hate

As we noted last week, Bryan Fischer has made it his new cause in life to prove that "the number one class of people who are committing hate crimes today are homosexual activists."

Fischer bases this idea upon a definition of a hate crime that he took off us USLegal.com, which reads:

"A hate crime is usually defined by state law as one that involves threats, harassment, or physical harm and is motivated by prejudice against someone's race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, sexual orientation or physical or mental disability."

Fischer has seized upon the phrases "harassment" and "religion" and is now basically using them to declare anything and everything he doesn't like to be a "hate crime."

Last week it was situation with Peter Vidmar, who stepped down from his position with the 2012 U.S. Olympic team over his support for Proposition 8, and today is it some case involving a doctor in England:

If facing harassment because others have prejudice against your religion is a hate crime, then Dr. Richard Scott of the U.K. is the latest victim of the P.C. police.

He is facing an official sanction from the professional medical body in England, the General Medical Council (GMC) for having the effrontery to suggest to a patient that nurturing his spiritual life might be one part of a holistic course of treatment.

It makes no difference to the Tolerance Nazis that study after study has shown the beneficial health effects of faith in God and prayer, or that Dr. Scott only broached the subject with this patient after a lengthy consultation, and after medical checks had been performed and referrals for further care were arranged.

Nope, the Torquemadas of the left want to put Dr. Scott on the rack and punish him despite his unblemished 28-year record and despite the fact the patient in question is still seeking care at his clinic and so himself is apparently not criminally offended in the least.

This case doesn't even have anything to do with gays, so Fischer is now claiming that it is "secular fundamentalists" who are committing this particular hate crime.

The interesting thing about this new development is that Fischer intentionally overlooks the other elements of the definition of a hate crime, most notably the listing of "sexual orientation."

And given that, in Fischer's view, basically any criticism or pressure put on any conservative or Christian is "harassment" and therefore a "hate crime," let us point out that Fischer and the AFA led the charge to fire Kevin Jennings and impeach Judge Vaughn Walker, solely because they were gay:

AFA calls for resignation of Kevin Jennings, “Safe and Drug Free Schools” head

The American Family Association today called for the resignation of Kevin Jennings, the head of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools in the Department of Education.

“This man is not a good role model for the nation’s children, nor will he fairly represent all Americans due to his spiteful attitude toward evangelical Christians,” said AFA President Tim Wildmon.

Time to impeach Judge Vaughn Walker

Contact your representative today and urge him to start impeachment proceedings

August 5, 2010

Yesterday (August 4), U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker single-handedly overturned California's Prop. 8, which elevated protection for one-man, one-woman marriage to its state constitution.

...

Judge Walker's ruling is not "good Behaviour." He has exceeded his constitutional authority and engaged in judicial tyranny.

Judges are not, in fact, unaccountable. They are accountable to Congress, which can remove them from office.

Impeachment proceedings, according to the Constitution, begin in the House of Representatives. It's time for you to put your congressman on record regarding the possible impeachment of Judge Walker.

If Peter Vidmar stepping down and some foreign doctor facing possible discipline are examples of "hate crimes," what just what is the AFA prolonged and orchestrated campaign to get two gay public servants fired from the jobs?

And can I point out that Islam is also a "religion" ... and Fischer has been leading a full-blown crusade against Muslims for years now.

So by Fischer's own standard, he is personally guilty of committing hate crimes on a daily basis. 

Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission weighs in on the "It Gets Better" campaign to let young people know that, if you are gay, it does not, in fact, get better ... it actually gets worse:

Cass has also written a piece for his website to accompany this video:

The campaign to legitimize homosexuality in our society is based on lies that are designed to manipulate public opinion and relies upon fraudulent science and suppression of opposing views. (Source: Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, “The Trojan Couch: How the Mental Health Associations Misrepresent Science,” www.NARTH.com <http://www.narth.com/>)

It is a lie that people are born homosexual and that the incidence of homosexuality is unaffected by influences from culture, family, peer socialization, and incremental choices. (Sources: Brad Harrub, Ph.D.,Bert Thompson, Ph.D. and Dave Miller, Ph.D., “This is the Way God Made Me: A Scientific Examination of Homosexuality and the ‘Gay Gene,’” www.trueorigins.org <http://www.trueorigins.org/> , see also www.NARTH.com <http://www.narth.com/> , www.exodusinternational.org <http://www.exodusinternational.org> ) (Långström N, Rahman Q, Carlström E, Lichtenstein P (February 2010). "Genetic and environmental effects on same-sex sexual behavior: a population study of twins in Sweden". Arch Sex Behav 39 (1): 75–80.

It is a lie that homosexual conduct is not a choice. Although same-sex attraction may be involuntary, one’s response to it is completely voluntary. All sex is voluntary except rape. Further, all people have the obligation to resist temptations, no matter how strong, that lead to personal and social harms.

It is a lie that homosexuality is equivalent to heterosexuality. We are all heterosexuals by definition, but each of us has the choice to indulge in any number of types of sexual behavior that deviate from the way we are made. That’s why it is called “sexual deviance.” (Source: Dr. Charles King, "The Meaning of Normal." Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, 18, 493-501)

It is a lie that homosexuality is equivalent to race or skin color. General Colin Powell said it best: “Skin color is a benign, non-behavioral characteristic. Sexual orientation is perhaps the most profound of all behavioral characteristics. Comparison of the two is a convenient but invalid argument.” (Source: Colin Powell, My American Journey, 1995, p. 533)

It is a lie that disapproval of voluntary homosexual acts is equivalent to racism. The specious equating of moral disapproval with racism is based on the erroneous and baseless comparison of homosexuality to race.

It is a lie that opposing homosexuality equals hate. The accusation of hate is a cynical tactic designed to intimidate conservatives from speaking the truth about a form of conduct that spreads disease and is linked to numerous physical and psychological disorders. We all have a stake in this issue, and most of us care about homosexuals as people even while opposing their actions, just as we do with alcoholics, bulimics and others who suffer from behavioral disorders. (Source: Dr. Scott Lively, Redeeming the Rainbow: A Christian Response to the “Gay” Agenda, 2009, Introduction)

It is a lie that homosexual parenting is harmless to children. (Source: “Study: Gay Parents More Likely to Have Gay Kids,” AOL News, October 17, 2010)

It is a lie that homosexuality is not linked to pedophilia. (Source: Steve Baldwin, “Childhood Molestation and the Homosexual Movement, “Regent University Law Review, Vol. 14:267)

It is a lie that AIDS is primarily a heterosexual disease. "While CDC estimates that MSM [males who have sex with males] account for just 4 percent of the U.S. male population aged 13 and older, the rate of new HIV diagnoses among MSM in the U.S. is more than 44 times that of other men (range: 522–989 per 100,000 MSM vs. 12 per 100,000 other men)." (Source: www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/docs/FastFacts-MSM-FINAL508COMP.pdf <http://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/docs/FastFacts-MSM-FINAL508COMP.pdf>)

It is a lie that “gay” youth suicide can only be prevented by forcing the rest of society to affirm homosexual conduct. (Source: “Cornell professor: Gay suicide rates not abnormal,”www.studentfreepress.net <http://www.studentfreepress.net/>)

It is a lie that homosexuals are a powerless victim group that needs vast public resources to protect it from its “enemies.” (Source: “The Growing Power of the Gay Rights Movement,” The Atlantic, 12/14/2010)

It is a lie that the acceptance of homosexuality brings harmony and peace to the individual homosexual. (Source: www.exodusinternational.org/resources/real-stories/ <http://www.exodusinternational.org/resources/real-stories/> )

Bryan Fischer has just a few "simple" steps that need to be taken in order to save America:

1. No more mosques, period. They are recruiting and training centers for jihad on American soil.

2. No more Muslim immigration to the United States. There is no such thing as moderate Islam. Islam itself is a dangerous infection, and every devout Muslim is a carrier.

