Franklin Graham: I Will Not Worship ‘Rainbow Pride Flag’

Celebrated Christian evangelist Franklin Graham has taken issue with the Democrats’ extreme push of the LGBTQ agenda, saying he will stand with biblical morality.

“I will not bow down at the altar of the LGBTQ agenda nor worship their rainbow pride flag,” Rev. Graham said in reaction to Beto O’Rourke’s promise to strip churches of their tax-exempt status if they do not recognize homosexual marriage.

“I’m going to stand with the Word of God, the Holy Bible, which is truth from cover to cover,” Graham added in a three-part tweet.

Rev. Graham, the son of “America’s Pastor,” Billy Graham, was reacting to CNN’s “Equality in America” town hall meeting held on Thursday, which focused on LGBTQ issues with 2020 presidential candidates of the Democrat party.

Beto O’Rourke “said churches, religious organizations, universities that don’t go along w/ same-sex marriage should lose their tax-exempt status,” Graham noted. “This gives you a clue of what the progressive, socialist-leaning Dem. Party would try to force on our nation if they win any election.”

“They will create laws & ‘consequences’ that would punish those who don’t agree with them. This is a threat to religious freedom & free speech,” he said.

Last month, Rev. Graham came out against South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg for his efforts to defend abortion and homosexuality as Christian positions.

“Mayor Pete Buttigieg has been speaking openly about his support for abortion, which he says is a woman’s right to choose. That’s a crock — No one has the right to choose murder,” Rev. Graham wrote to his eight million Facebook followers in response to a Townhall article on Buttigieg’s efforts to redefine Christian morality.

During an interview with The Breakfast Club, Mayor Pete said the Bible is ambiguous about when life begins, and, thus, Christianity allows for a range of positions on abortion.

“There’s a lot of parts of the Bible which talk about how life begins with breath,” the Democrat presidential hopeful said. “And even so, that’s something that we can interpret differently.”

Mayor Pete has also insisted that Christianity has no problem with same-sex marriage, despite the numerous biblical passages that condemn homosexuality as an abomination before God and the unbroken Christian tradition that treats homosexual practice as gravely sinful.

“Mayor Pete is trying to tell people that the homosexual lifestyle is okay with God and that abortion is okay,” Graham wrote on Facebook. “His brother-in-law is right when he said, ‘This is leading people astray and it’s very, very dangerous.’”

“God defines right and wrong, not us,” Graham concludes. “As Christians, we are to live by the standards He gives us in His Word. ‘I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me.’ (Isaiah 45:5).”

Rev. Franklin Graham slams law Requiring Schools to Teach LGBTQ History

Televangelist and staunch Trump supporter Franklin Graham came out in strong defense of a New Jersey mayor for his opposition to a state law that will require public schools to add LGBTQ history to their curriculum.

Graham, the president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association — the notoriously anti-LGBTQ right-wing organization — was a guest on The Todd Starnes radio show a few months ago.  Starnes is the ultra-conservative Fox News Radio host whose show “is here to defend the faith by reporting the truth.”

He asked Graham about a decision of the mayor of Barnegat, N.J., Alfonso Cirulli, who spoke outagainst the legislation.

Graham said that he agreed with Cirulli wholeheartedly.

“The mayor is absolutely right,” Graham started. “[Cirulli] said, ‘this is an affront to God’,” the pastor continued. “He’s correct,” he said. “I don’t believe that the schools have the right to teach our children something that is an affront to God. So the mayor is absolutely right and I back him 100%.”

 

To justify his reasoning, Graham used a common — if overused — homophobic argument that demonizes LGBTQ people.

 

“God made us and created us, he made us male and female so that we can carry on the population, so that we have children and that we would increase, and homosexuality goes against God’s plan for the human race.”

Asking for guidance, the radio host told the televangelist that “a lot of schools around the country are dealing with [the same issue] right now,” and parents call him on his show asking what they should do. “What advice do you give Christian moms and dads,” he asked his guest. “Do they pull their kids out of public school, do they home-school? Private school?”Graham immediately suggested pulling kids out of the public system and enrolling them in private schools.

 

“We can fight [by] writing your legislators, letting them know how you feel, organizing a march on your state capital,” the right-wing pastor added. And “if the churches would just get behind this and begin to speak out, it would make a big difference,” he said.

“We’re the majority and we’re having the minority push something down our throats that we don’t accept, and we need to speak out and fight against this.”

The enlightening exchange of ideas came just a day after Starnes compared immigrants to “Nazis invading France and Western Europe,” Media Matters noted.

