Today's Cultural Warfare Update
May. 1st, 2006 11:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdNavy Chaplain violates orders and wears a uniform during a political event with "10 Commandments" judge Roy Moore of Alabama; he's claiming that he's really targeted for saying a prayer in the name of Jesus and that was a religious event, not a political one; Focus on the Family takes his side;
Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM to support the Federal ban on marriage also claiming gay and lesbian people don't actually even want to get married, ignoring what has been pointed out by others in earlier CWUs - that the percentage of LGBT people getting married each year is higher than the heterosexual rate; the total appears paltry, but that's in part from the option being new; if this bears up, this argument will have to be going away soon - not that they let reality stop them;
Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM to support the Federal ban on marriage, quotes former Sen. Danforth (R-Missouri) calling the idea of a Federal amendment "silly";
Focus on the Family Newsbrief covering the lawsuit against the Lexington (MA) school district over the children's book King and King;
FotF Newsbrief on Presbyterian question of whether to allow gay priests, calling it "moral decline";
Faith and Freedom Network ACTION ITEM to get more signatures gathered to override the GLBT civil rights bill in Washington State; they're saying they're quite a bit behind where they wanted to be at this point; good;
"Christian Examiner," linked to by Concerned Women for America, runs an article on the California bill requiring public school lesson plans not be anti-gay and requires that GBLT historical figures and such be included; it talks about how "opponents" say it "will turn schools into sexual indoctrination centers"; I think the latter is micromanaging but the reaction against it is really telling, because it's not a reaction against micromanagement, it's a reaction against not helping keep queers invisible;
The English-language Seoul Times runs a piece against stem-cell research; talks about how it's "professional suicide" to "expose the myth of science serving man"; "Those who see science as an end in itself will stop at nothing to achieve their ends. Nothing.";
AP story on outside groups pouring money into Ohio's gubernatorial race; in particular, fundamentalist groups are pushing hard for social conservatives; Concerned Women for America linked to it;
Family Research Council pushes The Party of Death, an attack book on the Democratic party's support of abortion rights;
American Family Association: "Catholics Demand Answers" from "Pro-Homosexual Bishop";
AFA runs a very friendly article about the Exodus Mandate effort to pass a resolution in the Southern Baptist Convention calling upon families to pull their children en masse from public schools over evolutionary theory, GBLT-student support, and other theological issues; they quote the founder calling it a "Call to Holiness";
AFA supportive article about the Lexington (Mass) lawsuit over the children's book King and King;
AFA promote the "Answers in Genesis" young-earth Creationist "Creation Museum" near Cincinnati International Airport, located in Florence, Kentucky; one of the big features they call out is "a big sculpture of St. George and the Dragon";
AFA talks up a non-SBC Baptist schism in progress in the southwest over the American Baptist Churches USA not being anti-gay enough for some of its membership; they also promote the Focus on the Family postcard ACTION ITEM supporting an anti-marriage Federal amendment;
Traditional Values Coalition slams new Hawai'i abortion bill;
TVC runs their version of the story supporting the student wearing the anti-gay T-shirt at school - the administration told him to remove it and not wear it anymore but did not punish him; he sued; see previous CWUs for discussions;
TVC links to LifeSite's coverage of anti-gay testimony before the Massachusetts legislature;
They then link to the other of their star anti-gay witnesses, also testifying before the Massachusetts legislature; I was pretty brutally abused, can I go testify that all heterosexual women and men are evil asshats who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a child?;
Charlotte anti-gay Christian groups to hold celebration rally over the successful drive to harass the local Gay Pride parade out of existence this year; they're holding it on the usual day of the parade and rally;
Ooh, I missed this before; the Canada Family Action Coalition links to a serious American anti-gay "diseased fags" site, and says that what's described there is "no different than what is taking place in Canadian public schools."
----- 1 -----
Chaplain May Be Disciplined for White House Prayer
Navy lieutenant, facing possible court-martial, argues that praying in Jesus' name is not political speech and should be allowed.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
Citizenlink Extras
May 1, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0040324.cfm
An evangelical Navy chaplain stationed at Norfolk, Va., says he faces disciplinary action for appearing at a news conference outside of the White House and praying -- while in uniform.
Lt. Gordon Klingenschmitt told CitizenLink he had permission in writing to make the appearance -- which he said was in connection with efforts to seek a presidential order allowing chaplains to pray in Jesus' name in public. But the Navy, he said, changed its rules midstream.
"On 21 Feb, the Secretary of the Navy (Donald Winter) signed an illegal policy banning Christian prayers outside of a chapel setting, and I contested that," said the former Air Force major, who took a reduction in pay to change branches and become a Navy chaplain.
Nine days later, Klingenschmitt said he appeared in uniform in front of the White House with former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore and read the Prayer for the Armed Forces from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, which ends, "Through Jesus Christ Our Lord, Amen."
"Now they are punishing me -- they are threatening me with court-martial -- because I said a prayer in Jesus' name, wearing my uniform, in front of the White House," he said. "They are equating my prayers to a partisan political speech, and they're saying I don't have a right to pray in Jesus' name outside of a chapel setting."
The Navy, for its part, indicated Klingenschmitt violated an order not to wear his uniform during a news event -- an act which appeared to lend the Navy's endorsement to the chaplain's political beliefs.
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
Gays Seek, but Don't Seem to Want, Marriage
New study reveals, activists' legal challenges aside, few homosexuals actually want to get married.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
Citizenlink Features
May 1, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0040321.cfm
Gay activists are clamoring for the right for same-sex couples to marry, filing legal challenges to traditional marriage in 10 states and fighting marriage-protection amendments in more than a dozen others.
