SoL NEWS LINKS
SoL's Stephen Graham was interviewed on by Katy Carlyle on Salt Lake's Fox13 news following the protest rally and march against the LDS Church involvment in CA Proposition 8. Click here to see the Fox13 news report by Katy Carlyle. Click here to see the entire Stephen Graham interview. 11/8/2008
Washington DC Metro allows anti-God ads on 200 buses at Christmas season. Read the MyFoxDC article. 12/3/2008
Anti-God sign posted next to Nativity Scene at Washington state capitol. Read the Seattle Times article. Call Governor Gregoire to complain: 360-902-4111. 12/3/2008
LDS Church, attacked for supporting Prop 8, defended by editorials and religious leaders. Read the National Reveiw editorial. Also read Rabbi Schiffrin's article. 11/28/2008
Newt Gingrich denounced "gay and secular fascism on O'Reilly Factor. Read the NewsMax article. 11/14/2008.
Homosexual rioters attack old lady in Palm Springs, shouting and stomping on her cross. Watch the unbelievable KPSP TV video. 11/10/2008
SoL's Stephen Graham was interviewed on by Katy Carlyle on Salt Lake's Fox13 news following the Affirmatin press conference mentioned in the news link below. Click here to see the Fox13 news report by Katy Carlyle. Click here to see the entire Stephen Graham interview. 8/16/2008
"Gay" talk show host opposes "gay marriage." Read the Newsmax article. 10/27/2008
Good news! McDonald's agrees to stop supporting activist homosexual movement. Read the WND report. 10/25/2008
Yes on 8 sends letter to CA state board of ed about lies in 'NO' ad. Read the article. 10/22/2008
School holds surprise 'Gay' Day for kindergarteners. Parents not notified. Read the WND article. 10/22/2008
CA teachers union gives $1M to defeat prop 8. Watch the Sacramento News10 feature. 19/29/2008
Unbelievable . . . UK police instructed not to interfere with public gay sex. Read the Lifesitenews.com article. 10/20/2008
Mass. parents have no say in their children's education. U.S. Supreme Court rejects Parker appeal. Read the MassResistance article. 10/11/2008
What will your children be taught in school if "gay marriage" becomes law? Watch the FRC video. 10/11/2008
Bride and Groom to be restored to CA marriage licenses. Read the ADF article. 10/11/2008
Good ads for Prop 8 in CA. Watch the YesOn8 videos. 10/11/2008
First Graders Taken to SF City Hall for Gay Marriage. Read the article about how children are indoctrinated in schools. 10/11/2008
Good resources for information on how to learn about and help pass California Proposition 8. Click here. 10/11/2008
Gay day at Disneyland? Read the sorry details in the Advocate article. 10/11/2008
Want the truth about "gay marriage?" Read Joe Kort's blog in Psychology Today. 10/11/2008
Proof of negative effects of the movement against traditional marriage. Calfornia Newlyweds File Suit Seeking Recognition as "Bride" and "Groom," Not "Party A" and "Party B." Read the PJI news release. 10/4/2008
Senior Episcopal Bishops in California came out in favor of so-called same-sex marriage on Sept. 10. Read Albert Mohler's blog about the unbelievable statement which completely ignores scriptural prohibitions of homosexuality. 9/18/2008
What happens if California Proposition 8 fails? Read Glen Greener's article in Meridian Magazine. 9/18/2008
BYU law professor Lynn Wardle gave a great talk on defending traditional marriage at Campus Education Week. He also said we all must actively take a stand, regardless of the name-calling and intimidation we will suffer. Read the Deseret News article. 8/24/2008
Homosexuality is harmful to the health of people involved in it. The Gay & Lesbian Health Association lists the top 10 medical concerns. Click here for the top 10 concerns for men. Click here for the top 10 concerns for women. 8/19/2008
National media encourage youth to choose homosexuality. Read the Washington Post article sympathetic to a 15-year-old, and blaming local authorities for not supporting him. 8/19/2008
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has recently published a document on its website. Entitled "The Divine Institution of Marriage," it lays out the Church's position on marriage in conjuction with its support of the California marrriage amendment movement. Read the document on the Church's website. 8/19/2008
Affirmation, an apostate group pushing LDS Church acceptance of homosexuality and so-called "gay marriage" in the temple, is holding a press conference Aug. 11 to complain about cancellation of a meeting with LDS Family Services reps. Read the Deseret News article. Also read Affirmations article about what they want the Church to do. Here is an excerpt from the Affirmation article: "Will the Church someday accept gay men and women in full fellowship?
Absolutely — one day. We are children of loving Heavenly Parents who have blessed us with the amazing gift of being gay and we will have our place in the kingdom." 8/9/2008
The word is spreading about what Planned Parenthood is really up to. Take a look at what they are promoting to our youth. 8/2/2008
SoL exercises first amendment right of free speech at American Fork Library after high school principal cancels after-hours PTA meeting. See the TV coverage. Read articles from the Deseret News, Daily Herald and Salt Lake Tribune. 4/1/2008
Watch this 1961 police video about homosexuality and compare society's attitude then and now. Thanks to Nedd Kareiva of www.stoptheaclu.org for telling us about it. Religious liberty loses when homosexual agenda becomes law. Read the CitizenLink article. 7/30/2008
Lesbian experimentation encouraged in YouTube music video. Watch the YouTube video. 7/24/2008
Homsexual activists infiltrate South Carolina government. Read the OneNewsNow article. 7/20/2008
Good News! Census Bureau respects marriage by only counting opposite-sex couples as married. Same-sex couples will be counted as "unmarried partners." Read the CitizenLink article. 7/15/2008
18 Teenage girls pregnant in Massachusetts high school. Read the Time Magazine article. Watch the Fox News video. 6/23/3008
LDS Church Officials Urge California Members to Support Marriage Amendment. Read the Deseret News article. 6/23/2008
California Supreme Court overturns the will of the people. Says so-called same-sex marriage is ok in Cal. Read the ADF collection of coverage. 6/15/2008
9th Circuit Chief Judge has pornography on his website. Read the L.A. Times article about the man who is presiding over a pornography case. 6/11/2008
Students in KY school district forbidden to say they think homosexuality is wrong. Can be expelled for speaking their beliefs. Read the WND article. 5/1/2008
Canadian religious group fined for firing homosexual employee. Fine assessed by government agency after the group enforced an agreement to abstain from sexual immortality. Read the AFA article. 5/2/2008
Ben Stein's movie "Expelled" takes 5th place in per-theater revenue in its first weekend. We recommend that everyone go see it. Read the CL article. 4/21/2008
Family Watch International has an excellent paper on the use of junk science to support same-sex parenting. Read the article here. 4/11/2008
Utah alternative paper goes after SoL and PTA. As ususal, facts are misrepresented. Read the Hits and Misses blurb. Read the blog article. 4/6/2008
McDonald's CEO Announces the fast-food giant will put its resources behind gay and lesbian businesses. Read the shocking AFA article. 4/8/2008
Cal. appeals court rules that parents have no right to home school their children. Read the APA article. 3/24/2008
Colorado school allows sexually confused 8-year-old boy to attend dressed and treated as a girl. Read the WND article. 3/24/2008
Rhode Island Supreme Court refuses to give divorce to gay couple married in Mass. Read the BP article. 3/24/2008
Dr. John Diggs writes about the health risks of homosexual sex. Read the CERC article. 3/24/2008
The International Journal of Epidemiology reports the life expectancy of men involved in homosexuality is up to 20 years shorter than the general population. Read the IJE article. 3/24/2008
Read Dr. A. Dean Byrd's recent NARTH article on changes in the American Psychological Association's (APA) position on homosexuality. 3/24/2008
Leader of national "gay" group admits HIV/AIDS is a homosexual disease. Read the CWFA news release. Listen to the 20-minute CWFA podcast.
2/16/2008You will be shocked about what you see on a terrible website that is encouraging sex among teens. You can inform yourself about what is being pushed in our society by going to The Midwest Teen Sex Show. Warning! The videos and other information on the site are inappropriate for non-adults. 2/11/2008
An 8-year old boy is allowed to attend school as a girl. Special restrooms are being made for this mixed-up kid. Read the WND story about political correctness gone crazy. 2/12/2008
You should know that "No Name-calling Week" is scheduled for Jan. 21-25, 2008. Dreamed up by the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN), this is an “anti-bullying” push, which sounds fine, until you learn that it includes approving of homosexuality as a “cure” for school bullying! We urge you to call your school and learn if they are allowing this sneaky indoctrination. Tell them what you think about such manipulation and endorsement of high-risk behavior. And that you expect them to not allow, or cancel, its observance. Read the 2005 NARTH article. 12/29/2007
Gender Confusion accomodated at a Maine elementary school. Local man protests a boy being allowed to use the girls' restroom. Read the World Net Daily article. 12/19/2007
Michael Farris dispels myths about our nation's founding fathers. Listen to the CWFA audio report. 11/28/2007
Christmas is under fire again. Bob Knight explains. Listen to the CWFA audio report. 11/28/2007
David Barton talks about religious freedom. Listen to the CWFA audio report. 11/28/2007
Thanksgiving called a "time of mourning" by Seattle school district. Read the WND article. 11/28/2007
Donor transmits AIDS to four in Chicago. Donated organ pool at risk. Read the NY Times article. Read the Chicago Tribune article. Read the Associated Press article. 11/13/2007.
