Today's Cultural Warfare Update
Sep. 18th, 2006 12:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdLeader of Seattle's (only?) fundamentalist mega-church wants to remake Seattle politics by having his congregation outbreed the rest of the city; no, really;
Faith and Freedom Network sends out their Judicial Voter Guide link again to their Washington State mailing list;
Faith and Freedom Network links to Focus on the Family's Washington Stateendorsements "voter's guide";
Faith and Freedom Network links to their questionairres as filled out by judicial candidates;
Faith and Freedom Network looks for workers for their "Walk for Washington" PAC to pump up fundamentalist voter turnout in the primary and main elections;
Concerned Women for America's Robert Knight rails against California bills, urges veto;
CWA's Jan LaRue condemns Republican Senate leadership for not working harder to confirm all Bush judicial nominees;
CWA whines that more people don't self-identify as "Evangelicals" and instead prefer other terms;
CWA: Lesson of the September 11 terrorist attacks is that America must "bring our nation back ... to God";
Fundamentalist in Britain runs afoul of British speech law; I oppose speech law; anti-gay activists bring up these cases to assert that these speech codes will be coming to the US, despite their being violently unconstitutional in our system;
"How Britain turned Christianity into a Crime"; more of what I'm talking about; this is neat because it both implies that being anti-gay and Christian are one and the same and ignores that Britain has an official state religion, which is to say Anglicanism, which is to say, a branch of Christianity;
Focus on the Family update on the pending PERA vote in the House; this would change Federal law so losers in religious-establishment cases no longer have to fork over legal fees; the expressed intent (in earlier articles) is to make it harder to sue to stop religious discrimination; now that part is only implied and Concerned Women for America's Bob Knight is calling it an "anti-bullying act";
Concerned Women for America is one off the many fundamentalist groups screaming that psychologist Dr. Michael Campion, former board member at the Illinois Family Institute, a theoconservative organisation, was suspended from doing screening work for the Minneapolis Police Department "because he's a Christian"; they blame "homosexuals" in particular. Note again the absolute equivalence of "Christian" and "anti-gay activist";
Here's the Minneapolis Star-Tribune article on the story; he'd previously stopped being brought in by the fire department after a series of complaints from non-GBLT sources; it's also alleged he marked down a woman as unsuitable because she's a single mom and there are other sources of complaint as well; whether any of this is valid, I have no idea; what's actually going on is that his past record is being examined for signs of bias, and if they clear him they'll go back to using him;
CWA's Robert Knight rails against gender reassignment by a schoolteacher, and in particular, the school's position that the teacher cannot be harassed;
Family Research Council ACTION ITEM to help pass the Virginia anti-marriage-rights constitutional amendment; GBLT people already have extremely limited rights in Virginia and certainly no ability to marry, but that isn't good enough for the theocons; two of the three types of positions involve specifically getting churches to be politically involved and active in pushing the amendment;
FRC ACTION ITEM to push military amendment to allow more overt proselytization by military pastors;
American Family Association ACTION ITEM to demand Wal-Mart quit the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, saying that it redefines marriage and gives special rights to queers;
AFA: Judge should not have issued an injunction against public-school Bible giveaways in schools - the injunction is temporary pending a final order;
AFA: Queers are diseased sex fiends;
Traditional Values Coalition endorses, pushes for legalisation of President Bush's torture regime;
TVC pushes more anti-abortion-rights groups in South Dakota pending the votes this fall;
TVC ACTION ITEMS to push PERA (making it harder to sue against religious discrimination) and the "Child Custody Protection Act," which is an anti-abortion-rights measure;
TVC ACTION ITEMS against two California bills, AB 606 and AB 1056, which they say "will require children to be indoctrinated into believing that homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexualism, are normal and should be affirmed in the public school system";
DefendMarriage Canada attacks "Government Funded Same Sex Indoctrination," which, if I apply American fundamentalist rhetoric filter to their text, actually means sex ed that includes GBLT people;
----- 1 -----
Come as you are
At Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Snoop Dogg figures in sermons, housewives cradle babies in tattooed arms -- and religious fundamentalism rules. Meet the Disciple Generation, the fierce new face of American evangelism.
By Lauren Sandler
Salon.com
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2006/09/13/righteous/index_np.html
It's Father's Day and Mark Driscoll is blessing babies. A stocky, square-headed figure in a black shirt and jeans, with a leather cord around his thick neck, Driscoll stands against a backdrop of a giant brushed steel cross and a phalanx of electric guitars, praying over the "lovely wives and godly husbands" lined up on the stage of Mars Hill Church. Located in a former warehouse in Seattle's hip Ballard neighborhood, where drive-through espresso joints out-number churches ten to one, Driscoll's megachurch is a sprawling industrial space of corrugated steel, painted charcoal and muted taupe. Inside, the walls are hung with a member's graffiti art, lit by Starbucks-style colored glass fixtures blown by a congregant.
[...]
[Church co-founder and lead pastor] Driscoll has established a nationwide apparatus to push back women's rights through the "liberation theology" of submission. The online application for church planting is an extremist screening device to this effect. It begins with a lengthy doctrinal assertion that every word of the Bible is literal truth; the application plucks out the examples of creationism and male headship of home and church to clarify this doctrine. "We are not liberals," it says. "We are not egalitarian."
[...]
Following Driscoll's biblical reading of prescribed gender roles, women quit their jobs and try to have as many babies as possible. And these are no mere women who fear independence, who are looking to live by the simple tenets of fundamentalist credo, enforced by a commanding husband: many of the women of Mars Hill reluctantly abandon successful lives lived on their own terms to serve their husbands and their Lord. Accountability and community is ballasted by intricately organized cells -- gender-isolated support groups that form a social life as warm and tight as swaddling clothes, or weekly coed sermon studies and family dinner parties that provide further insulation against the secular world.
[...]
[Church co-founder Ted] Dietz is extraordinarily well informed in matters of domestic politics and foreign policy, but he interprets all he learns through the book of Revelation. "I don't know if you know about this," he tells me, "but there's a new organization in Israel completing plans for the new temple. Jesus will come back and he'll take us -- well, at least us," he says, looking at me with a straight face, "and there will be an end to all things."
[More at URL]
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Judicial Voter Guide Reminder
Faith and Freedom Network
September 17, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
Dear XXXXXX,
We want to remind you that the Washington State primary is Tuesday, September 19th. Please remember to have your mail-in ballots postmarked by that day or visit your polling places. Polling place hours at from 7:00am to 8:00pm. Please remember that all voters must provide identification when voting at a poll site. This is a very important election.
Also, if you have not already circulated the Judicial Voter Guides to your friends and family, please do so before Tuesday. Use the link below to download the Guide.
Judicial Voter Guide
God bless you,
Gary Randall
Faith and Freedom Network & Foundation
email: faithandfreedom@aol.com
phone: 425-486-6594
web: http://www.faithandfreedom.us
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Washington State Voter's Guide
Focus on the Family
http://faithandfreedom.us/pdf/frcvoterguide.pdf
[Editor's Note: One interesting thing about this is that the filename clearly includes "frc," which is the Family Research Council, another fundamentalist theoconservative group which is, in fact, spun off from Focus on the Family several years ago. In fact, the endorsement sheet itself links to frcaction.org, one of the Family Research Council's websites. However, the headline group on the flyer is Focus on the Family Action.]
