by Chad Groening
(AgapePress) – It is known as “The Castro.” David Brickner, the executive director of Jews for Jesus, calls it one of the darkest places in America — but a place where his ministry is making inroads.
The Castro is located in San Francisco, home base for Jews for Jesus. Brickner says thanks to his group's evangelistic video, called Survivor Stories, progress is being made with the homosexual community in The Castro. “What most Christians don't know,” Brickner says, “is that within the gay community there's a high level of identification with the Holocaust … because homosexuals [like the Jews] were persecuted by the Nazis.”
Brickner says while the Nazis forced Jews to wear the yellow star, homosexuals were required to wear something called “the pink triangle.”
According to Brickner, offering the testimony of Holocaust survivors who have come to Christ has stirred thousands to order the video. “We've given this gospel message a new twist in terms of allowing Holocaust survivors to tell their stories of coming to faith in Jesus,” he says. “We've gone into The Castro every day, handing out gospel tracts and offering this video, and literally thousands have ordered the video.”
“We thought that we would be facing intense persecution and hostility from the gay community,” he says, “but contrary to that we've found a great openness.”
So far, Brickner says, more than a hundred homosexuals in The Castro have received and accepted the video's message.
(This update courtesy of Agape Press.)
“Alternative” Mag Petitioned to Apologize for Racial Slur
by Allie Martin and Jody Brown
(AgapePress) – The president of the American Family Association of Michigan is calling for an apology from the publishers of a homosexual advocacy magazine which used a racial slur to describe a member of one city's human rights commission.
An editorial last month in Between the Lines, Michigan's largest pro-homosexual magazine, referred to J. Drew Sheard — an African-American pastor who sits on Detroit's Human Rights Commission — as “a spade.” The magazine was calling for the pastor's resignation from the commission because of his refusal to back a motion to withhold money from the Boy Scouts because of the Scouts' policy banning homosexual scoutmasters.
According to the magazine, during debate on the motion Sheard rejected claims that homosexual behavior is comparable to skin color, saying “I'm not black by preference. That [homosexuality] is your choice. I want to go on record that I resent homosexuality being compared to race,” Sheard said.
Between the Lines reported that after the debate, the pastor continued to express his opinion on the issue. “It's my opinion that sexual preference is a choice, and that's the difference,” Sheard said. “I have a problem with equating blackness to gayness. I don't think it's fair … to equate my blackness with someone's gayness.”
The unsigned editorial commended another member of the commission, David Snider, who criticized Sheard's position. The editorial stated: “We applaud [Snider] for calling a spade a spade — or in this case, a personal bias a personal bias.”
AFA of Michigan president Gary Glenn says the editorial shows a clear double standard.
“A year ago, an openly homosexual city councilman in Ferndale, Michigan, referred to voters who opposed his gay rights ordinance as 'vampires' who might need another 'dagger' through their heart,” Glenn says. “Once again, hate-inspired comments by homosexual activists expose the bigotry, intolerance, and prejudice they hold against any person of any race who opposes their discriminatory agenda.”
Glenn is asking the Human Rights Commission to seek an apology from the editors of Between the Lines.
“We have filed a complaint with the Detroit Human Rights Commission asking them to join us in demanding an apology from this homosexual advocacy newspaper for their use of a racist slur against an African-American pastor just because he refuses to support the homosexual agenda,” he says.
At press time, Glenn had no response from the Human Rights Commission. Sheard is pastor of Detroit's Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ.
