Echoing a statement he made two years ago, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins wrote in his daily email to his group’s members yesterday that the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the supposed persecution of Christians in the U.S. military are draining “morality” from the armed forces and leading to an epidemic of sexual assaults and suicide,.

Perkins also blasted Defense Secretary Ash Carter for a plan to ease some recruitment standards for service members, including accepting people with minor criminal records such as drug offenses for some positions. “In the U.S. military, it might soon be criminals in — Christians out!” he warns.

Reports have shown that the military is facing difficulties in finding recruits due to a number of factors, including a stronger economy, high obesity rates and college dropout rates. But Perkins suggests that the military would solve its recruiting woes if it simply ended progress toward LGBT rights and brought back “morality.”

“Our troops are tired of fighting two wars: America’s and the culture’s,” he writes.

Perkins has previously blamed military sexual assaults on the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and warned that it would damage recruiting efforts to the extent that proponents of the repeal would have the “blood of young Marines on their hands.”