‘Values Voter Summit’ set for October 19-21

AFA encourages supporters to attend

With the presidential primary season set to open just after the first of the year, followed by the 2008 presidential and congressional elections in November, this year’s Washington Briefing 2007/Values Voter Summit has been scheduled October 19-21 in the nation’s capital.

A gala dinner will honor Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus On the Family, with entertainment by Grammy Award winning recording artist Lee Greenwood, singing his popular “God Bless the U.S.A.”

Last year’s first-ever Values Voter Summit was a huge success, drawing almost 1,800 people representing 45 states and foreign countries.

Speakers already confirmed for this year’s event include: Dr. Ted Baehr, Dr. Bill Bennett, Robert Bork, Tony Perkins, Sen. Rick Santorum, Dr. Richard Land, Phyllis Schlafly and more.

Plenary and breakout sessions will cover religious freedom, marriage, bioethics, immigration, national security, radical Islam, Hollywood and other issues affecting family, faith and freedom.

There will also be exhibits and book signings, a “Radio and New Media Row,” and a Sunday morning worship service.

“This should be a powerful and informative Values Voter Summit this year, and I am enthusiastically recommending that AFA supporters attend if at all possible,” said AFA Chairman Don Wildmon. “The cultural issues facing our nation require an informed and active response from the Christian community, and The Washington Briefing 2007 will encourage believers to be both.”

The Values Voter Summit will be held at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. General registration is $95, with a special $50 rate for students. Those wanting to register can do so online at www.FRCaction.org or call 1-888-372-2284.

CULTURE
Survey reveals Americans’ views about selves, religion
Recent research from The Barna Group shows that Americans generally feel quite good about themselves and the concept of religion, although most don’t define themselves by their faith.

“Sociologists have good reason to call this the era of hyper-individualism,” said a press release from the polling company. The study found that 71% of Americans think of themselves as leaders and 95% believe themselves to be independent thinkers.

American self-esteem doesn’t appear to be lagging, either: 98% defined themselves as loyal and reliable people, and the study said “a whopping four out of five people believe they are making a positive difference in the world.”

Nevertheless, 86% of poll respondents said they were concerned about the moral state of the nation, but when it came to questions about what should be done about that, there was a strange ambivalence. While 92% of Americans said they support traditional family values, 75% claim they were “very open” to alternative moral views, Barna said.

“Interestingly, though, only one out of four adults is concerned enough to try to convince other people to change their views on [moral] issues,” the group said.

When it came to religion a similar ambiguity arose. “A large majority say that their religious faith is very important in their life today, and nearly two-thirds go so far as to describe themselves as ‘deeply spiritual,’” according to Barna. Moreover 70% of Americans say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that they consider to be important.

However, the study also found that most Americans “do not consider their faith to be their primary defining attribute. They are more likely to see themselves as Americans, consumers, spouse and parent, and even employee than to describe themselves primarily in terms of their faith commitment.”

HOMOSEXUALITY
Fewer Americans support same-sex marriage
The Pew Research Center said its polling numbers indicate a drop in Americans’ support for gay marriage and civil unions, while public views on homosexual parenting is a mixed bag.

In answer to the question, “Do you favor or oppose allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally?” 57% of respondents said they were opposed, with 32% in favor, and 11% either unsure or declining to answer. That opposition to same-sex marriage has grown from 51% in a Pew poll from 2006.

Support for legally recognized gay civil unions (which would bestow many of the same rights and benefits as marriage) has also declined, according to Pew polling. The high-water mark for support was 54% in 2006, but declined to 46% in the most recent survey, which is about what it was in 2003. However, the public was more evenly split – with 45% in favor of civil unions – than on the same-sex marriage issue.

When the question turned to whether or not it was good for society that homosexual couples raised children, 50% of the general public said it was bad for American culture, 11% said it was good, and 34% said they didn’t think it mattered.

On the other hand, women seemed much more open to homosexual parenting than men. Only 42% of women said it was bad for society (compared to 56% in 1997), while 59% of men said they disapproved.

Toronto gays just aren’t getting married
After all the machinations involved in ramming the legalization of same-sex marriage through Canada’s Parliament, the city with the largest percentage of homosexuals has seen only a single gay Canadian couple tying the knot thus far this year.

