The Aftermath of Sodom and Gomorrah

This 30 minute video shows all the scientific details of what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. A very visual and educational video of the Biblical account:

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Do you believe the Genesis account to be literal?

I am very surprised that many Christians do not believe that the creation account in the book of Genesis is literal. Many Christians believe that the creation account in Genesis is myth that is not accurate history and that God gave it just to satisfy man's "primitave" thinking back in ancient days.

I also know that these same people do not believe that Adam and Eve were literal people. From what I can tell from searches, Genesis 1-11 is the "myth" part of the book.

I have nothing personal against the people who hold this view, but I am very disturbed by the number of Christians who hold it. It's not just one place I've checked this, but with Christian at other locations as well. To me, it seems as if they are putting man-made teachings over the Bible and using man-made teachings to interpret the Bible. Don't get me wrong. True science can verify the Bible, but science tainted with evolutionary concepts or other man-made concepts that are not scientific to begin with, is not going to give the right answer.

“Coming out” puts adolescents at risk

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Same-Sex "Marriage" Supporters Furious at California Loss: Lawsuits Filed Challenging Proposition 8

By Kathleen Gilbert

SACRAMENTO, California, November 6, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Hours after Californians won the battle to protect the true definition of marriage through Proposition 8, numerous lawsuits have been filed in California courts by frustrated homosexualist activists bent on overruling the voter-approved amendment.

Three lawyers filed separate lawsuits on Wednesday claiming that Proposition 8 was an illegal constitutional revision, rather than an amendment. Proposition 8 adds to the state constitution the sentence: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

"If they want to legalize gay marriage, what they should do is bring an initiative themselves and ask the people to approve it," Frank Schubert, co-chairman of the Proposition 8 campaign, told the LA Times, in response to the flurry of lawsuits. "But they don’t. They go behind the people’s back to the courts and try and force an agenda on the rest of society."

In all three states in the US where same-sex “marriage” is or has been legal, it was imposed by a court decision and not by the legislature or the citizens.

Having won one of the most hard-fought battles in the 2008 election, Proposition 8 overturned the May ruling of four activist judges who declared same-sex “marriage” legal in California. This ruling was handed down despite the strong majority of Californians who had voted to include the true definition of marriage in the state’s Family Code in 2000.

The victory of Proposition 8, and that of similar legislation in Florida and Arizona, was met with jubilation from pro-family advocates Wednesday as a strong sign of hope for true marriage protection across the country.

But homosexual couples and lobbyists nationwide are seeing red now that same-sex “marriage” has suffered a massive blow.

The first lawsuit against Proposition 8 came from the ACLU, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Lambda Legal. Santa Clara County and the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles brought a second case against the new legislation to court. The third came from Los Angeles lawyer Gloria Allred on behalf of a "married" lesbian couple. Homosexual rights groups are arguing that the constitution's “core commitment to equality for everyone" has been violated by the true marriage amendment.

Besides the lawsuits, reports of threats aimed at Christian and other religious groups have been pouring in since it became clear that Proposition 8 would pass.

In a blog entry titled “You’ll Want to Punch them” on Queerty.com, poster “BillyBob Thornton” wrote, “I have never considered being a violent radical extremist for our Equal Rights, But now I think maybe I should consider becoming one.” “Stenar” asked, “Can someone in CA please go burn down the Mormon temples there, PLEASE. I mean seriously. DO IT.”

“Jonathan” warned, “I’m going to give them something to be f – ing scared of. … I’m a radical who is now on a mission to make them all pay for what they’ve done.”

Meanwhile, at JoeMyGod.blogspot.com, “World O Jeff,” said, “Burn their f–ing churches to the ground, and then tax the charred timbers.” While, “Tread,” wrote, “I hope the No on 8 people have a long list and long knives.” “Joe,” stated, “I swear, I’d murder people with my bare hands this morning.”

And on the Americablog.com Web site, “scottinsf” posted, “Trust me. I’ve got a big list of names of mormons and catholics that were big supporters of Prop 8. … As far as mormons and catholics … I warn them to watch their backs.”

Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs with both Liberty Alliance Action and Liberty Counsel, said, “This is not just a matter of some people blowing off steam because they’re not happy with a political outcome.

"This is criminal activity. The homosexual lobby is always calling for ‘tolerance’ and ‘diversity’ and playing the role of victim. They claim to deplore violence and ‘hate.’"

But now that the homosexual lobby is on the defensive, says Barber, they pull out all the stops in expressing their violent hate for religious believers and supporters of true marriage.

"Imagine if Christian Web sites were advocating such violence against homosexuals," he emphasizes. "There’d be outrage, and rightfully so. It’d be national front-page news."

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Jemdude's comments:
Do you notice that homosexuals claim to promote "tolerance" but do not practice it in return? What hatred and violence they promote!

How do I take my mind off the things of this world?

I'll tell you how I don't do it. It's not by going to "nosteliga boards" where you have moderators and posters like greenhornet, Mighty Markie, and Bloviator who support 21 Century political correctness over the family values that those earlier eras truly represented. I do it by watching TV Land and Dejaview in Canada and watching shows like Hart to Hart and Fantasy Island, and Three's Company, and Cosby Show, etc.

Jemdude is running for public office!

That's right. I am officially running as a candidate for the Christian Heritage Party. I am very proud that I am providing a moral alternative to the other parties out there.

Homosexual U.K. Documentarian Says Gay Lifestyle a "Sewer" of Casual Degrading Sex, Drug Abuse and Misery

By Hilary White

LONDON, September 10, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A British homosexual journalist admits that his documentary on the London gay scene is likely to "burn every bridge in the gay world I've got."

Simon Fanshawe is a writer and broadcaster who created the documentary "The Trouble With Gay Men" after becoming increasingly alarmed at the shallowness and destructiveness of the "gay lifestyle." The film, made for BBC 3 television, questions the emotional and psychological immaturity, narcissism, nihilism and self-destructive tendencies of many in the homosexual community. Fanshawe says he wants homosexual men to "grow up" and get beyond their state of "extended adolescence."

Fanshawe, who was involved in the early homosexualist political movement, says, "We've fought discrimination and prejudice, only to wreck ourselves with drugs and wild sex."

In his documentary Fanshawe admits that the homosexualist movement has in the main achieved its political goals of equalising homosexuality with natural sexual relations, in abolishing laws against sodomy and creating legal equivalency with marriage and adoption. Given these achievements, Fanshawe asks, "Why do we seem hell bent on behaving like eternal teenagers?"

"We're hooked on vanity, and regard older men with contempt. Despite AIDS we're still chasing the ultimate sexual high and what's more are determined to wreck ourselves on designer drugs. We're happy to assist the straight world in keeping alive the image of all gay men as limp-wristed queens."

