Marriage Equality

Joseph Farah Compares himself to Martin Luther King over his Voter Fraud Conspiracy Theory

Naturally, the far-right fringe is blaming Obama’s election victory on voter fraud. WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah released a new column which started with the line, “I am not a conspiracy theorist.” Farah said that Obama must have won through fraud because he won in states with Republican governors and legislatures, and also claimed that Obama “welcomed foreign contributions,” including one donation under “the name Osama bin Laden.” The bin Laden donation hoax has been debunked before – the Obama campaign notes that while some contributions “may have initially appeared to have gone through when the donor completed the transaction,” they were later rejected.

Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association and his fellow staff members appear to believe any conspiratorial column which reaches their desk, and so he once again invited Farah onto his radio show to explain how voter fraud swung the election to Obama, since it is inconceivable to them that the majority of Americans would vote for him.

But Farah said that WND’s possibly illegal donation to Obama using bin Laden’s name is just like “what Martin Luther King did, sometimes you’ve got to actually commit civil disobedience to get people’s attention to the injustices that are going on.”

Later, Wildmon talked about the decision by UPS to pull funding from the Boy Scouts of America over the group’s ban on openly gay members, which is making the prolific boycotters at the AFA consider a pressure campaign. Farah said that the decision is proof that the “culture is deteriorating” and urged Religious Right activists “to figure out how to reverse this or stop this real fast.”

Wildmon: Have you heard about the Boy Scouts and UPS?

Farah: I saw that and it’s just astonishing. It’s harder to get packages delivered—

Wildmon: I know, pretty soon we’re going to have to move to the mountains and live off the land. It really is and that’s why we here at the American Family Association, we don’t call for boycotts very often despite our reputation, and when we do we’re serious about it and we’ve exhausted every means of appeal to a particular company, like we have done with Home Depot and their sponsorship of gay pride parades. At the same time it doesn’t hurt to inform people about what these corporations do, if you don’t call for a boycott just let people know because if they do business with these companies and they might say if you do any business with UPS just tell your driver or your local office, ‘hey guys, you realize what you did, and I will have to consider how much business I see with you because of this,’ and that moves up the food chain.

Farah: Tim, I want you to think back to twenty years ago and try to imagine that we would have corporations essentially declaring war on the Boy Scouts of America.

Wildmon: We live in the Twilight Zone.

Farah: Try to imagine going back twenty years and you’d have a real powerful movement for same-sex marriage, and it’s actually winning now on ballot initiatives in several states, this is how rapidly the culture is deteriorating. It’s not happening in a vacuum, it’s happening because there are people and forces, powerful forces, that are making it happen and we have to figure out how to reverse this or stop this real fast.

Wildmon: That’s exactly right.
Brian Tashman's blog

Ken Hutcherson is 'Sick and Tired of the Homosexuals Taking Words that God has Given Us'

Pastor Kenneth Hutcherson is blaming leading conservative groups for sidelining him in the unsuccessful campaign to overturn Washington state’s marriage equality, and while speaking to Sandy Rios and Fred Jackson of the American Family Association said that churches who aren’t involved in anti-gay campaigns are “an abomination to God.” Hutcherson also reassured Rios, who predicted that Obama will “bring in gay marriage nationally” and “human misery,” not to feel discouraged and to remember that he is the “gayest guy you know.” “I am sick and tired of the homosexuals taking words that God has given us, I am sick and tired of the homosexual community taking our rainbow,” he said, calling on the “evangeli-fish” in the Religious Right to stop being “irrelevant” and “sissified” in the culture wars.

Rios: Dr. Hutcherson, I know that it’s hard for all of us to fight human discouragement, how could we not be, you know four defeats on the marriage amendments and all the other propositions, plus we know that another Barack Obama four years I think is going to bring in gay marriage nationally and so many other things, huge debt, I think we’re going to see human misery. From a spiritual standpoint, Christians are going to suffer some real persecution, I think. So this human discouragement, there’s human reality that we have to face, but speak to us if you will as a pastor, are you there yet? Are you still filled with discouragement this morning? Are you there yet? Are you ready to speak to us as a pastor?

Hutcherson: I think the first thing we are going to have to do to really be discouraged is to speak to the church. I have been preaching and pushing and talking unity till I am blue in the face and you guys know how black I am in the face. I have continued to look that God is still on the throne, this is not a man’s decision in these elections, there is no way in the world that we should have had the votes that we had. So I am praying that we really get in the face of the church, really get in the face of the conservative leaders, really get in the face of churches. We have major churches out here that did not stand up, did not even raise a finger to defeat this whole thing on same-sex marriage and that is just an abomination to God.

…

Hutcherson: Don’t forget guys, when you think about pastor Hutcherson out here, think about the gayest guy you know, I am sick and tired of the homosexuals taking words that God has given us, I am sick and tired of the homosexual community taking our rainbow when God gave us that promise that He would not destroy the earth with water again. We have just become irrelevant, we are just sissified, we are evangeli-fish with no spiritual vertebrae and we need to wake up.
Brian Tashman's blog

Sandy Rios: Gay Marriage brings about the 'Rape of Our Children's Innocence'

Sandy Rios of the American Family Association mourned the defeat of anti-gay ballot measures and candidates for office during her organization’s election coverage, and was dumbfounded as to why actor Brad Pitt donated to the marriage equality campaigns in four states. She asked: “What causes a person of such means to be so passionate about that, who is a heterosexual man with children? What is that all about?” As AFA news director Fred Jackson noted, Pitt “didn’t listen to his mom.”

Rios: Last week in the midst of the hurricane and the devastation and people clamoring for food and help, Brad Pitt made this huge donation to gay marriage. I think, what drives that? I think he gave $100,000, $25,000 to each state to fund homosexual marriage. What causes a person of such means to be so passionate about that, who is a heterosexual man with children? What is that all about?

Jackson: That is the case; he didn’t listen to his mom.

Rios: That’s for sure.

Later, Rios and AFA spokesman Bryan Fischer were stunned by Allen West’s loss in Florida, which for Fischer proves that Americans are making “alarming choices about who their leaders are going to be.” Rios lamented that voters have clearly become solidly in favor of abortion rights and gay equality, saying that voters “want abortion, they are demanding it,” and are also “clamoring for gay marriage.” She went on to argue that marriage equality will lead to “explicit instruction in public schools” and the “rape of our children’s innocence.”

Fischer: Allen West apparently has gone down to defeat in Florida.

Rios: Tremendous loss, tremendous loss.

Fischer: He was a guy that represented the best of America, his military service, his staunch conservatism on all facets, so the fact that the voters in Florida chose not to renew their confidence, their trust, their contract with Allen West, that’s another mystery to me. But I think one of the things it indicates is that this is no longer the country that we grew up in, this is a different country now today, the values are different, the people are making different and I think alarming choices about who their leaders are going to be.

Rios: I think you’re right, I have some very deep thoughts about this and I’ve just been holding back. The thing that struck me last night and I’ll go right for this I suppose: I really do believe that God is really giving us the desires of our heart, as a nation, not us individually. This is what the nation wants. The nation wants abortion all the time for any reason. That was very important to people, that was one of the reasons that some people went down last night. That’s one of the reasons the President prevailed among women by a pretty high percentage. They want abortion, they are demanding it, they are going to get it and with no restrictions, they are going to get government-funded abortion. They also want gay marriage, they are clamoring for gay marriage. Of course it isn’t just gay marriage, it’s instruction, explicit instruction in public schools, it’s really I think the rape of our children’s innocence, but they want it and they are going to get it, and we’re going to get it too.
Brian Tashman's blog

Gary Bauer: GOP Could Have Won if it Emphasized Opposition to Marriage Equality, Abortion Rights

Karl Rove’s American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS spent hundreds of millions of dollars to defeat Obama and swing the U.S. Senate to the Republicans. After failing at both of these goals, Gary Bauer in an interview with Janet Mefferd chided Rove for not using his Crossroads juggernaut to focus on social issues. According to Bauer, if only Republicans like Rove emphasized the GOP’s opposition to abortion rights and gay equality, then maybe Republicans might’ve won after all!

Of course, Bauer’s Campaign for Working Families and other Religious Right groups like Eagle Forum and the Family Research Council invested heavily in the campaign to defeat Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and elect Todd Akin, who lost badly and carried just 39 percent of the vote. Bauer also may not be the best political analyst as earlier this year he predicted a Romney victory and said that votes for Obama will only come from fraudulent ballots and people who “depend on checks from their fellow taxpayers.”

