When a Nashville sex club couldn’t get a permit near a school zone, they reformed as a “church,” at least by government standards.

The Social Club, a place where “swingers” would meet, has reorganized as United Fellowship Center, a place where adults can “fellowship.” Can you see the deception?

“We’ve now gotten a permit to meet as a church, and a church is something that cannot be defined under the U.S. Constitution,” says Larry Roberts, the attorney for the organization.

Metro’s zoning official, Bill Herbert, tells the Chicago Tribune they council takes each applicant at it’s word, provided they operate within the zoning codes.

But this is of little comfort to students and parents of Madison, Tennessee’s Goodpasture Christian School.

“I would feel uncomfortable,” ninth-grader Hope Tinsley told a local TV station. “I would feel like most of my friends would probably end up leaving because their parents would take them out and I wouldn’t want to lose them.”

The president of the school, Ricky Perry, spoke of some of the issues: “I think what’s troublesome, No. 1, is just the proximity it is to small children,” and he will do whatever it takes to keep it from opening. 

Roberts, though, says he’s prepared for the school’s volley.

“They can sue us and say they want an injunction to stop us from operating, and we can say we have some tenets of the church sort of like the Ten Commandments,” Roberts tells the Washington Post. “Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not cheat. Do not commit any act that will be harmful to others. Do not commit adultery without the knowledge and consent of your spouse—that one’s a little bit different.”

To avoid prosecution, the organization has reportedly created both a fellowship hall and a choir room. 

“It’s obvious to me that all they’re trying to do is find another way to legally, or through some loophole, accomplish what they want to do,” the school president says. 

LGBTQ icon Larry Kramer has spent the last 37 years warning of homosexuality’s health hazards. He’s director of ACT UP whose slogan is: “Silence=Death.”

Many gay marriage advocates wish Larry would shut his mouth. His message undercuts the image of being “gay and blissful.” Folks are uncomfortable adding unsavory elements like this to the conversation.

Do you think lawyers who presented arguments to the Supreme Court included the following?

“Chief Justice Roberts and esteemed members of the Court, while you will hear our efforts to persuade you to legalize gay marriage today, we must be mindful of serious, elevated health risks the gay lifestyle brings to multitudes. We must be responsible to examine medical data carefully … .”

I don’t think so.

King David, Israel’s greatest ruler after whom Jerusalem was named, stated, “I do not conceal your love and your truth from the great assembly” (Ps. 40:10).

Did pro-gay marriage attorneys not “conceal” but tell the whole “truth” in presenting their case?

Say it with me: “I don’t think so.”

Infuriating, Heartbreaking Story     

Last year Entertainment Weekly magazine highlighted the “most important, infuriating, heartbreaking movie of the year,” Normal Heart, Larry Kramer’s story. They cited chilling stats:   

• 60 percent—the percentage of young Americans living with HIV today who are unaware they’re infected

• 36 million—the number of people who have died of AIDS since 1981


Mr. Kramer once addressed the LGBTQ community in New York. He also had tried to kill himself.  

“I have recently gone through my diaries of the worst of the AIDS plague years. I saw day after day a notation of another friend’s death. I listed all the ones I’d slept with. There were a couple hundred … I know I murdered some of them. I just know … several hundred over a bunch of years … Most doctors do not like to discuss sex or what we do or did. … One doctor answered me, ‘It takes two to tango so you cannot take the responsibility alone.”

Recently, the Centers for Disease Control released findings on gay activity. The “love story” doesn’t have a happy ending. The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association also underscores their very real, dangerous elevated risks:

• HIV/AIDS

• Substance and alcohol abuse

• Depression and anxiety

• Hepatitis

• STDs, including syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, HPV and prostate, testicular, oral and colon cancer.

• Gay and bisexual men accounting for 75 percent of syphilis  

• 78 percent of all new HIV infections are among males, overwhelmingly gays.

Psychological Reports and the International Journal of Epidemiology report: Homosexuals have a 20-year-shorter lifespan.


