Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Family Research Council have become 'ambulance chasers for Jesus'

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council
When I began this blog, I was big on catching anti-gay groups when they lied about studies or used junk science against the lgbt community.

I've noticed - and I hope you have too - that a lot of them don't rely on those falsehoods as much as they used to. I am hoping that future generations will credit this blog for spooking them out of that habit.

But anti-gay groups can still go for the false theatrics. Take the Family Research Council for example. The organization's president, Tony Perkins, sent out this hair-raising message:

Unelected judges and a handful of lawyers have been pushing state marriage amendments over like sleeping cows. Meanwhile, stunned Americans have struggled to make sense of a legal system that puts its own political agenda ahead of the expressed will of the people. Like most conservatives, FRC has watched in horror as the courts have robbed tens of millions of Americans of their voice on an issue of critical importance -- not just to our nation's stability, but to its very survival.

In spite of the Family Research Council's claim, Americans are not freaking out over the legalization of marriage equality. According to a Gallup poll from early last year, support for marriage equality reached 55 percent. Another poll completed earlier than the Gallup poll, but also from last year, found that most religious Americans, across denominational lines, support marriage equality Lastly, according to a poll announced later in 2014, support for marriage equality reached 52 percent.

So this idea that Americans are wringing their hands across the nation at the success of marriage equality is yet a lie in the Family Research Council's arsenal of deceptions and misdirections.

Another arsenal of FRC - and this isn't simply a weapon of FRC alone - is when they deliberately blow situations out of proportions to make it seem that marriage equality is creating a sort of last siege of the Alamo when it comes to the freedoms and rights of some evangelicals.

A wedding photographer breaks a contract because she finds out that the couple is gay and in FRC's hands, she is transformed into Joan of Arc three seconds before the first torch is added to the stake.

A cake decorator refuses to bake a cake for a gay couple even in a state where marriage equality is not yet legal, the Family Research Council parades her in front of a boardroom panel, where she sheds a few tears because of the situation which is clearly HER fault. Suddenly she becomes Mildred Pierce two seconds after her ungrateful, bratty daughter Veda slapped the color out of her cheeks.

And the worse is when the Family Research Council and their ilk create these new phrases  which bombard the airwaves.Phrases such as "religious freedom" or  "religious liberty."

Take out the essences of God and Jesus and the phrases and words become less palpable, but more familiar. They become words like "segregation," "discrimination," "homophobia," entitlement."

It's all a game created to play upon people's fears, religious beliefs, and self-righteousness which all  come from the belief that their religion places them squarely in God's favor above the so-called rabble.

The sad thing is that FRC is really good at playing the game. Worse than that, the folks they are exploiting practically beg to be taken advantage of.

Ambulance chasing for Jesus can be quite lucrative.

1 comment:

Robert said...

Re: "In spite of the Family Research Council's claim, Americans are not freaking out over the legalization of marriage equality."

I think FRC's response would be that *real* Americans are freaking out...because to them, only people who object to gays and gay marriage are real Christians, and if citizens, than they are Real Americans....And *real* Americans are the only ones who count, because they have integrity, values, faith, etc..

It's the 'no true Scotsman' fallacy for them, I think. So internalized, they could not see it, or at least will not see it.