Bryan Fischer is about six hours and one bad stool away from declaring that Christians are victims of a new holocaust at the hands of the homosexicals. Truly, he’s that hysterical. It’s sort of funny to watch:
As a culture, we must choose between the homosexual agenda or the Constitution because we can’t have both.
Further proof comes from the abjectly pathetic decision of the chaplains’ office at Andrews Air Force Base to rescind a long-standing invitation to Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council. Perkins had been invited to give a non-political talk at a prayer luncheon on the base yesterday, but was abruptly dis-invited for one simple reason: he supports the current law which makes homosexuals ineligible for service in the United States military.
(…)
The days of Dred Scott have returned. Christians now are the ones are being confined on the plantation, and warned about being too uppity … McCarthyism has now struck the U.S. military with a vengeance. The question now that the military is asking is this: “Are you now, or have you ever been, a supporter of traditional morality?” If the answer is yes, you go on our blacklist, and we deprive you of your freedom of religion, speech and military service.
Uhhhh.
Who, exactly, is suggesting that Christians can’t join the military? Or can’t practice their religion freely? And um, I thought Tony Perkins was a pastor/talking wingnut, not a member of the military.
Anyway, why rebut all of this when there’s a handy picture available to expose Bryan Fischer’s unnecessarily soiled undies in all their glory?
The Family Research Council today made the ludicrous claim that repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will prevent ex-gay activists from converting gay soldiers to heterosexuality.
This legislation would more than open the Armed Forces to homosexuals; it would lead to a zero-tolerance policy toward anyone who disapproves of homosexuality. Will the chaplains’ sermons be censored? Would they have the freedom to counsel soldiers with same-sex attractions? Or would they be disqualified from the service altogether? For more on what this would mean to military quotas, don’t miss Ken Blackwell’s op-ed, “President Obama and Military ‘Corpsemen’” in Townhall.
By framing its false accusations as questions, FRC pollutes the public discourse and sidesteps its obligation to substantiate its allegations. FRC also sidesteps the U.S. Constitution — a document that FRC views with cynical contempt — and its guarantees of freedom of religion.
But even this concern about framing gives FRC far too much credit.
The contention that the armed services are chock-full of well-armed, effeminate ex-gay chaplains like Randy Thomas, just waiting to convert terrified and bullied (but masculine) gay soldiers to ex-gay “heterosexuality,” might be one of the saddest funniest things I’ve ever read from FRC.
Might be. Except, that DADT and its predecessor policy permit violent, mentally disturbed, antigay and ex-gay soldiers to not only serve, but murder their gaycomrades. The same policy also preserves a servicewide cultureofrape and sexual assault by antigay men against female servicemembers.
FRC silently condones a string of killings and assaults committed under DADT — it has never condemned any of the killings, nor called for punishment of antigay violence and harassment in the services. So when you read the ridiculous, irrational, and patently stupid claims of FRC, please restrain the urge to laugh.
Because murder in defense of stupidity is not something to laugh at.
When Family Research Council spokesman Peter Sprigg told MSNBC on Tuesday that LGBT people should be thrown in prison for their alleged private behavior, it escaped the attention of the news media that Sprigg is also a board member and spokesman for an FRC offshoot called Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays, which distributes antigay propaganda in public schools.
Sprigg is also one of the few local citizens to serve on a citizens’ advisory board for Montgomery County Public Schools in Washington, D.C.’s Maryland suburbs.
Just two days after Sprigg proudly declared that LGBT people of all ages should be imprisoned, the school district sent students home with PFOX brochures. The brochures tell students that if they are same-sex attracted, it is OK to be of two minds, to conceal one’s attractions from friends and family, to be dishonest, and proclaim one’s so-called heterosexuality. And while PFOX opposes any right to self-determination for persons who wish to be honest about their orientation, it doesn’t acknowledge this in the brochures; instead, PFOX portrays students who seek to be sexually honest and free from bullying as if they are oppressing those students wish to hide in shame and to bully or imprison others.
