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Brian Fischer Says Shooting Proves NRC and AFA Not Hate Groups

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Last updated on August 18th, 2012 at 03:48 pm

So the AFA’s Bryan Fischer, the Issues Analysis guy who doesn’t understand issues and can’t analyze anything, says because there was a shooting at FRC headquarters that the Southern Poverty Law Center should remove “both FRC and AFA from its hate group list.” He says it’s all SPLC’s fault.

Tony Perkins of the FRC, who once paid $82,500 to use KKK leader David Duke’s mailing list, and who gave a speech to a group that describes blacks as ”retrograde species of humanity,” embraced hypocrisy with both hands and also blamed SPLC for the shootings:

“Floyd Corkins was given a license to shoot an unarmed man by organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center that have been reckless in labeling organizations hate groups because they disagree with them on public policy. I believe the Southern Poverty Law Center should be held responsible that is leading to intimidation of what the FBI has characterized as domestic terrorism.”

You knew they’d try to capitalize on Wednesday’s incident, and they have, after ignoring their own hate speech and any shooting incident which could be traced to right wing hate speech.

But they don’t seem to have thought things out too well: So can we hold all you right wing hate groups accountable when people get shot? The NRA and the Republican Party too? Can we? That seems to be what they’re advocating. I mean, when was the last time liberals and progressives weren’t accused of hatred and intolerance, including the President of the United States? The volume of hate coming out of these people is astonishing. I’m only able to comment on a fraction of it.

Just last week, in fact, Rep. James Lankford (R-OK) said that it should be okay to fire people because they’re gay. Brian Fischer himself as advocated the criminal activity of kidnapping children from same-sex couples – simply because those couples are gay or lesbian. Fischer is infamous for claiming Muslims shouldn’t have First Amendment protections. According to the ADL, William Gheen regularly ”demonizes immigrants as drunk drivers, gang members, invaders, murderers, and disease-carriers. ”

So…um, sorry, Bryan and Tony, no moral high ground for you. And hell guys, it’s liberals who are pushing for stricter gun control laws. It’s not us who want a gun in every pocket!

What results from these two opening their mouths on the same day is an orgasmic fundie celebration marrying self-martyrdom to false equivalencies where thought plays no role. You begin to wonder if these two clowns got together and gave each other a bunch of concussions before they opened their mouths.

I’m not ruling anything out at this point.

But let’s look at all this nonsense more carefully before we consign it to the round file. There is humor to be had here and we should avail ourselves of every opportunity to laugh, not that a person was shot (which is horrible and inexcusable) but that Fischer’s (and Perkins’) brain can actually arrive at the conclusions it arrives at:

However, this near-tragic incident marks an alarming turn in our cultural battle over values. The left’s war on religion and Christianity has now gone from symbolic to literal.

First of all, no left wing “group” was responsible for the attack. It was a lone gunman. Atheists and gay rights groups have all condemned the shooting and none have advocated violence, unlike right-wing hate groups. We think you suck, Bryan and Tony, but we’re not planning on killing you. For some of us, you’re like a golden goose. I’m never at a loss for something to write about. Seriously.

But more, what’s amazing is that Fischer can dismiss all the shootings that can be laid at the door of right wing extremist rhetoric but focus on a single shooting at FRC as evidence of a war on Christianity. That’s award winning myopia by any reckoning. If a war is being waged at all it is by fundamentalist Christianity against everybody else.

And this revelation will make you kerblink:

As conservatives, we believe that public policy disputes should be resolved through the use of ballots, not bullets, through votes, not violence, through reason not rage.

I’ll let Jon Stewart speak to reason:

And Ballots? Really? Voted on by whom? Not Democrats, clearly, since you’re busy disenfranchising them, and your criminal assault on American democracy being upheld by your pet judges.

And rage? You have to wonder if Bryan listens to his own broadcasts and reads his own blog posts. We’ve covered plenty of them here. I mean, coming from Bryan Fischer, I hardly know where to begin with this one. The record of this man’s rage alone would fill volumes, and the use of reason is sadly not in evidence on either Fischer’s radio show or his blog (the same goes for Perkins).

Fischer is never unwilling to lie in the cause of hatred – seems almost eager to do so in fact, as he does here:

Disagreement is not hatred. We don’t hate anyone. In fact, we love homosexuals enough to tell them the truth about the risks involved in their lifestyle choices. But for those who hate the truth, the truth will seem to be hate.

With lovers like Bryan Fischer you don’t need haters. That’s some twisted thinking by a truly twisted mind. Without hate, Fischer wouldn’t be in business cause it ain’t love he’s selling.

