Pastors Test Expanded Hate Crimes Law

Conservative pastors rallied outside the Justice Department on Monday to test the limits of the newly expanded hate crimes law.

Calling the new law – which broadens the definition of federal hate crimes to include attacks based on sexual orientation and gender identity – a clear threat to religious liberty, the group sought to defend their freedom to proclaim biblical truths.

“You may choose to disbelieve or disagree with us but you have no right to seek to silence us,” said Dr. Rick Scarborough, president of Vision America Action, as pro-gay clergy and some from the gay and lesbian community gathered with signs reading “My love is legit.”

“If this law is used to silence me or any of these preachers for speaking the truth, then we will be forced to conscientiously defy it,” Scarborough declared. “That is my calling as a Christian and my right as an American citizen.”

After a decade-long dispute, the hate crimes legislation was tacked on to a must-pass defense appropriations bill this year and passed by the House and Senate. President Barack Obama signed the bill last month.

Clergy, religious broadcasters and conservative groups fear the legislation will subject them to prosecution for preaching what they believe the Bible says – that homosexual behavior is sin. While some believe they are exaggerating the effects of the expanded hate crimes law, the group on Monday was convinced they could be targeted for their speech and beliefs.

Janet Porter, president of Faith2Action and author of The Criminalization of Christianity, cited Title 18 of the United States Code regarding accessories to crime. It states: “Whoever commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is punishable as a principal.”

“That’s how they go after speech,” Porter explained at the rally.

The group also pointed to cases in Canada and the United Kingdom where Christians have already been feeling the negative effects of similar hate-crimes legislations.

Paul Diamond, a barrister from Great Britain, said people are scared to exercise their rights as a number of preachers, including Aake Green from Sweden, and other individuals have been threatened with imprisonment for preaching against homosexuality or for speaking out against its promotion.

“Our freedoms are very much inhibited in the last few years as Judeo-Christian values are driven from the public square,” he said. “We’ve been there. … We have lessons to tell you. And this is a road you don’t want to go down.”

Amid the arguments, a couple of ministers preached short sermons in hopes of sharing the Gospel with the homosexual community.

“God loves the homosexual,” the Rev. Grace Harley of Jesus Is the Answer Ministries in Silver Spring, Md., declared.

As someone who previously lived as a transgender (as a man) for 18 years, Harley testified that God set her free and can set others free from all kinds of sexual immorality, not just homosexuality. Jesus died on the cross so that you may be saved, she preached.

Offering a personalized version of the biblical passage Luke 13:13, she said, “Immediately she was made straight and glorified God.”

“I don’t just walk as a woman,” she noted, “but now I know the truth.”

ChristianPost.com

Maine voters latest to turn down gay marriage

Well the same sex marriage amendments continue to play out state to state as they should under the Constitution and Maine becomes the 31st state to vote for traditional marriage with a man and woman as the people let their voices be heard. The minority had their chance and lost. One more agenda that is being crammed down the American people’s throats that they don’t want.

PORTLAND, Maine (Reuters) – Voters in Maine on Tuesday overturned a law allowing same-sex couples to wed, dealing a fresh setback to the U.S. gay marriage movement in a race that attracted national attention.

The law was approved by Maine’s Legislature in May but was not implemented after opponents gathered enough signatures to put the issue to a “people’s veto.” (Every time the people get a chance to vote, they vote same sex marriage down)

With 87 percent of precincts reporting, votes to reject the law were running at 52.75 percent to 47.25 percent, according to unofficial tallies from the Bangor Daily News.

Frank Schubert, chief organizer of the “Yes on 1″ campaign to reject same-sex marriage in the state, claimed victory early on Wednesday, although his opponents refused to concede.

Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont are the only U.S. states where a same-sex marriage law is on the books. In each instance, the laws were approved by legislatures and judges, not by popular vote.

Citizens in some 30 states before Maine voted against same-sex marriages.

The referendum in sparsely populated Maine was thrust onto the national stage, attracting large levels of funding and battle-hardened strategists.

The outcome is “further evidence that although voters have shown tolerance toward same sex couples, they draw the line at marriage,” said Jeff Flint, a partner with Schubert Flint Public Affairs in Sacramento, who worked on California’s “Yes on 8″ campaign in 2008. “They feel marriage is different.”

Groups in favor of traditional marriage prevailed in Maine even though they were outspent two-to-one by the “No on 1″ groups, Flint said.

