God’s Spokesperson

From Sunday’sThis Week With George Stephanopoulos:

STEPHANOPOULOS:You’ve said that liberals are engaged in an all-out assault on Christianity, that Democrats will appoint judges who don’t share our Christian values and will dismantle Christian culture, and that the out-of-control judiciary . . . is the most serious threat America has faced in nearly 400 years of history, more serious than al Qaeda, more serious than Nazi Germany and Japan, more serious than the Civil War?

REV.PATROBERTSON:George, I really believe that. I think they are destroying the fabric that holds our nation together. There is an assault on marriage. There’s an assault on human sexuality . . . They’ve taken sides in the culture war . . .

STEPHANOPOULOS:But, sir, let me just stop you there. How can you say that these judges are a more serious threat than Islamic terrorists who slammed into the World Trade Center?

ROBERTSON:It depends on how you look at culture. If you look over the course of a hundred years, I think the gradual erosion of the consensus that’s held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings. I think we’re going to control al Qaeda. I think we’re going to get Osama bin Laden. We won in Afghanistan. We won in Iraq, and we can contain that. But if there’s an erosion at home . . . we’ve made a terrible mistake.

STEPHANOPOULOS:You know, President Bush, at that press conference, also said that he believes you’re equally American whether you’re Christian, Muslim or Jew, and I wonder if you fully accept that, because in the past, you’ve said that you believe that only Christians and Jews are qualified to serve in the government. Is that still your belief?

ROBERTSON:Well, you know, Thomas Jefferson . . . said he wouldn’t have any atheists in his Cabinet, because atheists wouldn’t swear an oath to God. [Not true; in fact, Jefferson was accused by his political opponents of being an atheist.] That was Jefferson, and we have never had any Muslims in the Cabinet. I didn’t say serve in government. I said in my Cabinet if I were elected president, and I think a president has a right to take people who share his point of view, and I would think that would be . . .

STEPHANOPOULOS:Well, wait a second. Let me just stop you there. ’Cause in your book TheNewWorldOrder,you wrote, “ ‘How dare you maintain that those who believe in the Judeo-Christian values are better qualified to govern America than Hindus or Muslims.’ My simple answer is, ‘Yes, they are.’ ” Does that mean no Hindu and Muslim judges?

ROBERTSON:Right now, I think people who feel that there should be a jihad against America, read what the Islamic people say. They divide the world into two spheres, Dar al Islam, Dar al Harb. The Dar al Islam are those who’ve submitted to Islam; Dar al Harb are those who are in the land of war, and they have said in the Koran there’s a war against all the infidels. So do you want somebody like that sitting as a judge? I wouldn’t.