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AFA/ACTIVISM
7‘Philadelphia 11’ seek relief in federal
court
The AFA Center for Law & Policy (CLP) has filed suit in federal
district court in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to protect the rights
of 11 Christians arrested while peacefully preaching the Gospel
at a homosexual rally.
Known as the "Philadelphia 11," the Christians were exercising
their First Amendment rights at an October homosexual event dubbed
"Outfest." The event was held on the public streets and
sidewalks of Philadelphia and was open to the public.
The ministry outreach was organized by Michael Marcavage, one of
those arrested. He founded Repent America, a Christian organization
that calls sinners to repentance. Just two days prior to Outfest,
the CLP had filed a lawsuit on behalf of Marcavage against the city
for other incidents of alleged harassment. All of those incidents
were also related to Marcavage’s public ministry.
Some of the charges cited in the arrests at Outfest were linked
to the city’s hate crimes law, which includes "sexual
orientation" as a protected category. With other felony and
misdemeanor charges thrown in, the Philadelphia 11 face up to 47
years in state prison.
Using video footage of the circumstances surrounding the arrests,
CLP attorneys were asking a federal judge to issue an injunction
that would prevent the city from pursuing the charges.
Updates on the case can be found at the ministry’s Web site,
www.repentamerica.com.
Movie Gallery warned to remove obscenity
Rather than face charges of distributing obscenity, Movie Gallery
chairman Joe Malugen reluctantly shut down back rooms of hard-core
sex videos in his Starkville and Kosciusko, Mississippi, stores
after local prosecutors gave him a 30-day ultimatum.
"If all obscene material is not removed within 30 days of this
letter, I will take appropriate legal means to see that there is
compliance with the state law," wrote Starkville prosecutor
Rodney Faver.
Rather than face a possible six months in jail, Malugen ordered
the material removed.
Within weeks, Malugen received a similar letter from Kosciusko prosecutor
George Dorrill, who also promised legal action.
Malugen may be getting accustomed to being a XXX vagabond. In the
past two years, he’s faced the threat of legal action from
three other Mississippi cities – Booneville, Corinth, and Louisville
– for alleged violations of state obscenity laws.
AFA initiated a boycott of Movie Gallery in 2000, when it found
that nearly 400 stores nationwide distributed hard-core pornographic
videos from "back rooms." The retailer is the nation’s
second largest video rental chain in America.
AFA’s Web site www.moviegalleryporn.com chronicles the
testimonies of managers, employees and customers who have been victimized
by Movie Gallery’s porn rental business.
AFA Director of Special Projects Randy Sharp said, "Where Joe
Malugen and Movie Gallery continue to violate the law, we will work
closely with citizens in encouraging local law enforcement to take
appropriate action."
Contact:
Joe Malugen, Chairman
Movie Gallery
900 Main St.
Dothan, AL 36301
Email: jmalugen@movgal.com
CULTURE
Abstinence ed trumps condom programs
Choosing the Best, a health- and medical-oriented approach to teaching
abstinence founded by Bruce Cook, was recently noted as being 50%
more effective than condom-based sex education programs when it
comes to delaying a teenager’s first sexual encounter.
Specifically, a study of the approach yielded a reduction in the
initiation of sex among youth in seventh, eighth, and ninth grades
who completed the program. Reducing the encounters thereby leads
to a decrease in the risk of these students contracting sexually
transmitted diseases and/or becoming pregnant.
"Not one of those school-based [condom] sex-ed programs has
resulted in lowering pregnancy rates, STD rates or HIV rates. Not
any of them," said Dr. Joe mcilhaney of the Medical Institute.
"After one year, ninth grade students who completed Choosing
the Best curricula were 26% less likely to initiate sexual intercourse
compared to a control group. … In addition, when all three
sequential Choosing the Best curricula are taught, a cumulative
reduction of 50 to 60% is projected," according to a press
release posted on www.choosingthebest.org.
