AFA's Bryan Fischer: I Am A "Prophetic Voice" Warning Against The Gay Agenda

On yesterday's program, Bryan Fischer claimed to be a "prophetic voice," stating that America is "going to have to choose between the homosexual agenda and liberty, because we cannot have both."

Watch:

Bryan Fischer On Libya Attacks: Hang Every Member Of The Mob From Nearest Bridge

Via Right Wing Watch:

On his radio program today, Bryan Fischer declared that the attack on the US Consulate in Libya in which the US Ambassador and three staff were killed was nothing short of "an act of war," proclaiming that President Obama's declaration that justice will be done means nothing "until every member of the mob that killed these Americans in cold blood is hung from the nearest bridge by the neck until dead."

Sure, Brian. That'll help.

Watch:

Bryan Fischer: Gays Have 'No Business' Being Republican

In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Bryan Fishcer of the American Family Association said that gays have "no business" in the Republican Party.

"They have no business being there. Our message is to them is that your home is in the Democratic Party," said Bryan Fischer, director of issue analysis for the Tupelo, Miss.-based American Family Association, a conservative radio host and a leading anti-gay figure in the GOP.

"These groups are actively working to undermine and subvert the Republican party platform and the principles of the Republican Party," Mr. Fischer said in a telephone interview. "They are undermining the moral foundations of the Republican Party."

It's no matter to him that Log Cabin Republicans support nearly every other party platform from tax policy to gun rights.

"There is no place for the homosexual agenda," he said. "The Republican platform is very clean on the issues of marriage and family and parenting, and these are people that are actively working against the principles of the party."

"The reason they are for gay marriage is that it is an issue of liberty for people to have the freedom to do what they want ... but we oppose gay marriage because it threatens liberty," he said.

He offered two examples of businesses whose freedoms were trumped by what he calls the gay agenda. First, he said several mayors are trying to keep Chick-fil-A restaurants out of their cities because the company's devout Christian owners oppose gay marriage. In another example, he said, the New Mexico Civil Rights Commission fined Christian photographer Elaine Huguenin for refusing to photograph a lesbian couple's commitment ceremony.

"The gay agenda is a threat to religious liberty. It is a danger to the liberty that the party stands for ... and it's tyranny that's being launched against businesses," Mr. Fischer said.

He said younger members of his party don't see that "because they are young and they are immature and they are unaware of the severe dangers to liberty that is posed by the homosexual agenda."

There you have it, my LGBT friends. The Republican Party does not want you. The Democrats, on the other hand, could sure use your help voting bigots out of office.

"It Really All Stands To Reason" That Few Women Get Pregnant From Rape

If Todd Akin's comments on "legitimate rape" and pregnancy have had you pounding your head against the desk, you might want to avoid the following clip of the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer and Brad Mattes of Life Issues Institute discussing the strong reactions to Akin's asinine remarks.

According to these two, it's rare for women to get pregnant from rape because "it really all stands to reason."

Watch:

Fischer: Gays Are Driven By A 'Dark, Venomous, Demonic Hatred'

Bryan Fischer, the man with absolutely no self-awareness, says the gays are the "real haters," because they are fueled by a Christophobic, heterophobic demonic hatred.

Watch:

What Part Of 'Consent" Does Bryan Fischer Not Understand?

Bryan Fischer's latest batshit rant is about how condoning gay marriage will only lead to the legalization of pedophilia and bestiality.  Not that we haven't heard that one before.


It's a common refrain with Fischer.  His Twitter feed is rife with comparisons of homosexuality to pedophilia and bestiality.

The anti-gay spokesman for the American Family Association has this meme he thinks is clever. To support his view that it's perfectly okay to discriminate against LGBT folks, he serves up endless examples of our intolerance of pedophilia and bestiality.

Here's the thing, Bry. In cases of child molestation or sex with a minor, the acts are not consensual. In cases of bestiality, the acts are not consensual. In gay marriage, there are two consenting adults.

I can't decide if you're willfully ignorant or just an idiot.

Bryan Fischer's Christian Approach To Health Care: Hospitals, Turn Away The Poor

Another day, another batshit quote from the AFA's Bryan Fischer.

In a blog post on the AFA website, Fischer serves up some ideas on fixing Obamacare. The post is titled, Bringing down health care costs so easy a caveman could do it.

