Today's Cultural Warfare Update (1 of 2)
Nov. 20th, 2006 07:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdFocus on the Family celebrates Nicaragua's new comprehensive abortion ban; the previous ban had a "loophole" - specifically, a health and life of the mother exemption. It required a signoff from three doctors to get the exemption - but that wasn't good enough. The new law, that they like, has no exemptions - including the life of the woman. And while this is a law in another country, it's "pro-lifers from around the world" who are cheering this "fuck the bitch, let her die" law;
ADF has lawyers on standby to sue over the "war on Christmas" bullshit;
DC Court of Appeals upholds lower court ruling throwing out a challenge to the Weldon Amendment;
Focus on the Family tap-dances around a Fox News poll showing 60% support for some form of lesbian and gay partnership recognition;
Focus on the Family: "Even One Porn Web Site Is Too Many"; also dismisses the idea of filtering software and, you know, just not going to pr0n;
FotF take on the new Bush appointee to Health and Human Services as Deputy Secretary: they love him. He's an anti-birth-control activist, tho' they don't mention that; they just trumpet his anti-abortion/"abstinence-only" activism;
Mitt Romney continues his bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination by addressing an anti-marriage rally;
I'm including this only because it's an ACTION ITEM: NBC is reportedly going to be airing a show called VeggieTales with the biblical lessons attached intact; Focus on the Family wants letters thanking NBC for the airing;
FotF reports on new iterations of anti-gay activities by churches, particularly the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (against civil unions as 'morally impermissible,' GBLT people are objectively disordered, adoption is wrong), but other denominations as well;
FotF ACTION ITEM to demand the lame-duck Congress pass PERA, the bill that would make it much harder to act against local governments endorsing religion by making losers not responsible for court costs;
Arizona anti-gay group to try again with a state constitutional marriage ban;
Family Research Council claims the election was a victory of "values voters" retaking (parts of) the Democratic party, but that it won't last because "San Fran Nancy" will be "the most liberal House speaker in American history," and that the "moral winds of change" won't tolerate a "summer-of-love, anything-goes mentality";
American Family Association ACTION ITEM against Wal-Mart and Sam's Club over Wal-Mart's joining (as an affiliate member) the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce; also for including ads for Brokeback Mountain in store, and selling "pro-homosexual items on their wbsite;" The AFA have called the NGLCC a whole bunch of things in the past, such as a "radical homosexual marriage group" and so on; they want to 'send a message' to Wal-Mart;
American Family Association ACTION ITEM against Best Buy, because Best Buy is using the phrase "Happy Holidays" in its advertising instead of "Merry Christmas"; they want a phone call, specifically, not email, because Best Buy is apparently rejecting email sent via the AFA form;
Soon to be former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney: if the Legislator won't approve the anti-marriage amendment, he'll take it to the courts and get the courts to override the process and send the amendment straight to the voters, rules and process be damned; this has no chance in hell, but hey, it'll play well with the theocons;
WorldNetDaily writer Pat Boone promotes the American Family Association's anti-Wal-Mart boycott;
Freedom Press Canada (linked to from the Pat Boone article above) says GBLT marriage rights will destroy "faith, family, and freedom" and says "we can kiss our continent good-bye" if t3h gay aren't stopped;
AFA's newsbriefs include a series of anti-gay news items;
Traditional Values Coalition: Democrats in Congress will "criminalise criticism of homosexual conduct";
TVC asserts that keeping count of anti-gay violent crime is anti-Christian, claims again Congressional Democrats will make anti-gay talk illegal.
----- 1 -----
Nicaragua Bans All Abortions
Focus on the Family
11-20-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000003111.cfm
Enrique Bolanos, president of Nicaragua, signed a bill into law Friday that eliminates a loophole that allowed an abortion if three doctors certify a mother's health is at risk.
The so-called health exception language has been abused in many countries to allow abortion in almost any circumstance.
According to LifeSiteNews.com, U.N. officials and diplomats representing Canada, the European Union, Sweden, Finland and Norway attempted to pressure Nicaragua to drop the change.
Pro-lifers from around the world send letters to President Bolanos encouraging him to sign the legislation.
----- 2 -----
Legal Group Offers to Defend Anyone Denied Religious Freedom at Christmas
ADF's Christmas Project seeks to clear up misconceptions about seasonal religious expression.
Focus on the Family
11-20-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000003112.cfm
The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) announced last week it has more than 950 allied attorneys available nationwide to help anyone who is faced with an improper attempt to censor celebrations of Christmas in schools or on public property.
[More at URL]
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Appeals Court Tosses Pro-Abortion Suit Aimed at Health-Care Workers
Ruling supports the pro-life Weldon Amendment.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
11-20-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000003113.cfm
Pro-life health-care workers got a reprieve after a federal appeals court last week upheld the Weldon Amendment -- a federal statute that prevents them from being forced to perform abortions simply because they receive government funding for family planning services.
The pro-abortion National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA) filed suit to ban the Weldon Amendment, saying the law was vague and violated First Amendment rights. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld throwing the case out.
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
Poll: Americans Favor Legal Recognition for Gay Couples
The ballot box proves otherwise.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
11-20-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000003114.cfm
According to an Opinion Dynamics/Fox News poll, 60 percent of Americans favor some form of legal recognition for gay unions -- 30 percent favor gay marriage, and 30 percent back civil unions. Despite such polls, Americans overwhelmingly have shown at the ballot box they do not support counterfeit marriages.
Jim Pfaff, cofounder of Colorado Family Action, said the survey was reported with bias.
"It says here that 30 percent of people want to allow same-sex couples to get legally married," he told Family News in Focus, "but it doesn't talk about the fact that 70 percent don't." [Ed. Note: of course, the poll was about recognition in general. Note that to be without "bias," you have to ignore a third of the data and spin it the fundamentalist way.]
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
Even One Porn Web Site Is Too Many
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
11-17-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000003082.cfm
The Justice Department is preparing to breathe life into a dead bill that seeks to protect minors from sexual content on the Web.
A study commissioned by the U.S. government says about 1 percent of Web sites indexed by Google and Microsoft are sexually explicit.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) contends the study proves a point: Internet filters are doing their job. After all, they say, 1 percent is miniscule. But anti-porn lawyers say the percentage is deceptive.
One percent of all Web sites is still a huge number, according to Jan LaRue, chief counsel for Concerned Women for America.
[...]
"Since we know that most parents won’t block or won’t effectively block pornography, that is not an effective means," Trueman said. "The ACLU just flat out doesn’t care about kids in this instance; they care about this phony notion that the First Amendment protects any communication – even pornography."
