Mat Staver and Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel on Faith & Freedom today were rankled by a speech Attorney General Eric Holder delivered to a meeting of the Conference of National Black Churches and the Congressional Black Caucus where he denounced the new wave of voter suppression measures like voter ID laws and curtailing early voting that have a disproportionate impact on people of color.
Naturally, Barber tied this back to the issue of gay rights, arguing that black voters should no longer trust President Obama since he “infuriated black pastors across the country” by endorsing marriage equality. “Now he goes to them with hat and hand and expects them to fire up the base for his cause when he has alienated them in such a way,” Barber asserted.
Staver: Anything that is biblical, anything that you want to speak on with regards to the Bible or our culture is not off-limits simply because politicians are also talking about it.
Barber: You mentioned biblical issues, that brings up another case tied into this idea of the Obama administration going to these black churches. Again, it just displays an amount of hubris and arrogance on the part of this administration and this President that I’ve never seen before. This after on the heels of the President thumbing his nose at these very black pastors around the country by coming out in support of counterfeit, same-sex marriage. He has infuriated black pastors across the country with this and now he goes to them with hat and hand and expects them to fire up the base for his cause when he has alienated them in such a way.
Staver: In fact, he talked to some black pastors before he went out to do this announcement on same-sex marriage and they opposed it, many of them did oppose it. Now there were some obviously that were in favor but there were many black pastors, and I would say there are most black pastors by far that don’t agree with same-sex marriage. They understand the breakdown of the family. Of many communities, you see the breakdown of the family with regards to the father, and same-sex marriage creates a fatherless home, it just does, it creates a fatherless situation. It compounds the breakdown of the family. Most black pastors and people in the black community understand that. So he’s thumbed his nose at them and then he wants to now recruit them.
This afternoon, the full 9th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to hear an appeal of the Prop 8 case. In February, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit struck down Prop 8, finding California's revocation of the right of same-sex couples to marry same-sex marriage ban to be unconstitutional. The 9th Circuit's decision means that either the Supreme Court will take up the case or the 9th Circuit’s decision striking down the law will stand.
The appeals court ruling is on narrow grounds unique to California, where same-sex couples were left with all the state rights of marriage but not the name. It found that taking away gay and lesbian couples’ designation of “marriage” while leaving their rights unchanged did not serve any of the purposes put forth by its defenders. Instead, its only purpose and effect was to lessen a targeted group’s status and dignity by reclassifying their relationship and families as inferior. The Court did not address the larger question of whether gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry. While the Supreme Court will be presented with the narrower question as framed by the Ninth Circuit, it is impossible to tell, if it agrees to hear the case at all, whether they will rule on this principle or more broadly on the ability of states to deny lesbians and gays the right to marry.
Moreandmore activists on the far right have blamed the recent political and legal victories of gay rights advocates on what they perceive as reluctance among conservatives to attack gays and lesbians more directly and aggressively. In response to a recent court ruling that struck down a section of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as unconstitutional, MassResistance said that supporters of the law must do more to challenge DOMA opponents’ underlying claims that gays and lesbians are “simply a minority group whose rights are illegally being denied by the federal government.”
“As long as homosexual behavior is not presented as abnormal, medically dangerous, and morally repugnant,” the group writes, “we will continue to lose.” MassResistance lamented the use of “cowardly” legal arguments that stress the importance of opposite-sex relationships instead of explicitly attacking homosexuality, concluding, “any legal argument on homosexual ‘marriage’ is bordering on madness, because the concept itself is sheer lunacy. We need to start saying that.”
The decision thus asserts that homosexuality and same-sex "marriage" are legitimate and unassailable from a moral or other standpoint. And from that assertion, homosexual "marriage" and heterosexual marriage are morally and legally interchangeable. And homosexuals are simply a minority group whose rights are illegally being denied by the federal government. This is all the homosexual groups needed to move forward.
The homosexual movement knows it cannot accomplish its goals through the ballot box (they've lost 32 state elections in a row). They've had some success through massive lobbying of state legislatures. But their most direct way is through corrupt courts. Taking down the DOMA law is key to forcing the imposition of "gay marriage" throughout America despite the votes in those 32 states. But it's still a considerable legal challenge to do it all at once. So by successfully attacking this narrow part of the DOMA law -- federal benefits and income tax filing status -- the homosexual movement opens the door to sebsequently [sic] dismantling all the rest of it.
