Exodus: Live Out Loud

Singer's Parents Denounce Song

From Christian Today:

The evangelical Christian parents of US chart topper Katy Perry have lashed out at the lyrics of their daughter’s No 1 hit single ‘I Kissed A Girl’.

Her parents are outraged by the song’s provocative lyrics, which include “I kissed a girl and I liked it”.

Perry’s mother, Mary Hudson, says she is disappointed at the career path her daughter has decided to go down.

"I hate the song,” she was quoted by the Daily Record as saying. “It clearly promotes homosexuality and its message is shameful and disgusting. Katy knows how I feel. We are a very outspoken family.

"I can't even listen to that song. The first time I heard it I was in total shock. When it comes on the radio I bow my head and pray.”

The 23-year-old former gospel singer’s track continues to soar to the top of music charts around the world.

Read the entire article >>

Media Coverage of A New Day

Below are some links to media coverage of the 2008 Exodus International Freedom Conference that was held in Ridgecrest, NC July 15-20.

Asheville Citizen Times - Exodus Meeting Promotes 'Freedom From Homosexuality'

TV Coverage on WLOS (ABC) Asheville

Additional Coverage by WLOS ABC 13

CitizenLink: Exodus Conference Spreads Message of Hope

Christian Post: Exodus Offers "A New Day" for Hundreds Impacted by Homosexuality

North Carolina Baptists: Homosexuality and the Local Church

Man Sues Publishers Over Bible Verses

From CitizenLink:

A Michigan man is suing Zondervan Publishing and Thomas Nelson Publishing, claiming biblical references to homosexuality as a sin violate his constitutional rights and have caused him emotional pain and mental instability.

Bradley LaShawn Fowler, 39, is seeking $60 million from Zondervan and $10 million from Thomas Nelson, The Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press reported. He is representing himself in both claims.

Fowler claims the Bible has made him an outcast and contributed to physical discomfort and periods of "demoralization, chaos and bewilderment."

"As frivolous as this case may sound, it's an indicator of where the homosexual agenda is headed," said Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action. "Ten years from now, this type of case won't be humorous at all; we'll see organizations like the ACLU dedicating resources to them because such 'language' will no longer be considered protected speech.

"Sweden, Canada and the U.K. are already prosecuting religious speech as 'hate' speech, as it relates to the biblical view of homosexuality."

Survey Shows Churches Split on Homosexuality

From OneNewsNow:

A new survey finds that Americans are split almost evenly over perceptions of homosexual behavior as either sinful or acceptable to God.

LifeWay Research, an arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, surveyed 1,201 adults in April to determine their attitudes about homosexuality. Forty-eight percent responded that homosexual behavior is sinful, but 45 percent said that it is not -- basically a statistical tie when the margin of error is taken into account.

Rev. Rob Schenck of Faith and Action in Washington, DC, says the U.S. needs a spiritual awakening as it moves in the direction of what he calls "a European-like secularism."

"... [This] is a spiritual problem that requires a spiritual solution," he continues. "But there is a little bit more to it than that because we see the problem in the church, as well as outside the church."

Read the whole article >>

Randy Thomas on California's Gay Marriage Ruling

Exodus Executive Vice President Randy Thomas responds on his blog to the historic ruling by the California Supreme Court overturning a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage:

Exodus has been on record as opposing the redefinition of marriage, the use of hate crimes legislation to suppress freedom of conscience and religious liberty as well as ENDA­, the corporate version of hate crimes. ENDA is another example of the state forcing a state sanctioned sexual morality at the expense of religious liberty.

Exodus has only been involved in these public policy battles for the past five years and while we have very strong beliefs, I think it is a mistake for Christians to believe that Joe Solomnese, a gay identified man in charge of the HRC (largest gay lobby in the world) wants to proverbially burn Christians at the stake.  While he has been dismissive of my life and testimony, I choose not to be dismissive of his because I once believed as he does.  My only desire was to live in a homosexual relationship.

Read Randy's blog post >>

Megachurches Begin to Respond

From The Christian Post:

Jay Bakker, a big supporter of a pro-gay group, met privately with Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church to talk about faith and sexuality issues and to ultimately gain the support of the megapastor.

Son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Jay and a group of gays and lesbians attended one of Lakewood Church's Sunday worship services in an effort to change the influential pastor's view on gays and lesbians. At the end, Osteen did not affirm homosexuality.

