{"id":18157,"date":"2010-08-18T11:50:46","date_gmt":"2010-08-18T17:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=18157"},"modified":"2010-08-18T11:54:30","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T17:54:30","slug":"bryan-fischer-is-also-a-dolt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/08\/18\/bryan-fischer-is-also-a-dolt.html","title":{"rendered":"Bryan Fischer is also a dolt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Or maybe not a dolt.  Yeah, that&#8217;s still unkind.  How about &#8220;&#8230; a dangerous lunatic&#8221;? A danger to others, certainly. A danger to logic and rhetoric, unquestionably. A danger to America, without a doubt.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_18159\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18159\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/bryanfischer.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-18159\" title=\"bryanfischer\" src=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/bryanfischer-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"bryan fischer\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/bryanfischer-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/bryanfischer-160x120.jpg 160w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/bryanfischer-75x56.jpg 75w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/bryanfischer.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18159\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bryan Fischer - it&#39;s okay to be a holy warrior as long as you&#39;re not, y&#39;know, a jihadist or something.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Take <a href=\"http:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/TRANSCRIPTS\/1008\/16\/acd.02.html\">his appearance the other night on Anderson Cooper 360<\/a> (guest hosted by Sanjay Gupta).\u00a0 Fischer made it very clear that, no matter what moderate extremists like Sarah Palin might argue for cover, the goal in his eyes is not to stop the Cordoba House \/ Park51 project, but to stop <em>all<\/em> mosque construction in the US, period.\u00a0 He does so with fear-mongering, redefinition of terms, and rhetorical wingnuttery that would even have Beck and Limbaugh looking a bit embarrassed.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We&#8217;re joined now via Skype by Bryan Fischer; he&#8217;s the host of Focal  Point on the American Family Radio Talk Network.  .  We should point out  that he&#8217;s also issues director for the American Family Association.   While he says his views are his own, not the association&#8217;s, the American  Family Radio Network is, in fact, listed as a division of the AFA, just  to get that all clear.  Thanks for joining us, Mr. Fischer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I.e., he works for them, he performs for them, they&#8217;re his main media outlet &#8212; but they try to maintain plausible deniability for his utterances.\u00a0 (Dude, when you have even the AFA backing away from you, you might want to reconsider.)<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>GUPTA: &#8230;  I want to be clear on your viewpoint here  because you&#8217;ve made quite a bit of waves lately.  You don&#8217;t want any  mosques built in the United States, is that correct?  You want a  moratorium?<\/p>\n<p>FISCHER:  I think the reality Dr. Gupta is,  that when we look at Islam, we&#8217;re looking at a totalitarian ideology  that is anti- Christian, anti-Semitic.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Oooh! It&#8217;s not a <em>religion<\/em>, it&#8217;s an <em>ideology<\/em>.\u00a0 (Religions are ideologies, too, of course, technically, if you want to actually look at the <em>words<\/em>, but we all know that the True Religion is something Very Different and Holy.)<\/p>\n<p>Is Islam (a hard religion to apply a single label to, given its wide array of factions and lack of central authorities) <em>totalitarian<\/em>?<\/p>\n<div>\n<ol>\n<li><em>of or pertaining to a centralized government that does not tolerate parties of differing opinion and that exercises dictatorial control over many aspects of life.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>exercising control over the freedom, will, or thought of others; authoritarian; autocratic.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<p>One could argue that, in an ideal Islamic world (according to some Muslims), yes, there would be one faith (Islam) and one God worshiped (Allah), and that Islam would control the government, the schools, the culture, etc.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_18160\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18160\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/seven-mountains.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-18160\" title=\"seven-mountains\" src=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/seven-mountains-300x204.jpg\" alt=\"Seven Mountains\" width=\"300\" height=\"204\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/seven-mountains-300x204.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/seven-mountains-160x108.jpg 160w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/seven-mountains-75x51.jpg 75w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/seven-mountains.jpg 464w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18160\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">It&#39;s okay, as long as it&#39;s OUR theocracy, right?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>One could argue that, in an ideal Christian world (according to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rightwingwatch.org\/content\/creeping-dominionism-religious-right\">some Christians<\/a>), yes, you&#8217;d have the same thing. Except the Christians (the Right-Thinking True Christians\u2122) would be in charge.