Alan Sears, president of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) and Craig Osten, a vice president ADF, have written a scathing expose — titled "The Homosexual Agenda" — of the goals behind the gay activist movement.

CitizenLink Associate Editor Pete Winn talked with Osten about the new book and — more importantly — the gay agenda.

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Q. Craig, with the recent Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas, and an expected decision from the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts that could create gay "marriage" on American shores, the whole idea of same-sex marriage has come front-and-center in American life. But isn't same-sex "marriage" just one part of the homosexual agenda?

A. Yes it is. The agenda of homosexual activists is basically to change America from what they perceive as looking down on homosexual behavior, to the affirmation of and societal acceptance of homosexual behavior.

It is an agenda that they basically set in the late 1980s, in a book called "After the Ball," where they laid out a six-point plan for how they could transform the beliefs of ordinary Americans with regard to homosexual behavior — in a decade-long time frame.

Q. Now, wait a minute. We hear all the time from gay activists that "there is no such thing" as a gay agenda. They snicker at the very idea.

A. But there is an agenda. They admit it privately, but they will not say that publicly. In their private publications, homosexual activists make it very clear that there is an agenda. The six-point agenda that they laid out in 1989 was explicit:

1. "Talk about gays and gayness as loudly and as often as possible." That was aimed at making people so tired of the issue they would want to give them anything they want to make them shut up.

2. "Portray gays as victims, not as aggressive challengers." That's why they exploited things like the tragic murder of Matthew Shepard. It was a tragic murder, yet they have used that and spun that to demonize people like Dr. James Dobson and other Christian leaders who have taken a biblical stand on homosexual behavior — people who have love and compassion for those trapped in that behavior.

3. "Give homosexual protectors a just cause." That was designed to tap into and exploit the almost innate sense of fairness that Americans have; to the sympathy that we have — especially liberals have — for those who seem to be disenfranchised.

4. "Make gays look good." That's what they've done through media campaigns, through television programs, like "Will and Grace" and others, where homosexuals are portrayed as the most normal, stable people in America.

5. "Make the victimizers look bad." They portray people of faith — people who have legitimate and biblical reasons to oppose homosexual behavior — as homophobes and bigots. They also try to "muddy the moral waters" by getting liberal churches, many of which have thrown out a great deal of the Bible, to say that homosexual behavior is just fine from a theological perspective.

6. "Get funds from corporate America." In fact, they have. They have gotten corporate America to sign on to their agenda, and it is very interesting how they have done that. It's based on fudging the truth — and outright lies.

By the way, the authors of "After the Ball" admit that the use of lies is perfectly fine in their struggle. Their main thing is to get people to believe them. That is all that is important.

What's interesting is that gay activists go to corporations and say, "We are an aggrieved class; we are discriminated against." Then, on the other hand, they go to corporate America and say, "Look how much money we have. We make double what a traditional family makes. We are a market that you want to advertise to and cater to."

Corporate America signs on — whether for domestic partner benefits, or whatever — because they don't want to alienate that market.

Q. You mentioned lies. Isn't one of the lies that homosexuals really want marriage?

A. That's one of the biggest lies. Actually, what they have said at conferences — including one international conference in London in 1999 — is that they really don't want marriage, they want the destruction of marriage. Basically, once they get marriage, they want to redefine it — they call the concept "monogamy without fidelity." In other words, marriage would mean that you could be with a person but say, "I can go ahead and have sex with anybody else I want, but my spouse and I live together."

One homosexual activist said, "We can now dethrone the (traditional) family based on blood relationships, in favor of the families that we choose."

Another activist said: "We need to fight for same-sex marriage and its benefits. Once granted, (we need to) redefine the institution of marriage completely (and) debunk a myth and radically alter an archaic institution. The most subversive action that gay men and lesbians can undertake, is to transform the notion of family entirely."

They don't just want marriage. They want to destroy marriage — and the family — as we know it.

Q. Do you think most people understand that there is a gay agenda, that it isn't benign and that homosexual activists are actively advancing it?

A. Unfortunately, I think very few people are aware of it. That's one of the reasons why we wrote this book. Gay activists have made such tremendous gains because people have not wanted to believe there is an agenda, or if they believed there is an agenda, they didn't know how to respond to it. We wrote the book so that the person sitting in the pew could understand the agenda and how it might affect their family, their children, and their grandchildren.

With the recent decision in Lawrence v. Texas, I think some people are really becoming aware of that, and saying: "Maybe there is an agenda here."

Q. It would seem that one of the areas most receptive to the gay agenda is public education? Do you agree?

A. Yes, very much so. Homosexual activists know — and have publicly stated — that to change a culture, they have to get to the children. They've made statements, for example, (that they want) to get children to reject the beliefs of their parents. For example, homosexual activists at a Gay, Lesbian and Straight Educational Network (GLSEN) conference said: "The fear of the 'religious right' is that the schools will be the governments of tomorrow. And you know, they are right. If we do our jobs right, we are going to raise a generation of kids who don't believe the claims of the 'religious right' (with regard to homosexual behavior)."