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
Bush Appoints Pro-Life Doctor as HHS Deputy Secretary
Focus on the Family
11-17-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000003080.cfm
President Bush announced Thursday that pro-life, pro-abstinence-education Dr. Eric Keroack of Marblehead, Mass., will be the new deputy assistant secretary for Health and Human Services, The Boston Globe reported.
In his new role, Keroack will advise Secretary Michael Leavitt on issues such as adolescent pregnancy, abstinence education and family planning.
Raymond Ruddy, president of Gerard Health Foundation, said Keroack is a pioneer in the use of medical arguments to explain the devastation caused by abortion and the reasons teens should remain abstinent until marriage.
"He was one of the first doctors ever to really get involved in the medical aspect of some of these pregnancy-resource centers," he said. "For very, very little pay, he sacrificed a lot to help women do ultrasounds and do what was right in the abortion decision.
"It's pretty much what he has done all his life."
[More at URL]
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Gov. Romney to Rally for Marriage Sunday
Focus on the Family
11-17-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000003078.cfm
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will address a pro-family rally on the steps of the Statehouse on Sunday to demand state lawmakers vote on a proposed ballot question that would allow residents to decide the proper definition of marriage in the Bay State, The Associated Press reported.
The measure would define marriage as solely the union of one man and one woman, thereby voiding a state Supreme Court decision that found no constitutional basis for restricting marriage. That decision made Massachusetts the first state to allow same-sex couples to marry.
[More at URL]
----- 8 -----
NBC Has Eased Up Editing God Out of VeggieTales
Focus on the Family
11-17-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000003077.cfm
According to Phil Vischer, one of the creators off the children's cartoon VeggieTales, NBC has backed of its insistence that the Saturday-morning network version be free of references to God and the Bible.
Big Idea, the creator of the hugely popular VeggieTales, teamed up with NBC to place the show in the Saturday cartoon lineup. But two weeks prior to its premier NBC told the show's producer the cartoon needed to be free of references to God and the Bible.
[...]
TAKE ACTION:
Thank NBC for choosing to leave God in VeggieTales. You can write Entertainment President Kevin Reilly.
You can e-mail him here: kevin.reilly@nbcuni.com
Or call him at: (818) 840-6046 and (818) 840-6022
His fax number is: (818) 840-6630
----- 9 ----
Faith Groups Take Stands on Homosexuality
Christian leaders are rejecting the gay agenda.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
11-16-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000003073.cfm
Catholic bishops, a state convention of Baptists and the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) recently took steps to affirm that homosexual behavior and Christianity are incompatible.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops told its members that scriptural teaching is clear regarding the issue of homosexuality. C.J. Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action League, said it left no doubt where the church stands.
"Homosexual behavior is objectively sinful," he said. "Homosexual orientation is disordered, and same-sex marriage and civil unions are morally impermissible."
The bishops also declared that gay adoption is wrong, although children living in same-sex households may be baptized if there is an intention to bring them up Catholic.
Norman Jameson, president of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, said the organization will expel any church that affirms homosexuality.
[More at URL]
----- 10 -----
Senator Seeks to Protect Religious Freedom
Focus on the Family
11-16-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000003070.cfm
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., is urging his colleagues to allow a vote on the Public Expression of Religion Act (PERA) — a measure the House approved 244-173.
PERA would eliminate the awarding of attorneys' fees to groups that challenge religious displays on public property — many communities give in to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) after just a threat of litigation.
[More at URL]
"This may be the best chance we have to pass another pro-family bill before Congress adjourns," she said. "It's crucial that senators hear from their constituents on this legislation right away."
TAKE ACTION:
You may contact your senators through the CitizenLink Action Center.
If you are a CitizenLink Daily Update subscriber, click on the blue "Take Action" button in the e-mail to be automatically logged in to our Action Center. Otherwise, click on this link.
[More at URL]
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Arizona Marriage-Amendment Group Concedes
Focus on the Family
11-16-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000003072.cfm
The campaign behind the push to preserve marriage in Arizona acknowledged Wednesday the defeat of Proposition 107, but vowed to continue the fight to keep marriage the union of one man and one woman.
Arizona law already limits marriage to the traditional union, but Proposition 107 would have further protected marriage from redefinition by amending the state constitution — a necessary measure to put it out of the reach of activist judges.
Cathi Herrod, spokeswoman for Protect Marriage Arizona, said the amendment will return.
"The struggle to protect marriage between one man and one woman is far from over," she said. "We remain convinced that Arizonans want marriage to remain defined as the union of one man and one woman. When you look at our country as a whole, it's clear that Americans wants marriage defined as a man and a woman."
[Ed. Note: the Arizona amendment would also have banned civil unions in any form, as is common. The theocon movement considers civil unions to be "counterfeit marriage" and just as evil as marriage rights.]
[More at URL]
----- 12 -----
The Real San Fran Nancy
Family Research Council
by: Tony Perkins
13 November 2006
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=PV06K02&f=PG03I03
When the confetti finally settles at DNC headquarters and the bottles of champagne run dry, Americans will get a good, hard look at their new leaders. With the House, the Senate, and the statehouses in their grasp, the country has spoken. But for many voters, lured by the promise of fresh faces and ideas, the reality may be sobering.
For the GOP, racked by personal scandal and policy inefficiency, losing the majority wasn't so much a foregone conclusion as it was a necessary one. In the end, voters had grown tired of a party whose lapses in judgment were overshadowed only by its lapse of belief in core values. When conservatives realized that Republicans had abandoned their ideology, they ultimately abandoned the GOP. The values voters of 2004 became the integrity voters of 2006, who sent the message that party isn't nearly as important as principle.
[...]
Fortunately, America won't have to wait long to determine if the social shift is genuine. Democrats claim to be a new party, yet their first vote in Congress will be to elect the most liberal House speaker in American history. Clearly, the moral winds of change have yet to reach San Francisco, where Rep. Nancy Pelosi resides. If Pelosi, the radical brain trust of the party, thinks her city's retro, summer-of-love, anything-goes mentality will fly, she underestimates the character of the American people.
While a handful of true pro-family Democrats may have tipped the election in their favor, don't expect Pelosi & Co. to feel indebted to the moderate platform. Instead, anticipate the fiercest assault of our time against abstinence, marriage, life, good judges, and religious freedom. Pro-life Democrats are likely to be marginalized in positions where they have little influence. But don't take my word for it. The party has already said as much. In the October 28 edition of the New York Times, Shaila Dewan and Anne Kornblut note that "if this crop of moderate and conservative Democrats arrived on Capitol Hill as members of the Democratic majority, they would not have much power individually to change the face of Congress... Instead, party veterans would remain in chairmanships and House leadership posts." As speaker, Rep. Pelosi and the old guard of liberal extremists will surely pounce on the opportunities that their new committee chairmanships will afford them.