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As long as homosexual behavior is not presented as abnormal, medically dangerous, and morally repugnant we will continue to lose. If other side is allowed to portray homosexuality as normal and natural (but something conservatives simply are "bigoted" about) in their legal arguments, they will always eventually prevail. We cannot concede those points and instead attempt to argue on the basis of "legal" reasoning, the historical "purpose" of marriage, or weak-kneed arguments such as "every child needs a mother and father." But unfortunately that is exactly what too many pro-family lawyers and pro-family spokesmen do. It's the "respectable" path. But it's cowardly, ineffective, and the road to hell (so to speak).
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The next step is the US Supreme Court. Will they agree with this? We certainly hope not, but it's frighteningly possible.
Our side has a terribly bad record of winning these kinds of court cases -- for the reasons stated above. In the grand scheme of things, any legal argument on homosexual "marriage" is bordering on madness, because the concept itself is sheer lunacy. We need to start saying that. As George Orwell once said, "We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men." Let's hope that the House of Representatives' legal team can find it in themselves to do the right thing.
After arguing that legalizing same-sex marriage will lead to man-dog and man-car marriage, the American Family Association’s Buster Wilson last week on Today’s Issues alleged that the U.S. may disappear if the country approves marriage equality for gays and lesbians. Wilson stated that “nations in history’s past” that allowed same-sex marriage “no longer exist.” “It is a nation-killing issue,” Wilson stated.
Wilson: I want to tell you something. We got thirty two or thirty three states when given the opportunity for the people to vote on whether or not to make a constitutional amendment in their state saying that marriage is between one man and one woman, all of the states that have voted on it have voted for it, we’ve got thirty two or thirty three of them now that have voted that way. What does that tell you? I believe by and large Americans are of the mindset that if I can try and capture the secular mind of the American public it might be something like this: I don’t care what you do in the privacy of your bedroom, I don’t care who you love or don’t love, but I don’t want to take something that’s s bedrock as marriage for over 5,000 years and put in law that it’s changed. That’s scary, and it’s wrong. And if you like looking at history at all, it is very easy to see the nations in history’s past that have done that kind of thing no longer exist. It is a nation-killing issue.
Today on Family Talk, James Dobson spoke to Republican activist Attorney General candidate Steve Pidgeon about an upcoming vote in Washington state that anti-gay groups hope will repeal the state’s law legalizing same-sex marriage. Pidgeon, a birther conspiracy theorist who has likened same-sex marriage to demon worship, is behind Initiative 1192 [pdf], which “reaffirms the definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman.” Along with I-1192, conservatives are also pushing Referendum 74 that would ask voters to approve or reject the marriage equality law signed in February.
He told Dobson that judges in America are creating “a form of totalitarianism” that “violates the fundamental freedoms of what it means to be an American” in order to “impose” same-sex marriage. However, Washington’s marriage equality law was passed by the state legislature and signed by the governor.
Pidgeon also described same-sex marriage as a “profanity” and an act of “desecrating the temple,” warning that people “must rise up” so America does not become “a cursed society”:
What you have, Dr. Dobson, is you have the oligarchy impressing its will upon the people. This is a form of tyranny, if you will, that even Thomas Jefferson warned us about, saying that when the court imposes its will on the public it’s an oligarchy, it’s a form of totalitarianism, where a few select people believe that their will should be imposed on the rest of us. It’s unconstitutional and more importantly it violates the fundamental freedoms of what it means to be an American to have a couple of select judges tell an entire state, ‘you can’t determine for yourself whether or not you’re going to be righteous in the sight of God or not.’
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You know, this business of same-sex marriage is really not about same-sex marriage, Dr. Dobson, I mean it is about desecrating the temple.
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You cannot be silent any more, there is a time when you cannot allow such a profanity to walk into the sacred assembly and now is that time.
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Now is the time, this is the hour, people are being called, you must rise up and you must speak on behalf of the kingdom. This is the difference between whether or not we will be a blessed society or a cursed society, and it’s not just for you, it’s for your children and your grandchildren. You must stand and speak now.
