Rick Scarborough

Rick Scarborough is a Christian right political advocate and former Southern Baptist pastor from Pearland, Texas, who heads Vision America, Vision America Action and the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration.
Rick Scarborough received a B.A. from Houston Baptist University, in 1978 he received a M.Div. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a D.Min. from Louisiana Baptist Theological Seminary in 1996. LBU is an unaccredited University and holds no form of recognition. From 1990 to June 2002, he served as the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of Pearland in Houston, Texas. In 1998, he founded Vision America. He has been involved with Focus on the Family.
He has traveled extensively and is viewed by some conservative leaders as the Christian right leader in 2006 and in 2008. He has been interviewed and has appeared in the media on several occasions, including Larry King Live.
He is married and has two children.

Scarborough advocates for Christian right political values. He was quoted on Christiane Amanpour's documentary series "God's Warriors" on CNN as saying, "I'm not a Republican, I'm not a Democrat. I'm a Christocrat. My allegiance is to Jesus Christ". He has said, "America is at war with the devil", and he supports "voting Biblically." In 2006, he criticized former Ambassador to the United Nations and U.S. Senator John Danforth for supporting embryonic stem cell research. He has publicly supported Justice Antonin Scalia.

Scarborough opposes same-sex marriage, describing it as a sign America is moving "closer to hell" and told E. W. Jackson he is willing to be burned to death opposing gay rights. After the U.S. Supreme Court effectively legalized Same-sex marriage in the United States with the Obergefell v. Hodges decision, the media reported that Scarborough had not set himself on fire. He describes AIDS as "God's judgement" and supports filing class-action lawsuits against homosexuals for "subjecting people to becoming AIDS sufferers".

He also endorsed Mike Huckabee for president. Concerning the decision of Texas Governor Rick Perry to vaccinate all 6th grade girls against those HPV strains that are most likely to produce cancer after infection, Scarborough said, "Nor we can not overlook the moral dimension. The governor's action seems to signify that God's moral law regarding sex outside of marriage can be transgressed without consequence."

He has been accused of not being a real Baptist.