Texas Republican warns legalizing gay marriage would 'criminalize Christianity'

During a press conference outside of Supreme Court of Monday, Steven Hotze -- president of the Conservative Republicans of Texas -- warned that legalizing same-sex marriage essentially amounts to criminalizing Christianity in the United States.

Hotze, who has likened gays to "murderers and rapists" and who has said America's "founding fathers would be furious" to learn "sodomites" had a legal right to marry, was advocating against LGBTQ rights in Washington this week along with Faith 2 Action. The politically active anti-abortion network, under the leadership of Janet Porter, "gathered a who’s who of radical anti-gay activists and “ex-gays” to deliver “restraining orders” to the Supreme Court demanding that the justices not hear arguments on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage bans," Right Wing Watch reports.

Wiley Drake, a California pastor who has prayed for President Obama’s death, filmed Faith 2's Monday media event, which featured stacks of cardboard boxes labeled "restraining orders." Faith 2 Action and other right-wing groups are distributing these documents to members of Congress, hoping legislators will then order the Supreme Court and other federal courts to cease and desist from ruling on same-sex marriage cases.

Activists announced during the press conference they would file a motion asking Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan to recuse themselves from ruling on marriage rights because they had “deliberately officiated at so-called homosexual wedding ceremonies.”

Right Wing Watch published footage from Faith 2's Monday media stunt, which contains Hotze's speech.

A court decision in favor of marriage equality, Hotze cautioned, “would force individuals to have to condone, accept, even celebrate sexual immorality among certain elements of the population and teach it to the children. It would criminalize Christianity."

The pastors would be forced to have to marry those of the same-sex," Hotze continued, and at risk of "criminal penalty."

Hotze states he doesn't use the word "marriage" when talking about same sex relationships, substituting the word "mirage" instead. A union between two people of the same sex is "counterfeit, it’s a lie, it’s untrue," Hotze explains.

Watch Texas Republican Steven Hotze describe how gay marriage will make Christianity a crime: