Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Republican,
on Friday decried gay rights advocates as intolerant of Christians
and signaled his support for twin brothers Jason and David Benham,
who this week lost a planned HGTV reality show over their anti-gay
activism.
(Related: David,
Jason Benham: We love gays, oppose agenda.)
Speaking on the U.S. House floor,
Gohmert, a vocal opponent of gay rights, compared gay rights
advocates to the Nazis and suggested that Bible burning was the next
logic step.
“We love homosexuals,” Gohmert
told colleagues. “But it doesn't mean that you have to
support, embrace, encourage particular lifestyles that you believe
are harmful to the individuals and harmful to society in general.”
“So it is amazing that in the name of
liberality, in the name of being tolerant, this fascist intolerance
has arisen. People that stand up and say, 'You know, I agree with
the majority of Americans, I agree with Moses and Jesus that marriage
was a man and a woman,' now all of a sudden, people like me are
considered haters, hate mongers, evil, which really is exactly what
we've seen throughout our history as going back to the days of the
Nazi takeover in Europe. What did they do? First, they would call
people 'haters' and 'evil' and build up disdain for those people who
held those opinions or religious views or religious heritage. And
then the next came, well, those people are so evil and hateful, let's
bring every book that they've written or has to do with them and
let's start burning the books, because we can't tolerate their
intolerance,” said Gohmert.
“So, the most intolerant in America,
and especially people like were going to be on the television show
before it canceled, people like me, yeah, we can get upset. We can't
stand to see our nation torn apart. Can't stand to see our
Judeo-Christian values on which the nation was founded demeaned,
depicted as somehow evil. So, we stand up for those things.”
“There's no hate for individuals,”
he added. (The video is embedded on this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)
Other Christian conservatives who have
called HGTV's decision an attack on Christians include FRC President
Tony Perkins, televangelist
Pat Robertson and AFA's
Bryan Fischer.