Reuters.com

A hateful hate-crimes law

This bill whether attached to the Defense Appropriations Bill or a stand alone bill violates the 1st (free speech),5th (double jeopardy)  and 14th (equal protection) amendments and is unconstitutional.

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President Obama has signed into law the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Actually, he signed into law the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act tacked onto which was the hate-crimes legislation.

Sen. Harry Reid, our brave Democratic majority leader, slipped the hate-crimes bill into the defense authorization bill to avoid having to have our senators consider the controversial hate-crimes legislation on its own.

It’s for good reason that our Democratic legislators wanted to hide under a rock while passing this terrible piece of legislation. It may help them with the far-left wing of their party. But weakening and damaging our country is not something to be proud of. And that is exactly what this new hate-crimes law does.

The bill adds on extra penalties to violent crimes when it is deemed they were motivated by gender, sexual orientation or disabilities. It’s the first major expansion of hate-crimes legislation originally passed in 1968, targeted then to crimes aimed at race, color, religion and national origin.

After signing this new law, President Obama celebrated it by saying that in this nation we should “embrace our differences.”

But law isn’t about embracing our differences. It is about providing equal and non-arbitrary protection to all citizens.

Equal protection for every individual American under the law is what the 14th Amendment to our Constitution, passed after the Civil War, guarantees. That this nation takes this guarantee seriously – that there are no classes of individuals that are treated differently under the law – has been a justifiable obsession of blacks.

A society in which all life is not valued the same, where murder of one citizen is not the same as murder of another citizen, is a horror which black Americans have known too well.

So it is a particular irony that this major expansion of the politicization of our law has been signed by our first black president.

What could it possibly mean that the penalty for the same act of violence – for murder – may be different depending on what might be deemed to be the motivation?

Can you imagine a football game where the penalty for roughing the passer is 20 yards rather than 15 if the referee concludes that the violence perpetrated was motivated because the quarterback was homosexual?

Is it not a sign of our own pathology that we now have codified that it is worse to murder a homosexual than someone who has committed adultery, even with your husband or wife, or who has slandered or robbed? Isn’t the point murder?

Can we really believe that someone capable of murder is less likely to do so if the victim is a homosexual and the penalties are greater than for the reasons above?

It should be clear that hate-crime law has nothing to do with improving our law but rather with creating favored political classes – something that should be hateful to everyone who cares about a free society, and particularly hateful to those, such as blacks, who have been so victimized by politicization of law.

WorldnetDaily.com

Schools put on notice: Mass boycott of Harvey Milk Day

Have you heard of “Harvey Milk Day”? Well in California their great governator signed a bill making a legal holiday for a homosexual named Harvey Milk. But a lot of people don’t appreciate it.

A pro-family group is calling on California parents to pull their kids out of school after the state instituted a mandatory “gay” day in public schools in honor of Harvey Milk – a homosexual activist and reported sexual predator, as well as an advocate for Jim Jones, leader of the massacred hundreds in Jonestown, Guyana.

SaveCalifornia.com led a statewide battle against “Harvey Milk Day” before California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the S.B. 572 on Oct. 12.

The bill designates May 22 – Milk’s birthday – a date of “special significance” and encourages all California public schools to “conduct suitable commemorative exercises … remembering the life of Harvey Milk and recognizing his accomplishments as well as the contributions he made to this state.”

It requires no parental consent for student participation.

SaveCalifornia President Randy Thomasson is warning parents to keep their sons and daughters home. His group has launched a boycott, urging parents to pull their children out of school for a day, a week or even all year if they can.

“Fathers and mothers are angry about Harvey Milk Day pushing this extreme, perverse role model upon their kids,” Thomasson said. “Children belong to parents, not to the state! Since SB 572 has no opt-out, boycotting Harvey Milk Day and pulling their children out of the imploding government school system is the only way for parents to protect their girls and boys.”

The group believes the boycott will also send a strong message to school districts that they should not use class time to celebrate Harvey Milk Day or they will risk losing daily attendance funds.

SaveCalifornia noted that even school districts in traditionally conservative areas are allowing teachers to promote Harvey Milk.

According to the Santa Clarita Signal, William S. Hart Union High School District Spokeswoman said teachers may include discussion of Milk in their curriculums.

“If it happens to be in a literature class or a social studies class, it can be included as long as it’s related to the topic,” she said.

