Mike Evans

Author Mike Evans joined Beck onstage for the Restoring Courage: The Courage to Love and Restoring Courage: Courage to Remember events. Evans founded the Jerusalem Prayer Team, which has lobbied aggressively against gay pride events in Jerusalem.

Evans Called Gay Pride Parade An “Abomination” And “An Attempt To Disgrace Everything That True Christians Consider To Be Pure And Holy.” A March 2005 WorldNetDaily article reported of Evans and his attempts to stop WorldPride 2005:

But the Jerusalem Prayer Team, a Christian group that asks members to pray for and encourage the people of Israel, has called the planned World Pride event a moral abomination and is seeking 1 million signatures on a petition to ask the Jerusalem mayor and the city's municipality to cancel the event.

“This is a moral outrage,” Prayer Team founder Mike Evans told WorldNetDaily. “Jerusalem is where heaven and earth met and will meet again. It is the holiest city. This event will bring to the streets homosexuals in immodest dress, in G-strings, with all kinds of pornographic images. They plan to fill the hotels and restaurants and party like Sodomites, while the world press takes pictures. It is a disgrace to the eternal holiness of Jerusalem and to its people.”

Evans penned an open letter asking Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski, an Orthodox Jew who has in the past expressed reservations about homosexual events, to stop World Pride 2005 from being held in Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem municipality, which holds jurisdiction over city permits, officially approved the World Pride gathering last year in spite of Lupolianski's known views on the subject.

“I am praying for you that God will give you the strength, wisdom and protection you need to oppose this abomination in the city of Jerusalem,” wrote Evans to Lupolianski.

[...]

Said Evans: “The Jewish people will think the majority of these people are Christians because they will profess to be. Gay pastors will probably organize tours. Men will be holding hands in holy places. There is no doubt in my mind that this is an attempt to disgrace everything that true Christians consider to be pure and holy.”

[...]

Evans stressed his organization “doesn't hate gays. We just cannot condone their lifestyle. If anything, we ask people to show compassion and mercy toward homosexuals. We ask people to pray for these folks, a lot of whom are hurting because they have AIDS or problems with substance abuse. Some have gone through abuse in their childhood.” [WorldNetDaily, 3/11/05]

Evans: “If We Remain Silent, They Will Be Baptizing Hand-Holding Homosexuals In The Jordan River.” From an “action alert” by Evans regarding WorldPride 2006:

I have been in Jerusalem all week, and I am outraged! Following last year's postponement of WorldPride 2005, lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders are regrouping and reorganizing for WorldPride 2006, an international parade in the city of Jerusalem. This is not heaven witnessing; it is hell. There are now homosexual churches all over America and the world, whose adherents claim to be good Christians.

Join our fight to stop this desecration of Jerusalem. Add your signature to our letter of support to Mayor of Jerusalem, Uri Lupolianski, now!

They plan to travel to Jerusalem from San Francisco, New York City, and cities from around the world. The most disturbing thing about this is that most of the Jewish people in Jerusalem are very religious. That is why they have gone to Jerusalem from all the nations of the world.

To have more than 100,000 homosexuals flaunting such decadent behavior in this tiny, holy city where heaven and earth met, and will meet again, is outrageous! They plan to fill the hotels and restaurants, and party like Sodomites, while the world press takes pictures.

Even more outrageous is that the Jewish people will think the majority of these people are Christians...because they will profess to be. There is no doubt in my mind that this is an attempt to disgrace everything that true Christians consider to be pure and holy.

It is being proclaimed the largest international gathering for gay pride ever. I can tell you with absolute certainty that my dear friend, Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski, a very Orthodox mayor, does not want this. There is no way he can overcome the power of this group without your support.

It is vitally urgent that we mobilize one million Christians to petition Mayor Lupolianski not to allow permits to be issued for the WorldPride event in the tiny, holy city of Jerusalem. I want the Mayor to be able to go to the city council and say, “Our strongest supporters are Bible-believing Christians. There are two billion Christians in the world, and they are outraged. We must not allow their holy sites, and this holy city to be desecrated.” If we remain silent, they will be baptizing hand-holding homosexuals in the Jordan River. They will also fill the Garden Tomb again and again, taking Communion, and shouting, “Hallelujah.”

Add your signature now!

Abraham beheld such decadence, and pled with God to stay His hand of destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah if he (Abraham) could find as few as ten righteous men. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.

[...]