Stats can be impersonal and cold but if you’ve cared for a 30-year-old gay friend until his excruciating death (I later officiated his funeral with his former gay friends) you feel the pain of a devastating, unnecessary loss.

Dr. Frank Spinelli wrote the following in The Advocate, a gay publication:

“My practice predominantly treats gay men. Guess how many texts and phone calls you might receive during any given weekend involving questions that have to do with … contracting HIV from unprotected sexual encounters? Now take that number and multiply it by 10 if that weekend should occur around Gay Pride, Folsom Street Fair, Gay Days at Disney, or any one of the Atlantis cruises. Welcome to my world!”  

Our Declaration of Independence begins by referencing our Creator whom tens of millions believe designed a beautiful natural order for sexuality, marriage and family. Disregarding divinely established standards have brought epidemic STDs on America.

Charity and Clarity Can Make for a Happy Ending

Millions believe we shouldn’t redefine marriage, opening the floodgates for polygamy, polyamory and pederasty. We should honor it as it has been defined for 5,000 years of Western Civilization (plus honored by every major world religion and 91 percent of the United Nations countries).

The spiritual, emotional, mental and physical well-being of gays should be all our concern. Should we shrink back from sharing these realities, the result will be escalating death, disease and diminished lifespans.

For attorneys, advocates and uninformed people swept up by the “marriage equality” express, did you see Mr. Kramer’s billboards along the way warning “Silence = Death?”

Larry Tomczak is an author of nine books, including a quarter-million best-seller, Clap Your Hands! He is also a cultural commentator through his weekly articles on three national news services reaching 26 million monthly.

Former President George W. Bush said President Barack Obama is being naive about Iran and his nuclear deal with that country.
 
Bush also said Obama is losing the war against ISIS.
     
Bloomberg News reports the former president made those remarks in a closed-door meeting with Jewish donors Saturday night.
     
Bush also said that Obama was putting the U.S. in “retreat” around the world. He said he thought the nuclear deal with Iran would be bad for American security over the long term, and that it would make the Middle East even more chaotic.

“You think the Middle East is chaotic now? Imagine what it looks like for our grandchildren. That’s how Americans should view the deal,” BloombergView quoted the former president.

“In order to be an effective president … when you say something you have to mean it,” Bush said.

You may have read about the University of Maryland cancelling a screening of the movie American Sniper after Muslim students complained. Evangelist Franklin Graham surely did—and he has something to say about it.

Indeed, Charisma News previously reported about how Muslim Middle Eastern and North African students at the University of Michigan were successful in their mission to cancel a campus screening of American Sniper—claiming the film promotes anti-Muslim rhetoric and made them feel unsafe.

The double-minded university changed its mind and decided to show the film, then changed it again to appease Muslims.

On that same day, Graham went to meet with wounded military veterans and their spouses who served this nation with honor, fighting to preserve our freedoms and many times shedding their own blood. Graham also called Chris Kyle was an American hero.

“It’s brave soldiers like these that make all of the freedoms we enjoy possible. Shame on the University of Maryland for listening to these voices!” Graham wrote on his Facebook page.” If these Muslim students can’t support the military members who do their job to protect us, let them leave America and go to a Muslim country. God bless America and our heroes!”

“Strength is for service, not status” (Rom. 15:2, MSG).

Those of us who are strong and able have been charged to step in and assist those who falter—to lend a hand to those who pause, hesitate, waver, or weaken in their resolve.

It is my hope and prayer that all of God’s children will rise up and enter into the freedom and purposes He is placing before us. This collective growth into liberty will require those who are stronger, freer, or more established in truth to turn back and encourage those who are paused on the threshold.

Even though more and more people are discovering the freedom God has for them, some still stumble under the weight of religion. Jesus once said of the religious leaders of His day:

“Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help” (Matt. 23:4, MSG).

God’s law was supposed to be a banquet, not a burden. Food gives strength, but labor drains it. We are called to present God—what He is doing and all He offers—as a feast for everyone to partake in. This will at times require us to get rid of some of the religious baggage that has been loaded on God’s sons and daughters.

Are we willing to use our freedom to lift the weight that religion has wrongly placed on others?

