Brian Tashman's blog

On today’s episode of the 700 Club, Pat Robertson urged viewers to avoid false prophets and televangelists caught up in scandal. “By your fruits you shall know them, what’s their track record?” Robertson told cohost Terry Meeuwsen, “You can dominate somebody that way: I’ve heard from the Lord, I have a message for you, do this.”

Funny he should mention this, because just today we stumbled across an interview between Pat Robertson and televangelist Benny Hinn the week before the presidential election where Robertson bluntly informed Hinn that “the Lord told me” that Mitt Romney would defeat President Obama.

Not only did God inform Robertson that “Romney will win” but that he will be a two-term president who presides over a huge economic boom.

Robertson even told Romney to save him a ticket for the inauguration: “I told Mitt a long time ago, I called him and said listen, I’ve been in prayer and number one you’re going to win the nomination and number two you’re going to win the general election, he said ‘well what can I do for you,’ I said give me a seat on the platform during your inauguration, give me a ticket to your inauguration.”

“The Lord said he’s going to have a second term, I told him there will be to be trillions of dollars coming into the economy when you’re elected,” Robertson continued, “the stock market ought to boom, everything ought to boom.”

This all deeply reassured Hinn who said that Robertson was conveying “God’s voice.”

Watch:

Os Hillman of “Reclaiming the Seven Mountains” argues in a column today at Charisma News that conservative Christians can show love to the gay community without offering an “endorsement of a lifestyle” that is considered sinful.

He warns that Christians “fall into deception” and “embrace a life of sin” when they affirm gays and lesbians, whom he says are seeking “acceptance from the straight community, politicians and God.”

Hillman urges readers to befriend gays and lesbians but only so “they might embrace God’s love instead of Satan’s counterfeit love.”

Let’s face it: Jesus got a lot angrier at Pharisees than He did at those living a sinful lifestyle. When Jesus saved the prostitute from being stoned, He didn’t discount her sin; He just told her to “go and sin no more.” My guess is that if Jesus were living today, He would befriend gays to let them experience His love personally in hopes they might embrace God’s love instead of Satan’s counterfeit love.

The Christian community has failed to embrace Jesus’ model of helping and loving those who, in many cases, don’t think they need Christ or a different lifestyle than the one they live. We all believed that before we embraced Christ. Unfortunately, when we embrace a life of sin, no matter what sin it is, we fall into deception. Moral compromise always leads to deceit.

The gay community has adopted the position, “You will accept us whether you want to or not!” The community seeks acceptance from the straight community, politicians and God. The problem is, they want endorsement of a lifestyle versus acceptance of them as people deserving of mutual respect. There is a big difference between these two concepts.

Christianity cannot, nor should it, condone sin in whatever form it is expressed. However, no sin is worse than another in the eyes of God. God hates pride, religion, pornography, divorce and homosexuality. But He never hates individuals. He does hate sin.

In his WorldNetDaily column today, Erik Rush claims that President Obama likely “orchestrated the attack” on the compound in Benghazi “given his connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and legendary understanding of all things Islamic.” He offers no evidence as to why or how Obama “arranged for the assault on the compound,” but that’s par for the course at WorldNetDaily.

Rush cites the “Trinity United murders,” which according to far-right lore was Obama’s move to murder his former gay lovers he attended church with, as proof of Obama’s record of “grave criminal action.”

“Depending on the outcome, measures might be as severe as charges filed against Cabinet officials or the impeachment of Obama himself,” Rush writes. “While this president reasonably deserves to be occupying a cell in some federal penitentiary anyway, impeachment presents many troublesome aspects.”

But he warns that impeachment proceedings against Obama will “ignite civil unrest,” which Rush claims is actually Obama’s plan all along!

Earlier this week, Fox News Channel analyst Brit Hume asserted that for the investigation of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, “to become the scandal it surely deserves to be,” it will require relentless news coverage.

Hume is quite right, of course; however, there is another requisite for definitive results to develop with regard to Benghazi, and that is the willingness of Congress to see the process through to a just conclusion.

And what would be a just conclusion?

I suppose that depends on two things: One, what is revealed in the hearings, and two, whom one asks. I have always leaned in the direction of the administration having orchestrated the attack for reasons of its own – given his connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and legendary understanding of all things Islamic, it is possible that President Obama could even have arranged for the assault on the compound without the foreknowledge of his Cabinet.