Apparently, Fischer is not aware that Neanderthals actually showed "a deep seated sense of compassion."

Fischer writes:

People need medical care, you will say. Right. People need to eat, too. How long would a grocer stay in business if he was required to offer food to everyone who walked in the door regardless of their ability to pay? He’d be broke in a week, and then nobody would have food.

In the very next paragraph, Fischer actually states the following:

The American people, because of the spirit of Christianity, are the most generous people on earth.

There you have it. Bryan Fischer is not only a terrible human being. As I've stated over and over, he is also the world's least self-aware.

Bryan Fischer: Satan Behind Gay Rights, Planned Parenthood & Environmentalism

Another day, another batshit rant from Bryan Fischer.

According to Fischer, Old Scratch is behind everything from gay rights to Planned Parenthood to environmentalism.

Watch:

Fischer: Gays Cannot Be Reasoned With Because God Has Given Them Over To Depraved Minds

Via Right Wing Watch:

"...you cannot reason with these people because they are impervious to facts, they are impervious to logic, they are impervious to reason, they are impervious to history, they are impervious to the truth."

Bryan, that's actually a pretty apt description of yourself and your fellow Christian Right lunatics.

Go on.

"And the reason that gays and liberals and the like cannot be reasoned with is because God has given them over to a "depraved mind," so "their thinking is messed up [and] they don't process information the way normal people process information."

Wait, what?. I don't even.

Bryan Fischer: Allowing Gay Parents To Adopt 'Is A Form Of Sexual Abuse'

Via Right Wing Watch:

Bryan Fischer is in top form in today's anti-gay rant in which he declares that allowing gay parents to adopt is a "form of sexual abuse."

Watch:

Bryan Fischer: 'The Left Hates Women'

According to Bryan Fischer of the AFA, it's not conservatives who are disrespecting women -- it's the left. Liberals, says Fischer, are almost always the source of misogyny, hatred, and verbal attacks. They're just like Islamic Radicals, he says, treating women as something less than human.

Fischer, looking down on women

Fischer's idea of respect sure is strange.

In February, he stated that "women are not wired, either by evolution or by God, whoever is responsible for this difference, they are not prepared by DNA and innate personality characteristics to be in [combat]."

Last August, Fischer stated that a woman can only be president only if there aren't any godly men available to do the job.

Just last week, he stated that Sandra Fluke is "sleeping with so many guys she can't keep track," and that the "definition of "slut" is "a promiscuous woman." The left got Rush to apologize for using the dictionary accurately."

In January, responding to a report that 96.6% of all sexual assaults in military are male on female or male on male, Fischer actually said this: "Remove women and gays, problem vanishes."

Also in January, Fischer blamed women, and the feminization of public policy, for the sorry state of affairs in America.

Last April, Fischer said that welfare provides incentive for black women to "rut like rabbits."

This man has zero self-awareness.

Watch:

Fischer: Muslim Immigrants Must Convert To Christianity

A day hardly goes by when Bryan Fischer doesn't say something insane.

Bryan Fischer, asshole

Now, we know that Bryan Fischer is an Islamaphobe. He's said Muslims have no first amendment rights. He thinks they should be banned from the military. He's urged the US to ban the construction of mosques. He's stated that they are dangerous, unintelligent and mentally ill due to inbreeding. He's called Muslim Americans a toxic cancer to society. It goes on and on.

Yesterday, Fischer continued his ignorant, anti-Muslim tirade, calling (once again) for the conversion of all Muslim immigrants to Christianity.

On his hateful little show, "Focal Point," Fischer stated that all Muslim immigrants have "got to embrace your God, they've got to embrace your faith," claiming once again that "America is a Christian nation."

One of my favorite of Fischer's claims from this particular tirade was, "Muslims worship an entirely different God." You know, that other God who revealed himself to Abraham.

Watch:

Bryan Fischer & The Creation Museum's Scientist Link Evolution To Hitler

Today, AFA spokesman and all-around horrible person, Bryan Fischer, had Dr. Georgia Purdom on his show.

For those unfamiliar with Dr. Purdom, she is one of the actual scientists employed by the Creation Museum. In other words, she is a scientist who has found a way to completely ignore science in order to indoctrinate children with the idea that the earth is only several thousand years old, and that God created humans in their present form.

