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Book Review of The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing The Principal Threat To Religious Freedom Today
by Alan Sears and Craig Osten
Reviewed by Sandra Alexander
13 June 2004

This book reveals where the homosexual movement is taking us, with its "six-point strategy" for changing societal perception of homosexuality. This strategy takes society through four stages, and we are now past the third stage and into the final and fourth stage leading to the moral demise of a culture.

Part of the answer to the question is found in two publications (1987 and 1989) by homosexual activists Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen. Their strategy to change America’s perception of homosexual behavior included the following six points:

1. Talk about gays and gayness as loudly and often as possible. (Through sheer perseverance the opposition will be worn down)
2. Portray gays as victims, not aggressive challengers.
3. Give homosexual protectors a “just” cause.
4. Make gays look good. (Notice that the media always makes the “gay” character the hero)
5. Make the victimizers look bad.
6. Solicit funds: the buck stops here (i.e., get corporate America and major foundations to financially support the homosexual cause). (p. 18)

Kirk and Madsen knew that Bible-believing Christians would be the major opponents of legitimizing homosexuality because of their belief in the Biblical teaching that homosexuality is “unnatural” and “vile.” To counteract this, they stated, “We can undermine the moral authority of homophobic churches by portraying them as antiquated backwaters, badly out of step with the times and with the latest findings of psychology. Against the mighty pull of institutional religion, one must set the mightier draw of science and public opinion….Such an unholy alliance has worked well against churches before, on such topics as divorce and abortion.” (p. 20) In addition to this Kirk and Madsen wrote, “We intend to make the antigays look so nasty that average Americans will want to disassociate themselves from such types.” (p. 23)

Homosexuals have made deep inroads into corporate America. In the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) training manual, activists are advised, “Before attempting to get domestic partner benefits from your employer, it is imperative that the company’s nondiscrimination policy include sexual orientation….. “ (p. 153) The strategy has worked well. “…the addition of sexual orientation to company antidiscrimination policies is the Trojan horse that leads to domestic-partner benefits…” (p. 153) Mr. Sears and Mr. Osten report that “31 percent of Fortune 500 companies now offer domestic-partner benefits, including 82 percent of the Fortune 50.” (p. 151)

“It is well-documented that homosexuals as a group “have a much higher level of disposable income than most families.” (p. 156) Therefore, corporations are lining up to get their share of the homosexual dollars. “Subaru, for example, proudly states that it is the number one choice of lesbian households.” (p. 159) United Airlines, under pressure, in 2000 forged a new three-year partnership with the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. Benefits of this partnership included “underwriting of all staff air travel for Lambda for the next three years.” (p. 160) The authors ask the question, “Can you imagine the uproar in the media and from radical homosexual activists if, for example, Delta Airlines gave three years of (benefits) to the first Baptist Church to facilitate their opposition of Lambda?” (p. 160)

But monetary benefits are not the only goal of the homosexuals. Through “diversity training” sessions for employees in many corporations and government entities, “biblical beliefs on homosexual behavior and marriage are openly ridiculed.” (p. 156) “The radical homosexual agenda is definitely not about tolerance; it is about acceptance and an in-your-face desire to flaunt homosexuals’ sexuality and related behavior at the expense
of others.” (p. 156)

Another target of the homosexuals is the public schools. “According to the National Education Association and its allies, children must be taught that sexual orientation is fluid (which is an interesting contradiction since homosexual activists are intent on proving a genetic link to their behavior), that only ‘intolerant religions’ do not affirm homosexual behavior, and that once you are entrapped in homosexual behavior, there is no escape. No dissenting views are permitted. Thus, the gospel is silenced, parental values are undermined, and an impressionable child is doomed to engage in behavior that will often result in his or her eventual self-destruction.” (p. 51) As Newsweek writer, David Gelman, puts it, “At high schools around the country, multiculturalism has begun to embrace multisexualism…more students seem to be coming out, and they’re coming out younger.” (p. 50)

“The indoctrination that takes place in our public schools has definitely had an effect in shaping teens’ attitudes toward homosexual behavior. In 2001, Zogby International released a poll that found that 85 percent of high school seniors thought homosexual men and lesbians should be accepted by society…….two-thirds thought same-sex marriage should be allowed. Even 80 percent of evangelical Christian students supported hate-crimes legislation, which in its many proposed forms, will be used to silence religious speech about homosexual behavior.” (p. 67)

Universities are now actively recruiting homosexuals, in some cases “tailoring their student housing policies to support homosexual behavior and preferences.” (p. 76) At the same time, Steve Hayner, former president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship reports, “We have had more challenges to our basic right to exist on campus settings during the past two years than in the previous fifty-five combined. It’s not just us—this is hitting Catholics and Muslims and others. What we are seeing is a growing challenge to religious free speech.” (p. 72) “While people of faith find themselves forced to put up with behavior that offends them, those who practice homosexual behavior are catered to, at the expense of everyone else.” (p. 77)