2006 Voter Guide for Supreme Court Candidates in Washington State
Primary Election, September 19, 2006
General Election, November 7, 2006
A Supreme Court Candidate who receives 51% of the vote in the Primary Election run will run unopposed in the General Election
Candidates for elective judicial office may express their views on legal and political issues. Republican Party of Minnesota v. White, 536 U.S. 765, 122 S. Ct. 2528, 153 L.Ed. 2nd 894 (2002). [etc]
(More at URL)
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Faith and Freedom 2006 Washington State Judicial Voter's Guide
Faith and Freedom Network
Online as of 16 September 2006
http://faithandfreedom.us/2006_judicial_voter_guide.html
[This page is actually a collection of links to other pages which contain questionairre responses from the judicial candidates they support in Tuesday's election. Don't forget to vote!]
----- 5 -----
Walk for Washington
Faith and Freedom Network
Online as of 16 September 2006
http://faithandfreedom.us/
Help Needed Immediately:
Walk for Washington, an organization committed to electing pro-constitutional State Supreme Court justices, are paying $10 per hour to people to help with their Get-Out-The-Vote phone bank beginning Sept. 9th - Sept. 19th from 4 to 8 p.m. daily.
If you can help, call Jon Russell, Field Director: 1-800-731-5328 or send an email.
(More at URL)
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Schwarzenegger Urged to Stop Two More School Bills
California governor vetoed 'sexual orientation,' health care takeover last week.
9/12/2006
Concerned Women for America
By Robert H. Knight
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11490/CFI/family/index.htm
California pro-family activists have turned their attention to stopping two more pro-homosexual school bills after Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's veto of two key bills last week.
One of the vetoed bills, SB 840, sponsored by lesbian activist Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), would have created a single-payer universal health care program, thus making all California residents dependent on the government for their health care.
[More at URL]
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CWA: Senate Leadership Fails President on Judges
Concerned Women for America
9/14/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11506/MEDIA/misc/index.htm
Washington, D.C. - Concerned Women for America (CWA) rebuked Senate Leadership today for failing to move on four judicial nominees, William Myers, Randy Smith, Jim Haynes and Terrance Boyle, due to a "lack of a quorum." The failure of Senators to attend this morning's executive meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee let down these outstanding nominees, President Bush and the American people.
"A 'lack of a quorum' is inexcusable. At such a critical time in our nation's history, one would think our elected representatives would show up and support qualified judges for America's courts," said Jan LaRue, CWA's Chief Counsel. "It is disappointing that Chairman Specter allowed this to happen."
[More at URL]
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CWA Regrets Bias Toward Evangelicals
Concerned Women for America
9/13/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11498/MEDIA/misc/index.htm
Washington, D.C. - Concerned Women for America (CWA) reports on a new Baylor Religious Survey - released this week at the National Press Club - which found that fewer believers want to be labeled "evangelical." In a cultural environment of increasing bias against evangelicals, less than half of those who say that their beliefs are "evangelical" (33 percent) use that label to describe themselves (15 percent). Further, just over 2 percent of those same "evangelicals" are willing to say that the title "reflects their religious identity."
"Sadly, some Biblically orthodox believers are unwilling to proudly affirm their faith. They lack the self-confidence to boldly challenge the negative bias; they don't want to be called 'evangelical' or 'religious right,'" said Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, Senior Fellow of Concerned Women for America's Beverly LaHaye Institute. "Others," Crouse added, "prefer different labels - for instance, some prefer 'born-again' (28.5 percent); others 'theologically conservative' (17.5 percent). With so many different categories, the numbers don't reflect the strength of the true believers."
"Amazingly, the old stereotypes still exist," said Crouse. "Today's pseudo-sophisticates view Biblical orthodoxy with disdain and/or hostility. The Washington Post, reporting on the Baylor survey, noted that those who view God as 'engaged and punishing' are more likely to 'have lower incomes and less education, to come from the South and to be white evangelicals or black Protestants.' Such statements - implying that Southerners, white evangelicals and black Protestants are poor and uneducated - reinforce old prejudices and continue the negative stereotypes about true believers."
[More at URL]
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CWA Says Lessons Must be Learned from September 11th
Concerned Women for America
9/11/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11479/MEDIA/misc/index.htm
Washington, D.C. - Concerned Women for America (CWA) reflects upon the tragic events of September 11, 2001, and challenges Americans to heed the lessons that should have been learned from the terrorist's attacks. Thousands of lives were lost; our sense of security was taken away and we were forced to engage in an unprecedented war on terror. Let us not be so callous that we busy ourselves and ignore one of the greatest tragedies in U.S. history.
[...]
"Did we not learn anything as a nation because of these tragic events? What will it take to bring our nation back to a trust and faith in God? God's blessing and protection pours o't on a people that revere and believe in Him. I pray that instead of letting this anniversary be simply a reminder of the events five years ago, we will resolve to move forward with a new sense of patriotism, unity, and faith in God."
Click to read Dr. Crouse's commentary on 9-11 on Human Events Online.
(More at URL)
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Christian Faces Trial Over Bible-Based Pamphlets
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com International Editor
September 12, 2006
[Editor's note: I strongly oppose speech laws such as these. These cases from countries which have them are routinely used to threaten their impositions in the United States, claiming that American GBLT people want speech codes here - however, they are violently unconstitional, not that the theoconservatives care much about that.]
Long URL elided
(CNSNews.com) - Evangelical Christians in Britain are concerned about the prosecution of a protester who was arrested at a homosexuality rally while disseminating leaflets quoting the biblical view about homosexuality.
Stephen Green, who heads a small but active lobby group called Christian Voice, is scheduled to appear before a Cardiff court on September 28, after pleading not guilty to a charge of "threatening, abusive or insulting behavior."
[More at URL]
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How Britain is turning Christianity into a crime
by Melanie Phillips
Last updated at 11:14am on 7th September 2006
Long URL elided
How long will it be before Christianity becomes illegal in Britain? This is no longer the utterly absurd and offensive question that on first blush it would appear to be.
An evangelical Christian campaigner, Stephen Green was arrested and charged last weekend with using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour.
[More at URL]
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House to Vote on Public Expression of Religion Act
Five of 10 bills on the American Values Agenda have been voted on; now another one is about to arrive on the House floor for the same.
by Jessica Stolling
Focus on the Family
September 12, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0041942.cfm
It's called the Public Expression of Religion Act: an "anti-bullying bill" according to Bob Knight with Concerned Women for America.
"This is a 'stop the bullying' bill really, in essence. The ACLU and other groups have shaken down public officials and private groups and benefited greatly in legal fees."
The bill updates a federal law allowing groups like the ACLU to collect legal fees when they win lawsuits concerning the Establishment Clause. Amanda Banks of Focus on the Family Action explains.
