AG Church in Lansing Mich. Targeted by Anarchist Homosexual Group "Bash Back"

Gay rights group claims responsibility for church protest

KATHLEEN LAVEY • KLAVEY@LSJ.COM • NOVEMBER 11, 2008 • FROM LSJ.COM

DELTA TWP. - A radical gay rights group is claiming responsibility for a protest Sunday at Mount Hope Church in Delta Township.

Protesters who entered the Creyts Road church with worshippers stood up during the service, threw fliers at churchgoers and shouted slogans such as "It's OK to be gay," according to David Williams, communications director at the church. His father, Dave Williams, is the church's longtime pastor. Another group of protesters demonstrated outside the church.

A Lansing group affiliated with a radical gay organization known as Bash Back, formed to protest the Republican and Democratic national conventions earlier this year, put out a call on the Internet on Oct. 7 for activists to come to a "radical queer convergence" in Lansing Nov. 7-9.

According to a report on the group's Web site, protesters inside the church also pulled a fire alarm and unfurled a banner from the church balcony.

Mount Hope Church, affiliated with the Assemblies of God denomination, teaches followers that homosexuality is a sin.

"Mount Hope Church strives to follow Jesus' example of loving the sinner but not the sin," Williams said.

The Eaton County Sheriff's Department responded to the protest but was not immediately available for comment.

Read more in Wednesday's edition of the Lansing State Journal.

For some reason, that eludes me, this is very hard to find information on this from any mainstream media outlet, so I have compiled several articles together in order to get the full impact of what has happened here.

By Bob Unruh
© 2008 WorldNetDaily

Worshippers at a Bible-teaching church in Lansing, Mich., were stunned Sunday when members of a pro-homosexual, pro-anarchy organization named Bash Back interrupted their service to fling propaganda and condoms around the sanctuary, drape a profane banner from the balcony and feature two lesbians making out at the pulpit.

According to a blog posting by Nick De Leeuw on Right Michigan, the Bash Back organization orchestrated a protest in front of Mount Hope Church to draw the church's security staff away from the sanctuary.

Then Bash Backers who had dressed up and mixed in with church worshippers took action.

According to De Leeuw, "Prayer had just finished when men and women stood up in pockets across the congregation, on the main floor and in the balcony.

"'Jesus was gay,' they shouted among other profanities and blasphemies as they rushed the stage. Some forced their way through rows of women and kids to try to hang a profane banner from the balcony while others began tossing fliers into the air. Two women made their way to the pulpit and began to kiss," he wrote.

He cited the Bash Back organization's own announcement of other items members brought into the church, including "a megaphone, noise makers, condoms, glitter by the bucket load, confetti, pink fabric. ..."

According to the alternative Lansing City Pulse – which reported it was notified of the protest ahead of time and sent a reporter along instead of warning the church – the protesters also screamed at parishioners and pulled the church facility's fire alarm. Printed material protesters distributed said, "We specialize in confronting homophobia, transphobia and every and all other forms of oppression."

The report said Bash Back issued a statement today confirming it targeted Mount Hope, which has about 5,000 church participants, because it participates in "the repression of queers."

On the newspaper's forum page, a contributor commented, "Homosexuals and anarchists. A perfect combination of human beings with no hope, no morals, no future."

Many demonstrators fled and the rest were quiet after sheriff's officers were summoned.

"Mount Hope churchgoers were unclear as to what the purpose of the demonstration was," said a statement from David Williams, a spokesman for the church.

"The leadership of Mount Hope Church does not attempt to identify the church as anti-homosexual, anti-choice, or right wing. The church does take the Bible at face value and believes what the Bible says to be the truth," Williams' statement continued.

"According to the Bible, Mount Hope Church believes homosexuality to be a sin, just as fornication, stealing, drunkenness, and lying are sins. No sin greater than the next. Mount Hope Church strives to follow Jesus' example of loving the sinner but not the sin while helping people change their lives for God's glory and their improved quality of life. Mount Hope Church also recognizes that to each person God grants freewill."

