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It has become a cliché to say that the Church of England is in a mess. But a new chapter of messiness began just recently with the “marriage� of two Anglican clergymen in a festive ceremony in St Bartholomew’s church in London. One of the men is a doctor at the nearby famous St Bartholomew’s Hospital. The wedding – in grand style, with music and flowers and “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…� and vows and bouquets – received widespread publicity.  At no time among any Christians at any stage since Christ himself walked this earth – or...

As my regular readers know, I have blogged in the past two weeks about my visit to Lakewood Church. I issued an open letter to Joel Osteen asking him to embrace the gay community by responding to Soulforce's request for Lakewood Church to participate in the American Family Outing. I also blogged about the press conference that Soulforce held last week. You can read these previous entries on this blog. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the picnic on Saturday because of other family and church obligations, but Soulforce issued the following press release just moments ago. Jay Bakker and...

The group requires all employees to sign a contract agreeing to abstain from all sexual immorality, including homosexuality. When Christian Horizons fired a female employee who became involved with another woman, she complained to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, which fined the ministry $23,000 and two years back pay.

ADF attorneys represent a Christian photographer being tried under state antidiscrimination laws for declining to photograph a same-sex “commitment ceremony.” “Christians shouldn’t be penalized for abiding by their beliefs. The state cannot force unwilling people to promote a message they disagree with and thereby violate their conscience,” said Lorence. “The state’s prosecution violates our client’s First Amendment rights. The government cannot make people choose between their faith and their job.” A same-sex couple asked Elaine Huguenin, co-owner with her husband of Elane Photography, to photograph a “commitment ceremony” that the two women wanted to hold. Huguenin declined because her Christian...

VIENNA (Reuters) - They knew it would be risky to exhibit a homoerotic version of Christ's Last Supper, but curators at museum of Vienna's Roman Catholic Cathedral weren't ready for a barrage of angry messages and calls to be shut down. The source of the dispute, which Austrian media has dubbed Vienna's version of the Mohammad caricature row, is a retrospective honoring Austria's cherished artist Alfred Hrdlicka, who turned 80 earlier this year. But not everyone has been wishing Hrdlicka a Happy Birthday. And the Cathedral Museum's director and Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the archbishop of Vienna, have both come under...

An evangelical Christian photographer was brought before the New Mexico Human Rights Commission after she declined for religious reasons to photograph a same-sex commitment ceremony. When Elaine Huguenin of Albuquerque, N.M., declined in September 2006 an e-mail request from a lesbian couple to photograph their ceremony, one of the lesbians responded by lodging a human rights complaint with the New Mexico Human Rights Division, the state agency charged with enforcing state anti-discrimination laws and sending cases to the commission to be adjudicated.

ST. PAUL, Minn. - In an effort to help Sen. Larry Craig, the American Civil Liberties Union is arguing that people who have sex in public bathrooms have an expectation of privacy. Craig, of Idaho, is asking the Minnesota Court of Appeals to let him withdraw his guilty plea to disorderly conduct stemming from a bathroom sex sting at the Minneapolis airport. The ACLU filed a brief Tuesday supporting Craig. It cited a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling 38 years ago that found that people who have sex in closed stalls in public restrooms "have a reasonable expectation of privacy." That...

Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) recently appeared before the Human Rights Campaign to present a keynote speech on her support of the homosexual/bisexual/transgender agenda and her efforts to defeat any attempts by Congress to pass a constitutional amendment that will ban same-sex marriage. HRC President Joe Solomese introduced Clinton and revealed their long-term relationship in fighting against the pro-family movement. Solomese describes numerous meetings with Clinton as they strategized togethor about how to defeat any constitutional amendment on marriage... ... Clinton told her homosexual activist audience that they will have a close "partnership ... when I am President." Watch her comments...

