Tiny Queer Footballs

Janet Folger and Theocracy

Kevin| Category: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Janet Folger, a conservative writer, posted a scary editorial at the WorldNetDaily.  It is titled “How to Win the Cultural War.”  It is scary because what Folger and those who support her message want is for this country to be a theocracy, plain and simple.  What she writes can’t be described in any other way.  She uses Scripture all throughout her ‘winning view’:

I think it would look something like Genesis 1:26: “Let them have dominion over … all the earth. …”

First, we must regain control of the public debate and the battlefronts, including:

1.  
   1. the schools
   2. the universities
   3. the legislatures
   4. the courts
   5. the White House
   6. the media
   7. the music
   8. science
   9. business
   10. technology
   11. and Hollywood

Janet Folger takes a passage from Genesis on how mankind should have dominion over the animals and all that is in it and twists it to mean that Christians should have dominion over all other people on the earth.  From her list she wants to control everything from education to science to the media.  She isn’t describing a democracy–she is describing a theocracy. 

She continues and uses another Old Testament passage:

Second, we must move from defense to offense.

The Lord your God has given you this land to take possession of it. – Deuteronomy 2:18b

In each battle, we pour out all our time, all our energy and all our money just to try and keep what we already had. But in a defensive posture, even when we “win,” we lose. You see, if they set a dozen brushfires, and we put out nine, we still have a net loss of three. When we “win” in defensive mode, we gain nothing.

Again, this passage is talking about the Hebrews taking possession of Palestine, but she twists it to mean that Christians in the U.S. should take possession of all the land and all the people living in it.  This is scary stuff.

And what kind of a country does she want it to be?  I’ll give her entire list:

Imagine for a moment that you had all the resources you needed. What would our demands be?

1. We demand an end to abortion – now.
2. We demand Planned Parenthood be defunded and pay back all tax money received where they have violated state statutory rape reporting laws.
3. We demand marriage between a man and a woman remain the only recognized, protected and subsidized union. All counterfeit unions will not to be legally recognized.
4. Freedom of religion will be practiced unhindered in every facet of America including public schools, the workplace, media, Internet and the public square.
5. Freedom of speech will not be relegated to “zones” but rather practiced in every corner of society including schools, the workplace, media, Internet and the public square.
6. Judges who usurp their authority will be automatically removed from office.
7. Executive officers and legislatures shall not obey illegal court decisions but rather remove the judges who made them.
8. We demand that any school who puts a minor in harm’s way in violation of all 50 state laws by promoting dangerous behavior, including homosexuality and abortion, will automatically lose its public funding.
9. Creationism will be taught in public schools as an alternative theory.
10. The government school monopoly will be broken with tax vouchers for parents to choose their child’s education including homeschooling.

She is describing a theocracy, run by “christians” like herself (except in a Christian theocracy a woman like herself would have no say in matters–I guess Janet Folger hasn’t thought about the actions she is calling for).  She wants judges removed from office if they don’t agree with her agenda.  Any legislation that she disagrees with should be tossed.  She wants education to be controlled by Christians of her kind and wants schools shut down that teach what she doesn’t like.  She wants the religious idea of creationism taught as a science and if they don’t, she wants the schools shut down. 

Look at her list again, and all of us in this country who believe in democracy and free speech (even for those who hate gays and lesbians) should be very afraid of Janet Folger and those who support her.  She wants to overthrow the government we have and replace it with a theocracy.  You know what I think we should do with her words?  Contact your elected officials.  Send them her agenda (and this is an agenda that is supported by many others like her).  Talk to them about the dangers of these people to our way of life.  Spread her words far and wide and let the people have a say in whether or  not our country should be turned into a theocracy.  People like her always look back to the founding fathers, but what she is describing is exactly the opposite of what they created.  We have to use our right to free speech before people like Janet Folger and those like her take ours away.

Another Dead Kid Because of Hate

Kevin| Category: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

I see that the 15 year old who was shot and killed at his school because he dressed like a girl.  That was it.  The killer is an eight grader (14 years old) who will probably tried as an adult and is also charged with a hate crime.

Now I could say a lot about this 14 year old.  It is tragic, but this is something that could have been avoided.  But instead you have people like Peter LaBarbera, DL Foster and the rest of their buddies calling gays and lesbians wicked and evil.  So an impressionable 14 year old hears this message and takes it into his own hands to deal with it.  And now we have a dead 15 year old because of it.  The message that these anti-gay activists spread in the name of religion is poison and this is one result of that poison. 