The church then offered help for people "caught up in unwanted sexual sin, drug abuse, and many other areas."

De Leeuw reported "the 'open minded' and 'tolerant' liberals ran down the aisles and across the pews, hoping against hope to catch a 'right winger' on tape daring to push back (none did).

"This is what we're up against," De Leeuw wrote. "Amidst worshiping congregants and following unifying prayers that our president-elect be granted wisdom as he prepares to lead our nation through difficult global, social and economic challenges, the Michigan left declared open war on peaceful churchgoers.

"Mount Hope, for the record, is an evangelical, Bible believing church whose members provide free 24-hour counseling, prayer lines, catastrophic care for families dealing with medical emergencies, support groups for men, women and children dealing with a wide variety of life's troubles, crisis intervention, marriage ministries, regular, organized volunteer work in and around the city, missions in dozens of countries across the globe, a construction ministry that has built over 100 churches, schools, orphanages and other projects all over the world and an in-depth prison ministry that reaches out, touches and helps the men and women the rest of society fears the most. They also teach respect for all human life and the Biblical sanctity of marriage as an institution between one man and one woman," De Leeuw wrote.

"The church's response? After things settled down, the blasphemy ended, the lewd props removed and the families safe from fear of additional men and women running into and past them the pastor took the stage and led the congregation in one more prayer ... not for retribution, or divine justice or a celestial comeuppance (that's what I'd have prayed for) but instead that the troubled individuals who'd just defiled the Lord's house, so full of anger and hate, would know Jesus' love in their lives and God's peace that exceeds human understanding," De Leeuw wrote.

His blog attracted dozens of comments, including one that said it was just as well the protesters hadn't picked his church.

"It was well within the church members' rights to respond with non-lethal force to put an immediate end to this assault. It this happened in my house, I'd have every right to throw someone out a window or two."

In a statement posted on the Internet, Bash Back confirmed its "operatives" were in the service, "stood up, declared themselves fags, and began screaming loudly. … Another group threw over a thousand fliers to the entire … congregation. The fire alarm was pulled. Queers began making out in front of the pastor. And within a matter of minutes, everyone had evaded the guards and made their escapes."

The statement continued, "Let is be known: So long as bigots kill us in the streets, this pack of wolves will continue to BASH BACK!"

The report comes just a day after video documentation of pro-homosexual protesters in California challenging a 69-year-old woman to a fight because she was affirming the biblical perspective of homosexuality.

"This screaming and shouting, name-calling and pushing by homosexual activists is not unlike a small child throwing a fit because he doesn't get his way," said Randy Thomasson, chief of the Campaign for Children and Families, a leading California-based pro-family group. "The public is getting a clue that homosexual activists don't like democracy and are willing to trample anyone and anything that gets in their way."

Incidentally, the descriptives used to describe homosexuals, i.e. queers and fags, are used by other homosexuals in their description of the event.

"Group" Status for Homosexuals and Prop 8

"Homosexuals are a group of people, bound not by ethnicity, creed, or religious affiliation, but by behavior. ... Behavior is something that is the government's business to control and regulate. The kind of protected status that homosexuals seek is something this nation has denied throughout its history. We have never allowed protected status based on behavior. Nor can we ever start, for it would be a recipe for chaos." Author Unknown

This statement is what I have always known and thought in a more abstract way and brings more clarity to the issue. The reason they are now coming out with all of the "scientific evidence" that homosexuals brains are different from heterosexual brains and that they can't help "what" they are (i.e. how they behave), is because they want to be thought of as a group and protected as such.  Why aren't groups of people who exhibit other behaviors Constitutionally protected as a "civil rights" issue.  Serial killers and people who are right or left handed all have differently functioning brains, as well.  What about people with ADD or OCD?  What about their group's civil rights?  The ACLU and several city and county lawyers are already ramping up to sue the state of California to overturn our vote, once more, under the guise of civil rights.  Behavior is supposed to be under control, hence the term self control. 

The entire idea that Prop. 8 wasn't going to affect schools and teaching in California is ridiculous, and if not such a serious matter, laughable. The California Teachers Association donated $1,000,000 toward the no on 8 campaign. They are the single largest donor to this cause. PG&E comes in second with three quarters of a million dollars. (Incidentally, I am changing my electricity/gas service to a cheaper, private utility carrier). The CTA, the same CTA who is always complaining and protesting about how they need more tax payer dollars to improve schools and get pay increases, wasted ONE MILLION dollars trying to get Prop 8 defeated.  My previous blog article about the kindergarten class in Hayward getting homosexual, etc. "tolerance cards" and having to sign them is a case in point. There are all kinds of teaching, indoctrinating and "tolerance" teachings going on now, without the passing of prop 8.  Can you imagine what would have been going on in public schools if the proposition would have actually passed?  

The Governor vetoed a bill on September 30th that would have instituted Harvey Milk Day, what sort of explanation would they have given the school children for having a day off to honor this person?  Surely, they will have to explain the man's sexual orientation to grade school children because the only thing this person did was be openly gay and a politician who championed gay rights in San Francisco.  According to Equality California's website: "This bill would require the governor to proclaim May 22 each year as Harvey Milk Day. It would encourage public schools and educational institutions to conduct suitable commemorative exercises on that date."  So... according to the very people who helped to bring the erroneous anti-prop 8 propaganda, they do want to indoctrinate our children after all.  "Suitable commemorative exercises" would be to explain what this person did to champion gay rights. What are gay rights, teacher?  Well, gay is a sexual behavior where one chooses a person of the same sex to be intimate with.  What is sexual and what is being intimate?  - A slippery slope of explanations would have to ensue, thus educating children who have no need to even be aware of these topics yet in their young inexperienced lives.  Also, no life experience to properly digest and fully comprehend the implications of what they would be learning and no filter, as of yet, to decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong behavior.  Since they would be learning it in school from their teacher, who children inherently trust, it must be the correct behavior.  After all, teachers know better than parents, sometimes, in the child's mind.  Even broaching this subject to someone's young and impressionable children is unacceptable and wrong.  What happened to reading, writing and arithmetic?  They have cut a lot of  genuinely worthwhile extras from public schools such as music, art and sometimes even P.E.  So, my child would not be getting art or music instruction in the classroom, but let's teach her about the differences of sexual preferences, after all, there seems to be plenty of funding for that.  

Kindergartners given homosexual 'pledge cards'

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow - 11/6/2008 6:00:00 AM

A pro-family advocate is outraged that a California public school teacher would pass out homosexual pledge cards to her kindergarten students.

The pledge cards were produced by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, and featured oaths that students would not use "anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender language or slurs," that students would intervene on behalf of homosexual students when possible, and that they would actively support safer schools efforts.

Tara Miller is a kindergarten teacher at Faith Ringgold School of Arts and Science in Hayward, California. She passed out the pledge cards to her students, which she then asked them to sign. Peter LaBarbera, the president of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, is outraged at Miller's actions.

"First of all, why is homosexuality as an issue being raised at all in kindergarten? These are students who don't even know what sex is yet, and this teacher is talking to them about homosexuality," he contends. "This is an abuse of these students' minds, and it's just wrong."

According to a report on FoxNews.com, one parent was angry when she found her child's signature on the pledge card. LaBarbera believes this instance highlights the real agenda of the homosexual movement.

"This is just bizarre, and it shows how the teachers with their radical sexual agenda want to start early to reprogram these kids' minds. They want to undermine the faith teachings that the kids have at home; this is part of a plan," he suggests. "To me, this is like Hitler with Nazi Germany and the Soviets wanting to get to the youth and change the kids by getting to them at a very young age."

In the same report on FoxNews.com, a spokesperson for the school agreed that the pledge was inappropriate for the kindergarten students and said that the pledges were meant for middle school and high school students.