Marco Rubio: USA at ‘Water’s Edge’ of Declaring Christianity ‘Hate Speech’

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is worried that freedom of speech and freedom of religion both are endangered by a growing leftist bigotry that is rising in the country. Religion in particular is facing a “real and present danger” of being labeled “hate speech,” he said.

In an interview with CBN News, Rubio discussed his strong Catholic faith, saying that it might not be long before that faith is turned into a crime.

“If you think about it,” Rubio said, “we are at the water’s edge of the argument that mainstream Christian teaching is hate speech. Because today we’ve reached the point in our society where if you do not support same-sex marriage, you are labeled a homophobe and a hater.”

Rubio pointed out that the logical end game for liberals who have already begun to persecute and prosecute individual Christians is ultimately to outlaw the faith itself.

“After they are done going after individuals, the next step is to argue that the teachings of mainstream Christianity, the catechism of the Catholic Church is hate speech, and there’s a real and present danger,” he said.

During the interview Rubio said that Christian beliefs must be allowed to flourish but that politics is infringing on that religious freedom. Following that line of thought, at the end of April, Rubio insisted that it is “ridiculous and absurd” to imagine that there is some sort of Constitutional right to gay marriage.

“It doesn’t exist. There is no federal constitutional right to same sex-marriage. There isn’t such a right,” Rubio said on CBN’s “The Brody File” show.

“You would have to really have a ridiculous and absurd reading of the U.S. Constitution to reach the conclusion that people have a right to marry someone of the same sex,” he added.

In the same interview, Rubio also said that the issue of same-sex marriage is one that should be handled in the states but that gay activists prefer to try forcing a federal law to bind the whole country because they can’t win on the local level.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter: @warnerthuston. Email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.