Below is Tony Perkins. If you’re not familiar with him, this is not the Tony Perkins who played Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. This Tony Perkins is much, much scarier. This Tony Perkins makes blood spiraling down a bathtub drain look like a cup of cherry Kool-Aid spilled at a Girl Scout fundraiser.
This Tony Perkins is the president of the Family Research Council, the political offshoot of Focus on the Family, James Dobson’s main organization.
Tony Perkins
James Dobson is a Christian. So is Tony Perkins. So is everyone who works for and/or supports either of their massive organizations.
Tony Perkins carries “a tremendous burden to reclaim the culture for Christ.” That’s what it says about him on the FRC website. So it must be true.
Oh, and that little kerfuffle you might have heard about last winter, when the Southern Poverty Law Center designated the Family Research Council as a hate group, because it’s that virulently anti-gay? According to Perkins, that was nothing more than “the left’s smear campaign of conservatives.”
It’s all just part of Tony’s burden.
Being a polilobbyist (to coin a phrase: it means half-politician, half-lobbyist, and aren’t they all anymore?), Tony’s other burden is money. Tony wants lots and lots of money. And he knows that nothing makes a certain kind of person reach for his or her wallet faster than the fear that there are actually gay and lesbian people in the world.
Hence, this recent fundraising letter sent by Tony to Family Research Council supporters:
Sigh.
So, I just came back from five days spent at this place, where my wife and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. Upon our return home I found a few emails alerting me to the letter above. So I thought I’d write a little something about it. After all, Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and the Family Research Center are still to so many the public face of Christianity. And that’s a travesty that I, a normal, non-insane Christian, am inclined to help combat.
But as hard as I tried, I just couldn’t write a decent piece about this letter. No clever angle for the story came to me; no witty perspective, no engaging spin. It’s like at some level I just didn’t care about Tony Perkins and his pathetic letter. I got as far as what’s written here above the letter, and no further. After that I just ran out of writing juice.
I chalked it up to some sort of anniversary hangover. After all, I am still on the week off I’m spending with my wife. I dunno. But I can tell when I’m just not going to be able to write a story, and this was one of those times. So I let it go.
And I spent a wonderful day at home with my wife.
And just now, as I was heading off to bed, it occurred to me why I couldn’t figure out how to write this story. It’s because my feelings about it are absolute. There’s zero traction in it for me. It’s like trying to run on ice. No grip.
Every single time I think of Tony Perkins and this letter, nothing more interesting or edifying comes to my mind than a block of feelings that, broken down, runs about like this:
This animal. This cretin. This travesty. This demon. This parasite. This blight. This twisted purveyor of evil. This insidious enemy of everything for which Christ stood. This sickening mule. This heartless charlatan. This shameless huckster. This vile opportunist. This creator of human suffering. This trafficker in pain. This braying bully. This puffing affront to decency.
This preening, flag-waving goon.
This grinning, slavering creature who, in exchange for money, induces children to commit suicide.
This odorous, rotten chum pretending he’s nourishment.
This lover of hate.
If you’re a Christian who actually understands and cares about Christ, please tell anyone who will listen that Tony Perkins is to Christianity what a slimy, chewing worm is to a perfectly wonderful apple.
So. There’s that bit of venting.
For the next week or so I’ll make a point of sincerely including Tony Perkins in my morning prayers. Consider joining me in that, if you will. For surely no heart in the world more than Tony Perkins’ could benefit from the delivery into the fiery pit of its toxicity and rage the uplifting, healing message that it gets better.
If he couldn’t hear it from Dan Savage, maybe he’ll hear it from God himself.
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Please don’t insult animals by calling this asshole one!
The blood of gay bashed students is dripping off Tony Perkins’s hands.
What goes around comes around. What a pitiful creature.
I hate when monstrous people like that use the word family in the name of their nasty organisations.