He says that he has recently "started to worry" about the ways in which "gay liberation is celebrated" in his hometown of Brighton, a major centre of the homosexual subculture. At the annual "Mr. Gay" beauty pageant, which he describes as a "pathetic display of self-delusion", Fanshawe tells a contestant, "I'm old enough to remember when all those women were fighting against Miss World...What we're all saying about ourselves is that actually to be really gay, properly gay, what you've got to be is cute, and young."

"Extreme vanity" he says, has been "sewn into gay culture." It "is now so mainstream in the gay community that otherwise intelligent young men are happy to be treated as sex objects on a demeaning meat rack."

Gay men, he says, are so "hardwired" towards finding casual sexual encounters, some going as far as plastic implants to enhance their appearance, that finding genuine intimacy is "practically impossible."

"Vast amounts of our leisure time are organised around sex, straight or gay. But what gay men have done is organise our identity around sex. And that is corrosive. And to make things worse, promiscuity has become the norm."

The documentarian asks the proprietor of a gay sex bath house, "Paul", who had just related some graphic stories of group sexual encounters in the establishment, "Are we just swimming around in a sewer which we're just sort of saying is normal?"

For objecting to the lifestyle of pursuing casual and "extreme" sex and for holding genuine human intimacy as a goal, Paul told Fanshawe that he is "the closest thing to a straight person in a gay man's body I have ever met. There should be an operation for you, dear."

Paul was adamant and forthright in his belief that the gay lifestyle is incompatible with happiness and fidelity in human relations, expressing his dissatisfaction with civil unions legislation. "The temptation of other things will always stand in the way of two gay men having a long-term, loving, caring relationship."

Fanshawe says he is horrified at the lack of emotional involvement and at the willingness of men to engage in "unsafe sex." The film includes statistics that show the deadly consequences of the homosexual lifestyle. One in nine gay men in London is HIV infected and new cases of HIV have doubled in the city in five years. Incidences of syphilis have increased in the same time period 616 per cent.

"Unsafe" sex, he says, is not the only way in which gay men are self destructive. "If there's a new drug, gay men will find it and take it," he states.

At one point Fanshawe interviews a homosexual man who has "done all the drugs" and now campaigns in gay clubs against the growing use of crystal methamphetamine. The man, who could not be identified for fear of reprisals from drug dealers, said that crystal meth is preferred in the gay community because it reduces the inhibitions and allows sex to be brought to an "animalistic" level "devoid of emotion." The film says that one in five gay men in London use crystal meth.

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Jemdude's comments:
Remember, this is a homosexual saying all of this; not second hand information from an "ignorant" person.

Two Birds with One Stone: Australian Homosexual Bill Promotes Polygamist Agenda

By Kathleen Gilbert

SYDNEY, Australia, September 4, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Australian Federal Parliament today introduced a bill that, if passed, would grant legal benefits to homosexual couples; but critics say it would also essentially legalize polygamy, since the bill would grant benefits to homosexual relationships regardless of whether either partner is currently legally married to someone else.

The Same-Sex Entitlements Bill follows upon a similar bill passed in May granting retirement benefits to same-sex couples, and would extend benefits to homosexuals in matters of immigration, taxation, employment entitlements, and worker's compensation, among other issues. But because the bill stipulates that these benefits must be given to homosexuals regardless of whether they are already legally married to a third party, the Federal Opposition attacked the bill for opening the doors to polygamy.

Polygamy is a hotly-debated issue in Australia due to the rapid rise of Islam, which considers polygamy a cultural option worthy of sanctioning by the federal government. Newsblaze.com reported only two days ago that senior Islamic leaders petitioned for legal recognition of polygamous marriage, but the government has so far remained steadfastly against amending its laws to allow polygamy. Some Australian Muslim women have also made the news in their protest against legalizing polygamy.

Sophie Mirabella, the Victorian Liberal MP, told the Herald Sun that by introducing the homosexual bill "not only is the Labor Party legalising polygamy, but it's changing the law so that the third person in an extramarital relationship can effectively claim the assets of a marriage or of the long-term de facto relationship."

Homosexual activist Rodney Croome criticized the Opposition for considering "a marriage without love" to be "more important than a de facto relationship with it," with "de facto relationship" understood as adultery or fornication. He continues that it's simply "a fact of life" that some homosexual relationships are adulterous, and expressed concern that the extra-marital party would not have legislative protection as Australian law stands, according to pinknews.com.

But critics of the bill emphasize that this would lead to the ruin of the innocent spouse that is uninvolved in the adultery, since it allows the extra-marital lover to make a legitimate property claim. Such a state of affairs, the opposition claims, is materially the same as legalizing polygamy, only under the guise of homosexual tolerance.

Rather than striking down the bill, the opposition hopes to remove the portions that recognize adulterous homosexual relationships. Both political parties in the Australian government, despite the recent legislation favoring homosexual couples, still maintain that actual marriage pertains only to one man and one woman.

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Jemdude's comments:
This is very bizzare. Comments?

Corruption in the San Fransicso Police Service

San Francisco Police Officer ignores sodomites breaking the law by giving each other oral sex on a public sidewalk during this year’s Folsom Street Parade. What do these pictures show? They demonstrate the breakdown of the impartial application of the law as homosexual activism and political correctness corrupts North America’s big city police forces.

Homosexual Activists Target California Businesses That Support Pro-marriage Proposition

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

CALIFORNIA, August 29, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An upstart homosexual rights group in California has begun to target not only individuals, but also companies to which they are connected, if they have contributed money to committees that support Proposition 8, the ballot initiative to ban same-sex "marriage" in California.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Californians Against Hate, a new homosexual-rights group, intends to identify and publicize corporate connections to individuals that make significant donations.

Fred Karger, who runs the homosexual group, said he will compile and publish a list which includes the donor's name, employer and the corporate logo of that employer, even if the company itself didn't donate to the Proposition 8 fight.

An example given in the WSJ report involves William Bolthouse, a California philanthropist, who donated $100,000 in March to support Proposition 8.

Calls and emails began to be received by the corporate offices of a company that bears his name, even though he sold it three years earlier.

"I'm not connected to Bolthouse Farms at all," said Mr. Bolthouse.

Jeffrey Dunn, chief executive of Bolthouse Farms, which produces bottled juice, said, "It wasn't us, it's not our fault."

Mr. Dunn said Bolthouse Farms' profits were not affected by the publicity and that his company has made an effort to correct wrong information on blogs that said Mr. Bolthouse still owned a large portion of the company.

Another individual, whose business was targeted by homosexuals in a call-in campaign after he and his family donated $300,000 to support Proposition 8, said the effort was "stupid" and totally ineffectual.

