Kyle Mantyla's blog

We are really starting to wonder if David Barton literally does not understand the meaning of the phrase "direct quotation" since he continues to falsely claim that the Constitution contains dozens of direct quotations from the Bible.

Barton repeated the lie for the fifth time when he spoke at the ProFamily Legislators Conference shortly after the election, which aired today on "WallBuilders Live":

I could take you through most clauses of the Constitution, but it's interesting when you look at the Constitution and the clauses, if you know the Bible - and a lot of people don't; they look at the Constitution and say "oh, that's cool language."  If you know the Bible, you go "that's a direct quote out of a Bible verse."

That's why so many Bible verses are directly cited in the Constitution.  When people tell me the Constitution is a secular document, that tells me they're biblically illiterate because if you know the Bible, you'll instantly recognize these verses in Constitutional clauses.

As we have pointed out time and time and time and time again, not one of the Constitutional provisions he cites as evidence actually directly quote the Bible in any manner whatsoever, yet Barton continues to make this same false claim while insisting that anyone who points out the fact that he is lying is just "biblically illiterate."

Yesterday it was reported that a group of scientists had put forward a new theory that epigenetic marks may play a key role in determining why people are gay.  According to press reports, these "epi-marks" determine how genes are expressed and are normally "erased" between generations, but in cases where they are not erased, they may be passed on from a mother or father in a way that can lead to a child becoming gay.

Which means, according to Bryan Fischer, that homosexuality might be a "birth defect" which could lead prospective parents to choose abortion:

As I have said before, I suspect that not even homosexual activists today want the gay gene to be found, even if it exists, because of advances in prenatal genetic testing. It is now possible to routinely screen for 3500 genetic defects while a child is still in the womb. 

So these activists rationally fear that preborn children who are detected with this gene will be aborted before they even have the chance to be born. After all, if 90% of babies in the womb who are diagnosed with Downs syndrome never draw their first breath, what are the chances that parents disposed to abortion will not exercise the same choice with regard to the gay gene? 

The scientists in Koebler’s article, in my view, are now resorting to genetic subterfuge and are coming dangerously close to saying that homosexuality is the result of a genetic defect, a genetic abnormality. In other words, read from one angle, these same scientists are saying that homosexuality is the result of a birth defect.

...

So in other words, when something goes wrong genetically, and these markers are not erased, the epi-markers which provide an evolutionary advantage to parents instead do evolutionary damage to their offspring.

Now these researchers are quite at pains to avoid saying anything like this, but the logic to me seems inescapable: Homosexual children, on this theory, are born evolutionarily and genetically disadvantaged. They have been overexposed or underexposed to testosterone because something has gone wrong in the process of genetic transmission. In other words, they are the product of a genetic abnormality at best, a birth defect at worst.

...  I expect many abortion-minded parents will want to know exactly how strong this epi-marker is in their unborn children so they can decide whether or not to exercise reproductive choice. 

In fact, I expect that if this theory gains some currency, it will not be long before we have legislation from the homoexual lobby prohibiting “sex-selection” abortions on any child carrying this epi-marker.

UPDATE: Fischer reiterated many of these same points on his radio program today:

On this week's "Hagee Hotline," Matthew Hagee answered questions from congregants and viewers, including one from "Zack" wondering why there is such a focus on homosexuality when the Bible says that everyone is a sinner and that all sins are equal.

Hagee replied that while it is true that all sins are equal, "all sin is not equal in its consequence."  While lying or stealing do not separate others from God, Hagee warned that when a society accepts an "abomination" like gay marriage, it means that society has divorced itself from God:

• Daily Kos: Free-spending Republican leadership not putting mouth where money is on DOMA review.
• Towleroad: Maggie Gallagher: We're Going to Lose DOMA and GOP Lawmakers Refuse to Speak Up About It.
• Tara Culp-Ressler @ Think Progress: Colin Powell Urges Congress To Remove Abortion Restrictions For Military Women.
• Jeremy Hooper: Is this how's NOM's Next Generation will sound?
• Kevin Drum: The High Cost of Rube Goldberg Policymaking.
• Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog: A GOP consultant's accidental candor on voter-ID laws.

• FRC is now bravely boycotting UPS.  That'll show 'em!

• Eastern Michigan University has settled a lawsuit filed by a former student who was dismissed from the school's counseling program for refusing to provide counseling to gay clients.

• Twitchy might literally be the most pathetic website we've ever seen.