3. No Muslims in the United States military. Remember Ft. Hood?

4. No sharia law, anywhere, under any circumstances, in the United States. The foundation of American jurisprudence is the Judeo-Christian tradition, not the Qur’an.

Of course, banning Muslims from coming to the US, building houses of worship, and serving in the military alone are not enough ... we also must get rid of Presdient Obama because he "appears to hate the Christian roots of America while being infatuated with the demonic domination that Islam represents":

Multiculturalism has given us a president who is ashamed of his Judeo-Christian heritage and apologizes for it all over the world, while celebrating the supposed wonders of Islam and its utterly mythical contributions to American culture. He hosts lavish dinners in honor of Muslim holidays, while at the same time giving short shrift to both Christmas and Easter.

Our president appears to hate the Christian roots of America while being infatuated with the demonic domination that Islam represents.

The bottom line here is that if America does not seat someone in the Oval Office in 2012 who is aware of the dark dangers of Islam and who celebrates the superiority of Judeo-Christian culture over the backwardness of Islamic culture, we may run out of time to save Western civilization.

• PFAW: ALEC: The Voice of Corporate Special Interests In State Legislatures.
• Kevin Drum: Quote of the Day: Truth is Libel.
• Jason Cherkis @ Huffington Post: David Barton's Tax Records Boast Expertise In Black History.
• Joe.My.God: Anti-Gay Christianist Hate Group Launches Ad Denouncing Harvey Milk Day.
• ACLU: Debunking the Mythical "Sharia Threat" to Our Judicial System.
• Zack Ford @ Wonk Room: FOX News Unleashes Transphobic Assault Against Chaz Bono.

Speaking with Bryan Fischer, fellow American Family Radio host Frank Turek argued that gays and Muslim extremists are allied in their plot to destroy America. Turek, the host of CrossExamined and a motivational speaker for businesses, previously joined Tony Perkins, Jerry Boykin and Rick Joyner in announcing a Spartan-like 300 to get more Christians involved in politics.

Turek tells Fischer that “the homosexual community and Muslim community [are] joining together” pass laws banning ‘hate speech’ in America in order to bring about “totalitarianism” by “shutting up the opponents.” Turek says that the two groups are collaborating because “they both hate Western Civilization” and “hate Judeo-Christian natural law values.” Turek’s views appear to reflect a new theme among conservatives like Newt Gingrich and Rep. Louie Gohmert who believe that progressives and radical Muslims are in an anti-American alliance. Liberty Counsel’s Matt Barber last month claimed that progressive and radical Muslims are trying to “unite together to destroy Christianity” over their allegedly shared hatred of God.

Watch:

Fischer: Anybody who speaks out against Islam in the United States just gets hammered by voices on the left trying to censor them, silence them, intimidate them, the only thing they are lacking right now is the club of a law that will punish them for telling the truth about Islam.

Turek: Well that’s on the way and I’ve mentioned on my show there are strange bedfellows politically in our country today that is the radical left and the radical right in terms of Islam. You have, for example, the homosexual community and Muslim community joining together to try and call any criticism of their behavior or their religion ‘hate speech’ which would make it illegal, if they could get these laws passed, to criticize homosexuality or to criticize Islam. See it isn’t about truth here, it’s about totalitarianism, it’s about a way to silence the opposition. You can win the debate by just shutting up the opponents here.

So it’s really strange to me how these two disparate groups can be in concert together, maybe it’s because they both hate Western Civilization, maybe it’s because they both hate Judeo-Christian natural law values that our Constitution and particularly our Declaration of Independence were founded on, ‘we hold these truths to be self-evident,’ maybe they just hate that both those groups hate those values so much that they’re in bed together. But I can tell you one thing, if the Muslims ever takeover, the first people they’re going to go after is the folks on the radical left.

