When we first heard Tony Perkins claim that his fight against gay rights is necessary to prevent an economic crash and no different than saving someone from a burning building, we wondered if he was serious. Apparently he was, as the Family Research Council president repeated the bizarre anti-gay talking points during an interview with “Faith & Liberty” posted last week.

Perkins told host Dave Garrison that gay rights present such a grave “threat to religious liberty” that the movement for LGBT equality will inevitably lead to “a rapid downward spiral of our nation, including our economy.”

After Garrison expressed regret that we at Right Wing Watch “see us as hating gays,” Perkins insisted that his anti-gay activism is motivated by love for the gay community.

Just as an onlooker would try to wake up a person sleeping inside of a burning building, Perkins explained, he is simply trying to tell gay people about homosexuality’s destructive nature: