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AFA JournalNEWS OF INTERESTCulture, entertainment, pro-life, religion, family, homsexual agenda and moreAFA Journal, January 2001 edition Prof says don’t use “emotionally laden” terms like pedophilia Our school systems seem to be increasingly populated by teachers and professors who are more and more liberal in their views regarding everything from homosexuality to pedophilia. It seems it’s no longer “in” to call a spade a spade. In Sexual Liberation’s Last Frontier, Julia A. Ericksen, associate professor of sociology at Temple University, says the term “child-adult sex” should always be used to describe sexual encounters involving both adults and children. Such a term should be used rather than “emotionally laden terms like ‘pedophilia’ or ‘child sexual abuse,’” she said. Her reasoning? Most researchers attempt “to measure the harm brought about by such activity,” rather than questioning the “supposed long-term effects of such activity on the children involved.” Ericksen continued by saying, “It is appropriate to undertake such research if only to wrest the terms of the debate from conservatives who have used pedophilia as a way to silence all attempts at sexual tolerance.” When asked where pressure to change attitudes regarding pedophilia comes from, she said that gay liberation activists had “targeted the homophobia of sexologists” like herself in recent years. Ericksen also disagrees with stiff punishment for pedophiles. “As with the sodomite in the nineteenth century, so in the twentieth century the pedophile’s punishments are so severe that most people guilty of the offense remain unpunished, protected by families which rightly fear the consequences of exposure,” she said. LSN, 6/29/00 Theater owners create guidelines The recent actions of the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) prove that public outcry and criticism can cause positive change, even if that change is moderate. The public’s criticism of the entertainment industry for purposely marketing sexually explicit and violent movies, video games and music to children has resulted in NATO issuing new guidelines prohibiting R-rated film trailers from being shown before feature films that are rated G or PG. Members of the association are required to review the trailers in order to “ensure that their tone and content are consistent with the feature film and that nothing in the trailer itself is likely to offend the audience.” These changes came about after the Federal Trade Commission issued a report in September accusing the industry of wrongdoing. Congressional hearings added more fuel to the fire, and the public’s reaction was extremely negative. NATO’s resulting policy, which also includes new guidelines for preventing kids under 17 from viewing restricted films, was unanimously approved at a general membership meeting in early November. In addition to the guidelines mentioned above, each NATO member is required to appoint a senior executive compliance officer to enforce policies restricting access to films rated R and NC-17. Extra security is encouraged outside theaters showing “extreme R-rated films and all NC-17 films.” Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, co-author of the book, Stop Teaching our Children to Kill, said he applauded NATO for its actions, but what they’ve done is “just a drop in the bucket” compared to what is needed “to make the movie industry a responsible member of our society.” Grossman says the television industry is also at fault because they refuse to restrict violent programming during the hours when children watch TV. Even worse, he says, is the fact that local TV network affiliates are ignoring the medical evidence linking entertainment violence to violence in society. AP, 11/6/00; AgapePress, 11/27/00 Futile care poses ethical questions Rachel, who was 75 years old and suffering from irreversible dementia, was taken to the hospital for treatment. While there, she had a mild stroke and went into cardiac arrest. Based on her dementia, the doctors considered reviving her as “futile,” and no attempts were made to resuscitate her. As a result, Rachel died. Across America, doctors and hospitals are now engaging in a new type of patient care called “futile care.” According to a World magazine article, futile care involves physicians and hospitals setting predetermined age limits, medical conditions, or disease states for which medical treatment, beyond keeping a patient fed and comfortable, is deemed “inappropriate.” A Focus on the Family article cites a survey of California hospitals stating that 24 of 26 allow doctors to deny wanted life-support care, regardless of the patient’s or family members’ wishes. Dr. Lawrence Schneiderman approves this practice, saying, “I feel very strongly that medicine can’t do a good job if we just keep people like this alive and fail to recognize that our job is to benefit the patient, not to just keep bodies alive,” he said. At the Alexian Brothers Hospital in San Jose, California, health workers are prohibited from administering CPR to patients with “severe irreversible dementia.” Additional treatment is also prohibited for a person with “irreversible coma or permanent dependence on intensive care to sustain life.” Wesley J. Smith, attorney for the International Anti-Euthanasia Task Force and author of the forthcoming book, Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America, is outraged by the practice. He believes it creates a medical “caste system” in which some patients are deemed more worthy of care than others. “If people are not awakened to the ‘new medicine’ that bioethics has in store for us,” says Smith, “they’re going to find that the sanctity-of-life ethic and the Hippocratic oath (which calls on physicians to ‘do no harm’) are going to be destroyed.” Family News in Focus, 11/13/00; World, July 8/15/00 