Today, American Values president Gary Bauer spoke to Truth in Action Ministries’ Carmen Pate and John Rabe of Truth that Transforms where he claimed that because of legal abortion “we really do risk God taking His hand of protection off of our country.” He said that abortion rights could lead to the end of liberty, and also went on to claim that marriage equality for gays and lesbians would similarly have “devastating impacts on our society.” Later in the interview he falsely claimed that the legalization of same-sex marriage will inevitably lead to polygamy as “secular forces” try “to redefine American society”:

Bauer: As a society I think if we continue down this road of the destruction of a million innocent unborn children over a year we really do risk God taking His hand of protection off of our country. That would be tragic; it could very well mean the end of the American experiment in liberty under God. I always look at that issue, if somebody is wrong on that, they might be right on taxes, the size of government, national defense and so forth but if they are wrong on this I have found over the years that they end up in many cases being unreliable on those other things. So I would recommend that as being key.

Second of all this issue about the definition of marriage, marriage has been between a man and a woman in Western civilization for several thousand years, every state that has voted on this issue wants to keep it a man and a woman, but there is absolutely no doubt that if the wrong people are elected or re-elected this coming November we are going to have forced on us either by the courts or by these politicians a fundamental redefinition of the meaning of marriage, which I think would have just devastating impacts on our society.

…

Once we get a court ruling from a Supreme Court that says that under some provision in the Constitution that we’ve never thought authorized this we’d have to allow same-sex marriage, there would be no constitutional grounds that that court could say we’re going to keep illegal multiple marriages or group marriages or polygamy or a variety of other types of marriage that exist in other parts of the world and increasingly exist in Western countries in Europe where there are large Muslim populations, so this will follow as surely as night follows day. Anybody that thinks it will stop just with same-sex marriage either doesn’t understand the law or doesn’t understand that demands of secular forces that want to redefine American society.

Mission America president Linda Harvey this weekend on her radio show talked to Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality about Dan Savage’s It Gets Better Project, which she warned is “exploiting” children. Harvey attacked the anti-bullying and anti-suicide message of Savage’s It Gets Better Project for sending a “bad message” to children by, like Satan, manipulating the Bible. Last year, Harvey called the It Gets Better Project “evil” and “dark.”

Harvey: Back up to It Gets Better. If you look at some of those, and I’ve looked at some of the videos on there, these are very vulnerable kids and he is exploiting them. What he’s basically saying is, it’s kind of what Satan does in Scripture with Jesus, a little bit of truth of Scripture and then a lot of twisting and basically you end up in a place that is very unscriptural and untruthful. Yes, ‘there are bullies and ignore them,’ that’s a good message, ‘but go ahead full steam into homosexuality and gender confusion,’ a bad message, most parents want their kids to get an anti-bullying message that does not include that last part. He wants to go right and just say, ‘go for it,’ at young and younger ages.

LaBarbera: He knows he can reach them through the videos, he talked about how he gets in trouble when he talks about his anger and Dan Savage is a very angry man.

Harvey: Very.

LaBarbera: He hates Christians.

The New York Times on Saturday covered Dr. Robert Spitzer’s retraction of his 2003 study on the supposed effectiveness of ‘ex-gay’ reparative therapy, concluding that it “failed the test of scientific rigor” and was irredeemably flawed. Reparative therapy, also known as sexual orientation conversion therapy, has been deemed ineffective, harmful, and unethical by leading medical groups, including the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Association of Social Workers, the American Counseling Association, the American School Counselor Association and the Pan American Health Organization (a division of the World Health Organization).

But that doesn’t stop Religious Right activists from parroting blatant falsehoods about reparative therapy, as Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute told talk show host Janet Mefferd on Friday that the effectiveness of such therapy is “at least over 80%,” citing discredited “therapist” Joseph Nicolosi. Speaking about a bill in the California state legislature that would place limits on reparative therapy, Dacus claimed that if the legislation passes it will mean that “many hundreds of thousands or millions of youths who will be led down a path of death and destruction.”

Mefferd: Brad, is there overwhelming evidence that reparative therapy is a fraud?

Dacus: Actually it’s contrary, there’s overwhelming evidence that reparative therapy actually works. It’s not 100% because you have individual will and every person has their own issues. But Dr. [Joseph] Nicolosi and other famous psychiatrists who have treated this, thousands and thousands of patients, report a very high success rate, I know it’s at least over 80%, I believe it’s 80-85% success rate. These are people who leave the lifestyle, get married to people, have children, and enter heterosexual relationships. It’s a big mass of deception that they are trying to carry out at the expense of many hundreds of thousands or millions of youths who will be led down a path of death and destruction, unfortunately, if they get away with this.

Dacus, who earlier called the bill a “gross and outrageous violation against humanity,” also dubbed the bill “diabolical” and maintained that being gay is a result of child abuse or strained parental relationships, and that gay men have “an average lifespan of the age of 40.”