Today, yet another court ruled that the Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional, this time finding that Section 3 of the law, which prevents the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages in states where they are legal, fails the “rational basis test” as applied to laws that deny equal protection and harm a group long subject to discrimination. The unanimous ruling by the three judge panel of the First Circuit Court of Appeals, including two Republican nominees, found no “connection between DOMA’s treatment of same-sex couples and its asserted goal of strengthening the bonds and benefits to society of heterosexual marriage.”
Bruce Hausknecht of Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink criticized the court’s “unfortunate exercise of judicial tampering with the rules by which constitutional cases are decided,” and the Alliance Defense Fund’s Dale Schowengerdt said the decision permits states to “hold the federal government, and potentially other states, hostage to redefine marriage.”
Remarkably, Massachusetts Family Institute president Kris Mineau claimed that the First Circuit Court of Appeals shouldn’t have any federal power to rule on the case as “a Massachusetts-based court “…seemingly unaware that it is a federal court!
Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, argued Thursday that the ruling is "bizarre" for requiring the federal government to accept Massachusetts' definition of marriage, and violates the federal government's right to determine the application of federal benefits.
"For a Massachusetts-based court to just audaciously proclaim that the federal government is wrong and has to recognize a unique social experiment in Massachusetts for the purpose of providing benefits is bizarre and a violation of the principles of our federalist system," Mineau said, according to Reuters.
Judson Phillips of Tea Party Nation told members today that marriage equality for gays and lesbians is part of the “east coast liberal freak show” bent on ruining America:
Whether we like it or not, because the liberal states have enacted homosexual marriage, sooner or later the Supreme Court is going to say those marriages must be recognized by all fifty states.
While there are many religious and moral arguments that can be made about this, the simple fact is for the last sixty years or so; the left has been attacking the basic family unit. The end result of this has been the creation of poverty where none existed before. It has been the creation of an under class, born and raised in poverty, unlikely to escape poverty and encouraged to engage in the same behaviors that landed their parents in poverty.
Given the left’s track record in this area, they should not even be allowed to offer an opinion much less pass laws as they are doing in some of the east coast liberal freak show states.
Samuel Rodriguez, the Hispanic Evangelical leader who is treated as a bridge-builder by some centrist Christians and the Obama White House in spite of his close alliances with the fringes of the Religious Right, has launched a fasting campaign against marriage equality. Rodriguez, who serves on the White House Task Force on Fatherhood, has expressed “deep disappointment” regarding Obama’s recent embrace of marriage equality.
Rodriguez joined the Southern Baptists’ Richard Land on Land’s May 19 radio show to denounce marriage equality as a threat to religious liberty and to call on churches to be more aggressive in opposing it. Rodriguez, who tells evangelicals that they should welcome Hispanic immigrants because God has sent them to redeem Christianity in America, insists that a multi-ethnic religious awakening is necessary to defend “Biblical marriage” in America.
Land and Rodriguez both portrayed the advance of gay rights as a threat to religious liberty, with Land claiming, “There is an attempt in our society to basically make it illegal to condemn homosexuality in our churches – it’s called hate speech.” Rodriguez said the promotion of marriage equality is “an attempt to silence the church of Jesus Christ.”
Excerpts from the interview:
This egregious attempt to redefine an institution that God formed is not only a violation of everything that we understand to be appropriate but it is an incredible incursion into religious liberty and religious expression. So I believe that we need a multi-ethnic kingdom-culture firewall to push back. White evangelicals alone will not be able to defend marriage in America. ...
This is not an issue of equality. There is an attempt to silence the voice of Christianity, there is an attempt to silence the voice of truth, of righteousness and Biblical justice. So really the church needs to wake up and say, 'Not on our watch.’ We must stand up for Biblical truth. We must vote vertical. We must look at our legislators and those that represent us on Capitol Hill and say, ‘religious liberty, the family, biblical marriage and life, must stand protected.’ ...
I do believe that the power of the pulpit in addressing truth and righteousness is critical. We can’t sacrifice Biblical truth because at times it becomes confrontational. Listen, Jesus Christ had very strong confrontational moments. This idea that this is a patsy sort of Christianity. That’s not the Christianity that we follow and adhere to. Sometimes, truth hurts.
