There’s no denying that Muslims have a daunting public relations problem. In Arizona and America, many equate them with terrorism.  Each time we publish articles about Islam, some are quick to blast us for promoting “agents of terrorism” and don’t miss the chance to note that it was Muslims who were implicated in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.  Anti-Muslim slurs are common in comments put at the end of articles we in the Tribune.

All too many people refuse to distinguish Muslims who simply want to live in peace and practice their religion and those who call for the destruction of Israel, the U.S. and the rest of the morally corrupted West.  So in recent weeks came word of the high-profile effort of the group, “Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow,” whose purpose is “to mobilize a global Muslim movement for peace, justice and the common good.”  They call themselves “300 young Muslim leaders from 75 countries” who are “setting the agenda for positive change.”  They want to “push for change from within the global Muslim community.”

They say they are forward-thinking and community-based Muslim leaders who have come together to share “a wide-range of strategies and leadership styles to make tomorrow a day when Muslims are known around the world as people of peace.”  In their press release, originating from Doha, Qatar, they say they will be proposing “innovative solutions to challenges facing Muslims globally,” including the crisis of religious authority, violent extremism, competing values and strained relations with the West.”  During  their coming together Jan. 16-18 in Qatar, they will sign a document, “An Open Letter to the World Leaders of Today from the Muslims Leaders of Tomorrow.” Example of leaders include a Pakistani madrasa reformer, a Dutch lawyer, an Italian imam and an American blogger.

They call the gathering a “marketplace of ideas” to showcase initiatives. They say it’ll be a mix of civil society leaders, religious leaders, social entrepreneurs, artists, philanthropists and more. Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow began in 2004 as a way “young, dynamic Muslims committed to creating positive social change” can create a platform to be change agents in the Muslim world.  It is limited to those 40 and younger.  They are marking their gathering to be concurrent with Barack Obama inauguration as president of the U.S.

Let’s see if the group can get legs and gain influence and credibility. Otherwise, this may be the last time we hear anything about them.

Have you ever wondered what this planet might be like if there was never any form of birth control or abortions?   If families of 10 to 15 children were the norm, would it be a better place?  Parents working more jobs, families packed into giant homes, more and more schools and hospitals to be built to accommodate the masses.  Safety nets stretched ever tighter, but many still falling through the cracks. 

Where does the Roman Catholic Church get off in its relentless and uncompromising insistence that more and more human life is God’s great plan and that he will provide for everyone no matter what?

Slums, ghettos and alleys teeming with hopeless poor and hungry seem to be a bizarre way to demonstrate God’s plan. Unchecked birth control leads to untold suffering and death across the planet.

I got my vasectomy 30 years ago after our second child was born and was found to be healthy. We looked at income and reality and family patterns and decided not to go for 10 kids.  The reality is Catholic couples and those of virtually all faiths ultimately do take steps to limit family size lest a family flock of unwieldy numbers might take them down.

So are priests supposed to be disciplining couples that stop with two, three or five children— when they could have 20 without birth control? There is some disobedience here somewhere, isn’t there? And a pox on those Catholic couples who  don’t want children.

Birth control is one thing, abortion is another.  Like it or not, abortions occur primarily from pregnancies of women who lack the wherewithal or, at least, the will to have and care for their babies well. So we can reason that larger numbers of children would grow up in an environment where they would be poor, abused and less than wanted. In the end, many, who might have never been born, are added to those who weigh down the economic-social system, as well as prisons and drug treatment centers.   The National Right to Life Web puts the number of abortions in the U.S. since the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling at 49,551,703. If those embryos all were people today, coming from troubled homes, if any, what would the landscape of that population look like?

Sure, we’d have some doctors, educators, humanitarians, politicians, etc., reaching maturity if those fetuses had gone to term, the babies born and they became adults. But would we be prepared to handle the deeply troubled and neglected folks, as well.

On Dec. 12, the Vatican issued a 32-page document, “Dignitas Personae: The Dignity of the Person,” reaffirming its position on biomedical technology. The New York Times called it the “most authoritative and sweeping document on bioethical issues in more than 20 years.” Again the church states it opposes in vitro fertilization, genetic testing on embryos before implantation, embryonic stem cell research and human cloning. All violate what the church says are the sacred principles of human life, including that babies should on be conceived through normal sex.  The document comes with the approval of Pope Benedict XVI and was developed through a six-year discussion process. 

