LaBarbera Award: AFA’s Bryan Fischer

Timothy Kincaid

February 4th, 2010

The American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer has a blog commentary today about the problems with that Lawrence v. Texas. Homosexuality should be illegal; it would make life easier. If gay folk were all just declared felons, then all of those pesky issues with civil rights and freedoms would just go away.

Think for a moment of the current social controversies that could potentially be avoided if homosexual conduct was still against the law.

Gays in the military: problem solved. We shouldn’t make a place for habitual felons in the armed forces. End of discussion, end of controversy. If someone objects, ask them which other felonies the military ought to overlook in screening recruits.

Gay marriage: problem solved. We should never legalize unions between any two people when the union is forged specifically to engage in felony behavior. Would we sanction, for instance, the formation of a corporation whose stated purpose was to import illegal drugs?

Gay indoctrination in the schools: problem solved. We don’t want to raise a generation of schoolchildren to believe that felony behavior is perfectly appropriate. That’s why we spend so much money warning students about the danger of drugs.

Hate crimes laws: problem solved. We wouldn’t throw a pastor in jail for saying that illegal behavior is not only illegal but also immoral. For instance, he’s free to say that murder is not only contrary to man’s law but also to God’s law. End of the threat to freedom of religion and speech.

Special rights for homosexuals in the workplace: problem solved. No employer should be forced to hire admitted felons to work for him. End of the threat to freedom of religion and freedom of association in the marketplace.

But why stop with the homosexual felons? Why not apply this solution to other social undesirables.

fischerTwo months ago, Fischer identified another group that were getting all uppity and trying to be treated just like real people.

It is time, I suggest, to stop the practice of allowing Muslims to serve in the U.S. military. The reason is simple: the more devout a Muslim is, the more of a threat he is to national security. Devout Muslims, who accept the teachings of the Prophet as divinely inspired, believe it is their duty to kill infidels.

Well, that issue has a little problem with the First Amendment. The whole establishment of religion thingy says that the military can’t determine who gets to serve based on religion.

But we can get around that; just declare all Muslims to be felons. Problem solved. We shouldn’t make a place for habitual felons in the armed forces. End of discussion, end of controversy.

Ya know, this could be a really effective tool.

Take the dangerous issue of African Americans wanting to get a fair trial and states executing criminals solely because they are white.

Put simply, there is no evidence to suggest that blacks aren’t committing the majority of homicides in general and first degree murders in particular. Nor is there any evidence to suggest that proponents of affirmative action will demand that we begin to execute more blacks to make up for their present under-representation in American death chambers. And we can safely say they are under-represented by ignoring their representation in the general population (an irrelevant 12%) and looking at their representation among the population of killers (a relevant 55%).

Solution: declare all African Americans to be felons. Not only would that return black men to their proper place in the social order (and proper treatment by the judicial system), but it would solve indoctrination in schools, hate crimes, and special rights in the workplace all in one fell swoop.

But, you know, why hold back. We should just make socialists, atheists, feminists, and the poor all to be felons. If we define it broadly enough, we could make American a wonderful place again for straight, white, Southern Baptist land-owning men, like our founding fathers intended.

Now I know that we might have a small problem for a while with our crime rates. I mean there would be an awful lot of felons in the country at first. But we could just rightly apply the death penalty for dangerous felons; and then we wouldn’t have ACLU types going on and on about jail overcrowding.

And if someone objects, ask them which other felonies the country ought to overlook.

Edwin

February 4th, 2010

They need to outlaw all preachers and their so called house’s of worship.
With all their ranting and raving gone this would be a better country.
Jesus Loves Me and I Am His Favorite!

Burr

February 4th, 2010

The irony of his marriage example is that felons ARE allowed to be married. Moron.

AJD

February 4th, 2010

My big question is, when is the Southern Poverty Law Center going to add AFA to its hate group list?

Lynn David

February 4th, 2010

You will likely have some other candidates come out of the conference at Liberty University on Friday and Saturday of next week. Check it out:

http://www.lc.org/index.cfm?PID=14100&PRID=903
See also the PDFs linked at that site.

Especially from the Saturday installment:

Panel I – Homosexuals or Homo Sapiens: Who Deserves Protected Class Status?
Panelist: Mr. William Duncan

Panel II – Hate Speech and Free Speech: Will the Advancement of Homosexual Rights Silence Others?
Panelists: Professor Lynne Marie Kohm and Professor Lynn Wardle

Panel III – Hire Them and Don’t Fire Them: How Homosexual Rights and Privileges Have Eroded Employers’ Rights and Destroyed Religious Freedom
Panelists: Mr. Robert Knight and Ms. Elaine Donnelly

Panel IV – Neutrality in the Post-Modern Era
Panelists: Associate Dean J. Matt Barber and Professor Rena Lindevaldsen

Mykelb

February 4th, 2010

It would just be a shame if the roof caved in on all those Liberty University students.