Bauer: Karl Rove, a good man and basically a conservative, he probably raised over $100 million running ads, I don’t believe one of those ads were about family, about life, about marriage. Romney was pro-life and pro-family but I don’t think we really engaged in the ad war on those issues and I think if we would’ve engaged instead of being forced to be the defensive I still think we would’ve gotten many, many more of what used to be the Reagan Democrats, Catholics and others who are pro-life and pro-family but may identify more with the Democrats on the economic issues but with Republicans and conservatives on values issues.

Mefferd: I couldn’t agree more. One of my biggest frustrations was during the presidential debates where it was about the economy and the foreign policy and I thought : no one ever talked about Don’t Ask Don’t Tell being repealed, nobody ever talked about the morality or immorality of so-called homosexual marriage, abortion was not a big issue, we didn’t even talk much about radical Islam.

…

Bauer: I just looked at some polling data we purchased yesterday, exit polling data, it showed that the country is narrowly divided about 50/50 on the same-sex marriage issue but those that are against same-sex marriage were much more intense and much more willing to say ‘I vote on this issue, I will vote against a candidate that is in favor of same-sex marriage.’ Those who are in favor of it were much more squishy about it, didn’t say it was a voting thing for as many of them, so I continue to think that issue, in addition to it being important that we maintain normal marriage, but I also believe it is a political winning issue.
Brian Tashman's blog

If Only NOM Had Used its 'Devastating' Playbook on Election Day

Election Day was a disaster for the National Organization for Marriage: it lost in all four states in which marriage equality was on the ballot in some way; it failed to take out another Iowa Supreme Court justice who had ruled in favor of equality; and it failed in its mission to defeat Barack Obama.

NOM’s answer to all the above is a new book that Brian Brown calls “the strongest pro-marriage argument ever written.”  Brown says the book What is Marriage? “demolishes the usual objections to our cause.”
 
Brown says it’s “Providential” that the book will be released in just a few weeks.  But if the book is as “devastating” to marriage equality arguments as Brown claims, wouldn’t it have been more “Providential” to have it come out before, not after, NOM lost four statewide campaigns in which it was presumably making all the same arguments? Look for deep discounts on What is Marriage?
Peter Montgomery's blog

Ralph Reed: It's Not My Fault

Election Day was a lousy day for the Religious Right. But movement leaders have been quick to assert that they are not to blame, pointing fingers variously at Hurricane Sandy, Mitt Romney, the unknown waiter who recorded Romney’s dismissive “47 percent” remarks, and the strong turnout of young voters and people of color.

Religious Right leaders had spent four years attacking Obama an enemy of faith, freedom, God, and America, only to see him re-elected in an Electoral College landslide. They had warned that defeating him might be a last chance to forestall God’s judgment on America. They fasted and prayed and believed that they would be delivered on Election Day. But that’s not what happened. 
 
Not only did Obama win big, but voters in Maine and Maryland embraced marriage equality, and Washington seems likely to join them.  Minnesota voters rejected a Religious Right-backed attempt to put anti-gay discrimination into the state’s constitution.  Tammy Baldwin was elected to the Senate, where she will be the first openly gay member.
 
Well before all those results were in, it was clear that the night was not going according to what Religious Right leaders had thought was God’s plan.  At 10 pm, Tony Perkins and Jim Garlow held a phone call briefing for pastors. It was a very subdued affair, with representatives of the state marriage campaigns trying to sound hopeful about the then-uncalled outcomes in their states.  Perkins and Garlow also held a Wednesday webcast on the "aftermath and aftershocks" as the scope of their Election Day drubbing sank in (see video highlights).  “The problem in America is sin,” said Garlow. But, he said, “we have no problem that the next Great Awakening cannot solve.”
 
The tendency after an election defeat to avoid blame by casting it elsewhere was in full flower the day after the election.  Rep. Jim Jordan, a Religious Right favorite, described Mitt Romney as “the most liberal Republican nominee in history” who had “waffled” on abortion, had passed a health care bill as governor, and had a hard time convincing conservatives on his commitments on taxing and spending.  Perkins criticized Romney for not campaigning on issues of life, marriage, and religious liberty, even though Obama used them to appeal to his base. Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway agreed, saying Republicans had not done enough to draw the contrast on social and “moral” issues. Regarding the marriage wins, Perkins blamed Obama in part, saying the president’s policies have had “a shaping influence on the culture.” He and others also blamed marriage equality proponents’ financial advantage.
 
