Fighting the Right

With anti-gay organizations like the American Family Association, Concerned Women for America and Liberty Counsel urging students to walkout of schools on April 20th to protest the Day of Silence, a day when students in many schools remain silent to draw attention to anti-gay bias and bullying, the Family Research Council is now endorsing one Connecticut pastor’s efforts to have the school prohibit any student from participating in the Day of Silence.

According to the New Haven Register, Loomer’s campaign is based on material from rabidly anti-gay activist Linda Harvey of Mission America, along with debunked claims that the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, which spearheads the Day of Silence, distributes pornographic material to children, pastor James Loomer of Milford is trying to convince his local school board to forbid students from partaking in the event. However, the school board’s own legal counsel and the American Civil Liberties Union notes that students have a right to participate in the Day of Silence during non-instructional time.

But Loomer’s unconstitutional and anti-gay ploy was rewarded with an interview on FRC president Tony Perkins’ radio show Washington Watch Weekly, where Loomer said that “parents will be so appalled at what the Day of Silence could lead their children into” and Perkins noted that while he opposed bullying, he also opposed anti-bullying efforts like the Day of Silence because it is “cover for the promotion of homosexuality” and commended Loomer’s efforts to ban it.

Loomer: If the board decides they don’t want to take any corrective actions we’re already making plans to call the city families together and just apprise them of the situation. I think the parents will be so appalled at what the Day of Silence could lead their children into that they’re going to want to stand up and say, ‘let’s get rid of this.’ There are alternative programs that focus on disrupting the bullying that goes on in schools but this is one that’s got a serious kickback to it.

…

Perkins: Look, bullying should not be taking place in our schools, every child in America should be able to go to school—public school, private school, wherever—without the fear of threat or being intimidated, regardless of what the cause is, whether they’re overweight, whether their religious viewpoints, no child should be bullied because they are effeminate or because of their sexual orientation or whatever, it shouldn’t happen, but we cannot allow these programs like the Day of Silence to come into our schools as a cover for the promotion of homosexuality. That’s what is happening with this so we appreciate Pastor Loomer and others who are drawing attention to this in communities across the country.

We had never heard of Dan Delzell until today, but apparently he is pastor of Wellspring Lutheran Church in Papillion, Nebraska and a regular contributor to The Christian Post where he is given space to pen informative pieces such as this one in which he explains that "the promotion and practice of sex outside of marriage is doing more to increase the national debt than any other single factor":

The strong correlation between sexual immorality and overspending is beyond dispute. A perfect example in the Bible is the prodigal son in Luke 15. A perfect example in the world today is the United States.

Which came first...the chicken or the egg? Likewise, sensual indulgence is intricately interwoven with voracious spending habits. The prodigal son had it good at home. But he wanted more, and he wanted it immediately. His lust for money was fueled by his lust for sensual pleasure, and "vice" versa.

He took his inheritance which was intended to provide for future needs. He wasted it on wild living in the moment. He was clueless to what was happening while he was in the midst of his sensual storm. In America today, the promotion and practice of sex outside of marriage is doing more to increase the national debt than any other single factor. Blindness in one area produces blindness in the other. Just ask the prodigal son.

God made sex. God gave man and woman sexual desires. Sex within marriage between a man and a woman is a good thing. Outside of God's plan, there is chaos. When man feeds his sexual temptations, he creates financial confusion in his mind.....and this leads to economic disaster, among other things. Likewise, when man feeds his love for money, this often leads to sexual promiscuity. The two are somehow joined together in unholy matrimony. Remember....holy matrimony involves one man and one woman. Anything else is a counterfeit.

Last year, Bryan Fischer openly declared that Mitt Romney's Mormon faith "ought to be an issue in 2012" and that Romney should be forced to publicly declare whether he embraces Mormon teachings that conflict with the Bible so that voters can decide "whether they want somebody with those convictions sitting in the Oval Office."

Since then, Fischer has repeatedly attacked Romney over his faith, calling him a "spiritually-compromised candidate" and declaring  that a Mormon president represents a threat to the "spiritual health" of the nation.

But Fischer has also realized that openly attacking Romney's faith in this manner might be problematic even at the American Family Association, so he has settled upon a trick whereby he continues to do so while pretending that is really the media which is attacking Romney's Mormon faith.

Fischer announced this trick a few months ago when wrote a piece claiming that if Romney became the Republican nominee, "the winger-left media" would not hesitate to highlight "the more unusual aspects of Mormon theology."  And he has been using this framing ever since as he launches repeated attacks upon Mormonism while thinking he is avoiding responsibility simply because he is pretending that it is the media that is really attacking Romney's faith.

Yesterday, while discussing Hilary Rosen's comment about Ann Romney, Fischer demonstrated exactly how he does it, using the flap as cover to engage in a long attack on Mormon theology while saying that the media needs to ask Mitt and Ann Romney about it because the media once asked Michele Bachmann about her theology:

So, based on nothing more than a random comment made about Ann Romney, Fischer is now demanding that the Romney's publicly address the specific tenets of their faith ... while blaming it all on the media.

As we have said before, if Fischer actually thinks that he is fooling anyone with this pathetic charade, he is even less self-aware than we ever could have imagined.

On yesterday's radio program, Bryan Fischer dedicated an absurd amount of time to railing against Hilary Rosen's comment that Ann Romney had "never worked a day in her life." 

Fischer actually declared that this was the single most offensive and outrageous thing that he can recall anyone having said in the years he has been hosting his daily radio program ... which is pretty remarkable considering that Fischer says insanely bigoted and offensive things on almost a daily basis.