The Ventura County School system has a program for middle school kids to teach tolerance and acceptance (something that DL Foster, Peter LaBarbera, Mark at Chesterstreet and all the rest of the anti-gay crusaders are totally against and fight against).  But it wasn’t enough and you have people who I just mentioned that fight tooth and nail against these programs.  They must know that their actions have repercussions.  In fact, just the other day Peter LaBarbera wrote a post with the words Tranny Insanity.  Here are some words from the anti-gay activist about an 8 year old (and I don’t know if Lawrence King would have become a transexual:  now we’ll never know):

In the case of the eight-year-old boy, to what future are the politically correct adults — parents and school authorities included — consigning him with their “caring” embrace of deviance? 

And more to the point:

Also note that the Colorado school principal frames this as an issue of “diversity” — showing the elasticity of that term to include extremely disordered behavioral choices among even the youngest students. This story and the way it is being reported is a microcosm of America’s deep moral crisis.

So Peter LaBarbera is against diversity; he spreads his hate, and some people listen.  I wonder if that 14 year old had heard some of the message spouted against diversity by people like LaBarbera?

I don’t know how these people live with themselves.

And this is the reason why we can never stop fighting against this hate that they believe is based on religion. And this is why we must never let the so-called religious message of Peter LaBarbera and DL Foster (and all the rest of their buddies–you know who you are) become the law of this country.  We’ll see a heck of a lot more dead people if that ever happens.

The Antichrist will be Gay???

Kevin| Category: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

I see at the Gay Christian Ministry Watch DL Foster has been chosen as one of the “10 Emerging Voices of the African American Church”:

In its February 2008 special Black History Month issue, Charisma Magazine will be featuring “10 Emerging Voices of the African American Church”. Incredibly, I was selected as one of those voices. I will be writing an article about the state of the black church and homosexuality.

I went to the website of this Charisma Magazine, and big surprise–there was an article on those nasty homosexuals, but it was not written by DL Foster, but someone named Kimberly Daniels.  It may not have been written by Foster, but their messages are the same. 

Apparently this Kimberly Daniels is referred to as an apostle, at least according to her own website (wow, what an ego to go along with everything else!).  She has some interesting ideas, including trying to get people to pray at certain times of the day:

Your assignment is to pray at least one hour between the hours of 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. If your day makes this impossible and you are up late, pray at 1:00 a.m. (Only if feasible). The prayer assignment is to create an environment in the heavens before the sun rises conducive to the agenda of the Kingdom of Heaven. According to scripture, at sunrise the ordinances of the day will be released as it has been programmed through prayer. We will deprogram all the agendas of darkness before the break of daw

(the ‘daw’ is from her own website…)

Besides trying to ‘create’ a conducive environment in the heavens in the early morning, she is also involved in writing against homosexuals. 

Here is a bit of what the straight Daniels has to say in her article called “Gay Deception“: (more…)

LaBarbera and his National Press Club visit

Kevin| Category: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Someone let Peter LaBarbera, the man who has spent his whole life vilifying gays and lesbians, into the National Press Club to give a speech and to show video from the Folsom Street Fair.  I wonder when they will next have Fred Phelps on?  LaBarbera has never explained why he has spent his adult life on a witch hunt against gays and lesbians and the more I read about him, the more I think he is like DL Foster.  DL Foster is an ex-gay and spends all of his time vilifying gays and lesbians as well, just to prove to the world how sanctified he is by God and how straight he is because of his merciless attacks on gays and lesbians.

Anyway, LaBarbera and his friend Allyson Smith made a special trip all the way to San Francisco to be part of the Folsom Street Fair.  They went to the Fair and then took video and pictures.  We all know how much LaBarbera likes to take pictures and video of gays and lesbians–especially gay men.  He apparently had a room full of pornography and leather suits when he worked at the Illinois Family Institute…(and it is also interesting that the Illinois Family Institute is hosting LaBarbera’s speech on their YouTube site).  So during his ’speech’ at the Press Club, he showed the video that was shot by the anti-gay activist (and friend of Stacy Harp) Allyson Smith. 

So here is part of the ethical statement put out by the Press Club:

I believe in the profession of Journalism.

I believe that the public journal is a public trust; that all connected with it are, to the full measure of responsibility, trustees for the public; that acceptance of lesser service than the public service is a betrayal of this trust.

