Evangelical Tony Perkins Goes Nuclear Over Karen Pence Criticism

Tony Perkins, president of the anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council, came out in defense of Second Lady Karen Pence's new job at a homophobic and transphobic private school. The right-wing leader in a blog post states criticism of Pence amounts to "attacks on Christian education by the mainstream media."

"For Christians, who've tried to warn people that these last several years were about a lot more than marriage, the attacks on Second Lady Karen Pence certainly seem to prove their point," Perkins writes in a scathing blog post.

He supports his critique of the media by noting no similar criticism arose years ago when Pence previously worked at Immanuel Christian School, when husband Mike Pence served in the U.S. Congress.

"Of course, that was back in the early 2000s, when the Left's charm offensive on same-sex marriage was still in full swing," Perkins wrote. "We'll be accommodating, they said. We just want to co-exist, they said. Our relationships won't affect you, they said."

Dismissing widespread tolerance of marriage equality and growing support for transgender rights as work of the "totalitarian Left," Perkins suggests the mere mention of school policies that require all staff to oppose marriage equality and which forbid transgender identity constitutes an attack on religious freedom.

"Over time, some liberals tried to isolate faith -- to churches, Christian schools, or family rooms. You've heard me say before that the Left's hope is to quarantine religion within the four walls of the church. Now, it's becoming clear -- even that won't satisfy them," he writes.

Of course, he presumably refers to attacks that so far include a lot of finger-waving and The Trevor Project shipping the school 100 copies of a book about gay bunnies.

In contrast, the school threatens employees with termination if they commit any "violation of the unique roles of male and female," engage in sex outside of marriage, support the right of LGBTQ people to engage in sex in marriage, or watch pornography.