Bryan Fischer “Fired” While Republican Party Leaders Travel To Israel on Hate Group’s Tab

Jim Burroway

January 29th, 2015

While news outlets in America are discussing Speaker John Boehner’s irresponsible invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before Congress as part of Netanyahu’s re-election campaign back home, the Israeli daily Haaretz is filling its Israeli readers in on a trip being made by some sixty members of the Republican National Committee, with all expenses paid by the American Family Association. In the process Haaretz is giving its readers a good glimpse of what the AFA’s Bryan Fischer has said on behalf of the organization footing the bill for the Republican junket:

Bryan Fischer, the AFA’s director of issue analysis, has said that black people “rut like rabbits.” Moreover, in a September essay, he wrote: “We are a Christian nation and not a Jewish or Muslim one.” On a video segment on MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show” last Friday, Fischer was seen blasting gay activists as “jack-booted homo-fascist thugs,” and depicting Islam as “an Ebola virus that is lethal and deadly.”

…For his part, AFA’s Fischer, in a 2010 essay slamming the end of the U.S. military’s ban on openly gay soldiers, blamed homosexuals for the Holocaust: “Homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler, and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine and six million dead Jews.”

The AFA has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-gay hate group. GOP Chairman Reince Priebus sent out the invitation for the trip to all 168 RNC members in November. About sixty accepted and are going on the trip, including Priebus. Altogether 98 people are going on the nine-day trip that begins on Saturday. David Lane, who heads the American Renewal Project, is organizing the trip. The American Renewal Project is funded by the AFA, and is housed at AFA headquarters in Tupelo, Mississippi. Haaretz also gave its readers a small dose of some of Lane’s past statements as well:

His American Renewal Project is working to persuade 1,000 evangelical pastors to run for public office in 2016. “The Lord gave me this model of mobilizing pastors to try and engage the culture. Somebody’s values are going to rein supreme,” Lane told Haaretz, adding, “America was founded by Christians for the glory of God and the Christian faith.”

…We were established as a Christian nation in the name of God and for the advancement of the Christian faith. It’s my position that we’ve lost that,” Lane explained, in an appearance on conservative political commentator Glenn Beck’s television show “The Blaze.” “Restoring America to our Judeo-Christian heritage and re-establishing a Christian culture is the only way that we get out of where we are.”

No one from the RNC, the Republican Jewish Coalition, or the Anti-Defamation League would respond to a week’s worth of telephone messages from Haaretz for comment.

So far, this has been little noted in the American press, although it’s gotten to be a really big deal in Israel. Debra Nussbaum Cohen, the Haaretz reporter, appeared on Rachel Maddow last night to talk about the story. Maddow also reported that the AFA has responded by announcing that Fischer has been “fired” as a spokesperson and Director of Issues Analysis for the AFA. Tim Wildmon, the AFA’s president, told MSNBC that Fischer was now “just a radio host,” and that he was “fired” because of “the soundbite quotes, you know, the Hitler and the homosexuality one…” Maddow noted that even though Fischer has a long history of consistently making these same remarks over and over, Wildmon said simply, “we reject that.” For now, at least, while the Israeli public’s eyes are on them.

I’m still putting Fischer’s “firing” in quotes, because he apparently still has his radio program, carried throughout the AFA’s radio network of more than 200 stations. He may no longer have the title, but he still has the same national platform that he always had, courtesy of the AFA:

Meanwhile, more than a third of the entire Republican National Committee and its chairman will depart Saturday in the company of several Christian Reconstructionists on the AFA’s $400,000 tab. So for now, nothing’s really changed.

Michael C

January 29th, 2015

I can’t seem to find a list of the RNC members joining the AFA and David Lane (dominionist) on this trip.

Anyone?

Nathaniel

January 29th, 2015

When people like Fischer speak against Judaism, they are giving voice to a hidden truth in this version of Christianity. They believe Jews who reject Jesus are as condemned to the fires of Hell as homosexuals and Muslims. But, they also believe Jesus won’t return unless the Children of Israel are restored to their ancestral homeland (i.e. the boundaries of the Biblical kingdoms of Israel and Judea). But people are more willing to be herded onto reservations if they believe that those doing the herding only have the herded’s best interests in mind. So, even thought they don’t like Jews, these kinds of Christians have to at least pretend that they do.

Incidentally, this is also why some Evangelical groups insist on a “support Israel no matter what” foreign policy from national politicians. But this lack of nuance only breeds resentment among displaced Muslim communities, and supports a continuous cycle of violence.

Richard Rush

January 29th, 2015

I doubt that AFA would strip Fischer of his radio show. I suspect that he shakes loose more money from AFA’s gullible homo-hatin’ bigots than any other individual at AFA. I’d bet that most of the $400,000 that AFA is spending to send those Republicans to Israel is available thanks to Fischer.

FYoung

January 29th, 2015

Richard Rush: ” I’d bet that most of the $400,000 that AFA is spending to send those Republicans to Israel is available thanks to Fischer.”

Personally, I would expect the $400,000 comes from Israel, directly or indirectly.

Nathaniel

January 29th, 2015

An intriguing notion, FYoung, but there is no reason to believe that this money didn’t come directly from unfortunate, gullible American AFA donors. Indeed, given such anti-Jewish slips, it would be surprising if the nation of Israel was stuffing AFA pockets, rather than supporting more direct interest groups. Of course, I guess it never hurts to diversify your portfolio.

Timothy Kincaid

January 29th, 2015

The upside: we’ve finally found the limit to which Tim Wildon is willing to back absolute bat-poopery.

It turns out that Fischer’s “the nazis were homosexuals” craziness is something that AFA “doesn’t support”.

I guess it’s nice to know that they do have a limit.

Ryan

January 29th, 2015

They only finally have a limit because of the current controversy in Israel. They clearly never cared about his anti-gay bigotry. The question is, which GOP politicians will continue appearing on his show?

Neil

January 29th, 2015

It appears Mr Wildmon has made it a practice all these years to studiously avoid Mr Fischer’s radio program, his pronouncements as policy director for the association Wildmon leads, and quite possibly any contact from Fischer at all.

This is probably a wise move from Wildmon for the sake of his own sanity, but it does make him look pretty silly now that it appears he’s only become aware of what Fischer has been saying throughout due to coverage just breaking in an Israeli newspaper.

I gather the disavowal doesn’t extend to taking Fischer off the payroll or removing him from their radio broadcasts. Perhaps for Wildmon this is immaterial as he never listens. He might be advised to learn that other people do.

LJ

January 29th, 2015

Ryan asks, “The question is, which GOP politicians will continue appearing on his show?”

I’ll take “ones for whom I won’t be voting” for $200, please… Which would be funnier, I suppose, if there were much danger of that happening in the first place.

Sharon B

January 30th, 2015

In reality this means nothing. It is a fig leaf; aka, plausible deniability.

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