Exodus: Live Out Loud

California Marriage Bill Supporter Assaulted

From Protect Marriage:

In a violent display of intolerance, an opponent of Proposition 8 attacked and seriously injured a man who was volunteering on Sunday for the initiative to define marriage as between and a man and a woman.   

Prop. 8 supporter, Jose Nunez, 37, was brutally assaulted while waiting to distribute yard signs to other supporters of the initiative after church services at the St. Stanislaus Parish in Modesto.   

The assailant grabbed about 75 signs and yelled at Nunez accusingly, “What do you have against gays!”  Although Nunez replied that he had nothing against gays, he was attacked anyway.  The assailant punched Nunez in the left eye and ran off with the signs.   

Nunez, his eye dripping with blood, walked into a building on church grounds where a fellow parishoner called 911.  Police and paramedics responded to the scene. 

Nunez, who suffered a bloody eye, serious wounds to his face, and a scratch to his knee, was rushed by ambulance to a local hospital where he received 16 stitches under his eye.

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School Rejects Christian Books

From NBC-4 of Maryland:

A group of high school students that wants the Fairfax County School System to allow library books that offer a Christian perspective on homosexuality demonstrated Thursday.

The students said they are asking that their viewpoint gets the chance to sit on bookshelves and be read.

Dozens of students from throughout Fairfax County gathered at West Springfield High School. They said that they tried to donate books that promote an evangelical Christian perspective on homosexuality to their schools but were turned away.A schools spokesman said the books were rejected because of school system regulations. Among other things, the books were not age appropriate and there were no reviews of the books.

"We collected reviews for all of the books, multiple reviews, presented them to the librarian, and honestly, she didn't even look at them," said South County Secondary School student Ashley Traficant.

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Gay Advocates Begin Tour of Christian Campuses

Five members of the gay activist group Soulforce held hands Wednesday afternoon and stood to face about 50 Liberty University students behind the school's DeMoss Hall in Lynchburg.

They had just returned from donating five gay-affirming Christian books to the school's library, and Caitlin MacIntyre invited onlookers to join them in singing "Amazing Grace."

"No thanks," one student said.

Across the sidewalk, students paged through Bibles as the hymn's familiar first verse filled the air.

Liberty student Lawanda Sowell said she was searching for passages to describe her belief that homosexuality is a sin.

"They believe in what they believe because they are blind," she said.

The song ended, and the two groups stood opposite each other with two different opinions on how to interpret the role of homosexuality and the definition of marriage in the Bible.

Liberty was the first of 15 planned stops at faith-based institutions on Soulforce's annual Equality Ride, a national bus tour meant to encourage an inviting environment for any on-campus gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender students.

"Nowhere in the Bible does it say, 'homosexuality is sin,'" said Soulforce member Nicholas Rocco DeFinis.

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South African Church Must Apologize to Former Music Teacher

From IOL:

It is expected that music teacher, Johan Strydom, will on Thursday receive a formal apology from the Dutch Reformed Church in Moreleta Park for terminating his contract because he was a practising homosexual.

The Pretoria High Court last month ordered that the church had to unconditionally apologise to Strydom and pay him about R87 000 in damages and loss of pay.

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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.

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European Activists Call for Police to Punish "Anti-Gay" Comments

From Our Kingdom:

The Prime Minister has sent a response  to the 15,700 people who petitioned him to reprimand DUP MP Iris Robinson following her claim that members of the LGBT community should seek a cure...

...the complaints submitted to the police following Robinson's remarks must be dealt with forcefully. Thus far, there has been no response. I cannot imagine why it takes so long to establish whether these remarks qualify as “inciting hatred or arousing fear.”

Northern Ireland, ironically, has stronger anti-hate crime legislation than other UK regions. Government introduced it because of “increases in recorded incidents involving victims defined by their sexual orientation.”  The police should now decide whether her remarks arouse fear in the LGBT community, in light of comments like this:

"I feel threatened, abused, insulted and fearful because Mrs Robinson compared homosexuality to child abuse which is illegal and, I believe, grossly offensive and fundamentally wrong.”

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Church: A Safe Place for All?

Exodus Church Network Director Jeff Buchanan featured in Ministry Today:

If we're honest, the issue of homosexuality intimidates most church leaders. It makes us feel helpless. When someone pulls us aside and confides in us that he or she struggles with same-sex attractions, we diligently put on our "leader face" while we shrivel on the inside, feeling absolutely incompetent to address the situation.

Nothing could be further from the truth. If you believe God's Word to be true, then you automatically have the needed tools for effective ministry, since all Scripture is "useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2 Tim. 3:16, NIV). Therefore, we are equipped as the church to minister to anyone who walks through our doors—homosexual or not.

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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."

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Pro-Gay Censorship Law Crops Up in Colorado

From WorldNetDaily:

A new Colorado law is helping homosexual activists achieve their goal of forcing Christians to teach biblical condemnation of homosexuality only behind the closed doors of their sanctuaries.

The as-yet untested state law promotes sexual identity "perception" to the level of skin color under state discrimination laws.

Some opponents are calling it a "bona fide censorship law," and top analysts for Focus on the Family, the Christian publishing and broadcast powerhouse, are expressing concern over the "mischief" they expect to follow the signing by As WND reported, Ritter, a Democrat, struck gender-specific restrooms and locker rooms statewide when he signed the plan into law in May.

The law makes it illegal to deny a person access to public accommodations, including restrooms and locker rooms, based on gender identity or the "perception" of gender identity.

"Who would have believed that the Colorado state legislature and its governor would have made it fully legal for men to enter and use women's restrooms and locker-room facilities without notice or explanation?" said James Dobson, founder of Focus.

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