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Monthly Archives: March 2011

Shining the Light of Truth - NOM National News 3/24/11

March 24, 2011 – 4:10 pm

Defend DOMA now!

This week, NOM launched a powerful new campaign to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)–the one federal law that protects marriage as the union of husband and wife.

Thanks to Rep. Vicky Hartzler, who introduced the resolution condemning Pres. Obama for failing in his Constitutional duty to defend and uphold the laws of this land.

But we need your help getting your Congressional representative to sign on board.

Can you stop right now and sign the petition that asks your representative and the House leadership to support Rep. Hartzler's resolution and to defend marriage at the Federal level?

And pass this on to a friend—ask him or her to do the same!

Shining the Light of Truth

The mainstream media headlines say the Americans people don't care about marriage–that the majority of Americans now support gay marriage.

Even as other polls indicate the exact opposite, the media is saturated with this new talking point–followed quickly by expansive news coverage from a "research institute" established by Tim Gill and his buddies, suggesting falsely that practicing Catholics support gay marriage.

The big guns are pounding at us: lose, lose, lose. And yet this week, like last week, the actual news is: win, win, win.

How many times have you had this experience? You read the headlines about gay marriage and you are depressed.

Then you turn to read the weekly newsletter and you suddenly find out there's a lot of good news that the mainstream media ignores. (Well, frankly, the conservative counter-media ignores it too, mostly.)

Bad news gets headlines and TV coverage. Good news is buried in the back page.

But not here... check out some of the items making news this past week:

Breaking News: Prop 8 Dream Team of Olson & Boies Lose...again!

And that's a headline you don't get to see anywhere else. We had a big victory at the courthouse too! The Ninth Circuit refused to lift its stay on Judge Vaughn Walker's decision invalidating Prop 8.

"This continues a nearly unbroken string of losses for the so-called Dream Team in any court other than Judge Walker's!" [Continue reading]

Indiana Marriage Amendment Passes Senate Judiciary CMT - Moves to Full Senate

In Indiana, a state marriage amendment moved through the committee on a 7-3 vote—and this after the absurd claim that marriage amendments somehow interfere with job growth. [Continue reading].

Ford Foundation Funds Study to Help View gay Parenting with "Positive Association"

The Ford Foundation is giving $730,000 to a group studying why people believe children are best off with their own mom and dad. "Homophobia is the thing that harms children, not homosexuals," said Timothy P. McCarthy, (who will oversee the research). [Continue reading]

VIDEO: NYC Archbishop on 60 Minutes: "Attraction...doesn't entitle you to Marriage

More good news: Archbishop Timothy Dolan ably defended marriage in a discussion with Morley Safer on 60 Minutes:

The challenge we face is staying strong in our commitment to truth: to what is true about marriage, to what is good for children and society, and to the vision of a future in which these ideas are given the dignity and respect they deserve.

In truth there is beauty, too.

Vatican Tells UN of "Disturbing Trend" of Attacks Against SSM Critics

"People are being attacked for taking positions that do not support sexual behaviour between people of the same sex." He added, "When they express their moral beliefs or beliefs about human nature ... they are stigmatised, and worse—they are vilified, and prosecuted." [Continue reading]

Eastern Michigan Student Expelled from Marriage Counseling Program over Religious Beliefs

Take a look at this video from Speak Up University of Julea Ward, who was kicked out of a marriage-counseling program.

Good News: Michigan Attorney General Takes Up Julea Ward's Case

More good news: The Attorney General of Michigan, Bill Schuette, is taking up Julea Ward's cause. Schuette's office has submitted a brief in Ward's case arguing that "the evidence suggests that Ward was punished and ultimately dismissed from the program solely for her attempt to exercise disfavored religious beliefs, not for a violation of the code." [Continue reading]

Here's my faith. Here's our faith:

The true, the good, and the beautiful have a power, which will in the end prevail.

We keep proving that every day, with unexpected victory piled on impossible victory.

They need our consent to win this fight. They need us to give up. As long as we are willing to stand, in love and decency, for the good, they cannot win.

God bless you, my friend. I pray for you and for your family. I'm so grateful for all you make possible!

Please pray for all of the people leading this good fight.

Gotta get back to work now!

Semper fi,

Brian brown

Brian S. Brown
President
National Organization for Marriage

P.S. NOM seeks to be your voice, standing up for your values in the public square. And to do that, we need your help! Whether you can give $15 or $150—or maybe a $10 monthly donation—please consider what you can spare for marriage today.

By Brian Brown | Posted in Same Sex Marriage | Comments (15)

Audio: NEA Educator wants to force kids into radical sex ed programs

March 24, 2011 – 3:43 pm

In the "safe environment" provided by the United Nations, an NEA representative (the largest teacher's union in the U.S.) spoke frankly about her real plans for our kids.

Austin Ruse and his organization C-FAM -- which performs pro-family advocacy at the United Nations -- is to be commended for bringing these goals out into the open:

The U.N. just concluded a two-week feminist jamboree — the Commission on the Status of Women, which is an intergovernmental body that negotiates documents later approved by the General Assembly. The CSW attracts scores of radical feminists — including this time a woman named Diane Schneider, representing the National Education Association.

At a CSW panel discussion, Schneider said that “oral sex, masturbation, and orgasms need to be taught in education.” She also said students should not be able to “opt out” of such classes, meaning they should be forced to learn about orgasms against their parents’ wishes. She also spoke out against “transphobia,” “heterosexism,” and “gender conformity.” (National Review)

Once C-FAM began to get the word out, the U.N. removed Schneider's talk from their website, but not before some of our friends made a copy. Listen for yourself:

Some notable excerpts from her remarks:

Schneider complains that "Many schools offer parents the opportunity to have their child opt out of sex education and still receive full health credit for their class."

"How can we teach sex education without including terms such as orgasm, oral sex and masturbation?"

"We must teach our children at a very young age that the male, female and intersex comes with the presence of genitalia and no further expectation. That one needs to grow up and be their authentic self, free of society’s gender expectations..."

Is this the sort of thing you want your children taught? Do you agree with Schneider that children should be forced to undergo this sort of sex ed indoctrination?

By NOM Staff | Posted in Children, Education, Parenting | Comments (15)

Thomas Peters: Gay-funded poll falsely claims that most Catholics support SSM

March 24, 2011 – 3:05 pm

Thomas Peters points out the gay money behind the latest attempt to claim majority Catholic support for SSM (the only way they can get above the magic 50% figure is to take the civil unions option off the table). The poll backfires in another way, by showing that the more seriously Catholics take their faith, the more seriously likely they are to agree with the Church's teachings about sex, marriage and family.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Catholic Church, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (19)

MD High Court Makes Exercising Referendum Rights Easier

March 24, 2011 – 1:20 pm

Maryland is known for the difficulty of exercising the people's right to veto laws via the referendum process. In most states "voter intent" rules whether the signature is valid, but Maryland has often invalidated signatures for a variety of technical reasons.

The new ruling is good news if the Maryland legislature tries to ram through a gay marriage bill next year: "State high court rules on petition signatures"

By NOM Staff | Posted in Maryland, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (4)

Election Watch 2012: Rep. Bachmann Praises Iowans for Ousting "Black-Robed Masters" Over SSM

March 24, 2011 – 9:30 am

Politico has the story:

Ripping judges as “black-robed masters,” Michele Bachmann praised conservative Iowans on Wednesday for sacking three members of the state Supreme after they legalized gay marriage.

Bachmann, speaking to a group of home school advocates, credited conservatives with sending a “shot across the bow” to judges throughout the country.

You said enough is enough and sent them packing, and I’m very proud of what you’ve done,” she said, repeatedly calling judges “black-robed masters.”

