Box Turtle Bulletin

Loving Gays SO MUCH You Want to Send Them to Hell

Peter LaBarbera? The anti-gay who obsessively photographs gay sex (because he’s so against it), and who spreads terrible lies about gays molesting children? He has a new definition of what it means to “love” gays in a Christian way:

Send them to Hell.

Yesterday Pete posted a video from the genuinely grotesque Molotov Mitchell. See, Molly has gay friends. And he considers it his duty to tell them they’re going to hell. A number of conservative Christians think this way, and it’s actually not that hard to understand. If you believe a friend is in danger of eternal damnation, wouldn’t you want to save him from that fate? Peter calls Molly’s attitude, “loving a homosexual friend enough to tell him the truth.”

But there’s a problem.

Molly also believes we should put practicing gays to death. In this video he claims it’s the only Christian thing to do. He explicitly says “Ugandans are right” to impose a death penalty on gays. Really, he does. And according to conservative Christian theology, you know what happens to those who die without repenting their “sins” or accepting the conservative version of Jesus?

They go to Hell.

By the way, Molly has a long history of lying about the Uganda bill, trying to quell opposition by misrepresenting what bill says. That makes him an active advocate of a homosexual death penalty.

This is the man Peter LaBarbera lauds as sharing “Biblical love.” A love for his gay friends so great he wants to see them dead and in Hell.

Which Side Are You On?

Last week, I noted that Peter LaBarbera’s coming unglued over Ann Coulter’s scheduled appearance at GOProud might almost — almost — make me want to cheer for Coulter. Now LaBarbera’s going off on Glenn Beck for saying that same-sex marriage is not a threat to the country. LaBarbera counters that gay marriage will “destroy freedom.” Of course, the only freedom he’s really interested in is the freedom to force us to cower in the closet. That cause was lost 41 years ago.

Meanwhile, World Net Daily is also melting down over Coulter and GOProud. Coulter has been axed from WND’s “Taking America Back National Conference” to be held in Miami next month. Joseph Farah, WND’s editor, spoke to Coulter and said that she told him the only reason she’s speaking at GOProud is because she’s getting paid. Remember, this is coming from Farah so take it with a grain of salt, but he quotes Coulter as saying:

“I speak to a lot of groups and do not endorse them. I speak at Harvard and I certainly don’t endorse their views. I’ve spoken to Democratic groups and liberal Republican groups that loooove abortion. The main thing I do is speak on college campuses, which is about the equivalent of speaking at an al-Qaida conference. I’m sure I agree with GOProud more than I do with at least half of my college audiences. But in any event, giving a speech is not an endorsement of every position held by the people I’m speaking to. I was going to speak for you guys, I think you’re nuts on the birther thing (though I like you otherwise!)”

As I said last week, LaBarbera’s outrage over Coulter speaking at GOProud makes me almost want to cheer Coulter and GOProud, two entities that I have very little respect for otherwise. Same with Beck. So by the same token I have trouble knowing who to cheer for here as well. The whole “enemy of my enemy” thing can only carry you so far. Barely as far as it takes for me to write three paragraphs about it first thing in the morning and wonder if I’ve already spent too much time on this already.

MassResistance Endorses Scott Lively As Write-In Candidate for Governor

Scott Lively calls Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill "the lesser of two evils."

MassResistance, the most prominent group in Massachusetts that has been fighting a quixotic battle against ‘the state’s same-sex marriage law since the Goodridge decision, has become increasingly rabid in its anti-gay opposition. So much so, that they are one of only fourteen anti-gay hate groups tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center. (That’s out of 932 active hate groups in the United States the SPLC tracked in 2009.) But to give you an indication of how firmly entrenched they are in the politics of personal vilification, MassResistance has now endorsed holocaust revisionist Scott Lively as write-in candidate for Massachusetts governor in the GOP primary:

Lively is everything that (GOP primary front-runner) Charlie Baker is not. He is principled, pro-family, pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, pro-2nd-amendment, pro-religion, pro-parents’ rights, and utterly fearless.

Send a clear message to the RINO establishment

There’s nothing quite like voting for someone you actually support, rather than the lesser of two (or three) evils.

