Fox News host Bill O'Reilly has slammed controversial TV host Bill Maher for his constant attacks on "religious people" who oppose his liberal views on drugs and sex.
O'Reilly, a devout Catholic who recently released his new book
"Killing Jesus," told
The Washington Post that people who have no faith, like Maher, sneer and ridicule religion because they "don't want to be judged."
In an interview with Sally Quinn, he said, "They believe that religious people are judging their behavior, and they don't want to be judged. They want to do what they want.
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"Take a guy like Bill Maher. He's probably the most visible atheist in the American media. Well, Bill Maher does not want to be told what to do. He wants to do whatever he wants.
And if it's take drugs, he wants to be able to do that. If it's commit adultery, he wants to be able to do that. Whatever it may be, he doesn't want anybody telling him not to. And the people that would do that would be religious people, so he strikes out against them."
The host of "The O'Reilly Factor," who previously wrote the best-sellers
"Killing Lincoln" and
"Killing Kennedy" with co-author Martin Dugard, said that there are many people like Maher who despise him for his conservative and religious views.
"The O'Reilly haters are pretty much the people that have no idea what I do. And I like that. I mean, I don't have any problem with people disliking me, and I'll tell you why.
"I'm not comparing myself, but who was the most hated person in Judea 2,000 years ago?" he said referring to Jesus Christ. "Many, many loved him, but just as many despised him. They're always going to do that. If you speak your mind, you're going to have some who like you and some who hate you."
O'Reilly said that he enjoys going to church every Sunday, and he revealed that he prays every night.
"Just standard prayers," he said of his nightly ritual. "If there's a bad thing happening, I'll think about it and try to say, 'Give me a little inspiration here on how to handle this thing.' I try to be humble enough to say, 'Look, I don't have it right now and I need some help.' And it usually comes."
O'Reilly also said that despite leading a religious life, he has many sins to atone for when he attends church. Asked what his sins were, he replied, "Everything. I'm a volatile guy. I'm not a holy-roller. I'm not a malicious guy, but I'm like everybody else. I'm fallible. I'm not going to tell you, Sally Quinn, what my sins are. But I'm certainly fallible, and I don't put myself up as any paragon of virtue."
The right-wing political pundit says that he grew up in a traditional Irish Catholic home, and he became an altar boy because that's what his mother wanted.
"I can compare it to a very working-class, predictable, faith-based situation. It was just: Here are the rules. Here's what we do. There wasn't a lot of why in it."
O'Reilly says he still puts his faith in God.
"I bought into the orthodoxy. When you're a little kid and your parents believe and then the school teaches you, it's an inculcation. I didn't challenge it.
"Back then in the late '50s, early '60s, when I was in Catholic school, everybody believed [Jesus was the Son of God]. I'm much more sophisticated in my analysis of Roman Catholicism, but the theology I have no problem believing.
"I don't consider myself to be extraordinary. I have ideas that come to me. And as a Christian, I believe those ideas, when they're positive, come from the person who created me. And the person who created me is God, and in Christian theology, God is made up of three elements. So of course it would be the Holy Spirit. It's all logical."
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