At this afternoon’s White House press briefing, the Washington Blade’s Chris Johnson asked Press Secretary Jay Carney about the anti-gay sermon once given by Pastor Louie Giglio, who has been tapped to give the benediction at President Obama’s Second Inauguration. Carney had not yet seen the ThinkProgress report and directed questions to the inaugural committee. He would not address whether or not the administration was familiar with Giglio’s anti-gay views before selecting him to speak.

Over the past year, Jennifer Roback Morse of the National Organization for Marriage’s Ruth Institute has become increasingly vitriolic in her anti-gay comments. She has openly endorsed ex-gay therapy and lifetime celibacy for gay people, she has warned parents not to let their kids have gay friends, she has suggested marriage equality will destroy society, and she has claimed same-sex couples can’t be monogamous because they can’t have children. In a new interview captured by Equality Matters, Morse blatantly suggests that lesbian couples who seek out sperm donors — or who are “buying sperm on Craigslist” — “should be in jail” because they treat their children like property and “chattel.” Zinnia Jones has the transcript:

MORSE:  And what we’re doing now, Todd, as a result of the sexual revolution and all its fruits, is that we are in full-on retreat from human relationship between a man and a woman in order to create that child. So going online to buy sperm from a stranger is about as far as you can possibly get from the participation in divine love and divine creation. The fact that these two women want to have sex with each other has no bearing whatsoever on whether this should be permitted or not.You know, buying sperm on Craigslist should be abolished. Buying sperm at all should be abolished. And furthermore, these people should be in jail, I’m afraid.

I mean, you know, honestly, I just can’t even imagine where people think this is going to lead. You know, because the child is no longer a gift from God and a fruit of human love participating in God’s love. The child is now a product, manufactured by adults, and therefore the child cannot be fully the equal of its parent. The object cannot be the equal of its producer or its maker, you know. And so the further we go down this path, the further away we are going from the true ideal of equality before God, of equality before one another, of treating one another with dignity. And the child becomes a kind of chattel. So the legal complications and the sort of ick factor of all of this, it’s important to sort all that out and look at it, but let’s not take our eye off that ball, which is that we have defaced the creator’s plan and intention here by this behavior.

Listen to it:

Morse’s point is a galling insult not just to the millions of same-sex couples raising children, but to any couple who’ve sought assistance in having a child, whether through surrogacy, sperm donation, fertility treatments, or even adoption and foster care. Her implication is that any children being raised by parents who are not biologically related will receive an inferior amount of love and support. Morse has a degree in economics; she has no business casting judgment about which children are “gifts from God” and which aren’t.

The Presidential Inauguration Committee announced Tuesday that the President Obama has selected Pastor Louie Giglio of the Georgia-based Passion City Church to deliver the benediction for his second inauguration. In a mid-1990s sermon identified as Giglio’s, available online on a Christian training website, he preached rabidly anti-LGBT views. The 54-minute sermon, entitled “In Search of a Standard – Christian Response to Homosexuality,” advocates for dangerous “ex-gay” therapy for gay and lesbian people, references a biblical passage often interpreted to require gay people be executed, and impels Christians to “firmly respond to the aggressive agenda” and prevent the “homosexual lifestyle” from becoming accepted in society. Below are some of the most disturbing views in the sermon.

Christians must fight against LGBT-equality:

(2:40) We must not just sit quietly by and stick our heads in the sand and let whatever happens happen in our country. We’ve got to respond to the world that we live in. That is the mandate that comes to us as people of God. And this issue is coming more and more to the forefront every day.

(31:45) We must lovingly but firmly respond to the aggressive agenda of not all, but of many in the homosexual community. … Underneath this issue is a very powerful and aggressive moment. That movement is not a benevolent movement, it is a movement to seize by any means necessary the feeling and the mood of the day, to the point where the homosexual lifestyle becomes accepted as a norm in our society and is given full standing as any other lifestyle, as it relates to family.

Homosexuality is a sin:

(9:20) [God] says very clearly in [Leviticus], verse 22, after he talks about a lot of different kinds of relationships, he says in verse 22: “You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female. It is an abomination.” Now if you would look forward into the New Testament context, to the passage that most of us know most commonly with this issue, into chapter one of the book of Romans, let’s read a few verses together beginning in verse 18. If you’re taking notes tonight, you might make this the note of Leviticus 20:13 and the book of Jude, we won’t look at those passages but there is some support and encouragement there to this topic.