According to the report, “Teachers will be encouraged to conduct exercises recalling Milk’s life and contributions to the state.”

SaveCalifornia reports that Equality California, a California homosexual political activism group, is planning to develop a curriculum to promote Harvey Milk’s values in public schools.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “The measure was backed by Equality California, the largest gay-rights organization in the state. Geoff Kors, executive director of the group, said it would develop curriculum for schools and teachers to use on Milk’s birthday.”

S.B. 572 states, “Perhaps more than any other modern figure, Harvey Milk’s life and political career embody the rise of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights movement in California, across the nation, and throughout the world.”

WorldnetDaily.com

Hate crimes bill – law by the weekend?

Well the Democrats finally got it………they had to attach it to the Defense Appropriations Bill to get it passed, because as a stand alone bill it had no chance. Now I’m hoping someone like the ACLJ  challenge the Constitutionality of this bill immediately. The Hate Crime bill is unconstitutional no doubt about it. It violates the 1st, 14th amendment and double jeopardy.

A spokesman with the American Family Association says the hate crimes bill passed Thursday afternoon by the House could have a chilling effect on free speech and religious freedoms in the nation. If the bill passes the Senate, federal prosecutors will be able to intervene in cases of violence against people because of gender, sexual orientation, “gender identity,” or disability. (See Associated Press story below)

Bryan Fischer is director of issues analysis for the American Family Association. The bill passed by the House, he says, is alarming.

“For the first time in American history we are criminalizing thought,” he laments. “Thomas Jefferson said the reach of legislation should extend to actions only and not to opinions – and now we are punishing people not just for what they did, but what they were thinking when they did it.

“It’s also going to have a chilling effect on freedom of speech, especially religious speech. And [in] other places where these hate crimes bills have gone into effect, pastors have wound up in jail or fined for preaching a biblical view of homosexuality.”

Fischer says he would not be surprised if the bill passes through the Senate by the weekend. “I suspect the president is putting pressure on some Democrats in Congress to get this done so he can sign it by Saturday night,” says the AFA spokesman. ”[That very evening] he’s going to give the keynote address at the Human Rights Campaign dinner. That’s the major homosexual advocacy group in the nation.  I think he wants this scalp on his belt walking into that dinner.”

He also has concerns about overturning such legislation in the near future. (Let’s hope the courts overturn this, as they should,it’s unconstitutional) “Something like this is going to be very difficult to repeal,” Fischer admits. ”It’s doable, but again [there's] a slim chance that Republicans or conservatives will have control of either the House or Senate in 2010 – so we’ll be fighting a rear-guard battle for some time now.”

The hate crimes amendment is attached to a $681-billion Pentagon policy measure that now heads to the Senate.

OneNewsNow.com

Mandantory Gay Days are Coming

I get sick of posting this stuff.  I would think that people would realize that this isn’t a right, it’s a perverted lifestyle.  Call me all the names you want, but I’m tired of someone’s lifestyle being forced upon people.  Go play with each other in the dark and keep your mouth shut, we hetero’s are not bragging.

Steve

WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Mandatory ‘gay’ day for K-5 students
Board imposes homosexual curriculum on classes
 
Posted: May 28, 2009
11:50 pm Eastern
By Chelsea Schilling
WorldNetDaily
 
 
‘And Tango Makes Three’ book about homosexual male penguins who name their chick Tango because ‘It takes two to make a Tango.’

A California school district has approved a mandatory homosexual curriculum for children as young as 5 – and parents will not be allowed to remove their children from the lessons.

The mandatory program, officially titled “LGBT Lesson #9,” was approved May 26 by the Alameda County Board of Education by a vote of 3-2. Students from kindergarten through fifth grade will learn about “tolerance” for the homosexual lifestyle beginning next year.

The curriculum is in addition to the school’s current anti-bullying program and is estimated to cost $8,000 for curriculum and training.

Parents will not be given an opportunity to opt-out of lessons that go against their religious beliefs. Some parents are threatening to sue the school board and mount a recall. Opponents presented a petition with 468 signatures from people who don’t want the homosexual lessons in the curriculum.

At the board meeting, parent Julie Kim said, “The topics covered in this curriculum for all the grades should be left up to the parent to discuss with their children.”

The district’s legal counsel recommended against giving parents an opportunity to opt out of the lessons, claiming only health or sex education topics require opt-out provisions:

[T]he most prudent course of action for Alameda Unified School District’s Board of Education in regards to the proposed lesson is to recommend providing notice to parents, not to allow an opt out of the instruction.

