Give judgment for me, O God

9 July 2009

The growing fascism in the world's liberal democracies

The latest edition of Fidelity magazine (published by John XXIII Fellowship) includes an article by Babette Francis entitled Whither the Australian Christian Lobby? Babette Francis is Co-ordinator of Endeavour Forum. Her well researched and cogent commentaries on feminism and related issues have appeared regularly in various magazines. In the above article she discusses the compromises the leadership of the Australian Christian Lobby is making on same-sex "marriage", abortion and euthanasia.

What emerges from her discussion is that these issues have become a political issue rather than an issue of truth - a reality I have been trying to get across in my own commentaries. Political power, gained through the back door, is determining the outcome of so-called "social debates". She cites the case of Warwick Marsh, founder of the Fatherhood Foundation.

The next abandonment [by ACL] was of Warwick Marsh, founder of the Fatherhood Foundation, an organisation which encourages sexual integrity and responsible behaviour by men, especially fathers, and opposes prostitution, brothels and the sexual trafficking of women. Warwick was appointed by the Rudd government as an "Ambassador for Men's Health" (an honorary role), but the homosexual lobby insisted Nicola Roxon, Federal Health Minister, sack him on the basis that that he was "homophobic".

And what Made them think he was homophobic? In 2007 the Fatherhood Foundation published a booklet 21 reasons why gender matters which emphasised that the sexes are different, that children need both a father and a mother and thrive best when raised by their biological married parents, that homosexual lifestyles are not physically or morally healthy, and that with appropriate therapy some homosexuals can change their sexual orientation if they sincerely want to.  

21 reasons why gender matters was launched at Parliament House in 2007 and both ALP and coalition MPs attended the launch and spoke briefly as did Lyle Sheldon, ACL's National Chief of Staff. A copy of the booklet was provided to every Federal MP, and ACL put the booklet on their website. However, as soon as Roxon sacked Warwick Marsh in response to pressure from the homosexual lobby, ACL removed the booklet from its website and informed the Labor MP in Marsh's electorate it had done so.

One can only read this open-mouthed - because of the straightforward fascistic silencing of an view certainly held by most Australians, because the Labor Party, the party of government, is brazenly supporting the intolerance of a fanatical minority, because the Australian Christian Lobby (to put it in its mildest terms) buckled for reasons not comprehensible to orthodox Christians, and because such blatant oppression seems to go unnoticed and unchallenged.

Anyone above fifty years must remember the debates about free speech that were unleashed in the Sixties. There was a small army of left/liberal intellectuals who launched assault after assault on a censorship based on traditional moral values and Christian belief. There was no limit to the viciousness of the campaign and it rolled on until all censorship based on traditional values was eliminated. Well, we know the results, don't we?

Any attempt these days to limit the flood of pornography will have the pornographers out of their dark holes with the same free speech arguments. Now we have that same intellectual class shutting down the utterance of views they find repugnant. What do they find so repugnant in this case to warrant stamping on it with their size 20 jackboots? The answer is that it is what ninety-nine percent of the population believed fifty years ago before the assaults, and what the majority of the population still believed today.

This is not an isolated case. This fascistic oppression by the dominant political class, very often involving an unaccountable anonymous authority behind the scenes, is happening regularly.  Below are selections from a newsletter put out by Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt of Pray in Jesus Name. We see just how slippery and tenacious the class in the US is as they in ram through their agenda.
 

ALERT!  SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE WILL HOLD "HATE CRIMES" HEARING ON PRO-HOMOSEXUAL BILL, THURSDAY, 25 JUNE, AT 10-11AM EST, SD-226

In a surprise turnaround, and due to pressure from pro-faith conservatives, the Democrats appear to be abandoning their plans to hide the "Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act,” (which is better known to conservatives as the "Pedophile Protection Act,") in an amendment to another bill, and will instead hold hearings this Thursday to consider S. 909 as a stand-alone bill.

The pro-homosexual, anti-faith bill, sponsored by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and pushed hard by the Obama Administration, was until recently labeled S. 909 "Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act." But it faced such strong resistance by conservatives (including threat of filibuster or faith-protecting amendments by pro-faith Senator Jim DeMint, R-SC), so instead Democrats had announced they would try to hide the bill as an amendment to another "must-move" bill, denying committee hearings, and completely side-stepping the Republicans right to debate and amend.  But now thanks to your participation in fax campaigns like this one, we have earned the right to debate!

President Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder is scheduled to testify Thursday, and will reportedly link passage of this pro-homosexual bill to protecting the rights of Hispanic illegal aliens, which would be deceptive, since "national origin" is already protected in the 1994 hate-crimes law, and 75% of Hispanics oppose gay marriage.