(17:37) Men, women, I can’t say anything other to you tonight than this, that if you look at the counsel of the word of God, Old Testament, New Testament, you come quickly to the conclusion that homosexuality is not an alternate lifestyle… homosexuality is not just a sexual preference homosexuality is not gay, but homosexuality is sin. It is sin in the eyes of God, and it is sin according to the word of God. You come to only one conclusion: homosexuality is less than God’s best for his creation. It is less than God’s best for us and everything in our lives that is less than God’s best for us and his plan for us and his design for us, is sin. That’s God’s voice. If you want to hear God’s voice, that is his voice to this issue of homosexuality. It is not ambiguous and unclear. It is very clear.

People aren’t born gay — but even if they are, it’s still a choice like giving into alcoholism, addiction, and overeating:

(28:20) I would refer you maybe just to the article “Born gay?” by Joe Dallas, who is the president of a ministry that helps with homosexuals in “recovery.” It was found in Christianity Today in June of 1992. It really unfolds for us that the evidence that they say is there, that the media wants to tell us is there really isn’t there at all. But I want to tell you this tonight. Even if it was there… How do you respond to that? How do you respond to the news reports that we’re hearing in the last few months that there is a genetic tendency to be an over-eater and it’s been supposedly proved by the scientists? That there is a genetic tendency to addictive behavior. Alcoholics by and large have a genetic tendency to addictive behavior. I predict in our lifetimes and not a very long period of time from now, scientists and geneticists will have found a way to prove a gene theory for every malfunction in sinful society. And do you know why? We talked about it the very first week—because we do not want responsibility for our choices.

Gay people are going to Hell:

(47:40) First Corinthians, Chapter 6. In verses nine and 10, it talks about the things that prevent people from entering the Kingdom of God. It talks about all kinds of immoral behavior. And right in the midst of that passage, right in the middle of that verse it says “and those who are homosexual.” It’s clear.

Gay people can become straight through Christianity:

(40:25) As the church of Jesus Christ, we cannot sit on the sidelines, we cannot sit back inside our churches, but we must reach out and we must aggressively move toward the homosexual community because we have a message and we’ve got something to say… our message is we know Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is powerful enough to do anything and to do everything. And the only way out of a homosexual lifestyle, the only way out of a relationship that has been engrained over years of time, is through the healing power of Jesus.

(43:16) We’ve got to say the homosexuals, the same thing that I say to you and that you would say to me… it’s not easy to change, but it is possible to change.

Listen to the sermon:

Four years ago anti-gay Pastor Rick Warren gave the invocation at President Obama’s first inauguration.

A spokesman for Giglio was not immediately available to respond to questions about whether this sermon represents Giglio’s current thinking.

The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins has launched a new daily radio show on American Family Association radio, and Jeremy Hooper is tracking it closely. On the second episode Tuesday, Perkins addressed a listener’s question about nondiscrimination protections, asserting that the existing protections for people of faith are fine, but creating protections for LGBT people would be problematic:

PERKINS: Actually, religion is a protected class, So right now under existing law, you can’t use that as a component to discriminate against individuals. [...]

This administration — the Obama administration — wants to push the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. What is that? It sounds nice. But it is actually providing special protections to people — employment protections and benefits — based upon their sexual behavior. So let’s say an employer at a day care, an elementary school, or a church does not want to hire someone who is openly engaged in homosexual behavior. They would be forced to either defend themselves in their decision or could suffer legal consequences as a result.

Listen to it:

As Hooper points out, Perkins is peddling a significant double standard. He voices no objection to the protections his Christian faith already enjoys, yet claims that protections for LGBT people would be “special” and violate Christians so-called “religious freedom.” As conservatives do, he only referred to “homosexual behavior,” erasing gays and lesbians and framing their identities as a choice. But not only are same-sex orientations (or non-conforming gender identities, which ENDA also would protect) not chosen, but religious beliefs are. So if Perkins argument is that people should not be protected based on their lifestyle choices, by his own logic religion should not be a protected class.

