Family Research Council President Tony Perkins Gives Trump “Mulligan” for Rendezvous with Porn Star

Tony Perkins is the president of the Family Research Council, which is a Christian conservative policy and lobbying organization based in Washington, D.C. The Family Research council supports things like “family values” and actively lobbies against equal rights for LGTBQ individuals, abortion, stem-cell research, and even pornography. Perkins was recently on a Politico podcast, and when the topic of Donald Trump paying a porn star to be quiet came up, said the following:

We kind of gave him—‘All right, you get a mulligan. You get a do-over here.’

The Christian hypocrisy is strong with this one.

Perksins continued, saying:

We certainly don’t hold him up as the pastor of this country, and he’s not. But I appreciate the fact that the president does have a concern for Christian values, he does have a concern to protect Christians—whether it’s here at home or around the world—and I appreciate the fact that he protects religious liberty and freedom.

Now, to be clear, this isn’t about Trump having sexual relations with a porn star. While it certainly makes for juicy tabloid headlines, there’s nothing wrong with what happens between consenting adults. So this isn’t the focus or concern here.

And we could totally go on a list of Bible quotes about adultery, among other things. We could start with Luke 16:18, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery,” if we really wanted to.

But instead, we’ll focus on the hypocrisy displayed by the religious right. This is about the claim to pretend to care about morality, “family values,” and other wholesome attributes yet when faced with a challenge to this, they balk. By continuing to support of Donald Trump in the face of things like the “pussy grabbing” incident and affairs on all three of his wives, they have forfeited any claim they have on moral superiority to non-Christians.

But Christian hypocrisy along these lines is nothing new. If anything, Christians are rather consistent in ignoring things they don’t find appealing or otherwise justifying their beliefs.

This isn’t surprising. Consider the fact that during the course of any debate with a Christian, they generally employ some form of denialism to justify the flawed ideology. For nearly any problem that’s pointed out, for any type of criticism lodged, there’s always some kind of explanation. (My favorite replies come when addressing the problem of evil.)

I get it – It’s a defense mechanism. It’s a way to convince yourself that you’re right. It feels good. It feels safe. But it’s wrong.

The last thing I expect when I discuss religion with someone who has religious beliefs is consistency or intellectual honesty, because the premise of religion itself prohibits the existence of these features. So it makes sense that they would be consistently inconsistent in their application of their values.

The lack of consistency is particularly amusing when you reflect back on Bill Clinton’s presidency. During that time, many (all?) evangelical leaders spoke out against Clinton to demonize him for his affair with Monica Lewinsky.  As the Atlantic pointed out in 2016, those “leaders” now owe Clinton an apology. (If you haven’t already, you owe it to yourself to watch Lewinsky’s TED Talk – it is absolutely fantastic.)

You simply can’t have it both ways, Christian conservatives. You have a choice to make.

You can either:

1. Claim moral superiority to non-Christians by not supporting Donald Trump

2. Admit that you’re picking and choosing your battles based on what’s convenient for you at the time.

So which one will it be?