For the Bible Tells Me So

There's a new so-called documentary DVD out this year called "For the Bible Tells Me So." It was shown by a local homosexual advocacy group in Rapid City last month, and it was fairly well attended. It was also shown in Sioux Falls last month, and the DVD continues to be played for small groups across the country.

The film claims to examine what the Bible really says about homosexuality.

There are moral and practical reasons to discourage homosexual behavior.

From a practical perspective, the increased health risks associated with homosexuality are staggering: higher rates of AIDS, other STDs, anxiety, depression, substance abuse and suicide. Of course, homosexuals have become very practiced in casting aspersion on the numerous studies which show this, but to the objective mind the evidence speaks for itself, including a report from the Centers for Disease Control which shows 72% of male AIDS cases spring from homosexual activity.

From a moral perspective, Christianity, Judaism and Islam, which makes up the vast majority of religious belief in the United States, all condemn homosexual behavior.

Though American culture is becoming increasingly secular, on the whole we remain a people with a worldview founded on Christianity. A recent Gallup poll found that 82 percent of Americans say they identify with Christianity. And the religious views held by people can affect their public policy views as powerfully as health statistics.

Therefore, if homosexuals and other apologists are serious about achieving widespread acceptance of homosexual behavior in our society, they must successfully deal with the religious question and undermine the traditional understanding.

Homosexuals believe they now have the right tool to accomplish this with "For the Bible Tells Me So." And given the fact that only about four percent of the U.S. population has a good grasp on what the Bible teaches, they may succeed.

"For the Bible Tells Me So" (FTBTMS) has been been viewed in dozens of showings in churches, community centers and activist organizations in the past few months. I've been monitoring news and blog coverage, with at least a couple of mentions of the DVD showing up every day. So far, I've seen only one article that spoke of the DVD in a negative light, and that one was fairly superficial.

Yet while the film severely distorts what the Bible says, very little of it deals with what the Bible actually says. The majority of the 98 minutes is spent cultivating sympathy toward homosexuals and antipathy toward people who actually believe what the Bible says about homosexuality.

At first glance, and to the mind not familiar with Scripture, it makes a compelling case. That is, until you take a closer look.

So I sat down and watched this DVD several times, transcribing several lengthy quotes to show context, and examining the film's contentions against what the Bible says. I also analyzed some of the films emotional ploys.

Tomorrow I will begin an 8-part series I'm calling "For the Bible Tells Me So: The Real Story." My hope is that the series will be helpful to to the person who wants to know the truth, but may be misled by slick packaging. Not only is it a scary thing to misrepresent what God has said, the safety and welfare of many people struggling with homosexuality is at stake.

If the Bible affirms homosexual behavior or is even neutral toward homosexual behavior, then despite the health risks, the Bible shouldn't be used as justification to oppose homosexuality.

But what if the traditional contention is actually what the Bible says? Then those who call themselves Christians have a decision to make: to follow the "way that seems right to a man," or to follow God's way.

Part 1 - Building Sympathy Without Exegesis
Part 2 - The Bible as a 'Truth Buffet'
Part 3 - Understanding the Bible...Or Rewriting It?
Part 4 - Science or the Bible...or Neither?
Part 5 - Why Was Sodom Destroyed?
Part 6 - What Does the New Testament Say about Homosexuality?
Part 7 - Do Activism, Sympathy and Self Supersede Biblical Authority?
Part 8 - What the DVD Does--And Doesn't--Answer

Not Getting Any Better at Obama's Church

It looked like Barack Obama's church might have been cleaning up it's racist, anti-American act since Rev. Jeremiah Wright's hateful comments started coming to light a couple of months ago. I read a week or two ago that the church had removed a lot of these Afrocentric and "black liberation" materials from their website, in favor of material centered around Christ.

Then I hear this morning that Obama's new pastor, Rev. Otis Moss, is quoting a foul, profane, anti-American rap song. The rapper is called Ice Cube and the song is titled "Wrong N-gga to f--- with."

WorldNetDaily features some of the lyrics of a song mentioned (not in a negative way at all) by Rev. Moss:

"Down wit the niggaz that I bail out
I'm platinum b-tch and I didn't have to sell out
F--- you Ice Cube, that's what the people say
F--- AmeriKKKa, still with the triple K
Cause you know when my nine goes buck
it'll bust your head like a watermelon dropped from 12 stories up
Now let's see who'll drop"

Rev. Moss never says the f-word, but he doesn't seem to condemn this music in the slightest.

All I can say is that I can't in my wildest dreams imagine my pastor referencing such a song in anything but the most negative light...if he could even bring himself to mention such a song at all.

And if my pastor did reference such music in anything except the harshest tones of condemnation, I'd be looking for another church before the next Sunday rolled around.

Below is a video clip of Rev. Moss mentioning the song, and a clip of some of the lyrics from the song. WARNING: If you don't want to hear the f-word (many times), don't play the video.

Legislative term limits: Will they become a thing of the past in South Dakota?

