son of Bree, who's the redhead I guess, who is very straight-laced, and is ashamed that her son has come out as gay, but he's played by this guy Shaun Piefrom(?!) and he's featured in The Advocate this month, and they have an interview with him, and listen to this quote from him, Here's the question, "Do you feel a responsibility to portray Andrew a certain way?" And Shawn says, "No, not necessarily, I think what's great about Andrew is they developed him as this," and I'll use an expletive, "teenager who is terrible to his mother, hits old ladies with this car, and also happens to be gay. They don't make him this typical weak gay character, and I think that's good, because it's saying that even if you're gay, you can still be strong and confident." Excuse me, hitting old ladies with cars, being horrible to your mother is strong and confident? What a perverse view of masculine confidence."
"Mark Cherry is the creator of Desperate Housewives, he's an out homosexual producer, and this is , here's another question for Shawn, "You attended Cracked XMas, a fund-raiser for the Trevor Project, a gay youth hotline, are there any other ways you show support for gay youth?" Quote. "I've done a lot of fundraisers and events supporting gay rights and gotten involved in things through Mark Cherry, I feel raising awareness about gay rights is important." In other words, Mark Cherry is turning this kid into a gay activist, even though he's straight. So I, the influence in Hollywood can't be denied, they're pretty much running Hollywood now, they're not just merely influencing it, they're in the driver's seat, and if you wonder why you can't relate to so many prime-time shows anymore, or even movies churned out of Hollywood, it's because of who's in the driver's seat. They probably don't share your values."
----- 17 -----
‘End of the Spear’ Actor Not Sorry for Activism
Concerned Women for America
3/3/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/10243/CFI/misc/index.htm
Chad Allen, the actor who played missionary pilot Nate Saint in the movie “End of the Spear” is unapologetic for his homosexual activism according to an interview in the latest issue of The Advocate. Bob Knight, Director of CWA’s Culture & Family Institute, has more on this and its impact on the movie’s box office. Click here to listen.
[Robert Knight: "Chad Allen is the actor who played the Christian missionary Nate Saint who gets killed by natives with other missionaries, but the controversy erupted because Chad Allen turns out to be a homosexual activist, and when they first cast him, the producers of the film didn't know that, but once they cast him, they found out, they went ahead with it, even though it was pointed out to them that he did use his platform as an actor to promote homosexuality. A lot of people have questioned the wisdom of that, and there's been a great debate among [sic] Christian circles about how far to go to accommodate non-believers in Christian projects.
"And I think now that a little time has passed and we can look at what's happened, I'd have to come down on the side of those who say, "No, that wasn't such a good idea, having Chad Allen in such a prominent role," because he has used it as a platform, and I think this interview titled "Chad Allen's Not Sorry" is indicative of that."
"I think [Chad Allen] did [have an impact], because it had high production values, and was expected to be a hit. The critics treated it very nicely... it should have been in the theatres longer, but I think a lot of people, when they found out that Chad Allen was using it as a vehicle to promote homosexuality, they didn't give the film a chance. And I'll acknowledge... I haven't seen the film, I was planning to see it, and I found out it had left the theatre already... maybe I'll have to get it on DVD... but Chad Allen senses has said (?) things like... in the interview in The Advocateof March 14th ... the question was, "You've said, you wanted this film to bridge the divide between gay people and people of faith; is that mission still feasible given the backlash from conservative Christians?" Chad's answer is, "It's not just my mission; it's my accomplishment. We've done it. I'm surrounded by an enormous amount of letters and emails and phone calls from people publicly supporting me who are Christians, who are saying to me, 'look, we're getting to witness first-hand the meanness of gone on in the name of Jesus Christ for a long time.'" In other words, the people who uphold traditional Biblical morality are considered mean, and those who feel we have to cave in on the gay issues are the nice ones. And Chad Allen is openly saying, this is great, it gave him an opportunity to push this message, that you're mean if you don't along with homosexuality, and you're nice if you do."
"He talked a little bit about his own beliefs, he said I'm a deeply spiritual person, but he said, religion still makes me squeamish, I grew up a Catholic boy. And then he talks about drifting from the Catholic church, and then he said, "I've studied Buddhism, Hindu philosophy, native American spirituality, and it's all coagulated. I've taken pieces of it to build my current spiritual understanding. My greatest hope is that when we die we get to experience God and let go of all judgments and preconceived notions and ideas of separation" - in other words, any moral standards - "I think that anything that comes with fear attached or judgement attached, it can't be of God."
