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08/01/2011

TO: Olson & Boies; SUBJECT: The obvious animus underlying proponents' work

by Jeremy Hooper

I've been showing you the over-the-top words and actions of the Liberty Counsel, opining about the New York anti-equality crowd's ill-thought-out decision to connect their case to overturn marriage equality with that reliably off-message legal outfit. But really, at the end of the day, is there all that much difference between LC and the much more mainstream Alliance Defense Fund, the legal outlet that's been tasked with high profile cases like the Prop 8 defense? Other than the Liberty Counsel's willingness to fully lay the motivations out there (something I respect, actually), is the gas that drives the two vehicles really of a different grade?

Latest case in point: The following snippet comes from "Truth & Triumph," which ADF describe as "a ministry publication of the Alliance Defense Fund." Check out what the writer, Nashville pastor Dan Scott, says about the gays who the ADF so aggressively challenges in court:

Homosexual behavior is a sin that threatens religious freedom and destroys people, families, and nations. It must be resisted. And after that conference, I felt the need to speak to my own city, where liberal churches have abandoned the fight, and Screen Shot 2011-08-01 At 12.57.05 Pmconservative churches have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Ignoring the homosexual agenda, I realized, was as dangerous as affirming it.

Still, bringing up this issue, even in one's home church, has its difficulties. You look out at your congregation and see either people who are struggling with this behavior, or whose families are grappling with it, and you don't know how to put it into words. You're just kind of paralyzed.

Of course, not many Christians would say, outright, that they think homosexual behavior is OK. But many do regard it as kind of a "misdemeanor," like running a stop sign. And, in truth, a lot of us don't want to hear anything, even from the Bible, that would tell us different.

If it was just a moral issue – an aberrant sexual act that didn't harm anyone physically and didn't affect me personally – I'd probably think of it as "running a stop sign," too. But, of course, homosexual behavior isn't just a moral issue – it's a spiritual one. And if there are theological implications to the acceptance of a behavior that Scripture so thoroughly condemns as repulsive to God … then to get this wrong is to unravel our entire theological foundation. We can neither accept this issue nor ignore it without hollowing out our faith.

-Pastor Dan Scott
FULL PIECE: Engaging The Issue Many Pastors Avoid [Alliance Defense Fund's Truth & Triumph magazine]

Gays' active lives are "repulsive to God"? Homosexuality is "worse" than a "misdemeanor"? This faith-based battle against LGBT lives and loves cannot be either accepted or ignored without Christians "hollowing out our faith"? I mean, really: How do you get more extreme than that?

And remember, this is from an official publication of the legal group that went to court to defend Prop 8. This is the very same group that denied animus towards LGBT people was a motivating factor and will surely continue to deny as much as that same case works its way up the judicial ladder. Yet here they are telling their supporters that being gay (at at least acting on it) is essentially a felony in the eyes of Officer God? Here they are giving a platform to what is basically a call to arms for Christians to oppose LGBT rights (i.e. the very thing that'll bring on future Prop 8-like battles)? Here they are publishing undeniable animus as if it's a benign Family Circus comic?

The evidence just keeps piling up. We must keep noting it all.

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