American Family Association official Sandy Rios warned on her radio program yesterday that the Obama administration’s decision to light up the White House in rainbow colors in celebration of the Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision was “an unbelievable affront to God” that will have “consequences.” According to Rios, God will lift His hand of protection from America in response to the court’s ruling and the celebratory rainbow images, thereby increasing the threat of terror attacks on the United States.
The rainbow, she said, “was God’s sign to mankind that he would never destroy the earth again by flood,” so if “you take his symbol and you use it for a sign of sexual behavior that is ungodly, unallowed,” it will have “some consequence.”
“My grief is for you, because you don’t understand what you just did. You don’t understand,” she told gay rights activists. “Again, now, to get more practical about this, the terror threat against this nation has gone up exponentially.”
Citing warnings about possible terrorist attacks in America over the July 4th weekend, Rios declared that, to make matters worse, “it is Ramadan.” Unlike Christians, whom Rios claimed understand the true meaning of the word ‘holy,’ Muslims use the holy month of Ramadan to “fast so that [they] can murder people,” she said.
Rios then pivoted to address gay rights activists, telling them that when you “ignore God” you “do away with his protection,” which is “why we fear for the country and we fear for you too.”
Meanwhile, she said, American Christians have “entered a new era” of persecution where they will be “like believers in Iran and Syria” or “first-century Rome, pagan Rome, China most recently, Russia before the breakup of the Soviet Union. We are entering a time of living in a hostile culture.”
“We’re gonna see a lot of things change,” warned Rios, “and those of you that stay strong in your personal convictions, you’re gonna have trouble at work, you may lose your jobs. This is a new era, so it’s not for the faint of heart.”
Religious Right legal activist Michael Farris joined Rios later on the program, telling her that after the marriage decision, “I really feel like I’m a stranger living in a strange land. They’ve stolen America from us, and they’ve stolen our heritage and they’ve stolen everything by a five-to-four vote.”
“I don’t think that’s an overstatement,” responded Rios. “The people that won on Friday don’t understand that they have lost terribly. We’ve lost protections of God for this country. We have thumbed our nose at him using his symbol, the rainbow, which was a personal, sacred symbol that he gave to a sign to earth that he would not destroy it again. They have thumbed their nose a God’s design for man, a man and a woman designed from the beginning of time and creation, and it will not, it will not stand. While we’re under such terrible terror threats, you know, our protections have been lifted and that’s what they don’t understand. And they are in the same boat that we’re in so it’s a — it is a sad day for America.”
