Tradition Family and Property

Anti-Gay Groups Praise the Boy Scouts for Banning 'Individuals who Flaunt Unnatural Vice'

The Religious Right continues to applaud the Boy Scouts of America’s decision to reaffirm their ban on openly gay members. Today, Tradition, Family, Property Student Action director John Ritchie emailed members today to thank the Boy scouts for “resisting the encroachments of the pro-homosexual lobby” and “the ‘rainbow’ revolution” in order to “respect moral values and protect minors from potential abuse” and “exclude individuals who flaunt unnatural vice”:

Why is the homosexual movement targeting the Boy Scouts?

Here's the reason:

Because the Boy Scout Oath talks about honor, duty to God, and moral uprightness, which necessarily excludes sinful lifestyles.

You see, just last week the Boy Scouts of America confirmed a long-standing policy barring open homosexuality from its membership ranks. As a private organization serving 2.7 million boys, they have the RIGHT to make sound policies that respect moral values and protect minors from potential abuse.

Click here to thank the Boy Scouts for standing strong

Even the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Boy Scouts' right to exclude individuals who flaunt unnatural vice.

But the "rainbow" revolution – aided by the liberal mass media – unleashed a barrage of pressure against the Boy Scouts, as if it were a crime to stand firm on moral values and do what is best for our youth.

…

Thank you for standing strong! I applaud the Boy Scouts of America for resisting the encroachments of the pro-homosexual lobby. Please continue to hold fast to the virtues expressed in the Scout Oath: Honor, duty to God, and moral uprightness.

Gary Bauer of the Campaign for Working Families warned that the “militant homosexual movement” has revealed itself to be “extremely intolerant”:

I want to close today with a tip of my hat to the Boy Scouts of America. They have been quietly reviewing their policy over the years that bans homosexuals from serving as scoutmasters for obvious reasons. The organization has faced unrelenting pressure from the militant homosexual movement, left-wing politicians, Hollywood and even corporate elites to change the policy.

Yesterday a BSA spokesman told the Associated Press that an 11-member committee unanimously reaffirmed the ban as "absolutely the best policy for the Boy Scouts."

Not surprisingly, the so-called tolerant left is having fits, and is extremely intolerant of the Scout's decision to maintain their values. Please take a moment to encourage the Boy Scouts of America for standing firm.

Janet Porter of Faith 2 Action in her radio bulletin today also hailed the BSA for “protecting the boys”:

The decision is final.

Homosexuals will still not be allowed to serve as leaders in the Boy Scouts. That was the good news coming from the offices of the Boy Scouts of America last week. An 11-member special committee, formed by top Boy Scout officials two years ago, concluded that it would be best to reaffirm their longstanding policy of protecting the boys from leaders who favor or engage in same-sex relationships.

You may recall that an earlier challenge of their policy went the whole way to the Supreme Court, resulting in a decision twelve years ago affirming the exclusion of homosexuals from positions of leadership.

Please call the Scouts today at 972-580-2000 to express your support for a very good decision!
Brian Tashman's blog

TFP: Marriage Equality Debate Really About Socialism, Return to Roman Empire

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.
Brian Tashman's blog

Southern Baptist Convention's Political Arm Pushes Opposition to the Violence Against Women Act

While the Southern Baptist Convention’s political arm, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, is mired in scandal resulting from ERLC head Richard Land’s repeated plagiarism and inflammatory remarks on race, it has found time to criticize the Violence Against Women Act. Doug Carlson, manager for administration and policy communications for the ERLC, voiced the group’s opposition to the highly successful law because of new provisions that ensure that LGBT victims of domestic violence do not encounter discrimination while seeking help.

Carlson quoted a letter Richard Land signed along with Mathew Staver of Liberty Counsel, Jim Garlow of Renewing American Leadership Action, Tom McClusky of Family Research Council Action, C. Preston Noell of Tradition, Family, Property Inc., Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum and Penny Nance and Janice Shaw Crouse of Concerned Women for America.

Notably, the letter was also signed by conservative activist Timothy Johnson, who was convicted of a felony domestic violence charge and was arrested a second time for putting his wife in a wrist lock and choking his son, as reported by Sarah Posner.

Carlson writes:

Under the reauthorization, VAWA, as the bill is known, would spend vast sums of taxpayer money—more than $400 million each year—on programs that lack sufficient oversight and fail to address the core issue of protecting vulnerable women from abuse. Many of the programs duplicate efforts already underway. Among other problems, it would expand special protections to include same-sex couples. Men who are victimized by their male sexual partners would receive the benefit of the law above heterosexuals. And with broadened definitions of who qualifies for services, those who are most in need of the bill’s protections would have diminished access to it.

