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September 11, 2007
May 8, 2007
Pro-Homosexual Agenda In Schools
It is time to speak out concerning the rights of parents in public education. Remember, it is the parents who build (taxes) the schools, hire (pay) the teachers, and furnish the students.
There are schools who wish to usurp parental authority. They want to teach their views, often the separate views of the teacher, to your children.
However, many parents, and their numbers are growing, recognize that the rearing of their children is their responsibility. The school system should be only one element in teaching the basic values of life to our children. Remember, they are our children; they do not belong to the school system or to the state.
It is very possible to teach general sex education in the “upper” school grades, not in elementary, please, without promoting sexual promiscuity, i.e., teaching how. Most parents I know would prefer their children be taught “Not to” rather than “How to”. Abstinence works 100% of the time.
It is the right and responsibility of the parents to mold the character and beliefs of their children. Remember, they are our children, they do not belong to the school system or to the state. Using the examples of those with little or no parental control or guidance does not justify usurping the parental rights of responsible parents.
Teaching tolerance in schools is a basic part of education. However, the use of a label of “tolerance” must not be used to promote what is not appropriate in schools. The organizations, such as PFLAG, have an agenda of influencing the local schools and schools all over the nation, not to tolerate but to teach about and thereby promote homosexuality. They have been supported by the N.E.A.(National Education Association) to go into the schools with their agenda. They are promoting homosexuality under the label tolerance. Go to their web-site www.pflag(large city in your area).org and then click on “monthly bulletins”. There are the listed names of schools they have visited, monthly, in your area. Ask to see the materials, (books, etc.) that they are distributing.
They try to portray themselves as the victims rather than the agressors. The safety issue is equated erroneously with acceptance, i.e. since you agree that we should enjoy equal safety, then you agree that our total agenda is also acceptable. Also, the LGRL and the GLSEN are the lobbyists for promoting legislation favorable to the homosexual agenda. They have been at work in Austin and Washington, D.C. for a number of years.
The issue of homosexuality must be brought out into the open for a two-sided, full discussion on the physiological, the psychological, and yes, the spiritual aspects of homosexuality. Then informed parents can work with school officials to decide on the material to teach and at what age to teach our children about gender issues. (Complete information at www.lighteluno.net page 3 - schools.)
B. Joe Cline
Lighthouse Freedom Ministry
Executive Director
December 28, 2006
The “Love Won Out” Conference schedule of Focus on the Family
Phoenix, Arizona, February 10, 2007
Bethany Bible Church
Omaha, Nebraska, April 14, 2007
Trinity Church
To register and obtain a detailed schedule of classes for conferences: 800-232-6459 www.Exodus.toThe many issues surrounding homosexuality as it relates to the church and society will be examined. The emphasis will be on prevention and a message of hope and freedom for many who are struggling with same-sex attractions.The media, the professional community, and the educational system are continually presenting misinformation about homosexuality. Especially affected are the young people struggling with identity issues and becoming even more confused by the pro-gay message that encourages them to “experiment” with their sexuality.“Love Won Out” conferences were created to provide honest answers to issues that have been addressed by those presenting misinformation or half information. The truth is that there is freedom from same-sex attractions. In fact, Dr, James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family assures you that there is hope for anyone who believes in the life-changing power of Jesus Christ.Visit www.family.org for details about the conferences. It is not very far to travel to find help and freedom for your family, your friend or yourself.Focus on the Family Mission StatementOur Mission: To provide a Christ-centered, comprehensive conference which will enlighten, empower and equip families, church and youth leaders, educators, counselors, policy-makers and the gay community on the truth about homosexuality and its impact on culture, families and youth.P. S. You can expect answers to tough questions.- Are people born gay?
- How should the church respond?
- What’s being taught in our schools?
- What about the gay agenda?
- Is change really possible?P. P. S. A special conference for ministry leaders.
“Homosexuality and the church” – OnebyOne Church Network Conference – February 16th, 17th, 2007. www.Oneby1.org. – for details and registration.
P.P.P.S. Special Resources
1. Homosexuality 101 (DVD)
- Born Gay? A Choice? Change Possible? Christian Response? - - (DVD -
$15.00) Exodus.to - - 888-264-0877.
2. Science vs. the Gay Gene - http://www.trueorigin.org/gaygene01.asp
December 4, 2006
The Saline Solution
Commentary from D. James Kennedy, PH.D.
The late Peter Marshall, who served as chaplain to the U. S. Senate, observed that when the apostles preached, riots or regeneration followed. Nowadays, he said, we get a pat on the hand and “nice sermon pastor.”
