Tony Perkins

Religious Right Groups Work to Defeat Treaty on Rights of People with Disabilities, Falsely Claim it Sanctions Abortion

Conservative organizations have come out strongly against the UN Convention on the Right of Persons with Disabilities, with Rick Santorum leading the charge. The groups are upset about the treaty ensuring that people with disabilities have equal rights because they claim it is “pro-abortion.”

Article 25 of the Treaty reads in part: 

States Parties recognize that persons with disabilities have the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health without discrimination on the basis of disability. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure access for persons with disabilities to health services that are gender-sensitive, including health-related rehabilitation. In particular, States Parties shall:

(a) Provide persons with disabilities with the same range, quality and standard of free or affordable health care and programmes as provided to other persons, including in the area of sexual and reproductive health and population-based public health programmes;

Anti-choice activists are angry about the inclusion of the phrase “reproductive health” in the nondiscrimination clause, according to LifeNews:

Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council, has previously noted the pro-life concerns, saying abortion advocates put language in the treaty in Article 25 that requires signatories to ‘provide persons with disabilities… free or affordable health care including in the area of sexual and reproductive health and population-based health programs.’” “Translation: the global community could force America to sanction sterilization or abortion for the disabled–at taxpayer expense” he said. “Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) tried to neutralize the threat during the mark-up in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Unfortunately, his amendment (which would have stopped the treaty from forcing abortion policy on countries that sign) was thwarted by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) after a debate.”

Several pro-life groups are on record opposing the treaty, including Eagle Forum, Family Research Council Action, CitizenLink, Concerned Women for America, Liberty Counsel, and others.

In addition, the Home School Legal Defense Association and the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) have also came out against ratification.

But Perkins’s claim that the treaty “could force America to sanction sterilization or abortion for the disabled-at taxpayer expense” is simply false.

The State Department makes clear that the treaty “does not include abortion” and the phrase “reproductive health” in Article 25 “does not create any abortion rights, and cannot be interpreted to constitute support, endorsement, or promotion of abortion.”

The Convention is firmly rooted in the principles of equality and non-discrimination. As the Chairperson and many other delegations, including the United States, have noted on countless occasions over the course of negotiations, the treaty reinforces existing rights and is aimed at assuring that persons with disabilities will be treated on an equal basis with others.

This approach was reflected in oral statements and in various places in the written travaux preparatoires, including in a footnote to the draft text of Article 25 that appeared in the report of the Seventh Ad Hoc Committee.

In this regard, the United States understands that the phrase "reproductive health" in Article 25(a) of the draft Convention does not include abortion, and its use in that Article does not create any abortion rights, and cannot be interpreted to constitute support, endorsement, or promotion of abortion. We stated this understanding at the time of adoption of the Convention in the Ad Hoc Committee, and note that no other delegation suggested a different understanding of this term.

Even the National Right to Life Committee reported after the text was adopted that no delegate interpreted “reproductive health” to mean abortion and that “delegates from pro-life nations ultimately accepted this language.” “The committee responsible for enforcing compliance to this treaty would be going way beyond their mandate if they were to interpret the term ‘reproductive health’ to include abortion,” the NRLC said:

The legally undefined and controversial term "reproductive health" remains in the document despite the fact that the term has never appeared in any other UN treaty. However, all parties maintained that the term does not include abortion and that its inclusion in this treaty cannot be interpreted to create any new rights such as a right to abortion.

The final version of Article 25 (a) on health states that nations signing and ratifying the treaty shall: "Provide persons with disabilities with the same range, quality and standard of free or affordable health care and programmes as provided other persons, including in the area of sexual and reproductive health. . . . ."

Delegates from pro-life nations ultimately accepted this language because they were assured and became confident that it does not include abortion or create any new human rights such as a right to abortion.

For example, during the debate the Treaty Chairman, Ambassador McKay of New Zealand, stated repeatedly that the use of the term "reproductive health" in this treaty does not create any new human rights such as abortion. He even added a non-binding footnote to the record of negotiations, not the treaty itself, which he claimed would preclude any such misinterpretation of the term.

Numerous delegates from nations throughout the world including the European Union agreed with Chairman McKay that the term "reproductive health" does not include abortion. No delegate from any nation stated that it does.

In light of all these statements and the language of the treaty, the committee responsible for enforcing compliance to this treaty would be going way beyond their mandate if they were to interpret the term "reproductive health" to include abortion. It is crucial that they do not because nations that sign and ratify a treaty are required to change their laws in order to comply with the treaty.

But for the Religious Right, even definitive evidence that the treaty’s language does not refer to abortion doesn’t change their mind that the Convention on the Right of Persons with Disabilities must be defeated.

Brian Tashman's blog

Arthur Goldberg Likens his Embattled Ex-Gay Therapy Group to Weight Watchers

Before founding the ex-gay therapy group JONAH, Arthur Goldberg was an investor convicted on felony charges and served time in prison for mail fraud and conspiracy. But the con man is being hailed as a hero by the Religious Right now that he is going up against the Southern Poverty Law Center in court, which is representing several customers of his New Jersey-based organization who are suing him for consumer fraud. Goldberg, however, will be unable to represent himself as he has been disbarred.