And, as if to prove that, he used the Rosen flap as an opportunity to make the case that it is Democrats who are waging a war on women by "protecting and defending the abortion industry,"  which means that "liberals in America are killing America's women before they are ever born": 

Rick Scarborough of Vision America, the self-proclaimed ‘Christocrat,’ held a conference call today with US Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) and disgraced former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay as part of his new 40 Days to Save America effort to rally Religious Right voters before the November election.

DeLay, who has appealed his convictions on money laundering and conspiracy charges that led to a three year prison sentence, prayed during the conference call and said that Americans “threw away” God’s blessing. “You gave us this nation and we’re at a crossroads, we can either succumb and do nothing or we can fight for Your worldview and for you Lord,” DeLay said, “You assigned civil government to us and that it is part of our responsibility to work hard for Your glory and Your will so Lord please give us a special favor”:

The conference call was mostly used to boost the candidacy of Akin, a Religious Right favorite who earlier claimed that “at the heart of liberalism really is a hatred for God,” and told listeners that class and racial differences in America only began recently as a result of the growth of government. He said that Americans must follow the Founders who went to war against a “foreign tyrant” just “not with bullets but with ballots.” “It’s no surprise that liberalism tries to remove references to God because God is the source of strength of those patriots,” Akin said.

For a nation based on the idea that there is a Creator who blessed us with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and he gave us those blessings because they were necessary for us to fulfill the special purpose that he called every single one of us to. That of course, implies, that there are no classes, there are no hyphenated Americans, we are all just God’s children and that’s good enough. That was the dream that every single one of us could live in the blessing of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That is the thing that has held us together, it’s the glue that made America special and it’s the reason why Americans went to war because some foreign tyrant threatened our ability to be alive and to have liberty and to pursue the dreams that God gives us, that’s why we went to war. And right now, in a sense, we are going to war, not with bullets but with ballots because there is a threat in Washington, D.C. that will take every part of that dream away from us. It’s no surprise that liberalism tries to remove references to God because God is the source of strength of those patriots.

As we noted earlier, James Robison was joined on today's episode of his television show by David Barton and Glenn Beck.  After Barton warned that liberals were trying to institute a "secular theocracy," Beck issued a warning of his own that most people are "in bed with absolute evil" and don't even realize it because our global society is "now worshiping Baal":

The anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking and release of ‘Titanic 3D’ has apparently inspired Truth in Action Ministries, formerly Coral Ridge Ministries, to produce a new short film presenting the “radical homosexual agenda” as an iceberg that could potentially destroy the United States.

The Truth that Transforms film features well-known anti-gay activists such as Jennifer Kennedy Cassidy and Jerry Newcombe of Truth in Action Ministries, Mathew Staver of Liberty Counsel, Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, right-wing historian Bill Federer, radio talk show host and author Michael Brown, and pastors Harry Jackson, Robert Jeffress and Erwin Lutzer.

Staver warned that the “homosexual agenda is the moral iceberg that we need to steer clear of” and maintained that it is “the biggest threat I believe in our lifetime to religious freedom and the fundamental values we share here in America.” While Jackson said the “homosexual agenda” is “one of those icebergs that if we don’t navigate around them correctly, will take us under,” Brown claimed “we’ve already hit the iceberg and the ship is already going down” and Land insisted that “we’re taking on water, the only question is whether or not we’re going to be able to survive and the ship won’t sink.” Staver predicted that opposition to gay rights is bound to be “criminalized and targeted for assault” and Federer even asserted that “there are just a couple steps before the military could be used in a persecution of those that are viewed as enemies of the new state belief system.”

Watch highlights of the film here:

Liberty Counsel deputy Matt Barber attacked former president Jimmy Carter, who in a new study Bible writes that he supports marriage equality for gays and lesbians, as “an apostate” in an interview with LifeSiteNews. Barber told the conservative outlet that Carter is using his influential position “to push heretical notions,” and Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission called Carter “hopelessly confused as a theologian”:

At the same time the 39th president has highlighted his more moderate stance on abortion, Carter has endorsed same-sex “marriage.” He told The Huffington Post, “I personally think it is very fine for gay people to be married in civil ceremonies” but he added he drew the line, “maybe arbitrarily, in requiring by law that churches must marry people.”

Dr. Richard Land said, “I’m not surprised that he holds that view. He is hopelessly confused as a theologian.” Carter has said his favorite theologians were liberals Rienhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich.

“Homosexual conduct, is listed over and over again in black-and-white as sin,” said Barber.

“There’s a word for what Jimmy Carter is doing. That’s apostasy,” Barber told LifeSiteNews.com. “That’s a strong word to use, but Jimmy Carter is an apostate in that he is leading the least of these to sin against what Scripture clearly condemns in terms of homosexual conduct.”

“He is not just fooling himself with this,” Barber told LifeSiteNews. “Unfortunately he’s using the goodwill he has developed over the years and his history as the leader of the free world to push heretical notions.”

On yesterday's episode of "WallBuilders Live," Rick Green and David Barton were discussing the issue of religious liberty and the role the issue played in the formation of the United States when Barton asserted that, right now, America is "like England back in the fifteen and sixteen hundreds" except that we are not burning people at the stake ... yet:

This is a really important thing, to be able to have the presence of religion there but now we're seeing a hostility that we've not [seen before.] This is like England back in the fifteen and sixteen hundreds, quite frankly. Now, we're not burning people at the stake yet, but we are imprisoning people for their faith and to say that in America, that's unbelievable.