 

“I do believe that we have been invaded,” he said on the Aug. 14 edition of his show. “We have been invaded by a horde, a rampaging horde, of illegal aliens. This has been a slow-moving invasion. And that’s — I believe that’s a fair description of what we have suffered here in this country.

 

~ Original post written by Muri Assunção New York Daily News

 

Louisiana Catholic School Principal Arrested at DC Strip Club While on Field Trip With Students

Michael Comeau, the principal at Holy Family Catholic School in Port Allen, Louisiana, was accused of not paying his bill at Archibald’s Gentlemen’s Club

A Catholic school principal in Louisiana resigned after being arrested early Friday morning at a strip club during a field trip to Washington, D.C., media outlets report.

Michael Comeau, the principal at Holy Family Catholic School in Port Allen, Louisiana, was accused of not paying his bill at Archibald’s Gentlemen’s Club, according to the Monroe News Star.

The police were called and, when they arrived, found Comeau standing in the road and refusing to move, according to The Advocate. He was arrested and charged with public intoxication and “possession of an open container of alcohol,” The Advocate reported.

All this happened while Comeau was on a school trip with 7th and 8th grade students, according to WMBF.

The students were in the hotel with other chaperones while Comeau was at the strip club, The Advocate reported.

“The Diocese of Baton Rouge confirmed [Friday] that Michael Comeau, principal at Holy Family School in Port Allen, was arrested on May 30 while on a school sponsored trip to Washington, DC. …,” the diocese said in a statement published by WMBF and the News Star. “Mr. Comeau has submitted his resignation as principal and an interim principal will be appointed.”

Comeau also worked as an officer for the Brusly Police Department, according to WMBF.
He resigned from his position with the department as well, WMBF reported. Comeau was principal at the school for five years, and the school will appoint an interim principal following his resignation, the Monroe News Star reported.

Florida Female Student Who Identifies as Male Sues to Use Boys’ Restroom/Locker Room at School

ORLANDO, Fla. — A female student in Florida who identifies as a male has filed a lawsuit along with her parents in an effort to obtain access to the boys’ restroom and locker room facilities.

The 15-year-old, who is only being identified as John Doe in the legal challenge, has suffered from gender dysphoria since she was in the second grade. According to the American Psychiatric Association, which publishes the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a “gender dysphoria diagnosis involves a difference between one’s experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender, and significant distress or problems functioning.”

The youth’s parents had her named changed to a boy’s name during the third grade, and she began presenting herself as male. She also underwent hormone replacement therapy in middle school and had chest reconstruction surgery last year. Throughout her schooling in Volusia County, the student has requested to use the boys’ restroom and locker room, and has been directed to use the single occupancy restrooms as a compromise. However, her parents state that this has upset the child at times because she feels segregated from others due to her condition. 

“Behind these unlawful and discriminatory practices is a child who is suffering. VCSB’s conduct, which ostracizes John from the other boys in [her] class simply because [she] is transgender, causes John overwhelming distress and anxiety,” the lawsuit reads. “The distress and anxiety has gone so far as to manifest itself in a condition called trichotillomania, which causes John to pull out [her] own eyelashes.”

“John loves sports and wants to try out for [her] high school boys’ basketball team,” it also outlines. “However, each time the stigma and humiliation of not being able to change in the boys’ locker room with his teammates keeps John from trying out for the team.”

The teen’s parents and attorney are therefore seeking an injunction against the Volusia County School Board to obtain access to the boys’ restroom and locker room and to “otherwise treat [the student] as a boy in all respects.” They argue that the board’s policies and practices violate Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits discrimination based on a person’s sex, as well as the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

As previously reported by Heather Clark, the Trump administration disagrees with the Obama administration’s interpretation of Title IX, and overturned a directive last March that mandated public schools to allow male students that identify as female to use the girls’ facilities, and vice versa.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor also issued an injunction against the directives in October 2016, stating, “It cannot be disputed that the plain meaning of the term sex … following passage of Title IX meant the biological and anatomical differences between male and female students as determined at their birth.”

“Without question, permitting educational institutions to provide separate housing to male and female students, and separate educational instruction concerning human sexuality, was to protect students’ personal privacy, or discussion of their personal privacy, while in the presence of members of the opposite biological sex,” he explained.

Read the student’s lawsuit in full here.

Nancy Wait, director of community information for Volusia County Schools, told the Daytona Beach News Journal that the district bases communal restroom use on biological sex, and that the requirement is in step with both federal and state law.