But a new survey finds that once they are given the right to marry, very few homosexuals actually do so. Consider the Netherlands, the first and most liberal country to legalize gay marriage, where just 2 to 6 percent of the gay population has taken marriage vows.
In Massachusetts, the only U.S. state to sanction same-sex marriage, about 17 percent of gays have tied the knot.
[...]
TAKE ACTION/FOR MORE INFORMATION
Do you believe one-man, one-woman marriage should be protected in the U.S. Constitution? Then please take a moment to contact your two U.S. senators and urge them to support the Marriage Protection Amendment. For contact information, including an easy-to-use e-mail form, log onto the CitizenLink Action Center.
To learn more about the dangers posed to society by same-sex marriage, read Marriage on Trial by Glenn T. Stanton and Dr. Bill Maier. They offer compelling reasons why legalizing this arrangement will be harmful to the larger community and future generations. Get your answers here.
----- 3 -----
Former Senator Calls Marriage Amendment 'Silly'
Focus on the Family
NEWSBRIEFS
May 1, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0040328.cfm
Former U.S. Sen. John Danforth, in a speech to homosexual activists Saturday, announced that he's opposed to a federal constitutional amendment to preserve traditional marriage, The Associated Press reported.
Danforth, an Episcopal priest who served Missouri in the Senate, has been long thought of by fellow Republicans to tow a strong conservative line. But the Log Cabin Republicans -- a group that supports special rights for homosexuals -- saw a much different side.
[...]
TAKE ACTION
It is more important than ever to make your voice heard in Congress. Visit CitizenLink's Marriage Protection Amendment Action Center and learn how you can do your part to encourage senators to vote in favor of MPA.
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
Gay-Themed Storybooks Challenged in Court
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
May 1, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0040327.cfm
Two families have filed suit in federal court just weeks after learning that a second-grade teacher read a story that celebrated a marriage between two men.
Joseph and Robin Wirthlin, along with David and Tonia Parker, argue the school district undermined parental rights by teaching their children about a lifestyle they consider immoral, The Associated Press reported.
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
Some Pastors Mourn Moral Decline in Church
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
May 1, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0040326.cfm
The Presbyterian Church USA, at its biannual meeting next month, plans a vote on whether to allow the ordination of homosexuals -- and that has many pastors worried, World Magazine reported.
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
Referendum 65 Running Behind
Faith and Freedom Network
Monday, May 01, 2006
http://www.faithandfreedom.us/weblog/2006/05/referendum-65-running-behind.html
Those of you living in Washington State, I’m sure you have seen the newspaper articles quoting Tim Eyman regarding Referendum 65.
We are running way behind where we should be in numbers of names gathered on the petition forms.
[More at URL]
----- 7 -----
California's proposed textbooks would advance homosexual teaching in public schools
By Lori Arnold
Christian Examiner
http://www.christianexaminer.com/Articles/Articles%20May06/Art_May06_05.html
California’s school children, as young as kindergarten, would be required to learn about the contributions of gays, lesbians and the transgendered to American society as part of a bill pending before the state Senate.
“It’s an attack on our family and morals of our nation and so many children are falling for it,” said Orlean Koehle, a substitute teacher at Santa Rosa School District, north of San Francisco.
Koehl, the state president of the Eagle Forum of California, has closely monitored curriculum content in public schools after making national headlines several years ago by challenging a pro-gay assembly at one of the schools in her district.
“They had kept this assembly hush-hush and so none of the parents knew what was going on,” Koehle said.
In that instance, parents eventually prevailed in getting Santa Rosa officials to enact a policy that maintained parental rights over controversial content, the substitute teacher said. Now, Koehle and thousands of other pro-family advocates statewide are concerned that local policy such as that created by Santa Rosa, will be squelched with the passage of SB 1437, which some have warned will turn schools into sexual indoctrination centers.
[More at URL]
----- 8 -----
America
About face: part III
Stem Cells — Changing My Personal Course
From Embryonic Stem Cell Support to Its Opposition
By James P. Kelly
Biotech Writer
http://theseoultimes.com/ST/?url=/ST/db/read.php?idx=3302
"The truly frightening thing about the scientific mind,' in my experience, is that all things are a means to an end, and the 'end' is only defined by what a particular scientist finds interesting or profitable."
So says an American scientist who does not want to be named. Why? Her statement questions the motives of research ambitions. It suggests that the purpose of science may not be to serve mankind, but rather to serve itself.
This scientist, like many in her profession, depends on America's NIH for funding, or on non-profit foundations like the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation, or the Michael J. Fox Parkinson's Foundation. They depend on the editors of research journals such as Science, Nature, and the New England Journal of Medicine to publish their work. They depend on university department heads, administrators, and professors for tenure and pay checks.
In today's scientific climate it can be professional suicide for researchers to publicly question the medical worth of industry-preferred agendas, like embryonic stem cell (ES) and cloning research, or to expose the myth of 'science serving man.'
[More at URL]
----- 9 -----
Non-Ohioans pour nearly $2 million into governor's race
By JULIE CARR SMYTH
AP Statehouse Correspondent
April 29, 2006, 1:40 PM EDT
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--eyeonohio-otherdo0429apr29,0,7892071.story?coll=ny-region-apnewjersey
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- California businessman Robin P. Arkley II has a horse in Tuesday's primary race in faraway Ohio. So does Penna Dexter in Plano, Texas, a regional representative for Concerned Women for America.
New Jersey developers Howard and Betty Lou Schwartz, who also list a retirement address in Florida, have given $40,000 split equally between a Democrat and a Republican running for Ohio governor.