"In Proverbs 9, verse 10, it says, 'the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy one is understanding.' And also, if the 10 commandments aren't judgments, I don't know what they are. They're a clear delineations between right and wrong. Those are judgments. It seems Chad Allen wants to wallow in a kind of a soft mist of non-judgmentalism in which nothing's really truly right or wrong anymore, so therefore nobody could clearly say that something like homosexuality is something you shouldn't be doing. And I can understand his desire for that, because he's trapped in this persona, he's convinced himself, he has a gay identity, he probably thinks he was born that way, and you know, I am hoping, along with the producers of the film, that he's had enough exposure to compassionate Christians that he will see that some of his notions about Christians are wrong, and that it's not a matter of hate to oppose homosexuality and that there is hope for change. I'm hoping that Chad Allen will get together with some people who have come out of homosexuality, like people at Exodus International, or Stephen Bennett, whom we've had on many times, who can tell him look, I used to believe the way you did, but let me tell you, there's something much greater, much better."
----- 18 -----
Commentary & News Briefs
Agape Press
March 1, 2006
Compiled by Jody Brown
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/12006h.asp
One year ago today a coalition of abortion proponents that included Planned Parenthood and the ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging a piece of legislation in Michigan that they said would violate the right to have and perform abortions. Yesterday the Thomas More Law Center, based in Ann Arbor, filed a brief on behalf of that measure, the Michigan Legal Birth Definition Act -- an initiative brought about by nearly half a million voters' signatures and passed by both of the state's legislative chambers, effectively circumventing the need for their pro-abortion governor's approval. According to the Law Center, the Act defines the moment when a human being is born and therefore a person under the law -- effectively banning partial-birth abortion in Michigan. "States have the right to draw the line between abortion and infanticide," says Robert Muise, the Law Center attorney handling the case. "[This Act] defines the point at which a child is a person under the law and therefore entitled to rights, including the most basic right to life." In its brief with the Six U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Law Center is asking that a lower-court ruling stopping the Act from taking effect be overturned. Both the Michigan attorney general and the petition drive sponsor, a group known as STTOP (Standing Together To Oppose Partial-birth abortion), appealed that lower-court decision last fall to the Sixth Circuit. [Jody Brown]
[More at URL]
----- 19 -----
New Video Game Teaches Our Kids to Kill Police Officers
American Family Association
Active as of 3 March 2006
http://www.afa.net/petitions/issuedetail.asp?id=188
One of the major outlets selling "25 to Life" is Best Buy. Send an email to Best Buy asking them to discontinue carrying "25 to Life."
An ultra-violent video game known as 25 to Life has been released by the video giant Eidos. In this game, marketed to our children, players can assume the role of a gang member who is encouraged to execute drive-by shootings of police officers and to use civilians as human shields.
Eidos considers this new game entertainment. To celebrate the killing of police officers as entertainment is a sick concept. No matter, Eidos is making money.
[More at URL]
----- 20 -----
Focus, Exodus Respond to 'Gay Task Force' Criticism of Reparative Therapies
By Jody Brown
American Family Association/Agape Press
March 3, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/afa/32006g.asp
(AgapePress) - Two conservative, faith-based organizations are responding to charges by a homosexual group that they are hurting teens who are struggling with same-sex attraction by offering parents therapies to turn their children away from homosexuality.
The research director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute believes some religious-based programs are damaging to homosexual teens. In an interview with Associated Press, Jason Cianciotto suggests that religion is being used inappropriately to help individuals overcome unwanted same-sex attractions.
"Religion cannot be an excuse for placing people in situations where they may be harmed ... particularly minors who are unable to make decisions for themselves," Cianciotto says. He claims some people who have undergone "ex-gay" conversion therapy have suffered lasting damage, including "depression and even attempted suicide or social isolation from their family and friends, and spiritual harm in terms of being excommunicated from their home churches."
