March 19, 2005 by s.z.

Christians, Zygotes Being Persecuted Here are a few of items from Agape Press's Christian news headlines: 1.  One pro-family leader is worried that American Christians could be facing a new form of inquisition. NOBODY expects a new form of inquisition! Gary Bauer of the Campaign for Working Families senses that anti-Christian feelings are on the rise among some segments of America. Yes, THAT Gary Bauer. He says he is concerned that born-again believers could be facing tough days ahead. "I'm concerned about the possibility of real persecution in the United States toward conservative Christians," Bauer states. "Harper's Magazine this week has a cover story entitled 'The Religious Right's War on America.' So there's a lot of rhetoric out there, very hateful rhetoric, aimed at traditional Christian conservatives -- and that can be very dangerous." Whenever there is hateful rhetoric out there, why is it always members of the Religious Right who are the victims, except in the majority of cases, where they are the perpetrators? Anyway, as history has shown us, whenever Harper's has a cover story about the religious right's war on America, this is invariably followed by inquisitions, pogroms, and the lynching of Christians.  Maybe the religious right should try to pass as the religious middle for a while, just to avoid trouble.    2.  Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden says Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry is fighting the government over the role of religion on his team. The Gazette newspaper reports Bowden told the Southern Colorado Fellowship of Christian Athletes that DeBerry is embattled "because he happens to be a Christian, and he wants his boys to be saved." That's all well and good, but the AF Academy is a state supported school, and the law says that the Coach's boys shouldn't be saved on school time.  And the boys can even find salvation through other religions, such as Judaism, Islam, baseball or soccer.  That's their right.    Noting that he feels the same way about his athletes at Florida State, Bowden added, "We know we're going to get challenged on it, but that's what we believe in. I ain't gonna back down." Last season, DeBerry was asked to remove a banner from the Air Force Academy's locker room which included the lines "I am a Christian first and last" and "I am a member of Team Jesus Christ." The Pentagon is investigating claims of religious intolerance at the Academy. Bowden told the fellowship, "The problem with us Christians is we won't speak out." [AP] Yeah, that's why Christians are always being investigated by the Pentagon due to allegations of religious intolerance: because they're so meek. 3.  The president of American Life League is calling on the pro-life community to rise up against legislation in the U.S. House that would authorize federal funds for embryonic stem-cell research (ESCR). The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005 (HR 810), if passed, would repeal the Bush administration's current policy limiting federal funding of human ESCR to cells obtained from human embryos before August 2001. ALL's Judie Brown says while that policy in and of itself is "fatally flawed," HR 810 further advances the act of killing pre-born children -- "and that is completely unconscionable," she adds. "Terminating human embryos for research is ethically and morally corrupt. It is nothing short of murder," Brown says. "No human being has the right to decide that any particular group of children is not worth saving." Scientists doing stem-cell research should be charged with millions of counts of murder (and genocide) as a result of their crimes against week-old embryos.  Why are we allowing this blatant discrimination against Stem Cell-Americans?  She says President Bush's policy created a "slippery slope" in America and is not consistent with the president's professed "culture of life." She says the nation can never achieve that status when it allows "the most vulnerable and innocent of our society to be sacrificed." But are week-old embryos really the most vulnerable and innocent of our society?  I say, no, for they are the result of an egg being fertilized by a sperm, and so can't truly be innocent.  No, the most vulnerable and innocent members of our society are the eggs and sperm who have kept themselves pure and undefiled.  Until President Bush starts looking out for these brave young Americans, this can't be a culture of life.  I urge Judie to start drafting legislation right now. But here's the status of Judie's Stem-Cell American Protection Act: HR 810, sponsored by Republican Michael Castle of Delaware and Democrat Diana DeGette of Colorado, currently has more than 200 co-sponsors, 24 of them Republicans. [Jody Brown] I'm guessing the other 180 co-sponsors are embryos. 4:22:56 AM

