Gary DeMar

The group advocates for a complete theocracy governed by Old Testament law. He is an outspoken anti-gay activist who regularly hosts and speaks at Christian-right events.

In His Own Words:
“The Bible is clear on moral issues that are culture killers: homosexuality, homosexual marriage, and abortion.”
– “Why Liberals (Sometimes) Love the Bible,” American Vision website, Dec. 21, 2009

“One of the reasons most people oppose homosexuality is that they understand that homosexuality is biologically impossible. If everybody were engaged in homosexual behavior in 100 years the human race would go out of existence. It’s irrational, immoral, unnatural, all the things that in any other field we would say if a person acted in that way we would say that that particular type of behavior is something we should not be engaged in.”
– “The Victoria Jackson Show,” July 3, 2012

“Would Senator Rob Portman throw his support behind pedophilia if he had learned that his son was a pedophile? There are young pedophiles out there. Would he support adultery if his son was an adulterer? Would he support slavery if he found out that one of his relatives was a slave owner and argued persuasively that owning slaves was legitimate? Would the Senator Rob Portman support his son if he learned that he was selling drugs to children? Would he support contract killing if he learned that his son was a contract killer for the mob?”
– Responding to U.S. Sen. Rob Portman’s support for marriage equality, Political Outcast website, March 16, 2013

“I’m sure that people who have jumped ship to embrace pro-homosexual marriage have not thought through the consequences of their decisions, especially young people who are almost always in an affirming mood. The day will come when they will have children, and there won’t be a thing they will be able to do to stop predators from taking advantage of their children because ‘it will be against the law to discriminate.’
– Responding to U.S. Sen. Rob Portman’s support for marriage equality, Political Outcast website, March 16, 2013

Background:
Gary DeMar is the president of American Vision, a Christian reconstructionist think tank based in Powder Springs, Ga. DeMar has worked for the group since 1981, when he started as a research analyst, and became its president in 1986. He graduated from Western Michigan University in 1973 and obtained a Masters of Divinity degree from Reformed Theological Seminary in 1979. DeMar has written more than two dozen books, mostly centered on his radical Christian beliefs.

DeMar’s American Vision is one of the strongholds of Christian Reconstructionist thought. Its tenets hold that the United States was founded as a “Christian nation” and that democracy needs to be replaced with a theocratic government based on Old Testament law. American Vision holds that it is “restor[ing] America’s Biblical foundation” by advocating practices as draconian as the death penalty for those who engage in LGBT sex. According to DeMar, the occasional execution would serve society well by driving “homosexuality underground, back into the closet.” In a December 2009 episode of “The Gary DeMar Show,” a radio program started in June 2006, DeMar’s guest, American Vision’s research director, Joel McDurmon, said that “when most of a society is Christian, is biblical, then it [execution of LGBT people] is perfectly normal; it should definitely be in place.” This statement elicited no complaint from DeMar.

DeMar’s inflammatory statements do not stop with his anti-LGBT remarks. In April 2009, he stated that a “long-term goal” should be “the execution of abortionists and their parents.” While defending former U.S. Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) in August 2012 after the congressman’s remarks on “legitimate rape” and pregnancy, DeMar said, “Liberals may wish us to believe that no woman would ever stoop so low as to lie about being raped. But this simply does not comport with what we Christians know about fallen human nature. We, conservatives, all agree that millions of women annually conspire to commit murder on their unborn babies. So do you expect me to feel it unacceptable to believe they would lie about why? This is political correctness run amok. Why, after all, would someone willing to kill out of convenience not also lie for various reasons out of convenience?”

He is also no friend to Islam. In August 2010, he claimed, “The long-term goal of Islam is the abolition of our constitutional freedoms.”

In April 2005, DeMar appeared with former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who was thrown out of office two years earlier  for defying a federal court order to  remove a Ten Commandments statue from the state judicial building, at a “Restore America” rally in Powder Spring, Ga. Restore America is a group founded in 1999 to mobilize evangelical Christians to vote. According to the group’s website, “We Christians are commanded by Christ Himself to be ‘salt and light’ to the culture in which we live, and Voting is an important aspect of that duty.” Restore America’s duty is, “The Restoration and Preservation of America as a nation ‘Under God.’”

In 2010, DeMar was a speaker at the national “Taking America Back” conference, organized by Joseph Farah and WorldNetDaily (WND) after Farah boycotted the annual Conservative Political Action Conference because it included an LGBT Republican group. Other speakers included U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), former SNL cast member Victoria Jackson, former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), and R.C. Sproul Jr., a figure in the theocratic Christian “patriarchy” movement and prominent homeschooling advocate.

A month later, DeMar’s America Vision hosted a similar event titled “Sovereignty and Dominion Worldview Super Conference,” sponsored by Liberty University Law School. DeMar’s organization also has sponsored as a series of cruises. On Sept. 22-29, 2012, the “Monumental Tour and Cruise” allowed followers to “experience Monumental as [they] join Kirk Cameron, Marshall Foster, and Gary DeMar as they retrace the steps of the forefathers and visit the historical sites, monuments, and locations of the Pilgrims.” The cruise’s goal was to give its participants “the knowledge you need to combat progressive liberalism as they unwrap history and give you the tools to fully understand America’s Christian heritage.” Earlier that year, from Jan. 8-15, 2012, American Vision supporters could also embark on “The Patriot Cruise” to “equip you for opposing the godless apologists of the liberal machine.” DeMar was a key speaker at both events.