[...]
Perhaps most significant in Ohio, though, is not the amount of the contributions but their geographic diversity _ particularly those going to Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. Blackwell's campaign finance reports list donations from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Arkley, a $10,000 donor in Eureka, Calif., and Dexter, who gave $50, evidence the breadth.
[...]
John Stemberger, president and general counsel for the Florida Family Policy Council, said Blackwell's name is well-known among Christian "values voters" across the country who oppose abortion and gay marriage
[More at URL]
----- 10 -----
Party of Death
Family Research Council blog
April 27, 2006
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WL06D51
I had the distinct pleasure of attending National Right to Life's annual dinner that honored Rep. Henry Hyde the other night. While as a society we have all failed in the murder of children through abortion it is through the work of amazing people like Rep. Hyde that those abortion numbers are not even higher. Those born after 1973 are survivors and they should be thankful not only to their parents but also to Henry Hyde for speaking for those who can't.
[More at URL]
----- 11 -----
Catholics Demand Answers From O.C.'s Reportedly Profligate, Pro-Homosexual Bishop
By Jim Brown
American Family Association/Agape Press
May 1, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/afa/12006b.asp
(AgapePress) - Several Roman Catholics in Orange County, California, are criticizing their bishop for, among other things, his support for homosexual marriage and his lavish lifestyle.
Concerned Catholics of the Diocese of Orange has sent a letter to Bishop Tod Brown, asking him why he proudly backs same-sex domestic partnerships and has appointed a number of men to positions of authority in the diocese, even though they reject the church's teachings on sexual morality.
[More at URL]
----- 12 -----
Strategy for Exiting Public Schools Described as 'Call to Holiness'
By Jim Brown
American Family Association/Agape Press
May 1, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/afa/12006c.asp
(AgapePress) - One of the authors of a proposed resolution urging the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) to come up with a plan to pull its children from public schools says the resolution is a "call to holiness" and a "call to obey God's Word."
A proposed resolution submitted for consideration at the denomination's annual meeting in June calls on the SBC to develop "an exit strategy from the public schools that would give particular attention to the needs of orphans, single parents, and the disadvantaged." The resolution is co-sponsored by Dr. Bruce Shortt, an attorney and author of the book The Harsh Truth About Public Schools, and Roger Moran, a member of the SBC executive committee.
Moran, a leader in the Missouri Baptist Convention, says he and Shortt want to stress the point that "biblical truth matters -- and it matters supremely."
"Somehow when we get to the issue of public education, truth doesn't seem to matter as much anymore," Moran offers. Members of the traditionally conservative denomination, he says, seem to be "okay" with the fact that their children are being taught such things as Darwinian evolution and that homosexuality is perhaps "an acceptable kind of thing," and that school officials can transport children to abortion clinics without the knowledge of the parents.
[More at URL]
----- 13 -----
Spurned Massachusetts Parents File Suit Against Local School System
They Say Schools Have Violated State's Parental Notification Law
By Jim Brown
April 28, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/4/afa/282006b.asp
(AgapePress) - Parents in Lexington, Massachusetts, have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the town and school officials over their refusal to notify parents before classroom discussions with students regarding homosexuality. The two families bringing the suit claim school officials' actions violated the state's Parental Notification law.
The suit was filed yesterday (April 27) by parents David and Tonia Parker and Rob and Robin Wirthlin accuses school officials of violating their federal and Massachusetts civil rights in addition to the charge concerning the state Parental Notification law. Last year David Parker was arrested and spent the night in jail for refusing to leave Estabrook Elementary School until officials acknowledged his right to be notified when his six-year-old son is subjected to discussions about same-sex relationships.
Parker says school teachers and administrators have no right to interfere with his children's moral or religious upbringing. He believes that when parents of young elementary-age children request information from schools having to do with human sexuality or, as he describes it, "socially charged issues like different marriage constructs," those parents have a right to see that information and to "be notified when they're bringing this up to very small children."
[More at URL]
----- 14 -----
Founder Anticipates Creation Museum's Spring '07 Opening With Excitement
By Allie Martin
American Family Association/Agape Press
May 1, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/afa/12006d.asp
(AgapePress) - Progress is being made on a facility that will house exhibits designed to proclaim the authority and accuracy of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. The Creation Museum, located near the Cincinnati International Airport in northern Kentucky, is well under way; and later this month, the museum will be unveiling its large and uniquely designed bookstore.
The Creation Museum is a project of Answers in Genesis, a ministry that helps Christians become equipped to defend the biblical account of creation. The 50,000-square-foot museum will feature exhibits and other teaching tools that will show visitors how science confirms biblical history.
Answers in Genesis president Ken Ham says the project is on target for its opening next April, and the opening of its 3,000-square-foot bookstore May 20. The bookstore is "done up as a medieval castle inside, with a theme of 'Dragons and Dinosaurs,'" he says. Replicas of those mighty creatures will be incorporated into the store's design," Ham notes, along with "a big sculpture of St. George and the Dragon."
[More at URL]
----- 15 -----
Commentary & News Briefs
May 1, 2006
Compiled by Jenni Parker
American Family Association/Agape Press
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/afa/12006h.asp
[...]
...Delegates from the American Baptist Churches of the Pacific Southwest have voted overwhelmingly to leave the national denomination in a dispute over homosexuality. Members from the region's 300 churches are upset that American Baptist Churches USA has not disciplined congregations with liberal homosexual policies even though the denomination has a strict policy that says "homosexuality is incompatible with biblical teaching."
[...]
