Everyone has a right to an opinion.  And Bill Donohue–of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights–has a lot of them. He’s in a little hot water over a column at On Faith, the joint Newsweek/Washington Post religion portal, over a recent column on “America’s Secular Saboteurs.”

Sexual libertines, from the Marquis de Sade to radical gay activists, have sought to pervert society by acting out on their own perversions. What motivates them most of all is a pathological hatred of Christianity. They know, deep down, that what they are doing is wrong, and they shudder at the dreaded words, “Thou Shalt Not.” But they continue with their death-style anyway.

In addition to gay activists now controlling the Democrats–replacing Catholics–we get this:

The only way secular saboteurs can be stopped is by an alliance of religious conservatives across faith lines. The good news is that this is already happening. In the fight over gay marriage, the scorecard is 30-0: traditional Catholics, evangelical Protestants, Orthodox Jews, Orthodox Christians, Muslims, and Mormons, along with a big contribution from the Latino and African American communities, have succeeded in throwing a roadblock at this crazy idea.

The culture war is up for grabs. The good news is that religious conservatives continue to breed like rabbits, while secular saboteurs have shut down: they’re too busy walking their dogs, going to bathhouses and aborting their kids. Time, it seems, is on the side of the angels.

As I say, everyone has a right to an opinion, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it belongs in the religion section of Newsweek and the Washington Post.. Here’s what Andrew Sullivan has to say:

That this column – pure fact-free fulmination, jammed with grotesque generalizations, and no actual arguments – ran in the Washington Post tells you that they are either desperate or just beyond caring what appears under their auspices. Did Jon Meacham and Sally Quinn actually sign off on this as a serious piece of commentary? Their faces are grinning at the top of it.

His thoughts are echoed by Chris Orr at the New Republic‘s blog, The Plank.

How did this noxious rant find its way into the Post? Is there anyone there who will defend the decision to publish it?

Jon Meacham and Sally Quinn, who oversee On Faith, are serious people. So did anyone think twice before allowing this to publish? Can you imagine them publishing a screed like this that characterized Catholics or Mormons or Jews in the same way gays were portrayed? What exactly is the editorial control or can anyone just write an ugly screed and get it published?

Donohue–who has been described as the Al Sharpton of Catholicism–uses his bully pulpit to routinely go after LGBT people, while taking quick offense to even the slightest criticism of Catholicism or the Vatican. So is he a guy with a fax machine and an email account, or is his enterprise larger and more substantial. Who exactly is his constituency, or does he have a constituency of one?

Now, THAT’s a good story that should be covered.