“Lately homosexual behavior on college campuses is taking a dangerous new turn - the promotion of sexual relations between adults and children, known as pedophilia.” (p. 83) U.S. News and World Report columnist John Leo noted that he had "seen a trend toward the promotion of pedophilia among academics as early as 1981.” (p. 85) Professor Harris Mirkin of the University of Missouri-Kansas City published a study (funded with taxpayer money) that compared the ‘moral panic’ about pedophilia to previous ‘panics’ about feminism and homosexuality.” Sheldon Steinbach of the American Council on Education adds his comment, “Today’s heresy often becomes tomorrow’s orthodoxy.” (p. 85) “This statement is extremely chilling but also very true. Just as homosexual behavior has now become accepted orthodoxy on many university campuses and Christians and Orthodox Jews have become the heretics, we are going down the same road with pedophilia. As the homosexual agenda continues to sexualize our culture, other once-forbidden behaviors are exalted as just more alternative lifestyles. The result is that the well-being of millions of children is at risk, along with the right of parents to protect their children from sexual exploitation.” (p. 86)

The authors begin their chapter entitled “The Family under Attack” with a quote from Stanley Kurtz, writing in National Review. He predicts, in part, that “As soon as even a single state legalizes same-sex marriage, the nation will be plunged into a furious legal, political, and cultural struggle…As legal and political battles over traveling couples spread from state-to-state, the chaos will multiply and the courts, already inclined to mandate same-sex marriage, will grow increasingly receptive to arguments that the Full Faith and Credit Clause demands national gay marriage. And the even stronger arguments for nationally mandated gay marriage under the Constitution’s equal-protection clause will also find favor in the courts.” (p. 89) “Once marriage is redefined for same-sex partners, it opens the Pandora’s box to be redefined for any assortment of individuals. After all, if two men or two women have the right to be married, why not two men and three women, or two men, one woman, and a dog and a chimpanzee?” (p. 94) The authors point out that granting marital rights to same-sex and other partnerships
will quickly change the traditional view of marriage in which monogamy and fidelity to your spouse are valued. In a study conducted by UVM psychologists Rothbaum and Solomon, they found the following: “While 79 percent of married heterosexuals felt that nonmonogamy was wrong, only 34 percent of homosexual men not in civil unions and 50 percent in civil unions thought it was wrong to engage in nonmonogamous sexual behavior.” (p. 95) Openly homosexual author Andrew Sullivan writes that “…homosexuals have a ‘need for extramarital outlets’ and therefore same-sex marriage will make adultery more acceptable for all married couples.” (p. 95)

With such a threat washing over American society and particularly challenging the religious freedom of the Christian church, how is the church responding? Mr. Sears and Mr. Osten cites examples of churches who have attempted to remain true to the teaching of the Bible. In early December 1989, members of the militant homosexual group ACT-UP disrupted the service in New York City’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral, yelling and chaining themselves to pews. “One irate individual made his way to the altar for Communion, took a wafer, and threw it on the ground.” (p. 117) At First Presbyterian Church of Orlando, Florida, the Rev. Howard Edington “was forced to retire under pressure from some members of his congregation and the Central Florida Presbytery because of his vocal opposition to the ordination of homosexual pastors, same-sex marriage, and preaching a sermon against the city’s sexual orientation anti-discrimination policy.” (p. 122) “These
examples are just a microcosm of the war that radical homosexual activists have staged against the church. It has been a war in which the church has either totally capitulated on the issue and embraced homosexual behavior while rejecting biblical teaching, or found herself under increasing attack from inside and outside the sanctuary for taking a biblical stand on the issue.” (p. 118)

One of the most insidious attacks on religious freedom has come under the guise of so-called “hate crimes legislation.” (p. 202) “In municipalities with an assortment of hate crime laws or similar speech limiting laws, religious freedom is already at peril. In 1998, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors took the unusual action of denouncing an advertising campaign sponsored by a national ministry that said homosexual behavior was sinful and that homosexuals can change. … Although the ministry took the board to court over the matter, the Ninth U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco rejected the claim, stating, ‘The main purpose and effect of the Supervisors’ actions was to promote equality and condemn hate crimes, not to attack or inhibit religious beliefs.’ Yet that is exactly what the resolutions did.” (p. 203)

The authors state, “Many Christians are unaware of the threats posed to their religious freedoms. Because of this, either because of ignorance or laziness, sadly, many Christians will come to realize the famous lament of the German pastor, Martin Niemoeller, is true for them as well: ‘First they came for the Jews, but I did nothing because I am not a Jew. Then they came for the socialists, but I did nothing because I am not a socialist. Then they came for the Catholics, but I did nothing because I am not a Catholic. Finally, they came for me, but by then there was no one left to help me.” (p. 204) This book is an excellent read if you want to see clearly the chilling path where the homosexual movement is really taking us.

A note from the Authors: "While this book deals with a difficult and contentious issue, we want to state up front that both authors and the ministry of the Alliance Defense Fund have nothing but respect, compassion, and sensitivity toward those ensnared in homosexual behavior. Both of us have family members, respected acquaintances, and friends who have been trapped in this behavior and know something of the incredible pain and sorrow it has brought to them and their families. With God's grace we carefully balance this love and respect for these individuals with warnings about the carrying out, promotion, and demand for legal approval for homosexual behavior that will stifle religious freedom and trap millions of more people in its deadly grip." (p. viii)

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