'Transgender' Bus Driver /Restroom Case Tossed By Federal Court. Read the TVC article about Traditional values and common sense being upheld in court. 11/13/2007
China bans the Bible at 2008 Olympics! Athletes not allowed to bring Bible with them to Beijing. Read the CNA story. 11/07/2007
PFOX responds to Maryland Montgomery County Commission's move to pass bill forbidding discrimination based on "gender identity." Read Regina Grigg's letter. 11/7/2007
7th Circuit rules in favor of free religious speech. Read the WND article about the appeals court ruling against a school that implemented a policy forbidding students to speak their religious beliefs against homosexuality. 11/2/2007
People ask us at SoL why we focus on homosexuality so much. Read our SoL Voice #13. We also found an article by J. Matt Barber of Concerned Women for America which answers this question beautifully. Also, read the AFT article about our right to stand against homosexual activism. 10/31/2007
We recently saw Star Parker speak in Washington DC. She was great! Read her excellent article about Barak Obama and intolerance by the homosexual activist movement. 10/31/2007
Good News! CA Middle School reverses course, cancels cross-dressing day. Read the Pacific Justice Institute news release. 10/30/2007
Gov. Schwarzenegger signed two radical pro-homosexuality school bills — very bad news for California, and the nation. Read the Americans for Truth article. 10/18/2007
Michael Glatze, former leader in the homosexual movement, was interviewed by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi of NARTH , about how he left that lifestyle. Click here to read the interview. 10/17/2007
Dr. Neil Whitehead has produced a slide show that shows "gays" and "lesbians" are not born that way. It goes along with his lecture, but you can follow it well enough by just viewing the slides. Click here to see the slide show. See Dr. Whitehead's web site here. 9/24/2007.
Check out Choice 4 Truth, a project of Mission America. We recommend you sign up for their highly informative quarterly newsletter. 9/16/07
We like the article by Bob Lonsberry on the proper role of Christianity. Click here to read the article on Bob's website. 9/14/2007
Stephen Graham was guest host again on The Unspoken Word radio program, hosted by Steven Rinehart on K-Talk. Listen to the program, and see Steven Rinehart's website for more information. 8/25/2007
Abraham Lincoln gave the Cooper Union Address in 1860 challenging the Southern States' inappropriate justification of slavery. Change a few words and you find an amazing parallel to the activist homosexual movement's arugments for acceptance of homosexuality. Click here to read an excerpt from that speech. 8/25/2997
Read this good article by David J. Stoddard about the response he received to his article about so-called "Gay Marriage." 9/4/2007
Stephen Graham was guest on The Unspoken Word radio program, hosted by Steven Rinehart on K-Talk. Listen to the program, and see Steven Rinehart's website for more information. 8/11/2007
Read Dave Daubenmire's stirring article on why and how to get personally involved in defending our traditional, Godly values. From NewsWithViews.
8/11/2007 Patrick Henry's famous speech, "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" is inspiring. Click here to listen to a 9-minute dramatic reading from www.librivox.org. 8/3/2007
Daily Herald Shows Contempt for Traditional Values. The Provo Daily Herald called and asked for a statement from us here at SoL, regarding a country singer who posed for this month's issue of Playgirl magazine and performed July 24 at the family-oreiented SCERA outdoor theater. They then wrote an editorial denigrating our stand for traditional values. We asked them to publish an op-ed from us. After a series emails, they won't publish our op-ed unless we rewrite it and abandon our central points. Click here to read the whole story. 7/22/2007
Who could've imagined this? Immigration of homosexual partners. Don't be fooled--it's not about immigration or love or family. It's about getting homosexuality, etc. publicly legitimized. See the O'Reilly Factor segment. Read the sympathetic L.A. Times article. 7/22/2007
Dr. A. Dean Byrd has written a review exposing the homosexual activism in Carol Lynn Pearson's new book, in which she opposes LDS church doctrine. Read his important review of No More Goodbyes on the FairLDS website. 7/19/2007
Michael Glatze, well-known former leader in homosexual activism, has abandoned homosexuality. Read his WND article and Dr. Warren Throckmorton's report of his interview with Glatze. 7/10/2007
Violent lesbian and gay gangs recruit youth, attack, rape and terrorize. Watch the 3-minute O'Reilly Factor video segment and read the AFT article. 6/25/2007
A Report falsely showing that homosexual adoption is as effective as married-couple adoption was released in 2006. Read The Pearcy Report and the WND article that expose the homosexual activist who authored the report and the homosexual organizations who funded it. 7/10/2007
Gay Straight Alliance Network News promotes sex-toy workshop for youth. Read the awful truth as reported by Calif. Catholic Daily. 6/25/2007
California passed SB71 in 2004. This terrible law dictates the teaching of gender issues and sexual orientation, and does not allow parents to take their kids out of class for that indoctrination. Read the fact sheet produced by the GSAnetwork. Also, the fact sheet for AB537 prohibits discrimination by gender identity. Read the first paragraph. You may want to call your local CA legislator and talk to them. 7/10/2007
Presidential candidate John Edwards' wife Elizabeth supports so-called gay marriage in San Francisco speech. Read the ONN article. 7/10/2007
Promiscuous sex and drug use encouraged to Boulder High School students in a mandatory assembly. Click here to view a 5-minute segment from the Bill O'Reilly TV show. This is the sexual agenda for kids EXPOSED. 5/25/2007
"Gender-neutral" restrooms to be installed in Salt Lake Community College. Read the Globe article transcribed by Cory Seegmiller. 5/24/2007 ABC's Diane Sawyer trashes reparative therapy on "Good Morning America." Uses the story of one unsuccessful woman as support. Click here to read. 5/10/2007
Read an article, "Campaign Targets ‘Religion-Based Bigotry Against Gay People’" from CNSnews.com about a homosexual advocacy group launching a "Call to Courage" tour to "educate Americans about the misuse of religious teachings to discriminate and isolate gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people." 5/9/2007
National PTA includes ad by pro-gay group in its "Our Children" magazine. Bountiful High PTA writes letter of protest. Click here to read the Deseret News article. 5/3/2007
A disturbing video, "It's Elementary," shows pro-homosexual teachers and administrators how to indoctrinate elementary school children to accept homosexuality. Click here to see clips from the video. Click here to read the AFT article. 5/3/2007
Chicago gay street fair sponsored by the Howard Brown Health Center, distributes unbelievably graphic flier teaching teenage boys how to engage in homosexual perversions. Click here to read the Americans For Truth article. 5/3/2007
Disney expands its Fairy Tale Weddings to include homosexual couples, even though "gay marriage" is illegal. Read the Reuters article. To contact the Walt Disney Company and share your feelings on this issue, click here. 5/3/2007.
Polish leaders bravely speak out against acceptance of homosexuality. Click here to read the Breitbart report. Then the European Union condemns Polish leaders for their stand. Read the EU document. 5/1/2007
Read an article by K.B. Napier about the lack of substance in homosexuality. And read more than a dozen other articles by Napier by clicking here. 3/31/2007
General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has come under fire from homosexual activist groups and the national media for saying that homosexual acts are immoral.. He's also receiving support from conservative groups. Click here to read about it and learn what you can do to offer support. 3/17/2007
Good news! Stephen Graham was on the Steven Rinehart "Unspoken Word" radio show. Steven is a great guy and it was a wonderful chance to get the truth on the air. Click here to listen to the radio program. 3/10/2007
KSL-TV interviewed Stephen Graham about a bill proposing changes to Utah's education statute. The Governor subsequently signed the bill into law. Click here to see the TV report. 3/8/2007
Read the excellent article by Kevin McCullough on Townhall.com about repentance and redemption, called "Why Christians Embrace 'Gay' Porn Stars. 3/11/200
OneNewsNow.com reports that a Cal. school which had taken "God" out a parents' yearbook add to their son has agreed to allow it after all. Read the article here. 3/7/2007
APA report says young girls are being sexualized by our culture. One of their sources of information is SIECUS, a GLBT and anything-goes sex advocacy group. Read what their Sexuality Education Guidelines want to teach your children, starting in kindergarten. Read their homosexual propaganda in a "families are talking" newsletter. 2/22/2007
Theo Hobson discusses the credibility loss as churches embrace homosexuality. 2/19/2007
Why sexuality is so important to the church. Read the article in Albert Mohler's blog. 2/18/2007
Maine school teaches 'transgenderism.' Read the OneNewsNow article. 2/18/2007
The homosexual activist group Soulforce Equality Ride is making another annual U. S. tour and heading to BYU and BYU Idaho, but, unlike last year's visit, this year they will be denied access to the campus. Read more.
2/6/2007 Sundance Film Festival featured a film promoting religious acceptance of homosexuality. It was listed in a news article entitled "Sundance Films Fit for Families." Click here to read the description of "For The Bible Tells Me So." 2/4/2007
Read Andrew Vachss' article on how our language is being subtly changed. 1/29/2007
Excellent article by Gregory Koukl on Tolerance and Intolerance. Read it in Townhall. 1/29/2007
Improprieties Alleged in Maine Gay Youth Organization. Read the Morning Star newspaper article. 1/25/2007
Read the LifeSiteNews article about the new homosexual discrimination law in Great Britain. 1/24/2007
The National Education Association, the union to which 90+% of America's teachers belong, is determined to indoctrinate teachers and students to embrace homosexuality and the like. Read the NEA GLBT website page (the statistics are "engineered" to make their point). Read the 36-page NEA GLBT Guide, which, among other things, vilifies "heterosexism" as the belief that heterosexual relationships are preferred as natural and normal. Take a look at the NEA's SafeZone poster, decrying heterosexism, etc. 1/2/2006
Read an excellent talk by Dr. Victor Cline, "Treatment and Healing from Pornographic and Sexual Addictions." From the 2000 Families Under Fire Conference. 1/2/2007.