547 SEXUAL DEVIANCES TO BE PROTECTED BY FEDERAL MARSHALS

The forthcoming S.909 will mirror a House bill H.R. 1913, already passed 249-175 along strict party lines, which makes "sexual orientation," "gender," and "gender identity" into federally-protected classes under the law, and codifies federal protection of up to 547 types of sexually deviant behaviors, including: 

* Incest – sex with one’s offspring (a crime, of course)
* Necrophilia – sexual relations with a corpse, also a crime
* Pedophilia – sex with an underage child, another crime
* Zoophilia – bestiality, a crime in numerous states
* Voyeurism – a criminal offense in most states
* Fronteurism – a man rubbing against an unknown woman’s buttocks
* Coprophilia – sexual arousal from feces
* Urophilia – sexual arousal from urine

Attempts by House Republicans to add amendments stating "pedophilia is not protected as a sexual orientation" were specifically blocked and defeated by House Democrats.  Lesbian Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) expressed opposition to excluding pedophiles from the bill, and Democrats voted with her to strike any child-protection amendment. She claimed that pedophiles would not be defined within “sexual orientation,” but wouldn't put that in writing, and refused to define that phrase "sexual orientation," which according to the American Psychiatric Association includes all 547 sexual deviances listed in their DSM-III manual of clinical psychoses, including pedophilia, so now thanks to most Democrats, child molesters will be protected by federal law. 

QUOTING THE BIBLE IN CHURCH WILL BE PUNISHED

Not only will sexually deviant behaviors gain legal protection, this legislation also lays the legal foundation to investigate, prosecute and persecute pastors, youth pastors, Bible teachers, and anyone else whose speech and thought is based upon and reflects the truths found in the Bible. How will this legislation over-rule the First Amendment?  

IS PRAYER IN JESUS’ NAME A "HATE CRIME?"

Any public prayer against the sin of homosexuality could be construed as "inciting violence" by easily offended listeners, especially if those prayers are offered "in Jesus name."  When I served our country as a former Navy Chaplain, for example, I was told in writing by Chief of Chaplains Rear-Admiral Louis Iasiello, that "any chaplain’s continued insistence on ending public prayers ‘in Jesus’ name’…could reasonably tend to denigrate those with different forms of faith."  His policy prohibiting prayers "in Jesus name" was enforced against me at court-martial, before it was later rescinded by Congress in 2006.  But this year I’ve already been falsely accused of "inciting violence" because I quoted verbatim from Psalm 109 in my public prayers, (for which secular activist Mikey Weinstein literally requested an FBI investigation against me!)  Just imagine more anti-Christian aggression by law enforcement officials AFTER this hate-crimes bill becomes law. 

Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) agrees with me, saying pastors, rabbis, or imams could be charged with encouraging or inducing a "hate crime" if they preach against homosexuality.  "Every preacher of the gospel, unless you cut out parts of it; every imam who mentions anything with regard to sexual immorality — they could be pursued, and in other countries they have been," says Gohmert.  (Congressmen Gohmert is my personal advocate, with whom I preached last year at a pro-faith rally in Texas...and we both agree the gospel of freedom from sin really is "love speech" not "hate speech.")


FREE SPEECH SUPPRESSED IN NORWAY 

Hate crimes laws protecting homosexuals from criticism are already silencing pastors in Norway, where these dangerous laws specifically empower law enforcement officials to prosecute "intimidation" of homosexuals.  For example, Congressman Gohmert warned "I was talking to a guy from Norway who was telling me that people are even afraid to say Mary was a virgin, because just bringing up sexuality at all can raise problems with law enforcement."

FREE SPEECH CRIMINALIZED IN SWEDEN 

In Sweden, Pastor Ake Green received a one-month jail sentence last year under a Swedish "hate crimes" law that forbids criticism of those who participate in homosexual behavior.  The Goeta Appeals Court later overturned the decision.  The government demanded the pastor be punished by appealing the case to the Swedish Supreme Court, which ruled the law unconstitutional.  Yet here in America, the Reid-Kennedy-Obama trio is pushing to pass and enforce this same type of "anti-free speech" law, despite their acknowledgment that any such enforcement would be unconstitutional in America too. (Then why pass the bill in the first place?)

In Canada, where "hate crimes" laws have already passed, the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal actively forbid evangelical pastor Stephen Boisson from expressing his moral opposition to homosexuality. The tribunal also ordered Boisson to pay $5,000 "damages for pain and suffering" and apologize to the "human rights" activist who filed the complaint. His crime? In 2002, the pastor wrote a letter to the editor of his local newspaper in which he denounced the homosexual agenda as "wicked" and stated that: "Children as young as five and six years of age are being subjected to psychologically and physiologically damaging pro-homosexual literature and guidance in the public school system; all under the fraudulent guise of equal rights."  The Canadian government tribunal ordered the Christian pastor to "cease publishing in newspapers, by email, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the internet, in future, disparaging remarks about gays and homosexuals."  (This "re-education commission" reminds me of Big Brother from Orwell’s 1984.)

FREE SPEECH CRIMINALIZED IN PENNSYLVANIA

Can’t happen in America?  It already has.  In 2004 my friend Michael Marcavage was arrested along with ten other Christians (including two elderly grandmothers), and charged with violating Pennsylvania’s "hate crimes" laws, because they carried signs conveying God’s love at a Gay Pride rally. One member of "The Philadelphia Eleven," Arlene Elshinnawy, 75 year-old grandmother of three, was holding a sign: "Truth is hate to those who hate the truth," before she was hauled off to jail by police officers.  They were literally threatened with 50 years in jail for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ on a public sidewalk, because it offended gays.  That hate crimes law was so outrageous it was later found unconstitutional by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, but now Ted Kennedy and Barack Obama want to pass essentially that same discredited law nationwide.

See also the latest comment in the Dutch Report

Comment: gerard@gerardcharleswilson.com