[More at URL]
----- 13 -----
Send A Message To Wal-Mart and Sam's Club, Don't Shop With Them This Friday Or Saturday
Please help us get this information into the hands of as many people as possible by forwarding it to your entire email list of family and friends.
American Family Association
November 20, 2006
http://www.afa.net/walmart_11202006.htm
We have asked our supporters not to shop at Wal-Mart or Sam's Club this coming Friday or Saturday. Thus far nearly 400,000 families have agreed not to shop at Wal-Mart on those days. We suggest you shop with your local merchants.
Here is why we are asking you not to shop at Wal-Mart or Sam's Club this Friday or Saturday:
* Wal-Mart gave $60,000 to homosexual group to support homosexual agenda in the workplace
* Wal-Mart made a generous donation to the Northwest Arkansas Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center
* Wal-Mart sells pro-homosexual items from their website
* Wal-Mart asks for, and receives, permission to join Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce
* Wal-Mart invites homosexual ad agency to headquarters for 2-day seminar to indoctrinate employees.
* Last March, Wal-Mart chose to promote "Brokeback Mountain" video over a top-selling family-oriented film. Wal-Mart began taking advance orders of the homosexual love movie, "Brokeback Mountain." A large display greeted customers when they walked through the front doors of the store. "Brokeback Mountain" was released the same day as best selling pro-family movie, "The Chronicles of Narnia" which Wal-Mart did not promote.
Take Action
Please sign the pledge not to shop at Wal-Mart or Sam's Club this Friday or Saturday.
It is very important that you forward this email to your friends and family letting them know of the homosexual activists attempt to reward Wal-Mart for their support of groups promoting homosexual marriage.
Click Here to Sign the Pledge Now!
----- 14 -----
Best Buy Bans Use of Merry Christmas in Advertising
American Family Association
http://www.afa.net/petitions/issuedetail.asp?id=222
Best Buy has announced they will be using "Happy Holidays" this coming Christmas shopping season, and they will not be using "Merry Christmas."
UPDATE! Best Buy is blocking emails! Please call their corporate office and ask for Chairman Schulze to express your displeasure at their "Anti-Christmas" policy. The number is 1-612-291-1000.
UPDATE!
Best Buy is blocking emails! Please call their corporate office and ask for Chairman Schulze to express your displeasure at their "Anti-Christmas" policy. The number is 1-612-291-1000.
Best Buy has announced they will be using "Happy Holidays" this coming Christmas shopping season, and they will not be using "Merry Christmas."
Dawn Bryant, a spokeswoman at Best Buy Co. Inc., says their advertising will not be using the term "Merry Christmas." "We are going to continue to use the term holiday because there are several holidays throughout that time period, and we certainly need to be respectful of all of them," Bryant said. Click here for reference article.
While many other retailers have decided to begin reusing "Merry Christmas", Best Buy will not be among them. Best Buy considers the use of Merry Christmas to be disrespectful.
But while Best Buy, the largest consumer electronics company in the nation, will not be mentioning Christmas, they sure do want the shopping dollars from those who remember the Reason for the season.
Send an e-mail to Best Buy telling them of your disappointment at their decision to ban Christmas in their advertising. (You may receive an auto-reply. If so, that is ok. Don’t worry about it, your e-mail has been received.)
----- 15 -----
Mass. Governor Wants Gay Wedding Vote
Nov 19 10:55 PM US/Eastern
By DAVID WEBER
Associated Press Writer
Boston
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/11/19/D8LGIEH80.html
Gov. Mitt Romney said Sunday he would ask the state's highest court to order an anti-gay marriage amendment question onto the ballot if legislators fail to vote on the matter when they reconvene in January.
Romney said he would file a legal action this week asking a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court to direct the secretary of state to place the question on the ballot if lawmakers don't vote directly on the question Jan. 2, the final day of the session.
Romney, an opponent of gay marriage who decided not to seek re- election as he considers running for president, made his announcement to the cheers of hundreds of gay marriage opponents at a rally on the Statehouse steps.
[More at URL]
----- 16 -----
The Grinch, the 'gays' and Wal-Mart
WorldNetDaily
Posted: November 18, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53016
I played tennis with Sam Walton.
Yes, the man who conceived, founded and built the mighty Wal-Mart. What a man he was! Everything he did, he gave his all to. That, I found out, included tennis. I'm remembering a match on his home court in Bentonville, Ark., when my pro partner, John Newcomb, and I faced Mr. Sam and his partner, Rod Laver. Mr. Sam had to be in his late 60s by then, but he ran for everything, and if he got his racket on the ball, he was likely to put it away. The other three of us will never forget what a competitor, what a happy scrapper he was.
[...]
This year, instead of bowing and kowtowing to militant atheist and super liberal "political correctness," so-called, I'm thrilled to see that Wal-Mart has banished "the Grinch" that threatened to steal Christmas, and will be advertising Christmas sales and playing Christmas music – and not conforming to the total "Holiday" imagery and advertising of other milk-toast wimp marketers. Again, the family friendly vision of Sam Walton lives on! I believe he's smiling somewhere, possibly in the presence of the One whose birth Christmas celebrates.
So imagine my surprise, my shock really, when I read yesterday that this venerable company, the international outgrowth of Mr. Sam's personal vision, has agreed to automatically donate 5 percent of online sales directly to the Washington, D.C., community center for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people! The cash donation will come from online purchases made at Wal-Mart through the homosexual group's website. Every purchase made online for books, music, videos, clothing and accessories, children's clothing and toys, and electronics will automatically send 5 percent of the sales to the CCBLBT organization.
The American Family Association Action Alert, a widely read Internet news source, says this latest move follows Wal-Mart's joining the National Gay and Lesbian "Chamber of Commerce," and agreeing to give generous financial help to that organization also. The AFA, and I predict many other family organizations, are calling for a post-Thanksgiving boycott of Wal-Mart. In fact, they're lining up 1,000,000 families who will pledge not to shop at Wal-Mart or Sam's Club on the Friday or Saturday following Thanksgiving.
If the boycott succeeds, it won't bankrupt Wal-Mart; but it may send them a message, loud and clear.
[More at URL]
----- 17 -----
WARNED
Canada's Revolution Against Faith, Family and Freedom Threatens America
Freedom Press Canada
Online as of 20 November 2006
http://www.freedompress.ca/latest_release.php?ref=WorldNetDaily
This book is essential reading for both Americans and Canadians even though it is more particularly directed to our American friends. Both countries face a serious challenge to their cultures. This book exposes the radical exploitation of Canada at the hands of extremist activists, leftwing politicians and a plethora of crusading activist judges, who are using their status in Canada to get at America. Their aim is marriage. But the prize is America. They want to use marriage as a weapon to systematically destroy the Judeo-Christian civilization of North America, but to do that they need America to "go gay". Gay "marriage" will open America up to the rest of the demands of the homosexual political movement. Everything from school curriculum to parental rights, adoption, the age of consent and religious freedoms will be up for grabs once gay "marriage" is made legal in America. Unless socons in both countries unite and work to resist these political opponents, we can kiss our continent good-bye.