<\/p>\n<p>So, yes, in that sense, Islam is &#8220;anti-Christian&#8221; and Christianity is &#8220;anti-Islam,&#8221; as both seek totalitarian dominion over the nation and the world.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, most Christians would deny they&#8217;re part of some fiendish plot to rule everything &#8212; especially, they&#8217;d say, because Christianity is so diverse, lacks a central authority, is filled with theological divisions, and is a religion of love and peace.\u00a0 But <em>that&#8217;s just what you&#8217;d expect them to say &#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>As to &#8220;anti-Semitic&#8221; &#8230; I&#8217;ll leave the very sorry records of both faiths to speak for themselves.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The values that are at the core  of Islam are contrary to every single solitary western and American  value.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So it&#8217;s okay if we have a totalitarian Christian nation, because that&#8217;s the Western and American thing to do, but we cannot abide a totalitarian Islamic nation.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, a lot fewer folks are militating for the latter at the moment than the former, but let&#8217;s not quibble with (actually spoken) words.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_18161\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18161\" style=\"width: 275px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/muslims-praying.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18161\" title=\"muslims-praying\" src=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/muslims-praying.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"275\" height=\"183\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/muslims-praying.jpg 275w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/muslims-praying-160x106.jpg 160w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/muslims-praying-75x49.jpg 75w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 275px) 85vw, 275px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18161\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Look, they even pray funny!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Speaking of which, what <em>are <\/em>the core values of Islam?\u00a0 Well, we have the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Five_Pillars_of_Islam\">Five Pillars<\/a>, which are often used as a reference:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Monotheism and the Prophet<\/li>\n<li>Daily Prayer<\/li>\n<li>Charitable Giving<\/li>\n<li>Fasting<\/li>\n<li>Pilgrimages<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>No, nothing there that matches up with Christianity.\u00a0 What a bizarre, un-Western, un-American religion.<\/p>\n<p>Granted, how Islam <em>implements <\/em>those points is different from Christianity &#8212; but, then, Catholic worship is pretty different from that of the Baptists (not to mention Mormons), and orthodox Judaism is even more different from all of the above.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, to be fair, Right-Thinking True Christians\u2122 have accused Catholics, Mormons, and Jews of un-Western, un-American thinking.\u00a0 Heck, back before we had a Bill of Rights, even Baptists and Quakers were persecuted for their unspeakable and anti-social beliefs.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I think communities ought to have the liberty to reject building  permits.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Didn&#8217;t a Republican-led Congress <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Religious_Land_Use_and_Institutionalized_Persons_Act\">unanimously pass a law<\/a> in 2000 to keep local communities from imposing substantial burdens on churches that wanted to build or expand?\u00a0 Oh, right, they just expected that to apply to Christians.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Each one of these mosques is either a potential  or actual recruitment center for Jihadism or training center for  Jihadism.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Yes, I suppose that&#8217;s true. And every Catholic church is either a potential or actual recruitment center for IRA supporters.\u00a0 And every Baptist church is either a potential or actual recruitment center for abortion doctor assassins and bombers.\u00a0 And every Mormon temple is either a potential or actual recruitment center for Republicans.<\/p>\n<p>Even if a mosque can be used for recruitment of Islamic terrorists (what Fischer most probably means by &#8220;Jihadism&#8221;), doesn&#8217;t it make more sense to know where that&#8217;s happening, rather than driving it all underground?\u00a0 Is it Fischer&#8217;s suggestion that, if only we don&#8217;t build mosques, we won&#8217;t have Muslims in this country?\u00a0 That works so well (and so righteously) in countries where Christian church construction is restricted or forbidden, right?<\/p>\n<p>On the contrary, of course. And, in fact, this whole &#8220;we are at war with Islam&#8221; simply supports Al-Qa&#8217;eda&#8217;s narrative, and plans, and, yes, recruitment process. &#8220;They talk about freedom, but they hate us and want to destroy the One True Faith.&#8221; How does Fischer think most people would react to that sort of rhetoric?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>FISCHER:  &#8230; Well, the reality, Dr. Gupta, is that no one could claim  First Amendment religious protections if their ideology and their  activities are subversive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>For certain values of &#8220;subversive.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>All you&#8217;ve got do is ask the  Christian militia, the Hutaree how much First Amendment protections they  had when they set out to attack federal officers.  