Friday, June 15, 2012

Anti-Gay Evangelical Talk-Show Host Profiled

The current issue of the New Yorker carries a long feature article titled Bully Pulpit: An Evangelist Talk-Show Host’s Campaign to Control the Republican Party.  The article profiles Bryan Fischer, the Tupelo, Mississippi based host of the Christian radio show "Focal Point." The program is broadcast on 200 stations of the American Family Association radio network. The article's author Jane Mayer writes of Fischer:
He is one of the country’s most vocal opponents of what he calls “the homosexual-rights movement.” As he puts it, “A rational culture that cares about its people will, in fact, discriminate against adultery, pedophilia, rape, bestiality, and, yes, homosexual behavior.” His goal is to make this view the official stance of the Republican Party.
It was Fischer who began the attacks that led to the resignation in April of openly-gay Richard Grenell as Mitt Romney's national security spokesman.

Fischer is also virulently anti-Muslim, believing that Muslims should be barred from immigrating to the U.S. and serving in the U.S. military. He argues that the U.S. was a Christian nation when the 1st Amendment was drafted, and so non-Christians should have no 1st Amendment free exercise rights.