Police: 9 Arrested In Men's Bathroom Sex Sting At Central Florida Mall Men Would Tap Feet, Zip Zippers Before Acts, Chief Says   POSTED: 11:34 pm EDT November 1, 2007 UPDATED: 1:08 am EDT November 2, 2007   VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. -- A group of men, including a former candidate for mayor and a high school teacher, was arrested on charges they performed sex acts or exposed themselves in a Central Florida mall bathroom, according to police. Investigators said nine men were arrested Thursday night in a Sears department store men's room located in the Volusia Mall. "These men...

LYNN, Mass. -- Adrian Exley was wrapped tightly in heavy plastic, then bound with duct tape. A leather hood was put over his head with a thin plastic straw inserted so that he could breathe, and he was shut up in a closet. That, apparently, was the way Exley liked it. But the way it ended -- with Exley suffocating -- was not what he had in mind when he traveled from Britain for a bondage session with a man he had met through a sadomasochism Web site. Exley's body was discovered in the woods last year, two months after...

The ignominious fall of Senator Larry Craig casts new light on the importance of the nation’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy banning open homosexuals from military service. If preventing public sex in airport men’s rooms is important enough to justify the deployment of undercover cops, isn’t it similarly significant to avoid, at all costs, sexual encounters in military latrines? Imagine the impact on morale and unit cohesion if two guys from the same barracks engaged in toe-tapping hanky-panky (and perhaps much more) while occupying adjacent bathroom stalls in the military facilities? Of course, advocates for gays in the military will...

Four firefighters are suing the city of San Diego for being forced by their superiors to attend the annual "Gay Pride" parade where they endured a barrage of sexual taunts and lewd gestures. San Diego's fire chief, Tracy Jarman, is an open lesbian who called the July 21 parade a "fun event" in which "all employees are encouraged to participate." But the firefighters said, unlike previous years, they were ordered into uniform to participate in the parade in their fire truck, despite their repeated protests.

Robinson proposes marriage of Church and State? Gay Episcopal bishop endorses Obama Washington DC, Aug 3, 2007 / 10:31 am (CNA).- Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the nation's first openly gay Episcopal bishop, has given his endorsement to presidential hopeful Barack Obama, citing the Illinois Democrat's experience with racism and discrimination. Obama's campaign put out a news release announcing Robinson’s support. It identified Robinson as "a civil rights leader and a leading voice in the faith community." The bishop says he hopes to persuade Obama to embrace same-sex marriage. Obama supports civil unions and rights for gay couples, but...

If there's one thing Beacon Hill Democrats can’t stand, it’s democracy. What happened to all their phony polls on the gay marriage question? I thought the gays were going to win, and that, as one story put it right, "political support in Massachusetts is swinging firmly behind gay marriage." So why did the homosexuals spend more than a million bucks making sure they wouldn’t have to win that fight at the ballot box in November 2008? A few years ago this same crowd was hissing that government had no right to say who could get hitched to whom. Now that...

A GAY gang that allegedly raped victims lured on the internet, drugged them and infected them with the AIDS virus has shocked the Netherlands and raised questions over its liberal sex culture. A date rape drug known as "Easy Lay" and ecstasy were allegedly involved. Health Minister Ab Klink called the case "horrible", as the press splashed the news across its front pages today. The matter came to light yesterday, when police said they had arrested three men two weeks ago after four victims, men aged 25 to 50, accused them of rape and premeditated bodily harm. Ronald Zwarter, the...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Just hours after the White House issued a veto threat Thursday, the House voted to add gender and sexual orientation to the categories covered by federal hate crimes law. The House legislation, passed 237-180, also makes it easier for federal law enforcement to take part in or assist local prosecutions involving bias-motivated attacks. Similar legislation is also moving through the Senate, setting the stage for another veto showdown with President Bush. "This is an important vote of conscience, of a statement of what America is, a society that understands that we accept differences," said House Majority Leader...