[More at URL]
----- 21 -----
Commentary & News Briefs
March 3, 2006
American Family Association/Agape Press
Compiled by Jody Brown
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/afa/32006h.asp
...The executive director of Jews for Jesus is coming to the defense of Rev. Jerry Falwell in the wake of a controversial report in a Jewish newspaper. The Jerusalem Post reported this week that Falwell had decided that God has given Jewish people an exemption when it comes to requiring faith in Christ in order to enter heaven. Falwell categorically denied the report, saying that anyone who knows him knows that he believes Christ is the only way to heaven. David Brickner of Jews for Jesus says he applauds the Lynchburg, Virginia, pastor for standing firm on the exclusivity of the gospel message of salvation through Christ alone. But Brickner says the incident illustrates an "ongoing agenda" among certain Jewish leaders who he says want to "undermine Christian evangelism by trying to shape Christian theology." But the strategy is not working, he adds. "Some Jewish leaders just don't understand how central to evangelical Christianity is the teaching that Jesus Christ is the exclusive Savior for all people, including Jews," Brickner states. And conservative leaders like Falwell, says the Jews for Jesus leader, "still represent the mainstream in evangelical circles." [Jody Brown]
[...]
...A Presbyterian minister in San Rafael, California, being tried by the church for marrying two lesbian couples in violation of church teachings says she was following her conscience and the couples' wishes. Rev. Jane Spahr, a lesbian and homosexual rights activist, is accused of official misconduct for conducting the ceremonies in 2004 and 2005. As the first witness in her trial before a church judicial commission, Spahr testified that while she knew the Presbyterian Church USA reserves marriage for a man and a woman, she used the language the couples wanted when she presided over the nuptials. Spahr could face anything from a rebuke to being forced to leave the ministry if she is found guilty. [AP]
...New York University is the site for the first teacher training program jointly sponsored by two prominent pro-homosexual groups -- one educational, the other religious. GLSEN (the Gay Lesbian & Straight Education Network) and the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) have announced they are teaming to train what they describe as "allies in education" on how to address "anti-gay bias" in schools. The groups claim school officials are often reluctant to intervene in "incidences of anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender name-calling and harassment" because they do not know what to do. Through the "Training of Trainers" program, the groups say they hope to "encourage, enlighten, and empower [educators] to make change." GLSEN and MCC say they plan to have seven more training presentations around the country. There is no report on whether groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union or Americans United for Separation of Church and State plan to challenge the constitutionality of the training on the grounds it may violate the alleged separation of church and state. [Jody Brown]
[More at URL]
----- 22 -----
Attorney Hopes Illinois Will Pass Measure Protecting Pro-Life Pharmacists
ACLJ Lawyer Wants to See Healthcare Workers' Right of Conscience Restored
By Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
March 3, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/afa/32006f.asp
(AgapePress) - Pro-family forces are urging concerned Christians in Illinois to encourage their lawmakers to approve a law that would protect the state's pharmacists who, for faith or conscience reasons, refuse to dispense emergency contraceptives.
The House bill known as HB 4346 would address a rule change initiated by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich that forces pharmacists and pharmacies across the state to dispense "Plan B" emergency contraceptives, also known as the "morning-after pill."
Many individuals object to the dispensation and use of these drugs, which contain high doses of the hormones found in other oral contraceptives, because it is believed that the morning-after pill may sometimes work by preventing the implantation of a fertilized embryo. Some pro-life advocates feel using a drug to prevent implantation is unethical, as it effectively results in the death of the early-stage embryo.
[More at URL]
----- 23 -----
Coral Ridge Leader Labels Bible Text for Schools 'Relativistic'
By Jim Brown
American Family Association/Agape Press
March 2, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/afa/22006e.asp
(AgapePress) - A well-known Christian pastor is denouncing a controversial new Bible curriculum designed for public schools which he says encourages students to question whether the Bible is the inspired Word of God.
The Virginia-based Bible Literacy Project has been promoting a new textbook for public schools called The Bible and Its Influence. Among respected evangelicals who have endorsed the BLP's curriculum are Prison Fellowship founder Chuck Colson and Ted Haggard, president of the National Associations of Evangelicals. A school district near San Antonio, Texas, recently approved The Bible and Its Influence for its use. But state legislatures in both Alabama and Georgia have recently rejected proposals to approve the textbook for use as an elective Bible course in high school English and social studies programs.
Dr. D. James Kennedy, senior minister of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, sits on the advisory board of the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, a group that supports use of the Bible itself as a text in public school Bible classes. Kennedy explains why he does not endorse the BLP text.
"It is relativistic. It's the typical liberal approach to the Bible," says the Florida pastor. "When I was in a half-liberal seminary, it's a kind of thing that they pushed all the time, the purpose of which is to undermine the students' confidence and faith in the teachings of the Bible and in the Word of God."
