American Family Association

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:36:45 +0000

The American Family Association (AFA) has been a long-time promoter of "traditional moral values" in the media, particularly television. AFA built its reputation on organizing boycotts against sponsors of TV shows with "anti-Christian" messages and ideas, or against companies it claims support the so-called "homosexual agenda" or marriage equality.

[Read the latest Right Wing Watch news on the American Family Association.]

American Family Association
P.O. Box 2440
Tupelo, Mississippi 38803
Website: www.afa.net

Chairman/Founder: The Rev. Donald Wildmon
Vice President: Tim Wildmon (son of Donald Wildmon)
Founded: 1977
Formerly known as: National Federation for Decency (Changed in 1988)
Membership: AFA claims over 500,000 members
Finances: $14,186,203 (2004)
Staff: About 100 employees and five full-time lawyers
Board of Directors: Donald Wildmon, Timothy Wildmon, Forrest Daniels, Rev. Curtis Petrey, Rev. Jack Williams, Rev. Burt Harper, Rev. Bobby Hankins, Dr. Gayle Alexander, Forest Sheffield, Rev. Tim Fortner (2004)
State chapters: State Directors in 12 states
Funding: From 1998 to 2003, the AFA received $90,000 from 6 grants contributed by the Bill and Berniece Grewcock Foundation
Publications: AFA Journal, published monthly, with a circulation of 180,000
Radio: AFA has its own 200-station network of radio stations across the United States
Media: AFA has produced videos entitled, "Excess Access," "It's Not Gay," and "Suffer the Children"
Affiliate groups: AFA Foundation, Center for Law & Policy, American Family Radio, American Family News Network's OneNewsNow.com (formerly Agape Press), and AFA Action - the legislative action arm of the American Family Association
Affiliated Websites: ValuesVoters.com— a voter registration and education site; Center for Law & Policy Case Note (blog); OneMillionDads.com; OneMillionMoms.com; AFA Internet Filtering; NoGayMarriage.com; and BoycottFord.com among others

Principal Issues

The American Family Association (AFA) targets the media and entertainment industry's "attack" on "traditional family values."
Two of the main duties that AFA assigns to itself are "promoting the centrality of God in American life" and "promoting the Christian ethic of decency."
"Indecent" influences in American culture include: television, the separation of church and state, pornography, "the homosexual agenda," premarital sex, legal abortion, the National Endowment for the Arts, gambling, unfiltered internet access in libraries, and the removal of school-sponsored religious worship from public schools.

Activities

The American Family Association (AFA) produces a radio show, "AFA Report," a 30-minute feature available on about 1,200 local radio stations nationwide. AFA launched their broadcast ministry American Family Radio (AFR) in 1987. AFR has approximately 200 radio stations in 27 states across the country. According to American Family Radio, "AFR has built more stations in a shorter time than any other broadcaster in the history of broadcasting." The AFA built their small radio empire by applying for "noncommercial educational licenses." When the FCC refused to certain licenses, the AFA sued the FCC in federal court arguing that to deny religious groups noncommercial broadcasting licenses violates their First Amendment and Equal Protection rights.
AFA Action— the legislative action arm of the American Family Association— co-sponsored the 2006 Values Voter Summit with FRC Action, Focus on the Family Action, and Gary Bauer's Americans United to Preserve Marriage.
For over twenty years, one of AFA's primary activities has been the organization of boycotts against sponsors of TV shows with "anti-Christian" messages and ideas. A few of the hundreds of boycott targets on AFA's list have included "Saturday Night Live," "Roseanne," "Nightline," "NYPD Blue," "Ellen," and "Desperate Housewives."
A major target of AFA's had been Disney and its subsidiaries; "Disney's attack on America's families has become so blatant, so intentional, so obvious, that American Family Association has called for a boycott of all Disney products until such time as this activity ceases." AFA ended its boycott of Disney in 2005, citing the departure of Disney CEO Michael Eisner and its divestiture of Miramax films as rationale, but openly stating "AFA had moved on to other important issues, such as an increasingly activist judiciary and the push for same-sex marriage."
AFA has created two websites - OneMillionMoms.com and OneMillionDads.com to "help parents do something about the trash on TV." Both websites organize weekly on-line boycotts of offensive advertising or television shows.
The American Family Association (AFA) is alerting its members to companies who are supportive of GLBT employees and is asking "Christian consumers…to think twice before they patronize companies that support the homosexual agenda." AFA lists major corporations that have non-discrimination policies that include sexual orientation or that offer domestic-partner benefits for same-sex couples, including Eastman Kodak, Citigroup, PepsiCo., American Airlines, Allstate Insurance, and the Coca-Cola Company. "One company losing five to ten percent of its sales will send a clear message to every company in America," offers Don Wildmon. AFA attacked Kraft Foods (owner of brand names Post, Oscar Meyer, and Maxwell House, among others) for the company's support of the 2006 Gay Games in Chicago.
Wal-Mart and its affiliate Sam's Club became an AFA boycott target because of the retailer's support for the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.
The American Family Association has called for a national boycott of the Ford Motor Company over the manufacturer's sponsorship of gay pride events and continued advertising in gay publications. AFA claims its boycott has played a major part in Ford's drop in sales.
Donald Wildmon has called for the shutdown of PBS and as a result of the AFA's campaign, many state legislatures reduced funding for public broadcasting. The AFA spearheaded the attack on the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in the 1980's, using direct mail and extensive print advertising to distort the NEA's record of sponsorship of the arts.
The AFA participates in Pornography Awareness Week.

