Brian Tashman's blog

In 2003, Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore was removed from office after refusing to obey a judge’s order to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments he installed in the courthouse. Two failed bids for governor later; Moore is once again the Republican nominee for Chief Justice and will likely return to the court.

While speaking with conservative talk show host Steve Deace last week, Moore reflected on the “spiritualness of the battle” over the Ten Commandments monument and warned that secular government paved the way for “Sharia law and the allowance of religious practices for other groups but not Christians.” He went on to link the teaching of evolution in public schools for President Obama’s support for marriage equality, lamenting that teaching evolution demonstrates that when “you cut off free argument of debate then error survives and becomes dangerous.”

I firmly believe that only God can heal our land and he is waiting for the American people to wake up to what’s going on around them about a government that is denying God and in doing so is bent on taking away those rights and liberties and freedoms given to us by God, in contradiction to the very organic law from which we are based. I think I learned a lot about the spiritualness of the battle, I never regretted what I did, I did exactly what I knew I was to do and that is to stand firm and not let some federal judge tell me to remove a monument, which he had no right to do anyway.

…

What they fear most is my acknowledgment of the sovereignty of God. Even the judge on the federal bench didn’t say it was about the Ten Commandments, he said the issue is can the state acknowledge God and in his opinion he said this, ‘while the chief justice is free to keep whatever religious beliefs he chooses, the state may not acknowledge the sovereignty of the Judeo-Christian God and attribute to that God our religious freedom.' When he said that, he violated not only our constitution but the case law of the United States Supreme Court which says our religious freedom comes from God, and if it doesn’t come from God people have to realize we will lose it and that is happening in our country today with Sharia law and the allowance of religious practices for other groups but not Christians.

…

Free argument and debate will always come out on the side of truth. So if you cut off free argument of debate then error survives and becomes dangerous. You see that in our schools with the teaching of evolution. That is exactly what has gone all the way up to the highest level of our government. The President of the United States talks about his evolving standards, well, when you got evolving standards you don’t have any standards at all to begin with because truth is fixed, when your standard is truth it is not going to change but we see it changing seemingly with our government.

Last week Bishop Harry Jackson asserted that the black community is involved in an “adulterous relationship” with President Obama, explaining following the President’s endorsement of marriage equality that the situation is “no different than a married person having a relationship with someone other than their spouse.” At the Watchmen on the Wall conference today he elaborated on how Obama and the Democratic party are “dishonoring” African Americans and Hispanics. Jackson for years has been trying to bolster Republican efforts to appeal to minority voters, and today told pastors at the summit that “there’s no romance” between the Democratic Party and African Americans and Hispanics.

Later, Jackson said that since 1967 there has been an “an assignment of Hell” that is attempting to “erase sexual differences” through the LGBT community. “How dare people have gender reassignment surgery,” Jackson declared:

It was the week before Mother’s Day that President Obama came out in public and said what some of us have known for years that he was in fact for same-sex marriage. This is one of those situations that he was before it before he was against it and now he’s for it again. It was shocking because it was dishonoring of the African American and Hispanic clergy, it was dishonoring of them because he and his party believe that blacks and Hispanics have nowhere else to go. We’re in an adulterous relationship with them, they come at our door at midnight, they knock, they want entry, they want what they want, how they want it and when they want it—do I have to spell this out for you? But then we don’t get flowers, we don’t get tickets to dinner, there’s no romance in this situation, are you with me?

…

There’s been a movement from 1967 to erase the sexual differences, the gender assignment that God has given. There has been an assignment of Hell trying to tell us that we need to be unisex, that we need to move into some kind of homogenous, androgynous zone. There’s been something in the culture that is trying to erase the image of God from before us. Marriage is supposed to be a reflection of Christ’s relationship with the Church, but also in the reality of that there is an understanding of femininity and masculinity that also reflect godly roles and assignments. How dare people have gender reassignment surgery that says the way God originally dedicated them to be was not good enough.

