How badly will Tony Perkins' anti-gay broadside hurt the GOP?

Tony Perkins, the influential head of the conservative Christian group the Family Research Council, is urging social conservatives to stop donating money to the GOP to force it to take a stronger stand against gay marriage.

"Until the RNC and the other national Republican organizations grow a backbone and start defending core principles, don't send them a dime of your hard-earned money," Perkins wrote in an email obtained by CNN.

The fundraising boycott isn't intended to sap money from conservative causes — just redirect it away from the GOP. Perkins said his fellow Christian conservatives and others who oppose legalizing same-sex marriage should "give directly to candidates who reflect your values and organizations you trust" — including, he said, the Family Research Council's political action committee.

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The warning shot comes as the Republican National Committee struggles to strike the right tone while public opinion shifts rapidly in favor of allowing same-sex couples to wed. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus has called on Republicans to soften their rhetoric and not use gay marriage as a litmus test to banish people from the GOP camp. Nevertheless, the RNC's Resolutions Committee on Friday scheduled a vote to reaffirm opposition to gay marriage as part of the party's official platform.

Some conservatives fear that Perkins and his fellow stalwarts will do the GOP serious damage by pushing it to double down on the longstanding opposition to gay marriage. Fifty-two percent of right-leaning independents under 50 support gay marriage, according to one recent poll, as do a majority of Republicans under 30, and 62 percent of Millennials. "Democrats and the media would be quick to use the passage of such a resolution" as a sign that Republicans are uniformly against same-sex marriage, say Liz Mair and Marco Nuñez at National Review. Perkins is asking the GOP to alienate the young and moderate voters it needs to win elections.

Many people, especially liberals on the opposite side of the issue, aren't sure why Perkins is so upset. Religious conservatives are livid because Priebus is "paying lip service to rebranding the party" by rejecting anti-gay rhetoric ripped from the Old Testament, says Steve Benen at MSNBC. But the truth is, the GOP is already doing the bidding of social conservatives, and it's costing them big time.