We are all tempted to be “nice” Christians – to remain silent about Christ or biblical moral standards when we have the opportunity to speak.
Recently, a nationally known evangelical minister took a pass when a reporter asked him about homosexual marriage. Rather than giving a biblical answer, he merely said it was not “God’s best.” He said he didn’t want to focus on “the issues that divide us.” This, at a time when marriage, the building block of civilization, is under a direct withering assault from those who wish to impose same-sex marriage on the nation through the courts.
But a saccharine brand of faith, one without offense or effect, is not true New Testament Christianity. We are called by Christ not to be the “sugar of the world,” but to serve instead as the “salt of the earth.’
The function of salt, as Jesus Christ’s first-century audience knew full well, was to preserve from corruption. Since then, the followers of Christ have indeed proven to be the preservatives of morality and decency in the world.
William Wilberforce is one example. His tireless, lifelong crusade to end slavery within the British Empire awoke the conscience of his nation and resulted, finally, in freedom for more than 700,000 slaves when Parliament passed an emancipation bill in 1833. His burden to end the slave trade and free the slaves was a direct result of his commitment to Jesus Christ.
His life illustrates another attribute of salt: It stings. Slave traders, along with fellow members of Parliament who benefited financially from the forced labor of their fellow human beings, reacted furiously to his crusade. Lord Melbourne bitterly protested that “Things have come to a pretty pass when religion is allowed to invade public life.” That’s a comment often echoed today by modern critics of the “religious right” – a negative term slapped on Christians who vote and work to see biblical standards of law and justice applied in our nation.
Wilberforce was attacked in the press, he was attacked physically, his family was threatened, and he was the target of attempted murder. He had to hire bodyguards to protect his family and himself. Still he continued his crusade. He stood up in the House of Commons in 1791 and declared, “Never, never will we desist till we … extinguish every trace of this bloody traffic.”
How much, dear friend, are you acting as a preservative for this society? You could do far more than you imagine. You could change many things if you would just sprinkle a little salt on some of that “decaying meat” of our culture. Let your voice be heard. Don’t be afraid. We can have an influence … a preservative influence everywhere we go.
A great way to exercise influence is to cast your vote on November 7. If you’re not yet registered to vote, there may still be time. To find out about voter registration in your state, go to www.ChristianVotes.com.
Another way to get out of the saltshaker and make an impact for Christ is to attend the upcoming Reclaiming America for Christ conference, March 2 – 3, 2007, in Fort Lauderdale. This is a wonderful two-day event where you can grow in your grasp of the issues facing the nation and what you can do to help return our land to moral sanity.
It’s a great place to discover what you can do to become part of the saline solution to America’s moral ills.
Note: Learn more about Reclaiming America for Christ 2007 at www.reclaimamerica.org.
September 11, 2006
Brokeback Mountain: A Christian Response
By Andrew Comiskey
Over the past few months there have been countless articles and editorials about the impact of the message of Brokeback Mountain upon our culture. Most see the film as a story of true love (the two male friends) that society is unwilling to accept. The two men are seen as victims. Although not a part of the film, many editorials blame Christianity for perpetrating a judgmental, narrow intolerant attitude towards homosexuality.Andy has seen these editorials as a chance to respond in a loving, truthful way towards the false beliefs many have about homosexuality and Christianity. I hope that sharing his responses to a few of the editorials will help deepen your own response.In response to a Kansas City Star faith editorial by Vern Barnet on the sacredness of same-sex relationships, Dec. 28, 2005.
“In framing an ultimately tragic gay romance as ‘sacred,’ Barnet fails on several key points.
First, using his own definition of sacred – ‘the source of ultimate meaning’ – we must gauge sexual relationships by their ultimate meaning: the conceiving of children. Erotic same-sex unions cannot achieve this sacred end.
Secondly, he skews the Judeo-Christian tradition when he states that religion has limited homosexual behavior due to the cultural need for population growth. In truth, Christianity prohibits homosexuality because of the faith’s high view of humanity. Monogamy protects the best interests of all involved; the biblical mandate to reserve sexual activity for marriage alone is especially empowering to women who historically have been subject to the injustices of male infidelity, both heterosexually and homosexually.
Ennis and Jack (the homosexual characters of Brokeback Mountain) had wives whose lives were shattered by their ‘sacred’ gay romance. The men themselves were shattered by their romance. Still Barnet insists that the problem lies within the culture that demonizes them. Could it be that the problem lies within the misinterpretation of their same-sex attraction? The longings of Ennis and Jack are not fulfilled in homo-eroticism. These cowboys are lost souls who need solid masculine friendship, not sex.
