Anthony Richard Perkins | |
|---|---|
 Anthony Richard Perkins | |
| Born | March 20, 1963 |
| Occupation | President |
| Employer | Family Research Council |
| Political party | Republican |
| Home Base | Baker, LA |
| Published By | OPP HQ |
| Published On | August 29, 2016 |
Politics and religion have always produced an unholy mix of theocratic fascism, racism, bigotry, corruption, and lies. The first amendment guarantees the freedom of religion, but it guarantees which religion we can freely choose or decide not to chose, including the right not to choose a religion. Unfortunately, these right-wing theocrats from the Christian Right never give up on their quest to trample on our religious and constitutional rights by making their church the sole religion. Old theocrats like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and James Dobson have been around for many decades, but a newer and younger face from the Christian Right is notoriously making his rounds.
His name is Tony Perkins and he is the President of the Family Research Council group. He was born March 20, 1963 and is married to Lawana and has four children. Living in Louisiana most of his life, he was heavily active with the Republican party and served on the Louisiana House of Representatives in East Baton Rouge from 1996-2004. Tony Perkins became the president of FRC in 2003; the FRC is a copy of the Christian Coalition formed by a controversial right-wing fundamentalist preacher named James Dobson. The FRC claims they are a non-partisan, not-profit group based on innocent Christian values, but the reality is Tony Perkins and the FRC have been actively using manipulative media tactics, hypocrisy, lies, and right-wing extremist tactics to lure people into giving money to their group so they can help Republicans get elected into power and let their fundamentalist churches rule the government. With the deceptive charisma of Tony, he has managed to carry out an effective agenda of bigotry, intolerance, lies, and theocratic fascism.
Tony Perkins has close ties to white supremacist hate groups from the bayou. In the April 26, 2005 issue of The Nation magazine, journalist Max Blumenthal writes of Perkins’ racist ties. In 2002, Tony Perkins addressed the Louisiana chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC). In a 1996 election, Tony Perkins paid former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke $82,000 for his mailing list of white supremacist hate group members, resulting in a $3000 fine by the Federal Election Commission for this illegal transaction.
His audience is overwhelmingly of white European descent, but there is another group of people than the non-whites Tony hates even more; he adamantly hates homosexuals with a passion. His relentless political campaign against homosexuals has firmly earned his FRC group as a homophobic hate group.
Some examples of his homophobic stance is his relentless quest to outlaw same-sex marriages, exclude homosexuals from civil rights and hate crime victims legislation, and spreading demagogy and lies to the public to hate gays.
He applauded the decision of several African American bishops to reject aid to African AIDS victims from churches that allow gay clergy. In 2005, when the House of Representatives passed a hate crime bill which would include gays as victims, he denounced the bill as a “bill designed to protect children from sexual predators is now being used to protect the sexual preference of homosexuals”. Actually, the typical profile of a child sexual predator is a heterosexual white male like himself, but don’t rely on lying hypocrites like Tony to tell you the truth.
If his bigotry against gays and non-whites wasn’t enough, Tony continues his campaign against non-fundamentalist Christians, women, scientists, and the overwhelming majority of Americans who do not share his extremist viewpoints. He vigorously fights for open Christian prayer for school and amendments guaranteeing Christian prayer, but he continuously attacks and intimidates other religions. Tony may use his manipulative demagoguery to fool the public into believing the Muslims/Jews/Catholics/Hindus/Buddhists/etc… are in an active conspiracy to eliminate Christianity from public schools, but the reality is that non-partisan groups such as the ACLU and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State have been entering the public school prayer debate so religious wingnuts like Tony Perkins won’t gain a significant advantage and belittle other religions.
Another more than annoying and dangerous aspect with Tony Perkins’ lies and bigotry is the supposed moral war he is imposing against scientists and medical advancement at the cost of the health of the general public. Tony and the FRC has done an incredible disservice by misinforming the public and the politicians about certain medical research projects. He and FRC were active to ban stem cell research by spreading rumors and lies the embryos come from aborted fetuses. Nevertheless, President Bush vetoed stem sell research in 2006 with much help from Tony’s hysteria. When a vaccine for cervical cancer was in development in 2006, the FRC were at it again, claiming this cure was immoral because it deals with the female sex organs and may led to sexual immorality (what’s next, oppose breast cancer research because breasts led to sexual immorality?). But why would he care about truth, science, and education, when he is actively seeking to eliminate the Department of Education.
Unlike many of the older hypocritical preachers, Tony Perkins is relatively young and will be around for years ahead. But just as the right-wing extremist hypocritical preachers have wisened up, so has the rest of the public to see through their manipulative tactics. Tony Perkins carries the sign of the bigot and we will do our part to expose this sign as he goes more and more public.