In his address to the Family Research Council’s Watchmen on the Wall conference, retired General turned anti-Muslim activist Jerry Boykin claimed that Satan is behind growing secularism of the West and seeks to replace Christianity with Islam. He warned America not to follow in the footsteps of Europe, which he said will indisputably soon have a Muslim majority:

We were unquestionably founded on Judeo-Christian principles but there is an effort in America today to rob us of that identity, to take that away from us. If you want to see what can happen when you lose your identity all you have to do is look at the continent of Europe. The continent of Europe is dark, it is hopelessly lost and it’s going to get worse. Every expert will tell you that by the middle of this century the continent of Europe will be an Islamic continent, and they can’t reverse it, they can’t stop it. It is because they took Jesus out of their societies and it’s been replaced by darkness. Any time there is a void it will be replaced by the Enemy, and the Enemy is unquestionably real and he is in fact called Satan, and that is something that people in this country have not yet figured out.

In fact, experts strongly disagree with Boykin’s claim that “every expert will tell you” that Europe will soon be “an Islamic continent.” Pew Forum released a study finding that the Muslim birth rate is slowing:

Alan Cooperman, Pew Forum associate director for research, said the results refuted claims made by some critics of Muslim immigration that high birth rates would make Muslims the majority in Europe within a few decades.

Muslim minorities will grow to around 10 percent of the population in several European countries, he said, adding: "Those are substantial increases but they are very far from 'Eurabia' scenario of runaway growth."

The Economist also notes that the Muslim population of the European Union is approximately four percent and is rather diverse:

Is Eurabia really something to worry about? The concept includes a string of myths and a couple of hard truths. Most of the myths have to do with the potency of Islam in Europe. The European Union is home to no more than 20m Muslims, or 4% of the union's inhabitants. That figure would soar closer to 17% if Turkey were to join the EU—but that, alas, is something that Europeans are far less keen on than Americans are. Even taking into account Christian and agnostic Europe's lousy breeding record, Muslims will account for no more than a tenth of west Europe's population by 2025. Besides, Europe's Muslims are not homogenous. Britain's mainly South Asian Muslims have far less in common with France's North African migrants or Germany's Turks than they do with other Britons.

Criticizing the theory of evolution is not just one of a variety of Religious Right priorities, but is central to their cause as many social conservatives believe that evolutionary thought is the culprit behind much-despised notions like secular government, feminism and moral relativism. As leading young earth creationist Ken Ham explained at the Family Research Council’s Watchmen on the Wall conference, belief in a non-literal interpretation of Genesis is even responsible for President Obama’s support for marriage equality:

In an interview with Sandy Rios of the American Family Association, Michael Drake of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property said that conservatives must fight against marriage equality for gays and lesbians. He said that the marriage debate relates to all three topics of “tradition, family and property” because the real reason behind efforts to “destroy marriage” is to bring about socialism…just like during the end of the Roman Empire:

Drake: It’s a battle, we have to fight it, we need more people to become engaged in that battle, we are desperately needing that right now and very quickly. We are fighting a very concerted movement to destroy marriage. It has always been one of the goals of socialism, marriage is the bright line for civilization so it is a very large target; we’ve known that but not many people have been so aware of how Marx said marriage is the target.

Rios: Marx said marriage is the target. As you go back and go back in Roman Catholic history and the history of the Roman Church and culture, has there ever been a battle like this?

Drake: Yes. In the decline of the Roman Empire.

Americans For Truth About Homosexuality president Peter LaBarbera is chairing a panel at the World Congress of Families in Madrid, Spain, where he is warning members that the United States has become a “force for immorality, abortion and perversion” and is empowering the “hydra-headed monster of the Homosexual/Transsexual Lobby” through television shows like Glee. He even retold a story of a man who “said good-bye to the homosexual ‘deathstyle’” and became “miraculously free of AIDS” but lamented that others will be swept up by the “barrage of pro-homosexual propaganda emanating from Hollywood and the media”:

Over dinner last evening I heard a comment from a Venezuelan-born journalist, Omar, that shook me. Omar lives in Virginia but is widely traveled, and observed how on a recent trip to Mexico City he saw something that he said he never would have witnessed just a few years ago: homosexual male lovers walking hand-in-hand down the street and then stopping to engage in a perverted male-to-male kiss right out in the open. (So-called homosexual “marriage” was legalized in Mexico City in 2009.)

My new acquaintance and I agreed about how to explain this perverse development in once socially conservative Mexico: the tremendous influence of decadent American Culture. ”People all over the world look to America as a leader in trends,” Omar said. But just as the USA largely has been a force for international good – and helped rescue so many nations from tyranny — we now have become, tragically, a force for immorality, abortion and perversion.