They have Bible  verses plastered all over their Web site.  Everything they did, they did  in the name of Jesus Christ. They are right now pondering the limits of  the First Amendment from the inside of a jail cell, which is where they  should be.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"attachment_18162\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18162\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/hutaree-wedding.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-18162\" title=\"hutaree-wedding\" src=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/hutaree-wedding-300x205.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"205\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/hutaree-wedding-300x205.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/hutaree-wedding-160x109.jpg 160w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/hutaree-wedding-75x51.jpg 75w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/hutaree-wedding.jpg 494w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18162\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">To love, honor, and conspire to blow away cops who are working for the Anti-Christ<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Except that the Hutaree weren&#8217;t busted for their religious faith, but for explicit criminal actions they committed or were conspiring to commit.\u00a0 Their ideological basis for doing so was irrelevant (worrisome, but not a criminal act in and of itself).<\/p>\n<p>Because that&#8217;s how we do things in this country.<\/p>\n<p>Further, isn&#8217;t the extension of Fischer&#8217;s very argument that, given how we have an extremist Christian group we can point to (&#8220;Every Christian church is either a potential  or actual recruitment center for violent Christian militias or training center for violent Christian militias&#8221;), that we should restrict all future Christian church construction?<\/p>\n<p>Of course not.\u00a0 Because Christian extremists and militias and violent lunatics are the exception. Whereas Fischer <em>knows <\/em>that all Muslims are jihadists.\u00a0 The voices told him so.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>GUPTA:  You know, you have said &#8212; now, again,  you&#8217;ve said some this before.  Your evidence for saying that every  mosque potentially here is dedicated to the overthrowing of the American  government is a manifest, I believe, issued in 1991 by a group called  the Muslim Brotherhood.  Now, you quote some frightening passages from  there about destroying Western civilization from within.<\/p>\n<p>But, Bryan, you realize this group doesn&#8217;t speak for all Muslims; it  doesn&#8217;t speak for all Muslims around the world.  It doesn&#8217;t speak for  all Muslims in the United States.  It&#8217;s a radical political group, very  controversial.<\/p>\n<p>And while its history does involve some  violence, they&#8217;re &#8212; they&#8217;re controversial even among Muslims.  So, how  can you &#8212; how can you use that one particular organization and say that  they&#8217;re speaking for 1.2 billion people?<\/p>\n<p>FISCHER:  Well,  Dr. Gupta, it&#8217;s nice of you to try to marginalize the Muslim  Brotherhood, but their tentacles include the Islamic Society of North  America, the Muslim Student Association, the Council for  American-Islamic Relations &#8212; CAIR, and also the Muslim Association.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ooooh &#8230; tentacles! How fiendishly Cthulhuesque!<\/p>\n<p>The guilt by association here is, of course, the actual fiendish part.\u00a0 I&#8217;d be willing to bet you I could play &#8220;Seven Degrees of Separation&#8221; between the Hutaree and Bryan Fischer, too.\u00a0 Depending on who&#8217;s met with whom, who&#8217;s shared which podium, who&#8217;s radio show person X had gone on as well as person Y, it would be relatively trivial.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, the goals of the Muslim Brotherhood are really no more (or less) scary than the Christian Dominionist movement, which (through folks like Janet Porter) arguably have &#8220;tentacles&#8221; in most American Christian groups.\u00a0 Does that justify oppression of Christians in Muslim nations?\u00a0 Or, for that matter, in the US?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>So, you&#8217;re looking at four &#8212; five, really, if you include the  Brotherhood &#8212; five of the most prominent and most visible Muslim  organizations in North America.  They are far from a fringe group; they  represent the essence and the core of Islam.  And it&#8217;s very clear that  the goal of Islam in North America is the extermination of Western  civilization.  No community should have to put up with that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If there&#8217;s one thing that &#8220;Western civilization&#8221; points out, it&#8217;s that suppression of radical ideology rarely works.\u00a0 The best way to avoid the &#8220;extermination of Western civilization&#8221; (though what that term means to Fischer is probably different from what I think of it) is to present a robust case for it.\u00a0 The point of our freedoms is that they are self-perpetuating &#8212; the free marketplace of ideas is its own best defense.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8230; Islam is not a religion of peace.  It is a religion of war.  It is a  religion of violence.  Christianity, on the other hand, is a religion  of peace.  It was founded by the Prince of Peace.  That&#8217;s the major  contrast between the two religions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"attachment_18163\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18163\" style=\"width: 241px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/crusade-angel-dore.