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AFA JournalNEWS OF INTERESTAFA Journal, March 2002 edition Yahoo! involved in another teen kidnap, torture A Virginia man who billed himself as a “slave master for teen girls” has been arrested and charged after allegedly luring a 13-year-old Pennsylvania girl to his Virginia home in January. It’s the latest incident involving pornography clubs at Yahoo!, the popular Internet search site. Last year AFA and others cited Yahoo! for allowing virtually any deviant and often illegal activity to be promoted. FBI agents found the girl tied up in the home of Scott Tyree. She was returned physically unharmed to her parents. “This man is every parent’s greatest fear and Yahoo! provided him all the tools he needed to find child victims,” said AFA Director of Governmental Affairs Patrick A. Trueman. Yahoo! has refused to eliminate porn clubs from its site and has often defended them. Over the past ten months, AFA has repeatedly urged the company to eliminate such clubs, noting many are directed at those interested in child porn. One of the pornography clubs Tyree frequented is the Yahoo! “Young Virgin Slave Market.” Photos posted on this club show women naked, bound and tortured. “The American public needs to wake up and boycott Yahoo!,” Trueman said. Action address: Chrm. Terry Semel 420 Central Expressway Santa Clara, CA 95051 E-mail: investor_relations@yahoo-inc.com UN considers universal identification system In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the United Nations is said to be considering a universal identification system. A proposal made in December at a U.N. meeting suggests the implementation of a system which would require the fingerprinting and registration of every person in the world. The proposal was put forward by a Belgian official, Pascal Smet, who says the European Union is already considering a similar, Europe-wide system, which would use either fingerprints or eye-scanning technology to identify citizens. Smet said, “It’s a basic rule of management that if you want to manage something, you measure it. It’s the same with human beings and migration.” According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Belgian official said the scheme would give people dignity by giving them an identity should their identification papers be lost or destroyed. Protection against terrorism has already led U.S. officials to start implementing a national ID system, according to The Washington Post, which recently reported that the U.S. has already imposed a new so-called “smart card” for more than 120,000 military and Department of Defense personnel. The card, which the Post said looks like “a driver’s license on steroids,” comes equipped with two photos, two bar codes, a magnetic strip, and an etched gold computer chip. The I.D. would allow a central computer to track many of an individual’s movements, including what security-protected doorways they pass through, the computers they use, and the doctors they visit. The report says while there is still resistance in Congress to making such a card mandatory for all U.S. residents, the idea is catching on in some key civilian circles. For example, the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators is devising a plan to create a national identification system that would link all driver databases to high-tech driver’s license cards, which would also contain computer chips, bar codes, and biometric identifiers. AgapePress, 12/17/01, 12/18/01; www.foxnews.com, 1/8/02 State Farm declines same-sex health benefits The nation’s number one insurer of homes took an important step in the preservation of marriage when it decided against extending health benefits to the “domestic partners” of its homosexual employees. AFA had alerted supporters in its E-mail Action Alerts last November as well as in an article in the January AFA Journal that the State Farm Insurance Company was considering extending such benefits. Even though State Farm denied that fact to subsequent callers, the report was based upon a phone interview with State Farm spokesperson Anna Compain-Romero in October. Romero told AFA Journal that she had checked with State Farm officials in charge of benefits, and was told the company was considering the change. The company reconsiders it benefits package every year, so while it has decided not to extend the benefits for 2002, the policy could change for 2003. “Two men shacked up together in a homosexual relationship is not the same as a man and woman joined together in holy matrimony. That’s why AFA believes that health benefits that are reserved for married couples should not be extended to domestic partners,” said AFA President Don Wildmon. “We are certainly glad that State Farm will not be equating the two types of relationships in 2002, and we hope that policy continues in the years to come.” Wildmon encouraged State Farm customers to contact the company and express their thanks. Action address: CEO Edward B. Rust, Jr. State Farm Insurance One State Farm Plaza Bloomington, IL 61710 309-766-2311 AFA wins victory in ‘straight pride’ case A student who dared upset the pro-homosexual applecart in his Minnesota high school by wearing a “Straight Pride” shirt was vindicated in federal court in January. Elliott Chambers, a 16-year-old student at Woodbury High School in St. Paul, was ordered by his principal, Dana Babbitt, not to wear the sweatshirt in January of last year, because one student complained about its message. Babbitt said the school’s dress code prohibited the wearing of “items with unacceptable writing or graphic depictions which offend anyone.” The AFA Center for Law & Policy (CLP) filed a lawsuit on behalf of Kendal and Lana Chambers and their son Elliott, alleging that Woodbury High’s display of inverted