Televangelist Pat Robertson on
Wednesday encouraged pastors to stand up against gay rights
activists, whom he described as “terrorists, radicals and
extremists.”
Robertson joined other Christian
conservatives outraged that Houston attorneys defending the city's
gay-inclusive anti-discrimination law would subpoena the sermons of
pastors in connection with a failed attempt to put the law on the
ballot in November.
(Related: Ted
Cruz: Pastors may soon be “hauled off to jail” for opposing
marriage equality.)
Although the city has since withdrawn
the request, Robertson accused Mayor Annise Parker of acting like a
“terrorist.”
“These people are terrorists, they're
radicals and they're extremists,” Robertson
told his 700
Club
viewers. “No Christian in his right mind would ever try to
enforce somebody against their belief or else suffer jail. They did
that during the Inquisition, it was horrible, it was a black mark on
our history, but it isn't being done now. There's no Christian group
I know of anywhere in the world that would force somebody to do
something contrary to their deep-held religious beliefs or else face
criminal penalties, but that's what the homosexuals are trying to do
here in America and I think it's time pastors stand up and fight this
monstrous thing.”
“If the gays want to go out and do
their gay sex, that's one thing, but if they want you to force you to
accept it and solemnify it by marriage, then that's a different
matter and it's an infringement on people's religious belief. What's
being done in Houston is a gay – the woman they elected is a
homosexual, she's a lesbian, and she's trying to force pastors to
conform to her beliefs. It's wrong,” he added.