Bad timing, but the moral right stands by its beliefs

The Rev Gerry Falwell has apologised. Well, sort of. He said he regrets "if" his remarks seemed "ill-timed". Otherwise he stands by what he says, it appears.

To recap: two days after the attacks on the US, Mr Falwell, evangelical preacher and one-time leader of the Moral Majority, suggested on a TV show beamed to an average audience of one million that liberal civil rights campaigners, abortion-rights groups and homosexuals were partly responsible for the attacks on the US, which it probably deserved.

The comments, which even prompted a presidential repudiation, caused uproar.

He made them during a TV discussion on the Christian Broadcasting Network's 700 Club with its host, fellow evangelist and leader of the religious right, the Rev Pat Robertson, who at the time responded with the words "I concur" and "Amen".

Mr Robertson is the leader of the Christian Coalition, which has largely taken over the high-profile role of the Moral Majority, and he was even a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988. He remains an important influence in the Republican Party.

He said last Monday that the comments were "totally inappropriate", and Mr Falwell explained: "I sincerely regret that comments I made during a long theological discussion on a Christian television programme yesterday were taken out of their context and reported and that my thoughts - reduced to sound bites - have detracted from the spirit of this day of mourning." Well, let's put them in context.

On the programme, Mr Falwell had said that God, angered by the secularisation of US society, had lifted his protection of America, allowing "the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve". "Jerry, that's my feeling," Mr Robertson replied.

"The ACLU's American Civil Liberties Union got to take a lot of blame for this," Mr Falwell said. "Throwing God out, successfully, with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools.

"The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this," he continued. "God will not be mocked. When we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way - all of them who have tried to secularise America - I point the finger in their face and say: 'You have helped this happen', " Mr Falwell said.

And before he had joined Mr Robertson on the show, the latter already had suggested that the terrorist attacks were a sign of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, a major preoccupation of the evangelicals.

"This is the birthing of the millennium, the blessed hope," Mr Robertson said. "Jesus is coming back. And we're going to be having some labour pains until he comes. A new kingdom is being born in our world and the world is going to be having some labour pains until this happens." Citing abortion, pornography and the prohibition of state-organised prayer in public schools, he said America had "insulted God" at the highest levels of government.

"And then we say, why does this happen? Why it's happening is that God Almighty is lifting his protection from us."

Explaining his gaffe, Mr Falwell now claims that his comments ran counter to his long-standing belief that it was impossible to know whether an event reflected God's judgment. "I should have mentioned the national sins without mentioning the organisations and persons by name," he told one paper.

Mr Falwell's comments in particular have caused enormous controversy, more than one radio show host describing them as "treasonable" and providing succour to an enemy whose case was precisely that America was degenerate and had turned its back on God. Others have compared both men to bin Laden.

But what is significant about them is that the comments cannot be dismissed simply as slips of the tongue or the ravings of a mad, unrepresentative fringe. Mr Falwell's and Mr Robertson's remarks were based in theology accepted by many conservative evangelical Christians, who believe the Bible teaches that God withdraws protection from nations that violate his will.

These are views held by a wide swathe of America and are an important voice in the Republican Party, not least as backers of the "saved" President Bush, on whom the evangelicals have pinned much hope and who has actively courted them in the past. A spokesman for Mr Bush was quick to describe the comments as "inappropriate".

White evangelicals comprise 25 per cent of registered voters and between a third and a quarter of those identify with the Religious Right. But the latter are better organised and very vocal. According to a study in 1994 - and their influence has declined only slightly since then - they dominated the Republican Party in 18 states and had significant influence in 13.

They reach millions every day across the country's 200 Christian TV stations and 1,500 Christian radio stations. Mr Pat Robertson's CBN beams programmes to 90 countries in 40 languages.