The so-called “morning-after pill” that puts a quick end to any new conception, the IUD device and the pill RU-486 are also unacceptable to the church because, the Vatican says, those, in essence do the same thing as an abortion.  Then there is also to freezing embryos for possible later transplantation.   The document said the freezing might expose them to potential damage and manipulation. Then there’s the ultimate fate of those embryos never going anywhere – at least  400, 000 embryos in the U.S.

In response to the Vatican’s statements, a think tank, the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, N.Y., called Rome’s reactions “deplorable and scientifically insupportable.”        

“The Vatican’s position has no justification other than religious doctrine,” the center said. But, it “may have serious adverse effect on scientific research and the development of medical therapies.”

“Do we have to wage the Galileo battle again?” asked the center’s chairman and founder, Paul Kurtz. “The Vatican claims that their objections are ‘moral’ but they are based on a theological doctrine that a formless fertilized egg is a full human being, a position that most scientists reject.”

Center president Ronald Lindsay said the Vatican has “once again manifested its regrettable preference for religious doctrine over science.”

Then he noted that through the natural process, 60 to 80 percent of embryos conceived are spontaneously aborted for whatever reason. “If the Vatican wants to prevent embryos from ‘dying,’ then they will have to instruct couples to avoid sex completely,” Lindsay said.                   

The embattled Mesa priests have responded to their excommunication from the Catholic Church.

This week, Dale Fushek and Mark Dippre, posted, on their Web site, their response to Bishop Thomas Olmsted’s decision, made public Monday, to issue a decree to excommunicate them for leading a church fellowship in disobedience to and “in schism” with the Catholic Church.  Since November 2007, they have led the Praise and Worship Center, which now meets at the Fiesta Fountains Reception Center near Southern Avenue and Longmore in Mesa and regularly draws 250 to 300 people.  In a five-paragraph letter led by “Dear Friends,” they say they are serving God with the new nondenominational ministry.

Fushek had been put on paid leave in 2005 pending resolution of misdemeanor cases brought against him for alleged sexual misconduct with male youth between 1984 and 1993 while he led the Life Teen  program that he founded. Start of a trial, or trials, is delayed while a judge determines whether the five alleged victims can testify in a single jury trial or whether cases must be dealt with in as many as five separate trials.

“On Monday, Dec. 15,  2008, we learned that Bishop Thomas Olmsted has issued a decree of excommunication against us,” the letter reads at www.praiseandworshipcenter.net. “The information was given to us via a friend who had received an email from the Diocese. Later that morning, we opened a letter that had been sent to a post office box earlier in the week.”

But diocesan spokesman Jim Dwyer said the bishop’ office sent the decrees of excommunication to the men by certified letters for which they would have to give their signature acknowledging their receipt of them. The diocese said it has repeatedly sought to get the men to respond to communications in the past.

“We were deeply saddened to learn of this action,” the Fushek/Dippre letter said. “Excommunication is comparable to capital punishment in the Catholic Church. It is the ultimate penalty. According to the Diocese, our ‘sin’ has been holding unauthorized prayer meetings.” The two said they hold the Roman Catholic Church “in great respect, and we have nothing but love and gratitude for the Catholic community of Phoenix.”

“Since we have had no contact with Bishop Olmsted, it is hard to understand his action,” they continued. “However, it is our intention to pray for him, our many friends in the Catholic Church and for the universal mission of love and reconciliation that Christ gave the church.”

Fushek and Dippre, who had once served together at St. Timothy Catholic Community in Mesa, said they are being “faithful to the Lord” in founding the center and nurturing its growth.

“The mission statement of the Praise and Worship Center remains the same,” they wrote. “May we serve God well, with passion and integrity.”                                                                                                                                                                                            

What title can we put on Dale Fushek these days?  The man we knew as “Monsignor Dale” and “Father Dale?”

 What do we call the man who was once vicar general and who had been the diocese’s “golden boy” for founding the international Life Teen program, having so much to do with the 1987 visit of Pope John Paul II to the Valley and then 17 months later with the Phoenix visit of iconic Mother Teresa in search of a home for her Missionaries of Charity nuns in the Valley? He has been instrumental in bringing about the new Pastoral Center in downtown Phoenix that houses diocesan offices.

That charismatic pastor had St. Timothy’s Catholic Community in Mesa buzzing. It became a kind of a model of a relevant and vigorous parish. Given all that, the 56-year-old Phoenix native had seemed to have the credentials to one day be the bishop for this diocese.