In a Wednesday morning press conference at the National Press Club, Ralph Reed’s message was clear: don’t look at me. Reed had made sweeping promises that the Faith and Freedom  Coalition, his conservative voter ID and turnout operation, would stun pollsters and lead to a big conservative victory.  “We did our job,” he insisted, recounting the tens of millions of phone calls, mailings, and other voter contacts his group made.  He said his group had run the most efficient, most technologically superior voter contact and GOVT operation the faith community has ever seen.  He claimed credit for increasing both white evangelicals’ share of the electorate and the share of the vote they gave to the Republican nominee.  But it wasn’t enough.
 
“We can’t do the Republican Party’s job for them.  We can’t do the candidates’ job for them.” In part, Reed blamed “candidate performance issues,” his euphemism for the Akin-Mourdoch rape comments that led to their undoing.
 
Reed said his successful efforts were not in the end sufficient because people of color and young voters turned out in numbers that he had not anticipated -- and voted overwhelmingly to re-elect the president.  The fact that young voters, African Americans, and Latinos turned out so strongly seems to have stunned conservative figures across the board. And it confirmed for many of them the need for the Republican Party and the conservative movement to stop alienating Latinos and figure out how to attract younger voters.  “We need to do a better job of not looking like your daddy’s Religious Right,” said Reed.
 
Some Religious Right leaders sought solace in faith that God is ultimately in control.  “America as we know it may have signed its death warrant tonight,” said Garlow during the pastors' briefing.  But not to worry, he said, nations come and go, but God’s kingdom is forever. Perkins said FRC and its allies would continue to stand strong in the face of “an increasingly hostile culture.”
 
Others looked forward to the next political fight.  Pollster Conway predicted that 2014 would bring, like 2010’s Tea Party wave, a conservative resurgence and called for candidate recruitment to begin now.  Perkins agreed that conservatives have never had a stronger “farm team” and touted potential conservative candidates for 2016, including Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindal, Rand Paul, and Mike Pence.
Peter Montgomery's blog

Owens: If Marriage Equality Passes the 'Whole Gamut of the Family is Going to be Destroyed'

William Owens of the virulently anti-gay Coalition of African-American Pastors and the National Organization for Marriage talked to Sandy Rios and Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association for their organization’s election night special about the “unbelievable” impact if Maryland voters approve their state’s marriage equality law, which did indeed pass. He said if we “change God’s law” by legalizing same-sex marriage and adoption then “the whole gamut of the family is going to be destroyed and all areas of the social life will be destroyed from what has been for thousands of years.”

Listen:

Brian Tashman's blog

Five Religious Right Myths Exposed in Election Defeat

The Religious Right took a drubbing at the polls yesterday as voters rejected not only Mitt Romney but also some of the most extreme Republican candidates, even those in races that should have been easy Republican victories. Like other conservatives, many Religious Right activists predicted a big victory for Romney and Republicans in the U.S. Senate based on five myths they hold about the electorate:

Myth #1: Americans want a ‘True Conservative’

The Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody called the results a “nightmare for the GOP” and a “colossal disaster.” Of course, right-wing activists will be quick to declare that Mitt Romney, like John McCain, wasn’t conservative enough for voters, and that the self-described “severely conservative” Romney couldn’t effectively articulate or sell conservative principles. Their solution is that the next nominee must be a pure right-wing ideologue who emphasizes social issues, like Mike Huckabee or Rick Santorum. Of course, if voters were seeking to support ultraconservative politicians, then Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock wouldn’t have lost their Senate races in the red states of Missouri and Indiana, Tea Party hero Allen West wouldn’t have lost re-election and Michele Bachmann wouldn’t have merely eked out a tiny win in her heavily Republican district.

Myth #2: Blacks will Defect from Obama over Gay Rights

Black conservative activists such as Harry Jackson, E.W. Jackson, William Owens, Patrick Wooden and Star Parker continue to tell the largely white Religious Right leadership that African Americans are defecting en masse from the purportedly demonic, Baal worshiping, anti-Christian and anti-God Democratic Party and will turn against Obama over the issue of marriage equality. Pat Robertson even said that Democratic support for marriage equality is a “death wish” and Mike Huckabee said the move “may end up sinking the ship.” According to exit polls, however, Obama won African Americans 93-6 percent. African Americans also turned out in strong numbers and didn’t stay home, with the same high turnout rate (13 percent of all voters) as 2008. In addition, marriage equality had victories in the four states it was on the ballot.