The school district claims it will re-assess the curriculum, but only after it has been in place for a full year.

According to the Island of Alameda, trustee Tracy Jensen addressed a crowd at City Hall following the vote.

“We are not telling anyone what to think,” Jensen said. “We are letting children know that gay people exist and they deserve to be treated with respect, regardless of whether or not you believe that homosexuality is acceptable.”

But Capitol Resource Institute’s Karen England explored the curriculum and released a statement condemning the program before the board’s vote.

 

“This curriculum ignores the fact that every child has a mom and a dad, to redefine ideas like ‘family.’ School absolutely should be a safe place, but this isn’t just about safety. Students have to embrace highly controversial social values or risk being labeled as bigots,” she warned. “Five year old kids aren’t ready to think on their own about sexuality – and their families’ values will be dismissed. That’s not an education in critical thinking. It’s social activism.” 

In kindergarten, children will be introduced to “The New Girl … And Me” by Jacqui Robins. The book is about a young girl who is new at a school and strikes up a friendship with another girl after a popular boy refuses to play with her.

In first grade, students will read “Who is in a Family?” By Robert Skutch. It explores different types of families. One page states, ” … Robin’s family is made up of her dad, Clifford, her dad’s partner, Henry, and Robin’s cat, Sassy.”
 
Curriculum for 1st grade students includes ‘Who’s in a Family?’

Teachers will ask children to “identify and describe a variety of families” and “to understand that families have some similarities and some differences.”

“If a student responds that one family in the book is made up of a mother, a father and two children and a cat, you may acknowledge that some families look like this,” the curriculum states, “but also ask students for other examples of what a family can look like.”

Teachers are told to reflect and “reinforce to students that in our school and our community there are many different types of families that provide love and care to each other. Remind the students that all family structures are equally important.”

Second grade students will read about two homosexual penguins that raise a young chick in the book “And Tango Makes Three” by J. Richardson and P. Parnell.

The two male penguins, Roy and Silo, are described as being “a little bit different.”

“They didn’t spend much time with the girl penguins, and the girl penguins didn’t spend much time with them,” the text states.

When the male penguins nurture an egg, it soon hatches. “We’ll call her Tango,” it states, “because it takes two to make a Tango.”

The book declares, “Tango was the very first penguin in the zoo to have two daddies.”
 

In the third grade, students will watch a film called “That’s a Family,” featuring some homosexual couples in addition to traditional families.

According to the lesson plan, it aims to “assist students in developing sensitivity to gay and lesbian family structures” and teach “respect and tolerance for every type of family.”

Fourth graders will be required to read an essay titled, “My School is Accepting – but Things Could be Better” by Robert, an 11-year-old who has two lesbian mothers.

They are introduced to terms such as “ally,” “gay,” “lesbian” and “LGBT.”

Teachers are instructed to ask, “How do you think Robert feels when he hears people say things like, ‘this is gay’ or ‘You’re so gay’?”

By fifth grade, students learn to “identify stereotypes about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.” They are told that “LGBT people have made important contributions within the United States and beyond.”

Teachers are asked to write the acronym LGBT and ask students the meaning of each letter. Students discuss why stereotypes are “incorrect and hurtful” to LGBT people and people with LGBT family members.

The children are provided with a list of famous LGBT people, including novelist James Baldwin, singer Elton John, comedian Ellen Degeneres, pop singer Christina Aguilera, Rep. Tammy Baldwin, poet Walt Whitman, singer Lance Bass, figure skater Rudy Galindo, homosexual politician Harvey Milk, Army veteran Jose Zuniga and basketball player Sheryl Swoopes.

 

Teachers then ask if students are surprised to learn that those famous people are members of the LGBT community. The curriculum also provides a list of LGBT vocabulary words for students, including the following: bisexual, transgender, gay, LGBT and lesbian.   

 

Contact information for the three members of the Alameda County Board of Education who voted for the LGBT curriculum is as follows:

Vice President Ron Mooney: e-mail or fax: (510) 522-6926

Trustee Tracy Jensen: e-mail, phone: (510) 865-6350 or fax: (510) 522-6926

Trustee Niel Tam: e-mail or fax: (510) 522-6926 

From Pravda…News for the New Comrades!