pink triangles – the universal symbol for “gay” pride – promoted homosexuality, and the disciplinary action against Elliott constituted viewpoint discrimination. According to the Chamberses, that discriminatory attitude was clearly expressed by Babbitt when they complained. While he had acted quickly when a single student griped about the “straight pride” message, when Elliott’s parents told Babbitt that they were offended by the pink triangles, the principal accused them of being homophobes and refused to remove the symbols. However, the United States District Court in St. Paul entered a permanent injunction in favor of Chambers, declaring the school dress code unconstitutional. “We are pleased that Elliott’s rights have been vindicated,” said Stephen M. Crampton, Chief Counsel for the CLP. “But we are disappointed at the hypocrisy of posting the gay pride symbols throughout the school and then censoring the ‘straight pride’ message,” Crampton added. “If schools spent more time on education and less time on indoctrination the world would be a better place.” Book from homosexual authors targets kids Todd Tuttle and his same-sex partner, Marc Adams, are on a mission, and like many homosexual activists, children are their main mission-field target. Since both are from Christian backgrounds – Tuttle was formerly a Baptist minister, while Adams’ father was a Baptist minister – both are no doubt familiar with the concept of missions, and the importance of reaching children early in life with a life-changing message. So Tuttle has written and illustrated a book for kids entitled Spot. In an interview this summer, Tuttle told Southern Voice, a periodical for the homosexual community, that he created Spot as a parable for children to demonstrate “what it’s like for a gay person to grow up and feel different.” The story is very simple and its message quite transparent. Spot is a dog who lives in Barksville, a town whose spotted dogs despise those without spots. However, as he grows older, Spot is horrified to discover that he is losing all of his spots. “Afraid of what everyone would think of him, Spot took paint and painted spots on his fur,” the book says. Spot finally reveals his secret to his friends and family and, as he expected, all reject the poor pup. Nevertheless, Spot is glad he has come out. “For years Spot had lied to everyone, trying to be the kind of dog they wanted him to be. Now, it felt good to be honest with himself no matter what anyone else thought of him,” the book says. Eventually, Spot saves Barksville from certain ruin, and everyone welcomes him back. “Son, please forgive us. We were wrong,” Spot’s parents tell him tearfully. “And from that day on,” the book says, “the dogs of Barksville changed their beliefs about spotless dogs. Spot was glad he made the decision to show the world that he was a spotless dog.” The story is followed by a mini-lesson for readers about diversity, and kids are specifically encouraged to email Spot if they want to talk further with the character. Tuttle makes it clear that Spot was a covert attempt to get this pro-homosexual message into the hands of children. “I wanted to create a story that was kind of a universal story that didn’t scream that it was gay, because a lot of times if you want to get a book into the hands of kids around the country – if it’s gay-specific – sometimes there’s a lot of censorship,” he said. Tuttle told Southern Voice he hoped to get Spot into every library and school across the country. However, both men feel that Christian young people are their core target audience. The “gay” pair have spent much of the last four years taking their message – and Spot – into churches and religious schools, telling kids from Christian homes that they do not have to accept what they’ve been told about homosexuality. Even when they are not invited to religious schools, Tuttle and Adams told Southern Voice, they go anyway. “We go on campuses of schools… [and] we leave material around – gay-positive tracts. We also go into religious bookstores and leave them around. We’re very pro-active, not reactive, which is something we’re proud of,” Tuttle said. To help implement their goals, Tuttle and Adams co-founded Heartstrong, a non-profit organization which is described as “the place for GLBT’s (gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendereds) from religious schools.” Touting their own efforts, Tuttle said their program is “one of the most extensive outreaches in the history of the gay movement.” www.heartstrong.org, 12/26/01; Southern Voice, 8/16/01 ‘Shake the Nation’ pro-life campaign back on track The pro-life movement has re-launched a massive campaign that was postponed shortly after it had begun: one week before September 11. AFA and 35 other pro-life organizations have pooled their resources in a campaign called “Shake the Nation Back to Life.” Organizer Janet Folger of the Center for Reclaiming America announced the restart of the campaign and explained its goals. “We have joined together in this historic union … to say … we want to see children protected again in our lifetime,” Folger said, “and the way that we’re doing that is [by] sending the message of encouragement to the president.” Folger says 86,000 petitions urging President Bush to appoint a pro-life justice to the U.S. Supreme Court is one element of the campaign. The main theme, however, deals with noise. “We’re also sending a message to the Senate that cannot easily be ignored,” she says. “We’re sending it with a baby rattle.” Through its website, the campaign is asking donors to purchase the rattles, which are then sent to the donor’s respective senators. Folger says the campaign is also running commercials on the Fox Network, CNN, CNN Headline News, MSNBC, and CNN Airport. According to Folger, the