...Focus on the Family Action has announced its launch of a new postcard campaign in support of the federal Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA). According to Tom Minnery, FOTF Action's senior vice president of government and public policy, the ministry is partnering with several churches and faith-based organizations in an effort to send one million cards to the U.S. Senate. The objective, Minnery says, is to provide the lawmakers with "tangible evidence of the overwhelming support for traditional marriage" that exists across America.
[...]
Organizations that have joined in the postcard effort include the Arlington Group, the Family Research Council, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and several Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Foursquare, and Greek Orthodox churches, among others. The groups and churches are encouraging members to send postcards to their senators prior to the MPA vote scheduled for early June. [Jenni Parker]
[More at URL]
----- 16 -----
Hawaiian Republican Governor Signs Pro-Abortion Law Overnight
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2703
April 27, 2006 – Last night, Republican Governor Linda Lingle signed into law House Bill 1242 HD 1, that will make Hawaii the abortion tourism capital of the United States.
The bill removes residency requirements for women seeking to abort their unborn children and allows abortions to be performed in clinics or in a physician’s office.
Human Life International President Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer has said that Hawaii will now go from being the Aloha State to the Abortion State.
[More at URL]
----- 17 -----
9th Circuit Assaults Religion And Freedom Of Conscience
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2698
April 27, 2006 – The 9th Circuit Court in San Francisco has issued another wacko ruling that violates free speech and religious expression. As usual, the radical opinion was written by Judge Stephen Reinhardt, a hard-core left Carter appointee, who has a long history of issuing rulings unrelated to the Constitution or the law.
The case is Harper v. Poway School District and involves a student who wore an anti-homosexual T-shirt to school to protest the homosexual-instigated Day of Silence on campus. The T-shirt called homosexuality “shameful” and included a Bible verse. School officials removed the student from his class and was threatened with suspension if he wore the shirt again.
[More at URL]
----- 18 -----
“Gay” Subculture Left Woman Scarred from Childhood in Homosexual Home
by Hilary White
LifeSite
Wednesday April 19, 2006
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/apr/06041911.html
BOSTON, The Massachusetts government heard testimony last week from a young Canadian woman, Dawn C. Stefanowicz who had been raised from infancy by her homosexual father and his various “partners” in a “gay” household. She told the Massachusetts Judiciary Committee that her life submerged in the homosexual subculture had left her scarred psychologically and morally.
Stefanowicz made her statement during hearings, held April 11 by the Massachusetts government to consider establishing an amendment to the state constitution that would define marriage as being between one man and one woman.
Describing her father’s homosexual lifestyle as a culture without “boundaries and principles of morality and monogamy,” Stefanowicz said her upbringing was characterized by confusion and lack of affection, domestic violence and sexual abuse.
[Editor's note: the point of these stories, of course, is to take one example and make it the only example. By making the bad case data the only case - and since little of their readership understands the idea of "representative sampling" - they help create a story in their readers' minds of this as the norm - of lesbian and gay parents being inherent abusers, which is part of their propaganda goal.]
----- 19 ----
Quebecer tells Massachusetts Legislators of Danger to Children in Homosexual “Marriage”
LifeSite
by Hilary White
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/apr/06042602.html
BOSTON, April 25, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Quebec resident, Louis DeSerres, added his testimony April 11, to that of Dawn Stefanowicz in hearings on homosexual “marriage” in Massachusetts. Stefanowicz had told legislators of her “traumatizing” upbringing in a homosexual household where her father introduced her to the gay subculture.
Most of the debates in Massachusetts over allowing homosexual partners to “marry” and adopt children have centred on talk of the “rights” of gay partners fully to imitate normal marriage. Little has been said by homosexual advocates on the protection or best interests of children.
DeSerres compared the decision of the French legislature to prohibit legal recognition of homosexual unions with the Canadian legislation allowing it. He said that France had differed from Canada in making concern for children a higher priority than the political or personal desires of adults. France, he said, went even further in protecting children when it restricted artificial procreation and adoption for homosexual partners. “Quite simply,” he said, “France's laws still favor the best interests of children over adults while Canada does not.”
[Editor's note: the point of these stories, of course, is to take one example and make it the only example. By making the bad case data the only case - and since little of their readership understands the idea of "representative sampling" - they help create a story in their readers' minds of this as the norm - of lesbian and gay parents being inherent abusers, which is part of their propaganda goal.]
----- 20 -----
Christian Rally to Replace Gay Pride Event
Wednesday April 26, 2006
LifeSite
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/apr/06042603.html
CHARLOTTE, NC, April 26, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The first-ever "Not Ashamed Charlotte" rally will unite Christians from different churches to proclaim their faith in the public square, replacing the annual gay pride event usually scheduled for early May in Marshall Park. The Christian rally will be held from 3-4 p.m. May 6 in the park. According to Dr. Michael L. Brown, Director of the Coalition of Conscience and organizer of Not Ashamed Charlotte, the timing of this event is highly significant.
"For the last four years," Brown explains, "on the first Saturday of May, Marshall Park has been will [sic] filled with as many as 3,000 gays and lesbians celebrating Charlotte Pride." This gay pride event, marked by public lewdness and obscenity, has drawn protest from various Christian groups. Mayor Pat McCrory has also voiced his displeasure with the Charlotte Pride event being held in a public park. In other cities, similar gay pride events have drawn upwards of 100,000 participants.
[More at URL]
----- 21 -----
Public educators ignore disease threat - Why?