While speaking to American Family Association president Tim Wildmon and Family Research Council head Tony Perkins on AFA Today, Goldberg denied the SPLC’s claims that he defrauded customers by advertising that his group is able to “cure clients of being gay,” for example by instructing a group of men to “remove their clothing and stand naked in a circle” alongside a nude “counselor.”

Goldberg told Wildmon and Perkins that filing suit against an ex-gay therapy organization is like suing Weight Watchers for failing to lose weight through their program.

Brian Tashman's blog

Perkins: If SCOTUS Legalizes Gay Marriage, it Could Lead to 'Revolution'

While discussing the string of election night victories for marriage equality today, Tony Perkins declared that if the Supreme Court legalizes it Christian conservatives will never accept it because, like abortion, they know that "it's unnatural for two men to be married."   If the Court strikes down the anti-gay marriage amendments passed by various states over overrules the will of the people, Perkins warned that it could lead to "revolution" and "just break this nation apart": 

Kyle Mantyla's blog

After Obama’s Re-Election, Religious Right Demands Repentance and Resistance

Dejected, downcast and angry, conservatives have begun attacking the media and other Christians for not signing on to the anti-Obama campaign, maintaining that Obama’s re-election proves that America is experiencing moral breakdown. Family Research Council head Tony Perkins told talk show host Janet Mefferd that the election results reveal “symptoms of a deeper moral and spiritual problem that we’re facing in our nation,” and beseeched Christians not to just “go on the mountaintop and just wait for the Rapture.”

We wrestle with these political issues but at the core our problems as a nation are not political, they are spiritual. These are symptoms of a deeper moral and spiritual problem that we are facing in our nation. So how do we go forward as Christians? I think there is going to be a temptation for some to go on the mountaintop and just wait for the Rapture, but that’s not in the instruction manual that God has given us.

Mefferd even claimed that she does not believe America will survive an Obama second term and feared that death panels will try to kill her when she is older.

When we made all those proclamations before this election that we can’t survive another four years, I don’t know about all the other people who were saying that, I actually meant it. Now whether or not I’m right about that remains to be seen, but I wasn’t one of those people who woke up this morning and said ‘you know at least I have my health.’ Where my thoughts go is: at least I have my health until the death panels tell me I can’t have the treatment I need in about twenty years when I need something substantive and they tell me I’m too old.

Mike Huckabee on Focus on the Family said conservatives experienced a “humiliating defeat” and must repent.

He also prayed for Christians to begin to change America and stop abortion rights and same-sex marriage.

We have the freedom to love it, we also have the freedom to criticize it and the freedom to change it, forgive us God for not accepting the responsibility that comes with that freedom and for so often just being critical without participating and trying to make it better. We know we have sinned against you as a country: we have done it in that way that we’ve shown contempt toward life that you created, we know we have done it in the manner in which we’ve defiled the sacred bonds of marriage so that it accurately pictures your relationship between Christ and the church. But we also know God that you love us, you are willing to forgive us if we are willing to repent, and we pray that this could lead us to a time of real repentance as a country.

Janet Porter of Faith 2 Action said “there must be repentance” for the “pro-family election disaster,” blaming the media and “disobedient” Christians who “have idols of race, party and entitlements.”

In the wake of what many would describe as a pro-family election disaster, the question, “What happened?”

My answer: 3D’s.

No. 1: Dereliction of duty of Christians who sat this election out or threw their votes away.

No. 2: Deception brought to you by the most biased mainstream media, complete with biased debate moderators and cover-up of the most important stories and the positions of those running.

The third D: Disobedience. Those who identify themselves as Christians have idols of race, party and entitlements. There must be repentance.

So, repent, rest, recover, but for our liberties and values to survive, this is not the time to retreat. Now is the time to advance.

Orson Scott Card, the author and National Organization for Marriage board member, lashed out at the media for covering up Obama’s lies and acting like Nazis!

Barack Obama is still a liar -- you didn't change that, you merely hid it.

Barack Obama is still the selfish, cowardly commander-in-chief who abandons American public servants -- you didn't change him, nor did you give him any reason to change.

…

If America had a Joseph Goebbels who would arrest any journalist who reported anything that would make the administration look bad, did you write or say or report anything during this election campaign that would have put you inside a jail cell?

Everybody at Fox News would have been jailed, and Fox News would have been shut down. But you already do everything you can to get people not to listen to Fox, so the actions of such a propaganda minister would merely make official what you already try to accomplish by other means.

Don't you dare say I'm lying or exaggerating, because the Democrats did try to shut down conservative talk radio, and you supported them in that effort, allowing them to get away with calling the proposed action "fairness."

You go along with the big lie every day. You did it obviously and openly in these last weeks before the election, allowing Barack Obama to conceal, cover up, lie -- all because, like good obedient party flacks, you knew that nothing was more important than keeping the Beloved Leader in power.

…

But far more likely is the other alternative -- that, faced with your monolithic groupthink, your insistent flacking for the Beloved Leader, your dishonesty that is equal to his dishonesty, your emulation of Pravda, the Republicans in Congress will give up, Fox News will drop the story, it will all go away, and the Beloved Leader will continue in power.

Then, when his appeasement of our enemies results in a nuclear explosion in Tel Aviv ... When more and more Al-Qaeda-style attacks kill more Jews and more Americans around the world ...

