Sid: Hello. Sid Roth here with Dr. Michael Brown. And Michael, when I heard what happened in the White House it was amazing. It was mind blowing to me. Let’s start out with the Stonewall riots. Explain that.
Michael: Okay. It’s on the heels of the counter culture revolution, sexual revolution of the ’60s, 1969, there’s a gay bar that’s raided, Stonewall Inn, and some of the drag queens, they had had it with being arrested all the time and so on. So they decided to fight back and it ended up being full blow riots. The police had to hide for their lives and tried to set the place on fire, police vans attacked. It was ugly riots for a few days. That’s the beginning of what’s called the gay liberation movement or the gay rights movement, traced back to Stonewall. That’s why June is called Gay Pride Month. In fact, our president now has formerly recognized that the last two years as Gay Pride Month and on the 40th anniversary of Stonewall, Sid, remember, these were riots where the police were attacked by drag queens and others. Forty years later, Mr. Obama welcomes 300 gay activists to the White House.
Sid: So that’s almost like the difference between a protester and someone tossing a bomb. I mean, it was violent.
Michael: Yeah. They were angry. They were pent up. They felt years of discrimination. In their viewpoint, we’ve been oppressed, we’ve been discriminated against, time to fight back. The bottom line is there were riots and they were violent. Okay. So President Obama, our president, welcomes 300 gay activists to the White House, June of 2009, and says welcome.
President Obama: Welcome to your White House.
Michael: And assures them that the goals of gay activism will be realized in this administration. And Sid, some of them have happened with the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in the military, with further push to legalize same-sex marriage across the country with undermining other foundations. Again, just the foundations of human life in society, things are in a precarious position. And I’m in ministry, Sid. We work to get missionaries on the field to reach Jewish people with the Gospel. People say, why deal with this? Well one, out of obedience to God. But two, we have no choice because pastors say, I don’t want to get involved in politics. Forget politics.
Sid: Listen, in churches there are gay couples. And by the way, I would like a gay couple in any church in America, but I would like the pastor to state what the Bible says so someone can repent and get whole.
Michael: Here’s the deal.
Sid: But they don’t say it in churches.
Michael: No, because you don’t want to offend. We’ve gotten this thing, I’d rather save my life for political expediency or to keep my ties to whatever it is than speak the truth. And now, listen, pastors say, I don’t want to get involved with politics. Okay. How about just preaching the Word and saying with love, adulterous practice is sin and drunkenness is sin and any sex outside of wedlock is sin, and homosexual practice is sin, and God has a better way. Why not say that? If we’re afraid to say that, the day will soon come, as is the case in other countries, where you could actually go to jail for preaching against homosexuality.
Sid: Tell me about David Parker.
Michael: David and Tanya Parker, parents of an elementary school kid, Kindergarten, first grade, a little kid, six years old, he goes to school, he comes home with a diversity bag. “Diversity” is the code word normally for gay activism. Comes home with a diversity bag. In it is a book, “Who’s in a Family?” And who’s in a family? Could be mom and dad, could be two moms, could be two dads. So he writes to the school and says, “I have a problem with this being taught without our notification. If this is going to be taught in school…”
Sid: I have a problem with it being taught, period.
Michael: But why is the school teaching this?
Sid: Needless to say, I need notification. Okay. So he says that.
Michael: So they tell him no, you can’t have notification. Well it ends up going to court. And the courts rule and the Supreme Courts refuse to hear the case. So this is law right now. The courts rule it is more important to teach diversity than to honor the requests of the parents. And the superintendent of schools then informs someone else that wrote and requested, and they said, no, no, I guess you don’t know the laws. They said, “But our teachers can teach on this whenever they want, so we couldn’t notify you even if we wanted to.” Plus same-sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts, so what’s the deal?
Sid: Tell me about Julia Ward.
Michael: For people who think we are like Chicken Little running around saying, “The sky is falling,” Sid, in my book, “A Queer Thing Happened to America”, anyone can read it.
Sid: Why did you name it that? That is, you know, what excites someone to be very upset with a title like that.
Michael: Sid, we got “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”. We’ve got books like “Queering Elementary Education”. We’ve got books on queer theology, queer Bible commentary. I was flying home from California yesterday talking to a lesbian gal. She heard the title of the book. She said, “Why would anyone think that’s offensive?” It’s just that queer is cool these days. So in my book, I document this, Sid, carefully. If we had a hundred hours of TV program, I’d give you a hundred hours of examples. Julia Ward, she’s a mature African-American woman. She’s in a graduate program doing fine in a counseling program in Michigan. And part of what they have to do as interns is they have to counsel people. She’s given a homosexual client and told, you need to affirm this person’s gay relationship. So she goes to her professor and supervisor and says, “You know, I can’t do that as a Christian. What would you recommend that I do?” And they said, well just refer the person to someone else. She said, “I’m happy to counsel them. I just can’t affirm their homosexual relationship as a Christian.” “No problem.” Oh, it became a problem. She was called on the carpet by the university. She was subjected to an inquisition. She was accused of being bigoted and intolerant with her views. She was kicked out of the program, Sid. This woman, Julia Ward, has been kicked out of the university program because she said, “As a Christian, I cannot affirm someone in a homosexual relationship.”
Sid: Something is queer about America. I understand why a secular publisher did not want to publish this book. I don’t understand why a Christian publisher, Christian publishers you approached, it was too hot for them. We’ll be right back. I want to find out can a homosexual be Christian. Is it compatible? Don’t go away.
