"We Serve Bacon in Our Restaurants for One Reason: We Are a Christian Nation. Not a Jewish or Islamic One. QED."
Thus proclaimeth Bryan Fischer, whose Twitter bio reads "Director of Issue Analysis, American Family Association [AFA]; Host of Focal Point radio program on AFR Talk network; Tweets are my own."
The AFA bills itself "as one of the largest and most effective pro-family organizations in the country with hundreds of thousands of supporters." It was started in 1977 by Donald Wildmon as the National Federation for Decency. Wildmon, now retired, and the AFA are probably best known for culture war battles involving Andres "Piss Christ" Serrano and Robert Mapplethorpe, but also memorably accused Mighty Mouse of snorting cocaine in the form of flower petals back in 1988.
For the record, I eat bacon because I like the way it tastes. Sure, like everyone else who was raised Christian, at first I ate it just as a screw-you to the other Abrahamic religions. But nowadays, that's less important to me…
Hat tip: Yair Rosenburg (follow him on Twitter).
Bonus question: Do you think statements such Bryan Fischer's are one of the reasons why 77 percent of Americans agree that religion is losing influence on American life? And in asking this, I mean no disrespect to believers (an overwhelming majority of Americans still affiliate with organized religion, particularly some sect of Christianity). yet this sort of truly inane and a propos of nothing statement is rightly off-putting to all but (possibly) Oscar Meyer shareholders. Nobody is asking that faith be hidden under a bushel basket, but who really wants to be associated with statements such as Fischer's QED regarding pork products?
Back in 2008, when Reason TV reported on the Battle of the Bacon Dogs in Los Angeles, we didn't appreciate the theological dimensions of the struggle. Instead, we chronicled the struggle of Elizabeth Palacios, a vendor who ended up spending 45 days in jail (!) for daring to sell tasty treats without all the proper licensing. Check out Drew Carey on the beat and meet one of the greatest villains in all of Reason TV's history: an Los Angeles County Health Department official who is the Blofeld of bummerdom:
