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"Ye
are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be
hid."
Matthew 5:14
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Mike Foht and
Michael Bergum
preaching in Mazomanie.
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Towns and cities lit dropped with brochures dealing with homosexuality
(and the gospel): Albany, Madison,
Benton, Lead Mine, New Diggings, West Baraboo, Whitewater, Lancaster,
Palmyra, Sturtevant, Reedsburg, Elkhorn, and Genoa City.
• "Anti-Homosexuality"
Pickets: Black Earth,
Madison, Janesville, Albany, Milwaukee, Lancaster, Whitewater, Elkhorn,
and Genoa City. WCU also held a pro-life picket in Sauk City.
• Schools
where WCU lit was distributed to students: Marquette
University, Memorial High School (Madison), Baraboo High School.
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Towns where gospel
tracts were lit
dropped door-to-door: gospel
tracts were lit
dropped door-to-door:
Mazomanie, Monroe, and Black Earth.
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WCU literature was also
distributed by Christians in the following cities:
Kewaskum, Milwaukee, Mukwonago, and Waukesha, Wisconsin; Omaha, Nebraska;
Powhaten, Virginia; Pottstown, Pennsylvania; Penns Grove, New Jersey;
Gladwin, Michigan; and Placerville, California.
Back
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Lady police
officers giving us
a hard time in Black Earth.
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Three
Ladies and a Shoe Salesman
On December 11, after a
very successful pro-life picket in Sauk City, WCU conducted an
"anti-homosexuality" picket in Black Earth at the very strategic
intersection of Hwy. 78 and Hwy. 14. During our picket, the owner of the
Shoe Box, a nearby shoe store, spent much time harassing, mocking, and
railing at us. Several female Dane County sheriff's deputies who came to
the scene did their level best to coerce and threaten us into clearing out
as well. Those gals were joined by the "Christian" Black Earth
village president, another lady, who insisted that her town be swept clean
of our biblical witness. As our picket was entirely lawful and perfectly
safe, we repeatedly declined to relinquish our religious liberty. This
caused the lady cops no end of frustration and reduced the village
president to mocking us as she left in a huff. In the midst of the
skirmishes with the police and the store owner, an area citizen rode up on
a motorcycle to tell us how much he appreciated our witness. He ended up
standing with us until the end of the picket. Back
to top.
Black
Earth: The Other Shoe Drops
WCU went back to Black
Earth on January 8. We blanketed almost every home and business in the
town with a gospel
tract complete with a special insert which filled citizens in
on our reception by their village president on December 11. The insert
also informed citizens that we would be doing another picket at the same
corner that afternoon and invited them to come by to see our message. As
might be expected, our subsequent picket was anything but dull as we
received enthusiastic encouragement from many motorists while becoming the
target of taunts, threats, and obscenities from the tolerant folks. We
were also able to do some one-on-one witness and hand out some literature.
Our friend from the Shoe Box spent much time in our faces, laughing,
mocking, threatening, and generally acting like a lunatic. Three male
police officers from the Dane County Sheriff's Department made a tepid try
at running us off, no doubt at the instructions of superiors, but then
handled matters in a very professional manner. At one point, they were
forced to escort the Shoe Box owner back into his store after he got a bit
too enthusiastic. All in all, we were pleased that the Lord saw fit to get
our message out to many thousands and to restore a right relationship
between us and the Dane County Sheriff's Department. As for the Shoe Box
man, the last we saw of him, he was still wagging his tongue and mocking
all attempts to save his soul. (Ouch!) Back
to top.
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Inauguration Day
2005
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Inauguration
Day Witness
Wisconsin state legislators
took their oaths of office in our state capitol building in Madison on
January 3. This is the third inauguration day at which WCU has ministered.
We set up gospel banners at two of the most used entrances to the capitol
and spent approximately three hours preaching and handing out salvation
tracts as well as a special flyer addressed to the incoming
legislators. Attendance at the inauguration seemed to be off from other
years, but our time sharing the Word of God was a blessing to us and, we
trust, to many who heard it whether they perceived it as a blessing or
not. Back
to top.
