Perry Watch - About That Anti-LGBT Ad

Dec 9th, 2011

Everyone is talking about the drippingly hateful and openly Dominionist shocker that is Rick Perry's latest campaign ad. Feel free to click the link, I refuse to post it on our page. The first thing Perry wants us all to know is that he's "not ashamed to call himself a Christian." Gee, Rick, neither am I. I'm glad we cleared that up.

Sullivan is furious:

"Can someone tell me, outside a few hostile enclaves on the intolerant left, where in America people feel pressured not to call themselves Christians? What you have here is classic - and imagined - victimology."

In the ad, Perry accuses President Obama of waging a "war on religion." Questioned by Wolf Blitzer about the arch salvo, Perry demonstrates a view of faith in the public square that would send the Founders into a full-on freak out. Not only does he double down on every bit of his venom, he seems to argue that that it's un-Constitutional not to fund activist religious organizations from the public purse.



The criticism of Perry's ad has been by no means limited to the left. His own campaign's pollster, Tony Fabrizio is quoted as having simply called it "nuts." The internal rift likely goes far deeper. HuffPo reports:

"It just so happens that several members of Perry's campaign staff have worked to advance LGBT causes inside the GOP. Liz Mair, a consultant to the Texas governor, serves on the advisory board of the group GOProud. And Fabrizio has done polling for the Log Cabin Republicans in addition to urging lawmakers to reconsider their approach to the culture wars and embrace basic fairness for gay Americans on the issue of marriage. He was considered an ally by pro-gay rights conservatives.

This isn't a unique feature of Perry's campaign. Republican candidates are increasingly relying on younger operatives who are far more sympathetic to gay rights."

What is truly odious about Perry's agit-prop is that it was intentionally timed to exploit and smear a good faith effort by the Obama Administration to promote basic rights around the world.

"This is just the most recent example of an administration at war with people of faith in this country. Investing tax dollars promoting a lifestyle many Americas of faith find so deeply objectionable is wrong. President Obama has again mistaken America’s tolerance for different lifestyles with an endorsement of those lifestyles." 
-- From the Perry press release.

No, it's not. It's about taking a leadership role to prevent "corrective rapes," public beatings, lengthy imprisonment and even state sanctioned murder due to sexual orientation. To conflate this with a "war on religion" is obscene.

Perry might want to spend some time brushing up on his Luke. In particular, he should consider the story of how Jesus instructed his followers when a village in Samaria refused to consider his teachings;

"...they did not receive him...And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village." -- Luke 9:52-56

I find it highly unlikely that the Lord would make the argument that an attempt to save anyone from harm, even those with "the gay," is somehow an attack upon Him.

Just sayin'.