Rev. Cammenga is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Loveland, Colorado.

There is a strong movement in our day to legitimize the sin of homosexuality. The homosexuals (or gays, as they are called) have not only come out of the closet, but are demanding public acceptance of their homosexuality. They defend their life-style as an “alternative life-style.” And they insist that their homosexuality be respected as a legitimate “sexual preference.”

A great deal of interest in the gay rights movement has been sparked recently on account of the adoption by the citizens of Colorado of Amendment 2 which prohibits the state’s adoption of any law or policy that would provide homosexuals, lesbians, or bisexuals with minority or protected status. The adoption of this amendment has caused a national furor. The homosexual establishment is up in arms. There are charges of discrimination against gays. Threats of boycott against Colorado have been made by entertainers, organizations, and various cities. As expected, the legality of Amendment 2 is being challenged in the courts.

Homosexual Propaganda

In recent years the homosexuals have become increasingly aggressive in promoting their cause. Television and radio, newspapers and magazines (secular and religious) advance the homosexual viewpoint. Writers in psychology, education, sociology, law, religion, and ethics lend their support.

Various organizations are involved in the push for homosexual recognition and rights. These organizations include the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Gay Lobby, Gay Media Task Force, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund (which conducts litigation on behalf of homosexuals), the National Gay Rights Activists, and the radical group ACTUP (Aids Coalition to unleash Power). The movement has also gained support from the National Democratic Party, the National Education Association, and the National Organization for Women. Gay activists have the support of one of the richest political action committees in the country, the Human Rights Campaign Fund. Through the assistance of this PAC they have successfully engineered political support for their life-style. In certain parts of the country they have also succeeded in forcing laws to be passed forbidding all discrimination based on sexual preference or sexual orientation. The American Psychological Association and the American Public Health Association have also lent their aid by downplaying the consequences, of homosexuality and taking the position that homosexuality is no longer to be regarded as deviant behavior. Psychology professors and sex therapists warn endlessly against the evil of u sexual repression” and encourage the homosexual to express his sexuality.

Public rallies, marches, and demonstrations are organized in order to promote acceptance of homosexuality. Colleges and universities sponsor an annual “Gay Awareness Week.” I/Two, four, six, eight! Gay is just as good as straight!” chant militant gays demonstrating for their cause. Others carry placards declaring, “God Loves Gays.” A Christian minister involved in such a demonstration addresses a crowd asserting, “I see my homosexuality as a gift from God.”

One of the greatest victories for the homosexuals was the election of Bill Clinton to the presidency of our country. A great deal of money and votes were promised to the Clinton campaign in exchange for aggressive action on behalf of the homosexuals. Clinton is delivering on his promises. At his insistence the ban against gays serving in the military is being struck down, and huge sums of money are being promised for AIDS research and care of AIDS victims.

One of the areas in which the homosexuals have concentrated their propaganda energy is education. By promoting their cause in the schools, especially the high schools and junior highs, the homosexuals are convinced that they can gain sympathy and turn public sentiment in their favor.

A 1992 Denver Public Schools Health and Science Education teachers’ guide entitled, “Gay and Lesbian Youth Tools for Educators,” was presented to teachers by gay instructors during a tax-payer-funded continuing education course. This guide contains a questionnaire designed to be answered by heterosexual junior high and high school students. Included in the questions are the following: “Is it possible your heterosexuality is just a phase you may outgrow? Is, it possible that all you need is a good gay lover? If you have never slept with a person of the same sex, how do you know that you would not prefer to do so? How can you hope to become a whole person if you limit yourself to an exclusive heterosexual object choice and remain unwilling to explore and develop your normal, natural, healthy homosexual potential?” This in junior high and high school!

In the New York City school system, some recommended books on the reading list for first graders are, “Daddy’s Roommate” (about two homosexual men), and “Heather Has Two Mommies.”

Fallout for Those Who Oppose Homosexuality

The homosexuals have succeeded in bringing bitter consequences to those who oppose them. The murderous hostility of homosexuals, seen already. in the incident respecting Sodom and Gomorrah recorded in Genesis 19, survives to this day. Although the opponents of homosexuality are often labeled as intolerant and accused of discrimination, no group is more intolerant and discriminatory than the homosexuals themselves.

In several recent lawsuits, opponents of homosexuality have been found guilty of discrimination and were forced to pay punitive damages.

