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Tony Perkins: Homosexuality, Like Drug Abuse, Is ‘Destructive’ To Society

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Tony Perkins yesterday, kicking off the Values Voters Summit, treated reporters and conservative politicians to a hypocritical hour-long speech that positioned the Family Research Council (FRC) as a victim — one that pledges to further its positions advocating against women and gays while being “civil” and loving. On the Family Research Council’s positions — which he stated were the same as those of iconic figures in history, from John Jay to George Washington to Mother Teresa — he added, “they are not battle plans of armies of hate.” Perkins then called homosexuality “destructive,” and an “unfortunate experience,” from which parents should “protect” their children, one which they should not “condone,” and likened it to drug use. Perkins, who demanded the HRC and the SPLC stop calling the FRC a hate group, also referred to same-sex marriage as “a novel definition of marriage and family.”

Perkins, who is the President of the FRC, indeed a certified anti-gay hate group, began his address with a five minute opening standup routine, then got down to business, stating, “there are some who would like to see us pack up and go away.” Perkins promised, to applause, “we are not going anywhere,” adding that the August 15 shooting at FRC headquarters has strengthened their resolve. Perkins also claimed the FBI is investigating the shooting “as an act of domestic terrorism.”

Perkins pledged to “redouble” FRC’s battle against women’s rights and same-sex marriage, and ironically told the audience of reporters and politicians, “I also pledge to redouble our efforts to advocate these ideas with civility and compassion.” Perkins in the past has said gay people “are intolerant. They are hateful. They are vile. They are spiteful…pawns of the enemy,” and said that gay young people “have a higher propensity to depression or suicide because of that internal conflict; homosexuals may recognize intuitively that their same-sex attractions are abnormal.” (Quotes via GLAAD.)

Perkins continued, claiming:

We are accountable to a higher authority than public opinion. In Ephesians the apostle Paul writes that we are to speak the truth in love. Our aim is to speak the truth in love and if we fail to do so we will acknowledge it and we will set the record straight, and that includes what we say regarding homosexuality, and I would hope that the other side would make a similar commitment.

We have asked and we renew the request today that the Southern Poverty Law Center  and HRC cease their bitter and unsupported characterizations of FRC as a hate group, akin to the Ku Klux Klan, the Arian Nation, and similar groups that espouse evil and violence, which FRC denounces. This language is meant to inflame not inspire, to intimidate and not to illuminate. It is to poison and not to persuade. This type of incendiary rhetoric seeks to marginalize and silence people of Orthodox Christian faith, and it fosters an environment of violence, and it’s wrong and it needs to stop.

Then, amazingly, Perkins said:

It is time for the vindictiveness to end and I say with confidence to the SPLC and HRC it is time to dial down your demonization of those who differ with you, time to stop hurling labels of hate and have a legitimate debate about policies that govern our nation.

(For an glimpse into the Family Research Council’s demonization of those who differ with them, and hurling labels of hate, visit here and here and here and here and here and here.)

What would he do if one of his children told him they were gay?, a reporter asked. “I would not disown my children for anything, but let me say this,” Perkins told the reporter at the National Press Club, in an event streamed live by C-SPAN. “I believe that as a parent that I have a responsibility for the environment in which I raise my children. And I believe as a parent, we have the ability to protect them from a lot of unfortunate experiences that have shaping influences upon their lives.”

We can do our very best job as a parent and still something may happen, whether they end up in drugs or whether they end up in some other lifestyle that they end up in… They’re our children. We’ll always love them, but we don’t necessarily condone what they do. And if we really love them, we’ll be wiling to tell them the truth that the choices that they have made to continue in what they are doing are both destructive to them personally and to society as a whole.

 

Radical right wing politicians were in attendance at the presser, including U.S. Congressman Louie Gohmert, perhaps best known for his “terror babies” conspiracy theory.

You can watch the event in its entirety, below, and also watch:

Reporter Asks Tony Perkins: Why Do You Focus On Homosexuality When Bible Doesn’t

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/videoLibrary/assets/swf/CSPANPlayer.swf?pid=308121-1

Related:

Homosexuality: How Much Difference Lies Between US Anti-Gay Groups And Iran?

Values Voters Summit: Does Family Research Council Just Fib About Who’s Speaking?

Tony Perkins: My Friend, Patriot Todd Akin Will Speak At Values Voters Summit

Read: Human Rights Groups Ask Paul Ryan To Not Attend Hate Group Conference

 

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‘Disgraceful’: ICE Slammed After Allegedly Pepper-Spraying US Congresswoman

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U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) is accusing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents of pepper-spraying her in her face while she was at a local Tucson, Arizona restaurant.

Rep. Grijalva in a video on social media said she saw about 40 mostly-masked ICE agents at a restaurant she frequents weekly.

The agents were “in several vehicles that the community had stopped right here, right in the middle of the street, because they were afraid that they were taking people without due process, without any kind of notice.”

READ MORE: Warning Signs Flash as Trump Slump Raises Fears of 2018 Blue Wave Rerun: Conservative

She said that the community was “protecting their people” when she was “sprayed in the face by a very aggressive agent,” and “pushed around by others when I literally was not being aggressive.”

“I was asking for clarification, which is my right as a member of Congress,” she continued. “So, once I introduced myself, once I did, I assumed that it would be a little calmer, but there was literally only one person that was trying to speak to me in any kind of civil tone, and everyone else was being rude and disrespectful, and I just can only imagine if they’re going to treat me like that, how they’re treating everybody else.”

Congresswoman Grijalva said she saw “people directly sprayed,” including “members of our press” and staff members.

She blasted President Donald Trump, saying that he “has no regard for any due process, the rule of law, the Constitution — they’re literally disappearing people from the streets.”