I believe that clear thinking, clear statement, accuracy and fairness are fundamental to good journalism.

I believe that a journalist should write only what he holds in his heart to be true. I believe that suppression of the news, for any consideration other than the welfare of society, is indefensible.

I believe that no one should write as a journalist what he would not say as a gentleman; that bribery by one’s own pocket book is as much to be avoided as bribery by the pocketbook of another; that individual responsibility may not be escaped by pleading another’s instructions or another’s dividends.

I believe that advertising, news and editorial columns should alike serve the best interests of readers; that a single standard of helpful truth and cleanness should prevail for all; that supreme test of good journalism is the measure of its public ser vice.

I believe that the journalism which succeeds the best-and best deserves success-fears God and honors man; is stoutly independent; unmoved by pride of opinion or greed of power; constructive, tolerant but never careless, self-controlled, patient, always respectful of its readers but always unafraid, is quickly indignant at injustice; is unswayed by the appeal of the privilege or the clamor of the mob; seeks to give every man a chance, and as far as law, an honest wage and recognition of human brotherhood can make it so, an equal chance; is profoundly patriotic while sincerely promoting international good will and cementing world-comradeship, is a journalism of humanity, of and for today’s world.

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It is Too Bad That DL Foster Can’t Take the Advice He Was Given…

Kevin| Category: Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Today DL Foster, the ex-gay, now totally straight, married with children reverend, has posted a letter written by someone named Laurie Higgins.  He has made it his straight-life’s mission to demonize gays and lesbians.  He runs a non-profit that profits off this demonizing.  That is what he does constantly and relentlessly.  Let me start off by giving a bit of this letter by Laurie Higgins (I’ve done the underlining and bolding):

Many Christians are confused, discouraged, and even more troubling, seduced by the relentless assaults on biblical truth waged by the culture of homosexuality that tirelessly pursues its goal of total cultural acceptance by infiltrating our churches, schools, families, and the media.  This confusion, discouragement, and seduction are exacerbated by the relative silence of the church.

…The stubborn rebellious assaults on Scripture

…As satanic ideas about sexuality perpetuate, we must arm ourselves for battle where the Enemy is attacking.

…On the subject of homosexuality, our young people face diabolical attempts at indoctrination in high school, in college, and in the mass media

…We must be willing and determined to address these grave moral and spiritual deceptions without hint of concession to the world

…In the face of this sweeping spiritual and cultural assault, where, if not the church, do our pastors think their followers will be taught truth?

…We must stand tall in the face of the enemies of the Eternal Living God

…The powers of darkness lose something that matters when we obey Christ and renounce the spirits of fear, apathy, and conformity

…At different times in history, the enemy chooses different scriptural truths to attack with ferocity, and the church must respond accordingly

Now a couple of things here.  Look at the language of this letter and the message that DL Foster is trying to convey.  It really isn’t any different that his previous messages:  Gays and lesbians are evil, they are infiltrating everywhere, indoctrinating everyone, they are seducing the young, they are satanic and attacking, they are enemies of the Living God, they are the powers of darkness and the mighty warriors, like this Laurie Higgins and DL Foster and all the rest who spread this message, are on God’s side.

There is something deeply, deeply disturbing about this message.  This is really a call to violence against gays and lesbians, pure and simple.  There is no doubt that some simple-minded person (or not so-simple minded person) will read this and want to become a mighty warrior for God and do the bidding of Laurie Higgins and DL Foster and Mark at Chesterstreet (who is also spreading this message).  What other message can someone take away from this kind of language?  Granted, I have cut and pasted the worst parts of it, but the message is clear:  gays and lesbians are evil and need to be stopped by God’s warriors.  These people spreading this message should be ashamed and they should really think about what they are trying to do with it.

Laurie Higgins also writes:

“…Certainly, a pastor or youth group leader ought not to preach or teach on homosexuality continually…”

So do you think that DL Foster, who has spent his whole adult straight life doing nothing but preaching and ‘teaching’ about homosexuality, will heed her advice?  Will Peter LaBarbera (who is certainly not a minister, but has spent his entire adult life brooding over all things gay and lesbian) heed her advice?   Will Mark at Chesterstreet heed her advice?  My guess is, sadly, no. 

Guest BLOG: Symbolism or Substance in ENDA Debate?