[More at URL]
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Commentary & News Briefs
November 17, 2006
Next stories will be posted on Nov. 27, 2006
Compiled by Jenni Parker
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/11/afa/172006h.asp
...A retired U.S. Army officer and Pentagon advisor says he believes future House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will block any effort to punish the San Francisco School System for voting to phase out its Junior ROTC program over the next two years. The school board voted 4-2 this week to dump the program because of the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding homosexual service in the military. Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Bob Maginnis says it is the students who are ultimately going to be punished. "It's unfortunate," he says, "that there are people out there who want to attack young, innocent people who are seeking to better themselves because these people tend to disagree with a particular policy of the U.S. government." But Maginnis doubts the government will cut off federal dollars to the school system. "It is unlikely, especially given the political realities of probably something Nancy Pelosi is going to have some say over as the new Speaker of the House," the military advisor observes. In previous cases, he points out, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that ROTC programs must have the same access as any other groups. Nevertheless, Maginnis says the San Francisco school officials' response to the JROTC program is typical of the Bay Area and other homosexual enclaves around the U.S., in that "they want to hold hostage the education and the prosperity of young people to their own political whims." [Chad Groening]
[...]
... USA Today reports that the present-day market for homosexual consumers is hitting the mainstream in a big way. As recently as a decade or two ago, companies shunned the homosexual market -- but not so today. With 16 million homosexual consumers age 18 and older boasting a buying power of $641 billion, corporations, local governments and businesses country-wide are very much aware of, and catering to, this burgeoning market. U.S. Census data shows that homosexuals are no longer segregated into "gay ghettos" in cities like San Francisco and New York. Instead, they live in virtually every county in the U.S. Thomas Roth, president of Community Marketing, a homosexual market research firm, says, "We have more discretionary income, and we love to spend our money on travel and shopping." As a result, travel-related businesses of all kinds are courting the homosexual market in a big way. United and American Airlines, Travelocity, restaurant chains, and city and tourism bureaus nationwide have jumped on the bandwagon. Wal-Mart offers seminars to its employees called "Why Market to Gay America." But companies that cater to homosexuals still risk a backlash from fundamentalist religious groups, adds USA Today. American Family Association and others have gone after companies such as Ford Motor, Walt Disney, and Procter & Gamble in recent years. [Pat Centner]
...Southern Baptists in Alabama have passed a resolution criticizing Wal-Mart for joining the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. Wal-Mart also has agreed to hold workshops to help homosexuals join its ranks of suppliers. Delegates to the Alabama Baptist State Convention's annual meeting called the retailer's actions "contrary to the biblical beliefs of many of its customers." They stopped short of calling for a boycott, but urged the state's Southern Baptists to pray for the leaders of Wal-Mart and other businesses. [AP]
[...]
...School officials in an Illinois community are defending their decision to expose young children to a book promoting homosexuality. The book, called And Tango Makes Three, is the story of two male penguins raising a baby penguin. Its defenders say it is simply recounting a true story of a similar incident that happened at New York's Central Park Zoo; however, some parents of kids at Shilo Elementary School are worried about the book's homosexual undertones and have asked, at the very least, for it to be moved to a restricted area of the school library -- and perhaps for parental permission to be required for its release. But according to Associated Press, school officials at Shilo have refused these requests. District Superintendent Jennifer Filyaw even rejected a recommendation from a panel she appointed, which supported the parents demand. Parent Lilly Del Pinto says her five-year-old daughter brought the book home, but she immediately stopped reading it to her little girl when she got to the part in the book in which a zookeeper says "the penguins must be in love." [Fred Jackson]
[More at URL]
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TVC Chairman Warns Of Coming Homosexual-Inspired Legislation
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2940
November 16, 2006 – Traditional Values Coalition Chairman Rev. Louis P. Sheldon’s commentary this week warns Americans about the coming flood of pro-homosexual legislation in the Democrat-controlled Senate and House.
Human Rights Campaign (HRC), one of the most aggressive homosexual lobbying groups in the U.S., spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to help elect pro-homosexual legislators. Among them are: Senator Amy Klobuchar (MN), Rep. Gabby Giffords (AZ), Sen. Bob Casey (PA) and Rep. Ron Klein (FL). Both Casey and Klobuchar have vowed to push for passage of pro-homosexual hate crime bills.
Rev. Sheldon noted: “Americans voted for a change in Congress. They obviously have not seriously considered the kind of changes they may have to cope with once the homosexual agenda goes into full swing in the Senate and House. The homosexual goal is to create protected minority status for homosexuality as though it were equal to such immutable characteristics as race. The side-effect of this effort will be to criminalize criticism of homosexual conduct and to violate religious freedom and freedom of conscience. It is also likely that all attempts to pass a constitutional marriage amendment will be dead on arrival in the Senate.”
[More at URL]
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Pro-Homosexual Democrats To Push Anti-Christian ‘Hate Crime’ Legislation
By Rev. Louis P. Sheldon
Chairman, Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2933
November 14, 2006 - With the Democrats taking control of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives this January, we can expect the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and its pro-homosexual surrogates newly elected to Congress, to begin an aggressive push for passage of a “hate crimes” bill designed to provide federally protected status to the behavior of homosexuality. This hate crimes bill is likely to be a re-engineered version of the old Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act (LLEEA). The pro-homosexual, anti-Christian Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is another bill that will be revived as part of the homosexual agenda.
[...]
The homosexual goal is to create protected minority status for homosexuality as though it were equal to such immutable characteristics as race. The side-effect of this effort will be to criminalize criticism of homosexual conduct and to violate religious freedom and freedom of conscience. It is also likely that all attempts to pass a constitutional marriage amendment will be dead on arrival in the Senate.
Newly-elected Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey (D) who defeated pro-family Senator Rick Santorum (R) has already indicated his plans to push for a hate crimes bill that includes “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” Casey’s announcement is payback to HRC for its strong support of his race for the Senate. Gender identity, for those unfamiliar with the term, is code for an individual who thinks he is the opposite sex. (This includes cross-dressers, transvestites and transsexuals.) Sexually confused individuals will be a protected minority if Casey and his minions in the Senate have their way.
