The American Family Association, identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group, is lashing out at its critics. On his radio program Monday, AFA talking head Bryan Fischer claimed that criticism of AFA’s extremist rhetoric and its role in organizing Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s August prayer event in Houston is actually a hate crime. And he blames gay people specifically.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-d9_SsBRg0]
“(What) homosexual activists want to do to me and the AFA is a hate crime. In other words, what you are watching, ladies and gentlemen, you are watching the slow-motion commission of a hate crime. You are watching a hate crime in action. Because the definition of a hate crime is harassment, intimidation that is based by prejudice, motivated by prejudice against somebody’s religious beliefs. So this intimidation, this harassment, and remember one of the definitions in a hate crime of harassment is derogatory terminology, derogatory language, so you can see all kinds of epithets that are going to be thrown at us, that meets the definition of a hate crime.”
So Fischer thinks he and AFA are being “harassed” because of their religious beliefs? We’d like to know which religious teachings led Fischer to call the African-American president of the United States a “boy.” What religion taught him that gay people were responsible for the murder of millions of Jews during the Holocaust? What religion told Fischer it’s okay to smear– in truly vile terms — African-American women who are on welfare?
Fischer wants to complain about “derogatory terminology” and “epithets” aimed at him and AFA? Well, we suppose he would know what qualifies as such. After all, Fischer calls Muslims “parasites” and a “toxic cancer.” He also knows something about intimidation, having suggested that the U.S. military should kill Muslims who don’t to convert to Christianity. Isn’t threatening death the ultimate intimidation tactic?
Truth is, AFA’s critics are simply shining a light on the organization’s divisive and hateful rhetoric. So it’s worth asking: why is Gov. Perry associating with this hate group? Sign the open letter calling on Gov. Perry to stop working with AFA and to make his August prayer event truly open and welcoming to all people of goodwill who love their country.
(Video from the vigilant folks at Right Wing Watch.)
Perry’s latest nonsense:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNVwGNrvKnU&feature=player_embedded
I bet Julius Streicher (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Streicher) said the same thing. The Jews just hated him for no apparent reason. He was the victim of a slow motion 1930s hate crime put into effect by the international Jewish conspiracy, the Jew Roosevelt, the Bolshevik Stalin, and the aristocrat Churchill—all simply because he had rooted out the “existence” of the conspiracy and made its details known to the world.
How do I characterize this?
“When I kill you , it is a blessing of great good.. When you kill me, it is persecution—and I am just a widdle defenseless wictim.
Streicher also believed that the Nuremberg judges were all or at least for the most part Jews. Btw, even most dedicated Nazis thought that Streicher was a nutcase. Intelligence tests conducted at Nuremberg also showed that he was one of (iirc) three of the main defendents with markedly below average IQ (the others were all significantly above average). Like the modern GOP the Nazi leadership consisted of cynics without scruples and a handful of basket cases (Stalinist regimes were imo mainly run by apparatchiks even at the top level).
I feel that the following brief sermon by Friar Sean Andrew Lotz of the Celtic Catholic Church is the truly Christian response to Bryan Fischer, the American Family Association, the Southern Baptist Convention, Westboro Baptist Church, Governor Perry, and those of similar mind. Give it a read. You will not be sorry—I don’t think. Here it is:
http://www.celtic-catholic-church.org/oak_tree/does-God-hate-gays.html
Fischer errors in his premise that GLBTT organizations are exercising a slow motion hate crime against his organization and against him. This is classic fundamentalism hard at work. Fundamentalism essentially follows the same 14 tenets that defined the Nationalist Socialist Movement of Germany., which, not surprising, are the identical tenets of the current Republican platform., and the reason these two organizations are in bed together.
See if you see any similarities in what is happening today with these two organizations and the doctrine of the nazis:
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
4. Supremacy of the Military
5. Rampant Sexism
6. Controlled Mass Media
7. Obsession with National Security
8. Religion and Government Intertwined
9. Corporate Power Protected
10. Labor Power Suppressed
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
14. Fraudulent Elections
Of these doctrines created by the National Socialist Party of Germany under Hitler, how many apply in mainstream America today as supported and defended by both the GOP and the Religious Right?
Fundamentalism grew popular in the 1870’s, primarily in the Southern States and Texas as an outcry against their anger over having lost the Civil War and the end of slavery. With fundamentalism grew the beginning and rise of the Ku Klux Klan, as the two were intertwined. Together they preached hatred and fear against fellow Americans whom they had once enslaved simply because they were of a different race.
It wasn’t until the 60’s when federal mandates prohibited segregated churches and an end to Jim Crow laws. Having lost their poweful messages for fear and hatred, Fundamentalist then found a new cause- persecution of homosexuals based on eight passages of Scripture contained in the Old and New Testaments. The GOP recognized this powerful tool and have aligned themselves with the religious right, and vice-versa.
People like Fischer have to make compelling arguments to turn away attention from their hate crimes and place the blame on someone else. It is classic Argumentium ad Hominem Abusive. ” The Fundamentalist, similar to the GOP will use any and every means necessary to both protect and promote their agenda, existentially incorrect arguments, inductive reasoning, fear tactic, et al. If all else fails, bring in the smoking gun—abuse toward their perceived enemies. Turn this into fear and eventually will grow mistrust and hatred. We know what the final step is, just look to World War II if unsure.
Ignore people like Fischer, Hagge, Bachmann, Gingrivh, Palin. Perry and the GOP at your own peril. The GOP combined with the religious right is the new Nationalist Socialist Party, who was able to take the most orderly, best educated, enlightened, and wealthy society of the early half of this last century and turn them in the the most fascist state ever known, massacring millions of innocent people for their cause. It is happening here and now.