As I've mentioned before in these pages, evolution deniers like Bryan Fischer, Ray Comfort, and the crew at Answers in Genesis love to play the Hitler card in their attacks on evolution.

Take Fischer and Purdom from today's Focal Point (video segment is below)

FISCHER: So it seems like you could draw a straight line between Charles Darwin, Margaret Sanger, the eugenics movement, and Adolph Hitler. You have an unbroken line from the theory of evolution to Hitler's Germany. Is that an over-exaggeration?

PURDOM: No it's not.

What Fischer and Purdom are trying to do is sully Darwin's name, and his theory of evolution -- a theory which is considered to be a fact by most modern biologists -- by association.

I guess the idea is that if they keep repeating over and over that "evolution = Hitler," the poor souls who pay attention to these loons (over 200 radio stations and over 1 million visitors to the Creation Museum) will simply say, "Welp, Hitler was evil, so evolution has to be a lie!"

Here's the thing:

Evolution doesn't care. Evolution happens, has happened, and will happen, regardless of who embraces it, or who mirrors its mechanisms for whatever nefarious purpose.

It doesn't matter if Mother Theresa, Pope Benedict, or Adolf Hitler embraced the theory of evolution. It doesn't change anything. Because change is always occurring, and it doesn't give a shit about you, politics, religion, or Bryan Fischer.

Next thing you know, Fischer and Purdom will be bad-mouthing Sir Isaac Newton and his theory of gravitation because of the millions who have died by falling.

Fischer: AIDS Caused By Rampant Promiscuity & 'Poppers'

This week, AFA spokesman Bryan Fischer continued to perpetuate his dangerous and hateful 'HIV does not cause AIDS' baloney.

Bryan Fischer, tool

Via Right Wing Watch:

So what is the cause of AIDS, according to Fischer? Well, it is the thousands of sexual partners that gay men have coupled with the fact that they need to take "poppers" in order to have that much sex. It is these poppers, Fischer says, that destroy the immune system and "96% of the people who engage actively in homosexuality" use these drugs.

Fischer, like most conservative anti-LGBT blowhards, have this wildly distorted view of homosexuality in which every single member of the LGBT community is living some kind of alternate-universe Freddie Mercury-on-steroids lifestyle:

God's design is one sexual partner for life. Now, in the homosexual community, the average homosexual has hundreds of sexual partners over the course of a lifetime. Hundreds. Some of them have between 500 and 1000 and there are any number of homosexuals, and they admit this in their own literature, have more then a 1000 sexual partners.

Now they're talking about numerous sexual encounters on the same night. Now, in order to do that, they've got to take drugs to enhance the experience and to make it possible to have numerous encounters on the same night. These drugs are called "poppers," is the street name for them. They're amyl nitrites, alkyl nitrites ... they inhale these things and they dilate the blood vessels, increase blood flow and all that kind of thing - they're real tough on the heart, in fact, you find homosexuals frequently dying at early ages of heart attacks. Why? Because they've just overstimulated their heart with these nitrites because of the kind of sexual behavior that they engage in.

And we know, [Peter] Duesberg say, look we know, we can demonstrate in the lab the way these nitrites, the way these inhalants break down the immune system. And the research indicates that 96% of the people who engage actively in homosexuality, homosexual behavior, use these nitrites. The inhalants are very common.

So he suggests that this is the cause of AIDS: it's the rampant promiscuity, coupled with this drug use. That's what causes the human immune system to break down.

Watch:

Bryan Fischer On Why God Designed Men To Be Leaders In Home, Church & Society

American Family Association spokesman, and biggest douchebag in the world, Bryan Fischer thinks he's figured out why America is in so much trouble.

It's women's fault, of course (remember that whole Garden of Eden thing?

According to Fischer, God designed men and women differently so that men could run everything.

"The way we have gotten in trouble in public policy, is we have gotten away from masculine characteristics of public policy We have feminized our public policy."

Watch:

Bryan Fischer: HIV Does Not Cause AIDS, Massive Drug Use Among Gays Causes AIDS

I am a horrible person.

By now, it's clear that Bryan Fischer, of SPLC-designated hate group The American Family Association, is either a brilliant work of performance art or simply just a horrible, willfully ignorant, bible-thumping hatemonger suffering from acute narcissistic personality disorder.

