Tony Perkins
will be testifying
before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing today on
“protecting religious freedom abroad,” which is not only ironic, because
Perkins has repeatedly proven himself anti-religious freedom, but also
goes to show that Republicans like hate groups and just can’t stay away
from them.
Perkins, of course, is president of the Family Research Council (FRC), which has been
designated a hate group
by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Perkins is a hater’s hater:
he hates gays and lesbians, he hates Muslims, immigrants, secularists –
and he hates President Barack Obama.
The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on
State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs,
chaired by none other than Lindsey Graham, and which also boasts Mitch
McConnell as a member, for some reason I cannot fathom, thinks Perkins
might be able to make some useful contributions to the topic of
“Protecting Religious Freedom Abroad.”
Also testifying will be Fox News commentator and lawyer Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice
(ACLJ), which was founded by Pat Robertson to counter the influence of
the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and so, of course, has
nothing to do with justice.
Sekulow self-identifies as a Messianic Jew, a bit of
an oxymoron since if you believe in Jesus you are not a Jew (the
Israeli Supreme Court
agrees) which essentially makes him a fake Christian AND a fake Jew, putting him one up on Perkins in the fakery department.
The invitation prompted Perkins to say,
Religious freedom is a
fundamental, inherent, and international human right. It is not merely
an American right—though religious freedom was foundational to the very
existence of the United States. Additionally, standing for religious
liberty should be a vital component of American foreign policy.
Defending those whose right to practice their faith is penalized or
jeopardized wins our country friends among people throughout the
developing world and thus enhances the security of our nation.
The problem is that Perkins thinks only people like
him should have religious freedom, meaning his religious freedom is
actually religious tyranny. Not exactly the sort of expert you would
expect, unless what these Republicans are really interested in is
oppressing religious minorities. That is where Perkins’ expertise lies.
The inclusion of
Perkins threatens to turn a hearing about a critically important issue
into a political sideshow. Perkins has consistently used the persecution
of Christians abroad as a political bludgeon at home, claiming that
LGBT rights in the U.S. are fueling religious persecution worldwide and
falsely asserting that President Obama has done nothing to stop the
oppression of Christians because he secretly sympathizes with Islamic
radicals.
Small wonder then that Senate Republicans, many of whom have already committed treason
in order to derail the Iranian peace process, want to hear from a
fellow hater like Perkins. He will verify their completely and often
catastrophically erroneous preconceptions, and thereby convince them
their hate of Obama is not misplaced.
Perkins then, is not only an apologist for a fake
religion, which, of course, he calls “true” religion, but for fake
facts. And that, it scarce needs be said, plays right into the
Republican wheelhouse.
For example, according to radical fake Christian Perkins, Obama is not only a Muslim
but a Muslim radical.
Not only does Perkins have absolutely no evidence in support of this
claim, but he has to ignore the mountains of evidence that this claim is
a complete fabrication. Thus we are left with somebody pretending to be
a Christian accusing an actual Christian of pretending to be a
Christian.
As I have said here before,
Tony Perkins is a fake Christian with an out of control persecution
complex. He not only believes that fake Christians like him have more rights
than other Christians, but he has rejected the First Amendment
entirely, claiming, like Bryan Fischer and the American Family
Association, that Islam is not afforded First Amendment protections and
that it “tears at the fabric of our democracy.”
Never mind Perkins’ own attempts to tear at the fabric of American democracy.
From the perspective of the rest of us – I’m talking
about the huge majority of Americans, regardless of religious
self-identification, who are not fake Christians – it doesn’t matter
whose religious laws we are forced to live under: they are all
incompatible with the United States Constitution’s guarantee of equality
before the law and rejection of state-sponsored religion.
As Miranda Blue put it, “Religious persecution
around the world is certainly a worthy topic for the Senate to address.
But including Tony Perkins in such a hearing is not the way for a
committee to convey that it is taking this issue seriously.”
Of course, it is not taking the matter seriously, except as another means to attack President Obama.
Tony Perkins is the last person who ought to be
summoned to the Senate to talk about religious freedom. This is a
blatant case of pandering to the so-called Religious Right and to hate
groups that share Republican biases against ethnic and religious
minorities. And it shows that the Republican-dominated Senate has, as
the last thing on its mind, actually working on behalf of the American
people.
Inviting hate group leader Tony Perkins to speak
about religious freedom is just more evidence of the GOP’s farcical
approach to governance.