Dacus: This attempt to politicize this issue is going to leave a huge number of casualties and victims in its wake in the form of children and even adults.

…

Dacus: It’s very diabolical, it’s undermining parents. The assumption of those who are pushing this lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual movement, is that the average parent out there is ignorant, is harmful, is dangerous to children when they don’t affirm the child’s sexual orientation. Of course parents want what’s best for their children, parents love their children, and parents know that the homosexual lifestyle gives for boys an average lifespan of the age of 40. It’s worse than being a chain cigarette smoker. Parents who love their children are going to want to do everything they can, especially in the developmental, preadolescence, to steer them in the right direction. In fact, the majority of children work it through. But when you have children who have been sexually abused or youth who have not had any kind of bonding with their father or affirmation of their father, they are very subject to this and are in need of counseling.

For nearly two years now, the American Family Association has been leading a boycott against Home Depot because the company has "given its financial and corporate support to open displays of homosexual activism on main streets in America's towns."

As part of this campaign, representatives from the AFA attend Home Depot board meetings in order to demand that the company "remain neutral in the culture war" if it wants the AFA to call off the boycott.  So far, the AFA has not had much luck, but representatives continue to attend these meetings, as Randy Sharp, AFA's Director of Special projects, did last week.

Sharp reported that he had an opportunity to speak briefly with Home Depot Chairman Frank Blake  and demand that he agree to meet face-to-face with representatives of the right-wing group for an hour so that the AFA can make its case, but that he received no such commitment.

Sharp went on to reveal that he was not alone in attacking Home Depot for its support for equality at the board meeting, as a Bishop Robert Smith of Little Rock, Arkansas was also present and delivered a message claiming that Home Depot had become "Home Despot"  and warning that if it continued on this path, God would no longer bless the company or its shareholders. 

Both Bryan Fischer and Sharp agreed that this was a prophetic word for Home Depot that "came directly from God": 

UPDATE: The AFA has now posted audio of the remarks delivered by both Sharp and Smith at the board meeting, where Smith stated that God told him that "Home Depot was raised up to be an eagle with wings to bear up Israel in the time of trouble":

• Good As You: More on Harry Jackson's 24 hour anti-equality rave.
• Mariah Blake @ Salon: Coverup at Washington Times.
• Scott Keyes @ Think Progress: DOCUMENTARY PROOF: James O’Keefe’s Latest Video Is A Fraud.
• Nick R. Martin @ TPM: Arizona Goes Birther: Secretary Of State Says It’s ‘Possible’ Obama Won’t Be On Ballot.
• Paul Abowd @ Mother Jones: Think Tanks Push ALEC to Go After Unions.

• As expected, Randall Terry's acolytes interrupted a speech HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius delivered at at Georgetown University today.
• Herman Cain says President Obama's ties to Jeremiah Wright are "fair game."
• FRC is coming to Bristol Pailn's defense after she criticized President Obama's support for marriage equality.
• Is Grover Norquist losing his grip on the GOP?
• Franklin Graham says "there is no place for compromise on straightforward moral issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage."
• Finally, James Robison declares that "political attempts to redefine marriage and family are not tolerant but totalitarian."

It is pretty interesting to watch the Religious Right delicately attempt to embrace the anti-Obama Birther conspiracies while desperately trying to avoid being tagged as Birthers. 

Just a few weeks ago, Tony Perkins was saying he was not a Birther while simultaneously claiming that questions about Obama's birth certificate were "legitimate issues."

And now that the Right is all agog about Breitbart.com's latest bombshell dud, the folks over at the American Family Association are likewise trying to figure out how to walk the fine line of promoting the idea without getting stuck with the Birther label , as both Buster Wilson and Bryan Fischer claim not to be Birthers ... while stating categorically that President Obama's long-form birth certificate is a fake:

Liberty Counsel attorney Harry Mihet appeared on VCY America’s Crosstalk yesterday where in response to a caller’s statement about how Christians will soon “suffer” when they “speak the truth in love to a homosexual,” he said that in due time America will soon become like a Communist country where people can be arrested for “speaking the truth”:

Caller: I think it’s going to come to a time where as believers and followers of Jesus we’re going to be put into a situation where we are going to have to speak the truth in love to a homosexual and I think we need to be ready and just be willing to suffer for the cause of Jesus Christ.

Mihet: I think you’re right. Unfortunately I think truth is becoming the new hate speech in this country and I think we are headed for a time when speaking the truth is going to cost something. I’ve certainly seen that happen in Communist Romania, I saw how my father was taken from a church after a service and driven to the headquarters of the secret police and was held there and interrogated there for days at a time for doing nothing more than speaking the truth. Now that’s something we would expect from the Communists but that is something we are determined to not allow to happen in the land of the free, and so I think that’s the urgency that we’re dealing with here and that is why it is so important for every freedom loving American to inform themselves and to equip themselves and to join us in this critical fight for freedom in this country.