All this is ridiculous enough, but Fischer hasn’t even reached the high-water mark of stupidity yet. That comes with this gem:

However, The Southern Poverty Law Center must be called to account. The SPLC argues incessantly that the use of inflammatory and incendiary language when talking about homosexuality promotes violence, and are quick to blame FRC and other organizations such as AFA for every act of violence they possibly can.

Yet the SPLC has consistently used dangerously misguided language in classifying the Family Research Council as a “hate” group with absolutely no foundation. They have repeatedly and without cause demonized FRC, and have spent years stirring up anger in the homosexual community and directing that anger toward an organization whose only crime is to promote and defend the classic American values of faith, family and freedom.

Thus according to SPLC’s own standards, it is the SPLC that is to blame for yesterday’s shooting.

This from the guy who condemned Gov. Chris Christie for finding bigotry “disturbing.”

So the Southern Poverty Law Center, by identifying (correctly) the FRC and AFA as hate groups, is responsible for people hating the FRC and AFA? That wouldn’t make sense if I drank mead nonstop for a week. I’m sorry. The SPLC doesn’t stir up hate – it identifies hate; it calls out hate for what it is. The FRC and AFA do the hating.

It’s rather like the old Evangelical claim I started hearing in the ’90s that by calling them out for being intolerant we’re being intolerant – of their intolerance. But there’s a reason why Pagan philosopher Porphyry said, “It is easier to write words on water than try to use argument on a Christian.”[1]

Bryan offers another absurdity, echoing his pal Tony:

But the SPLC, by their own hateful and malicious rhetoric against FRC and AFA, has essentially claimed responsibility for this shooting, and they too should be held to account in the court of public opinion.

As SPLC’s Mark Potok said yesterday in response to all this ass-hattedness, “The FRC and its allies on the religious right are saying, in effect, that offering legitimate and fact-based criticism in a democratic society is tantamount to suggesting that the objects of criticism should be the targets of criminal violence.”

So apparently, telling the truth is “hate” – that’s the old “reality has a liberal bias” thing again, coming back to bite the fundies on the ass. Reality will do that to ya, even if you don’t believe in it. But neither logic nor common sense can stop the Fischer mouth because this is what comes out next:

SPLC claims it only lists organizations as “hate groups” if they engage in the “propagation of known falsehoods” about homosexuality. But the SPLC website itself lists numerous falsehoods about homosexuality. For instance, the SPLC says, without a single shred of proof, that homosexuals are born that way, that it is impossible to leave the gay lifestyle, and that homosexuals are not at elevated risks of depression, anxiety and substance abuse disorders.

In other words, if propagating known falsehoods about homosexuality qualifies an organization, then SPLC belongs on its own list.

Actually, the SPLC isn’t repeating falsehoods, Bryan – it’s true that homosexuals are born that way – or does Bryan think animals are trained to be homosexual? Or maybe he wants to sell us the gay animal demon shtick?

We love that one. Gay animal demons. Good times (but I think I’ll hold out for a succubus, personally).

Humor aside, it’s hardly SPLC’s fault that Bryan Fischer rejects science for superstition. The science is there: Fischer just refuses to “believe” it because he thinks reality is subject to belief.

Finally, we get to this, the culmination of Bryan’s flawed thinking (Drum roll please):

We call on SPLC to explicitly and publicly condemn the motives of yesterday’s shooter, and to remove both FRC and AFA from its hate group list.

Let’s make this clear: because you say somebody hates a hate group, the hate group is no longer a hate group? Even if SPLC was a hate group (and it’s not) that wouldn’t make AFA or the FRC less of a hate group.

Wow. Didn’t they used to tar and feather the criminally stupid? Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out is thinking the same thing I’m thinking: “The awful and evil crime perpetrated against FRC yesterday does nothing to change the fact that this organization has earned its reputation and designation.”

I mean, Bryan, I thought what you said the other day about Jesus being a capitalist was about the stupidest thing I’d ever heard come out of your mouth (have you actually ever read the New Testament?), but I’m inclined to take that back today. What, is this a contest or something, to see how many idiotic statements you can pack into a single week? And Tony is playing along?

You guys need a hobby (besides hating, that is), because thinking obviously isn’t your thing. On the other hand, you still have today – so maybe don’t give up now while you’re on a roll. My keyboard is waiting.

[1] R. Joseph Hoffman, Porphyry’s Against the Christians: The Literary Remains (Oxford University Press, 1994), 168.

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Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen's Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.

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