Untold millions of people in foreign countries watch popular American TV shows, which have become ever more blatant tools of general raunchiness and specifically homosexual and transgender activist propaganda. (This is precisely the aim of GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Discrimination, which holds unchallenged sway in Hollywood and is constantly pushing for more pro-homosexual and pro-transgender characters in TV shows and movies.) As anyone who has watched TV lately knows, most programs now glamorize homosexuality or work in a “gay” angle (not even subtly) wherever possible. Remember “Glee’s” romantic kiss between two teenage boys, during primetime?

It’s all part of an orchestrated campaign to normalize the sexual sin of homosexuality. Thankfully, though GLAAD lobbies against the idea of former homosexuals, the proof is in that same-sex behavior is changeable, as Omar reminded me by joyfully recounting the story of a Columbian man who nearly died of AIDS after falling into homosexuality. In his desperation the man, whom Omar interviewed, began reading the Bible, asked God to save him, was reborn through Jesus Christ, said good-bye to the homosexual “deathstyle,” and becaame [sic] miraculously free of AIDS and a husband and father to boot. Praise God!

It is bad enough that Americans have grown so accustomed to the barrage of pro-homosexual propaganda emanating from Hollywood and the media that we shrug our shoulders and say that nothing can be done about it. But how often do we think of a America as a corrupting influence abroad? Our beloved United States of America, which has been blessed so abundantly by God, is now squandering its creativity and accumulated cultural power to “mainstream” sexual perversion and gender confusion — not only to our our [sic] people and youth – but in foreign lands. Where is our collective shame and anger at what the secular-liberal elitists have done to America’s reputation abroad?

…

More than ever, I am convinced that if we don’t get back to the basics of deconstructing the hydra-headed monster of the Homosexual/Transsexual Lobby, we are handicapping our ability to win hearts and minds, especially among young people — those very “brainwashed” souls whose confusion over homosexual issues has led LGBT activists to boast that it is only a matter of time before our noble cause — the defense of historic Judeo-Christian sexual mores, including opposition to homosexuality — becomes extinct.

…

Lastly, I am again struck by the enormous gulf between the international pro-life groups and leaders that have assembled in Madrid — with their tremendous progress, momentum and cultural influence – and the diffident, ambiguous and defensive posture of groups and pro-life leaders opposing organized homosexuality. The pro-life movement has palpable energy and confidence — reflected in the myriad of pro-life groups tackling every aspect of the struggle to protect innocent life and reach and heal abortive or potentially abortive women. It is fantastic to behold and provides much-needed evidence that good can rally against evil (though there is of course much work to be done).

Contrast that with the struggling “movement’ (if you can call it that) of those who are dedicated to the principled cause of defeating the Homosexual Lobby – just like pro-lifers aim to defeat the Abortion Lobby (i.e., without an ounce of guilt or reservations). Talking with pro-family activists from various countries here at World Congress reveals the simmering divide over how to approach the homosexual juggernaut: some, like me, favor a direct approach on the issue while others believe we should sidestep the “H” debate and instead focus positively on the campaign to protect the definition of marriage.

Corruption has been an enduring problem in Washington, D.C. politics, but Bishop Harry Jackson believes that the scandals currently plaguing D.C. officials may be a result of the city’s legalization of same-sex marriage, a move Jackson ferociously opposed.

Jackson told Family Research Council president Tony Perkins today that God is removing from office those who are “against the Lord’s agenda,” including by means of corruption scandals:

The men that stood against us, Tony Perkins, in the D.C. battle for marriage and the African American leaders especially among that group who had churches in their wards telling them ‘you need to vote for marriage’ they all said ‘no, no, no we’re not going to vote for marriage.’ One, the former mayor, everything turned against him, he was put out of office. The City Council Chairman became Mayor and now there are all these ethics charges against him. The new head of the City Council of D.C. and several others are all under investigation, they are in the process of losing political power and one of them is beginning a three and a half year term in prison. I believe it’s time for God to bring forth healing in our nation but I believe God’s justice is operating. What we’re going to see is that some of these people who are identifying themselves as being against the Lord’s agenda, God, not us, will deal with them and maybe remove them from office.

Well, since Jackson believes that he can interpret how God is involving Himself in D.C. politics, how can he explain why Councilman Marion Barry, the former mayor (who was removed from office after he was videotaped smoking crack cocaine) who became an outspoken marriage equality opponent, has gotten bogged down in a new controversy that is jeopardizing his political career?