Now, as (Christian pollster) George Barna has documented, kids are most receptive to the Gospel when they are in their childhood years. And homosexual activists know that. That is why they are trying so hard — with the help of the ACLU — to keep the Gospel out of the schools, and get homosexual indoctrination in. And in places like Massachusetts and California — where the gay lobby is the strongest — it starts as early as pre-school. They tell seven- or eight-year-old boys — "If you only like boys, there's a chance you may be homosexual." Or — "If you only like girls, maybe you are lesbian." Well, at that age, all members of the opposite sex "have cooties."

You're planting a seed that can totally mess up the normal development process later, when at 12 or 14, kids enter the age of sexual confusion and discovering the opposite sex.

Q. How do we respond to the homosexual agenda? It would seem they are in the "catbird seat" and running the show now, aren't they?

A. They are awfully close. To use an analogy, they're on the 10-yard line and are about to score the final touchdown to win the game. They have been moving the ball back and forward down the field with little or no opposition . . . .

Homosexual activists have, for lack of a better word, an "evangelical" zeal for their cause to reshape America, to affirm homosexual behavior, and to reject America's religious heritage and traditional values. The only way we as Christians can reverse it is to have the same evangelical zeal — to stand up for what we believe; to be involved and educated about this issue. We got here because our head has been in the sand for a long time.

There will be a cost. We have to remember that Jesus said the Gospel would be offensive to some. This is a time, though, if we are going to stop the homosexual juggernaut that Christians need to stand up for the truth with love and compassion.

Q. It remains to be seen if the Church is going to stand up, doesn't it?

A. We are at the tipping point. Either the Church is going to stand up and help stop the gay agenda in its tracks, or the homosexual activists will get everything that they want — including the silencing of the Church.

As (ex-gay speaker and author) Joe Dallas has said, you could give homosexual activists everything they want, and they still wouldn't be satisfied until the Church is silenced on this issue, because they cannot handle the fact that their behavior is called sin. The tragedy of this all is, though, if they are successful, the person out there who considers himself or herself homosexual — who needs to hear the Gospel, who can be healed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ — will never have an opportunity to hear it or to respond to it.

Q. Isn't one of the key features of the gay agenda to silence opponents?

A. Yes. Homosexual activists have always said that what they want is tolerance of homosexuality. Well, the pretense of "tolerance" is over. What they really want is to make sure that there is no verbal dissent.

They don't want anyone to be able to say that homosexuality — like adultery, or lying, or whatever — is a sin. As long as that word is out there, it makes them "stigmatized" — or so they believe.

As we're seeing in Canada, we now have situations where Christians who share biblical verses on homosexual behavior are now facing criminal penalties. In Sweden, you can receive up to two years in prison (for saying) anything negative against homosexual behavior. That's where we'll be headed in America if the gay agenda advances.

Christians will be forced to violate their conscience. There has been a bill in the California Legislature that would affect Christian businesses, for example, and fine them up to $250,000 if they don't hire transgendered persons. So, we're fast approaching a situation where, as a Christian man, you cannot make a moral decision without facing the wrath of the state.

Q. So, the mere suggestion, the mere mention of homosexuality is getting people into trouble?

A. Yes. In Saskatchewan, a man put up some billboards and printed some flyers that basically had the Bible verses on homosexual behavior. Nothing else was on them.

He was brought before the human rights commission, was fined a substantial amount of money and faces further criminal penalties.

Already, Focus on the Family has to change its broadcasts for Canada when those programs deal with the issue of homosexuality, or it faces heavy fines from the CRTC — the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

It's very frightening that in the space of ten years, we've seen a 180-degree turn in society — where Christians have been stigmatized, intimidated and silenced for publicly opposing homosexuality.

Q. "Standing up," then, may mean the possible loss of a job, finances, physical safety, jail — or worse. That could be a heavy cost.

A. There will be a tremendous cost. But when people have stood up, God has shown Himself faithful. In Minnesota, three prison guards who were forced to attend diversity training or lose their jobs, (attended the training) but they sat in the back of the room and read their Bibles. Other people in the room were reading things and not really paying attention, but these guys were singled out, after the training, by their supervisor for "creating a hostile work environment" for people who engage in homosexual behavior. They were denied promotions, had their jobs threatened, and more.

But when they came to the Alliance Defense Fund, we went to court and defended them, the court ruled in favor of the prison guards, and, in addition, made them a substantial financial award.

We believe that God will ultimately honor anyone who stands up for His Truth. This is the time to do so.

"The Homosexual Agenda," published by Broadman & Holman, is available in Christian bookstores nationwide. To find out more about the book, see the Alliance Defense Fund Web site.