HuckabyJM| Category: Action Alert!, Debate, ENDA, PFLAG | 2 Comments

By Jody M. Huckaby

When the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) received its first-ever vote in the House of Representatives and passed the Education and Labor Committee on Oct. 18, it should have been a historic - and celebratory - moment for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. But there was a cloud hanging over the vote, with over 300 LGBT and allied groups in the United ENDA Coalition advocating for the original form of the bill introduced earlier this year- one that finally included a ban on discrimination based on gender identity. The House Democratic leadership’s decision to strip those protections from the bill, leaving only sexual orientation covered, has turned what should have been a victory into an unnecessarily divisive, disappointing setback for the LGBT movement. Unfortunately, the mainstream media has characterized this primarily intra-community conflict as the protestations of a “fringe minority of transgender activists” or the “extreme left” of the LGBT population. Nothing could be further from the truth. One look at the list of organizations and the constituencies we represent makes that crystal clear. This is not a conflict between “pragmatic incrementalists” and “all-or-nothing idealists.” this controversy goes to the very core of what brings the LGBT community together, and it has forced a much-needed debate to the surface. It is time for some truth-telling and difficult conversations about what it means to be a community advocating for workplace protections.

Our coalition is urging Congress either to restore gender identity protections via an amendment offered by Congresswoman and out lesbian Tammy Baldwin or, if that cannot be accomplished, to drop the effort to pass LGBT anti-discrimination legislation this year. The reality is that this President will not even consider signing such a bill, whether it covers gender identity or only sexual orientation.  This gives us the opportunity in the coming months to continue to educate our elected officials  - and the public - about how matters of gender affect people of all sexual orientations.

Legal experts have criticized the existing bill as having far too many flaws to provide adequate protections for  ndividuals based on sexual orientation, which often is closely linked to their actual or perceived gender expression. Gay, lesbian and bisexual people who are “straight-acting and appearing” might indeed face a safer future following the passage of this bill, but those who more outwardly transgress gender norms would remain vulnerable under the stripped-down ENDA. Sadly, this has been lost in nearly all of the media coverage of this issue.

Simply put, men who are perceived as effeminate and women who are seen as masculine are often singled out for discrimination in the workplace, and federal case law is not settled as to whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 provides sufficient protection for such individuals.  Take the example of Christopher Vickers, a private police officer at an Ohio hospital.  He claimed that he had been discriminated against and verbally and physically harassed on a daily basis after he became friends with a gay man.   Much of the harassment focused on questioning Vickers’ masculinity and suggesting that his sexual practices were those traditionally associated with women.  Just last year, a federal appellate court  threw out Vickers’ case  because it found  that Title VII does not forbid this type of discrimination.  Keeping gender identity protections in ENDA would help correct such rulings and represent a major advance in the civil rights of all Americans — lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and straight. While under most circumstances we would support efforts to achieve a tactical victory in the House this year, we feel that seriously weakening the bill and dividing the LGBT community represent a price that is simply too high to pay for a purely symbolic exercise. We believe that maintaining an inclusive ENDA, with protections for the entire LGBT community intact, is both the pragmatic and principled way to proceed.

Advocates of the stripped down ENDA have said that insufficient education has been done concerning transgender Americans and broader issues of gender identity. However, they appear to have overlooked the dramatic, recent gains made in adding gender identity protections to state and local law. Twelve states,  the District of Columbia and more than 90 counties and municipalities now protect transgender people from workplace discrimination. Together, these jurisdictions contain more than 100 million people, about 37 percent of the U.S. population. While more states and localities have sexual orientation protections (representing just over 50% of the U.S. population), the gap is narrowing rapidly.

Since 2003, every state and nearly ever municipality that has enacted sexual orientation protection has also covered gender identity. In large measure, this progress has been the result of the growing unity, solidarity and cohesion of the LGBT community.

United ENDA’s primary goal is to keep our community and our allies united behind an inclusive ENDA until progressive forces have strengthened their position in Congress and there has been a change for the better in the White House. Our coalition represents not only LGBT people, but their parents, family members and straight allies who understand the importance of keeping the community united rather than pulling it apart.  Watering the bill down now and dividing the LGBT community for a victory that is more apparent than real is a dangerous distraction and the wrong precedent to set.

