The National Review reports today that Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, convened a meeting last week at which several dozen influential Religious Right activists sought to unify their support behind a single presidential candidate. Ted Cruz ultimately won a supermajority of those involved, and as a result “an avalanche of endorsements is forthcoming from conservative leaders,” including a looming endorsement from Perkins.
Perkins previously served as a state lawmaker in Louisiana and unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate in 2002. His career was not without controversy: He spoke at least twice to the white nationalist Council of Conservative Citizens and reportedly “paid former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke $82,500 for his mailing list” while working as the campaign manager for failed U.S. Senate candidate Woody Jenkins. “The Federal Election Commission fined the campaign Perkins ran $3,000 for attempting to hide the money paid to Duke,” reported The Nation.
Despite Perkins’ high standing in the conservative movement, his positions place him far outside the mainstream. This isn’t just because he opposes things like gay marriage and abortion rights, as most conservative leaders do. Instead, Perkins has a record of labeling his political opponents as satanic, conjuring up wild conspiracy theories and backing extremist legislation around the world, including a Uganda bill that would have imposed the death penalty or life prison sentences for some gay people.
Of course, seeing that Cruz has already touted endorsements from a convicted abortion doctor stalker, an activist who wants abortion providers to be executed and activists who link gay people to everything from Ebola to Amtrak crashes to terrorism to the Holocaust, Perkins will fit right in.
Perkins on LGBT rights:
- Accused the government of backing “the promotion of same-sex relations” as part of its “push for population control.”
- Said that “the human race would be extinct” if homosexuality were to become “normal.”
- Defended Uganda’s “kill-the-gays” bill as a “laudable” effort “to uphold moral conduct.”
- Claimed gay youth have a higher suicide rate because they intrinsically know their sexual orientation is “abnormal.”
- Asserted that there is “a correlation between homosexuality and pedophilia” and that pedophilia “is a homosexual problem.”
- Alleged that America’s enemies would celebrate the lifting of the military’s ban on transgender service members.
- Said homosexuality is incompatible with evolution, which he doesn’t believe in.
- Repeatedly predicted that a Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage would lead to a “revolution” and “the dissolution of our republic.”
- Urged states to defy court decisions in favor of marriage equality since they are “inconsistent with nature itself” and “certainly inconsistent with scripture.”
- Claimed that the Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling has led to an anti-Christian “onslaught” and “crackdown.”
- Likened homosexuality to alcoholism and drug addiction.
- Said lawmakers who backed the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell have “the blood of innocent soldiers on their hands.”
- Blamed the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell for military suicides, sexual assaults, the Secret Service prostitution scandal and the inevitable reinstatement of the draft.
- Claimed that militaries that allow LGBT people to serve openly — which includes Israel’s — are “the ones that participate in parades, they don't fight wars to keep the nation and the world free.”
- Claimed gay parents “provide distorted values to innocent adopted children.”
- Urged gay people to seek conversion therapy to “escape the homosexual lifestyle.”
- Asserted that gay marriage “perverts the word ‘love’” and has “exacerbated” problems facing the black community.
- Called on troops to fight the gay “agenda” as an enemy within.
Perkins on LGBT rights supporters:
- Predicted that LGBT rights backers will “start rolling out the boxcars to start hauling off Christians” as part of their dreamed anti-Christian holocaust.
- Said of LGBT rights advocates: “They’re intolerant, they’re hateful, they’re vile, they’re spiteful.”
- Attacked LGBT rights supporters for “advancing an agenda that is both destructive to our society and, more importantly, destructive to the individuals involved,” claiming that LGBT people are “engaging in an activity and behavior and an agenda that will destroy them and our nation.”
- Described LGBT rights activists as pawns of the Devil: “The Enemy is simply using them as pawns, they are held captive by the Enemy.”
- Insisted that LGBT rights advocates inspire ISIS terrorists and act like terrorists themselves.
- Compared LGBT rights supporters to the Charlie Hebdo attackers.
- Argued that LGBT rights activists want “the indoctrination of our kids” because “there is an emptiness within them” and “they are looking for that acceptance.”