It's All About the Butt Sex Thanks to Townhall's "Issues" round-up, we were directed to an article which points out the real goal of gay marriage: to turn your children into barnyard animals.  Barnyard animals who have unrestrained butt sex! Here's the story, courtesy of the Traditional Values Coalition (that's the one that isn't intentionally funny); PARENTAL WARNING: Little Black Book Exposes Kids To Vile Sex Practices By Rev. Louis P. Sheldon Chairman, Traditional Values Coalition Washington, DC – If any parent needs a strong argument for opposing the legalization of homosexual marriage in their state, what’s happening in Massachusetts should be enough. The pro-family Article 8 Alliance, headed by Brian Camenker has just released the contents of the pro-homosexual “Little Black Book” on his web site. The “Little Black Book” was produced by the Boston-based AIDS Action Committee with the help of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and Boston Public Health Commission. “The Little Black” book was distributed to teenagers at Brookline High School on April 30 as part of a Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) event. WARNING to parents: What’s in “The Little Black Book” are some of the most pornographic descriptions of homosexual sex I’ve ever read. I'm not as knowledgeable about pornographic descriptions of homosexual sex as the Reverend, but I have to say that the "The Little Black Book," while explicit (and probably not appropriate for minors) doesn't seem to actually be pornographic.   Its purpose was clearly to educate, not to cause sexual excitement.  (I'm willing to concede that it may have caused Rev. Sheldon to become sexually excited, but I still don't think that was its intent, and we can't blame the book for the kind of stuff that turns on the Rev.) Yet this is what happens in a state that is forced by the courts to legalize same-sex marriage. Children are now primary targets for homosexual recruitment into a depraved and sexually dangerous lifestyle. That's the way it always happens: the courts force you to legalize same-sex marriage, your kids are targeted for recruitment into depraved lifestyles, and then they are turned into butt-sex loving barnyard animals. Surely, children deserve better than to be turned into barnyard animals who will be encouraged to engage in unrestrained anal intercourse. I don't how they do things in TVC circles, but around here we don't encourage our barnyard animals to engage in any kind of anal intercourse. We have better things to do.  (It would seem that Rev. Sheldon has been spending too much time with Neal Horsely.) Is sodomy really a “family value” that should be promoted in public schools? The answer should be obvious—except to the most perverted in our culture. Is hysteria a "family value" that should be promoted in public schools? Oh, and should only family values be allowed to be presented at events where a group rents out the school for the occasion? If so, won't that really hamper political events? Anyway, remember that the culprit here is same-sex marriage, because this event happened in MA. Brian Camenker is to be commended for his courage in fighting the homosexual agenda in the public schools and for his efforts to overturn same-sex marriage in that state. The exposure of “The Little Black Book” should serve as a wake up call to millions of parents who think that homosexual marriage will make little difference in their lives. Children are the target of homosexuals—and children will die from AIDS and suffer from life-threatening venereal diseases if homosexual activists are not aggressively opposed at every point. Yes, if your state legalizes gay marriage, then your children will die of AIDS and other venereal diseases -- all because a safe sex pamphlet made gay sex seem so exciting. Anyway, here's part of the Boston Herald story about the pamphlet. An anti-gay marriage activist group claims a graphic safe-sex guide for adult gay men was distributed to students at Brookline High School last month. [...] The booklet, ``Little Black Book: V 2. Queer in the 21st Century,'' which includes graphic instructions on how to safely perform gay sex acts, was described as ``vile and disgusting'' by Brian Camenker of the anti-gay marriage Article 8 Alliance, which claims it was given to students. Sally Turner, a retired Carlisle mother, said she picked up the booklet at a table at Brookline High School set up by Fenway Community Health. ``I was quite horrified they were promoting homosexuality all the way down to the youngest grades,'' she said. It's nice that even retired mothers are now attending conferences on gay and lesbian issues, and are even picking up the literature.  However, I read the booklet, and it doesn't seem to be promoting homosexuality, especially not to children (all the big words and warnings about diseases wouldn't appeal to the youngest grades, IMHO).  Anyway the paper just printed an update on the story, and it appears that some copies the booklet were displayed on a table at the event, despite the fact that this pamphlet was supposed to only be given to adults.  