He was already vying for 'Worst Person in the World,' but this week Fischer ratcheted up the batshit yet again.

Via Right Wing Watch:

It really should come as no surprise that there is no depth to which Bryan Fischer will not sink in his relentless assault against all things gay, as he is now openly promoting the idea that the HIV virus is not the cause of AIDS.

Fisher dedicated two segments on his program yesterday to interviewing Peter Duesberg, author of "Inventing the AIDS Virus," who asserts that the idea that HIV causes AIDS was a scheme concocted by scientists in order to get research grants and that the symptoms attributed to AIDS are really caused by massive recreational drug use among gay men.

And it is a theory which Fischer wholeheartedly endorses.

The full interview can be viewed below, if you can stomach it.

Top Posts Of 2011...Plus A Blogger's Dozen

Is it silly to post a year-end review for a blog that has only been in existence for 11 months?

Perhaps. But here goes.

Top 10 posts of 2011:

Of the 318 posts this year, the following were the most popular.

1. Why A Heterosexual, Married, North Carolinian Father Of Three Cares About LGBT Equality
I sat down to write this the day after the NC Senate voted to approve a proposed constitutional amendment banning any legal relationship recognition for same-sex couples. I never would have imagined that this post would have been read by over 127,000 people. Most of these people read it because someone else shared it or passed it along. This happy accident showed me that, while there's a lot of work to be done before the May 8 vote, there are a lot of people who are fired up and ready to fight this anti-LGBT amendment -- including many dedicated straight allies (a crucial piece of the campaign.) Common sense, empathy, and reason, are contagious.

2. Why Not? Evolution, Videos & Rockstar Scientists
My friend Matt Shipman, a science writer based in Raleigh, NC, was not the only person who grumbled after watching the Miss USA contestants discuss whether or not evolution should be taught in school. However, he very well may be the only one who did so and then decided to create a video response featuring several kick-ass female scientists discussing the importance of evolution education. Matt's post provided the backstory to the creation of this video, which has since been featured at Jezebel, The Guardian, BoingBoing, Scientific American, Nature, and by Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers. I am honored that Matt wanted to publish this post in these pages (his second post for this blog). I look forward to more guest posts by Matt.

3. Penn Jillette's 10 Commandments For Non-Believers
As part of his book, 'God No,' Penn Jillette serves up his (godless) version of The Ten Commandments.

4. Hi, I'm Rick Perry, And I Don't Understand Things
Like many people, the minute I saw Rick Perry's 'Strong' ad, my blood began to boil. I believe he may have set a record for political ads (not to mention a record for Youtube dislikes). Never before has there been so much bullshit crammed into 30 seconds of video. Thirty seconds of lies, misconceptions, offensive presumptions, and good ol' fashioned bigotry.




5. Faith Healing: Six Die After Church Tells Them They No Longer Need HIV Treatment
Faith-healing church leader tells HIV-positive congregation members that they are cured and no longer need treatment. They die. The sad part? This is only one of many disgusting examples of faith healing ideology leading to deaths in 2011 -- nearly all of which could easily have been prevented by simply going to, and listening to, an actual medical doctor.

6. Douchebag Of The Day: Bryan Fischer
Although I wrote many posts about Bryan Fischer in 2011 (he may very well be the person I most blogged about), for some reason this is the one that hit a nerve with folks, and was shared and tweeted the most. There's plenty more where this came from.

Catholic smut

7. The Catholic Church's $2.4 Billion Bookstore Peddles Loads Of Smut
Hands-down hypocrites of the year, the Catholic church absolutely is very much involved in the publishing, manufacturing, distribution, and selling, of erotica.

8. The Relative Insignificance Of Your Problems (And Perhaps, Humanity)
Personally, I feel there's nothing more life-affirming and stress-relieving than truly appreciating one's place in the big picture. While many feel that acknowledging insignificance somehow detracts from their sense of meaningfulness, it can be incredibly awe-inspiring, and actually quite freeing. Don't sweat the small stuff, indeed.

9. Happy Birthday, Carl
This simple post comprised of the text from Carl Sagan's 'The Pale Blue Dot,' and an accompanying montage created by a Sagan fan and proponent of scientific literacy/education, resonated with a lot of folks who have been inspired and entertained by the late, great astrophysicist.

