Congressman Louie Gohmert conceded that slavery was a particularly ugly moment in the nation’s history on Tuesday, but warned that the situation now is even worse.
The Texas Republican was on a conference call with extremist right-wing pastor Rick Scarborough when he warned listeners that the nation could be coming “toward the end of [its] existence,” as evidenced by its leaders and citizens allegedly neglecting to remain true to biblical teachings.
“We strayed away different times,” Gohmert said. “Andrew Jackson’s time was not a great time, at different times slavery was a blot on our existence. But the trouble is we have never as an entire nation overall been so far away from God’s teaching and so openly rebelling, even from the top, against God’s teachings in the Bible.”
Scarborough is the fervently anti-gay, anti-Latino pastor of Vision America whose conference call themed “40 Days to Save America” was designed to enlighten participants about how America stood on the verge of collapse if their prayer efforts to shift the upcoming presidential election didn’t work.
Gohmert frequently speaks about what he sees as the degradation of religious principles in American society. Over the summer he attributed that decline as being the reason for the mass-shooting in Aurora, Colo.
“You know what really gets me, as a Christian, is to see the ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs, and then some senseless crazy act of terror like this takes place,” he said hours after the massacre in which 12 people were killed and 58 were wounded. “Some of us happen to believe that when our founders talked about guarding our virtue and freedom, that that was important. … Whether it’s John Adams saying our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people … Ben Franklin, only a virtuous people are capable of freedom, as nations become corrupt and vicious they have more need of masters. … We have been at war with the very pillars, the very foundation of this country.”
Gohmert was also a leading proponent of a controversial push over the summer to investigate top Obama administration aides for supposed ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Critics quickly assailed the move as reminiscent of the McCarthyism that stained the 1950s.