Canada Family Action Coalition
April 21, 2006
The information you will read here is no different than what is taking place in Canadian public schools. (04-21-2006)
[Links to: http://www.illinoisfamily.org/news/contentview.asp?c=32829 which has been previously posted; it's a "diseased fags" rant posted by the Illinois Family Institute, rife with Paul Cameron material including the infamous "Gay Bowel Syndrome" fiction, tho' not using that name - or Dr. Cameron's.]
Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM to support the Federal ban on marriage also claiming gay and lesbian people don't actually even want to get married, ignoring what has been pointed out by others in earlier CWUs - that the percentage of LGBT people getting married each year is higher than the heterosexual rate; the total appears paltry, but that's in part from the option being new; if this bears up, this argument will have to be going away soon - not that they let reality stop them;
Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM to support the Federal ban on marriage, quotes former Sen. Danforth (R-Missouri) calling the idea of a Federal amendment "silly";
Focus on the Family Newsbrief covering the lawsuit against the Lexington (MA) school district over the children's book King and King;
FotF Newsbrief on Presbyterian question of whether to allow gay priests, calling it "moral decline";
Faith and Freedom Network ACTION ITEM to get more signatures gathered to override the GLBT civil rights bill in Washington State; they're saying they're quite a bit behind where they wanted to be at this point; good;
"Christian Examiner," linked to by Concerned Women for America, runs an article on the California bill requiring public school lesson plans not be anti-gay and requires that GBLT historical figures and such be included; it talks about how "opponents" say it "will turn schools into sexual indoctrination centers"; I think the latter is micromanaging but the reaction against it is really telling, because it's not a reaction against micromanagement, it's a reaction against not helping keep queers invisible;
The English-language Seoul Times runs a piece against stem-cell research; talks about how it's "professional suicide" to "expose the myth of science serving man"; "Those who see science as an end in itself will stop at nothing to achieve their ends. Nothing.";
AP story on outside groups pouring money into Ohio's gubernatorial race; in particular, fundamentalist groups are pushing hard for social conservatives; Concerned Women for America linked to it;
Family Research Council pushes The Party of Death, an attack book on the Democratic party's support of abortion rights;
American Family Association: "Catholics Demand Answers" from "Pro-Homosexual Bishop";
AFA runs a very friendly article about the Exodus Mandate effort to pass a resolution in the Southern Baptist Convention calling upon families to pull their children en masse from public schools over evolutionary theory, GBLT-student support, and other theological issues; they quote the founder calling it a "Call to Holiness";
AFA supportive article about the Lexington (Mass) lawsuit over the children's book King and King;
AFA promote the "Answers in Genesis" young-earth Creationist "Creation Museum" near Cincinnati International Airport, located in Florence, Kentucky; one of the big features they call out is "a big sculpture of St. George and the Dragon";
AFA talks up a non-SBC Baptist schism in progress in the southwest over the American Baptist Churches USA not being anti-gay enough for some of its membership; they also promote the Focus on the Family postcard ACTION ITEM supporting an anti-marriage Federal amendment;
Traditional Values Coalition slams new Hawai'i abortion bill;
TVC runs their version of the story supporting the student wearing the anti-gay T-shirt at school - the administration told him to remove it and not wear it anymore but did not punish him; he sued; see previous CWUs for discussions;
TVC links to LifeSite's coverage of anti-gay testimony before the Massachusetts legislature;
They then link to the other of their star anti-gay witnesses, also testifying before the Massachusetts legislature; I was pretty brutally abused, can I go testify that all heterosexual women and men are evil asshats who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a child?;
Charlotte anti-gay Christian groups to hold celebration rally over the successful drive to harass the local Gay Pride parade out of existence this year; they're holding it on the usual day of the parade and rally;
Ooh, I missed this before; the Canada Family Action Coalition links to a serious American anti-gay "diseased fags" site, and says that what's described there is "no different than what is taking place in Canadian public schools."
----- 1 -----
Chaplain May Be Disciplined for White House Prayer
Navy lieutenant, facing possible court-martial, argues that praying in Jesus' name is not political speech and should be allowed.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
Citizenlink Extras
May 1, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0040324.cfm
An evangelical Navy chaplain stationed at Norfolk, Va., says he faces disciplinary action for appearing at a news conference outside of the White House and praying -- while in uniform.
Lt. Gordon Klingenschmitt told CitizenLink he had permission in writing to make the appearance -- which he said was in connection with efforts to seek a presidential order allowing chaplains to pray in Jesus' name in public. But the Navy, he said, changed its rules midstream.
"On 21 Feb, the Secretary of the Navy (Donald Winter) signed an illegal policy banning Christian prayers outside of a chapel setting, and I contested that," said the former Air Force major, who took a reduction in pay to change branches and become a Navy chaplain.
Nine days later, Klingenschmitt said he appeared in uniform in front of the White House with former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore and read the Prayer for the Armed Forces from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, which ends, "Through Jesus Christ Our Lord, Amen."
"Now they are punishing me -- they are threatening me with court-martial -- because I said a prayer in Jesus' name, wearing my uniform, in front of the White House," he said. "They are equating my prayers to a partisan political speech, and they're saying I don't have a right to pray in Jesus' name outside of a chapel setting."
The Navy, for its part, indicated Klingenschmitt violated an order not to wear his uniform during a news event -- an act which appeared to lend the Navy's endorsement to the chaplain's political beliefs.
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
Gays Seek, but Don't Seem to Want, Marriage
New study reveals, activists' legal challenges aside, few homosexuals actually want to get married.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
Citizenlink Features
May 1, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0040321.cfm
Gay activists are clamoring for the right for same-sex couples to marry, filing legal challenges to traditional marriage in 10 states and fighting marriage-protection amendments in more than a dozen others.