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-18163\" title=\"crusade-angel-dore\" src=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/crusade-angel-dore-241x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"241\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/crusade-angel-dore-241x300.jpg 241w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/crusade-angel-dore-129x160.jpg 129w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/crusade-angel-dore-60x75.jpg 60w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/crusade-angel-dore.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 241px) 85vw, 241px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18163\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An angel leading the Crusaders to Jerusalem (Gustav Dore). But only for peaceful purposes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>How Fischer can make this statement with a straight face &#8212; looking at the history of war and violence in the &#8220;Christian West,&#8221; how many of those wars have been over Christian religious division, or been justified by Christian faith, or dedicated to the cause of the Prince of Peace &#8212; is beyond me.\u00a0 Whether it&#8217;s Crusades in the Middle Ages, or framing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as modern &#8220;crusades&#8221; &#8212; let alone the history of Europe, the Irish &#8220;Troubles,&#8221; etc. &#8212; Christianity has been a tool in the pocket of those who want to oppress others in a violent fashion.<\/p>\n<p>Not to defend Islam here, I certainly don&#8217;t suggest that followers of Islam have been intrinsically <em>more<\/em> peaceful than those of Christianity.\u00a0 I&#8217;d simply say that neither faith has demonstrated a fundamental adherence to the ideals that its more enlightened modern adherents would like.\u00a0 Arguing which is &#8220;worse&#8221; or &#8220;less bad&#8221; is a mook&#8217;s game.<em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother&#8217;s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? <\/em>as one radical once said.<em> <\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Islam, in  reality, is a political ideology.  It&#8217;s a totalitarian political  ideology.  And you simply cannot hide a totalitarian political agenda  behind the First Amendment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>How, fundamentally, is Islam any different from Christianity in this regard?\u00a0 Given the way Fischer and his cohorts are insistent on insinuating Christian religious dogma and doctrine into civil law, dabbling in politics, and trying to control the government &#8230; how, fundamentally, is it functionally discernible from Islam save for the serial numbers?<\/p>\n<p>Sure, an Islamic-controlled nation would be a different place to live in from a Christian-controlled nation, in practice.\u00a0 In many ways, though, it would be the same.<\/p>\n<p>And even, regardless of that, political ideology is <em>also <\/em>protected by the First Amendment (that&#8217;s the foundation of the Freedom of Speech, which is protective most strongly of political expression).<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Imagine if Timothy  McVeigh was a Christian.  Now, he wasn&#8217;t.  He was an atheist.  But  imagine he was a part of a violent Christian sect, and he wanted to  build a 13-story center, cultural center, for his Christian sect  overlooking the grounds of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City.  &#8230; I don&#8217;t think anybody in America would put up with that, and they would be right not to.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Fischer hand-waves away McVeigh&#8217;s religious faith, or lack thereof, too quickly.\u00a0 It&#8217;s difficult to draw a coherent picture of his beliefs, but they don&#8217;t seem to fit a convenient atheistic mold. Raised Catholic, he spoke of &#8220;my God&#8221; at times, at other times of agnosticism, at other times of science, and at other times of a core &#8220;higher being.&#8221;\u00a0 (Notably, he resisted attempts by Ramzi Yousef to convert him to Islam in prison.)<\/p>\n<p>That said, Fischer&#8217;s example here is simply poorly premised and structured (no great surprise).\u00a0 The Muslims behind the Cordoba House project are demonstrably not of the same Islamic sect as the 9\/11 hijackers, and the project is not not planned to &#8220;overlook the grounds&#8221; of the former WTC.\u00a0 A far better analogy would be the setup, and then asking what if someone then wanted to build a <em>Methodist <\/em>church<em> a few blocks away<\/em> from the Murrah Building site.<\/p>\n<p>Would the American public put up with that?<\/p>\n<p>Fischer is adamant that we not tar Christians with the same extremist brush as Christian wackos (the Hutaree, the hypothetical McVeigh).\u00a0 But he glibly assumes that all Islam is monolithic, and that the murderers of 9\/11 are fundamentally no different from any other Muslim, including the American Muslims supporting the project in question.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>GUPTA:  &#8230; Quickly, Mr. Fischer, a lot of Muslim-Americans watching  tonight, some of them very upset by some of the comments you have made  in the past, what do you say to them now?<\/p>\n<p>FISCHER:  Well, I say I love Muslims.  I am pro-Muslim.  I am anti-Islam.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Well, bless his heart.\u00a0 He&#8217;s pro-Muslim (i.e., people who follow Islam), but anti-Islam.\u00a0 He loves Muslims, just not the faith they dedicate their lives to.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m sure he hates the sin and loves the sinner, too. Unless they&#8217;re gay.