A bold charge, to be sure, but I am operating with such questions as the unresolved Trinity United murders before me. Then there are the possibilities that the tragedy came about as the result of less grave criminal action or a series of irresponsible and craven decisions.

The burning question at present (and which may remain so for some time) is why efforts were not made to rescue the beleaguered staff at the facility and whether or not a stand-down order was given to military personnel in the area. If the latter becomes the case, then obviously we want to know who issued the order. Depending on the outcome, measures might be as severe as charges filed against Cabinet officials or the impeachment of Obama himself. While this president reasonably deserves to be occupying a cell in some federal penitentiary anyway, impeachment presents many troublesome aspects.

A major reason Obama has skated for so long – and particularly with Republican leaders – is that no one wishes his or her legacy to include having brought down America’s first black president. There is the very real concern that such action might ignite civil unrest. The latter is a realistic concern, since both activists and the administration might catalyze said unrest as a “push back” to impeachment.

It is the job of Andrew Collins of the right-wing Media Research Center to watch shows like Glee and The New Normal, and then complain about them being too gay.

In his latest post, Collins attacks an episode of Glee for having a “particularly large dose of gay” and says that the high school is an insult to its namesake, President William McKinley, as it is “The World’s Gayest High School.”

“So many characters play for the other team it's hard to believe that there’ll be any future generations of McKinley High students to mock the Bible and cheer on transgendered [sic] performers,” Collins writes.

He goes on to lament that Kurt’s father stressed “the seriousness and permanence of marriage” when he told Blaine, Kurt’s off-and-on boyfriend, that he shouldn’t ask Kurt to marry him…because “his refusal builds the legitimacy of gay marriage even more.”

Pity William McKinley. Our 25th president was a Civil War hero who successfully prosecuted the Spanish-American War and presided over a booming economy. For his trouble, he was assassinated. Adding insult to injury, he’s the namesake of The World’s Gayest High School.

It’s no secret that “Glee” frequently and flamboyantly pushes a gay agenda. So many characters play for the other team it's hard to believe that there’ll be any future generations of McKinley High students to mock the Bible and cheer on transgendered [sic] performers. But as this season prepares to wrap up this week, things are heating up on "Glee." Last week’s episode featured a particularly large dose of gay.

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And finally, in the most overt display of all, Blaine asks Kurt’s father for his son’s hand in marriage. His father is all in favor of the institution, those who support gay marriage are on the right side of history, he says. However, he says no because, like most parents these days, he believes high school is a bit too young for someone to be proposing. If anything, his refusal builds the legitimacy of gay marriage even more because he emphasizes the seriousness and permanence of marriage.

Anti-gay activist John Stemberger is continuing to argue that sexual abuse will skyrocket if the Boy Scouts let in openly gay members. As evidence, he sites current statistics on the abuse that happens with the discriminatory ban in place.

While speaking to Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council on Washington Watch, Stemberger predicted that a policy shift in the Boy Scouts of America will “create a wave of boy-on-boy sexual abuse” as straight scouts will “be preyed upon” by their gay peers:

I think the national organization is just kind of winking and nodding, saying, ‘oh yeah, homosexual boys, no big deal, we can influence them for the better, boys are better off in scouting.’ Well wait a second, yeah homosexual boys are better off but what about the other boys who may be preyed upon? You know BSA’s own statistics show, their own youth training program shows that seventy percent of all abuse in scouting takes place by other boys, not by adults. So I’ve been saying from day one that this is going to create a wave of boy-on-boy sexual abuse which is going to contribute future to the scandal that scouting has had in the past and also not to mention the physical, psychological and sexual abuse of countless boys.

In a column yesterday, Rev. Mark Creech of the North Carolina-based Christian Action League warned that marriage equality will lead to “a flood of religious persecutions” and can only be stopped by reversing America’s “rapid decline into paganism.”

Writing for Alan Keyes’ Renew America, Creech argues that Christians will face “serious bouts with persecution” and be forced to “bow down to Nebuchadnezzar's image” if same-sex marriage is legalized.

