"Bigotry rears it's ugly head."
October 02, 2001, 10:09 p.m.

bigot, n. a person who is intolerant of any creed, belief or race that is not his or her own.

I guess I'm slow on news from the "Religious Right", mostly in part because I am not one of them, however this stirs my gall so much that I can taste the bitter bile that's rising after learning about the following televised conversation, as reported by The Washington Post.

Television evangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson said that liberal civil liberties groups, feminists, pagans, homosexuals, and abortion rights supporters bear partial responsibility for the terrorist attacks on the USA because their actions have turned God's anger against America.

JERRY FALWELL: And, I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way - all of them who have tried to secularize America - I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen."

PAT ROBERTSON: Well, I totally concur, and the problem is we have adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government. And so we're responsible as a free society for what the top people do. And, the top people, of course, is the court system.

Who do these men think they are to presume to know how God feels about anyone or anything?

The positions they take are not far different than the lunatic Terrorists who think that it is their duty to kill all Americans because we all are Evil.

It disgusts me that men who have a large following and are leaders in their own communities (whether they are Terrorists or whether they are the Religious Right), have such a distorted view of what is right and have such a psychological and spiritual impact over so many people, would so blatanty and maliciously generate unbounded hate and dishonor of humanity, all in the name of God!

This has nothing to do with piety or faith in God.

This has everything to do with bigotry and hate and prejudice.

These men profess themselves to have a holy calling and so stringently claim to hold themselves against all that is Evil.

If they are not Evil, then I do not know what is.

That's the scary thing. I know that evil does lurk in the hearts of men. I know that we all have a choice not to take that path. But these men do and the sad part is, they don't know it. They can't see the harm they do as being an Evil thing.

What's even scarier is the fact that all of their hate makes it so easy to generate hate in my own heart.

I find myself hating these men. As I say, the bitter bile is rising.

Lord, please help me not to hate.

Lord, please help us all!