Don't miss this wonderful speech, "The Very Root of Christian Doctrine," by Thomas B. Griffith.Click here 12/15/2006
A great essay from the Howard Center publication "The Family in America." The Limitless Possibility of Limits: How Boundaries Safeguard Freedom and Family. 12/15/2006
Reality triumphs over insanity. Read about New York's birth certificate debacle. 12/15/06.
Scotland NHS forbids nurses' use of "mum" and "dad". Read the article. 12/15/2006
Read Albert Mohler's comments about moral relativism and Mary Cheney. 12/13/2006 Gay 'Marriage' in Israel: Worse than Holocaust - Will Cause Terrorism Warns Rabbi Levin. read the LifeSite article. 11/21/2006
Break free of sexual sin. We found a wonderful Christ-based web site called www.mysecret.tv where people can anonymously confess adultery, porn addiction, homosexuality, etc. – the first step in overcoming. Click on their resources button and you can view a great 30 min. talk by recovered sex addict Craig Groeschel called “Pornography and Lust” about how people get hooked and how they can repent and be healed. 10/31/2006
Homosexuals are 12 times more likely than heterosexuals to abuse children. Homosexuals (vastly outnumbered by heterosexuals) are responsible for one third of all reported child sex offenses. Family Research Council makes this unpopular connection in this enlightening study you won’t hear in the prestige media. Read the report. 10/31/2006
Listen to a segment of the Michael Medved radio show where he interviews twice-married, father, and now gay former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey about his new gay-affirming book. We noted with dismay McGreevey’s repeated references urging “young kids” and “children” to be honest and “find and own their personal truth,” by coming out as gay, a great example of the Gay Elite insidiously sexualizing, targeting, and indoctrinating youth. He said his repression of his lifelong gayness caused pain for his loved ones, meaning, we suppose, his ex-wives and children. Reality check: if he hadn’t “repressed his gayness” he wouldn’t have any loved ones on which to inflict this pain. Click here to listen and choose show #108.10/28/2006
"Homophobia is a slogan of intimidation." Read the Catholic Church's strong stance against homosexuality in the Priesthood dating from 810 A.D. 10/20/2006
Concerned about the Foley fiasco? Read the World Net Daily column "The Truth About Gay Pedophilia." 10/10/2006
Maryland school sued for not letting 7th grade girl read the Bible at lunch. Read the CNS article. Then read the WND article about Islam being taught in Oregon schools. 10/10/2006
Episcopal Diocese may quit performing marriages. Read the Boston Globe article. 10/9/2006
A new document entitled "Marriage and the Public Good: Ten Principles," from the Witherspoon Institute, is now available online. Read the Weekly Standard article "Beyond Gay Marriage," then read the Witherspoon document. 9/14/06
A Massachusetts government agency has named a "married" homosexual couple "Parents of the Year". From Mass Resistance. 8/10/2006 Read Maggie Gallagher's column, "The Trouble With Men." It echoes Janice's Voice column, "Arming Prince Charming." 8/9/2006
Read about Canadian activists trying have the government shut down pro-family and traditional values websites. 7/31/2006
Sheldon Kinsel, of United Families International, wrote an excellent op-ed piece on flaws in same-sex marriage arguments. Read it in the Tribune. 6/20/06.
Read a letter to the editor printed in the Daily Herald. More and more right-thinking people are beginning to pay attention and speak out. 6/18/06
SLF interviewed on KSRR. Hear the 28-minute podcast. 6/16/2006
Read the NEA's resolution on "Diversity." See B-8. Includes sexual orientation, gender identity, civil unions. 6/16/2006
David Parker's 7-year-old son attacked at Massachusetts elementary school. Read the LifeSite article. 6/16/2006
D.C. official fired for expressing religious beliefs. Click here to read the FRC article. 6/16/2006
Read a Guest Opinion piece on The DaVinci Code by Camille Turpin. 6/13/2006
SLF's effort to get the Lone Peak High student newspaper to stop publishing illegal articles was covered by Agape Press on June 6, 2006. Read SLF's Op-ed response, "Teen's articles on sex disease unfit to print" printed in the Daily Herald, June 5, 2005. We answer the editorial from last week.Provo Daily Herald Editorial attacks SLF position defending student and parental rights, and demanding adherence to state law in public schools. Read the editorial. Read the details below. 5/28/2006
Front Page News! SLF Charges Utah high school newspaper with breaking state law. Read the SLF news release, front pageProvo Daily Herald and Deseret Morning News articles. Read the November opinion piece, the May article and the May opinion piece. 5/25/2006
Universities holding separate graduation ceremonies for Homosexuals. Read the article from Agape Press. 5/25/2006
Read two important articles by Janice Clouse, of CWA, whom we met in L.A. recently. “How to Talk to Your Child About Sex: The Sex Pyramid” and “Another Hit at Abstinence.” 5/16/2006
NEW! Maggie Gallagher’s excellent May 15, 2006 report, “Banned in Boston, The Coming Conflict Between Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty,” in which 10 top scholars from both sides predict that sexual liberty is bound to subvert freedom of religion.Click here to read the National Review article. Email you Senators at www.rcm.org to let them know you care about this issue. 5/16/2006
You won't believe what's happenning in Massachusetts with Mitt Romney's Governor's Commission for Gay and Lesbian Youth. Click here to read Article 8's report. 5/12/06
Check this outstanding website, wallbuilders.com, with its spring 2006 newsletter "Good News from the Front Lines of the Culture War." 4/22/2006
Shocking reality check on the moral state of our high schools by Albert Mohler. Read his commentary. Listen to his radio show. 4/15/2006
Change from homosexuality possible. Listen to Albert Mohler on his radio program. See our Get Informed page. 4/5/2006
Interesting article about a hard won battle by a Traditional Values Club at a Michigan high school. 4/3/2006
Catholic charities of Boston and San Francisco refuse to participate in gay adoptions. Read the Boston Globe Article about Boston. Read the Catholic News and Family Research Council articles about San Francisco. 3/25/2006
Want to see the flipside of Brokeback Mountain? Everyone should read this powerful article by Ronald G. Lee exposing the truth about homosexuality. We've added it to our Get Informed page. 3/24/2006
Listen to a podcast chat with Steve and Janice of SLF.
School decides to cancel diversity day rather than
include viewpoint of Christians and former homosexuals. Read Liberty Counsel's article.3/20/06
Unbelievable what is happening in our nation's oldest universities. Read the article by Agape Press. 3/9/2006.
The Salt Lake Tribune published an SLF editorial on Sunday, February 26, 2006. Read the op-ed piece here on our website, or read it from the Tribune.
SLF op-ed article published by Provo Daily Herald. Gay-straight alliance clubs not allowed under anticipated new Utah law. Read the SLF op-ed piece here on our website, or Read it from the Feb. 22, 2006 Provo Daily Herald.
Hear two excellent Albert Mohler programs. "The Cuddle-Puddle at American High Schools" and "Can Homosexuals Change?"
SLF on Salt Lake City radio station KUTR, AM 820. Janice and Drew Graham were interviewed about our book, My Darling from the Lions, on the Dr. Liz Hale show Friday, Jan. 27, at 10:00 a.m. Hear the podcast of the show. 33 minutes. 1/27/2006.
Listen to KSL's Doug Wright, 1/12/06, show on which our friend Ken Cromar challenges Doug's support of pro-homosexual movie "Brokeback Mountain." 32 min. Read Ken's research document on the dangers of the homosexual lifestyle. 1/19/2006
Steve Graham visits Utah state legislature. Read about it on our "What We're Up To" page. 1/18/2006
Pro"gay" club propaganda on KSL radio. The Doug Wright Show, 12/15/05, was slanted toward acceptance of GSAs in Utah schools, despite a call from Dr. Richard Wilkins. Listen to the 36-minute show. 12/31/2005
"Brokeback Mountain," the movie celebrating "gay" cowboys, received unexpected positive reviews from Doug Wright on KSL Radio's Movie Show and Jeff Vice at the Deseret Morning News. To read and hear the reviews, click here. 12/31/2005
Homosexual advocacy in Lone Peak High School newspaper. This hits home. Our daughter Elise was assigned by her Journalism class teacher to write the "con" side of two opinion pieces on the issue of GSA clubs in schools. The person who wrote the "pro" piece wrote a homosexual advocacy propaganda piece, which is against our state law. Read both articles. 11/30/2005
Learn about Gay-Straight Alliance clubs and how to prevent them. We have prepared 3 files of useful information regarding the homosexual activist movement's plans to indoctrinate our youth. Homosexual agenda handouts presented to Provo School Board (Word, WordPerfect, pdf). Legal Liability of schools (pdf only). Narth Homosexual Advocacy Groups & Your School (pdf only). Print and use any materials you find helpful. 11/5/2005
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Read other SoL Voice articles.
The SoLVoice
November 28, 2008
Traditional Freedoms Threatened and Lost:
(Only a few years ago these types of events were happening in Europe and Canada. The following true events have occurred recently in America. Events like these tend to set precedents for similar treatment. We are convinced that the general public is unaware of the following developments. It is essential that our citizenry realize this is happening in order to preserve freedom.)
The CA Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a marriage law passed by a majority vote.
After a free election passing CA Prop. 8 sexual activists held angry rallies at churches from New York to LA. That same week many churches were vandalized.
A Sacramento man was forced to resign from his job over his support for Prop 8 in CA.
An elderly Palm Springs woman was silenced, harassed, spit on, and had her property (a cross) purposely destroyed by sexual activists.
A Methodist retreat center in New Jersey lost its tax exempt status for refusing to accommodate a lesbian couple ceremony.
The San Francisco city council condemned a Catholic cardinal’s opposition to homosexual adoption calling it "hateful and discriminatory rhetoric."
A Kentucky faith-based children’s home was sued by a lesbian after it terminated her employment there.
A director of the Washington D.C. transit board was fired by the Maryland governor for saying he thought homosexuality was wrong on a cable TV show.
A Christian couple with a photography business was fined over $6,000 by the New Mexico Human Rights Commission for declining to provide services for a lesbian couple’s ceremony.
The CA Supreme Court issued a ruling requiring two doctors to provide artificial insemination services to a lesbian despite their religious convictions.
A Massachusetts father was arrested when he insisted he be notified when his kindergartner was going to be taught about homosexuality in a public school so he could opt out. The U. S. Supreme Court tossed out his case.
The CA legislature passed a law forbidding the use of the words mother and father in public school texts and classrooms.
California businesses owned by private citizens who supported Proposition 8 have been targeted and boycotted.
Against its will, a Virginia video production company was ordered by a county Human Rights Commission to duplicate two pro-homosexual films.
Catholic Bed & Breakfast owners were charged with discrimination by Vermont's Human Rights Commission for refusing to host a lesbian civil union ceremony because of their beliefs about marriage.
After 100 years in business, Catholic Charities chose to cease adoption services when Massachusetts authorities required them to place children with gay couples.
Envelopes containing a suspicious white powder (which turned out to be harmless) were mailed to Mormon temples in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles following the passage of Proposition 8 in California.
The Boy Scouts in Philadelphia and San Diego have been removed from their historically-provided, public-owned facilities for refusing to accommodate homosexual leaders.
A 21-year Idaho employee was fired because he posted scriptures about sexual immorality in his cubicle.
Unruly, screaming gay activists shut down a speaker, author of, The Born Gay Hoax at Smith College, MA. No arrests were made and the police ordered the invited speaker to leave.
A national symposium on religion and reparative therapy for unwanted homosexuality planned for the American Psychiatric Association’s annual spring meeting was cancelled after gay groups threatened to protest.
The vice president for human resources at the Univ. of Toledo was fired after she wrote an op-ed piece in a local newspaper which stated her belief that sexual orientation is not the same as race.
A website was created to identify and shame members of the LDS church who backed Prop 8.
A Utah TV program about successful therapy for overcoming unwanted homosexuality was cancelled at the last minute when pressure was exerted on the station and owners.
A Christian church in Michigan was picketed and infiltrated by gay anarchist protesters. Inside the church they pulled fire alarms, acted out, shouted at and forced their flyers on parishioners, and stormed the pulpit with a rainbow-colored flag.
A man was forced to resign as director of the Los Angeles Film Festival for supporting Proposition 8.
E-Harmony, which had only provided dating services to opposite-sex couples, was forced by the state of New Jersey and threat of lawsuit, to provide same-sex dating services, including providing 6 months of free services to the first 10,000 gay subscribers.
A copy of The Book of Mormon, a book of sacred scripture to members of the LDS Church, was burned on the steps of a Mormon temple in Denver.
There are calls for the boycotting of Cinemark Theaters, because the CEO of the theater chain supported Proposition 8.
*After being invited to pay to participate in a Salt Lake City bookstore’s advertizing mailer campaign and receiving approval of its flyer, a small publishing company wishing to promote its book about overcoming homosexuality was turned down. The book, previously purchased by the bookstore, was subsequently removed from the bookstore shelves and database.
*At the last minute a radio program cancelled an interview with the author of a book about healing from homosexuality.
*In Utah Valley a long-planned PTA meeting about the gay movement and pornography was unexpectedly cancelled at the last minute by the high school principal via email to every parent.
*After being invited to write an op-ed piece about homosexuality, a newspaper repeatedly required the writer to edit the content. Even though the writer complied with each request, the paper ultimately refused to publish the piece, calling the writer overzealous and homophobic.
*After a reporter taped hour-long separate interviews on camera with a person who was healed from homosexual tendencies and his clinical therapist, the TV station refused to air the interviews, saying the topic was too controversial.
*experienced firsthand by members of the Standard of Liberty Foundation
The above are real-life examples of freedoms of speech and religion being suppressed and punished in favor of social and legal protection of unlimited sexuality. Obviously, this can never be an agree-to-disagree or win-win situation. Recently Newt Gingrich said: "I think there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence, to use harassment. I think it is prepared to use the government if it can get control of it. I think that it is a very dangerous threat to anybody who believes in traditional religion . . . [If you are a religious person] you have to confront the fact that the secular extremists are determined to impose on you acceptance of a series of values that are . . . the opposite of what you were taught in Sunday School. They are determined to impose their will on this country no matter what the popular opinion, no matter what the law of the land." (From the Bill O’Reilly TV show, Fox News, Nov. 14, 2008)
(See www.silencingchristians.com for more.)
The SoLVoice
November 9, 2008
Lawless Sexual Revolutionists Protest the Mormon Church
In our opinion, the local newspaper did a poor job reporting the gay protest last night near the Salt Lake Temple. The Standard of Liberty was there and this is our take on what really went on.
In our estimation, the number that showed up was greatly exaggerated. It looked like about 1,000 people, not “3,500.” And also contrary to the reporting, the protest was not what we’d call “peaceful.”
Frankly, we saw a bunch of people acting like spoiled teenagers having a tantrum, publically blaming the LDS Church for getting involved and depriving them of legitimization. Steve even overheard two protestors, young men, commenting on how “this was going to be great, a huge party.” Evidently, to the lawless and licentious, showing up at the sight of a sacred edifice to make a scene mocking and denigrating people’s deeply-held religious beliefs is a party.
These are people who don’t care what the majority voted for. They don’t care what the inspired Constitution says. They don’t care what God, the holy scriptures, history, and the accumulated wisdom of the world has to teach us. They think they are above it all when what they have really done is sunk to humanity’s basest, unthinking instincts. And they arrogantly presume they have the right to bring everybody down with them.
The protestors held outrageous signs such as, “Religion Sucks,” “Read My Lips: No More Mrs. Nice Gay,” LDS (with a swastika for the S), Are Us Jews Next?”, “Mormons, Once Persecuted, Now Persecutors,” No More Nonprophet,” “No More Temple Sealings,” “Mormons Breed Hate,” “Shame on the LDS Church,” “Stop Temple Weddings,” “Revoke Tax Exemption,” and more. One of the speakers pointed his finger at the Church Office Building and yelled, “We’re calling you out and we’re putting you on notice!” Other speakers entreated the crowd to be respectful, but angry signs, shouts, and actions showed utter contempt for this advice. (Lest you think this was a group of fringe radicals, you should know that speakers included former Salt Lake City mayor, Rocky Anderson, and three current openly gay Utah legislators.) The group was highly disrespectful of the God-given, Constitutionally-protected freedoms of others. It was an ugly, profane, uncivilized, and tragically accurate portrait of a group of humanity that has turned its back on truth, reality, and health.
What we saw this group do was what they themselves spend so much time railing against: intolerance and bigotry, only it was aimed toward the Mormon Church and religion in general. The presumptuous chant “Tax the Church!” rang through the street. A small counter protest group showed up yelling, “You’re intolerant! The people voted! We’re still a democracy!” A shouting match ensued. In the middle of this insanity Steve change a flat tire of a car belonging to two ladies who had a bottle thrown at them. As they stopped the car it ran over the broken glass and punctured the tire. “Why should they be mad at us when we just happened to be on the road driving by?” they wondered. Peaceful demonstration? No way.
Why all the animosity and intimidation toward the LDS Church on the heels of the passing of California’s Proposition 8? We estimate there are 400,000 potential LDS voters in California. Over 5 million Californians voted for Proposition 8. Mormon voters comprised only 8 % of the passing vote. Yes, LDS financial involvement and grassroots efforts surely encouraged a number of nonMormon voters, but not only were there many, many more who feel the same way without any encouragement, there was nothing out of order here. The Mormon effort was an exercise of First Ammendment rights to free speech and free exercise of religion. All Americans should know that the 1950s law about churches being prohibited from supporting individual political candidates does not apply here. Churches are perfectly free to involve themselves in political issues. All the anger and hatred we witnessed was in reality aimed toward God and His laws for human sexuality. It was a case of “kill the messenger.”
The sexual revolution has made unbelievable progress in the public arena and will not stop its efforts. Opposition seems only to the anger and resolve. But this in no way means we should refrain from opposing it. It means we should step up our opposition. Do we give up because those who seek to harm our society and our youth gain strength? No, we regroup, refine or change our strategy, and continue the fight.
