What If You Threw a Rapture and Nobody Came?

Here’s a press release form Peter LaBarbera, the head of an officially-designated hate group, and one of the more influential (and nuttier) religious right leaders (he’s worked at most of the top groups). Peter is vewy vewy angwy that the gays won, and that the Republicans weren’t as hateful as they should have been.

A few of the choice quotes below:

Tuesday was a devastating day for pro-family advocates.

No longer can pro-family advocates say that homosexual “marriage” has never been voted in by the people.

Tuesday’s “gay” victories were abetted by an unofficial Republican Party strategy that eschews discussion of “social issues.”

We need to stop conceding the moral high ground in a fearful bid to appear “tolerant.”

So just to recap: The reason the haters lost is because the Republican party helped us, and religious right nuts were “too tolerant.” Uh huh.

Here’s the full release:

Contact: Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality CHICAGO, Nov. 8, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ — The following is submitted by Peter LaBarbera: Tuesday was a devastating day for pro-family advocates concerned about the advance of same-sex “marriage” and homosexual activism. While politics does not decide moral and spiritual Truth, it is an indicator of the heart of our nation. On Nov. 6, America took another giant step away from God and our Judeo-Christian heritage. Here are the Gay Lobby’s biggest victories: Barack Obama, the most pro-homosexual president in U.S. history, won reelection after embracing homosexual “marriage”;

Voters in Maine, Maryland and Washington State passed ballot measures legalizing “same-sex marriage”;

Minnesota voters rejected an amendment to preserve natural marriage as one-man, one-woman after 32 states previously had passed similar marriage amendments;

Democrat Rep. Tammy Baldwin became the first open lesbian to win a U.S. Senate seat — defeating Republican former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson. Five other open homosexuals and a bisexual atheist (Kyrsten Sinema, D-AZ) won House seats;

Judge David Wiggins — one of seven Iowa Supreme Court judges to legalize “gay marriage” in 2009 — survived a pro-family campaign against him and won retention. In 2010, Iowa voters tossed out three fellow Supreme Court judges who were part of the same “gay marriage” ruling. No longer can pro-family advocates say that homosexual “marriage” has never been voted in by the people. Thanks to a never-ending bombardment of media-, educational- and pop-culture propaganda in favor of All Things Gay, homosexual “marriage” is now semi-popular, at least in Blue States. And there is no sugar-coating how damaging Obama’s reelection will be to this already depraved nation. Tuesday’s “gay” victories were abetted by an unofficial Republican Party strategy that eschews discussion of “social issues.” Yet even as GOP elites recoiled from the cultural battles over abortion and “gay rights,” homosexual militants pressed more aggressively than ever for their goal of using government power to force acceptance of their aberrant lifestyle. Sadly, there is a “passion gap” or maybe a “boldness gap” between LGBT activists and their overly defensive pro-family opponents. Many timid, guilt-ridden Christians make rotten Culture Warriors, while unapologetic “gays” excel at it. So what is the next step for defenders of sexual normalcy? Pro-family advocates must stop looking for short cuts and return to their principled duty of educating citizens — especially brainwashed youth — on why homosexual behavior is wrong, unnatural, unhealthy and — most important — changeable. (Thousands of former homosexuals testify to the reality of ex-“gay” change.) Reframing the debate to “defending marriage” — a “positive” approach once seen as the salvation of the pro-family movement — only gave well-organized “gay” activists a big, fat target to shoot at: “Marriage.” And on Tuesday, they scored several direct hits on that target. By pretending that the fight to preserve real marriage is somehow separate from homosexuality, pro-family advocates undermined their core principles — leading to long-term (and even short-term) defeat. Who are we kidding? This titanic fight has always been about homosexuality, not just “defending marriage.” We need to stop conceding the moral high ground in a fearful bid to appear “tolerant”: one pro-family group, Protect Marriage Maine, asserted that “same-sex couples are entitled to respect” — a claim at odds with historic Scriptural teaching. While Christians should respect all persons as made in God’s image, we must never “respect” behaviors and relationships grounded in sexual sin. The normalization of homosexuality, which God calls anabomination (sic), is one of the most amazing marketing stories of our age. It is also a big business: the “gay” Human Rights Campaign spent $20 million this election cycle. Nevertheless, every homosexual triumph is a Pyrrhic victory because it elevates a destructive and immoral perversion to the realm of noble-sounding “civil rights.” Those committed to defending God’s wonderful design of male-female human sexuality and offering the hope of the Gospel to homosexual strugglers must not grow weary in well-doing. Shame on Christians if our commitment to defending Truth pales in comparison to the zeal of “gay” activists in defending their lies. Peter LaBarbera is president of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH), a group devoted to opposing and exposing homosexual activism.

Oh, and by the way, those “thousands of former homosexuals” are the same “thousands of former homosexuals” the religious right claimed to have 14 years ago. It’s interesting that you can supposedly “pray away the gay,” yet the numbers of “ex-gays” hasn’t increase in a decade and a half.

And just in case you’re curious, here’s a little more about this hate group and its leader, from the Southern Poverty Law Center – note who he’s worked for, a who’s who of religious right-dom:

A one-time reporter for the conservative Washington Times, LaBarbera has been an energetic campaigner against “the radical homosexual agenda” since at least 1993, when he launched The Lambda Report, which claimed to do first-hand reporting to expose its gay enemies. Over the years, he has been an official with Accuracy in Media, Concerned Women for America, the Family Research Council and the Illinois Family Institute (see below for the last three). He left the Illinois Family Institute, where he’d been executive director, in 2006. AFTAH is notable for its posting of the utterly discredited work of Paul Cameron (of the Family Research Institute; see below), who has claimed that gays and lesbians live vastly shorter lives than heterosexuals. Among the Cameron propaganda published by AFTAH are 2007 claims that gays and lesbians in Norway and Denmark live 24 fewer years than heterosexuals. Reviewing that claim, Danish epidemiologist Morten Frisch found that it had no scientific basis. LaBarbera himself, in 2002, compared the alleged dangers of homosexuality to those of “smoking, alcohol and drug abuse.” Similarly, AFTAH’s website carries essays describing homosexuality as a “lethal behavior addiction,” a “dangerous” practice that is “neither normal nor benign.” In 2007, LaBarbera claimed there was “a disproportionate incidence of pedophilia” among gay men — yet another false assertion. The same year, he posted an open letter to the Lithuanian people from long-time gay-basher Scott Lively (see Abiding Truth Ministries, above), who has made a series of false claims about gays running the German Nazi Party. In the piece posted to the AFTAH website, Lively said homosexuals are trying to take away free speech from all opponents of gays and to silence all religious opinions on the matter.

Yes, I’m sure the Republican party regrets not taking this guy’s advice.