On the March 23 broadcast of News Radio 740 KVOR's The Joseph Michelli Show, guest host and former District 5 Republican congressional candidate Jeff Crank failed to challenge the homophobic comments of a frequent caller, including his remark that homosexuality is “a mental illness.”

With his guests Alan R. Crippen II, president of the John Jay Institute, and Rev. Dr. Michael O'Donnell, associate rector of Colorado Springs' Grace Episcopal Church, Crank was discussing controversy between the U.S. Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion over homosexuality. The caller asserted that "[t]he church has been corrupted because they picked up the liberal ways" and that "[l]iberalism's destroying" the church. The caller further claimed that the “overwhelming majority of the children that were molested in churches have been boys” -- a circumstance he suggested resulted from churches' having “started letting homosexuals in places of power.” The caller continued his rant by suggesting that Tim Gill and Jared Polis -- two wealthy, openly gay men -- are “buying churches off” and attempting “to take Colorado over.”

(Colorado Media Matters' financial backers include the Gill Foundation.)

Following the caller's assertion that “the Psychiatric Society used to say” that homosexuality was a “mental illness” until “they bought them off in the seventies,” Crank told the caller, “You're so calm!”

As Colorado Media Matters noted, while Crank was guest hosting the August 25, 2006, broadcast of Michelli's show, he did not challenge Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez's false claim that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter said he would support an exception allowing abortion if a fetus had Down syndrome.

From the March 23 broadcast of News Radio 740 KVOR's The Joseph Michelli Show, with guest host Jeff Crank:

CALLER: First of all, I want to start by agreeing with [earlier caller]. The church has become corrupted because they picked up the liberal ways. They've started letting homosexuals in places of power knowingly, and that has corrupted the church. The overwhelming majority of the children that were molested in churches have been boys. I [laughs] -- boys, which tells me: homosexuals. When you guys open your doors -- not, I'm not saying you guys -- but when the church opened their doors to evil and started accepting it, that was the first stage of 'em going down the tubes. [Earlier caller] was right. Liberalism's destroying it. And also, churches are more like businesses now. They're trying to make money. They're in competition. That's why you have some of them accepting homosexuality because, Tim Gill -- you guys heard of Tim Gill? -- 330 million dollars, spending it in Colorado to take Colorado over? Have you guys heard of him?

CRANK: Yes.

O'DONNELL: Yeah, we have.

CALLER: All of you have, right?

CRANK: Yes.

CALLER: OK. And you have, I think, Jared Polis, if I remember correctly, he's worth 780 million. I think, if I read in a newspaper right, he has a significant other male also and he's spending money to take this state over. And I think they're buying churches off -- buying 'em off. And that's the problem that you're having with these major churches. They're nothing but major businesses. Look at New Life Church. They put a -- what they probably knew was a sick, out-of-the-closet homosexual in charge. He brought that chur -- church down. And I want to say something to the guy that called in earlier that was a homosexual that admitted it's a mental illness. I want to thank him for saying that it was hatred of women -- a mental condition he had -- because he has finally said what most people are not acknowledging anymore. Even the Psychiatric Society used to say it was a mental illness, but they bought them off in the seventies.

CRANK: All right. Hey, [caller], before we go to the -- the guests to comment on that, I want to know one thing.

CALLER: Yeah.

CRANK: You're so quiet. I think the people want to know if you are in a back room and can't talk or are you, like, drugged down, or -- what's the deal? You're so calm!

CALLER: This is a kinder, gentler [caller].

CRANK: Oh, [caller]! Come on! It can't be a kinder, gentler [caller].

CALLER: Actually I don't want to distur -- disturb people around me.

CRANK I got you. OK, [caller]. All right, lemme, lemme -- thanks for the call, [caller]. Appreciate it.