…

Just because brown-shirted thugs aren't beating your opponents in the streets doesn't mean you aren't every bit as much the enemies of democracy as any Nazi or Bolshevik ever was.

Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel said that Christians under Obama will be living like under Nazi Germany and that, as a result of this election, America is on the brink of collapse now that “abortion, same-sex marriage, and immorality carried the day.”

The event we have just witnessed was far more than a general election – it was a referendum on the soul of America. We grieve today like we have lost a friend or a close relative. Millions of Americans looked evil in the eye and adopted it. Some Christian observers called the Democratic Party platform for 2012 a “Romans 1 Platform,” and they were right. Abortion, same-sex marriage, and immorality carried the day.

…

We might be a Bonhoeffer in Nazi Germany who never lived to see the fruit of his faithful labor. We might be a Wilberforce in England who saw the fruit of his labor (the abolition of slavery and reformation of morals), but died soon after, never getting the chance to enjoy the results. We might even be a David who stood up against popular opinion and defeated a giant who blasphemed God Almighty. No matter what our lot might be, we are called to be faithful!

…

We will no doubt see and feel the consequences of this election. More children will die. Marriage will come under greater attack. Immorality will be exalted. Sadly, the country could easily collapse under the weight of escalating economic debt. Islam will be emboldened. Our military will become weaker. Israel will not have as strong an ally as it needs at this critical time. The world will become a more dangerous place. These are all consequences that follow national actions like the ones we have just witnessed. But, when you are down, that is the time to fight all the harder!

Rick Green of WallBuilders blamed the education system for why America “knowingly embraced socialism,” and said that conservatives must channel the spirit of the American Revolution to resist Obama.

Half of the American voters that showed up to vote have knowingly embraced socialism. Does that mean they are evil? No, of course not. But it does mean they are wrong.

It means they are misinformed because our education system has for 60 years taught the “virtues” of socialism while tearing down capitalism and traditional values. We are simply living with the results.

The left wing understands that it takes decades and generations to move a culture. For 60 years, they have been actively engaged and focused on this fight for the soul of America.

…

The only logical explanation for half the nation holding out is that there were enough parents during the last three generations passing down liberty principles at home despite the cultural onslaught against them.

…

It’s EXACTLY like the Revolutionary Committees of Correspondence that started in 1764…eleven years before the Revolution actually began. Those were the seeds that bore the fruit of freedom nearly a full generation later. The British troops did not leave American soil for nearly 20 years after that handful of American patriots began their great work. It will be at least 20 years before we can fully turn the tide against socialism, but freedom for my kids and grandkids is worth it!

Americans for Legal Immigration PAC’s William Gheen urged Republicans to continue to oppose comprehensive immigration reform, even as they got trounced among Hispanic voters.

With the US House in the hands of Republicans, there is a chance that if we all work hard we can stop Obama from permanently empowering his illegal alien army as legal and illegal voters.

…

We expect Obama to follow a similar trajectory as Bush. Obama will push for mass amnesty for illegal aliens early in 2013 and by doing so his approval ratings will drop to historic lows just like Bush did when his approval dropped to around 20% making him the most unpopular President in modern American history.

We need to unite illegal immigration fighting groups with Tea Party groups, gun rights groups, and low tax groups immediately. We need to reach out to disaffected Democrats and Unaffiliated voters who will quickly sour on Obama early in his second term as Obama takes his nice guy mask off and the horns pop out.

UPDATE: The zealously anti-Obama pastor Rick Joyner in a new bulletin mourned that America is heading into a state of tyranny and may even dissolve into “separate nations.” He lamented that “the Republic cannot now long survive” and that Obama has already “fulfilled in many ways what the Scripture calls a wicked leader.” 

For about ten years, thinkers and writers in Russia have predicted the break up of the United States into four or more separate nations. At first I thought this was just sour grapes on their part because of the break up of the Soviet Union, but I also felt that there could be truth to this. I do not believe that it is absolutely determined, rather it is the direction we are now headed. As the saying goes, “If you do not change your direction, you will end up where you are headed.”

...

Our Founding Fathers were just as afraid of the tyranny of the masses as they were the tyranny of the king. They had witnessed in the French Revolution what happened when the masses ruled, and they established in our Constitution firewalls against the tyranny on both sides. Both of these firewalls have been breached or torn down altogether now, and as the Founders warned, the Republic cannot now long survive.

Thomas Jefferson warned that the Republic could not last if the people learned that they could vote for themselves the resources of the national treasury. That was breeched a long time ago, and we are now at the point where the entitlement mentality it has created in the masses is about to destroy us. We were led down this road by both the Democrats and the Republicans. This is not sustainable, but one is not likely to get elected to office if they even talk about trying to correct this. We are now very close to collapsing the whole system. Then elections will no longer be held at all and we will face a terrible tyranny. We will first face the tyranny of the mob, and then we will face the tyranny of the tyrant.

...

Our Constitution is now hanging by a thread. With the Senate so solidly in the hands of liberals, we can expect activist judges to be appointed throughout the Federal Courts, and likely take control of the Supreme Court for decades to come. For a long time, the Constitution has just been ignored, but now it is under a systematic attack and may not last much longer.

...

