I try to be nice and respectful. But there are times the gloves must come off — like now.

If you want to diagnose all that is wrong with American Christianity, look no further than Faith2Action’s Janet Porter (formerly Folger). It would be difficult to find a sleazier, less principled congenital liar. Porter’s moral compass is so off-kilter that even a snake like Ralph Reed derisively called her an “issues entrepreneur.”

If Porter had any sense of decency or humility she would be bowing her head in shame today. She was the charlatan behind 1998’s failed Truth in Love campaign . Under her direction at the Center for Reclaiming America for Christ, the Religious Right spent a million dollars selling America on the idea that LGBT people could pray away the gay. The results have been deadly and disastrous.

In 2003, we exposed her “ex-gay” HIV+ television star, Michael Johnston, as a phony who was having unsafe sex with men he picked up on the Internet. This week, the star of her print campaign, John Paulk, came out as a gay man and apologized for participating in this effort.

It is fair to say that Porter/Folger has blood on her hands. She destroyed families, ruined lives, was surely responsible for suicides, and caused many gay kids to end up living on the streets. To further her career, she played games with peoples’ lives and justified her deceit by wrapping it in biblical blanket.

Instead of following Paulk’s lead and asking the LGBT community to forgiver her, Porter doubled down on her arrogance and idiocy. She released an amateurish video comparing gay pride to adultery pride. Folks, put down whatever you are doing and watch this ridiculous video.

(As a bonus, Porno Pete makes a cameo appearance. For the record, Porno Pete’s “ex-gay” poster boy, Wade Richards, came out in the Advocate several years ago)

After screwing up in such a spectacular fashion with Truth in Love, who the hell does Porter think she is to even have an opinion on gay issues? Didn’t she surrender her credibility when her supposedly “healed” star, Michael Johnston, was caught having bareback orgies? Didn’t she at least blush when I photographed Paulk in a gay bar in 2000? Doesn’t she feel slightly humiliated and embarrassed that Paulk came out this week? Surely, a normal, stable person would feel a tinge of shame and have some sense of regret.

Given Porter’s shameful history of lying to the American people and being wrong on gay issues, it seems it would take a special kind of sociopath — one with virtually no conscience — to continue down this deceptive road. This is a woman who has less than no integrity and is about as fake a Christian that one will ever encounter.

Porter is such a zealot that she is unable to learn from past mistakes, lacks the innate ability to reflect, is devoid empathy or compassion, and personifies religious blindness and evil.

She laughably calls herself “pro-life,” but we will never know how many beautiful LGBT people are dead because of her hateful rhetoric and actions.

Hey, Janet, here is truth about your Truth in Love campaign:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YfDYA8OeRD8

(h/t Candace Chellew-Hodge)