an information resource
for orthodox Anglicans

From Lisa's Lookout

Information, analysis and insight on pressing issues of human sexuality from an international perspective.

What you will read here - and what you won't.

You might wonder about the choice of materials below, why certain themes predominate and why others - just as important - are not mentioned. My concern is to raise awareness of vital issues confronting Christians today which are not being adequately addressed elsewhere, and to do so from an international perspective. As these issues are highly contentious and unsavoury, it is not surprising that they are ignored or minimized by many. However, to do nothing is de facto collusion with the forces of secularism and will ensure that individuals, families and the church are even more profoundly damaged and liberties are irretrievably lost. This is not the beginning of the end, but rather, the end of the beginning. What is in the 'alternative' pipeline presently makes the 60s sexual revolution look mild and benign by comparison.

See for yourself.

Dr. Lisa Severine Nolland
ls.n@talktalk.net

Can We Please Just Start Admitting That We Do Actually Want To Indoctrinate Kids?

September 21st, 2011 Posted in Children/Family10 From Lisa's Lookout10 Gay Activism | Comments Off

From Queerty.com

In response to New York’s recently introduced marriage equality bill, the so-called National Organization for Marriage got a bunch of pictures of black people and some guy who sounds like Foghorn Leghorn to repeat the same lies about indoctrinating schoolchildren that they ran in 2009. They accuse us of exploiting children and in response we say, “NOOO! We’re not gonna make kids learn about homosexuality, we swear! It’s not like we’re trying to recruit your children or anything.” But let’s face it—that’s a lie. We want educators to teach future generations of children to accept queer sexuality. In fact, our very future depends on it.
 
 
The battle over Tennessee’s “Don’t Say Gay Bill” has made this most apparent. Why would anybody get all up in arms about punishing teachers who mention queers in the classroom unless we wanted teachers to do just that? In response against the bill, FCKH8 hired some little girls to drop F-bombs in their online PSAs and gave out hundreds of “Don’t B H8N on the Homos” t-shirts, wristbands, pins and stickers to school children in front of TV cameras. Recruiting children? You bet we are.
 
Why would we push anti-bullying programs or social studies classes that teach kids about the historical contributions of famous queers unless we wanted to deliberately educate children to accept queer sexuality as normal?
 
Read here
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Sexual Education and Mis-education with Drs Grossman and Roback Morse

July 19th, 2011 Posted in From Lisa's Lookout10 Gay Activism10 Gender10 Sex education | Comments Off

Dr Jennifer Roback Morse interviews Miriam Grossman, MD, author of "Unprotected" and "You're Teaching My Child What?" and a psychiatrist formerly with the UCLA Student Health Service.

The CA Assembly recently passed and Gov Brown signed, SB 48, mandating gay friendly instruction in all CA public schools, K-12. Catholic University of America recently announced that they would abolish co-ed dorms and move to all single sex dorms. In the wake of that decision, a DC attorney announced that he will sue them for sex segregation which he claims violates the DC Human Rights Law. Whatever became of sex education as a way of promoting good health and conservative values?  Listen to Dr J and Dr. Grossman as they discuss these crucial issues: July 18, 2011. For more on Dr Roback Morse see here

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Support traditional marriage? ‘You’re dead’ in Washington. Please respond!

July 4th, 2011 Posted in From Lisa's Lookout10 Gay Activism | Comments Off

Update:  I have family in Seattle Washington who signed this petition, and as of today, they have not been threatened, vandalized etc.  But we must stand with those signatories who were. One great way of doing so is to sign the Manhattan Declaration and pass it on to all your contacts, perhaps with this link, to describe why it is now so necessary! 

A federal court in Tacoma, Wash., has been asked to order that the names of signatories of a state petition seeking to protect traditional marriage be redacted to protect them from death threats from homosexual activists…According to the filing, "When some activists could sense that intimidation was not working … they resorted to threatening the families – even the children – of supporters. In one case, the perpetrator threated to 'kill' the supporter's child and the whole family; in another, to 'harm' the supporter's family; and in another, to rape the supporters' daughter."

Read here

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‘How queer and poly partnerships benefit straight marriage’: Really?

