On Friday evening, Richard Russell climbed aboard a plane at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (where he worked), flew for an hour by himself, then crashed the plane in what appeared to be some kind of solo suicide mission.

It all seemed to come as a surprise to those who worked with him and even those who knew him best. But his family’s statement included an interesting nugget:

“This is a complete shock to us,” the family said in a statement Saturday night. “We are devastated by these events, and Jesus is truly the only one holding this family together right now.”

Okay. Fine. His family was Christian, so that makes sense.

Was he? According to one report, absolutely:

Russell was active in church, and served as a leader in the local Christian youth ministry, Young Life.

So a devoutly Christian guy stole and crashed this plane — putting a number of people’s lives in danger in the process.

Now look at how the American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer reacted on Saturday morning, when much of this information was already public:

Might be a good idea to keep Muslims from serving on ground crews. Not that all of them would pull a stunt like this, but we don't have any way of telling the difference between the ones who would and the ones who wouldn't. https://t.co/dJseAivESV @WSJ — Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) August 12, 2018

Devout Christian leader steals plane and crashes it. Fischer says we should ban Muslims from ground crews.

It doesn’t get more bigoted than that. And it’s par for the course for religious conservatives these days. As of this writing, Fischer still hasn’t apologized… which is also what we’ve come to expect from Christians like him.

(via Right Wing Watch)

