Evangelist Pat Robertson never seems to run out of questions to answer on The 700 Club, and today he took on the topic of anti-gay bullying. Surprisingly, he criticized Christians for bullying LGBT students and suggested that “schools shouldn’t permit that,” but mentioned that he still supports calling “homosexual practices” an “abomination”:

ROBERTSON: Well I think that’s terrible and Christians shouldn’t do that. I mean, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, blah, blah, blah. You know, Christians shouldn’t do that. They ought to act in love. You might disagree, you may think that these practices are an abomination, you can think all sorts of things, but you need to love. And you need to reach out to these kids in love.

Watch it:

Robertson’s response is arguably positive — at least relative to his usual anti-gay positions — and if he supports anti-bullying policies that specifically enumerate protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity, then he should clarify that. But his caveat that holding anti-gay beliefs is still okay and his subtle suggestion that they should be shared (“in love”) is still problematic.

Conservatives often claim to oppose bullying, but insist that there still be room for condemning homosexuality as a matter of free speech and freedom of religion. Often, that stigma can be delivered in ways that don’t constitute the kind of violence, intimidation, or harassment that many qualify as “bullying,” but that still have severe consequences in terms of a student’s self-worth and overall mental health. If children’s safety and well-being is the primary concern, it’s impossible to truly protect them from the impact of bullying while still sentencing them to eternity in Hell.

Pat Robertson confirmed today that showing compassion for people who are gay means forcing them to endure harmful, ineffective ex-gay therapy. Answering a question from a father with a gay son, he said that to show the son love, the father should convince him to stop doing “whatever he’s doing” and “unacquire” his homosexuality:

ROBERTSON: You want to say, ‘look I don’t agree with what you’re doing but I love you, you’re my son, you came from my body, you’re part of me and I’m with you but I’d like you to get out of this.’ … We’ve had many people who have indeed left the homosexual lifestyle and gone into a heterosexual relationship and have been very, very happy. But all I can say is love the son, love the son, and show him what you consider a better way.

Watch it:

Robertson’s answer confirms the duplicity of a “love the sinner but hate the sin” approach. His facts about the nature of homosexuality and the success of ex-gay therapy are completely wrong and more importantly, family rejection is harmful to young people. Scientific consensus agrees that same-sex orientations are a natural and healthy variation among humans and other animals. To condemn and repress such orientations is the opposite of showing love — it is the reinforcement of harmful stigma.

Conservatives are not happy about the Obama administration’s new effort to promote LGBT freedom across the globe, trumpeted by State Sec. Hillary Clinton in an historic speech to the United Nations yesterday. Most opponents of the new plan have couched their comments in the assumption that homosexuality is wrong and not something we should “export,” directly contradicting Clinton’s point that “being gay is not a Western invention; it is a human reality.” Here’s a round-up of the various responses from the Religious Right:

• Rick Perry: “This is just the most recent example of an administration at war with people of faith in this country. Investing tax dollars promoting a lifestyle many Americas of faith find so deeply objectionable is wrong. President Obama has again mistaken America’s tolerance for different lifestyles with an endorsement of those lifestyles.”
• Rick Santorum: “Obviously the administration is promoting their particular agenda in this country, and now they feel its their obligation to promote those values not just in the military, not just in our society, but now around the world with taxpayer dollars.”
• Matt Barber (Liberty Counsel): “[President Obama] feels compelled to export American culture’s decline in morality, and export that immorality to other nations that are trying to adhere to traditional principles relative to human sexuality.”
• Peter LaBarbera (American For Truth About Homosexuality): “Reading Hillary’s UN #gay rights speech. The arrogance of modern liberalism is astounding: redefining sin as a *human right.*“
• Pat Robertson (The 700 Club): “Isn’t it appalling that the United States of America would try to force the acceptance of homosexuality on other nations but at the same time we would not force them to take care of their religious minorities and they would permit discrimination and persecution of Christians?”
• Vic Eliason (Voice of Christian Youth America): “The inmates have taken over the asylum.”
• Mat Staver (Liberty Counsel): “[The Obama administration] is forcing foreign countries to fund and liberalize… the radical sexual anarchist agenda.”
• Janet Mefferd (radio personality): “Other than the fact that you have African countries that have policies like Nigeria, criminalizing homosexuality, are they not a sovereign nation? Can’t they make up their own minds about these things? If they want to pass a law we’re going to play bully over this issue?”

No one has responded as negatively as the Family Research Council’s Peter Sprigg, however, who has already spoken out multiple times against the new policy in the 24 hours since it was rolled out. After condemning President Obama for promoting the “radical ideology of the sexual revolution,” Sprigg unloaded all of his anti-gay vitriol on Christian Broadcast News:

These type of human rights and civil rights protections are usually granted for characteristics that are inborn, involuntary — you can’t choose them, immutable — you can’t change them, and innocuous — they do no harm to anyone. All of those things are true of race and sex. None of them is true of the choice to engage in homosexual conduct.

In many African countries, such as Uganda, Ghana, and Nigeria, homophobia is proliferated through Catholic or Protestant Christian groups, often with American ties. They promote the insidious lies Sprigg mentioned and spread fears that homosexuality will literally destroy society. The Obama administration’s new effort to end persecution abroad is a battle to fight on our own shores as much as on theirs.