By Gordon Garnos

AT ISSUE: South Dakota's legislators during the last session passed a resolution to end term limits on themselves. The proposal would be to eliminate that part of the amendment from the state's Constitution in the November General Election. Voters in 1992 by a 63.5 percent passed the initiated measure to put term limits on both our legislators and our state's constitutional officers. This legislative session's proposal does not include removing the constitutional officers from term limits.

THE QUESTION IS should members of the South Dakota Legislature be term limited? Basically, that is one of the several questions voters in the state will get to decide come the November General Election.

In 1992 South Dakota's voters put in eight-year term limits (four two-year
terms) for our legislators. We also put the eight-year cap on our six constitutional officers. That includes the office of lieutenant governor.

This means our constitutional officers each could serve a maximum of two four year terms. The office of governor was term limited in 1972 to a max of two four-year terms.

Now, if I was a constitutional officer in South Dakota, I would be miffed at the legislators trying to get their term limits lifted and forgetting us constitutional officers who are still on the hook to serve only eight years in office. In fact, I would be d*** mad at the legislative body for forgetting to take us off the term limit thing as well. We all went on it at the same time.

Now, if I were a legislator I would respond to that by saying that while we may have forgotten about you guys, we tried to add an amendment to that resolution to get you out of term limits as well, but it got killed in the Senate.

NOW IF I WERE that same constitutional officer I would probably retort that since all bills have to be approved by both houses, you people in the House are just as guilty for not getting us out of term limits as well.

Now, if I were a columnist for several weekly newspapers in the state I would have to say to our legislators, try as you might to get the yoke of term limits lifted from your shoulders, it ain't likely to happen. Past sessions of the Legislature have had poor luck in trying to convince the people that the proposals from Pierre to change the state's Constitution were the thing to do. Don't forget, the idea to put term limits in effect came from the people through the initiative process and if the people want to withdraw them let it be from the people as well.

ACCORDING TO a spokesman for the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) the 1990s was the season for states to implement term limits on the state officials, but now "the flame has gone out" in some states and the reversal is taking place.

Well, if the polls in that newspaper in that town near Harrisburg are any where near correct. That fire he spoke about has not gone out in South Dakota. I am speaking about that question that appeared in that newspaper April 12. "Should term limits force South Dakota state legislators out after four two-year terms?" I bet for our legislators, the response had to be staggering. There was 75.4 percent voting "Yes" and 24.6 percent voting "No."

Now, if I were a betting man I would have to say some where near that three to one odds against repealing legislative term limits just might carry across the state come the November election.

THE REPORT FROM the NCSL stated that almost all of the term limit restrictions were passed by states that give residents power to initiate laws. In many states voters do not have that power.

A few tidbits here from that paper in that town near Harrisburg: "South Dakota is one of 15 states that have term limits on their legislators. Six states that once passed such limits have since removed them. Six of the remaining term-limit states have a lifetime restriction. The other nine, including South Dakota, let a lawmaker serve to term, then take a break or switch chambers."

As the editor of a daily newspaper back in 1991-92 I well remember the campaigns both for and against term limits. I editorially supported term limits at the time. The big argument for the opponents of term limits sang the song that term limits cause the loss of "historical prospective."

However, loss of historical prospective should give way to new and positive change and while I lost my head several columns ago and endorsed the repeal of term limits, I am once again back on solid ground opposing the proposed repeal. The fire isn't out as far as I am concerned....


Gordon Garnos was long-time editor of the Watertown Public Opinion and recently retired after 39 years with that newspaper. Garnos, a lifelong resident of South Dakota except for his military service in the U.S. Air Force, was born and raised in Presho.

Open Mind Closed

Something to think about...

The Education of Early Americans

American Minute from William J. Federer

Selling a million copies a year for over 100 years, McGuffey's Readers were the mainstay of public education in America. Generations of school children read them, making them some of the most influential books of all time. They were written by William McGuffey, who died MAY 4, 1873.

A professor at the University of Virginia and president of Ohio University, William McGuffey began one of nation's first teachers' associations.

In the foreword of McGuffey's Reader, 1836, he wrote: "The Christian religion is the religion of our country. From it are derived our prevalent notions of the character of God, the great moral governor of the universe. On its doctrines are founded the peculiarities of our free institutions."

In McGuffey's 5th Eclectic Reader, 1879, is a lesson by William Ellery Channing, titled "Religion-The Only Basis of Society": "How powerless conscience would become without the belief of a God...Erase all thought and fear of God from a community, and selfishness and sensuality would absorb the whole man. Appetite, knowing no restraint...would trample in scorn on the restraints of human laws...Man would become...what the theory of atheism declares him to be - a companion for brutes."

William J. Federer is a nationally recognized author, speaker, and president of Amerisearch, Inc, which is dedicated to researching our American heritage. The American Minute radio feature looks back at events in American history on the dates they occurred, is broadcast daily across the country and read by thousand on the internet.