April 15, 2013
WEAPONS OF CHOICE
'EVANGELICALS COULD BE PUT ON WATCH LIST,
DENIED GUNS'
Tony Perkins ties Army rhetoric with proposed background checks
Published: 3 days ago
Citing recent “inflammatory rhetoric” by Army officials, the
head of the Family Research Council is warning supporters that President Obama
could put evangelical Christians and Catholics on a “watch list” to prevent
them from purchasing guns.
FRC President Tony Perkins
said on his “Washington Watch” radio broadcast Wednesday that the Senate’s
bipartisan proposal requiring background checks for Internet gun sales is “very
concerning given the fact that the United States military has been increasingly
showing hostility toward evangelicals and Catholics as being somehow threats to
national security and people that need to be watched.”
In an email today to FRC
supporters, Perkins explained that a recent Army briefing on “religious
extremism” declared evangelical Christians and Catholics are among the biggest
threats to America, along with Islamic supremacist groups such as al-Qaida and
Hamas.
Perkins said it was also
discovered that, in an email, Army Lt. Col. Jack Rich highlighted FRC and the
American Family Association as groups that do not share “our Army Values.”
In his broadcast Wednesday,
Perkins tied together the Army rhetoric with the proposed Senate legislation.
“Well, what does that have
to do with gun control?” he continued. “Well, what happens if all the sudden
you are identified as an evangelical, Bible-believing fundamentalist and the
government decides you’ve got to be put on a watch list?”
Perkins explained that under
the legislation, if “a caution comes up when they put your name in, you don’t
get a chance to buy a gun.”
The controversial Army briefing, titled “Extremism and
Extremist Organizations,” was given to an reserve unit in
Pennsylvania.
A slide titled “Religious
Extremism” listed organizations and movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood,
al-Qaida, Hamas, the Nation of Islam, the Ku Klux Klan and Christian Identity
as examples.
However, the first group on
the list is “evangelical Christianity.” Catholicism and ultra-orthodox Judaism
are also on the list of religious extremist organizations.
Perkins, in his email
dispatch today, noted that Lt. Col. Rich warned his subordinates: “When we see
behaviors that are inconsistent with Army Values –don’t just walk by. Do the
right thing and address the concern before it becomes a problem.”
The 14-page email puts FRC
and AFA together with the Ku Klux Klan, Black Panthers and neo-Nazis, citing
the Southern Poverty Law Center, which, according to a judge, inspired the
shooting at Family Research Council’s headquarters last August.
Perkins cited Fox News
correspondent Todd Starnes’ list of “recent military missteps”:
·
A Fort Leavenworth War Games scenario
identified Christian and evangelical groups as potential threats;
·
·
A 2009 Department of Homeland Security
memo identified evangelicals and pro-life groups as potential threats to
national security;
·
·
The U.S. Military Academy’s Combating
Terrorism Center released a study linking pro-lifers to terrorism;
·
·
Evangelical leader Franklin Graham was
uninvited from the Pentagon’s National Day of Prayer service;
·
·
At the National Cemetery in Houston,
Christian prayers were prohibited at the funeral services for military
veterans;
·
·
Distribution of Bibles was banned for a
time at Walter Reed Army Medical Center:
·
·
Christian crosses and a steeple were
removed from a chapel in Afghanistan because the military said the icons
disrespected other religions;
·
·
Catholic chaplains were prohibited from
reading a letter to parishioners from their archbishop regarding the Obama HHS
mandate.
Perkins noted members of
Congress, led by Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., have sent a letter to the
secretary of the Army calling on the Army to apologize for attacking Christians
and labeling them as extremists.
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