In a rambling sermon that Raw Story accurately called "unhinged," Fox News host Todd Starnes managed to launch nearly every anti-LGBT salvo currently being tossed about in the right-wing's so-called culture wars.
Starnes, a Fox News and radio host who has long been an outspoken opponent of marriage equality and basic tolerance for LGBT people, delivered his rant at Abilene Baptist Church in Augusta, Ga., ominously warning congregants that equality advocates are hell-bent on waging "war on religious liberty."
"There is a war on religious liberty in the United States of America," Starnes proclaimed. "And this war is not targeting people of the Muslim faith, or the Jewish faith, or the Hindu faith. This war on religious liberty is targeting people of the Christian faith."
"I believe that we are just a few short years away from the government imposing their will on Christian churches," Starnes speculated, ignoring the central premise of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or the free exercise thereof."
Turning his attention to the Supreme Court's recent ruling that brought marriage equality to all 50 states, Starnes warned that was he was about to say was "not politically correct, but I believe it needs to be said."
"The Supreme Court may have redefined marriage, but God hasn't redefined anything," he proclaimed, garnering a somber "Amen" and applause from the audience.
Starnes went on to repeat misinformation that claims Sweet Cakes by Melissa, an Oregon bakery, was fined $135,000 simply for refusing to bake a cake for a lesbian wedding. But in fact, the married couple who owns Sweet Cakes was fined that amount for the emotional distress they arguably caused the lesbian couple denied service, including revealing their home address and repeatedly deriding the women in frequent media appearances, reports Raw Story.
"The Supreme Court's decision now means that gay rights trump religious liberty," the proud Southern Baptist falsely proclaimed. "And churches and faith-based organizations must prepare for the lawsuits and government investigations that are on the way. Pastors who refuse to perform gay marriages and preach from the Bible should prepare for hate-crime charges. ... All dissent will be silenced."
Starnes also, predictably, admonished President Obama, recalling the then-candidate's 2008 remarks that scolded "bitter Americans" who "cling to guns or religion" to justify their frustrated hatred
"I'm kind of proud to call myself a gun-toting, chicken-eating, Bible-clinging son of a Baptist," Starnes exclaimed, to chuckles from the congregation. "And I'm not bitter, I'm blessed!"
Starnes managed to denounce out pop star Miley Cyrus's "twerking" as an "act of public debauchery," while in the same breath lauding Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson "one of my heroes of the faith" for expressing his homophobic, racist views in a GQ interview.
"Miley Cyrus, celebrated for her act of debauchery, but Phil Robertson castigated for for standing up for the Bible," lamented Starnes.
Starnes also claimed that public schools are "now deconstructing gender," repeating outdated and misleading information recently presented in a Fox News "special report" that claims any Oregon teenager at the age of 15 or older now has access to "state-subsidized sex-change operations."
"They're teaching children about gender fluidity," said Starnes, stumbling over the word. "That there's no such thing as male or female. That you may wake up feeling like a boy, but by third period you might start feeling like a girl, and that's OK."
Starnes went on to cite what he believes are examples of anti-Christian bias in the workplace, where two supposedly good, Christian men were "forced" to resign by the LGBT advocates who Starnes says are "the least tolerant and the least diverse of all."
Starnes pointed to the controversy over former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich's donation to the campaign that passed California's Proposition 8, and the dismissal of former Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran, "a fellow Southern Baptist," who was fired from his job by the Mayor of Atlanta after publishing and promoting a book that equated homosexuality with bestiality and incest.
Watch Starnes's speech below, as excerpted by Raw Story.
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