Neither the literature nor the school district tell students any of the following truths: (Read More)
Chris Matthews just got him to admit it on Hardball. It literally just happened, so I’ll update this post with video and a transcript as soon as I can find it.
Sprigg also said that gay people aren’t qualified to serve our country, and that DADT should be repealed so that gays can’t even serve in silence.
Chris Matthews drives me up the wall on a regular basis, but when he’s good, he’s GOOD.
More soon…
UPDATE: Here’s a link to the video at MSNBC. Will update with an embeddable video as soon as I find one.
Sprigg is also a board member and spokesperson for Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays, the antigay parents group which has sought to suppress comprehensive sex education in public schools — despite the wishes of local parents — and to replace fact-based curricula with antigay and ex-gay propaganda.
What is it with these people? What part of “Christian organization” do they not understand? Why are they so pigheaded-ly beholden to the Republican party that they are actively working against healthcare for millions of people?* And on what planet is Tony Perkins a policy expert on any subject besides how to have the most conspicuously perfect gay hair in the state of Mississippi?
John Cole just got push-polled by the Family Research Council, who asked the following questions. His answers are included:
Do you have a favorable opinion of Obama: Yes.
Do you support taxpayer funded abortions: Yes
Do you support cuts of up to 50% in medicare in the Pelosi/Reid/Obama healthcare plan? Yes.
Do you support backroom deals to pass the Pelosi/Reid/Obama healthcare plan. I actually don’t, but I said yes just to screw with their results.
Are you over 50: No.
Is this mobile phone your primary phone: Yes.
Have you ever contributed to a campaign or religious group: Yes.
This poll was funded by the Family Research Council.
I would have given precisely the same answers.
But my god, really? I’m sort of surprised they didn’t find a way to smear gay people in the call. I mean, they’re lying about the Medicare cuts and the taxpayer-funded abortions, why not stick something in about how gays will control death panels based on people’s contributions to Proposition 8 or something? It’s just as plausible as most of the crap they make up.
*Yes, the Senate bill sucks. It also, on balance, will help a lot of people, and it can be fixed later. That’s the only choice we have left, unless you somehow think it’s okay to just let uninsured people continue to die in growing numbers, underinsured people go bankrupt and lose their homes and livelihoods, all because you’re mad at the Democrats in Congress. Yeah, well, I am too. I’m also a grown-up, and I understand that sometimes you have to suck it up and consider what’s best for the country, and this option is better than killing it and letting it fester for the next 25 years. See Paul Krugman’s piece on the “Underpants Gnome” theory of healthcare reform which some progressives seem to support.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court broke America. That may be a little bit hyperbolic, but not by much. If you’re a bit confused about the repercussions of this decision that came down yesterday, this decision that all of your lawyer friends (except those who somehow managed to pass the bar, yet can’t communicate beyond GOP talking points), liberal and conservative, are extremely concerned about, here’s a quick primer. In Citizens United v. FEC(PDF), the Supreme Court struck down over sixty years of precedent and ruled that the government may not regulate spending by corporations in elections. The rules were there for a reason: Because of the deep coffers of, say, Exxon-Mobil or Goldman Sachs, allowing them to spend freely to influence elections very easily overpowers our own rights as citizens. The CEO of Exxon-Mobil was never prohibited from contributing, just like any other citizen. But now the Supreme Court has essentially said that Exxon-Mobil, itself, is a citizen, and entitled to all of the same rights that you and I enjoy in electing our leaders and representatives. Let that sink in for a minute. A little more detail:
In an email forwarded to me today by a transgender activist contact, Tony Perkins – head of that infamous opponent of gay rights and equality the Family Research Council, callously violated the bounds of common decency and proposed a direct assault on the human rights and dignity of the gay and trans community in America. Yes, I live in South Africa and it doesn’t directly affect me – but the things said by him are an affront to gay and trans people everywhere. It was one of those emails that had travelled from person to person within a very short time, mainly because its content is so outrageously homophobic and transphobic that it angers every fair-minded person who reads it.