Choosing the Best is designed for public schools and uses what Cook
refers to as an "Esther" ministry approach. "That
book of the Bible doesn’t mention God, but His handiwork is
all over it," Cook explained.
With approximately 50 million children in public schools, Cook knew
it would be crucial to teach abstinence from a health perspective
by focusing on physical and emotional risks of sexual behavior,
benefits of abstinence, relationships and refusal skills.
Www.choosingthebest.org, 10/26/04; Www.family.org, 11/4/04
More teens ‘hook up’
Research indicates that "hooking up" is becoming an increasingly
common practice among young people today.
The College of New Jersey defines hooking up as "petting below
the waist, oral sex or intercourse" between two people who
have no intentions of further communicating with each other beyond
their one-time physical encounter.
Elizabeth Paul, psychology professor, surveyed 555 undergraduate
students and found 78% of them had hooked up at some point, usually
following the consumption of alcohol. In addition, Paul found the
average number of hookups per student during their college career
to be nearly 11.
Her findings parallel similar studies conducted by researchers at
James Madison University and the University of Michigan, as well
as claims made by author Tom Wolfe in his book Hooking Up.
"Today’s first base is deep kissing, now known as tonsil
hockey, plus groping and fondling this and that. Second base is
oral sex. Third base is going all the way. Home plate is learning
each other’s names," Wolfe writes.
In fact, 36% of teens ages 15 to 17 admit to having had oral sex,
as reported by the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding. However,
half of these teens do not identify oral sex as sex accoding to
2003 surveys conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Seventeen
magazine.
Www.pluggedinonline.com, 10/10/04
Planned Parenthood distorts role of educator
Planned Parenthood, one of the nation’s abortion giants, recently
employed a new "sexuality educator" in the state of Indiana,
but her credibility is questionable to Jim Sedlak, director of American
Life League’s STOPP International.
The new employee’s title is "Sexuality Educator and Trainer
for Southern Indiana, as well as Local Peer Education Coordinator
for Planned Parenthood."
However, investigations yielded references to the new employee’s
past experience "as an adult book store clerk, BDSM [bondage,
domination, sadism, masochism] dungeon monitor and escort service
phone dispatcher."
"The most disturbing part of this story is the fact that, through
Planned Parenthood, this woman is in charge of programs for children,"
Sedlak said. "Planned Parenthood’s Web site directs anyone
interested in its teen peer education program to contact her. That
is a major problem."
In addition, Planned Parenthood prides itself as being "a provider
of medically accurate sexuality education for young people,"
according to the American Life League (ALL), the nation’s largest
pro-life educational organization. As a result, the pro-abortion
organization has infiltrated churches, 4-H clubs, Girl Scout troops,
public schools and other child-oriented organizations.
"We must let all school officials know that Planned Parenthood’s
‘sexuality educators’ do not belong anywhere near our
schools and our children," Sedlak explained.
STOPP International, an affiliate of ALL, urges parents to contact
school board members and elected officials in their area.
Www.all.org, 11/18/04
EDUCATION
Christian kids drift toward secularism in
public schools
Research continues to reveal some disturbing trends regarding beliefs
held by Christian students after spending time in public schools.
Dan Smithwick, founder and president of the Nehemiah Institute,
a group that provides a biblical worldview testing and training
service to Christian educators, developed the "PEERS test,"
a tool to assess the worldviews of young people. He said the majority
of public school students from evangelical Christian homes consistently
score in the "socialist" category on the test.
He noted that socialism, a political and economic philosophy that
commonly emphasizes government control and redistribution of wealth
over personal responsibility and private ownership, often goes hand-in-hand
with secularist attitudes and a generally non-biblical worldview.
The cause of this problem, Smithwick said, is that Christians have
allowed secularists to take over public education in America.
"Now we’ve got a mess on our hands," he said, "and
it’s really our fault. So we’ve got to change that. We’ve
got to repent before God. We’ve got to go back and understand
that worldview means God is interested in everything He created."