[This is strange. Maybe I hadn't been paying close enough attention, but I recall liking Ruth Gledhill's reporting, once upon a time. But this is... weird, from the headline on down. Either I was on autopilot, she's flipped out, or some editor is doing a hatchet job on her stuff. "Gay summit"? Gimme a break, it goes much deeper than that and Gledhill ought to know that!--sionnsar] The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has flown nearly 5,000 miles to attend the controversial Anglican summit on gays in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. But the Ugandan-born Archbishop could tomorrow find himself...

ATLANTA - The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said Thursday it is removing from the clergy a gay minister who announced he has a partner. The Rev. Bradley Schmeling, who has led Atlanta's oldest Lutheran church since 2000, will be removed from the roster effective Aug. 15, according to a report from the ELCA's disciplinary committee. Schmeling, who was open about his sexuality when he took the job, announced last year he had found a lifelong companion. Bishop Ronald Warren asked the 44-year-old pastor to resign, but Schmeling refused. Warren then began disciplinary proceedings last year against Schmeling for violating...

OLYMPIA, Wash. - An initiative filed by proponents of same-sex marriage would require heterosexual couples to have kids within three years or else have their marriage annulled. Initiative 957 was filed by the Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance. That group was formed last summer after the state Supreme Court upheld Washington's ban on same-sex marriage. Related Content: Washington Defense of Marriage AllianceUnder the initiative, marriage would be limited to men and women who are able to have children. Couples would be required to prove they can have children in order to get a marriage license, and if they did not...

Tom Brady still has a ways to go before celebrating a fourth Super Bowl title, but gay men across the country have already embraced him as their champion. Gay-oriented sports Web sites from coast to coast are ablaze with desire for Tom Terrific. “It’s equal rights. We get to look at him the same way women do, we get to want him the same way women do,” said “Robert,” a 41-year-old gay South Shore fan of the Patriots heartthrob - one of many men jonesing to pit their pigskin palpitations against those of run-of-the-mill female groupies. Robert said Brady, 29,...

 Printer Friendly Version   A Catholic Speaker in the House January 5, 2007 In the run-up to last November's mid-term elections, San Francisco Democrat Nancy Pelosi frequently countered the charge that she was the embodiment of radical, West Coast liberalism by reminding the interlocutor that she was a "Catholic grandmother." With her Party's victory locked up, the pro-abortion, pro-gay "rights" and pro-embryonic stem-cell research politico is now Madame Speaker. Pelosi made it clear that as House Speaker, one of her top priorities in the first 100 hours of Democrat Control would be the introduction of a bill that would...

It’s an old, old situation linked to Christian faith and politics. People on the right side of the church aisle are accused of taking the Bible very literally when it comes to sex and salvation. People on the left side of the church aisle prefer to take the Bible literally on issues of social justice and the poor. The reality, of course, is that Christianity has long offered rock-ribbed teachings on both sides of this equation. Sex outside of marriage? Sin. Ignoring the needs of the poor and the weak? Sin. The real debates, of course, are about how best...

Santa Cruz, Calif. -- A gay student prevented from donating blood because of his sexual history has stirred debate among Santa Cruz school officials over whether to continue hosting campus blood drives. Ronnie Childers, 17, student body president at Harbor High School, said he volunteered at a blood drive at his school earlier this month for five hours and waited in line for three more before being turned away. "I was turned away because of my sexual contacts," Childers said. "The reasoning behind me not being able to give blood is ridiculous. ... It made me feel like an outcast."...

(CBS) TRENTON, N.J. -- New Jersey will become the fifth state to grant gay couples all the rights and responsibilities of marriage when Gov. Jon S. Corzine signs a civil unions bill on Thursday. New Jersey will join Connecticut and Vermont as states that allow civil unions for gay couples. Massachusetts allows gay couples to marry, while California has domestic partnerships that bring full marriage rights. "We join the ranks of the leaders in the nation in reflecting equal rights for everyone," said Corzine, who is scheduled to sign the bill at 11 a.m. The law will take effect Feb....

