Meet Bradlee Dean. He’s a close friend of Minnesota Republicans, a youth pastor, rock “star”, and comic book hero. But after delivering a hateful speech on the Minnesota house floor, he found himself spurned by his pals, fired from his anti-gay radio show, and now banned from begging outside of Wal-Marts. How did this rough poster boy of Minnesota morality fall from grace so quickly? And will anybody give him a nickel so he can get a haircut?
Most recently, Dean embarrassed Minnesota House Speaker Kurt Zellers by delivering a prayer that excluded all non-Christian denominations and insinuated that Obama is anti-Jesus. No sooner did Dean’s horrid prayer gain media attention, then Zellers apologized for Dean’s invitation (even though Representative Ernie Leidiger invited him) and then denounced “[Dean], his actions, and his words” adding, “[Dean] does not represent my values or the values of this state.”
Why the harsh denunciation, Zellers? Dean seems like a pretty gnarly dude.
Well, you should know that Dean also used to host “The Sons of Liberty” political talk show on Salem Broadcasting’s AM station 1280 (aka The Patriot). During his tenure there he praised anti-gay Middle Eastern death squads for killing “criminals”, stated that one in twenty homosexuals molest 117 kids before they’re caught, and asserted that efforts to end anti-gay bullying in schools are just a way for homosexuals to indoctrinate children.
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On October 21, 2010 Dean also released a film and accompanying graphic novel entitled My War in which he recounts his efforts to teach schoolchildren into his hateful brand of Christ Love. In it, he’s depicted as a muscly knight of God—in a “Secret Life of Walter Mitty” style—fighting against the evil hoards of anti-reliigious oppressors. If you haven’t, buy a copy of this thing. It’s gonna become collector’s gold, we assure you.
Before his fall from grace, Dean was also awful chummy with the Repubs.
You may remember that Dean’s band accepted an illegal contribution from Tom Emmer the anti-gay Minnesota gubernatorial candidate at the center of the Target and Best Buy boycott. Emmer appears in Dean’s film My War alongside Michelle “Crazy Eyes” Bachmann, a Minnesota Congresswoman who has openly prayed and fundraised for the band and who also shares Dean’s belief that the government should criminalize homosexuality.
Dean’s applause of violently anti-gay Muslim extremists earned him the scrutiny of the anti-hate the Southern Poverty Law Center. He might have survived his embarrassing prayer in the Minnesota House. But soon after that he sang a six-minute song comparing President Obama to Osama Bin Laden on his radio show. And the elephants who once loved him turned up their trunks, his radio station has fired him, and even Wal-Mart barred him begging in their parking lot.
Oh Dean… it’d be easy to write him as a disgraced Fred Phelps type, but that’s unfair. He’s more like Fred Phelps type with a drum kit!
That’s right, rockers! He’s also the drummer for Junkyard Prophet. They sound like Limp Bizkit… only worse—much, much worse.
Keep in mind, Dean’s anti-gay rhetoric sounds just like the Minnesota Family Council’s and that of Martin Ssempa in Uganda. And now the Minnesota GOPs who once loved Dean and his ilk have realized such views are toxic and they’ve begun to distance themselves from such views. Not that they disagree with them or their political benefit, just their bad publicity.
The magic of such hateful rhetoric is beginning to wear off and backfire… and that, my friends, is proof of progress.
Cam
The GOP doesn’t dissagree with anything he said. They just don’t want their actual ugly bigotry to be on display. They want to do and say all the things that he says and does, but they want to hide it behind smiles.
Ashton C
117? 117?? oh shit I better get cracking.
Hodge Podge
but… but… hes so pretty!
paul f
Don’t touch the hair, cut off the hate instead. As I said before, the more they spew anti-gay bull-crap, the more they’re compensating for the gay inside. “Hey little dude, wanna lift my drum set?” will replace lift my luggage soon.
PLAINTOM
He revealed the Republican Agenda (oops!)
Jeffree
Pastor RockerDude delivered a drone-like non-Eumenical drone-like prayer in front of the State Senate, and implied that every president until BHO was a Christian. The snazzy tracksuit he wore showed his street cred but no respect for the SSenators.
I hear RapturePastor Camping may need a replacement real soon, & I think this BadBradDeano guy fills the bill sweetly: media expertise, fervant fundie groupies, 100% homohate & a face made for radio.
Shannon1981
@Cam: Too bad the gays seem to be the only ones who see through to their blatant homophobia and racism. If others would wise up too, things would be a lot better.
@Jeffree: Yeah, when camping dies, this dude can take his place.
greybat
Figuring at roughly 5% of the US population being Gay, and the total US population at over 307,000,000, then the 15,000,000 of us have seduced 4,140,000,000 people!
Unless, of course, some of them are Bogarting the Gays!
The Fonz
As I read it, Dean offended African Americans before he prayed at the House of Reps, and had already had his show yanked from AM1280. (After his “prayer” to Father God, I searched for him on the 1280 website and couldn’t find him.. turns out that was because he had already been scrubbed from the station.)
He wasn’t paid for that radio show, by the way, his “ministry” bought the airtime each week. From what I have read elsewhere, this group panhandles for a lot of cash to support Bradlee’s lifestyle.
I ran into this guy’s minions years ago at a Holiday gas station. I didn’t know he was now a pastor. Why is it I can’t find anything about his Old Path church?