This starts with remembering who we are—strong, majestic, fearless, fierce, protective, at rest, and unworried. God repeatedly compared the strength of His royal children to lions and lionesses.

“Like a lion, Israel crouches and lies down; like a lioness, who dares to arouse her?” (Num. 24:9, NLT).

If you forget your fierce and fearless nature, then all who look to you for protection and guidance will be at risk. You are a golden bearer of light who has the power to dispel darkness wherever you go. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal your strength through His Word. How can you use it to serve and lift the people in your life?

Adapted from Lioness Arising by Lisa Bevere. You can click here to learn more about that message.

A Canadian author who was brought up by her homosexual father and his multiple partners has expressed opposition to same-sex marriage.

Dawn Stefanowicz, who has written a book about the “impact” her upbringing had, says that she is one of many brought up in the homosexual community who support traditional marriage.

Her story has similarities with that of Hetty Baynes Russell, a woman who has said being brought up by two mothers was “damaging and confusing,” and warned of the potential for “irreparable, long-term damage to a child.”

‘Denied the Impact’

Mrs. Stefanowicz said that for a long time she “denied the impact” her childhood had had and lied to protect her father and his partners.

However, when she reached her late 20s and early 30s she decided to go “public” and oppose same-sex marriage.

She said: “Due to media silencing, political correctness, GLBT lobbying efforts and loss of freedom of speech, it is very hard to tell my story.”

‘Adults’ Desires’

“But I am not alone. Over 50 adult children from alternative households, plus ex-spouses with children, and parents who have left the ‘gay’ lifestyle have contacted me. Very few children will share their stories publicly.

“For many of us adult children of gay parents, we have come to the conclusion that same-sex marriage is more about promoting adults’ ‘desires’ than about safeguarding children’s rights to know and be raised by their biological parents.”

Earlier this month, Hetty Baynes Russell, 58, said her unconventional parental setup fostered “a life of confusion and a lack of emotional security,” which landed her in therapy for many years, “trying to make sense of it all”.

She said that, “far from being a healthy, nurturing state of affairs, this arrangement—where I was caught in a destructive, triangular battle for my mother’s affection with another woman, while forced to watch helplessly as my father was emasculated and airbrushed from our lives—was simultaneously damaging and confusing.”

I have been asked, and I have asked the Lord, to whom we are to pray. Is it the Father, or is it the Son?

Technically, I believe we are to pray to the Father, through the Son, by the working of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the entire Trinity is involved in prayer.

On the other hand, the 15th chapter of John calls us to abide in Christ, or to live in Him. I find for me that a part of living in Jesus involves dialoguing with Him, and that when I look for a vision of the Godhead, He is the image that often appears (Col. 1:15). I find that when I pray with authority, I tend to address the Father, and that when establishing intimacy and friendship, I generally commune with Jesus. When in corporate worship or beginning a class, I often speak to the Holy Spirit, inviting Him to manifest His presence among us.

I have asked the Lord about this, and He has confirmed that it is most proper to pray to Him, through the Son, by the working of the Holy Spirit. However, He has also said that since the Three are One, He will also honor my prayer when it is Jesus and I talking. After all, Jesus only speaks the words the Father has spoken (John 5:19-20).

Actually, in considering 1 John 1:3 and 2 Corinthians 13:14, we find that the Bible tells us we may fellowship with the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit.

“…and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3, emphasis added).

“Let the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, be with you all through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (2 Cor. 13:14, a paraphrase from the Greek, emphasis added).

Therefore, I believe our fellowship can be with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Mark Virkler is founder and president of Christian Leadership University and co-founder of Communion With God Ministries. The co-author of more than 50 books with his wife, Patti, Mark has received a Master of Theology from Miami Christian University and a Ph.D. from Carolina Christian University.

For the original article, visit .

Answers in Genesis (AiG) filed a motion in federal court this morning seeking an injunction against Kentucky officials who it believes are discriminating against AiG’s Ark Encounter theme park development. The park, which is being built around a life-size recreation of Noah’s Ark, is scheduled to open in Williamstown, Kentucky, in 2016.