Federal court rules Christless holiday show “must go on” In a November ruling, a federal judge allowed a Pennsylvania school district to proceed with its “Winter Gathering” festival in December, which was to include religious seasonal traditions like Chanukah and Kwanzaa while excluding any reference to Christianity. The State College Area School District (SCASD) was “green lighted” by District Court Judge James F. McClure in Williamsport to proceed, dismissing allegations made by Dr. David Saxe that SCASD’s Winter Gathering violated the separation of church and state. Saxe, represented in the case by the AFA Center for Law & Policy (CLP), is a member of the Pennsylvania state board of education, an assistant professor of education at Penn State University, and a conservative pro-family activist. Saxe was an eyewitness to the 1999 version of the Winter Gathering at a State College elementary school, and watched in shock as his own children and others were marched past a state-sanctioned religious display and into a school assembly. At that gathering, the children were taught the basics of the Jewish festival Chanukah and induced to chant “Celebrate Kwanzaa.” During the 1999 Winter Gathering, Saxe said the children were given no opportunity to sing hymns celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Those few Christian hymns that were sung were censored to remove any reference to the Christian faith, and even the school’s Christmas tree was dubbed a “giving tree” to sidestep any reference to Christianity. In a rather bizarre ruling, Judge McClure said such allegations do not violate the separation of church and state since SCASD’s Winter Gathering merely communicates “a message of inclusion,” while celebrating the “freedom to choose one’s own beliefs.” “Never mind that I do not want the public school setting a New Age smorgasbord and then encouraging my elementary-aged children to ‘choose their own’ religious beliefs,” said Saxe. “Religious instructions, whether inclusive or exclusive, are the parents’ right, not the government’s responsibility.” “This decision well illustrates the myopia plaguing the federal judiciary when it comes to religion,” noted Bryan J. Brown, litigation counsel for the CLP. “While the federal courts are not shy to strike down any involvement of Christianity in the public schools – no matter if it is a creche, bare creationist teaching or a simple student-led prayer before a football game – this same alleged ‘high wall of separation’ does not exist when it is Chanukah or Kwanzaa being taught and celebrated.” Brown said the CLP has filed an emergency appeal on Saxe’s behalf to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Video course focuses on Christian citizenship Guy Rodgers of Virginia Beach, Virginia, has been involved in politics since the 1980s. He is a Christian and political activist who deeply believes American people of faith can no longer sit idly by while our culture deteriorates as a result of secular forces in the media, Hollywood and halls of government. In the ’70s and ’80s, Christians largely turned away from involvement in politics and civic culture, with disastrous consequences, says Rodgers. Those consequences, however, helped believers realize they must fight to protect the sacred freedoms established by our founding fathers. Today, a steadily increasing number of Christians are becoming involved in governmental affairs. To educate these people for greater effectiveness, Rodgers has produced a three-module, thirteen-session video course titled Faith, Freedom and Citizenship: The Christian and Civil Government. This highly-informative course is designed to fit a church’s quarterly Sunday School format or can be adapted for smaller study groups. It is especially useful for already politically-involved believers who want to encourage involvement by others. Rodgers leads each classroom session on videotape. A teacher’s manual is provided for a “live” leader to assist class participants. Reproducible student manuals are available. Examples of session titles are The Christian Concept of Man and Governing and Evaluating the Present-Day American Political Process. For information, contact GRA, Inc. at 748 Montebello Circle, Chesapeake, VA 23320, 1-800-636-VOTE or www.guyrodgers.com. Television casts poor light on fathers, study says A recent report gives some generally poor marks to Hollywood’s portrayal of fatherhood on television, after examining every non-sports entertainment program that aired during prime time on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, UPN and the WB in March and April, 2000. The study was the second annual effort conducted by the National Fatherhood Initiative (NFI), a non-sectarian organization that provides resources to promote responsible fathering. After examining how programs on the six major networks portrayed fathers – when the character was a central, recurring figure – the report applauded the fact that most TV dads were married to the mothers of their children. The group’s web site said that “not only reflects the reality that the majority of real-life fathers are married, it also helps promote married fatherhood as the cultural ideal.” However, according to NFI, the study also found that 25% of fathers on TV “are portrayed negatively,” and when compared to the moms on the show, dads are eight times more likely to be portrayed in a negative fashion. The report also stated that “if television wants to portray a bad parent, television almost always picks on the father.” The criteria for recognizing how parents were portrayed on TV were: parents as role models; parental involvement in family activities; one-on-one engagement with children; making parenthood the top priority; and general parental competency. www.fatherhood.org, 11/28/00; USA Today, 11/21/00 To abstinent teens, parents and religion still influential According to several