But dodgeball is now considered the sport of barbarians. We are a much more evolved people. I suppose we owe a debt of gratitude to the intellectual elites who got us into this predicament. But if you ask me, I think some of them forgot to dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge.
29
Pro-Gay or Anti-Straight?
It's hard enough learning about the birds and bees; now American school children are going to have to learn about gay penguins. It's all part of a global effort to teach kids about homosexuality, using buzz words like anti-bullying and tolerance. But to many parents and teachers, it sounds like indoctrination.
Gary Marksbury is a history teacher at a California high school. He's one of the few teachers who believe schools should give parents more latitude to pull their children out of courses that offend their religious beliefs.
That's where the penguins come in. And Tango Makes Three. It's a story about a pair of male penguins who raise a baby penguin, and it's featured on elementary school bookshelves across the country, much to the outrage of moms and dads.
"In today's world," Marksbury told FOX News, "it seems like tolerance is a one-way street for some people, so if you don't like the idea of same-gender marriage, you are immediately labeled a bigot."1
The New York Times, our national newspaper of record, said anyone who does not support gay marriage is a bigot. Their declaration came after California voters rejected same-sex marriage. The paper bashed Christians, conservatives, and heterosexuals in one fell swoop.2
"The most notable defeat for fairness was in California," the paper reported, "where right-wing forces led by the Mormon Church poured tens of millions of dollars into the campaign for Proposition 8—a measure to enshrine bigotry in the state's Constitution by preventing people of the same sex from marrying." The Times forgot to mention the tens of millions of dollars spent by the pro-homosexual lobby.
In Alameda, California, the school system adopted a curriculum to teach grade-schoolers about respecting gay and lesbian families and students. Teachers will begin using the words "gay" and "lesbian" in fourth-grade classrooms. Parents were beyond furious when the school board voted to require the classes, especially when they learned that moms and dads are not allowed to keep their children out of them.
But in the quest to be pro-gay, have schools become anti-straight?
Lawmakers in Sacramento passed a landmark bill that would require students to take mandatory gay history classes. Supporters say it's the only way to counter anti-gay stereotypes and beliefs that make children in those groups vulnerable to bullying and suicide.
If that's the case, then when will schools start offering mandatory straight history classes?
"We are second-class citizens, and children are listening,"3 Democratic lawmaker Mark Leno told the Associated Press, defending the bill he sponsored. "When they see their teachers don't step up to the plate when their classmate is being harassed literally to death, they are listening and they get the message that there is something wrong with those people."
But opponents wonder why children so young would be required to contemplate sexuality, especially when many parents are teaching their kids abstinence.
As we say down South, I don't care how you butter your biscuit. This is a free country, and that means you're free to do as you want within the boundaries of the law. What I do in the privacy of my home is my business. And what you do in the privacy of your home is your business.
But it seems to me that some activists within the gay-rights movement are interested in something else. Special protection under the law is not good enough. They want to force you to change your way of thinking—twenty-first-century thought police. They want to attack religious beliefs that conflict with their own.
David Stockton learned this lesson the hard way. He is the owner of Just Cookies, a family bakery in Indianapolis. One day members of a gay-rights group asked Stockton to make a batch of rainbow-themed cupcakes for National Coming Out Day.
Stockton had two problems with the request. First, Stockton had reservations about what the group stood for. As he told a local television station, "We are a family business."4 But there was also a second issue: Stockton doesn't make cupcakes. Hence the name of his store—Just Cookies.
Gay-rights groups went into crisis mode and immediately launched protests, accusing the bakery of discrimination. The mayor's office called the private company's actions "unacceptable." And the Office of Equal Opportunity launched an investigation.
The plight of the Stockton family has been felt across the country. Individuals who gave money to oppose gay marriage in California found their businesses protested. A waitress in one community was forced to quit her job after activists picketed the restaurant where she worked. Her crime was supporting the traditional definition of marriage.
On the following pages, you will read about real-life incidents where people who oppose gay marriage, gay parenting, and the normalization of the gay lifestyle have come under relentless attack.
Students Ordered to Attend Gay Seminar
A group of fourteen-year-old students at Deerfield High School in Illinois were ordered to attend a mandatory homosexual seminar. The class featured gay students talking about their personal experiences.
"This is unbelievable," said Matt Barber of Concerned Women for America. "It's not enough that students at Deerfield High are being exposed to improper and offensive material relative to unhealthy and high-risk homosexual behavior, but they've essentially been told by teachers to lie to their parents about it."5 CWA called it a "shocking and brazen act of government abuse of parental rights," alleging students were told to sign confidentiality agreements—promising not to tell their parents about the seminar.
The Chicago Tribune reported that many parents were furious because religious groups opposed to homosexuality were denounced during the seminar's discussion time.