Terry Caster, the owner of A-1 Storage, a self-storage company based in San Diego, said he received a few phone calls a day that petered out after several weeks, and his business wasn't affected.

"To tell a business owner that they can't express their beliefs on an issue is a really stupid thing," said Mr. Caster

Both sides contending this issue see the outcome of Proposition 8 as pivotal in determining which way other states in the US may go in extending marriage rights to homosexuals.

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Jemdude's comments:
Homosexuals are the only ones that seem to claim that disagreement equals hate. This is not the case. For example, I can respect a Muslim without being accused of "hate" just because I do not accept Allah and Muhammad as a prophet. I can also respect a co-worker who lives in a common law relationship without having to agree that such a relationship is right. So why do people practicing homosexuality believe that a person who doesn't support their agenda is hating them?

The Truth about Radical Islam

Listen to this 1 hour video clip:

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Washington Times Op-ed—Teens Challenged to do Hard Things

by J. Michael Smith
HSLDA President

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “teenager”? For many, it is not positive.

Teenage rebellion has become commonplace, and our culture has responded by expecting less and less of teenagers. But is teenage rebellion inevitable, or are there new ways of thinking that could address the problem? Responsibility for teenage rebellion and underperformance must fall primarily at the feet of parents and other adults. This is because our current expectations for teenagers provide very little challenge.

Alex and Brett Harris, 19-year-old homeschooled twins, are trying to give adults and teens a wake-up call. In their book, Do Hard Things, they attempt to explode the myth of adolescence. They show that prior to the early 20th century, people were either children or adults. Family and work were the primary occupations of the group we now call “teenagers.” Teens, though it was often driven by economic necessity, were given real-world responsibility. Today, few teens are expected to imitate responsible adults, but are rather immersed in a frivolous peer culture.

The Harris twins are not the only writers to question the conventional wisdom about teenagers. Robert Epstein, a longtime researcher in psychology who received his doctorate from Harvard, has exposed the myth of the teen brain in his book, The Case Against Adolescence: Rediscovering the Adult in Every Teen. He argues against the common belief held in the scientific community that an incompletely developed brain accounts for the emotional problems and irresponsible behavior of many teenagers.

Mr. Epstein shows the differences in the teen brain are the result of social influences, rather than the cause of teen turmoil. He concludes that a careful review of the research shows the teen brain we read about in the headlines—the immature brain that is supposedly the cause of teen problems—is nothing less than a myth.

For example, if the teen brain was really fundamentally different from an adult brain, then we would see similar patterns of teenage rebellion throughout history. We do not. Teens in other cultures, and our own until the early 20th century, held responsible positions and were expected to imitate adults rather than children.

Mr. Epstein says teens are extraordinarily competent, even if they do not normally express that competence. Also, long-standing studies of intelligence, perceptual abilities and memory function show that teens are in many instances far superior to adults.

Mr. Epstein concludes that the peer culture of teens, where they learn virtually everything they know from one another, rather than from people they are about to become, is the cause of the problems we see today. Almost all teens are isolated from adults and wrongly treated like children.

What is the solution? When teens are treated like adults, they almost immediately rise to the challenge. Parents must trust their teens by giving them more and more responsibility, accompanied with the proper mentoring. This is a strong admonition to parents and adults to challenge our teens to act more like adults rather than traditional teens.

The Harris twins are giving direction to the teens to become productive. By first exploding the teen myth, they inform teens they are capable of much more than is usually expected of them and that adults have completely underestimated their talents and abilities. They challenge teens to join the “rebelution,” which is a revolution against rebellion, and spell out five steps to responsibility for teens.

First, teens should “do hard things” that take them out of their comfort zone. Second, teens should go beyond what is expected or required of them. Third, teens should attempt tasks that are too big to be done alone to learn teamwork and collaboration. Fourth, teens should do things that don’t pay off immediately. These are the unexciting things that may seem like an endless round of chores that go without recognition. These chores, however, build character. Finally, teens should stand up for their beliefs even if the majority opposes them.

Do Hard Things is a book for teens and their parents. I firmly believe this book, if taken seriously by the current generation of teens and their parents, could prove to be one of the most life-changing and culture-changing books of this generation.

Michael Smith is the president of the Home School Legal Defense Association. He may be contacted at (540)338-5600; or send email to media@hslda.org.

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Jemdude's comments:

This is why I do not agree with the saying "kids should be kids as long as possible". Teenagers in the past were part of adulthood; not childhood and this is something that western culture doesn't understand.

Homosexual British Police Officers Acquitted After Getting Caught with Child Porn

Movie and still images found at their shared home and in work files and laptop

By Hilary White

LONDON, August 14, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A pair of homosexual police "partners" have been cleared of charges of possession of child pornography, both in their shared home and on the computers used in their work. The jury of eight women and four men at Southwark Crown Court returned unanimous not guilty verdicts on all six charges.

Prosecutor Tim Hunter had told the court, "The case is that the images on the disk are illicit or illegal and they didn't seem to relate to a professional task."

Early this year, colleagues discovered pornographic images of children on computer disks used by Graham Ferguson, a detective with the London Metropolitan Police, and Gerard Collins, a British Transport Police officer. Ferguson, 41, worked in the Professional Standards Directorate of London Metropolitan Police, the office charged with investigating other officers for misconduct.

The discovery prompted a search of the home the two men shared where more images were found on disks and a laptop computer, with some of the material being hidden under the bed. The disk from the officer's filing cabinet contained 57 paedophile film files and one still image. The material found in the officers' home included 25 indecent images and the CD contained two images. The laptop held a movie file and a single image.

Ferguson's superior believed that none of the images were part of any investigation Ferguson might have been conducting. In total, DC Ferguson was charged with possession of more than 80 indecent images of children.

The two policemen denied knowing there were pornographic images of children on their computer discs. Collins, 27, claimed that it may have got onto his computer inadvertently when he was doing an overnight "bulk download" of material from a general gay pornography website. This, despite the insistence of the homosexual community that homosexuality has no connection to paedophilia. He denied being attracted to children, saying he preferred older men.

The two police officers reportedly burst into tears and embraced in the dock after being cleared.

The use of child pornography and the interest of homosexuals in children and adolescents are well documented, despite the vociferous denials of homosexual political activists.

In 1990, the Journal of Homosexuality, a peer reviewed academic journal that publishes research into same-sex attraction and examines homosexual practices, produced a special double issue devoted to adult-child sex, entitled "Male Intergenerational Intimacy".

In one article, a writer said that a "loving" paedophile can offer "companionship, security and protection" and that parents should look upon a paedophile who loves their son "not as a rival or competitor, not as a thief of their property, but as a partner in the boy's upbringing, someone to be welcomed into their home..."

A British university professor wrote in the same issue, "Boys want sex with men, boys seduce adult men, the experience is very common and much enjoyed".