We’re not smart enough to figure it out, our news broadcasters and writers are not telling it, and they wonder why folks are seeking out the truth on the internet while it lasts.

Steve

American capitalism gone with a whimper
27.04.2009
Source: Pravda.Ru

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds were conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

 

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather than the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their “right” to choke down a McDonald’s burger or a Burger King burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our “democracy”. Pride blinds the foolish.

 

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different “branches and denominations” were for the most part little more than Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more than happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the “winning” side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the “winning” side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.

 

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America’s short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more than another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

 

These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more than ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beaten our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?

 

These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties and powers of the American congress (parliament). Again, congress has put up little more than a whimper to their masters.

 

Then came Barack Obama’s command that GM’s (General Motor) president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of “pure” free markets, the American president now has the power, the self given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. Come hither, go dither, the centurion commands his minions.

 

So it should be no surprise that the American president has followed this up with a “bold” move of declaring that he and another group of unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry and will even be the guarantee of automobile policies. I am sure that if given the chance, they would happily try and redesign it for the whole of the world, too. Prime Minister Putin, less than two months ago, warned Obama and UK’s Blair, not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our “wise” Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.

 

Again, the American public has taken this with barely a whimper…but a “freeman” whimper.

 

So, should it be any surprise to discover that the Democrat controlled Congress of America is working on passing a new regulation that would give the American Treasury department the power to set “fair” maximum salaries, evaluate performance and control how private companies give out pay raises and bonuses? Senator Barney Franks, a social pervert basking in his homosexuality (of course, amongst the modern, enlightened American societal norm, as well as that of the general West, homosexuality is not only not a looked down upon life choice, but is often praised as a virtue) and his Marxist enlightenment, has led this effort. He stresses that this only affects companies that receive government monies, but it is retroactive and taken to a logical extreme, this would include any company or industry that has ever received a tax break or incentive.

 

The Russian owners of American companies and industries should look thoughtfully at this and the option of closing their facilities down and fleeing the land of the Red as fast as possible. In other words, divest while there is still value left.

 

The proud American will go down into his slavery without a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker.

 

Stanislav Mishin

OK, I’ve heard enough, gimme my microphone!

Folks,

Just the other day I saw a blog and got an email about how the legislators in Oklahoma had stood up for once and passed several distasteful conservative values. They voted for a monument to the 10 commandments, verified gun carry rights, and banned the marriage of homosexuals. Now, they are under attack by the left, the ACLU, and others saying that Muslims need equality, anti-Christians, perverts and so forth. Let me very simply fix this. If you don’t like it, go somewhere else that your hokey vision of rights is acceptable. See, the founders wrote our laws based on Christianity, and said we should be tolerable of other religions, not acceptable. Rights were unalienable, of God, not of law. We had the right of free speech, the ability to call a spade a spade, and the ability to do it under the protection of American law that no one seems to understand – most of all, our own government.

The Oklahoma legislature must have studied the Constitution and figured out they had the right to make law that trumped federal law. By the way, for all morons that disagree with that, you might read the 10th amendment. The feds have no right to peek at me, gps me, take my guns, keep me from talking about them, invade my privacy, or take my property. None, nada, nil, any. Read the Constitution. The 5th says they may offer just compensation, not take, and even then the right of due process is owed. They forget that part, because they know you can’t afford the fight. So, when will we wake up? When will something knock us out of “our own little world” bubble enough that we finally challenge the authority of the government against the Constitution? Our founders guaranteed it, they fought for it, and they died for it.

Are we willing to do the same, or are we going to watch each other roll over and show the whites of our soft bellies? I keep watching all the Dems defend Obama. Give him a chance they say. Let me set another scenario for you. If Al Franken is appointed the winner in Wisconsin, the state that elected Jessie Ventura governor, so be ready, Obama has the White House, Congress, and with a swift appointment or two, the Supreme Court. That is NOT balance of power, that is an instant ticket to socialism. It is dangerous for either side to wield that kind of power.

Attend the tea parties; speak out about all this unfair spending, high taxes and crooked government. Our children are counting on us for their future, God expects that of you, and remember, WE, AMERICANS, were guaranteed our rights by the Constitution, not by barter, not by attrition, and not by threat. Other religions are welcome, but are not to be forced upon us, nor used against us. Liberalism is good in balance, but not as the rule, it will in its current form, make America a third world country.

