WASHINGTON - One religious fanatic is pretty much like another when it comes to
using the Bible or the Koran to justify the most unimaginable barbarisms.
If there was much doubt about this, two of America's champion evangelical
zealots - Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson - put it to rest with an
extraordinary example of insensitivity and bad taste. Both voiced the belief
that the deaths of thousands of Americans at the hands of terrorists was
inspired by God as a way of getting even with those who condone feminism,
homosexuality, abortion rights and any number of civil liberties the two have
no use for.
''God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us
probably what we deserve,'' Falwell said during a television appearance on
Robertson's ''700 Club,'' a Christian Broadcast Network showcase of right-wing
religious dogma with an audience of millions. Robertson agreed as Falwell added
that U.S. courts and groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and People
for the American Way to his list of villains.
''The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not
be mocked,'' he was quoted as saying. ''I really believe that the pagans and
the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and lesbians who are actively
trying to make that an alternative lifestyle. . .all of them who have tried to
secularize American - I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped
this happen.' ''
The White House couldn't distance itself quickly enough, immediately calling
the jarring remarks ''inappropriate'' and even adding, unnecessarily one would
think, that President Bush doesn't share those views. At a time of almost unprecedented
unity in this nation, it was a dismaying, discordant and decidedly
''un-Christian'' display and one that should have long-lasting reverberations
even among those who share this pair's social positions.
Falwell, of course, did not mention that one of the probable heroes in this
worst of all domestic tragedies was a young gay, a rugby player named Mark
Bingham, who, it is believed, helped overpower hijackers who planned on
crashing the airliner into a Washington target. The plane was forced down in Pennsylvania,
with the loss of all aboard but saving who knows how many more lives in the
nation's capital.
Do these sanctimonious boobs believe for one moment that among the firefighters
and police and other rescue workers who lost their lives and among the
thousands who are still striving to save more there aren't gays and lesbians
and people who believe in abortion rights? Do they actually believe that God
would spit on any of his children because of their social beliefs - that in the
process he would condone the killing of innocents who fear and worship him?
Well, we have an answer to those questions. They do.
During the Republican presidential primary campaign, Sen. John McCain roundly
denounced the concepts of both men and their followers at great expense to his
chances. The speech he made in Virginia was a political mistake, but he was
right. In sharp contrast to the mean-spiritedness of Falwell and Robertson were
the healing words of a truly religious man, the Rev. Bill Graham, who led the
nation in a prayer of renewal.
This is, after all, a free country and these men are allowed to speak their
minds freely and believe whatever they like, no matter how contradictory to the
precepts of the religion they preach, like tolerance and compassion and forgiveness.
They quite clearly would deny that privilege to others.
But there are consequences to those actions. One of those should be general
condemnation even from their followers who pump millions and millions of
dollars into their coffers to support their television ''ministries'' and
evangelical ''universities.'' Voting a resounding ''no'' to this behavior with
one's checkbook would be quite appropriate.
Moreover, the Baptist Church at the very least should move to censure Falwell,
whose latest example of political and religious insensitivity should now be
embarrassing to even the more rigidly fundamentalist arms of the church.
Liberty University should disassociate itself from this millstone of
intolerance. The use of the title ''Reverend'' for such a person is not only a
mockery to Christianity, but is blasphemous. Obviously, the president of the
United States has more to do in these days of crisis than to worry about the
ranting of two religious nuts whose beliefs are not terribly unlike those who perpetrated
this crime against humanity. But when he gets some time, he should make it
abundantly clear that he wants nothing more to do with either of them.
Dan K. Thomasson is former editor of Scripps Howard News Service.