National Organization for Marriage’s Jennifer Roback Morse stopped by Richard Land Live this weekend, where the embattledhead of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission claimed that homosexuality has demonic origins. Land chatted with a caller who thanked him and Morse for fighting the “demon of homosexuality,” and Land agreed with her that “the Devil takes pleasure in anything that causes destruction in human society and the homosexual lifestyle does cause destruction.” He went on to claim that homosexuality was at least partly responsible for the collapse of empires in the past:
Caller: My comment is that I thank God for you all for standing up for God’s holiness and righteousness against this demon of homosexuality. My pastor past but he once said that this demon will be the last one to leave this earth because it is so strong and over in all of the New Testament and coming up to now it’s—
Land: Let me just say that first of all that the Devil takes pleasure in anything that causes destruction in human society and the homosexual lifestyle does cause destruction. It’s seen as one of the evidences in the decline of every empire we have seen; studies have shown it became rampant in the Persian Empire, the Greek Empire, the Roman Empire, the British Empire.
Land and Morse said that they are working against a “secular theocracy” and “sexual nihilists,” with the SBC’s top “ethicist” maintaining that America is witnessing a return to “paganism” where homosexual priests worshiped sex:
Morse: What we learned in California in the marriage fight is that the secularist thrust, I don’t even know what to properly call it, Richard, maybe you have a good name for it, but the secularists, the sexual nihilists.
Land: It’s a secular theocracy is what it is.
Morse: Yes, that’s exactly—
Land: It’s a secular theocracy driven be a full-blown pagan understanding of human sexuality. It’s just pagan.
Morse: When you say pagan, what do you mean by pagan? I can imagine what you mean.
Land: I mean totally focused on self, anything that feels good do it, just like the Greco-Roman orgies of the 1st Century and 2nd Century AD; same thing that our early Christian forefathers faced.
Morse: That’s very true, the hedonism, the hedonistic aspect of the culture. What I wondered you were going to say is full-on paganism I would think of as somehow worshiping sex, as sex taking on a kind of sacramental role.
Land: As you know many of the Roman religions, the idolatrous religions were sexual, and the priests were homosexuals and they worshiped in Corinth they had homosexual priests had these temples that were pre-Christian paganism.
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?
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 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.
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.
In advance of a court case on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and amid calls to repeal the discriminatory law, the Family Research Council today sent an appeal to members urging them to tell Congress that a repeal of DOMA would present a “grave threat” to the family and religious liberty. In an email to members, FRC president Tony Perkins lamented that the Obama administration has already “forced open homosexuality upon the military” and provided “taxpayer-funded marriage benefits to same-sex couples.”
Few were shocked by the recent announcement of President Obama's "evolved" support for redefining marriage. His words have finally followed his actions - or his inaction when it comes to marriage policy. In less than four years, the Obama Administration has forced open homosexuality upon the Armed Forces, opposed state marriage amendments, refused to do its constitutional duty to defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DoMA), and awarded taxpayer-funded marriage benefits to same-sex couples.
Now some in Congress are seeking to repeal DoMA - an act that would endanger the marriage laws in 44 states that currently define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
There are those who hope you will step aside and allow this God-given institution to be redefined. We cannot allow the DoMA law to be repealed. Please sign our Stand for Marriage petition, and join us in showing Congress and President Obama that marriage is worth standing for.
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Given that the family consisting of marriage between one man and one woman is the foundation of civil society, I urge Congress and President Obama to uphold and defend the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DoMA), which defines marriage for the federal government and affirms the rights of states to protect the institution of marriage. President Obama's cynical endorsement of same-sex "marriage," along with his failure to do his constitutional duty to enforce and defend federal law in relation to marriage, combined with the plans of some in Congress seeking to overturn DoMA - is a grave threat not only to the well-being of the family, but to the religious liberty of countless Americans who do not wish to be forced to embrace a counterfeit version of marriage.
Following the NAACP’s endorsement of marriage equality, the anti-gay right quickly pounced on the news.