"This goes to the heart of the homosexual agenda," Barber told WorldNetDaily. "The professional propagandists in the 'gay-rights' lobby know the method all too well. If you can maintain control of undeveloped and impressionable youth and spoon-feed them misinformation, lies, and half-truths about dangerous, disordered, and extremely risky behaviors, then you can control the future and ensure that those behaviors are not only fully accepted, but celebrated."
Court: School Can Expel Student Who Opposes Homosexuality
A federal judge ruled in favor of a public university that removed a Christian student over her belief that homosexuality is morally wrong. The decision, according to Julea Ward's attorneys, could result in Christian students across the country being expelled from public universities for similar views.
"It's a dangerous precedent," said Jeremy Tedesco, legal counsel for the conservative Alliance Defense Fund. "The ruling doesn't say that explicitly, but that's what is going to happen."
U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh dismissed Ward's lawsuit against Eastern Michigan University. She was removed from the school's counseling program because she refused to counsel homosexual clients. The university contended she violated school policy and the American Counseling Association code of ethics.
"Christian students shouldn't be expelled for holding to and abiding by their beliefs," said ADF senior counsel David French. "To reach its decision, the court had to do something that's never been done in federal court: uphold an extremely broad and vague university speech code."
Eastern Michigan University hailed the decision.
"We are pleased that the court has upheld our position in this matter," EMU spokesman Walter Kraft said in a written statement. "Julea Ward was not discriminated against because of her religion. To the contrary, Eastern Michigan is deeply committed to the education of our students and welcomes individuals from diverse backgrounds into our community."
In his forty-eight-page opinion, Judge Steeh said the university
had a rational basis for adopting the ACA Code of Ethics. "Furthermore, the university had a rational basis for requiring students to counsel clients without imposing their personal values,"6 he wrote in a portion of his ruling posted by The Detroit News. "In the case of Ms. Ward, the university determined that she would never change her behavior and would consistently refuse to counsel clients on matters with which she was personally opposed due to her religious beliefs, including homosexual relationships."
Ward's attorneys claim the university told her she would only be allowed to remain in the program if she went through a "remediation" program so that she could "see the error of her ways" and change her belief system about homosexuality.
The case is similar to a lawsuit the ADF filed against Augusta State University in Georgia. Counseling student Jennifer Keeton was allegedly told to stop sharing her Christian beliefs in order to graduate.
Keeton's lawsuit alleged she was told to undergo a reeducation program and attend "diversity sensitivity training."
Tedesco said both cases should be a warning to Christians attending public colleges and universities. "Public universities are imposing the ideological stances of private groups on their students," he said. "If you don't comply, you will be kicked out. It's scary stuff, and it's not a difficult thing to see what's coming down the pike."
Christian Beauty Queens versus Gays
In the beginning there was Carrie Prejean, the former Miss California USA who was castigated by the anti-straight media for her opposition to gay marriage. Now activists are setting their sights on Miss Beverly Hills, Lauren Ashley.
Ashley was a contestant in the Miss California USA pageant. She came under assault for her belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman.
"I feel like God himself created mankind and he loves everyone, and he has the best for everyone,"7 she told FOX News. "If he says that having sex with someone of your same gender is going to bring death upon you, that's a pretty stern warning, and he knows more than we do about life."
Before you could take a commercial break, the anti-straight crowd assembled torches and pitchforks. Perez Hilton proclaimed on his entertainment Web site, "There's a new dumb [bleep] in town."8 Others called her anti-gay, a Christian homophobe. Her fate was similar to Carrie Prejean, who lost her beauty crown because she said gays should not be allowed to marry.
But Ashley's case took a few unusual turns. The pageant director, who is gay, supported his beauty queen. "I don't agree with her, but I will fight to the death for her right to have her opinion,"9 Keith Lewis told the Los Angeles Times.
The other issue had to do with her residency. It turns out the pageant does not require the contestant to live in the city she is representing. Ashley lived in Pasadena, not Beverly Hills. Well, that flew all over the mayor who issued a press release saying they were dismayed and shocked at any potential association with Ashley and the city of Beverly Hills. The mayor said they have a history of tolerance and respect (as long as you aren't a born-again Christian who opposes same-sex marriage, apparently).
Seven-Year-Olds Take Field Trip to Gay District
Should little boys be exposed to a section of town where grown men frolic in the nude? That seems to be the genesis of a controversy in San Francisco involving a private, all-boys school sponsoring a day trip to the Castro, the city's world-renowned gay district. The neighborhood includes pornographic shops with window displays and all sorts of unmentionable gadgets. It's sort of like a grown-up perverted Chuck E. Cheese.
But was it age appropriate for the four dozen second-graders from the Town School? The mother of one little boy reached out to the local CBS television station. "Why would you talk to a young child about sex with a man and a woman, let alone a man and a man or a woman and a woman?" the woman asked. "It just doesn't seem right. They are not ready for that."
