As the Supreme Court considers cases that could lead to sweeping changes for same-sex couples and as state after state passes marriage equality legislation, here’s a look at Right Wing Watch’s collection of recent claims from the Religious Right on marriage equality. Relying on wild predications and outright lies, right-wing opponents contend that marriage for same-sex couples will lead to everything from “the murder of the masses” to Christians being forced underground.
Here are highlights of Right Wing Watch’s recent reporting on right-wing opposition to marriage equality:
10. Glenn Stanton: Same-Sex Marriage is a ‘Pernicious Lie of Satan’ that Imperils Society and Humanity (February 2013)
Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family asserted that homosexuality “is a really pernicious lie of Satan” because it denies “the distinct God imaging in each of us as males and females.” He went on to warn that gay equality leads to the “persecution” of Christians and will “redefine not only marriage but the family itself if not humanity completely.”
Read the full article here.
9. Harry Jackson: ‘Polygamy and Many Other Forms of Marriage’ Will ‘Automatically Sweep the Land’ if Same-Sex Marriage Is Legal (March 2013)
Pastor Harry Jackson said conservatives can win their fight against marriage equality if they succeed in convincing Americans about gay marriage’s dire consequences, such as the “automatic” legalization of polygamy. “If same-sex marriage is allowed to be mandated by fiat,” Jackson warned, “then right behind it, polygamy and many other forms of marriage will automatically sweep the land within just a matter of a few years.”
Read the full article here.
8. Erik Rush: Same-Sex Marriage Is an ‘Anti-Theistic, Christophobic Design of the Radical Left’ (March 2013)
WorldNetDaily columnist Erik Rush argued that gay rights advocates have a “venomous hatred for everything smacking of Christianity” and that same-sex marriage is part of “the anti-theistic, Christophobic design of the radical left,” which Rush claims will bring about “societal dissolution.”
Read the full article here.
7. Sandy Rios: Gay Marriage Brings about the ‘Rape of Our Children's Innocence’ (November 2012)
Sandy Rios of the American Family Association argued that marriage equality will lead to “explicit instruction in public schools” and the “rape of our children’s innocence.”
Read the full article here.
6. Matthew Hagee: Gay Marriage Will Be ‘The Death of Capitalism’ (March 2013)
On “Hagee Hotline,” Pastor Matthew Hagee warned that legalizing gay marriage would spell “the death of capitalism.”
“The only relationship in natural law that can produce consumers,” Hagee declared, “is the relationship between a man and a woman.”
Read the full article here.
5. Jim Garlow: Christians Will be ‘Forced Underground’ if Court Affirms Marriage Equality (March 2013)
Pastor Jim Garlow warned that if the Supreme Court affirms marriage equality, Christians will be “forced underground. Their buildings will be taken away from them, many of their rights will be taken away from them.”
Read the full article here.
4. Tony Perkins: If SCOTUS Legalizes Gay Marriage, it Could Lead to ‘Revolution’ (November 2012)
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council declared that if the Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriage, Christian conservatives will never accept it because 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, Perkins warned that it could lead to “revolution” and “just break this nation apart.”
Read the full article here.
3. Southern Baptist Leader Fred Luter Links North Korean Threats to Gay Marriage, Boy Scouts (March 2013)
Fred Luter, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention: “I would not be surprised that at the time when we are debating same-sex marriage, at a time when we are debating whether or not we should have gays leading the Boy Scout movement, I don’t think it’s just a coincidence that we have a mad man in Asia who is saying some of the things that he’s saying.”
Read the full article here.
2. Mat Staver: Supreme Court Could Spark Second Revolution and Civil War over Marriage Equality (December 2012)
According to Liberty Counsel head Mat Staver, if the Supreme Court rules in favor of marriage equality, America may head toward outright revolt and a second civil war.
“This would be more devastating to our freedom, to our religious freedom, to the rights of pastors and their duty to be able to speak and to Christians around the country, than anything that the revolutionaries during the American Revolution even dreamed of facing,” Staver said. “This could cause another civil war.”
Read the full article here.
1. Alan Keyes: Gay Marriage Will Lead to Communism and ‘The Murder of the Masses’ (April 2013)
Former ambassador and perennial presidential candidate Alan Keyes maintained that if the government goes against divine law and legalizes same-sex marriage then the state will have limitless power, ultimately becoming a Communist regime that will authorize “the expropriation of all property” and “the murder of the masses.”
Read the full article here.
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