Evangelical activist calls for Bill Maher to be flogged or hanged over Noah 'blasphemy'

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An evangelical activist laments that no one will defend God’s honor against the blithe blasphemy of an atheist talk show host, reported Right Wing Watch, and he spent a few minutes on Wikipedia to bolster his call for severe punishment.

Tristan Emmanuel, a Canadian evangelist, published a column Friday morning on the anti-LGBT website BarbWire asking, “Does Bill Maher deserve a whipping for slandering God?”

Emmanuel quoted a couple of recent remarks by Maher, who referred to God as “a psychotic mass murderer” for flooding the earth to punish sinners in the biblical Book of Genesis and suggested the Almighty was even more of a “dick” than famously disagreeable actor Russell Crowe.

The evangelical activist said Maher is known for his anti-religious views, but Emmanuel said “this time he’s gone too far.”

“He may have protection under the First Amendment to say whatever slanderous thing that comes out of his toilet bowl brain, but that does not mean Christians should turn the other cheek,” Emmanuel said.

He agreed with the Psalms 14 passage that questioned the character of anyone who would believe in his heart there was no God, suggesting Maher and outspoken atheists Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens had much in common with the Devil.

“I don’t know Maher. And I have no reason to hate him,” Emmanuel said. “But I do know God. And Maher’s public vilification of God is the most offensive and slanderous thing I have ever heard. Frankly, if a Christian doesn’t have a gut wrenching reaction about this, I’ve really got to question him.”

He said Christians should “unanimously” condemn Maher and compared today’s believers unfavorably with their ancestors.

“Back then Maher would have faced stiff penalties for his slanderous crimes against God and country,” Emmanuel said. “And the reasons were clear: slander the ultimate authority of a nation — God — and you ridicule the very foundation of its laws, values, public institutions and leadership.”

Then Emmanuel asks why it’s acceptable to “slander and profane” God but not President Barack Obama.

“I, for one, don’t believe in his presidency, like Maher doesn’t believe in God,” Emmanuel said. “And, I also think Obama is immoral, perhaps even a lunatic???”

He goes on to approvingly list a bunch of laws from colonial Massachusetts that prescribed harsh corporal punishments for blasphemy, as listed on Wikipedia.

“’If any person shall presume willfully to blaspheme the holy Name of God, Father, Son, or Holy Ghost; either by denying, cursing or reproaching the true God; his Creation or Government of the World: or by denying, cursing, or reproaching the holy Word of God,’” he quoted, “’everyone so offending shall be punished by imprisonment, not exceeding six months, and until they find sureties for good behaviours; by sitting in pillory; by whipping; boaring thorow the tongue, with a red hot iron; or sitting upon the gallows with a rope about their neck; at the discretion of the court.’”

Emmanuel lamented that the 1952 Burstyn v. Wilson case, also listed in the same Wikipedia entry, prohibited laws against blasphemy.

“America is hanging on by a thin thread of longsuffering divine justice,” Emmanuel warned. “The pugnacious degenerate Bill Maher may think blasphemy is a laughing matter. The nation of America may think it can hide behind the First Amendment. And Christians may falsely think they are demonstrating Christlike love by remaining quiet in the face of profligate profanity.”

“But mark my word, a day of reckoning is coming,” he continued. “If we are unwilling to hold blasphemers accountable, the almighty judge of the world will.”

If you prefer to listen to Emmanuel read the column out loud, he's posted it online: