David French

Today on WallBuilders Live, Barton reflected on the alleged persecution of same-sex marriage opponents like himself. Barton compared himself to Jeremiah, which is actually modest for Barton who previously likened himself to Jesus Christ. He claimed that like Jeremiah, he doesn’t care what people have to say about him and doesn’t listen to his critics “as long as I’m speaking the right thing that God told me to say.” Of course, this is the same David Barton who is currently suing three of his critics for libel and defamation and whose cohost Rick Green is suing several people for libel over his unsuccessful campaign to serve on the Texas Supreme Court:

Barton: Anybody who goes out and looks for me up on Google or anything else is going to be appalled at how terrible I am, I mean there’s stuff I didn’t even know I did until I read about it on these articles, but if that matters to you, you lose your voice. One of the things the Lord really dealt to me early on was Jeremiah 1:17, because Jeremiah was going to deliver a message that was extremely unpopular to people, he said, ‘listen guys we are going into bondage but God’s going to bring us out,’ nobody wants to hear that, so Jeremiah’s been commissioned to give a message that nobody is gonna like. That’s why they threw him down in the miry pit and he was gonna die down there and they finally brought him out. So Jeremiah, a doom-and-gloom kind of guy in some ways, and God told him in Jeremiah 1:17 ‘do not look at their faces when you deliver the message I told you, if you do, if you pay attention to the way they respond, I will break you to pieces in front of them,’ and that’s one of the things I learned early on.

People don’t like the fact about the Christian heritage of the nation but I gotta speak whether they like it or not because if I watch the reaction, if I watch their faces, if I gage what I do by the criticism I get, I’ll soften my approach and he’ll break me to pieces in front of them. For people who are enemies, I don’t care! I don’t care whether they like me or not, as long as I’m speaking the right thing that God told me to say!

Green: You don’t want to be a man-pleaser.

Earlier in the show, David French of the American Center for Law and Justice told Barton and Green that gay rights advocates who claim that marriage equality has no victims are wrong as “the victim is our culture.” French claimed that marriage equality would devalue the institution of marriage by taking God out of the equation, but his only evidence that the legalization of same-sex marriage undercuts the institution of marriage is the existence of no-fault divorce policies:

French: Unless there are radical developments that I can’t foresee there’s going to be that challenge of dealing with that assertion that somehow same-sex marriage is a victimless phenomenon, but you know the reality is that when you’re talking about the conversion of marriage from a God-given and God-created institution into a contract between consenting adults, the victim is our culture. Because what you’ve done is you have taken one of the most fundamental building blocks of all society and you’ve converted it into an arrangement of convenience, even loving convenience, between adults that ultimately exists for the fulfillment of adults. That was never its intention. The consequences of turning marriage into that, as we’ve seen through the explosive fault of no-fault divorce, have been catastrophic.

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council has been ratcheting up his anti-gay rhetoric recently, and finding new ways to blame gays and lesbians for what he sees as society’s problems. Last month, for instance, the Air Force suspended a class on “Nuclear Ethics and Nuclear Warfare training,” after it was revealed that the class relied heavily on Christian teachings. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation objected to the class and solicited complaints from Air Force officers, who the group says were mostly “practicing Protestants and Roman Catholics.” While the controversy centered on allegations that the class represented an unconstitutional religious test and endorsement of one particular religious viewpoint, Perkins claims (without any evidence) that the class’s suspension was actually the fault of gays and lesbians and the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

Perkins, who once said that politicians who backed the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell have blood on their hands, warned in a radio commentary that the decision to support “homosexuality [when it] clashes with faith” will have dire consequences for the Air Force:

It looks like the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is off to a flying start--at least in the U.S. Air Force. Hello, I'm Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. Starting this week, the Pentagon's changing some of its policies to make the military more welcoming for homosexuals. In the Air Force, that means dropping the religion from its training course. After 20 years, officials scrapped the Bible verses that had been a part of the "Just War" curriculum since early 90s. Apparently, someone complained that the material was "promoting... right-wing fundamentalist Christianity." The class was suspended the very same day. No questions asked. See, that's what happens when homosexuality clashes with faith. Faith loses. This isn't about political correctness, David French said. "It's about cleansing [God] from the public square and building a completely secular society." Unfortunately for our troops, this is just part of the President's plan to radicalize the military. And if the Air Force is any indication, tradition won't be the only thing taking a nose-dive.

In another news bulletin, Perkins railed against the positive portrayal of gays and lesbians in television shows, arguing that it is ruining television for families. He claims that ABC Family, which received praise from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is now trying to “indoctrinate kids” as they “push the homosexual agenda through characters and storylines.” He suggests that parents should protest such positive portrayals by contacting the network and refusing to watch its programming:

This month, TV's biggest networks aren't telling the story--they are the story. Hello, I'm Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. Where's the "family" in ABC Family? Parents are wondering after the latest report from GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Every year, GLAAD rates channels on how well they push the homosexual agenda through characters and storylines. This time, ABC Family got top honors--making them only the second network ever to get an "excellent" rating. Michael Riley, ABC's chief executive, said he was "proud" to be honored. Celebrating homosexuality, he said, is "very important to us." That's a serious problem, considering that ABC Family is the highest-rated network for 12 to 34-year-olds. Most parents trust the channel, which used to be owned by Disney. But it's a different story now that the network's going out of its way to indoctrinate kids. That won't change until you get involved. Contact ABC. Tell them what they gain by being gay-friendly doesn't compare with what they'll lose. And that's viewers.