"It is disturbing," said Kim Farah of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "that our Church, or any other group, would be singled out for speaking up, voting, and being part of the democratic process."

"Part of the democratic process is," said Savage, "if you're going to throw a punch, you're going to have a punch thrown back; that you don't get to march into the public square, slime people, malign people, demagogue against people, and then jump behind the bushes and say 'No, god, we're a church! You can't criticize us.'"

"The Mormon church has politicized itself with this movement," he added. "The first prophet of the Mormon church had a letter read from...every Mormon temple...instructing its members as a religious duty to donate time and money to this campaign. You cannot campaign against a vulnerable minority group in this country in the political arena without expecting some sort of response."

"This really underscores what many people were saying, that this advancement of same-sex marriage was going to...bring about this confrontation with religious liberties," said Perkins. "It's very frightening when you begin to see these demonstrations of, you know, violating spaces of churches." Perkins alleged that vandalism and church service disruptions were taking place in addition to demonstrations in public spaces.

"Gay bars have been firebombed by people steeped in the hate that Tony Perkins peddles," countered Savage.

On being directly asked if a person's civil rights should be left to the will of the majority, Perkins said, "No one has unrestrained liberties in this country to marry whomever they want...Someone can't marry a close blood relative, they can't marry an underage person--there are restrictions that have been upheld in almost every civilization for millennia."

"You're trying to compare this to interracial marriage, it's not the same thing," Perkins said. "There were extra provisions put that would prohibit people that were man and woman marrying. This is redefining marriage. It's a totally different issue. The people of California have spoken."

"I hope Tony Perkins doesn't pray to Jesus with that mouth, because he bears false witness against his gay and lesbian neighbors, and that's a violation of one of the Ten Commandments," Savage closed.

"This is about public policy, which is to promote the greater good," countered Perkins.

"Not at the expense of minority rights and invididual liberties," Savage rebutted.

The entire segment, as aired on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 on November 12, 2008, is available to view below: