Will the religious right defend Chris Buttars?

Quick note - For days One News Now has been speculating about the return of the Fairness Doctrine - about how it will harm Christian broadcasters and lead to censorship.

Yesterday, President Obama said he was against reinstating the Fairness Doctrine.

And there isn't even one article about it at One News Now.

How typical.

But the events over the past few days remind me about how delicious irony can be on occasion.

Last year around this time, Oklahoma legislator Sally Kern gave a speech where she said gays were worse than terrorists.

When the lgbt community complained, the religious right made her into the modern Joan of Arc.

It culminated into a huge rally for Kern at the Oklahoma State House that was attended by over 1,500 people.

A year later comes Utah State Senator Chris Buttars. In an interview with a documentary filmmaker, he said the following:

– To me, homosexuality will always be a sexual perversion. And you say that around here now and everybody goes nuts! But I don’t care.

– They say, I’m born that way. There’s some truth to that, in that some people are born with an attraction to alcohol.

– They’re mean! They want to talk about being nice — they’re the meanest buggers I ever seen. It’s just like the Moslems. Moslems are good people and their religion is anti-war. But it’s been taken over by the radical side. And the gays are totally taken over by the radical side.

– I believe that you will destroy the foundation of American society, because I believe the cornerstone of it is a man and a woman, the family. … And I believe that they’re, internally, they’re probably the greatest threat to America going down I know of. Yep, the radical gay movement.

Buttars has never been a friend to the lgbt community. In the interview, he also claimed that he "killed" gay/straight alliances in high schools, calling them places where gays "recruit."

But now he seems to be using the Donnie McClurkin defense (i.e. saying you were misquoted even when you are on video saying the remarks), so it's obvious that he realizes just how much trouble he is in.

Last year, the attention over Kern's remarks, especially the way she hid her lies (i.e. citing Paul Cameron studies) behind her religious beliefs and how some in the lgbt community dwelled on nonsense (i.e. whether or not her son was gay) bummed me out.

I refuse to be bummed out this year. I'm waiting for the religious right to defend Buttars.

But I suspect that they won't though for two reasons.

His comments were just ignant (i.e. something so dumb it doesn't deserve more than two syllables in the description of its ineptitude). I don't think anyone Christian (even if the person didn't "approve" of homosexuality) would want to associate themselves with Buttars's comments.

Most importantly, Buttars's comments ruins the religious right's schtick. Their entire image depends on being portrayed as innocent Christians being attacked by "rabid homosexual activists" simply because they are trying to uphold traditional values and morality.

Kern reminded people of a nice grandmother who occasionally gives out quarters and penny candy to children because of the nature of goodness in her heart.

Buttars reminds people of a crotchety old man who wildly waves his cane as he spews venom and tries to keep from soiling himself.

Everyone wants to defend the sweet old grandmother. But no one cares about the pissy old fart.

It just goes to show that sooner or later, kismet has a way of coming around.