January 30, 2015
SPLC President Spars With AFA Over the Hate Group's Non-Apology
Bobby McGuire READ TIME: 3 MIN.
In the wake of the recent dismissal of Bryan Fischer as their official mouthpiece, the American Family Association (AFA) wrote to the SPLC to renounce a series of outrageous anti-gay, racist and Islamaphobic statements made by Fischer. But the the Southern Poverty Law Center is not buying it.
On the eve of the AFA's week-long trip to Israel where they will fly and put up Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus and some 60 odd members of the RNC on their dime, the SPLC-designated hate group is attempting to whitewash the trip by further distancing themselves from comments made by their recently fired spokesman and director of issue analysis, the vehemently bigoted Bryan Fischer.
In a letter dated January 28, Patrick J. Vaughn, General Counsel for the AFA, denounced eight of Fischer's most outrageous statements claiming that the organization never held his views and rejects his statements.
AFA rejects the idea expressed by Bryan Fischer that "Free exercise of religion" only applies to Christians. Consequently, AFA rejects Bryan's assertions that Muslims should not be granted permits to build mosques in the United States;
AFA rejects the ideas expressed by Bryan Fischer that the violent expulsion of Native Americans was divinely ordained and that, "Superstition, savagery and sexual immorality" morally disqualified Native Americans from "sovereign control of American soil."
AFA rejects the ideas expressed by Bryan Fischer that "we" need to clamp down on immigration because Hispanics are socialist by nature and vote Democratic because it allows them to "benefit from the plunder of the wealth of the United States."
AFA rejects Bryan Fischer's characterization of minorities as "people who rut like rabbits."
AFA rejects the statement by Bryan Fischer that, "Homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler, and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine and six million dead Jews."
AFA rejects the policy advocated by Bryan Fischer that homosexual conduct should be illegal.
AFA rejects the notion advocated by Bryan Fischer that, "We need an underground railroad to protect innocent children from same-sex households."
AFA rejects Bryan Fischer's statement that, "If Hillary Clinton becomes president In 2016, she will not only be our first female president, she could be our first lesbian president."
"In light of this notice, do not continue to charge AFA with the statements by Bryan Fischer that we have repudiated," Vaughn wrote. "When identifying 'hate groups' in the context of training military or law enforcement personnel, do not put AFA in a false light by quoting Mr. Fischer's statements that we have repudiated."
Vaughn, while officially disclaiming Fischer's statements, supported his organization's position to air them under their "unity and diversity" policy which he claims "poses some risks, but also allows a flourishing of Christian thought and expression in the application of biblical principal."
On Thursday, J. Richard Cohen, President of the SPLC fired back at Vaughn.
"We'd like to believe that the AFA's repudiation of the racist, anti-Semetic, anti-Muslim and vicious homophobic statements of your spokesman Bryan Fischer is sincere. But, to be candid, it's difficult to see the AFA's disavowal as anything other than an effort to quell the negative press attention you're receiving in connection with your sponsorship of an all-expense-paid trip to Israel for members of the Republican National Committee." Cohen wrote. "Your longtime spokesperson and director of issue analysis has been making bigoted statements for years. What has suddenly prompted the AFA's change of heart?"
Cohen further blasted the AFA's decision to allow Fischer to remain on the payroll as blogger and daily radio host. "Sponsoring Mr. Fischer's racism, anti-Semitism, and hatred of the Muslim and LGBT communities in the name of 'diversity' says s much about the AFA as it does about Mr. Fischer."