And by thousands (we hope!) of people voting for Scott Lively as a write-in candidate in the September 14 Republican Primary, a very strong statement will be made to the RINO Republican establishment, especially since relatively few people vote in most primaries. Don’t assume you own us. What you’re selling, we’re not buying. The people running the Massachusetts Republican Party love to use social conservatives to do the grunt work on campaigns, but they arrogantly see themselves as above “dirtying” themselves with the principled issues that conservatives care about.

Scott Lively is best known as the author of the widely discredited book, The Pink Swastika, in which he claims that the Nazi movement was, at its core, a gay movement, and that the inevitable result of LGBT equality would be the imposition of murderous fascism. He recently argued that repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” would result in a Nazi takeover of the U.S. military, and he told The Daily Show that gay men exhibit absolutely no moral restraint whatsoever.

In March 2009, Lively was one of three American anti-gay activists to deliver what he called his “Nuclear Bomb against the gay agenda” at a conference in Kampala, Uganda which ultimately led to the introduction of the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda’s Parliament. That bill calls for the death penalty against LGBT people under certain circumstances, and virtually criminalizes knowing or providing services to gay people. Lively has called that bill “a step in the right direction” and “the lesser of two evils,” although he claims to oppose the death penalty and has falsely claimed on multiple occasions that the death penalty has been removed from the bill. It has not. The bill, while unchanged, now appears stalled in two Parliamentary committees following international outcry.

Scott Lively himself is no stranger to the SPLC’s list of anti-gay hate groups. His own Abiding Truth Ministries, now based in Springfield, Massachusets, is also listed as an anti-gay hate group. He has worked closely with the other two Massachusetts-based anti-gay hate groups. He delivered a series of lectures at the School of Christian Activism, which is a ministry of the New Generation Christian Center. New Generation itself is a ministry of Latvia-based pastor Alexey Ledyaev, founder of the New Generation Movement. Lively and Ledyaev co-founded an international anti-gay movement known as Watchmen On the Walls, which is also listed as an anti-gay hate group by the SPLC.

(By the way, here’s a trivia note. The picture that MassResistance posted in their endorsement of Scott Lively is a cropped version of my screen-capture from video of Lively speaking on the first day of a Watchmen On the Walls conference in Riga, Latvia. What, they couldn’t get a headshot from their good friend?)

Which means, for those of you keeping track, that Lively is now working very closely with four of the fourteen anti-gay hate groups tracked by the SPLC.

Scott Lively’s ties with MassResistance are deep. He has appeared on MassResistance’s podcast as far back as 2006, and his writings are promoted in MassResistance’s web site. Last March, Lively joined Peter LaBarbera to speak at a MassResistance banquet. Last March, Lively joined Peter LaBarbera to speak at a MassResistance banquet.

MassResistance’s Brian Camenker spoke at a rally put on by the Plymouth Rock Tea Party last July. This appearance followed the cancellation of another Tea Party rally on the Lexington Battle Green due to controversy over Camenker’s participation.  Camenker will also appear at a South Boston Tea Party rally on Aug 22, where the featured speaker will be Don Feder. It should come as no surprise that Feder, who once described himself as being “to the right of Attila the Hun,” was also a featured speaker at the Watchmen’s Riga conference. Anti-gay extremism forms a very tight little world.

The Peter’s wackadoodle school exposed

Last weekend Peter LaBarbera and a host of wackadoodle anti-gay activists held a three day seminar to teach young recruits how to demean, disparage, and fraudulently portray gay people. Hemant Mehta, the Friendly Atheist, sent in two infiltrators to report on Peter’s nonsense.

They provide some interesting information about the speakers and the audience:

Quite honestly, I found that many of these people were not “hateful” in the sense that they don’t actively wish LGBT people harm. They truly believe that if homosexuals would only live the lifestyle and hold the beliefs they themselves hold, those homosexuals would go on to live richer, more fulfilling lives. I experienced many of those attending the conference to be kind, concerned individuals.
…
By my count, around 45 people attended the conference on any given day. That’s including the speakers and the families of the speakers, so actual attendee numbers on any given day were lower, and some new attendees were there on Friday and Saturday. Of the people attending, a large majority were older. On the first day there were only around five people attending who looked to be under the age of 30.