Gay friendly University endorses Pedophiia

Read it for yourself! This is part of the links section of a homosexual activist website section of the University of Calgary.

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World's Most Successful AIDS Prevention Programme in Uganda "Sabotaged" by Western "Experts"

Western advisors used their control of international funding to force a change in direction to condoms and casual sex

By Hilary White

KAMPALA, Uganda, July 11, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - While the US Senate considers a proposal to allocate US$50 million more for AIDS prevention programmes, one Ugandan expert says it will be wasted money if the attitudes of the Western AIDS prevention community towards AIDS transmission do not change. In a column appearing in the Washington Post on June 30, one of Uganda's leading AIDS prevention experts called on the Western "experts" to "Let my people go."

"We understand that casual sex is dear to you, but staying alive is dear to us. Listen to African wisdom, and we will show you how to prevent AIDS."

Sam L. Ruteikara wrote in the Washington Post that efforts to maintain the world's most successful AIDS prevention programme was "sabotaged" by precisely those Western "experts" who insisted that only condoms would work.

Ruteikara is the co-chair of Uganda's National AIDS-Prevention Committee. He wrote in a column in the Washington Post on June 30, "AIDS epidemics in Africa are driven by people having sex regularly with more than one person." The Western experts, dedicated to the exclusive promotion of condoms, were incensed when Ugandan AIDS rates plummeted with this "ABC" method that left condoms as a "last resort".

The success of the Ugandan programme, Ruteikara said, did not sit well with those international experts and advisors, sent to Uganda to oversee the spending of international relief funds, who are devoted to the condom as the first and last answer to the AIDS epidemic.

Despite the official line that Western "advisors" were to work within local programmes, these experts, Ruteikara asserted, actively stonewalled the Ugandan committee's recommendations. The Western advisors objected that the programme was an attempt "to limit people's sexual freedom" and they used their control of the international funding to force a change in direction.

"Repeatedly, our 25-member prevention committee put faithfulness and abstinence into the National Strategic Plan that guides how PEPFAR [President's Emergency Plan for HIV-AIDS Relief] money for our country will be spent. Repeatedly, foreign advisers erased our recommendations. When the document draft was published, fidelity and abstinence were missing."

More insidiously, Ruteikara says that a "suspicious" statistic appeared in reports that claimed a significant increase in rates of AIDS among married couples. The claim was that 42 per cent of married couples were infected, a rate twice that of prostitutes. Repeated requests for the origin of this statistic were ignored. Domestic surveys done by Ugandan health officials found that only 6.3 per cent of married couples are infected, lower even than rates among widowed and divorced Ugandans.

Since the Ugandans were forced to change their programmes, surveys have shown that the percentage of sexually active men with multiple partners has more than doubled, undoing earlier declines, and the AIDS rate has begun to climb again.

The Ugandan success story is one of the most impressive in the fight against AIDS. Between 1989 and 1995, the number of men having three or more sexual partners in a year dropped from 15 to three per cent and HIV rates plunged from 21 percent in 1991 to 6 percent in 2002. At the same time, Western nations brought more than 2 billion condoms on Africa and the epidemic continued in nations that went along with the condoms-only approach.

The motive for opposing the Ugandan initiative, Ruteikara said, was financial as well as ideological. "In the fight against AIDS, profiteering has trumped prevention," he said. "AIDS is no longer simply a disease; it has become a multibillion-dollar industry."

Ruteikara's assertions are supported by Dr. James Chin, a former top AIDS epidemiologist at the World Health Organization, who said, "Easily preventable diseases are still killing millions of children each year, while billions of dollars are being squandered annually by AIDS programs."

Robert England, head of the charity Health Systems Workshop said in the British Medical Journal, "Although HIV causes 3.7 per cent of [worldwide] mortality, it receives 25 per cent of international health care aid."

Ruteikara concluded, "Telling men and women to keep sex sacred -- to save sex for marriage and then remain faithful -- is telling them to love one another deeply with their whole hearts. Most HIV infections in Africa are spread by sex outside of marriage: casual sex and infidelity. The solution is faithful love."

"We, the poor of Africa, remain silenced in the global dialogue. Our wisdom about our own culture is ignored."

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Jemdude's comments:
It's sad that the Western "experts" are more concerned about preserving their sinful lifestyle than preserving their life.

Prominent Homosexual Activist Says Bestiality OK "As Long as the Animal Doesn't Mind"

By Peter J. Smith

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 4, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Long-time homosexual activist Frank Kameny's claim to fame is successfully manipulating the American Psychiatric Association into declassifying homosexuality as a mental disorder, and today the Smithsonian honoree is now busily advocating bestiality "as long as the animal doesn't mind."

Kameny, 83, has had a long career advocating the removal of any restrictions on human acts long considered by sane societies as obscene, dangerous, and disordered.

However the octogenarian has a new mission to complement his current campaign to pressure the APA to ban reparative therapy for homosexuals. Kameny describes his mission as "Americanism in action" by advocating bestiality and encouraging the saturation of American culture with what he calls "more and better and harder-core pornography."

According to Americans for Truth about Homosexuality (AFTAH), Kameny wrote an e-mail to them saying that while he was personally opposed to bestiality, he found it an otherwise "harmless" quirk, so long as it was consensual with the animal involved.

"Bestiality is not my thing," Kameny wrote. "But it seems to be a harmless foible or idiosyncrasy of some people. So, as long as the animal doesn't mind (and the animal rarely does), I don't mind, and I don't see why anyone else should."

Americans for Truth president Peter LaBarbera said Kameny's outrageous statement begged a number of questions.

"We have many questions for Kameny, the first being: how exactly does an animal signal his or her 'consent' to have sex with a human?" queried LaBarbera.

In his May 31, 2008 e-mail to AFTAH, Kameny prefaced his comments by saying "the term 'sexual perversion' is devoid of objective meaning" and added that the correct definition for him was "any sexual practice disapproved of by the speaker."

"If something which someone arbitrarily defines as a 'sexual perversion' provides happiness for consenting adult participants, then its enjoyment is enshrined in basic Americanism," Kameny wrote. "So: Let us have more and better enjoyment of more and better sexual perversions, by whatever definition, by more and more consenting adults. We will all be the better off thereby. And that will be Americanism in action."

Kameny made the bold claim that the founding fathers of the United States implicitly approved of uninhibited sexual exploits or "sexual perversion" when they wrote the Declaration of Independence, because he believes it is part of the "Inalienable Right, of the 'Pursuit of Happiness'".

Kameny included bestiality and hardcore pornography as "Americanism in action" and said that those who wanted to suppress it were "the American Taliban, and Christianofascism in action."