Photo: AP

By NOM Staff | Posted in Election Watch 2012, Iowa | Comments (6)

URGENT ALERT: Tell Your Congressman to Defend DOMA Now!

March 24, 2011 – 9:00 am

Dear Marriage Supporter,

On Monday, we launched a new campaign to Defend DOMA—protecting the one federal statute defining marriage as the union of a husband and wife against increasing attacks in the courts, in Congress, and even from President Obama himself.

In just 48 hours, nearly a thousand of you have already taken action, donating, sending emails to Congress, and spreading the word to your friends.

Thank you! Together, your emails are sending a powerful message to Congress, urging our leaders to stand for marriage, reinforcing the House leadership's decision authorizing Congressional intervention in pending cases challenging the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and denouncing President Obama's unilateral declaration that our marriage laws are unconstitutional.

It's a great start, but we need thousands more! In just 5 minutes, you can send an email to your congressman, urging him to join Rep. Vicky Hartzler as a co-sponsor of House Concurrent Resolution 25.

Please click here to tell Congress it's time to stand for marriage!

Hartzler/Obama

As of today, the Hartzler resolution has nearly 100 co-sponsors. President Obama's extra-constitutional power grab in declaring marriage unconstitutional has drawn criticism from legal scholars across the political spectrum. It's time for members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, to go on record in support of marriage.

We've seen time and time again, what a difference individual voices can make, and working together we send a powerful message to our elected representatives.

In just three easy steps, you can join the effort to protect marriage and defend DOMA:

Donate to help us take the message of marriage to millions of Americans from coast to coast.
Sign the petition, sending an email urging your congressman to stand for marriage as a co-sponsor of House Concurrent Resolution 25.
Share with your friends. Help spread the word via Facebook, Twitter, through your own blog or website.

Together, we are making a difference! I hope you'll join us today!

Brian Brown

Faithfully,

Brian brown

Brian S. Brown

President

National Organization for Marriage

P.S.: As you know, we have received a $1 million matching challenge grant. Over the next four weeks, every dollar we can raise will be doubled up to $1 million dollars. If the federal protections for marriage are lost, every state will be in jeopardy. This is a powerful opportunity to reinforce our federal marriage protections and put Congress on notice that the American people care about marriage. Please make your most generous gift today!

By Brian Brown | Posted in Alerts, DOMA, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (10)

San Fran becoming a "child-free" city

March 24, 2011 – 8:00 am

From the San Fran Examiner:

Despite efforts to stem the tide of family flight, the population of children in San Francisco continues to ebb.

Families that remain in The City are bucking the trend that has plagued San Francisco for years as the number of children — defined as people up to 17 years old — has dropped from 181,532 in 1960 to 107,524 today, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau figures. The 2000 census counted 112,802 youths.

By NOM Staff | Posted in California, Children | Comments (7)

We hate you. Now give us your kids so that we can turn them against you.

March 24, 2011 – 7:30 am

Jeff Shafer, ADF Senior Legal Counsel, points us to some stunning comments made by Prof Richard Rorty about what he considers the role of the university educator:

The late American philosopher Richard Rorty (d. 2007) in describing his assessment of the role of university professor wrote: “When we American college teachers encounter religious fundamentalists, we do not consider the possibility of reformulating our own practices of justification so as to give more weight to the authority of the Christian scriptures. Instead, we do our best to convince these students of the benefits of secularization.”

The re-education imperative is one that he, “like most Americans who teach humanities or social science in colleges and universities, invoke when we try to arrange things so that students who enter as bigoted, homophobic, religious fundamentalists will leave college with views more like our own.”

Rorty explains to the “fundamentalist” parents of his students: “we are going to go right on trying to discredit you in the eyes of your children, trying to strip your fundamentalist religious community of dignity, trying to make your views seem silly rather than discussable.”

He helpfully explains that “I think those students are lucky to find themselves under the benevolent Herrschaft [domination] of people like me, and to have escaped the grip of their frightening, vicious, dangerous parents.”