The Religious Right’s favorite Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is the “honorary host” of a Virginia fundraiser for Concerned Women for America. Cuccinelli won plaudits from right-wing activists for using his Virginia post to challenge anti-discrimination protections based on sexual orientation, attack scientists who believe in climate change, undercut health care reform, and censor the official state seal over nudity.

It makes sense that Cuccinelli is hosting a fundraiser for a group which believes that health care reform violates the Ten Commandments, gays are discriminatory bullies who hate democracy, climate change science is a duplicitous effort to wreak havoc on the poor, and that President Obama wants communists to control America’s children.

Maybe when Cuccinelli is with the CWA leadership he can fulfill his law enforcement duties by asking them if they know kidnapper Lisa Miller’s whereabouts, seeing as the group was one of Miller’s most ardent advocates and offered clues that they know where she is.

But somehow I doubt it.

Writing for the American Family Association, Marsha West is insisting that Christians stop practicing yoga. West defends Albert Mohler of the Southern Baptist Convention and Douglas Groothuis of the Denver Seminary, who drew controversy for criticizing Christians who practiced yoga, lamenting that “we have blended into the dishonest, destructive and debase culture so thoroughly that it's near impossible to tell the difference between Christians and heathens!” West calls Buddhism and Hinduism “evil” religions and argues that yoga is “diametrically opposed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ”:

These people need to buy a Bible — and read it.

The professing Christian who practices yoga as a way to keep fit should heed the words of Mohler and Groothuis who both agree that yoga, even if it's labeled Christian, is diametrically opposed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Many Christians practice yoga for "relaxation and exercise" without realizing that classical yoga is intended to put you into an altered state of consciousness. Yoga is not "just exercising." Participants are being swept into a counterfeit religion. According to God's Word, pagan religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, are evil. The Bible clearly says that God's people are to have nothing to do with wicked customs. (Deuteronomy 18:9-14) Believers are instructed to, "Hate what is evil; cling to what is good." (Romans 12:90) Ever noticed how professing Christians are no longer uncomfortable in the face of evil? The reason is that we have been desensitized!

Sadly, Christians have become worldly. Instead of being beacons of light in a dark world we have become world-minded. In fact, we have blended into the dishonest, destructive and debase culture so thoroughly that it's near impossible to tell the difference between Christians and heathens!

The Wall Street Journal today features an extensive profile on Newt Gingrich’s vast network of political organizations, including American Solutions, Renewing American Leadership (ReAL), and Gingrich Productions. The paper reports that Gingrich’s “network has amassed more than 1.7 million voter and donor contacts and raised $32 million between 2009 and 2010—more than all his potential 2012 rivals combined.” Gingrich also helped steer $150,000 to American Family Association Action to help defeat three Iowa State Supreme Court justices that ruled in favor of marriage equality. Along with ReAL, which is led by anti-gay activist Jim Garlow, and his support for the AFA, Gingrich has made overtures to other Religious Right groups and leaders including John Hagee, Bryan Fischer, Janet Porter, Liberty University, Liberty Counsel, The Family Leader and the Minnesota Family Council.

But will Gingrich’s financial influence, religious documentaries and appeals to prominent Religious Right figures translate to real support from activists who might be wary of backing a thrice-married adulterer? Fischer remains a skeptic, but Iowa’s Bob Vander Plaats, who coordinated the anti-judge campaign, is still grateful for Gingrich’s significant monetary aid:

Mr. Gingrich hasn't run a truly competitive campaign in 21 years. He is given to public gaffes, most recently criticizing President Barack Obama for failing to back the rebels fighting Col. Moammar Gadhafi, only to reverse himself after Mr. Obama ordered U.S. planes into Libya. He resigned from Congress in 1998 under an ethics cloud, after his party suffered a historic midterm loss. It was later revealed that he was having an affair with a congressional aide.