Alveda King, as always, tied the topic to the question of abortion rights and claimed to speak for her uncle and other relatives in claiming that the King family has always opposed the “homosexual agenda”:
"Neither my great-grandfather an NAACP founder, my grandfather Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr. an NAACP leader, my father Rev. A. D. Williams King, nor my uncle Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. embraced the homosexual agenda that the current NAACP is attempting to label as a civil rights agenda," says King, founder of King for America and Pastoral Associate for Priests for Life.
"In the 21st Century, the anti-traditional marriage community is in league with the anti-life community, and together with the NAACP and other sympathizers, they are seeking a world where homosexual marriage and abortion will supposedly set the captives free.”
Stephen Broden, a Republican politician who has said that the violent overthrow of the government should be “on the table,” dubbed the NAACP “irrelevant”:
Stephen Broden, pastor of Fair Park Bible Fellowship in Dallas, notes that the black community is suffering from soaring unemployment, an extraordinarily high rate of abortions, a high school drop out rate among black teenagers that is breathtaking, an exploding rate of single parent households and the decimation of black families.
Yet, Broden says, the NAACP is making statements about same-sex marriage. “The NAACP has proven again to be an irrelevant organization as it relates to issues of survival for the black community,” says Broden who co-authored Life at All Costs with King and Gardner. The book addresses issues such as abortion and homosexuality.
Domestic violence perpetrator turned “pro-family” activist Timothy Johnson called on African Americans to ditch the NAACP and join his own group, the Frederick Douglass Foundation:
"When you recognize that the black community is strongly a Christian-based group of people, conservative in most of the things they believe, the NAACP has gone diabolically the opposite direction of tradition of the black community," he states. "[The NAACP] really is doing this in order to stay relevant and in order to build up their revenues as it relates to what they can get from the gay community."
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"... I think those individuals who call themselves Christian or call themselves Jewish who are members of the NAACP should denounce the organization, should cancel their membership, and really look for something else or another organization such as the Frederick Douglas Foundation to be affiliated with," he states.
Nebraska pastor Dan Delzell warned in the Christian Post that “homosexual acts become like a drug for those who give into this dangerous temptation”:
Martin Luther King's dream was that "little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers." President Obama's dream seems to be that little black boys and little white boys will watch their teenage brothers go to prom together....and eventually enter into a legal marriage with one another. Did Martin Luther King have this dream for little black boys and little white boys?
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President Obama is leading the way on gay marriage for what he hopes will be a large following of black pastors and their congregations. Many black pastors are not following his lead. The vast majority of pastors in the black community do not want the children in their church being taught that homosexual behavior is no longer sinful. They do not want the teenagers in their church experimenting with homosexuality. These pastors know that, like other sexual sins, homosexual acts become like a drug for those who give into this dangerous temptation.
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God is not a cosmic killjoy. That is why He created sex for man and woman to enjoy in marriage. We would be wise to share the biblical teaching on sexuality with every young person in America. Otherwise, the sexual dream that gets planted in their mind by a well-meaning preacher or politician could quickly turn into a never-ending nightmare.
The Religious Right never fails to try to divide African Americans and the LGBT community and ignores the fact that there are many LGBT African Americans.
The latest example is an email alert from Gary Bauer of American Values, who said that the NAACP is hurting black families by endorsing same-sex marriage because allowing men to marry other men, Bauer claims, would exacerbate the problem of single motherhood:
The governing board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) endorsed same-sex "marriage" over the weekend. The move is not likely to go over well with blacks, who have overwhelmingly supported traditional marriage in previous ballot measures.
Moreover, it is complete nonsense. The socio-economic status of black Americans has declined over the last few decades. We have an emerging black middle class, but the percentage of out-of-wedlock births, the number of abandoned black women, the number of black men incarcerated, etc., have all gone up and in some cases dramatically so. The NAACP's marriage to liberal ideology has been a failure.
The unemployment rate among blacks is a staggering 13%. Yet, the leaders of the NAACP got together this weekend and decided that a top priority for their organization was men "marrying" other men. How does that help the black family, which is already suffering from a lack of men in the home? If black leaders want to come up with a plan to address the ills of the black community and restoring fathers to their children and mothers is not at the top of their list, then they are not helping the black community.
The NAACP's decision pits the breakdown of the black family versus the demand of a largely white, upper-income sexual minority to redefine the meaning of marriage. That would seem to be an easy choice. But NAACP leaders chose to spend their political capital fighting for the interests of San Francisco and Greenwich Village. In doing so, they risk losing the moral authority of the people they claim to represent.