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The WCU welcoming
committee waiting
for Action Wisconsin activists to come
out of the Best Western Inn on the Park.
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Turning
the Tables on Action Wisconsin
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Lining up to hear some
good preaching!
(Even if they don't want to hear it!)
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On January 27, the sodomite
organization Action Wisconsin held a day of training and lobbying at the
Wisconsin state capitol in Madison. The event was cosponsored by Planned
Parenthood. The goal was to derail the proposed constitutional amendment
to our state constitution which would ban state recognition of so-called
same-sex marriage and civil unions. On the morning of the twenty-seventh,
AW trained well over three hundred individuals in how to pressure state
legislators into seeing things Sodom's way. This was done at the Best
Western Inn on the Park across from the capitol building grounds. In the
afternoon, the AW cadres put their new-found propaganda skills to work as
they visited the offices of state legislators. Wisconsin Christians United
was on hand from 12:45 until 4:30 in the afternoon. Prior to the main WCU
body arriving on the scene at 12:45, Mike Foht preempted Action Wisconsin
by visiting the office of every state legislator and leaving a packet of
WCU literature about homosexuality.
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Inside the capitol rotunda
during Action Wisconsin's
rally. "We will rejoice in thy
salvation, and in the name of
our God we will set up our
banners: the LORD fulfill
all thy petitions." Psalm 20:5
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The Lord richly blessed our
efforts throughout the entire day. First, we had ample opportunity to
preach to hundreds of sodomites and their supporters as they streamed
toward the capitol building from the hotel where they were being trained.
Though most would not accept our tracts, they could not refuse our signs,
banners, and preaching. The AW crowd came out of the hotel in bunches of
twenty to thirty and gathered across the street from us, waiting to cross
with the light. We had our banners set up directly across from the hotel
on the sidewalk in front of the capitol grounds. I preached to each group
as they waited to cross the street. I continued to preach to them until
they had all passed by me and started up the long walk to the capitol
building. I then turned my attention to the next group waiting to cross
the street. Meanwhile, Dale Stanford, who was stationed by the capitol
building entrance, preached to the group trudging toward him. We continued
the cycle until New Sodom's three-hundred-plus activists, including some
"pastors," were all in the capitol building. Since the entrance
to the building is a revolving door, Dale's "congregation" grew
quite large and virtually stationary at times.
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Yes, we're still here!
Greeting Action
Wisconsin lobbyists leaving the capitol.
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After several hours of
lobbying state legislators, the citizens of New Sodom gathered inside the
capitol rotunda for a rally. A contingent of our people stayed outside
with signs and banners to greet the rally attendees at its finish as they
headed for their cars. The rest went with me into the capitol. We
positioned ourselves on a balcony directly over the sodomites. Right
before the rally began, we unfurled on the marble rail of the balcony our
fourteen-foot banner which reads, "Homosexuality is sin." We
also held a large sign reading, "Christ can set you free." The
capitol police made no effort to remove us. Television networks showed the
banner and sign that night and played excerpts of interviews with me. I
have included below transcripts from those reports. It is encouraging to
see that the Lord must surely have had a hand in choosing which excerpts
the news editors used. In each case, my comments answered the lies just
quoted from one of our adversaries.
We had many
one-on-one-interaction witnessing opportunities during the rally as well
as before and after it. One of the highlights of my day was when three
teenage girls, one who had apparently been crying, came up to me and
asked, "What does that sign mean--Christ can set you free?"
Shades of Acts 2:37! The girls listened to every word I shared, and two of
the three took gospel tracts. All in all, the devil had a hard day of it
on the twenty-seventh, and the sodomites' thunder was surely stolen.
Perhaps that is why, at one point, a red-faced, middle-aged man got in my
face, grabbed me by the front of my jacket, and cussed me out for being
"hate-filled." Back
to top.
