Would Rex Tillerson Continue Obama's Pro-Abortion, Pro-Gay Foreign Policy Activism?
Tillerson's confirmation hearing began on the same day in which Open Doors USA released its 2017 World Watch List of top 50 countries where Christians face the most persecution, which finds that Christian persecution has over the last few years continued to increase to the point that in the last year, over 215 million Christians were persecuted for their faith.
"You can not look at this spread of anti-Christian persecution toward Christians absent of the policies of this administration," Perkins explained. "Key to that foreign policy is the State Department that has been promoting the LGBT agenda, which John Kerry has bragged about as recently as this past week. Barack Obama has bragged about it. Hillary Clinton bragged about it. It's all been to the detriment of its statutorily defined role of promoting religious freedom as a part of their foreign policy."
"The next secretary of state is going to have to be aggressive in changing the State Department's focus and orientation away from promoting and bullying these other countries to adopt a liberal view of sexuality that America as a whole doesn't accept and return back to what is actually stated by Congress as a primary objective," he continued.
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Perkins admitted that he does not yet think that Tillerson can be that kind of "change agent."
"I don't at this point. He could be. I just don't know," Perkins said. "His track record raises some concerns. I just know that we have encountered a lot of these issues at the State Department in our work on international religious freedom. We know that Christians are suffering globally as a result of our State Department's misplaced priorities. That cannot continue. It's going to require a leader who is willing to be criticized, who is willing to be a change agent. I just don't know that is him."
In addition to the criticism from Perkins and other social conservatives, Tillerson has also come under fire from pro-LGBT activists who point out that while Tillerson was CEO of ExxonMobil, the company did not add sexual orientation and gender identity to its non-discrimination policy until after Obama issued an executive order in 2014 that required all federal contractors to protect LGBT employees.
"ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson's nomination raises critical questions as to how a Trump administration plans to protect LGBTQ employees and contractors affiliated with the State Department, and ultimately whether it will continue American efforts to advance equality through U.S. foreign policy," Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin said in a statement. "For millions of people around the globe, their position on these and other issues are a matter of life and death. These are among the questions that Senators — Democrats and Republicans alike — must ask."
As supporters of the State Department's LGBT agenda have said that the agency's advocacy helps protect LGBT individuals around the world from being killed or jailed over their sexual orientation, Perkins asserted that the State Department's advocacy goes much further than that.
"That has not been the primary objective here. I have talked to a number of foreign ambassadors. ... Constantly, you have had foreign governments who have been dinged on their foreign aid because they haven't had ministers, government officials marching in gay pride parades," Perkins said. "Of course, they have also been a part of promoting abortion — funding USAID, funding these [George] Soros-connected groups to try to change the laws on abortion in African countries that are adamantly opposed to this. So, it is much more than simply trying to protect innocent people."
"I am all for being a voice for those who are experiencing violence against them regardless of their sexual orientation. Clearly, justice is something we want to pursue," he added. "But, to promote and force countries to change their laws to come in alignment with a view of sexuality that is not shared by all of America, that is not a stated value of Congress. It is simply a value that this president has been imposing on other countries through the State Department."
