The industry often criticized for its role in funneling sex, violence, and profanity into American society and overseas is stepping up its efforts to defeat the ballot initiative that would ban same-sex marriage in California.
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(Photo: AP Images / Steve Yeater)Richie Beanan from Los Angeles, puts a sign on a bus that will tour California in support of Proposition 8. after a rally in Sacramento, Calif., on Monday, Oct. 20, 2008. If passed Proposition 8 would amend the California state constitution to ban same sex marriage.
After weeks of criticism from opponents of Proposition 8, more Hollywood insiders are making declarations of support – financial and otherwise – against the effort to overturn the contested state Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage earlier this year.
Leading the Hollywood outreach has been Oscar-winning producer Bruce Cohen, who wed art consultant Gabriel Catone in a ceremony officiated by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in June. According to The Associated Press, the "American Beauty" and "Pushing Daisies" producer dug deep into his contacts to ask for their support against Prop. 8, which would change the state constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman.
"The entertainment industry is obviously an important donor base," Chad Griffin, a political strategist for the “No on 8” campaign, told AP. "It's an industry that's often stood up against discrimination."
To date, “No on 8” has received donations from notable TV, film, and music celebrities including Brad Pitt, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Ellen DeGeneres, Bridget Fonda, Melissa Etheridge, Mary J. Blige, and Barbara Streiesand, among others.
The "Yes on 8" campaign, on the other hand, has far less star power.
Sonja Eddings Brown, a spokeswoman for "Yes on 8," said the campaign has not reached out to Hollywood because "the campaign is a campaign of the people.”
“It's not intended to be dotted with celebrities," she told AP.
As a result of the last-minute fundraising blitz in Hollywood, however, “No on 8” has out-raised the ProtectMarriage coalition by a 9-1 margin over the past 2 weeks, taking back the overall fundraising lead.
Furthermore, while the “Yes on 8” campaign had a notable lead in voting support, the latest CBS News poll shows the “Yes on 8” campaign now only barely ahead, winning by a narrow 48-45 percent margin.
In response to the recent surge of gay marriage support, Prop. 8 advocates have been frantically trying to mobilize concerned individuals to help fund the effort to keep the “homosexual agenda” from advancing through same-sex marriage.
“The need has never been greater,” wrote Brian S. Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage California, in his organization’s final fundraising appeal to “friends of marriage.”
“[T]hese last-minute millions flowing in to the No on 8 campaign are being used to buy ads that deceive voters about the truth of same-sex marriage,” he said, referring to ads addressing the debate over teaching gay marriage in schools.
The deception, Brown said, comes from claims made in ads that gay marriage will never impact their children in schools despite what is going on currently in Massachusetts, the first state to legalize gay marriage.
While California public schools are not required by law to teach about marriage, as the “No on 8” campaign points out in its ads, schools that teach about sex education must teach about marriage, according to the California Department of Education (CDE)’s guidelines. Furthermore, in Massachusetts, where gay marriage was legalized four years ago, public school officials say they not only can talk about gay couples, but they are required to.
“The No on 8 is now spending $1 million a day to mislead California voters about Proposition 8,” Brown noted. “And if we can't match them, we will lose. It's that simple.”
On Friday, Brown urged for last-minute emergency contributions of $50 or more to counter the recent $11 million response by Hollywood liberals, labor unions, and gay marriage activists.
According to an analysis by The Associated Press, at least 64,000 people from all 50 states and more than 20 other countries have given money to support or oppose the ban on same-sex marriage in California.
Furthermore, ten days before the vote on Proposition 8, campaign finance records revealed that total contributions for and against the measure have surpassed $60 million.
“If we fail to step up now, all may be lost,” said Brown. “ We simply cannot take that risk.”
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And my point is that premarital sex is currently legal and it would not surprise me if Christians began a proposal to make premarital sex illegal to serve their own religious ideals and force them on the rest of society.
I never said that voting to oppose and rescind gay marriage was illegal. I have said that it is contrary to what it means to be an American. I have said that the act of trammeling on the fundamental right to marry is unconstitutional and prone to reversal at the state and federal supreme court levels. I have said that religious sentiments should have no place in binding social legislation and policy when such legislation and policy reaches those outside your faith. I have NOT said that voting to oppose gay marriage was illegal.
believer,
Thank you; lets continue to pray and wait upon the Lord!
online, your 6:24 post is right on target!
Jew, your assumptions are even greater. Voting to oppose same sex marriage is not criminal as you suggest. You also stated that we Christians should criminalize those who engage in pre-marital sex and my response was - if a group (pre-marital sex proponents) tried to advocate a law that would impose itself upon the rest of society; we Christians would oppose it just as quickly.
Online, your clarity is astounding. What exactly are you trying to say? That Christians would be in favor of passing legislation that would criminalize pre-marital sex, injecting the government into our bedrooms? That Christians would not be in favor of such legislation and would like to see pre-marital sex remain legal? Please do clarify your position.
(How about you Christians get together and organize some legislation to criminalize pre-marital sex!)
Criminalize . . . if there were a group that put forth a proposition for pre-marital sex we Christians would mobilize to vote against it just the same.
