THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD
(apologies to Keith Olbermann)
Tony Perkins
In an email sent to supporters before Thursday night’s manhunt began in Massachusetts, the Family Research Council attempted to appropriate recent tragedies as arguments that support their social conservative positions. Referring to the Republicans’ Senate filibuster of the gun safety bill, FRC’s Tony Perkins claimed that tragedies like Newtown and Boston — as well as the shooting at its headquarters last summer — are the result of “sexual liberalism” and the lack of Christian influence on society.
There are few things I find more despicable than someone willing to exploit tragedy to push their narrow agenda. That there’s no lack of this occurring in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing is not surprising. It’s disturbing in that we could and should have been able to hope for something better- compassion, understanding, perhaps even a little faith and charity. Instead what we get are holier-than-thou self-professed “Christians” like Tony Perkins, who wouldn’t grasp the true meaning of Jesus’ teachings if you gave him a road map, a six-pack of Bud Light, and a flashlight. And while we’re on the subject, maybe even a New Testament.
It’s difficult for me to contemplate Perkins’ epic, hyper-religious hypocrisy without wanting to throw up. He’s an embarrassment to himself, his faith (such as it is), and the many, many good and decent people who try to honestly live their Christian beliefs. I may not believe in God, but I respect those whose faith is honest, heartfelt, and driven by love and compassion. Perkins is a rank hypocrite with a heart of stone, a lust for power, and an intolerance for anything and anyone who stands in his way. It’s not about love, or compassion, or charity for Perkins; it’s about power, control, and enforcing his narrow, hateful bastardization of Christian doctrine.
In the aftermath of horrible tragedies like Newtown, the government desperately wants to do something-even if that something is the wrong thing. There seems to be this notion, at least among liberals, that more laws will protect us-but as we all witnessed in Boston, that isn’t necessarily the case. The government can’t make us safer until it recognizes that the problem isn’t the instruments of violence-but the environment of it. Stronger background checks wouldn’t have prevented the deaths of three people at the finish line on Monday, any more than it would have stopped Floyd Corkins from walking into our lobby and shooting Leo Johnson.
The government wants to do something…because that’s the government’s JOB. That’s what we expect of government in the wake of unimaginable tragedy? How did it happen. Who was responsible? What can we do to prevent something similar from happening in the future? It’s one of the things that government does that no other entity in public life has the power or the resources to do.
What Perkins refuses to recognize is that no one- no reasonable person, at least- is making the argument that background checks would have prevented the Boston Marathon bombing. The attack wasn’t conducted with firearms, so why would anyone with a functional intellect and moral compass argue the efficacy of background checks? If Perkins could stop foaming at the mouth, he’d realize that HE’S the only one using the tragedy in Boston to nullify the need for background checks.
If Congress wants to stop these tragedies, then it has to address the government’s own hostility to the institution of the family and organizations that can address the real problem: the human heart. As I’ve said before, America doesn’t need gun control, it needs self-control. And a Congress that actively discourages it-through abortion, family breakdown, sexual liberalism, or religious hostility-is only compounding the problem.
Perkins may well be correct about the problem being the human heart, but then he negates his argument by twisting his assertion into an indictment of what he defines as “sexual liberalism.” As far as I can tell that means any sort of “non-procreative sex” that doesn’t involve a man, a woman, and the missionary position. Whatever topic Perkins deems worthy of his prodigious intellect and moral superiority, it invariably seems to devolve into his fear of, and need to control, the sexuality of others.
THAT’S the root of his unmedicated, dysfunctional “Christianity.”
Of course, some will say-and I agree-that transforming the culture is the church’s job. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a place at the table for Christians in the gun debate. Not only did Jesus tolerate weapons, he instructed His disciples to buy them! In Luke 22:36, we read, “He said to them… if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.” Jesus did rebuke Peter for being too quick on the draw (John 18:11), recognizing that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal-but spiritual.
It sickens me that Perkins wants to turn the tragedy in Boston into a debate about human sexuality and the gun debate- NEITHER of which have ANYTHING to do with the heinous terrorist act which occurred at the Boston Marathon’s finish line. Purporting to find a Biblical justification for guns is only the latest and most disgusting example of his twisted theology, a belief system that bears no resemblance to anything with a basis in the teachings of Jesus Christ. Perkins’ theology is really all about power and control; it’s about using his bastardized Christian faith as a bludgeon to subjugate those who don’t blindly accept his dark and angry hyper-religiosity.
The truth is that Tony Perkins is as much a Christian as I am one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. For reasons I fail to understand, there’s been no backlash against Perkins by good and decent Christians- you know, those who actually try to live their beliefs, something Perkins seems incapable of. He’s been allowed to broadcast his hatred and intolerance far and wide with nary a word of dissent from mainstream Christians. Absent that, it’s left to people on the Left like me who believe in tolerance, acceptance, and freedom of ideological and theological choice to take Perkins down a few notches. I don’t know that my efforts will yield results, but the hypocritical monstrosity of Tony perkins is a tough thing to ignore. And don’t even get me started on the Family Research Council….
I can only hope there’s a reserved parking space in Hell with Tony Perkins’ name on it.