This is a battle between darkness and light. Satan's last challenge to God Almighty was from the city of Jerusalem...then he would be like the Most High...that he would sit on the mount of the congregation on the sides of the north. There is no doubt in my mind that he is attempting to shake his fist in the face of God.

For Jerusalem's Sake,

Mike D. Evans [JerusalemPrayerTeam.org, accessed 8/23/11]

John Hagee

Pastor John Hagee was a participant in the Restoring Courage: The Courage to Love event. Hagee has a history of controversial remarks about gays.

Hagee Claimed Hurricane Katrina Was Punishment From God For A Planned “Homosexual Parade” In New Orleans. During a 2006 appearance on National Public Radio's Fresh Air, Hagee was asked by host Terry Gross about previous comments he had made about Katrina being “an act of God for a society that is becoming Sodom and Gomorrah reborn.”

He responded:

TERRY GROSS (host): You said after Hurricane Katrina that it was an act of God, and you said “when you violate God's will long enough, the judgment of God comes to you. Katrina is an act of God for a society that is becoming Sodom and Gomorrah reborn.” Do you still think that Katrina is punishment from God for a society that's becoming like Sodom and Gomorrah?

HAGEE: All hurricanes are acts of God, because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they are -- were recipients of the judgment of God for that. The newspaper carried the story in our local area that was not carried nationally that there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. And the promise of that parade was that it was going to reach a level of sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other Gay Pride parades.

So I believe that the judgment of God is a very real thing. I know that there are people who demur from that, but I believe that the Bible teaches that when you violate the law of God, that God brings punishment sometimes before the day of judgment. And I believe that the Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.

GROSS: So I know you're very opposed to homosexuality, but you think that the whole city was punished because of things like the forthcoming gay pride parade.

HAGEE: This is true. All of the city was punished because of the sin that happened there in that city. [NPR, Fresh Air, 9/18/06]

Hagee: If We Fail To Ban Gay Marriage And “If God Does Not Then Punish America, He Will Have To Apologize To Sodom And Gomorrah.” From Hagee's book, What Every Man Wants in a Woman:

As I write this book, the issue of same-sex marriage rages on the front pages of America's newspapers and is seen on national telecasts each evening. Massachusetts has just agreed to recognize same-sex marriages. For a fact, Sodom and Gomorrah are being reborn in America.

The only hope morality has to survive in America is for a constitutional amendment to be passed stating that the only marriage recognized in America will be between a man and a woman of legal age.

[...]

I encourage every person who has biblical beliefs to contact their congressman and their senator on a regular basis and implore them to pass this constitutional amendment recognizing only the marriage between a man and a woman. If we fail to achieve this, the gates of hell will be opened. It will open the door to incest, to polygamy, and every conceivable marriage arrangement demented minds can possibly conceive. If God does not then punish America, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah."

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It is impossible to call yourself a Christian and defend homosexuality. There is no justification or acceptance of homosexuality.

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Homosexuality means the death of society because homosexuals can recruit, but they cannot reproduce.

Once homosexuality gets out of the closet, it becomes aggressive. We are receiving every signal that intelligent humanity can receive from the homosexual community. They do not want mere acceptance; they want to be in charge. [John Hagee, What Every Man Wants in a Woman, 2004, pp. 68-70]

Asked About His Hurricane Katrina Comments In 2008, Hagee Said: “Just Like Religious Jews, I Don't Believe In Random Occurrence.” From a 2008 interview conducted by JTA:

Do you still believe that Hurricane Katrina was divine retribution for an acceptance of gays in New Orleans? Just like religious Jews, I don't believe in random occurrence but in a sovereign God who controls events. I believe that Hurricane Katrina was a curse. Why God chose to send this curse, I honestly do not know. [JTA, 3/10/08]

David Barton

David Barton spoke at the Restoring Courage: The Courage to Love event.

Barton Suggested That If The Government Is Going To Regulate “Salt” And “Trans Fats,” It Should “Regulate Homosexuality.” From the October 5, 2010, edition of Barton's radio program:

BARTON: We're a health-conscious people, no question.

RICK GREEN: We are, very.

