Catholic League: Why does Obama like 'Christian basher'

The president of the Catholic League is questioning why President Obama would select Kevin Jennings, known as a "Christian basher" in addition to his homosexual activism, to instruct public-school children on "moral matters."

WND has reported multiple times on the background of Jennings, who founded the "Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network," which promotes homosexuality in public schools across the nation.

A poster featured at a Harvard display of Act Up radical homosexual material, an event supported by Obama Safe Schools chief Kevin Jennings

The most recent report concerned Jennings' support for the Harvard exhibition: "Act Up New York: Activism, Art, and the AIDS Crisis, 1987-1993," which credits him and others, including Fred P. Hockberg and Tom Healy, Open Gate and the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, for "gifts and grants" used for the project.

The display included dozens of "politically charged posters, stickers and other visual media that emerged during a pivotal moment of AIDS activism in New York City," according to a website promoting the effort.

Among the organizations displaying their work was "Fierce Pussy," which featured a poster of a toddler labeled "Dyke."

"Pairing text and image with penetrating anger and searing wit, Act Up's art collectives targeted specific individuals and institutions at the local and national level, advocated for safer sex and gay and lesbian rights and galvanized broadband support for the AIDS activism movement," the promotion stated.

The group also was being featured as four "central members" participate in a three-day activism and print-media workshop, the announcement said.

"The exhibit includes horrible anti-Catholic bigotry, child pornography and various descriptions and depictions of sexual perversion. It also includes posters accusing various public officials of murder during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s and a call to terrorize offices of the National Institute of Health," wrote Mass Resistance, which had members at the opening of the exhibit.

Find out how immoral, self-destructive behaviors have become enshrined as normal and even heroic in David Kupelian's culture-war classic, "The Marketing of Evil."

Now in a statement, Catholic League president Bill Donohue is asking about the links between Obama and Jennings, who was named the director of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools in the Department of Education under Obama.

"On September 23, I wrote a news release on the curious moral credentials of Kevin Jennings to be President Obama's Safe Schools Czar: a former drug user and irresponsible teen counselor, he is also a Christian basher," Donohue said.

"What was not known at the time is that he is also a proud member of Act Up, the homosexual urban terrorist group that broke into St. Patrick's Cathedral (in New York City) in 1989 and disrupted Mass; the Eucharist was desecrated and obscene depictions of Cardinal O'Connor were posted," he continued.

"Now a group called MassResistance, and the website WorldNetDaily, have exposed Jennings as a member of Act Up. And he is no mere member: Jennings is listed as a donor to a sick display, 'Act Up New York: Activism, Art, and the AIDS Crisis, 1987-1993,' currently featured at the Harvard Art Museum. Harvard, of course, would never feature a display of Klan paraphernalia and say it was being done for the purpose of 'dialogue,'" he said.

"The real story here is not the corruption of Harvard – that's old hat – the real story is the president of the United States choosing a morally challenged anti-Catholic homosexual to join his team. That Jennings belongs to, and sponsors, an urban terrorist organization, should alone disqualify him from public service at a municipal level. And remember, Obama did not choose him to monitor global cooling – he was chosen to instruct youth on moral matters," Donohue said.

"Catholics deserve to know why Obama likes Jennings."

WND reported just days ago when Mass Resistance, a pro-family organization in Massachusetts that has battled the homosexual agenda, reported Jennings was a part of Act Up, known for its aggressive badgering of opponents of the homosexual lifestyle.

A YouTube video revealed Jeff Davis, Jennings' "partner," addressing a banquet and saying of Jennings, "He was a member of Act Up. Act Up! So it's like – you know – here's a big gay activist. BIG gay activist!"

The video was removed shortly after the WND report appeared, but Mass Resistance continues making it available on the Internet.

According to Mass Resistance, the Harvard display is "extremely disturbing. This exhibit is a 'celebration' of anger, terrorism, religious bigotry and sexual deviance."

"For any public official to be involved with this and funding it (much less a person in charge of directing the nation's children's 'safety') is beyond offensive. It's every parent's nightmare," the report said.

The website posted or linked several pages of reports on the event but warned that they are "offensive and pornographic."