Myth #3: Hispanics are ‘Natural Allies’ of the Religious Right

Conservatives claimed that Hispanic voters, especially those who identify as evangelical and Pentecostal, are ripe for supporting Republicans. Samuel Rodriguez of the conservative National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and others continue to argue that Hispanics are strongly opposed to abortion rights (not true) and gay rights (also not true), and therefore “natural allies” of the Religious Right. Romney actually fared worse (27%) than McCain (31%) among Hispanics.

Myth #4: Catholics Abandoning Obama for ‘Declaring War’ on the Church

Heavy politicking from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and growing outreach to Catholics by traditionally evangelical Religious Right groups didn’t stop Obama from once again carrying the Catholic vote. Republicans consistently claimed that Obama declared “war on religion” and specifically “attacking the Catholic Church,” and hoped Paul Ryan’s use of Catholicism to justify his draconian budget plan would bring Catholics into the GOP fold. Obama led 50-48 percent in exit polls, down slightly from his 54 percent total in 2008.

Myth #5: Evangelical Wave Waiting in the Wings

New groups such as the Faith and Freedom Coalition and United in Purpose/Champion the Vote boasted of grand plans to turn out a wave of evangelical Christians upset about health care reform and marriage equality. But according to exits, Protestant (not all of whom identify as evangelical) turnout remained about the same this year (53 percent) as the last president election (54 percent). Christianity Today notes that in swing states, self-described evangelical turnout was approximately identical or merely slightly larger as it was in 2008, and Romney’s support among evangelicals compared to McCain’s decreased in states like Ohio and Nevada.

Brian Tashman's blog

Jeffress: Obama, Marriage Equality Victories 'Bring About God's Judgment upon Our Country'

Robert Jeffress has warned that a vote for President Obama is a vote for the “future reign of the Antichrist,” and told Janet Mefferd yesterday that if Obama secures re-election and marriage equality wins at the ballot box (it did), then America “is going to bring about God’s judgment upon our country” by backing “evil” and “reject[ing] God and His law.” He added later that he expects Obama to impose hate speech laws that could be used to imprison pastors and will try to give the government the right to select a church’s pastors and priests.

Mefferd: A lot of people look at this and think: what happened to my country?

Jeffress: And what’s happened to the Christian community? Take the same-sex marriage issue, for the first time ever the majority of young adult evangelical Christians support same-sex marriage or civil unions. I think it’s this false idea we have that somehow we don’t have any right to impose our values on society as a whole. But the fact is all values are based on somebody’s morality, and for the first two hundred years of our country it was based on Christian values and now it’s being based on pagan values. I remind people all the time that Jesus Christ is not just Lord over the church, he is Lord over all creation, he is not just interested in religious people and religious institutions, He is interested in all institutions, including government. Listen, God is no respecter of people or nations, God doesn’t get a lump in his throat when he hears the Star - Spangled Banner, He doesn’t hold America to a different standard than any other nation. Any nation that reverences God is going to be blessed by God, but any nation that rejects God and His law is going to be rejected by God. We as Christians have a responsibility to say without stuttering or stammering: this is wrong, this is sin, this is evil and this is going to bring about God’s judgment upon our country.

…

Jeffress: I do think as Americans we’re going to continue to see this attempt to restrict our religious liberty and our freedom of speech. I think all you have to do is to look at the past four years to see what the next four years under Obama will be like. I think we will live to see very quickly the enactment of hate speech legislation that will try to prevent Christians and especially churches from speaking out on issues like homosexuality or the exclusivity of the Christian faith. We just saw a year ago the Obama administration attempting to say that the ministerial exemption regarding federal hiring standards should be rescinded, that will ultimately give the government the right to say who churches could hire as their pastors or their priests. I think this is where we’re going under another four years of the Obama administration.
Brian Tashman's blog

Endorsements Cite Supreme Court

Tue, 11/06/2012 - 3:24pm — Harrison
Overwhelming majority of endorsements cite the Supreme Court as an enormous contributing factor to keeping President Obama in office.
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Parshall: Satan the 'Great Deceiver' is behind Marriage Equality

Conservative talk show host Janet Parshall joined Crosstalk host Vic Eliason of Voice of Christian Youth America this week to promote her book, Buyer Beware: Finding Truth in the Marketplace of Ideas. The two spent much of the time discussing Parshall’s time working for VCY America, before becoming a leader of Concerned Women for America and National Religious Broadcasters, but soon began discussing a prior Crosstalk program that blamed Hurricane Sandy on the gay community. While Parshall said she is not in the position to say whether God used the hurricane to punish New York for legalizing same-sex marriage, she did claim once again that Satan is the main culprit behind the push for LGBT rights.