Also present are synopses of the speakers’ views. For example, this is from a group session:

Barber: We should not be politically correct. It’s natural for gays to be reviled. It’s important to focus on the health risks of homosexuality, but we need to be aggressive and unapologetically loving.

Quinlan: If you Bible-thump or talk about sex, it turns pro-gays off. If you give them the science, you sound like somebody in authority and they don’t know how to respond to that.

Goldberg: We need to use the term “homosexual” instead of “gay” because it has a more negative connotation. No one is gay; they’re only “gay identified.”

Kincaid: This issue of homosexuality affects you because gays are demanding to give blood. The hemophiliacs are outraged by the homosexual lobby saying they have a right to give blood. They want to force themselves into the blood supply in a callous and arrogant manner. Mothers need to speak up. Mothers, your children are at risk!

Quinlan: The church has to be involved in politics. Politics are dirty. Our Founding Fathers were all religious men. They weren’t all just deists. They were Bible-believing men. We do have the truth and the truth is this: a family is made up of a mother and a father because it takes a mother and a father to raise a child.

Higgins: Parents need to remove their children from public schools. Even after doing that, they need to make law changes because our taxes go to the public schools. When we are silent on this issue, we teach our children through role-modeling to be cowardly conformists. We bequeath a legacy of much greater oppression to our children and our grandchildren. At least I can say to my children that I did everything I could.

Lindevaldsen: We need to work to completely eliminate public schools — government schools — and push a Christian/Biblical model of educating our children

Sorba: We need to unify behind common winning talking points. Boycott the term “gay.” They are in no way attached to any kind of identity because it’s not an identity. They’re not functioning in accord with their design. We need to repeat over and over and over again that there is no scientific evidence that people are born gay. There is no study that proves causation. Psychiatrists need to reclassify homosexuality as a mental disorder.

LaBarbera: “Born gay” evidence is unreliable. There was once a pro-gay activist yelling as loud as he could that I was a maniac who wanted to kill gay people. This shows how unstable these guys are.

Sorba: Genes code for proteins, not for behaviors. The “born gay” thing is a debate that we’re definitely going to win. Nobody’s a meat puppet dangling from the strings of the chemical reactions of their brain. It’s letting your emotions rule instead of your reason. It’s a debate about if you’re able to define reality vs. your ability to intellectually understand the reality of world around you. We should be able to argue for the re-criminalization of sodomy and overturn Lawrence v. Texas — the punishment would just be a fine. It would inhibit gay night clubs from springing up where AIDS is spread. It’ll inhibit pornography. We need to go on the offense. Then we know we’re gonna win. You’re not born gay; it’s a vice. These people need help.

Barber: The reality of ex-gays poses an enormous threat to the homosexual movement. Their entire argument hinges on the immutability of homosexuality.

LaBarbera: [Discussing LGBT protesters] They come there with their hateful signs; this is the level of fanaticism we’re dealing with. It’s just as hard to convey how radical the movement is as how bad the behavior is.

Barber: At gay pride parades, they have sex in the street in front of children.

Kincaid: Left-wing student groups are leading boycotts of blood drives, because they’re “discriminatory.” This movement is expanding. If this keeps getting bigger and bigger, we are going to face a shortage of blood. It’s extortion. I remember when AIDS happened. I remember covering this. You have to be older to understand what was happening at this time. I really don’t think a lot of the young people today remember the panic and catastrophe that enveloped the nation because of AIDS. They don’t understand how it developed. They don’t understand the devastation. We need to educate the young people about this disease as well as new-and-potentially-just-as-deadly diseases that may not be being detected currently through blood tests. It’s not a matter of discrimination. It’s a matter of life.

Sorba: Of course romantic attraction can happen between any two people, but the question is whether it adheres with the “Good.” A thing is Good insofar as it helps actualize the potential for humanity. Man is a rational animal. His final end is to know God and truth; truth means correlation with reality. Absent truth, what’s the point? Absent correspondence with reality, what are we doing here, dreaming? If Eros is the thing by which you define the Good, a man leaves his wife and kids in the name of “love.” Love is not the supreme decision maker for us. The Good is.

Go check out the multi-page report. It is well worth reading

The LaBarbera-Coulter Tiff

Peter LaBarbera is upset that Ann Coulter is slated to speak before GOProud in September. LaBarbera asks, “Would Ann Coulter speak at an event for “Republicans For Responsible Porn Use’…?” He also demands that Coulter reconsider “in the name of conservatism.”

You know, I have little respect for GOProud, and virtually none for Coulter. But if Coulter can send LaBarbera into a spin, then GOProud’s little stunt is already worth it. I’ve cheered for GOProud once, with reservations. But only LaBarbera could ever make me cheer for Coulter.

Wackadoodle School a failure

Peter LaBarbera’s wackadoodle school for young anti-gay activists has begun. And, as a report from Truth Wins Out informs us, it is a dismal failure. I guess there just isn’t that much demand for training on how to defend execution of gays, make up lies, sneak into leather events in disguise, sneak kidnappers out of the country, or defraud the poor. Who knew?

According to our sources, there were between 20-30 people in attendance. This was shocking, considering there was a large roster of notoriously anti-gay speakers. Ironically, the Gay Liberation Network’s protest had more demonstrators (see below) outside the event than there were people soaking up the hate on the inside.

The event was not only homophobic and sparsely attended, it was painfully boring, according to one eyewitness.

“It was an exhausting 12-hour day,” said a spy. “The speakers were less charismatic than tree stumps. I would rather turn Bill Gates’ vast fortune into a giant mountain of pennies and count them, than endure one more tedious anti-gay seminar.”

Convicted Wall Street Felon To Speak At Peter LaBarbera’s “Truth Academy”

Peter LaBarbera’s so-called “Truth Academy,” which kicks off tomorrow, has an interesting lineup of characters. Among the invited speakers is Arthur Goldberg, of JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives to Healing — and what is an alternative to healing exactly? An alternative to something is something other than that something and not including that something, isn’t it? Okay, I digress).

In 1989 Goldberg was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Government. The conspiracy, in which he engineered a phony bond and investment scheme, netted him nearly $11 million in illegal fees. U.S. Attorney William O’Connor told the court at his sentencing that Goldberg’s crime was “a fraud of spectacular scope.”

More recently, one of JONAH’s  so-called “life coaches” was accused by two former clients of inappropriate sexual misconduct. Alan Downing, described as a lead therapist for JONAH and who is himself a so-called “former homosexual” who admits he is still attracted to men, essentially instructed his clients through a sort of strip tease as part of their so-called “therapy.” Alternatives to healing indeed.

Speaking of frauds of spectacular scope, another speaker at LaBarbera’s little confab is Cliff Kincaid, of “Accuracy in Media.” Kincaid has vigorously defended Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill which would impose the death penalty on LGBT people under certain circumstances, and would criminalize any one else knowing or providing services to gay people.

Other speakers include Robert Knight, Coral Ridge Ministries; Ryan Sorba, Young Conservatives of California; Prof. Rena Lindevaldsen, Liberty University Law School; Matt Barber, Liberty Counsel; Laurie Higgins, Illinois Family Institute; and Greg Quinlan, Parents and Friends of Gays and Ex-Gays.

Timothy Kincaid has a great rundown of the other speakers here.

Heterosexual menace: the Smileys

In April 2008, John Smiley was enjoying a trip to San Francisco. He had spent the day at the zoo with his wife and two kids and then, he wrote, “this wonderful afternoon was followed by a great dinner and an announcement that the grandparents would watch the kids so Cindy and I could have a long overdue night out together.” But John’s night out with his wife ended in tragedy, a gun shot in the back.

When coworkers of Smiley, a prison guard, heard that he had been shot by an angry parolee, they rallied to help him. They donated their vacation time, provided emotional support, donated $30,000, and organized the annual annual John Smiley Golf Tournament to raise more funds.

And, of course, there was Smiley’s workers’ compensation claim, saying that because he was shot by a parolee that it was a job related injury worthy of $2.5 million.

But sadly there was a bit more to the story. Fraud investigators discovered a little detail that Smiley reported incorrectly. Smiley wasn’t actually shot by a parolee. (Sacramento Bee)

Court records say Smiley was shot in the predawn hours of April 27, 2008, after going to a swingers club with his 36-year-old wife, where they engaged in sex with strangers. A dispute arose after Smiley’s condom broke while he was having sex with a woman he had just met, and her companion later confronted Smiley outside and shot him, court records indicate.