Smithwick’s worldview test consists of a series of statements
carefully designed to identify a person’s worldview in five
categories: Politics, Economics, Education, Religion, and Social
Issues (PEERS). Each statement is framed to either agree or disagree
with a biblical principle.
Concerned parents and ministers can order the PEERS test and find
out more about safeguarding the education of their children at the
organization’s Web site, www.nehemiahinstitute.com.
Agapepress, 11/23/04
Movie relates wrestler’s conversion
Steve Borden spent a decade at the top of World Championship Wrestling.
Using the name of "Sting," Borden was nine times WCW World
Heavyweight Champion, including two wins over wrestling legend Hulk
Hogan. The dramatic story of his rise to stardom, his descent to
personal failure and his conversion to Christian faith are chronicled
in Sting: Moment of Truth, a movie (VHS and DVD) from Dove
Canyon Films (www.sting-the
movie.com).
He created the most outrageous and bizarre personas he could imagine
for his career in the 1980s and ’90s, first with fluorescent
face paint and buzz-cut blond hair, and later with long black hair,
and a face painted ghostly white with black stripes.
On the home front, however, his marriage tottered on the brink of
failure while he took the fast track in his career — and to
a lifestyle fueled by drugs and alcohol. Eventually his wife, Sue,
confronted Steve. They began to work on their marriage and both
came to know Christ.
Borden continued to wrestle for a couple of years, but then began
to devote more and more of his time to ministry work. He still does
occasional wrestling exhibitions and demonstrations, and is working
toward developing a 90-acre property in Southern California into
a camp for teens.
ENTERTAINMENT
Video game worries continue for parents
The video game industry was given a mixed report card by a watchdog
group, receiving a barely passing grade for retailers who failed
to enforce age limitations on the purchase and rental of adult-oriented
games.
The National Institute on Media and the Family issued its Ninth
Annual mediawise Video Report Card in the nation’s capital
in late November. U.S. Senators Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and Herb Kohl
(D-WI), and Rep. Betty mccollum (D-MN) also participated.
Dr. David Walsh, president and founder of the Institute, said the
video game industry currently sends confusing messages to parents.
"For instance, the video game industry says parents should
use the ratings, but denies violent video games affect children.
The result is parents are led to believe the ratings don’t
really matter."
The report card gave a solid grade to the Entertainment Software
Rating Board’s (ESRB) ratings accuracy. The ESRB places a content
rating on all video games, and maintains a Web site (www.esrb.org)
where parents can find information on virtually all available games.
However, the industry received a "D" for retailer enforcement
of policies that restrict youth access to M-rated [mature] games
without parental permission. The Institute’s "secret shopper"
survey found that boys as young as seven were able to purchase M-rated
games 50% of the time. Retailers seemed more willing to restrict
underage girls, however, who were only able to purchase the restricted
games 8% of the time.
Some new games raised concerns for the Institute because of violent
or sexualized content. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, for
example, requires the player – a gang leader – to kill
police, commit drive-by shootings, carjackings and burglaries, and
other disturbing activities. Other games, like The Guy Game,
which features video of real women exposing their breasts, and JFK
Reloaded, in which the player tries to "re-assassinate"
President Kennedy, were also tagged as problematic.
Rep. Mccollum said, "Parents need to watch the video games
their kids are playing before buying …. Many of the most popular
games contain graphic and extreme violence and sexual content –
in which players are ‘virtual victimizers’ and ‘first
person killers.’"
The Institute is launching a new public service announcement that
encourages parents to take a more active role in overseeing the
video games being played by their children.
Www.mediafamily.org, 11/23/04
GOVERNMENT
Defense Department sides with ACLU to boot
Boy Scouts
The U.S. Department of Defense recently sided with the American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to stop sponsoring Boy Scout troops
and is warning military bases nationwide to do the same.
The Boy Scouts requires its members to recite an oath to God, and
the ACLU claims the policy is discriminatory and infringes on the
religious liberty of those who want to participate without swearing
the religious oath.