If members of Congress need more education on gender identity issues, let’s continue to increase our work to do that now.  Let’s make sure they know that surveys show that 60 percent of transgender respondents have either no source of income or earn less than $10,000 a year, demonstrating the desperate need for employment protections for transgender people. Let’s make sure they know how frequently lesbians, gay men and bisexuals are subjected to discrimination based  not on their sexual orientation but also because of attitudes about how “real” men and women are “supposed” to look and act. Let’s work together to pass the right bill, one that unites LGBT people, their families and straight allies together, not an inadequate bill that fails protect everyone equally.

Jody M. Huckaby, Executive Director, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) National. PFLAG is one of nearly 350 organizations that are part of www.UnitedENDA.org

Help put an ‘ENDA’ discrimination. Pick up the phone!

Punted| Category: Action Alert!, Debate, ENDA, Pride | 0 Comments

These next 2 days are very important.  ENDA will go up for a full vote on Wednesday, October 24th.  Expected to be included is the “Baldwin Amendment” which would include transgender, gender expression, and gender identity.

This is the important defining moment.  We all need to contact our congressional offices and let them know that they need to support the ENDA bill and the Baldwin Amendment.  Let them know the importance of a fully inclusive society and one that provides protection from bigotry based on prejudicial bias.

Call the Capitol Switchboard TODAY!  (202)-224-3121 is all you have to dial.  It’s the easiest way to effect change without donating to any organization.  Your representantives hear from you!

Call now!  Simply type in your zip-code and you’ll be routed to aides of your representative.  Remember to be polite, be on point, and be brief.  Let them know who you are, and give them your information so if the representative or memebers of their staff want to call back with questions they can.

What are you waiting for?  Make change for the better.  Call NOW!  Operators are standing by.

Military Response to ironic ads: [That website] does not “meet the moral standards” of the military.

Punted| Category: Action Alert!, Cross-Posted, DADT, Don't Ask, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Don't Tell | 1 Comment

According to USA Today, the Army, Navy, and Air Force have been advertising on the networking site for LGBT professionals, GLEE.com.  A sign perhaps?  Perhaps good news at a time when military recruiters are having trouble filling the ranks with warm bodies in an ever growing unpopular conflict? Perhaps not. (more…)

Come on guys and gals, don’t eat your own

G-A-Y| Category: Action Alert!, Uncategorized | 0 Comments

 (The public in-fighting absolutely has to come to an end.  The only way to move forward is to join together and continue to fight what truly separates us from a fully equal and inclusive society (Cross-Posted from Good As You)  Show support by signing the petition –Punted)

With our community apparently incapable of understanding the concept of keeping your internal strife to yourself and instead combatting your opposition (a strategy our opposition has mastered to perfection), the public battle over trans-inclusive ENDA vs. gutted ENDA continues to rage on. The latest:

-Lambda Legal finds a stripped down version of ENDA to be inadequate.

-Barney Frank says Lambda’s assessment is wrong.

-Americablog’s John Aravosis questions why “trans” was added to ENDA in the first place if it was just going to be dropped

-The only transgender member of the Human Rights Campaign board, Donna Rose, steps down from her post over this situation

-The National Transgender Advocacy Coalition is protesting the October 6th annual HRC National Dinner in Washington, DC, at which Nancy Pelosi is to be honored.

-This despite the fact that HRC has now launched a “full-scale nationwide call to action” in support of Inclusive ENDA

Meanwhile, just like that uncle we don’t care for who continues to stuff his face with turkey and stuffing while we argue with our brothers and sisters over Thanksgiving dinner, our opposition continues to sit back and enjoy the feast of material we are giving them with this public family food fight.

It needs to come to an end.

DL Foster and His Own Credentials

Kevin| Category: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

I just did a post on my own blog about DL Foster and his statement that the tax-free status of a church is ‘voluntary enslavement’ to the government.  I made the point that it appears that DL Foster has voluntarily enslaved himself because his own church has a tax-free status.   

As I was looking up DL Foster’s church tax-free status, I noticed that Guidestar listed the ‘Chief Executive Profile’, who is DL Foster.  One thing I noticed is that his educational credentials are listed.  If you remember, a couple of weeks ago I exposed his own shaky credentials after he made an attack on someone else’s. 

On his official bio he lists these schools that he went to:

He also furthered his education at the University of Maryland and Liberty University.  Pastor Foster is currently pursuing a B.Th. at Atlanta Bible College. 

I looked at this Atlanta Bible College, and since I had heard of U. of Maryland, I figured I wouldn’t bother looking this university up.  It is well known.  But when I went to the Guidestar description, it listed these schools that DL Foster went to and these were McClennan Community College, Liberty University, and the University of Maryland (European Campus). 

