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Bryan Fischer Claims Homosexuality is a Birth Defect

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Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 12:40 am

Bryan Fischer, Director of Issues Analysis at the American Family Association, is at it again, twisting the words of scientists to say that homosexuality is a birth defect.

In a blog post yesterday, Fischer cited the study and deliberately misinterpreted it to say that the scientists “are coming dangerously close to saying that homosexuality is the result of a genetic defect, a genetic abnormality. In other words, read from one angle, these same scientists are saying that homosexuality is the result of a birth defect.”

He went at it again on yesterday’s broadcast hate-fest:

I would have more respect for Religious Right opponents to marriage equality and women’s reproductive rights if they would simply say their religion forbids both, and leave it at that. I would still detest a religion that makes these claims and demands, but I could at least summon up some respect for the fact of their adherence to what they perceive to be the commandments of their god.

Instead, they resort to pervasive dishonesty to defend their positions.

Their problem is understandable. Their religion’s supposed rejection of homosexuality is far less comprehensive than they pretend, relying on this Old Testament passage…

“If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. they must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads” (Leviticus 20:13).

…that is surrounded by passages condemning other behaviors the Religious Right is happy to ignore.

Why are the punishments for sexual sin in Leviticus 20 stressed while the punishments in Leviticus 19 (against clothing woven of two kinds of material; meat with blood still in it; cutting your hair; wearing tattoos,etc.) ignored?

And where are the Biblical denunciations of lesbianism? There aren’t any. No seed was involved.

Where is “traditional marriage”? There isn’t any. It’s not in the Bible.

But most of all, why is Leviticus 19:11, the injunction not to lie, ignored?

At Leviticus 19:19 God says simply, “Keep my decrees.” He doesn’t say “keep my decree about men engaging in sex with men but ignore my decree about shaving.”

When did dishonesty become a sacred duty? If it’s “of Satan” why are supposed Christians engaging in lying with such fervor?

What I am trying to say is that unless they want to be liars and hypocrities, today’s Religious Right has no choice but to enforce all decrees equally according to their own God in their own holy scriptures.

That still won’t solve all their problems, however.

Neither the Old nor the New Testament address birth control, and as far as abortion goes, the Old Testament’s pages are literally filled with God’s command to abort children, as well as child sacrifice. Look at Numbers 31:17, concerning the Midianites:

Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

Not only forced abortions (some of these women were certainly pregnant), but female sexual slavery.

The god of human sexual trafficking. Stay classy, God of Abraham.

While we are all certainly happy followers of YHWH have eschewed human sacrifice, they really have no option but to adopt it, because God demands it – in several places.

Exodus 22.29 literally, YHWH demanded human sacrifice as well: that of the first-born son:

Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats. You must give me the firstborn of your sons. Do the same with your cattle and your sheep. Let them stay with their mothers for seven days, but give them to me on the eighth day.

Ezekiel (20.26) certainly takes God’s command literally:

“I let them become defiled through their gifts – the sacrifice of every firstborn – that I might fill them with horrors so they would know that I am the LORD.”

The ever-reviled Baal and Moloch have nothing on this guy.

Of course, some apologists claim that this was not literally sacrifice but only consecration. Problems arise, however, when we see for example how in 2 Kings 21.6 King Manasseh “sacrificed his own son to the fire.”

Some consecration! Couldn’t he just dab a little holy water on the tike’s head rather than burning him up like a strip of prime sirloin?

And Levicitus (27.28-29) makes clear this is sacrifice, not consecration:

But nothing that a man owns and devotes to the LORD – whether man or animal or family land – may be sold or redeemed; everything so devoted is most holy to the LORD. No person devoted to destruction may be ransomed; he must be put to death.

You might notice this command in Leviticus comes from the same Old Testament book condemning homosexuality, a book supposedly written by Moses. So why does the Religious Right attack homosexuals but not those who fail to sacrifice their children to God?

When was it given to them to decide which divine commandments to obey and which to ignore?

We think wackos on the Religious Right are terrible for supporting the kill-the-gays law in Uganda, but in fact, their Bible demands death for people who worship other god. Deuteronomy 32:9-43 is white hot in its opposition to non-believers, as is Deuteronomy 13:6-10:

If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods…you shall kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.’

This is reprehensible, but at least this IS in their Bible.

Despite all this raping and killing and aborting and enslaving, the Religious Right insists their God is a God of Life.

The arguments used to advance this pro-life point of view are weak and general: Nehemiah 9:6 that God gives life to everything; Job 12:10 that God’s hand is in the life of every creature; Deuteronomy 30:19-20 where God tells the Jews to choose life over death. The argument that because God creates life he is pro-life is a weak one. He obviously also created death and later, we are to believe, sent his own son to be killed. And while Deuteronomy is used to promote the pro-life cause, as we have seen above just a couple passages later God is expounding a very pro-death point of view (Deuteronomy 32:9-43).

The most mis-used passage relates to a very special person, and not to all people. That is Jeremiah 1:4-5:

The word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

A very special case, said nowhere to apply to humankind generally. In fact, it is a unique statement in the Bible.

You want abortion examples from the Bible? Hosea 9:11-16; Hosea 13:16; Numbers 5:11-21; Numbers 31:17; 2 Kings 15:16. You want the murder of infants? 1 Samuel 15:3; Psalms 135:8, 136:10; Psalms 137:9.

2 Kings 15:16 is particularly damning to the “pro-life” crowd: “He [Menahem, king of Israel] sacked Tiphsah and ripped open all the pregnant women,” as is Hosea 13:15-16: “I will have no compassion…the people of Samaria…will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashes to the ground; their pregnant women ripped open.”

Tell me either the woman or the child survived this savagery.

It’s all there in black and white. It can be read by anyone: the God of the Old Testament is NOT pro-life. He does not hate fags unless he also hates men who shave, or people who wear clothing made of two different materials.

Leaving people on the Religious Right to resort to devices like gay animal demons, “nature’s law” (despite the existence of literally scads of animal species that engage in homosexual behavior), and inventing or twisting scientific studies, as Bryan Fischer did in this instance.

Be a stand-up guy, Mr. Fischer. Be open and honest about what your Bible demands of you and then live your life accordingly. When you have dealt with this log in your own eye – and it’s a huge fucking log – then deal with the mote in your neighbor’s.

Yes, that is out of your Bible too (Matthew 7:1-5; Luke 6:37-42).

Obey the command in Leviticus 19:19, and tell the truth not only about what your Bible says, but what about scientists say.

I would still despise any religion that holds to a belief that their God wants them to engage in the inhuman savagery described above, but I could at least respect the fact that your belief is sincerely held, which is clearly not the case now.

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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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