More
Stolen Thunder
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Welcome to St. John's!
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As part and parcel of a
determined effort to defeat the constitutional amendment spoken of
earlier, the Wisconsin Council of Churches recently held four seminars in
Lutheran churches (ELCA) around our state. (See article below.) Wisconsin
Christians United set up a perimeter of truth around St. John Lutheran
Church in Janesville when a seminar was held there on February 1. We held
our positions in front of the church for two hours, preaching truth to the
few people attending the seminar and sharing the same with motorists
passing by our signs and banners. After our picket in front of the church,
we moved half a block to a busy intersection and set up our banners there
for another hour. The sum total of the matter is that the WCC seminar
impacted a total of nine individuals while WCU's open-air witness impacted
tens of thousands, reproved the unfruitful works of an apostate church,
and enabled me to share biblical truth through the local newspaper. When
you read the article below, please take note of how the woman
"pastor" of that church distanced herself from the seminar. By
the way, the paper did not put in my whole quote which actually ended
"through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ." Back
to top.
A
Parting Prod
"And
let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works."
Hebrews 10:24
Some Christians believe
that using the term homo-fascism to describe New Sodom's strategy
and agenda is too extreme. We think it is both reasonable and accurate.
Every week, we receive letters, e-mails, and phone messages which are
violent and incredibly obscene. For instance, a recent caller spoke in
graphic terms of the homosexual acts which he would commit against our
Lord if given the opportunity. Can you imagine what that same man would do
with your children? We provide the following excerpted comments, not
because they are violent or obscene; but we provide them because they
reflect the mind of a very large group of young people who are being
trained to very dispassionately and systematically strip you, your loved
ones, and your Christian brethren completely bare of religious liberty.
Those young people need constant exposure to the gospel of Jesus Christ,
ever preceded by God's law. Unfortunately, due to the fact that most
Christians are pew-bound, that is far from what is happening at the
present.
"Needless to say, I
along with most people with a decent measure of tolerance, intelligence,
and openness, disagree with you strongly. . . . you will not win. You
may collect small victories along the way, but you will not win. . . .
As a lifetime churchgoer living with 9 other college students with a
similar background, I want you guys to know that what you're doing is
disgusting. . . . you and your supporters are collectively like a dying
dog, whimpering and whining, gasping for precious breaths before the
inevitable sets in. . . ."
"Don't you see that
it is over? The fear is gone now, old man. Gay couples can be themselves
and no one but a small, vocal bunch of folks like yourselves gives a
hoot. . . . Does it infuriate you to know that there are happy,
confident gay couples out there raising happy, healthy kids? I bet it
does. Sad isn't it. People are happy and all you want to do is tear that
apart if you can. . . . all you do is futileley [sic] stir up old
bigotry and make yourself a laughingstock. Perhaps that is what you
enjoy. I would have thought that a pastor would want to do more than
that."
"Therefore
to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."
James 4:17
Read "The
Bride Betrayed" by Pastor
Ralph Ovadal!
Back
to top.
Protest
Against Ban on Same-Sex Unions
27 News Headlines, January 27, 2005, www.wkowtv.com
Protestors attempt to block
a proposed ban on civil unions and marriage of gay and lesbian couples.
Supporters say it's a sin,
opponents say it's discrimination. The debate over amending the Wisconsin
constitution to ban homosexual marriages and civil unions is back for
round 2.
The proposal to ban
same-sex unions could go to voters as early as November of next year. The
proposal has already passed one of three hurdles. State lawmakers passed
it last year. If the ban also passes this session, voters could possibly
see the issue next Fall.
But those against the
proposed ban want to make sure the idea doesn't get that far. More than
300 demonstrators gathered in the Capitol Thursday, hoping to sway
Legislators to legally recognize same-sex relationships.
'I see how discrimination
hurts them. I see what this amendment does to them and it is simply
unfair,' says Rev. Curt Anderson.
