FRCs Perkins says we're accountable to higher authority than public opinion
Value issues will be salient at the polls in the November election, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins told a National Press Club audience Sept. 12.
“The sanctity of life, the sacredness of marriage, the boundaries of sexual expression and the exercise of religious freedom” are issues that matter and “rank as fundamental,” Perkins said.
He said he would advocate these values with civility and compassion. “We are more committed to advancing faith, family and freedom than ever before,” Perkins said.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is doing a good job, he said, talking about faith, family and religion. “There’s no question we have differences of opinion but we have a shared value system,” Perkins said.
FRC was in the national spotlight last month when an armed man entered their office building in downtown Washington and shot building operations manager Leo Johnson as he was inspecting the assailant’s backpack.
Perkins thanked people worldwide, including Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier for assistance.
“Leo is doing well,'' Perkins said. ``We have no doubt the Lord was watching over us that day.”
He repeated a call to the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Human Rights Campaign to rescind their classification of FRC as a hate group. Their “language is meant to inflame and not to inspire, to intimidate and not to illuminate, to poison and not to persuade,” Perkins said.
He cited a recent Zogby poll showing the largest percentage of likely voters agrees ``family is the basis of a strong community'' and ``the ideal family is built around a stable marriage between a man and a woman.''
Yet he acknowledged profound differences among Americans. “Our nation is both closely and sharply divided,” he said.
FRC’s seventh Values Voter Summit begins Friday in Washington, where attendees will be reminded that values issues are critical and asked to pledge to three actions before the election: pray, prepare and participate.