Morals

I suppose it is always sad when someone dies, but I can't in good conscience grieve long for the loss of one of the bigots whose teachings and preachings helped create the hugely polarized American political landscape of today. I never liked his politics or his extremist religious views, though he of course had the right to have them, and to express them (a right he would quickly deny me).

But when he blamed the terrorist attacks of 9/11 on liberals, feminists, and gays, he surely lost any credibility he may have gained during those fateful Reagan years, when his Moral Majority dined on the carcass of basic humanity and democratic thinking.

The executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said it better than I could: "Unfortunately, we will always remember him as a founder and leader of America's anti-gay industry, someone who exacerbated the nation's appalling response to the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic, someone who demonized and vilified us for political gain and someone who used religion to divide rather than unite our nation."

I hope, in death, he finds a peace he denied millions and millions of Americans during his life.