An Open Letter to Peter LaBarbera

While..

I think your letter was wonderful and very heartfelt - you may be approaching this man in the wrong way.

I do wonder if he cares about following Christ at all - because that is who Christians are supposed to follow the example of, no? Which means loving your neighbour as you would yourself, caring for other, being charitable, and trying to be as decent a person as you can be.

This also, as far as I know, includes NOT insulting people, and making vigilant attacks on them. Yet, it seems Mr LeBarbera doesn't wish to do anything of the sort. It seems he doesn't agree with Christ's teachings or example; and wants to do the opposite.

The Jesus of the Bible would have never done anything Peter is doing - and that's what makes me feel he doesn't even believe in Jesus or perhaps even God for that matter. He is completely going against Christ's example by not respecting his fellow man, helping them, and showing the actual love of Christ by doing charitable works, such as helping the poor, sick and generally disadvantaged.

Either he is a person who simply wishes to ignore basically everything Christ taught - or he just doesn't believe in Christ whatsoever and feels that by using His name, he can do and say and attack whomever he pleases.

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by: Sophie @ Sun Dec 31, 2006 at 11:13:14 AM CST

As far as I remember...

...Petey never mentioned Jesus at all until he spun off his own organization and needed to bring in the bucks.  So, yeah, probably not going to get anywhere with him.

But it's an excellent letter, Rick, and maybe you'll reach some of his would-be followers who visit here to see what he's talking about and to decide for themselves.

"Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain" -- Iowa state motto

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by: Sportin' Life @ Mon Jan 01, 2007 at 12:59:06 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Just don't eat shellfish

My response to anyone who throws the bible in my face is to simply point out that the bible condemns a lot of things, including eating shellfish.  Yet you don't see the wingnuts getting their twisties in a pant regularly about that.  If you're a christian, you pick and choose which parts of the bible will be obeyed, which will be ignored and which are to be shunned (i.e. slavery).  There is no getting around that fact. 

Probably more importantly, in the bible, Jesus becomes angry exactly one time - and that is when the money changers were using his father's house to do banking and to make a profit.  This kind of thing happens routinely in American culture - everything from televangelists making millions in earnings per year to corporations who sell merchandise targeted to christians so that they too can make a profit.  Christmas is supposed to be a religious holiday.  How that translates into every shady operation on the planet profiting from the spending orgy surrounding Santa Clause, is completely beyond me.

Why aren't the christians talking about the poor?  About keeping the name of Jesus free of commercialism and politics?  Why so narrow the the agenda?

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by: Hype-Jersey @ Sun Dec 31, 2006 at 11:31:40 AM CST

Or bats. Don't forget the part about bats.

Excellent points.

Please let's also remember that while Jesus was a friendly chap while here on earth, he ultimately intends to send all nonbelievers to Hell.  Jesus Loves You - Turn or Burn.  Nice.  He doesn't even want to offer any proof of His divinity, other than a book written by uneducated men in the first century C.E. who clearly had their own axe to grind.  Just believe whatever that book says, and you'll be fine.  No need to question or think for yourselves, just do what the book says.

Problem is, that book says all sorts of horrid things.  Of course christians pick and choose, because there is so much contradiction, horror, perversion, and outright nonsense that they cannot possibly believe and follow the entire thing.

For some fun, check out the Skeptics Annotated Bible.  A useful tool when going toe to toe with christians insisting that their way is the only way, or even the sane, kind, loving way.

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by: nosinabook @ Sun Dec 31, 2006 at 12:14:46 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Well Done!

Excellent letter, Rick. All the salient points are addressed in a forthright and respectful manner which is more than Mr. LaBarbera ever cares to show the gay community. I don't think that your letter will make the slightest impression on him, though; his mind is snapped shut very tightly with  pride and greed. Anyone who has read the bible knows that Mr. LaBarbera's actions are not actions that Jesus Christ would have condoned and that no man should presume to know the mind of God.

"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move."