"It is critical that the Pentagon send this very clear signal
to its units across the globe to insure that government officials
are not engaged in religious discrimination in their official capacity,"
said attorney Charles Peters. Peters assisted the ACLU of Illinois
in a 1999 lawsuit against the Pentagon and other government agencies.
However, the settlement does not prohibit government officials from
supporting Boy Scout troops when they are off-duty and on their
own time.
Despite the settlement, it is still unresolved as to whether the
Pentagon may continue to fund the Boy Scout Jamboree, held every
four years for thousands of scouts. According to the ACLU, $2 million
is spent each year by the Pentagon to support this event.
Www.news.yahoo.com, 11/16/04; www.suntimes.com, 11/16/04
MEDIA
Hate crimes symbol gets ‘20/20’ makeover
The murder of "gay" college student Matthew Shepard in
1998 became a symbol for those demanding the passage of a federal
hate crimes law that includes sexual orientation. But a reexamination
of the incident in a recent television news program suggests that
a hate crime may not have been committed at all.
On the November 26 installment of ABC’s 20/20, news
anchor Elizabeth Vargas interviewed numerous people connected to
the events in Laramie, Wyoming, six years ago. Vargas offers an
explanation that has never been embraced by homosexual activists
or much of the mainstream press. Namely, that Aaron mckinney and
Russell Henderson – now serving life sentences for their crime
– killed Shepard in a robbery, in which mckinney acted under
the influence of drugs.
In fact, 20/20 revealed that it was not Laramie law enforcement
that saw Shepard’s sexual orientation as an issue in the murder.
"Just hours after Matthew was discovered at the fence, and
before anyone knew who had beaten him, Walt Boulden and Alex Trout,
friends of Shepard, began spreading the word that Matthew may have
been attacked because he was gay," Vargas said.
Vargas asked Cal Rerucha, Laramie prosecutor in the Shepard case,
whether or not Boulden and Trout had any evidence to substantiate
their claim that Shepard’s death was a hate crime. "Well,
I don’t think the proof was there … That was something
that they had decided," he said.
The hate crime link to Shepard’s murder became the accepted
explanation virtually overnight, and has been dogma ever since.
Not unexpectedly, the initial reaction from activists to the 20/20
piece indicated that no revision to the politically correct
view of the Shepard murder would be acceptable.
For example, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD),
the largest homosexual media watchdog group, issued a press release
blasting 20/20 for its "oversimplifications and distortions."
GLAAD did raise some serious questions that suggested that the ABC
program may have been one-sided. But for AFA President Tim Wildmon,
that misses the point.
"GLAAD didn’t complain in 1998 when the media almost universally
jumped to the conclusion that this was a hate crime," Wildmon
said. "And GLAAD said nothing when some in the media jumped
to the conclusion that Matthew Shepard’s death was somehow
caused by Christian opposition to homosexual activism in our culture.
But now they want to complain about one-sided journalism?"
In fact, Wildmon insisted, this is the very problem with the drive
for hate crimes laws. "Matthew Shepard’s death was a tragedy,
but in the same way that the other roughly 17,000 murders committed
in the U.S. every year are tragedies," he said. "A murder
is a murder, whether someone is homosexual or heterosexual."
Wildmon said the temptation to use a crime like Shepard’s murder
for political purposes is simply too strong for activists.
"Mckinney and Henderson are in prison today because of the
act of murder," he said. "Trying to criminalize what
they were thinking at the time will only lead to endless
and futile debate, like that stirred up by ABC’s 20/20
expose."
SIDEBAR: No epidemic of anti-gay
hate crimes
Activists continue to push for a federal hate crimes statute,
but the facts indicate that crimes based on bias against homosexuals
are a tiny fraction of total crimes.
According to the most recent FBI report of hate crimes nationwide,
out of 7,489 hate crime incidents committed in 2003, 1,239 were
based on sexual orientation. About two-thirds of those 1,239 were
intimidation, vandalism and property destruction.