But a new survey finds that once they are given the right to marry, very few homosexuals actually do so. Consider the Netherlands, the first and most liberal country to legalize gay marriage, where just 2 to 6 percent of the gay population has taken marriage vows.
In Massachusetts, the only U.S. state to sanction same-sex marriage, about 17 percent of gays have tied the knot.
[...]
TAKE ACTION/FOR MORE INFORMATION
Do you believe one-man, one-woman marriage should be protected in the U.S. Constitution? Then please take a moment to contact your two U.S. senators and urge them to support the Marriage Protection Amendment. For contact information, including an easy-to-use e-mail form, log onto the CitizenLink Action Center.
To learn more about the dangers posed to society by same-sex marriage, read Marriage on Trial by Glenn T. Stanton and Dr. Bill Maier. They offer compelling reasons why legalizing this arrangement will be harmful to the larger community and future generations. Get your answers here.
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Former Senator Calls Marriage Amendment 'Silly'
Focus on the Family
NEWSBRIEFS
May 1, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0040328.cfm
Former U.S. Sen. John Danforth, in a speech to homosexual activists Saturday, announced that he's opposed to a federal constitutional amendment to preserve traditional marriage, The Associated Press reported.
Danforth, an Episcopal priest who served Missouri in the Senate, has been long thought of by fellow Republicans to tow a strong conservative line. But the Log Cabin Republicans -- a group that supports special rights for homosexuals -- saw a much different side.
[...]
TAKE ACTION
It is more important than ever to make your voice heard in Congress. Visit CitizenLink's Marriage Protection Amendment Action Center and learn how you can do your part to encourage senators to vote in favor of MPA.
[More at URL]
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Gay-Themed Storybooks Challenged in Court
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
May 1, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0040327.cfm
Two families have filed suit in federal court just weeks after learning that a second-grade teacher read a story that celebrated a marriage between two men.
Joseph and Robin Wirthlin, along with David and Tonia Parker, argue the school district undermined parental rights by teaching their children about a lifestyle they consider immoral, The Associated Press reported.
[More at URL]
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Some Pastors Mourn Moral Decline in Church
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
May 1, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0040326.cfm
The Presbyterian Church USA, at its biannual meeting next month, plans a vote on whether to allow the ordination of homosexuals -- and that has many pastors worried, World Magazine reported.
[More at URL]
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Referendum 65 Running Behind
Faith and Freedom Network
Monday, May 01, 2006
http://www.faithandfreedom.us/weblog/2006/05/referendum-65-running-behind.html
Those of you living in Washington State, I’m sure you have seen the newspaper articles quoting Tim Eyman regarding Referendum 65.
We are running way behind where we should be in numbers of names gathered on the petition forms.
[More at URL]
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California's proposed textbooks would advance homosexual teaching in public schools
By Lori Arnold
Christian Examiner
http://www.christianexaminer.com/Articles/Articles%20May06/Art_May06_05.html
California’s school children, as young as kindergarten, would be required to learn about the contributions of gays, lesbians and the transgendered to American society as part of a bill pending before the state Senate.
“It’s an attack on our family and morals of our nation and so many children are falling for it,” said Orlean Koehle, a substitute teacher at Santa Rosa School District, north of San Francisco.
Koehl, the state president of the Eagle Forum of California, has closely monitored curriculum content in public schools after making national headlines several years ago by challenging a pro-gay assembly at one of the schools in her district.
“They had kept this assembly hush-hush and so none of the parents knew what was going on,” Koehle said.
In that instance, parents eventually prevailed in getting Santa Rosa officials to enact a policy that maintained parental rights over controversial content, the substitute teacher said. Now, Koehle and thousands of other pro-family advocates statewide are concerned that local policy such as that created by Santa Rosa, will be squelched with the passage of SB 1437, which some have warned will turn schools into sexual indoctrination centers.
[More at URL]
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America
About face: part III
Stem Cells — Changing My Personal Course
From Embryonic Stem Cell Support to Its Opposition
By James P. Kelly
Biotech Writer
http://theseoultimes.com/ST/?url=/ST/db/read.php?idx=3302
"The truly frightening thing about the scientific mind,' in my experience, is that all things are a means to an end, and the 'end' is only defined by what a particular scientist finds interesting or profitable."
So says an American scientist who does not want to be named. Why? Her statement questions the motives of research ambitions. It suggests that the purpose of science may not be to serve mankind, but rather to serve itself.
This scientist, like many in her profession, depends on America's NIH for funding, or on non-profit foundations like the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation, or the Michael J. Fox Parkinson's Foundation. They depend on the editors of research journals such as Science, Nature, and the New England Journal of Medicine to publish their work. They depend on university department heads, administrators, and professors for tenure and pay checks.
In today's scientific climate it can be professional suicide for researchers to publicly question the medical worth of industry-preferred agendas, like embryonic stem cell (ES) and cloning research, or to expose the myth of 'science serving man.'
[More at URL]
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Non-Ohioans pour nearly $2 million into governor's race
By JULIE CARR SMYTH
AP Statehouse Correspondent
April 29, 2006, 1:40 PM EDT
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--eyeonohio-otherdo0429apr29,0,7892071.story?coll=ny-region-apnewjersey
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- California businessman Robin P. Arkley II has a horse in Tuesday's primary race in faraway Ohio. So does Penna Dexter in Plano, Texas, a regional representative for Concerned Women for America.
New Jersey developers Howard and Betty Lou Schwartz, who also list a retirement address in Florida, have given $40,000 split equally between a Democrat and a Republican running for Ohio governor.
[...]