Now look at the difference–his official church bio lists University of Maryland.  But his Guidestar description lists U. of Maryland (European Campus). I thought this sounded fishy, so I did a Google search for it and since DL Foster attacked Bishop Wyatt using a Wikipedia article, I decided to read what Wikipedia had to say about this U. of Maryland, European campus:

The University of Maryland University College (UMUC), located in the unincorporated community of Adelphi in Prince George’s County, Maryland in the United States, is the second-largest university in Maryland. The University in its entirety has one focus: the educational needs of the non-traditional student. UMUC is a separate institution from the well-known University of Maryland located in College Park, MD.

I have bolded and underlined that last sentence–the school he lists on his official bio is NOT the University of Maryland, but the University of Maryland University College.  It sounds like the good reverend is actively trying to fool people about his education (and this is what he was trying to point out in his attack on Bishop Dr. Wyatt). 

University of Maryland University College does have facilities in Europe:

In Europe and Asia, UMUC delivers graduate and undergraduate classes on military sites for active-duty service members, government employees, and their families. The university is a global institution that offers on-site, instructor-led classes at over 110 overseas US military bases in 23 countries throughout the world through its European and Asian Divisions, including some USCENTCOM installations. UMUC administrative facilities are located on Yokota Air Base, Tokyo, Japan and in Heidelberg, Germany near United States Army Garrison Heidelberg.

But IT IS NOT the University of Maryland as DL Foster has on his official Church biography.  Now why is that?  Foster attacked Wyatt for phony credentials (if that is really true) but now it has come to light that DL Foster’s credentials are not quite what he states they are.  Maybe it is time for DL Foster to come clean about his educational credentials and tell the truth–especially since he demands it from other people.

Gays, Lesbians, DL Foster and Nigeria

Kevin| Category: Uncategorized | 3 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about how some members of the U.S. Episcopal Church have decided they want to align themselves up with “Archbishop” Akinola of Nigeria.  Akinola is the one of the people from Africa that is demanding that gays and lesbians be purged from the church (well, that is alt least his intent).  Now one of his new bishops (which he ordained), Isaac Orama, is taking up the cause.  In an interview on Nigerian tv, the good bishop had this to say:

“It is scaring that any one should be involved in a thing like that and I want to say that they will not escape the wrath of God.” He said that the practice, which has worsened over the years, was “unbiblical and against God’s purpose for creating man.

Homosexuality and lesbianism are inhuman. Those who practice them are insane, satanic and are not fit to live because they are rebels to God’s purpose for man.”

What is especially scary about this is that Bishop Orama said he is taking this fight to the U.S.  His reasoning?:

“The aim of such fight is to provide a safe place for those who want to remain faithful Anglicans and Biblical Christians.”

So he states that gays and lesbians are not fit to live, and yet he wants to stop them to ‘provide a safe place for those who want to remain faithful Anglicans and Biblical Christians”?  So kill us off so that Episcopalians can be safe???  You have to wonder if this bishop actually thinks before he speaks. I doubt it.  For more on this see BoxTurtleBulletin.

And if you think that the idea that gays and lesbians are Satanic is non-existent in the U.S., think again.  Just a few days ago DL Foster, at his website, Gay Christian Movement Watch, did a little expose on Satan.  His first paragraph reads (I have done the underlining and bolding):

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Be Careful What You Post, Reverend DL Foster…

Kevin| Category: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

DL Foster, the mind of The Gay Christian Movement Watch, accused a person (Bishop “Dr.” Wyatt) of having a fraudulent academic background.  I am not going to comment on what he said, since I’m not really interested in that.  But it did make me wonder about Reverend Foster’s own credentials.  In his Witness for the World website, he lists them:

After graduating from Marlin (TX) High School in 1980, he attended McClennan Community College…He also furthered his education at the University of Maryland and Liberty University.  Pastor Foster is currently pursuing a B.Th. at Atlanta Bible College. 

Unlike Foster, I would never call up a university to ask about who went there and who didn’t.  Any school that gives out personal information like that should be sued because of privacy concerns.  But I can look up various places, especially the Atlanta Bible College, where he is getting his Bachelors in Theology.  The website for this Bible College lists that it is accredited:

Atlanta Bible College is accredited by the Accrediting Commission International (ACI), 505 North Apple Street, Beebe, AR 72012. ABC received full accreditation and membership in the Commission in 1998. The ACI is an international accrediting commission which holds as its primary objective the encouragement and maintenance of sound scholarship and the highest academic achievement in the areas of private Christian education. It is a non-governmental body.