I am not ready for that, I don’t wish it on your children or mine, and I will fight for balance and the Constitution as long as I have breath. I hope you will also do the same in every way that you can. You owe it to the founders who gave you the freedom to read and understand that you can. You have the obligation to answer the call.

Steve

Will Gay Marriage Pit Church Against Church?

The fight over gay marriage may be far from over, but already some conservative Christian leaders are looking beyond the courtroom dramas and the legislative infighting. The trouble they see is not just an America where general support for gay marriage will have driven a wedge between churches and the world, but between churches themselves.

“More than anything else, these developments may signal the fact that those who, on biblical grounds, are led by conscience to reject same-sex marriage, really will be exposed as a moral minority,” the Rev. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a staunch defender of traditional definition of marriage, told TIME recently. “If so, it will expose a great divide over the authority of the Bible among many Christian churches and denominations — perhaps in a way exceeding any other issue.” (Check out the story “What If You’re on the Gay ‘Enemies List.’”)

Ever since Jesus told followers to “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s,” preachers have been warning about a clash between “the world” and “the church.” But now Mohler is predicting something more, a clash between churches themselves. (Most recently, the Anglican Communion has been paralyzed by debate over the consecration of gay bishops.) Writing on Thursday morning in his personal blog, Mohler laid out his thoughts more clearly still. “No issue defines our current cultural crisis as clearly as homosexuality. Some churches and denominations have capitulated to the demands of the homosexual rights movement, and now accept homosexuality as a fully valid lifestyle,” he wrote. “Other denominations are tottering on the brink, and without a massive conservative resistance, they are almost certain to abandon biblical truth and bless what the Bible condemns. Within a few short years, a major dividing line has become evident — with those churches endorsing homosexuality on one side, and those stubbornly resisting the cultural tide on the other.”(Those of us who stand on the Word of God are stubbornly resisting? You bet we are and will continue to do so until the end comes!) (Read the story “A Gay Marriage Solution: End Marriage?”)

Mohler’s view is, to a certain extent, shared by Joseph E. Kurtz, Archbishop of Louisville, who leads an ad hoc panel of U.S. Catholic bishops set up to fight gay marriage. He too sees a potential future when a greater acceptance of homosexuality leads to pressure on churches to conform, and even to change their teachings. “There are grave threats that decisions by the courts, legislative actions or regulations could erode religious freedom,” Kurtz tells TIME. “With regard to marriage, this implicates the right of Catholics to practice our beliefs. Here we are talking about the bedrock of society, it’s not just a belief, it’s written on the hearts of every human person.”

Unlike the Baptist’s stark outlook, however, Kurtz is more optimistic that the fight to preserve a traditional definition of marriage is not doomed — and is actively forming alliances and organizing to shore up the one-man-and-one-woman concept of matrimony. He sent a letter last fall to Thomas Monson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, praising Mormon support for Prop 8, the ballot-initiative in California that made gay marriage unconstitutional. That state’s Supreme Court is expected to rule on the validity of the amendment soon.

Kurtz concedes there have been wins for supporters of gay marriage lately, but last November’s statewide votes against gay marriage in California, Arizona and Florida buoyed him. “It’s hard for any of us to have a crystal ball to know our culture society will move,” says Kurtz. “The Catholic Church will certainly respond with a commitment to truth and love. … November is not all that long ago, and I still believe that getting out the message about marriage, with a commitment to both truth and love, will succeed. In upholding the traditional definition of marriage, there is not a desire to punish or hurt anyone. We want to do a better job of communicating our concern for all, for both those who agree, and disagree.”

Mohler sees the true church as a body comprised of believers who refuse to give ground on gay marriage. So does the Catholic Church, which has shown no willingness to change its own teachings, rooted as they often are in centuries of tradition. But, except for the November referendums, solidarity among fellow-thinkers has not borne much fruit. And a recent swarm of dire ads warning of a “gathering storm” of gay rights mostly backfired. “Those advocates want to change the way I think,” a woman says in one of the most-viewed commercials. Another adds, “I will have no choice.” And another warns that she will soon be faced with a choice between “my job and my faith.” The ads prompted hundreds of thousands of views on Youtube.com, but they mainly served to show how far removed their creators were from the zeitgeist. The Colbert Report mocked the ads, and countless parodies have sprung up across the Internet at the expense of the ads’ grave-faced actors.