Kameny said he is the founder and president of the National Consumers Association for the Advancement and Protection of Pornography, Inc. He told Americans for Truth, "Give some thought to what Americanism and our American freedoms really mean. It is clear that you haven't a clue."

Kameny has been painted by some on the moral left as a "civil rights leader." His 1965 protest signs that contributed to the removal of homosexuality from the APA's list of mental disorders will be displayed at the National Museum of American History, and his papers will be archived at the Library of Congress. Americans for Truth, however, have protested against recognizing Kameny as a civil rights leader, observing that Kameny has advocated moral anarchy in all sexual matters, contributing further to the accelerating breakdown of modern American society, especially through the destruction of the family.

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Jemdude's comments:
I hope that the gay community will speak out against this and show that Frank Kameny is not speaking for gays as a whole on this issue.

Chuck Baldwin wins the Constitution Party 2008 nomination

Convening its national convention in Kansas City today, the Constitution Party picked radio talk-show host Chuck Baldwin over former Ambassador Alan Keyes as its 2008 presidential candidate.

The pick was seen as something of an upset, given Keyes' higher national profile. Known for his fiery stem-winders, Keyes is a two-time GOP presidential candidate who abandoned the Republican Party this month to join the Constitution Party, which believes in limited government and is committed to ending abortion and bringing American troops home from Iraq.

But Baldwin's roots in the Constitution Party run deeper. He was the party's 2004 vice-presidential candidate, and party members said his stands were more in line with party thinking.

"Chuck is the real deal," said Jim Clymer, the party's national chairman.

Still, the two waged a fierce battle described as the most contentious in the party's 16-year history. Baldwin wound up winning easily on a 384-126 vote. The Missouri and Kansas delegations basically split their votes between the two.

"They just rejected the most qualified man to be president," said Tom Hoefling of Lohrville, Iowa, Keyes' national political director. "Chuck Baldwin will have no impact on this election whatsoever."

The party's immediate tasks, Clymer said, are raising money and gaining ballot access in each state. The party now has qualified to be on the ballots of 21 states. He expects the eventual total to top 40 and include Kansas and Missouri. "We're always short on money," Clymer said.

In his acceptance speech, Baldwin said his presidency would result in the ending of illegal immigration, abortion, the streamlining of the federal government, the tapping of oil reserves in Alaska and withdrawal from Iraq.

"We will stop the international meddling...this international empire-building," Baldwin said.

When he takes office, Baldwin said, "The new world order comes crashing down!"

He pledged not only to pull out of the United Nations, but to push the international organization out of New York.

"The U.N. is going to have to find themselves another (home) because their rent is up in New York City," he said.

He said he would phase out the Internal Revenue Service and end the paying of personal income taxes. He said the country should return to the gold standard.

Home schoolers, he said, would have the best friend they ever had in the White House.

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Chuck Baldwin's 33 minute acceptance speech
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Fox News coverage of Constitution Party prior to choosing candidate:
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Constitution Party Website
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Bella Released in Canadian Theaters Today

Bella is a movie that promotes a pro-life message. It also shows the struggle some women face when being in the situation of deciding whether or not to have an abortion or to keep the baby or to adopt. A must see movie.

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Fitna the Movie: Geert Wilders' film about the Quran

Radical Muslims killed freedom of speech by forcing the makers of the film to remove it:
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However, it got posted elsewhere. How long it will be there remains to be seen:

About 17 minutes

WARNING: disturbing images

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Jem let the music play

Here is one of my favorite videos. It is Let The Music Play with Jem and the Hologram scenes in it.

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Gay Porn as Required Reading in Ill. High School, Media Silent

Read all about it:

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An answer to Adventist critisism

Jemdude's note: The following is a general answer to criticism some have toward the Adventist Church or those who believe Adventists are some kind of "cult".


TO MY CHRISTIAN FRIENDS OF MANY DENOMINATIONS

I have interacted with many Evangelicals over the years who just don't get Seventh-day Adventist theology and I'd like to give you a few things to think about. In dealing with your Adventist friends, I'm sure you've spent many long hours searching out Bible verses to argue about various points. I won't therefore bother to do the same here. This statement is not about trying to win an argument. Doctrinal correctness and moral correctness are two different things, but both are necessary for a right understanding of God and His truth. This is about asking you to look at some simple points of logic that I hope will explain the Adventist position on a number of topics. I write this as an individual Seventh-day Adventist Christian and draw this information from my own study of the Bible. I am not speaking as an official representative of the Church.

#1. I've always found two things in common regarding anti-Adventist rhetoric. One is a rejection of the 1844 Sanctuary Doctrine, dealt with below. The other is the bad example of some individual church member who has turned the author of the book, video or website off to the church. Yes there are many people within the Adventist Church who may seem cult-like in the way they act. That's because they don't really understand their own beliefs. That does not in and of itself constitute a valid reason for criticizing the group as a whole however. The same problems with human nature exist in every church. After much time being fed from the pulpit, lay church members often end up trusting their minister for salvation and not studying enough on an individual basis. This always leads to either liberal permissiveness or conservative extremism because the people end up idolizing their leaders.

#2. The supposed Adventist emphasis on works for salvation is totally being misunderstood in the Evangelical camp. The way to understand it is that Sanctification is JUSTIFICATION ALL OVER AGAIN! Jesus purges you of what you know to be sin when you accept Him, and then the Holy Spirit guides you through the rest of your life teaching you practical, faith-growth lessons that improve you as a person. All this is also done by the grace of God and therefore comes from Christ. Adventists are simply following what He has revealed as they individually study His word.

Are you a member of a church that teaches in order to be saved you must first repent of your sin and then accept Jesus as your Saviour? Well, what then is the definition of sin? Without the Law in it's proper place, there is no clear definition. Is it a sin to drink alcohol, yes or no? Is it a sin to wear jewellery, yes or no? The list of "do's and don'ts" within Adventism is much larger than that of many other born-again believing faith groups. However, that list is the result of serious Bible study and these "do's and don'ts" are not rules, they are a vital part of the salvation experience. Jesus has saved us from alcohol, unclean meat, jewellery and many other things the world says is important. Has He saved you to this degree as well? Jesus has saved us from wrong understandings of what constitutes keeping His Holy day by drawing our attention to the fourth commandment. He has saved us from spiritualism and the lies of the New Age movement by teaching us the truth about death. Remember, it's by mercy AND truth that we are saved, Proverbs 16:6. Is this experience the same for you?

#3. People don't understand the 1844 Sanctuary Doctrine because they don't realize we're forgiven in two ways. Every time anyone does something good, an Angel writes it down. Any time anyone does something bad, an Angel writes it down. With all the billions of people who've lived over the 6 millennia of human history, that's trillions, maybe even quadrillions of sins all written down. God Himself with His infinite mind could deal with it in a second couldn't He? But Angels don't have infinite minds, do they?

