Anglican Mainstream

by Sasha Aslanian, MPR News

Opponents of Minnesota's new same-sex marriage law released their lobbying report today, showing that they were outspent 10 to 1 by supporters of the bill to legalize gay marriage.

Autumn Leva of Minnesota for Marriage said her group raised $200,000, and had three registered lobbyists compared to 14 on the side advocating same-sex marriage. Minnesotans United For All Families, the group that supported same-sex marriage, has previously said it spent more than $2 million in a successful lobbying campaign that featured phone banks, television commercials and personal appeals to lawmakers.

"We know that the constituents we reached out to were very much involved. Many, many emails phone calls letters went through to legislators who then essentially ignored them," Leva said. "You know, I'm not sure even with a lot more money what could have been done with legislators who seemed determined to turn their back on constituents."

John Helmberger of Minnesota for Marriage says the spending disparity is, in his words, "proof that if you spend enough money you can get some legislators to do almost anything."

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By John Smeaton, SPUC

Deacon Nick Donnelly of the excellent Protect the Pope blog reports that St Mary's University College, Twickenham (known colloquially as Strawberry Hill):

"subjected its PGCE students to a two-hour anti-homophobic bullying workshop run by Stonewall on its premises. The ‘training’ session lasted from 4pm to 6pm on Thursday 6th June."

[...]  SPUC has been sent a copy of the Stonewall presentation given at Strawberry Hill which was used as the basis for the workshop. The presentation goes beyond the subject of homophobic bullying. It:

• attacks Christian teachers who have objections to homosexuality
• advocates the inclusion of homosexual equality into curricula
• attacks Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 which (before being repealed in 2003) prevented the promotion of homosexuality in any state-maintained school
• provides a recommended reading list of homosexual books
• promotes homosexual parenting
• links to websites which, among other things, promotes 'gay pride' marches.

The college's website reveals that, among its 'equality scheme objectives', are:

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by John Stonestreet, Breakpoint

The evidence is mounting that the religious freedoms we’ve long enjoyed are now at stake. It’s time to take this seriously. Stay tuned to BreakPoint

Threats against religious liberty and freedom of conscience are no longer theoretical—they’re real, and they’re growing. Just ask Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Denver, who declined to make a wedding cake for two men who got “married” in Massachusetts.
 
Phillips said this would violate his Christian beliefs, and there are other shops who would make the cake. But Colorado’s new law on civil unions does not provide religious protections for businesses, so Phillips is being hauled before Colorado’s Civil Rights Commission. If he loses, he faces fines of up to $500 per case and a year in jail. Phillips’ attorney says that forcing him to “choose between his conscience and a paycheck . . . is intolerable.” But that’s a choice that same-sex “marriage” is forcing upon those of us with traditional religious beliefs. The once rhetorical question “how will gays getting married affect you?” is being answered all around us.

And the Obama administration is still requiring Catholic charities and other religious institutions to provide their employees with insurance for abortion inducing drugs—or face crippling fines.

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by Stefano Gennarini, J.D. C-Fam

In a loss for homosexual groups at the United Nations, member states declined to establish a special UN office for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights last week.

Earlier this year, UN insiders told the Friday Fax that homosexual and transgender rights would soon become mainstream at the United Nations. But their predictions failed to materialize at the current session of the Human Rights Council.

Member states declined to create a special office to monitor LGBT rights globally, and proponents did not table a resolution to that effect because it would have likely failed.

Norway, speaking on behalf of countries that supported such an office, told the Council on Monday that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues should be integrated into the UN systematically at an “appropriate time”— effectively conceding this is impossible right now.

Norway was part of a small group of countries that sponsored a conference calling for LGBT rights in April, which their representative said attracted just 200 people. Norway asked the Council to consider the outcome of the conference even though it was not sponsored by the United Nations.

Only 33 countries joined the statement by Norway. Other countries are weary of an LGBT agenda that goes beyond addressing violence and discrimination and attempts to single out homosexuals for special protections beyond those afforded to all individuals under international law.

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By Rachel Donadio, New York Times

For years, perhaps even centuries, it has been an open secret in Rome: That some prelates in the Vatican hierarchy are gay. But the whispers were amplified this week when Pope Francis himself, in a private audience, appears to have acknowledged what he called a “gay lobby” operating inside the Vatican, vying for power and influence. 

The remarks — which the Vatican spokesman did not deny and the participants at the private audience confirmed — appeared to be part of an effort by the pope to take on the entrenched interests in the Vatican that many believe were a factor in why the previous pope, Benedict XVI, resigned unexpectedly. They appear to underscore numerous reports in the prelude to the election of the pope, that corruption, blackmail and violation of one of the highest codes of Catholic conduct were part of the intrigue that scandalized the Vatican in recent years.

Francis, who portrays himself as a simple pope of the people, has made it clear that one of his highest priorities is to put the Vatican’s house in order. He has appointed a group of eight cardinals to advise him on how to overhaul the Vatican, and the head of the Vatican Bank has recently given a series of interviews to journalists — an openness unheard of under his predecessors.

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by Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, LifeSite News

The mayor of a small town in France’s Basque region has announced his refusal to carry out a “marriage” between two men who reside in his jurisdiction, becoming the first mayor to defy the country’s new law that applies the name and rights of “matrimony” to couples of the same sex.

By Kirsten Andersen, LifeSite News

The Obama Administration’s ongoing celebration of homosexual “Pride Month” has seemingly carried over into its ambassadorial nominations.

From The Christian Institute

A three-year-old boy has been taught by his nursery carer that when he grows up he will be able to marry a boy or a girl.

The boy’s identity is being protected, but his parent wrote a letter to a local newspaper about the incident.

The letter said: “Many of your commentators have speculated as to what the wider implications of allowing same-sex marriages will be on society.
 
“I was given a stark illustration of this at the weekend.

“In response to my three-year-old son’s question as to what marriage was, I told him that it was when a man and woman loved each other very much and wanted to spend their lives together.

“My son then told me that ‘boys’ could get married, too. As he doesn’t read the newspapers, I was keen to understand how he had formed this view.

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by Robert R Reilly, MercatorNet

The logic works like this: If homosexual acts are moral, as so many now insist, then they should be normative. If they are normative, they should be taught in our schools as a standard. If they are a standard, they should be enforced. And so it has come, and is coming, to be. Education is an essential part of the drive to universalize the rationalization for homosexual behavior; so it must become a mandatory part of the curriculum.

The infiltration of higher education by LGBT studies is well known. However, less attention seems to have been paid to the effort to spread LGBT propaganda in elementary schools and high schools. Because of the young ages of students K through 12, the introduction of pro-homosexual materials has required a special sensitivity from those who are trying to get away with it. They must avoid the explicit nature of the LGBT courses offered at the college level and disguise the effort in terms of something other than what it really is. Therefore, they use a stealth approach under the cover of issues such as school safety, diversity, and bullying.

One of the primary organizations involved in spreading the rationalization for homosexual behavior in elementary and high schools is the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), begun in 1990 in Massachusetts. According to its mission statement, GLSEN “strives to assure that each member of every school community is valued and respected regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. We believe that such an atmosphere engenders a positive sense of self, which is the basis of educational achievement and personal growth. Since homophobia and heterosexism undermine a healthy school climate, we work to educate teachers, students and the public at large about the damaging effects these forces have on youth and adults alike”.

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By Robert Oscar Lopez, The American Thinker

On Tuesday, June 4, the gay lobby — for the purposes here, "the Gay Left" — was exposed for its intrinsically sociopathic tendencies. As the shock settles in about the Human Rights Campaign's possibly felonious violation of fellow citizens' civil rights, it is fitting that I should introduce the uninitiated reader to a basic overview of the Gay Left and the simultaneous totalitarianism and anomie that have shaped it since the famous Stonewall rebellion of 1969.
 