HRC is encouraged by the election of Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota to the U.S. Senate. She defeated rival Mark Kennedy. Klobuchar is a proponent of pro-homosexual hate crime legislation; HRC raised thousands of dollars for her campaign.
[More at URL]
ADF has lawyers on standby to sue over the "war on Christmas" bullshit;
DC Court of Appeals upholds lower court ruling throwing out a challenge to the Weldon Amendment;
Focus on the Family tap-dances around a Fox News poll showing 60% support for some form of lesbian and gay partnership recognition;
Focus on the Family: "Even One Porn Web Site Is Too Many"; also dismisses the idea of filtering software and, you know, just not going to pr0n;
FotF take on the new Bush appointee to Health and Human Services as Deputy Secretary: they love him. He's an anti-birth-control activist, tho' they don't mention that; they just trumpet his anti-abortion/"abstinence-only" activism;
Mitt Romney continues his bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination by addressing an anti-marriage rally;
I'm including this only because it's an ACTION ITEM: NBC is reportedly going to be airing a show called VeggieTales with the biblical lessons attached intact; Focus on the Family wants letters thanking NBC for the airing;
FotF reports on new iterations of anti-gay activities by churches, particularly the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (against civil unions as 'morally impermissible,' GBLT people are objectively disordered, adoption is wrong), but other denominations as well;
FotF ACTION ITEM to demand the lame-duck Congress pass PERA, the bill that would make it much harder to act against local governments endorsing religion by making losers not responsible for court costs;
Arizona anti-gay group to try again with a state constitutional marriage ban;
Family Research Council claims the election was a victory of "values voters" retaking (parts of) the Democratic party, but that it won't last because "San Fran Nancy" will be "the most liberal House speaker in American history," and that the "moral winds of change" won't tolerate a "summer-of-love, anything-goes mentality";
American Family Association ACTION ITEM against Wal-Mart and Sam's Club over Wal-Mart's joining (as an affiliate member) the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce; also for including ads for Brokeback Mountain in store, and selling "pro-homosexual items on their wbsite;" The AFA have called the NGLCC a whole bunch of things in the past, such as a "radical homosexual marriage group" and so on; they want to 'send a message' to Wal-Mart;
American Family Association ACTION ITEM against Best Buy, because Best Buy is using the phrase "Happy Holidays" in its advertising instead of "Merry Christmas"; they want a phone call, specifically, not email, because Best Buy is apparently rejecting email sent via the AFA form;
Soon to be former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney: if the Legislator won't approve the anti-marriage amendment, he'll take it to the courts and get the courts to override the process and send the amendment straight to the voters, rules and process be damned; this has no chance in hell, but hey, it'll play well with the theocons;
WorldNetDaily writer Pat Boone promotes the American Family Association's anti-Wal-Mart boycott;
Freedom Press Canada (linked to from the Pat Boone article above) says GBLT marriage rights will destroy "faith, family, and freedom" and says "we can kiss our continent good-bye" if t3h gay aren't stopped;
AFA's newsbriefs include a series of anti-gay news items;
Traditional Values Coalition: Democrats in Congress will "criminalise criticism of homosexual conduct";
TVC asserts that keeping count of anti-gay violent crime is anti-Christian, claims again Congressional Democrats will make anti-gay talk illegal.
----- 1 -----
Nicaragua Bans All Abortions
Focus on the Family
11-20-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000003111.cfm
Enrique Bolanos, president of Nicaragua, signed a bill into law Friday that eliminates a loophole that allowed an abortion if three doctors certify a mother's health is at risk.
The so-called health exception language has been abused in many countries to allow abortion in almost any circumstance.
According to LifeSiteNews.com, U.N. officials and diplomats representing Canada, the European Union, Sweden, Finland and Norway attempted to pressure Nicaragua to drop the change.
Pro-lifers from around the world send letters to President Bolanos encouraging him to sign the legislation.
----- 2 -----
Legal Group Offers to Defend Anyone Denied Religious Freedom at Christmas
ADF's Christmas Project seeks to clear up misconceptions about seasonal religious expression.
Focus on the Family
11-20-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000003112.cfm
The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) announced last week it has more than 950 allied attorneys available nationwide to help anyone who is faced with an improper attempt to censor celebrations of Christmas in schools or on public property.
[More at URL]
----- 3 -----
Appeals Court Tosses Pro-Abortion Suit Aimed at Health-Care Workers
Ruling supports the pro-life Weldon Amendment.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
11-20-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000003113.cfm
Pro-life health-care workers got a reprieve after a federal appeals court last week upheld the Weldon Amendment -- a federal statute that prevents them from being forced to perform abortions simply because they receive government funding for family planning services.
The pro-abortion National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA) filed suit to ban the Weldon Amendment, saying the law was vague and violated First Amendment rights. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld throwing the case out.
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
Poll: Americans Favor Legal Recognition for Gay Couples
The ballot box proves otherwise.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
11-20-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000003114.cfm
According to an Opinion Dynamics/Fox News poll, 60 percent of Americans favor some form of legal recognition for gay unions -- 30 percent favor gay marriage, and 30 percent back civil unions. Despite such polls, Americans overwhelmingly have shown at the ballot box they do not support counterfeit marriages.
Jim Pfaff, cofounder of Colorado Family Action, said the survey was reported with bias.
"It says here that 30 percent of people want to allow same-sex couples to get legally married," he told Family News in Focus, "but it doesn't talk about the fact that 70 percent don't." [Ed. Note: of course, the poll was about recognition in general. Note that to be without "bias," you have to ignore a third of the data and spin it the fundamentalist way.]
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
Even One Porn Web Site Is Too Many
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
11-17-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000003082.cfm
The Justice Department is preparing to breathe life into a dead bill that seeks to protect minors from sexual content on the Web.
A study commissioned by the U.S. government says about 1 percent of Web sites indexed by Google and Microsoft are sexually explicit.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) contends the study proves a point: Internet filters are doing their job. After all, they say, 1 percent is miniscule. But anti-porn lawyers say the percentage is deceptive.
One percent of all Web sites is still a huge number, according to Jan LaRue, chief counsel for Concerned Women for America.
[...]
"Since we know that most parents won’t block or won’t effectively block pornography, that is not an effective means," Trueman said. "The ACLU just flat out doesn’t care about kids in this instance; they care about this phony notion that the First Amendment protects any communication – even pornography."
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
Bush Appoints Pro-Life Doctor as HHS Deputy Secretary
Focus on the Family
11-17-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000003080.cfm
President Bush announced Thursday that pro-life, pro-abstinence-education Dr. Eric Keroack of Marblehead, Mass., will be the new deputy assistant secretary for Health and Human Services, The Boston Globe reported.
