Last week during a town hall in Elkhart, Indiana, President Barack Obama defended his decision to open up school bathrooms to students based on their gender identity. Citing his Christian faith as a determining factor in his position:
“My reading of scripture tells me that that (the) Golden Rule is pretty high up there in terms of my Christian belief.”
Unfortunately, Family Research Council President, Tony Perkins thinks that President Obama was out of line in asking schools to treat children with kindness. Apparently, the known hate monger takes offense to the idea that based on scripture, LGBT people also deserve to be treated with decency.
In his “Washington Update” column for FRC, Perkins declared:
“The Bible is not an á là carte buffet, where you can pick and choose which parts you like. Tell that to President Obama, who seems quite fond of quoting Scripture when it suits his personal agenda. Of course, most of the time that means twisting the verses’ meaning or taking them out of context altogether to justify positions that are in complete contradiction to Christian teaching – like same-sex marriage.”
It would be fair to argue that twisting scripture to fit a personal agenda is exactly the modus operandi of the FRC, which has been formally declared a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its blatant attempts at defaming LGBT people. From the SPLC website:
“To make the case that the LGBT community is a threat to American society, the FRC employs a number of “policy experts” whose “research” has allowed the FRC to be extremely active politically in shaping public debate. Its research fellows and leaders often testify before Congress and appear in the mainstream media. It also works at the grassroots level, conducting outreach to pastors in an effort to “transform the culture”.”
Effectively spreading propaganda under the guise of facts to limit the protections and rights of the LGBT community. Just like Jesus would do?
Perkins implored President Obama to try reading what the bible actually says before quoting it. He follows this by selecting a passage of his own which he claimed was quite clear about where God stands on the issue, despite it not actually saying anything about homosexuality or how LGBT people should be treated by Christians.
This is followed by citing yet another verse, this time about praying, which notably also had nothing to do with excluding LGBT people from Christ’s compassion. Instead he calls for his followers to “redouble” their efforts in justifying discrimination and ignoring any other interpretation of that whole “do unto others” business the Obama administration helpfully pointed out.
In the video below, Tony Perkins explains how the most important part of a family is that is has two opposite-sex parents, because the Bible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-9GGzvhI8I
Featured image screengrab via YouTube.
