FRC's Tony Perkins on the Marriage Debate: 'This is not about the marriage altar. It's about fundamentally altering America.'

The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins appeared on the Andrea Tantaros Show today. The topic: SCOTUS and same-sex marriage.

Perkins told Tantaros that the debate underway in the country and before the court is much larger than marriage.

Advertisement

“This ultimately not about the marriage altar,” Perkins said. “It’s about fundamentally altering America. And that’s why many people remain concerned about taking such a drastic policy change when this debate is so young, in the context of how we change policy in this country.”

Perkins outlined several ways in which the debate over same-sex marriage has already changed the rights of Christians involved in charity work and business.

“If we want to talk about rights, we can talk about rights that have been lost in those places where same-sex marriage has already been created,” Perkins said. “You’ve got the loss of religious freedom. Charities in Massachusetts that are no longer able to do the adoptions because of this. Here in DC, desperately needed social no longer provided because of this issue. Churches have been sued. Parents have lost the right to determine whose values their children will be taught in schools curriculum. Small business owners have and in some cases fined for not participating in same-sex marriage ceremonies because they were bakers or photographers. So you want to talk about rights, there’s rights on both sides of this.”

Advertisement

“The First Amendment versus the Fourteenth Amendment,” Tantaros said, noting that the First guarantees religious liberty while the Fourteenth guarantees equal protection under the law. “Who wins?”

“We’re talking about tinkering with 5,000 years of human history, certainly 230 years of history or more in this country when it comes to marriage law and all of the ramifications,” Perkins said. “I spent a decade in office and I can tell you, legislators move too quickly, judges move even quicker when it comes to changing policy like this without thinking about the unintended consequences. And there would be a number of unintended consequences that would come from imposing a fifty-state solution or even striking down California’s law. Because that would set up a domino challenge, I believe, to the other 29 states that have placed into their constitutions these protections of natural marriage.”

Perkins is a proponent of a Tenth Amendment solution, allowing the states to set marriage policies. He noted that states have voted 30-3 in favor of maintaining marriage as a union of one man and one woman.

Perkins warned that if the court goes too far, its ruling could become a fault line in America.

Advertisement

“We saw this forty years ago with Roe v Wade,” Perkins said. “The court overreached and interjected itself into something that only at that time about three states had actually voted on in terms of the people. And forty years later, that issue hasn’t been resolved and in fact what you did is you energized a generation of cultural activity surrounding that issue on both sides. So I think the court has that as a backdrop to this decision that they’re going to be making.”

Listen to the entire interview here.

Dana Loesh has collected several stories about Christian churches, charities and businesses who have already lost their rights in states that have enacted same-sex marriage.

The Andrea Tantaros Show is produced for Talk Radio Network by the  Fox and Rice Experience.

 

Recommended

Trending on PJ Media Videos

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Advertisement
Advertisement