It was the first of six megachurch stops in a pro-gay campaign called The American Family Outing – a collaboration between Soulforce, COLAGE, National Black Justice Coalition, and the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. Some 30 LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) persons and supporters took their national campaign to the country's largest church on Mother's Day to create dialogue around LGBT issues with members of the megachurch.

Read the entire article >>

Judge Rules Georgia Tech's "Safe Space" Program May Not Label Faiths "Anti-Gay"

From Southern Voice:

Georgia Tech’s Safe Space initiative, a faculty training program funded by student activity fees, cannot include information in its training materials and website that labels certain religions in a negative context because of their views on homosexuality, a federal judge ruled last week.

Ruling in a lawsuit filed by two Georgia Tech students in 2006, U.S. District Judge J. Owen Forrester said, “It is puzzling to the court that the promotion of tolerance would take the appearance of such intolerance as is contained in the religious materials distributed with the Safe Space program.”

“The handouts [included in Safe Space training] clearly take the position that churches that condemn homosexuality do so on theologically flawed grounds,” Forrester wrote April 29.

Characterizing some religions as welcoming of homosexuals while labeling others as “anti-gay” represents a “clear preference of one religion over another” and violates the First Amendment prohibition against the establishment of a religion, Forrester ruled.

Read the entire article >>

Methodists Reject Changes to Gay Stance--Oppose Homophobia

From The Christian Post:

After a lengthy debate, United Methodists voted Wednesday to reject changes to its constitution that would have liberalized the church's stance on homosexuality.

Delegates to the 2008 General Conference, the denomination's highest governing body, voted against a proposed "majority report" which would have acknowledged that members of the United Methodist Church "deeply disagree with one another" on the issue of homosexuality.

Such an acknowledgment would have been a "mature way forward" and "an honest, yet humble approach to how we are to view one another," said Frederick Brewington, a layman in the New York Annual (regional) Conference, according to the United Methodist News Service.

"We can make the determination to move forward, and stop the hurt," he told delegates during a long and emotional debate, urging change to the church's policy to end more than 35 years of struggle over the issue.

The petition for changes would have also deleted the current statement in UMC's Book of Discipline that describes homosexual practice as "incompatible with Christian teaching" and bans noncelibate gay pastors.

However, the Rev. Eddie Fox argued that any United Methodist statement on human sexuality needs to be "clear, concise and faithful to biblical teaching."

Read the whole article >>

Gay-Identified Bishop Refuses to "Lend Credibility" to Symposium

From Warren Throckmorton:

Today, the Washington Blade reported that Bishop Gene Robinson backed out of his scheduled presentation at the American Psychiatric Association conference. He was scheduled to present about “A Pastoral Approach for Gay & Lesbian People Troubled by Homosexuality.”

Bishop Robinson provided the following explanation:

“Conservatives, particularly Focus on the Family, were going to use this event to draw credibility to the so-called reparative therapy movement,” Robinson told the Blade. “It became clear to me in the last couple of weeks that just my showing up and letting this event happen … lends credibility to that so-called therapy.”

This is quite troubling and not at all accurate. Since no one on the panel planned to speak about reparative therapy, it is clear to me that the Bishop was misinformed. The symposium was approved by the APA in October of 2007 and nothing has changed in the descriptions, personnel or intent of the symposium since then. The meeting is not going to endorse reparative approaches, or advocate for any change in APA policy.

Austrialian Churches Rights in Question

From the Sydney Star Observer:

Christian organisations in all states and territories may have lost the right to discriminate against gay people despite religious exemptions in anti-discrimination laws, legal experts claimed this week following a landmark ruling against the Uniting Church’s Wesley Mission.

Homosexuality as an intolerable sin was not a doctrine of Christianity, the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal ruled last month, because there were many dissenting views on the subject among Christian groups generally, and specifically within the Uniting Church.

As long as gay-friendly congregations like Metropolitan Community Church exist, this ruling means Christian organisations don’t have a license to legally discriminate against gays, Brisbane lawyer Stephen Page said.

“Religious exemptions are worded almost identically across all state and territory anti-discrimination laws, so I’d expect other commissions to start citing this case,“ Page told SSO.

“Christian religious schools in the ACT, NSW, Victoria, SA and WA would not be able to use religion as the reason that gay and lesbian students can be prevented from bringing their partners to the school formal.“

The Tribunal rejected the welfare agency’s right to refuse a gay couple seeking to become foster parents as the laws only allowed exemptions for religions, and there was no “religion of Uniting Church”.

Read the whole article >>