[More at URL]
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Minneapolis Police Suspend Psychologist Because He's Christian
Concerned Women for America
9/13/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11501/CWA/misc/index.htm
Dr. Michael Campion, a psychologist who for years has provided screening services for police departments in the Midwest region, was recently suspended by the Minneapolis Police Department. The reason for Dr. Campion's suspension was the fact that he is a Christian, and that he sits on the board of the Illinois Family Institute. Martha Kleder has more on this story with Peter LaBarbera, spokesman for IFI and President of Americans for Truth. Click here to listen.
[Summary rather than transcript, with some quotes; my arms are screwed up at the moment: "Growing anti-Christian bigotry that is out there fomented by the homosexual movement." Blames a "liberal newspaper" for getting him relieved from Springfield duties; asserts that it was really because he's Christian; Minneapolis "liberal activists" are "smearing Dr. Campion." Peter LaBarbera doesn't actually blame gays but instead blames "liberal activists" in general, Martha Kleider leads him back to the blame-the-queers party line. "You're far more likely to be fired for opposing homosexual behaviour." Claims again that LaBarbera was suspended for being Christian. Calls it as "reverse McCarthyism." See next article for what's actually going on. "That did not appease the homosexual lobby. And that's an important thing for Christians to understand - the lobby cannot be appeased... like the schoolyard bully." Martha Kleider pushes a campaign to lobby the police chief to reinstate Dr. Campion. "The bad thing about this, Martha, is Christians get dragged before the media and get their reputations ruined..." "He doesn't want his reputation and his business smeared by a bunch of liberal activists... the ends justify the means." (Mr. LaBarbera keeps deviating from the "it's all t3h gays" line, which is pretty funny. Kleider keeps pushing him back on it, and he hops right back on. But still.) "There are going to befuture Michael Campions out there who are victimised by the gay lobby." Points to "www.americansfortruth.org" to learn more about the "homosexual agenda." Also "gaywrongs.com" - also, attacks Fox News for being involved with a "homosexual journalists convention" in Florida, demands a "gift" for "sponsor[ing] the homosexual activist group" the National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association. Also complaints about Wal-Mart involvement (gave money to?) with the same group. "It's very sad that big corporate America is going in for this agenda." "I think Wal-Mart is really throwing themselves in to the homosexual lobby... we are going to everything we can... to educate people on this bad turn that Wal-Mart has made."]
----- 14 -----
Use of police psychologist put on hold for inquiry
A Minneapolis community relations group has questioned Michael A. Campion's affiliation with an anti-gay organization.
David Chanen, and ROCHELLE OLSON
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Last update: August 28, 2006 - 10:59 PM
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11501/CWA/misc/index.htm
The Minneapolis Police Department has temporarily suspended the use of a well-known psychologist who has been screening potential officers for more than a year after community members questioned his affiliation with a group that opposes civil rights for gays.
The issue of Michael A. Campion's affiliation with a conservative Illinois group that says it opposes the "gay lifestyle" was brought to interim Chief Tim Dolan's attention on Wednesday during a meeting with the Police Community Relations Council.
[...]
This isn't the first time Campion's objectivity has been questioned. In 2003, nine applicants to the Springfield, Ill., Fire Department sued the city claiming they were unfairly disqualified by either background checks or Campion's psychological evaluation. A judge dismissed the suit, but the Springfield City Council didn't renew Campion's contract last year.
[...]
Minneapolis Deputy Police Chief Don Harris said it was only within the past week that they became aware of Campion's association with the Illinois Family Institute, a nonprofit group that says it advocates for religious freedom and opposes gay marriage, civil rights protection for gays, abortion and embryonic stem cell research.
[...]
Members of the Police Community Relations Council had concerns about this group and had heard complaints from several people who weren't hired to be Minneapolis police officers after they were deemed "unqualified" by Campion's psychological tests, said council cochairman Clyde Bellecourt. During a meeting with council members last week, Campion made statements about single parents and race that disturbed them, said council member Ron Edwards.
[More at URL]
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School Forces Students to Acknowledge Teacher's Gender Change
Concerned Women for America
9/13/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11508/CWA/family/index.htm
High school students in Batavia, New York were welcomed back to class this year with a lecture on gender identity disorder. They were also told they would be punished if they referred to a certain veteran teacher as "he," since this teacher had decided that he is now a "she." Policy Analyst Martha Kleder and Bob Knight, Director of CWA's Culture & Family Institute, spoke with Debra J.M. Smith, a home schooling mom and journalist who brought this case to CWA's attention. Click here to listen.
For more information on this case visit www.debrajmsmith.com
[Summary rather than transcript, with some quotes; my arms are screwed up at the moment: "They're basically telling these students that they have to respect what he's doing. Not just him as a person, but what he's doing." Of course, they constantly refer to her as male. "They had a presentation that point blank said, 'this is not a choice.'" Complains about "zero tolerance for any kind of harassment" against the teacher going through gender reassignment. Claims that the teacher "just obviously showed up in a dress one day," which is AFAIK is incorrect (I remember this story in other press). "They're deliberately confusing these kids ... they're telling these kids to lie." "This man... he worked there for years as a man... so the community itself... what I'm finding interesting is that the parents don't seem to be doing a major outcry, it appears they seem afraid." Claims parents are being "bullied into silence." "Im amazed that a whole entire community ... seems to be being bulled into some kind of submission about this." A local Baptist church pastor "encouraged [Robert Knight] that we're not going to give up here... we've had it... we feel the kids are at risk." Says GID "really is a mental illness" and GRS to be "mutilating their bodies." Calls people who "go along with" GID are "codependent." Claims there is no "test" for GID, and no way "to tell" that a person are gender dysphoric. Liberty Council and American Family Association are stepping in to find "legal recourse" for unhappy parents. "It's an intimidation." "Indoctrination of this gender - supposed - disorder." "I believe to a child... if they don't do what they're being told, they're going to get in legal trouble." "The school is offering counseling to kids disturbed by it, so they're sending normal kids to school, shocking them with something abnormal, and then offering them counseling for their disorder. What's wrong with this picture?!" "Another social revolutionary educator ... schools are full of them." Claims that more parents would like to "speak out... but are scared." Plugs www.debrajmsmith.com again. Notes again AFA, Liberty Council intervention against the teacher. "I believe there's a reason that God allowed this to happen... there's so much liberalism in this country, it was bound to slip in somewhere... and I feel that the reason the Lord allowed it to slip in here is because this is a community full of some really good Christians... and they are going to see to it along with the help of organisations like yours that it does get handled and that it sends a message to the rest of America that people do draw the line somewhere, and this is where they're drawing the line... and I hope they back up too!" (More commentary about reversing social gains, presumably by GBLT people primarily, but they're not specific.)]