Which will be upheld: individual sexual freedom or religious freedom? That is the big question.
As we’ve said, one will be preferred and the other harmed. Given the depth of feeling on both sides, the two cannot peacefully co-exist.
By the way, Mormons are a smaller minority than gays if you believe their admittedly inflated 10% number or even the more accurate 2 % number. According to Wikipedia, there are 1.3 million gays in California alone. In that case, gays outnumber Mormons 2 to 1 in that state. Evidently, gays’ outspoken demands for protected “minority status” does not apply to the even smaller Mormon minority.
As Latter-day Saints, we repeat our 11th Article of Faith: We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege [of worshiping God according to their conscience], let them worship how, where, and what they may. In other words, this is America. We have the right to worship God as we see fit.
Recent activities of the gay movement have exposed what this group is really about. It hates civilization. It hates morality. It hates responsibility. It hates democracy. It hates Christianity. It hates God.
-Janice Graham
The SoLVoice
November 8, 2008
Two Lists
A sexually immoral society:
1. is unnaturally preoccupied with sex and sexuality and produces sex addicts
2. separates the sex act from marriage and reproduction and sexualizes any and everyone
3. censors and changes definitions of words that refer to traditional gender roles and sexuality
4. blurs, mocks, and discounts the natural biological roles of male and female
5. seeks to obliterate the transcendent purpose and meaning of marriage
6. considers healthy conjugal relations in marriage boring and outdated
7. redefines the biological family as any group of people
8. reverses the negative stigma for sex outside marriage including adultery
9. allows bizarre and licentious sexual ideas into the mainstream
10. allows billion-dollar, 24/7, unrestricted pornography through mass communication
11. softens punishments for child molesters and pedophiles
12. is inundated with extreme and perverse sexual crimes causing great fear
13. puts some adults’ pleasures, greed, and social position before public health and safety
14. is indecent, hedonistic, sadistic, and dangerous in public places
15. despises posterity and limits, sexualizes, exploits, abuses, damages, and kills its young
16. discounts, mocks, and vilifies religion
17. gives individual sexual freedom preference over constitutional religious freedom
18. is silent about sexual morality and sexual sin even in churches
19. spreads casual, extreme, and unnatural sexuality to children
through schools and media
20. models to the rising generation that sexuality carries no dangers or responsibilities
21. silences warnings of the health risks of promiscuous and unnatural sex
22. discounts and usurps the authority and rights of parents
23. gives the state the job of rearing children
24. is full of broken lives, broken homes, and damaged children who grow up angry and sexually confused
A sexually moral society . . .
1. puts sex and sexuality in its proper place
2. inseparably connects love, marriage, sexual desires, and reproductive responsibilities
3. conserves its language and definitions referring to proper gender roles and sexuality
4. supports and encourages natural biological gender roles and sexuality
5. upholds the traditional purposes of marriage with an interest in human posterity
6. considers healthy conjugal relations in marriage as the ideal for human sexuality
7. conserves the traditional biological family as the ideal
8. maintains that traditional marriage is the only place for sex and encourages marital fidelity
9. preserves a safe, wholesome environment through community standards
10. never allows the exploitation of human sexuality to get gain
11. creates and enforces strict laws punishing sexual predators
12. is safe and its people have no fear of sexual criminals
13. denies any individual freedoms that endanger the health and safety of its populace
14. is safe and appropriate for people of all ages in public places
15. values posterity and protects its young in all stages of development
16. respects and defends churches as beneficial institutions
17. gives constitutional freedoms preference over individual sexual freedom
18. has an unwavering foundation in God’s timeless standard for human sexual conduct
19. teaches abstinence to youth through schools and media
20. makes sure its youth knows that sexuality comes with serious responsibilities
21. makes public the very real physical and emotional dangers of unlimited sex
22. highly respects parental authority and rights
23. supports parents as they rear their children to be responsible people
24. is full of strong, responsible individuals, families, and children who grow up prepared for marriage and family
-Janice Graham
The SoLVoice
October 24, 2008
A Mother’s Crusade
For those who don’t quite "get" the Standard of Liberty Foundation, who have encouraged us to put our energies elsewhere, or who wish we would go away altogether, here’s a point of view they may not have considered. A mother’s point of view.
I am like the mother whose child was killed by a drunk driver who now calls public attention to the dangers of drunk driving. I am like the mother whose child’s young life was ruined by drugs who now speaks out against the destruction caused by our drug culture. I am like the mother who as a teen was convinced to abort her unborn child and who now lobbies against Planned Parenthood. I am like these mothers, only my crusade concerns not the dangers of alcohol, not the dangers of drugs, not the dangers of nationally funded abortion pushers, but the dangers of out-of-bounds sex. I am the mother whose child’s youth and innocence were destroyed by internet pornography and whose ideas about healthy sexuality were twisted by clever and manipulative on-line predators. If he hadn’t sought professional help, unlearned the lies, and turned to the Lord, we most certainly would have lost our son to sexual addiction and some "alternate sexual orientation." I am a mother whose child was harmed, and mothers whose children are harmed have a strong natural instinct to prevent the same thing happening to any other child.
Society, which exists to keep its populace, especially its most vulnerable people – children – safe, is letting us down. While it’s supposed to do its part to protect us and our families from evils, instead it increasingly protects the evils. So I have become one mother who now writes about the dangers to children, youth, families, and society of unregulated and unlimited sex and sexuality. Incredibly, it seems that most of the noble institutions which possess the lion’s share of societal support and influence and money seemed to have turned this job entirely over to homey types like me, to do-it-yourself web sites like ours, and to self-publishing efforts like our own Tidal Wave Books. Indeed, some who are supposedly on our side even seem to find us a bit of an embarrassment. George Gilder in Men and Marriage wrote,"Even to some conservatives, some of these conservative family and religious "forces seem crude: too passionate, too fundamental, too cultic, too lower middle class . . ." (Add too politically incorrect, too vocal, too negative, too upsetting, too intolerant, too zealous, to this list.) But Gilder goes to on assure us that however unsophisticated we appear, the spiritual and moral capital we possess is essential. He’s right. It’s essential. Every half-way decent mother knows that.
I have said that I am a mother of a young son who was hurt by readily available same sex pornography, unspeakably vile gay chat rooms, and male sexual predators. So I don’t mind in the least being called "anti-gay," if by that is meant I am against our culture-makers (that’s anybody with any influence at all over society) allowing sex and sexuality to run rampant over the limits of health, nature, and God’s laws with no thought for the safety and well-being of minors and society as a whole. Who can argue that sex, along with alcohol, drugs, and abortion, is not a serious thing? Who can argue that children and youth are not vulnerable to being influenced by the pervasive technological oversexed culture we live in? And yet, there are those who make these arguments. If serious things aren’t faced with honesty and regulated by virtue, someone’s going to get hurt. Failing to continually shout out the numerous emotional, physical, and spiritual risks of pornography, promiscuity, and phony sexual behaviors is unconscionable. Failing to continually correct the lie that any and all sexual desires are inherent and unchangeable is reprehensible. Failing to continually teach the rising generation that there is only one good, right, and healthy way to channel human sexuality is outrageous. For those who think they are keeping all the commandments, how about the one that commands us "to bring up your children in light and truth" found in Doctrine and Covenants 93:36-37,40?
I understand that sex is private and that many good people react with squeamishness when the subject becomes public. I understand many are offended or frightened of offending others. I also understand that tremendous social, financial, and who knows what other pressures come into play. But we have to get over our squeamishness and our offendedness and our fear of offending. We have to care more about our standing with God than our standing among men or anything else. For instance, Latter-day Saints have made covenants, and we have to be ready to sacrifice whatever is necessary to keep those covenants. Remember, all it takes for evil to go forward is for good people to do nothing, to go about their business feeling nothing, thinking nothing, saying nothing, teaching nothing about the evils that surround us.
Try telling the mothers I described above, whose vulnerable children were harmed by social travesties, that their efforts are wrong or futile.
Try telling them to put their energy in some other random direction. Such comments would be highly insensitive, intolerant, and insulting. I have received such comments.
To the base and debauched who seek to cover their sins, or who put money or social position or public approval of sinful adult pleasures above the innocence and safety of our young, I say: Don’t mess with this mom.
-Janice Graham
The SoLVoice
October 11, 2008
Marriage Amendments and Beyond
We have been asked to explain what’s happening in California with Proposition 8. In the year 2000, the voters of California by a more than 60 % margin approved Proposition 22 which defined marriage in California as a union only between a man and a woman. In 2008, the California state supreme court ruled that the law initiated by Prop 22 was unconstitutional and that legal marriage was now available to same sex couples as well as opposite sex couples. As a result, supporters of traditional marriage quickly organized a petition drive to put a proposition on the 2008 ballot that would amend the CA constitution to define marriage as only between a man and woman (there is nothing in the constitution that states this) in order to reverse this decision and preclude future similar judgments. The reasoning behind this move is that once a constitutional amendment has been adopted, courts have no power to reverse it. Enough signatures were collected to initiate Prop. 8, and it will be on the CA ballot this November 4th.
Because this is a moral issue, as was Prop 22, the LDS Church has been very involved in advancing the passage of this amendment. It has given Prop 8 substantial financial support and instructed local leaders to call members to positions that involve visits, canvassing, phone calling, and electronic communications. It has organized satellite broadcast meetings regarding this proposition including the one held Oct. 8 throughout church buildings in California, along with a few chapels in Utah Valley for student voters attending BYU and UVU, educating on the importance of passing this proposition and encouraging members to do whatever they can to help (see Deseret News article and www.preservingmarriage.org).
