In praising passage of an anti-gay bill
in Mississippi, Christian conservative Bryan Fischer claimed that
civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. would embrace the law.
House Bill 1523, signed
into law Tuesday by Republican Governor Phil Bryant, allows
companies to deny services or goods for the “celebration or
recognition of any marriage, based upon or in a manner consistent
with a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction.” It
also protects individuals who believe that a person's sex is
“objectively determined by anatomy and genetics at time of birth.”
Fischer praised the law as
“outstanding” and the “best in the nation law protecting
religious liberty.”
“This is a bill that provides
religious protection from heterophobic bigots,” he said.
Civil rights groups, Fischer told his
radio listeners, “oughta love this thing.”
“Martin Luther King, Jr. was all
about protecting rights of conscience,” Fischer said. “That's
what drove him, the right of conscience and protecting the right of
conscience. Martin Luther King, Jr. would be ecstatic with this bill.
He would love this bill.”
Writing at Right
Wing Watch, Kyle Mantyla called Fischer's claim “laughable.”
“Apparently, Fischer thinks that King
was organizing and protesting not to end racial discrimination but
rather in favor of the right of whites to openly discriminate against
blacks in the name of 'conscience,'” Mantyla wrote.