Bryan Fischer

On yesterday's program Bryan Fischer interviewed Dr. Georgia Purdom of the Creationist organization Answers in Genesis where the two discussed the direct line that connects Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution to Adolph Hitler and the Holocaust.

The two things are directly related, explained Purdom, because once you start to start compromising on the Biblical account of creation, it is a step down the path toward full-blown genocide:

Fischer: It seems to me that you can draw pretty much of a straight line from Darwinian Evolution to Social Darwinianism - I mean, if it's survival of the fittest and let's get rid of the weakest members of our society, it makes absolutely logical sense if you believe in Darwinianism, this is how all of life develops, this is how we get increasingly complex lifeforms. So it seems like you can draw almost a straight line between Charles Darwin, Margaret Sanger, Eugenics movement, and Adolph Hitler. In other words, you've got pretty much a broken (sic) line from the theory of evolution to Hitler's Germany. Is that an over-exaggeration?

Purdom: Not it's not, it's absolutely and that's one of the things I will show in the presentation that I'll be doing for the Life Series to sort of show that building, so to speak, from Charles Darwin to Francis Galton to Margaret Sanger to Nazi Germany and all those others in this one big continuum, so to speak. One thing leads to another. When we start compromising on the Bible in one part, like with the ideas of evolution, it's just another step to compromising on other parts, like the sanctity of life.

It seems like all we ever hear from the Religious Right is how important it is for our political leaders to let their faith influence their public policy decisions.  But apparently that only applies when it leads politicians to support the conservative political agenda because when President Obama cites Jesus, it seems to make the Right lose their minds.

Yesterday, during the National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama cited a passage from the Book of Luke to support his view that the well-off should be expected to contribute more:

And when I talk about shared responsibility, it’s because I genuinely believe that in a time when many folks are struggling, at a time when we have enormous deficits, it’s hard for me to ask seniors on a fixed income, or young people with student loans, or middle-class families who can barely pay the bills to shoulder the burden alone. And I think to myself, if I’m willing to give something up as somebody who’s been extraordinarily blessed, and give up some of the tax breaks that I enjoy, I actually think that’s going to make economic sense.

But for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’s teaching that “for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.”

And now right-wing leaders and Republicans are outraged, with Sen. Orrin Hatch lashing out about it on the Senate floor and Rep. Phil Gingrey walking out in protest while Ralph Reed, of all people, is saying that Obama went "over the line":

Ralph Reed of the Faith and Freedom Coalition said that for the president to tie his tax policy to Jesus’s teachings “is theologically threadbare and straining credulity.”

“I felt like it was over the line and not the best use of the forum,” Reed said. “It showed insufficient level of respect for what the office of the president has historically brought to that moment.”

And of course Bryan Fischer, who thinks the Bible ought to be the foundation for all our public policy, including putting animals to death, was incensed that Obama would dare to claim that the teachings of Christ support his agenda when, in fact, his agenda "is in the spirit of Joseph Stalin" and Karl Marx:

As we have said before, it is amazing President Obama even bothers to talk about his Christian faith because nothing he says will ever be acceptable for the "real" Christians in the Religious Right.

The American Family Association’s spokesman and Director of Issues Analysis Bryan Fischer keeps finding that his own organization censors articles he posts to the AFA’s website, including one where he claimed that welfare encourages African Americans to “rut like rabbits” and one in which demanded that all immigrants must “convert to Christianity.”

Now, Fischer is finding himself in trouble for an article condemning Newt Gingrich, which the AFA has yanked from its website.

Why? Because AFA founder and chairman emeritus Don Wildmon endorsed Gingrich and is a member of his Faith Leaders Coalition, and claims that only a Gingrich presidency can save Western civilization and the human race.

Fischer, who is not one to apologize, began his radio show last month to by offering “my apologies for yesterday” for the “intensity” of his attacks on Gingrich over his marital affairs, and had his post labeling Gingrich “a serial adulterer” had been pulled off the AFA’s homepage.

For a radio host who constantly complains that Muslims, liberals and gays and lesbians are trying to suppress his views, it seems that the only one actually censoring Bryan Fischer is none other than his own employer.

Here’s the original article before the AFA took it off their website:

Jerry Boykin appeared on American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer’s radio show Focal Point today to discuss his decision to withdraw from a prayer breakfast at West Point when his radical anti-Muslim views and conspiracy theories became a lightning rod for criticism. While Boykin said the decision to withdraw was his and his alone, he spent most of the time on Fischer’s show suggesting that the Obama administration is out to “destroy” the “Judeo-Christian base upon which we were founded” and has “denigrated both Christianity and Judaism.” Last year on Fischer’s show, Boykin called for the banning of mosques in America and said “Islam is a totalitarian way of life.”

Fischer: Your concern is about encroaching sharia law, grave concern that I have, a lot of Americans have, and it looks to me like sharia law now is being enshrined in the United States military kind of by default if guys like you, Tony Perkins, Franklin Graham can be disinvited from prayer events because of the truth that you have told about Islam, looks to me like sharia law is gaining a preferred place in the United States military. Your reaction?

Boykin: First of all remember one of the tenets of our form of government is civilian control of the military, so a lot of what you see coming out of the military in terms of policies and procedures are because of the influence of the administration. I don’t think there is any question that the administration has shown favor to Islam at the same time that they have denigrated both Christianity and Judaism, for example, having an Eid dinner in the White House in the same week that they would not have an event for the National Day of Prayer. So I think that the military reflects the leadership of the country.... It’s a bad situation now that we are seeing so much effort to not only destroy the identity of the roots of the nation which is the Judeo-Christian base upon which were founded, but also the growing influence of Islam.

While Fischer was correct in saying that Franklin Graham was disinvited from the Pentagon after calling Islam “a very evil and wicked religion,” Family Research Council president Tony Perkins had his invitation rescinded to an event at the Andrews Air Force base not because of his anti-Muslim statements but as a result of his criticism of President Obama’s effort to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

Todd Starnes of Fox News talked to both Boykin and Perkins about the controversy, and Perkins accused the administration of trying “to sweep Christianity off the face of military bases.” The Fox News article also failed to mention any of Boykin’s anti-Muslim diatribes since leaving the military:

Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, was outraged by the decision.

“This has gone too far,” Perkins told Fox News & Commentary. “This is a troubling trend that we are seeing under this administration.”

Under the Obama Administration both Perkins and Franklin Graham were disinvited from speaking at military prayer services.

“When you talk to military leaders on the base, they don’t like this,” Perkins said. “There seems to be pressure coming from within the administration to sweep Christianity off the face of military bases.”

Boykin said he doesn’t believe the Obama administration has stood with the traditional values of the nation and he said the incident at West Point should serve as a wakeup call to Christians.

“The message is that people of faith and conservative Americans are losing our voice to a very well-organized and very well-funded group of very passionate people – those being the atheists and the Muslims,” Boykin said. “They want to change the nature of our culture – and they are succeeding.”

…

Boykin accused the Obama administration of not standing with people of faith – “certainly not people of the Christian faith or Jewish faith.”

“If there has been support in this administration for faith it has been more skewed towards the Islamic faith than anything else,” Boykin said.