In an interview with far-right radio host Rick Wiles on Tuesday, Family Research Council Vice President Jerry Boykin blamed President Obama and his supporters for the recent mass shooting in Oregon and then suggested that we at Right Wing Watch encourage “lone wolf” attacks on Christians “using the exact same tactics” as ISIS and Al Qaeda.
Wiles spoke with Boykin about the massacre following a monologue in which the conspiracy-theory-minded radio host suggested that the shooting at Umpqua Community College was “staged” by a government “death squad” seeking to “build public support for disarming the American people of their firearms.”
Boykin served as a deputy undersecretary of Defense under President George W. Bush, who repeatedly rebuked him for painting the fight against terrorism as a holy war against Islam. He later launched a career as a Religious Right activist, in which he has touted numerous conspiracy theories and made many anti-Muslim statements, including calling for Muslims to be stripped of their First Amendment rights.
While reports are mixed as to whether the Oregon shooter targeted Christians, Boykin portrayed him as a man who was inspired by the Obama administration’s purportedly anti-Christian policies.
“Right here in America, the church, the Christian church, has been so demonized and denigrated by the current administration and those that support this administration that I think that you have to expect this because there are enough crazies out there that when you constantly hammer the U.S. Christian church, you have to expect that there is going to be some reaction and that’s what we’re seeing,” Boykin said.
“I can tell you that this is the fight of the future,” he added. “It’s not just about having to bake a cake or take photographs for a gay wedding, this is about literally about life and death for Christians in the future. It’s coming.”
Wiles then suggested that the shooter may have been inspired by reading Right Wing Watch, leading Boykin to claim that we use the “exact same tactics” as the Islamic State and Al Qaeda to encourage “lone wolf” attacks against Christians.
Wiles said that he wouldn’t be surprised if the shooter — who identified himself on a dating website as “conservative, Republican” and wrote about “his racial animus toward black people and general feelings of anger about being isolated and unable to make relationships” — was “a frequent visitor to Right Wing Watch.”
Boykin, for his part, said that Right Wing Watch and the Southern Poverty Law Center are “ultraliberal, anti-Christian and anti-American organizations,” adding that Right Wing Watch was established by the “Soros, anti-American, Marxist entity that is also anti-Christian” People For the American Way.
But they did have some good words for us: Boykin commended us for our accuracy, saying that we “actually in many cases print exactly what we said” and Wiles added, “They’ve never misquoted me, I’m not going to say that they misquote me but they definitely want to paint an image of people like you and I as dangerous wackos.”
“This is the tactics of Al Qaeda and ISIS,” Boykin added, “where they will call for people to take action against Western targets, against Christians and infidels and then these so-called lone wolfs will go out and perpetrate an act of violence which normally results in somebody’s death. So what we’ve got is we’ve got Right Wing Watch and Southern Poverty Law Center and People For the American Way all using the exact same tactics as these Middle East terrorist groups, as these Islamic extremist groups. It’s sad that that kind of thing happens in America. There is no dialogue. There is no debate. They are going to try and shut us down by striking fear into our heart.”
This isn’t the first time something like this has happened.
