Comments on: GOP Kingmaker and Chief Recruiter for the Left

By: OneOfTheWatchers

OneOfTheWatchers — Wed, 30 May 2018 20:49:51 +0000

Over at Right Wing Watch, they addressed the notion that, when is the AFA going to say, ‘enough, is enough already.
And Fischer, of course, pompously proclaims that he stands by everything he has said.
I wonder what he’ll do if the AFA cans him?

By: Throbert McGee

Throbert McGee — Wed, 30 May 2018 20:49:51 +0000

(The Hebrew phrase ger toshav, by the way, literally means something like "a wanderer who has settled"

In the verses that Fischer quotes (Deuteronomy 24:19-22), instructing the Israelites to leave some unharvested crops for "strangers, orphans, and widows," the word ger appears without the modifier toshav -- and similarly in Deut. 10:18, which Warren mentions. Thus, while the ger toshav (i.e., a foreign pagan who had significantly assimilated but had not converted) enjoyed a legal status close to that of a Jewish Israelite, a plain ol' ger (implying minimal assimilation) had an inferior status but was nonetheless a human being to be treated with dignity and charity.

By: David Blakeslee

David Blakeslee — Wed, 30 May 2018 20:49:51 +0000

How?

would mean making sure that immigrants to the United States affirm and believe in the superiority of the Judeo-Christian system of values and truth claims over alternative value systems such as sharia law.

Citizenship requires allegiance to the constitution, immigration does not. Even then, it is unenforceable.

By: Throbert McGee

Throbert McGee — Wed, 30 May 2018 20:49:51 +0000

Pardon my French, but... Holy merde! Fischer's ignorance is like some mythical horn of plenty that never empties... The reference to "ancient Israel" is particularly galling -- because despite the confident assertions of some Townhallers that religious liberty was a Christian innovation, the Jewish concept of a semi-assimilated "virtuous pagan" who was allowed to dwell in Israel and to be treated (mostly) as an equal without converting to Judaism was around long before the time of Jesus. To be sure, in ancient times a ger toshav was subject to a lot of restrictions that are incompatible with modern standards of "religious liberty" -- they certainly would not have been allowed to construct a shrine to their foreign gods (even strictly for their own use), and there was an expectation that they would adhere to most (but not all) regulations of kosher food, etc. Nonetheless, it was understood that they followed a foreign religion and were not expected to convert, and yet they were entitled to the protections of the Jewish legal system because they had assimilated to Jewish ethical norms. (The Hebrew phrase ger toshav, by the way, literally means something like "a wanderer who has settled", and hence "resident alien," but has often been translated "righteous Gentile." However, it should not be confused with the 20th-century usage of "righteous Gentile" in reference to non-Jews who helped save Jews during the Holocaust. According to wikipedia, the Hebrew phrase for "righteous Gentile" in that specific sense is totally different: Chassidey Umot HaOlam.)

By: Lynn David

Lynn David — Wed, 30 May 2018 20:49:51 +0000

You could rewrite this Fischer statement:

Immigration is a privilege, not a right, and our policy should be to admit to our shores only those with a commitment to a full assimilation to American culture, adopting our faith, our heroes, and our history. Someone with a Muslim background who wants to become an American had best be prepared to drop his Islam and his Qur'an at Ellis Island.

As this:

Immigration is a privilege, not a right, and our policy should be to admit to our shores only those with a commitment to a full assimilation to American culture, adopting our faith, our heroes, and our history. Someone with a Roman Catholic background who wants to become an American had best be prepared to drop his Catholicism and his Popery at our shores.

And you would be back 160 years in the thinking of the Know Nothings. On the left coast you could put the Chinese and their traditions into those slots. But not one of my ancestors would have come to America had the Know Nothings held sway. I think Bryan Fischer quite well fits into the mould of a Know Nothing. ...