HOUSTON - A rapist who preys on young men has struck five times in the Houston area since mid-September, and police said Monday there may be even more victims, but they are too ashamed to come forward. ADVERTISEMENT The rapist typically stalks, robs and sexually assaults his victims at gunpoint, apparently choosing them at random and attacking them near or inside their homes, police said. The most recent attack was Nov. 30. "I wish we had a link between the victims, because we might have a better chance of catching him," said Lt. Richard Whitaker of the police department in...

Pittsburgh Steelers' linebacker Joey Porter was fined $10,000 by the NFL on Thursday for a gay slur he made towards Cleveland Browns' tight end Kellen Winslow after the game on Thursday. During the game, Winslow was flagged for a personal foul for hitting Steelers linebacker James Farrior after a play. In a post-game interview, Porter referred to Winslow with a derogatory word used to describe homosexuals. On Tuesday, Porter apologized, saying he didn't intend to offend anyone but Winslow. "I guess, how we used that word freely, me using it growing up, I didn't think anything of it," Porter said...

Lethal consequences to engaging in defining features of male homosexuality-- promiscuity and anal intercourse Special to LifeSiteNews.com By Kathleen Melonakos, M.A., R.N.Delaware Family Foundation Originally published on Narth - National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality ** Note: This article contains explicit references to common, dangerous homosexual sexual practices and is therefore not suitable for young readers. The writer of this article, health professional and medical reporter Kathleen Melonakos, describes the impact of male-with-male sex upon physical health. I worked as an RN for several years during the eighties and nineties at Stanford University Medical Center, where I saw...

Members of the state Senate on Sunday followed through on what their counterparts in the House of Representatives did last week, continuing to advance two bills to fight employment benefits for partners of gay state employees. Facing a Jan. 1 deadline imposed by the Alaska Supreme Court to ensure employees in same-sex relationships get the same benefits as their heterosexual colleagues, the Senate Finance Committee approved on Sunday evening two bills aimed at thwarting that. The Senate was meeting in a special session called by Gov. Frank Murkowski to deal with the controversial issue. The House already has approved the...

ATLANTA ? An American diagnosed with the AIDS virus can expect to live for about 24 years on average, and the cost of health care over those two-plus decades is more than $600,000, new research indicates.

Wal-Mart Contributes 5% Of Online Sales To Homosexual Group Sign the pledge not to shop at Wal-Mart or Sam's Club on the Friday and Saturday following Thankgiving Help recruit 1,000,000 to agree to not shop at Wal-Mart or Sam's Club (owned by Wal-Mart) on the Friday and Saturday following Thanksgiving. Here's why: In a show of support to help homosexuals legalize same-sex marriage, Wal-Mart has agreed to automatically donate 5% of online sales directly to the Washington DC Community Center for Gay, Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender People. The cash donation will come from ALL online purchases made at Wal-Mart...

Separating anatomy from what it means to be a man or a woman, New York City is moving forward with a plan to let people alter the sex on their birth certificate even if they have not had sex-change surgery. Under the rule being considered by the city’s Board of Health, which is likely to be adopted soon, people born in the city would be able to change the documented sex on their birth certificates by providing affidavits from a doctor and a mental health professional laying out why their patients should be considered members of the opposite sex, and...

LOS ANGELES - Neil Patrick Harris is gay and wants to quell any rumors to the contrary. "(I) am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest," Harris tells People magazine's Web site. The 33-year-old actor said he was motivated to disclose his sexuality because of recent "speculation and interest in my private life and relationships." Harris stars on the CBS comedy "How I Met Your Mother." He started on TV as a teen, playing the namesake doctor on the series "Doogie Howser, M.D." ___

While hundreds of anti-pride protestors burn trash cans in J'lem, Open House voices disappointment with reports that police intend to ask High Court to cancel pride parade, offer enclosed event instead Efrat Weiss Published: 11.03.06, 15:17 Representatives from the Jerusalem Open House addressed reports that the police intend to petition the High Court of Justice to cancel the pride parade in its current venue and offer an alternative event that would be easier to secure. "The pride parade is a parade of civil rights and freedom of expression," the Open House said on Friday, "it's inconceivable that violence and threats...