Incidentally, Connecticut, which on October 10, 2008 made same-sex marriage legal, our third state in the union to do so, is in trouble. It does not have in place an initiative process as California does. It will be much more difficult to create a marriage amendment.
Here at the Standard of Liberty, there is no question that if we lived in California we would vote for Proposition 8 and do all we could to help it pass. We’re thankful that great efforts have been organized to encourage its passing. We urge our subscribers to become educated and do what they can to help.
That said, we would like to challenge our readers to think beyond marriage amendments. C. S. Lewis wrote, “Wherever any precept of traditional morality is simply challenged to produce its credentials, as though the burden of proof lay on it, we have taken the wrong position.” Our culture is so far gone that in the public arena we have given up basic standards (such as sexual purity) and concern for the welfare of souls. Instead we have taken an extremely defensive position about the most self-evident of realities: that marriage is instituted for opposite sexes and carries with it a profound interest in the well-being of the rising generation.
It seems that government, the last hold-out for an orderly society, is failing us when it comes to restraints on sexuality, a foundation on the reality of male and female, and the traditional conjugal family as its foundation. As Midge Dector said, this struggle is not about "gay rights" but about bringing the whole house down, meaning our way of life as we know it. It’s about getting rid of God and His laws on a cultural scale. (For an eye-opening read revealing what "gay marriage" is really about see the Joe Kort blog entry on www.psychologytoday.com.)
While marriage amendments may help prevent a ripple effect that could endanger the free practice of religion which is guaranteed by our U.S. Constitution, we must remember that, as Aristotle pointed out, governments and courts are run by people, and the attributes of people are what make up governments and courts. In other words, a marriage amendment won’t accomplish what we perhaps hope it will. It isn’t just our laws that need our attention, it’s our culture. A licentious culture, including its bad judges, will trump good laws, whether they are old or new. We saw this in Lawrence v. Texas. Sodomy laws existed, but were not enforced, so courts saw no problem in casting them aside, and in doing so homosexual sex was tacitly legitimized. We saw this in California when even though a state law was voted on and passed (Proposition 22 ) to protect traditional marriage, bad judges overruled it. And now an amendment to California’s constitution (Prop. 8) will be voted on in November as a desperate attempt to permanently reverse that court decision. For months, money and human resources have poured in from both sides. It’s a huge issue and a dramatic example of a culture at war. Two world views are engaged in political combat. But no matter which worldview wins out in the battle for Prop 8 in California, (it’s supposed to be very close) and in other inevitable future state battles, there will have been no substantive change in our increasingly Godless culture.
While citizens rise up to protect marriage in the governmental arena, there seems to be no such significant battle for traditional values occurring in the cultural arena (unless you count web sites and publications such as ours which are few and far between). For instance, many churches and conservative organizations have lately given up speaking out against alternative sexual orientations and behaviors in fear of being labeled anti-human rights. Instead, they have opted to shift their focus to preserving marriage. This is like putting a Bandaid on a growing internal cancer. It is our hedonistic culture that brought us to this political impasse in the first place. The culture war has been all but won by the enemies of traditional sexual morality, the safety of children, the rights of parents, and religious freedom. It has been all but won through our anti-traditional values education systems and media. The wisdom of the ages and the laws of God are being thrown out like yesterday’s garbage in favor of radical organized sexual permissiveness in the name of “identity” and “rights.” Misinformation, fear, and intimidation are tactics that have been used to condition and silence truth and goodness.
One characteristic of war is that it can change directions at any time. If we care about the rising generation, it we care that all will not be lost, we need an overall offensive strategy rather than only last-minute defensive tactics that overlook the general layout. Robert Bork, in Slouching Towards Gomorrah, sounds like a Book of Mormon prophet, when he writes that our only hope to save our way of life is a grass roots revival of true religiosity (that’s putting God and His laws at the center of our lives) and a resurgence of the public will to change our culture’s direction back toward traditional morality. This means refusing to be distracted by cosmetic fixes and facing up to reality and the extremity in which we find ourselves as a culture. This means throwing off pride and complacency, repenting and seeking the Lord’s Spirit to teach and guide us. It means rejecting the popular philosophies of men without rationalization and despite fear of what others may think of us or do to us. It means teaching our children and grandchildren what to value and what to reject and how to feel the Spirit in a culture that has become past feeling. It means speaking out in our families, churches, neighborhoods, and communities, and running for local offices. (Bork points out that a local school board has more influence over culture than national politicians.) It means contributing and encouraging cultural excellence and goodness in all areas, including education, art, and entertainment, with the objective of conserving what is good and rejecting what it bad. This is the sacred responsibility of any ordered human society.
The cultural juggernaut we are experiencing is nothing new. The battle between good and evil has been the great topic of the accumulated wisdom of the world. It has been the substance of the lives of the most fearless and God-fearing of reformers, revolutionaries, and prophets. It is a primary theme in the timeless word of God. The biggest question is not who will win or lose that battle in the end – that is in the Lord’s hands – but on whose side we will place our minds and hearts and efforts, not just in a voting booth but in our everyday lives.
-Janice Graham
Standard of Liberty received a lot of response to Camille Turpin's review of Stephanie Meyer's book Breaking Dawn, including the following email note:
"Thank you very much for this warning about Breaking Dawn! Would you or the reviewer be so kind as to identify half a dozen passages in the book where these false and treacherous ideas are manifest? My wife and I are thinking of spending some time with our daughters citing such passages and identifying the false ideas in them. (But we don't want to have to read the whole book to find these passages.) In other words, we feel this would be a helpful learning experience for our daughters--who have already read the book--so they will get better at identifying these false notions on their own. Thanks." --A Reader (name withheld)
We got the same request from a number of people, so we asked Camille Turpin to prepare references for her list of wrong ideas in the books. Below is the list she sent us. We are sure you will find it helpful in discussions with your family. Also, Camille Turpin and Standard of Liberty were referenced in the August 24 Salt Lake Tribune. Click here to read the Tribune article.
--Stephen Graham
A list of wrong ideas about love and sex that are presented in the Twilight series. References to books and pages are included.
- Dangerous people are sexy (Twilight pg 190/Entire Series)
- Love should be enduring no matter how unhealthy or dangerous it is for you (Twilight/Entire Series—Edward agrees to turn Bella into a vampire so they can be young together forever)
- Some people think it's not a good idea to have sex before marriage, but it's fun to see how far you can go before you cross the line (Eclipse—Edward wants to wait until they are married to have sex, but Bella wants to do it before then. Edward insists he is trying to protect her virtue—which she laughs at—but they are having this conversation on a bed which he has provided while he kisses her neck and puts her leg over him)
- If you use self-control, you can go really far before actually having intercourse (Eclipse/Entire Series—Bella and Edward are constantly trying to push how far they can go physically before he is out of control, which means he may kill her at any moment.)
- Even if you think premarital sex is wrong, sleeping together and sneaking around behind a parent's back is ok (Twilight/Entire Series—Edward spends each night in Bella’s room, listening with supernatural hearing to her father in the next room to make sure he won’t come in.)
- Parents don't know what's good for you in terms of love. (Bella’s mother is very critical of youthful love/marriage because she is divorced. Bella treats her as though she is a child who needs to be taken care of. Bella’s father does not like Edward, but Bella continues to see him anyway.)
- Marriage is something to be feared, and which may ruin your enjoyment of sex. (Eclipse—Bella wants to have sex before they are married because she hates the idea of marriage and wishes they could just have a physical commitment. He wants to wait until after she is a vampire because it could be dangerous for her. She refuses and only agrees to wait until marriage as long as she gets a real honeymoon while she’s human. She constantly complains about marriage—see BD Chapter 1.)
- Sexual intercourse is the best part of love, marriage, and human life. (BD page 482—“Our time on the island had been the epitome of my human life. The very best of it. I’d been so ready to string along my human time, just to hold on to what I had with him for a little while longer. Because the physical part wasn’t going to be the same ever again.”)
- If sex is good, it will probably be violent. (BD Chapter 5 and 6. Edward bites pillows, shreds clothing, creates bruises all over Bella’s body, and breaks headboards apart. He tries not to do it again, but Bella convinces him to and downplays her injuries.)
- If sex is violent, it will not hurt you as long as you are really into it. (Bella does not notice the destroyed pillows or her bruised body until she wakes up the next morning. Pg. 89)
- The more violent and out of control the sex is, the better it is. You might destroy things, but that just means it was great. (Bella has dreams about sex after Edward refuses to do it again until she is a vampire. She wakes up and convinces him to do it—page 106-107. He destroys a headboard and they joke about it. Later on they decide to do it again and make a joke about destroying the headboard again—page 117.)
- In a perfect world, we would desire and be able to have intercourse all night long, and wish it would go on longer. The best possible scenario would be for our bodies to never wear out and for our desire to be constant. (BD page 482-483)
- Sex is more enjoyable if our partner's body is perfect (BD page 482). If you really love your partner, you won't mind if they are in love with someone else too, or that they want them around all the time (Bella loves her “best friend” Jacob, and desires him physically in New Moon and Eclipse. Jacob is desperately in love with Bella. Edward brings Jacob to Bella and lets them have a dance at their wedding, and then allows him to hang around afterward). In fact, if you really love them, you won't mind if they have sexual intercourse with someone else (Edward, thinking their baby is dangerous and should be aborted, asks Jacob to tell Bella they could have a physical relationship so Bella could have less dangerous children—BD page 180, 181).
