Oh, did the reaction to your latest column burn a little bit too much, Bryan?
Yes, if you click this link to read the piece called “Bryan Fischer: Native Americans morally disqualified themselves from the land”, which I criticized here, and which we issued a press release about here, you’ll see that it has been removed. It’s also disappeared from the website of RenewAmerica, one of the other ponds of deranged, anti-intellectual swill which syndicates Bryan Fischer.
In the meantime, lots of other people have commented on Fischer’s latest fever dream of racist, bigoted insanity, so enjoy their work. And of course, there’s always the Google Cache version of Fischer’s screed, for however long that lasts.
Meanwhile, it’s worth pointing out that there is at least one voice in the American Family Association who is publicly rejecting Fischer’s latest rant, and it’s the blog writer I like to refer to as “the little one,” because Elijah Friedeman is only seventeen! Yes, he offers the “millenial perspective,” so that the shut-ins who write checks to the AFA can learn about Kids These Days! Unfortunately, the American Family Association seems to want this controversy to just please, please, please go away, so they’ve removed his post too. [It’s still available at Friedeman’s blog, though.] Lest we mistakenly assume the worst and it turns out that the AFA is just having internet problems, let’s click these links to other recent posts on the AFA blog: 1, 2, 3, 4. Oh, they work.
Kyle at Right Wing Watch has an excerpt of the most important parts of Friedeman’s piece:
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.
…
[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.
…
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.
Nice sentiments, Elijah, and if this incident serves as an impetus for you to examine the daily hateful spew that comes out of MOST AFA writers, not just Bryan Fischer, and to realize that there’s still a lot of time to choose a better path, one that actually displays love and kindness, then great.
If I may offer a guess as to why the AFA has removed these posts, it would be this: Unlike anti-gay bigotry, unlike the slut-shaming that makes up the laughably misnamed “pro-life” industry, unlike regular anti-black racism disguised as “fiscal responsibility,” the AFA likely has members and donors who have Native blood. Indeed, along with the genocidal brutality inflicted by white settlers of this land, there was also much intermarriage, along with a not insignificant amount of rape. The result, of course, is that there are people of all ideological stripes in this country who carry the thread of what happened during that gruesome era of our history, who carry that stain. And though most of us, like the dolts we are, gorge ourselves on turkey and pumpkin pie every November without paying a bit of attention to the truly disgusting origins of that holiday, we sort of know it just the same.
So when Bryan Fischer goes Full Metal Aryan Nation on the AFA blog, I’d imagine that more than a few AFA members sat back in their chairs and said “Whoa, what the hell?” I could be wrong, of course, but that’s my guess. I think Bryan Fischer exposed a piece of his black, insipid soul that was just a bridge too far for even those on his own side of the ideological spectrum.