Douglas Adams - 'The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy'  

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by: Val @ Sun Dec 31, 2006 at 12:01:12 PM CST

I have doubts.

I've read and re-read LaBarbera's post on AFT's site about Autumn.  The one that jumped out at me were these two:

The article's title, "Why We Need 'Americans for Truth,'"

and then several paragraphs later, after some serious belittling of Autumn and others and some snarky comments about the GLBT community in general,

"Click HERE to give safely online or mail your check to: Americans For Truth, P.O. Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567. Or click HERE to become a regular monthly "Truth Team" giver."

This is one way this man makes money (as it likely is for  many others of LaBarbera's ilk).

AFT and LaBarbera are not about the truth.  They are about bearing false witness against and scandalizing of some of  God's children, hoping someone is stupid or fearful enough to buy into this reasoning, and even more stupidly, to donate money to to LaBarbera.

Maybe your letter can change his heart, Rick, and I wish that could happen, but I wouldn't hold my breath. 

There's too much profit to be made by propogating lies and marginalizing others.

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by: Phil @ Sun Dec 31, 2006 at 12:35:41 PM CST

WWJD

I doubt Jesus would be pleased that anyone has dedicated his life "exclusively to exposing and countering the homosexual activist agenda" (from the Americans for Truth mission statement).  That mission statement is extraordinarily condemnatory.  Peter LaBarbera himself -- certainly not Jesus -- appointed Peter LaBarbera to a position of full-time exposer and counterer of the homosexual activist agenda.  He, unlike Jesus, has apparently forgotten about glass houses and logs in eyes. 

Does Peter LaBarbera have any idea what it might be like to be on the other end of his actions?  To walk a mile, or even just a few yards, in our shoes?  Does he actually know well any gay people?  I don't mean an ex-gay person.  I mean someone who is OK with being gay, and holds down a job, pays taxes, gives their seat up on the bus for an elderly person, etc.  Would he be terrified to get to know such a person?  But without walking that mile, Mr. LaBarbera literally doesn't know what he's talking about.

I think Peter LaBarbera is a very tortured, miserable soul.  He is acting out some kind of idiosyncratic paranoia.  (I try to avoid absolutist statements, but I am certain he suffered abuse as a child -- emotional, physical, or sexual.)  No healthy person, or healthy Christian, would have any interest in exclusively exposing and countering "the homosexual activist agenda."  What a downer!  Doesn't the gift of life on earth have more to offer?  More to offer than "exposing and countering" a group of human beings, the great majority of which are entirely decent and well-meaning?

I feel sorry for him, except that I strongly dislike his mean behavior, and wish he would channel his energy into something more loving, more understanding, more compassionate, more contributory, more celebratory, more positive, more tolerant, more...Christ-like.

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by: KC @ Sun Dec 31, 2006 at 13:17:31 PM CST

A Biblical Injunction Rick Missed and other stuff

Rick - why not remind Peter not to "judge lest ye be judged." My understanding is that God is the only one qualified to judge.

Then again I'm a non-practicing First Booker (a Jew) whose best friend was raised a fundamentalist Christian who tells me that, essentially, the Second Book (New Testament) represents a renunciaton of God's covenant with the Jews and lays forth the new deal, invalidating the proscriptions of the First Book - including the famous ones in Leviticus. Since we know that Jesus had nothing to say about homosexuality and no proscription of lesbianism appears in either book - all this fuss and hatred has no basis in God or His Son's words.

Once upon a time there was a book named "Jesus Acted Up" which posits Jesus and the Apostles (great name for a Christian rock band) as gay political activists of their time. Much like the DaVinci Code, the case the author makes is not convincing but is certainly thought-provoking.

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by: Alan down in Florida @ Sun Dec 31, 2006 at 13:34:57 PM CST

IDOLATERS Are NOT Christians!

First, let's just take a biblical breath of fresh air, in which David and Jonathan and Jesus and his Beloved and Ruth and Naomi all breathed.