- Sometimes people might desire a child to be their mate. It's innocent as long as they don't act on it till they are older (Werewolves often “imprint” on another person, meaning they have found their mate and cannot control whether they want that person or not. Jacob “imprints” on Bella’s half-human infant).
- When you love someone, you desire them physically every moment of your life. You will have to distract yourself with daily life in order to keep your mind off of sex, but it always there, in the background, and can be turned on at any moment, blocking out everything else (Bella is constantly losing concentration and forgetting totally about her child when she looks at Edward and thinks about sex BD page 487).
- It is normal and good to picture a person you love naked before you are married (BD page 349).
- As long as the actual motions of sexual intercourse are not described in detail, it is ok to write and read about a physical relationship between a married man and woman--including where they are, what they are wearing, how long it went on, the positions they end up in, that certain motions of their bodies will stimulate sexual desire, and how they felt during the process (BD chapters 5 and 6, and especially page 481-485).
- If you really desire your partner, you might tear each other's clothes off, destroying them in the process (BD page 481).
- You have absolutely no control over who you love and how long you love them. Once you find that person, it is easy to love them and you will do anything for them. If you really love each other, you won't have any real problems (Entire Series—imprinting idea, Jacob and Edward are willing to risk their lives several times over for Bella, and in BD after they are married Bella and Edward never have a single argument or hardship. Their entire life is a happy honeymoon with a perfect child.)
- The pain of losing someone you love is so painful that death is better in comparison. If you really love them, you'll never ever get over losing them. (This idea is expressed several times mostly in New Moon and BD. Edward is going to kill himself when he thinks Bella is dead. Bella wishes she were dead after Edward leaves her, Jacob wants to kill Edward if Bella dies and Edward makes sure he promises to do it, etc.)
- Sexy people are tall, muscular, perfect. Normal people just seem so childish. (Bella doesn’t take highschool boys seriously, and is only in love with vampires and werewolves who are superhumanly strong, tall, hot or cold, etc.)
- Sexual intercourse is the most important part of marriage. (Again see BD 482 and subsequent vampire life.)
Thanks to Camille Turpin for the following review of Breaking Dawn, Stephanie Meyer’s fourth in the extremely popular Twilight Series published by Little, Brown. To read the entire review, click here. On this page we offer excerpts including Turpin’s list of wrong and harmful ideas introduced in the series. Please note that the initial printing of this fourth book was 3.7 million copies and over 1.3 million copies sold on the first day.
Meyer is LDS, in her early thirties, married with children, and is a BYU graduate (1997). The vampire series has a teenage girl as its main character and is wildly popular with all ages of girls and women from age 9 to 50, including Latter-day Saints. Mothers and daughters read the books repeatedly. The series has a huge fan base which includes parties/book signings, retail merchandise, and hundreds of internet groups, one with 50,000 and another with 20,000 members.
Turpin, is LDS, 30, married with children, graduated from BYU in English (editing), and interned at BYU’s scholarly publishing arms, FARMS and BYU Studies. She has edited 4 published books, and reads over 50 books a year of various genres.
Book Review: What’s Broken about Breaking Dawn
by Camille Turpin
I was a big Twilight fan. It was fun. It was fluffy. It was a nice change from all the heavy stuff I usually read. And the author was LDS. But as the series progressed I became more and more disenchanted. Then came the last book in the series, Breaking Dawn in which the main characters, a human and a vampire, get married.
I could write all day about the things I didn’t like about this novel– it was poorly written to say the least – but those are the flaws that make me merely roll my eyes. What makes me angry is the sneaky sex stuff, disguised as a contemporary teen romance/fantasy/ vampire story. That’s why I’m now a Twi-hater. All I could think while I was reading the last two in the series were two questions I often ask myself when presented with something I want to read/watch but I’m not sure I should: What good can come of it? And what bad can come of it? At the very best, the good that can come of the Twilight series is the idea that young people can wait until marriage to experience physical sexual intimacy. At the worst, it introduces girls and women of every age to edge-of-the-cliff sexual “morality” and unhealthy, extreme, and twisted ideas about sex, marriage, and motherhood. To illustrate, I made the following list of wrong and harmful ideas presented in the Twilight series.
* Dangerous people are sexy.
* Love should be enduring no matter how unhealthy or dangerous it is for you.
* Some people think it's not a good idea to have sex before marriage, but it's fun to see how far you can go before you cross the line.
* If you use self-control, you can go really far before actually having intercourse.
* Even if you think premarital sex is wrong, sleeping together and sneaking around behind a parent's back is okay.
* Parents don't know what's good for you in terms of love.
* Marriage is something to be feared and may ruin your enjoyment of sex.
* Sexual intercourse is the best part of love, marriage, and human life.
* If sex is good it will probably be violent.
* If sex is violent it will not permanently hurt you as long as you are really into it.
* The more violent and out of control the sex is, the better it is. If you really desire your partner, you might tear each other's clothes off, destroying them in the process. You might destroy furniture, too, and hurt each other, but that just means it was great. (In Breaking Dawn Edward tears clothes, rips apart pillows with his teeth and destroys furniture during sex. Bella wakes up with bruises all over her body.)
* In a perfect world, we would desire and be able to have intercourse all night long, and wish it would go on longer. The best possible scenario would be for our bodies to never wear out and for our desire to be constant.
* Sex is more enjoyable if our partner's body is perfect. (Edward has a perfect body.)
* If you really love your partner, you won't mind if they are in love with someone else too, or that they want them around all the time. In fact, if you really love them, you won't mind if they have sexual intercourse with someone else. (Edward, the vampire husband, suggests that Bella, his wife, have relations with Jacob, the werewolf.)
* Sometimes people might desire an infant to be their mate. It's innocent as long as they don't act on it until they are older. (The werewolf “imprints” himself on Bella’s baby, meaning the baby is his eternal mate.)
* When you love someone, you desire them physically every moment of your life. You will have to distract yourself with daily life in order to keep your mind off of sex, but it’s always there, in the background, and can be turned on at any moment, blocking out everything else.
* It is normal and good to picture a person you love naked before you are married.
* As long as the actual motions of sexual intercourse are not described in detail, it is okay to write and read about a physical relationship between a married man and woman--including where they are, what they are wearing, how long it went on, the positions they end up in, that certain motions of their bodies which stimulate sexual desire, and how they felt during the process.
* You have absolutely no control over who you love and how long you love them. Once you find that person, it is easy to love them and you will do anything for them. If you really love each other, you won't have any real problems.
* The pain of losing someone you love is so painful that death is better in comparison. If you really love them, you'll never ever get over losing them.
* Sexy people are tall, muscular, perfect. Normal people just seem so childish.
* Sexual intercourse is the most important part of marriage.
Here are some additional disturbing events and images in Breaking Dawn.
* The heroine/mother drinks blood while pregnant and her baby drinks blood from a bottle.
* Pregnancy is portrayed as horrific, involving the fetus breaking the mother’s ribs and pelvis, giving her huge bruises on her abdomen, and the baby sucking the life out of her from within.
* In the childbirth scene the mother vomits blood and is ripped open by her vampire husband’s teeth, the baby bites the mother immediately after birth, the mother dies in the process of the birth, and the vampire bites and licks her body back to life.
* Vampires gather from all over the world to save the vampire/human baby, and the heroine/mother and hero/father do not mind that the other vampires are drinking human blood and murdering the local population. In this book vampires are not ghouls and devils but superior beings.
I heard somewhere that Stephanie Meyer had concerns that this last book in her series had content that was too mature for some of her fans and tried to have a warning put on the book, but the publisher wouldn’t allow it. Please. As if a warning would have kept 11-year-olds from reading Breaking Dawn after they had been so cleverly hooked with three previous books. When you begin a series for young people, you have a moral obligation to keep it geared toward young people. We can only surmise that somewhere along the line Stephanie Meyer, our own wildly successful LDS author, sold out. Everybody knows sex sells.
-Camille Turpin
To read the entire review click here.
SoL response:
Like Flannery O'Connor said, "I am not afraid that this book will be controversial. I am afraid that it will not be controversial." She also wrote, "The two worst sins of bad taste in fiction are pornography and sentimentality. One is too much sex and the other too much sentiment. You have to have enough of either to prove your point but no more . . . it's when sex and scurrility are used for their own sakes that it is in bad taste.”
G. K. Chesterson wrote, "Good literature tells us the mind of one man; but bad literature may tell us the mind of many men. A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author. It does much more than that, it tells us the truth about its readers and oddly enough, it tells us this all the more the more cynical and immoral be the motive of its manufacture. The more dishonest a book is as a book the more honest it is as a public document."
Given our oversexed culture, we are all in danger of being conditioned into thinking that preoccupation with sex and selfish, unhealthy, extreme, and bizarre ideas about sex are all okay, even praiseworthy. After all, we learn from Oprah and Dr. Laura that pornography can spice up a marriage. This book is a perfect example of being very cleverly taken in bit by bit. These ideas are not harmless. Anything other than kind, loving, wholesome, healthy relations between husband and wife, where husband and wife are focused on their love for each other rather than on sex for its own sake, is unchaste, to put it mildly.