So the Smileys now face prison for felony fraud charges.

Who can deny the notorious promiscuity that is rampant in the heterosexual subculture – and which often continues even after two heterosexual adults have children. The heterosexual community’s normative acceptance of casual sex, anonymous sex and nonmonogamy in couple relationships represents a dramatic departure from accepted norms and values.

If adult men and women chooses to embrace heterosexuality, that’s one thing. But a man and woman imposing their heterosexual lifestyle on innocent, impressionable children is something quite different.

We need to protect children from heterosexuals and their deviant lifestyle. It is wrong to force children into a situation where they have a man and women modeling immoral behavior — condemned by God and all major religions — as the most important role models in their lives.

Clearly heterosexuals cannot be trusted to raise children and for the sake of our future we must remove our precious young ones from their predatory grasp.

Today’s venture into the absurd, including most of the language, was inspired by Peter LaBarbera.

Learn to be a Wackadoodle

It looks like Peter LaBarbera is seeking to put more seats in his Wackadoodle Express and he’s looking for fresh young bodies to fill them. Yes, the Peter has started a “school” and is now out recruiting children.

We’re delighted to announce the debut of our ongoing “Americans For Truth Academy,” designed to train young people (as well as older pro-family advocates) how to answer “gay” activist misinformation and fight the homosexual-bisexual-transsexual agenda.

And from the folks he’s lined up as “teachers”, it’s clearly a Wackadoodle School:

• Robert Knight, Coral Ridge Ministries
• Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality
• Ryan Sorba, Young Conservatives of California
• Prof. Robert Gagnon, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
• Prof. Rena Lindevaldsen, Liberty University Law School
• Matt Barber, Liberty Counsel
• Laurie Higgins, Illinois Family Institute
• Greg Quinlan, Parents and Friends of Gays and Ex-Gays

I could not have hand-picked a more extreme group than this one. Wackadoodles, one and all. But don’t get your hopes up, this is a double triple super secret Wackadoodle School.

Prospective attendees will need to be approved with references; this is not open to pro-homosexual activists but only to those who share AFTAH’s belief that homosexuality is immoral and that the GLBT movement is destructive to America and a direct threat to our religious freedom.

And what will they learn?

I know it’s all secret-secret, but I’ve taken the liberty of imagining a syllabus.

Robert Knight may open off by sharing that Matthew Shepard is burning in Hell and then may go on to quote a little of Paul Cameron’s work before defending racist and homophobic violence.

Matt Barber will teach them that homosexuality is one man violently cramming his penis into another man’s lower intestine and calling it love. And Laurie Higgins will tell the kiddies that it is their Christian duty to support the culture of disapproval and condemnation towards their gay classmates.

Robert Gagnon will provide the scholarly religious perspective by insisting that because the gospels are actually a retelling of an earlier writing, therefore the Roman Centurion who asked Jesus to heal his “pais” was actually a Jewish administrator asking about his son… but any Scripture that might possibly condemn homosexuality is to be taken literally and applied as condemnation of today’s gay and lesbian community. (Students may not wish to sit in the front, Gagnon is inclined to angry ranting.)

Next Greg Quinlan will give a personal touch by telling how he once was a homosexual but now he is a very heterosexual man who out of Christian conviction is living celibately since his wife divorced him. And Ryan Sorba will support him by declaring that reparative therapy is a proven success, regardless of what pro-sodomy activists say. Quinlan may also spend some time arguing that ex-gay is an orientation and that Disneyland is the devil’s playground. (Students are advised not to ask questions to either of these presenters as they might incite confrontation and claim martyrdom.)

Finally Rena Lindevaldsen will give you secret tips on how kidnap the children of militant gay activists and flee the country to South America – all without a job or speaking Spanish – so as to make sure those children have a stable normal life.

And before breaking at the end of the weekend to return to fight the good fight, Peter LaBarbera will announce the much anticipated 2009 Grinch Award winners, followed by an exciting slide show of sodomites in action. This will have much nudity and will emphasize kink and S/M so it should be very stirring and uplifting. LaBarbera will be on hand to model the leatherman outfits he uses to infiltrate sex parties and to discuss in detail the exact mechanics of specific sexual acts for a select few; be sure to apply for this very special presentation.

