American Family Radio’s Bryan Fischer has been a vocal supporter of Roy Moore in his campaign for a seat in the U.S. Senate from Alabama, declaring that Moore’s race is “a referendum on the Constitution” and that “we as Christians and as social conservatives must unapologetically defend Moore whenever and wherever we can.” In the wake of reports that Moore pursued sexual relationships with teenage girls when he was in his 30s, Fischer doubled down on his defense of Moore and lashed out against Republicans who have withdrawn their support and urged More to drop out of the race.
Fischer was on the air yesterday when another accuser came forward, recounting an incident in which Moore allegedly sexually assaulted her when she was 16. While Fischer had not seen the press conference, the American Family Association’s president, Tim Wildmon, did watch it and he appeared on Fischer’s show to rather somberly report that this latest accuser seemed credible and her claims about Moore were “very believable.”
In the wake of that news, Fischer’s defense of Moore changed and he started insisting that nobody can condemn Moore because the biblical standard of proof had not been met and so everyone “must withhold judgement” regarding the multiple allegations against him.
“The Bible is very, very clear that you never condemn anybody on the testimony of one witness,” Fischer said. “If there is a crime that has been committed and you only have one witness, you do not convict on that basis. Now what we’ve got here is four people that claim a crime of some kind, or something inappropriate happened, but in each case, there is only one witness. We don’t have two witnesses to any of these accusations to this point, which means from a standpoint of biblical justice, we have to hold our fire, we have to withhold our judgment, we have to wait and see if more information comes out.”
“Until there is a second witness, then we have to say that, biblically, the standard of proof has not yet been met,” he added. “If the standard is innocent until proven guilty, then Roy Moore has to be considered, conceived of in our minds, as somebody who is being falsely accused.”
“These five accusers now, all of them have no corroborating witnesses,” Fischer continued. “What it means, from our standpoint, [is] we don’t have enough evidence yet to be able to reach a conclusion about whether they are telling the truth or not, which means we must withhold judgment.”