----- 16 -----
Please volunteer to help pass Virginia Marriage Amendment
Volunteers for Virginia Marriage Amendment needed
Family Research Council
September 11, 2006 - Monday
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL06I09&f=PG03I03
On November 7, Virginians will be asked to amend the state Constitution to define marriage as being the union of one man and one woman. To support the amendment, The Family Foundation and va4marriage need individuals who can volunteer across the Commonwealth of Virginia. Due to limited funding, a major media campaign to counter our opponents is difficult to impossible. Therefore the campaign's success depends on our ability to mobilize the grassroots. To do that, your help is needed today.
[More at URL]
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Please contact Sen. Warner (VA) and Sen. Levin (MI) and ask them to support language that protects our chaplain's religious freedom
Chaplains Prevented from Praying according to Conscience
Family Research Council
September 14, 2006 - Thursday
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL06I11&f=PG03I03
Our military chaplains are from different faiths and have been allowed, until now, to pray and minister according to their religious convictions. After some questionable religious practices at the Air Force Academy, the Air Force has passed interim guidelines that go to the opposite extreme and undermine the ability of chaplains to minister according to their own faith tradition. Representatives Todd Akin (R-MO) worked with his colleagues to pass language in the House version of the National Defense Authorization to protect Chaplains throughout the military and allow them to pray and minister according to their faith tradition. The Senate Defense bill had no such protections and the two bills are in conference.
[More at URL]
----- 18 -----
Wal-Mart asks for, and receives, permission to join homosexual marriage group
American Family Association
Online as of 17 September 2006
http://www.afa.net/Petitions/IssueDetail.asp?id=210
Read "Wal-Mart Partners With Gay and Lesbian Group"
Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world, has asked for and received permission to join the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. The NGLCC is a leading promoter of homosexual marriage.
Although Wal-Mart has never excluded homosexuals from being employees, customers, or suppliers, the company wanted to be more closely identified with promoting the homosexual agenda. Wal-Mart is now a "corporate member" of the NGLCC, putting their approval on the NGLCC's efforts to abolish the definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. A Wal-Mart vice president will serve as an advisor to the NGLCC, helping them promote homosexual marriage.
[...]
TAKE ACTION
1. Send your email to Wal-Mart.
2. Wal-Mart often blocks our emails. To make sure your voice is heard, please call Wal-Mart's home office headquarters and ask for President Lee Scott at 479-273-4000. Also, call your local Wal-Mart manager and express your concerns. Please, be polite when you call!
3. Print out and distribute our specially produced Pass Along Sheet.
----- 19 -----
Christian Attorney: Judge Erred in Halting School Bible Giveaway
By Jim Brown
American Family Association
September 15, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/9/afa/152006d.asp
(AgapePress) - An attorney and specialist in constitutional law says federal court Judge Catherine Perry displayed inappropriate animus toward religion by ordering a public school in Annapolis, Missouri, to end a Bible giveaway program for fifth graders until she issues a final order.
Judge Perry's preliminary injunction says South Iron Elementary School wrongly allowed the Bible handouts solely to promote Christianity to students. Many other schools have also stopped distribution of the pocket-sized Gideon Bibles, often in response to lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. (See related article)
[More at URL]
----- 20 -----
Surveys Reveal Sex Practices of Homosexuals
By AFA Journal
American Family Association
September 15, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/9/afa/152006g.asp
(AgapePress) - Two recent surveys of the homosexual community -- one in the U.S. and one in Ireland -- reveal that the homosexual lifestyle continues to be plagued by promiscuity and unsafe sex practices.
A survey by The Advocate, a homosexual magazine, revealed that promiscuity is a reality among homosexuals. The poll found that 20 percent of homosexuals said they had had 51-300 different sex partners in their lifetime, with an additional 8 percent having had more than 300.
[More at URL]
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America's New War Is With Faceless Enemy Who Attacks Unarmed and Innocent
President Seeks To Clarify Vagaries of 1950 Language
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2854
September 18, 2006 - Washington, DC -- The Traditional Values Coalition asked members of Congress to support President Bush's reform of prisoner treatment policies because "this is a war unlike any other we have fought -- the enemy is faceless and deliberately attacks the innocent."
TVC Chairman Rev. Louis P. Sheldon said American military and intelligence experts are hampered by a vague "outrages upon personal dignity" statement in Article Three of the Geneva Convention of 1950.
"We need to clarify this policy for treating detainees," said Rev. Sheldon. "As it stands right now, the military and intelligence experts interrogating these terrorists are in much greater danger than the terrorists. Civil suits against our military personnel are tying their hands as they try to get vital information which will save the lives of our young military people and the innocent."
[More at URL]
----- 22 -----
South Dakotans Vote Yes For Life
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2847
September 14, 2006 - A coalition of pro-life groups in South Dakota are working together to support the Women's Life and Human Health Protection Act (HB 1215).
The VoteYesForLife.com campaign is publicizing the stories of women who have suffered harm from abortion and who are living testimonies to the fact that abortion not only kills the unborn child, but damages women as well.
[More at URL]
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Key Bills Need Passage
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2848
September 14, 2006 - The Public Expression Of Religion Act (PERA); and the Child Custody Protection Act need to be passed.
PERA may be voted on next week in the House.
PERA will block the ACLU from using a loophole in federal law that allows it to be awarded attorneys fees from lawsuits it files against religious liberty. PERA will force the ACLU and other anti-Christian groups to pay their own legal fees in lawsuits against religious freedom. PERA is sponsored by Rep. John Hostettler (R-IN).
TAKE ACTION: Read TVC's backgrounders on PERA: TVC Urges Passage Of Public Expression Of Religion Act; ACLU; ACLU Continues Its Attack On Religious Freedom; Public Expression Of Religion Act Needs More Senate Co-Sponsors; Attorney Mathew D. Staver on PERA. Contact your U.S. Representative and urge him to vote YES on PERA.
The Child Custody Protection Act has been held up by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) who used a procedural rule to block this bill from going to a conference committee to iron out differences between the House and Senate versions.
TAKE ACTION: Contact your U.S. Senators and ask them to take whatever measures needed to force the Senate to pass the Child Custody Protection Act.
----- 24 -----
California Governor Must Veto AB 606 And AB 1056
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2850
September 14, 2006 - Two pro-homosexual indoctrination bills for children are still awaiting a veto from California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Both of these bills will require children to be indoctrinated into believing that homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexualism, are normal and should be affirmed in the public school system.
[More at URL]
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Stop Government Funded Same Sex Indoctrination
DefendMarriage Canada
Online as of 17 September 2006
http://www.familyaction.org/defendmarriage/
Last year, in defiance of public opinion, the government passed a law redefining marriage. Because educators are now required to teach the new law to all students, they are looking for curriculum to teach children same-sex relations. The material developed with assistance from the government is called "The Little Black".
The Little Black Book - Pornographic Propaganda Paid for by Taxpayer Dollars
This past year the federal, provincial and municipal governments provided St. Stephen's House in Toronto with funding of $7.8 million. One of the "educational" projects undertaken by this organization was the production and distribution of "The Little Black Book - A Book on Healthy Sexuality". This book purports to be a guide to personal and sexual development for teenage girls. In reality, it is a shockingly pornographic and deeply offensive piece of political and cultural propaganda.
