On Monday, July 14, 2003, on his Christian Broadcasting Network's (CBN) "The 700 Club," Pat Robertson urged his listeners to pray for the next 21 days that God might remove from office three Supreme Court justices who voted with the majority on the recent case decriminalizing sodomy. "We ask for miracles in regard to the Supreme Court," he said.

In a letter on the CBN website, Robertson says that the ruling "has opened the door to homosexual marriage, bigamy, legalized prostitution, and even incest." While he does not make clear the connection between decriminalizing sodomy and the other activities he deems immoral, he is certainly within the bounds of civilized discourse to express his opinion on what he believes is immoral activity. What seems to exceed the bounds of civility, however, is the equating of his opinion with the will of God. In his letter, he targets three justices in particular: "One justice is 83-years-old," he writes, "another has cancer and another has a heart condition. Would it not be possible for God to put it in the minds of these three judges that the time has come to retire?"

Just in case God does not perform the miracle of putting it into the minds of these justices that they should retire, Robertson, in suggesting that indeed they should, has saved God the trouble. But should God be called upon to throw three Supreme Court justices, who have rendered their honest, best judgment on a difficult matter, on the trash heap of history? Should God be called upon to override the free judgment of any of his creatures regarding the time of their retirement or any other decision that is theirs and theirs alone? And, finally, would God single out the aged and the infirm for banishment since these are the very people for whom the Bible urges special consideration?

Just a week before his remarks about the Supreme Court justices, Robertson criticized President Bush for demanding that Charles Taylor, the President of Liberia, resign from office. "We're undermining a Christian, Baptist president to bring in Muslim rebels to take over the country," Robertson said on "The 700 Club." "How dare the president of the United States say to the duly elected president of another country, 'You've got to step down.'"

Robertson does not seem to notice any parallel between Bush's remarks regarding the resignation of President Taylor and his own remarks regarding the resignation of three Supreme Court justices. Apparently, the gospel text about how easy it is to see the speck in your brother's eye, and how hard to notice the log in your own, is as relevant here as ever.

Author, John P. Crossley, is associate professor of religion and director of the School of Religion at the University of Southern California. In the 1970s he was chairman of the Church-State Committee of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California