Conservative evangelicals want to give Trump a 'mulligan,' but they gave Obama hell

One very important component missing from the debate of conservative evangelical hypocrisy in supporting Donald Trump in spite of his morally questionable behavior is how they acted towards Obama.

With Trump, they are all "well he isn't God" or "I trust his word when he says he has changed," or "we are all entitled to make mistakes."

Not so with Obama. With him, they weren't so open-hearted as the videos below show. They weren't so eager to trust his word because they were too busy implying that he wasn't a Christian ergo he danger to America, particularly its moral image.

First, let's look at Family Research Council president Tony Perkins. Perkins, whose talk of giving Trump a "do-over,' or a "mulligan" for his questionable behavior, wasn't so conciliatory to Obama's morality, values, or words in 2012:

People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch also pointed out that in the same year:

Before the 2012 election, Perkins said that voters in 2008 “chose the economy over the moral foundation of the country when we selected Barack Obama as president, and it did not work out,” claiming that Obama had set himself up “in defiance to everything that is biblically oriented in terms of the history of our country and the word of God.” He called for Christians who had voted for Obama in 2008 to “repent” by voting against his reelection and declared that Obama had a “disdain for Christianity.”

And then there is this lovely, yet insane, claim about how the re-election of Obama could mean "the end."

'TX Republicans censure state House speaker for blocking anti-transgender bill' & other Mon midday news briefs

TX House speaker Joe Straus

Texas Republicans take extraordinary step and censure GOP House speaker for blocking transgender bathroom bill - Simply trashy. Just mean-spirited mess. 

Trans soldier will be Joe Kennedy’s guest at State of the Union address - Well alright! Remind this administration of who helps in the fight for freedom, i.e. the folks they tried to kick out of the military. 

The Trump Administration Is Dropping The Ball On HIV/AIDS - That terrible administration has dropped the ball on so many other things, so why not this too?

‘No, She’s Not My Sister’: The Hidden Stresses of Gay Relationships - A harm of the so-called religious liberty argument. We don't get to talk about this like we should because the religious right bogarts the debate.

Ex-evangelist says conservative evangelical support of Trump is motivated by racism & revenge

Although I don't think I will ever get tired of hearing, seeing, and especially spotlighting the backlash against conservative evangelicals for their hypocritical support of Trump, I also think it has to be put in a proper perspective.

Former evangelist Frank Schaeffer brought that perspective Sunday on AMJoy as he tore into conservative evangelicals.

Schaeffer pointed out it is white evangelicals who support Trump as he made the argument that this support is less about values and more about racism towards former president Barack Obama and revenge.

He punctuated the interview with the following statement about evangelical leader and Family Research Council president Tony Perkins. Perkins, whose controversial statement last week about evangelicals letting Trump's behavior slide because they felt bullied by the Obama Administration, has been in the center of the backlash:

 “Tony Perkins forgot his own theology and replaced it with a theology of revenge on people he disagrees with politically, and that’s what’s going on here . . .Revenge of white American, evangelical right-wingers and who they want to punch in the mouth is not just black Americans but, to put it in the words of the President of the United States, those who live in shithole countries. So they’re willing to put up with anything when it comes to moral degradation to see those ends achieved. I’m glad he put it in terms of revenge, at least he misspoke from his point of view but told the truth.” 

'Another physician rebukes Trump Administration for HHS 'religious freedom' division' & other Fri midday news briefs

A Doctor's Take on the Health Department's New 'Religious Freedom Division'- Another physician, Dr. Magda Houlberg, is calling out the Trump Administration's desire to protect healthcare workers who use their religion as an excuse to not treat certain patients. We need a few more before there can be an official backlash. And I hope they are forthcoming. 

Related post - Pediatrician isn't here for the anti-LGBTQ religious liberty con game

Fresh call to ban 'gay conversion therapy' - The Church of England is calling for a nation-wide ban on "ex-gay" therapy. Wow! Would be awesome if someone did the same thing in this country. Stop laughing . . .

Anti-LGBTQ hate group orchestrates client business practices to win cases - The anti-LGBTQ industry can't win against us fairly in the courts, so they are attempting to game the system. This doesn't come from genuine concern about "religious freedom." Such Machiavellian plots comes from the desire to discriminate.

Anti-LGBTQ Violence Claimed One Life For Every Week In 2017 - Simply awful. Just can't say anything else.

Steve Strang: Christians Who Oppose Trump Need To ‘Get Over It’ - Whatever. Write your own epitaphs.

Pence breaks tie to confirm anti-LGBT Brownback nomination - Say hello to Sam Brownback, America's ambassador at-large for religious freedom. Whatever that is. We will be watching you, Sammy.

Exclusive: Majority of Americans support transgender military service - poll - Damn right.