recent studies, parents and religious beliefs are a potent one-two combination when it comes to influencing a teen’s decisions about whether or not to have sex. Even when it comes to teens themselves, a substantial majority think young people should not have sex while in high school. One survey of about 500 youth between 12 and 17 years old was conducted by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. That poll showed that 37% of the teens surveyed cited their parents as having the most influence on their decision. Other factors affecting teen attitudes were friends (30%), the media (11%) and religious convictions (11%). (See chart below.) The heavy emphasis teens place on their friends’ opinions should come as no surprise, but in this regard, another of the study’s findings was encouraging. In overwhelming fashion, 78% of young people surveyed said they thought teens should not be sexually active at all. Moreover, 64% of the teens who said they had had sex also said they regretted it, and would tell their younger siblings to delay having sex until they were at least out of high school. “This poll is just the latest evidence that many teens are taking a more cautious attitude toward having sex,” said Sally Sachar, deputy director of the campaign. “It also makes clear that parents can, and must, play an active and continuing role in helping their children understand that sex can wait.” The religious influence on the decision by some teens to refrain from sexual activity was also documented by two new studies. Independent researchers found that religious belief was the most influential in keeping young people abstinent. Psychologists at Fordham University in New York, for example, found that students “who strongly identify with religious teachings and traditions” were “less likely to engage in sexual activity.” The Family in America, New Research, 9/00; Reuters, 7/5/00 Christian families deep in debt Financial planning consultant Larry Burkett says American Christians are among the poorest managers of money in the entire world. “It isn’t that [they] don’t handle money better than the rest of the world,” says Burkett, “they handle it worse! That’s a real blight on Christian testimony.” Mike Mancusi, another financial planner, agrees with Burkett. He has some sound advice for Christians who want to “get their financial house in order.” The first thing to do, he says, is to eliminate debt, and then establish an emergency reserve. The experts say Christians could likely quadruple their giving without a negative impact if they would pay off debt and transfer the interest payments to benefit Christian ministries. But as it stands now, 37% of Christians don’t give to any Christian cause, and only three to five percent tithe. American families as a whole are carrying a debt load greater than any other in history, and Burkett is concerned that an economic downturn would present a real problem for all Americans, but Christians in particular. Family News in Focus, 10/24/00 Divorced moms, kids face poverty American mothers who get a divorce have two things they can be fairly sure of – their income will decrease significantly, perhaps even to the level of poverty; and life will be even more bleak if their former husbands fail to pay child support. These are the facts as set forth in a pair of studies – one conducted by researchers from the University of Michigan and Bowling Green State University, and the other from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In the former report, published in The American Sociological Review, researchers used three three statistical tests to determine that “women who divorce...have significantly lower levels of family income and income-to-need ratios...than those who remain married.” Adding to the problems faced by divorced women who have custody of the children is the proverbial deadbeat dad who fails to pay child support. According to the Census Bureau, one-third of the kids whose fathers don’t pay child support live in poverty. “Nonpayment of child support is a crime that causes poverty in America,” Geraldine Jensen, president of the Association for Children for Enforcement of Support, told the Associated Press. Researcher Judi Bartfield of the University of Wisconsin-Madison reached identical conclusions, publishing her findings in Demography. Regarding child support, however, Bartfield also found that “[e]ven if full compliance [with child support orders] were achieved, a sizable share of poor and near-poor divorced mothers would remain” in poverty. The Family in America, New Research, 9/00, 7/00; AP, 4/23/99 Paying the price for free sex Feminism encourages women to be as sexually active as their male counterparts, insisting that they also reject all that societally-imposed guilt. But if women consider that to be sexual freedom, recent studies may make women rethink their definition of the word “free.” A study by researchers from the left-leaning Alan Guttmacher Institute found that, in Great Britain and the U.S. – as opposed to Third World countries, where teens often marry before first having sex – the vast majority of “sexually-experienced adolescents of both sexes have never been married.” Unfortunately, the Guttmacher study, published in its International Family Planning Perspectives, found a double whammy waiting for sexually active young women. The researchers said data demonstrated the “possibly serious health and social consequences for women who begin to have intercourse while very young or not yet married.” One such social consequence, of course, was pregnancy and single motherhood for young women, threatening them with a lifetime of poverty. The study said the danger of such privation was very real for “adolescent women who are usually not able to support themselves, let alone any children they might have.” Another study from the Guttmacher Institute found clear evidence that