WorldNetDaily News Article :: Anita Bryant Was Right :: March 11, 2008 :: Janet Folger
Posted: March 11, 2008
1:00 am Eastern
© 2008
Last weekend I met a true hero. A woman I have long admired for a stand that cost her everything. In fact, I dedicated my book, "The Criminalization of Christianity," to her. The inscription reads: "To all those with courage to speak the truth in the face of ridicule, blame, assault, censorship, and the threat of being criminalized: Including Anita Bryant …" At a meeting of national leaders in New Orleans this weekend, Anita Bryant received an award and a standing ovation that lasted nearly 10 minutes. I clapped until my hands hurt. A friend of mine who heard about the highlight of my weekend asked, "Who is Anita Bryant?" He said he had only heard me talk about Phyllis Schlafly with "such superlatives." This beauty queen and orange juice spokeswoman was known for saying "a day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine." She had her own television show at the age of 12. She had a successful singing career and entertained the troops with Bob Hope. And when a candidate she had endorsed took a stand for the homosexual agenda in the public schools in Miami-Dade County, Anita Bryant took a stand against it. Enter the real "hate speech": pies in the face, kidnapping threats, death threats, threats to her children, acts of violence to her home. Like a scene out of Sodom, homosexual activists surrounded her home screaming at the top of their lungs. Her mother was afraid to open the front door. She lost her marriage. She lost her jobs and any means of supporting herself and her four children. She was a sacrificial lamb to wake a sleeping nation. She stood alone. And yet she stood. (Column continues below)
Anita Bryant was right, and I want to personally thank her for blazing the trail of resistance for those of us who follow in her footsteps for the freedom to disagree with dangerous behavior and an agenda that threatens our rights to speak the truth and spread the Gospel. Since Anita Bryant got run over with the homosexual steamroller, things have only gotten worse. Don't believe me? Just ask the grandmothers who were arrested in Philadelphia for sharing their faith.
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