Group Won't Verify Claim Over 20,000 Christians Want ESPN to Suspend Broussard for 'Gay Bashing'

Faithful America refused on Thursday to verify a claim that it had collected signatures from more than 20,000 Christians petitioning ESPN to suspend sports analyst Chris Broussard for what they feel are "hateful" comments towards NBA player Jason Collins who recently revealed he is gay.

Collins announced in a Sports Illustrated article on Monday that he was a gay man who took his faith in Jesus Christ seriously.

In a later interview on ESPN's "Outside the Lines"show, however, Broussard – who is a practicing Christian – said Collins' position was inconsistent with biblical teachings.

"Personally, I don't believe that you can live an openly homosexual lifestyle or an openly, like premarital sex between heterosexuals. If you are living that type of lifestyle, the Bible says you know them by their fruits, it says that's a sin," said Broussard on the show. "If you're openly living in unrepentant sin, whatever it may be, not just homosexuality, whatever it maybe, I believe that's walking in open rebellion to God and to Jesus Christ."

Faithful America, which promotes itself as an organization dedicated to reclaiming Christianity from the religious right and putting faith into action for social justice, took issue with Broussard's comments which renowned theologian John Piper had praised as "solid steel."

"Chris Broussard's comments on Monday were really a hateful attack on Jason Collins and a profound misrepresentation of the compassionate teachings of Jesus Christ," said Faithful America's executive director, Michael Sherrard, in an interview with The Christian Post on Thursday.

"This is not how Christians who live in community and love one another as called by the Gospel of Jesus Christ are to behave towards one another," he added.

When asked if he could provide CP with information that could verify that he indeed had the signatures of 20,000+ practicing Christians calling for Broussard's suspension, he said: "We do not provide personal information especially to members of the media."

Sherrard, nevertheless, tried to expound on his opposition to the sports analyst's comments. "For ESPN to elevate Chris Broussard who is, let's remember, a sportscaster and not a pastor in the position of passing judgment on Jason Collins' faith is a profound abuse and exploitation of the church and of Christians and it's unfair to the millions of American Christians who are sick and tired of their faith being framed in the public point of view as being a hateful weapon to wield against gay and lesbian people," he stressed.

When CP asked Sherrard what specifically was hateful about Broussard's comments, he responded: "Well I think the comments speak for themselves."

When asked which biblical scriptures were misrepresented in Broussard's response to Collins paused before responding: "Describing the decision to come out, describing Jason Collins' decision to come out and describing Jason Collins' decision to ground that coming out and that acceptance of himself as being grounded in his Christian faith, to describe that as 'openly living in unrepentant sin' and to say that 'I would not characterize that person as a Christian' – I would say is a profound misrepresentation of Christian Scripture." Sherrard, who declined to verify whether or not he is a practicing Christian, is based in Washington, D.C. Faithful America was founded in 2004 and claims to have 210,000 members.

According to his Facebook page, he has also worked for Moveon.org which was started in 1998 to oppose the impeachment of U.S. President Bill Clinton. Moveon.org is also a powerful fundraising machine for Democratic Party candidates.

According to the online Discover the Networks, Faithful America gets funding from the leftist Soros, along with organizations with sometimes-extreme perspectives such as Amnesty International, the Brennan Center for Justice, Campaign for Better Health Care, which favors a universal government program, the pro-abortion Catholics for Choice, Center for Reproductive Rights, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Democracy Alliance, Earthjustice, EMILY’s List, and others.

Faithful America is described as an organization that “promotes the redistribution of wealth, an end to enhanced interrogation procedures vis a vis prisoners-of-war, the enactment of policies to combat global warming, and the creation of a government-run health care system.”

The National Catholic Reporter reported the founders of Faithful America include Ricken Patel, Tom Perriello and Tom Pravda, and called it the “online political organizing effort” of the National Council of Churches.

It publicizes statements from itself telling, for example, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, how he should run his archdiocese.

http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/soros-group-tells-chaplains-to-boycott-prayer/#C2q4J5CXEO6RgeGA.99

Avaaz is a global civic organization launched in January 2007 that promotes activism on issues such as climate change, human rights, animal rights, corruption, poverty, and conflict. Its stated mission is to “close the gap between the world we have and the world most people everywhere want”. The organization operates in 15 languages, and states that it has more than twenty million members in 194 countries. According to The Guardian: “Avaaz is only five years old, but has exploded to become the globe’s largest and most powerful online activist network.”

Avaaz.org was co-founded by Res Publica, a “community of public sector professionals dedicated to promoting good governance, civic virtue and deliberative democracy”, and MoveOn.org, an American non-profit progressive public policy advocacy group. It was also supported by Service Employees International Union, a founding partner, and GetUp!, an Australian non-profit campaigning organization.