<\/p>\n<p>If the people behind Cordoba House were to say, &#8220;We love Christians. We are pro-Christian. We are anti-Christianity,&#8221; would Fischer call that hate speech and a justification for his position?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I would say to a Muslim, look, your ideology is destructive.   It&#8217;s deceptive.  It&#8217;s dark.  I invite you to come into the light of the  kingdom of Jesus Christ.  That&#8217;s where hope and light, forgiveness and a  promise for the future can truly be found.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"attachment_18164\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18164\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/inquisition-waterboarding.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-18164\" title=\"inquisition-waterboarding\" src=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/inquisition-waterboarding-300x221.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"221\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/inquisition-waterboarding-300x221.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/inquisition-waterboarding-160x118.jpg 160w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/inquisition-waterboarding-75x55.jpg 75w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/inquisition-waterboarding-500x369.jpg 500w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/inquisition-waterboarding.jpg 631w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18164\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Inquisition is honing its waterboarding techniques already, ready to test those converts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>If only they&#8217;d become good Christians, then we wouldn&#8217;t be having this conversation.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s the bottom line of Fisher&#8217;s position.\u00a0 It isn&#8217;t about religious freedom &#8212; it&#8217;s about Us vs. Them.\u00a0 It isn&#8217;t about Western Civilization, except insofar as he sees that as Christendom.\u00a0 The problem is not the particular people involved or anything they say, it&#8217;s that <em>they aren&#8217;t Christians<\/em>, and therefore ultimately have no rights, have no basis for being trusted, and should be assumed to be an enemy until they capitulate and accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior.<\/p>\n<p>It really is a holy war for him.\u00a0 Now, who&#8217;s the Jihadist, again?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n<p>I would be remiss if I didn&#8217;t note some other doltish comments later on the show.\u00a0 Like from Erick Erickson:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>GUPTA:  Erick, I read this &#8212; this  column by you.  You put President Obama&#8217;s speech supporting religious  freedom in Lower Manhattan in the same category as someone supporting  satanic worship, human sacrifice, and jihad.  Do you stand by that?<\/p>\n<p>ERICKSON:  Yes.  You know, I think a lot of people missed the  point, other than people who picked up my point, which was, these are  absurd results, but they are the results that come along with should  Fred Phelps build a church where Matthew Shepard was killed or the Klan  putting a center next to where Martin Luther King Jr. was killed?  They&#8217;re absurd results.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Actually, while Erickson later tries to distinguish (like at least a few of his brethren) between whether there is a Constitutional right to do this, vs. whether it &#8220;should&#8221; be done, he again misses the point himself. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is not Osama bin Ladin.\u00a0 The Cordoba Initiative is not al-Qa&#8217;eda.\u00a0 Erickson&#8217;s analogies would be more properly &#8220;should the Lutherans build a church (by coincidence) where Matthew Shepard was killed?&#8221; or &#8220;the GOP putting a party headquarters next to where Martin Luther King Jr. was killed&#8221;?\u00a0 Unless you are going to attribute guilt over Shepard&#8217;s death to all Christians, or blame all whites for the death of MLK, it&#8217;s simply not an issue.<\/p>\n<p>And unless you are going to attribute guilt over 9\/11 to <em>all <\/em>Muslims, and consider them <em>all <\/em>as the moral equivalent of practitioners of &#8220;satanic worship, human sacrifice, and jihad,&#8221; then it&#8217;s irrelevant.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_18165\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18165\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/manzanar-lange.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-18165\" title=\"manzanar-lange\" src=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/manzanar-lange-300x234.jpg\" alt=\"Manzanar internment camp, by Dorothea Lange\" width=\"300\" height=\"234\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/manzanar-lange-300x234.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/manzanar-lange-1024x801.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/manzanar-lange-160x125.jpg 160w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/manzanar-lange-75x58.jpg 75w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/manzanar-lange-500x391.jpg 500w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/manzanar-lange.jpg 1400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18165\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Because Americans have a tradition of how to deal with an untrustworthy and threatening population, even if they are so-called &quot;citizens&quot;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>And if you do, then you should be blocking all mosque constructions, a la Fischer (if not throwing them all in internment camps, right?).\u00a0 Except that Erickson&#8217;s quick to back away from that position with a hearty &#8220;some of my best friends&#8221; kind of line.