As she prepares for her presidential race, confident that New Yorkers will re-elect her, Hillary Clinton is working to position herself properly to win the Democratic nomination by adjusting, tweaking and, where necessary, reversing her issue positions. But last week's flip-flop on gay marriage, in which she said she would approve of state action to legalize it, came with some reconstructed history that tried to paper over her switch by obfuscating the historical record. Her statement dismissed her support of her husband's Defense of Marriage Act as "a strategic decision to help derail a constitutional amendment that would have banned...

The closure of customer toilets in a Myer store due to rampant homosexual activity has exposed a massive list of venues being used by members of a gay website as hook-up points. Among the places listed as meeting spots for men "cruising for sex", on squirt.org, is the Royal Australian Air Force's Richmond base and Sydney Opera House's toilets. Management at Myer's Sydney city store in Pitt Street were forced to close its level one toilet to the public because homosexuals were using the facility as a meeting point, often having sex in full view of other horrified users. (con't...

Lawyers for a former Poway High School student who was pulled out of class for wearing an anti-gay T-shirt have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review an early ruling in the case. Papers filed yesterday by the Alliance Defense Fund urged the court to take up an April ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which said high school administrators were justified when they removed Tyler Chase Harper from class. In 2004, Harper, then a sophomore, wore a shirt on which he wrote, “I will not accept what God has condemned,” and on the back, “Homosexuality is...

Radar has learned that the anony-blogger behind StopSexPredators—the bogus blog that first posted the Mark Foley e-mails and got the ball rolling on PageGate—is a former Democratic Senate staffer named Lane Hudson.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 — A liberal gay rights group said Wednesday that one of its employees, acting anonymously, had created the Web site that first published copies of unusually solicitous e-mail messages to teenagers from former Representative Mark Foley, which led to his resignation. A spokesman for the group, the Human Rights Campaign, said it first learned of its employee’s role this week and immediately fired him for misusing the group’s resources. The scandal surrounding Mr. Foley, a Florida Republican, has been a burdensome distraction for members of his party in the month before the midterm elections, and some Republicans...

The Conservative Movement, based on its official pronouncements on gay & lesbian people serving as rabbis and teachers, being welcomed in its congregations, and enjoying legal protection from discrimination in civil society, has been accused of hemming and hawing. I would like to go on record with my position on same-sex marriage, without any hemming, but perhaps with a bit of hawing. Some in the religious community, particularly Christians, have voiced opposition to same-sex marriage or registered civil unions because it would detract from the sanctity of conventional marriage. As much as I have tried to understand that concern, I...

<p>Supreme Court of New Jersey's holding: "Denying committed same-sex couples the financial and social benefits and privileges given to their married heterosexual counterparts bears no substantial relationship to a legitimate governmental purpose. The Court holds that under the equal protection guarantee of Article I, Paragraph 1 of the New Jersey Constitution, committed samesex couples must be afforded on equal terms the same rights and benefits by opposite-sex couples under the civil marriage statutes. The name to be given to the statutory scheme that provides full rights and benefits to samesex couples, whether marriage or some other term, is a matter left to the democratic process."</p>

NEW YORK -- Because of an increasingly common policy at U.S. companies, Vivienne Armstrong can choose from two different plans when she considers her health insurance: the one offered by her employer and one offered by her partner's. Armstrong, a registered nurse, gets her health coverage through the defense firm Raytheon Co., which offers domestic partner benefits to her partner, Louise Young. Young, a senior software engineer in the Plano, Texas, office, said Armstrong chose Raytheon's plan simply because it has stronger benefits. Young, a lesbian activist, said she is encouraged by signs of the growth of gay-friendly corporate policies...