June 26th, 2011 Posted in From Lisa's Lookout10 Gay Marriage | Comments Off

The impact of gay marriage (see the coverage on NY) on the rest of us is just beginning to be manifest — see below from the New York Press, especially on 'non-monogamy' (formerly known as 'the affair' or 'being unfaithful'). According to its practitioners, gay marriage operates according to different ground rules from traditional marriage, which make it more progressive and trendy, even more therapeutic (!), than traditional marriage. This sexual opening up of marriage, launched by gay marrieds, may (or may not) work for them, but for the rest of us this is extremely worrying.  Marriage has meant sexual exclusivity (in theory, and often in practice) and been the means by which women and men attached to each other and to the children their sexual union had created, bonding them together to rear their offspring, who need both a mother and a father. Opening this up to other partners will destroy (or at least seriously damage) this mechanism; who most loses are the ones with greatest vulnerabilities, the children. Below is from the important poly site:  http://polyinthemedia.blogspot.com/.  

From gender-role squabbles to non-monogamy: What straight couples can learn from same-sex couples to be happier in their own marriages.

…Varied approaches to sexuality is probably the most taboo of the constructs that same-sex couples may import into marriage, and one that Coontz approaches very delicately. "I want to be very careful about how this is phrased, but there is a prevalence among some same-sex relationships, particularly gay male relationships, to establish long-term commitments while allowing for nonmonogamy," she says. "While this is not for every opposite-sex couple, just as it is not right for every same-sex couple, it is one of the ways that some people may handle the pressures of a world where people want partnerships but live long lives and have frequent opportunities." Read the rest of this entry »

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How the goalposts are moving in BC Canada

June 11th, 2011 Posted in From Lisa's Lookout10 Gay Activism10 Gay Marriage | Comments Off

[...]  Just a week ago, about 300 placard-waving opponents and supporters of the proposed anti-homophobia policy got into a tense confrontation outside the Burnaby School Board office. While critics of policy 5.45 say it would infringe on parents' rights, sexualize schools and is being pushed by proponents of a leftwing ideology, its supporters say it's a key element in combating homophobia's verbal and physical manifestations in schools.

"It was just great to see so much support from everybody in the room," said Burnaby School Board chair Larry Hayes, who along with fellow school trustees has been inundated with feedback ….

While the original theme of the breakfast was same-sex marriage, the event's organizers decided in the end to embrace a broader concept of queer relationships…

Kiki Christie, founder of Victoria Poly 101, challenged the audience to reconsider the heteronormative ideas that dominate society's view of partnerships. She highlighted social networking site Facebook and its limited relationship option tags as a prime example of how "couple normative" ideas permeate society and limit the choices of those who might identify differently. 

Read here

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Rolling back the assault on the family

June 8th, 2011 Posted in Children/Family10 Culture10 From Lisa's Lookout10 Marriage | Comments Off

by Robert W. Patterson  The Ruth Institute

While boasting the know-how to fix the health care system and rebuild the economy, the political class claims a curious impotence when it comes to family breakdown.

From the retreat from marriage to rising cohabitation and out-of-wedlock birth rates, policymakers of both parties echo sociologist James Q. Wilson’s dictum: “If you believe, as I do, in the power of culture, you will realize that there is very little one can do.”

Such fatalism, however, is merely an excuse to duck responsibility for indicting the legal and policy experiments of the 1960s and 1970s that departed radically from American ideals, history, and law. 

Read here

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What percentage of US children lives in households headed by same-sex couples?

June 8th, 2011 Posted in From Lisa's Lookout10 Gay Marriage | Comments Off

From Jennifer Roback Morse

The correct answer:  Less than 4 tenths of one percent, or 0.4%.

All these numbers come from combing information about gays and lesbians from Census Snapshot, US, 2007, 1 with information from the US Census Bureau, American Community Survey,2 describing the general population.

As of 2005, an estimated 270,313 of the U.S.’s children are living in households headed by same-sex couples. According to the American Community Survey, there were a total of 73,131,688 persons under the age of 18 in the US in 2005. (Calculated by subtracting total number of persons over 18 (215,246,449 from total population of 288,378,137.) Dividing the 270,313 children in households headed by same sex couples by the total number of children under 18 in the US, yields a figure of .00369, which is the less than 4 tenths of one percent figure given as the correct answer. This number is not reported by the pro-gay Williams Institute. Read the rest of this entry »

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Can This (Royal) Marriage Be Saved?

May 31st, 2011 Posted in Culture10 From Lisa's Lookout10 Marriage10 News | Comments Off

by Anne Morse, The Ruth Institute

The signs are encouraging.

Thirty years ago this July, I stayed up to watch the fairy-tale wedding between a shy young pre-school teacher and the prince of Wales. Fifteen years, two children, and considerable adultery later, the fairy tale had fractured beyond repair.