AGAIN, WE'RE FORGIVEN IN TWO WAYS! The Holy Spirit speaks to each person's heart while that person is alive and offers forgiveness as a promise to claim. Jesus promises that because he won the victory over sin by dying and rising again for us, He will wipe out the sins of anyone who accepts this victory in true faith. The 1844 Sanctuary Doctrine is simply stating that Jesus has been doing exactly that since 1844 for all whom He will rescue at the Second Coming, with the secretarial help of the 100 million Angels mentioned in Daniel chapter 7. By wiping out the sins of the righteous ahead of time in the presence of the Heavenly beings, Jesus is not only keeping His promise to each one of those who've accepted Him, He's doing it in a way that will prove to the rest of the universe that He is just and fair, and that these people can be trusted with salvation. Acts 3:19 confirms this as Peter clearly says that the forgiveness to come is not instantaneous but at “the times of refreshing“. (It becomes easier to understand when one accepts the truth about death, dealt with next.)

#4. Regarding what you call "soul sleep", why is it wrong to go to a seance? Why is the New Age movement of the devil? Because every time anyone tries to contact the dead, they are contacting evil angels. Even the appearances of Mary and supposed miracles of the dead saints within Catholicism are nothing but evil angels in disguise. The truth about death, that none of us go to Heaven until the Second Coming is just that, truth. You don't have a soul, you are a soul. Notice carefully the exact wording of Genesis 2:7. Man became a soul when body and “breath of life” were put together by the Lord.

Your computer has a processor that is a physical piece of hardware. It doesn't work without the force and power of electricity does it? BUT! The electricity itself doesn't do the processing alone, it's just electricity. It's the same with your mind. You run on electricity, but the electricity is not going to go to Heaven, you are. This truth puts Heaven in the same physical reality as this world. There is no such thing as a spirit world and Heaven is not a ghosty-whispy fairyland, nor is it in some sort of other dimension, a peusdo-scientific way of saying the same thing. Heaven is as real as the table your computer is sitting on, as real as your house or car or anything else.

John 14:1-3 show very clearly that Jesus promised after He went to Heaven, He'd come back and take us there. In other words, while He's preparing a place for us (which really is a reference to His work in the Sanctuary), we are not there with Him! Why would He need to come back and get us if we all went there as soon as we died anyway? We fall asleep in death, go to our graves, and will be awakened by Him at the resurrection.

#5. Ellen White's writings are not a new Bible like the claims made about Joseph Smith, Mary Baker Eddy and others. They are simply a Bible Commentary, the same Bible over again in greater detail. There's no conflict as each one of our teachings can be found in the Bible itself. There were many prophets mentioned in the Bible who did not get their written words added to the Canon of Holy Scripture, Nathan from the time of David is a good example. Their ministry was significant to their existing generation only. Adventists think of Ellen White in a similar vein as is shown by their book, “Questions On Doctrine“, pages 89-98.

Regarding her supposed false prophecies, was Jonah a false prophet? There is such a thing as conditional prophecies not coming true when conditions change. Regarding her 'extrabiblical' statements, look up Matthew 22:30 and tell me where in the Old Testament Jesus gets this from? What He says there is not found anywhere else in the Bible, it's new truth. It is possible for a prophet to proclaim new truth. The test is that new truth never contradicts old truth. Regarding the question of whether God would call a woman to the role of a prophet, who was there in the temple to greet Joseph and Mary when they brought Jesus to be circumcised on the eighth day? Two prophets, one was a man, the other a woman. Philip also had daughters who prophesied.

Now let’s go on to the dreaded plagiarism charges. What does the concept of “all the glory goes to God” mean to you? Is He not the originator of all that is good? Therefore whenever anyone comes to understand something right and true, who does that truth ultimately come from? Did you know Paul plagiarized in Acts 17:28? Where is the footnote giving the exact reference to the Athenian poet(s) he is quoting? Those who lay these charges against Ellen White do so because they don’t really know how the Bible was written or how a prophet is inspired. The only words in the Bible that are direct quotes from the Lord Himself are those noted by phrases such as “thus saith the Lord”. When God inspires a prophet, be it Moses, David, Paul or Ellen White, He puts pictures in the person’s mind and then leaves the person to choose the words to describe those pictures. The concept of copyright, that a human being could take credit for and own what is ultimately taught him or her by the Lord was not the same in Mrs. White’s time as we have it today.

Let’s say that tonight the Lord gave you a vision on the subject of the futility of a life of sin. When you went to write out the meaning of the vision the only words you could think of to describe the feeling a person goes through when the Spirit convicts them of sin was “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away, now it seems as though they’re here to stay.“ When John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote those words, they were their own. If you as God’s new prophet thought those were best described the contents of the vision you were given, they have now become the word of the Lord.

The Lord gave Ellen White vision and dreams covering a wide range of subjects. On the topic of the conflict between good and evil over human history, Ellen White was given visions and then left to study out their meaning for herself. This study came contemplating those visions, but also from the Bible and from church history. The appendices of Selected Messages, Book Three contain three letters from her son, W.C. White. In these he clearly admits that yes, at times when she thought someone else’s words best described what God had shown her in vision, she copied those words. What’s the big deal? She was the one who was given those visions in the first place. (Take careful notice how those against her fail to say anything about the Biblical way in which those visions came to her with supernatural manifestations, most notably her not breathing, sometimes for hours.)

When she spoke on what God had shown her on other topics, such as health reform, at times she was asked if she had read such and such a Health Reformer. She clearly answered that no, she purposely did not read the works of others so that no one could say that she was being influenced by another. So ultimately God was working through her and others as well. He enlightened Ellen White supernaturally and lead others to discover similar information through their life experience as medical professionals. The most significant thing about this is that since the other reformers were writing out of their own experience, they were sometimes right and sometimes wrong. Ellen White said things similar to these reformers, but without their mistakes! She was never wrong. How could that have happened if she tried, without any previous knowledge, to sort out the good from the bad of what others were saying?

Those who criticize the Adventists over doctrine should pay very close attention to what those Adventists are saying, and notice just how many Bible verses they can quote to support their beliefs. For those who believe such false doctrines as Once Saved Always Saved or the Secret Rapture, of course they're going to call Ellen White a false prophet. She isn't telling them what they want to hear. Therefore, they will tell themselves that Adventists are brainlessly following Ellen White. Stay with the Bible when you talk to an Adventist and you will see that's where our teachings come from.

#6. Christianity is all about freedom, but what kind of freedom? Do you want to be free from the law or free from sin? It has to be one or the other. Cross-reference Matthew 24:12-14 with Galatians 1:6-9 and you'll see that there are two gospels out there, one is false and one is true. Since sin is the transgression of the law according to 1 John 3:4, wouldn't freedom from sin therefore include harmony with the law? Which gospel then do you really think is true? If New Testament Christianity really has no place for the Law, then I should be able to steal the offering money in front of everyone at your church this Sunday. You already know yourself that's ridiculous.