I have a great idea. How about you Christians get together and organize some legislation to criminalize pre-marital sex!
mike22685, whether one chooses or is born a certain way does not change the fact that one chooses to sin or not sin, because the Word of God teaches we are all sinners, but we all still can choose not to sin. And His Word also says that any type of sexual intimacy outside of the marriage bed of one man and one woman united as one in the sight of God by marriage is a sin. So regardless of one's sexual orientation everyone, aside from a rape victim, makes a choice to either physically or mentally have sex with another person.
2-Peter 3:9 declares, that God is not " Willing that any should perish, But that " All " should come to repentance."
If Gid desires for all to Repent, Then he must also offer the " Grace " to all.
To say that not, Everone is given the chanch or Grace to repent of their sin, Is not correct.
The Scripture plainly teach that Salvation is for the " whosoever will."
Repentance is not something mankind deserves, or is entitled to, But the ability to repent is an act of God's Grace.
All may repent and be forgiven, but not all will accept God's great Grace, And they sadly, will be condemned to hell.
Not by any fault of God, But by our own failour to receive God's Grace and repent.
"The logic that God condemns it (by your interpretation) so it must be a choice is insane."
I actually have to agree with you their Mike. Not everyone is given the change or the grace to repent of their sins. In truth, God doesn't owe us anything let alone repentance.
There may just be some people who are going to end up in hell because repentance didn't play a part in their lives. They wanted to do what they wanted to do and called it Godly.
The logic that God condemns it (by your interpretation) so it must be a choice is insane. I did not choose to be gay, ever. Do I choose to engage in a relationship with my partner, absolutely, but I don't think God would condemn our love or the fact that we're going to adopt children who need a home. God did not condemn love between men, he condemned lust between anyone. As someone who is gay, I am telling you, there was no choice, ever, in the matter.
As a Christian who believes in sacred scripture, I cannot agree with it(gay marriage). Marriage according to Jesus is between a man and a woman; he went straight back to the defining passages in Genesis.
And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, (Matthew 19:4).
But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female (Mark 10:6).
He saw the creation accounts in Genesis as authoritative in His day. And what is authoritative for Jesus is authoritative for Christians also.
To give sanction to homosexual marriage would be to give approval to that lifestyle, which the Bible clearly and consistently condemns as sinful; however, homosexuality is just as forgivable a sin as all other sins.
For clarification, homosexual behavior is a choice. One does not have to engage in it. We are not animals that have not ability but to act only on instinct, almost all of our behaviors are by choice.
Just as those attracted to the opposite sex (or to anything for that matter), it is a choice to engage in that activity and God has clearly indicated in Scripture that this behavior is a sin... much like lying or coveting or using God's Name improperly.
However, it is not the job of a Christian to enforce God's law on others, but to enforce them upon ourselves.
Given that, though, we should oppose codifying sin.
If homosexuality was not a " choice " God could not condemn it. Because if God condemned as sin, something was due to sickness, or of the result of being " born " that way, it would make God unholy and sinful himself.
homosexuality is indeed a choice, and that is why God can declare in all Righteousness declare that all who partake of that sin shall not enter heaven.
Repent, and turn from your sin, and God will forgive.
Song, at what point did you choose to be straight? Do you have any evidence that being gay is a choice? If it is, it certainly isn't a "lifestyle" as I know gays in many different types of lifestyles (i.e. family people, theatric, club going, country bumpkins, filthy rich...those are lifestyles, being gay is just a life.) I always think its interesting that people who are not gay tell me I chose to be gay? Is that a fact? Until you've walked a mile in my shoes, do not presume to know my struggles or past.
Hollywood in general is the crux that has led to our moral decay. The films out now are littered with filth - near pornographic and use the Name of Jesus as though it was trash. They'll continue using their influence to trash our society including supporting gay marriage until we stop supplying them with our attention. The only way to defeat the Hollywood elitists is to get them where it counts: Money. Stop going to their movies; cut off your cable TV; and stop buying their periodicals. Yes! That's you my brothers and sisters in Christ. You may be the link that is not allowing a revival in Hollywood.
Homosexual behavior has always been immoral and will always be immoral. Saying it's not doesn't make it moral. Our society and the world at large has been slowly slipping into the a sewer of filth and corruption of the mind, body and spirit. Satan is out to steal, kill and destroy. Even if you disagree with the moral issue, the affects of homosexuality, physically and emotionally, should bother you and even convince you that this isn't a healthy lifestyle choice. Since it is a choice though, trying to change laws and the minds doubleminded people are the avenues being used to do just that. I would wish you luck, but I don't believe in luck and I don't wish it. I will pray that eyes will be opened and hearts broken. I also know that the days we live in are likened to the days of Noah, when mens thoughts were continually violent and sexual misconduct was rampant throughout the land.
Radical, anti-gay activists promoting the anti-gay agenda are attempting to take away Constitutional rights from law-abiding, taxpaying, gay Americans in California. Out-of-state organizations with financial support from the Mormon Church are on a mission to attack and harm gay families, children of gay families and the thousands of pro-equality churches which support us. The TV is full of commercials trying to confuse Californians into believing that treating other Americans differently under the law is "moral."
The pro-homophobia side has managed to raise nearly $30 million in their efforts to corrupt our State Constitution. In self-defense, those decent Californians who support our Constitution have had to raise equivalent amounts to fight the anti-gay agenda.
As our economy lurches toward collapse, it's a dirty shame people feel it is more important to spend millions on promoting homophobia than it is on helping the needy. Those forcing us to spend this money will be judged accordingly by our Lord who commanded us to take care of the poor, destitute and hurting among us.