“Group restroom and locker room usages at district schools are based on biological sex. Our schools offer single-use restroom and changing area alternatives while respecting the privacy of all students,” she outlined. “[Our practice of] maintaining gender-specific group restrooms and locker rooms is fully compliant with state and federal law and the norm in the workplace and schools.”

Wait also noted that the district prohibits bullying and/or harassment of students with gender dysphoria, and that disciplinary action may be taken against those who mistreat others. She likewise stated that Volusia County Schools does accommodate students in regard to preferred pronouns or name changes.

Originally written by Heather Clark/ Edited by Babylon Today

Christian School Punished Over Biblical Teaching on Homosexuality Files Lawsuit Against School District

According to CP Reporter, Samuel Smith, 

A Christian society in Canada has filed a lawsuit claiming it was punished by a school district for refusing to censor certain biblical references.

The Cornerstone Christian Society of Camrose and three parents of the Cornerstone Christian Academy are suing the Battle River School Division No. 31 after the school’s agreement with the public school district was unilaterally terminated earlier this year.

The lawsuit, filed by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, claims that the Society, which has had held a master agreement with the BRSD to serve as a Christian alternative program since 2009, lost its agreement in June after it initially refused to remove 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 from a revised academy “vision and purpose” document and scrub religious teachings that could be deemed offensive.

Although the school and BRSD had instituted a five-year agreement in 2015, when Cornerstone submitted its vision and purpose document in January 2017, the school was told by division officials that they must remove the biblical passage.

“Based on the position of the Minister of Education and Alberta Education, we do not support leaving this reference in the document,” the lawsuit quotes Imogene Walsh, BRSD assistant superintendent of business, as writing in an email to the school district on Jan. 30.

The Corinthians passage states: “Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men, nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”

“The Verses reflect Evangelical religious beliefs that BRSD was well aware are foundational to Cornerstone’s religious character,” the lawsuit explains. “BRSD’s request to remove the Verses was a profound interference with the religious character and religious freedoms of the Applicants, as well as the contractual agreement between the parties evidenced by the Master Agreement.” 

According to lawsuit, the master agreement states that BRSD recognizes that Cornerstone is “an educational setting which operates in accordance with the religious beliefs, core values.”

The lawsuit also claims that Laurie Skori, then chair of BRSD Board of Trustees, told the school in an email in May that the concern is about “any actions, teachings or scripture that results in any student, staff member, parent or other stakeholder from being discriminated against based on any protected grounds.”

“For example, any teachings that denigrate or vilify someone’s sexual orientation, since that appears to be the focus, would not permit the school board to meet with its legal obligation,” Skori wrote.

Although Cornerstone eventually agreed to remove the verse from the document in early June, the agreement was official terminated on June 29 and will be effective in June 2018.

“BRSD was not satisfied with the removal of the Verses. Ms. Skori wrote the same day in response to require Cornerstone to make a further concession: that it would not use any Scripture that ‘could be considered inappropriate,'” the lawsuit explains.

In a statement, Justice Centre President John Carpay stated that the school district “acted out of anti-religious prejudice and ideological discrimination” and further argued that the district “lost sight of the best interests of the children.”

According to the court application, the case will be heard on April 17 at a court in Wetaskiwin. The school is seeking a stay of the school district’s decision.

“In attempting to censor the teaching of Biblical sexuality, and in attempting to prevent the Society from communication with staff and parents, BRSD breached its obligations under the Master Agreement, the School Act, the Alberta Bill of Rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” Carpay added.

In June, Skori explained that the school district was “disappointed” with how Cornerstone went public with the school’s request that offensive verses be removed, saying that the situation was turned into a “public spectacle.”

“We are now at the center of a firestorm as a result of information distributed without our knowledge, by the Cornerstone Christian School Society board and their partner in this process, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms,” Lori was quoted by CBC News as saying. “Hate mail is flowing, misinformation and fear-mongering are widespread. The Cornerstone society has compromised our reputation, risked our safety and broken our trust.”

Skori also denied that the school district was trying to restrict religious teachings.

“The board does not want to get involved in things like that. I think it’s up to the school to decide what things are appropriate or not,” Skori stated.

 

Christian school teacher accused of sex romp with student

According to Fox News~A former teacher at a Christian school in Maine was arrested days before Christmas after she allegedly sexually assaulted a student under the age of 14-years-old, officials said.

Nancy Leigh Ann Brann, 43, was taken into custody Dec. 21 after turning herself in at a local jail, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

The alleged offenses took place during the fall of 2016 when Brann was a teacher at the Coastal Christian School in Waldoboro, located about 60 miles northeast of Portland,Or. “There is no information the school administration had any knowledge of these alleged offenses prior to being notified by investigators,” the sheriff’s office said.

