Last night it was reported that the American Family Association had finally fired the Religious Right's most notorious bigot, Bryan Fischer. While that would be welcome news, if true, the AFA has a long history of trying to salvage its own reputation by distancing itself from Fischer's unrelenting bigotry and this latest effort appears to be simply yet another attempt to whitewash the AFA's façade without making any genuine changes.
Back in 2009, Bryan Fischer was an obscure state-level Religious Right activist with a history of getting fired for his radical views. From his position as head of the Idaho Values Alliance, Fischer was mostly known for launching boycotts against Hallmark stores for offering cards for gay weddings and celebrating a fatal plane crash as God's payback for abortion.
Fischer's radicalism and bigotry were obvious even back then, but that didn't stop the American Family Association from wooing Fischer away from Idaho with an offer to serve as the organization's "director of issues analysis" and host a daily radio program down in Tupelo, Mississippi.
Within months of his arrival at AFA, Fischer was already using his national platform to spread his unmitigated bigotry, starting with his demand that all Muslims be banned from serving in the U.S. military, a position that he continues to steadfastly promote to this day.
Within a year, Fischer was using his position at AFA to declare that homosexuality should be illegal and that gays should be treated like criminals and banned from serving in public office. While Fischer was advocating for the deportation of all Muslims and an end to the building of mosques in America, the AFA continued to provide him a platform, just as it did when he began calling for whales and bears to be put to death for biblical infractions and blaming the Holocaust on gays.
Finally, in 2010, the AFA made a half-hearted attempt to wash its hands of Fischer's vile views ... not by firing him, mind you, but simply by adding a disclaimer at the end of Fischer's blog posts and radio program insisting that the things Fischer was saying on the AFA's website and radio network should not be taken to reflect the views of the organization:
Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.
Obviously, this was nothing but a pathetic cop-out, as we have pointed out several times before. The AFA plucked Fischer from obscurity, gave him a salary and a national platform from which to regularly proclaim that gays are Satanic perverts but then tried to pretend that it was not in any way responsible for Fischer or his views, such as:
- Fischer: Muslims Are Stupid and Violent Because of Inbreeding.
- Fischer: Gay Sex Is "Domestic Terrorism. I Don't Know What Else You'd Call It."
- Fischer: If DADT is Repealed, America Will Be Defended By Sexual Perverts and Deviants.
- Fischer: Every Mosque Is An IED and Every Muslim Is Guilty of Treason.
- Fischer: "Homosexuals Are Defined By One Characteristic Only: They Want to Use the Anal Cavity for Sex."
- Fischer: Native Americans Are Mired In Poverty and Alcoholism Because They Refuse to Accept Christianity.
- Fischer: Native Americans Need to Leave The Reservation, Convert To Christianity, and Become Full-Fledged American Citizens.
- Fischer: Welfare Just Gives Money To "People Who Rut Like Rabbits."
- Fischer: All Immigrants Must "Convert To Christianity."
- Fischer: Muslims Represent A "Toxic Cancer" To American Society.
- Fischer: Gays Are Nazis.
- Fischer: "Liberals Hate God."
- Fischer: Make Homosexuality "A Criminal Offense."
- Fischer: First Amendment Does Not Apply To Mormons.
- Fischer: 'Every Homosexual Represents a Heightened Security Risk.'
- Fischer: God Will Cure AIDS If Gays Stop Having Sex.
- Fischer: 'It's Perfectly Appropriate to Discriminate Against' Homosexuality.
- Fischer: Government Should Mandate that Everyone Attend Church and Tax Those Who Don't.
- Fischer: Removal of Prayer & Ten Commandments from Schools Responsible for CO Shooting.
- Fischer: Gays are Driven by a 'Dark, Venomous, Demonic Hatred'.'
- Fischer: 'Muslims are Worshiping a Demon.'
- Fischer: 'Political Leadership Ought to be Reserved for the Hands of Males.'
- Fischer: The 9/11 Terrorists Were 'Agents of God's Wrath.'
- Fischer: God Didn't Stop CT School Shooting Because He's a 'Gentleman' Who Doesn't Go Where He Is Not Wanted.
- Fischer: Sodomy Is 'An Ugly Word Because It Describes Ugly Behavior.'
- Fischer: People Who Believe In Evolution Are 'Disqualified From Holding Political Office In The United States Of America.'
- Fischer: God Will Use ISIS To Punish America For Gay Rights.
- Bryan Fischer Suggests The Charlie Hebdo Attack Was God's Punishment For Magazine's Blasphemy.
- Fischer: 'Being An Active Homosexual Should Disqualify You From Public Office'.
- Fischer: You'll Never 'Find A More Directly Demonic Energy Than When You Deal With The Homosexual Agenda.'
Not surprisingly, Fischer's outrageous views and statements have caused problems for the AFA and those with whom the AFA has partnered at events, most recently Gov. Bobby Jindal, who teamed up with the AFA for his "The Response" prayer rally last week. But through it all, the AFA has steadfastly insisted that Fischer does not speak for the organization while simultaneously standing by him and continuing to provide the platform from which he spreads his bigotry.
This weekend, some 60 members of the Republican National Committee are scheduled to go to Israel on a trip organized by Christian nationalist David Lane and funded by the American Family Association and it seems as if Fischer's radical views have suddenly become too much for the RNC and AFA to ignore, as last night Rachel Maddow reported that the AFA had fired Fischer:
From what we have been able to gather, Fischer has not actually been dismissed by AFA but has rather merely been stripped of his title as director of issues analysis and his role as spokesman for the organization. Fischer will reportedly continue to produce his daily radio program for the AFA's radio arm, American Family Radio.
If this is indeed the case, then the AFA has literally accomplished nothing with this stunt and has completely failed to distance itself from Fischer's utterly despicable views. The primary venues though which Fischer has managed to spread his bigotry for the last six years have always been owned, operated, and funded by the American Family Association and that relationship appears to remain intact.
Stripping Fischer of his title as AFA spokesman in no way alleviates the AFA of its responsibility for Fischer's toxic views given that the only reason Fischer even has a platform from which to spread those views is because AFA is providing it to him and paying him to spread them!
From the very start of Fischer's time at AFA, the organization has pathetically attempted to have it both ways: providing the very microphone from which Fischer speaks while simultaneously claiming that it bears no responsibility for the message that he sends.
The AFA's latest effort to rid itself of Fischer's rancid reputation is little more than a rhetorical accounting trick aimed at creating the false impression that the organization has wiped Fischer's bigotry off of its books.
