Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter cause anger by backing right clergy

Bill O’Reilly, an unrepentant sexual harasser, and Ann Coulter, a person who makes her livelihood on bigotry, consider themselves Christians. Like the Pharisees of the Bible, they present themselves as somehow being holier than the rest, despite the hate filled rhetoric which, in “pro-life” Bill’s case, contributed to a climate in which shooting a doctor was considered “justifiable homicide.” Meanwhile, Coulter, who is so concerned about moral degeneracy and teh gay, once “joked” about assassinating SCOTUS Judge Stevens. So it’s not surprising that Bill and Ann would jump aboard the wagon of the American Taliban (whoops right wing Christian clergy) and support their new “fatwah” (whoops, Manhattan Declaration) which is a statement that, as “Right Wing Watch” snarked, “is the only hope for preventing America from sliding into totalitarianism and Nazi-like dictatorship.” The snark isn’t far from the truth in that this statement is full of the usual anti-choice, homophobic frothing at the mouth which Bill O’Reilly and Ann Coulter traffic in. And in addition to their discussion of this new uber Christian insurgency, which compares itself to Martin Luther and those who resisted Nazis and advocates civil disobedience on the part of Christian “loons” (whoops people of conscience), Bill and Ann furthered the right wing lie that health care reform will provide subsidies for women to have abortions. But, hey, Ann and Bill are Jesus’ BFFs, so it’s all good.

Bill introduced the segment by referencing Obama’s liberalism and the “ardent secularism” of the American media. (And that’s a problem, how?). According to Bill, this combination means abortion and gay marriage (WTF?), a cultural change that has angered “some religious leaders” who have issued a statement about the end of the world as we know it (whoops, the Manhattan Declaration) which “encourages religious Americans to fight back and in some cases to even break the law.” (Thought Bill didn’t approve of that when it was anti-war protesters doing it!) In introducing Ann Coulter, Bill said that her book and the manifesto have a lot in common. (Yeah, both are products of the looney-tooney radical right). He claimed that “we were surprised when the archbishop of NY, Dolan and other big religious leaders said, look, we gotta become more aggressive…” Coulter said that it was fantastic and she didn’t know about it until O’Reilly sent it to her. (So Bill and Ann are penpals!) I nearly spit out my coffee when she said that anything signed by ex-con and C Street guy Chuck Colson and homophobic founder and Catholic head of the National Organization for Marriage, Robert George “would be fantastic.” She claimed that this document might wake up some “Christian churches, and ministers who have been silent as the culture has become more and more corrupt and they’re off talking about, if anything, something fashionable, like the poor.” (Spit out coffee time – When theologian Ann read her New Testament, she must have missed all those comments, by Jesus, about the poor.) Bill commented that RI Bishop Tobin, who has told Representative Kennedy that “you can’t receive communion...” (Bill needs to confess to Bishop Tobin that he lied about him because according to Bishop Tobin, his directive to Kennedy was a “respectfull and gentle request, not an order.”). Bill blithered about how, in the past, the secular media “ran wild without challenge” (WTF?) and how the Obama administration wants to institute liberal policies on abortion and gay marriage. (Guess Bill doesn’t know that Obama doesn’t support gay marriage.) Coulter wanted to know which ministers and priests refused to sign this statement. (And then what? Public beheadings?) When she accurately said that some Christians were slow to recognize the evils of slavery and the holocaust, Bill made the debatable claim that “Catholics formed the main opposition to Hitler.” (Bill should read “Hitler’s Willing Executioners” and “Hitler’s Pope”) Coulter claimed that the churches were silent about “Bill Clinton treating an intern like an ashtray.” Bill then asserted that the “tipping point” for this uber Christian “resistance” was “the abortion option” in the health care bill which would “force all Americans to fund, with their taxpayer dollars, abortions.” Coulter’s “last word” was about how people were “shocked” about her book chapter about single mothers and asked “where are the churches on a crumbling moral culture.” When O’Reilly said “they don’t like to do that,” Coulter said, “they’re cowards.” In another spit out coffee moment, Bill responded that the Bible preaches against making individual judgments when they say let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” (Uh, Bill O’Reilly is king of those who cast stones.)