• Does anyone at MRC ever do any basic research before spouting off?

• Jennifer Roback Morse says there is no "war on women" ... but there is a "war on women's fertility."

• Finally, Roger Schlafly explains why President Obama won re-election: "Non-whites, non-Christians, and non-marrieds vote Democrat out of group identifications. That is, they see it as being in their group interests to tear down traditional American culture. Democrats never persuade voters based on reason or logic. They gain voters by increasing government dependence and by promoting changes to immigration policy, family law, and schools that increase the population wanting to undermine Americanism."

Today on his radio program, Glenn Beck declared that he is not opposed to gay marriage, provided that nobody tries to destroy his marriage or his church.  But, Beck claimed, that is exactly what "the Left" is always trying to do, which is why the issue of marriage equality is so controversial:

Linda Harvey is not happy with the recent vote in Washington state in favor of marriage equality and she is even less happy with the decision by the state to revise its marriage licenses to add an option for "spouse," in addition to "bride" and "groom," allowing those who are getting married to choose which they prefer. 

In Harvey's eyes, this change undermines the "legitimacy of man-woman marriage" and, even worse, creates confusion about the Christian imagery in which Jesus one day returns to earth to marry his "bride": the church.

Well now, even though truth has not changed; marriage is still, in reality, one man and one woman, the voters' decision prompted health department officials to propose a change in language until enough people objected.  The words "bride" and "groom" were going to be replaced with "spouse A" and "spouse B" or "person A" and "person B" on marriage licenses, according to the original proposal.

That's right; on official marriage documents, the words "bride" and "groom" were going to disappear.  When advocates of homosexual marriage say how would two men or two women being allowed to marry change your marriage, here's one way.  Nonsense like this starts showing up and the legitimacy of man-woman marriage is automatically on defense against pretenders to the throne.

...

Homosexuality, far from being marriage, is always a grave sin in Scripture.

Then, speaking of brides and grooms, there's another Christian concept that illustrates the unchanging standard of man and woman as the model for marriage: in the New Testament, Jesus is referred to several times as the "bridegroom." And when he returns, he will return as a bridegroom seeking his bride: the church, which is the body of all believers, also called the Bride of Christ.  It's a beautiful analogy.

What happens to such a concept in a same-sex marriage?  Does Jesus as bridegroom seek another groom?  No, that would be a twisted and frankly offensive spin on a profound and marvelous concept.

As Christians, we must never accept the idea of same-sex marriage.  It certainly doesn't work as sound Christian doctrine and it will be shown before long not to work as revolutionary secular law either.

When not fighting the "war on Christmas," Mat Staver and Matt Barber continue to fight the California law that bans the use of sexual orientation conversion therapy on minors, which they have now taken to calling "Jerry Sandusky laws" on the grounds that children who are sexually abused will now become gay because they will not be allowed to get therapy to help them deal with the abuse. 

In fact, Barber falsely claimed that almost half of all gay men "were sexually assaulted by a homosexual pedophile" and that abuse is what pushed them into a lifestyle filled with disease, depression, and alcoholism. 

For Staver, the basic goal of laws seeking to ban the use of conversion therapy is simply to force people to accept homosexuality "as good and normal, when it is not":

• Anjali Sareen @ Mediaite: George Will: ‘Quite Literally, The Opposition To Gay Marriage Is Dying.’
• Dispatches From the Culture Wars: David Horowitz Loses His Cool.
• Paul Waldman @ The American Prospect: Dick Morris, Con Artist.
• Asawin Suebsaeng @ Mother Jones: Controversial Anti-Abortion, Pro-Creationism Evangelist Makes a John Lennon Movie.
• Scott Keyes @ Think Progress: Sore Loser Allen West: My Opponent Only Won Because He Cheated.

• Matt Barber lovingly tells women who have had an abortion that they have "committed a sin most grave" but their "blood-covered hands can be washed clean by the blood-covered hands of Christ the Savior."
• Phyllis Schlafly thinks that early voting helped President Obama win re-election, which is just another reason to get rid of early voting.
• Gary Cass needs your help to help decide the "10 most egregious acts of anti-Christian defamation, discrimination and persecution in America" for 2012.
• Peter LaBarbera is pretty sure that transgender activists are really just working to make "taxpayers, ultimately to pay for these awful operations where people's healthy sex organs are amputated or altered."
• Finally, Scott Lively says the explosion that destroyed a strip club in Springfield, MA was a message from God not to try to build a casino in the city.