In his new role, Keroack will advise Secretary Michael Leavitt on issues such as adolescent pregnancy, abstinence education and family planning.
Raymond Ruddy, president of Gerard Health Foundation, said Keroack is a pioneer in the use of medical arguments to explain the devastation caused by abortion and the reasons teens should remain abstinent until marriage.
"He was one of the first doctors ever to really get involved in the medical aspect of some of these pregnancy-resource centers," he said. "For very, very little pay, he sacrificed a lot to help women do ultrasounds and do what was right in the abortion decision.
"It's pretty much what he has done all his life."
[More at URL]
----- 7 -----
Gov. Romney to Rally for Marriage Sunday
Focus on the Family
11-17-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000003078.cfm
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will address a pro-family rally on the steps of the Statehouse on Sunday to demand state lawmakers vote on a proposed ballot question that would allow residents to decide the proper definition of marriage in the Bay State, The Associated Press reported.
The measure would define marriage as solely the union of one man and one woman, thereby voiding a state Supreme Court decision that found no constitutional basis for restricting marriage. That decision made Massachusetts the first state to allow same-sex couples to marry.
[More at URL]
----- 8 -----
NBC Has Eased Up Editing God Out of VeggieTales
Focus on the Family
11-17-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000003077.cfm
According to Phil Vischer, one of the creators off the children's cartoon VeggieTales, NBC has backed of its insistence that the Saturday-morning network version be free of references to God and the Bible.
Big Idea, the creator of the hugely popular VeggieTales, teamed up with NBC to place the show in the Saturday cartoon lineup. But two weeks prior to its premier NBC told the show's producer the cartoon needed to be free of references to God and the Bible.
[...]
TAKE ACTION:
Thank NBC for choosing to leave God in VeggieTales. You can write Entertainment President Kevin Reilly.
You can e-mail him here: kevin.reilly@nbcuni.com
Or call him at: (818) 840-6046 and (818) 840-6022
His fax number is: (818) 840-6630
----- 9 ----
Faith Groups Take Stands on Homosexuality
Christian leaders are rejecting the gay agenda.
from staff reports
Focus on the Family
11-16-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000003073.cfm
Catholic bishops, a state convention of Baptists and the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) recently took steps to affirm that homosexual behavior and Christianity are incompatible.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops told its members that scriptural teaching is clear regarding the issue of homosexuality. C.J. Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action League, said it left no doubt where the church stands.
"Homosexual behavior is objectively sinful," he said. "Homosexual orientation is disordered, and same-sex marriage and civil unions are morally impermissible."
The bishops also declared that gay adoption is wrong, although children living in same-sex households may be baptized if there is an intention to bring them up Catholic.
Norman Jameson, president of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, said the organization will expel any church that affirms homosexuality.
[More at URL]
----- 10 -----
Senator Seeks to Protect Religious Freedom
Focus on the Family
11-16-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000003070.cfm
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., is urging his colleagues to allow a vote on the Public Expression of Religion Act (PERA) — a measure the House approved 244-173.
PERA would eliminate the awarding of attorneys' fees to groups that challenge religious displays on public property — many communities give in to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) after just a threat of litigation.
[More at URL]
"This may be the best chance we have to pass another pro-family bill before Congress adjourns," she said. "It's crucial that senators hear from their constituents on this legislation right away."
TAKE ACTION:
You may contact your senators through the CitizenLink Action Center.
If you are a CitizenLink Daily Update subscriber, click on the blue "Take Action" button in the e-mail to be automatically logged in to our Action Center. Otherwise, click on this link.
[More at URL]
----- 11 -----
Arizona Marriage-Amendment Group Concedes
Focus on the Family
11-16-2006
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000003072.cfm
The campaign behind the push to preserve marriage in Arizona acknowledged Wednesday the defeat of Proposition 107, but vowed to continue the fight to keep marriage the union of one man and one woman.
Arizona law already limits marriage to the traditional union, but Proposition 107 would have further protected marriage from redefinition by amending the state constitution — a necessary measure to put it out of the reach of activist judges.
Cathi Herrod, spokeswoman for Protect Marriage Arizona, said the amendment will return.
"The struggle to protect marriage between one man and one woman is far from over," she said. "We remain convinced that Arizonans want marriage to remain defined as the union of one man and one woman. When you look at our country as a whole, it's clear that Americans wants marriage defined as a man and a woman."
[Ed. Note: the Arizona amendment would also have banned civil unions in any form, as is common. The theocon movement considers civil unions to be "counterfeit marriage" and just as evil as marriage rights.]
[More at URL]
----- 12 -----
The Real San Fran Nancy
Family Research Council
by: Tony Perkins
13 November 2006
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=PV06K02&f=PG03I03
When the confetti finally settles at DNC headquarters and the bottles of champagne run dry, Americans will get a good, hard look at their new leaders. With the House, the Senate, and the statehouses in their grasp, the country has spoken. But for many voters, lured by the promise of fresh faces and ideas, the reality may be sobering.
For the GOP, racked by personal scandal and policy inefficiency, losing the majority wasn't so much a foregone conclusion as it was a necessary one. In the end, voters had grown tired of a party whose lapses in judgment were overshadowed only by its lapse of belief in core values. When conservatives realized that Republicans had abandoned their ideology, they ultimately abandoned the GOP. The values voters of 2004 became the integrity voters of 2006, who sent the message that party isn't nearly as important as principle.
[...]
Fortunately, America won't have to wait long to determine if the social shift is genuine. Democrats claim to be a new party, yet their first vote in Congress will be to elect the most liberal House speaker in American history. Clearly, the moral winds of change have yet to reach San Francisco, where Rep. Nancy Pelosi resides. If Pelosi, the radical brain trust of the party, thinks her city's retro, summer-of-love, anything-goes mentality will fly, she underestimates the character of the American people.
While a handful of true pro-family Democrats may have tipped the election in their favor, don't expect Pelosi & Co. to feel indebted to the moderate platform. Instead, anticipate the fiercest assault of our time against abstinence, marriage, life, good judges, and religious freedom. Pro-life Democrats are likely to be marginalized in positions where they have little influence. But don't take my word for it. The party has already said as much. In the October 28 edition of the New York Times, Shaila Dewan and Anne Kornblut note that "if this crop of moderate and conservative Democrats arrived on Capitol Hill as members of the Democratic majority, they would not have much power individually to change the face of Congress... Instead, party veterans would remain in chairmanships and House leadership posts." As speaker, Rep. Pelosi and the old guard of liberal extremists will surely pounce on the opportunities that their new committee chairmanships will afford them.
[More at URL]
----- 13 -----
Send A Message To Wal-Mart and Sam's Club, Don't Shop With Them This Friday Or Saturday
Please help us get this information into the hands of as many people as possible by forwarding it to your entire email list of family and friends.
