Of Kerfuffles

Today the Reverend Bryan Fischer sent out a contemptuous press release questioning the patriotism of reporters covering the Idaho Legislature.  The question centered around, what the Idaho Statesman's Kevin Richert noted as the kerfuffle over whether reporters should be required to verbally recite the Pledge of Allegiance with House members when on the floor, as Speaker Lawerence Denney (R-Midvale) had suggested in a letter to the press. 

Fischer says:

“The essential question here is, ‘Do these members of the media have any kind of loyalty to the United States?’ If they do, then why won’t they say so? And if they don’t, why should we trust anything they write?"

This is an unfair attempt by Fischer to cast aspersions on these reporters and their credibility.  There are many reasons for someone to decline to recite the pledge, one of which I learned, like many others, as a small child.  Being a man of the cloth with a graduate degree in theology, it would seem to be one with which Fischer should be intimately familiar.

In the very small, predominantly Mormon area where I attended school, there was a family of devout Jehovah's Witnesses.  They had several school-age kids with one boy in my class.  As first graders, we knew nothing about his religion and found it very strange when this boy declined to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance with the rest of the class.

Each day, as we rose to say the pledge, this small boy remained uncomfortably in his seat, his fair-complected face turning a few shades darker than his red hair from the embarrassment of being different.  After it was explained that in his religion, members could actually be disfellowshipped for doing so, as kids usually do, we eventually just got used to it.  It wasn't a big deal.

As a theologian, Fischer has studied other religions and knows, or should know, the tenets of this religion.  Maybe every reporter who declines to say the pledge on the floor of the Idaho House isn't doing so for religious reasons but they are under no obligation to disclose that to anyone.  Each has reasons which none of us are qualified to judge, another principle with which Mr. Fischer should be intimately familiar.  After all, the words, "judge not, that ye be not judged," come from the book he often quotes literally and reveres as infallible.

Thankfully the U.S. does not employ religious tests or loyalty oaths for citizens and Fischer is either ignorant or being disingenuous and deceptive by disparaging the intentions of those who merely assert their rights.

Comments

[Bubblehead]

I just follow the general rule of not trusting anything that Bryan Fischer writes.

[ericn1300]

Our founding fathers would have been mortified if required to recite the pledge of allegiance. They pledged themselves to the ideals of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness which were later codified in The Constitution and the Bill of Rights. All of the aforementioned documents effectively express the desire of the authors that the people should be free to think for themselves and not be subverted by blind oaths to symbols or government tyrants, elected or other wise.

The phrase “under god” was added to the the pledge during the 1950's, the McCarthy era and it's sad to see McCarthyism rearing it's ugly head again. To quote Joseph Welch, the attorney for the Army at the time, I would say to Speaker Denney "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

[Wolke]

I thought we agreed on not publishing anything at all about Bryan Fischer?

Our founding fathers worked very hard on separation of church and State. Hamilton and Adams were the religious ones. Like a Fischer but knew what they wanted out of religion unlike Fischer.

In god we trust was put on coins and in the Pledge under Lincoln.
Lincoln would take all the help he could get. His own party the Republicans did not support Lincoln.

Fischer is not a theologian.

He does not understand or even once cared to understand the needs of Boise in his so called religious fights.

Now he is a authority on the State ?

You even give him a piece of the constitution?

Wow, you folks are a giving bunch of people.

Stay off the bench when you marching with Bryan Fischer, when you fall off the cliff it may be a
hazard to your health.

[MountainGoat]

Wolke, I have no clue what you're talking about when you say "we agreed..." Care to clarify that a little?

[Wolke]

On the subject of Bryan Fischer a while back.

I took the time to inform the readers on whom Fischer was and how he got where he is.

MountainGoat responded by you nailed it Wolke.

I guess I should of responded by Nailed what?

[MountainGoat]

Wolke, I think the comment you're referring to is this:

http://mountaingoatreport.typepad.com/the_mountaingoat_report/2008/02/success.html#comment-103556308

In your description of Fischer's activities over the last few years, you did nail it.

I believe that it's important that his activities continue to be well-published.

[Binkyboy]

With Bryan being forced to beg and possibly steal money from little old ladies I think it proves that the liberal bloggers that have humiliated him in this medium have had an effect on his future.

Now we just need to catch him with the alter boy, so to speak.