But his fall from grace was part of the spectacular litany of tragedies for the diocese that began with its dark trail of sexual child abuse scandals, which the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office helped to uncover in 2002-2003, with diocesan cooperation. Then came Bishop Thomas O’Brien’s abrupt resignation in 2003 after he was implicated in a fatal hit-and-run case. And then Fushek.   Things began coming out in 2002 about how the diocese had paid off a former Life Teen staffer, in an out-of-court settlement, for a 1995 case of sexual harassment involving Fushek.  Then allegations of sexual misconduct with teens began to surface. Fushek resigned as pastor of St. Timothy’s in April 2005 and was indicted that November with what were first 10 misdemeanor counts of sexual misbehavior across most of a decade with Life Teen. He is to stand trial in San Tan Justice of the Peace court on seven of those charges brought by five men who were underage at the time of the alleged incidents.

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted made public Monday his decision to excommunicate Fushek, along with Mark Dippre, one-time priest at St. Timothy’s and Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Tempe. Their violation: Ministering outside the purview of the church.  They had defied the bishop by engaging in public ministry when told not to. Fushek was had been put on paid leave of absence and told to cool his heels until the teen abuse issues were legally resolved. But ego and calling drove him to minister anew, outside the bounds of Catholicism.

 Fushek and Dippre, who had served together as priests in the 1990s at St. Timothy’s were excommunicated because “they have chosen schism with the Catholic Church by establishing and leading an opposing ecclesial community.”  On Thanksgiving 2007, the two men founded the nondenominational Praise and Worship Center, which meets 10 a.m. Sundays at the Fiesta Fountains Reception Center in Mesa. They did not call it an alternative to Catholic Mass, but Fushek clearly has capitalized on the charisma and following he had during his years at St. Tim’s.

Excommunication means he is officially excluded from participating in the sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church and from formal communion with it.  But Jim Dwyer, the spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, made it clear that Fushek has not been stripped of the priesthood. He is not laicized, not defrocked or unfrocked, not dismissed from the clerical state. That takes a lot of complicated steps, mistakes must be grave and the once-a-priest-always-priest rule runs deep.

 Fushek’s colleague, Dippre, was ordained a priest in 1992 and served as associate pastor at Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish in Tempe from 1992 to 1995 and as its pastor from 2000 to 2002. He was also associate pastor under Fushek at St. Timothy’s from 1995 to 2000. He resigned from the priesthood in 2002 and later married, according to diocesan records.

On Monday, I talked to Jan and Nicpon of Tempe, members of St. Andrew the Apostle Catholic Church in Chandler, who attend Mass there and regularly go to the Praise and Worship Center.  Stan finds nothing wrong with going to both places even if the bishop asks Catholics not to attend the non-denominational services.   His order “is not going to stop people from going it,” Stan said. “The action by the bishop is really saddening and really unfortunate. It sounds more like getting even than moving brotherhood ahead.”

He described the Praise and Worship services as “discussing Christian life. It is discussing what we all need to do to be better brothers and sisters to each other and to help each other.” Nicpon called services “heartwarming. When you leave the services, you feel like you have been touched in some way. So it is a very, very wholesome experience.”

Jan Nicpon said there are about 500 people enrolled, with 250 to 300 coming to Sunday services. She said those attending don’t care what the bishop says about the appropriateness of their going to the Praise and Worship Center.  “They feel it is not up to the bishop or even their local priest to say what they do in their outside life,” said Jan, who is in charge of the refreshments that are served after the 90-minute services that include lots of praise music and preaching by both Fushek and Dippre.  Their homilies can be heard at the Web site (praiseandworshipcenter.net).

Diocesan spokesman Jim Dwyer said Olmsted had strived long and hard to get the two priests to abandon their independent ministry and he remains open to reconciliation with them. But Dwyer said the two wayward priests have ignored his overtures.

Right now, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Joseph Kreamer is weighing an appeal from prosecutors to allow for all five alleged victims of sexual misconduct to tell their stories in a single trial that, they say, will show a continuous pattern of abuse for the priest’s own sexual gratification, including how Fushek, during confession, requested detailed descriptions of the teens’ sexual activities.  Hot tub incidents, indecent exposure and  touching of private parts of teens are also part of the allegations.

Fushek had been granted separate trials by the J.P.’s ruling in September.  Justice Sam Goodman determined that jurors would not be able to separate testimony of stories and incidents. Goodman said each man’s case would prejudice the evidence of another.