These events of late prove, without question, that the normalization of homosexual behavior in the culture and the legalization of same-sex marriage will inevitably usher in a flood of religious persecutions for Christians who dare say homosexuality is a sin. Touting as they have that gay rights are about civil rights, the LGBT community deceives the public into believing every born-again, God fearing, Bible-believing, follower of Jesus Christ is worse than an prejudiced Archie Bunker type idiot.

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Unfortunately, very few people understand why such persecution is inevitable for those who would reject same-sex marriage. The reason is because the legalization of gay marriage doesn't simply facilitate the ability of homosexuals to marry along-side of heterosexuals; instead it legally redefines the institution of marriage for everyone. No longer is marriage between a man and a woman, but between two adults – regardless of gender. Therefore, this presents a radically different paradigm resulting in a myriad of societal conflicts that government uses its broad enforcement authority to resolve. In other words, if citizen Christians with small businesses or Christian organizations and ministries are unwilling to comply with this new legal orthodoxy on marriage, then such are outside of the law and vulnerable to the government's coercive powers to bring them into compliance.

For many years, Christians in this country – one largely based on Christian values – have had it relatively easy and not experienced serious bouts with persecution. But that may soon change if America continues its rapid decline into paganism.

Don't be fooled. True Christianity is in no way compatible with homosexuality. And same-sex marriage is in no way compatible with religious liberty.

This writer is not conceding to the so-called inevitability of gay marriage. But his point is that regardless of what happens on that front, every genuine believer must always like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, purpose in his heart that he will not bow down to Nebuchadnezzar's image.

On last Friday’s Generations Radio, Pastors Kevin Swanson and Dave Buehner warned that the gay population is about to rise dramatically as a result of “breakdown of the family” and will spread over America like a flesh eating virus.

As Buehner explained, feminism made women distrust men. As a result, boys lack a father and become gay, while girls venture into “amateur prostitution” and use men for “a good roller coaster ride” until eventually heading “into lesbianism.” He predicted that the gay population is “going to skyrocket.” Swanson agreed that we have a “humongous problem on our hands.”

Responding to Rep. Paul Ryan’s endorsement of same-sex adoption and Pastor Mark Horton’s openness to supporting same-sex domestic partnerships, Swanson derided “the ecclesiastical leaders and the civil leaders” who “will not acknowledge that we are under the judgment of Almighty God.”

“The body itself is shot through with this disease and it is occasionally busting through in these sores called homosexuality and these sores seem to be spreading all the time,” Swanson said, “They are taking these sores and they are carving happy faces into them, they are calling this sore ‘gay’ and they are carving happy faces into them, they are making it appear to be a wonderful, wonderful thing that we have these sores breaking out.”

Buehner elaborated on the analogy, calling homosexuality a “nasty flesh eating virus” that is spreading “all over the body” and lamenting that political and religious leaders who support gay rights are like “shepherds leading the sheep to death.”

Buehner: Women don’t trust men, women raise sons, sons don’t trust men, but there’s a hole in their heart, looking for a man, looking for the love of men, they’re not getting the love of their father, they’re going to go seek it out in other men, i.e. male homosexuality. A woman does not have a trust in a man, she didn’t see a loving relationship with a man, she’s been taught that husbands are buffoons and that at best get yourself a man who is a good roller coaster ride for the night, maybe try and get a few bucks off of him doing the amateur prostitution thing but move on, keep your independence from the family and from the man and ergo why not just go ahead into lesbianism.

Now homosexuality and lesbians start building on each other and snowballing. I believe that we are at the knee of the curve here, in other words, the rate of homosexuality in society has been fairly low, it’s been in the low one percent, two percent, we’ve always had some but it’s been low, I think it’s going to skyrocket in the next decade.

Swanson: It certainly does have a good sales program, the brochures are as glossy as they can possibly be, they are being sold in public schools all over America and it’s very possible this thing can go hyperbolic in the next couple of five to ten years, I wouldn’t be surprised at all, especially with the breakdown of the family, and we have two to three to four times more kids raised outside of a nuclear family as they were even in the last generation twenty years ago. We’re continuing to see a breakdown and what a lot of our leaders don’t want to recognize is that we’ve got a humongous problem on our hands.

It’s not like this car’s been through an accident and has got a few nicks on the bumper; the steering wheel is in the trunk, the steering wheel is in the trunk, this thing has been accordioned all the way from the hood into the trunk and we’ve got a major civilization accident on our hands and it’s going to take something really serious, something radical in order to repair this. It is probably going to have to be repentance, that is we’re going to have to repent of a lot of things and a lot of fundamental problems.