An admitted homosexual “Big Brother” applicant was told that mothers of prospective “clients” (boys) would be notified of his homosexuality. He filed suit. The agency was fined $6,000, prohibited from informing mothers of the homosexuality of its volunteers, and required to initiate (an affirmative action program to bring homosexuals into the program.

The Attorney General of Hawaii recently handed down an advisory opinion stating that only the position of pastor could be withheld from a homosexual without breaking the laws against discrimination in that state. All other positions in a church could not be withheld from a person on the ground of “sexual orientation.”

Two women in Madison, Wisconsin were fined $1,500, ordered to write a formal letter of apology, report to a local homosexual group for “sensitivity” classes, and submit to monitoring of their life-style for two years because they refused to take as their roommate a lesbian who responded to their newspaper ad.

Under a “gay rights” ordinance, the Catholic Archdiocese of Minneapolis was recently fined $15,000 and assessed $20,000 in damages, payable to homosexuals who complained that the Archdiocese denied their club the “right” to meet in church-owned facilities.

A 1992 New Jersey “gay rights” statute prohibits all employers, including churches, from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation. The same law could force churches not only to hire homosexuals but conduct homosexual marriages.

Seven states and more than 90 cities, counties, and municipalities in America now prohibit discrimination based on “sexual orientation.”

In 1992, Mr. Bruce Skewes, a New Jersey high school English teacher, was forced to retire from the school system or face tenure charges simply for giving out printed information about the medical dangers of homosexual behavior.

On August 30,1991, the Office of Student Activities of Denver’s Metropolitan State College issued a directive to all 90 campus clubs requiring that membership in all clubs, including religious and military, be opened to homosexuals. Failure to comply would result in loss of on-campus recognition and loss of all club privileges.

Homosexual instructors of a 1991 Denver continuing education course presented teachers with a several hundred- page guide entitled, “Gay and Lesbian Youth Tools for Educators.” The introductory article contained the following statement: “There is no biblical sex ethic. The Bible knows only a love ethic, which is constantly being brought to bear on whatever sexual mores are dominant in a given country, culture or period.” In addition to promoting acceptance of homosexuality, this teachers guide suggested that resources be distributed to children, including information and telephone numbers of homosexual support groups for children to contact.

The Homosexual Agenda

It is a mistake to suppose, as is often alleged, that the homosexuals are merely interested in toleration. Nothing could be further from the truth. They do not want toleration, but special protection of their lifestyle, and punishment of those who in any way oppose them. The aim of “Gay Rights” legislation is to give homosexuals protected status as a discriminated-against minority. Their aim is the repeal of sodomy laws, legitimizing of homosexual marriages, requirements for churches and schools to hire homosexual staff persons, special privileges in housing and medical care, and stiff penalties against any who discriminate against them.

Several gay leaders and activist groups are now advocating violence in order to further the homosexual cause. Homosexual leader, Larry Kramer, founder of ACT-UP, stated in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, “It hurts me to say I think the time for violence has now arrived…. I’d like to see an AIDS terrorist army….”

Gay activist Michael Swift has served notice of the homosexuals’ intentions.

We shall sodomize your sons, emblems of your feeble masculinity, of your shallow dreams and vulgar lies. We shall seduce them in your schools, in your dormitories, in your gymnasiums, in your locker rooms, in your sports arenas, in your seminaries, in your youth groups, in your movie theater bathrooms, in your army bunkhouses, in your truck stops, in your all male clubs, in your houses of Congress…. 

If you dare to cry faggot, fairy, queer, at us, we will stab you in your cowardly hearts and defile your dead, puny bodies. 

There will be no compromises. We are no middle-class weaklings. Highly intelligent, we are the natural aristocrats of the human race, and steely-minded aristocrats never settle for less. Those who oppose us will be exiled. 

The family unit – spawning ground of lies, betrayals, mediocrity, hypocrisy and violence – will be abolished. The family unit, which only dampens imagination and curbs free will, must be eliminated…. All churches who condemn us will be closed…. All males who insist in remaining stupidly heterosexual will be tried in homosexual courts of justice and will become invisible men. 

We shall be victorious…. We too are capable of firing guns and manning the barricades of the ultimate revolution. (“The Gay Community News,” Feb. 15-21, 1987).

Make no mistake, these are the goals of the homosexuals. They are not at all interested simply in toleration. They aim at the destruction of the family, the destruction of marriage, and the destruction of the one institution which stands in their way, the church.

– to be continued.