Perhaps most significant in Ohio, though, is not the amount of the contributions but their geographic diversity _ particularly those going to Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. Blackwell's campaign finance reports list donations from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Arkley, a $10,000 donor in Eureka, Calif., and Dexter, who gave $50, evidence the breadth.
[...]
John Stemberger, president and general counsel for the Florida Family Policy Council, said Blackwell's name is well-known among Christian "values voters" across the country who oppose abortion and gay marriage
[More at URL]
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Party of Death
Family Research Council blog
April 27, 2006
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WL06D51
I had the distinct pleasure of attending National Right to Life's annual dinner that honored Rep. Henry Hyde the other night. While as a society we have all failed in the murder of children through abortion it is through the work of amazing people like Rep. Hyde that those abortion numbers are not even higher. Those born after 1973 are survivors and they should be thankful not only to their parents but also to Henry Hyde for speaking for those who can't.
[More at URL]
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Catholics Demand Answers From O.C.'s Reportedly Profligate, Pro-Homosexual Bishop
By Jim Brown
American Family Association/Agape Press
May 1, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/afa/12006b.asp
(AgapePress) - Several Roman Catholics in Orange County, California, are criticizing their bishop for, among other things, his support for homosexual marriage and his lavish lifestyle.
Concerned Catholics of the Diocese of Orange has sent a letter to Bishop Tod Brown, asking him why he proudly backs same-sex domestic partnerships and has appointed a number of men to positions of authority in the diocese, even though they reject the church's teachings on sexual morality.
[More at URL]
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Strategy for Exiting Public Schools Described as 'Call to Holiness'
By Jim Brown
American Family Association/Agape Press
May 1, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/afa/12006c.asp
(AgapePress) - One of the authors of a proposed resolution urging the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) to come up with a plan to pull its children from public schools says the resolution is a "call to holiness" and a "call to obey God's Word."
A proposed resolution submitted for consideration at the denomination's annual meeting in June calls on the SBC to develop "an exit strategy from the public schools that would give particular attention to the needs of orphans, single parents, and the disadvantaged." The resolution is co-sponsored by Dr. Bruce Shortt, an attorney and author of the book The Harsh Truth About Public Schools, and Roger Moran, a member of the SBC executive committee.
Moran, a leader in the Missouri Baptist Convention, says he and Shortt want to stress the point that "biblical truth matters -- and it matters supremely."
"Somehow when we get to the issue of public education, truth doesn't seem to matter as much anymore," Moran offers. Members of the traditionally conservative denomination, he says, seem to be "okay" with the fact that their children are being taught such things as Darwinian evolution and that homosexuality is perhaps "an acceptable kind of thing," and that school officials can transport children to abortion clinics without the knowledge of the parents.
[More at URL]
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Spurned Massachusetts Parents File Suit Against Local School System
They Say Schools Have Violated State's Parental Notification Law
By Jim Brown
April 28, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/4/afa/282006b.asp
(AgapePress) - Parents in Lexington, Massachusetts, have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the town and school officials over their refusal to notify parents before classroom discussions with students regarding homosexuality. The two families bringing the suit claim school officials' actions violated the state's Parental Notification law.
The suit was filed yesterday (April 27) by parents David and Tonia Parker and Rob and Robin Wirthlin accuses school officials of violating their federal and Massachusetts civil rights in addition to the charge concerning the state Parental Notification law. Last year David Parker was arrested and spent the night in jail for refusing to leave Estabrook Elementary School until officials acknowledged his right to be notified when his six-year-old son is subjected to discussions about same-sex relationships.
Parker says school teachers and administrators have no right to interfere with his children's moral or religious upbringing. He believes that when parents of young elementary-age children request information from schools having to do with human sexuality or, as he describes it, "socially charged issues like different marriage constructs," those parents have a right to see that information and to "be notified when they're bringing this up to very small children."
[More at URL]
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Founder Anticipates Creation Museum's Spring '07 Opening With Excitement
By Allie Martin
American Family Association/Agape Press
May 1, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/afa/12006d.asp
(AgapePress) - Progress is being made on a facility that will house exhibits designed to proclaim the authority and accuracy of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. The Creation Museum, located near the Cincinnati International Airport in northern Kentucky, is well under way; and later this month, the museum will be unveiling its large and uniquely designed bookstore.
The Creation Museum is a project of Answers in Genesis, a ministry that helps Christians become equipped to defend the biblical account of creation. The 50,000-square-foot museum will feature exhibits and other teaching tools that will show visitors how science confirms biblical history.
Answers in Genesis president Ken Ham says the project is on target for its opening next April, and the opening of its 3,000-square-foot bookstore May 20. The bookstore is "done up as a medieval castle inside, with a theme of 'Dragons and Dinosaurs,'" he says. Replicas of those mighty creatures will be incorporated into the store's design," Ham notes, along with "a big sculpture of St. George and the Dragon."
[More at URL]
----- 15 -----
Commentary & News Briefs
May 1, 2006
Compiled by Jenni Parker
American Family Association/Agape Press
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/5/afa/12006h.asp
[...]
...Delegates from the American Baptist Churches of the Pacific Southwest have voted overwhelmingly to leave the national denomination in a dispute over homosexuality. Members from the region's 300 churches are upset that American Baptist Churches USA has not disciplined congregations with liberal homosexual policies even though the denomination has a strict policy that says "homosexuality is incompatible with biblical teaching."
[...]
...Focus on the Family Action has announced its launch of a new postcard campaign in support of the federal Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA). According to Tom Minnery, FOTF Action's senior vice president of government and public policy, the ministry is partnering with several churches and faith-based organizations in an effort to send one million cards to the U.S. Senate. The objective, Minnery says, is to provide the lawmakers with "tangible evidence of the overwhelming support for traditional marriage" that exists across America.