10. Does The GOP Really Want A President Who Believes We Are In The Last Days?
Michele Bachmann serves up an insane prayer for her homophobic heavy metal BFF's 'You Can Run But You Cannot Hide' ministry.


A Blogger's Dozen:

Part of what makes blogging so interesting is that one can never know which (or even if) posts will find their way to readers in the bloated blogosphere (there are over 156 million public blogs in existence).

Here are a dozen posts readers might enjoy if they missed them the first time around:

Leaving the flock

1. Ask A Humanist: Reflections On Leaving Faith In The Bible Belt
This ongoing series of posts has been a way to publicly address many of the questions I've been asked by people here in the Bible Belt, where it is too often assumed that everyone belongs to a church congregation. Additionally, although there is no shortage of books about non-belief, there are not many which address the real-life impacts that leaving religion can have -- on our families, our neighbors, our children, and our emotions. I wanted, at the very least, to put my own views and experiences out there for others who might find them helpful.



2. Toss The Ten Commandments
Although many believe the Ten Commandments to be indispensable (and the cornerstone of American law), when you really look at them, they don't have much to offer from a moral/ethical perspective. We would do just fine by tossing them out and following only one.

3. Biblical Literalism and Circular Logic: Protecting the House of Cards
For many people, admitting that certain claims in the Bible are not true would mean reevaluating beliefs which had been treated as truths for a large part of their lives. They feel that any compromise on these beliefs  might cause the whole house of cards to come down. It doesn't have to be that way.

4. Religion And Well-Being
A look at the striking similarities of US maps depicting religiosity, well-being, poverty, and political leanings. How much does religion influence well-being, and vice-versa?

5. Reflections on The Rapture That Wasn't
It appears that we needed the rapture more than it needed us. A look at how Harold Camping's bizarre end-times beliefs are really not much crazier than the beliefs held by many Americans.

No, that's not in The Bible

6. That's Not In The Bible: Phantom Passages and Biblical Illiteracy
We tend to attribute many anecdotes, ideologies, and quotes to scripture even though they do not exist anywhere in The Bible. This points to a larger problem, one that affects politics, science, education, and even the enjoyment of art and literature. This post offers a secular argument for biblical literacy.

7. 30 Reasons Why Bryan Fischer is Dangerous and Must Be Stopped
Despite his growing role as a kingmaker in Republican politics, not many people know about Bryan Fischer. The scariest thing about Bryan Fischer is that, despite the fact that he spews hateful bile on a daily basis (via his talk radio show and via his role as spokesperson for the American Family Association), GOP politicians continue to cozy up to him, and none of them seem to believe he should tone it down.

8. Jesus: Anti-Welfare, Randian Capitalist?
How are so many Christians able to reconcile their Randian anti-welfare, capitalistic ideology with a religion based on a man who urged his followers to sell their possessions and give to the poor?

9. Welfare Myths, Christian Charity, And The Insanity Of Welfare Drug Screening
In 2011, we witnessed a growing chorus of resentment among self-described Christians towards the recipients of welfare and the assumption that welfare recipients are lazy, good-for-nothing, baby-having, divorced, drug and alcohol-abusing, freeloading minorities who are gaming the system. A look at how these myths are dead wrong, and how welfare drug screening is idiotic.

10. Is Religion Complicit In The Suicides of Gay Teens?

Bullied to death

It's true that bullying has occurred for as long as humans have been social beings, and that much of bullying is not directed at LGBT teens, but the bullying that LGBT teens experience is something different altogether. While no bullying should be acceptable, the bullying of LGBT teens should be of great concern, due to the nature of the bullying and its devastating effects on our children. The religious component of bullying is especially damaging.

11. Rabbi Thinks Non-Believers Actually Believe (But I Don't Believe Him)
Over at Huffington Post, Rabbi Adam Jacobs tries to make a case that everyone, regardless of what they tell you (or what they think they believe), believes in God. While I was willing to give the Rabbi the benefit of the doubt, it didn't take long to realize that I don't think he knows what he's talking about.

12. A Godless Proposal: A Kinder, Gentler Atheist
I am quite fond of many secular organizations and their members. I applaud many of their fantastic philanthropic projects, awareness campaigns, community-building initiatives, and the support systems they provide and foster. However, I have trouble committing to some of them due to philosophical differences. Why atheists could stand to tone down some of the antagonism and build bridges with religious folks who share their views on equality, science, church-state separation, and social justice.