He is a true example of the opposite of Christianity…he makes me sick. I believe in everyone’s right to free speech, however I wish someone would shut this man up for good. The hate he preaches can actually kill people….as far as I”m concerned, he’s a murderer…he is evil!
I have read that the Family Research Council has ties to the people pushing the “Kill the Gays” bill in Uganda. They…and he…literally wants to kill gay people. He and his group are inhuman barbarians.
jesus himself said, “i send you out as sheep among wolves”. it’s sad when “in your midst” is so close…
Creepy, the guy compares himself to Goerge Washington? What an ego. I’m gonna bet he’s a glory hole regular, and that’s the real issue.,,,,,:)
You left out Denying Self-Hatemonger extraordinaire from title. SHARING!
When will this hate stop?! I’m only 16! Is this what the rest of my life is going to be filled with?
Oh, also left out FOX News Beloved.
So I guess I’m not the only one who went on an anger rant when I saw that letter. He truly pissed me off without even speaking a word – it’s amazing how provoking text can be.
You forgot to say that Tony Perkins has the blood of gay-bashed students dripping off his hands.
..i hope not Celia. we just all in a battle NOW to have equal rights and ur seeing how hard it is…
if you haven’t read this yet…I hope you enjoyed it
Ok. Let’s get moving and start drawing some crosshairs.
http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2011/08/noms-marriage-pledge-includes-a-witch-hunt-against-the-gay-community/
This schmuck.
@Cecilia, no, the rest of your life will only get better. Seriously. Walls are being broken down and more and more people are becoming accepting of everyone, regardless of sexuality. John Shore here is a great example of what Christians should be like and I meet more like him almost daily! Idiots like Perkins will one day be a much less vocal, much smaller minority! Praying that happens soon!
what a travesty for him to be able to spew his filth! he is truly an evil person.
… and he should remember that karma is a bitch!
awesome story-evil vile person
gloryhole queen i’m guessin;
John Shore is the best bridge I know between our community and Christians.
Why, oh WHY, are ALL MEN who are homophobic so unattractive? Is it because NO man wants them? LOL
Yes I can imagine George Washington doing a it gets better video, for the record.
Cecilia, I have a 16-yr.-old daughter, and two of her best friends are a lesbian couple. Incredible young women, whom I see as role models for all teenagers. People like Tony Perkins are losing their grip on Christianity, slowly but surely, which is why they keep shrieking louder and louder. THEY are the abomination, and the majority of US citizens know it. They will, as A’isha says, fade away. We who support LGBTQ rights just have to raise our voices to drown them out in the meantime.
Tony Perkins doesn’t care what gay and lesbian couples do. He knows that he can use this issue to gain donations and acquire power through the spread of fear. He just uses this issue as a means to get what he wants. We need to make our message clear…that we as gay American citizens pay our taxes, life our lives in the pursuit of happiness, and that the constitution was meant for everyone.
Some of this probably will follow you all your life.. but think about the alternative… think of living a lie for the rest of your life… You will grow a skin and you will learn how to respond when you have to – frankly – giving these people a platform, sickens me… But it is good to know your enemy … and keep them close.
Miss Perkins will die, just like the rest of us. A difference, however, is that he’ll take his “xn family traditions” with him. Jesus’ words will become more and more well known and understood: “You will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.” I’m so glad that, at 16, you know the Truth and that you are not enslaved to the slanderous lies of the evilgelical fundamentalisticals.
John,
How loving it is of you to call Tony Perkins names, just because you disagree with him. Did Jesus Christ in the Bible advocate personal attacks directed against those who hurt our feelings?
It’s beyond sad that people who think like Mr. Perkins actually exist.
Such a sick and twisted human being.
As a strong believer in the power of name to reveal hidden truths, and as one who wields the understanding wisely; I state with firm conviction that if Tony Perkins hasn’t sucked dick, many times, and loved it, he WANTS TO… he wants it so bad that his gums hurt. Can’t you see his pain?