Star Parker even tried to link President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s endorsement of marriage equality to low-performing public schools:
President Barack Obama now commands center stage following his formal announcement that, yes, he supports same sex marriage.
But for perspective on how we got to this point, we should shift our sights to three days before the president's announcement. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan appeared on MSNBC where he responded "yes, I do" when asked if he supports same sex marriage.
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It's not trivial that Duncan, the man who oversees this massive enterprise molding the minds of our nation's youth, publicly rejects the traditional definition of marriage in favor of one saying it just takes two (so far) warm bodies of any gender combination.
The president brandishes one of his favorite words in explaining his support for same sex marriage. "Fairness."
Actually, this is about unfairness.
We have bought into a grand illusion that we can make our public spaces value neutral. But this is impossible.
The struggle in our public spaces is about competing worldviews. Not neutrality.
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2011-2012 Resolutions of the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union, include support of same sex marriage and sex education programs that appreciate "diversity of ...sexual orientation and gender identification."
Randi Weingarten, president of the nation's second largest teacher's union, American Federation of Teachers, lives in an open lesbian relationship.
It should come as no surprise when Obama says he sees much of the growth in support for same sex marriage as "generational," with strong support coming from our youth.
Attitudes reflect education. We have created a world in which it is illegal to teach youth in our public schools traditional religious values but it is not illegal to teach them competing values of nihilism, materialism and relativism. And these competing values are actively promoted.
As elsewhere, the main victims are poor, minority kids, often from broken families, held hostage in these public schools and prohibited from being taught the very values that could save their lives.
Is there a way out? I only see one: Universal school choice. Liberate parents and kids from government and union controlled schools. In a free America, parents who don't share Arne Duncan's values shouldn't have them forced on them.
People For the American Way President Michael Keegan issued the following statement in response to the decision of the NAACP’s official endorsement of marriage equality this week:
“The anti-gay Right has continually tried to turn the LGBT community and the African American community against each other. The NAACP this weekend stood up and told them in no uncertain terms that their cynical wedge strategies won’t work. Many of the NAACP’s board members, including PFAW board member Julian Bond, are already powerful leaders for LGBT equality. I am heartened to see the organization, which has led the way on so many civil rights issues of our time, take this strong stand on equality for all.”
Washington Times columnist and Edmund Burke Institute president Jeffrey Kuhner appeared on The Janet Mefferd Show yesterday where he said that members of the LGBT community “are even worse than the radical Islamists” and more terrifying than the dictators he often writes about, calling them “the most fanatical, hate-filled…and intolerant people I’ve ever met.”
Kuhner: As a journalist I write on a wide range of issues, I write on the Communist Chinese, I write on Putin’s regime, I write on brutal dictatorships over the world, the gay, lesbian, transgender community, the LGBT community, is the most intolerant than I have ever witnessed, they are even worse than the radical Islamists. I get death threats, my family is threatened, they call on me to be fired, they want to destroy my career. I have never seen people as intolerant, as malicious, as so desperate to engage in smear and slander and libel as people and activists in the LGBT community, it is really despicable. So for them to run around and say over and over again, all we want is tolerance, all we want is respect for diversity, all we want is respect for civil rights, it is a complete lie. They don’t practice what they preach, they are some of the most fanatical, hate-filled, and I’m choosing my words very carefully, and intolerant people I’ve ever met. I believe that Middle America does not understand the full threat posed by the homosexual agenda and the homosexual lobby.
Kuhner warned that the sitcom “Will and Grace” and romantic comedies that include “the loveable, fuzzy gay person,” which he claimed are “a form of cultural Marxism,” give “us very much a false picture” of the “vulgarity” that is “at the heart of the homosexual lifestyle”:
Kuhner: You wouldn’t believe the vulgarity, the coarseness, the permissiveness, the promiscuity at the heart of the homosexual lifestyle. And so if you actually saw it with your own eyes, and you actually saw the physical damage, and the psychological damage and the emotional damage that comes from living this lifestyle over many years, if the American people would see that with their own eyes I think they would have a very, very different conclusion and very different take. So what we’re getting is, it’s a form of cultural Marxism. You’re getting propaganda. And if you notice, it’s “Will and Grace” on television, I can’t go see a romantic comedy now without, there’s always the loveable, fuzzy gay person who just wants to be accepted for who he is, he’s completely harmless. So they’re giving us very much a false picture.
