The right wing has suddenly decided that questioning the fitness for a life time appointment to the federal bench is now equivalent to religious bigotry. Even supposedly serious people make that argument with a straight face. Dwight Meredith demolishes one such attempt here, but I want to focus on the notion that opposition to William Pryor is anti-Catholic. James Dobson has used that accusation to attack Senator Salazar — a Catholic — and it crops up wherever lazy people congregate. So I thought a little primer would be in order.

Opposing a person who holds these views:

Mr. Pryor, who has been nominated for a seat on the Federal Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, based in Atlanta, has views that fall far outside the political and legal mainstream. He has called Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion-rights ruling, “the worst abomination” of constitutional law in our history. He recently urged the Supreme Court to uphold laws criminalizing gay sex, a position the court soundly rejected last month. He has defended the installation of a massive Ten Commandments monument in Alabama’s main judicial building, which a federal appeals court recently held violated the First Amendment. And he has urged Congress to repeal an important part of the Voting Rights Act.

is not anti-Catholic bigotry. It is defending the right to privacy and the Separation of Church and State.

The person who left Chick tracts lying around the break-room at my first job in Memphis after he learned I was Catholic; that person was anti-Catholic.

Employing a man who says this — as Dobson does — is anti-Catholic:

The battle is joined. Sen. Salazar is asking Dr. Dobson to repudiate me for “anti-Catholic” statements. Well, I stand by my comments, made a few years ago on “Larry King Live.” My statements reflect nothing more than classic evangelical theology.
(snip)
And as an evangelical, I believe that the Roman church is a false church and it teaches a false gospel. And indeed, I believe that the pope himself holds a false and unbiblical office.

. . .

The larger problem I have with the pope — this pope in particular — however, is how he has redefined the Christianity and the Gospel. And he has actually embraced all monotheists, both Jews and the followers of Islam, as long as they’re sincere within the penumbra of the Gospel, within the canopy of the gospel. And that is just unbiblical, and by the way, not very pleasing to either Jews or to Muslims either.

. . .

COIRO: You know it’s a funny thing how Catholics and Jews seem to be friendlier than Catholics and some Protestants, but yes, I’m very hopeful. I’m an optimist.

KING: Are you hopeful, Reverend Mohler or you doubt it?

MOHLER: Well, it all depends on how you define the terms. And let me just say that I join you in hoping people will be nice, but unfortunately, I believe there will be many nice people in Hell.

Appearing on stage with a known bigot and supporter of the successor of the KKK, as Dobson and everyone else who appeared at the “Justice Sunday” festivities, is anti-Catholic:

Four years ago, Perkins addressed the Louisiana chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), America’s premier white supremacist organization, the successor to the White Citizens Councils, which battled integration in the South. In 1996 Perkins paid former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke $82,000 for his mailing list. At the time, Perkins was the campaign manager for a right-wing Republican candidate for the US Senate in Louisiana. The Federal Election Commission fined the campaign Perkins ran $3,000 for attempting to hide the money paid to Duke.

As the emcee of Justice Sunday, Tony Perkins positioned himself beside a black preacher and a Catholic “civil rights” activist as he rattled off the phone numbers of senators wavering on President Bush’s judicial nominees. The evening’s speakers studiously couched their appeals on behalf of Bush’s stalled judges in the vocabulary of victimhood, accusing Democratic senators of “filibustering people of faith.”

So for all those people spouting this nonsense: go away and stop trivializing real anti-Catholic prejudice for cheap political points. Don’t come back until you can understand the difference. There will be a test.