Please look for our new book coming soon, Chased by an Elephant, the gospel truth about today’s stampeding sexuality, for LDS families. Sad to say, Meyer's book series is a made-to-order representation of that stampede.
-Janice Graham
The SoLVoice
July 26, 2008
My Conversation about Homosexuality with a Student Journalist at Brigham Young University,
and My Rejected Articles
by Stephen Graham
By way of introduction, a while back, after submitting a piece to a publication called BYU Political Review calling for articles, I received an email requesting a meeting. I met with two young men in the Harold B. Lee Library on campus. They told me it was an intriguing topic but they had some concerns. The following is my recollection of an interesting and revealing conversation which my wife wrote down the very day it took place. (She says I’m pretty good at remembering conversations.) It was mostly with one of the students who was more vocal than the other. Make of this what you will. To us, it is representative of the attitude some Church members hold concerning sexual immorality and how it relates to lawful marriage and temple covenants. Unfortunately, such people are caught up in popular philosophies that sound attractive and foster complacency. And even more unfortunately, many of this group are in positions relating to publication and communication such as those I dealt with during this entire interaction.
Student: I see you mean well and I support your right to pursue what you believe in. But I completely disagree with your point of view. Still, if you can give me an article more about people who struggle with same sex attraction rather than the homosexual agenda in our culture, I think I can get it published. But I have one caveat.
Steve: Sure, I could do that. What’s your caveat?
Student: I would put a statement at the beginning of your article saying that I, or we, as the editors, disagree with the point of view of the following article.
Steve: Well, then I’m not interested. If you put that at the beginning of my article it would prejudice people against it before they even read it.
Student: All right. I’ll drop it.
Steve: Okay. Now, tell me about your disagreement with my point of view.
Student: I know lots of people who are gay. Many of my friends are gay. I have a sister who is a lesbian. One of my friends who’s gay has been so mistreated. He’s been disowned by his family, treated disrespectfully by his bishop, and has contemplated suicide. In fact, he says he’s been suicidal for years.
I believe there are many orientations of affection. Men are attracted to men, women are attracted to women, men and women are attracted to each other, and people fall anywhere in between.
Steve: Oh, you’re talking about the sexuality “spectrum” Kinsey came up with in the 1940s. I don’t believe there is any good healthy sexual orientation other than the one prescribed by God’s laws, man and woman being attracted to each other. Anything else is just spoiled sexuality.
Student: Well, I believe people are born with their attractions and tendencies. I think people’s varying attractions for one another are all part of God’s plan for us on this earth.
Steve: How do you know that they’re born with it?
Student. They said they were.
Steve: So there’s no objective test for homosexuality. It’s all based on a person’s self-identification. It’s the way they feel so they say they’re gay.
Student: Well, yeah. A person feels attracted to a person of the same sex so they decide that they must be gay.
Steve: Yeah, a lot of people say, ‘I’ve been gay for as long as I can remember, in fact, I was born gay.’ The fact is, none of us remembers our feelings at birth, so none of us can say we were born gay. . .
But I’m concerned about what you’ve just told me about your friend, how he’s been suicidal for years.
Student: You’re concerned?
Steve: Well, yes! If you say your friend has been suicidal for years I’m concerned, and I would hope that you are, too, that he might carry that out. If you care about your friend, the very first thing you should do is try to convince him to get into therapy as soon as possible. Because if someone says they are suicidal, something is wrong and they need some treatment. A person who wants to kill himself is not in his right mind. There’s something there, depression or some other emotional or mental illness. When people with homosexuality are suicidal it’s not because their church or society does accept or approve of their sexual preferences. People kill themselves because something is terribly wrong in their head. So, they need help.
Student: Well, I think aversion therapy and reparative therapy ought to be outlawed. I know a number of people who have tried to change and they were happier when they quit trying to change than they were while they were trying to change.
Steve: Aversion therapy doesn’t sound good to me either, but as regards to reparative therapy, what’s wrong with fixing something that’s broken? There are thousands of people who have successfully changed their thought patterns concerning sexuality as a result of therapy. And the research has shown that the more highly motivated people are the more likely they are to succeed.
As far the as the Church is concerned, we make a distinction between acting out with the physical body and just having the thoughts, feelings, desires, fantasies, etc. As members of the Church if we do something with our bodies that’s identified as a sin, we can be disciplined or lose our membership. However, there’s no Church discipline involved for what goes on inside us, in our minds and in our hearts. But as followers of Christ, that doesn’t excuse us.
I want to remind you of what Jesus said, ‘If a man looks upon a woman to lust after her, he has committed adultery with her already in his heart.’ The same goes for homosexual desires. The same principle applies. If a man is lusting after another man, or a woman after another woman, they’ve committed the sin already in their hearts.
Student: I don’t think same sex attractions, feelings, thoughts, and desires can be sinful.
Steve: Well, I just go back to what Jesus said.
Student: I’m not sure we understand the scriptures when it comes to homosexuality.
Steve: Look, the end goal of male homosexuality is sodomy. That’s what the fantasies come down to. Like the scriptures say, men lying with men.
Student: Some heterosexuals do that, too.
Steve: That certainly doesn’t make it right, does it? The human body does not safely accommodate it.
Student: Well, same sex attraction is about love. And there’s a whole lot more to love than just sex.
Steve: All right, let’s talk about attractions. You two guys are attracted to one another, but it’s not a sexual attraction. When two males are attracted to one another and it’s not sexual or romantic, it’s something else such as simple admiration, friendship, or family. So then let’s take a look at homosexual attraction, or same sex sexual attraction. What makes it different than what you have here? The only difference is not love, but sex, which for men with men means sodomy.
Help me understand what you mean by saying that love between two people of the same sex involves more than sexual activity. Aren’t you talking about friendship then? As we’ve said, two people of the same sex can have friendship without sex. What constitutes romantic same sex attraction apart from sexual activity?
Student: Well, you want to be with them, you want the best for them, and things like that.
Steve: Yes and that’s called friendship. But what does romantic mean?
Student: (no comment)
Steve: It seems to mean you want to be with them, you want the best for them, and you also want to touch, kiss, hold one another. It that right?
Student: (no comment)
Steve: If that’s all part of romantic homosexual attraction, then my question is, to what end? Where are you headed with this relationship? If you, a man, are in love with a girl and you want to hug and kiss and hold her, and marry her, what is the next thing that occurs? When you get married you immediately begin a sexual relationship as well. Before you get married there is a desire for that sexual relationship. You hold off until marriage because you love and respect her and God says you can’t do it until you’re married. But the desire is there. And the result is sexual intimacy. For the male homosexual romantic relationship, that means sodomy.
Students: Well, yeah, there’s no denying that people love to have sex. I’m sure my sister has really great sex with her lesbian partner.
Steve: Would you like for your sister to overcome that lesbian attraction she has? Do you hope that someday she’ll renounce that or leave that lifestyle”
Student: I guess that would be up to her, but she says that’s just the way she is, so it’s not something she could choose not to be.
Steve: Okay, so let’s say, for the sake of your argument, that your sister is naturally and irretrievably lesbian. Do you think she should be able to or allowed to marry her same sex partner?
Student: Yes, I think she should be able to get married.
Steve: All right, if you believe that, then do you believe the Church should perform same sex marriages, and marry her to her partner?
Student: Yes, I think they should.
Steve: Well then, if you think that, do you think she should be able to be sealed to her lesbian partner in the temple?
Student: That’s where I kind of flinch.
Steve: Wait. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t flinch. If your sister should be able to marry outside the temple, she should be able to be sealed inside the temple.
Student: I know. It causes me a lot of thought.
Steve: It shouldn’t cause you any thought. You’ve just got to decide. It is right or wrong? Look, let’s take the eternal view. Sealing in the temple is performed to what end? Do you agree with me that we’re sealed in the temple in anticipation of gaining our exaltation?
Student: Yes.
Steve: Then, again I ask you, if two men or two women are to be sealed to one another in the temple, I want to know what the hoped for outcome of this union is.
Students: (Blank stares)
Steve: We’re taught that Heavenly Father’s work and glory is our immortality and exaltation. But what is it that He offers us in this state of exaltation? I’ll tell you. It’s eternal increase. So, you tell me how two men or two women have any increase. It’s contrary to everything we’re taught about what Heavenly Father has in store for us.
So here’s the point. Women sexually attracted to each other and men sexually attracted to each other is outside God’s plan for us. And we’re living in a world that’s extremely dangerous when it comes to personal religious beliefs. There could come a time when a law is passed in our country that requires churches to perform marriages for any two people who present themselves to be married, whatever their gender. If that kind of law ever gets passed in our country, will the Church have to perform those marriages?
Students: Yes, I guess so.
Steve: Will the Church want to perform those as sealings in the temple?
Students: No.
Steve: So, hypothetically speaking, the Church will say, we’ll have to do these same sex marriages because the law requires us to do it just like we do for opposite sex couples. So we’ll do them in the Relief Society rooms. And we’ll continue sealing opposite sex couples in the temple.
Now, as soon as the Church performs one of those same sex marriages in the Relief Society room of a chapel, what will happen? Somebody will file a law suit saying that the Church is discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation by not allowing same sex couples to be sealed in the temple like everyone else. The word will spread and |