This Friday, Charles and Diana’s elder son, William, 28, will marry Catherine Middleton, 29 — and such is the cynicism about royal marriages these days that bookies are already taking bets on when the royal divorce will occur.

Can this marriage be saved?

I asked several marriage experts how rosy they thought William and Kate’s future would be, based on such factors as their age, religious beliefs, family background, educational level, life choices, and royal expectations.

Read here

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What’s a Parent, Family Member, or Pastor to Do?

May 21st, 2011 Posted in From Lisa's Lookout10 Healing | Comments Off

Philip M. Sutton, Ph.D., LMFT, LCSW, LP

We All Need Our “P’s” to Travel the 7 “C’s”

Some Suggestions for Responding Wisely to Another's Unacceptable Behavior

 

This portion of our talk covers what we as parents, other family members, friends  and/or pastoral caregivers can do, cannot do, may do, and ought not do to respond in love to the knowledge that a loved one, or a person to whom we are ministering, desires or is engaging in behavior which we believe is unacceptable and which may be harmful to him or her, and others. (It also may help us to consider how to love (more) wisely someone afflicted with a chronic or terminal disease or other unwanted suffering.)

 

I. The Seven “C’s” (please don’t count too carefully!):

·        We do not Cause our loved one’s unacceptable behavior. Things that we have or have not done may have Contributed to our loved one’s developing this desire for or habit of unacceptable behavior. Be wary of excessive or “false” guilt!

·        We cannot Cure, Control or Change our loved one’s unacceptable behavior. Be wary of a false sense of (over-) responsibility!

·        We may not Condone, excuse or enable behavior that is harmful to our loved one, ourselves, or others. “Misguided mercy” is not loving!

·        We can Communicate our Concern(s) and feelings about- and when wise, lovingly Confront- our loved one’s – and if relevant, our own- behavior.

·        We can show Compassion to our loved one and ourselves (especially over past hurts, weaknesses, and things they or we did or didn’t do; and Cry, i.e. grieve or mourn, our sadness, anger, and fear over their- and our-actual or anticipated suffering.

·        We can Confess what we did or did not do that may have harmed or been uncomfortable to our loved one, to God, our loved one, and supportive family, friends, etc. When necessary, our Contrition, wisely expressed, may lead to the giving and/or receiving of forgiveness, which may serve as the basis of re-Conciliation, if it is possible and wise to (re-)Construct mutual trust.

·        We can Care wisely for our loved one and ourselves in a Committed way., including staying Connected to family and friends who support us.

 

Read the rest of this entry »

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Political commentary on Dominque Strauss-Kahn

May 19th, 2011 Posted in Culture10 From Lisa's Lookout10 sex | Comments Off

As Phyllis Schlafly points out in her book "Feminist Fantasies" … for centuries, famous left-wing men have treated "their wives and mistresses like unpaid servants."

Their credo might well have been, "From each, according to my needs …"

Schlafly bases her review of liberal woman-haters on the book "Intellectuals" by historian Paul Johnson. Among the left-wing heroes highlighted by Schlafly from Johnson's book are Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Ernest Hemingway, Henrik Ibsen, Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre and Karl Marx.

Johnson writes that the pint-sized — 5 foot 2 1/2 inch — communist-sympathizing Sartre "was notorious for never taking a bath and being disgustingly dirty." He said admiringly of the Nazis, "We have never been as free as we were under the German occupation."  …   In "the annals of literature," Johnson writes, "there are few worse cases of a man exploiting a woman"…

As Schlafly says, no wonder liberal women think men are pigs: Their men are pigs.  To Liberals, Every Woman Looks Like a Hotel Maid by  Ann Coulter Read the rest of this entry »

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NOM condemns new calls for the firing of black Christian Crystal Dixon

April 8th, 2011 Posted in Freedom Of Speech10 From Lisa's Lookout10 Gay Activism10 Religious Liberty | Comments Off

WASHINGTON – In response to efforts by Equality Michigan and other gay rights groups to target Crystal Dixon’s job because she disagrees that the gay rights and the civil rights argument are equivalent, the National Organization for Marriage issued the following statements:

“The gay movement’s tactics smell more and more like Joe McCarthy than Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” said Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). “Hounding people and going after their livelihoods, because they express a view held by numerous mainstream Christians is mean, intolerant, and unacceptable to most Americans. We call on Joe Solomonese, Evan Wolfson and other mainstream gay marriage groups to call off their dogs, renounce these tactics of intimidation and religious bigotry, and restore the face of their movement into something more resembling tolerance and fair play for all Americans.”

