The Family Research Council (FRC), an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group, is asking its followers for money and prayers amid President Donald Trump’s illegal military strikes on Iran.

FRC leader Tony Perkins asked his group’s email subscribers to make a “Prayer Pledge” so that God may be merciful to Iranian Muslims and convert them into Christianity, “for spiritual strongholds to come down,” and so that “our leaders [and] military” may help “affect change that alters the course of history.”

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“While we live here on earth, we engage in battle as citizens of heaven taking on well-entrenched powers and principalities in the heavenly realms. Our leaders, military, and world need prayer right now that only the Church can provide. Will we rise to meet this moment?” Perkins’ email asks.

“That’s why I’m asking you to join me in signing FRC’s Prayer Pledge for the Iran Conflict — a commitment to stand in the gap for our nation, leaders, and military, for the people of Iran, and for the peace of the region. Praying for spiritual strongholds to come down,” the email says above the “Prayer Pledge” button — the button leads to the FRC donation page.

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Perkins’ email also raises an Islamophobic trope by mentioning that a Muslim man committed a mass shooting at an Austin, Texas bar this last weekend, in what Perkins calls “the tip of the iceberg of what could happen on our own soil in the coming weeks as this conflict continues.”

While it may not be surprising for the FRC to try and raise money off of current events, Perkins’ email demonstrates how right-wing religious conservatives are using Trump’s war — which he began without the Constitutionally required congressional approval — as a religious battle of Christians against Muslims.

Recently, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) said it received over 110 grievances and complaints from U.S. military personnel at dozens of Middle Eastern sites who have alleged that their military leaders have told them the war is “all part of God’s divine plan.”

An unnamed noncommissioned officer (NCO) said their commander told attendees of a combat readiness status briefing, “President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.”

“He had a big grin on his face when he said all of this which made his message seem even more crazy,” the NCO told the MRFF.

MRFF president and founder Mikey Weinstein told independent journalist Jonathan Larsen that all the complaints received by the MRFF on this issue have mentioned “the unrestricted euphoria of their commanders and command chains as to how this new ‘biblically-sanctioned’ war is clearly the undeniable sign of the expeditious approach of the fundamentalist Christian ‘End Times’ as vividly described in the New Testament Book of Revelation.”

Why the FRC is considered an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group

While the FRC describes itself as a church and, previously, as an educational non-profit, it’s foremost an anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion organization, designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. It was founded in 1981 by James Dobson, a longtime homophobe who also founded Focus on the Family (FOF), the largest theocratic-right organization in the United States.

Both FOF and FRC oppose same-sex marriage and sex education in schools (except “abstinence-only”), support so-called conversion therapy, and generally oppose anything that promotes the so-called “homosexual agenda” — even concepts of tolerance and diversity which, according to Dobson, are “buzzwords for homosexual advocacy.” Dobson has also compared proponents of same-sex marriage to Nazis who want “the utter destruction of the family.”

According to Dobson, the goals of this homosexual movement include “universal acceptance of the gay lifestyle, the discrediting of Scriptures that condemn homosexuality, muzzling of the clergy and Christian media, granting special privileges and rights in the law, overturning laws prohibiting pedophilia, indoctrination of children and future generations through public education, and securing all the legal benefits of marriage for any two or more people who claim to have homosexual tendencies.”

Peter Sprigg, FRC’s Senior Researcher for Policy Studies, says that same-sex sexuality should be legislated and declared illegal and that “criminal sanctions against homosexual behavior” should be enforced. He also argued that repealing the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy encourages the molestation of heterosexual service members.

Tony Perkins, president of the FRC, has argued that “homosexual men are more likely to abuse children than straight men.” He believes that the Bible commands Christians to kill gay people and has urged his followers to pray against any expansion of LGBTQ civil rights.

Perkins got his start in politics as a Louisiana state representative. He bought his mailing list for supporters from David Duke, the former head of the Ku Klux Klan, and made speeches in front of white supremacist groups.

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