AFA Center for Law and Policy

In 1990, the American Family Association established the AFA Center for Law & Policy as a litigation and public policy arm of the organization.
The Center for Law & Policy (CLP) is staffed by six full-time attorneys with a network of more than 400 affiliate lawyers. The CLP states that they provide representation to Christians in courts throughout the country, and advise state and federal legislators on constitutional, political, and legal issues.
The CLP has been involved in several cases where they push for religious worship and symbols in public schools as well as the removal of curriculum that doesn't reflect "traditional family values."
AFA has spearheaded a campaign to have their "In God We Trust" posters posted in every classroom, in every school in the United States. In 2001, the Mississippi state legislature passed a law requiring that each public school classroom, auditorium and cafeteria display a "In God We Trust" poster. However, when the Mississippi state legislature did not provide any funding for the bill, AFA/CLP volunteered to be the coordinator for the project. AFA/CLP is responsible for organizing and distributing 32,000 free "In God We Trust" posters in public schools in the state of Mississippi.
AFA/CLP has encouraged other states to follow Mississippi's example, promising that anyone who may be afraid of a lawsuit would be defended by the AFA Center for Law & Policy for free. In 2001, AFA distributed 250,000 "In God We Trust" posters nationwide.
CLP represented the anti-gay group "Take Back Maryland" when they were accused of falsifying signatures for a petition to reverse an anti-discrimination bill that protected gays and lesbians from bias discrimination in employment and housing.
AFA filed lawsuits attempting to ban the curriculum, "Impressions," from public school classrooms on the grounds that it "promotes the religion of witchcraft."
AFA sponsored a rally in support of Judge Roy Moore of Alabama who refused to remove the Ten Commandments from his courtroom.
AFA Center for Law & Policy (CLP) won a lawsuit on behalf of pro-life protesters in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, over protest signs confiscated and held by city officials.

AFA State Affiliates

Many of AFA's state chapters are very active on a state and local level. Gary Glenn of AFA Michigan has become a lightening rod in the state for controversy over civil rights protections for gays and lesbians. Glenn has opposed the anti-discrimination policies of several Michigan cities by asserting that if passed, public bathrooms and showers would become co-ed. After the legislation passed in several towns, Glenn organized petitions to overturn the legislation, asserting that gays and lesbians pose a "public health hazard." Glenn also has targeted a 4th grade environmental education course, alleging that the program is "anti-human" and promotes paganism.
The former California director for AFA was Scott Lively of Abiding Truth Ministries and the Pro-Family Law Center. Lively is a long-time anti-gay activist who has written such books as The Pink Swastika which claims that "homosexuals [are] the true inventors of Nazism and the guiding force behind many Nazi atrocities." [From the The Pink Swastika preface.] Lively has also written 7 Steps to Recruit-Proof Your Child and The Poisoned Stream: "Gay" Influence in Human History. Under his leadership, AFA California launched the "California Campaign to Take Back the Schools" to stop the "homosexualization of American public schools."

Quotes

"Now the Bush Administration is opening its arms to homosexual activists who have been working diligently to overthrow the traditional views of Western Civilization regarding human sexuality, marriage and family… AFA would never support the policies of a political party which embraced the homosexual movement. Period."— Don Wildmon, AFA Press Release, April 16, 2001

"We believe the national motto incorporates the foundational belief of our culture, and its words 'In God we trust' are a message our children need to see in school."— Don Wildmon, AFA Journal cover story, July 2001

"But the National PTA continued right along, increasingly becoming a tool to promote a left-wing philosophy instead of helping the children with their educational needs. The latest project for the National PTA is the promotion of the homosexual agenda…Stop the PTA from using your children to promote their left-wing political agenda."— Don Wildmon, AFA Journal, February 2001

"Over the years, AFA has consistently addressed the homosexual movement's obsession with infiltrating the public school system. Its eye-opening video 'It's Not Gay', which presents a heartbreaking look at the physical and emotional consequences of the homosexual lifestyle, has been the most popular video ever produced by AFA." ("Homosexuals push for control of schools," May 2001)

"Nothing disappointed the [American Family Association] more than Disney's enthusiastic embrace of [the homosexual] movement that rejects everything that is sacred to Christians about human sexuality, marriage and family." ("Why the Disney Boycott Shouldn't Go Away," April 2001)

On Christians in the public square: "Christians must be equally willing to take the heat, and to shrug off the rabid attacks of the media babblers who see Christians as the enemy."— News Editor Ed Vitagliano, AFA Journal, July 2005

"The church and this nation cry out for a revival of masculine Christianity, which is to say that we church leaders need to stop being such, for lack of a better word, sissies when it comes to social and political issues. We need to spend as much time confronting perpetrators as we do comforting victims. We need to do less fretting, and more fighting for righteousness. For every motherly, feminine ministry of the church such as a Crisis Pregnancy Center or ex-gay support group, we need a battle-hardened, take-it-to-the-enemy masculine ministry like Operation Rescue (questions of civil disobedience aside). For every God-hating radical in government, academia and media we need a bold, no-nonsense, truth-telling Christian counterpart: trained, equipped and endorsed by the local church."— Scott Lively, author of The Pink Swastika and former Director of AFA California (source)

"Under homosexual activists' political agenda, our children would face a future in which traditional marriage and families have been legally devalued, while state government— despite the severe threat it poses to personal and public health— not only legally endorses but uses our tax dollars to subsidize deadly homosexual behavior."— Gary Glenn, Director of AFA Michigan (Press Release, February 17, 2001)

Updated: November 2006

Perkins' Revoked Invitation Is Just Like Dred Scott

Kyle — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:29:33 +0000

I have to say that the American Family Association's decision to promote Bryan Fischer from the head of the Idaho Values Alliance to the AFA's Director of Issue Analysis for Government and Public Policy last year has been a real boon for this blog as be has since become a constant source of good posts.

Today he weighs in on the news that the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins had his invitation to speak at a Andrews Air Force Base prayer luncheon rescinded with a complete and utter meltdown, declaring it proof that the Constitution is on the verge of collapse and likening it to Dred Scott and McCarthyism:

The homosexual agenda represents a clear and present danger to virtually every fundamental right given to us by our Creator and enshrined for us in our Constitution.

Start with freedom of religion and freedom of speech, the first two of our inalienable rights secured for us in the Bill of Rights.

As a culture, we must choose between the homosexual agenda or the Constitution because we can't have both.

Further proof comes from the abjectly pathetic decision of the chaplains' office at Andrews Air Force Base to rescind a long-standing invitation to Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council. Perkins had been invited to give a non-political talk at a prayer luncheon on the base yesterday, but was abruptly dis-invited for one simple reason: he supports the current law which makes homosexuals ineligible for service in the United States military.

...

The days of Dred Scott have returned. Christians now are the ones are being confined on the plantation, and warned about being too uppity ... McCarthyism has now struck the U.S. military with a vengeance. The question now that the military is asking is this: "Are you now, or have you ever been, a supporter of traditional morality?" If the answer is yes, you go on our blacklist, and we deprive you of your freedom of religion, speech and military service.

Realize the ominous portents here for the future of our military. Perkins' view represents the view of the vast majority of Americans, especially those considering military service. The new standard appears to be that, even if you are heterosexual, you must embrace the homosexual agenda or you will be banned from the military. That's where this is going, and at Andrews Air Force Base, we're already there.

Religious Right Now Exporting Its Anti-Marriage Equality Abroad

Kyle — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:44:37 +0000

By now, we are all used to out-of-state Religious Right groups descending on places like Maine, Washington, DC, and elsewhere in order to set up shop in their nonstop effort to fight marriage equality ... but I have to admit that I never expected them to start exporting their efforts abroad.

But here they are, setting their sights on now fighting marriage equality in Mexico:

In response to a move to institute same-sex marriage in the Federal District which includes Mexico City (on March 4), more than 120 pro-family/pro-life leaders from 35 countries have signed the "World Congress of Families Leadership Petition To Save Marriage In Mexico City."

The Petition notes that "Mexico's Constitution defines marriage as between a man and a woman." Further, that all social ills begin with the decline of the family. Also "marriage substitutes ... undermine marriage and the family." The Petition observes that "children need both a mother and a father" and that those raised by two men or two women are "psychologically and socially disadvantaged."

