Fagots, Faggots, Ted Cruz and a Homeschooling Fool

MOST AMERICANS, liberal and conservative alike, are in strong agreement where religious freedom is concerned. 

If you choose to go to a church, or synagogue or mosque, or sleep in late and ignore the condition of your soul, you have that fundamental right. You can pray in any way you like. You can read the Book of Mormon. Or not. If you are Amish, you can remove your children from school after eighth grade. 

There are limits. You can’t claim to practice the religion of the Aztecs and sacrifice annoying neighbors. 

Human sacrifice is taboo. 

And—here we have more disagreement—you can’t bring the Bible into public schools. The reason is fairly simple. A Catholic teacher may not read from the Latin Vulgate Bible in his or her classroom, may not proselytize, may not jam his or her religious views down the throats of Jewish kids. A Mormon teacher cannot read from the Book of Mormon to Muslim kids and a Muslim teacher cannot read passages of the Qu’ran to Presbyterian kids. Nor may a non-religiously inclined educator mock the views of children of various faiths. That’s pretty much the rule. A public school educator may not say to some gay or lesbian student, “You deserve to burn in hell.”

WHAT BRINGS THIS MATTER to mind is discovery that GOP presidential hopeful Ted Cruz, a stalwart defender of religious liberties, at least in his own mind, attended the National Religious Liberties Conference a few weeks ago. This gathering was organized by Pastor Kevin Swanson of the Reformation Church of Elizabeth, Colorado. And if it is important to know the company candidates keep, we know Pastor Swanson has “called for the punishment of homosexuality by death.” 

Swanson is no savage, of course. He does remind listeners the time for strong action is “not yet.” 

No, no. Stay they hand. 

The gays must be allowed a chance “to repent and convert.”

WELL, WHAT IS IT, EXACTLY, that has Pastor Swanson all fired and brimstoned up? He believes gays and lesbians are taking over the country. Harry Potter is evil! Princess Elsa is part of a nefarious, Walt Disney-driven plot. He has made his fears clear, including during a radio discussion in 2014, when he explained the dangers of watching Elsa in Frozen, to co-host Steve Vaughn: “You know, I think this cute little movie is going to indoctrinate my 5-year-old to be a lesbian or treat homosexuality or bestiality in a light sort of way.”

Oh woe, woe, woe. Even horses and cows will be at risk!!!!

To watch Swanson come unhinged—talking about America being messed up—but not catching the irony of his own statements, follow this link. You almost wish you could imagine Swanson has been taken out of context by liberals involved in some terrible campaign to slander the poor fool. Sadly, it does not appear so. By his words we shall know him, they say, and by these words we must place Pastor Swanson in the same camp as Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, who once forced gays to wear pink triangles and tried castration and other “cures” on Nazi Germany’s homosexual population.

(Before we give Pastor Swanson any ideas, we should note that even Nazi doctors had to admit that such cures failed miserably.)

For educators, of course, it’s an added “thrill” to learn Swanson is a fervent believer in home schooling. You know: to keep the evils of American culture at bay. 

Harry Potter and all that.

HE EVEN HAS A BOOK for sale, about how to use the Bible to illustrate important lessons in values and character-building.

Lesson 1: Kill the gays!

Lesson 2: Stone adulterers? (Well, that’s in Leviticus, too.)

Lesson 3: Who knows? Maybe, we should start burning witches. After all, the Bible is clear on that matter, as well: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”

So grab some fagots. No, not faggots! Fagots: The ones that burn.

Technically, in Pastor Swanson’s warped view of the world, I suppose there’s no difference at all.