Conservative evangelicals need Trump like an addict needs his 'fix'

Conservative evangelicals willing to hold Trump up as Messiah as long as he gives them their psychological 'fix.'

I said it yesterday and lo and behold here it is.

Evangelical conservatives are doubling and tripling-down in supporting Donald Trump. In spite of all of his bad behaviors, including basic incompetence, racism, and allegations of adultery, religious conservative leaders are continuing to hold up Trump as the new Messiah. They claim that Trump, in spite of all of his problems, is ushering in "pro-family" and "pro-life" policies.

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, who knows he stepped into it earlier this week with his "religious conservatives will give Trump a do-over for his bad behavior"  comments, continued in attempts to soften the blow of hypocrisy.

According to Right Wing Watch:

Perkins said that evangelical faith leaders’ support for Trump is “not unconditional” but that “as long as he continues to be the most pro-life, pro-family president” and “continues to walk the straight and narrow with the right influence,” Perkins and his allies will continue to support his administration.

Perkins's group, FRC, also issued a public prayer for Trump:

“Thanks be to God for giving President Trump a burden to champion religious liberty. May Christians pray for and support the president for the good thing he is doing, even if they cannot approve of his past or present behavior in other respects.”

Not to be outdone, Franklin Graham, fresh from humiliating himself with awful defenses of Trump's behavior, is telling people to pray because Trump is supposedly facing a coup de etat. Franklin is echoing nonsense which shot up then fizzled down in right-wing circles about a secret government group working to overthrow Trump.

'Evangelical says religious right deserting Donald Trump would punish America' & other Thur midday news briefs

Bryan Fischer Says There Is No Reason For The Religious Right To ‘Punish America’ By Turning On Trump For His ‘Reprehensible’ Behavior -  Bryan Fischer becomes the latest religious right figure to show hypocrisy when it comes to Donald Trump. I am so enjoying taking down these receipts. I'm going to need another book to put them all in.

In three years, LGBT Americans have gone from triumph to backlash - This neither surprises nor scares me. Students of history will tell you that after every successful movement for civil rights comes a huge backlash. The key is to strap yourself down and solider on fighting no matter what.

Tolerance takes a hit: Americans less accepting of LGBT people in 2017, survey shows - Another view of the issue just in case the above link is behind a pay wall. Awful headline, though. LGBTQs are not dogs urinating on the good carpet. We don't need "tolerance" or "acceptance." We need fairness and all that we need, including fairness, will be what we will take because they all belong to us in the first place.

Conservative book ‘When Harry Became Sally’ attacks trans people while conveniently leaving them out - Another book attacking the LGBTQ community and like all of the others, it's filled with distortions. 

Nearly 700,000 adults in the US have received gay conversion therapy - And guess how much have worked . . . go ahead. 

Lastly: 

NOW would be a perfect time to remind people that support of Donald Trump is not the only area in which evangelical conservatives have displayed questionable morals. Let's talk about their DECADES-LONG war on the #LGBTQ community via propaganda and junk science.

Just click on here to read and send (even if you have already) my free 2103 online book How They See Us: Unmasking the Religious Right War on Gay America.

Pediatrician isn't here for the anti-LGBTQ religious liberty con game

Daniel Summers, a gay pediatrician, has something to say about the new division of HHS designed to protect healthcare workers who refuse to give certain treatments under the grounds of "religious liberty." He pulls no punches and makes no apologies for his rejection of this idea.

In a piece published by  The Slate , Summers says the following:

If you are a healthcare provider who doesn’t want to treat LGBTQ people or their families, please don’t waste your time and mine applying for a job in my practice.  

  .  .  . Because many people justify their bigotry against gender and sexual minorities in religious terms, this new division is quite alarming news for LGBTQ people. The creation of this division appears to open the door for medical providers to, for example, refuse to provide gender confirmation treatment for trans people, or refuse to treat children with same-sex parents. 

 One attendee at the ceremony announcing this new division was Sara Hellwege, a nurse-midwife who sued in 2014 after being denied a job at a Florida health center. The reason she didn’t get the job? She admitted that she would refuse to prescribe birth control pills because of her religious beliefs—and prescribing birth control pills was part of the job she applied for. 

 She had no business seeking the position in the first place. 

 David Gorski, a surgeon and editor of the website Science-Based Medicine, expressed the views of many medical providers, myself included, when he tweeted that “physicians who refuse to treat certain patients based on their religious beliefs are in the wrong profession and should never have become doctors in the first place.”

  . .   .If you don’t think same-sex couples should be raising children, you won’t be interacting with families in my practice at all. If you’re not willing to discuss PrEP with your gay male patients, and think HIV prevention funding would be better spent on conversion therapy, you won’t be seeing any patients here. If you’re going to ignore the needs of our trans patients or insist on mis-gendering them, we have no opening here for you. And I don’t care at all if you justify any of that with your religion. 

Check out the entire column here.