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On Tuesday, May 13, 2014, radio Bryan Fischer and guest David Benham discussed their love for gay people on Fischer's right wing talk radio program, Focal Point. Aside from the fact that Benham and Fischer have clearly rewritten the Bible in order to define 'love' in the way they want to define it, (rather than in the way that the Bible already defined it), Fischer totally contradicts himself during the broadcast.
In one breathe Fischer says that he doesn't care what gay people in the privacy of their own homes. Out of the other side of his mouth he says that he 'loves them enough to warn them and tell them the truth," which of course, is that they're going to go to hell (in his version of the truth anyways).
So clearly the question is, which is it? Does he not care about what homosexuals do, even though he claims to believe they are going to go to hell. or does he 'love them enough to warn them and tell them truth' as he claims that he's called to do? You can't not care and love someone at the same time. Love doesn't work like that.
But let's get to the heart of the matter. Fischer and Benham don't love anyone, especially not gays. You don't get to call for public execution of a group of people, then later pretend it was all 'out of love.'
Anyone can claim they are a Christian, and sadly many people do, who really aren't. The Bible says you'll know them by their fruits (Mathew 7:16). The Bible says "fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." (Galatians 5:22 and 23). If you think you hear these things when you listen to right wing radio, I guess I would advise you to checking your hearing aid, because that's not what the phony Christian right is selling.
If you plant a seed it grows into something. If you plant a message, it too grows into something. If you sow love and peace and kindness and gentleness, what grows is more love and peace and kindness and gentleness. If you plant a seed of hate and violence, what grows is more hate, violence, something that causes harm and suffering to others.
Fischer's program is a product of the Christian Broadcasting Network, which is owned by the American Family Association. This is an association that has gone to court to prevent gays from being protected under the hate crimes statute. It's an organization that defends the rights of supposed Christians to persecute, harm or even kill someone based on their sexual orientation. They stood against peace and love and defended hate and violence. The kinds of messages that Bryan Fischer sends out into the world are the kind that create division, hate and hurt. Those are not the fruits of love.
Since we're on the topic, what is the Biblical definition of love, and why doesn't it sound anything like the right wing definition of love?
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."If you look at the characteristics of love, one by one, it's easy to see that they don't match the definition that Fischer and other right wing 'Christians' tell us it is. Love does not dishonor others? It is not self seeking? It's not easily angered? It keeps no record of wrongs? It always protects? That's interesting, especially since Fischer and his organization have absolutely no desire to protect those they falsely claim to love.
The Bible says that God is love. That's interesting also. That means that God is patient, God is kind, He is not proud, He is not self seeking, He is not easily angered, He keeps no records of wrongs, He does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes and always perseveres.
That doesn't sound like the same God that Fischer and those on the right talk about, I know. It makes me wonder if they know God at all. I feel sorry for them in a way, because their existence seems to revolve around the idea of vengeful, hateful God that wants to destroy everyone based on their sins. That's contrary to the teachings of the God I know, who laid down his own life, to save sinners like me. That's contrary to the message of the New Testament, that says "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whoever shall believe in him, should not perish but have everlasting life."
Fischer and those like Him are actually teaching a false doctrine of works. The Bible clearly tells us that it is by faith we are saved and not works. Anyone who is trying to get to heaven by living a life free of sin (earning their way there) is teaching a false message, one that the apostles vehemently warned against. Salvation is not earned, it's a free gift from God. A free gift, means there are no strings attached. It also means that God can give it to whoever he wants, murderers, adulterers, liars (see the patriarchs, Abraham, Moses, David, for examples.) God also can give it to gay people or to greedy people or to people whose hearts are filled with arrogance, pride, self righteousness and hate (see the Christian right.)
Fischer claims that he is compelled to tell the gays the truth. I wonder why he keeps lying about what the Bible says then? Sodom was not destroyed because the people were gay.
"'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy." (Ezekiel 16:49)Where is Fischer's great love for the 1 percent, the arrogant, the overfed and the unconcerned? Where is his great love for Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney and the Koch brothers and all the rest of the right wingers who refuse to help the poor and needy?
The Bible says that charging usury is an abomination to God and whoever charges usury of the poor will surely die. Where's Fischer's love for the bankers? Where are the dire warnings about hell and damnation for the gamblers on Wall Street, the traders and raiders, who for a penny steal a widow's house?
The only place in the New Testament that talks about homosexuality is Roman's Chapter 1, which covers the entire gambit of sins, from lust to greed to adultery to speaking ill of your neighbor. The passage is followed by this:
"You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things."The final thing I have to address is the 'gay agenda.' According to Fischer, the gay agenda is to 'normalize homosexual behavior.'
Merriam Webster's defines the word normalize as "to bring (someone or something) back to a usual or expected state or condition."
The gay agenda is the agenda of allowing gays to exist in our society without being threatened, maligned, intimidated, discriminated against, or physically harmed. What is so scary about that? Gayness is not contagious, you can't catch it. Your kids can't catch it.
I think the people who really fear 'the gay agenda' must be very unsure of their own sexuality, since they appear to believe people can 'turn gay.' The majority of people in the world don't choose to be gay or straight, they are born that way. The anti-gay fanatics I wonder about though. They seem to believe that people do choose. I can't help but think most of them are probably closet gays, who chose to live a lie, rather than allow themselves to be who they were born to be. That explains why they are so angry and uncomfortable around others who didn't chose to pretend to not be gay. Jealousy?
Fischer doesn't want gay people to be able to live normal lives. He doesn't want them to have the same rights as the rest of the world. He doesn't want them to be accepted or treated with dignity and respect. That's not love. He prefers they be excluded, rejected, despised, treated differently than himself. Love does not do that to others.
Here's the video of Fischer talking about his 'love' for gay people.
If right wing 'Christians' represent love, what does hate look like?
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