Listen:

Parshall: While this gets debated in the halls of Congress and while it gets adjudicated from the high courts of this country, in the end this is a spiritual battle and we need to put on spiritual eyes and understand that the Father of Lies hates the model of marriage because it is such a profound message of Christ’s unconditional love for us, the church. So we begin to see all of these skirmishes, so battles for same-sex marriage are nothing more than the Great Deceiver himself still rattling his tail saying to a watching culture, ‘did God really say’? And the answer back from the church has to be without blush, hesitation or embarrassment: ‘yes he did, and here I stand, marriage is and always shall be one man and one woman.’
Brian Tashman's blog

Importance of the Supreme Court in the Upcoming Election

Thu, 11/01/2012 - 5:39pm — Harrison
As Election Day approaches, voters need to keep in mind one of the most important powers given to a president: the ability to nominate Supreme Court Justices.
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The Supreme Court is a Winning Issue for Obama

Wed, 10/31/2012 - 2:42pm — Paul
The Supreme Court is an important issue for voters, and even Mitt Romney knows that the issue benefits President Obama.
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Richard Mourdock and the Supreme Court

Wed, 10/24/2012 - 4:47pm — Paul
If Mitt Romney wins the election, his Supreme Court justices would empower far-right politicians like Richard Mourdock to codify their religious beliefs into law.
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The Circuit Court's DOMA Decision and the 2012 Election

Fri, 10/19/2012 - 2:24pm — Paul
Mitt Romney has made clear that his judicial nominees would not protect Americans' rights like the Second Circuit did yesterday.
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Jeffress: 'Cult' Member Romney Still Better than Obama, who has his 'Fist in the Face of God'

After Mitt Romney secure the Republican nomination, prominent Southern Baptist pastor Robert Jeffress has said that Christians should vote for the Mormon candidate over President Obama since he “espouses unbiblical principles.” Such a sentiment is striking since Jeffress attacked Romney’s Mormon faith in the 2008 and 2012 primary elections, hoping that the GOP would nominate an evangelical Christian like Rick Perry over Romney as Mormonism is “a heresy from the pit of Hell.” Now, Jeffress is rallying evangelical support for Romney, despite his prior warning that electing a Mormon will lead to God’s judgment.

Jeffress told Janet Mefferd, who has also criticized Romney over his faith, that it is still better to vote for Romney, even though he is a member of a “cult” and “false religion” that believes in a “multiplicity of gods,” than Obama because of his stances on marriage equality and abortion rights. The pastor said defeating Obama is even worth potentially giving Mormon missionaries a tool to bolster “legitimacy of their faith” and make more converts.

I still think there are concerns out there among evangelicals about voting for a Mormon. I’ve made peace with it; the way I’ve made peace with it is to make it very clear on programs like yours that Mormonism is a cult, it is a false religion, Mormons worship a multiplicity of gods, they deny the Bible, in fact they think the Bible is so error-filled there had to be a second book of revelations. I want to make it very clear that I don’t believe Mormonism is Christianity but I do think that in this case it is better to vote for a non-Christian who supports biblical principles like life and marriage than voting for a professing Christian like Barack Obama who absolutely repudiates what Jesus Christ said about some key issues.

…

I don’t want to minimize the Mormonism issue. I had probably the most well-known pastor in America say to me last week; you know one concern is the mission implications of this, Mormons are so involved in missions overseas, they’ll be able to point to a Mormon president as legitimacy of their faith. So I think we need to be clear that Mormonism is a false religion that leads people away from rather than toward the true God, but having said that we are making this choice in spite of that.

He warned that America is “about to go over the moral and spiritual cliff from which there is no return” if Obama is re-elected, asserting that his administration is “openly involved in high-handed sins” and shaking its “fist in the face of God” on matters like same-sex marriage.