By NOM Staff | Posted in Education, Parenting | Comments (11)

Orthodox cleric: Morality Is Not Hate

March 24, 2011 – 7:00 am

Fr. Mark Hodges writes about the DOMA decision from an Orthodox perspective:

This week, U.S. Attorney General Holder announced Obama’s decision not to uphold the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which was passed by a bipartisan overwhelming majority and signed by Bill Clinton in 1996. Significantly, the Attorney General described anti-sodomy beliefs as “animus,” which means “vehement emnity,” “hatred” or “ill will.”

This echoes Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s anti-Christian view, stated in a Supreme Court decision upholding the ejection a Christian legal group for not allowing open homosexuals in leadership positions, that “Condemnation of same-sex intimacy is, in fact, a condemnation of gay people,” and “Our (Supreme Court) decisions decline to distinguish between status and conduct.” (By this reasoning, if you don’t support gluttony, you “condemn” overweight people.)

The ACLU has hailed the Obama Administration’s decision as “the tipping point in the gay rights movement.” Indeed, it may be. It is certainly yet another turn toward moral insanity, as the Fathers and Mothers of the Church predicted, when the world calls evil “good” and good “evil.” (Interestingly, the gay agenda hypocritically says what two consenting adults do in private is no one’s business, and yet they are seeking public approval for their perverted activity, going after the social status of “marriage.”)

Please help NOM protect marriage and defend the Defense of Marriage Act in 3 easy steps by going to www.DefendDOMA.com right now!

By NOM Staff | Posted in DOMA, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (9)

FROM NOM'S WEEKLY NEWSLETTER: FORD FOUNDATION FUNDS STUDY TO HELP VIEW GAY PARENTING WITH “POSITIVE ASSOCIATION”

March 24, 2011 – 5:59 am

This story is from NOM's weekly national newsletter. To read the whole newsletter, please click here.

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Advocates of gay marriage have stopped persuading the American people that homosexual unions are marriages, so now the activists' goal is to suppress, mislead, and depress the American people.

What's the definition of victory in war? It's not when one side annihilates the other. It's when one side no longer has the will to fight. That's when a war is over.

Culture war, too.

The arguments from despair they proffer to us have no rational basis. They are not about what is true, good, or beautiful. And the future hasn't even happened yet!

The world they want you to believe in--to believe is a fact--is one where those who say, “To make a marriage you need a husband and wife because children need a mother and father” are viewed as irrational bigots.

The amount of money being thrown at creating this world is fascinating. I would call it frightening if I did not believe there are things in this universe more powerful than money.

Take this little story that showed up in the Harvard Crimson. The Ford Foundation is giving $730,000 to a group studying why people believe children are best off with their own mom and dad. The researcher in charge of this allegedly academic and scientific enterprise is startlingly open about the purpose of this research: to figure out how to wean Americans from this stubborn attachment to the natural family. “This grant allows us to really understand what is it about children in relationship to gay people that translates into a perception of harm, and investigate how can we translate that to positive association,” said the Executive Director of Face Value Julie R. Davis. “Homophobia is the thing that harms children, not homosexuals,” said Timothy P. McCarthy, (who will oversee the research). [Continue reading.]

(FYI: The Public Religion Research Institute, which offered “research” showing that Catholics support gay marriage, received a grant of $107,500 from the Evelyn and Walter Haas foundation, “To survey California religious communities and help develop religious education strategies supporting gay equality.” None of which prevented its research from being widely retailed as fact in the mainstream media.)

-END-

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This story is from NOM's weekly national newsletter. To read the whole newsletter, please click here.

By Brian Brown | Posted in Children, Culture, Marriage, NOM Marriage News, Parenting, Research/Study, Same Sex Marriage | Comments Off

Steve Jobs' Jihad Continues

March 23, 2011 – 6:00 pm

First Apple approved a Manhattan Declaration App, then pulled it when gay rights groups objected.