[...]
Organizations that have joined in the postcard effort include the Arlington Group, the Family Research Council, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and several Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Foursquare, and Greek Orthodox churches, among others. The groups and churches are encouraging members to send postcards to their senators prior to the MPA vote scheduled for early June. [Jenni Parker]
[More at URL]
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Hawaiian Republican Governor Signs Pro-Abortion Law Overnight
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2703
April 27, 2006 – Last night, Republican Governor Linda Lingle signed into law House Bill 1242 HD 1, that will make Hawaii the abortion tourism capital of the United States.
The bill removes residency requirements for women seeking to abort their unborn children and allows abortions to be performed in clinics or in a physician’s office.
Human Life International President Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer has said that Hawaii will now go from being the Aloha State to the Abortion State.
[More at URL]
----- 17 -----
9th Circuit Assaults Religion And Freedom Of Conscience
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2698
April 27, 2006 – The 9th Circuit Court in San Francisco has issued another wacko ruling that violates free speech and religious expression. As usual, the radical opinion was written by Judge Stephen Reinhardt, a hard-core left Carter appointee, who has a long history of issuing rulings unrelated to the Constitution or the law.
The case is Harper v. Poway School District and involves a student who wore an anti-homosexual T-shirt to school to protest the homosexual-instigated Day of Silence on campus. The T-shirt called homosexuality “shameful” and included a Bible verse. School officials removed the student from his class and was threatened with suspension if he wore the shirt again.
[More at URL]
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“Gay” Subculture Left Woman Scarred from Childhood in Homosexual Home
by Hilary White
LifeSite
Wednesday April 19, 2006
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/apr/06041911.html
BOSTON, The Massachusetts government heard testimony last week from a young Canadian woman, Dawn C. Stefanowicz who had been raised from infancy by her homosexual father and his various “partners” in a “gay” household. She told the Massachusetts Judiciary Committee that her life submerged in the homosexual subculture had left her scarred psychologically and morally.
Stefanowicz made her statement during hearings, held April 11 by the Massachusetts government to consider establishing an amendment to the state constitution that would define marriage as being between one man and one woman.
Describing her father’s homosexual lifestyle as a culture without “boundaries and principles of morality and monogamy,” Stefanowicz said her upbringing was characterized by confusion and lack of affection, domestic violence and sexual abuse.
[Editor's note: the point of these stories, of course, is to take one example and make it the only example. By making the bad case data the only case - and since little of their readership understands the idea of "representative sampling" - they help create a story in their readers' minds of this as the norm - of lesbian and gay parents being inherent abusers, which is part of their propaganda goal.]
----- 19 ----
Quebecer tells Massachusetts Legislators of Danger to Children in Homosexual “Marriage”
LifeSite
by Hilary White
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/apr/06042602.html
BOSTON, April 25, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Quebec resident, Louis DeSerres, added his testimony April 11, to that of Dawn Stefanowicz in hearings on homosexual “marriage” in Massachusetts. Stefanowicz had told legislators of her “traumatizing” upbringing in a homosexual household where her father introduced her to the gay subculture.
Most of the debates in Massachusetts over allowing homosexual partners to “marry” and adopt children have centred on talk of the “rights” of gay partners fully to imitate normal marriage. Little has been said by homosexual advocates on the protection or best interests of children.
DeSerres compared the decision of the French legislature to prohibit legal recognition of homosexual unions with the Canadian legislation allowing it. He said that France had differed from Canada in making concern for children a higher priority than the political or personal desires of adults. France, he said, went even further in protecting children when it restricted artificial procreation and adoption for homosexual partners. “Quite simply,” he said, “France's laws still favor the best interests of children over adults while Canada does not.”
[Editor's note: the point of these stories, of course, is to take one example and make it the only example. By making the bad case data the only case - and since little of their readership understands the idea of "representative sampling" - they help create a story in their readers' minds of this as the norm - of lesbian and gay parents being inherent abusers, which is part of their propaganda goal.]
----- 20 -----
Christian Rally to Replace Gay Pride Event
Wednesday April 26, 2006
LifeSite
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/apr/06042603.html
CHARLOTTE, NC, April 26, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The first-ever "Not Ashamed Charlotte" rally will unite Christians from different churches to proclaim their faith in the public square, replacing the annual gay pride event usually scheduled for early May in Marshall Park. The Christian rally will be held from 3-4 p.m. May 6 in the park. According to Dr. Michael L. Brown, Director of the Coalition of Conscience and organizer of Not Ashamed Charlotte, the timing of this event is highly significant.
"For the last four years," Brown explains, "on the first Saturday of May, Marshall Park has been will [sic] filled with as many as 3,000 gays and lesbians celebrating Charlotte Pride." This gay pride event, marked by public lewdness and obscenity, has drawn protest from various Christian groups. Mayor Pat McCrory has also voiced his displeasure with the Charlotte Pride event being held in a public park. In other cities, similar gay pride events have drawn upwards of 100,000 participants.
[More at URL]
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Public educators ignore disease threat - Why?
Canada Family Action Coalition
April 21, 2006
The information you will read here is no different than what is taking place in Canadian public schools. (04-21-2006)
[Links to: http://www.illinoisfamily.org/news/contentview.asp?c=32829 which has been previously posted; it's a "diseased fags" rant posted by the Illinois Family Institute, rife with Paul Cameron material including the infamous "Gay Bowel Syndrome" fiction, tho' not using that name - or Dr. Cameron's.]
