Posted Apr 16, 2014 by Michael L. Brown

Shortly after the tragic news broke in Kansas City about Sunday’s murder of three people who were thought to be Jews, a YouTube clip of liberal radio host David Pakman interviewing the alleged killer in 2010 started to get a lot of attention.

And with good reason.

Pakman calmly and professionally asked Frazier Glenn Cross (also known as Frazier Glenn Miller), who was then running for a Senate seat and who is now in police custody, about his hatred of the Jews, and Cross minced no words in expressing his murderous loathing for all Jews (including Pakman, who is Jewish), wishing that Hitler had destroyed all of us. (I say “us” because I am Jewish as well.)

Pakman also questioned Cross, who was a former leader in the KKK, about his views on homosexuality, explaining to Cross that “with a lot of the anti-Jew, anti-black folks, they also don’t like homosexuals” before asking, “Do you also dislike homosexuals, or are you gay-friendly?”

Having been interviewed by David Pakman on several occasions, most recently discussing gay censorship and the redefinition of marriage, I was not in the least bit surprised by his question to Cross, nor was I surprised to hear his comments on Monday night, April 14, on CNN, where he overtly connected the attitude that led to the murder of three people on the eve of Passover to “homophobia” and “religious extremism.” (The three victims were actually practicing Christians, taken by the killer to be Jews.)

Responding to a question from CNN’s Erin Burnett as to why he had Cross on his show, Pakman explained that “extremism is something that we’ve talked about on my program quite a bit, and whether it’s religious extremism, homophobia, racism, etc., I’m interested in what’s the source of that.”

What a loaded, unqualified statement, especially given the constant demonizing of religious conservatives in America today, demonizing that even led to the shedding of Christian blood in our country. (More on that shortly.)

And what a bogus and ugly statement, as if there is the slightest connection between defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman and murdering people in cold blood. Does David Pakman not realize how his words will be taken, especially when spoken without caveat or qualification?

Let’s remember that for Pakman and a large percentage of the CNN viewing audience, it is “homophobic” not to support same-sex “marriage,” and if you believe that homosexual practice is not right in God’s sight, you are considered a religious extremist.

With the Jewish community reeling and much of the nation in shock, is David unaware of the potentially incendiary nature of his words?

When asked if he ever felt his own life was in danger (since Cross had expressed his contempt for Pakman in no uncertain terms and he had previously served time for his involvement in a murder), Pakman replied that “with all of these extremists, I think they’re all on the edge of rhetoric becoming real-world violence,” also explaining that there was nothing about Cross at that time that “made him stand out from the other extremists.”

Is he serious? Is he saying that there was nothing different about Cross, whose alleged murderous actions on April 13 were in keeping with the sentiments he expressed on Pakman’s show in 2010, and a conservative Christian who expresses his love for all human beings, who makes it clear that he opposes all acts of hatred and violence against those who identify as LGBT, but who simply stands by the biblical and historical definition of marriage? Did Pakman not realize how outlandish his statement was?

While noting that Cross was high on the list of the angriest people he’d ever interviewed, Pakman also stated that, “Many times I’ll interview homophobes, extreme religious zealots, etc., and while their rhetoric is incredibly hateful, towards me, they’re very nice, and typically they want to help people, many times they want to save people. …”

Again, without qualifying his terms, Pakman groups Cross with “homophobes” and “extreme religious zealots,” both of which are commonly used to describe evangelical Christians in America today, even alleging that their nice demeanor towards him could be covering similar, murderous intentions.

News reports about Cross are citing data from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which stated that Cross was a “raging anti-Semite,” and it is the SPLC that has documented much of the extreme anti-Semitism of David Duke, former grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and a man whom Cross deeply respected.

Similar to Pakman, however, but even more overtly, the SPLC has put evangelical Christians on the same watch list as men like David Duke and Malik Zulu Shabbaz, leader of the New Black Panthers. In fact, I was one of those put on that list (because I was “anti-gay”), along with Pamela Geller (anti-Muslim!), Joseph Farah of WND (patriot movement and birther!) and David Barton (anti-gay historical revisionist!), among others. This is a sham and a disgrace.

Previously, the SPLC had also placed evangelical Christian organizations like the Family Research Council (FRC) on its “hate group” list, and so it was no surprise when an armed man, inspired by the SPLC’s listing, entered the FRC headquarters in August 2012, shooting and wounding the guard, who was able to subdue him before he carried out an act of mass murder.

The truth is that barely a day goes by without those of us who stand for biblical morality receiving hateful emails or tweets, calling for our death or beating or wounding. And these ugly comments, laced with violent threats, come from those who identify as LGBT (or as their straight allies).

The fact is that there are hateful, potentially violent people in all camps, and rather than demonize millions of God-fearing, people-loving Christians, simply because they hold to biblical values, David Pakman, along with the SPLC, should focus on the real extremists.

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