The Peter’s magic math

Peter LaBarbera is back to jousting at windmills. He’s decided to enact a one-man boycott on all businesses which value their gay employees or customers.

His first quest is Progressive Insurance and he’s found a Sancho Panza to help him. Jamil J. Adair of Horizon City, Texas, has canceled his insurance policy with Progressive.

You can read his entire rant on The Peter’s site, but here’s the amusing part:

Progressive Insurance: It may appear that I am merely one man … but my message resonates within the hearts and minds of millions, upon millions, of Americans who firmly believe what I believe. For every ONE GLBT member that you support, there are FOUR HUNDRED more of us, standing together, in opposition. I have passed this information to every member of my family, church group, and contact list. You will be receiving many more cancellation letters shortly. [emphasis in the original]

Four hundred to one. WOW!

And considering that there are a lot of folks who support gay rights and even more who would not use a company’s pro-gay positions as a reason to pay more for insurance, that’s quite a statement. What kind of crazy bigot-world do Adair and The Peter think they live in?

Do they really think that gays only make up less than one quarter of one percent of the population? Or is this just another example of the magic math that they teach in home schooling and evangelical private schools?

Oh, and one more thought… if you set out to publicly denounce a business because you don’t like their policies on gay issues, you may want to consider that folks may use the same criteria to judge you. Which, I suppose, means that Mr. Adair is perfectly fine with any loss of business he may suffer for his ideology.

Which is why I would recommend that those who are looking to change their insurance policy may want to consider Progressive. And that those who are responsible for making decisions about pay point or ATM machinery for their business may wish to avoid Merchants First Choice.

UPDATE: To make it clear, Mr. Adair is the President and CEO of Merchants First Choice.

LaBarbera Says Gays and Ex-Gays Should Be Disqualified For Public Office

Peter LaBarbera asks a question straight out of the  McCarthy era while writing in the third person:

Peter LaBarbera, founder of Republicans For Family Values (www.rffv.org), urged potential Supreme Court pick Elena Kagan , Republican Reps. David Dreier and Patrick McHenry, and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist — each the subject of wide speculation that they practice(d) homosexuality — to answer the question: ‘Are (or were) you a practicing homosexual?‘ [All emphases in the origianl]

Interesting question. It’s interesting not so much for the McCarthyesque turn of phrase at the end, but for what it reveals about LaBarbara’s attitude towards ex-gays as well as gay people. By lumping the past tense with the present tense as he does, LaBarbera makes it clear that as far as he’s concerned there’s no difference when it comes to discerning a candidate’s political and judicial qualifications. You’re equally damned if you do and damned if you stop.

Not surprising, really. While anti-gay extremists like LaBarbera finds ex-gays a convenient tool for their arsenal, deep down they don’t trust ex-gays any more than do people in the gay community. All that talk about “redemption”? It’s just talk, and there’s no better evidence for that than this.

Porno Pete Calls Focus On The Family A Bunch Of Sissies

Jim Daly, Focus On the Family’s new CEO who replaced James Dobson, has been trying to move the organization into a more kinder, gentler sort of an anti-gay organizations. Of course, none of their policies or tactics have actually changed and it would seem that the contributors to the Drive-By… err, Drive Thru blog don’t seem to have gotten the memo on the niceness thing. But there are reports that Daly wants to make Focus’s mean policies magically appear somehow, I dunno, softer in their meanness, all to attract more “millennials” who hold a distinctly dim view of Focus’ anti-gay politics.

The mere hint that Focus might put on a veneer of civility has Peter “Porno Pete” LaBarbera in a tizzy. His latest headline: Is Jim Daly Emasculating Focus on the Family?

The Peter’s wackadoodle dictionary

When dealing with wackadoodles, it helps to know that they have a whole vocabulary of their own. For example, you might think that when Susy is interviewed in the local paper about her lovely tulip garden and mentions that her wife Jane helps with the weeding, she’s being gracious. But to a wackadoodle, she’s engaging in radical militant activism to advance the homosexual agenda.