Critics slammed the agents’ action.

READ MORE: Trump: Democrats Are Plotting ‘Total Obliteration’ of Supreme Court

U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) wrote that Rep. Grijalva “was doing her job, standing up for her community.”

“Pepper-spraying a sitting member of Congress is disgraceful, unacceptable, and absolutely not what we voted for. Period,” he added.

“This is unacceptable and outrageous,” observed Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes. “Enforcing the rule [of] law does not mean pepper spraying a member of Congress for simply asking questions. Effective law enforcement requires restraint and accountability, not unchecked aggression.”

The Bulwark’s Sam Stein noted, “quite the beginning for Grijalva, who wasn’t seated for weeks, [cast] the decisive vote to get the Epstein files, and now has apparently been pepper sprayed in the face by immigration agents.”

Also calling the action “outrageous,” U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) wrote: “We are Members of Congress with oversight authority of ICE. Rep Grijalva was completely within her rights to stand up for her constituents. ICE is completely lawless.”

“First they tackle a sitting Senator,” noted U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY). “Now they’re pepper spraying a Representative. It’s clear ICE is spinning out of control. We will hold the agency accountable.”

READ MORE: Trump’s Ballroom Seen as ‘Key Evidence’ He’s Out of Touch as Cost of Living Spikes

 

Image via Reuters 

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Warning Signs Flash as Trump Slump Raises Fears of 2018 Blue Wave Rerun: Conservative

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A well-known conservative commentator has a warning for the Republican Party: take action now or face a repeat of the 2018 midterms when the GOP lost 41 House seats in a landslide. And this time, he says, the Senate could go to the Democrats as well.

Award-winning writer and journalist Bernard Goldberg reminded readers at The Hill that in 2018, during President Donald Trump’s first term, “Republicans got walloped … and a good chunk of that had President Trump’s name written all over it.”

Trump’s “approval ratings were in the low 40s, and independents — the folks who usually decide elections — had seen enough. They broke hard for the Democrats,” Goldberg noted. “Now here we are, staring down 2026, and you can almost hear history clearing its throat, getting ready to repeat itself.”

READ MORE: Trump: Democrats Are Plotting ‘Total Obliteration’ of Supreme Court

Goldberg noted that Trump’s approval rating is currently the lowest it’s been this term.

“Among Republicans, his support dropped from 91 percent right after the 2024 election to 84 percent last month. Among independents, it cratered — from 42 percent to just 25 percent.”

“If the trend continues,” he warned, “Republicans could be headed for another blue wave — and this time, it could wash away not just the House majority, but control of the Senate too.”

Why?

“It’s the economy — still,” he wrote.

“Trump is out there saying the economy is humming. Biden said the same thing before him. But voters didn’t buy it then, and they’re not buying it now. Why? Because it’s not GDP numbers that matter. It’s affordability,” Goldberg noted.

READ MORE: Trump’s Ballroom Seen as ‘Key Evidence’ He’s Out of Touch as Cost of Living Spikes

That’s a word that President Trump continues to call a “con job,” while his own administration tries to claim he is focused on.

He pointed to a Karl Rove Wall Street Journal column and wrote: “The Republicans may have ‘avoided disaster’ in Tennessee, but the result should be a wake-up call for Republicans. He’s right.”

Goldberg asked: “will anyone in the Republican Party actually pick up the phone?”

“Because if Republicans don’t wake up — and fast — they’re going to find out the hard way what happens when you keep rerunning the same movie and expecting a different ending. To lose in 2026, all they have to do is nothing. And right now, that’s pretty much what they’re doing.”

READ MORE: Trump Urges Judge Aileen Cannon to Keep Jack Smith Report Secret

 

 

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Trump: Democrats Are Plotting ‘Total Obliteration’ of Supreme Court

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President Donald Trump is claiming that the top priority of Democrats is the “total obliteration” of the U.S. Supreme Court. His remarks came just hours after SCOTUS gave Republicans a 6-3 win along partisan lines, in the form of approving Texas’s redrawn mid-decade congressional maps that could help add five GOP-held seats to the U.S. House of Representatives. A lower court had ruled the redrawn Texas maps were likely racially biased.

Although there are different ways to measure, one study by Court Accountability this fall found that the Supreme Court has ruled in Trump’s favor 90% of the time.

“Most of these wins for the president came from the court’s ‘shadow docket’ slate of opinions — where the court has typically, in the past, only ruled on administrative measures,” according to Truthout. “However, in recent years, the Supreme Court has been making announcements on cases, issuing injunctions or allowances of actions to remain in place, that have the same effect, essentially, as a final decision.”

READ MORE: White House Touts Trump’s ‘Track Record’ on Affordability

On Friday, the president declared that the “Democrats number one policy push is the complete and total OBLITERATION of our great United States Supreme Court.”

“They will do this on their very first day in office, through the simple Termination of the Filibuster, SHOULD THEY WIN THE UPCOMING ELECTIONS,” he wrote.

Trump has strongly advocated for Republicans to eliminate the Senate filibuster.

“The Radical Left Democrats are looking at 21 Justices, with immediate ascension,” he wrote, claiming that Democrats would more than double the current size of the court.

“This would be terrible for our Country. Fear not, however, Republicans will not let it, or any of their other catastrophic policies, happen. Our Country is now in very good hands. MAGA!!!”

Some court reform advocates have suggested the Supreme Court be expanded to 13 justices, one for each of the thirteen U.S. Courts of Appeals.

READ MORE: Trump’s Ballroom Seen as ‘Key Evidence’ He’s Out of Touch as Cost of Living Spikes

 

Image via Reuters 

 

 

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