OneNewsNow

Last week, young earth Creationist leader Ken Ham lashed out at Pat Robertson for disputing the belief that Earth is approximately 6,000 years old. Now the American Family Association’s news arm OneNewsNow is out with a story, “Christian Broadcaster Straying From Scripture?” The AFA quotes a member of Ham’s Answers in Genesis skewering Robertson for insisting that humans did not live side-by-side with the dinosaurs:

Dr. Terry Mortenson of Answers in Genesis (AIG), who disagrees with Robertson, notes that the television show host challenges James Ussher, the renowned former archbishop of Ireland who traced the earth's creation based on the Bible and took the Bible as the Word of God.

"[Ussher] came up with a date of 4004 [B.C.] for creation by taking the genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11 as complete chronologies with no missing names, which is the way the church took those genealogies for 1,800 years," Dr. Mortenson explains. "So, he was just being a very, very careful student of the Scriptures and the chronological information given in Scripture."

Moreover, the AIG researcher notes that Robertson's claim that dinosaurs existed before biblical times is illogical, because there is no pre-biblical time; the Bible starts with the creation of the world.

Robertson also mentioned science's reliance on carbon dating, which Dr. Mortenson says reveals Robertson's ignorance on the subject.

"Carbon-14 is never used to date rocks or dinosaur bones; it's other dating methods which have much longer half-lives," Mortenson reports. "The maximum age you could date anything with radio carbon dating is about 80,000 or 100,000 years at the max, and dinosaurs supposedly lived 65 million to 245 million years ago. So he's really not informed on the dating methods."

AIG maintains that the Bible remains the true and final authority on the subject.

Last week we reported that the Family Research Council asked members to pray against “homosexual tyranny” in America after the federal government agreed to have Blue Cross Blue Shield offer full benefits for a same-sex spouse of a federal employee after a judge ruled in favor of the employee in her lawsuit against the Defense of Marriage Act. Naturally, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality president Peter LaBarbera is demanding that Congress impeach President Obama as a result of his administration’s decision to grant her health benefits:

"This is another shocking act by the Obama administration, which has got to be the most arrogant and Constitution-abusing president in America's history," he decides. "The Obama administration didn't like the Defense of Marriage Act, which was passed by Congress [and] signed into law by then-President Clinton, and so now they're just ignoring it and blatantly disregarding it."

This particular case, however, is not over, as Republicans have appealed the district court's decision, which has no effect on enrollments requested by other same-sex couples. Even though the law is being challenged in court, LaBarbera says it is still the law.

"I believe that President Obama should be impeached on this alone," he suggests. "He's not dictator of the United States of America; he's president, and he can't just ignore the law, ignore the Constitution, to pander to his homosexual activist base."

With Washington’s state legislature set to vote on a marriage equality bill introduced by Governor Christine Gregoire, Republican state senator Val Stevens is leading the fight against the legislation. Stevens, who in 2009 said that the state’s domestic partnership law represents an “assault on our families and American culture by the homosexuals” that would legitimize the “depraved lifestyle” of gays and lesbians, told the vehemently anti-gay American Family Association’s OneNewsNow today that the marriage equality bill “opens the floodgates” for the legalization of polygamy, incest and pedophilia. According to Stevens, the marriage equality legislation must be stopped “for the sake of maintaining our stable society”:

Governor Chris Gregoire (D) is personally introducing a bill that would legalize same-gender marriage in a state where domestic partnerships are already law. Senator Val Stevens (R) will be part of the legislative army opposing the move.

She contends, "To diminish the value of marriage between one man and one woman only opens the floodgates for who knows what might come down the road," such as polygamy, incestuous marriage, or an adult marrying a child.

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Though there will be a fight in the legislature, Stevens says those fighting to defend traditional marriage really need pastors to step forward to educate their congregations and "get them out of the pews, calling their legislators to make certain that they will be actively opposing this movement to undermine the standard that is biblically based."

Stevens also does not understand why the governor wants lawmakers to spend their time with such a hot-button social and moral issue while the state is facing such a serious budget crunch.

In response to the governor's announcement, Stevens issued a statement that says, "Marriage between one man and one woman gives strength to society," and she points out that the state constitution "protects freedom of conscience and our religious heritage." So she pledges to oppose the legislation proposal "for the sake of maintaining our stable society."

With the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell fully in effect, the doomsday predictions of right-wing naysayers failed to materialize as no incidents have been reported. But that hasn’t stopped supporters of the discriminatory policy from continuing to criticize the military and attack openly gay service members, and the two women sailors who won a raffle to share the traditional ‘first kiss’ are now in the Religious Right’s crosshairs. Randy Thomasson of Save California railed against the kiss between Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta and her girlfriend Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell, and told the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow that the Navy is now engaging in “perverse social engineering” on behalf of “an aggressive homosexual activist community”:

Randy Thomasson of SaveCalifornia.com is familiar with the tactics of homosexual activists in California, home to both Gaeta and Snell.

"San Diego, being the top Navy port on the West Coast, has an aggressive homosexual activist community which is just applauding this big time, saying 'it's delightful,' saying, 'it's fantastic,'" he laments.

Sailors purchased $1 tickets at a raffle to raise money for a Christmas party for children whose parents are in the military. Gaeta purchased $50 worth of tickets, and the lesbian couple was chosen to have the first kiss.

Thomasson argues that is not what the military is for. "It's about a fighting force to defend our shores, to defend our interests, and to advance the cause of the United States' security in the world," he tells OneNewsNow. "I would not make it social engineering that the Navy has done it, and now perverse social engineering."

A new movie looking at Joseph Smith’s campaign for president and assassination in 1844 and connecting Smith’s legacy to contemporary Mormon politicians like Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman is supposed to present a “balanced” look at the Mormon religion and history. Director Adam Christing, who was raised a Mormon but who is not a member of the LDS Church, said the film, A Mormon President, is neither a “puff piece” nor a “hit piece” on Mormonism:

Already in this election cycle, we have seen American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer claim that Mormons are deceived by Satan and do not have First Amendment rights, right-wing radio talk show host Janet Mefferd mock Romney for thinking that being president is a “step down” because he is going “to be a god” in the afterlife, and of course, pastor and Rick Perry-endorser Robert Jeffress attacked the Mormon faith as a cult from the “pit of Hell.”

In an interview with the AFA’s OneNewsNow, Christing noted concerns about the “conflict between [Romney’s] loyalty to the Constitution and his loyalty to the Mormon Church”:

Christing, who is a member of the Mormon History Association, says pastors are concerned that as a temple Mormon, Romney took a vow called the Oath of Consecration.

"He pledges all of his time, talent, and money to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. So some people are very concerned that if push came to shove and there was a conflict between his loyalty to the Constitution and his loyalty to the Mormon Church, many fear that the loyalty would be to the church," the filmmaker explains.

But the filmmaker remarks that those fears might not matter when Christians go into the voting booth. "I did talk to many evangelicals who feel like they would vote against Obama and for Romney -- almost like they would choose their wallets over their worship, voting for the lesser of two evils," Christing accounts.

So he hopes the documentary will help people make up their own minds about whether Mormonism should even be a factor if a Mormon contender is on the ballot in 2012.