[More at URL]
Faith and Freedom Network sends out their Judicial Voter Guide link again to their Washington State mailing list;
Faith and Freedom Network links to Focus on the Family's Washington State
Faith and Freedom Network links to their questionairres as filled out by judicial candidates;
Faith and Freedom Network looks for workers for their "Walk for Washington" PAC to pump up fundamentalist voter turnout in the primary and main elections;
Concerned Women for America's Robert Knight rails against California bills, urges veto;
CWA's Jan LaRue condemns Republican Senate leadership for not working harder to confirm all Bush judicial nominees;
CWA whines that more people don't self-identify as "Evangelicals" and instead prefer other terms;
CWA: Lesson of the September 11 terrorist attacks is that America must "bring our nation back ... to God";
Fundamentalist in Britain runs afoul of British speech law; I oppose speech law; anti-gay activists bring up these cases to assert that these speech codes will be coming to the US, despite their being violently unconstitutional in our system;
"How Britain turned Christianity into a Crime"; more of what I'm talking about; this is neat because it both implies that being anti-gay and Christian are one and the same and ignores that Britain has an official state religion, which is to say Anglicanism, which is to say, a branch of Christianity;
Focus on the Family update on the pending PERA vote in the House; this would change Federal law so losers in religious-establishment cases no longer have to fork over legal fees; the expressed intent (in earlier articles) is to make it harder to sue to stop religious discrimination; now that part is only implied and Concerned Women for America's Bob Knight is calling it an "anti-bullying act";
Concerned Women for America is one off the many fundamentalist groups screaming that psychologist Dr. Michael Campion, former board member at the Illinois Family Institute, a theoconservative organisation, was suspended from doing screening work for the Minneapolis Police Department "because he's a Christian"; they blame "homosexuals" in particular. Note again the absolute equivalence of "Christian" and "anti-gay activist";
Here's the Minneapolis Star-Tribune article on the story; he'd previously stopped being brought in by the fire department after a series of complaints from non-GBLT sources; it's also alleged he marked down a woman as unsuitable because she's a single mom and there are other sources of complaint as well; whether any of this is valid, I have no idea; what's actually going on is that his past record is being examined for signs of bias, and if they clear him they'll go back to using him;
CWA's Robert Knight rails against gender reassignment by a schoolteacher, and in particular, the school's position that the teacher cannot be harassed;
Family Research Council ACTION ITEM to help pass the Virginia anti-marriage-rights constitutional amendment; GBLT people already have extremely limited rights in Virginia and certainly no ability to marry, but that isn't good enough for the theocons; two of the three types of positions involve specifically getting churches to be politically involved and active in pushing the amendment;
FRC ACTION ITEM to push military amendment to allow more overt proselytization by military pastors;
American Family Association ACTION ITEM to demand Wal-Mart quit the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, saying that it redefines marriage and gives special rights to queers;
AFA: Judge should not have issued an injunction against public-school Bible giveaways in schools - the injunction is temporary pending a final order;
AFA: Queers are diseased sex fiends;
Traditional Values Coalition endorses, pushes for legalisation of President Bush's torture regime;
TVC pushes more anti-abortion-rights groups in South Dakota pending the votes this fall;
TVC ACTION ITEMS to push PERA (making it harder to sue against religious discrimination) and the "Child Custody Protection Act," which is an anti-abortion-rights measure;
TVC ACTION ITEMS against two California bills, AB 606 and AB 1056, which they say "will require children to be indoctrinated into believing that homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexualism, are normal and should be affirmed in the public school system";
DefendMarriage Canada attacks "Government Funded Same Sex Indoctrination," which, if I apply American fundamentalist rhetoric filter to their text, actually means sex ed that includes GBLT people;
----- 1 -----
Come as you are
At Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Snoop Dogg figures in sermons, housewives cradle babies in tattooed arms -- and religious fundamentalism rules. Meet the Disciple Generation, the fierce new face of American evangelism.
By Lauren Sandler
Salon.com
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2006/09/13/righteous/index_np.html
It's Father's Day and Mark Driscoll is blessing babies. A stocky, square-headed figure in a black shirt and jeans, with a leather cord around his thick neck, Driscoll stands against a backdrop of a giant brushed steel cross and a phalanx of electric guitars, praying over the "lovely wives and godly husbands" lined up on the stage of Mars Hill Church. Located in a former warehouse in Seattle's hip Ballard neighborhood, where drive-through espresso joints out-number churches ten to one, Driscoll's megachurch is a sprawling industrial space of corrugated steel, painted charcoal and muted taupe. Inside, the walls are hung with a member's graffiti art, lit by Starbucks-style colored glass fixtures blown by a congregant.
[...]
[Church co-founder and lead pastor] Driscoll has established a nationwide apparatus to push back women's rights through the "liberation theology" of submission. The online application for church planting is an extremist screening device to this effect. It begins with a lengthy doctrinal assertion that every word of the Bible is literal truth; the application plucks out the examples of creationism and male headship of home and church to clarify this doctrine. "We are not liberals," it says. "We are not egalitarian."
[...]
Following Driscoll's biblical reading of prescribed gender roles, women quit their jobs and try to have as many babies as possible. And these are no mere women who fear independence, who are looking to live by the simple tenets of fundamentalist credo, enforced by a commanding husband: many of the women of Mars Hill reluctantly abandon successful lives lived on their own terms to serve their husbands and their Lord. Accountability and community is ballasted by intricately organized cells -- gender-isolated support groups that form a social life as warm and tight as swaddling clothes, or weekly coed sermon studies and family dinner parties that provide further insulation against the secular world.
[...]
[Church co-founder Ted] Dietz is extraordinarily well informed in matters of domestic politics and foreign policy, but he interprets all he learns through the book of Revelation. "I don't know if you know about this," he tells me, "but there's a new organization in Israel completing plans for the new temple. Jesus will come back and he'll take us -- well, at least us," he says, looking at me with a straight face, "and there will be an end to all things."
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
Judicial Voter Guide Reminder
Faith and Freedom Network
September 17, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
Dear XXXXXX,
We want to remind you that the Washington State primary is Tuesday, September 19th. Please remember to have your mail-in ballots postmarked by that day or visit your polling places. Polling place hours at from 7:00am to 8:00pm. Please remember that all voters must provide identification when voting at a poll site. This is a very important election.
Also, if you have not already circulated the Judicial Voter Guides to your friends and family, please do so before Tuesday. Use the link below to download the Guide.
Judicial Voter Guide
God bless you,
Gary Randall
Faith and Freedom Network & Foundation
email: faithandfreedom@aol.com
phone: 425-486-6594
web: http://www.faithandfreedom.us
----- 3 -----
Washington State Voter's Guide
Focus on the Family
http://faithandfreedom.us/pdf/frcvoterguide.pdf
[Editor's Note: One interesting thing about this is that the filename clearly includes "frc," which is the Family Research Council, another fundamentalist theoconservative group which is, in fact, spun off from Focus on the Family several years ago. In fact, the endorsement sheet itself links to frcaction.org, one of the Family Research Council's websites. However, the headline group on the flyer is Focus on the Family Action.]
