Guest Post by Morbo
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins is angry that a bunch of liberals dared to meet in New York City recently and express opposition to the agenda of the theocratic right.
In an e-mail to his supporters, Perkins bemoaned the “anti-religious” tone of the conference, titled “Examining the Real Agenda of the Religious Far Right,” at the City University of New York.
“Attendees to the conference were regaled as speakers took a look at Christian conservatives with the same attitude as renowned primatologist Jane Goodall might examine a tribe of apes,” Perkins sneered.
I was not at the event, but I doubt the analogy is accurate. After all, Goodall had great respect for the primates she studied and labored to save them from extinction. I hope the speakers at the New York conference heaped scorn on the agenda of the Religious Right and equipped attendees with strategies to defeat it. If they did not, everyone who went should ask for a refund.
Perkins seems to think the rhetoric was extreme. He ought to know. I’ve heard Perkins speak at some right-wing events over the years, and I get regular e-mail updates from his outfit. (You can too! Sign up here.) Perkins is so far out he’s barely living on this planet. When Perkins speaks, you know exactly whom he hates. Let me list them for you: gays, feminists, pro-choice Americans, atheists, liberals, Democrats, sex-ed advocates, public school teachers, Pagans and of course federal judges.
Perkins recently addressed a group of nutcase right-wingers in Washington, D.C., about ways to curb the federal judiciary. He advanced the novel argument that the Supreme Court is not as important as the other branches of government because it did not have its own building until the 1930s and opined that today the justices should be forced to meet in a trailer.
The FRC head also loves to host extremists. A recent FRC meeting featured Religious Right troll Gary Bauer, who told the receptive crowd that federal judges are worse than al Qaeda terrorists. Bauer went on to assert that 3,000 people died on Sept. 11, 2001, in part because God has lifted his protection over America due to legal abortion. Bauer said that 3,000 unborn babies are aborted every day, the same number that died in the attacks. It’s probably not a coincidence, he told attendees.
“What if — at a time when we’ve got a bull’s eye on our back — what if God took his hand off of us again because we’re destroying his creation?” Bauer asked.
Yeah, I’d say Perkins knows a few things about over-the-top rhetoric. And let’s not forget, Perkins, as the Carpetbagger noted recently, once bought a mailing list from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. Not like that’s extreme or anything.
One more thing: The event at City University was open to the public. A reporter from everyone’s favorite Messiah-owned organ, The Washington Times, attended and wrote about it for that Republican Party daily newsletter — I’m sorry — I mean “newspaper.”
My point is, the liberal event was wide open. There was no plotting and scheming behind closed doors. Contrast that the Perkins’ FRC, which holds an annual meeting that is not open to the media, a gathering that is for FRC supporters only, a secret meeting. This year, someone released recordings from that event to the media that have mightily embarrassed the FRC. That was not part of the plan. Believe me, Perkins would rather you not know what he and his little friends are up to.
The folks who ran the anti-Religious Right event had the decency to meet in the open and put forth their ideas for all to hear. Perkins and his gang of Constitution wreckers want to run all of our personal lives and plot for that behind closed doors. They work to keep you out.
More power to anyone who exposes that type of rank hypocrisy.