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that other parents were upset because teachers told the students the word gay means "happy."10 I wonder how they defined the word straight?
The school defended the trip and said it was a great success, intended to expose children to different perspectives and views. But one parent told the newspaper she was worried about what else the children may have been exposed to. "I know that Castro is full of regular shops and restaurants, but I also know that there are lots of shops with neon signs and windows that display things that, well, I just don't need more questions about!" the parent wrote. "I would not be OK with a tour of North Beach either that included certain streets. So I don't think this is a gay issue."
Librarian Forced Out by Anti-Gay Book
A federal judge has tossed out a lawsuit filed by a former Ohio State University librarian who said he was forced out of his job because of his conservative Christian beliefs. U.S. District Court Judge William Bertelsman ruled that the university's Mansfield campus did not violate Scott Savage's civil rights by being hostile to his beliefs.
In 2006 Savage was asked to serve on a committee to develop a required reading list for incoming freshmen. He noticed that every book was either liberal or promoted what he called a gay agenda. So Savage recommended four conservative books, and that's where his troubles began.
According to the court ruling, one of the books, The Marketing of Evil,11 contained a chapter discussing homosexuality as "aberrant human behavior." Several professors on the committee immediately took offense, accusing Savage of recommending a "homophobic book."
Two professors were so upset over the book that they filed a sexual-discrimination complaint against Savage. But the attack against Savage didn't stop there.
According to The Columbus Dispatch, English professor J. F. Buckley wrote an e-mail and sent it to the entire faculty.12 Buckley wrote: "You have made me fearful and uneasy being a gay man on this campus . . . I no longer feel safe doing my job. I am being harassed."
WorldNetDaily reported Savage received other correspondence laced with curse words and vicious personal attacks.13 The Christian librarian was later publicly condemned by a faculty vote.
"Rather than being examples of how I am 'provoking controversy,' these incidents underline the growing intolerance toward our constitutional rights on many campuses," Savage wrote in a letter that was published May 13, 2006, in The Dispatch.
Savage then accused five faculty members of falsely accusing him of harassment. But in 2007, he said he was forced to leave his job because of what he called personal and professional attacks on his character.
OSU is "an aggressive proponent of the homosexual lifestyle by virtue of its practices and policies," he said in the lawsuit. "OSU is therefore a naturally hostile environment to the expression of traditional Christian beliefs and morality."
But Judge Bertelsman said that Savage's speech was not protected by the First Amendment. He also ruled that the professors who launched the complaints were not in a position to discipline him and that he had his supervisor's support.
Anti-Gay Couple Denied Foster Children
A British court has ruled that a Christian couple can no longer care for foster children because of their opposition to homosexuality. Eunice and Owen Johns provided foster care for nearly two dozen children in the 1990s, but after Great Britain instituted equality laws, they were banned from the program in 2007.
Social workers red-flagged the couple during an interview when they explained they did not approve of homosexuality because of their Pentecostal faith. The Associated Press reported that judges at London's Royal Courts of Justice determined that laws protecting homosexuals from discrimination take precedence over the couple's religious beliefs.14 Britain, the judges ruled, was a "secular state, not a theocracy."
The Johns told the Press and Journal newspaper they were "extremely distressed."
"We have been excluded because we have moral opinions based on our faith, and we feel sidelined because we are Christians with normal, mainstr
eam views on sexual ethics," Mrs. Johns said.
British gay-rights organizations praised the ruling. "In any fostering case, the interests of the 60,000 children in care should override the bias of any prospective parent," gay-rights activist Ben Summerskill told Pink News, Europe's largest gay news service.15 "Thankfully Mr. and Mrs. Johns's outdated views aren't just out of step with the majority of people in modern Britain but those of many Christians, too."
Meanwhile, this particular battle in the culture war has even influenced a flavor of ice cream. Ben and Jerry's celebrated the start of legalized gay marriage in Vermont by offering a limited-edition brand of ice cream, renaming Chubby Hubby to Hubby, Hubby. The New England ice cream maker wanted to herald wedded bliss with peace, love, and ice cream.
If it's not too much trouble, I'll just take a scoop of vanilla, please.
Dispatches from the Pew
30
The War on Christianity
In 2007, then Senator Barack Obama told the Christian Broadcasting Network that the United States was "no longer just a Christian nation." But a new Gallup poll indicates that not only is the country Christian; it is overwhelmingly Christian.
Somebody better alert the White House. They've got a Christian nation on their hands.
According to Gallup, 78 percent of Americans consider themselves Christian. Breaking down the numbers, we find 56 percent of Americans identify themselves Protestant and 22 percent Catholic.1
Dispatches from Bitter America: A Gun Toting, Chicken Eating Son of a Baptist's Culture War Stories Page 15