So to assist you in understanding just how a wackadoodle thinks (or rants), here’s a handy helpful example from Peter LaBarbera. The context is that LaBarbera, after demanding that Lt. Choi be dishonorably discharged, shows his “concern for his soul”:

P.S. Please pray for this young man, Dan Choi, that he will accept the Bible’s truth about homosexuality as a sin habit that can be overcome, and that he will one day join the growing ranks of former homosexuals.

Now that, my friends, is a gem. A total delight. Homosexuality is not an orientation, not a naturally experienced romantic, affectionate, sexual and spiritual attraction, not even a Levitical prohibition, but a “sin habit that can be overcome.”

And that’s the Bible truth.

Matt Barber adds names to Hate Group list

As we told you, Peter Labarbera’s amusingly misnamed website, Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, has been named a hate website by the Southern Poverty Law Center. And while I see this as a reasonable classification for a man whose “religious objection to homosexuality” always seems to be expressed in the vilest terms of contempt for gay individuals, fellow anti-gay activist Matt Barber (who sits on AFTAH’s board) has leapt to the Peter’s defense.

Writing in third person, he declares that this addition to the hate list entirely discredits the SPLC. And besides, AFTAH is no different from a number of other groups.

“It’s a ‘hate group,’ mudslinging good time!” joked Barber. ” Let’s try it on for size. In exercise of the SPLC’s trademark ‘I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I’ criteria for determining ‘hate group’ status, I hereby declare the Southern Pov Law Center an officeal ‘anti-Christian, anti-conservative hate group.’ Try it, it’s fun.

“But seriously,” continued Barber, “If AFTAH is a ‘hate group,’ then so is Liberty Counsel, Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, American Family Association, the Southern Baptist Convention and the Roman Catholic Church.”

Well now, Matt, those are interesting nominations. You’ve given us something to think about.

LifeSiteNews piles on Throckmorton

If Peter LaBarbera were on RuPaul’s Drag Race, no doubt a competitor would have told him in last night’s “reading session” that he is a petty vindictive bitch who wouldn’t know honesty and integrity if it ripped the wig off his big balding pate.

But drag queens are famous for over-the-top rhetoric so I will use less dramatic language and just comment that it appears that his personal vendetta against Warren Throckmorton has little interest in fact.

It all started back in February when Dr. Throckmorton dared to mock LaBarbera by calling Martin Ssempa “the leader of the Ugandans for Truth About Homosexuality Pastor’s Task Force Against Homosexuality”. While LaBarbera considers Ssempa to be a fellow warrior (with quite similar tactics), he knows that the comparison to him wasn’t meant to be complementary.

Actually, it is likely that resentment has been brewing for a good deal longer. Peter LaBarbera thrives on attention – indeed requires attention to fund his organization and his salary. And while Dr. Throckmorton has quite frequently been called upon by prominent Christian magazines for his views on homosexuality, LaBarbera has been left picking up the crumbs on the fringe pages, sharing his limelight with those who think being gay is caused by soy products.

So over the past month, LaBarbera has been conducting war on Throckmorton. And he’s called in the lunatic fringe to help; haters, extremists, birthers, conspiracy theorists, and those for whom we are concerned about their mental state were all happy to jump right in.

The latest to hitch their caboose to his wackadoodle train is LifeSiteNews, a lay-Catholic news site. Regurgitating a message clearly fed to them by The Peter, LifeSite makes the usual accusations: Throckmorton endorses pro-gay legislation (he hasn’t), Throckmorton is morally neutral on homosexuality (he isn’t), and Throckmorton has abandoned ex-homosexuals (he took a closer look and was unwilling to lie about what he saw).

And, of course, they include the contact information for Dr. Throckmorton and his employer, just in case their readers want to send hate mail or to demand that he be fired.

I doubt such efforts will be effective. Throckmorton has used his website to set the record straight. And Warren is well respected (and well connected) and should any evangelical leaders have further concerns, they can just pick up the phone and call him. Further, those who sign on to join in the nastiness may come to find that such behavior threatens their own credibility.

But it is sad to see this vindictive attack. It is vicious, petty, dishonest, morally repugnant, and totally unnecessary.

Come to think of it, I think I owe drag queens an apology. LaBarbera would never be allowed on RuPaul’s Drag Race or any other drag venue. While I’ve heard some outrageous statements and seen some questionable outfits (and watched more than a little terrible lip syncing), I have never seen a drag queen this lacking in basic decency.