To date, I believe that Obama has fulfilled in many ways what the Scripture calls a wicked leader. He has sided with and promoted what the Bible calls wickedness, while attacking what the Bible calls righteousness. Even so, I think at this time he is an accurate reflection of the heart of the nation that has been turning away from God since the 1960s. More firewalls of the righteousness that our nation has walked in were breeched in this last election. So let’s be praying for our President and the people to turn back to the Lord.

UPDATE II: Televangelist James Robison wondered if “a severe shaking and ultimate humiliation will be necessary” to make America repent for continuing to back Obama and his liberal policies.

I am still wondering if only a severe shaking and ultimate humiliation will be necessary before both the church and nation turn to God in genuine repentance. With God’s help and His grace, we must all be faithful witnesses and as ministers proclaim His word fearlessly and faithfully. We must continually offer hope and help to the downtrodden, overlooked, and often forgotten people here and around the world. We are commissioned by Christ to be salt and light, Spirit-filled witnesses, and makers of disciples among the nations.

Too many Americans have been trained to want someone other than God to care for them and consistently fail to truly love their neighbors as themselves. People are on the brink of trusting what the Old Testament prophets referred to as “the shadow of Egypt” (the ways of the world) and in another type of Pharaoh rather than in the shelter of the Almighty and as a result we are headed for bondage from which only God can deliver us. The Lord remains our hope.

UPDATE III: Not to be outdone, Franklin Graham is now predicting America’s destruction:

On the day of his father’s 94th birthday, and the day after the country re-elected President Barack Obama president, evangelist Franklin Graham gave two-pronged advice to the American people:

Politically, it’s time for the two parties to work more closely.

Yet spiritually, Tuesday’s results sent America further down a “path of destruction.”

“Unless we’re willing to repent for our sins, we will stand in his judgment,” Graham said Wednesday, shortly after leaving a birthday party for his father, evangelist Billy Graham, in Montreat.

“I want to warn America: God is coming around. He will judge sin, and it won’t be pretty.”

In particular, Graham was referring to the re-election of Obama, a man he has accused of “waving his fist before God” by supporting abortion rights and same-sex marriage. Voters in four states Tuesday either passed laws legalizing gay unions or blocked moves to further restrict it.
Brian Tashman's blog

Ralph Reed: It's Not My Fault

Election Day was a lousy day for the Religious Right. But movement leaders have been quick to assert that they are not to blame, pointing fingers variously at Hurricane Sandy, Mitt Romney, the unknown waiter who recorded Romney’s dismissive “47 percent” remarks, and the strong turnout of young voters and people of color.

Religious Right leaders had spent four years attacking Obama an enemy of faith, freedom, God, and America, only to see him re-elected in an Electoral College landslide. They had warned that defeating him might be a last chance to forestall God’s judgment on America. They fasted and prayed and believed that they would be delivered on Election Day. But that’s not what happened. 
 
Not only did Obama win big, but voters in Maine and Maryland embraced marriage equality, and Washington seems likely to join them.  Minnesota voters rejected a Religious Right-backed attempt to put anti-gay discrimination into the state’s constitution.  Tammy Baldwin was elected to the Senate, where she will be the first openly gay member.
 
Well before all those results were in, it was clear that the night was not going according to what Religious Right leaders had thought was God’s plan.  At 10 pm, Tony Perkins and Jim Garlow held a phone call briefing for pastors. It was a very subdued affair, with representatives of the state marriage campaigns trying to sound hopeful about the then-uncalled outcomes in their states.  Perkins and Garlow also held a Wednesday webcast on the "aftermath and aftershocks" as the scope of their Election Day drubbing sank in (see video highlights).  “The problem in America is sin,” said Garlow. But, he said, “we have no problem that the next Great Awakening cannot solve.”
 
The tendency after an election defeat to avoid blame by casting it elsewhere was in full flower the day after the election.  Rep. Jim Jordan, a Religious Right favorite, described Mitt Romney as “the most liberal Republican nominee in history” who had “waffled” on abortion, had passed a health care bill as governor, and had a hard time convincing conservatives on his commitments on taxing and spending.  Perkins criticized Romney for not campaigning on issues of life, marriage, and religious liberty, even though Obama used them to appeal to his base. Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway agreed, saying Republicans had not done enough to draw the contrast on social and “moral” issues. Regarding the marriage wins, Perkins blamed Obama in part, saying the president’s policies have had “a shaping influence on the culture.” He and others also blamed marriage equality proponents’ financial advantage.
 
In a Wednesday morning press conference at the National Press Club, Ralph Reed’s message was clear: don’t look at me. Reed had made sweeping promises that the Faith and Freedom  Coalition, his conservative voter ID and turnout operation, would stun pollsters and lead to a big conservative victory.  “We did our job,” he insisted, recounting the tens of millions of phone calls, mailings, and other voter contacts his group made.  He said his group had run the most efficient, most technologically superior voter contact and GOVT operation the faith community has ever seen.  He claimed credit for increasing both white evangelicals’ share of the electorate and the share of the vote they gave to the Republican nominee.  But it wasn’t enough.
 
“We can’t do the Republican Party’s job for them.  We can’t do the candidates’ job for them.” In part, Reed blamed “candidate performance issues,” his euphemism for the Akin-Mourdoch rape comments that led to their undoing.
 
Reed said his successful efforts were not in the end sufficient because people of color and young voters turned out in numbers that he had not anticipated -- and voted overwhelmingly to re-elect the president.  The fact that young voters, African Americans, and Latinos turned out so strongly seems to have stunned conservative figures across the board. And it confirmed for many of them the need for the Republican Party and the conservative movement to stop alienating Latinos and figure out how to attract younger voters.  “We need to do a better job of not looking like your daddy’s Religious Right,” said Reed.
 
Some Religious Right leaders sought solace in faith that God is ultimately in control.  “America as we know it may have signed its death warrant tonight,” said Garlow during the pastors' briefing.  But not to worry, he said, nations come and go, but God’s kingdom is forever. Perkins said FRC and its allies would continue to stand strong in the face of “an increasingly hostile culture.”
 
Others looked forward to the next political fight.  Pollster Conway predicted that 2014 would bring, like 2010’s Tea Party wave, a conservative resurgence and called for candidate recruitment to begin now.  Perkins agreed that conservatives have never had a stronger “farm team” and touted potential conservative candidates for 2016, including Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindal, Rand Paul, and Mike Pence.
Peter Montgomery's blog

Family Research Council Licks its Wounds after Election Pummeling

A despondent Tony Perkins hosted the Family Research Council’s post-election special “Election 2012: Aftermath & Aftershocks,” which featured Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Rep-elect. Mark Meadows (R-NC), Derek McCoy of the Maryland Marriage Alliance, Jim Garlow and FRC Vice President Tom McClusky. The group suffered a huge blow as marriage equality won victories in four states and their effort to oust a pro-equality Iowa justice failed, in addition, FRC’s Faith Family and Freedom Fund invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to aid Todd Akin, who lost in a landslide.

After speaking to McCoy, Perkins claimed that same-sex marriage will never be morally acceptable or within the bounds of natural law whatever the voters in Maryland and elsewhere say, while McClusky said that “civil disobedience” will now be necessary thanks to marriage equality’s increasing victories.

Garlow, who prior to the election warned that an Obama second term will make America “unrecognizable” and “forever gone,” said that Christians should now expect immense persecution from the government, and Meadows called for Christians to emulate Gideon’s army and remember that “our God will not be mocked.”

Watch highlights here:

Brian Tashman's blog

Kirk Cameron: Defeat Obama to 'Hold Back the Flood of Moral and Spiritual Evil that has been Pouring into the Country'

Kirk Cameron told his fellow anti-Obama activists Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association that Christians must use the election to “hold back the flood of moral and spiritual evil that has been pouring into the country and give moms and dads and grandparents the opportunity to begin rebuilding morality and spirituality.” Wildmon added that Obama must be defeated for “freedom to reign.”

Perkins, who once claimed Obama voters must “repent,” described a conversation he had with prominent conservative pastor Jim Garlow about how God will grant America a “reprieve” and delay judgment if Obama is ousted. “I see what could happen here today if we are successful in removing someone from office who has basically set themselves in defiance to everything that is biblically oriented in terms of the history of our country and the word of God,” Perkins said, “that it’s a reprieve, it’s not a solution.”

He claimed that voters in 2008 “chose the economy over the moral foundation of the country when we selected Barack Obama as president,” arguing that an Obama defeat now could allow the church to “begin focusing on the moral and spiritual condition of our nation.”

Brian Tashman's blog

Perkins: Lena Dunham's 'Disgusting' Obama Ad 'Takes Politics to a New Low'

Today, Tony Perkins and Tim Wildmon welcomed Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn onto their "AFA Today" radio program to discuss the open letter she recently wrote to President Obama expressing her outrage over the "offensive [and] repulsive" campaign ad featuring HBO's Lena Dunham.

Like Blackburn, both Wildmon and Perkins were deeply offended and disappointed by the ad, but were not shocked by it because what can you really expect from a party that "booed God." Perkins said the ad was just the latest example of the Democratic Party treating women as "sex objects," calling it "disgusting" and "demeaning to women" and saying that this ad featuring a woman from such a "sleazy show" just "takes politics to a new low":  

Kyle Mantyla's blog

Pro-Akin Bus Tour to Feature Advocate of Violent Insurrection

The Family Research Council is organizing another Religious Right bus tour to bolster Todd Akin’s campaign for Missouri against Sen. Claire McCaskill. The “Repeal and Replace McCaskill Tour” will feature prominent conservative figures like Mike Huckabee, Tony Perkins and Phyllis Schlafly and lesser-known activists like Stephen Broden.

The Faith, Family, Freedom Fund, a super PAC associated with Family Research Council Action, is bringing a statewide bus tour through Missouri, October 28th - November 2nd, with one clear message: Senator Claire McCaskill’s policies are harmful to Missouri families .

Come help us cheer on the Repeal & Replace McCaskill tour as the bus stops near you! We must fight to bring the truth to the people of Missouri!

The Fund is joined in this effort by other prominent leaders and groups such as Phyllis Schlafly, Governor Mike Huckabee, Ken Blackwell, Tony Perkins, Pastor Stephen Broden, The Honorable Marilyn Musgrave, Susan B. Anthony List, Eagle Forum PAC and several more.

Broden is a failed Republican candidate for Congress who garnered national attention when he floated violent insurrection against the Obama administration.

While Akin seeks to distance himself from his past support for militia groups and radical anti-abortion rights groups and their leaders, the inclusion of Broden on the bus tour only highlights Akin’s close relationship with the most extreme elements of the far-right.

Brian Tashman's blog

Truth In Action: America is Turning into Nazi Germany

Truth in Action Ministries regularly produces slick documentary-like videos filled with Religious Right leaders warning that activist judges are destroying the country, gay rights is turning America into a "lawless" nation, and how the United States is on the road to becoming just like Nazi Germany.

In fact, warning that America is turning into Nazi Germany seems to be Truth in Action's favorite scare tactic, which explains the organization's newest video, "Tyranny: The High Cost of Forgetting God," which "looks at Christians who stood against Hitler's tyrannical rule, and modern day Christian 'heroes' fighting for righteousness in America today."  In the video, Tony Perkins, Richard Land, and Wendy Wright explain that things like banning prayer in schools, legalizing abortion, and kicking God out of the public square all signal that the United States is following the same path that led to the Holocaust: 

Kyle Mantyla's blog

Perkins: 'We Don't Want to Encourage Folks Who are Going to be Voting the Wrong Way'

Last week, Brian noted that FRC president Tony Perkins and vice presidents Jerry Boykin and Kenyn Cureton were all heading to Catalina Foothills Church in Tucson, Arizona for a "Recapturing America" conference where they would join up with a pastor who had been called on members of the church to “actively pray and work for the defeat of Barack Obama” in the upcoming election as he is an “enemy” of Christianity and religious freedom.

The event was held this weekend and after delivering his remarks, Perkins took some questions from the audience including from a mother who wanted his advice on how her children away at college could get their friends and roommates motivated to vote.  Perkins responded by joking that the first thing they should find out is which way their friends intend to vote because "I want people to vote, but only if they're voting the right way."

But it seems that Perkins was actually entirely serious, as he followed that up by declaring that "in all seriousness, find out which way they're going; we don't want to encourage folks who are going to be voting the wrong way": 

Kyle Mantyla's blog

FRC Partners with Church that Urged Members to ‘Actively Pray and Work for the Defeat of Barack Obama’

FRC president Tony Perkins and vice presidents Jerry Boykin and Kenyn Cureton are heading to Catalina Foothills Church in Tucson, Arizona for “Recapture America.” Cosponsors include the Center for Arizona Policy, the Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly the Alliance Defense Fund) and the church’s Christian Impact Committee. Recently the church claimed [PDF] that Obama is pushing a “reprioritization in human rights policy in favor of the advancement of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights” that is contributing to a “global crisis in religious liberty” and likened Obama to Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong and Saddam Hussein.

During his Sunday sermon, Rev. Allen Cooney called on members of the church to “actively pray and work for the defeat of Barack Obama” in the upcoming election as he is an “enemy” of Christianity and religious freedom.

Of course that shouldn’t be a surprise as Perkins believes it is a sin for a Christian to vote for Obama and Boykin thinks Obama is using health care reform to create a personal Brownshirt army.

Brian Tashman's blog

Perkins & Boykin Sense a Conspiracy That DADT Repeal is Being Used to Lower Military Voter Turnout

Amid reports that absentee ballot requests among those serving in the military are down dramatically this year in comparison to 2008, Tony Perkins and Don Wildmon brought Jerry Boykin on to "Today's Issues" today so all three could wildly speculate as to the cause.

While some are suggesting that requests for absentee ballots are down because the number of soldiers who are deployed is down and other are explaining that levels are similar to what they were in 2004, Perkins and Boykin suspect that something else is going on; namely that military leaders have had to spend so much time instituting the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and "implementing the President's social agenda" that they haven't had time to make sure soldiers were able to vote. 

In fact, suggested Boykin, this might even be intentional because members of the military are so angry over the repeal of DADT and "the way the military has been exploited for political purposes with all the release of information about the killing of bin Laden" that they are going to vote overwhelmingly for Mitt Romney:

Kyle Mantyla's blog

Perkins Responds to Dan Savage, Hints at Possible Legal Action

Last week, Dan Savage set off a controversy when he declared that "every dead gay kid is a victory for the Family Research Council," so it was no surprise that today Mike Huckabee invited FRC's Tony Perkins on to his radio program to respond, allowing both men to spend most of the discussion voicing their outrage about his remarks, with Perkins even hinting that legal action might be taken:

Huckabee: I found Dan Savage to be unnecessarily rude, vile, and angry. Just angry. He was not a happy person and he just takes out his venom on other people, but he's gone to a level I've never seen.

Perkins: As my teenagers would say, he has some issues. He is a man with some real deep-seated issues ... and Dan Savage is nowhere near, he's a hundred and eighty degrees from the positions that we have taken. It's wrong and I will tell you this, we are pursuing everything possible to deal with him because he is out of control.

Perkins then went on to attack gay activists in general, declaring that they will always feel empty inside because they are "outside the way God created" them: 

This is the bottom line, Mike: is that if you don't embrace and celebrate homosexuality and everything associated with it, then you are intolerant. And the truth of the matter is, let's just be very, very truthful, and that's what we deal in is the truth, that even is society embraced homosexuality, there would never be that sense of self-fulfillment because it's outside the way God created man and woman. And that's the bottom line. They cannot erase that, even if they get every law on the books changed, it will never change that.