Following his successful effort to oust openly gay Romney campaign adviser Richard Grenell, American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer defended his campaign against him in response to Grenell’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. “The claim that gays should be barred from conservative activism is not only bigoted but is a bipartisan view,” Grenell writes. “The intolerant assault comes from the far right, who object to Republicans who are gay, and the far left, who object to gays being Republicans.”

Fischer stood by his harsh criticism of Grenell and in a post today warned the Republican Party that if they accommodate “the tiny two percent of the population who practice unnatural sexual behavior” it will be “the undoing of the party,” saying it will be disastrous for Republicans to continue “cravenly capitulating to a whiny, noisy, hateful and demanding sliver of the American people”:

Perhaps surprisingly, I find myself in agreement with the left on this one. They are dead right when they say you cannot be a homosexual and a conservative.

This is for one simple reason: homosexuality is not a conservative value.

It is a libertarian value, and a liberal value, but it is not a conservative one.

Libertarians and liberals, when it comes to social issues, are in the “anything goes” camp. They reject the whole concept of ordered liberty in which a society is built by people who exercise self-restraint and channel potentially destructive impulses into marriage, family and work.

…

The bottom line is that the GOP needs to make up its mind. Is it libertarian or conservative on social issues? The increasing accomodation [sic] of ruling class Republicans to the tiny two percent of the population who practice unnatural sexual behavior will be the undoing of the party. Are they truly willing to risk the future of their political party by cravenly capitulating to a whiny, noisy, hateful and demanding sliver of the American people?

If the GOP does not take a firm stand against the normalizing of homosexual behavior, it will squander the political opportunity that has been granted them by the most dangerous and incompetent president in American history.

Word to the GOP: find your moral compass, lads, before it’s too late.

Indeed, Fischer did tell Romney back in April, “You better start listening to me”:

Following a very, very passionate appeal to those “struggling with homosexuality,” Family Research Council vice president Tom McClusky told the audience at the Watchmen on the Wall conference today that people should not in good conscience support the right of same-sex couples to wed just as they should not help a depressed neighbor commit suicide. McCluskly was upset that President Obama cited the Golden Rule in his interview where he endorsed marriage equality, a remark that touched a nerve in the Religious Right with activists like Patrick Wooden railed against Obama for “quoting Scripture to debunk Scripture.” McClusky explained that if the Golden Rule is a reason to support the freedom to marry for gays and lesbians, then it would be just like using the Golden Rule to condone suicide.

Watch:

McClusky: The President’s come out for same-sex marriage and in an interview in which he updates the nation on the latest evolution of his views, on this question the President notes that his mind was made up in part by his Christian faith, specifically by the Golden Rule, ‘treat others the way you want to be treated.’ It should be pointed out though that contrary to what the President thinks the Golden Rule alone tells us nothing one way or the other about whether to support same-sex marriage, it isn’t about merely protecting our neighbor’s preferences but advancing our neighbor’s good. In the absence of any moral standard then it would mean then that I would have to give my depressed neighbor—I would have to assist him to commit suicide if it was just a matter of doing what he thinks is best.

While taking to Americans For Truth About Homosexuality president Peter LaBarbera, Brian Camenker of MassResistance said that like racism, “homosexuality is unnatural,” and now “just like you had to have the Jim Crow laws to keep the races apart, you have to have these laws and diversity trainings and constant propaganda to keep it going.” Camenker explained that gay rights advocates are passing laws and disseminating “propaganda” with the aim of ending the freedom of speech, which he says they need to do since homosexuality “is generally repulsive to large numbers of people if not everybody”:

LaBarbera: Brian Camenker’s website MassResistance, that is hate, because they don’t like that Brian Camenker opposes homosexuality. This is the world we are living in and I think it’s tempting to laugh at it but if they keep going our First Amendment rights will be gone.

Camenker: There’s no question about it and that’s what they want. They want that to happen.

LaBarbera: They can’t handle a free and fair debate, where we can just talk about ideas, they have to censor everybody who opposes them?

Camenker: The problem that they have is that homosexual behavior in it of itself, to put it bluntly, is generally repulsive to large numbers of people if not everybody. In order to normalize this in any way there has to be this constant stream of propaganda.

…

Camenker: Homosexuality is unnatural and you have to have, just like you had to have the Jim Crow laws to keep the races apart, you have to have these laws and diversity trainings and constant propaganda to keep it going.