Dear Friends,

It looks like our lecture series last week hit a nerve, and in response to these lectures, the president of the world’s largest homosexual advocacy organization has issued a direct challenge to me and the Coalition of Conscience: “Pastor Brown . . . We are not afraid to take you on.”

Here’s the background, leading up to this challenge from Joe Solmonese, president of the “Human Rights Campaign” (HRC) issued last Saturday night, February 24th.

RESPONSE FROM THE LOCAL MEDIA

One year ago, the Charlotte Observer was not interested in publishing anything we had to say about the HRC. This year, the lectures and the HRC dinner were on the front burner. The prayers of God’s people certainly made a big difference!

We ran a half-page ad in the Observer on Saturday, February 17th (for the actual size, view the ad at 100% in Adobe Reader), announcing the lectures and the Observer carried their own announcement about the lectures. Both the ad and the short announcement provoked some negative letters to the editor, in response to which the Observer published its own editorial, defending our right to hold the lectures. The Observer also invited us to write an editorial in response. There were further letters to the editor and then a report on the HRC dinner itself, quoting us accurately and fairly.

As far as the HRC was concerned, we had two goals in mind: We wanted the general public to know who they really were – a radical homosexual activist organization rather than a broad-based human rights organization – and we wanted the public to know about the major companies that backed the HRC. We are grateful to God that both of these things were clearly communicated this week.

SOME HATRED ON THE INTERNET

As expected, there were some hostile responses to the lecture series, and it was amazing to see how easily people were manipulated. One website claimed that we were saying homosexuals were not human. (Our point, of course, was that is was misleading for the HRC to be called the Human Rights Campaign since it stood only for homosexual rights rather than the rights of all people.) These were some of the comments posted in response to this false report:

• Life must really s--k for you when you're filled with that much hate
  Brown will be an inspiration to haters everywhere.
  
• cannot legitimately call themselves human??
  Why doesn't someone silence these 'unintelligently designed', ignorant morons?
  They are now defining who is human? Ah f-- it
  
• or "How To Be A Mindless Bigot In Five Easy Lessons"
  
• Ultimately, their reasoning must boil down to
  "because gays are not human."
  
• As Wanda Sykes said, Gay is the new Black.
  
• Some Busheviks emboldned enough to openly tout Nazi agenda
  Does this mean Blacks and Jews and Gyspies aren't human, or in the American version of Nazism, is it only the gays who aren't human?
  
• Vomit.
  Just vomit.
  
• I hope this gets a huge amount of publicity
  because this can only backfire in their faces. It will convince even more straight people that we really are facing lunatics, and the struggle for our rights against these lunatics really does need to be taken seriously.
  
• Why do these people always use the word "concerned"?
  Honestly, they are the ones that make me "concerned".
  
• Because "frothing nutbar" isn't as telegenic a term.
  These people are a cancer on the body politic. The day when they're a forgotten and ignored footnote in our history can't come too soon.
  
• Membership in the KKK is also on the rise in the Charlotte area.
  Unfortunately, that part of NC is full of hate mongers.
  
• "Impose It's Agenda on Others." GOD D--N IT!
  Why is it so d--n hard for some people to understand that gays, lesbians, and transgendered Americans just want to have the same rights as everyone else?! But, these [idiots] only see that as an agenda being imposed on them. F---ing bigots, that's all they are.
  

Another website suggested that we should lose our tax exempt status for holding these lectures on Homosexuality, the Church, and Society.

• Anybody feel like these a--holes should lose their tax exempt status? I do and it’s time that we start organizing agaist these cretons [note that Cretans is misspelled] who are popping up all over the country.
  
• These jacka--s are clearly in violation of the separation of church and state and we can take steps to curb this garbage or continue to let them keep us from the civil rights we're entitled to as tax payers.

So much for “tolerance”!

Another blogger commented: “I think we should hold protest at every church on Sunday for their radically right agenda in an effort to prevent the rampant spread of religious zealots.”

THE CHALLENGE FROM THE HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

When we held our news conference announcing the lectures, the HRC declined to comment, issuing a positive (and misleading) statement about what the HRC stands for (click HERE for the news report ). But things were quite different at their gala dinner on Saturday night, attended by 1,500 people paying $195 a plate and with sponsorship from some of the biggest companies in the country (click HERE for the corporate sponsors ). A friend of the Coalition who attended the dinner was able to record the comments of Joe Solmonese, the president of the HRC. This is just some of what Mr. Solmonese had to say immediately after his opening greetings:

So how about this Pastor Michael Brown? [Some jeers] Are all of you familiar with him? For those of you who are not, uh, from out of town, he’s a right-wing preacher who’s holding a five-day lecture series about homosexuality in response to this event tonight.

He’s making people go to school for five days in response to this. [Laughs] Now I volunteered to be a guest lecturer but, uh, they were not interested. [Laughs and applause; short comment unclear] . . .

This Michael Brown is the head of the so-called Coalition of Conscience. He told the press that he wants to make sure that the public knows who this HRC is and what this HRC really stands for.

Well how powerful does that make you feel? [Cheers and applause] It should make you feel very powerful because that’s what you are. That is what we are, all of us across this country. That is what we proved in the elections last November. [Cheers and applause]

We proved that we can be powerful when we come together, set our sights higher than our own back yards, set about the business of making change. We, all of you in this room and all across the country, are the powerful agents of that change in our country right now.

And Pastor Brown, if you’re here tonight [loud laughs] . . . do you remember Ted Haggard [hoots and applause]. If you’re here tonight, know this: We are not afraid to take you on and take back the conversation about religion and faith in this country [cheers and applause].

[To listen to these comments click HERE; you will also hear the voice of the colleague who taped the comments.]

They have made their challenge clear: “We are not afraid to take you on and take back the conversation about religion and faith in this country.”

Can you imagine that? A radical homosexual organization is planning to “take back the conversation about religion and faith in this country”? We are praying about our next step in responding to this challenge, and we will keep you posted once we formulate our plan.

Thanks for standing with us during these days. We received very encouraging responses to the lectures and we hope to make the DVD’s of each night available for purchase within the next 4-6 weeks.

Let’s continue to press in in prayer, believing that here in Charlotte and in many other locations across America the truth will triumph. May the name of Jesus be exalted!

The Coalition of Conscience is a network of Christian leaders and believers, currently based in the greater Charlotte, North Carolina area, who are working together for moral and cultural change through the gospel.

Dr. Michael L. Brown is the Director of the Coalition and serves as its voice to the local and national community.

Dr. Michael L. Brown
ICN Ministries
PO Box 1446
Harrisburg, NC 28075
704-782-3760
e-mail: ministry@icnministries.org