Kyle Mantyla's blog

GOP Pollster advised Akin to Withstand Controversy like David Koresh Faced the ATF in Waco

While speaking with Family Research Council president Tony Perkins on Washington Watch Weekly, Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway said she told her client Todd Akin to withstand the controversy that emerged following his comments on “legitimate rape” just like David Koresh, the Waco compound cult leader whose standoff with the ATF led to over eighty deaths. Conway told Perkins that she advised Akin to survive efforts to “smoke him out” like Koresh until they “realize the guy’s not coming out of the bunker.” She was speaking with Perkins just as the deadline for Akin to drop out passed, and Republican figures such as Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Jim DeMint, including DeMint’s powerful Senate Conservatives Fund, rallied to Akin’s behalf. Conway said she expects even more Republicans to follow Perkins’ lead in rallying behind Akin.

Perkins: The distance between them is narrowing, Todd Akin has bounced back up, and the evidence of that is pretty clear because now you see other Republicans who abandoned him are now taking a second look at the race and realizing just how important this seat is.

Conway: They are and they’re following your lead Tony. You saw former speaker Gingrich there on Todd’s behalf at a fundraiser on Monday, saying it’s just “conventional idiocy” that’s preventing people from backing Todd, and he predicts that come mid-October everyone will be following yours and his lead back to Missouri, with their money. Of course, former senator and presidential candidate Rick Santorum and Senator Jim DeMint came out just yesterday to support Todd. I believe that the establishment will have to look at this race and they will have to hold their nose because the first days—and I’ve expressed this to Todd as my client for a while now, I’ve expressed it to him directly—the first day or two where it was like the Waco with David Koresh situation where they’re trying to smoke him out with the SWAT teams and the helicopters and the bad Nancy Sinatra records. Then here comes day two and you realize the guy’s not coming out of the bunker. Listen, Todd has shown his principle to the voters.
Brian Tashman's blog

If FRC Wants Civility, it Can Start by Getting its Own House in Order

Last week, Peter wrote a post wondering if Family Research Council president Tony Perkins might just be "the most disingenuous Person on the Planet" for his on-going efforts to exploit the recent shooting at FRC headquarters for political gain by accusing those who criticize the bigotry of his organization of inciting violence against him, his staff, and those who share their views.

Today Perkins proves that point yet again as he has joined Ken Blackwell and Jerry Boykin in penning a joint op-ed published by Fox News in which they blame the Southern Poverty Law Center for a "shooting that could have been perhaps the deadliest act of domestic terrorism ever driven exclusively by a social issue":

The past month highlighted issues in America’s culture war, culminating in a shooting that could have been perhaps the deadliest act of domestic terrorism ever driven exclusively by a social issue. Several related episodes showcase the nexus between these social controversies and economic prosperity.

...

This war of words launched by the SPLC as cover for its allied organizations on the left has led to an open assault upon those with whom they disagree. This type of demonizing must stop.

FRC’s belief in marriage has prevailed in 32 states where the voters have spoken, is the official position of the Republican Party, and until three months ago was Mr. Obama’s position. If the religious foundation of our convictions makes us a “hate group,” then every other Christian ministry or historically orthodox church could be likewise designated.

SPLC’s tactics are intended to intimidate and ultimately silence. Nothing could be more threatening to the future of our republic.

Keep in mind that all three of these men work at FRC alongside people who want to export gays and criminalize homosexuality, while Perkins himself says gays are intolerant, hateful, and vile pawns of the Devil and calls his enemies "cultural terrorists," whereas Blackwell compares homosexuality to kleptomania and bestiality, and Boykin seemingly spends the majority of his time spreading conspiracy theories and demonizing Muslims.

So it is a little ironic that they would end their op-ed by calling for contentious social issues to be debated "with civility" and for all involved to "eschew name-calling and marginalization."

Maybe they ought to start by taking their own advice.

Kyle Mantyla's blog

Sex, Lies, and Bloodlust: What the Values Voter Summit Tells us About the Religious Right and the Republican Party

During this past weekend’s Values Voter Summit, the annual family reunion of the far right, RWW posted many memorable video highlights. What does it all tell us about the Religious Right and today’s Republican Party? First are foremost, Republican leaders are unwilling to distance themselves from the far-right fringes of their base, especially in an election year in which conservative evangelical voters are not tremendously excited about Mitt Romney. Romney took a pass this year, and it’s not hard to understand why. Last year, organizers maliciously put him on stage right before the American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer, who had ridiculed Romney’s Mormonism. A supporter of Texas Gov. Rick Perry denounced Mormonism as a cult, and the flap over Romney’s faith was the dominant story coming out of the gathering. It was much safer to let Paul Ryan represent the ticket this year, and to have other speakers like Rick Santorum and Rick Scarborough ensure evangelicals that voting for Romney was in fact a good thing. Romney did send a tepidly-received video, which seemed almost an afterthought. What is motivating these activists is not enthusiasm for Romney but their hostility toward the Obama administration.
Peter Montgomery's blog Read more

Speaking at Values Voter Summit, Paul Ryan Gives Stamp of Approval to Bigotry

Washington, DC – People For the American Way today challenged the Romney campaign for its decision to send vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan to speak today at the Values Voter Summit, an event organized by groups that regularly push false and demeaning smears about gays and lesbians, Muslim-Americans and others. These groups also push extreme anti-woman policies, including defending Rep. Todd Akin after his "legitimate rape" comments.

