Our friends over at Right Wing Watch found this nugget on Generations Radio Friday night. A pastor by the name of Kevin Swanson (no, “Family Guy” fans, not that Kevin Swanson) was talking with his co-host, Dave Buehner, about parents censoring their children’s entertainment. Now, right there, they lose me. I don’t believe in censorship, not even for kids. What I do believe is that parents should be aware of whether something is age appropriate and then be prepared to explain and discuss whether or not the children should watch/play/read the entertainment in question. Then again, I don’t program my family’s media by scripture.

During their talk, the subject of the new Star Trek film came up. Star Trek: Into Darkness opened 3 weeks ago to acclaim from critics and fans alike. I saw it last weekend and enjoyed it even more than the first Trek film J.J. Abrams did. In an early scene (no spoilers, don’t worry), Kirk is called away from his bed where 2 alien cuties are keeping him company. It was a fun nod to the original series, wherein Kirk was a bit of a womanizer, not being picky about race. But, of course, Swanson was outraged:

“Do I really want to take my kids to watch a movie that implicates the good guy in the film as mating with the wrong species but not just one, but two?”

Beuhner agreed and then went on to …well, just read it:

“Well you know I could understand that Christians would get upset if it was a male of a different species. No actually, I’m not sure that the bestiality and the homosexuality are really all that different.”

Oh for Pete’s sake! There’s that stupid conflating of homosexuality and bestiality again. It’s Rick Santorum and “marrying your dog” all over again. What is it with right-wingers and animal sex? What kind of sick mind goes there?

Swanson and Beuhner also had some things to say about a show on the Hub network called Shezow. In case you are unfamiliar with this (I was, but my daughter knew about it), it is about a 12-year-old boy who becomes a female superhero. You read that correctly: he says “You go, girl” and turns into a crime-fighting girl. Well, naturally, they found this to be singularly horrifying. Swanson, however, found something in the show that only a Christian who thinks they are being victimized would see:

“The problem is he tries to overcome evil, but Dave, evil as it turns out as defined by scripture is homosexuality and this transgender thing, so that would be evil. So if he was fighting the evil he would have to fight that. But apparently he’s probably fighting Christians and trying to be sure that they’re burned at the stake or something.”

Um, no. Burning people at the stake was a Christian thing, Mr. Swanson. And I have no doubt that if you could take up that activity once again, you would gleefully begin with people like me and my readers.

You know, there is not a week that goes by without some crazed preacher saying something outrageous. It’s bordering on trendy with them. If conservatives want to be taken seriously, they need to start by rejecting this sort of rhetoric. But they either ignore it or agree with it. This will be the end of their party if they don’t let whatever adults are left over there take the wheel again. In the meantime, I’ll keep writing about the dumb and ugly things they say. Because someone has to speak out against it. I guess it has to be us.

Here’s the audio (if you can stomach it):