John Calvin "Cal" Thomas[1] (born 1942) is an American conservative syndicated columnist, pundit, author and radio commentator.
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Thomas was born in 1942 in Washington, D.C.. He attended the American University for his undergraduate education. During the 1960s and early 1970s he worked as a reporter at NBC News. His column, which began in 1984, is syndicated by Tribune Media Services.[2] Thomas joined Fox News as a political contributor in 1997. He is a panelist on Fox News Watch, a Fox News Channel program criticizing the media, and until September 2005 hosted After Hours with Cal Thomas on the same network. He also gives a daily radio commentary, which is heard on more than 300 stations.
Thomas has written extensively about political issues and he supports, among other things, many American positions related to Israel.
He has written 10 books, including Blinded By Might, that discussed, among other things, the role of the Moral Majority in American politics of the 1980s. Thomas was vice president of the Moral Majority from 1980 to 1985. He remains an evangelical Christian.
A study at Hamilton College indicated Thomas as the least accurate pundit among 26 notable pundits.[3]
In 2004, Cal Thomas was the target of a Google bomb attack, where the phrase "ignorant asshole" was linked to his website.[4] This Googlebomb was triggered by a segment on his After Hours show regarding the Netherlands' policy on euthanasia. It soon became an attack on the Netherlands' drug policy, prostitution, and the nation's immigration policy. In a follow-up, Thomas rejoined "Thanks to our Dutch viewers for watching and for caring enough to write. Keep watching. Maybe you'll see some things you do like."
In his article "Mumbai Explained", published in the Chicago Tribune, Thomas writes that "no new [Mosques] should be built" in Western countries following the Mumbai terrorist attacks. He further claimed that Muslim immigration posed a danger to the UK and US.[5]
After Bill Clinton became the first sitting United States president to address a gay rights organization, the Human Rights Campaign,[6] Thomas published a column[7] in November 1997 opposing homosexuality, in which he said:
God designed norms for behavior that are in our best interests. When we act outside those norms—such as for premarital sex, adultery, or homosexual sex—we cause physical, emotional, and spiritual damage to ourselves and to our wider culture. The unpleasant consequences of divorce and sexually transmitted diseases are not the result of intolerant bigots seeking to denigrate others. They are the result of violating God's standards, which were made for our benefit.
— Cal Thomas, Immutable Morals
Thomas published a similar column[8] on October 16, 2009, after Barack Obama became the second sitting United States president to address the Human Rights Campaign.[6] Thomas said:
We will get more of what we tolerate. Sexual behavior is an important cultural and moral issue. Mr. Obama won the election with just 52 percent of the popular vote and a margin of 7 percent over Sen. John McCain. This should not be seen as a mandate for him and his administration to make over America in a secular and liberal image. Neither should it be seen as an invitation to give blanket approval to homosexuality, considered by some to be against the best interests of the people who practice it as well as the nations that accept it.
— Cal Thomas, Don't Ask, Tell or Legitimize
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