2006 Voter Guide for Supreme Court Candidates in Washington State
Primary Election, September 19, 2006
General Election, November 7, 2006
A Supreme Court Candidate who receives 51% of the vote in the Primary Election run will run unopposed in the General Election
Candidates for elective judicial office may express their views on legal and political issues. Republican Party of Minnesota v. White, 536 U.S. 765, 122 S. Ct. 2528, 153 L.Ed. 2nd 894 (2002). [etc]
(More at URL)
----- 4 -----
Faith and Freedom 2006 Washington State Judicial Voter's Guide
Faith and Freedom Network
Online as of 16 September 2006
http://faithandfreedom.us/2006_judicial_voter_guide.html
[This page is actually a collection of links to other pages which contain questionairre responses from the judicial candidates they support in Tuesday's election. Don't forget to vote!]
----- 5 -----
Walk for Washington
Faith and Freedom Network
Online as of 16 September 2006
http://faithandfreedom.us/
Help Needed Immediately:
Walk for Washington, an organization committed to electing pro-constitutional State Supreme Court justices, are paying $10 per hour to people to help with their Get-Out-The-Vote phone bank beginning Sept. 9th - Sept. 19th from 4 to 8 p.m. daily.
If you can help, call Jon Russell, Field Director: 1-800-731-5328 or send an email.
(More at URL)
----- 6 -----
Schwarzenegger Urged to Stop Two More School Bills
California governor vetoed 'sexual orientation,' health care takeover last week.
9/12/2006
Concerned Women for America
By Robert H. Knight
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11490/CFI/family/index.htm
California pro-family activists have turned their attention to stopping two more pro-homosexual school bills after Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's veto of two key bills last week.
One of the vetoed bills, SB 840, sponsored by lesbian activist Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), would have created a single-payer universal health care program, thus making all California residents dependent on the government for their health care.
[More at URL]
----- 7 -----
CWA: Senate Leadership Fails President on Judges
Concerned Women for America
9/14/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11506/MEDIA/misc/index.htm
Washington, D.C. - Concerned Women for America (CWA) rebuked Senate Leadership today for failing to move on four judicial nominees, William Myers, Randy Smith, Jim Haynes and Terrance Boyle, due to a "lack of a quorum." The failure of Senators to attend this morning's executive meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee let down these outstanding nominees, President Bush and the American people.
"A 'lack of a quorum' is inexcusable. At such a critical time in our nation's history, one would think our elected representatives would show up and support qualified judges for America's courts," said Jan LaRue, CWA's Chief Counsel. "It is disappointing that Chairman Specter allowed this to happen."
[More at URL]
----- 8 -----
CWA Regrets Bias Toward Evangelicals
Concerned Women for America
9/13/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11498/MEDIA/misc/index.htm
Washington, D.C. - Concerned Women for America (CWA) reports on a new Baylor Religious Survey - released this week at the National Press Club - which found that fewer believers want to be labeled "evangelical." In a cultural environment of increasing bias against evangelicals, less than half of those who say that their beliefs are "evangelical" (33 percent) use that label to describe themselves (15 percent). Further, just over 2 percent of those same "evangelicals" are willing to say that the title "reflects their religious identity."
"Sadly, some Biblically orthodox believers are unwilling to proudly affirm their faith. They lack the self-confidence to boldly challenge the negative bias; they don't want to be called 'evangelical' or 'religious right,'" said Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, Senior Fellow of Concerned Women for America's Beverly LaHaye Institute. "Others," Crouse added, "prefer different labels - for instance, some prefer 'born-again' (28.5 percent); others 'theologically conservative' (17.5 percent). With so many different categories, the numbers don't reflect the strength of the true believers."
"Amazingly, the old stereotypes still exist," said Crouse. "Today's pseudo-sophisticates view Biblical orthodoxy with disdain and/or hostility. The Washington Post, reporting on the Baylor survey, noted that those who view God as 'engaged and punishing' are more likely to 'have lower incomes and less education, to come from the South and to be white evangelicals or black Protestants.' Such statements - implying that Southerners, white evangelicals and black Protestants are poor and uneducated - reinforce old prejudices and continue the negative stereotypes about true believers."
[More at URL]
----- 9 -----
CWA Says Lessons Must be Learned from September 11th
Concerned Women for America
9/11/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11479/MEDIA/misc/index.htm
Washington, D.C. - Concerned Women for America (CWA) reflects upon the tragic events of September 11, 2001, and challenges Americans to heed the lessons that should have been learned from the terrorist's attacks. Thousands of lives were lost; our sense of security was taken away and we were forced to engage in an unprecedented war on terror. Let us not be so callous that we busy ourselves and ignore one of the greatest tragedies in U.S. history.
[...]
"Did we not learn anything as a nation because of these tragic events? What will it take to bring our nation back to a trust and faith in God? God's blessing and protection pours o't on a people that revere and believe in Him. I pray that instead of letting this anniversary be simply a reminder of the events five years ago, we will resolve to move forward with a new sense of patriotism, unity, and faith in God."
Click to read Dr. Crouse's commentary on 9-11 on Human Events Online.
(More at URL)
----- 10 -----
Christian Faces Trial Over Bible-Based Pamphlets
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com International Editor
September 12, 2006
[Editor's note: I strongly oppose speech laws such as these. These cases from countries which have them are routinely used to threaten their impositions in the United States, claiming that American GBLT people want speech codes here - however, they are violently unconstitional, not that the theoconservatives care much about that.]
Long URL elided
(CNSNews.com) - Evangelical Christians in Britain are concerned about the prosecution of a protester who was arrested at a homosexuality rally while disseminating leaflets quoting the biblical view about homosexuality.
Stephen Green, who heads a small but active lobby group called Christian Voice, is scheduled to appear before a Cardiff court on September 28, after pleading not guilty to a charge of "threatening, abusive or insulting behavior."
[More at URL]
----- 11 -----
How Britain is turning Christianity into a crime
by Melanie Phillips
Last updated at 11:14am on 7th September 2006
Long URL elided
How long will it be before Christianity becomes illegal in Britain? This is no longer the utterly absurd and offensive question that on first blush it would appear to be.
An evangelical Christian campaigner, Stephen Green was arrested and charged last weekend with using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour.
[More at URL]
----- 12 -----
House to Vote on Public Expression of Religion Act
Five of 10 bills on the American Values Agenda have been voted on; now another one is about to arrive on the House floor for the same.
by Jessica Stolling
Focus on the Family
September 12, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0041942.cfm
It's called the Public Expression of Religion Act: an "anti-bullying bill" according to Bob Knight with Concerned Women for America.
"This is a 'stop the bullying' bill really, in essence. The ACLU and other groups have shaken down public officials and private groups and benefited greatly in legal fees."
The bill updates a federal law allowing groups like the ACLU to collect legal fees when they win lawsuits concerning the Establishment Clause. Amanda Banks of Focus on the Family Action explains.