“Since Proposition 8 in California, hundreds of Americans of various faith traditions have faced threats to their livelihoods, their person, or their property solely because they exercised core civil rights to speak, to organize, or to donate on behalf of the idea that marriage is the union of husband and wife,” said Maggie Gallagher, Chairman of the Board of NOM. “Lately we are seeing that a disproportionate share of the victims of this kind of raw hatred are African-American Christians. God bless the black Church for its courage, we are once again in your debt.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Why Natural Law Arguments Make Evangelicals Uncomfortable

April 1st, 2011 Posted in From Lisa's Lookout10 Gay Marriage10 Marriage | Comments Off

…Yet at the very end of 2010, the conversation about gay marriage took a very different turn. In early December, three philosophers—Sherif Girgis, Robert George, and Ryan Anderson published one of the most important efforts in recent years to defend traditional marriage from a purely philosophical standpoint. Though the paper, published in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, was obviously less visible than Judge Walker's decision, it has momentarily managed to reframe the public discourse around a single nagging question: what is marriage? …

Yet at the same time, there may be signs that the frost on the relationship between evangelicals and the natural law tradition is melting—or at least that the discussion between the two schools of thought is heating up. For one, evangelical retrievals of a distinctively Protestant natural law tradition have gained ground in recent years.  Stephen Grabill's Rediscovering the Natural Law attempted to wrest the Reformed ethical tradition away from Karl Barth's immense shadow, as has the work of David Van Drunen.  In February 2009, Robert George's own work Making Men Moral was the subject of a commemorative conference at Union University, which featured top natural law theologians and evangelical political theorists. The formula was replicated in mid-February of this year, as evangelical political theorists gathered at Westmont College to discuss the prospects and limitations for an evangelical appraisal of natural law.

Differences between the two traditions will remain. But the willingness among evangelicals to be challenged by the precision and reason of the natural law tradition is a hopeful sign for the renewal of evangelical political thought.  Read Christianity Today here

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From the Ruth Institute: 77 non-religious reasons to support traditional marriage

March 20th, 2011 Posted in Children/Family10 From Lisa's Lookout10 Marriage | Comments Off

Read the rest of this entry »

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Thesis: In the iWorld, the less we believe the better

March 3rd, 2011 Posted in Culture10 From Lisa's Lookout10 Morality10 Religious Liberty | Comments Off

From Prof Dale Kuehne's Signpostings:  Relationships in a world of individualism.   If we accept the thesis that we live in an era where we encourage and reward those who hold less dogma and belief, then if a Christian couple is not allowed to care for foster children because they believe homosexuality is wrong, should a gay couple be allowed to care for foster children if they believe Christianity is wrong?    [See The Telegraph article on the ruling and implications of the Johns' case here]

I want to be rich and I want lots of money
I don’t care about clever I don’t care about funny
I want loads of clothes and f***loads of diamonds
I heard people die while they are trying to find them

I’ll take my clothes off and it will be shameless
‘Cause everyone knows that’s how you get famous
I’ll look at the sun and I’ll look in the mirror
I’m on the right track yeah I’m on to a winner

I don’t know what’s right and what’s real anymore
I don’t know how I’m meant to feel anymore
When we think it will all become clear
‘Cause I’m being taken over by fear

Life’s about film stars and less about mothers
It’s all about fast cars and passing each other
But it doesn’t matter cause I’m packing plastic
and that’s what makes my life so f***ing fantastic…

 [Lyrics above from Lily Allen's iconic track which demonstrate the values and aspirations of those trapped in and by iWorld  (where individualism trumps all)]  From The Fear by Lily Allen, from It's Not Me, It;s You (2009)  Read more here

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NB: Why the fuss?

February 28th, 2011 Posted in From Lisa's Lookout10 Gay Activism10 Gay Marriage | Comments Off

In his January 28th column "Life gets better when a daughter gets married" Bob Kerr sets up the same old tired straw man then knocks it down: "[N]ot once has a married, two-gender couple offered first-hand evidence of damage done to their marital bond by a man marrying a man or a woman a woman."

 

The problem with government endorsed same-sex marriage is not the damage it inflicts upon present heterosexual marriages.  The problem with legalized same-sex marriage is the further erosion of the institution of marriage that inevitably follows.

 

There are several liberal scholars who understand and ardently desire this. By their own admission Judith Stacey, Nan D. Hunter, Maria Bevacqua and David Chambers want the institution of marriage to die, and they champion same-sex marriage as a means to that end. 

 

From 'The Heart of the Matter'

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The Heart of the Matter

February 28th, 2011 Posted in Culture10 From Lisa's Lookout10 Gay Activism10 Gay Marriage10 Marriage | Comments Off

David Blankenhorn analyzes data from 35 nations and demonstrates that support for marriage is weakest in those countries where support for same-sex marriage is strongest. For example, during the 1990s, Norway, Sweden and Denmark legalized same-sex marriage.  Far from a strengthening of marriage, what has ensued is an unremitting decline in marriage rates, and a surge in cohabitation and out-of-wedlock births. 

 

Not coincidently, the number of polygamous families is increasing in Norway, Canada and, according to the February 1st issue of Bay State Parent, even in Massachusetts.  Polygamy activists are using legalized same-sex marriage as a wedge issue to further their own cause for government endorsement. 

 

'The Heart of the Matter' by Michelle A. Cretella, MD

 

I once believed that sexual orientation was equivalent to race. That was before a former lesbian forced me to acknowledge that there is a difference.  I had suggested that she was either denying her true self, or never was gay to begin with.  "You know Dr. Cretella it's not up to me to convince you that I exist. It is up to you to prove that I don't." Her response led me to review the scientific literature and rethink my beliefs. Read the rest of this entry »

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References for Video on Gay Male ‘Monogamy’

February 28th, 2011 Posted in Culture10 From Lisa's Lookout10 Gay Marriage | Comments Off

In my various exchanges with people on the other side of the fence on this matter, they keep insisting that they want to argue for the Jeffrey John’s model (which is the gay equivalent of ‘traditional marriage’).  There are various problems with this.  In the main, LG people are neither subscribing to nor living by the JJ model (in terms of statistics and surveys). Moreover, LG people who provide secular leadership for and on behalf of the LG communities are not pushing the JJ model.  As well, from what I know of living on LG Christian sites, there are no Christian organizations which are presently providing an apologetic for and promoting the JJ model.

 

So, the voices we hear are all advocating (or at least not opposing) a much more open approach to relationships.  Contemplating a JJ model makes some relatively conservative Christians feel better about the situation but it does not correspond with gay world realities. 

 

GAY SINGLES and casual sex. 88% reported having casual sex in the last 6 months.http://www.atypon-link.com/GPI/doi/pdfplus/10.1521/aeap.2009.21.4.340?cookieSet=1 

 

GAY COUPLES Study – N.I.H. N.Y. Times – Over 50 percent of those surveyed have sex outside their relationships, with the knowledge and approval of their partners. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/us/29sfmetro.html?_r=1   Read the rest of this entry »

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NB: Unintended consequences of SSM

February 13th, 2011 Posted in Children/Family10 From Lisa's Lookout10 Gay Activism10 Gay Marriage | Comments Off

…Redefining marriage redefines the way in which generations relate to one another. It is ludicrous to believe that we would feel the full impact of such a change in a few years. It will take at least a generation, a full thirty years or more, before the full effects of redefining marriage work themselves out throughout the social system. Read the rest of this entry »

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Jennifer Roback Morse on SSM

February 13th, 2011 Posted in Children/Family10 Culture10 From Lisa's Lookout10 Gay Activism10 Gay Marriage | Comments Off

Dr. Morse’s testimony to the Rhode Island legislature yesterday re: SSM

I am here today to address those of you who have already made up your minds to  redefine marriage. History will not be kind to you. Previous generations of social experimenters have caused unimaginable misery for millions of people. Particular people advocated the policies that led to today’s 50% divorce rate and 40% out of wedlock childbearing rate. None of these people has ever been held accountable.

I am here today to hold you to account, for the predictable harms you will cause by redefining marriage.

Let me remind you of the essential public purpose of marriage. Marriage attaches mothers and fathers to their children, and to one another. Once you replace that essential public purpose with inessential, even frivolous private purposes, marriage will not be able to do its job. But children will still need secure attachments to their mothers and fathers, a need which will go unfulfilled.  Read here

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Unreasonable Doubt

February 13th, 2011 Posted in Apologetics10 Culture10 From Lisa's Lookout | Comments Off

The reasons for unbelief are more complex than many atheists let on.

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