Watch: President Tony Perkins Delivers ‘State Of The Family’ Address

In his first annual “State of the Family” address, the night before the State of the Union address, FRC president Tony Perkins offers ugly vision for America.

In what can only be described as an embarrassing attempt at self-importance, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins delivered his first annual “State of the Family” address Monday night, just 24 hours before President Barack Obama is to deliver the State of the Union address.

The video, below, was broadcast live. It opens with a glorious stage-setting intro, complete with iconic monuments of Washington, D.C., and the Family Research Council logo interspersed. One short segment show Perkins walking up the steps to the Supreme Court, then the words “Defending Marriage” appear. Also in the opener, oddly, are scenes from NOM’s March for Marriage. The words “State of the Family” are emblazoned throughout.

At one point, viewers see this:

And this:

But when the video opens to Perkins, what viewers are actually getting is this:

It’s a deceptive attempt to make FRC and Perkins to seem as if only they can “Defend Marriage,” “Protect Life,” and “Preserve Religious Liberty.”

In short, it’s an advertisement.

In the room appear to be about 40 people. Perkins, having set himself up for a fall, opens with, “Good evenings ladies and gentlemen,” but lets it slide.

It takes him a few minutes to set up his theory: “Religious freedom is essential to promote the view that all humans have dignity.”

And then, he goes in for the anti-gay attack.

“Moreover, the individual’s dignity, as both history and the social sciences reveal, is aided and promoted best by the family, in which a mother and father love and respect each other and their children.”

Note he doesn’t mention any particular study, but “the social sciences,” which actually reveal that two-parent – not necessarily a mother and father – households are often better to raise a child. 

Perkins then adds, “it is the family, and the individuals within it, that are essential to our communities, our economy and to the strengthening and flourishing of a free and open democracy. Therefore, when religious freedom is devalued, the worth of individuals, families, and ultimately our democracy are undermined. For some people today religious liberty is simply freedom of worship.”

And he insists, “religious liberty proceeds from and informs the core of the human being.”

The issue of course is Perkins’ definition of religious liberty. To him, it mean fundamentalist Christians should control how everyone in the country behaves, and what they believe.

And, like every good hysteria-promoting theocrat, Perkins goes right to Hitler.

Nazi Germany sought to replace God with the false worship of Aryan supremacy. Hitler dreamed of the removal of the Bible from every pulpit in Germany and its replacement with his manifesto Mein Kampf. He leveled a campaign against the Church, as well as Jews, believing historical Christianity a “scourge” and urged his aides to see Germany “immunized from this disease.” He believed that Christianity made men soft, unfit in his regime of eugenic purification. He despised the Gospels’ great commandments of love and their basis in the transforming claim that all persons have equal value before their Creator.

And then, of course Reagan.

Perkins goes on to attack President Obama, Obamacare, and then to hold up as heroes the Klein family, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, the Oregon bakery that refuses to follow the law and bake cakes for all couples, not just the ones their interpretation of the bible allows them to.

At one point, calling it a “non-negotiable principle,” Perkins claims, “People should not be forced to pay for abortion, or other acts that violate their moral conscience.”

Which for many would mean no taxes to pay for wars, or subsidies of oil companies, and absolutely no taxes to subsidize organized religion or religious lobby groups, like the Family Research Council.

Unsurprisingly, the only major news outlet to report on Perkins’ speech was the very anti-gay Washington Times.

Perkins’ speech is long, about an hour. Watch if you like, or read the full transcript.

Video begins about 10 minutes in. Watch the intro, if nothing else.

Responses on Twitter were as expected, highly critical, and rightly so:

 

 

Images via YouTube