Avaaz’s individual co-founders include Ricken Patel, Tom Pravda, former Virginia congressman Tom Perriello, MoveOn Executive Director Eli Pariser, Australian progressive entrepreneur David Madden, Jeremy Heimans (co-founders of Purpose.com), and Andrea Woodhouse. The board consists of Ricken Patel (president), Tom Pravda (secretary), Eli Pariser (board chairman), and Ben Brandzel (treasurer).

Avaaz’s founding President and Executive Director is the Canadian-British Ricken Patel. He studied PPE (Politics, Philosophy, Economics) at Balliol College, Oxford University. He received a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University. He worked for the International Crisis Group around the world, including in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan and Afghanistan, where he says “he learnt how to bring rebel forces to the negotiation table, to monitor elections (covertly), to restore public faith in once corrupt political systems and to spot when foreign forces were being manipulated.” He returned to the US and volunteered for MoveOn.org, where he learned how to use online tools for activism.

This Vipers' Nest has big plans---probably global ones. It looks like their goal is to stamp out traditional Christianity

From the article:
"Faithful America, which promotes itself as an organization dedicated to reclaiming Christianity from the religious right and putting faith into action for social justice."

Faithful America website

Only thing on its home page is the ESPN petition.
On Faithful America's DONATE page

"help take on right-wing extremism and reclaim Christianity as a force for social and economic justice."
************************

Faithful America's executive director is Michael Sherrard,

From the article:

"Sherrard, who declined to verify whether or not he is a practicing Christian, is based in Washington, D.C. Faithful America was founded in 2004 and claims to have 210,000 members.

"According to his Facebook page, he has also worked for Moveon.org which was started in 1998 to oppose the impeachment of U.S. President Bill Clinton. Moveon.org is also a powerful fundraising machine for Democratic Party candidates."
************************

"Michael Sherrard, from the liberal group Faithful America, "urged supporters in a MoveOn.org email to sign a petition that calls on ESPN to discipline Broussard.
MoveOn petition urges ESPN to suspend Chris Broussard
**********************

A “faith” organization that gets money from “Open Society” founder and left-leaning 1 percenter George Soros says it doesn’t want chaplains to participate in a prayer meeting.

The organization called Faithful America has launched an online petition discouraging the official chaplains of the U.S. House and the Senate from praying at this weekend’s Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfast.
Soros' group tells chaplains to boycott prayer *****************************

"Tim Tebow, don't speak at Liberty University"
By Michael Sherrard, Faithful America
To be delivered to: Tim Tebow

"Petition Statement"
"Tim Tebow, please cancel your plans to appear at Liberty University. Associating with anti-gay hatred is no way to share your Christian faith."
***************************

Progressive Groups Petition HarperCollins to let the Berenstain Bears Break Up with Anti-Gay Chick-fil-A

CREDO Action, SumofUs.org & Faithful America Deliver Petitions to HarperCollins Signed by Over 80,000 People:
____________________________________

DEEP TIES

Res Publica: A Public Works Project

By Joe Feuerherd

"Who are those guys?"

It's a question some in the progressive political community, and a few observant politically active conservative Christians, are asking about Tom Perriello, Ricken Patel and Tom Pravda. Collectively the three make up Res Publica (Latin for "public works"), a New York-based "public entrepreneurship fellowship."

....a pretty high-falootin [sic] moniker for any organization, even one made up of two Ivy League alums (Perriello, Yale Law School, Patel, Harvard's Kennedy School of Government) and an Oxford grad (Pravda got his degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Balliol College.) But then again, the three thirtiesh social entrepreneurs have high ambitions.

In 2003, the three decided to focus on developing the political and communications infrastructure of the religious left. "The public debate in the U.S. was the most important moral debate going on in the world," recalled Perriello. "We saw what seemed to be a resurgent progressive religious voice in America, but we weren't hearing the arguments for global community and the common good being made."

So they started making them. Working behind the scenes, and with the support of Riverside Church's senior minister James Forbes, the three friends played an instrumental role in:

Establishing the National Council of Church's online political organizing effort, FaithfulAmerica.org, which "provides one-click opportunities to impact current political issues and shift the terms of public debate."
Organizing Progressive Faith Media, an online service geared to providing journalists with "easy access" to leaders in the "progressive religious community."
Promoting the Catholic Voting Project, whose 2004 Voter Guide promoted a consistent ethic of life over the abortion-centric "non-negotiable" voter guides published by conservative Catholic groups.
Supporting voteallyourvalues.org, a voter registration and mobilization effort. Several hundred thousand potential voters were contacted by this effort's phone banks in the final days of the presidential campaign, says Perriello.
Staffing Riverside Church's "Mobilization 2004" campaign, an effort to counteract the influence of the Religious Right.

National Catholic Reporter

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