The Accrediting Commission International has a very interesting history.  In 1982 there was a similarly named group called the International Accrediting Commission (IAC).  They gave accreditation to schools that could not get accredited.  By 1989 they had given out more that 130 accreditation certificates to these schools.  But, it was shut down when a sting operation found that the ACI gave accreditation to a fake school.  The IAC came in to a fake office, looked around, took a check from this fake school and gave it its full accreditation seal of approval.  The IAC was forced to shut down and soon after it was taken over my a man named Sheer.  He moved it to Arkansas and renamed it the Accrediting Commission International (the same group that has accredited DL Foster’s program).  It accepted all of the schools that were ‘accredited’ by the International Accrediting Commission.  On its website it specifically states that it is not a governmental organization and that it works primarily with religious schools “that [do] not fit into the programs of other accrediting agencies.”  Why wouldn’t a school that offers bachelor’s degrees not fit into a normal accreditation program?  It sounds a bit fishy to me.  They also give their seal of accreditation to overseas schools (which is something that Foster bitterly complains about with Wyatt’s grad degrees from St. Regis University):

We appeal to foreign schools who offer business programs, as long as they meet the laws in the country of residence and the guidlines of the Accrediting Commission International.

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Thursday This and That: Craig’s List

Punted| Category: Uncategorized | 0 Comments

Hi folks, welcome to another belated this and that. What a line-up we have for you!

Dominating the news and the Internets this week: Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID)

After being reported on back in October by BlogActive almost a year later he’s caught rosy palmed red handed. He’s such a “Naughty boy!”

Giving us the Freudian slip he declares his innocence that he’s clearly not gay.

When discussing the comparisons to the Clenis we learn that Dancing with the Stars loser, Tucker Carlson needs backup. Tucker, you got some ’splaining to do! Thanks D.P. !
Pam shows us what Craig should have said.

Double-Standards (R) Us: (R)epublicans demand resignation.

Should this be viewed as entrapment or as a sign of what happens to deeply closeted people?

And finally desperate pleading from a desperate man.

Peter LaBarbera and What He Doesn’t Tell You

Kevin| Category: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

For a while now Peter LaBarbera has tried to appear as a minister wanna-be and has tried to make his hatesite appear to be related to Christianity (www.americansfortruth.com).  The other day Peter looked way back to a writing by a man named Albert Barnes.  Mr. Barnes died in 1870 and in 1832 he wrote something called Notes on the Gospels.  So Peter LaBarbera is relying on a Biblical commentary that was written over 170 years ago.  LaBarbera writes of Mr. Barnes:

Below we look at the writings of Albert Barnes (1798-1870), a popular Presbyterian minister and Bible commentator who crusaded against slavery and lived to see it outlawed in the United States. Over a million volumes of Barnes’ commentaries on New Testament books were sold by 1870.

He took his information from Wikipedia.  But what LaBarbera doesn’t tell you is that in the same Wikipedia article Barnes was tried but not convicted of heresy:

He held a prominent place in the New School branch of the Presbyterians, to which he adhered on the division of the denomination in 1837; he had been tried (but not convicted) for heresy in 1836, the charge being particularly against the views expressed by him in Notes on Romans (1835) of the imputation of the sin of Adam, original sin and the atonement; the bitterness stirred up by this trial contributed towards widening the breach between the conservative and the progressive elements in the church. He was an eloquent preacher, but his reputation rests chiefly on his expository works, which are said to have had a larger circulation both in Europe and America than any others of their class.

Being tried for heresy is a pretty serious charge and notice that LaBarbera left that fact out of his glowing description of Mr. Barnes.  What he also left out from his description is this little tidbit (I have done the bolding and underlining):

Of the well-known Notes on the New Testament, it is said that more than a million volumes had been issued by 1870. The Notes on Job, the Psalms, Isaiah and Daniel found scarcely less acceptance. Displaying no original critical power, their chief merit lies in the fact that they bring in a popular (but not always accurate) form the results of the criticism of others within the reach of general readers.

