Secretary Hillary Clinton’s speech on defending LGBT rights abroad and the new Obama administration policy to protect people around the world who are jailed, beaten and executed for being LGBT have been met with intense uproar from the Religious Right.
Pat Robertson on The 700 Club today said that the policy was “appalling” shows that America is willing to “violate God’s principles and to make a mockery of His laws.” Robertson even warned that God will not tolerate it and “when the blow comes, it’s going to be horrible”:
Robertson: Isn’t it appalling that the United States of America would try to force the acceptance of homosexuality on other nations but at the same time we would not force them to take care of their religious minorities and they would permit discrimination and persecution of Christians? What kind of a country have we got? You know, there is a God in heaven and He is just. Thomas Jefferson, ‘I tremble when I remember that God is just.’ He is just, he is not going to allow this kind of thing to go on forever. This country cannot continue to violate God’s principles and to make a mockery of His laws and think we’re going to get away with it. And when the blow comes, it’s going to be horrible.
On Crosstalk yesterday, Vic Eliason of Voice of Christian Youth America argued that the new policy shows that “the inmates have taken over the asylum” and Liberty Counsel Chairman Mat Staver said it confirms the administration’s support of the “radical sexual anarchist agenda”:
Janet Mefferd yesterday defended Nigeria’s right to have a law criminalizing homosexuality and a bill that would crack down on gay couples, and even dismissed concerns about persistent violence against gays and lesbians in Africa:
Mefferd: Let’s get our priorities straight here, in other words, why are we even focusing on this? Other than the fact that you have African countries that have policies like Nigeria, criminalizing homosexuality, are they not a sovereign nation? Can’t they make up their own minds about these things? If they want to pass a law we’re going to play bully over this issue? I can understand countries where people are being flagrantly persecuted for their faith but this one; I don’t see that this is something that the United States has to jump in on because it’s such a huge global tragedy. It’s crazy. They’re saying it’s all homophobia in Nigeria, according to the law I guess in Nigeria not only is gay marriage a crime punishable by a fourteen year jail term but any person who registers, operates or participates in gay organizations faces a decade in jail, a clause that specifically targets the many active sexuality-rights advocacy groups in the country. Alright, but they’re not killing them are they? Are they going to go to jail?
What do you say about this? For another country to make the decision that anybody who violates a standard that they want to uphold in their society to go to jail, where do you draw the line on that? If you have a culture that had a lot of Christians who say we cannot as a society look upon homosexuality as a good thing for all of us, but in that case you’ve got to gather together the global community and bully them out of it.