In light of the fluffy report issued this week by the College Republican National Committee urging the right, in part, to abandon opposition to gay marriage, the message I am about to deliver is triply urgent: don't fall for the con!
 
The Gay Left is not the same thing as gay people, many of whom are good folks. The Gay Left is also not, despite what one might think, merely another part of the liberal intelligentsia. It is a peculiar creature, a specific cluster of organizations that evolved from the specific environmental stresses of police repression, psychiatric stigma, and AIDS.

The problem is that while in America the institutionalized persecution of homosexuals has been dispersed into episodes of de facto social friction (as opposed to de jure discrimination) the survival instincts that grew out of an earlier age of repression — many of which become destructive if they outlive their moment of necessity — remain integral to the Gay Left's political apparatus.
 
Where are we now? A quick run-down
 
During hearings on Capitol Hill, Chapman University professor John Eastman of the National Organization for Marriage unveiled new evidence that the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay advocacy organization, may have feloniously obtained confidential tax documents from the IRS and then published them with the intent of humiliating political opponents.
 
This accusation, as has been noted by several commentators including Dennis Prager and Ann Coulter, brings the current IRS scandals to a whole new level. Below is the exchange that took place between Rep. Paul Ryan and Prof. Eastman:

Read here

By Tony Perkins, LifeSite News

Chicken may not be bad for your health, but it's certainly hazardous to your military career. An Army Master Sergeant found that out the hard way when he tried to celebrate his August promotion by serving Chick-fil-A. The party, which happened to coincide with last summer's Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, was a private event — paid for out of the soldier's own pocket. Still, his commanding officers seemed to take issue with the invitations, which read, "In honor of my promotion and in honor of the Defense of Marriage Act, I'm serving Chick-fil-A sandwiches at my promotion party." Of course, the DOMA reference was a hat tip to Chick-fil-A owner Dan Cathy, who became the center of a national firestorm when he refused to back down from the biblical definition of marriage.

Shortly after the Master Sergeant's party, Fox News's Todd Starnes reports, he was shocked to receive a letter of reprimand, followed by a negative efficiency report. As anyone in the military knows, a letter like that can effectively end a soldier's career — regardless of the number of years he's served. Stunned, the soldier contacted the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty for help. Ron Crews, who heads up the organization, explained that the Army initially talked about bringing "judicial punishment" against the man but decided to investigate first to see if he had "violated any other policy."
 
Today, we're learning even more about the controversy, including the fact that his superiors warned him to stop reading conservative books, which is the very definition of viewpoint discrimination. According to Starnes, there is some evidence that suggests the soldier was tweeting anti-Obama messages — which, if true, would certainly cross the line of what is acceptable speech for a member of the military.

Still, the irony of the Chick-fil-a incident is that this Sergeant wasn't advocating for a controversial policy proposal; he was celebrating the law. And here's the rub: this soldier showed more respect for it than his own commander-in-chief, who refused to uphold DOMA even though the Constitution demands it. Imagine being a service member in today's military, trying to navigate the double standards. On one hand, it's appropriate to march in gay pride parades — in uniform — but on the other, it's unacceptable to voice support for federal law.

Read here

In the context of the present push to legalise gay marriage the Labour Party is demanding changes to the Children and Families Bill, which would make lessons on gay marriage and other same-sex relationships compulsory in schools.

Perhaps our readers would like to see what this would look like for their children and grandchildren. Canada leads the way here, so the links below are to Canadian sites. There is, however, only one small aspect of this gay (and I include lesbian in 'gay') curriculum from Canada which is not already paralleled here in the UK. Otherwise all its components are present on NHS-endorsed sexual 'health' sites and in existing SRE programmes here.

Sex and marriage are all but divorced in nearly all SRE programmes. Even 'love' and a 'relationship' are optional, as is the notion of one sexual partner. Sex 'health' sites increasingly promote multiple partnerships through their inclusion of the (s): 'If you and your partner(s) wish to…' Extreme sex activities are breezily discussed and their huge risks and dangers are minimized or censored out completely. Children access sexual 'health' care independently of parental knowledge.

If SSM becomes law and the kind of compulsion now being called for by Labour is accepted, your children will be taught this sort of content along with fractions, photosynthesis and Eating 5 A Day. And there will be little you can do; it will be compulsory, and anyway dissent will sound increasingly shrill and homophobic. Read the rest of this entry »

by Kirsten Andersen, LifeSite News

A U.S. Army serviceman has been reprimanded for serving Chick-fil-A sandwiches at a party celebrating his promotion to master sergeant.

From Touchstone Magazine

We strongly support the Boy Scouts of America current prohibition on open homosexuality and retaining it without revision. Nearly 70 percent of BSA troops are hosted by churches and religious institutions. Upholding traditional morality is vital for sustaining this partnership, for protecting Scout members, and for ensuring BSA has a strong future. A proposal from the BSA board to prohibit “discrimination” based on “sexual orientation or preference” for BSA members potentially would open the Scouts to a wide range of open sexual expressions. In our current culture, it is more important than ever for our churches to protect and provide moral nurture for young people and for the Scouts. We implore members of the upcoming BSA Council to affirm the BSA’s present policy, which the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed, and which has served BSA well.

Read here

By Thaddeus Baklinski, LifeSite News

At its annual shareholder meeting this week, the world's largest oil company, ExxonMobil, rejected a proposal demanding changes to its Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) policy that would have granted special rights to homosexual employees.

By Peter Baklinski, Lifesite News

A grade 7-8 Toronto teacher who was put on "home assignment" earlier this month for posting graphic sex brochures that were originally designed for gay bathhouses on his classroom walls has been reinstated in his classroom.

“[A]s it’s a personnel matter, we cannot provide specific details; however we can confirm that the matter has been resolved and the teacher in question has resumed his duties at the school,” stated the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) in a press release yesterday.

Wade Vroom, who teaches part-time at Delta Senior Alternative School, was sent home with pay earlier this month after school officials were notified about the explicit brochures on the walls of his classroom.

One brochure includes an image of the rear side a tattooed man with his pants down being clutched by another man who is kneeling in front of him. The brochure is entitled: “Use Your Head When Giving It: Blow Job Tips.” Another, titled “If You Like to F—,” conveyed sexual health tips for men who have sex with men.
 
Another brochure included ads for female condoms and the morning-after pill.

A spokesman for ACT said the pamphlets were intended primarily for distribution to homosexual bars and bathhouses across the city, not for children.

"We do use explicit language because we're targeting a specific community where this kind of language is warranted and needed," ACT spokesman Andrew Brett said.

Read here

by Matt Chorley, Mailonline

Conservative MPs claim they were threatened by party whips to back gay marriage or their political career would be finished.

Tories were also reportedly warned they would lose financial and organisational backing at the next election if they refused to fall into line – something party insiders dismissed today as ‘categorically untrue’.

More than a dozen angry backbenchers have now written to peers urging them to oppose the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill in a key vote on Monday.

David Cameron has said he is ‘proud’ to have supported same-sex weddings, arguing that young boys at school who think they might be gay and are being bullied will 'stand a bit taller' as a result of the government passing equality laws.

But last week 130 Tory MPs voted against gay marriage legislation.

Officially it was a free vote, with the Prime Minister at pains to stress that those who oppose it are not ‘wrong-headed or bigoted’.

However, today it was claimed that intense pressure was put on ambitious Tory MPs to support the reform, which has been seen as key to what remains of Mr Cameron’s modernisation of the party.

It also emerged that the key vote in the House of Lords could be held after 2am on Tuesday morning, with supporters of same-sex marriages fearing it could be defeated.
 
A letter signed by 15 MPs, including former Tory ministers, urges peers to reject the Bill, arguing it has no mandate. The letter was published by the Guido Fawkes blog.

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From Guido Fawkes

By Peter Saunders, CMF

Two British Christians who refused to act contrary to conscience have lost their legal battle at the European court of human rights in a move that demonstrates that ‘gay rights’ trump ‘conscience rights’ when the two conflict.