RedState Editor-in-chief and Fox News contributor Erick Erickson, who will be hosting several Republican presidential candidates at a conference later this week, isn’t concerned that the culture wars are over because its current winners — presumably LGBT people or perhaps all liberals — can’t keep up with having children, they will die out.
Erickson was speaking at The Gospel & Politics conference hosted by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission in Nashville, Tennessee. The conference largely focused on issues of religious liberty, abortion, and LGBT rights. ERLC president Russell Moore asked Erickson if he agreed that the culture wars are over, which prompted him to share these thoughts:
ERICKSON: No, I don’t think the culture war is over primarily because the people who appear to be the victors right now are the least likely to procreate, so we will eventually breed them out of existence demographically. So the culture war continues and will continue. And I don’t mean to be flippant by that statement. But if you look at the demographic trends in this country, in the next 50 years, the country will be filled with young Christian Hispanic families who listen to country music, and that’s just — demographically, they’re our people.
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If Erickson was speaking solely about homosexuality, scientists have actually found a hereditary link for homosexuality, but it can be passed down from heterosexual parents. Sexual orientation is not tied to a specific single gene, which is why identical twins don’t necessarily share a sexual orientation, but it is still something affected by “epi-marks,” markers that interact with hormones to determine how genes are expressed. As long as straight people are having kids, there will be gays, lesbians, and bisexuals.
If Erickson was speaking about liberals generally, he’s not wrong that conservatives seem to be outbreeding liberals, but that doesn’t actually guarantee the veracity of his point. Polling on LGBT rights has steadily increased, and the younger people are, the more likely they are to support issues like marriage equality. A new study from researchers at the University of Virginia further finds that implicit bias against gays and lesbians is decreasing across all demographic groups. All people are generally developing more positive attitudes toward the LGBT community.
Erickson’s litany of anti-LGBT comments is long and incendiary. In January, for example, he compared the firing of Atlanta’s anti-gay fire chief to the murder of 12 journalists at Charlie Hebdo.
Despite his extremist rhetoric, Erickson commands incredible political influence among conservatives. The RedState Gathering, organized by Erickson, begins Thursday in Atlanta. Among the speakers are Republican presidential candidates Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, and Scott Walker, as well as Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts (R), South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R), Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), and Congressmen Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Jim Bridenstine (R-OK). Erickson will open the conference on the topic of “You Will Be Made To Care,” referring to his mantra about how Christian beliefs about homosexuality are being condemned as bigotry, which may prompt other speakers to respond to his comments.
The ERLC did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Erickson’s remarks.