Earlier this week, a coalition of human rights groups, including People For the American Way Foundation, urged Ryan and other elected officials not to lend legitimacy to these groups, including the Family Research Council and the American Family Association, by speaking at the Summit.

More information on the FRC, AFA and other groups participating in the Summit can be found at RightWingWatch.org.

“By speaking at the Values Voter Summit, Paul Ryan sends a clear message: a Romney-Ryan administration has decided to embrace the entrenched bigotry advocated by the farthest of the far right,” said Michael Keegan, President of People For the American Way.

“The Family Research Council and the American Family Association are not mainstream groups,” continued Keegan. “The FRC frequently and falsely links homosexuality to pedophilia. The AFA has claimed that gay men were responsible for the Holocaust. Both have defended laws at home and abroad that criminalize homosexuality. These are not innocent differences of opinion; they are full-scale efforts to smear and denigrate LGBT Americans.

“What’s more, these groups back extreme anti-woman policies, and were among the first to jump to the defense of Rep. Todd Akin’s outrageous 'legitimate rape' comments. They also promote hostility toward Muslim-Americans, Mormons and other religious minorities. They advocate for an America that discriminates and excludes, and are trying their best to stop the tolerance and open-mindedness that Americans of both parties support. That’s a troubling message for a presidential campaign to embrace.”

###

Is Tony Perkins the Most Disingenuous Person on the Planet?

Well, in a world that includes Paul Ryan, maybe not.  But Perkins ensured his standing near the top of the list with his performance at the National Press Club on Wednesday.  Perkins heads an organization that excels in the kind of incendiary rhetoric he denounced from the podium.   I kept thinking about Bill Clinton’s recent characterization of Ryan: “It takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did.”
 
Perkins heads the Family Research Council, one of the Religious Right organizations that has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for a long record of smearing LGBT people with false and denigrating rhetoric.  Perkins used his press club appearance to repeat his charge that it was irresponsible for SPLC and other groups to describe his organization that way.  He suggested that FRC’s critics had created a climate that contributed to the recent violence at FRC headquarters in downtown D.C.
 
Let me say that it was genuinely sobering and moving to hear Perkins describe the incident, in which a security guard who may have saved the lives of many FRC employees was shot while disarming a gunman.  No one should be put in the position of being hunkered down in their office in fear for their life.  No one should be subjected to violence for participating in the public arena.  At the time of the shooting, progressive and gay rights leaders immediately and unequivocally denounced the attack on FRC.
 
It is true that irresponsible and hateful speech can poison our public discourse. But in today’s political climate, that speech is most likely to come from right-wing groups and their allies.  I remember feeling nervous as well as outraged when Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, two days after the 9-11 attacks, blamed People For the American Way by name, as well as feminists, liberals, and others.  And the right’s rhetorical extremism has become supercharged since the election of President Obama.
 
The First Amendment does protect hateful and irresponsible speech.  But being free to participate in the public arena does not meaning being exempt from criticism.  And calling hateful speech hateful is not the same as actually promoting hatred toward a particular group of Americans.  We have noted before how quickly Perkins moved to exploit the shooting in an effort to discredit his opponents and deflect attention from his own group’s extreme record and rhetoric:
 
You don't have to look far.  Last year Perkins called gay-rights activists vile, hateful, pawns of Satan.  In 2010, Perkins responded to President Obama's call for civility on the issue of homosexuality by slamming the president for criticizing Uganda's kill-the-gays bill. Perkins described the infamous law as "enhanced penalties for crimes related to homosexuality" and an effort to "uphold moral conduct."  FRC spokespeople have supported laws criminalizing homosexuality overseas and here in the U.S.  
 
What does it even mean for Perkins to make a public commitment to advocate with civility and compassion when his guests at the head table include rhetorical bomb-throwers like Bishop Harry Jackson, who has said that gay rights advocates are trying to recruit young people “just like during the times of Hitler” and that gay marriage is part of a “satanic plot” to destroy the family, and Rep. Louie Gohmert, who participated in the McCarthyite smear of Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin and who says that President Obama “wants a dictatorship?” Or when he recently hired as his executive vice president retired Gen. Jerry Boykin, who has called for limits on American Muslims’ religious liberty and accuses Obama of using the health care reform law as cover to create a private army of Brownshirts?
 
Perkins also used his speech to promote this weekend’s Values Voter Summit, which is co-sponsored by organizations whose leaders regularly spout rhetoric that is often even more extreme than FRC’s -- about LGBT Americans, Muslims and other non-Christians, supporters of church-state separation and more.  Among the worst are the American Family Association, whose spokesman Bryan Fischer is such a torrent of bigotry that it cannot be easily condensed, and Liberty Counsel, whose Matt Barber purveys loathsome attacks on his political opponents, charging that satanic gay rights activists are “running interference for pedophiles” and charging that groups supporting church-state separation, like People For the American Way, are enemies of religious freedom.
 
Calling for civil discourse on the eve of the Values Voter Summit sounds like nothing more than a bad joke.  If Tony Perkins is at all sincere about his call for civility, this weekend would be a good time to start.
 
Peter Montgomery's blog

Who's Who at the Values Voter Summit 2012

This weekend Republican and conservative leaders, including GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, are set to address the Religious Right's Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C.
Brian Tashman's blog Read more
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