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Pro-family groups, too, have been leveling attacks on the bill for months for its anti-family policies. Many of them expressed those concerns to the Judiciary Committee in February in hopes of derailing the bill. “We, the undersigned, representing millions of Americans nationwide, are writing to oppose the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA),” Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Richard Land, along with nearly two dozen other religious and conservative leaders, wrote in a Feb. 1 letter to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “This nice-sounding bill is deceitful because it destroys the family by obscuring real violence in order to promote the feminist agenda.”

“There is no denying the very real problem of violence against women and children. However, the programs promoted in VAWA are harmful for families. VAWA often encourages the demise of the family as a means to eliminate violence,” they added.

Regrettably, a slim majority of committee members rejected that counsel, ultimately approving the bill in February on a narrow 10-8 vote. Now the battle lies in the full Senate, where those opposed to the new VAWA are facing significant pressure to support it. Allies of the bill are tagging its opponents as waging a “war on women.”

But no matter how noble its title suggests, the Violence Against Women Act is the wrong answer to addressing ongoing domestic abuse. With a shortage of evidence to date of VAWA’s success in reducing levels of violence against women, the war to decrease such violence and to ultimately strengthen the family shouldn’t include reauthorizing a flawed policy that promises an expansion of the same.
Brian Tashman's blog

Right-Wing Groups Protest Desmond Tutu's Appearance at Gonzaga University

After failing in their attempt to block President Obama from speaking at Notre Dame University, far-right activists are now trying to stop Desmond Tutu from appearing at Gonzaga University, a Jesuit institution. Tutu, an Anglican bishop who received a Nobel Peace Prize for his role in bringing down South Africa’s Apartheid government, is coming under fire from right-wing organizations protesting his views on legal abortion and “affirmation of the homosexual agenda.” The conservative website LifeSiteNews reports that two Catholic groups, the American Life League and TFP Student Action, the political arm of the American Society for Tradition Family and Property, want Gonzaga to rescind its invitation to Archbishop Tutu. TFP Student Action’s director John Ritchie said Gonzaga’s “shameful” decision has “tarnished” its reputation:

Observers are asking why a Catholic university in Spokane would invite Archbishop Desmond Tutu to address its graduating class considering his decades-long record of supporting abortion, homosexuality, female ordination, theological liberalism, and collectivist economic theories condemned by the Roman Catholic Church.

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Tutu has posed for a picture on behalf of and endorsed the “invaluable work” of Marie Stopes International, the world’s largest abortion provider. The endorsement, which was discovered by pro-life activist Peter Thorp as he logged one of his more than 1,200 hours of prayer in front of the Cape Town abortion clinic, praises Marie Stopes South Africa for “empowering people” and “giving people the opportunity to make informed decisions about their future and a choice.”

…

Why should someone who doesn’t even respect the most basic Right to Life be honored at a Catholic university?” asked John Ritchie, director of TFP Student Action, a group that actively promotes the Catholic faith on college campuses. “The invitation is mind-boggling and shameful.”

“The Catholic reputation of Gonzaga University is tarnished by this invitation,” Ritchie said.

Tutu has also been outspoken in his affirmation of the homosexual agenda. “If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn’t worship that God,” he has said. Tutu has also said he was “saddened” and “ashamed” of the negative reaction to the ordination of the openly homosexual Vicki Gene Robinson as an Episcopal bishop in 2003. Six years later, he supported the Church of Scotland’s decision to ordain non-celibate homosexuals.

“On an international scale, Desmond Tutu opposes Catholic teaching on just about every non-negotiable moral issue,” Ritchie told LifeSiteNews. “He’s a strident supporter of abortion, contraception, the homosexual agenda, and Marxist class warfare.”

The American Life League noted in The Pro-Life Encyclopedia that Tutu once said, “I am a Socialist. I hate capitalism.” However, in his encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, Pope Pius XI wrote, “no one can be at the same time a good Catholic and a true socialist.” A series of Popes have rejected Marxist economic theories.

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“There’s still time for Gonzaga to cancel and replace Tutu’s appearance for a true Catholic leader, a real role model, a person students can admire and look up to,” Ritchie said. “However, in this case, the dictatorship of relativism seems to be getting the upper hand. If the event takes place, the cause of the unborn will greatly suffer. And who will gain? Only the abortion lobby.”
Brian Tashman's blog

TFP Releases New Report on "Pro-Homosexual" Clubs' "Dictatorship of Tolerance"

The American Society for Tradition, Family and Property is out with a new report on “pro-homosexual clubs” at Catholic colleges and universities. By report, we mean a lengthy chart naming the student clubs or resource centers for LGBT students and allies and citing other objectionable material, including supposedly objectionable material, including the “pro-homosexual film” Brokeback Mountain in the campus library at the College of Saint Benedict/Saint John’s University.