American Family Association
November 20, 2006
http://www.afa.net/walmart_11202006.htm
We have asked our supporters not to shop at Wal-Mart or Sam's Club this coming Friday or Saturday. Thus far nearly 400,000 families have agreed not to shop at Wal-Mart on those days. We suggest you shop with your local merchants.
Here is why we are asking you not to shop at Wal-Mart or Sam's Club this Friday or Saturday:
* Wal-Mart gave $60,000 to homosexual group to support homosexual agenda in the workplace
* Wal-Mart made a generous donation to the Northwest Arkansas Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center
* Wal-Mart sells pro-homosexual items from their website
* Wal-Mart asks for, and receives, permission to join Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce
* Wal-Mart invites homosexual ad agency to headquarters for 2-day seminar to indoctrinate employees.
* Last March, Wal-Mart chose to promote "Brokeback Mountain" video over a top-selling family-oriented film. Wal-Mart began taking advance orders of the homosexual love movie, "Brokeback Mountain." A large display greeted customers when they walked through the front doors of the store. "Brokeback Mountain" was released the same day as best selling pro-family movie, "The Chronicles of Narnia" which Wal-Mart did not promote.
Take Action
Please sign the pledge not to shop at Wal-Mart or Sam's Club this Friday or Saturday.
It is very important that you forward this email to your friends and family letting them know of the homosexual activists attempt to reward Wal-Mart for their support of groups promoting homosexual marriage.
Click Here to Sign the Pledge Now!
----- 14 -----
Best Buy Bans Use of Merry Christmas in Advertising
American Family Association
http://www.afa.net/petitions/issuedetail.asp?id=222
Best Buy has announced they will be using "Happy Holidays" this coming Christmas shopping season, and they will not be using "Merry Christmas."
UPDATE! Best Buy is blocking emails! Please call their corporate office and ask for Chairman Schulze to express your displeasure at their "Anti-Christmas" policy. The number is 1-612-291-1000.
UPDATE!
Best Buy is blocking emails! Please call their corporate office and ask for Chairman Schulze to express your displeasure at their "Anti-Christmas" policy. The number is 1-612-291-1000.
Best Buy has announced they will be using "Happy Holidays" this coming Christmas shopping season, and they will not be using "Merry Christmas."
Dawn Bryant, a spokeswoman at Best Buy Co. Inc., says their advertising will not be using the term "Merry Christmas." "We are going to continue to use the term holiday because there are several holidays throughout that time period, and we certainly need to be respectful of all of them," Bryant said. Click here for reference article.
While many other retailers have decided to begin reusing "Merry Christmas", Best Buy will not be among them. Best Buy considers the use of Merry Christmas to be disrespectful.
But while Best Buy, the largest consumer electronics company in the nation, will not be mentioning Christmas, they sure do want the shopping dollars from those who remember the Reason for the season.
Send an e-mail to Best Buy telling them of your disappointment at their decision to ban Christmas in their advertising. (You may receive an auto-reply. If so, that is ok. Don’t worry about it, your e-mail has been received.)
----- 15 -----
Mass. Governor Wants Gay Wedding Vote
Nov 19 10:55 PM US/Eastern
By DAVID WEBER
Associated Press Writer
Boston
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/11/19/D8LGIEH80.html
Gov. Mitt Romney said Sunday he would ask the state's highest court to order an anti-gay marriage amendment question onto the ballot if legislators fail to vote on the matter when they reconvene in January.
Romney said he would file a legal action this week asking a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court to direct the secretary of state to place the question on the ballot if lawmakers don't vote directly on the question Jan. 2, the final day of the session.
Romney, an opponent of gay marriage who decided not to seek re- election as he considers running for president, made his announcement to the cheers of hundreds of gay marriage opponents at a rally on the Statehouse steps.
[More at URL]
----- 16 -----
The Grinch, the 'gays' and Wal-Mart
WorldNetDaily
Posted: November 18, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53016
I played tennis with Sam Walton.
Yes, the man who conceived, founded and built the mighty Wal-Mart. What a man he was! Everything he did, he gave his all to. That, I found out, included tennis. I'm remembering a match on his home court in Bentonville, Ark., when my pro partner, John Newcomb, and I faced Mr. Sam and his partner, Rod Laver. Mr. Sam had to be in his late 60s by then, but he ran for everything, and if he got his racket on the ball, he was likely to put it away. The other three of us will never forget what a competitor, what a happy scrapper he was.
[...]
This year, instead of bowing and kowtowing to militant atheist and super liberal "political correctness," so-called, I'm thrilled to see that Wal-Mart has banished "the Grinch" that threatened to steal Christmas, and will be advertising Christmas sales and playing Christmas music – and not conforming to the total "Holiday" imagery and advertising of other milk-toast wimp marketers. Again, the family friendly vision of Sam Walton lives on! I believe he's smiling somewhere, possibly in the presence of the One whose birth Christmas celebrates.
So imagine my surprise, my shock really, when I read yesterday that this venerable company, the international outgrowth of Mr. Sam's personal vision, has agreed to automatically donate 5 percent of online sales directly to the Washington, D.C., community center for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people! The cash donation will come from online purchases made at Wal-Mart through the homosexual group's website. Every purchase made online for books, music, videos, clothing and accessories, children's clothing and toys, and electronics will automatically send 5 percent of the sales to the CCBLBT organization.
The American Family Association Action Alert, a widely read Internet news source, says this latest move follows Wal-Mart's joining the National Gay and Lesbian "Chamber of Commerce," and agreeing to give generous financial help to that organization also. The AFA, and I predict many other family organizations, are calling for a post-Thanksgiving boycott of Wal-Mart. In fact, they're lining up 1,000,000 families who will pledge not to shop at Wal-Mart or Sam's Club on the Friday or Saturday following Thanksgiving.
If the boycott succeeds, it won't bankrupt Wal-Mart; but it may send them a message, loud and clear.
[More at URL]
----- 17 -----
WARNED
Canada's Revolution Against Faith, Family and Freedom Threatens America
Freedom Press Canada
Online as of 20 November 2006
http://www.freedompress.ca/latest_release.php?ref=WorldNetDaily
This book is essential reading for both Americans and Canadians even though it is more particularly directed to our American friends. Both countries face a serious challenge to their cultures. This book exposes the radical exploitation of Canada at the hands of extremist activists, leftwing politicians and a plethora of crusading activist judges, who are using their status in Canada to get at America. Their aim is marriage. But the prize is America. They want to use marriage as a weapon to systematically destroy the Judeo-Christian civilization of North America, but to do that they need America to "go gay". Gay "marriage" will open America up to the rest of the demands of the homosexual political movement. Everything from school curriculum to parental rights, adoption, the age of consent and religious freedoms will be up for grabs once gay "marriage" is made legal in America. Unless socons in both countries unite and work to resist these political opponents, we can kiss our continent good-bye.
