GOP Rep. Todd Akin: ‘The Heart Of Liberalism Really Is A Hatred For God’

Last Sunday, Americans tuning in to NBC watched 22-year-old golf star Rory McIlroy become the second youngest U.S. Open champion in nearly a century. Right-wing spectators, however, caught their latest scandal. In a pre-taped segment leading off the telecast, NBC played the Pledge of Allegiance but imprudently omitted the words “under God” and “indivisible.” NBC later apologized that day for the edit, stating, “It was not done to upset anyone and we’d like to apologize to those of you who were offended by it.”

Republicans, however, used the omission as an opportunity to expound upon American moral decline. GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich actually used the edit to plug his book A National Like No Other as “dramatically more relevant” in light of NBC’s edit. Avid golfer Rep. Jim Renacci (R-OH) actually fired off a letter to the U.S. Golf Association asking them to reconsider “its relationship with NBC in advance of any future events.” “When we silence the name of God, we dim the light of freedom that defines us,” Renacci wrote. “That is why this matters.”

Today, Right Wing Watch reports that Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) argues NBC’s omission is actually emblematic of a deeper evil. Joining Family Research Council president Tony Perkins in outrage over the omission, Akin said NBC “systematically” edited out “under God” because NBC is a “very liberal” news outlet and “at the heart of liberalism is really a hatred of God“:

AKIN: This was something that was done systematically, it was done intentionally, and is tremendously corrosive in terms of all of the values and everything that’s made America unique and such a special nation.

PERKINS: Why would NBC do this?

AKIN: Well, I think NBC has a long record of being very liberal and at the heart of liberalism really is a hatred for God and a belief that government should replace God. And so they’ve had a long history of not being at all favorable toward many of things that have been such a blessing to our country…This is a systematic effort to try to separate our faith and God, which is a source in our belief in individual liberties, from our country. And when you do that you tear the heart out of our country.

Listen here:

via GOP Rep. Todd Akin: ‘The Heart Of Liberalism Really Is A Hatred For God’ | ThinkProgress.