Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council
Basically, bad parents raise homosexuals and drug addicts, according to Family Research Council president Tony Perkins. On Wednesday, Perkins fielded a “gotcha question” after speaking at the National Press Club luncheon in Washington, D.C. (For those unfamiliar with the term, a “gotcha question” is any question one does not want to answer because it will reveal—or substantiate—the fact that one is an asshat.)
“If one of your children told you that he or she were homosexual, would you disown him or her?” asked National Press Club president Theresa Werner, who read questions submitted in advance by attendees and reporters.
Perkins replied:
I would not disown my children for anything, but let me say this… I believe that as a parent that I have a responsibility for the environment in which I raise my children. And I believe, as a parent, we have the ability to protect them from a lot of unfortunate experiences that have shaping influences upon their lives… We can do our very best job as a parent and still something may happen, whether they end up in drugs or whether they end up in some other lifestyle that they end up in… They’re our children. We’ll always love them, but we don’t necessarily condone what they do. And if we really love them, we’ll be wiling to tell them the truth that the choices that they have made to continue in what they are doing are both destructive to them personally and to society as a whole… Love them compassionately and pray from them, but don’t condone and enable that behavior, whatever it might be.