The body itself is shot through with this disease and it is occasionally busting through in these sores called homosexuality and these sores seem to be spreading all the time, especially over the last fifteen to twenty years. What guys like Paul Ryan are doing, what the politicians are doing with their approval of civil unions and homosexual marriage is that they are taking these sores and they are carving happy faces into them, they are calling this sore ‘gay’ and they are carving happy faces into them, they are making it appear to be a wonderful, wonderful thing that we have these sores breaking out and this is precisely what’s happening with our church leaders and civil leaders that are constantly wanting to endorse homosexual marriage. The fact that you have Mike Horton from the White Horse Inn endorsing civil unions as a possible way in which we can love our neighbor is again an ecclesiastical leader of the Reformed stripe saying this is cool, put the sore into a smiley face, it is okay, we are going to put the stamp approval of the civil magistrate on this thing, and the ecclesiastical leaders and the civil leaders are doing the same thing with it because they will not acknowledge that we are under the judgment of Almighty God.

Buehner: Putting the smiley face is part of the picture, they are trying to make it look happy, make it look fun, call it gay, but what they are also doing is they are spreading it. They are taking this disease that’s ravaging the body, it’s more like that nasty flesh eating virus and they are spreading it all over the body, they are spreading the virus all around because it’s so good, it’s a nice, happy virus, you want this flesh eating virus on your neck, you want it on your check, you want it on your back, you want it on your legs. They are doing everything they can by not only giving it a warrant it doesn’t deserve from Scripture but they’re also funding it, they’re also propelling it. This is horrible; this is the shepherds leading the sheep to death.

The American Family Association announced yesterday that it has parted ways with Buster Wilson, the host of AFA Today and the general manager of its radio network. Wilson says he will continue to write for his personal blog.

Certainly Wilson isn’t leaving because he is too extreme (see: Fischer, Bryan) or vacuous (see: Wildmon, Tim) for the AFA, but we are going to miss him in particular because we have always appreciated Wilson’s tendency to respond to nearly every single Right Wing Watch post about him and even completely make up things we’ve said.

But most of all we really enjoyed watching him conclude many of his conspiratorial rants with the phrase, “I’m just asking the question.”

Since Wilson is a member of the extremist Oath Keepers, we were not surprised to see him push several anti-government conspiracy theories, wonder about the existence of FEMA concentration camps and assert that he was “staying neutral” on the matter of whether it is appropriate to shoot U.S. Marshals. He also maintained that the government was going to classify Christians as mentally ill in order to “get us out of the picture,” confiscate the guns of conservative Christians and ban celebrations of Christmas. Furthermore, he has promoted the birther conspiracy theory and posted a hoax photo of President Obama’s “foreign student ID.” 

Wilson has also been no friend of the gay community. He warned that gay men are bent on molesting Boy Scouts, linked the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to an increase in the military’s suicide rate, warned that legalizing gay marriage will lead to dog, building and automobile marriages and blamed Hurricane Isaac on an LGBT festival. At one point, Wilson even floated a boycott of Google over the company’s strong stance in support of gay rights:

We’ll certainly miss Wilson’s daily presence on AFA Radio, but we look forward to keeping track of upcoming conspiracy theories on his blog.

National Organization for Marriage president Brian Brown is convinced that marriage equality advocates, who just helped pass laws legalizing same-sex marriage in Delaware and Rhode Island, will go down in defeat since they are opposed to “the will of the majority of Americans” and solely rely on the support of “our cultural elite.”

Speaking with Janet Mefferd yesterday, Brown argued that Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Mark Kirk (R-IL), who both support marriage equality, will lose their re-election races in 2016 over the marriage issue…if they even opt to run again.

Brown: If the Republican Party were to change its platform, that would be the death knell for the Republican Party. Right now the Democratic Party has changed its platform, has wholeheartedly embraced the redefinition of marriage. The Republican Party right now gives voters — and again, the majority of voters who have been able to vote on this issue have voted to protect marriage in this country — it gives those voters a party that at this point stands up for traditional marriage. We need to be encouraging Republican lawmakers to be speaking out more on the importance of marriage, not attempting to imitate the Democratic Party in embracing the redefinition of marriage.

