Religious Zealot Bryan Fischer: 'Gays Are Nazis'

Right Wing Watch reports that there is "no more openly bigoted Religious Right leader active today than the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer."  This is true.  In red state America's ocean of homophobic hysterics, the soul-dead Fischer is Megaladon, a prehistoric shark that views all forward-moving creatures as prey.  Earlier this week he warned his Rapture Ready radio listeners that gays and lesbians would "do the same thing to you that the Nazis did to their opponents in Nazi Germany."  Here are the actual words of the former pastor:

"The homosexual agenda is just like Islam: there is no room for dissent, there is no room to leave, once you're in, you can't leave. Muslims won't let you leave, homosexuals won't let you leave - if you leave, they claim you're faking it, so there's no way out. There's no freedom of choice, there's no freedom of religion - if you have religious views about homosexual behavior, you are squashed. I mean, ladies and gentlemen, they are Nazis. Homosexual activists, when it comes to freedom of speech, are Nazis. When it comes to freedom of religion, they are Nazis. There is no room in their world dissent, there is no room in their world for disagreement, there is no room in their world for criticism. You criticize homosexual behavior, they tag you as a bigot and a homophobe and then they got to work to silence you just like the Roman Catholic Church did in the days of Galileo - it's no different; it's the Spanish Inquisition all over again. Ladies and gentlemen, they are Nazis. Do not be under any illusions about what homosexual activists will do with your freedoms and your religion if they have the opportunity. They'll do the same thing to you that the Nazis did to their opponents in Nazi Germany."

Fischer became the object of ridicule last year when he declared that Hitler surrounded himself with gay storm troopers because "he could not get straight soldiers to be savage and brutal and vicious enough to carry out his orders."  Another anti-gay zealot, Pastor Scott Lively, had earlier authored a so-called "groundbreaking" book about "evil homosexuals" in Nazi Germany - the absurdly titled Pink Swastika - from which Fischer has apparently lifted his bizarre talking points.  (Both Fischer and Pastor Lively are among the United States' current crop of Biblical dominionists who endorse Uganda's barbarous and universally condemned "Kill The Gays" legislation.)

It's telling that these advocates of "traditional family values" and the Republican politicians who curry favor with them have adopted the very same toxic tactics that propagandist Joseph Goebbels used to smear "enemies of the state" during World War II-era Germany.  It is not surprising that the stratagems they attribute to their opponents mirror their own unconscionable behavior.  Fischer, it should be noted, doesn't merely fling his corrosive acid at sexual minorities; his frequent verbal assaults against Native Americans, African-Americans, Muslims, Jews, Asians, and Latinos have resulted in the AFA being designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law center.

Elie Wiesel famously wrote, "I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides.  Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

It's disheartening that the modern-day Republican Party - and a solid slice of the voting public - continues to encourage bigotry that's been tarted up as "Christian principles" by sociopaths such as Fischer and Lively.  You'd think even the most hateful homophobes would be appalled at the prospect of bearing witness this false and depraved.  But who on the Right is really concerned about breaking God's holy commandments when the spectre of same-sex marriage looms?  Members of the GOP's base sure as hell don't.  Anti-gay orgs that trade fearmongering for cash donations don't give a shit.  They will say or do just about anything, and demonize just about anybody, if it advances of their regressive ideology.