With the injunction, AiG is asking the court to allow the Ark project to participate in a state sales tax rebate, even as its religious discrimination lawsuit proceeds. The motion today seeks to override the blocking efforts of Gov. Steven Beshear and his tourism secretary and send the incentive application directly to a state tourism board (the Tourism Development Finance Authority), where the ultimate approval for a tax rebate is given.

AiG is asking the court that its rebate application be treated by the state as it would one filed by a non-religious group and go through the approval process without being blocked. The Tourism Authority had already given preliminary approval to AiG’s application, but when secularist groups around the country vigorously protested, the governor and his tourism secretary, Bob Stewart, bowed to the pressure and kept the application from being voted on by the Tourism Authority.

AiG and its affiliates, Crosswater Canyon and Ark Encounter, filed their civil rights lawsuit Feb. 5 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. The suit shows that Sec. Stewart and Gov. Beshear are engaging in unlawful religious discrimination by “wrongfully excluding the plaintiffs from participation in the Kentucky Tourism Development Program simply because of who the plaintiffs are, what they believe, and how they express their beliefs.”

Although the popular rebate program has allowed many other tourist attraction developers to qualify for a gradual rebate of a portion of the new state sales taxes their projects generate, AiG’s lawsuit explains that its application for the program has been blocked by state officials simply because of: 1) the Ark project’s religious messaging; and 2) the intention of AiG to utilize religious preferences in its hiring for the project.

“The state gave us no choice but to bring this legal action,” said Ken Ham, AiG president and the visionary behind the new theme park. “We, along with our attorneys, tried for many months to show these officials why their actions are blatantly violating our rights under the federal and state constitutions, as well as the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Kentucky Civil Rights Act. The law is crystal clear that the state cannot discriminate against a Christian group simply because of its viewpoint, but that is precisely what is happening here.”

The video features Ham and constitutional law attorney Mike Johnson. Johnson is the chief counsel of the non-profit public interest law firm, Freedom Guard, and is serving as co-counsel in the case pro bono, with Nate Kellum, chief counsel of the Center for Religious Expression. The firm of Taft Stettinius & Hollister is also serving in the case as local counsel. The video also includes clips of a 2010 Ark Encounter press conference, at which Gov. Beshear originally expressed his enthusiastic support for the Ark project.

“Every American should be concerned with this kind of overt government discrimination, regardless of their individual perspectives on the Bible,” said Johnson. “When such an unconstitutional state action goes unchallenged, it sets a dangerous precedent for all other religious and minority groups.  If our freedom of religion is not vigorously defended, it will be taken away.”

Don’t tell me you haven’t looked … You know what I’m talking about—women wearing skin-tight yoga pants. It’s even big news.

Clothing maker Lululemon Athletica lost millions of dollars from investors a couple of years back when reports came out that they had to recall their yoga pants for being too sheer. Imagine being in the store and seeing a woman having to prove the knit is too thin! Apparently the company fixed the sheer problem, but leads me to think there’s more to this story than meets the eye.

Many times, temptation starts with the eyes, and where you look. In James 1:14-16, God reveals how sin starts with a look, and ends with destruction. “But each one is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires. Then when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is full grown, it gives birth to death.”

An example of this, is Potiphar’s wife. In the story about Joseph in Genesis 39:7 she would “cast her eyes upon Joseph.” Every day, her longing gaze at the handsome Joseph fueled her lustful desires, until one day she forced herself on Joseph, pulling him to bed. Fortunately, in this story, Joseph fled and avoided sin.

But the moral of the story is: Don’t be a lookie-lulu or else you will find yourself compromising your self, your beliefs and your marriage.

And, there are consequences. God spoke through Jeremiah in verses 5:8-9 saying, “They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for another man’s wife. Should I not punish them for this? declares the Lord.”

Your gaze is important business to God. God’s man needs to fight for focus on Jesus and his plan for your life, not the yoga pants in front of you in line at the store.