I think the real source of the problem between you and your Adventist friend comes from a simple misunderstanding. You were once in the world, yet you saw through it's vanity and found Jesus, the only true way to Heaven. You accepted His death for your sins and came up out of the baptismal waters with a sincere desire to live a new life for Him. When your Adventist friend came to you essentially saying "hey there's still more to the experience", it baffled you. You know you were sincere, so how could you have a true experience with God and it not be the end all and be all of what is truth? Remember Proverbs 4:18. Truth is progressive, you need to be continually learning as you study God's word. The initial experience you received was from God, but it is not the end all and be all of your growth in Him, only the beginning. What your Adventist friend is sharing with you in the way of doctrine is intended to add to that growth as he or she was once where you are now.

Are you really sure your favourite minister is telling you everything you need to know? Do the 8 references to the first day of the week really outweigh the 168 references to the Seventh-day Sabbath? Are the 5 or so verses that speak as if people go to Heaven or Hell right after death being understood correctly in light of the almost 70 verses that use the concept of sleep as a metaphor for death? What then about all the verses that use words or phrases like "perish", "shall be no more", "shall be as grass", and "ashes" to describe the results of hell-fire?

Over the years I've spent a lot of time arguing doctrine with my evangelical friends. Now I see it's pointless and futile. I hope this discussion has given you some things to think about, but most of all I hope it's been done in a good way. Just please make sure you know what your Bible says. Ask God to lead you and not a human being. By understanding what your Seventh-day Adventist Church friend is trying to say, I hope you can come to peace with your friend, yourself and the Lord.

Top 5 reasons why Jemdude is the most 80s like.

5. Jemdude subscribes to TV Land and Dejaview channels.

4. Jemdude enjoys Jem and the Holograms and other 80s cartoons.

3. Jemdude enjoys 80s music.

2. Jemdude supports saying "no" to drugs.

1. Jemdude does not change his position on what is right and wrong just because of a change in political climate.

Canada raises age of consent to 16

Canada finally raises the age of consent to 16. This now gives the police the authority to protect 14 and 15 year olds from sexual exploitation from adult sexual predators. Teenagers are still allowed to have sex with each other with other persons no more than 5 years older. This basically means that teens who have sex with each other will not be criminalized since the real target is adult sexual predators.

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The Bible vs the Book of Mormon

Is the Book of Mormon comprable to the Bible? This 1 hour video will show you the truth on this matter.

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An open letter to Vickilynn

Dear Vickilynn,

It appears that a conversation on our differences is not going to be possible. So I'm deleting my previous thread on you. We'll just have to accept our differences. I hope and pray that God will act good in your life and in mine. I have more important things to do than to engage in argument after argument.

I did have a bit of a grudge with you which is why I took this beyond the board. I felt that the mods were being too biased against me. Now I know that it is best that I leave there and go somewhere else since I don't really fit in over there.

I also want to put this behind me since it is not good to hold a grudge against someone for very long. We won't agree, but I hope we can still get along.

Sincerely,

Jemdude

Latimer Release after Seven Years for Killing Disabled Daughter "A Tragedy"

VANCOUVER, February 28, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Robert Latimer, the Saskatchewan farmer who murdered his 12 year-old daughter Tracy in 1993, has been released on day parole. His lawyer, Jason Gratl, president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, told media that Latimer is "delighted" to be released. Gratl told Canada AM that Latimer "has not wavered" from his decision to kill Tracy, who suffered from a severe form of cerebral palsy. Latimer spent seven years of a ten-year sentence in prison for the murder.

Latimer has never, in any of his trial appearances or in any venue, expressed any remorse for the killing, steadfastly maintaining instead that he acted rightly.

Jim Derksen of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities told CTV News, "I would hope that he does not continue to assert the righteousness of the crime he committed, and that no one would make the mistake of thinking that our society condones the murder of (the disabled)."

Ted Kuntz, a past-president of the Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network, told CTV News that the danger of the Latimer case was that Canadians had "misplaced" their compassion onto Latimer and not with his daughter. Kuntz said his release is "a message about whether it is OK to kill your child because they have a disability."

The two conditions of his parole say that Latimer must not have "responsibility for, or make decisions for, any individuals who are severely disabled" and he must receive "psychological counselling" to "address any personal/emotional issues".

Latimer has consistently claimed that he killed his daughter, by placing her in his farm truck and connecting the exhaust pipe to the cabin, in order to relieve her suffering. Pro-life advocates, however, have argued that Latimer's interest was in relieving his own difficulties with his daughter's disability. The fact that he has become the figurehead of the Canadian euthanasia movement, they point out, has for many bolstered this conclusion.

Jim Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) called his early release a "tragedy."

"Robert Latimer has expressed no remorse for the murder of his daughter," Hughes said. "He even asked to be released in Ottawa, which the Parole Board has complied with, purportedly so he could lobby the government to accept his point of view."

The Crown brief presented at the second trial in the case said that Tracy "enjoyed outings, one of which was to the circus, where she smiled when the horses went by."

She was receiving treatment for her disabilities and pain but the family refused to have a feeding tube connected so that pain medication could be administered more effectively. Tracy attended a school for disabled children and court documents said she responded to visits by her family, "smiling and looking happy to see them".

The brief said, "There is no dispute that through her life, Tracy at times suffered considerable pain. As well, the quality of her life was limited by her severe disability. But the pain she suffered was not unremitting, and her life had value and quality."

Since his arrest for the gassing of Tracy, Robert Latimer has been the lightening rod for euthanasia activists trying to change Canadian law to allow "mercy killing". A majority of the Canadian mainstream press has lent tacit support to this cause, consistently using terms like "mercy killing" in describing his case. Ian Mulgrew, in an editorial appearing in today's Vancouver Sun called Latimer's imprisonment, "a festering wrong".

"Latimer should have been released long ago," Mulgrew wrote.

But CLC says the release of Latimer sends an "unfortunate but clear signal that the lives of people with disabilities are not equally valued."

This signal was reinforced by comments from Latimer's lawyer who called the decision of the Appeal Division of the National Parole Board, one of "wisdom and compassion."

Mary Ellen Douglas, National Organizer of CLC said, "Defenseless disabled people need protection from those who would take the law into their own hands and decide who should live and who should die."

Campaign Life Coalition is urging Canadians to call their MPs and ask that protection for the vulnerable handicapped be maintained and strengthened by law.