On Monday, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) hailed Fushek’s excommunication, but said it was “heartbreaking” that it took so long “to discipline this dangerous predator.” SNAP national director, David Clohessy of St. Louis, Mo., lamented that “it’s sad and telling that this penalty is given, not because Fushek molested, but because he opened a competing church.”

Look for whatever Kreamer rules to be appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court and prolong the start of any trial well into 2009. Cynics say that it all just serves to dim the alleged victims’ memories going back to the years 1984 to 1993. 

The other day a friend was talking about the fascination of reading one of that triumvirate of powerful books about individualism and freedoms – “1984,” “Brave New World” and “Animal Farm.”   It’s been more than 25 years since I read them, but they still provide some fundamental understanding about the triumph of human reasoning over the tyranny of mind control.

In this “Land of the Free,” there still remains groupthink, ironclad orthodoxy set at the top, straitjackets and threats for academicians in some institutions and the unquestioning of the top dog who somehow knows all.

We got a taste of it this week when the National Association of Evangelicals forced its vice president of government affairs, the Rev. Richard Cizik, to resign. He “misspoke,” by the association’s judgment, when he appeared on National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air” and asserted his support for civil unions for gay and lesbian couples.  That’s blasphemy in the NAE’s black-and-white world. Cizik acknowledged that he was “shifting” on the issue of marriage and now favors same-sex civil unions, if not same-sex marriage outright.  Cizik had gotten in trouble several years ago when he displayed activism in acknowledging global warning when NAE was holding to the it’s-all-bunk position.

That’s the same National Association of Evangelicals that got embarrassed in November 2006 when Pastor Ted Haggard, NAE’s president and senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., had to resign after admitting to have a homosexual relationship with a male prostitute even when he has spoke out often against all things gay.

Two groups, the Human Rights Campaign, and the Institute on Religion and Democracy were quick to react to Cizik’s ouster.  The HRC’s Harry Knox said NAE “lost a good man but even worse, it lost credibility as a religious organization that professes to teach the Gospel. Our faith traditions call on us to celebrate, not denounce, our most sacred loving relationships.”  The IRD was far less critical, saying Cizik simply did not advocate positions that jibe with those of the NAE and most evangelicals.   “The IRD hopes NAE can now focus on theological and ethical convictions that the evangelicals hold strongly in common.”

The Human Rights Campaign asserts that younger evangelicals “are overwhelmingly standing in support of equality and fairness.” It pointed to a poll taken in October by Public Religion Research, saying 52 percent of young evangelicals support either marriage equality or civil unions.

Social movements have a way of leaving dinosaurs under the debris from the winds of change.

With the general election a month behind us, it seems the gay rights campaign is still going strong. Or it’s been re-launched with more determination than ever. As a social justice movement, it has far more traction than a mere political issue. And proponents and activists seeking equal rights for gays won quit in their lifetime, if it takes all of that. But like so many historic causes of equality, it has the

Many are hoping a progressive Barack Obama presidency will usher in all sorts of steps for the advancement of the American civilization after a slowdown promulgated, in part, by the religious right and conservatives.

Approval of Proposition 102 in Arizona and Proposition 8 in California, plus a similar constitutional marriage amendment measure in Florida, have traditional marriage people saying, “We won. It’s over. Issue settled.” In Arkansas, unmarried, co-habitating adults were banned from adopting or having foster children on Nov. 4. Traditional marriage advocates, who spent more than $30 million in California alone, are shouting, “Sore losers,” but they’d better save up $50 million to try to withstand what is sure to be mounted again in ballot issues across the country to reverse those propositions or keep others from being enacted .

Seemingly, the setbacks have only steeled forces seeking equality rights to regroup as if the next election were next week. My mail and computer have been inundated by messages from both sides. At $70 million, the California Proposition 8 battle turned out to be second to the 2008 presidential campaign as the most expensive campaign in American history. Mormons, Catholics, evangelicals and blacks have repeatedly been identified as the religious groups that significantly voted to support the marriage amendments. So they are taking a beating. Conservative groups are fighting back

On Friday, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty made public a letter, as an advertisement, called “No Mob Veto.” It was signed by some of the staunchest conservative religionists in America including feisty William Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship. It deplored “the violence and intimidation being directed against the LDS or Mormon Church and other religious organizations – and even against individual believers simply because they supported Proposition 8.” The letter said that speaking out is OK and “we’re a disagreeable lot” but “when thugs send white powder to terrorize any place of worship, especially those of a religious minority, responsible voices need to speak clearly.” It said religious groups cannot claim immunity from criticism “but violence and intimidation are always wrong, whether the victims are believers, gay people or anyone else.”