You know in the Old Testament the Bible had what it called high-handed sins, sins that were like a clenched fist in the face of God. We are now seeing an administration that is openly involved in high-handed sins: the embracing of gay marriage. A friend of mine said to me recently, ‘think about this just ten years ago if a pastor or a sandwich company were to say marriage is between a husband and a wife, a man and a woman, no one would have batted an eye at that, but today that is labeled as hate speech,’ now what has changed? It’s not the Bible or the message that has changed, it shows what has happened in our culture. I know this sounds alarmist but I believe we are at the precipice, we are at a tipping point in our country right now, we are about to go over not the fiscal cliff, we are about to go over the moral and spiritual cliff from which there is no return, and that is why it is imperative for Christians to get out and vote in this election.
Brian Tashman's blog

Appeals Court Strikes Down Discriminatory DOMA, Congress Should Repeal It

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals today ruled that section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages sanctioned by the states, is unconstitutional.

Michael Keegan, President of People For the American Way, issued the following statement:

“Every federal court that has reviewed DOMA’s section 3 has found that it violates our constitutional principles. This should be no surprise. DOMA hurts gay and lesbian married couples by denying them some of the most basic protections of marriage, and it does so for no reason but prejudice against LGBT families. Our Constitution guarantees all Americans equal protection under the law, and DOMA clearly violates that principle.

“House Speaker John Boehner has wasted nearly a million and a half taxpayer dollars on defending this indefensible law. I am confident that the Supreme Court would not let DOMA stand, but I hope that they never have to review it. Most Americans don’t want to hurt their gay and lesbian neighbors, and we’ve seen over and over again that DOMA does real harm to real people. Congress must recognize the harm that DOMA has done and repeal it before it hurts more legally married Americans.”

A People For the American Way petition calling for the repeal of DOMA has gathered over 200,000 signatures.

###

Robertson: Gays and Liberals 'Don't Want Freedom' but 'Want a Dictatorship'

The 700 Club today reported on Gallaudet University’s suspension of their chief diversity officer for signing a petition to put Maryland’s marriage equality law on the ballot. Gay rights advocates, including the leaders of Marylanders for Marriage Equality and Gov. Martin O’Malley have said that they strongly disagreed with Gallaudet’s decision, but host Pat Robertson tried to claim that the university’s move was representative of the entire left and the gay rights movement. “The left wants a dictatorship,” Robertson claimed, “they don’t want freedom.” The anti-gay televangelist argued that “they want a dictatorship where they control, which is what you had in communism, a small group ran the government for their ends and for the ends of their friends, and that’s what the gays want, they want everything now in their favor.” Robertson concluded by saying that “God Almighty has the final vote.”

Watch:

Brian Tashman's blog

Camenker: Gay Rights will 'Fall' like Nazism, Slavery and Segregation

Brian Camenker of MassResistance spoke to Sandy Rios of the American Family Association yesterday to promote his anti-gay group’s “What same-sex ‘marriage’ has done to Massachusetts” booklet. Rios insisted that marriage equality advocates have “had to do tricks, they’ve had to threaten, they’ve had to cajole” in order to legalize same-sex marriage, and Camenker said that “the whole gay marriage thing and the whole homosexual issue is artificially held up through threats and propaganda.” In fact, Camenker said that the gay rights movement will inevitably “fall” like a “house of cards” just like Nazism, slavery, segregation and Communism.

Rios: This is an area on which really still most people in Western civilization when asked do not embrace homosexual marriage. State after state has rejected it, and even in liberal New York and even in liberal California they’ve had to force it through in other ways, they’ve had to do tricks, they’ve had to threaten, they’ve had to cajole, it’s just an amazing thing. Brian I don’t know if it was you who wrote this, maybe it’s you who wrote this, that this whole wave of homosexual rights in every way—whether its marriage or workplace or whatever—you feel I believe you wrote that this is a phase, this is not something that is here to stay, this is like a fad, like a moment in history that cannot last. Are you the one that wrote that?