'The Bible's very clear
about what it says about homosexuality and there is no love in telling
people that God condones something that he actually condemns,' says Rev.
Ralph Ovadal.
About a dozen people who
support the ban were also at the rally. Aside from some vocal outbursts,
the event was mostly peaceful.
The Federal Government is
also reviewing a proposal to amend the United States Constitution to ban
same-sex unions. The Senate revisited the issue yesterday.
Back
to top.
Protesters,
Supporters Voice Opinions On Same-Sex Marriage Ban
Republicans Might Delay Vote Until November 2006
WISC-TV 3, POSTED: 10:43 pm EST
January 27, 2005,
UPDATED: 11:09 am EST January 28, 2005 http://www.channel3000.com/news/4137832/detail.html
MADISON, Wis. -- About 375
opponents of a ban on same-sex marriage took their message to the halls of
the state Capitol Thursday.
A group led by Action
Wisconsin lobbied lawmakers not to approve a constitutional amendment
banning same-sex marriage.
Supporters of the ban were
also there with a counterprotest.
Lawmakers approved the idea
last session, but have to sign off again before the decision's put to the
voters in a statewide referendum.
"(The protesters) are
saying this amendment goes too far because it bans not just marriage but
civil unions and domestic partnerships," said Christopher Ott,
executive director of Action Wisconsin. "This (amendment) would hurt
real families."
Ralph Ovadal, director of
Wisconsin Christians United, has a different point of view.
"We feel that the
civil union issue is just marriage in drag," Ovadal said. "It's
marriage in disguise, and I think they do need to deal with them both, and
I'm glad they are."
Republicans might delay the
vote until the months leading up to the November 2006 election, so the
referendum falls at the same time Gov. Jim Doyle runs for re-election.
Assembly speaker John Gard
said no decision has been made on when to take up the amendment.
Back
to top.
Janesville
church's workshop draws protests
By Mike DuPré, Janesville Gazette,
February 2, 2005, http://www.gazetteextra.com/churchprotest020205.asp
If you wondered what the
anti-gay demonstrators at North Parker Drive and Centerway were protesting
Tuesday, it was a workshop at St. John Lutheran Church.
The Wisconsin Council of
Churches is sponsoring a series of four workshops at Lutheran churches on
the "history of Christian ethical reflection on issues relating to
homosexuality" in light of legislative efforts, such as the one in
Wisconsin, to constitutionally ban marriage between homosexuals.
The Rev. Judi Huseth,
pastor of St. John Lutheran, explained that the statewide church council
asked to use the Janesville church for one of its seminars and the local
congregation did not sponsor the workshop.
Huseth did not attend the
workshop because of a schedule conflict.
Nine people attended the
seminar, said its presenter, Gary Simpson, professor of systematic
theology at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn. He is leading the
workshops, which continue today in Wauwatosa, Thursday in Appleton and
Friday in La Crosse.
Simpson said he didn't
directly address his opinion about the constitutionality of a gay marriage
ban.
"I talk a lot about
Western Christian religious tradition and how it's come up with its norms
. and the different ways people think their way into the question,"
Simpson said.
"Most of the time I
present what the church has taught through the years and how it thinks
about these things."
But to the Rev. Ralph
Ovadal of Monroe and six other members of Wisconsin Christians United, the
event at St. John Lutheran was "a seminar to train people to support
homosexual marriage," Ovadal said.
"We wanted to come out
and show people what the Bible says," he said. "Clearly that's
wrong. That's what the Bible says."
Simpson acknowledged he
would like to revise Christian thinking on the question of same-sex
sexuality.
Whether lifelong
relationships between homosexuals should be labeled marriage or not is
open to question, Simpson said.
Nevertheless, such unions
should be considered normal, Simpson said, because, as in heterosexual
marriages, they generate social good and benefit the community's welfare.
But Ovadal said: "Any
discussion of homosexuality in a church should be from the Scriptures, and
the conclusion should be that homosexuality is an abomination but that
homosexuals can be saved."
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