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Jemdude's comments:

It is wrong for Robert Latimer to kill his daughter Tracy just because she had a disability. It is also wrong that he only served 7 of the 10 year sentence. In fact, he should have gotten 25 years in jail since the murder was deliberate. This is a scary sign since it implies that people consider the lives of people with disabilities as less valuable than the so called normal people.

How to increase your chances of living to 100 years old and still be healthy

This video will show how to live a life that is not only long, but also healthy.

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Top "Gay" Organization Comes Clean: "HIV is a gay disease."

WASHINGTON, February 14, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a public statement last Friday, Matt Foreman, outgoing Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, rattled the homosexual activist community by joining the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), pro-family organizations and a growing number of homosexual activists willing to admit that homosexual behavior is both extremely high-risk and primarily responsible for the spread of HIV/AIDS in the U.S.

Addressing the topic of AIDS, Foreman drastically deviated from the "gay" lobby's party line by admitting, "Internally, when these numbers come out, the 'established' gay community seems to have a collective shrug as if this isn't our problem. Folks, with 70 percent of the people in this country living with HIV being gay or bi, we cannot deny that HIV is a gay disease. We have to own that and face up to that."

A little over a year ago, Lorri Jean, CEO of the Los Angeles-based Gay and Lesbian Center, similarly shocked the "gay" community by stating that, "HIV is a Gay Disease. Own it. End it."

Foreman's admission comes on the heels of a letter from Matt Barber, Concerned Women for America's (CWA) Policy Director for Cultural Issues, inviting Foreman and other homosexual activists to work together in discouraging homosexuals from engaging in the high-risk behaviors researchers recently determined are responsible for the epidemic spread of a potentially deadly strain of staph infection among certain segments of the "gay" community. The CDC has acknowledged that many of those same high-risk behaviors, such as male-male anal sex, are chiefly responsible for spreading HIV/AIDS.

Matt Barber addressed Foreman's admission: "It's extremely encouraging to see Matt Foreman, a homosexual activist who has for so long been in denial about the dangers of the lifestyle he has promoted, publicly coming to terms with the undeniable perils of that lifestyle.

"I only hope he will now stop promoting homosexual conduct and push for other liberal elites, especially those running our public schools, to do the same. Educators must truthfully address the 'gay' lifestyle's potentially deadly consequences.

"It's criminally reckless for the National Education Association and liberal educators to put political correctness and a deceptive political agenda above the lives, health and well-being of America's children. The evidence is there for all to see. 'Gayness' is not about 'who you are,' it's about 'what you do.' The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has now, in effect, acknowledged that reality. Their honesty is refreshing and unexpected," concluded Barber.

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Jemdude's comments:

Looks like certain people who claim "I don't believe you" will now have to eat their words now that major people in the gay community admit that HIV/AIDS is largely their problem.

I pray that God will free them from this lifestyle since practising it will lead to bad health and even death.

UK Doctors Refuse to Give Hysterectomy to Disabled 15-year-old

"A child should not be modified to fit society but instead that society needs to adapt and become more inclusive of disabled people": SCOPE

By John Connolly

LONDON, January 18, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Doctors in the UK have decided against performing a hysterectomy on a 15-year-old girl with cerebral palsy, an operation the girl's mother requested to prevent the girl from experiencing the pain of menstruation.

Alison Thorpe, whose daughter Katie suffers from cerebral palsy and cannot walk or talk, made the request to doctors on the basis that menstruation would be an infliction of pain and indignity on Katie. Following an outcry from disabled rights groups, the doctors changed their minds and said they would only operate if there was a medical reason to do so.

"This means that if and when Katie does start her periods she could endure months and months of pain and discomfort before anything is done," said Thorpe. "I think the Trust has bowed down to what they perceived to be public opinion. But I have had overwhelming support from the public, both able-bodied and disabled people. The only opposition has been from disabled rights movements but I would say to them, 'Come and spend a week with me, walk in my shoes'. I've spent 15 years with my daughter, as a mother who loves her dearly I am trying to do the best I can for her."

"I feel the trust misread the so-called lack of support from the minority, groups such as Scope," she continued. "I have not had any contact with any (disability) organization, they do not know me or Katie. They have not provided any support or help for us as a family. I am not surprised by what they said but in the way they said it. They have not been made aware of any of the facts in his case, they made up their mind before hearing the other side of the story, without referring to us. I don't want to take away disabled people's rights, I want to give them choice."

Doctors prescribed contraceptive pills and injections to stop Katie's periods, but Thorpe turned them down because she was afraid Katie might develop thrombosis from them.

The hospital authorities say they cannot justify surgery on the grounds suggested by the mother.

Thorpe, who lives with partner Peter Reynolds, has another daughter, 12-year-old Melissa, who has written to the hospital's non-executive directors in an effort to change their minds out of pity. The 12-year-old's letter recommends surgery once Katie starts her periods.

"It's one of those things, life with a disabled child is one long battle and this is just another step down the ladder," said Thorpe. "It was not unexpected. It means we move to stage two and carrying on fighting."

"An irreversible procedure of this nature that is not clinically necessary is not the right way forward," said Sharon Collins, an executive director at SCOPE, a British organization that works to aid victims of cerebral palsy. "There are so many approaches, this is a completely inappropriate response to the situation. To violate Katie's rights is not the answer."

"Scope does not believe that a child should be modified to fit society but instead that society needs to adapt and become more inclusive of disabled people," said Andy Rickell, another executive director at SCOPE.

"Before we make any decision to operate on a patient we look at each case on an individual basis," said a spokesman for the Mid Essex Hospital Services. "This applies in the case of Katie Thorpe and we have met the family to discuss this. Due to patient confidentiality we are not able to give any more details."

Katie's case is very similar to that of Ashley X, a girl born brain-damaged to parents in the United States. Ashley's parents argued that since she had the mind of a little girl, she should always have a body of a little girl. They used extensive hormone treatment to stunt the 9-year-old's development, and had doctors perform a hysterectomy on her. Doctors also performed a highly controversial procedure to remove her breast buds, a procedure that prompted backlash from disabled-rights organizations who accused the parents of mutilating their daughter for their own convenience.

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Jemdude's comments:

The UK doctors made the right decision and will not violate the rights of Katie Thorpe who has cerebral palsy. Allison Thorpe, the mother of Katie Thorpe, claims that she wants to give disabled people a choice, but Katie did not choose the operation that her mother Allison wants her to go through. The only thing that Allison may have a point about is that the disability groups should give her and her daughter some assistance in their troubles.

Allison claims that the disability organizations have not heard her side of the issue. I don't think that is necessarily true because they have heard about the "Ashley treatment" and other similar situations in the past. People with disabilities should not be mutilated for parent's or other caretaker's convenience.

Happy birthday to me!

January 5 was my birthday so if you want to wish me a belated birthday, then feel free to do so.