The apostle Paul explained it this way in Philippians 3:14: “I press on toward the goal (focus) to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

In other words, focus on what matters. Focus on Christ. If your gaze is pure, your mind remains pure. And, you will be rewarded. Jesus said in Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

Here’s the bottom line, if you’re a lookie-lulu, then you’ve already committed adultery in your heart. In Matthew 5:28, Jesus says, “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

It’s interesting that Jesus made these comments after addressing anger and disconnection in relationships in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5). Jesus addresses obsessive desire in men. Makes sense that they come in this order.

Anger and contempt in relationships, or contemptible attitudes inside of the heart in any relationship creates disconnection and unmet needs that inevitably draws people into the realm of fantasy.

It’s better to skip the fantasy and focus on the prize awaiting you.

If you, or a friend, is struggling with being a lookie-lulu, sex or porn addiction, find godly men to hang out with, and stop looking at the yoga pants. There is a better way. God’s way.

Additional resources for men regarding sex and porn addiction are available HERE.

Kenny Luck is the president and founder of Every Man Ministries. As the former men’s pastor at Saddleback Church in California and current leadership pastor at Crossline Community Church, Kenny has found the proven way to improve men’s ministries around the world. Sleeping Giant is this blueprint, and gives men the tools they need to lead and understand their own men’s ministry. Watch Kenny’s teachings at .

Nearly a year removed from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ordain Women founder Kate Kelly says she has found happiness living a more authentic life while continuing to push for equality in the Mormon faith.

Kelly, who was excommunicated in June 2014, now lives in Nairobi, Kenya, where she works on human-rights efforts. She was back here briefly on April 23 as part of an offshoot project of the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City to explain how she was punished for speaking out for women’s rights in the LDS faith.

“The men who (excommunicated me) literally think they kicked me out of heaven,” Kelly said. “Luckily, I do not think that. … Out of this experience, I’ve realized that men don’t get to control my happiness. I’ve come out on the other end, (where) I think I’m much happier, much more authentic, a much more invigorated person.”

Still, on stage at the Gotham Comedy Club, a space usually filled by raucous laughter, Kelly broke down in tears talking about her ouster from the LDS faith and the repercussions for herself and her family.

“It’s like an execution, a spiritual death,” Kelly said of Mormon excommunication. “It’s very, very extreme.”

For their part, Kelly’s Mormon leaders have said the door always is open to her return.

“Excommunicants may later qualify for rebaptism after lengthy and full repentance,” according to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, “and still later may apply for formal restoration of their original priesthood and temple blessings.”

Kelly led the effort to allow LDS women to enter the all-male priesthood, but she faced a church disciplinary council and was removed from the faith’s rolls in June. Top Mormon leaders declined to overturn that decision earlier this year, and Kelly’s husband, Neil Ransom, resigned from the Utah-based faith.

Kelly shared the stage here with MSNBC’s Abby Huntsman, who has also spoken out about her concerns with the LDS Church.

Huntsman, daughter of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, said that if all Mormon women were in the room for the discussion, she imagines plenty of them would feel the same but feared speaking out.

“It’s a balance and it’s tough, and that’s why I commend Kate for what she’s saying,” Huntsman said. “It’s not easy. … Kate has been an inspiration for me.”

Kelly said she still practices the LDS faith — “I don’t think Mormonism washes off,” she added — but added she no longer feels bound by some “arbitrary” church rules.

She pulled aside her yellow cardigan to show her sleeveless dress. Excommunicated Mormons are told to stop wearing LDS temple garments, which devout members wear.

One of her bigger worries, she told the small Manhattan crowd, was that her exit from the church would strike fear into the Ordain Women movement, hurting its chances at making any progress.

“I was afraid they would back down, afraid it would dissipate,” she said. “Much to my surprise and delight, the opposite has happened. It’s galvanized the movement.”

She said she knows of people who have lost their jobs and been disowned by their families for backing the equality effort for Mormon women. But, like any such push, she said, it’s worth it.

Kelly said her parents, who live in Provo, no longer can attend LDS temple services, have had their mailbox smashed and been shunned by fellow Mormons for supporting her.

“Whenever you get that kind of pushback,” she said, “you know you’re doing the right thing.”