Thanks for reading in 2011.  There should be plenty of fodder in 2012, and I don't plan on going anywhere.

I wish everyone a Happy New Year -- one full of sanity, tolerance, and reason.

Conservatives Fear Rampant Bestiality In The Military

Religious right nutjobs Michele Bachmann and Bryan Fischer are very worried that our military is going to start having sex with animals.

Yes, really.

Last week, the US Senate voted to repeal Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The repeal was part of a larger piece of legislation, the National Defense Authorization Act.

While the Defense Act has certainly been controversial, bestiality hasn't been the reason.

You see, Article 125 is an archaic statute which bars troops from engaging in consensual sodomy, and its repeal was tacked on to the defense act (hardly unusual in legislation) -- a move applauded by LGBT rights advocates.

However, since the article defines sodomy as "unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex or with an animal," the nutjobs read this as the military condoning bestiality.

Here's World Nut Daily asking White House press secretary Jay Carney if the president approves or disapproves of sex with animals:


Last night, Michelle Bachmann and Glenn Beck watched that video together on Beck's web show.

Bachmann reacted:

It’s absolutely abhorrent, reprehensible and you think, this is the kind of thing parents try to keep from their children because parents want to have their children enjoy innocence. Children need that latency period, they need innocence and your own government legalizes this? … Are we really going to say ho hum and laugh and go back to sleep? There’s got to be something we stand for...So the big question is, is there anything that’s wrong? That’s my question. If that’s not wrong, Glenn what’s wrong? Is there anything that’s wrong? Then you have a very serious problem on your hands.

Here's that clip:


Bryan Fischer, of hate group American Family Association, stated:

You have an instance of bestiality now, and the military has no legal way to deal with it. That's been now normalized...Once you cross the threshold that sexual intimacy is between for a husband and a wife in marriage...once you cross that boundary, there is no place to stop."

Here's that clip. It's a little long and painful, but feel free to watch if you're so inclined:


Next thing you know, military animals will be requiring separate shower and bathroom facilities.

Fischer, Citing Quran, Calls For Military Ban On Muslims, Apparently Forgetting All That Bible Violence

Bryan Fischer, douchenozzle

If I didn't know any better, I would suspect that The American Family Association's Bryan Fischer is an invention -- brilliant comedy-slash-performance art for the ages, joining the ranks of Tony Clifton and Neil Hamburger.

His anti-LGBT, xenophobic, extreme Christian Right views are so ridiculously over the top, you'd be crazy not to wonder if he's simply an elaborate hoax.

If his extreme ideology wasn't enough, Fischer also lacks any hint of self-awareness, spouting blatant hypocrisy at every turn.

Take his recent post at World Nut Daily, in which he doubles down on his belief that Muslims have no place in the US military.

To my knowledge, I was the first voice in America to call for stopping the practice of Muslims serving in the U.S. military. I did so the day after the Fort Hood shootings in November of 2009.

I endured a withering firestorm of criticism from friend and foe alike, and was summoned to both CNN and the Alan Colmes radio show to explain myself.

Now a prominent Tennessee legislator, Rep. Rick Womick, is joining me in this call. Said he, at a Sharia-awareness-event over the weekend, "If you believe it (the Quran), you are commanded to kill anybody who will not convert to Islam."

And of course he is right about what the Quran teaches the followers of Muhammad and Allah. There are 109 verses in the Quran, by one count, that call for violence against infidel Christians and Jews. One example will suffice: "Slay the idolaters wherever you find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them" (Sura 9:5).

What part of "slay the idolaters wherever you find them" do brain-addled idolaters not understand? Muslims have been ordered by their god to kill you! What about that do you not get?

Further on:

Arresting, besieging and lying in ambush is exactly the kind of thing the United States military does to our enemies. Who are Muslims obligated to do that to? Who are the enemies of Islam that devout Muslims are ordered to arrest, besiege and ambush? Why, their fellow soldiers who believe in the God of Christianity.

It would be one thing if this ideology were covert and we were just finding out about it. But it's right there in their holy book where it has been for 1,400 years, where everybody, including our next commander in chief, can read it. It is sheer lunacy not to take this seriously.