AdrianT

February 5th, 2010

Nutcases like this will only accelerate the demise of religion in America.

Donnchadh

February 5th, 2010

What is most offensive intellectually is the hopeless circularity of his argument: he’s saying we would have a consensus that homosexuality is bad if it was a felony, but we only declare something a felony if there is a consensus that it is bad.

Bill S

February 5th, 2010

Note that he’s another homobigot who’s lying about what the hate crime laws are about.
I realize it’s a small point, but will they ever give up that lie now that they know it’s demonstrably false?
Wait, what am I talking about. Of course they won’t.
In any case, it’s still kind of shocking to see someone express their bigotry so blatantly. Usual homophobes are slightly more diplomatic when dealing with the general public.

Matt

February 5th, 2010

“We shouldn’t make a place for habitual felons in the armed forces.”

Ummm. To meet recruiting quotas for the Bush-depleted military, they have permitted ex-cons for even violent crimes to enlist. There are skinheads and White Supremacists galore in the Armed Forces–many part of a deliberative effort to provide military training for “god’s army.”

Brady

February 5th, 2010

I agree with Bill S. about Fischer’s lying about hate crimes. He’s also repeating the lie about religious freedoms (i.e. Pastors going to jail for saying homosexuality is illegal).

I am kind of glad that he said this stuff. I’ve been kind of sick of the people that were fighting so adamantly against Lawrence v. Texas all of the sudden pretending that they have always believed the law was wrong. Glad to see some true colors showing back through.

Richard Rush

February 5th, 2010

While people such as the American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer understandably get nearly all the attention, I like to think about the gullible obedient foot-soldiers who dutifully and regularly send small amounts of money to these organizations, and ministries. They are the lifeblood that enable these outfits to exist. I know something about that because a very close relative of mine was one of them for many decades.

Fortunately, AFA provides a window into the fascinating world of the foot-soldiers via the comments posted with articles published on their “news” outlet, OneNewsNow. While it often seems their obsession with gays is all-consuming, it is somewhat comforting when they address other issues as it exposes how their whole world is ruled by delusion and superstition. For example, here is an article about some disturbing evil going on at Toys R Us. They are selling Ouija boards, including a pink edition marketed to young girls. If the commenters were not representative of millions of people providing financial support to these outfits, they could be dismissed as just pathetically and hilariously delusional. But they comprise a substantial number of the people enabling the anti-gay industry.

Here is one comment quoted verbatim about the Ouija board issue:

Ouija boards are evil and a powerful tool that Satin uses to put people in bondage once they become involved with it. As a Christian, all we can and must do is to warn anyone that even thinks about getting this so-called game and follow up with prayer. Interceding for them not to go down that path. I’ll Begin by practice what I preach. Heavenly Father, Please I pray the. For everyone that reads this, that is thinking of getting a Ouija board or knows of anyone thinking or planning of getting one. Open their eyes to the truth and reality of the evil that is on this so-called game.What ever it takes. In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen & Amen

Okay, I understand that anyone taking a Ouija board game seriously is nutty, but no more nutty than the AFA folks.

Jarred

February 5th, 2010

Ouija boards are evil and a powerful tool that Satin uses to put people in bondage once they become involved with it.

I never realized that a textile had the free agency to use tools. Seriously, how can anyone take a person of faith seriously when they can’t even correctly spell the name of their own evil deity?

Scott

February 5th, 2010

There are couple of religious nutcases on the radio here in the Minneapolis area who are on the “criminalize teh gays” bandwagon as well. I think that they are quite unaware that they completely undermine any credibility that they think they have when they take that stand.

Ben in Oakland

February 5th, 2010

jarred: you are mistaken. Satin is evil, especially if it is a polyester blend. See leviticus, and then pray.

Seirously though, how stupid do you have to be to be a bigot like this. Is there a contest, or can anybody do it? Lawrence overturned the remaining sdodomy laws for 14 states, if I recall. In 9 of those states, sodomy laws applied to both hetero and homo sex.

So it seems to me that if we were to apply his “logic” no one would be able to get married unless we had cameras installed everywhere to make sure that heteros weren’t doing things with their genitalia that the AFA wouldn’t approve of. Like they did and they do.

The stupid….it…it… BURRRNNNNNS.

Sarah

February 6th, 2010

I actually read this as satire at first. It kind of makes his opposite point if you read it with that in mind.

Rob in San diego

February 9th, 2010

I thought felons are allowed to get married, and jobs are able to hire felons if they choose to. Depending on the type of job that is.

Jody May-Chang

February 16th, 2010

Bryan Fischer is well-known in Idaho. The man’s obsession with and hatred of homosexuals is well documented. I have been reporting on this guy for years during his reign of terror on LGBT Idahoans.

His latest rant on criminalizing homosexuals is just the tip of the iceberg of who this hate-monger really is.

For those who are interested in learning more on this bully. I have assembled an archive on my site (The Fischer Files) that reporters and activists might find illuminating.

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