The Petition calls on the government of Mexico City to refrain from implementing same-sex marriage and demands that the issue be decided at the national level, "with due regard to the nation's religious traditions, the wishes of the Mexican people and the needs of children and families, and consistent with Mexico's Constitution." Click here (www.worldcongress.org/special/wcf.mexpetsig.1002.pdf) to access the full Petition along with a list of signers.

U.S. signers (signing as individuals) include: Gary Bauer (American Values), Allan Carlson (World Congress of Families), Tom DeLay (former Majority Leader, U.S. House of Representatives), Joseph Meaney (Human Life International), Tony Perkins (Family Research Council), Michele Velasco (Priests for Life), Don Wildmon (American Family Association), Wendy Wright (Concerned Women for America), Maggie Gallagher (National Organization for Marriage), Dr. Paige Patterson (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary),Yuri Mantilla (Focus on the Family) and Dr. Jerry Newcombe (Coral Ridge Ministries).

Fischer: Sea World Death Due To West's Failure to Follow Scripture

Kyle — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:39:52 +0000

Sometimes I wonder if the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer ultimate goal is just to make his organization look foolish by writing pieces like this one claiming that the death of a trainer at Sea World yesterday was the result of a failure to abide by Biblical mandates.

Fischer cites this article noting that the whale in question was considered particularly dangerous and had a history of violent incidents to claim that the death can be chalked up to "animal rights insanity and to the ongoing failure of the West to take counsel on practical matters from the Scripture:

What about the term "killer whale" do SeaWorld officials not understand?

If the counsel of the Judeo-Christian tradition had been followed, Tillikum would have been put out of everyone's misery back in 1991 and would not have had the opportunity to claim two more human lives.

Says the ancient civil code of Israel, "When an ox gores a man or woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner shall not be liable." (Exodus 21:28)

So, your animal kills somebody, your moral responsibility is to put that animal to death. You have no moral culpability in the death, because you didn't know the animal was going to go postal on somebody.

But, the Scripture soberly warns, if one of your animals kills a second time because you didn't kill it after it claimed its first human victim, this time you die right along with your animal. To use the example from Exodus, if your ox kills a second time, "the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death." (Exodus 21:29)

If I were the family of Dawn Brancheau, I'd sue the pants off SeaWorld for allowing this killer whale to kill again after they were well aware of its violent history.

If Fischer thinks we ought to be following Scripture here, then why isn't he calling for Sea World's owners to be put to death instead of merely sued? After all, he's the one who cites Exodus 21:29 which mandate a death sentence for the animal's owners.

Fischer, LaBarbera Hail Sorba For This Anti-Gay Rant at CPAC

Kyle — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:30:07 +0000

Last week we posted this video of California Young Americans for Freedom's Ryan Sorba blasting CPAC organizers for allowing the gay conservative group GOProud to serve as a conference co-sponsor:

Not surprisingly, Sorba is now being hailed as a hero by the likes of Peter LaBarbera:

I am so proud of this young man, Ryan Sorba of California Young Americans For Freedom, for having the guts to hold CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, accountable for allowing a homosexual activist group, GOProud, to sponsor its conference. Organized homosexuality has no part in a truly “conservative” movement. We need a few dozen more Ryan Sorbas in our pro-family movement to put the “queer” activists on their heels for a change – instead of constantly being put on the defensive by a perversion lobby that equates sexual misbehavior and gender confusion with “civil rights.

The AFA's Bryan Fischer likewise praised him:

Sorba showed the courage of his convictions by simply declaring the truth. Said Sorba, "Civil rights are grounded in natural rights, and natural rights are grounded in human nature...and the intelligible end of the reproductive act is reproduction...civil rights, when they conflict with natural rights, are contrary..."

...

Sorba was certainly right to condemn CPAC for this move. The bottom line here is if conservatives are looking for an annual convocation of genuine conservatives - those who are fiscal, national security and social conservatives - the place to be is the Values Voter Summit.

VVS, sponsored each fall by the Family Research Council and the American Family Association, will never waver on the truth that protecting one man - one woman marriage is the most fundamental conservative value of all.

Look Who's Joining TFP For DADT Press Conference

Kyle — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:49:35 +0000

In my earlier post about the absurdly anti-gay Tradition, Family and Property "report" opposing the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, I wondered who would be joining them at their press conference tomorrow to unveil it at CPAC.

Now we know:

* Elaine Donnelly, President, Center for Military Readiness
* Tom Minnery, Vice President, Public Policy, Focus on the Family
* Tony Perkins, President, Family Research Council
* Frank Gaffney, President, Center for Security Policy
* David Keene, President, American Conservative Union
* Penny Nance, CEO, Concerned Women for America
* Matthew Staver, Dean, Liberty University School of Law
* Jordan W. Lorence, Senior Counsel, Alliance Defense Fund
* Adm. James A. “Ace” Lyons, USN (Ret.), Flag & General Officers for the Military

Leaders from other prominent organizations, such as Eagle Forum, Let Freedom Ring, the American Family Association, Traditional Values Coalition, and Tradition, Values & Property (partial list) are lending support to the Military Culture Coalition, an informal network of individuals and organizations who support the 1993 law regarding homosexuals in the military (Section 654, Title 10, U.S.C.).

AFA Declares Victory, Suspends Pepsi Boycott

Kyle — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:53:54 +0000

The American Family Association is convinced that its crusade of Pepsi has been successful and so it has decided to suspend its boycott:

American Family Association (AFA) has suspended its boycott of PepsiCo. After monitoring the company for several months, AFA is satisfied the company has withdrawn its major financial contributions to gay activist groups.

AFA launched a boycott of PepsiCo after the company made $500,000 donations to Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) in 2008. Records from PepsiCo, HRC and PFLAG indicate repeat donations did not occur in 2009.

AFA President Tim Wildmon said more than 500,000 people signed the Boycott PepsiCo Pledge.

Wildmon said a few minor issues remain, and AFA will continue to bring these to the attention of PepsiCo. “We feel we have made our point," he said. "Boycotts have been a last resort for us at AFA, and the PepsiCo boycott was started to address issues of concern to us – especially the promotion of the homosexual agenda in the culture. AFA will continue to challenge major U.S. companies to remain neutral in the culture wars rather than to use their resources to promote controversial issues.”

Another Day, Another Anti-Gay Post From Bryan Fischer

Kyle — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:10:02 +0000

Guess what?

The AFA 's Bryan Fischer is back with yet another post about gays - shocking, I know:

Gays showering with straights? Absolutely.

If President Obama, congressional Democrats, and homosexual activists get their wish, your son or grandson may be forced to share military showers and barracks with active and open homosexuals who may very well view them with sexual interest.

Talk about creating a hostile work environment for people who practice normative sexuality!

As former General Colin Powell observed in 1993 (before bowing to pressures of political correctness), "...it would be prejudicial to good order and discipline to try to integrate gays and lesbians in the current military structure."

Strangely, Fischer doesn't bother to mention that just last week Powell announced his support for repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

Regardless, Fischer has his own inane explanations for why we must not repeal it DADT:

The bottom line here is that if we do not insist on retaining the ban on homosexual military service, our military will no longer be the place America's families want to send their best and brightest young men and women.

Overturning the ban will have an obvious and devastating affect on recruitment, retention and readiness. If open homosexuals are allowed to serve, fewer of America's best young men will want to sign up, fewer will want to re-enlist and as a consequence the military's readiness to defend us from our enemies will correspondingly decline.

Allowing open military service will compromise the good order, discipline and morale necessary for our military to remain the finest in the world.

The military's purpose is to kill people and break things to keep us safe. It never should be used as laboratory for experiments in social engineering that are doomed to fail.

Do you ever get the impression that the bottom line here is really that Fischer just dislikes gay people?

Fischer: Everything Would Be Better If Homosexuality Was Illegal

Kyle — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:23:37 +0000

The AFA's Bryan Fischer sure does seem intent on driving home his point that homosexuality ought to be illegal, as he has now written yet another post on this subject, this time seeking to how much better life would be if gays were still considered to be criminals:

This raises the question, then, as to whether sodomy laws should be, or legitimately have been, repealed just because they are rarely enforced.

The answer to this is a clear and unequivocal "No."

Think for a moment of the current social controversies that could potentially be avoided if homosexual conduct was still against the law.

Gays in the military: problem solved. We shouldn't make a place for habitual felons in the armed forces. End of discussion, end of controversy. If someone objects, ask them which other felonies the military ought to overlook in screening recruits.

Gay marriage: problem solved. We should never legalize unions between any two people when the union is forged specifically to engage in felony behavior. Would we sanction, for instance, the formation of a corporation whose stated purpose was to import illegal drugs?

Gay indoctrination in the schools: problem solved. We don't want to raise a generation of schoolchildren to believe that felony behavior is perfectly appropriate. That's why we spend so much money warning students about the danger of drugs.

Hate crimes laws: problem solved. We wouldn't throw a pastor in jail for saying that illegal behavior is not only illegal but also immoral. For instance, he's free to say that murder is not only contrary to man's law but also to God's law. End of the threat to freedom of religion and speech.

Special rights for homosexuals in the workplace: problem solved. No employer should be forced to hire admitted felons to work for him. End of the threat to freedom of religion and freedom of association in the marketplace.