In fact, I would suggest that I am showing more honor to Muslims than anyone else, because I am taking their religion more seriously than they are. I believe what Allah said through his Prophet, peace be upon him, that his followers have a sacred duty to slay infidel Americans. It shows a shameless lack of respect for Islam not to believe what their holy book says about their own religion. I have too much respect for Muslims and their sincerity and devotion to make that mistake.

That last paragraph is classic Fischer: Pure unadulterated hatred slathered in smarmy, patronizing righteousness.

While he is certainly correct in that the Quran is not in short supply of violent rhetoric and barbaric ideology, he seems to not also be aware that his Christian Bible is also not in short supply of the same violent rhetoric and barbaric ideology.

If Fischer wishes to ban all adherents of one religion based on the barbarism of its holy book, and the actions of some of its most extreme followers, then he might want to just call for a ban of Christians and Jews as well.

In a comparison of the Quran and the Bible for NPR, religion historian Philip Jenkins stated:

"Much to my surprise, the Islamic scriptures in the Quran were actually far less bloody and less violent than those in the Bible," Jenkins says.

"By the standards of the time, which is the 7th century A.D., the laws of war that are laid down by the Quran are actually reasonably humane," he says. "Then we turn to the Bible, and we actually find something that is for many people a real surprise. There is a specific kind of warfare laid down in the Bible which we can only call genocide."

It is called herem, and it means total annihilation. Consider the Book of 1 Samuel, when God instructs King Saul to attack the Amalekites: "And utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them," God says through the prophet Samuel. "But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey."

When Saul failed to do that, God took away his kingdom.

"In other words," Jenkins says, "Saul has committed a dreadful sin by failing to complete genocide. And that passage echoes through Christian history. It is often used, for example, in American stories of the confrontation with Indians — not just is it legitimate to kill Indians, but you are violating God's law if you do not."

Jenkins notes that the history of Christianity is strewn with herem. During the Crusades in the Middle Ages, the Catholic popes declared the Muslims Amalekites. In the great religious wars in the 16th, 17th and 19th centuries, Protestants and Catholics each believed the other side were the Amalekites and should be utterly destroyed.

Let's have a look at some of the passages from Fischer's Bible:

If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his covenant; And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded; And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel; Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die. (Deuteronomy 17:2-5)

If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you. (Deuteronomy 13:6)

Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. (1 Samuel 15)

Surely, Fischer would be the first to state that the above passages are out of context, relate to a particular time and place in human history, and don't represent modern Christianity.

Most Muslims would say the same thing about the passages Fischer has cherry-picked from the Quran.

Violence in the Quran, [Jenkins] and others say, is largely a defense against attack.

"By the standards of the time, which is the 7th century A.D., the laws of war that are laid down by the Quran are actually reasonably humane," he says.

And certainly, Fischer has a point when he points to some of the sensational stories of Islamic-fueled violence in recent times. We also must understand that these acts are a whole other animal, and most modern Muslims are far less extreme in their religious views than is Fischer.

That may be the popular notion of jihad, says Waleed El-Ansary, but it's the wrong one. El-Ansary, who teaches Islamic studies at the University of South Carolina, says the Quran explicitly condemns religious aggression and the killing of civilians. And it makes the distinction between jihad — legal warfare with the proper rules of engagement — and irjaf, or terrorism.

"All of those types of incidences — [Sept. 11], Maj. Nidal Hasan and so forth — those are all examples of irjaf, not jihad," he says. According to the Quran, he says, those who practice irjaf "are going to hell."

So what's going on here? After all, we all have images of Muslim radicals flying planes into buildings, shooting up soldiers at Fort Hood, trying to detonate a bomb on an airplane on Christmas Day. How to reconcile a peaceful Quran with these violent acts?

El-Ansary says that in the past 30 years, there's been a perfect storm that has created a violent strain of Islam. The first is political: frustration at Western intervention in the Muslim world. The second is intellectual: the rise of Wahhabi Islam, a more fundamentalist interpretation of Islam subscribed to by Osama bin Laden. El-Ansary says fundamentalists have distorted Islam for political purposes.

"Basically what they do is they take verses out of context and then use that to justify these egregious actions," he says.

El-Ansary says we are seeing more religious violence from Muslims now because the Islamic world is far more religious than is the West. Still, Jenkins says Judeo-Christian cultures shouldn't be smug. The Bible has plenty of violence.

