Wednesday, September 15, 2010
religion Bryan Fischer Passes Idaho Values Alliance Torch to "Nation’s Abstinence Pastor"
Posted by Jody May-Chang on Wed, Sep 15, 2010 at 3:42 PM
All traces of Bryan Fischer have been wiped clean from the Idaho Values Alliance website in preparation for Friday's re-launch of IVA under new president—and abstinence education consultant—Gary N. Brown.
On the website sourceministires.net, Brown wrote, “I am known across America as the nation’s Abstinence Pastor, impacting abstinence and marriage-education legislation and policy on every level of government. I have been able to gain the trust of senators and House members, alike.”
Brown told Citydesk he first met Fischer, who left IVA in 2009 for Mississippi-based American Family Association, when he moved to the Idaho panhandle from Atlanta two years ago. Brown left his position as pastor of Coeur d'Alene's NorthStar Church after 10 months to helm the IVA, saying that he found work like that of IVA's a better fit for him.
As head of IVA and during his time with AFA, Fischer has been a polarizing figure. Citydesk asked Brown if he shared Fisher's stance on homosexuality and Islam.
“I am very well aware of some of Bryan Fischer’s positions on issues, and to be honest, I would rather not go there,” he said. “In the future we will have to address issues like that. I mean my goodness, it is a hot button topic … I don’t want any particular issue to take the headlines today.”
Brown plans to recast the focus of IVA toward education and maintains it will have a different focus.
“I am for an open market place of ideas. I will defiantly express opinions in the future, and we may not always agree, but I’ll tell you something: I’ll fight for your right to stand for your beliefs any day.”
Despite Brown’s seemingly greater openness, IVA will remain affiliated with AFA, which currently employs Fischer.
“We are not on a crusade to make everyone Christians, we are on a crusade to help everybody understand the values that went into our Constitution and Declaration of Independence … We are calling on Idahoans to a revival of Americanism,” Brown said.
To Brown, Americanism expresses the values our founders believed in when they wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
“The Ten Commandments, for example, were huge with the founders and where we get our basic Judeo-Christian Values.”
In one of Brown's sermons posted online, he talks about speaking to the Pachyderms, a Boise Republican group, about "the church being the gatekeeper of the Constitution” and how he is “looking forward to the day when Christ and his church takes their rightful place again in the nation.”
What is clear is IVA is back. What is not clear is what it will be.
Comments (8)
Showing 1-8 of 8
I wonder if the Idaho media will run to Brown for a comment the way the bent over backwards to help make Bryan Fischer into a national celebrity! Anyone who goes to the Idaho Values Alliance website will discover that they do NOT take comments from readers. IVA is a fringe group whose primary objective is to denigrate ANYONE - especially gays - who does not fall into their 'white and delightful' view of America!
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Me thinks that Brown will just be a talking head for the puppet master AFA. After listening to Bryan Fischer spew his Christo-fascist Tea-Clux-Clan artificial eloquence on National Public Radio this morning, I have no doubt what so ever.
In 2008 IVA took in a mere $64,000 and Fischer glommed $50,000 of that so we are not talking about some huge operation. Nevertheless, all of the AFA affiliates have one goal in common - to spread fear and ignorance of, and hatred for, gay people. Don Wildmon has a similar disdain for Jews who, he claims, control Hollywood and are too tolerant of gays. Fischer, of course, is a Muslim and Hispanic basher. The whole lot of bigots are unhinged.
20 years ago, Fischer would have been parading around in bedsheets and a hood (maybe he was). Today, he can mingle in polite society and even appear on NPR. Make no mistake about it though; AFA and IVA are hate groups. It is just that simple.
Re: “Bryan Fischer Passes Idaho Values Alliance Torch to "Nation’s Abstinence Pastor"”
One wonders why Gary Brown is taking the helm of what is essentially a shell (shill?) organization. IVA's 2007 filing with the State of Idaho listed only three "officials": Fischer, his wife and his daughter. Like the carpetbagger Fischer, Brown is coming in from out of state to lecture us natives on "Idaho values". It's significant that his first meeting was with local Republicans ("Party of God"). One wonders why Brown left his church in Coeur d'Alene -- did he leave the same way Fischer left his church (i.e., voted out)? Is IVA to become the home to defrocked pastors? When IVA started, Fischer claimed he had been given $10,000 -- which just happened to be the same amount Fischer earlier claimed had been donated to erect a 10 commandments monument in Julia Davis Park. The same $10,000? It wouldn't be surprising to learn that Fischer had "glommed" on to most of the money donated to IVA. After all, IVA's predecessor, the Idaho Family Forum, went out of business under strange circumstances that reportedly involved missing money. What is surprising about all these people who promote "family values" (Bryan Fischer, Dennis Mansfield, Brandi Swindell) is that none of them seem to have ever held a real job. They're like leeches, always stirring up the booboisie so they can rake in more drachmas. That's okay -- Charon is waiting to take them across the River Styx where they'll rot for all eternity (that is, if Cerberus doesn't bite them first!).
Wow what a lot of name calling. These IVA people must be really intolerant. Or wait, is it the above posters that are intolerant? Not much of a discussion of issues here, but some fine hate displayed. I would almost bet that these posters think they are tolerant and open minded. I think you should reread your posts and think about how you sound. I'm sure you would win a lot of college debates with such concise, clearly defined arguments.
Now Ericn 1300, are you saying the other posters on this site are not displaying the same bigotry and hate mongering that you seem to dislike? Maybe you should read my post again. My point was that these posters are making assumptions not based in fact, for example "to denigrate ANYONE" or "20 yrs. ago would have paraded around in bedsheets and a hood" just to name a couple. I also see name calling such as "carpet bagger", "leeches". Is this your method of gaining acceptance from people of differing views? How do any of these posts work towards ending the bigotry and hate mongering that you claim to be present from the new leader of this group?
Have you ever noticed folks who advocate "Abstinence Only" education are ones you wouldn't want to "do" anyway?
Abstinence Only doesn't work.
Instead of Magical Thinking and hoping the problem will go away, how about focusing on solutions that work?
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