[More at URL]
----- 13 -----
Minneapolis Police Suspend Psychologist Because He's Christian
Concerned Women for America
9/13/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11501/CWA/misc/index.htm
Dr. Michael Campion, a psychologist who for years has provided screening services for police departments in the Midwest region, was recently suspended by the Minneapolis Police Department. The reason for Dr. Campion's suspension was the fact that he is a Christian, and that he sits on the board of the Illinois Family Institute. Martha Kleder has more on this story with Peter LaBarbera, spokesman for IFI and President of Americans for Truth. Click here to listen.
[Summary rather than transcript, with some quotes; my arms are screwed up at the moment: "Growing anti-Christian bigotry that is out there fomented by the homosexual movement." Blames a "liberal newspaper" for getting him relieved from Springfield duties; asserts that it was really because he's Christian; Minneapolis "liberal activists" are "smearing Dr. Campion." Peter LaBarbera doesn't actually blame gays but instead blames "liberal activists" in general, Martha Kleider leads him back to the blame-the-queers party line. "You're far more likely to be fired for opposing homosexual behaviour." Claims again that LaBarbera was suspended for being Christian. Calls it as "reverse McCarthyism." See next article for what's actually going on. "That did not appease the homosexual lobby. And that's an important thing for Christians to understand - the lobby cannot be appeased... like the schoolyard bully." Martha Kleider pushes a campaign to lobby the police chief to reinstate Dr. Campion. "The bad thing about this, Martha, is Christians get dragged before the media and get their reputations ruined..." "He doesn't want his reputation and his business smeared by a bunch of liberal activists... the ends justify the means." (Mr. LaBarbera keeps deviating from the "it's all t3h gays" line, which is pretty funny. Kleider keeps pushing him back on it, and he hops right back on. But still.) "There are going to befuture Michael Campions out there who are victimised by the gay lobby." Points to "www.americansfortruth.org" to learn more about the "homosexual agenda." Also "gaywrongs.com" - also, attacks Fox News for being involved with a "homosexual journalists convention" in Florida, demands a "gift" for "sponsor[ing] the homosexual activist group" the National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association. Also complaints about Wal-Mart involvement (gave money to?) with the same group. "It's very sad that big corporate America is going in for this agenda." "I think Wal-Mart is really throwing themselves in to the homosexual lobby... we are going to everything we can... to educate people on this bad turn that Wal-Mart has made."]
----- 14 -----
Use of police psychologist put on hold for inquiry
A Minneapolis community relations group has questioned Michael A. Campion's affiliation with an anti-gay organization.
David Chanen, and ROCHELLE OLSON
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Last update: August 28, 2006 - 10:59 PM
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11501/CWA/misc/index.htm
The Minneapolis Police Department has temporarily suspended the use of a well-known psychologist who has been screening potential officers for more than a year after community members questioned his affiliation with a group that opposes civil rights for gays.
The issue of Michael A. Campion's affiliation with a conservative Illinois group that says it opposes the "gay lifestyle" was brought to interim Chief Tim Dolan's attention on Wednesday during a meeting with the Police Community Relations Council.
[...]
This isn't the first time Campion's objectivity has been questioned. In 2003, nine applicants to the Springfield, Ill., Fire Department sued the city claiming they were unfairly disqualified by either background checks or Campion's psychological evaluation. A judge dismissed the suit, but the Springfield City Council didn't renew Campion's contract last year.
[...]
Minneapolis Deputy Police Chief Don Harris said it was only within the past week that they became aware of Campion's association with the Illinois Family Institute, a nonprofit group that says it advocates for religious freedom and opposes gay marriage, civil rights protection for gays, abortion and embryonic stem cell research.
[...]
Members of the Police Community Relations Council had concerns about this group and had heard complaints from several people who weren't hired to be Minneapolis police officers after they were deemed "unqualified" by Campion's psychological tests, said council cochairman Clyde Bellecourt. During a meeting with council members last week, Campion made statements about single parents and race that disturbed them, said council member Ron Edwards.
[More at URL]
----- 15 -----
School Forces Students to Acknowledge Teacher's Gender Change
Concerned Women for America
9/13/2006
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11508/CWA/family/index.htm
High school students in Batavia, New York were welcomed back to class this year with a lecture on gender identity disorder. They were also told they would be punished if they referred to a certain veteran teacher as "he," since this teacher had decided that he is now a "she." Policy Analyst Martha Kleder and Bob Knight, Director of CWA's Culture & Family Institute, spoke with Debra J.M. Smith, a home schooling mom and journalist who brought this case to CWA's attention. Click here to listen.
For more information on this case visit www.debrajmsmith.com
[Summary rather than transcript, with some quotes; my arms are screwed up at the moment: "They're basically telling these students that they have to respect what he's doing. Not just him as a person, but what he's doing." Of course, they constantly refer to her as male. "They had a presentation that point blank said, 'this is not a choice.'" Complains about "zero tolerance for any kind of harassment" against the teacher going through gender reassignment. Claims that the teacher "just obviously showed up in a dress one day," which is AFAIK is incorrect (I remember this story in other press). "They're deliberately confusing these kids ... they're telling these kids to lie." "This man... he worked there for years as a man... so the community itself... what I'm finding interesting is that the parents don't seem to be doing a major outcry, it appears they seem afraid." Claims parents are being "bullied into silence." "Im amazed that a whole entire community ... seems to be being bulled into some kind of submission about this." A local Baptist church pastor "encouraged [Robert Knight] that we're not going to give up here... we've had it... we feel the kids are at risk." Says GID "really is a mental illness" and GRS to be "mutilating their bodies." Calls people who "go along with" GID are "codependent." Claims there is no "test" for GID, and no way "to tell" that a person are gender dysphoric. Liberty Council and American Family Association are stepping in to find "legal recourse" for unhappy parents. "It's an intimidation." "Indoctrination of this gender - supposed - disorder." "I believe to a child... if they don't do what they're being told, they're going to get in legal trouble." "The school is offering counseling to kids disturbed by it, so they're sending normal kids to school, shocking them with something abnormal, and then offering them counseling for their disorder. What's wrong with this picture?!" "Another social revolutionary educator ... schools are full of them." Claims that more parents would like to "speak out... but are scared." Plugs www.debrajmsmith.com again. Notes again AFA, Liberty Council intervention against the teacher. "I believe there's a reason that God allowed this to happen... there's so much liberalism in this country, it was bound to slip in somewhere... and I feel that the reason the Lord allowed it to slip in here is because this is a community full of some really good Christians... and they are going to see to it along with the help of organisations like yours that it does get handled and that it sends a message to the rest of America that people do draw the line somewhere, and this is where they're drawing the line... and I hope they back up too!" (More commentary about reversing social gains, presumably by GBLT people primarily, but they're not specific.)]
----- 16 -----
Please volunteer to help pass Virginia Marriage Amendment
Volunteers for Virginia Marriage Amendment needed
Family Research Council
September 11, 2006 - Monday
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL06I09&f=PG03I03
On November 7, Virginians will be asked to amend the state Constitution to define marriage as being the union of one man and one woman. To support the amendment, The Family Foundation and va4marriage need individuals who can volunteer across the Commonwealth of Virginia. Due to limited funding, a major media campaign to counter our opponents is difficult to impossible. Therefore the campaign's success depends on our ability to mobilize the grassroots. To do that, your help is needed today.