Mefferd: Very, very well said. You’re seeing people like Rob Portman and Mark Kirk come out as Republicans backing now homosexual so-called marriage. What do you think the response needs to be from the voters, working very hard to get them out of office? Brown: They need to be primaried, period. I think that folks in Ohio, if Rob Portman decides to run again, he will be primaried, he may not run again because there’s been such a backlash in his state, and I think the same is true of Mark Kirk.

Todd Starnes of Fox News has dedicated himself to finding cases of Christians facing persecution. Starnes recently reported that the military is deliberately blocking access to a Baptist website and may court-martial Christian soldiers, and alleged that a school in New York is forcing girls to kiss one another. However, these three incidents were all completely false.

On Sunday, Starnes filed another report on how a high school track team in Texas “was disqualified from competing in the state championships because one of the runners made a gesture thanking God after he crossed the finish line.”

“Derrick Hayes, the anchor of the Columbus High School 4×100 relay team had just crossed the finish line when he raised his finger to the sky,” Starnes writes, “thanking the Lord for winning the race that would send them to the state finals.

His article was based on the claims of the athlete’s father, and other outlets picked up the story as well.

Gov. Rick Perry wrote a letter to the University Interscholastic League demanding an investigation:

According to press reports, the student's father, K.C. Hayes, has been widely quoted as saying the student was pointing to the heavens to thank God.

In his letter, Perry said he would “not tolerate the suppression of religious freedom anywhere.”

“It is unconscionable that a student athlete could be punished for an expression of religious faith or that an act of faith could disqualify an athlete in a UIL competition,” Perry said.

He urged the UIL to “investigate this incident thoroughly and take whatever action is necessary to ensure protection of religious freedom and expression at UIL competitions.”

As the Texas Freedom Network has pointed out, Religious Right groups such as the Liberty Institute and Liberty Counsel both jumped on the story, as did Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Attorney General Greg Abbott.

But much like the student who was supposedly given detention for praying in school when he was actually disciplined for fighting, the Texas athlete wasn’t waving his finger to thank God and he wasn’t even disqualified for the gesture he made at the finish line.

The student was actually disqualified for inappropriate behavior towards the referee, and he and his dad now admit that the incident had nothing to do with religious expression.

According to the UIL press release:

Over the course of the investigation, the UIL interviewed several eyewitnesses and reviewed video of the race. Additionally, the UIL spoke to the involved parties. The UIL has concluded the investigation and has found no evidence to suggest that the disqualification took place as a result of the student-athlete expressing religious beliefs. The basis for the disqualification was due to the student-athlete behaving disrespectfully, in the opinion of the local meet referee.

Based on the UIL’s investigation, the student athlete raised his hand and gestured forward at the conclusion of the 4x100-meter relay. The meet official approached the student-athlete in an effort to warn him of a possible disqualification should that behavior continue. In the opinion of the official, the student reacted disrespectfully. Based on his reaction, the student-athlete was subsequently disqualified. Any decision to disqualify a student-athlete at any track meet must be upheld by the head meet referee. The meet official and the meet referee conferred, and the disqualification was upheld on-site. At no point during the discussions surrounding the disqualification at the meet was the issue of religious expression raised by any parties.

The UIL’s investigation also revealed that all coaches involved were notified prior to the regional meet that any gestures in violation of the National Federation of State High School Associations track and field rule against unsporting behavior would be grounds for disqualification. Coaches were instructed to discuss this with their student-athletes prior to all races.

To assist the UIL in its investigation, the student-athlete’s parents submitted a letter stating that their son’s religious freedoms were not violated. “In looking back at the conclusion of the 4x100 race, we realize that Derrick could have handled the win in a different manner,” KC and Stacey Hayes said in the letter. “It was not our intention to force the issue that our son’s religious freedom was violated. Nor do we feel that way now. After discussing this with our son, we have come to the conclusion that his religious rights were not violated.”

The student-athlete who was disqualified also submitted a letter during the investigation stating: “Although I am very thankful for all God has given me and blessed me with, on Saturday, April 27, 2013 at the Regional Track Meet in Kingsville, TX, my actions upon winning the 4x100 relay were strictly the thrill of victory. With this being said, I do not feel my religious rights or freedoms were violated.”