Pastors for Arkansas from Champion The Vote on Vimeo.
Republican Sen. Jason Rapert has been busily promoting this event in Arkansas this week — several days of meetings around the state by conservative Christian preachers to organize their flocks to vote and vote right (Right).
The top names tell it all. From Tony Perkins of Family Council infamy to Rick Scarbrough, a bit more about whom in a minute, to Ken Carney, the Hot Springs Nazarene pastor who’s husband of the Hot Springs Mayor Ruth Carney and an important cog in the Religious Right junta that calls many shots in the Spa City.
But about Scarbrough: Lots here from Right Wing Watch. And to give you a taste, there’s this:
Vision America’s Rick Scarborough recently spoke at a church in Florida as part of a “Give Me Liberty Tour” where he declared that every day that passes without God destroying this country is a miracle, especially since President Obama is appointing gay ambassadors to represent America before other nations.
“This thing could all come crashing down,” Scarborough warned, saying that if a “series of dirty bombs” or one massive nuclear blast were to destroy America, it would be “perfectly just … because we have squandered our grace in this country.”
This is smack in Jason Rapert’s anti-gay wheelhouse. From calling for ouster of judges who endorse equal rights for gay people to supporting African regimes that have endorsed making felons of gays (even executing them in some places), Rapert and Scarbrough are singing from the same hymnal.
Preachers are, of course, free to be as political as they wish. Their churches shouldn’t get tax-free status when they do so, but that’s an old tenet of constitutional separation that doesn’t seem to be much honored these days.