We have often asked if someone - anyone - would be willing to stand up to Bryan Fischer and his unrelenting bigotry and the answer has always been "no," as leading Republicans and presidential contenders have continued to embrace him despite his outrageous views and offensive comments.
Just yesterday, Fischer declared that Native Americans were "morally disqualified" from controlling North America and are plagued by poverty and alcoholism today because they refuse to embrace Christianity.
This sort of claim is nothing new from the likes of Fischer, so we didn't really expect anyone on the Right to so much as blink an eye, much less actually stand up to him.
And we certainly didn't expect that is someone did actually do so, it would be another American Family Association blogger and radio personality. But that is exactly what has happened.
Elijah Friedeman is a seventeen-year-old a high-school senior who writes "The Millennial Perspective" for the AFA's RightlyConcerned.com blog and appears twice a week to deliver commentary on "The Matt Friedeman Show" on American Family Radio.
And today, much to Friedeman's credit, he put up a post on the AFA blog rejecting and distancing himself from Fischer's bigotry:
Native Americans were immoral, so they deserved what happened to them? I find the idea repulsive.
Yesterday, Bryan Fischer posted a blog about how American indians disqualified themselves from any claim to land in America by their sexual immorality and violence. I want to officially reject and distance myself from that viewpoint.
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[I]n the past Bryan Fischer, when challenged on biblical commands to smite the enemy, has refused to answer, stating that a question like that about the Old Testament should be answered by a Jewish scholar. The sudden decision to embrace God's command to destroy the Canaanites, when in the past he has avoided it, is interesting to me.
Another point Bryan Fischer offers up as a reason for the indians' expulsion from their lands is their spiritual belief in something other than Jesus. There are many groups throughout history, and even today, who reject Jesus and the influence of Christians. However, that in no way gives Christians the authority to take their land, kill them, break our treaties, and force them to live on reservations.
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Since, as Bryan Fischer points out, the United States of America is immoral, using his standards we deserve to be destroyed. Does that mean we should helping our nation's enemies bring judgment on America? Absolutely not. Our mission as Christians is to love.
We aren't here to bring or justify judgment; that's God's job. Our duty is to love people, to help others, and to share the gospel of Jesus with everyone around us.
Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it
