Rand Paul's "Gayer" Remark Draws Evangelical Rebuke

Sen. Rand Paul's joke last week that President Obama's views on marriage couldn't "get any gayer" drew laughter from a crowd of supporters, but some of the Kentucky lawmaker's fellow conservative leaders didn't find it a laughing matter.

"I don't think this is something we should joke about," Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, an influential evangelical leader, said Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation. "We are talking about individuals who feel very strongly one way or the other, and I think we should be civil, respectful, allowing all sides to have the debate. ... I think this is not something to laugh about.”

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus echoed Perkins comments during his own Sunday appearance. "People in this country, no matter straight or gay, deserve dignity and respect," Priebus said on Meet the Press before adding: "However, that doesn't mean it carries on to marriage. I think that most Americans agree that in this country, the legal and historic and the religious union marriage has to have the definition of one man and one woman."

Paul made his comments this past Friday at an Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition event. "The president recently weighed in on marriage and you know he said his views were evolving on marriage. Call me cynical, but I wasn't sure his views on marriage could get any gayer," he said, drawing laughs from the crowd.

"It did kind of bother me though that [Obama] used the justification for it in a biblical reference," Paul continued, as did the laughter. "He said the biblical golden rule caused him to be for gay marriage. And I'm like, 'what version of the Bible is he reading?' ... I don't know what version he's getting it from." You can listen to Paul's comments here.