President Barack Obama's anger over a
Secret Service sex scandal while he supports gay rights has been
labeled two-faced by social conservative Tony Perkins.
Obama on Sunday said he would be angry
if an investigation proved that Secret Service agents hired
prostitutes ahead of his arrival in Colombia.
Speaking to radio host Janet Mefferd,
Perkins, the president of the Christian conservative group Family
Research Council, linked the scandal to repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't
Tell,” the policy which banned gay and bisexual troops from serving
openly. Obama signed the law which ended the policy.
“Over the weekend we saw the news of
the President's Secret Service detail in Colombia and the issue of
them hiring prostitutes and now the White House is outraged about
that,” Perkins said. “Actually in a meeting this morning my
staff asked, 'Why should the President be upset?' It was actually
legal; it was legal there to do that, so why should we be upset?
Well, the fact is we intuitively know it's wrong, there's a moral law
against that.”
“The same is true for what the
President has done to the military enforcing open homosexuality in
our military. You can change the law but you can't change the moral
law that's behind it. You can change the positive law, the law that
is created by man, but you can't change the moral law, it's wrong.
So what you have is you have a total breakdown and you can't pick and
choose. Morality is not a smorgasbord; you can't pick what you want.
I think you're absolutely right, this is a fundamental issue going
forward because if we say, 'Let them do what we want,' what's next?”
“You cannot maintain moral order if
you are willing to allow a few things to slide,” Perkins added.
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