In the world of far-right Christianity, the consensus seems to be that giving the LGBTQ community equal civil rights will usher in the end of religious freedom. According to conversion therapy and anti-gay adoption advocate Michelle Cretella, the bill set to be voted on this week threatens to wipe out Christianity altogether.
Speaking to the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins this Friday, Cretella, who is the executive director of the American College of Pediatricians (a group that promotes gay conversion therapy and advocates against adoption for same-sex couples), railed against the Equality Act, which seeks to give LGBTQ people the same protections covered under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“I think it’s really super important for all listeners to realize this law … it impacts everyone. And a better name for it is the ‘Death to Christianity Act,'” Cretella said in an audio clip flagged by Right Wing Watch. “That’s going to be the umbrella. … Christianity, it will cease to be publicly practiced. It’ll become against the law.”
Cretella isn’t just relegated to the fringes of far-right Christian circles. She’s been given large platforms to espouse her ideology. In a 2017 appearance on Fox News, she told host Tucker Carlson that transgender “ideology” is causing “child abuse.”
“By feeding children and families these lies, children are having their normal psychological development interrupted. They’re being put on the puberty blockers, which essentially castrates them chemically followed by surgical mutilation later on,” she claimed. “This is child abuse.”
As Right Wing Watch points out, the American College of Pediatricians has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center “for its fierce anti-LGBTQ stances and peddling of junk science supporting gay conversion therapy, and opposing transgender rights and gay adoption.”
SPLC reports that the organization, despite its glaring propagandizing, serves as a “go-to authority for far-right media outlets like Breitbart and the Daily Caller, and Christian publications and websites.”
Listen to the audio below, via Right Wing Watch:
Featured image: screen grab/Fox News