The national gay-support organization Soulforce, co-led by Mel White and Gary Nixon, sent a four-page letter this week saying they were “ecstatic to see so many people become involved in the process” of changing national leadership.” Yet for the first time in 10 years, the group was in debt because of its campaign work. There is a plea for funds because “Soulforce still has so much work to do on religion-based oppression.” It appealed for funds for such upcoming projects as a conference to “counter the damage done by ‘reparative therapy’ programs; support “our Lutheran allies” at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America assembly in Minnesota; continuing “outing work” in mega-churches; and unveiling “Sundays of Solidarity” for direct action in communities.

Hang on. It’s going to be a long and costly ride anew.

Public pressure can be a good and a bad thing. Often pressure changes decisions, and people in positions of authority do act responsibly from the pressure that comes from people and groups who mount the effort to get steps taken. Then, pressure can make good people make wrong choices

On Monday, we learned that the Cincinnati Zoo in Cincinnati, Ohio, had gotten so many complaints that zoo leaders pulled out of a plan to continue a short-lived holiday event in partnership by the Creation Museum.

The museum, located at the Cincinnati Airport, is described as a “ministry of Answers in Genesis, a nonprofit Christian organization dedicated to confirming the validity of the Bible from the very first verse.” Leaders from the zoo and the museum had launched a special deal for the Christmas season that was intended to promote each other. The cross-promotion included a ticket for $25.95 for adults to see both the museum and the zoo. It was a $9 savings over going to both places in the short-term partnership.

Yet, the Zoo’s “Festival of Lights” and “Bethlehem’s Blessing” didn’t sit well with many who complained.

Called “Two Great Attractions, One Great Deal,” it was described by the Cincinnati Enquirer as no different that entities do all the time. It cited a joint effort by the Cincinnati Reds and Newport Aquarium. But according to Christianity Today’s Web site, “…zoo officials found themselves embroiled in a debate between creationists who support the museum and evolutionists who oppose it.”

Those who complained called it inappropriate for a private museum dedicated to the teachings of the Bible’s Book of Genesis to get public support.. The Enquirer quoted a radiologist, Dr. James Leach, who called the zoo “one of the city’s public treasures” and the Creation Museum “an international laughingstock.”

Aslee Manuel had this Enquirer reader comment following the article, “The Cincinnati Zoo has revealed itself as a bigoted, close-minded, intolerant organization. Bigoted against Christians, close-minded and intolerant of any belief system other than their own,” she said. “I am disgusted with their decision. I have been to the zoo several times ….. I vow to never visit again. Had this been any other religious group that the zoo broke an agreement with, it would be a big story with public outrage. But since it’s Christians, it’s okay. I’m sick of this double standard.”

Ken Ham, the museum’s founder who is widely seen in media and film related to creationism, said he understood the zoo staff’s action because of public comment. “Frankly, we are used to this kind of criticism from our opponents, and so ‘being expelled” like this is not a huge surprise,” he said. In a statement, he said, “It’s a pity that intolerant people have pushed for our expulsion simply because of our Christian faith. Some of their comments …. Reveal great intolerance for anything having to do with Christianity.”

The Enquirer said the Creation Museum, which opened in May 2007, “has been praised by supporters as a bulwark against evolutionary teachings. It also has been ridiculed by critics who say its displays, including a triceratops with a saddle on its back, are based on pseudo science.”

What faith community is not nervous over the downturn in the economy? The surge in the cost of gasoline, for example, causes families to reevaluate travel and whether they may cut down on their long drives to church once, twice or three times a week. Dare church leaders venture into new programs or building projects while the future remains so uncertain? Increased food costs drive down what families buy to donate to food banks, not to mention ramifications for ministries to the poor and homeless. Dream projects, staff pay raises and refunding programs are approached with hesitancy.

The Phoenix Sky Harbor Interfaith Chaplaincy’s spring newsletter laments that some of it steady and reliable givers aren’t sending donations. “As I look over the list of givers who made gifts in 2007, I notice that the names of several business, churches and other organizations that made donations in previous years are missing this time,” wrote Chaplain Al Young. “I personally value these connections.” Young noted that often he meets people, for the first time, who have been regular donors. “When I hear the name, I recognize it from among those that I see on gifts we have received,” he said. “It is a good feeling to meet a person who has been a supporter, sometimes for many years, and be able to talk with them about the ministry of care their gifts make possible.”