Making their romance ‘sacred’ is the problem. What demonizes them (and their wives) in today’s culture are naive advocates like Barnet who bless what is broken, who call good evil, and evil good.”A response to a CA youth pastor’s take on Brokeback Mountain, printed in Relevant Magazine, a conservative Christian periodical (?!)
“In his naïve review of Brokeback Mountain, Pastor Seely buys the lie that the film’s eloquent take on relational and moral chaos somehow redeems that chaos. He claims that Jesus is in the film because Jesus feels deeply for broken people. But deep feelings don’t restore lives. And the mangling of lives that result from the homosexual affair at the core of the film is what troubled me most about it.
Seely points out how Brokeback Mountain conveys well the struggle for security and clarity we all experience in our relationships, especially men.
But these men fail tragically to recognize the difference between a profound need for friendship and romantic compulsion; both men also fail to take responsibility for how selfish and destructive that eroticism is, especially as it is visited upon their wives and children.
Seely rightly cites how the film evokes many passionate feelings; it will inevitably awaken perverse romantic desire in many young adults who are already vulnerable to eroticizing their need for same-sex love, God is not in that awakening; it is born of His enemy and the enemy of humanity.
We as Christians do a disservice to one another in merely offering empathic feelings to those bound by brokenness. God shows up when we become His agents in helping to redeem that brokenness. In this, Brokeback Mountain is no help at all. It merely conveys the power of frustrated desire and its fulfillment, with an eloquence that will prove seductive to the unaware.”In response to a February New York Times editorial by an op-ed by Dan Savage criticizing the ex-gay movement:
“I asked my four children, ranging from ages 16-24, to comment on Savages’s op-ed piece on the ex-gay movement. These four grew up among men like their father who determined through the grace of God to transition out of homosexuality and into heterosexual relationships. (I am one of the founders and leaders of the ex-gay movement in the USA.)
These four also grew up in a gay-friendly culture increasingly hostile to anyone who challenges the belief that the only happy homosexual is an active one.
As the pretty good result of heterosexual monogamy (and the ex-gay movement), my kids rolled their eyes at Savage’s claim that ex-gays, if they exist at all, are doomed to self-deception and divorce.
My eldest commented that Savage may be threatened by the prospect that men like his father actually exist. I think he is right. Why else would he try so hard to make me an imaginary creature, a figment of the evangelical imagination? Strange justice for one committed to his own sexual happiness. Why can’t he grant me mine?”
May these letters help you respond with the true mercy, grace and freedom offered by Christ and His church.
Then you will know the truth,
And the truth will set you free.
John 8:32
By Andrew Comiskey
August 23, 2006
LIGHTHOUSE FREEDOM MINISTRY August 22, 2006
Dear Friends,
The Lighthouse Freedom Ministry Team has been busy during this past year, 2005, in Galveston, TX and Waco, TX. A significant part of the expense of advertising for the “Love Won Out” conference, in Houston, TX, was borne by the Lighthouse Freedom Ministry. The executive council members have worked very hard in their respective areas. Lighthouse Freedom Ministry is in the process of forming an Advisory Council in Waco and Galveston. If anyone would like to be a candidate for serving on the Advisory Council, please phone me or send me an e-mail, and your name will be added to the list for consideration. The ministry in Waco has just begun.
One of Lighthouse Freedom Ministry’s goals is to help churches become a “Haven of Hope and Help” – a safe place for everyone, including homosexuals. No one should ever be reluctant to come to the House of God for help. We are working with some pastors now to inform and educate members of their congregation. God Jehovah is first a God of love. He is also a God of Holiness.
However, Christians and the leadership in our churches need to wake-up and become aware that PFLAG (Parents, family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). HATCH (Houston Area Teen Coalition of Homosexuals) and LGRL (Lesbian Gay Rights Lobby) are busy every day attacking the Biblical concept of marriage and demanding that homosexuality be considered equal to heterosexuality. The LGRL stays busy lobbying in Austin and in Washington, D. C.
The new website for Lighthouse Freedom Ministry is www.lighteluno.net. There are critical sources of information on page three of our webpages. Thank you for your help and may the Lord continue His blessings on us.
In His service,
B. Joe Cline, Director
6902 Woodway Dr., #313
Waco, TX 76712
254-640-3998
Bcline1@hot.rr.com
Ron Edwards,
Associate Director
2905 61st St., Suite B
PMB #352
Galveston, TX 77551-1866
409-739-5181