President Bush’s faith has much in common with the faith of many evangelical, born again Christians and absolutely nothing in common with the Islamofascists who intentionally target children and routinely slaughter innocents. It is outrageous for Gore to try in any way, and for political reasons, to connect the two. His comments point to a disturbing trend in America. It is a well-known and much used tactic to take out those who disagree with you with a simple one, two, three punch.

First, you vilify your opponents by accusing them of being hate mongers or backward peddlers of narrow-mindedness. Then, you marginalize them by pushing them to the perimeter of every discussion and refusing to allow them a place at the table of ideas. Finally, you move to criminalize their behavior so they will be forever silenced. In 1994, when Evangelicals finally went to the polls and turned the control of Congress over to the Republicans, it so infuriated the Left that they have since been on a search-and-destroy mission against anyone who can be identified with fundamental Christianity.

This latest attempt by Al Gore to link perfectly acceptable conservative, evangelical Christian beliefs with the terrorists who would destroy us cannot be allowed to stand. If Al Gore had made these comments about someone who was Jewish or Catholic he would be banished from public life forever by the media hounds who protect tolerance and political correctness. But since his deplorable link involved evangelical Christians the mainstream media is predictably silent.

These comments come at a time when "hate crimes" legislation has passed into law in California and is now being considered by the United States Congress. Hate crimes legislation is an attempt to criminalize people’s thoughts, and I such legislation becomes the law of the land, how long will it be before the linking of Evangelical Christianity and Muslim extremism will lead to the prosecution of believers for our beliefs?

Remnick ended his interview with Gore while riding down a street in Nashville, which is home to the Southern Baptist Convention. Gore once claimed to be Southern Baptist. At the end of Remnick’s interview, he asked Gore which church he and Tipper were attending now. "There was a pause in the front seat," Remnick says. "We’re ecumenical now," Gore said finally. "The influx of fundamentalist preachers has pretty much chased us out with their right wing politics."

No Al, the problem is you just can’t stand the truth.