The sheriff’s office said the victim was a student under the age of 14 years old at the time, but did not disclose the student’s gender. The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to a request by Fox News for further information. 

Brann was dismissed by the school shortly after the offenses for unrelated issues, the sheriff’s office said. 

The 43-year-old is being held on $10,000 bail, unsecured, with the conditions that she not have contact with the victim, not return to Coastal Christian School and have no contact with children under the age of 16.

 

Roman Catholic Priest Receives Standing Ovation After Announcing His Identification as Homosexual

MILWAUKEE, Wisc. — A Roman Catholic priest in Wisconsin received a standing ovation this past Sunday after announcing during the service that he identifies as a homosexual.

“I am Greg. I am a Roman Catholic priest. And, yes, I am gay!”

declared Gregory Greiten of St. Bernadette Catholic Church in Milwaukee, causing those present to rise to their feet, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The National Catholic Reporter also published an article on Monday in which Greiten outlined how he repressed his feelings for years, and later came to embrace them, while also keeping them hidden from others. 

 

“Over the past year, I came to the realization that I could no longer live the lie of masquerading as a straight man in the priesthood,” he wrote.

 Greiten also expressed his view that the Roman Catholic Church should allow priests to be open about their same-sex attraction, while also remaining celibate. He referred to the matter as being “authentic” to one’s true self.

“Today, I stand with these few courageous priests who have taken the risk to come out of the shadows and have chosen to live in truth and authenticity,” Greiten wrote.

“I promise to be my authentically gay self. I will embrace the person that God created me to be,” he stated. “In my priestly life and ministry, I, too, will help you, whether you are gay or straight, bisexual or transgendered, to be your authentic self—to be fully alive living in your image and likeness of God. In reflecting our God-images out into the world, our world will be a brighter, more tolerant place.”

Greiten said that he believed that announcing his homosexual feelings was among the “[f]irst steps in accepting and loving the person God created me to be.”

“I am breaking through the silence and reclaiming my voice—silent words to prophetic words, despairing words to hopeful words, angry words to forgiving words, and sad words to joy-filled words, with the passion of the words attributed to a great woman saint and doctor of the church, St. Catherine of Siena, ‘Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire,’ Greiten said.

Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki has backed Greiten’s decision to come out to his congregation.

“We support Father Greiten in his own, personal journey and telling his story of coming to understand and live with his sexual orientation,” he said in a statement. “As the Church teaches, those with same-sex attraction must be treated with understanding and compassion. As priests who have made a promise to celibacy, we know that every week there are people in our pews who struggle with the question of homosexuality.”

As previously reported, Christians believe that homosexuality, like any other inclination that is contrary to the law of God, is a part of the Adamic sin nature that men are born with, leaving them helpless to change themselves.

The late preacher A.W. Pink once wrote, “Why does the sinner choose a life of sinful indulgence? Because he prefers it. Man chooses that which is according to his nature, and therefore, before he will ever choose or prefer that which is divine or spiritual, a new nature must be imparted to him: in other words, he must be born again.”

Because of this inherent nature, Christ instructed that men must be regenerated by the second birth, outlining in John 3:5-7, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”

2 Corinthians 5:14-17 also reads, “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead. And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again. … Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Christian school teacher charged with 84 counts of sexual abuse

A total of 140 charges have been made against Sioux Center Christian School teacher Curtis Van Dam, dating back to August 2013.

On November 11, 2017 a teacher from a Christian school has been charged with 84 separate counts of sexual abuse after it was claimed he abused students over a four year period.A statement published by the school reads: “We have been told from the beginning that additional charges for a former teacher at Sioux Center Christian would be coming.

Fifth grade teacher Curtis Van Dam, 35, of Sioux Center Christian School in northwest Iowa, US, is accused of abusing an unknown number of pupils from the school between August 2013 and October 2017.

Authorities say charges were filed after a complaint was lodged with police on 18 October, alleging inappropriate conduct between the teacher and a pupil at the school.  But since the original allegations were made 140 separate charges have been filed, including 14 counts of sexual exploitation by a teacher.

“Today, Mr. Curt Van Dam, was charged with 101 felonies and 39 misdemeanors.

 

“On Oct 18, within hours of hearing a complaint, school officials removed Mr Van Dam from the school and immediately contacted authorities. His employment was terminated on Oct 19 and we have been in full cooperation with civil authorities since.

