Anita Bryant was right

Last weekend I met a true hero. A woman I have long admired for a stand that cost her everything. In fact, I dedicated my book, "The Criminalization of Christianity," to her. The inscription reads:

"To all those with courage to speak the truth in the face of ridicule, blame, assault, censorship, and the threat of being criminalized: Including Anita Bryant …"

At a meeting of national leaders in New Orleans this weekend, Anita Bryant received an award and a standing ovation that lasted nearly 10 minutes. I clapped until my hands hurt.

A friend of mine who heard about the highlight of my weekend asked, "Who is Anita Bryant?" He said he had only heard me talk about Phyllis Schlafly with "such superlatives."

This beauty queen and orange juice spokeswoman was known for saying "a day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine." She had her own television show at the age of 12. She had a successful singing career and entertained the troops with Bob Hope. And when a candidate she had endorsed took a stand for the homosexual agenda in the public schools in Miami-Dade County, Anita Bryant took a stand against it.

Enter the real "hate speech": pies in the face, kidnapping threats, death threats, threats to her children, acts of violence to her home. Like a scene out of Sodom, homosexual activists surrounded her home screaming at the top of their lungs. Her mother was afraid to open the front door. She lost her marriage. She lost her jobs and any means of supporting herself and her four children. She was a sacrificial lamb to wake a sleeping nation. She stood alone. And yet she stood.

Anita Bryant was right, and I want to personally thank her for blazing the trail of resistance for those of us who follow in her footsteps for the freedom to disagree with dangerous behavior and an agenda that threatens our rights to speak the truth and spread the Gospel.

Since Anita Bryant got run over with the homosexual steamroller, things have only gotten worse. Don't believe me? Just ask the grandmothers who were arrested in Philadelphia for sharing their faith.

"Hate crimes" legislation (which passed both the U.S. House and Senate last year –stopped only by a threat of a veto) would silence pastors in their pulpits and outlaw books like "The Criminalization of Christianity," whose subtitle is: "Read this Before it Becomes Illegal!" The "Employment Non-Discrimination Act" would put an "ENDA" to religious liberty in the workplace and, with its transgender amendment, threaten any business that would fire a man who came to work wearing a dress. By the way, Mitt Romney favors states enacting this business-closing legislation.

The textbooks in California are being rewritten to remove any references to "mom" and "dad" and revised to appear more like the Washington Blade or a homosexual newsletter. And now California courts are telling parents that it's illegal to homeschool or send their children to Christian and private schools that may have teachers without "state certification." Forget that private and Christian schooled kids do better in tests across the board than kids who attend government schools. Homeschooled students blow away everybody, but now that effective means of educating children may come to an end. And according to Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute, if the California (and U.S.) Supreme Court agree with the lower ruling, Californians will pay an additional $2 billion a year (166,000 home schoolers at $8,000/child state reimbursement). For those who won't comply, expect a mass exodus from the state that has made parental control of education a crime.

At the same meeting, I was encouraged by one of our national leaders who repented for endorsing Mitt Romney instead of Mike Huckabee. The humility he showed gave me hope for the future. I hope others will follow his leadership and repent for endorsements of compromise and for sitting out and staying silent at a critical moment in our history.

To those thinking about "sitting it out," or "supporting a third party" now, consider an analogy. We are facing a burning building. There is a day-care center full of children burning down and we have three options before us.

A. We have a candidate named John who will rescue most everyone in that building. He hasn't pledged that he'll get everyone out just yet, but the vast majority of those kids are going to be carried out alive with his pro-life policies and judges.

B. Or you can protest (with a third-party candidate). Pick up a sign and march because you didn't get the candidate you wanted chanting, "Rescue all the children! Rescue all the children!" while the building burns and all the children die.

C. Or you can sit it out. Don't endorse. Don't vote. And Clinton or Obama will deadbolt the fire exits and rip out the sprinklers. They will then lock arms and prevent any of us from entering the building to rescue the children inside. They will also prevent notification of parents whose children are about to be burned alive.

If I were the one in the burning building, I know what I would want you to do. Either we protect nearly all of the kids or none of the kids. Oh? But you think in four years we can come back and teach everyone a lesson? Really?

If B. Hussein Obama or Mrs. Clinton get elected, you can expect two to three justices on the Supreme Court to be replaced with 45-year-old rabid pro-abortion liberals who hate marriage and everything we believe. Then you can expect:

Thought crimes to become law and pastors to be arrested for the content of their sermons.
The silencing of Christian and conservative talk radio with the UnFairness Doctrine.
ENDA to bring an end to free speech in the workplace, shutting down business like Boston's Catholic Charities who wanted to place orphan children with a mom and a dad rather than with homosexual activists.
The Union Thug Law removing the secret ballot for union membership and delivering more coerced funds to the Democrat coffers then ever before.

If you want to protest, pick up a sign, but don't throw away your vote, because if Obama or Clinton get into the White House, we won't recognize our country four years from now.

I believe that Sen. McCain will do what is best for the country if he hears from us. Encourage him to pick a vice president like Gov. Mike Huckabee who stands for life, marriage and our freedom (and who already won the states he needs to win in November). I believe if enough of us tell him, he will understand that selecting someone like a Mitt Romney would be an absolute disaster. Let him know that we need judges who will protect the innocent, including the unborn, and that adult stem cell research is the research that actually works without killing anyone.

By the way, Sen. McCain can be reached at: 703-418-2008 and at:

The Hon. John McCain
P.O. Box 16118
Arlington, VA 22215

First, repent on behalf of our nation; then put your faith to action. Because if we stand by while the building burns, it's not just the innocent children who will remain in harm's way. No, if we throw our influence and our vote away, each of us will face the ridicule, blame, assault, censorship and the threat of being criminalized with the same steamroller that ran over Anita Bryant. And educating our children to the contrary will become a criminal act.

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"CRIMINALIZING CHRISTIANITY"