Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Courage” rally in Israel features religious figures who espouse anti-gay bigotry.
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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.