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Posted on YouTube: March 23, 2011
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http://socialtransformation2011.org/Questioning the “Social Transformation”
The upcoming Extension School conference features incendiary speakers
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/3/24/conference-speakers-views-harvardOn April 1-2, the Harvard Extension Service and Learning Society will host a conference in Northwest Labs entitled Social Transformation by the Power of God. Although the title of the conference certainly does not shy away from the religious thrust of the event, what still escapes us is the link between a group that calls itself a Service and Leadership Society and the expectation of an “existential encounter that will renew and revive your passion to be agents of change.” We seriously question the “existential encounter” that might be brought about by speakers such as one Dr. Lance Wallnau, who has had the following to say about why Social Transformation is necessary: “So you've got your homosexual activity, your abortion activity here, Islam coming in, you've got a financial collapse—all of this, to those of us who are Christians, is an apocalyptic confirmation that when you remove God from public discourse, when you don't line up your thinking with kingdom principles, you inevitably hit an iceberg like the Titanic and you go down.” Especially on a campus that exemplifies diversity and tolerance in so many ways, egregiously anti-pluralist views such as those espoused by Wallnau and some of other speakers in the conference lineup tow an uncomfortable line between the exercise of free speech and an uncomfortable acceptance of hate speech.
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Also, it is nothing less than dishonest to present this particular line of speakers merely as “leading voices for the faith-based social transformation of culture,” as the conference describes. Their model of social transformation is, in fact, highly controversial for a variety of reasons, including some of the speakers' homophobic and Islamophobic views. Besides Wallanu, Os Hillman, another speaker, has endorsed one of the strongest Ugandan proponents of that country’s 2009 anti-homosexuality bill, Julius Oyet. Hillman has even written himself of homosexuality: “Even kids were not immune to the new onslaught of the gay agenda when in October of 2007 the major character in the Harry Potter books and movies, Albus Dumbledore, master wizard and Headmaster of Hogwarts was revealed that he was gay. This is how the frog in the kettle gets hotter and hotter until we wake up one day and realize we have totally lost the culture and we have become a nation like Sodom and Gomorrah in which God had to destroy the entire city.” These important facts are not presented in a straightforward manner by the conference organizers, who present misleading official biographies of Wallanu and Hillman and seem to focus on marketing, rather than engaging and challenging, their speakers. (Keep in mind that in between every panel, conference attendees will have an opportunity to buy books from panel participants.)
The conference website guarantees that attendees will get to “Explore and discern your life-calling and purpose, and understand the connection between your faith and your vocation.” Leaving aside the fact that the conference is explicitly centered on a Judeo-Christian worldview (the conference will explain how, “faith-based social transformation efforts are changing our society using the time-tested principles of the Judeo- Christian worldview which has profoundly influenced the founding of this country as well as western civilization itself”), we question why this particular Extension School club is holding this conference, which seems to needlessly depart from its nominally secular mission.
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Appearing at Harvard legitimizes a speaker and his or her opinions; therefore, while people with many views are welcome to speak at Harvard, we find it morally dubious to allow speakers to proselytize, especially discriminatory views, and remain unchallenged. Especially in the wake of the return to ROTC to campus, Harvard must do everything in its power to show its compassion for and extend its eternal welcome to the LGBT community that forms such a vibrant part of campus life. Somehow, a conference so clearly informed by the Seven Mountains of Culture movement and that markets itself as an initiative to “reclaim the Education Mountain” for Jesus Christ does not bode well for any attempt the University might have considered in combating discrimination on campus grounds.
Harvard University Attaches Itself to Extreme Anti-Gay, Anti-Islam Hatred
http://news.change.org/stories/harvard-university-attaches-itself-to-extreme-anti-gay-anti-islam-hatredTake, for instance, Dr. Lance Wallnau, who is a featured speaker at this Harvard show. Wallnau's bio includes his stint as a petroleum industry executive and his role as founder of the Lance Learning Group. What it does not include, however, is the fact that Wallnau has deeply radical and extreme beliefs regarding homosexuality, Islam, and reproductive rights for women. Wallnau has ties to Cindy Jacobs (yes, the Cindy Jacobs who suggested that birds were falling out of the sky because Congress repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"), and as recently as 2010, was on record with the following message:
"You've got Islam invading the United States. So you've got your homosexual activity, your abortion activity here, Islam coming in, you've got a financial collapse -- all of this, to those of us who are Christians, is an apocalyptic confirmation that when you remove God from public discourse, when you don't line up your thinking with kingdom principles, you inevitably hit an iceberg like the Titanic and you go down," Wallnau said. For good measure, he also referred to same-sex marriage as "hellish," and something that could help Satan catch grasp of the United States. Sounds exactly like the type of voice that the nation's most revered academic institution should be holding up, right?
Another speaker at the Harvard conference in April is Os Hillman, who is President and Founder of a group called Marketplace Leaders Ministries, which merges business, capitalism and faith in a way that would make even Joel Osteen salivate a little. But what's not in Hillman's bio is that he's a close colleague and financial backer of a minister in Uganda named Julius Oyet, who next to Martin Ssempa has perhaps been the most vocal religious leader urging for passage of the country's Anti-Homosexuality Bill, colloquially known as the "Kill the Gays" bill. In fact, according to the mouth of Oyet himself, he was involved in helping formulate the Anti-Homosexuality Bill: "I have been part of the brains behind it. We worked on it. We planned who should propose it. It is the Ugandan’s bill. It is the culture of Uganda to keep purity."
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And to save the best for last, there's Dr. Bill Hamon from the Christian International Ministries Network (CIMN). Dr. Hamon makes Mike Huckabee look like the grand marshal of a pride parade. Check out some of his nuggets of wisdom: On this page on his Web site, Dr. Hamon compares homosexuality to sex with animals and incest, and suggests that those "guilty" of homosexuality should receive the death penalty, per God's wishes. And per the CIMN mission statement, "God instituted monogamous marriage between male and female as the foundation of the family, the basic structure of human society. For this reason homosexuality is an abomination before God." And they're featuring commentary on their Web site that lauds the passage of Proposition 8, and urges Christians to get down on their knees and pray that same-sex marriage never becomes a reality in the United States.
Sarah Palin's Seven Mountains
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xges7mFi6iY
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