- Warned that “global homosexuality” and “radical sexualism” is promoting “immorality” and the persecution of Christians.
- Called the It Gets Better Project a “disgusting” attempt to “recruit” children “into that lifestyle” and have them come out “as homosexual (or transgendered or some other perversion).”
- Said LGBT rights advances in the U.S. have “deadly consequences” and led to an “increase in persecution abroad” against Christians.
- Urged Mitt Romney to fire a gay foreign policy adviser.
- Attacked the Day of Silence and anti-bullying initiatives.
- Claimed state hate crimes laws breed “chaos” and lead to “indoctrination of our children in schools and the loss of religious freedom and the freedom of speech.”
- Insisted that the 2009 Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Act made it a “federal crime” to be a Christian.
Perkins on religious freedom and religious minorities:
- Said Democrats are “mostly aligned with a lot of the Jewish lobby” as they “enjoy the money coming from the Jewish community.”
- Warned that “liberal Jewish folk” who support marriage equality and abortion rights are undermining Israel.
- Lambasted Christians who support Planned Parenthood and abortion rights as phony Christians.
- Asserted that Christian pastors who are willing to marry same-sex couples shouldn’t have the same religious rights as conservative Christians since their stance isn’t “based on orthodox religious viewpoints.”
- Argued that Muslim-Americans shouldn’t have First Amendment freedoms because Islam “is incompatible with the Constitution” and dominated by terrorists.
- Defended Donald Trump’s call to ban Muslim immigration since “only 16 percent of Islam is a religion.”
- Alleged that the Constitution doesn’t protect Muslims since their faith “will tear and destroy the fabric of a democracy.”
- Called Islam an “evil” religion.
- Attacked supporters of refugee resettlement as those who “hate America” and seek to bring in Muslims to undermine “the values of America.”
- Criticized the military for using “goofy” breathing exercises and yoga to treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
- Said the government shouldn’t treat those who adhere to “fringe religions” as equals to Christians.
- Labeled advocates of the separation of church and state as “cultural terrorists.”
Perkins on President Obama:
- Called on Americans who voted for Obama to “repent” for electing someone with “a disdain for Christianity.”
- Said it “makes sense” to think Obama is a secret Muslim since he’s “overly deferential to Islam and almost hostile to Christianity” and refuses to help Christians in need.
- Argued that Obama’s political agenda “paves the way for what scripture calls the Antichrist,” God’s judgment and the divine destruction of America.
- Blamed the mass shooting at Umpqua Community College on Obama’s “religious hostility” and claimed sexual assaults on college campuses are also Obama’s fault.
- Alleged that Obama is waging a “war on Christians” rather than fighting ISIS.
- Said of Obama: “I think he has been the worst president this country ever had and if he has four more years in the White House I don’t know that the country can survive his attacks on the family.”
- Called Obama his “worst nightmare” and a “threat to America.”
- Likened Obama to an evil king who was punished by God in the Bible.
- Repeatedly called for Obama’s impeachment because “his actions suggest he is doing more to help our enemies than to help our country.”
- Compared Obama administration policies to violent anti-Christian persecution under ISIS.
- Warned that Obama wants to “eliminate” Christian teachings.
- Claimed Obama administration officials have done “nothing” to stop ISIS because they are “busy pushing their own radical social policy agenda.”
- Accused Obama of having “endangered our country” by supporting LGBT rights and wanting to throw Christians in jail.
- Defended a conspiracy theory about Obama deliberately spreading to Ebola in order to justify marital law.
- Engaged in birther conspiracy theories.
- Said that Obama “despises the military and everything that it stands for and has systematically been dismantling it and demoralizing our military.”
- Warned that Obama wants public school students “indoctrinated with a liberal ideology that celebrates sexual perversion.”
- Asserted that Obama is imposing Sharia law on the military.
- Said Obamacare will lead to the “destruction for our nation.”
- Feared America will not “have a future as a country” if Obama won re-election, which he said would “destroy this country.”
- Attacked Obama for quoting Abraham Lincoln.
