Savage "agree[d] 100 percent" with caller who said that gay rabbis would likely "rap[e] teenage boys"

On the March 30 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage stated that he "agree[d] 100 percent" with a caller who said: "I'm very concerned that the Jews are now accepting gays as rabbis. And as a Catholic, I can tell you it almost destroyed our church when we accepted gays as priests." The caller added, "[T]hey were raping teenage boys, and if you allow them to come into your churches, I'm sorry, your synagogues, I have no reason to believe they're not going to do the same thing." Savage responded: "The idea of a gay rabbi is an oxymoron. Think about it: 'Rabbi' means teacher. You cannot have a homosexual teacher teaching boys how to be a Jew," adding, "I'm not going to mince words for fear of offending homosexuals. They're everywhere, anyway, trying to tell me what to say and what not to say and what to think. I know what's right and what's wrong. And that's all there is to it."

As Media Matters for America has documented (here, here, and here), Savage has a history of attacking gays and lesbians. He has repeatedly referred to "the homosexual mafia," claimed that "the homosexual dance of death" is the "seminal issue of our time," and compared gays to "drug addicts." Savage has also recently taken to attacking the transgender community. On the March 20 broadcast of his show, he called a transgender woman who was murdered and left near a freeway outside San Francisco a "psychopath" and a "freak," and on the March 23 broadcast of his show, he blamed sexual reassignment surgery for the Columbine massacre.

As Media Matters has also noted, Savage was signed by Hollywood's Creative Artists Agency (CAA) for "representation in all areas" -- including television and film -- but was dropped by the agency after he attacked singer and CAA client Melissa Etheridge for thanking her wife during her Academy Awards acceptance speech.

The Savage Nation reaches more than 8 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it the third-most-listened-to talk radio show in the nation, behind only The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Sean Hannity Show.

From the March 30 broadcast of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:

SAVAGE: Yes [caller], go ahead quickly.

CALLER: Yeah, I'm very concerned that the Jews are now accepting gays as rabbis. And as a Catholic, I can tell you it almost destroyed our church when we accepted gays as priests. They raped young boys, and the media covered them for years, as well as the bishops. And the media uses the word "pedophile" to describe these rapist priests. They're not pedophiles, they were raping teenage boys. And if you allow them to come into your churches, I'm sorry, your synagogues, I have no reason to believe they're not going to do the same thing. I still --

SAVAGE: I agree 100 percent. It makes my stomach turn. But you're looking at one branch of Judaism, Reform Judaism, and then you're looking at another branch of false Judaism, in my opinion, called so-called Conservative Judaism. The only true Judaism is the Bible-believing Orthodox Jewish branch of Judaism. They are vehemently opposed to homosexuality and homosexuals in the ministry, so to speak. So make no mistake about it: This Reform and liberal branches, the liberal branches of Judaism, fundamentally have eschewed the religion itself.

CALLER: You're right, they're going to, it's destroying -- as a matter of fact, it's interesting, the only branch that's growing within Judaism is the Orthodox branch.

SAVAGE: Well, that's right. The other branches are dying out for a number of reasons, and I don't have to delineate them for you. But if you look at Christianity itself, the largest growing segment that I understand to be is the so-called evangelical branch of Christianity, because they are the people who truly believe in God's word, and they act upon it. The others have, you know, basically walked away from their religion, and I'm not here to condemn the other people, but that's how religions live and die.

And the fact of the matter is you're 100 percent right. The idea of a gay rabbi is an oxymoron. Think about it: "Rabbi" means teacher. You cannot have a homosexual teacher teaching boys how to be a Jew. OK? I mean, let's lay it on the line here. I'm not going to mince words for fear of offending homosexuals. They're everywhere, anyway, trying to tell me what to say and what not to say and what to think. I know what's right and what's wrong. And that's all there is to it. And that's it, and now we'll move on. I'll be right back.

—M.B.B.