[1]NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–A new book by two Christian authors seeks to help those who look at the homosexual movement in America and ask: “How did we get here?”
In “The Homosexual Agenda,” authors Alan Sears and Craig Osten show how homosexual activists have used the entertainment industry, education system and government to transform America from a nation that once frowned on homosexual behavior to one that now embraces many same-sex issues.
Sears is president and general counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based pro-family legal organization. Osten is its vice president of creative services. The 229-page book is published by Broadman & Holman, the publishing house of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The future of America — including the future of religious freedom — is at stake, Sears and Osten argue.
“The homosexual activists have the ball on our ten-yard line, and it is first and goal,” they write in the introduction. “We can either put up a brave defensive stand, or we can let them cross the goal line unhindered.
“If believers choose to do nothing, there may be a day that people of faith will have to tell their children and grandchildren, ‘I’m sorry, I did nothing to protect your religious freedom and now it’s gone.'”
[2]The authors devote one chapter each to show how homosexual activists have advanced their cause through such avenues as television and movies, the public school system, higher education, corporate America and the government.
Along the way they give specific details, illustrating how America has gradually been influenced. Some examples:
— The actor who plays Will on the comedy “Will & Grace” has said one of his goals is to change the nation’s attitudes about homosexuality.
“”I would love to get to the point where grandmothers in Kansas are saying, ‘I just hope that Will finds a nice man,'” the book quoted him as saying. “We’re not a political show, but that would be a real coup.”
Sears and Osten outline how homosexual-themed characters began popping up in TV shows during the 1970s and 1980s before experiencing a rapid growth during the 1990s.
“Perhaps nowhere else has the homosexual activist movement had more success than in gaining control of the entertainment media to promote its agenda,” they write.
— The National Education Association has promoted the homosexual cause in public schools, such as by endorsing a booklet that asserted homosexuality cannot be changed.
Titled “Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth,” the booklet read, “School officials should be deeply concerned about the validity and bias of materials or presentations that promote a change to a person’s sexual orientation as a ‘cure’ or suggest that being gay, lesbian, or bisexual is unhealthy.”
Sears and Osten say public schools have been pushing the homosexual cause “for years, while millions of parents, including many Christian parents, have been blissfully ignorant about how radical homosexual activists are targeting their children in the public schools.”
The authors warn parents that if “you have a child in public schools, it is vital that you know what is going on.”
— More than 30 percent of Fortune 500 companies and more than 80 percent of Fortune 50 companies offer domestic-partner benefits, according to the book.
“And yet, despite these numbers, many corporate leaders have no idea what the enactment of these policies really mean for their companies and for society as a whole,” the authors wrote.
Sears and Osten told the story of lady in Texas who was fired from her job at a bank because of “management’s loss of confidence” in her. But weeks prior to her dismissal she had questioned the necessity of having a policy protecting homosexuals from hiring discrimination.
On other topics, the authors sum up the legal issues involving same-sex “marriage” and discuss the advancements made by homosexual activists in other countries. For example, Focus on the Family in Canada cannot air programs critical of homosexuality or the organization “will face sanctions from the Canadian Communications Commission.”
The book shows how homosexual activists have followed the strategy outlined in the 1980s by two authors, Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen. The two men wrote a book in 1989 titled, “After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the ’90s.”
“[T]he activists have followed this plan to the letter,” Sears and Osten write. “They have achieved the goals they set out in the late eighties through careful coordination and relentless effort. As a result, the very future of our nation is at risk if the homosexual agenda continues to advance unchecked.”
But Sears and Osten conclude that any political and social battle must be fought with a Christlike attitude and with the Gospel in mind.
“Are we willing to take a stand, to keep the door open for the gospel, or are we going to allow it to be silenced?” they ask. “Are we willing to share Christ’s love with the person trapped in homosexual behavior, or will we simply walk by them like the Levite and the priest on the road to Jericho and not offer a helping hand?
“The answers to those questions will determine the future of marriage, the family, culture, and the gospel in America, and of America itself.”
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“The Homosexual Agenda” can be purchased online at: http://www.lifewaystores.com/lwstore/product.asp?isbn=0805426981. (BP) photo posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo title: HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA.