Craig James, the former SMU football star and Senate candidate whose retrograde views on homosexuality, litigiousness and overall mediocrity have made him unemployable as a football analyst, has fallen into a new career as a mouthpiece for the religious right.
The Family Research Council, labeled by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-gay hate group, has hired James as an assistant to president Tony Perkins.
James will do some lobbying, some speaking and occasional work hosting the "Washington Watch Live" radio program, per the Houston Chronicle. In the words of the FRC, he will "cultivate relationships with like-minded Americans across the country who share a common concern for the growing hostility toward free speech and religious liberty in the U.S."
See also: Craig James (Sort Of) Addresses That "Google Bomb" About Those "Five Dead Hookers"
James seems to have landed his new gig largely because, on his abrupt dismissal from Fox Sports Southwest last year, he said he was an outspoken Christian. The religious right has improbably spun this into a tale of religious persecution, a charge FRC makes several times in announcing James' hire.
In a statement, Perkins says James' experience of discrimination makes him specially qualified to "rais[e] awareness about the threats to our most precious liberty -- the freedom of religion.
See also: Craig James' Discrimination Case Isn't Nearly As Impressive As He'd Have You Think
"Craig has experienced the very workplace disqualification that cultural elites are seeking to impose throughout the country: expressing a politically incorrect opinion on a cultural issue, totally unconnected to employment, is enough to get you fired."
Meanwhile, James continues to pursue his discrimination complaint with the Texas Workforce Commission and deny that he killed five hookers at SMU.
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