{"id":49437,"date":"2015-01-30T18:39:06","date_gmt":"2015-01-31T01:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/30\/the-bryan-fischer-brouhaha-thickens.html"},"modified":"2015-01-30T18:39:06","modified_gmt":"2015-01-31T01:39:06","slug":"the-bryan-fischer-brouhaha-thickens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/30\/the-bryan-fischer-brouhaha-thickens.html","title":{"rendered":"The Bryan Fischer Brouhaha Thickens"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, the American Family Association (AFA) ousted Bryan Fischer as their Director of Issues Analysis. Fischer has been blogging and doing audio and video broadcasts for the AFA (or, if you will, on media outlets hosted by the AFA) for many years without any sign that Fischer was speaking out of turn, but when Congressional GOP and RNC members were suddenly on the hot seat because someone noticed the AFA was paying for a free Congressional junket to Israel, suddenly Fischer became persona non grata.<\/i><\/p>\n

Or not. He was, in fact, ousted from his official AFA position (he claims he simply left https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=s9AtehdkCz4<\/a>), but he still has his AFA-sponsored blogging and radio show continuing alive and well, albeit with the obligatory disclaimers noting that, no matter what it says up on the address bar of the browser, Fischer isn't speaking for the AFA. Really, truly. Cross their heart.<\/p>\n

There's a certain measure of cover there, to be sure. The reasons they are (in newspaper parliance) "op-eds," is because they are not official editorial positions of the media outlet. The AFA would normally be commended for letting the folk it's giving a soap box to (or multiple soap boxes, in Fischer's case) freedom to exercise his rhetorical muscles.<\/p>\n

But that dog only hunts so far. The AFA says it doesn't have an editorial board or reviewers of material it hosts, but they also don't let just anyone on. And if the AFA really disdains and denounces Fischer's ideas (now), they are under no obligation (that has been mentioned) to provide him with those soap boxes to stand on. If the AFA is not actively endorsing Fischer (et al.), they are tacitly accepting what he is writing as neither worthy of denunciation (except when backed into a corner like this) nor removal from their banner over it. Worse, since they say the only thing they ask for in the people they hist is "allegiance to the authority of Scripture and to traditional Christian values," they're willing to let Fischer's pronouncements stand as<\/i> Scriptural and Christian, which is even more of a scandal.<\/p>\n

That all said, the AFA has gone even further. One of the embarrassing points for the RNC was that the AFA has been labeled as a Hate Group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Fischer and other right-wing pundits have long tried to ridicule the SPLC into irrelevance, but it seems the label stings enough that the AFA sent the SPLC a lengthy list of Bryan Fischer's more zany positions and how they explicitly repudiate them.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.splcenter.org\/get-informed\/news\/american-family-association-repudiates-chief-spokesman-s-racist-and-anti-lgbt-stat<\/a><\/p>\n

These include gems like how the First Amendment freedom of religion only applies to Christians, how Hitler and the Holocaust was all caused by gays, how the Native Americans deserved to be conquered and brutalized because they weren't Christian, how we need an Underground Railroad to help children being raised by gays to escape, how Muslims should not be allowed into this country unless they renounce their religion, how homosexuality should be illegal, etc.<\/p>\n

It's a remarkable document, in several ways, but it still begs the question of why these reprehensible statements never drew any criticism from the AFA before, editorially or from others in its self-claimed "diversity" \/ "free speech zone" of media outlets. It also begs the questions about some dubious positions the AFA itself has taken in the past (http:\/\/www.rightwingwatch.org\/content\/has-afa-changed-its-position-sodomy-laws<\/a>) and present (http:\/\/www.rightwingwatch.org\/content\/group-organizing-rnc-israel-trip-attacks-israels-atheist-jews<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Still, huzzah for these explicit denunciations. A shame it's then caveated by denying any responsibility for providing Fischer a platform. As I said, the AFA's "free speech zone" approach only goes so far as an excuse. If I let you stand in my back yard and shout racist comments at my black neighbors, it's a bit disingenuous for me to just shrug to my neighbor and say, "Hey, it's a free country, and he doesn't speak for me, so I'm just going to stay silent and let him do his thing, because, diversity!"<\/p>\n

Either they think Fischer's comments are wrong-headed but tolerable discussion points that they are happy to give him a forum to put out there, or they are hiding behind disclaimers to avoid taking responsibility for such positions because they are embarrassing the GOP. Neither is a particularly Christ-like attitude.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nAmerican Family Association repudiates chief spokesman’s racist and anti-LGBT statements before hosting Israel trip for RNC members | Southern Poverty Law Center<\/a><\/span>
\nIn a letter to SPLC officials, the American Family Association (AFA) has disavowed a series of racist and bigoted statements made by its chief spokesman in recent years.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, the American Family Association (AFA) ousted Bryan Fischer as their Director of Issues Analysis. Fischer has been blogging and doing audio and video broadcasts for the AFA (or, if you will, on media outlets hosted by the AFA) for many years without any sign that Fischer was speaking out of turn, but when … Continue reading “The Bryan Fischer Brouhaha Thickens”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49408,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/28\/the-afa-has-belatedly-fired-bryan-fischer-dolt.html","url_meta":{"origin":49437,"position":0},"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 "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39209,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/15\/the-afa-a-hate-group-gosh-thats-um-well.html","url_meta":{"origin":49437,"position":1},"title":"The AFA a hate group? \u00a0Gosh, that's … um … well","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 15-Oct-13 8:42pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So take the news story -- not only on Fox, but an opinion piece on Fox -- with a grain of salt. \u00a0But let's assume it's accurate. \u00a0Is the AFA (American Family Association) a \"hate group\" alongside the KKK,\u00a0the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam?Well ... it's kind of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27016,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/09\/bryan-fischer-is-worse-than-a-dolt.html","url_meta":{"origin":49437,"position":2},"title":"Bryan Fischer is worse than a dolt","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 9-Mar-12 5:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"He's despicable.Fischer states it's '\"just ridiculous on its face\" to think that being mocked, ridiculed, and condemned would lead gay kids to commit suicide. After all, Fischer said, the AFA is \"relentlessly hammered, condemned, criticized, [and] judged\" every single day and nobody there is tempted to end their life just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","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":49437,"position":3},"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 "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20095,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/02\/14\/unblogged-bits-mon-14-feb-11-1631.html","url_meta":{"origin":49437,"position":4},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Mon. 14-Feb-11 1631)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 14-Feb-11 4:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... 'Bye bye, Big Bird. Hello, e. coli!' - Ah, the e. coli conservatives -- striving to bring back \"The Jungle\" since ... well, \"The Jungle.\" Colorado sanctuary to take lions rescued from Bolivian circuses\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marriage Equality"","block_context":{"text":"Marriage Equality","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/marriage-equality"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131275,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/15\/bryan-fischer-is-a-dolt-presidential-distaff-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":49437,"position":5},"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 "~PlusPosts"","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\/49437","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}