Megachurch Pastor James Garlow: Obama's Legacy Is That He 'Morally and Economically Destroyed America'
President Barack Obama's legacy should be that he "morally and economically destroyed a wonderful experiment called America," said megachurch Pastor James Garlow of Skyline Church in San Diego, Calif., who blasted the president for his pro-abortion and pro-same-sex marriage views.
"I can tell you what it ought to be. But whether historians will do what they have done with some other things and be revisionistic, I don't know," Garlow said in an interview with The Daily Caller.
Garlow, who leads a 2,500-member congregation, called Obama the "abortion president" and said that even though people point out that he has a model marriage and is a wonderful father, his opposition to traditional marriage has been a "catastrophic blow to America."
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"Among other things, this man has done more to harm life and to harm the institution of marriage and the family than any other president ever," Garlow said.
The pastor referred to Obama's support for abortion-providing organizations such as Planned Parenthood, and his announcement in 2012 that he has "evolved" on the issue of same-sex marriage and that he favors gay couples to have the right to marry.
"As I talked to friends, family and neighbors, when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed, monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together," Obama said in his famous interview with ABC News. "When I think about those soldiers, or airmen, or marines, sailors who are fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that 'don't ask, don't tell' is gone, because they're not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I've just concluded that, for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think that same-sex couples should be able to get married."
Garlow also accused Obama of "legal anarchy" for failing to enforce laws that recognize marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
"I do not recall in my lifetime anything remotely close to what we are seeing. For the law enforcer in Washington, D.C., the chief in America, to tell the attorneys general across the states that you don't have to enforce the law if you don't like it – that is beyond anything I was taught in school. Rule of law and consent of the governed has been lost," the pastor said.
Obama, who is a practicing Christian, has said that his faith helped inform his views on same-sex marriage.
"In the end, the values that I care most deeply about, and she (Michelle Obama) cares most deeply about is how we treat other people. We're both practicing Christians and obviously this position may be considered to put us at odds with the views of others but when we think about our faith the thing at root that we think about is not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf but it's also the golden rule – treat others the way you'd want to be treated."
A number of conservative and religious groups, however, denounced Obama's support for changing the definition of marriage.
