Bryan Fischer will be taking tickets to the auto de fe.
Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Pope Francis I move over, there's a new Anti-Christ in town and he's sure to be the devil's favorite for a while: he's 16 year-old Jack Andraka and he's adorable. At fifteen, he developed an inexpensive test to detect early signs of pancreatic, ovarian and lung cancers because a close family friend had died of pancreatic cancer. He's also a Life Scout with the Boy Scouts of America (but not a member of the Boy Sodomizers of America ala Bryan Fischer), and he's butch enough to love kayaking.
I’m openly gay and one of my biggest hopes is that I can help inspire other LGBT youth to get involved in STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics]. I didn’t have many [gay] role models [in science] besides Alan Turing."
Yes, he's gay. But that's only part of the reason he might be the next Anti-Christ.
In the world of the Christian Right, there are enemies and ENEMIES, and one of the worst, most, insidious enemies it has been battling for decades (centuries, really), is science.
"Science Shouldn't Be A Luxury"
One more reason to think Jack is an abomination to mankind: he is a scientist dedicated to making scientific knowledge more available to the world - especially to youth. In trying to roll back strides in science as the horrendous results of anti-God belief or playing God, the Christian Right has been trying to twist science to do its bidding (e.g. pseudo-historian David Barton stated unequivocally that science would eventually prove that everything in the Bible was true, or the ridiculous junk scientists of the Creation Museum).
"Science shouldn't be a luxury, and knowledge shouldn't be a commodity," he said Monday at the 2013 Social Good Summit.
"We're living in a knowledge aristocracy. We have a knowledge elite," he said, explaining that less than 1% of the world controls scientific, academic research.
"If a 15-year-old who didn't even know what a pancreas was could find a new way to detect pancreatic cancer, then just imagine what we all can do," he said."Just imagine" is what the Christian Right is afraid of: a world of young, progressive, compassionate, (and possibly gay) scientists. They might prove conclusively that God's Word (The Bible) is more metaphorical than real. They might find cures to God's plagues. They might encourage humanity to question more and make blind belief a thing of the past.
Today's Christian Right is cast from the same mold as the people who thought Gutenberg's new invention was evil, since reading and writing was limited to clergy and the church's aristocratic donors.
Backing Off - For Now
The Christian Right needs a new Anti-Christ: Barack Obama is old hat, Hillary's close, but not nearly charismatic enough and the pope is not considered the effort since he won't be around long enough and Anti-Christs need to take root and grow for a while. It has also been determined that naming a new Anti-Christ every week is counterproductive - that strategy has no staying power. Yes, Jack Andraka fits the bill on so many levels.
To date, however, there has been no word from Christian Right powers-that-be. Not Bryan Fischer. Not Tony Perkins. Not even Linda Harvey.* Perhaps they are conjuring up a case against Jack's parents (obviously "exploiting" him and being too liberal). But perhaps they are wary of backlash, and not merely from the LGBT community: America does not take kindly to demonizing young people unless they are wild celebrities (like McCauley Culkin or Miley Cyrus), and Jack Andraka is as dedicated to social justice for humanity as they come.
And yes, they're afraid of that too.
*Often characterized as America's most homophobic woman, Harvey (Mission America) has ranted against gay teachers and anti-bullying programs because she firmly believes that teens like Jack Andraka will be indoctrinated.
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