[More at URL]
----- 24 -----
ADF Demands NC Governor's School Drop Course on 'Gay' Teenagers
By Jim Brown
American Family Association/Agape Press
March 2, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/afa/22006c.asp
(AgapePress) - A Christian attorney says a homosexual advocacy seminar for students at the North Carolina Governor's School, a prestigious, six-week summer program for academically gifted and talented high school students, was offered in violation of state and federal law.
The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has sent a letter to North Carolina school officials, demanding they stop offering "The New Gay Teenager," a seminar presented to elite high school scholars last summer at the North Carolina Governor's School facility in Winston-Salem, known as Governor's School West or GSW. Some parents claim the two instructors who led the seminar encouraged students to question Bible passages condemning homosexuality.
[...]
Johnson also believes the GSW "New Gay Teenager" seminar, as presented, may have violated the Constitution of the United States by demonstrating antagonistic attitudes toward religious beliefs opposing homosexual behavior. "From what we know of what took place in this seminar and potentially in other seminars involved with the Governor's School there," he notes, "they encourage students to question their religious faith. And, in some cases, instructors even indicated an outright hostility towards religious beliefs and traditions."
[More at URL]
----- 25 -----
Parents Sue Over Forced Pro-Homosexual ‘Safety’ Workshop
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2628
March 2, 2006 – Parents of Kentucky children forced to undergo “safety” training that promotes the homosexual agenda have filed a lawsuit to opt out their children.
Federal Judge David Bunning says that students in Boyd County Schools have no religious or free-speech rights to opt out of an ACLU/Gay Straight Alliance diversity training program.
The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) is representing three parents who are challenging mandatory homosexual diversity training. The ADF may appeal Bunning’s decision to the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
[More at URL]
----- 26 -----
Kentucky Children Forced To Take Pro-Homosexual Training
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2619
February 23, 2006 – Children in Ashland, Kentucky have no religious or free-speech rights to opt out of pro-homosexual anti-harassment training, according to Federal Judge David Bunning. According to Bunning, “there is simply no basis for an opt-out” because the anti-harassment program is “rationally related to a legitimate educational goal, namely to maintain a safe environment.”
[...]
Homosexuals typically use the “safe schools” ploy to invade schools with Gay Straight Alliance recruiting clubs. In fact, TVC’s report, “Homosexuals Recruit Public School Children” quotes the head of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network who admitted that “safety” is a tactic used to homosexualize schools.
[More at URL]
----- 27 -----
Top exorcist condemns 'Harry Potter'
'No doubt signature of Prince of Darkness in these books'
Posted: March 3, 2006
10:27 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49097
The Vatican's top exorcist has condemned J.K. Rowling's best-selling "Harry Potter" series as leading children to the devil.
Rev. Gabriele Amorth said: "You start off with Harry Potter, who comes across as a likeable wizard, but you end up with the devil. There is no doubt that the signature of the Prince of Darkness is clearly within these books."
[More at URL]
----- 28 -----
Rothstein upholds judicial "restraint"
Focus on the Family (Canada)
Today's Family News
March 3, 2006
http://www.fotf.ca/tfn/misc/030306_02.html
Federal Court of Appeal Judge Marshall Rothstein, who was appointed Wednesday by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to the Supreme Court of Canada, believes that the role of the courts is to apply the law as set down by Parliament – and not to create new law.
Answering questions earlier in the week from MPs during a first-ever public hearing for a Supreme Court nominee, CanWest News reported that the former Winnipeg lawyer and university professor said he agreed “absolutely” with Harper that the appropriate “judicial temperament” is – in Rothstein’s words – to “apply the law, not depart from it and not invent it.”
[More at URL]
----- 29 -----
Government study affirms marriage
Focus on the Family Canada
Today's Family News
March 3, 2006
http://www.fotf.ca/tfn/family/stories/030306.html
For the sake of the children involved, a new French parliamentary report concluded that marriage should not be extended to include same-sex couples, LifeSiteNews.com reported in February.
“Marriage,” the 450-page study affirmed, “is not merely the contractual recognition of the love between a couple; it is a framework that imposes rights and duties . . . designed to provide for the care and harmonious development of the child.”
Commissioned by the president of France’s National Assembly, it recommends against any move by France to legalize gay marriage, gay adoptions or the use of new reproductive technologies that would enable same-sex couples to procreate.
[...]
Take Action Suggestion> In the upcoming debate and dialogue in Canada about restoring the definition of marriage, you may find this French report to be an asset in explaining to your MP why you believe marriage should legally be changed back to its opposite-sex definition.
[More at URL]
