Jody Hice, a conservative pastor who believes First Amendment protections do not apply to Muslims and warned of a homosexual plot to sodomize children may soon be going to Congress.
Hice won the Republican primary in Georgia’s 10th District on Tuesday. Given the district’s hard conservative lean, Hice will likely win the general election in November.
Hice would replace Republican Congressman Paul Broun, who is currently one of the most socially conservative members of Congress. Broun’s greatest hits include denouncing evolution and the Big Bang as “lies straight from the pit of hell,” calling for Muslims to face additional scrutiny at airports, and alleging that President Obama had a plan to take over the country with armed civilian militias.
Establishment Republicans probably breathed a sigh of relief when Broun gave up his seat for an unsuccessful Senate run this year. Not only would they not have to deal with him in the Senate election, but they were free of him in the House too. But it looks like his replacement, who Broun endorsed in the primary, will carry on his legacy.
In a 2012 book, “It’s Now or Never: A Call to Reclaim America“, Hice argued that Islam is “a complete geo-political structure, and as such, does not deserve First Amendment protection.”
According to Right Wing Watch, Hice compared homosexuality to alcoholism and opposed a ban on gay conversion therapy in a by warning on his radio show that “we are enslaving and entrapping potentially hundreds of thousands of individuals in a lifestyle that they really are not — and it’s all for the sake of political correctness.”
In his book, he cited a 1987 essay by gay writer Michael Swfit declaring “We shall sodomize your sons, emblems of your feeble masculinity, of your shallow dreams and vulgar lies,” a quote Hice said “reveal[ed] the radical agenda that is currently threatening our nation.” He didn’t mention that the essay was a satire.
Hice also popped up in a 2004 article in the Athens Banner-Herald on how local women were entering politics more often. His take: ”If the woman’s within the authority of her husband, I don’t see a problem.”
Benjy Sarlin