Bryan Fischer, the director of Issues Analysis for the fundamentalist American Family Association (AFA), on Wednesday defended the practice of gender discrimination, saying that God "designed" women -- and not men -- to be secretaries.
On his Wednesday radio program, Fischer pointed out that liberals had argued that companies could use religion to discriminate on the basis of gender or to oppose the minimum wage if Hobby Lobby was allowed to use Christianity as a shield to deny birth control to its employees.
Although the radio host admitted he had religious objections to the minimum wage, he said it preposterous to think that the Hobby Lobby case would open the door to other religious exemptions.
"Nobody is suing on those grounds!" he said. "And I'm going to tell you right now, I discriminated on the basis of gender when I was a pastor. I'm going to admit to you right now that I discriminated on the basis of gender."
"When I went to hire a receptionist, when I went to hire a secretary, when I went to hire somebody who was going to answer the phones for a church, I wanted the most welcoming, inviting hospitable voice on our end of the line I could find," Fischer continued. "And I said, 'Guys, don't bother applying. I am discriminating on the basis of gender. Your males need not apply for this position.'"
The former pastor explained that "one of the things that God has built into women, I believe, is he's designed them to be warm, to be hospitable, to be open-hearted, to be open-handed, to have their arms open, to be welcoming, to create a welcoming, nurturing, inviting environment."
Fischer said that there were other jobs in the church that only men could do, but the secretarial job "is going to be reserved for a woman because of the unique things that God has built into woman."
"So, I discriminated," he bragged. "I absolutely discriminated on the basis of gender. You want to come and sue me? Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, knock yourself out. I will be happy to admit in court that I discriminated against males. I discriminated on the basis of gender."
And there's reason to believe that Fischer is telling the truth.
Before landing a radio gig at AFA, he spent years as a pastor at Cole Community Church in Idaho and founded Community Church of the Valley in Arizona. To this day, neither of those churches have women in leadership roles.
(h/t: Right Wing Watch)
