---

...Randall Terry and his cohort are theocrats. They believe in the implementation of "Biblical law" in a Christian Nation. A narrow, sectarian version of Christianity to be sure: one rooted in religious bigotry and the most outrageous religious supremacism.

If Terry's vision of Christian theocracy gains traction, we will see increasing vigilante interference in the private lives of private citizens -- not unlike the religious police in Saudi Arabia. We will also see rising bigotry against people of other faiths; aggression against those whose idea of Christianity differs from Terry and his theocratic allies; and relentless efforts to damage the constitutional protections of equal rights under the law gained by women, and gays and lesbians, among others.

Terry, the founder of the militant antiabortion group, Operation Rescue, has made a career of exploiting the circumstances of others to promote his religious and political agenda. He has led militant efforts to directly interfere with people exercising their constitutional right to receive and to provide abortions. And now he has used his considerable demagogic skills to interfere with the court-recognized, private decisions of a husband seeking to honor his wife's wishes that extraordinary means be not be used to keep her alive.

In each case, Terry and his cohort have sought to impose their religious beliefs on others either through mob action, or through inciting government officials to use the power of the state or federal government to override the power of the courts to protect the rights of citizens.

There is much that could be said about Mr. Terry, but let's just take a sampling of his views. Unlike some in the Christian theocratic movement, he does not mute his true colors. In a 1995 speech titled Our Goal: A Christian Nation, he declared among other things:

"You better believe that I want to build a Christian nation, because the only option is a pagan nation. Not that the government can make someone a Christian by decree. A Christian nation would be defined as 'We acknowledge God in our body politic, in our communities, that the God of the Bible is our God, and, we acknowledge that His law is supreme.'"

Referring to abortion providers he declared:

"When I, or people like me, are running the country, you'd better flee, because we will find you, we will try you, and we'll execute you. I mean every word of it." He added, "I will make it part of my mission to see to it that they are tried and executed."

"You say, 'This is extreme!'" he continued, "Yeah, you're right. But imagine God Almighty sending people to hell just because they didn't follow His son? That's extreme. That's intolerance. Imagine Jesus saying that all other religions are false. Christianity claims to be the only way."...