Of course, Perkins motivations are not rooted in logic, but in animus against LGBT people and an expectation that one group of people enjoy a superior status in society over another.

Yesterday, many outlets (including ThinkProgress) celebrated the news that a California Boy Scouts of America (BSA) chapter was recommending Ryan Andresen for an Eagle Scout Award, even though his scoutmaster refused to sign off on his application because he is gay. The chair of the review board that unanimously approved his recommendation, Bonnie Hazarabedian, said he deserved the honor and that it was her understanding his application was proceeding up the BSA ranks for further approval. Now it seems that Hazarabedian was led astray and Andresen’s application is going nowhere.

John Fenoglio, Scout executive for the Mount Diablo-Silverado Boy Scout Council, said Andresen’s application was rejected because of “membership standards,” specifically “duty to God, avowed homosexuality, and the fact that he is now over 18 years of age.” But Hazarabedian says that when she submitted Andresen’s application, Fenoglio told her it would be approved and forwarded to the national council:

HAZARABEDIAN: Our community is standing behind Ryan Andresen. When I dropped off Ryan’s unanimously approved Eagle Board of Review application and report on December 31, Mr. Fenoglio looked me in the eyes, patted the stack of papers, and said, ‘We’ll sign it and send it on, but can’t promise what will happen from there.’ I’m totally perplexed by this statement from Scout Executive Fenoglio, a man I greatly respect and admire.

Fenoglio has not issued any follow-up statements to address the conflicting stories. Boy Scout national spokesman Deron Smith’s explanation seems to coincide with Fenoglio’s, but offers little clarity:

SMITH: The Eagle application was forwarded, by a volunteer, to the local council but it was not approved because this young man proactively stated that he does not agree to Scouting’s principle of ‘Duty to God’ and does not meet Scouting’s membership requirements. Therefore, he is not eligible to receive the rank of Eagle.

Smith and Fenoglio’s statements are disappointing, but also revealing. It is no secret that the BSA has defended its anti-gay policy on religious grounds, but the organization has generally refused to offer details explaining the rationale for such a policy. Last summer, BSA recommitted to its anti-gay policy, hiding the reasons for it behind a secret committee. Conservatives like Bryan Fischer, Mike Huckabee, the Liberty Counsel, and the Family Research Council have all claimed the policy somehow protects children from pedophiles, despite there being no connection between homosexuality and pedophilia.

But Smith and Fenoglio’s statements reveal that the Boy Scouts actually believe that an individual cannot be both gay and religious. Though the only religious group BSA does not accept is atheists, there is an apparent expectation that only heterosexuals can honor a “duty to God.” This is a significantly harmful judgment BSA is making not just of gay Scouts, but of LGBT people of faith everywhere.

Over 460,000 have signed a Change.org petition calling on the BSA to allow Andresen to receive the rank he’s earned after 12 years in the Boy Scouts. For his Eagle Scout project, he worked with elementary school students to create a “Tolerance Wall” designed to help victims of bullying know they are not alone.

Washington, DC’s historic National Cathedral has announced that it will now host same-sex weddings, making it one of the first Episcopal congregations to implement a new rite for same-gender blessings. The Cathedral’s dean, the Very Rev. Gary Hall, explained that the change is an “important symbolic moment” for fulfilling Christian faith:

HALL: I read the Bible as seriously as fundamentalists do. And my reading of the Bible leads me to want to do this because I think it’s being faithful to the kind of community that Jesus would have us be. As a kind of tall-steeple, public church in the nation’s capital, by saying we’re going to bless same-sex marriages, conduct same-sex marriages, we are really trying to take the next step for marriage equality in the nation and in the culture.

For us to be able to say we embrace same-sex marriage as a tool for faithful people to live their lives as Christian people, for us to be able to say that at a moment when so many other barriers toward full equality and full inclusion for gay and lesbian people are falling, I think it is an important symbolic moment.

Same-sex marriage is legal in both DC and now in neighboring Maryland, as well as eight other states. Such weddings will likely not take place in the National Cathedral anytime soon due to its busy schedule. In addition, for couples to wed there, one member of the couple must be baptized into the Church. Still, same-sex weddings might take place before the end of the year. All couples wed in the Cathedral commit to a Christian marriage of “lifelong faithfulness, love, forbearance, and mutual comfort.”