<\/p>\n<p>Why, by this way of thinking, it&#8217;s okay to build a mosque in New Jersey, or Tennessee, or California (there are no 9\/11 victims there? nobody still traumatized&#8221;like a stab with a knife&#8221; by the event? Islam magically stops being satanic there?) and not in Manhattan is beyond me.<\/p>\n<p>And beyond Bryan Fischer. Who at least is honest enough to take his arguments to their logical conclusion, even if they are full of doltitude.<\/p>\n<p>*sigh*<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m glad I didn&#8217;t start this post last night when I thought of it.\u00a0 I might never have gotten to bed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Or maybe not a dolt. Yeah, that&#8217;s still unkind. How about &#8220;&#8230; a dangerous lunatic&#8221;? A danger to others, certainly. A danger to logic and rhetoric, unquestionably. A danger to America, without a doubt. Take his appearance the other night on Anderson Cooper 360 (guest hosted by Sanjay Gupta).\u00a0 Fischer made it very clear that, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/08\/18\/bryan-fischer-is-also-a-dolt.html\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Bryan Fischer is also a dolt&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,9,27,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-9-11","category-politics-law","category-religion","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/manzanar-lange.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":131275,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/15\/bryan-fischer-is-a-dolt-presidential-distaff-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":18157,"position":0},"title":"Bryan Fischer Is a Dolt (Presidential Distaff Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 15-Aug-16 3:40am","format":false,"excerpt":"Everyone's favorite Conservative Christian Pundit, Bryan Fischer (former Director of Issues Analysis for the American Family Association, and blogger and radio host in AFA media) is back, declaring the real reason why you and everyone else should be voting for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton.http:\/\/www.rightwingwatch.org\/content\/bryan-fischer-i-dont-believe-women-should-be-entrusted-high-political-office'\"That's always the pattern in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49227,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/10\/bryan-fischer-is-a-dolt-blame-charlie-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":18157,"position":1},"title":"Bryan Fischer is a Dolt: Blame Charlie Edition","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 10-Jan-15 10:37am","format":false,"excerpt":"Bryan, all I have to say is that if God were actively orchestrating misfortune and\/or terrorists to punish those whose pride and perversity make a mockery of Christ ... you might be in a lot of trouble. Originally shared by +Ginny Gibbs: Bryan Fischer Is a Dolt: Hebdo BlasphemyHat tip\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33615,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/06\/bryan-fischer-is-a-dolt-atheistic-counter-terrorism-disarmament-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":18157,"position":2},"title":"Bryan Fischer is a Dolt (Atheistic Counter-Terrorism Disarmament Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 6-May-13 5:16pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Bryan Fischer is a Dolt (Atheistic Counter-Terrorism Disarmament Edition)The idea that Obama's about to open up a new front in some mythical War on Christianity by classifying all faithful Christians as terrorists in order to have the justification to take all their guns away ... well, is zany enough to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23295,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/11\/01\/bryan-fischer-is-a-dolt-no-really.html","url_meta":{"origin":18157,"position":3},"title":"Bryan Fischer is a Dolt. No, really","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 1-Nov-11 1:11am","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear Bryan. I don't \u201chate religious liberty\u201d or \u201chate freedom,\u201d I don't seek to \"destroy\" God's order or everything God is for, I don't get a \"malicious pleasure just destroying stuff,\" nor am I aware of some \"mindless, irrational, dark energy\" motivating me. Aside from that, Bryan, you're right about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25073,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/04\/bryan-fischer-is-a-dolt-amateur-virologist-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":18157,"position":4},"title":"Bryan Fischer is a Dolt (Amateur Virologist Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 4-Jan-12 2:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, Bryan, that's right, it's all a huge conspiracy between money-grubbing research scientists and drug-abusing gays. I'm sure there are also some Muslims you can blame for AIDS, too, if you set your mind to it. Dolt. #ddtbReshared post from +David BadashSick. And, dangerous. Playing with lives. Totally irresponsible. Embedded\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49408,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/28\/the-afa-has-belatedly-fired-bryan-fischer-dolt.html","url_meta":{"origin":18157,"position":5},"title":"The AFA has (belatedly) fired Bryan Fischer, Dolt","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 28-Jan-15 9:35pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Apparently some folk in Israel -- to which the American Family Association was paying for a trip by Reince Priebus and a large number of Republican National Committee members -- got a bit out of sorts when they discovered that the AFA's public face and \"Director of Issue Analysis\" was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}