Now a second app, by an ex-gay group, has been judged offensive to Apple's sensitivities and has been pulled.

The Glorious Information Purification Directive continues.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Same Sex Marriage | Comments (10)

NOM Reacts to 9th Circuit Decision Refusing to Lift Stay on Judge Walker's Decision

March 23, 2011 – 5:44 pm

WASHINGTON – The 9th Circuit Court today announced it would not lift its stay on Judge Vaughn Walker's decision overturning Proposition 8. The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) applauded the decision.

"This is good news for the people of California--and congratulations to the Dream Team of David Boies and Ted Olson for continuing their impressive streak of losses in actions not in Judge Walker's courtroom," said Brian Brown, president of NOM.

NOM was the single largest donor to the efforts supporting Proposition 8, defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman and through its early fundraising, is credited with helping get Prop 8 on the ballot.

To schedule an interview with Brian Brown, president of NOM, or Maggie Gallagher, Chairman of the board of NOM, please contact Mary Beth Hutchins, [email protected], (x105), or Elizabeth Ray, [email protected], (x130) at 703-683-5004.

By NOM Staff | Posted in California, Prop 8, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (2)

INDIANA MARRIAGE ALERT: Marriage Amendment Passes Senate Committee!

March 23, 2011 – 4:58 pm

The Indiana Senate Judiciary Committee voted this morning 7-3 to approve the Indiana marriage amendment, sending the measure to the full senate for a vote.

Thanks to each of you who have contacted your legislators in support of this important measure. Today's vote was a huge victory as we work to bring the amendment across the finish line.

The Senate has passed this measure five times in the past. Gay marriage advocates know they can't block the measure in the Senate—their best hope is to delay the process with changes that would need to be approved again by the House. Such a move would delay and perhaps kill the amendment amidst the ongoing budget and union disputes in the House.

Please take a moment today to contact your state senator, urging him or her to vote for the amendment as drafted. Click here to send your message today!

By NOM Staff | Posted in Indiana, Marriage | Comments (1)

Breaking News: Olson and Boies Lose Again!

March 23, 2011 – 4:29 pm

Prop 8 remains in force--and the Dream Team of Olson and Boies continue their unbroken string of losing actions in every court not run by Judge Walker!

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied an effort to lift Prop 8 as the judicial battle over California's ban on same-sex marriage drags on.

Plaintiffs, represented by Ted Olson and David Boies and supported by a group of political and entertainment activists, had sought to lift a stay on U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's decision last summer that declared Prop 8 unconstitutional.

The stay was placed on the case as it was appealed, but that ruling has been delayed by the Ninth Circuit as it sorts out a procedural matter.

A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit issued its decision this morning without much comment, other than to say that it considered "all the facts and circumstances" surrounding the plaintiffs' effort to lift the stay.

NOM continues to defend marriage state-by-state including in California with Prop 8, but we are also engaging on the national level by standing up to President Obama's attempt to force SSM on America by declaring the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional. You can help us defend marriage against these threats in 3 easy steps by going to www.DefendDOMA.com.

By NOM Staff | Posted in California, Prop 8, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (7)

Archbishop to UN: Christians have human rights too

March 23, 2011 – 2:33 pm

Reuters reports:

People who criticise gay sexual relations for religious or moral reasons are increasingly being attacked and vilified for their views, a Vatican diplomat told the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi said the Roman Catholic Church deeply believed that human sexuality was a gift reserved for married heterosexual couples. But those who express these views are faced with "a disturbing trend," he said.

"People are being attacked for taking positions that do not support sexual behaviour between people of the same sex," he told the current session of the Human Rights Council.

"When they express their moral beliefs or beliefs about human nature ... they are stigmatised, and worse -- they are vilified, and prosecuted.

"These attacks are violations of fundamental human rights and cannot be justified under any circumstances," Tomasi said.