“We’ve wept, now it’s time to weep again. We’ve prayed, now we need to continue praying. We’ve brought our anger and fears to the Lord, and now we need to lay those feelings again at His feet,” the statement read.  

School Administrative Assistant Cheryl Haan told Newsweek that the exact number of students affected by the allegations is still unknown. 

“This case is in the hands of our criminal justice system and we trust that justice will be served. Though the number of charges do not necessarily reflect the number of students, we are grieved again as we hear the extent of the charges. 

The statement also offered reassurance to parents and children: “Kids, we want you to know that we consider you brave for telling your parents, the police, and the interviewers what happened to you. 

“We praise God that your testimony has brought to light a dark secret that none of us adults knew was there.

“Please know that thousands are lifting you before the throne of your Father in heaven…. Trust Him to restore you completely.

“Our focus at Sioux Center Christian continues to be the Christ-centered education of our students, while also providing daily support and guidance to students as needed through their teachers and professional counselors.”

Mr Van Dam has been charged with 14 counts of Sexual Exploitation by a Teacher; 72 counts of Sexual Abuse in the 2nd Degreee; 12 counts of Sexual Abuse in the 3rd Degree; 2 counts of Lascivious Acts With a Child; 1 count of Lascivious Acts with a Child; 34 counts of Lascivious Conduct with a Minor and 1 count of Indecent Exposure.

 Curtis Van Dam, 35, is said to have been accused of up to 140 sex related crimes at the Sioux Center Christian School in Iowa. The exact number of children affected is still unknown. Sioux Center Police

Mr Van Dam is currently being detained in Sioux County Jail and is awaiting trial.

A tweet sent from the school’s official Twitter account appeared to offer a form where students and parents could sign up to therapy sessions with a school pastor, although the form is now “no longer accepting responses”.

Prayer of Thanks Removed From Elementary School’s Thanksgiving Program~ Following Complaint

JONESBORO, Ark. — A prayer thanking God for life’s blessings was recently removed from an Arkansas elementary school’s Thanksgiving program after one of the nation’s most conspicuous atheist activists groups lodged a complaint.

The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) sent a letter to the superintendent of the Westside Consolidated School District on Nov. 10 after being informed by a parent that students at Westside Elementary School were sent home with lyrics to memorize for the program, which included a prayer of thanks to God.

“Thank You for the world so sweet/Thank You for the food we eat/Thank You for the birds that sing/Thank You, God, for everything,” the poem was to have read. FFRF contended that the prayer is a violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” 

“[P]ublic schools have an obligation to remain neutral toward religion,” the letter read. “Moreover, inducing young and impressionable children to give thanks to God is a usurpation of parental authority.”

“Such a practice alienates the students, teachers and members of the community whose religious beliefs are inconsistent with the message being promoted by the school, particularly the 24% of all Americans, and 38% of Americans born after 1987, who are not religious,” FFRF asserted.

The group therefore requested that “all references to God or religion” be removed from the Thanksgiving program, and asked for a written response advising how the district would take steps to do so. 

According to FFRF, Superintendent Scott Gauntt conducted an investigation into the matter and after confirming the inclusion of the prayer of thanks in the program, had it nixed from the event.

“We will be more diligent in the future in an attempt to uphold the letter of the law in regards to separation of church and state,” Gauntt wrote.

FRRF has applauded the move removing God from the Thanksgiving program, calling it a “sincere action to uphold its constitutional obligation to protect the students’ rights of conscience.”

As previously reported, in 1828, just 52 years after the nation’s founding, Noah Webster, known as the Father of American Scholarship and Education, wrote, “In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government, ought to be instructed. … No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.”

Drag Queens to Visit Nursery Schools to Teach About LGBT in United Kingdom

Drag queens are being brought into taxpayer-funded nursery schools to teach children about sexual diversity.

The Drag Queen Story Time organisation, based in Bristol, was formed ‘to teach children about LGBT tolerance’.

Nursery bosses say the sessions will help children to ‘see people who defy rigid gender restrictions’ and grow up to combat hate crime.  

Donna La Mode is one of the drag queens who will be sent in to read stories to children at nursery

 

They want to target two and three-year-olds to influence them early. The drag queens, including Donna La Mode, will read stories to the children.

The sessions are being held at seven London Early Years Foundation nurseries over the winter – and if they are successful they will be rolled out across all the LEYF’s 37 sites. 

But leading child psychotherapist Dilys Daws, feared they could sow the seeds of confusion in young children about their own sexual identity.