The Catholic bishops of the United States, faced with ongoing controversy over the church's posture toward homosexuality, next month will vote on a proposal that would condemn ``scorn and hatred" of gays and lesbians but would also declare that gay couples should not be allowed to marry or adopt children, that baptizing the children of same-sex couples presents ``a pastoral concern," and that the church has the right to deny ``roles of service" to gays and lesbians who are not celibate. -snip- ``more than a few persons with a homosexual inclination feel themselves to be unwelcome and rejected" in the...

Priest tells of Foley relationship Then-altar boy may have found some things inappropriate By MATTHEW DOIG and MAURICE TAMMAN matthew.doig@heraldtribune.commaurice.tamman@heraldtribune.com A Catholic priest told the Herald-Tribune on Wednesday about an intimate two-year relationship he had with former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley when the congressman was a teenage altar boy living in Lake Worth. From his home on the island of Gozo, near Italy, Anthony Mercieca described a series of encounters that he said Foley might perceive as sexually inappropriate. Among them: massaging Foley while the boy was naked, skinny-dipping together at a secluded lake in Lake Worth and being naked...

A 13-YEAR-OLD student was failed after she refused to write an assignment on life in a gay community, because of her religious and moral beliefs. Her outraged mother, Christian groups and the State Opposition want an investigation into the treatment of the Year 9 student at Windaroo Valley State High School, south of Brisbane.

LOS ANGELES, California, October 4, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center has abandoned a long-held homosexual activist contention by declaring on billboards posted throughout Southern California that HIV/AIDS is a “gay disease.” According to a report by the Los Angeles Times, the Center is trying to address rapidly increasing HIV infection rates among the homosexual population by rallying the gay community to increasing vigilance against exposure to the disease. Activists for the homosexual lifestyle have, until this current development, strongly, and sometimes vehemently refused to admit that the disease is predominantly generated among homosexual men.The...

Rep. Mark Foley, a Florida Republican, has resigned abruptly from the House on the revelation by ABC News of “sexual” instant messages to underage male pages. The Democrats in Congress and in the media are trying to hang this albatross around the necks of Republican leaders, and Republicans generally. There is incompetent reporting, either accidental or deliberate, on this story. Foley sent e-mails to some pages that were not overtly sexual. Almost the entire press has failed to report the differences between e-mails and instant messages. Since most reporters use both methods of communications or can easily get information about...

Scandal: Right after Mark Foley was revealed to have had inappropriate e-mail conversations with a 16-year-old page, he resigned and checked into rehab. Now, what did Democrats know, and when did they know it? Yes, you read that right: the Democrats. It's of course clear that Foley, a Republican representative from Florida, resigned for good cause. We don't defend him or his inexcusable behavior — good riddance. But it didn't take long at all after Foley's resignation for the Democrats to call for an investigation of the entire Republican leadership in the House, charging that GOP stalwarts knew early on...

I have what I believe is the identity of the person that Rep. Mark Foley instant messaged. I will be working on the story today and will present my findings tomorrow. I will put out a press release later today outlining what I will reveal on Wednesday October 4th at 4pm Central Time. I have contacted several bloggers to check my finding and verify that they are indeed accurate. I have also sent emails to major media and two United States Representatives. This will be a major news story and there is the possibility that this story will not be...

Rogers – in a March 4, 2005, post on his website BlogActive.com – declared Foley to be "gay" and, therefore, a hypocrite for voting for legislation against the homosexual agenda. The post said: "MARK FOLEY WILL BE EXPOSED FOR THE HYPOCRITE HE IS THROUGH A MAIL AND INTERNET CAMPAIGN THAT WILL REACH INTO EVERY HOME IN HIS DISTRICT."

/rant By the way, when are they going to go through Barney Franks' emale?