Doug Mainwaring has emerged as a favorite Religious Right spokesman against marriage equality since he is not only a Tea Party leader but also openly gay.

Writing today in the right-wing American Thinker, Mainwaring alleges that statements by religious figures such as Pope Francis that appear supportive of gay rights “have poisoned faith” with “regressive, pagan ideologies.”

According to Mainwaring, marriage equality is a plot by “statists” who want to make sure that the “institution of marriage is obliterated from human civilization, in which case, we will no longer actually have a civilization.”

He adds that the main reason people increasingly favor marriage equality is because “a vast swath of the population just sick and tired of hearing about gays in the news day after day for the last few years” and “sick and tired of irrational accusations of bigotry and homophobia.”