Exodus: Live Out Loud

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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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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Canadian Pastor Fined; Christians Banned from Voicing Biblical Opposition

From WorldNetDaily:

A Canadian tribunal ordered a Christian pastor to renounce his faith and never again express moral opposition to homosexuality, according to a new report.

In a decision dated May 30 in the penalty phase of the quasi-judicial proceedings run by the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal, evangelical pastor Stephen Boisson was banned from expressing his biblical perspective of homosexuality and ordered to pay $5,000 for "damages for pain and suffering" as well as apologize to the activist who complained of being hurt...

"In this case there is no specific individual who can be compensated as there is no direct victim who has come forward," [lawyer Lori G. Andreachuk] wrote.

However, that did not stop her from ordering the payment anyway.

And as for the future, she wrote:

"Mr. Boissoin and The Concerned Christian Coalition Inc. shall cease publishing in newspapers, by e-mail, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the Internet, in future, disparaging remarks about gays and homosexuals. Further, they shall not and are prohibited from making disparaging remarks in the future about … Lund or … Lund's witnesses relating to their involvement in this complaint. Further, all disparaging remarks versus homosexuals are directed to be removed from current Web sites and publications of Mr. Boissoin and The Concerned Christian Coalition Inc..."

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Brazilian Youth Conference Promotes "Diversity"

From LifeSite:

Brazil's first national "Youth Conference", held in the capital city of Brasilia in late April, concluded with a declaration in favour of the legalization of abortion and the creation of an educational system free of “homophobia”.

The 2,280 attendees were given preliminary materials published by the government and bearing the name of President Luiz Lula, which claimed that illegal abortions were causing maternal deaths and that women never die of legal abortions...

Participants were also given government materials that defended homosexuality... "to be homosexual (gay or lesbian), bisexual, transvestite or transsexual isn't an illness, isn't illegal, isn't wrong, and isn't an option.  It's an orientation like heterosexuality, that is to say, another way of living and expressing one's love."

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UK Amendment Retains Protections of Free Speech... Just Barely

From LifeSite:

MPs at Westminster voted on Tuesday night to remove protections for freedom of speech from a "hate crimes" bill, but a vote in the House of Lords retained the wording. In a vote of 338 to 136, the House of Commons agreed with homosexual activists who wanted wording removed that would have allowed Christians and others who objected to homosexual behaviour to preach Christian sexual morality in public without fear of prosecution.

Peers in the House of Lords, however, voted today to retain an amendment that allows religious people to claim freedom of religious expression when charged with "inciting hatred". The House of Commons was forced to let the wording remain in the bill due to time constraints.

The amendment says, "For the avoidance of doubt, the discussion or criticism of sexual conduct or practices or the urging of persons to refrain from or modify such conduct or practices shall not be taken of itself to be threatening or intended to stir up hatred."

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UK Couple Wins Back Right to Foster

From the Telegraph:

A couple who were rejected as foster parents after they refused to condone homosexuality have won their battle to apply to be carers.

Derby city council blocked an application from Eunice and Owen Johns to   provide respite care for under-10s after they admitted they could never tell   a child that being homosexual was acceptable.

However, the authority has backed down after the Johns, both devout   Christians, threatened to seek a judicial review.

The couple, who have four grown-up children of their own, were celebrating on   Sunday after learning by letter that they can resume the application process.

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Demonstrators Harass Christian Youth in Germany

From The Local:

A traditional Christian youth festival in Germany faced unprecedented disruptions by leftists who hacked the gathering's website, interrupted speeches and threw beer bottles at visitors, organizers said on Tuesday.

Christival, a periodical gathering of Protestant Christian youth in Germany founded in 1976, was meant to be a chance for likeminded young people to meet up and celebrate their faith.

But thousands of attendees at this year’s festival in the northern city of Bremen found themselves under siege by leftist extremists determined to protest what they saw as Christian intolerance to homosexuality and abortion.

“There have never been disruptions of this kind in the entire history of the event,” Christival spokesman Steve Volke told The Local on Tuesday. “They tried to storm the festival area. They threw beer bottles at participants. The whole five days of the festival there was always something happening.”

...“The mood was stirred up beforehand that it was a festival against homosexuality and abortion,” said Volke. “But it was two seminars out of 230 – and complete nonsense to call it a fundamentalist Christian youth gathering.”

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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”.

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Homosexuals Appose Evangelical Youth Event

From Journal Chretien:

A public row concerning an evangelical youth festival and homosexuality has developed in Germany. The federal Parliament, the Bundestag in Berlin, has discussed the subject twice during question time.

Approximately 20,000 young people are expected to attend Christival in Bremen, April 30 – May 4. One of numerous seminars and workshops was supposed to deal with the subject of a change of sexual orientation for homosexuals who are disenchanted with their lifestyle.

But Volker Beck, Parliamentary whip of the Greens in the Bundestag and a practicing homosexual, took offense. He regards “therapy” for homosexuals as “dangerous charlatanism”.

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UK Couple Told they are "Unsuitable" Foster Parents

From Daily Mail:

They are devoted foster parents with an unblemished record of caring for almost 20 vulnerable children.

But Eunice and Owen Johns have been forced to abandon their good work because they refuse to tell children as young as ten that homosexuality is an acceptable lifestyle.

To do so, they say, would go against their Christian beliefs.

The devastated couple withdrew an application to their council to continue as foster carers after being told they must condone homosexuality to adhere to gay rights laws.

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