The anti-gay group is aiming to have 100,000 people sign a petition demanding the leaders of Catholic colleges to “disband” the organizations that “favor the homosexual agenda” and “push for the mainstreaming of unnatural vice”:

Why are pro-homosexual clubs allowed to promote anti-Catholic behavior on Catholic campuses?

After examining the official web sites of 244 Catholic universities and colleges in America, TFP Student Action found that 107 – or 43% – recognize student clubs that favor the homosexual agenda. Many of these clubs promote same-sex “marriage,” open homosexuality in the military, and push for the mainstreaming of unnatural vice.

…

“Students are getting immoral messages from these clubs,” observed TFP Student Action Director John Ritchie. “A sort of dictatorship of tolerance is slowly squeezing out the truth, silencing Catholic teaching right on Catholic campuses. More and more Catholic college students are confronted with visible, active and well-funded pro-homosexual clubs that openly contradict natural law and undermine moral values. To see this happening at Catholic institutions of higher learning is particularly disturbing.”

“TFP Student Action is rushing to collect 100,000 petitions, urging the presidents of Catholic universities to uphold authentic Catholic doctrine,” Ritchie said. “It’s time to correct the scandal and disband these 107 pro-homosexual clubs.”
Brian Tashman's blog

Religious Right Abandons Brooklyn Museum Protests – Anti-Da Vinci Code Group and Pro-Censorship Artist Carry on the Fight

Last year, when the Smithsonian hosted “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” a groundbreaking exhibit exploring gay and lesbian themes in American art, the Religious Right unified in protest. Inspired by a CNSNews story titled “Smithsonian Christmas-Season Exhibit Features Ant-Covered Jesus, Naked Brothers Kissing, Genitalia, and Ellen DeGeneres Grabbing Her Breasts,” and egged on by the Catholic League’s Bill Donohue, the campaign against the exhibit quickly gained the support of soon-to-be House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Within a day they succeeded in pressuring the Smithsonian to remove the most controversial work from the exhibit, David Wojnarowicz’s A Fire in My Belly.

Last week, the exhibit opened at the Brooklyn Museum, famously the site of the Giuliani-fueled controversy over the 1999 “Sensation” show. Within days, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Brooklyn sent a letter to the museum protesting the exhibit, and a small coalition of GOP elected officials followed up with a letter accusing the museum of “Christian-bashing.” New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser also weighed in, calling the Wojnarwicz work “a revolting piece of slime.”

However, the museum hasn’t budged in its support for the show, and the Right’s efforts to censor the work have mostly fizzled. Donohue himself has decided it’s not worth expending too much effort –instead simply issuing a statement reiterating his disgust with the exhibit and accusing Wojnarowicz of bringing about his own death from AIDS.

Left to fill the vacuum so far have been a far-right Catholic group inspired by a Brazilian fascist movement and an artist who was previously known for painting a heroic George W. Bush on horseback holding Osama bin Laden’s severed head.

On Sunday,America Needs Fatima, a campaign of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP), held a protest in front of the museum. TFP is a spin-off of a Brazilian movement that has been called “neo-fascist.” TFP’s foundational text is a treatise by founder Plinio Correa de Oliveira, which argues that the Protestant Reformation, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution and Communism have in their turn undone a natural order that must be restored. While the main American branch of TFP mostly focuses on anti-gay propaganda [pdf], America Needs Fatima is dedicated to organizing “anti-blasphemy” campaigns against targets like The Da Vinci Code, editorial cartoons and Madonna’s planned performance at the 2012 Super Bowl.

The other notable protest against the Brooklyn Museum has been that of Staten Island artist Scott LoBaido, who was thrown out of the museum after showing up with a painting of the museum’s director sitting on a toilet filled with green muck. LoBaido has been protesting art that he sees as blasphemous since at least 1999, when he was arrested for throwing horse manure at the Brooklyn Museum to protest the “Sensation” exhibit. His own work is not always negative, though. Along with his year-long project painting flags on rooftops across America, LoBaido has created fawning, heroic portraits of Ronald Reagan and of George W. Bush brandishing the head of Osama bin Laden.

 

Miranda Blue's blog
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