make-up of the groups behind the campaign makes it a historic effort. “What is … historic about this campaign is that all of the heroes of the pro-abortion movement – the ‘poster children,’ if you will, that [helped legalize] abortion – are all now pro-life,” she said. “And they are, for the first time in history, joined together to expose the lies that are abortion.” Those “heroes of abortion” include Dr. Bernard Nathanson, co-founder of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, one of the most active pro-abortion organizations in the country; Norma McCorvey, the “Roe” of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case which resulted in the legalization of abortion; and Sandra Cano, the “Doe” of Roe v. Wade’s follow-up case, Doe v. Bolton. While the campaign is a historic effort, former presidential candidate Gary Bauer says there is something more important happening. “I’ve been working on the right-to-life issue, along with a lot of other things … for at least 20 years,” Bauer said, “and I have to tell you that in [that time] I have never seen the pro-life movement as united around a strategy as I’ve seen it on this particular project.” AgapePress, 1/15/02 New book by journalist documents liberal media bias A new book by former CBS News correspondent Bernard Goldberg has network executives and former colleagues crying foul – all because he dared claim that the new media has a clear left-wing bias. In his new book Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News, Goldberg said the news media in our culture is biased against conservatives and Christians. However, Goldberg said that bias was not part of a conspiracy on the part of the network’s producers and anchors, but rather was the natural result of their lifestyle and personal relationships. “The liberal bias is really a cultural bias,” Goldberg says. “They live in places like Manhattan and Washington, they go to cocktail parties [and dinner parties] with sophisticated, smart, hip, liberal people in those two cities – and after a while, they think the views that these people hold are simply middle-of-the-road, reasonable, civilized views.” He added, “They could spot a conservative view a thousand miles away, but they think their views are simply mainstream, regular views because all their friends think that way. And that’s what liberal bias really is about.” Goldberg is neither an outsider nor a wet-behind-the ears novice: He won six Emmy Awards during a 28-year career at CBS News. However, in 1996 Goldberg came under fire from colleagues – including CBS News anchor Dan Rather – when he wrote an editorial for The Wall Street Journal about media bias. Goldberg left CBS last year. AgapePress, 12/17/01; www.family.org, 12/7/01 Survey reports increase in library Internet filtering Since the year 2000, the percentage of public libraries that use Internet filtering on their computers has nearly doubled. A new survey released by the Library Journal in early 2002 reported that 43% of libraries are now filtering Internet use. That percentage compares with 25% in 2000 and 31% in 2001. The survey also found that of those libraries filtering the Internet, 96% filter all their children’s terminals, while about half also filter adult terminals. These numbers are significant in light of the fact that the American Library Association (ALA) has consistently fought against Internet filtering, saying that the First Amendment allows “free and open access to the information people need and want regardless of the format in which that information appears.” They staunchly hold this position, even in the face of hundreds of documented cases nationwide in which children have been exposed to pornography on unfiltered library computer terminals. David Burt, a former librarian from Seattle, Washington, has been a key figure in the fight for Internet filtering in America’s libraries. He has been the proverbial “thorn in the side” of the ALA. Burt’s tireless efforts have resulted in heightened awareness by the public at large and legislators nationwide of the dangers posed by unfiltered Internet access in public libraries, as well as the link between the Internet and the huge increase in child pornography. He is the author of 2000 Edition: Uncovering Internet Pornography in America’s Libraries. His research revealed numerous ugly incidents at libraries with unfiltered Internet access: 472 children accessed pornography on their own; 106 adults exposed children to pornography; 5 children were victims of attempted molestation; and 23 computer terminals keyed to pornography sites were left for children to see. Although the ALA, in its own words, “does not endorse blocking or filtering Internet content in libraries,” apparently many local library boards, administrators, faculty and patrons do. As Burt says, “Slowly, but surely, we are winning this fight with the ALA.” http://libraryjournal.reviewsnews.com; davidburt@christianemail.com Pornographers snap up Christian websites What do former presidential candidate Gary Bauer, American River College, the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, and the conservative American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) have in common? They’ve all had their Internet domain names taken and used for pornographic websites. And if they want them back, they have to pay the pornographers a ridiculously high fee to restore their good name. How can such a thing happen? Easily. Domain names – the actual Internet location for a website, like www.afa.net for American Family Association – can be registered through the Internet on a first-come-first-served basis for about $35. However, those names are renewable annually, and all those listed above either unwittingly let their domain name lapse or did so for a reason. In Bauer’s