"The scriptures are still there, dormant, but not dead," he says, "and they can be resurrected at any time. Witness the white supremacists who cite the murderous Phineas when calling for racial purity, or an anti-abortion activist when shooting a doctor who performs abortions.

In the end, the scholars can agree on one thing: The DNA of early Judaism, Christianity and Islam code for a lot of violence.

Pot, meet kettle.


Further reading: 30 Reasons Why Bryan Fischer is Dangerous and Must Be Stopped

'Yoga Is Demonic,' Says Pastor Who Said Masturbation Is Gay

Remember Mark Driscoll, the megachurch pastor who said that masturbation is a form of homosexuality?

Now he's going on about how yoga is of the devil.

Says Driscoll:

Yoga is...in fact demonic. By demonic I mean it’s a spiritual act to a being other than the God of the Bible. And, for those unfamiliar with me, I’m no raging Christian fundamentalist.

I don't know, Mark. Equating masturbation to homosexuality sounds pretty freakin' fundie to me. As does poo-pooing yoga.

My most vocal critics tend to be from the fundamentalist tribe as I do drink alcohol, have been known to use strong language, and talk very frankly about the joys of married sex. I’m no prude, but I am a pastor.

A few things. Jesus drank alcohol, used strong language. The Bible is full of frank talk about the joys of married sex. You're a prude.

Here are more of Driscoll's thoughts on yoga:

As Christians, we must be intellectually honest and respect that yoga is in fact intertwined with Hindu religious practice. They have a right to be offended as much as we would be equally offended if they underwent Christian baptism or communion while denying any religious connection and secularizing it or doing it in a Hindu way.

* * *
Consciousness can be altered through the practice of rite and ritual. Magic is the manipulation of objects, substances, spirit entities, and minds, including humans and demons, by word (rituals like yoga, incantations like om, curses, spells, etc.) and objects (charms, amulets, crystals, herbs, potions, wands, candles, etc.).

* * *
Whether they know it or not, Christians who engage in yoga are participating in a religious expression that is antithetical to Christianity. The result is often an unguarded spirit that is susceptible to the many lies of Satan and a slow, almost unperceivable degradation of faith and Christian truth in one’s life.

* * *
Yoga is a religious philosophy that is in direct opposition to Christianity. Thus, in its true form, yoga cannot be simply received by any Christian in good conscious. To do so would be to reject the truths of Scripture and thus Jesus himself.

So what is a Christian to do? Can Christians co-opt yoga and do it in a Christian way, say, by praying to Jesus while they stretch and do yoga poses while listening to praise music?

My advice is to not attempt to redeem yoga properly understood, as it is a system of belief that is unchristian, against Scripture, and thus demonic in nature. You cannot redeem such a thing.

So, in conclusion, Christians must reject yoga, as defined here. I’d also go so far as to say you should reject the term “yoga,” as it is impossible to divorce it from its historical and spiritual context without much explanation and linguistic gymnastics. Instead, feel free in Christian liberty to stretch however you’d like, participate in exercise, calm your nerves through breathing, and even contemplate the Scriptures in silence. But do so in a way that does not identify with yoga and non-Christian mysticism. Do not seek to negate your mind, but rather renew your mind with the Word of God. Do not seek to empty yourself, but rather be filled with the Holy Spirit. Do not seek to turn into yourself for enlightenment, but rather look out to the God of the Bible. Do not seek to become one with the universe, but rather be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.

I tend to think that a lot of conservative Christian figures like Mark Driscoll (and Bryan Fischer, on a whole other level), don't trust themselves. Their explanations tend to raise a red flag that perhaps they don't have a whole hell of a lot of will power themselves, and they project this same insecurity on their audience. I mean, Bryan Fischer can't trust himself to be alone with a woman who is not his wife. Mark Driscoll can't masturbate without feeling gay (and the fact that he even brings up the idea of masturbating in front of a mirror makes me wonder what he does in front of a mirror).

Mark, Christians can practice yoga and remain Christians. Millions of them do it every day. I know many of them.

I also know people who trick-or-treat without becoming pagans, wear green on St. Pat's without turning Irish, and listen to Melissa Etheridge without turning into lesbians.

And I can tell you from personal experience that masturbation won't turn you gay.