However, in the category of more violent crimes, hate crimes represented
a very small sliver of the total number of violent crimes committed
in 2003.
According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, there were 16,503
criminal homicides in the United States during 2003; only six
(.03%) of them were based on homosexual bias. There were 857,921
aggravated assaults, and only 162 (.02%) of them were based on
sexual orientation.
"It’s not that every crime isn’t a terrible thing
– obviously it is," said AFA President Tim Wildmon.
"But there simply is no evidence of an epidemic of hate crimes
being committed against homosexuals. There’s only an epidemic
of feverish political rhetoric demanding hate crimes laws."
Www.fbi.gov/ucr, 11/30/04
RELIGION
Christian educator enduring lawsuit
Janis Price, respected educator and faithful Christian, is still
struggling through a lawsuit she filed against depauw University
over a year ago. Price filed suit contending the university violated
her First Amendment rights by cutting her pay, decreasing her responsibilities,
placing her on probation, and reducing her full-time position to
75% status – all because of a Christian magazine she made available
for reading in her classroom.
The magazine was a publication of Focus on the Family and the particular
issue that caused conflict contained an article about homosexual
activism.
After five days in court, the six-person jury decided unanimously
in favor of Price and ordered the university to pay her $10,401,
the one-year amount Price lost due to her demotion. However, Price
has yet to receive any of the money due to an appeal filed by depauw’s
attorneys following the initial ruling.
According to Price, the case appears to have turned into a procedural
issue rather than an issue of Christianity as in the beginning.
"I think it is significant that the appeal documents have nothing
to do with my Christian faith or the issue of homosexuality,"
Price told the AFA Journal. "Rather the appeal only
has to do with depauw not following their own Academic Handbook
[in relinquishing Price of her responsibilities and pay]."
Price remains employed by depauw University, originally founded
on Methodist principles. As the university’s education program
coordinator, she continues to stand for her beliefs in an attempt
to be an example to others.
"I am hopeful that my ordeal will be an example and an encouragement
to others to stand up for their faith in Christ," she added.
"When I was a little girl, I used to stand up in church and
sing the song ‘Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus.’ That is
not just an old hymn. It is a challenge, a lifestyle, and a privilege."
Www.agapepress.org, 11/4/02
School district strips God from history
Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorneys filed suit November 22, 2004,
on behalf of Stephen Williams against the Cupertino Union School
District in California. The district prohibited the teacher from
distributing copies of historical documents due to religious references.
Williams was ordered by Principal Patricia Vidmar of Stevens Creek
School to submit his lesson plans and handouts for her review. Documents
rejected by Vidmar include "excerpts from the Declaration of
Independence, the diaries of George Washington and John Adams, the
writings of William Penn, and various state constitutions."
"The district is simply attempting to cleanse all references
to the Christian religion from our nation’s history, and they
are singling out Mr. Williams for discriminatory treatment,"
said Gary mccaleb, ADF senior counsel.
Mccaleb claims their actions are unacceptable under both California
and federal law.
Www.alliancedefensefund.org, 11/23/04
God removed from schools’ Thanksgiving
Maryland public school students received a skewed teaching of the
historical meaning of Thanksgiving.
The teaching involved stories about Pilgrims and native Americans,
simulations of the Mayflower voyage and participation in mock feasts.
It includes everything but the holiday’s initial premise –
God.
"We teach about Thanksgiving from a purely historical perspective,
not from a religious perspective," said Charles Ridgell, curriculum
and instruction director of St. Mary’s County Public Schools.
"School administrators need to get a backbone," said Joel
Whitehead, president and lawyer at the Rutherford Institute, a constitutional
rights defense organization. "We are in real danger of throwing
out cultural heritage in our country if we don’t know what
Thanksgiving is really about.
"Education is inevitably going to offend someone," he
added. "We need to get beyond being politically correct…."
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