As we all know by now, the religious right would like nothing better than to put the First Amendment in the shredder. Well, one of the religious right’s loudest voices all but admitted this once again yesterday. Bryan Fischer, host of American Family Radio’s afternoon show, “Focal Point,” had a message for immigrants wanting to come to this country–if you’re not willing to become a Christian, you’re wasting your time coming here.
Before going to air, Fischer posed a question on his show’s Facebook page–“Do you think we ought to suspend Muslim immigration to the United States?” He offered his answer in a post on “The Stand,” the official blog of the American Family Association,” in which he declared that in ancient Israel, immigrants, or “sojourners” as they were called at the time, were more than welcome as long as they did not have the “effrontery” to retain their “counterfeit religious practices” once they arrived. Such a standard, Fischer argued, “preserves a nation’s cultural unity.”
Fischer doubled down on this during his show’s first hour, arguing that “the biblical standard of immigration” calls for full assimilation, both culturally and religiously. He argued that in Numbers 15, God told Moses that immigrants who came to Israel would be expected to “adopt the religious practices of their host country.” In Fischer’s view, if Christians are to “take their immigration counsel from Scripture,” they should put similar conditions on opening their countries’ borders to immigrants.
Fischer believes that anyone who wants to come to the United States should be expected to “assimilate completely into American culture.” For Fischer, that means that immigrants should be required to “adopt our God” and “our Judeo-Christian heritage,” as well as adopt “our Christian holidays.” They should also know up front that “we are a Christian country,” and therefore must adopt “our standards, our traditions, and our holidays.”
People for the American Way’s Right Wing Watch got a clip. Watch here:
I could be very wrong here, but this sounds a lot like the de facto practice in Iran. Christians are officially recognized as protected minorities, but are relegated to second-class status. According to the latest State Department report on religious freedom in the world, Iranian Christians are frequently subjected to arbitrary arrest and detention, and are locked out of most senior governmental and educational positions. Indeed, one of the highest-profile victims of religious persecution is Saeed Aberdini, an Iranian-American pastor who has been imprisoned for his preaching; Secretary of State John Kerry is actively working to bring him home.
Am I the only one who wonders if the situation in Iran is similar to what would be the case if Fischer had his way? I’ve long believed that the only difference between Fischer and the mullahs in Iran is that Fischer doesn’t wear a black turban. Well, here’s more proof. The religious right likes to say that all it wants is a place at the table for social conservatives. Well, this screed from one of its most prominent pundits is yet more proof that they want the entire table.
(image courtesy Americans United’s Flickr feed)
