Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Falwell, a fundamentalist religious leader who combines his religious activities with the promotion of a variety of right-wing political causes, is best known as the founder of  "The Moral Majority". Falwell fought vehemently against the Equal Rights Amendment and rock and roll music. Jerry once said, "The liberal churches are not only the enemy of God but the enemy of the nation." Now, by "liberal" churches, I assume he refers to those churches that don't reject members based on various 'standards of intolerance'. Truly the work of the devil.

In addition, Falwell appeared on an infomercial for a videocassette bible-study course sold by his ministry, in which he asserted that it was possible that human beings and dinosaurs once coexisted.

Were these the things that McCain thought no longer represented a true 'agent of intolerance'?

Or was it this...

Rev. Falwell told Beliefnet.com that "the Moslem faith teaches hate," and therefore should not receive any federal funding under Bush's new faith-based initiative. He went on to say that "any group that is anti-Semitic, racist, or in any way bigoted should be disqualified". From this, I can only guess that Jerry forgot one of his bubbly quotes from the past, "When [the antichrist] appears during the Tribulation period he will be a full-grown counterfeit of Christ. Of course he'll be Jewish."

Ever the good shepherd, Falwell just could not resist the opportunity to use the September 11 tragedy for his own twisted ends. People were still reeling from the shock of it all when Falwell appeared on Pat Robertson's [McCain's other 'agent of intolerance'] TV show The "700 Club" and went off on a tirade. According to Falwell, the disaster occurred because God was displeased with feminists, gays, lesbians, abortionists, pagans, the U.S. courts, the ACLU and the People for the American Way. "I point the finger in their face and say, you helped this happen," Who better than Falwell would know what 'displeases God'?

So is Pat Robertson still an agent of intolerance? Time and McCain's polling will tell.

But just for your information, here are a few of Pat's past and presumably present positions:

Pat's mini-bio: Protestant evangelist and corporate crook, Pat founded the so-called "Christian Coalition" as a political action organization and source for his estimated half-billion dollar fortune.

Gambling: Pat believes that gambling is a sin. But apparently providing the means for and profiting from others gambling is blessed by the almighty himself. You see, Robertson owns a racehorse, but sees no contradiction between condemning gambling and owning racehorses. "I don't bet on my own horses, and I don't think anyone else should either," he said. Pat owns racehorses because he likes to "look at them as performers and study their bloodlines."

Dealing with Dictators: Is Pat Robertson truly a man of God? Well, if God loves brutal foreign dictators and great financial wealth at the expense of the poor, then you betcha! A few years ago, Pat Robertson's oil company, Freedom Gold, wanted to start an mining venture in Liberia. In order to get a foothold in the country, Robertson signed a deal giving President Charles Taylor's regime a 10% ownership in the company. Now for those of you who don't know who Charles Taylor is, here's how Rep. Ed Royce (R) described him: "Charles Taylor has waged a continuous assault on the democratic dreams of the Liberian people. He rules by decree, he suppresses the press... and he sanctions, if not directs, the murder of political opponents. He and his so-called 'inner circle' control virtually all the nation's significant trade... Liberia has been described as Charles Taylor Inc. This corporation is corrupt to its core." Back in 1992, Taylor's rebels entered a convent and had five Americans executed because they were white. Last we heard of Taylor was that he was pleading 'not guilty' to war crimes charges.

Abortion and 'Racial Purity': Appearing on CNN Robertson spoke regarding China's policy of forced abortion: "Well, you know, I don't agree with it, but at the same time, they've got 1.2 billion people and they don't know what to do,'' said Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition. "If every family over there was allowed to have three or four children, the population would be completely unsustainable... so I think that right now they're doing what they have to do." Pat does note that forced abortion may not necessarily be a good thing: since it's usually female babies that are aborted, the Chinese may soon face "a critical shortage of wives. The young men won't have any women to marry, so it will, in a sense, dilute the - what they consider the racial purity of the Han Chinese. And that to them will be a great tragedy, because then they will have to be importing wives from Indonesia."

Uhhhhh... so according to Pious Pat we must have forced abortions for foreigners and absolutely no abortions for US citizens. Seems  it doesn't matter to him whether a woman has an abortion or not as long as she has no say in the matter.

Total intolerance: Post 911, when Jerry Falwell appeared on Pat Robertson's TV show The 700 Club and went off on his tirade mentioned above, noting that 9/11 occurred because God was displeased with feminists, gays, lesbians, abortionists, pagans, the U.S. courts, the ACLU and the People for the American Way, Pat Robertson simply replied, "Oh, I agree."

Soon after, Robertson tried to back away from the statements, saying that his remarks were "inappropriate." But obviously not inappropriate enough, because Pat wheeled them out again. Once again On the "700 Club" Robertson, referring to terrorists, said that, "I do believe that San Francisco is going to be a target of these people."