I am not surprised that someone like LaBarbera would ignore the fact that there was no ‘original critical’ thinking in the writings of Albert Barnes, nor the fact that Barnes was not always accurate.  It was written for Sunday school teachers–not those who study the bible (not that there is anything wrong with Sunday school teachers–my argument here is that this is not an academic book written by a biblical scholar to be used by biblical scholars).  Hmm. I guess Peter LaBarbera isn’t interested in telling the whole truth (I, for one, am not surprised).

Peter LaBarbera also asks:

Ask yourself: what is the justification for discarding the historic Christian view laid out by Barnes against what the King James Bible calls the “vile affection” of sodomy?

Well, if he had bothered to think about the rest of the Wikipedia article he had quoted, he could have answered this himself.  What Barnes wrote in 1832 was simplistic and in some cases, wrong.  Who would want to put their trust in something like that? 

I’m not going to waste time time more on dealing with what Barnes had to write.  No serious student of the Bible would want to use a commentary that was written over 170 years ago. 

In My Opinion: HRC/Logo Forum on LGBT Equality Summary

Punted| Category: 2008 Elections, Barack Obama, DADT, Debate, Don't Ask, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Don't Tell, ENDA, HRC, Hate Crime Laws, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Pam's House Blend | 5 Comments

The Forum last night wasn’t exactly a huge success. While it was the first of its kind addressing solely the issues that affect the LGBT community the candidates were mostly able to wriggle out of answering a lot of questions that pertained to our equality.

The candidates went in the order that they responded to the invite which shows Hillary responded last while Obama responded first. it looked a lot like the set of Oprah the way seats were laid out and the audience, clearly hand-picked for their notability/recognizability in the queer community looked decidedly uncomfortable.

The order in which I write about the candidates is basically the order at whcih I pull them out of memory.

Edwards did not move positions. Once he realized that it sounded like his position had changed he backtracked immediately with the comment “My positions haven’t changed.” Edwards seems to be as he stated “evolving” but purposely saying, “Oh yeah, I wanna support you, but can’t ‘cuz I won’t get the votes. But my wife supports you, can’t you just take that?”

Kucinich and Gravel, we knew would be in our court. Gravel sounded less crazy than Kucinich, and at the same time actually discussed a lot more than the front runners.

Hillary, even when pressed by the question of “state’s rights” (my submitted question I might add) couldn’t bring herself to answer the question directly. Of the candidates so far I’m still for Kucinich and Gravel for their unaplogetic stances on anything, but that’s a different story. She even at one point said and I’m paraphrasing ‘Even if I went through the things that you all went through for the last 15 years my positions would not be any different.’ If that’s not a kick in the teeth I don’t know what is. When pressed about why she hasn’t introduced legislation in the Senate as a companion bill to the House’s Military Readiness Enchancement Act (MREA), she merely went on about

Bill Richardson lost A LOT of points when he melted down on Melissa’s and Joe’s questions. When asked whether or not he thought homosexuality was a choice his first response was “Yes, it’s a choice.” After three attempts at giving him the chance to answer the question in a different manner he maintained. He only changed his response to that after the forum when pressed about it by blogger Pam Spaulding. The question he was posed by Joe Solmonese which remains unanswered was “If presented with a bill for equal marriage, would you sign it?” His response: “I’ve done everything I can to push for ‘Domestic Partnerships.’” Three times he was asked this as well, twice in the forum and again, by Pam. Simply, he wants us to go on his record. My response to that is that while one’s record is clearly important what you say and what you do know is very important to the survival of your comapaign.

Obama did fairly well however still when pressed about the hard issues couldn’t break from his personal stance. At one point he even, and unfortunatley not many caught it, prioritized us and homophobia as last among all other things that need to be addressed in the black community.

None (other than Edwards briefly) actually seemed to be able to identify with our community and our struggles. Most candidates touched on AIDS and Healthcare and what they’ve done. But clear to me was the bottom line, we’re just not important enough for any of the top tier candidates.

We have a right and a responsibility to demand what’s right form our candidates. We still have a long road ahead of us to get to the 2008 elections and we need to keep pressing these issues to get the answers that we deserve. Human equality is not something that should be “left to the states.” Human dignity is not a votable issue. No more 85% citizenship simply because of who we love or who we’re attracted to. No more getting fired from jobs because our boss just happens to be bigoted against gay people. Whether or not your Creator is God, Jehova, Allah, Zeus, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or none of the above, we all are guaranteed equal legal status by our constitution and our government and it’s time that we stand up and unite to demand it.