Mefferd mentioned Kuhner’s column, “Obama’s Homosexual America,” about President Obama’s endorsement of marriage equality, which he said will lead to “civilizational collapse” and a possible “political-cultural civil war” that will determine whether America “will go the way of other non-Christian, pagan societies into the dustbin of history.”
Mefferd: This is just not a small deal, this is a massive deal and he’s put ‘America on the path to moral disintegration,’ as you put it.
Kuhner: And I think civilizational collapse.
…
Kuhner: The important issues facing us are really not even economic, I understand that people are worried about their jobs and the deficit, it’s really defending a culture of life and if we do not defend a culture of life, we will go the way of Ancient Greece, we will go the way of Ancient Rome, we will go the way of other non-Christian, pagan societies into the dustbin of history. I believe that gay marriage is a symptom of our moral decay and cultural decline and that’s why I think Middle America has said, enough is enough, and so you saw the people of North Carolina vote overwhelmingly, 61-39%, for Amendment One, passing a constitutional amendment defining marriage as it’s been for thousands of years as between a man and a woman. To what is to me frightening, and I don’t want to overplay this, but you almost see a political-cultural civil war brewing.
Kuhner went on to attack judges who overturned laws banning same-sex marriage as “fascists in black robes” and said the left is imposing a “soft totalitarianism.” “It’s an assault upon freedom, it’s an assault upon liberty, it’s an assault upon our democracy,” Kuhner said of the gay rights movement, “this is about defending our fundamental, basic democracy.”
Kuhner: The moment the people have spoken, you see these secular, progressive liberals go right away to the courts, and three, five or seven judges, almost fascists in black robes, are now able to overturn and thumb their nose at the will of the people. They are becoming increasingly tyrannical, they’re becoming increasingly anti-democratic, and I believe you’re now seeing a soft totalitarianism begin to emerge among the hard left.
Mefferd: Oh yeah. And one thing that comes to mind, I reported on this story several days ago on my show, we had this Employment Non-Discrimination Act that Barney Frank introduced over and over and over again that tried to get through Congress and never made it, which was to give distinction to transgender individuals that you can’t discriminate against them in jobs. They couldn’t do it through Congress, so Chai Feldblum and her friends over at the EEOC, Chai Feldblum, this very well-known lesbian and gay activist, they passed, and by fiat basically, the EEOC did it themselves. I mean, this is what we’re seeing. If they can’t get done what they want to get done the traditional way, they’ll go around it somehow.
Kuhner: You’re seeing a social revolution being imposed from above. Mefferd: Yes.
Kuhner: And this is what’s very frightening. And I believe this is why it’s an assault upon freedom, it’s an assault upon liberty, it’s an assault upon our democracy. You are now seeing judicial tyranny in our midst. And that’s why this is not just an issue of traditional morality and defending Christian civilization, this is about defending our fundamental, basic democracy. It is now under siege.
Media Research Center’s Tim Graham talked to Janet Mefferd yesterday where he claimed that opponents of same-sex marriage can’t get on TV, a point which he then undercut when he admitted that anti-gay activists like Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and Harry Jackson actually made the rounds on TV to respond to President Obama’s endorsement of marriage equality. Graham called Obama’s announcement a “tragic,” “dark” and “depressing moment” for America, and declared that he “would like to see what would happen” if pastors like Jackson could speak about same-sex marriage during interviews just as “he does at his church”:
Graham: I think for a lot of people Obama saying, ‘I think this should be the way it is in America,’ was really a tragic moment for the country, it was a very dark moment, a very depressing moment. Those people, like me, who have that opinion, try getting on television!
Mefferd: That’s what I was going to ask you, as you were surveying the landscape of the media over the weekend and since the President made this stand on his new evolution, which was really an old evolution that he brought out again, did you see many conservatives or many people who were in favor only of traditional marriage getting a say so on TV?