[More at URL]
----- 17 -----
Please contact Sen. Warner (VA) and Sen. Levin (MI) and ask them to support language that protects our chaplain's religious freedom
Chaplains Prevented from Praying according to Conscience
Family Research Council
September 14, 2006 - Thursday
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL06I11&f=PG03I03
Our military chaplains are from different faiths and have been allowed, until now, to pray and minister according to their religious convictions. After some questionable religious practices at the Air Force Academy, the Air Force has passed interim guidelines that go to the opposite extreme and undermine the ability of chaplains to minister according to their own faith tradition. Representatives Todd Akin (R-MO) worked with his colleagues to pass language in the House version of the National Defense Authorization to protect Chaplains throughout the military and allow them to pray and minister according to their faith tradition. The Senate Defense bill had no such protections and the two bills are in conference.
[More at URL]
----- 18 -----
Wal-Mart asks for, and receives, permission to join homosexual marriage group
American Family Association
Online as of 17 September 2006
http://www.afa.net/Petitions/IssueDetail.asp?id=210
Read "Wal-Mart Partners With Gay and Lesbian Group"
Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world, has asked for and received permission to join the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. The NGLCC is a leading promoter of homosexual marriage.
Although Wal-Mart has never excluded homosexuals from being employees, customers, or suppliers, the company wanted to be more closely identified with promoting the homosexual agenda. Wal-Mart is now a "corporate member" of the NGLCC, putting their approval on the NGLCC's efforts to abolish the definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. A Wal-Mart vice president will serve as an advisor to the NGLCC, helping them promote homosexual marriage.
[...]
TAKE ACTION
1. Send your email to Wal-Mart.
2. Wal-Mart often blocks our emails. To make sure your voice is heard, please call Wal-Mart's home office headquarters and ask for President Lee Scott at 479-273-4000. Also, call your local Wal-Mart manager and express your concerns. Please, be polite when you call!
3. Print out and distribute our specially produced Pass Along Sheet.
----- 19 -----
Christian Attorney: Judge Erred in Halting School Bible Giveaway
By Jim Brown
American Family Association
September 15, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/9/afa/152006d.asp
(AgapePress) - An attorney and specialist in constitutional law says federal court Judge Catherine Perry displayed inappropriate animus toward religion by ordering a public school in Annapolis, Missouri, to end a Bible giveaway program for fifth graders until she issues a final order.
Judge Perry's preliminary injunction says South Iron Elementary School wrongly allowed the Bible handouts solely to promote Christianity to students. Many other schools have also stopped distribution of the pocket-sized Gideon Bibles, often in response to lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. (See related article)
[More at URL]
----- 20 -----
Surveys Reveal Sex Practices of Homosexuals
By AFA Journal
American Family Association
September 15, 2006
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/9/afa/152006g.asp
(AgapePress) - Two recent surveys of the homosexual community -- one in the U.S. and one in Ireland -- reveal that the homosexual lifestyle continues to be plagued by promiscuity and unsafe sex practices.
A survey by The Advocate, a homosexual magazine, revealed that promiscuity is a reality among homosexuals. The poll found that 20 percent of homosexuals said they had had 51-300 different sex partners in their lifetime, with an additional 8 percent having had more than 300.
[More at URL]
----- 21 -----
America's New War Is With Faceless Enemy Who Attacks Unarmed and Innocent
President Seeks To Clarify Vagaries of 1950 Language
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2854
September 18, 2006 - Washington, DC -- The Traditional Values Coalition asked members of Congress to support President Bush's reform of prisoner treatment policies because "this is a war unlike any other we have fought -- the enemy is faceless and deliberately attacks the innocent."
TVC Chairman Rev. Louis P. Sheldon said American military and intelligence experts are hampered by a vague "outrages upon personal dignity" statement in Article Three of the Geneva Convention of 1950.
"We need to clarify this policy for treating detainees," said Rev. Sheldon. "As it stands right now, the military and intelligence experts interrogating these terrorists are in much greater danger than the terrorists. Civil suits against our military personnel are tying their hands as they try to get vital information which will save the lives of our young military people and the innocent."
[More at URL]
----- 22 -----
South Dakotans Vote Yes For Life
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2847
September 14, 2006 - A coalition of pro-life groups in South Dakota are working together to support the Women's Life and Human Health Protection Act (HB 1215).
The VoteYesForLife.com campaign is publicizing the stories of women who have suffered harm from abortion and who are living testimonies to the fact that abortion not only kills the unborn child, but damages women as well.
[More at URL]
----- 23 -----
Key Bills Need Passage
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2848
September 14, 2006 - The Public Expression Of Religion Act (PERA); and the Child Custody Protection Act need to be passed.
PERA may be voted on next week in the House.
PERA will block the ACLU from using a loophole in federal law that allows it to be awarded attorneys fees from lawsuits it files against religious liberty. PERA will force the ACLU and other anti-Christian groups to pay their own legal fees in lawsuits against religious freedom. PERA is sponsored by Rep. John Hostettler (R-IN).
TAKE ACTION: Read TVC's backgrounders on PERA: TVC Urges Passage Of Public Expression Of Religion Act; ACLU; ACLU Continues Its Attack On Religious Freedom; Public Expression Of Religion Act Needs More Senate Co-Sponsors; Attorney Mathew D. Staver on PERA. Contact your U.S. Representative and urge him to vote YES on PERA.
The Child Custody Protection Act has been held up by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) who used a procedural rule to block this bill from going to a conference committee to iron out differences between the House and Senate versions.
TAKE ACTION: Contact your U.S. Senators and ask them to take whatever measures needed to force the Senate to pass the Child Custody Protection Act.
----- 24 -----
California Governor Must Veto AB 606 And AB 1056
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2850
September 14, 2006 - Two pro-homosexual indoctrination bills for children are still awaiting a veto from California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Both of these bills will require children to be indoctrinated into believing that homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexualism, are normal and should be affirmed in the public school system.
[More at URL]
----- 25 -----
Stop Government Funded Same Sex Indoctrination
DefendMarriage Canada
Online as of 17 September 2006
http://www.familyaction.org/defendmarriage/
Last year, in defiance of public opinion, the government passed a law redefining marriage. Because educators are now required to teach the new law to all students, they are looking for curriculum to teach children same-sex relations. The material developed with assistance from the government is called "The Little Black".
The Little Black Book - Pornographic Propaganda Paid for by Taxpayer Dollars
This past year the federal, provincial and municipal governments provided St. Stephen's House in Toronto with funding of $7.8 million. One of the "educational" projects undertaken by this organization was the production and distribution of "The Little Black Book - A Book on Healthy Sexuality". This book purports to be a guide to personal and sexual development for teenage girls. In reality, it is a shockingly pornographic and deeply offensive piece of political and cultural propaganda.
[More at URL]