Even groups that have allied with him, such as the conservative American Family Association, aren't poised to back him, citing his two messy divorces and three marriages. "He is brilliant, and has much to offer. But he isn't what we need in the Oval Office," said the AFA's director of issue analysis, Bryan Fischer.

…

Wearing an array of organizational hats, he has met repeatedly with pastors, trained local candidates, consulted with doctors on his proposed health-care innovations and met with local refiners to tout ethanol. After raising money through one of his groups, Mr. Gingrich funneled $150,000 in seed money to a successful campaign last fall to oust three Iowa Supreme Court judges who supported gay marriage.

"Newt's role was quiet and very low key, but it was pivotal," said Bob Vander Plaats, a well-known Iowa conservative who led the anti-judges campaign.

…

The heavy emphasis on religion is part of his long push to atone for his multiple divorces, according to people who know him. "He was very direct about this," said Rev. Brad Sherman, a prominent Iowa evangelical leader, recounting a session Mr. Gingrich had last year with a small group of Iowa religious leaders. "He said he had deep regrets, and asked our forgiveness."

As Miranda noted yesterday, David Barton raised eyebrows when he told The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart that religious law, including Sharia law, is compatible with the Constitution if a locality or state wanted to implement it, as he has a long track record of promoting vehement anti-Muslim views. Julie Ingersoll of Religion Dispatches also pointed out that Barton has consistently criticized “the threat of Islam taking over the country by imposing ‘Sharia Law.’”

But when Stewart asked if Barton was “all right with Sharia law and the whole business” in a Muslim-majority city in America, Barton replied, “Sure, sure.”

However, Barton made the exact opposite point in an interview with anti-Muslim activist Brigitte Gabriel of ACT! for America during his WallBuilders Live radio program.

Discussing a federal judge’s injunction that blocked an Oklahoma law which banned Sharia law, Barton told co-host Rick Green that Sharia law was incompatible with the Constitution.

Barton criticized the judge, saying, “how you can not let [the law] stand when you take an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, that’s the only oath you’ve taken to uphold, how you gonna throw Sharia in there and make it equal with the Constitution it’s nuts to me.” He went on to allege that secular people like Joy Behar hate Judaism and Christianity and support Sharia law because they want an oppressive, authoritarian government:

Barton: But I love the fact that she points out that 21 states are considering what Oklahoma did, and 11 are likely to pass it this next session. So it’s going to be really significant to see what the federal judge does with that thing, whether he’s gonna let it stand or not. And how you can not let it stand when you take an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, that’s the only oath you’ve taken to uphold, how you gonna throw Sharia in there and make it equal with the Constitution it’s nuts to me. But we’ve seen judges do nutty things so that’s not unusual.

Green: And I’m thinking long term strategy on this thing because this will probably take several years to play out in the courts, but its good that these other states are gonna do it too because we’d like to see this come up through several courts of appeals—

Barton: And get an overwhelming thing. You know, the other thing that I found really interesting listening to Brigitte and talk about her life and stuff that was going on and how strong she is. I find it so strong that you can take all these militant, anti-Christian—Joyce Behar—she’s got the cable news program, she’s on The View, you remember O’Reilly goes on there and makes a comment about Muslims being terrorists and she walks off the program in a rage. She is all the time berating every Christians out there. She’s smashing—

Green: And defending the terrorists.

Barton: Now, this is what’s kind of interesting to me. Secular people do not like religion, but they do like Islam. So maybe Islam is not a religion, maybe it is a way of life. Because why is it that secular people who hate Judaism, who hate Christianity, they love Muslims? It’s because of the tyrannical control over lives. This is what these guys want to do through government and they want the same kind of control, so Sharia that’s a great way to control.

Green: It fits right into their way of thinking things some work.

Barton: It does, their view that we ought to be control. It’s just crazy.