So while both men are calling for courage and compassion among their flocks, it’s not clear yet whether their message that homosexuals are sinners by definition is resonating beyond their staunchest supporters. Of course, that may be just fine with both men, who see in the future a kind of purifying ordeal that will sort out the true church from the others.

Time.com

Hate-crimes’ bill to muzzle Christians?

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ON CAPITOL HILL

House urges committee to include ’sexual orientation’ in federal law

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© 2009 WorldNetDaily.com

The House of Representatives has voted to urge a conference committee to add “sexual orientation, gender and disability” to federal hate-crimes law, a development some observers say would muzzle Christians who speak out against homosexuality.

On Sept. 28, the House voted 213-186 to pass a procedural motion encouraging a conference committee to include the hate-crimes legislation in the final version of the Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 4200).

In June, Sens. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., introduced the new language meant to protect homosexuals as an amendment to the Senate’s version of the Defense Authorization Act. The Senate measured passed by a vote of 65-33.

The bill imposes special fines for those who commit a “hate crime” against a protected class and provides federal assistance to those prosecuting such crimes. Existing hate-crimes law provides federal help to states and localities in prosecuting crimes based only on the victim’s race, religion or national origin.

Christian activists believe that if passed and signed into law, the legislation could be used to target Americans who voice their opposition to the homosexual lifestyle – including pastors preaching and reading the Bible.

“Passage would literally throw open the door to attacks against people of faith, who could be prosecuted with federal monies for expressing their views on homosexuality!” warns Gary Cass, executive director of the Center for Reclaiming America.

Bob Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute, says if it becomes law the legislation could be used to “muzzle public discussion of homosexuality and even someday silence pastors.”

Knight commented, “It’s a very dangerous bill, because it adds ’sexual orientation’ to hate-crimes law, and it greatly expands federal jurisdiction.

“If your grandmother is mugged, it won’t be a big deal [unless she is a lesbian],” Knight said. “And the law-enforcement authorities may have to put more of their revenues toward the mugging, say, of a homosexual guy walking down the street. Both deserve protection, but certainly the gay guy doesn’t deserve more than your grandmother.”

Wrote Knight in a WorldNetDaily column: “Homosexual activists have redefined any opposition to homosexuality as ‘hate speech.’ Laws already criminalize speech that incites violence. It’s easy to imagine a scenario in which any incident involving a homosexual can be blamed on people who have publicly opposed homosexual activism.”

Because it offers special protection to specific class of people, the legislation “violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution,” Cass stated.

The Human Rights Campaign hailed last week’s House vote.

“Congress should work to protect Americans, not discriminate against them,” said HRC President Cheryl Jacques. “We laud Congress for this vote, especially Minority Leader Pelosi for offering this motion and working to get the overwhelming support of her peers. We urge conference committee members to take it to heart – keep the federal hate-crimes bill in conference committee.”

According to HRC, the House passed a similar motion in September 2000 by a 232-192 vote, but that amendment was removed in conference committee. The homosexual-advocacy group claims the new hate-crimes language has been endorsed by more than 175 law-enforcement, civil-rights, civic and religious organizations.

As WorldNetDaily reported, a new law was passed in Canada that adds sexual orientation as a protected category in the nation’s genocide and hate-crimes legislation, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.

Opponents of the new law fear the Bible will be deemed “hate literature” under the criminal code in certain instances, as evidenced by the case of a Saskatchewan man fined by a provincial human-rights tribunal for taking out a newspaper ad with Scripture references to verses about homosexuality.

Earlier this year in Sweden, which also has strict hate-crimes laws, a pastor was arrested at his church after he began reading Bible verses condemning homosexuality.

Some states have included sexual orientation in their state hate-crimes laws. Last month, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law a bill expanding that state’s statute to include not only homosexuals and transgendered people but also people who merely associate with those who are part of a protected class.

“While every hate crime represents a personal tragedy for the victim, hate crimes also are an attempt to intimidate a larger group or community of people,” the bills’ author, Senator Sheila Kuehl, told 365gay.com. “Hate crimes tear at the fabric of our society and it is important that we have a strong and effective response to them.”

In Pennsyvlania, pastors are concerned they could be targeted under that state’s new hate-crimes law, which added “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as motives that trigger heavier penalties for the crime of “harassment.”

The Center for Reclaiming America is urging citizens to contact the House members and senators who are on the conference committee to ask them to remove the hate-crimes language from the final bill.

Worldnetdaily.com