[More at URL]
----- 18 -----
Commentary & News Briefs
November 17, 2006
Next stories will be posted on Nov. 27, 2006
Compiled by Jenni Parker
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/11/afa/172006h.asp
...A retired U.S. Army officer and Pentagon advisor says he believes future House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will block any effort to punish the San Francisco School System for voting to phase out its Junior ROTC program over the next two years. The school board voted 4-2 this week to dump the program because of the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding homosexual service in the military. Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Bob Maginnis says it is the students who are ultimately going to be punished. "It's unfortunate," he says, "that there are people out there who want to attack young, innocent people who are seeking to better themselves because these people tend to disagree with a particular policy of the U.S. government." But Maginnis doubts the government will cut off federal dollars to the school system. "It is unlikely, especially given the political realities of probably something Nancy Pelosi is going to have some say over as the new Speaker of the House," the military advisor observes. In previous cases, he points out, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that ROTC programs must have the same access as any other groups. Nevertheless, Maginnis says the San Francisco school officials' response to the JROTC program is typical of the Bay Area and other homosexual enclaves around the U.S., in that "they want to hold hostage the education and the prosperity of young people to their own political whims." [Chad Groening]
[...]
... USA Today reports that the present-day market for homosexual consumers is hitting the mainstream in a big way. As recently as a decade or two ago, companies shunned the homosexual market -- but not so today. With 16 million homosexual consumers age 18 and older boasting a buying power of $641 billion, corporations, local governments and businesses country-wide are very much aware of, and catering to, this burgeoning market. U.S. Census data shows that homosexuals are no longer segregated into "gay ghettos" in cities like San Francisco and New York. Instead, they live in virtually every county in the U.S. Thomas Roth, president of Community Marketing, a homosexual market research firm, says, "We have more discretionary income, and we love to spend our money on travel and shopping." As a result, travel-related businesses of all kinds are courting the homosexual market in a big way. United and American Airlines, Travelocity, restaurant chains, and city and tourism bureaus nationwide have jumped on the bandwagon. Wal-Mart offers seminars to its employees called "Why Market to Gay America." But companies that cater to homosexuals still risk a backlash from fundamentalist religious groups, adds USA Today. American Family Association and others have gone after companies such as Ford Motor, Walt Disney, and Procter & Gamble in recent years. [Pat Centner]
...Southern Baptists in Alabama have passed a resolution criticizing Wal-Mart for joining the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. Wal-Mart also has agreed to hold workshops to help homosexuals join its ranks of suppliers. Delegates to the Alabama Baptist State Convention's annual meeting called the retailer's actions "contrary to the biblical beliefs of many of its customers." They stopped short of calling for a boycott, but urged the state's Southern Baptists to pray for the leaders of Wal-Mart and other businesses. [AP]
[...]
...School officials in an Illinois community are defending their decision to expose young children to a book promoting homosexuality. The book, called And Tango Makes Three, is the story of two male penguins raising a baby penguin. Its defenders say it is simply recounting a true story of a similar incident that happened at New York's Central Park Zoo; however, some parents of kids at Shilo Elementary School are worried about the book's homosexual undertones and have asked, at the very least, for it to be moved to a restricted area of the school library -- and perhaps for parental permission to be required for its release. But according to Associated Press, school officials at Shilo have refused these requests. District Superintendent Jennifer Filyaw even rejected a recommendation from a panel she appointed, which supported the parents demand. Parent Lilly Del Pinto says her five-year-old daughter brought the book home, but she immediately stopped reading it to her little girl when she got to the part in the book in which a zookeeper says "the penguins must be in love." [Fred Jackson]
[More at URL]
----- 19 -----
TVC Chairman Warns Of Coming Homosexual-Inspired Legislation
Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2940
November 16, 2006 – Traditional Values Coalition Chairman Rev. Louis P. Sheldon’s commentary this week warns Americans about the coming flood of pro-homosexual legislation in the Democrat-controlled Senate and House.
Human Rights Campaign (HRC), one of the most aggressive homosexual lobbying groups in the U.S., spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to help elect pro-homosexual legislators. Among them are: Senator Amy Klobuchar (MN), Rep. Gabby Giffords (AZ), Sen. Bob Casey (PA) and Rep. Ron Klein (FL). Both Casey and Klobuchar have vowed to push for passage of pro-homosexual hate crime bills.
Rev. Sheldon noted: “Americans voted for a change in Congress. They obviously have not seriously considered the kind of changes they may have to cope with once the homosexual agenda goes into full swing in the Senate and House. The homosexual goal is to create protected minority status for homosexuality as though it were equal to such immutable characteristics as race. The side-effect of this effort will be to criminalize criticism of homosexual conduct and to violate religious freedom and freedom of conscience. It is also likely that all attempts to pass a constitutional marriage amendment will be dead on arrival in the Senate.”
[More at URL]
----- 20 -----
Pro-Homosexual Democrats To Push Anti-Christian ‘Hate Crime’ Legislation
By Rev. Louis P. Sheldon
Chairman, Traditional Values Coalition
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2933
November 14, 2006 - With the Democrats taking control of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives this January, we can expect the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and its pro-homosexual surrogates newly elected to Congress, to begin an aggressive push for passage of a “hate crimes” bill designed to provide federally protected status to the behavior of homosexuality. This hate crimes bill is likely to be a re-engineered version of the old Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act (LLEEA). The pro-homosexual, anti-Christian Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is another bill that will be revived as part of the homosexual agenda.
[...]
The homosexual goal is to create protected minority status for homosexuality as though it were equal to such immutable characteristics as race. The side-effect of this effort will be to criminalize criticism of homosexual conduct and to violate religious freedom and freedom of conscience. It is also likely that all attempts to pass a constitutional marriage amendment will be dead on arrival in the Senate.
Newly-elected Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey (D) who defeated pro-family Senator Rick Santorum (R) has already indicated his plans to push for a hate crimes bill that includes “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” Casey’s announcement is payback to HRC for its strong support of his race for the Senate. Gender identity, for those unfamiliar with the term, is code for an individual who thinks he is the opposite sex. (This includes cross-dressers, transvestites and transsexuals.) Sexually confused individuals will be a protected minority if Casey and his minions in the Senate have their way.
HRC is encouraged by the election of Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota to the U.S. Senate. She defeated rival Mark Kennedy. Klobuchar is a proponent of pro-homosexual hate crime legislation; HRC raised thousands of dollars for her campaign.
[More at URL]