Recently the March of Dimes and American Lung Society recruited me from national offices to mail out letters to my end of the block, urging donations to be returned to me. I have done it before over the years with mixed results. Only a fraction of my neighbors ever respond, typically those living closest.

 I remember a time when we did a pass-along envelope. Each household popped in a buck or two and delivered it to the next house until it made the rounds. There might be $15 or $20 inside the envelope. But these are different times, and the money can be easily “lost.” Who wants to confront a lazy or suspicious neighbor for $12 that seem missing? Sometimes when the response to mailed letters and a personal note has been poor, I just write a check for $20 or so. We aren’t asked to make direct follow-ups to our mailings to neighbors. With the flaws of the fund-raising method, I suspect the charities still do well – at least enough to keep following those procedures.

As for Sky Harbor Chaplaincy, its partners helped its 2007 income of $124,363 versus expenses of $115,491. It closed the year with $25,359 balance. Young and his roving ministry of 13 volunteers reported 1,726 volunteer hours. They gave help to 28,897 people who traveled through the airport.

Traveler assistance was given to 612 people in 376 cases. Among them were 157 “stranded” people, 54 homeless people and 205 related to domestic violence cases – women and children typically getting out of town to safer places.

The chapel, provided by Sky Harbor Chaplaincy in one of the terminals, had 10,550 drop-ins, with 463 attending Christian services on Sundays during the year, followed by 57 at Baha’i prayer. Some 13,083 prayer cards were given out. For more information, call Young at (602) 244-1346 or http://members.iinet.net.au/~holloway1.

Friday was the national observance of Day of Silence when students in schools were displaying their solidarity and support of gay and lesbian, as well as heterosexuals, in their stand against bullying or harassment of homosexuals. Some 275 apparently signed up to take part in it at Gilberts Desert Ridge High School, while about 250 may have skipped school in protest to there even being a Day of Silence, which is not sanctioned by the schools.

Now Monday becomes the nationwide observance of Day of Truth, the fourth annual event sponsored by the Scottsdale-based Alliance Defense Fund. They will be able to present a different viewpoint than what students in districts nationwide were doing Friday to show unity with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Day of Truth has annually come the next school day after Day of Silence.

The Tribune Web site has seen a fierce debate on the issue following the posting of stories and blogs related to the Gilbert firestorm. Readers seem unrestrained in arguing for both sides

Silence doesnt teach anything, the ADF says in its materials. An open, honest and respectful discussion, however allows truth to rise to the surface. It says the consequences of making decisions with inadequate information can be severe. Students cant be expected to make good, well-informed decisions if theyre only hearing part of the story.

Its Web site, http://www.dayoftruth.org/main/default.aspx, shows a 38-second video with the sound of a ticking clock and a couple male students with duct tape over their mouths. One rips his tape off and walks into the school with the words: Its time for an honest conversation about homosexuality Break the silence. Share the truth about homosexual behavior.

The ADF said that on Monday, in schools around the country, students will be wearing Day of Truth T-shirts and hand out cards outside of class time with this message: I am speaking the truth to break the silence. True tolerance means that people with differing even opposing viewpoints can freely exchange ideas and respectfully listen to each other. Its time for an honest conversation about homosexuality. Theres free to change if you want to. Lets talk.

Gay web sites are harsh in criticizing ADF and Day of Truth for being shallow at addressing the realities of homosexuality and that they have one solution, a spiritual one, turn to Christ and be transformed.

Linda Harvey, founder of Mission America, based in Columbus, Ohio, has been a leading force to get schools to stop Day of Silence observances in schools. Her letter on Tuesday to the Columbus school officials notes that she was once a liberal whose ideas changed when she became a Christian in the early 1990s. .for the first time, (I) really grasped the moral disintegration of our country, I was at first concerned, then alarmed and now I am basically overwhelmed at the speed with which radical, high-risk misinformation on homosexuality and gender change is being accepted and disseminated in our nations public school systems, and how responsible, accurate information is often deliberately withheld.

And she debunked the notion that bullying of gays is pervasive. There is no validity to the claim that homosexual kids are being bullied because conservatives and tradition-minded families oppose these questionable behaviors, she said. Overweight kids are bullied, too; does this mean that support for healthy nutrition is to blame? Such invalid linkages unfairly stigmatize moral values and bring confusion to the table.