case, once his presidential bid ended, he no longer needed a website which promoted his run for the White House; the ACLJ simply dropped an older and infrequently-used domain name, according to Family News in Focus. Pornographers are always on the lookout to buy such domain names, hoping to hook innocent web surfers. Or, because they picked up the website name on the cheap, they can turn a tidy profit if an organization wants the domain back. For example, after county officials in Karnes, Texas, let the county website name lapse, they were told by a pornographer that they could have their website back for $2,450. The county refused. Focus on the Family Internet research analyst Steve Watters said churches, ministries and other pro-family organizations – who are obviously chagrined to find out that someone looking for their website can wind up on a smut site – need to remember that they aren’t buying a domain name as much as they are renting it. “They need to have a sense of who’s going to come get that when they’re finished with it,” he said. Wired, 12/10/01; Family News in Focus, 8/16/01; Sacramento Bee, 6/9/01 California school district requires study of Islam Elizabeth C. Lemings, a teacher in the Byron, California, Union School District was stunned recently when her seventh-grade son came home from school with handouts from a course he was required to take on Islam. According to a WorldNetDaily article, Lemings was dismayed to find that her son was expected to learn the basic tenets of Islam, as well as memorize many verses in the Koran, study key Islamic prophets, stage a jihad (holy war), and learn to pray “in the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.” “We can’t even mention the name of Jesus in the public schools,” said Lemings. “Can you imagine the barrage of lawsuits and problems we would have from the ACLU if Christianity were taught in the public schools, and if we tried to teach about the contributions of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and the Apostle Paul? But when it comes to furthering the Islamic religion in the public schools, there is not one word from the ACLU, People for the American Way or anybody else. This is hypocrisy.” WorldNetDaily said an ASSIST News Service (ANS) report indicated that students taking the course described it as “fun.” Elizabeth Lemings’ son, Joseph, said the jihad game, which was played with dice, was “like playing a video game.” When asked about the course, school principal Nancy Castro said the course “is not religion, but ancient culture and history.” However, according to ANS, the textbook used for the course contains very little reference to Christianity, which is presented in a negative light, while Islam is presented in a very positive light. “This course is entirely too specific,” added Lemings. “It is more about indoctrination.” WorldNetDaily, 1/11/02 New Bible translation drawing positive reviews A new translation of the Bible that landed in bookstores throughout the U.S. in October is being promoted as unique in several ways. The English Standard Bible (ESV) comes with a full-text CD-ROM, an addition no other translation has accomplished in its initial launch. The ESV is also a full classic reference translation complete with book introductions, an extensive center-column cross-reference and a complete concordance. “With previous launches of a new translation, the products had come out in increments – the New Testament first, then the complete text and much later a reference version of the Bible,” said Lane Dennis, publisher of Crossway Bibles, which produced the ESV. The new Bible is a word-for-word translation, recently completed under the leadership of Dr. J. I. Packer, general editor. According to the publisher, the ESV sets a new standard in precision, accuracy, literary beauty and readability for an English language translation. The new version is being promoted as suitable for reading, studying and memorizing, as well as for sermon preparation. Judge says chaplains have ‘valid issues’ for lawsuit A federal judge has ruled that a group of evangelical chaplains can proceed with their discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Navy. The class-action suit includes five current or former Southern Baptist chaplains. They have been joined by the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches. Both suits allege the Navy has discriminated against these chaplains by not giving them the same status and access to military personnel that liturgical Protestants and Roman Catholic chaplains enjoy. Among other things, the plaintiffs say they are forced to hold services off base in substandard facilities and that they receive lower ratings than senior Catholic and liturgical chaplains. It was also noted that in 2000, Catholics and liturgical Protestants held nearly two-thirds of the Navy’s chaplaincy posts – despite the fact that these two groups combined represent less than one-third of the Navy’s religious population. AgapePress, 1/16/02 Christian artist named to design creation museum A world-famous art director who is a Christian has been chosen to lend his creative hand to a new museum dedicated to creationism. Patrick Marsh, who designed the Jaws and King Kong attractions at Universal Studios in Florida, has the challenge of designing the displays for the 50,000-square-foot Creation Museum and Family Discovery Center, to be built near the Cincinnati Airport in northern Kentucky. “As a Christian and creationist, he wanted to use his talents for the Lord, and he saw our Creation Museum as one way in which he could use those talents to be able to tell people the Bible is true,” said Ken Hamm of Answers in Genesis Ministries, which is building the museum. AgapePress, 1/14/02 |
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