sex outside marriage also increased a woman’s risk of acquiring a sexually transmitted disease (STD). That elevated risk applied whether a sexually active woman had never been married, was married before but now was single, or living with a man outside marriage. (See chart.) According to The Family in America, New Research, “just as taking up smoking has given today’s liberated women lung cancer and heart disease, so indulging in fornication has infected many with disease and stranded many in poverty.” The Family in America, New Research, 8/00, 9/00 Judge allows pro-homosexual children’s books in library A storm of controversy over children’s access to pro-homosexual materials led to the passage of a simple law in Wichita Falls, Texas, which would allow citizens to ask for such books to be shifted to an adult section of the public library. A federal judge, however, who found that approach unreasonable, overturned the statute. According to CourtTV Online, the 1999 resolution stated simply that any of 300 adult library cardholders could ask a public librarian to move books that were in the children’s section to another area. Two of the books that ignited the controversy were Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy’s Roommate, both of which positively portray same-sex relationships. In his Sund v. City of Wichita Falls decision, however, U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer overturned the law, saying it gave “any special interest group” the ability to “suppress library materials on the basis of their content.” Buchmeyer said in his ruling that the law resulted in the “censorship of two acclaimed” books. That view falls in line with groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Library Association, which believe children have a right to access anything in the library – including pornography on the Internet. Mayor Jerry Lueck objected, saying “the people of Wichita Falls have the right to decide what books are in the library.” CourtTV Online, 9/20/00; Legal Facts, 9/28/00 Colorado high court OKs two legal “mommies” A ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court has allowed lesbians to list both women’s names on the birth certificate of a child they both plan to raise. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment had appealed several rulings from lower court judges that OK’d the birth certificate attempts, but the high court refused to overturn the decisions. Michael Brewer, spokesman for the pro-homosexual Colorado Legal Initiatives Project, said, “This is a great victory for parents’ rights in Colorado.” But state legislator Mark Paschall assailed the “social bent” of the seven judges who have allowed lesbians to list themselves as parents. “[The judges] don’t have any regard for the constitutional restraints on the judiciary. They think they are gods, black-robed demagogues,” he said. Denver Rocky Mountain News, 9/8/00 Judge: boy may attend school wearing girl’s clothing From the state of Massachusetts, which already promotes all things homosexual, comes this: a lesbian judge has ruled that a 15-year-old boy may attend public school dressed as a girl because that reflects the boy’s self-image. According to an AP story, Judge Linda Giles said the unnamed boy, who attends South Junior High School in Brockton, Massachusetts, must be allowed to wear a padded bra, wigs and high heels if that is what he wants. The boy had not only been told by school officials he could not attend classes dressed as a girl, he had been suspended three times for using the girls’ restroom after being forbidden to do so. Giles said the school’s policies were nothing more than “the stifling of a person’s selfhood merely because it causes some members of the community discomfort.” The school claimed that the boy’s dress and actions were creating a disturbance during class. Washington Times, 10/13/00 Is Europe losing its mind? Pro-family groups think they have it bad in the U.S., but in Europe the battle against the homosexual movement may be even more intense. In fact, in some Western nations, “gay” and lesbian activists appear to be succeeding in ways undreamt of here in the U.S.: •Britain forces Caribbean territories to accept homosexuality The British Parliament, for example, has ordered its five Caribbean territories to discard their sodomy laws and, in effect, legalize homosexual sex acts. All five island territories – Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, the Turks and Caicos islands, and the Virgin Islands – have strongly Christian populations and are opposed to the demand. Britain has been pressuring the governments of the five territories for the past three years, after it first became evident that Parliament wanted the islands to toe the line on homosexual rights. British officials have said the government’s demand is based upon international treaties on human rights, which have been interpreted in such a way as to make homosexuality a protected class – on the same level as race, nationality and gender.One homosexual news source said the sodomy laws violate, among other treaties, the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights. “We simply can’t be seen to have territories with laws that violate these agreements,” Anguilla’s deputy British Governor Roger Cousins told the Associated Press. On the other hand, those opposing Britain’s demand to repeal the sodomy laws cite religious objections. In 1999, for example, the government of the Cayman Islands said in an official statement, “We abide by the views of the vast majority of Caymanians who live in a Christian community based on firmly held religious beliefs that homosexuality should not be legalized.” Parliament doesn’t appear to consider such religious objections valid. Brunel Meade, Monserrat’s agriculture minister, said the British order “indicates a high level of disrespect for our rights and our