Second, the Levitical Code of Holiness does NOT apply in the Christian Dispensation (save for selectively chosen items by Evangelicals, who we can be sure wear "mixed fabrics," despite Yahweh's prohibition).

Third, Saint Paul disapproved of ALL sex. He relented, suggesting that MEN would better "marry than perish," hardly an apotheosis of conjugal love (and silent on procreation). We hopefully all know Saint Paul held women in contempt (1 Tim 2:8-15), when he did not hold them subordinate (passim).

Fourth, Paul's prologue to the Romans, cited by every homophobe and Evangelical, is undeniably one of the most vitriolic passages in the Bible. But that acerbic prologue, leads to Paul's larger point in Chapter 2, which oddly never gets mentioned, where he then puts those "who judge others" in even in greater contempt! Lest one not make the connection, chapter 1 cites all the evils of "body worship," but chapter 2 states that "judgment of others" is outright idolatry, in assuming a role reserved only for God! For Paul, both are of the SAME kind, a form of idolatry, but the latter is worse than the former (do Evangelicals every read for CONTEXT?). So either Evangelicals keep their traps shut about "homosexuals" and THEIR "judging others," or we can all quote Paul to remind them of their more heinous sin of IDOLATRY!

Lastly, Jean Calvin's maxim that the "Bible is the literal and inerrant Word of God alone sufficient for salvation" (the Evangelical mantra) is not found in the Bible! It's not even suggested! Indeed, Saint Paul makes it crystal clear that the CHURCH of the living God, not the Bible, is the pillar and bulwark of the truth (1 Tim 3:15). When Evangelicals submit to the CHURCH, as the Bible demands, of which the bishop is the Authority and Interpreter (as well as the compiler), then they can start preaching something resembling Christianity. Then too, perhaps, they'll heed the first epistle of John, of which I take just a short quote: "God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we have the boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world . . . We love because God first loved us. Those who say, 'I love God,' and hate their brothers [and sisters], ARE LIARS; for those who do not love a brother [or sister] whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from God is this: those who love God must love their brothers [and sisters]" (1 Jn 4:16b-21, NRSV). By the Bible's standards, these folk are the Anti-Christ (read this particular epistle if you doubt it).

As a PostScript, I remind these Bible-idolaters to read their Bible, which they so idolatrize as divine (they sure get idolatry, don't they?). "No prophesy of scripture is a matter of one's interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God" (2 Pet 1:20b-21). Biblio-idolatry is still idolatry! But it is not, and never has been, CHRISTIAN. Christians are KNOWN for their LOVE. These loons are so clueless, and they have the temerity to preach to others about the "truth"? They haven't a clue! They offend God. They offend their neighbors. They offend the testimony of Christians. They are unquestionably IDOLATERS, but they sure as hell are not Christians.

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by: The Gay Species @ Sun Dec 31, 2006 at 15:39:14 PM CST

How Do They Get Away With It?

An excellent post by The Gay Species who has obviously done his homework and answers my previous comment about "judge lest not thou be judged."

With the bilge water pouring out of the mouths of evangelicals and fundamentalisn Christians being false on so many levels I wonder how they get away with spreading their lies.

By the way I just saw a posting elsewhere that 46% of evangelicals polled believe Jesus will return in 2007. My response was let my fellow Jew come and kick some serious homophobic, hate-mongering Christian butt for perverting his word. I wait for the day that the Rapture comes and all of these miscreants find they are still standing right where they were.

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by: Alan down in Florida @ Mon Jan 01, 2007 at 11:51:44 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Thank you Rick

for writing this open letter.  It's excellent.

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by: oddjob @ Sun Dec 31, 2006 at 20:46:26 PM CST

What I'd like to know is. . .

if Ms. LaBarbera takes a gun-totin', right-wing law enforcement-trained "bodyguard" to his International Mr. Leather and bath house "research" visits.

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by: kevinbgoode @ Mon Jan 01, 2007 at 09:51:38 AM CST