Sen. Paul: I didn't think Obama's 'views on marriage could get any gayer'
(CNN) – Sen. Rand Paul on Friday brushed off Barack Obama's recent reversal on same-sex marriage by saying he didn't think the president's views "could get any gayer."
The remarks from the Republican senator from Kentucky scored laughs among those attending an event held by Iowa's Faith and Freedom Coalition, a video uploaded on Saturday to the conservative website "The Iowa Republican" shows.
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"The president, you know, recently weighed in on marriage. And, you know, he said his views were evolving on marriage," the first-term senator said Friday evening. "Call me cynical, but I wasn't sure that his views on marriage could get any gayer."
Paul, who is the son of GOP presidential longshot and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, made the comments two days after Obama announced that he supported same-sex marriage, which he had previously opposed, while adding he thought the issue should be left up to the states to decide.
Rand Paul had been advertised as the coalition's "special guest" for its 12th annual spring event. The organization's website also promoted the presence of Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ralph Reed, who is the chairman of the national Faith and Freedom Coalition.
In the remarks captured on video, Paul spoke against abortion as well as same-sex marriage.
"I think we're in a spiritual crisis as a country," Paul said, "and I think you're going to need leaders beyond your political leaders."
The senator criticized Obama's explanation that the Golden Rule - to treat others how one wants to be treated - and his faith led to his evolved understanding of marriage. The Golden Rule has its roots in biblical verses.
"It did bother me though that he used the justification for it in a biblical reference," Paul said. "He said the biblical Golden Rule caused him to be for gay marriage. And I'm like, what version of the Bible is he reading?
"It's not the King James version, it's not the New American Standard, it's not the New Revised version," he added.
But Paul said his beliefs and those of other social conservatives and Christians do not "mean we have to be harsh and mean and hate people."
"We understand sin and if we believe it's a sin, we still are (sinners) and people sin," he said. "We're not out there preaching some sort of hateful dogma against people. But that doesn't mean that we have to go ahead and give up our traditions."
"Six thousand years of tradition" combined with "anthropological" evidence shows "there's stability in the family unit," he said.
Calls placed Saturday to the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, as well as to Paul's offices and spokeswoman, were not immediately returned.
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Treating others as you wish to be treated is recognized in hundreds of religions as a general moral standard. It is not exclusively biblical. However, it is the loudest and most desperate fundamentalist Christians that think it is just for them and to them it means that "everybody should act like us." That position is divisive and counter-intuitive in 2012.
Really? Well, I didn't think the Pauls could get any more backward, either so I guess we're all surprised, aren't we?
The boys in Jr. High always call each other "gay". It wasn't what we expected from the United States House of Representatives until the Tea Party trash came to town. Good Christians...
Rand Paul is a social conservative in Libertarian's clothing. Everything he says is suspect.
Yeah, well, luckily, this right wing maniac will undoubtably not rise any higher so as with most things, it really doesn't really matter what he thinks. I guess one can get away with that kind of bulls**t down in Kentucky.......the home of the oxicontin highway and trailer trash culture......maybe he should spend more time addressing those particular problems rather than insulting people who are clearly his betters.
I have lost some respect for Rep Paul. Disagree with the President but don't talk respond like an 11 year old.
I could care less. This gay marriage thing is a distraction, conjured up by the Obama campaign to make him look good for re-election and to take the peoples' focus away from the things that really matter right now, like the economy, which is in the tank. Stop it with these wedge issues already MSM.
This person is not fit to hold public office and the people of Kentucky should be ashamed to have made him one of their Senators.
Ron Paul just beat Romney's... butt in the Oklahoma GOP state convention!!! Your going down Mittens!!! RON PAUL 2012!!!
This comes off as more of a failed bad joke than anything.
"Six thousand years of tradition" combined with "anthropological" evidence shows "there's stability in the family unit," he said.
Gay people can be/have family too. And marriage existed BEFORE christianity.
Well, he does represent Kentucky, so one should expect a certain amount of redneck pandering.
Its called the last kicks of a retiring horse!!
"We're not out there preaching some sort of hateful dogma against people. But that doesn't mean that we have to go ahead and give up our traditions." I don't see where anyone is asking anyone to change their traditions. This is what I don't get about Christians preventing other people from living their lives in their own, peaceable way.
When one looks and sounds like Rand Paul ... it would be wise not to use "gay" as a pejorative, but no one would ever seriously use the term wise to describe lil' Rand.
We love Rand!
Please, please, please run for President in the near future! You are exactly what America needs!
Six thousand years of tradition? Is this a veiled admission to being a young earth creationist?
How in the world did this man ever get elected to public office? If he and his pals get their way we will be back in the dark ages.
iron your shirt collar
Wow. Very telling of Rand Paul's character from that quote. The GOP is a party full of bullies.
"Couldn't be any gayer"? Seriously? Get this senator out of office, what a disgusting thing for a senator to say.
Sen Paul has a gay haircut
So Randy Paul, who calls himself "Rand" because the author by the same name is popular with the Right, accuses Obama of pandering?!
Ok Randy- tell us what this has to do with ISSUE NO 1 : Jobs and the Economy?
Have to laugh at that remark Sen. Paul, that we are in a spiritual crisis in this country. Methinks our problem is that we are in a ignorance crisis, where most members of the Republican, no, make that the Know Nothing party, believe in a God they take on faith and can't see or prove the existance of, yet do not believe in proven, verifiable scientific facts and methods, proven over and over again before being accepted as truth. And are you saying that the Golden Rule does not apply to gay and lesbian citizens? Shame.