Graham: A little bit, I mean the most prominent one of course has been Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, and he has made the rounds a bit, I think some of the best things he said is again, in a political context they’re not really having a moral discussion, the media wants to discuss this in political terms. I think the hard thing for people to do, I saw Bishop Harry Jackson on News Hour on PBS, he doesn’t really do in the studio what he does at his church. He doesn’t reach for the Bible, he doesn’t make a testimony, I think people get intimidated saying ‘I’m here in this secular place and I’m going to say secular things.’ I just wonder, I would like to see what would happen, if you try to engage these people, because you have to explain this is where the opposition comes, it’s from a religious, traditional point of view.
During an appearance on the American Family Association’s radio program Nothing But Truth, Harry Jackson said that “radical gay activists” have turned America into Nazi Germany. Jackson, who claimsdemonicforces are behind the gay rights movement, said that since gays and lesbians “cannot reproduce” they “try to recruit” young people and “just like during the times of Hitler,” gay rights advocates are “coming after one group after another group after another group.”
Jackson: It’s obviously disingenuous when they say marriage equality for everyone and I was just pointing out the fact that it really isn’t marriage for everyone, it’s a special kind of marriage for radical gay activists. They want to impose their will on the culture and if you cannot reproduce you may try to recruit, and what I mean by that is what is going on is an attempt to reshape, refashion the mind, hearts and desires of the next generation. Many Christians are sitting back and we aren’t speaking out, but the reality is just like during the times of Hitler we have people coming after one group after another group after another group, and folks are saying, well this doesn’t affect me I’ll let this slide, we have a problem that really we have a whole generation of people who want to affect not only their lives and choices but the choices of another generation.
Gary Bauer yesterday emailed members of his Campaign for Working Families arguing that Democrats are dishonest by representing ‘themselves as champions of the ‘little guy’ because President Obama…supports gay rights. Apparently, gays and lesbians can’t be a “little guy,” and Bauer went on to plead with Republicans to use Obama’s endorsement of marriage equality against him in the election, saying “it is far easier to defend normal marriage than it is to argue for cuts in popular programs”:
Fighting For The Little Guy?
For decades Democrats have presented themselves as champions of the "little guy." The president's reelection team is desperately trying to rebuild that image by embracing the Occupy Wall Street movement and portraying Mitt Romney as an out-of-touch corporate elitist.
But just think about what Obama has been doing lately. While millions of Americans are worrying about their next paycheck or making their next mortgage payment, Obama has spent the last week pushing the radical idea that men should "marry" other men!
Who is demanding this? Certainly not the "little guy," as the voters of North Carolina made abundantly clear. Same-sex "marriage" may be popular in New York City and San Francisco, but that is just more evidence that Obama's radical agenda is tailored to small, vocal left-wing special interest groups.
A Day In The Life Of Barack Obama
Obama was a busy man yesterday. First, he gave the commencement speech at Barnard College, an elite women's school affiliated with Columbia University. Obama shared the stage with Evan Wolfson, founder of the same-sex "marriage" group Freedom to Marry, who also received an award from the college. Wolfson was praised by the college's president for, among other things, his efforts to fight the Boy Scouts' ban on homosexual scoutmasters.
Next, Obama went on the "The View" to defend his support for same-sex "marriage." When Barbara Walters pressed Obama on whether he would fight to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, thereby forcing every state to recognize same-sex "marriage," he dodged the question.
Later in the day, he attended a fundraiser with openly gay singer Ricky Martin. According to CNN, Obama "outlined goals he hopes to accomplish under a second term, including the repeal of the Defense Of Marriage Act." (How any of this is helping the unemployed or people losing their homes is a mystery.)
Once again, Obama is playing rhetorical games with the public. He won't give the audience of "The View" a straight answer. But just as he assured Russian leader Dmitri Medvedev to wait until after the election, he told homosexual activists and donors behind closed doors that he'll have "more flexibility" to ram their agenda into law in his second term.
I know many GOP strategists think values issues are "losers" on Election Day. But it is far easier to defend normal marriage than it is to argue for cuts in popular programs. And it has been my experience that if a candidate can't get it right on the sanctity of life or the meaning of marriage, he isn't likely to hold the line on economic issues.
If Obama wants to pick a fight over marriage, Republicans shouldn't run from it. They should fight back. The American people are with us!
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