Camenker: I’ve written that a few times, yes, and I believe it very, very strongly. There have been times in our history when very strange things have happened and then disappeared and people thought that it would never happen. We think of the rise of Nazism in Germany and Europe, people thought that would never disappear and never change; people thought slavery would never change; I lived in the South as a young guy and nobody thought that segregation would ever end; we all remember that nobody thought that the Soviet Union and all of that would ever fall. I believe that the whole gay marriage thing and the whole homosexual issue is artificially held up through threats and propaganda and everything else. As soon as that doesn’t continue the whole things is a house of cards and will fall. People do not naturally support this. Everybody is looking with doom and gloom and everything but I believe that it is all going to fall at a certain point.
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Owens: Marriage Equality will ‘Deteriorate the Black Family More than Anything Else’

William Owens of the Coalition of African-American Pastors and the National Organization for Marriage’s religious liaison is hoping that his anti-Obama, anti-gay campaign will pay off in November by pulling black voters away from supporting Obama. While sitting down with Jamilah Lemieux of Ebony, Owens said that black voters are turning against Obama “because [our site] had nearly 90 thousand hits and 85 percent of the people are on our side on this issue” and also told Lemieux that “there isn’t such thing as separation as church and state.” Owens effectively admitted to Lemieux that CAAP is a single-issue organization dedicated to opposing same-sex marriage, insisting that marriage equality for gays and lesbians must be stopped because “the Black family has been destroyed” and will “help deteriorate the Black family more than anything else.”

JL: Black people are literally on fire right now. You have people--- teenagers, kids---dying in Chicago. Getting shot 10, 12, 30 in a night and you're sending out daily press releases about same sex marriage. Is this the greatest challenge of your generation or my generation? is this the biggest fight that we have in the middle of an election season? Do we have that much to lose from gay people getting married?

RO: I think we do. First of all, the Black family has been destroyed. When I grew up there were more Black men going to college, now there are more Black men going to prison. Something is wrong.

JL: What does that have to do with homosexuality? There are Black men who have went to college and graduate and got married and are gay and also Black men who have women who they’ve been in intimate relationships with who didn’t go to college and who don’t provide for their children. So who is the problem in our community?

RO: We're our own problem right now. We are are own problem and we need good moral leadership and I expected that from Obama. Same sex marriage is not [representative of that]...I felt that that one issue was enough to help deteriorate the Black family more than anything else.

His wife Deborah Owens made a similar assertion in a Washington Times op-ed where she warned that the “homosexual agenda” will “erode the very foundation of our society” and “place our youth on a dangerous trajectory toward a bleak future in which mothers and fathers don’t matter, values don’t matter and children are placed at risk.” She said gays and lesbians “have crept out of the closet, and now they want to take over the entire house,” arguing that Obama is “putting our country on a dangerous path and our children and families in peril” by backing their right to marry, jeopardizing “our future as a nation” and “our freedom.”

Some criticize us for not supporting the practice, but accepting homosexuals and lesbians is a separate issue from redefining marriage for millions of Americans. Homosexuals and lesbians have been around for a long time, though many of them were “in the closet.” Over time, they have crept out of the closet, and now they want to take over the entire house. If a man loves another man or a woman desires another woman, there is nothing in our current law stopping two consenting adults from engaging in a relationship, though it is not normal behavior. We are about to cross a dangerous line, with civil leaders trying to force all Americans to accept homosexual unions and change the historical and biblical definition of marriage.

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The black American community already is plagued with problems related to children growing up in single-parent households. For example, a boy who lacks a father in the home is more likely to engage in delinquent and criminal behavior unless he has a positive male role model to help shape him. The homosexual agenda, which attempts to redefine family and marriage, will erode the very foundation of our society. It will place our youth on a dangerous trajectory toward a bleak future in which mothers and fathers don’t matter, values don’t matter and children are placed at risk.

Evidence shows that the lack of intact families in our society leads to social, psychological and emotional problems for children. Why would Mr. Obama want to make homosexual “marriage” equal to traditional marriage when children already face a multitude of issues? The president and others want to legitimize and normalize homosexual “marriage” and shove it down the throats of those who disagree because he is the leader and he said so.

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What black person would deny the first black man running for the highest office in America a chance to become president? He represented hope for us all, and he was the realization of the dream for many Americans who never thought they would live to see a black president. We were soon disillusioned. Mr. Obama has betrayed us by his endorsement of homosexual “marriage,” putting our country on a dangerous path and our children and families in peril.

On the homosexual “marriage” issue, this black mom is not following Mr. Obama.

Our hope in man, even one man, cannot come at the cost of our hope in God.

Our future as a nation is at stake. Our freedom is in the balance. Mr. Obama has given his followers an invalid command: Endorse homosexual “marriage.” This edict must not be the law of this land. The risks are too great.
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