For those who don’t yet know the Family Research Council, it was founded by James Dobson (of Focus on the Family infamy) and unfortunately, is not yet listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center – but in my humble opinion, because of its relentless and often tasteless attacks on the pink community, and its liberal application of the propaganda supplied by its stable-mate, the Family Research Insititute (which IS), it should be. The FRC is known for its “Christian boycotts” of chain stores such as McDonalds or American Airlines for daring to hire gay people and treat them like human beings – and thus “furthering the homosexual agenda“.
Perkins’s letter is insultingly titled “Stop Obama’s Crossdresser Protection Bill” and it is an appeal to conservative Americans to oppose the ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) which is intended to bring equal employment opportunities to people normally discriminated against in the job-market on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity. Pretty much the same paranoid hysterical tone in the letter is echoed on the FRC website. The text of the letter is included below: (Read More)
The New York Times reports that the Obama administration has inserted language into the federal jobs Web site explicitly banning employment discrimination based on gender identity. This is excellent news and Obama should be praised for taking this step. While there is so much more work to do, let’s rejoice today and enjoy our progress.
Of course, social conservatives became nearly deranged over the move:
“We at the Family Research Council oppose including gender identity as a category of protection,” said Peter S. Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies. Mr. Sprigg said his group believed that what it calls “gender identity disorder” should be “treated with therapy to help people be comfortable with their biological sex rather than affirming and celebrating and protecting those who want to deny their biological sex.”
Actually, Sprigg and everyone who “thinks” like him are the ones in need of therapy. To paraphrase a Seinfeld episode, they need, “a serious team of shrinks for a major intervention, maybe even from Austria itself.”
The transgender community is a small minority that has hurt no one. They simply want to work, make a living and be left alone. The fact that Sprigg feels threatened by these individuals says more about his mental health, or lack thereof. People who are secure in their gender identity or sexual orientation know they are not directly affected by such matters. It is only closet cases and mental cases who feel they must suppress the transgender community and gratuitously insult them.
Do people like Sprigg really think that if trans-Americans receive support and acceptance, a large number of people will suddenly jump up and run off to the doctor to change genders?
Really, what exactly is it that this man fears? I don’t get it.
Bottom line: The new language will help those who are transgender, which is terrific and fully embraced and supported by Truth Wins Out. It will have zero impact on people like me – and most other straight and gay people. It will drive people like Sprigg – who seems to have more issues than a New York magazine stand – absolutely nuts.
My question to Sprigg is, “Dude, how does this affect you?”
Thanks to amazing The Cross Eyed Iguanas for this witty little ditty about Porno Pete LaBarbera. I think they did a pretty darn good job capturing the essence of this bizarre, sexually stunted man. For the unacquainted, Porno Pete is an anti-gay activist who goes “undercover” to gay sex clubs and leather conferences to expose alleged naughtiness.
What people find odd is that he goes to the same exact events year-after-year, as if he will find something new. But, as far as I can tell, leather looks the same in 2009 as it did in 1999. So, why does this man keep returning to the same venues? I suppose it is possible that he may find it titillating, on some level. Revealingly, he never goes to heterosexual events that have a similar level of debauchery. Indeed, one rarely finds him pictured with the opposite sex and, for some unexplained reason, it appears he is exclusively fixated on the homosexual arena.
Here, it’s more evidence that the Religious Right has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the financial interests which control the Republican Party:
Oy.
Tony Perkins and pals don’t have any expertise to speak of on macroeconomics or anything else that involves book larnin’, but they’ve perfected “Dance, monkeys, dance!”
Also, this is the closest Tony will get to being on “Glee,” so you have to factor that into his decision-making.
The 
Sprigg is also one of the few local citizens to serve on a citizens’ advisory board for Montgomery County Public Schools in Washington, D.C.’s Maryland suburbs.
Actually, Sprigg and everyone who “thinks” like him are the ones in need of therapy. To paraphrase a Seinfeld episode, they need, “a serious team of shrinks for a major intervention, maybe even from Austria itself.”