However, it's possible that the Article 8 Alliance grabbed them all. Explicit pamphlets displayed at school; Health center regrets mistake A community health organization apologized yesterday for bringing a sexually explicit pamphlet for young gay men to a recent conference at Brookline High School on gay and lesbian issues that was attended by high school and middle school students. Fenway Community Health officials yesterday said they left about 10 copies The ''Little Black Book," produced by the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, is targeted at 18-and-older gay men, according to the committee. The book uses vivid descriptions and colloquial terms to describe the ways HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases can be prevented and spread. [...] Members of the Article 8 Alliance, an organization opposed to gay marriage, handed copies of the ''Little Black Book" to reporters on Tuesday at a news conference marking the first anniversary of gay marriage in Massachusetts. Article 8 Alliance is passing out copies of material containing the most pornographic descriptions of homosexual sex that noted pornography expert Rev. Sheldon has ever seen?! Won't somebody please think of the children (and the barnyard animals?) Brian Camenker, Article 8 Alliance's executive director, said he had encouraged members to attend the conference as observers, and one member brought the pamphlet to his attention. Sally Turner, 73, of Carlisle, an Article 8 Alliance supporter who attended the conference, said she picked up literature from each of the tables, and didn't examine it until hours later. ''I looked at it at home and I was a little bit astonished by what I had," she said. Retired mother Sally Turner was only a little bit astonished, because she's had sex, and knows what a penis looks like.  However, the pamphlet floored Rev. Sheldon, because he's never seen one before. Anyway, it seems that Brian Carmkenker is one of MA's most energetic anti-homosexual attention-seeking loons.  His most recent moment in the spotlight was egging on that father who was arrested because he refused to leave the school after his son brought home the book Who's In the Family. Here's a little from a July 2000 Boston Globe story about Brian: Brian Camenker has been a longshoreman in Minnesota and a reporter in Florida.   He has dabbled, he says, in vegetarianism, he has marched against nuclear power.   He was once so enamored of Marxism that he studied Chinese so he could read an original edition of Chairman Mao's Little Red Book. Camenker eventually took a sharp turn rightward, but the Newton computer consultant with the close-cropped hair and the rumpled khakis still fancies himself a revolutionary.  Just like David Horowitz, Mike Adams, and so many others who seem to blame the world for their own lack of interpersonal skills, and so turn from Marxism to wingnuttery to whatever new cause that allows them to feel self-righteous and persecuted. More specifically, Camenker has been waging war against school programs that address homosexuality.  Camenker, who has been at the center of several recent controversies related to that issue, says he is a protector of parents' rights, and that his views are rooted in his personal experiences and the Bible. Camenker is radically out of step with his neighbors in famously liberal Newton.  But the 47-year-old father of two has been an outsider for most of his life, and he clearly relishes his role in the spotlight - however harsh that light may be. ''Since I'm not afraid to say things, I have sort of by default become somewhat of a leader on this stuff,'' he said proudly.  ''There are people who pray for me and people who hate me - and they've never even met me.'' That really is kind of pathetic -- to find one's identity by being hated by strangers. But let's skip ahead to the part where Carmenker finds his special purpose (to quote Steve Martin's The Jerk): But the experience that spurred Camenker's current crusade was yet to come. While working as a computer consultant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the early 1980s, Camenker says, he became friends with a group of gay men.  He said that they ''hung around constantly,'' often going together to gay clubs on Cambridge Street. But rather than make Camenker tolerant of homosexuality, the experience had the opposite effect.  Camenker says he was appalled by his friends'  promiscuity, and deeply affected by how they appeared to wrestle with their identities. Camenker says he cannot remember any of his friends' names, so his assertions are impossible to verify. So, how many of you think that Camenker just made up the gay friends, and how many think that his crusade against homosexuality is based on the shame and self-loathing he now feels because of his gay experiences in the '80s? 3:33:17 AM

Keeping Our Priorities Straight Shorter Ann Coulter:  The real scandal is that Newsweek wouldn't print all the allegations about the Clenis.  12:13:18 AM