For many years, Mat Staver of the Jerry Falwell created Liberty Counsel had seemed like a relatively reasonable man. We didn’t agree with his legal views or agenda, but he wasn’t necessarily the type of right-wing figure to start spouting utterly nonsensical and offensive views about gays or abortion or Democratic politicians or what have you.
But something seems to have changed recently and, ever since he agreed to join various other second and third-tier right-wing figures for the Values Voter Debate in Florida last year, he has become increasingly unhinged.
For instance, not too long ago he was blaming our current financial crisis on the “radical redefinition of marriage” and saying that American will be cursed if it elected Barack Obama. After Obama won, Staver told Newsweek that people who believe Barack Obama might be the Antichrist are not necessarily crazy, but are just “expressing a concern and a fear that is widely shared.”
Now we get Staver warning that Obama (and his gay allies) are the “biggest threat to religious liberty we’ve ever had”:
Mat Staver, chairman of Liberty Counsel, a religious liberty legal organization, told Baptist Press he believes religious freedoms could be impacted under Obama, especially if the bills he supports become law.
“I would consider him to be the biggest threat to religious liberty we’ve ever had [in the White House] because he will push the homosexual agenda,” Staver said. “… I think churches and pastors will be very negatively affected by Obama’s policies.”
…
“My biggest fear is that his agenda will not only advance the homosexual agenda but restrict freedom of speech and freedom of religion,” Staver said … “What we’ve seen recently with the violence and the attempt to intimidate Christians into silence following the passage of Prop 8 by the homosexual activists ought to be a wake-up call for Christians,” Staver said. “That’s what’s coming if we don’t stand up and resist now these homosexual policies.”