BARTON: We have a Department of Health and Human Services; we have health care bills; we have health insurance and we're trying to stop all unhealthy things so we're going after transfats and we're going after transparency in labeling to make sure that we get all the healthy stuff in there. We're going after school lunch programs and we're trying to get juices in schools and Cokes out of schools and snack machines out of schools. And we're trying to tell McDonalds what they can use and how they can cook their french fries because it's unhealthy. And we've got cigarettes and trying to get them off and raising the taxes so high that nobody will smoke them, 'cause that's unhealthy. And hard liquor; that's unhealthy, we can't do that. And salt, man, we've got to have salt-free diets, and so we have to post the potassium, salt and all the different types of salt. And then you get -- just everything, obesity, overweight, we are so doggone health conscious because we want to live healthy because, among other things, it makes your health care a whole lot cheaper. You live a healthy life, no question it's a lot cheaper. So here --

GREEN: Which is typically the excuse for the federal government claiming we have the responsibility here, or we have the authority I should say --

BARTON: -- to tell you how to live a healthy lifestyle. So if I got to the Centers for Disease Control and if I'm concerned about health, I find some interesting stats there and this should tell me something about health.

Homosexual/bi-sexual individuals are seven times more likely to contemplate or commit suicide. Ooh, that doesn't sound very healthy.

Homosexuals die decades earlier than heterosexuals. That doesn't sound healthy.

Nearly one-half of practicing homosexuals admit to five hundred or more sex partners and nearly one-third admit to a thousand or more sex partners in a lifetime.

GREEN: Wow.

BARTON: That doesn't sound very healthy.

Homosexuals have an HIV prevalence sixty times higher than the general population.

Homosexuals have Hepatitis B virus five to six times more often and Hepatitis C virus infections about two times more common - more often than the regular population.

Homosexuals are less than three percent of the population but they account for sixty-four percent of the syphilis cases.

I mean, you go through all this stuff, sounds to me like that's not very healthy. Why don't we regulate homosexuality?

GREEN: I was about to say, now wait a minute, they want to either regulate or outlaw things like transfats and all those things you mentioned earlier --

BARTON: I got news for you, salt doesn't have the same life -- salt won't cut you decades off your life. But we regulate salt. And transfats are not going to cut decades off your life, but we'll regulate that.

GREEN: But here they do the opposite, they promote it.

BARTON: Oh wait, this will cut decades off your life? Let's get this taught in kindergarten and on up. This -- wait a minute, I thought we were into being health conscious? This is so oxymoronic and it really is dangerous.

Barton went on “to read out of an 1814 legal work” on “why we didn't promote homosexuality.” Barton then responded to the 1814 study:

BARTON: Now this was 1814, but there was a study done back in the 1920s and it looked at, I think, eighty-some odd nations and those that rejected sexual regulation and rejected -- sexual regulation like with homosexuality, none of them lasted past the third generation from the time that they embraced it.

GREEN: Wow.

BARTON: So, 80 out of 80, or 86 out of - however many it looked at -

GREEN: -- confirmed exactly what that study in 1814 said.

BARTON: Exactly, and that's a century later. And now here the CDC is saying “here's a really unhealthy lifestyle” and we're saying “oh, great, let's promote it in schools and lets protect it in law.”

GREEN: Unbelievable. [RightWingWatch, 10/5/10]

Opposing Military Service By Gay Men And Lesbians, Barton Argued Homosexuality “Was Long Considered Too Morally Abhorrent And Reprehensible To Openly Discuss.” In a 2001 post to the website for his group Wallbuilders, Barton posited his historical basis for “maintaining the ban on homosexuals in the military.” He wrote:

Public discussions concerning homosexuality are a purely recent phenomenon; it was long considered too morally abhorrent and reprehensible to openly discuss. Consider, for example, the legal works of James Wilson, a signer both of the Declaration and the Constitution and appointed by President Washington as an original Justice on the U. S. Supreme Court. Wilson was responsible for laying much of the foundation of American Jurisprudence and was co-author of America's first legal commentaries on the Constitution. Even though state law books of the day addressed sodomy, when Wilson came to it in his legal writings, he was too disgusted with it even to mention it.

[...]

In view of the arguments listed by historical and legal sources, there is substantial merit for maintaining the ban on homosexuals in the military. The Founders instituted this ban with a clear understanding of the damaging effects of this behavior on the military. This ban has remained official policy for over 200 years and one would be hard-pressed to perceive the need for altering a policy which has contributed to making America the world's foremost military power. [David Barton, Wallbuilders, 2001]

Barton's Group Published Election Guide Claiming Obama “Supports Curriculum That Promotes Homosexuality” And Highlighting That McCain “Opposes Gay Pride.” From WallBuilders' 2008 election guide:

[Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Accessed 8/23/10]