This list could actually be extended, but you get the point. Laws not only curb dangerous and risky behavior, they keep such behavior from being normalized, sanctioned and endorsed by the rest of society, and as such render an enormous benefit to a healthy culture.

The promos for the old movie "American Graffiti" asked the question, "Where were you in '62?" If the same question were asked about the United States, we'd have to answer: in a much better, saner and healthier place when it comes to criminal sexual conduct.

I think Fischer is aiming to establish himself in the obsessively anti-gay wing of the movement heretofore inhabited mainly by people like Peter LaBarbera and Matt Barber.

Since When Did The FDA Dictate Criminal Policy?

Kyle — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:50:34 +0000

We've listened to, and posted, a lot of Alan Colmes' interviews with right-wing figures here in the past, but I don't think we've ever come across one as frustrating and contentious as last night's interview with the AFA's Bryan Fischer.

I can say for sure that I have never heard Colmes use the word "weasel" so many times in one interview, but it was entirely warranted as he had brought Fischer on to discuss his position that "those 'who practice homosexuality' should come under the purview of the law just as much as those who take people captive in order to sell them into slavery."

But Fischer refused to do so, stating, as he did in his follow-up post yesterday, that he never explicitly said that gays should be imprisoned, insisting rather that his point was that gays should be treated exactly the same as intravenous drug abusers.

When Colmes attempted to get Fischer to explain just what he thinks should happen to drug abusers (and, by extension, gays) Fischer refused to say, simply repeating that whatever the policy is, it ought to be the same for gays.

It went on for twenty minutes as Colmes tried to get Fischer to defend and explain his point, while Fischer played games with semantics and pretended that he was doing so:

Basically, Fischer's position is that if the law says that drug users get jail time and/or rehabilitation, then that is what should happen to gays as well. And that view seems to rest entirely upon FDA policy banning gay men and intravenous drug users from donating blood.

I have no idea why Fischer thinks that this FDA policy regarding blood donation means that drug use and gay sex are exactly the same thing and ought to be treated the same in all regards.

His logic seems to be that:

Intravenous drug use can spread HIV;

Gay male sex can spread HIV;

Intravenous drug use is illegal;

Therefore gay male sex should be illegal.

Of course, intravenous drug use is illegal not because it can spread HIV, but because all drug use is illegal. Drug use has been illegal for decades in this country, long before the emergence of HIV.

It is not the spread of HIV that makes drug use illegal, it is the drug use itself that is illegal.

The fact that the FDA bans both intravenous drug users and gay men from donating blood is fundamentally irrelevant to the legality of either drug use or gay sex.

For that matter, you know who else is banned from donating blood:

People who have received transplants of animal tissue or organs are excluded from giving blood because of the still largely unknown risks of transmitting unknown or emerging pathogens harbored by the animal donors. People who have recently traveled to or lived abroad in certain countries may be excluded because they are at risk for transmitting agents such as malaria or variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD).

So, using Fischer's logic, organ donors and people who have lived abroad ought to be subject to the same punishments/treatments as drug users, since they too are banned by the FDA from donating blood for the very same reasons.

AFA's Fischer: Gays Should Be Treated Like Drug Addicts

Kyle — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:10:22 +0000

The American Family Association's Bryan Fischer has now responded to the flurry of comments regarding his blog post from last week in which he declared that we should "impose the same sanctions on those who engage in homosexual behavior as we do on those who engage in intravenous drug abuse," and force them into therapy.

In his follow-up post, entitled "Why Homosexual Behavior Should Be Against the Law," Fischer declares:

I nowhere in my blog said we should lock homosexuals up in prison. What I said is that our public policy toward homosexual conduct should be the same as our public policy toward intravenous drug abuse.

My position is that homosexual behavior represents a severe threat to public health, and is even more dangerous to human health than intravenous drug abuse. Because of the health risks involved, curtailing homosexual behavior should be as much a public policy concern as curtailing intravenous drug abuse.

He then goes on to discuss FDA policies banning gay men and intrevenous drug users from donating blood and citing CDC stats regarding HIV in order to claims that "the neutral observer must conclude that homosexual behavior is extremely risky, dangerous and unhealthy, and represents an even greater risk to public health than intravenous drug abuse":

It is obvious, then, from the information gained from the FDA and the CDC that homosexual behavior represents and enormous threat to public health. Quite simply, if intravenous drug use is against the law, homosexual behavior should be too. It’s a simple matter of common sense, sound public policy, and a concern for public health.

Now once we have agreed that we have a serious health problem on our hands here, the best public policy will contain the same kind of sanctions toward homosexual behavior that we have established toward intravenous drug abuse. Whatever we think we should do to curtail injection drug use are the same sorts of things we should pursue to curtail homosexual conduct. And that's the place for the discussion to begin.

Wow.

Of course, none of the points Fischer made citing the FDA or CDC would apply to lesbians, so does his call for "sanctions toward homosexual behavior" also apply toward women?

I, for one, am very much looking forward to Fischer's inevitable follow-up post in which he lays out exactly the steps he expects the government to take in order to "curtail homosexual conduct."

AFA's Video Introduced in Prop 8 Case

Kyle — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:17:23 +0000

Today, the lawyers challenging California's Proposition 8 rested their case after showing a six-minute video of Prop 8 supporters claiming marriage equality would lead to polygamy and bestiality, including one that was produced by the American Family Association.

The video is now gone, but AFA touted it as instrumental in helping pass Prop 8:

In response to Proposition 8, the California referendum that would amend the state’s constitution to protect marriage as being only between a man and a woman, AFA produced a 30-minute documentary supporting the ballot measure and distributed it at no cost to 21,000 churches in California. The video was written and produced by AFA staffers for a small fraction of typical production costs. The video proved to be a valuable tool in the passage of Proposition 8.

As luck would have it, we grabbed a few segments of that video when the AFA put it up on their website in August 2008 and posted them to YouTube:

AFA: Obama Will Be Lucky To Even Make It Through One Term

Kyle — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:57:12 +0000

I don't really know why I am even posting this, other than to marvel at what passes for punditry at the American Family Association as Bryan Fischer, AFA's Director of Issue Analysis for Government and Public Policy, explains in hilariously overwrought terms how President Obama's first year in office has been such a dismal failure that he might not even get a chance to finish out his term:

There is virtually unanimous agreement that President Obama is toast ... If the Democrats do not insist that Obama resign from office - politically unlikely to be sure - they are liable to be dessicated, withered and powerless by 2012. His coattails are just long enough to drag them all under unless they detach themselves immediately if not sooner.

...

The president is now dead weight, an albatross around the neck of every Democrat member of the House and the Senate. They simply cannot afford to be linked to him anymore. He is blindly pursuing policies that the great majority of Americans flatly reject, and yet he soldiers on, oblivious, perhaps through sheer hubris, to the fact that voters aren't buying the swill he is trying to sell as champagne ... Few in political history, apart from appalling scandal, have fallen so far so fast. He is the Tiger Woods of the political world ... Congressional Democrats now can safely ignore their own president, and in fact must do so to preserve any chance of survival ... He has grossly misread the American public, perhaps again because in his insular and self-adulating world he believes he is the smartest person in the room and is sure that his brilliance will inevitably be recognized by the great unwashed. Ain't gonna happen. The American people are a lot smarter than he thinks, maybe even smarter than he is, and surely wiser when it comes to politics. They will never trust him again about anything.

The president is catastrophically weak and naive when it comes to our war against Islamofascism. He is indifferent, desultory, casual, and lacking in seriousness regarding the threat. The American people know this ... Surely the Democrats in the party will see the same thing, and know that if they back Obama in 2012 they will be backing a loser. Believe me, there will be an underground movement among Democrats to plead with Hillary (or somebody) to save what shreds will remain of their party from The One in the next presidential election.

President Obama has no chance at a second term. And eroding chances of completing his first one.

If this doesn't qualify for one of Andew Sullivan's "Hewitt Awards," I don't know what does.

And A Nazi New Year

Peter — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:39:12 +0000

One of the most notable responses to the election of Barack Obama has been the virtually endless parade of right-wing warnings that his administration is leading the nation down the path to communism, socialism, Nazi tyranny, or somehow all the above. The latest example is the eye-catching cover of the January 2010 issue of the American Family Association Journal. It’s a large bright red Nazi flag against a dark cloudy sky, with the headline, “THE EVIL LIVES.” The cover points to two related stories inside, one on secularism and another on abortion:

The secularism story, “What Hitler Knew,” is punctuated by a picture of the dictator in a stiff-armed salute. The article attacking church-state separation is essentially a reprint of the speech given by AFA’s “director of issues analysis” Bryan Fischer at last fall’s Values Voter Summit making the case that the First Amendment does not apply to the states or any entity other than Congress:

It is constitutionally impossible for a governor, a state legislature, a mayor, a city council, a principal, a teacher or a student speaking at graduation to violate the First Amendment, for one simple reason: they’re not Congress.

Perhaps Fischer apparently failed to take into account the 14th Amendment which makes the First Amendment applicable to the states.

Fischer equates Hitler’s efforts to silence Christian opponents of Nazi evils with American church-state separationists:

Secular fundamentalists in the United States know the same thing that Hitler knew. The only thing that stands in their way of the total takeover of our culture, the final removal of any mention of God from the public arena, and the shredding of the last remains of our Judeo-Christian value system, is the church of Jesus Christ.

Fischer also has an extremely narrow interpretation of the First Amendment’s establishment clause as it applies to Congress. He writes that the only way Congress can violate the First Amendment would be “to select one Christian denomination, make it the official church of the United States, and compel citizens to support it with their tax dollars.”

Apparently, according to Fischer’s dubious constitutional analysis, there would be no federal constitutional problem with a state government declaring itself a Baptist state and requiring state taxpayers to support a particular denomination. (In fairness, it should be noted that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas also believes the First Amendment's establishment clause does not apply to the states.)

According to Fischer’s analysis, it would seem that the First Amendment’s protections for free speech would also apply only to Congress and not to governors or state or local governments. If Fischer finds that the least bit troubling, he doesn’t let on.

The Attacks On Amanda Simpson Just Won't Stop

Kyle — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:05:06 +0000

Apparently not content with the trans-bashing statement his organization released last week regarding Amanda Simpson, Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association thought it necessary to write his own blog post attacking her as well:

According to both the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and the World Health Organization (WHO), transgenderism is mental health "disorder." Their word, not mine. A male transgendered individual is so confused and twisted around in his own thinking that he believes he is trapped inside a woman's body.

The world's leading mental health professionals agree that this is a form of mental illness. It is a psychiatric condition which requires therapeutic treatment. It is listed as such in the APA's official Diagnostic and Statistical Manual and on the WHO's official International Classification of Diseases.

That's why it is a travesty that the president appointed the former Mitchell Simpson (who now goes by "Amanda") to a prominent position in his administration. What the deviance cabal wants more than anything is society's approval for their sexually aberrant lifestyles.

In fact, that and that alone is what drives the entire homosexual agenda: they want society to affirm their non-normative behavior, and want anyone who disagrees with them to be punished for daring to hold the values that have under-girded civilization for 8,000 years.

Gay activists are making a big deal out of Simpson's New Year's Eve appointment, clearly indicating that this is a milestone moment for them. Mr. Simpson himself said he hopes that "I will soon be one of hundreds."

Simpson, at the expense of some $70,000, has undergone no less than six surgical mutilations in an effort to reject science, biology, his own DNA and his own mental health in a vain effort to pretend he is a woman. He has had his Adam's apple removed, had breasts implanted, his forehead ground down, and his genitals revised.

Simpson was conceived as a male, was knit together as a male by the Creator in the womb of his mother, was born as a male, grew up as a male, married as a male, fathered a son as a male, and remains a male in every single cell of his body. No amount of surgical mutilation is ever going to change that.

He can only view his own sexuality through a transgendered prism by rejecting scientific reality and the stubborn biological truth about his own DNA. He is living in a state of alarming denial.

We rightly condemn the genital mutilation of young girls in Islamic countries. It is simply bizarre to celebrate genital mutilation among American adults, even if that mutilation is self-inflicted.

By appointing Simpson, the president has put the weight of the federal government behind the normalization of sexual confusion, sexual mutilation, and mental health disorders. Simpson, according to the APA and the World Health Organization, is mentally ill and should be in therapy rather than in a position of important public responsibility.

The president is contributing to the terrible practice of defining deviancy down in our culture. This appointment is bad for America and should be rescinded immediately.

Since the Religious Right seems intent on claiming that the APA considers transgenderism to be a "disorder," it would be nice if they were willing to ackloweldge that the APA's recommendations for treating this "disorder" involve gender transition and that the APA calls for "legal and social recognition of transgender individuals consistent with their gender identity and expression" so that they may live "free from discrimination, harassment, violence, and abuse":

THEREFORE, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT APA encourages legal and social recognition of transgender individuals consistent with their gender identity and expression, including access to identity documents consistent with their gender identity and expression which do not involuntarily disclose their status as transgender for transgender people who permanently socially transition to another gender role;

...

THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT APA supports efforts to provide safe and secure educational environments, at all levels of education, as well as foster care environments and juvenile justice programs, that promote an understanding and acceptance of self and in which all youths, including youth of all gender identities and expressions, may be free from discrimination, harassment, violence, and abuse;

...

THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT APA supports the provision of adequate and necessary mental and medical health care treatment for transgender and gender variant individuals;

THEREFORE, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT APA recognizes the efficacy, benefit and medical necessity of gender transition treatments for appropriately evaluated individuals and calls upon public and private insurers to cover these medically necessary treatments