The group also reported that Jennings' book, "One Teacher in Ten," about homosexual teachers, was published by Alyson Books, which describes itself as "the world's oldest and largest publisher of LGBT literature."

Among the titles featured on the website are "Women of the Bite: Lesbian Vampire Erotica," "New Essential Guide to Gay and Lesbian Weddings," "Sordid Truths" and "Body Count."

The website confirmed one of its projects was "One Teacher in Ten."

According to the pro-family organization Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, Jennings already was "under fire for praising his hero, early homosexual activist Harry Hay, despite Hay's longtime, dedicated support of NAMBLA – the North American Man/Boy Love Association."

According to "The Marketing of Evil," by WND's David Kupelian, Act Up was extreme from its outset:

The defiant, storm-trooper tactics of in-your-face groups like ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) may or may not have been successful in pressuring the federal government to increase its commitment to combating AIDS. But such tactics definitely were successful in giving activist homosexuals a very bad name.

One infamous incident was the assault on New York's famed St. Patrick's Cathedral on December 10, 1989. While Cardinal John O'Connor presided over the 10:15 Sunday morning Mass, a multitude of "pro-choice" and "gay rights" activists protested angrily outside. Some, wearing gold-colored robes similar to clerical vestments, hoisted a large portrait of a pornographically altered frontal nude portrait of Jesus.

"You bigot, O'Connor, you're killing us!" screamed one protester, while signs called the archbishop "Murderer!"

Then it got really ugly. Scores of protesters entered the church, resulting in what many in the packed house of parishioners described as a "nightmare."

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"The radical homosexuals turned a celebration of the Holy Eucharist into a screaming babble of sacrilege by standing in the pews, shouting and waving their fists, tossing condoms into the air," recounted the New York Post. One of the invaders grabbed a consecrated wafer and threw it to the ground.

Outside, demonstrators, many of them members of ACT-UP, carried placards that summed up their sentiments toward the Catholic Church: "Keep your church out of my crotch." "Keep your rosaries off my ovaries." "Eternal life to Cardinal John O'Connor NOW!" "Curb your dogma."

Clearly, the young movement was flirting with oblivion if it persisted in such ugly, indefensible tactics. It needed a new, more civilized direction if it ever hoped to convince Americans that homosexuality was a perfectly normal alternative lifestyle.

According to Mass Resistance research by Amy Contrada, the Act Up organization also:

Staged a "die-in" at Massachusetts General Hospital to protest the unavailability of pneumocystic-pneumonia drug aerosolized pentamidine.
Protested Astra Pharmaceutical Products' refusal to release the experimental antiviral drug Foscarnet.
Disrupted opening night at the San Francisco Opera.
Protested design of clinical trials planned by Harvard School of Medicine.
Jammed phone lines of health-insurance database company protesting their use of "sexual deviation" classification.
Halted Boston's trolley service and traffic in front of Harvard School of Public Health to press the federal government into approving two new AIDS drugs.

Act Up also covered Sen. Jesse Helms' house with a "giant condom" and threw ashes of dead AIDS patients on the White House lawn, the report said.

Members of Congress have written to Obama demanding he dismiss Jennings following WND disclosures about his past, including an incident in which he counseled a 15-year-old student to keep quiet about being seduced by an older man.

Jennings says now he should have handled the situation with the sexually active student "differently," but the statement from Jennings failed to express "regret."

Jennings also wrote the foreword for a book called "Queering Elementary Education: Advancing the Dialogue about Sexualities and Schooling."

Another incident was the "fistgate" scandal in which his organization led discussions at a seminar in which "young teens were guided on how to perform dangerous homosexual perversions including 'fisting.'"

Yet another issue arose over Jennings' address in a New York City church on March 20, 2000. He said:

"Twenty percent of people are hard-core fair-minded [pro-homosexual] people. Twenty percent are hard-core [anti-homosexual] bigots. We need to ignore the hard-core bigots, get more of the hard-core fair-minded people to speak up, and we'll pull that 60 percent [of people in the middle] over to our side. That's really what I think our strategy has to be. We have to quit being afraid of the religious right. We also have to quit – I'm trying to find a way to say this. I'm trying not to say, '[F—] 'em!' which is what I want to say, because I don't care what they think! [audience laughter] Drop dead!"

Messages WND left with Jennings' office have not been returned.