Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Craig James -- "work of Satan"


Former NFL RB Craig James says support for gay marriage is 'work of Satan'

Ron Clements, Perform Media
March 10, 2015 11:03am EDT

http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/story/2015-03-10/craig-james-gay-marriage-work-of-satan-new-england-patriots-smu-fox-sports-espn-texas-tech


Craig James' anti-gay viewpoints cost him his job with Fox Sports and contributed to his failed U.S. Senate campaign in 2012. That hasn't stopped the former SMU and NFL running back from speaking out against gay marriage.

After the Patriots, James' former team, joined the San Francisco Giants and Tampa Bay Rays in signing an amicus brief urging the United States Supreme Court to legalize same-sex marriage across the country, James said support of gay marriage is the work of the devil.

"That's Satan working on us," James said on the Washington Watch radio program hosted by Tony Perkins of the anti-gay Family Research Council*, now James' employer. James added that of anyone who supports gay marriage that they have "a problem with God."

James spent five years with the Patriots. He was on New England's Super Bowl team of 1985 and made the Pro Bowl in 1986. He said a team's support of gay marriage could disrupt locker room cohesiveness.

"A locker room is a place where everybody has different belief systems but you just get along," he said. "In my opinion, I look forward to seeing now, if management tells you and the coaching staff tells you that you better not say anything about the other side, you talk about implosion in the locker room. I know the believers I was with, my teammates — and there were a lot of believers in that locker room — we wouldn't have been quiet for a moment, we would have spoken up."

James had a controversial broadcasting career with ESPN, calling Wisconsin the "worst team to ever play in the Rose Bowl" before the Badgers beat UCLA in the 1999 game. He was also in the middle of a controversy when his son, Adam, was allegedly locked in a shed during a Texas Tech practice. That led to the firing of coach Mike Leach and a pair of lawsuits filed by Leach against both Texas Tech and the James family. Both suits were later dismissed.

Craig left ESPN to run for Senate and signed with Fox Sports on Aug. 30, 2013. He was fired Sept. 2, after just one on-air appearance, when his anti-gay statements while running for Senate were brought to the network's attention. James filed a lawsuit against Fox Sports in February of 2014, claiming he was a victim of "religious bigotry."




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The Family Research Council has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/family-research-council


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