Opinion> Bill Oreilly> It S The Christian Thing To Do

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It's the Christian Thing to Do

Imagine, if you will, a presidential candidate hiring David Duke to work the Internet for him or her. Mr. Duke, an avowed anti-black, anti-Jewish provocateur spews out hate pretty much everywhere he goes. Recently, he showed up in Iran to deny the Holocaust.

Any American politician who associated with the likes of Duke would be finished immediately, there's no question about that.

Yet former Democratic vice-presidential candidate John Edwards apparently felt comfortable hiring two anti-Christian bloggers named Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan to work on his campaign. Both women have a far-left, bomb-throwing history that was vividly illustrated on their respective Internet sites.

But let's give Edwards the benefit of the doubt because he's a busy guy. Let's say he wasn't aware of the vitriol the ladies were spitting out and this led to the hiring mistake.

Fair so far? Now comes the crusher. The Catholic League informed Edwards that Ms. Marcotte wrote a description of Mary, the mother of Jesus, having sex with the "Lord" on her website. It was a vile piece of business that can't even be printed in this newspaper.

And what did John Edwards do? He said he "disagreed" with Marcotte's words but would not fire her or Ms. McEwan, who wrote on her blog that Christian believers were "mother-f'ers."

I couldn't believe it. So I had my TV producers call Edwards and ask his chief of staff what was going on. Neither Edwards nor anybody in his campaign would talk to us about the issue.

So I went on TV and told the country exactly what I have just told you.

Within minutes of the broadcast, the Edwards campaign got rid of Marcotte. McEwan left the next day.

So how could John Edwards be so stupid? I asked that question to Jane Fleming, the executive director of the Young Democrats Association. Ms. Fleming replied that the bloggers didn't really do anything wrong, although she also "disagreed" with them. I then asked her if she would hire a person who said vile things about blacks. She said no. So why is it OK to say vile things about Christians?

Ms. Fleming had no answer to that question, but I do. On the far left, Christian bashing is totally acceptable, and rarely are any consequences imposed. The only reason these two women are not working for John Edwards right now is that he didn't want to take the heat my program was giving him.

This entire shoddy episode has badly damaged Edwards in my opinion, but it also points out that American culture, especially in the swampy blogosphere, is extremely tolerant of Christian-haters. Again, this could never have happened to any other religious or minority group.

To me, all bigotry is unacceptable in a just society. You can criticize any group on the issues, but using obscenity and sacrilege to demean perceived opponents should be condemned in no uncertain terms.

Even by John Edwards.

Veteran TV news anchor Bill O'Reilly is host of the Fox News show "The O'Reilly Factor" and author of the book "Who's Looking Out For You?" To find out more about Bill O'Reilly, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com. This column originates on the Web site www.billoreilly.com.