Earlier this week we wrote a post about Jerry Johnson and his role in formulating a document calling on Christian leaders who decide to back Mitt Romney to also make clear that Mormonism is a cult. As Johnson explained, he personally will not be voting for either President Obama or Mitt Romney because that is like having to choose between "voting for the Beast or the False Prophet."

Of course, if there is some Christian activist out there urging Christian voters not to support Mitt Romney because of his Mormon faith, it is only a matter of time before they are invited to make their case on Steve Deace's radio program ... just as Johnson was last night.

Johnson made the case that Christians are misinformed about the true nature of Mormonism, thanks to people like David Barton who is "hugging and kissing all over Glenn Beck," and asked whether Christians would be willing to vote for a member of the First Church of Satan if the candidate supported the conservative agenda, warning that the "anybody but Obama" mindset was going to drive the nation and the church "into the arms of perdition" and prevent God from blessing America:

55% of evangelicals either don't know what Mormonism teaches or they don't know that Christianity teaches. And that is our failure, that is the great calamity that we're facing right now thanks to people like Joel Olsteen and Rick Warren and David Barton, who is hugging and kissing all over Glenn Beck, calling him his brother in Christ.

Suppose you had a real conservative running again Barack Obama ... who was fiscally conservative, he believed in the right to keep and bear arms, all the things that conservatives hold to. But let's say he was a member of the First Church of Satan. Would his religion now make a difference? Would you be out endorsing and campaigning for him if he was a member of the Satanic Church?

Right now the attitude is in the country, or specifically within the Republican Party, anybody but Obama. And this idea, this mindset is going to drive, I believe, this country and even the church into the arms of perdition in many ways.

The issue is the blessings and curse of God. He is the one who is sovereign, dread sovereign, over all the universe. And we are reaping today the curses of God, I believe, in this country. So here's my question, I ask folks: do we really believe that God is going to bless America if we elect a professed polytheist to the highest office of the land?

Already boycotting JC Penney for hiring Ellen DeGeneres as a spokesperson, now the American Family Association’s OneMillionMoms is urging members to boycott Gap and its affiliated stores Old Navy, Banana Republic, Piperlime and Athleta. The group is upset about a billboard that features a gay couple and says “GAP needs to seriously consider how their immoral advertising affect the youth of our nation.”

The group also claimed that its boycott of JC Penney is working and responsible for the store’s declining profits:

Sales have dramatically dropped since JC Penney's showed their "bold new marketing strategy" included pushing a lesbian spokesperson and same-sex couples in their advertising. JC Penney's current marketing plan has done incalculable amounts of damage to this once family-friendly store. If they would quit pushing a deviant and unhealthy lifestyle and focus on product quality and value along with excellent customer service, their bottom line would be not be struggling.

Hopefully JC Penney's (and other retailers) will listen to their long time customers now as JCP is reporting a bigger-than-expected loss and plummeting profits in the first quarter. The retailer lost $163 million in the quarter ending April 28. Numbers do not lie.

Companies should learn from others' mistakes. Retailers need to choose morality or remain neutral. Otherwise, their bottom dollar will suffer.

Speaking of companies who are choosing to be politically correct instead of focusing on selling clothes; GAP is also guilty. In Los Angeles, CA, GAP has a billboard located downtown that reads: "GAP- BE BRIGHT- BE ONE" with two homosexual men pressed together under a shared t-shirt. They are hugging each other and facing the camera cheek-to-cheek. "BE ONE" is in large letters which emphasizes the same-sex relationship.

GAP Inc. Brands, including Old Navy, Banana Republic, Piperlime, and Athleta, does not deserve, nor will it get, money from conservative families across the country. Supporting GAP is not an option until they decide to remain neutral in the culture war. GAP needs to seriously consider how their immoral advertising affect the youth of our nation.

Christians should urge for the removal of GAP's offensive billboard in Los Angeles and any other city where it is located. GAP will also need to cancel any plans to use the "Be One" ad campaign elsewhere including store-front posters, its website, and in print magazine ads.

TAKE ACTION

GAP Inc. Brands approved this type of ad in public areas where families and children are sure to see it. Please send your email to GAP now and let them know you are offended by their disrespect for family values and common decency.

The group’s letter action item reads:

As a parent and a member of OneMillionMoms.com, I am highly offended by your company's disrespect for the millions of parents whose children will be exposed to your latest "Be One" GAP billboard ad. Selling clothes has nothing to do with a person's sexual orientation. In attempting to be politically correct, you are offending a huge majority of your customers.

GAP Inc. Brands, including Old Navy, Banana Republic, Piperlime, and Athleta, does not deserve, nor will it get, my family's business as a result. I will not be able to support your corporation until you decide to remain neutral in the culture war. I implore you to consider how your immoral actions affect the youth of our nation.

Please order the removal of your offensive billboard in Los Angeles and any other city it is located. Also cancel any plans to use your "Be One" ad campaign elsewhere including store front posters, your website, and in print magazine ads.

I look forward to hearing from you regarding my concerns.