culture. It’s the attitude typical of colonialism.” The elevation of international law and even international courts as the rationale for Parliament’s heavy-handed actions has raised the specter of a once proudly-sovereign British nation voluntarily submitting itself to outside authority. In a similar concession to homosexual activists, for example, Great Britain was forced to end its ban on homosexuality in its military after the European Court of Human Rights said it would otherwise be in violation of international treaties. AP, 11/17/00; PlanetOut, 11/17/00; The Religion & Society Report, 10/00 • Dutch legalize same-sex marriage… In another ground-breaking moment that symbolized the growing success of the homosexual movement in Western culture, the Netherlands extended full equality to same-sex relationships, granting homosexual couples the same rights as those that are heterosexual. Dutch legislators passed a bill allowing same-sex couples the right to marry – also including the “right” to divorce through the court system like heterosexual couples – and the right to adopt children. Supporters of the law boasted that the measure went further than any other nation in the world. Scandanavian countries had been the first to allow dramatic changes in the way homosexual relationships were treated. Same-sex couples in Norway and Sweden are allowed to register their partnerships in order to gain certain legal benefits, and Denmark legalized “gay” marriage in 1989. With exactly the same rights as heterosexual couples, however, the Dutch simply went further. “We will be able to call it what it is and that’s marriage,” said homosexual activist and bill supporter Henk Krol, who is also editor of a “gay” magazine. He called the vote “an absolute first in the world.” Homosexual Mark Wagenbuur, who watched the debate leading up to the historic vote at The Hague, applauded the vote and said it “represents changes in our society.” Lawmaker Kees van der Staaij, who opposed the measure, said there was no doubt the new bill represented change, but said, “We are going in the completely wrong direction.” He said the Netherlands was “ending an age-old tradition anchored in the Bible.” Wagenbuur said he and his lover plan to get married. “Should I ask his father for his hand or should he ask mine?” he joked. AP, 9/12 • … followed by Germany In a similar move which angered conservatives while pleasing homosexuals, Germany’s Parliament, the Bundestag, also passed a measure which essentially allowed same-sex couples to marry. In addition to granting tax and inheritance rights, the law allowed homosexuals to register their “weddings” at local government offices. Kerstin Mueller, leader of the liberal Green Party, celebrated the victory as soon as the Budestag passed the law. “The long years of discrimination are over. Lesbians and gays today get their rights,” Mueller said. Conservatives, such as Norbert Geis of the Christian Social Union, were outraged at the action. Geis said the same-sex provisions were a “violation of our culture” and “the worst attack on family and society.” Challenging the new law before the national Constitutional Court is an option, according to conservatives, who cite the fact that Germany’s constitution gives “special protection” to the institution of marriage. Reuters, 11/10/00; PlanetOut, 11/11/00; AP, 11/10/00 Lesbian festival in Michigan exposes children to homosexual acts AFA of Michigan has called for that state’s attorney general to investigate allegations that at a radical lesbian gathering, children were allowed to watch adults perform homosexual acts with one another. In late September, the AFA state affiliate forwarded a detailed news report to Attorney General Jennifer Granholm and to two county prosecutors, requesting that they investigate charges that during an annual “womyn’s” music festival held August 8-13 in a rural area near Hart, Michigan, children were allowed to watch women having intercourse. State criminal law defines child sexual abuse to include exposure of minor children to adult homosexual acts. Over 200 children from infancy through age 16 attended the 25th annual Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival along with approximately 6,500 women, mostly lesbians. Participants were encouraged to bring their children to the festival with the offer of a segregated children’s campground facilities, according to AFA of Michigan’s research. During the festival, however, the children were free to roam the grounds, where they had the opportunity to see and hear sexually-oriented workshops, and lesbian and sadomasochistic sex acts in progress. A website dedicated to the festival allowed attendees to describe the types of sexual encounters in which they participated, with individuals often bragging about children watching them. The Michigan Penal Code defines “child sexually abusive activity” to include “passive sexual involvement” – “an act, real or simulated, that exposes another person to or draws another person’s attention to an act of sexual intercourse, erotic fondling, sadomasochistic abuse, masturbation, sexual excitement, or erotic nudity….” Violation of the law is a felony if a person “knows, has reason to know, or should reasonably be expected to know” that a child is present. “West Michigan families will be outraged to learn that a rural compound near Hart has become an annual haven for homosexual radicals who brazenly take ‘pride’ in exposing young children to lewd, high risk, and self-destructive homosexual sex acts,” said AFA-Michigan President Gary Glenn. “If laws protecting children from child abuse still mean anything, the attorney general and county prosecutors will not fail to conduct a serious investigation into this published report of minor children being exposed to high risk homosexual behavior on such a massive scale.” |
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