That city is Toronto, which according to the Gay Toronto Tourism Guide is 14% homosexual. An article at LifeSiteNews said 118 same-sex marriage licenses were issued for American homosexual couples and 201 for gay couples from other countries, but only one for a Canadian couple through the end of June.

“We’ve been saying all along that, for the homosexual activist, the legalization of gay marriage is not about embracing the sanctity of marriage itself but about forcing cultures to embrace that lifestyle,” said AFA President Tim Wildmon.

As someone who has frequently written on the subject of same-sex marriage, National Review Online contributing editor Stanley Kurtz goes even further. He believes many radical homosexual activists actually want to get rid of the institution of marriage altogether.

“The way to abolish marriage, without seeming to abolish it, is to redefine the institution out of existence,” he said. “If everything can be marriage, pretty soon nothing will be marriage.”

FDA keeps ban on blood donated by gay men
Under increasing pressure to change its long-standing ban on accepting blood donations from homosexual men, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May said the policy would remain in place.

As reported by Fox News, potential male blood donors are always asked if they have had sex with another man – even once – since 1977. If the answer is yes, the man is permanently banned from donating.

“A history of male-to-male sex is associated with an increased risk for the presence of and transmission of certain infectious diseases, including HIV, the virus that causes AIDS,” the FDA said on its Web site.

Specifically, the agency said, as a group, men who have had sex with men since 1977 “have an HIV prevalence … 60 times higher than the general population, 800 times higher than first time blood donors and 8,000 times higher than repeat blood donors. …”

The FDA bans such men from donating blood because, while the risk is small, there is still a chance that tainted blood could be given to recipients during transfusions.

Beyond the danger of HIV, sexually active homosexual men also have an increased risk of having other diseases. “For example, infection with the Hepatitis B virus is about 5-6 times more common and Hepatitis C virus infections are about 2 times more common in men who have sex with other men than in the general population,” the FDA said.

Homosexual activists and some in the medical community argue that current screening methods make accidental transmission of HIV and other diseases to the general public unlikely.

Regardless of whether or not the FDA will continue the ban in the future, AFA Chairman Don Wildmon said the statistics reveal the riskiness of the homosexual lifestyle. “There is a common-sense reason why homosexual men have such elevated risks of getting sexually-transmitted diseases,” he said. “And that’s because the abuse of the human body that is linked to the homosexual lifestyle takes its toll.”

MEDIA
Journalists strongly lean toward Democrats
A media watchdog organization is praising an investigative reporter with MSNBC for his work in exposing the liberal bias of the media.

Bill Dedman, an investigative reporter for MSNBC, was able to obtain records from the Federal Election Commission tracking the political contributions of 144 journalists from 2004 to the start of the 2008 campaign. Those records showed that 125 journalists gave to Democrats, while only 17 gave to Republicans and 2 gave to both parties.

Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the Media Research Center (MRC), said the report confirmed what his organization has contended all along. “We have also done this sort of study, or did 10 or 15 years ago at MRC, and found basically the same thing,” he said.

Graham is impressed that a mainstream media outlet would do this story. “Somebody at MSNBC decided this is a good story,” he said. “It is certainly not a story that the media has done, but I think we can certainly turn the camera of scrutiny around a little bit and [ask], ‘Do we have times where the media obviously shows it’s not objective by making donations to candidates?’”

The MRC spokesman said that while journalists, like all Americans, have the right to make political contributions to whomever they want, there should be a full disclosure of those contributions. And reporters who give to political causes, he added, should recuse themselves from covering them.

PORNOGRAPHY
Study: Child porn linked to molestation
A controversial study found that 85% of those convicted for Internet trafficking of child pornography admitted to sexually abusing a minor.

The stunning findings have ignited a difference of opinion among mental health professionals, law enforcement officers and prison authorities, according to an article in The New York Times.

The research was conducted by psychologists at the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Researchers interviewed convicted offenders concerning their sexual histories with the promise that participants would remain anonymous.

One of the most startling revelations was that much of the sexual abuse committed by child porn offenders was unknown to law enforcement at the time of conviction.

“More than 85% admitted to abusing at least one child, [the psychologists] found, compared with 26% who were known to have committed any ‘hands on’ offenses at sentencing,” said the Times’ Julian Sher and Benedict Carey. “The researchers also counted many more total victims: 1,777, a more than 20-fold increase from the 75 identified when the men were sentenced.”

Jill S. Levenson, head of the ethics committee of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, said, “It’s crucial to understand the sexual history of all these offenders because sometimes the crime they were arrested for is the tip of the iceberg and does not reflect their real patterns and interests.”

Some mental health professionals, however, said reaction to the study should be cautious to avoid tarring with the same brush all people convicted of child porn violations.

“The results could have tremendous implications for community safety and for individual liberties,” Dr. Fred Berlin, founder of the Johns Hopkins Sexual Disorders Clinic, told The New York Times. “If people we thought were not dangerous are more so, then we need to know that and we should treat them that way. But if we’re wrong, then their liberties aren’t going to be fairly addressed.”

Kids solicited online for sex photos
A recent study revealed once again just how dangerous a place the Internet can be – especially for children.

Co-authored by psychology professor Kimberly Mitchell of the University of New Hampshire’s Crimes Against Children Research Center, the study found that one out of every 25 kids who poke around on the Internet are asked to send sex photos of themselves to solicitors.

The researchers surveyed 1,500 youth ages 10 to 17. Mitchell told USA Today that most of the kids who were surveyed didn’t realize that sending sex photos was illegal. “They’re being asked to produce child pornography,” she said.

Another 10% of kids in the study said they had simply been asked for non-sexual photos of themselves. However, experts say such pictures can still be used for child pornography. With the use of computer software, pornographers can “morph” a child’s photo with another involving sexual activity.

“We think most children don’t fully understand the stakes here,” Mitchell said. “They may just see [such online solicitation] as rudeness or sometimes even flattery.”

Because of Web sites like MySpace.com, thousands of kids are posting their photos on the Internet, according to Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Allen told USA Today that of the kids the center has identified as victims of child pornography, 5% of the youth had unwittingly provided the photos that were eventually used.

Kids should realize, said Allen, that a photo posted online is available to anyone in the world, and that “they can’t get it back.”

RELIGION
NYC Christmas decor challenged
New York City councilman Tony Avella has unveiled a resolution that challenges a policy which allows and encourages Muslim, Jewish and secular decorations in public schools during the Christmas season but does not permit Christian symbols.

In the past, New York City schools have allowed a Menorah, Islam’s Star and Crescent, and an evergreen tree to be displayed. However, officials have said a Nativity scene is not allowed.

Avella’s resolution was prompted by the refusal earlier this year of the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.

Brian Rooney, an attorney with the Thomas More Law Center, said the case is a clear example of hostility toward religion and the Constitution. Rooney believes that the Nativity scene is the proper image to signify Christmas, rather than an evergreen tree.

“We’re not celebrating the birth of an evergreen tree,” Rooney said. “It’s time that bureaucrats in the department of education and the city realize that, and the will of the people is going to be shown.”

Freedom Fest honors military heroes
When Carl Runyan’s son-in-law Michael was injured in Iraq a few years ago, Carl wanted to do something to celebrate his life and to honor him and other heroes who have served in the U.S. military. He came up with the idea of Freedom Fest – a free, fun, family event to honor God and country.

In 2005, the Runyans moved to Warner Robins, Georgia, and Carl continued the event in honor of military personnel and other high-risk service professionals such as police officers and firefighters. The staff at Southside Baptist Church, his home church, was enthusiastic as well, and September 8 will mark the third Freedom Fest in the large field beside the Southside Church.

Chris Tomlin, contemporary Christian music artist will headline the event. The festival kicks off at 3 p.m. (EDT) and concludes at 10 p.m. Food vendors will be there in full force, but everything else is free.

Comedian J. J. Jasper, American Family Radio on-air personality, and evangelist Jamey Ragle will speak at the event. Last year more than 15,000 people attended and 100 prayed to receive Christ. Runyan attributes the success of Freedom Fest to prayer.

“God takes the prayers, then the event, and then he begins to prepare that heart [of each participant],” Runyan said. “I believe God chooses that time to minister to that person through song and word.”

For more information, visit www.southsidebaptistchurch.net or telephone 478-953-9388. “Bring your lawn chairs, picnic and lots of friends and family,” Runyan said. “There will be great fun for the kids in the afternoon, great food and a great time.”