During the past several months, Colorado Media Matters has documented how 630 KHOW-AM host Peter Boyles repeatedly has invoked the names of Renaissance-era astronomers Nicolaus Copernicus (February 19, 1473 - May 24, 1543) and Galileo Galilei (February 15, 1564 - January 8, 1642) to refute charges that he and other critics of illegal immigration were making racist or bigoted remarks. By asserting similarities with Copernicus and Galileo, Boyles apparently attempted to elevate in stature himself and such commentators as former presidential candidate and conservative author Pat Buchanan, and talk show host Glenn Beck to the philosophical level of two giants in the field of science.

Armed with theories based on scientific research, Copernicus and Galileo each advanced the unpopular, yet subsequently proven, notion of heliocentrism -- the theory that Earth revolves around the sun rather than vice versa. While noting that Copernicus and Galileo had been labeled “heretics” for disseminating their once-controversial beliefs, Boyles repeatedly has equated critics who brand him and others as “racists” for their comments regarding illegal immigration with officials of the 16th- and 17th-century Catholic Church. The implication: His critics and the Catholic Church stifled meaningful discourse on a controversial issue while resisting “the truth.”

Copernicus is famed primarily for his rejection of the geocentrist -- or Earth-centered -- model of the universe. But some historians suggest that, contrary to Boyles' assertion, the church did not condemn Copernicus for advancing the heliocentric model. As professors David C. Lindberg and Ronald L. Numbers of the University of Wisconsin wrote:

Indeed, various churchmen, including a bishop and a cardinal, urged Copernicus to publish his book, which appeared with a dedication to Pope Paul III. Had Copernicus lived beyond its publication in 1543, it is highly improbable that he would have felt any hostility or suffered any persecution. The church simply had more important things to worry about than a new astronomical or cosmological system. Although a few critics noticed and opposed the Copernican system, organized Catholic opposition did not appear until the seventeenth century.

Galileo did promote his theories during the 17th century, as he openly subscribed to the Copernican view of the universe -- deemed heretical in 1616, nearly 75 years after Copernicus' death. Galileo was ordered to stand trial on suspicion of heresy in 1633 and ordered to recant his heliocentric ideas. And while he was sentenced to imprisonment, the sentence was commuted to house arrest.

On at least six occasions from August to December, Boyles declared that charges of racism leveled against himself, former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm (D), Buchanan, and other immigration critics were comparable to the condemnation Copernicus and Galileo suffered from the Catholic Church.

The Dawn of Reason

On August 4 -- referring to Denver Post columns critical of Lamm for controversial remarks he made regarding racism in the United States -- Boyles told his guest, CNN's Beck, "[E]very one of their columnists attacks Dick Lamm and calls him names. Fine. It's the equivalent of the church going back after Copernicus or going after Galileo."

As The Rocky Mountain News reported, at a July 24 speech sponsored by the Vail Symposium, Lamm suggested “that Hispanics and blacks need to take responsibility for their 'underperformance' and should adopt the values of the Japanese and Jews.” Lamm's comments at the symposium echoed sentiments expressed in his book, Two Wands, One Nation: An Essay on Race and Community in America (Fulcrum Publishing, January 2006), which the News quoted:

“Let me offer you, metaphorically, two magic wands that have sweeping powers to change society. With one wand you could wipe out all racism and discrimination from the hearts and minds of white America. The other wand you could wave across the ghettos and barrios of America and infuse the inhabitants with Japanese or Jewish values, respect for learning and ambition,” Lamm wrote.

“I suggest that the best wand for society and for those who live in the ghettos and barrios would be the second wand.”

Post columnists Cindy Rodríguez and Jim Spencer criticized Lamm in July 31 columns -- Rodríguez for “mak[ing] sweeping generalizations” and Spencer for “begin[ning] with the premise that some ethnic groups ... do it all wrong.”

Defending Lamm later in his broadcast, Boyles stated that “the best point I was trying to make was Copernicus and Galileo. Scientifically, in early science, in the beginning of the Enlightenment (sic), they said, 'Wait a minute. What the church believes about the universe is wrong.' So what the church, instead of dealing with the truth, simply labels them heretics.” Boyles continued, “It's the same way -- labeling someone a racist. And it just makes no sense to me. And here's Dick Lamm pointing out, 'Look over here. Look over here.' ”

On August 7 -- again discussing Lamm -- Boyles said, “I mean, I come back to this historically: Galileo and Copernicus -- they were, they were shaking up the entire way the world was viewed. It went against the church, so what did the church do? Called them heretics.”

The Reformation

On August 11, Boyles defended himself against charges of racism by invoking Copernicus and Galileo, as well as 16th-century German Augustinian monk Martin Luther, whose Ninety-Five Theses are widely credited with prompting the Protestant Reformation.

Responding to a caller's suggestion that Islam's dogma is inflexible, Boyles equated the ideas of all three Renaissance scholars with the contemporary conservative push to reduce immigration. After stating that “the best example I can come up with are people like Copernicus and Galileo,” Boyles later asked, "[w]hat do I get called? A racist. That stops the show. They called Luther and Galileo heretics. It stopped the show. There are show-stopping terms."

Conquest

During an interview with former Republican and Reform Party presidential candidate Buchanan on the September 5 broadcast of his show, Boyles referred to Copernicus and Galileo after suggesting that “when the term 'racist' flies, it's usually said by someone who is losing the argument.”

As Colorado Media Matters noted, Boyles and Buchanan were discussing the so-called “reconquista” -- or, in Buchanan's words, “the re-annexation -- linguistically, culturally, socially, and ethnically” -- of the American Southwest by Mexico. According to Buchanan, “60 percent of Mexicans almost believe the Southwest belongs to them.” However, according to a column by Alex Koppelman in Drexel University's biweekly online magazine Dragonfire, the reconquista concept is promoted by “white supremacists and neo-Nazis” more than by Mexicans or Mexican-Americans, as noted by Media Matters for America.

In addition to his dubious comments regarding reconquista and “re-annexation,” Buchanan also stated that “clearly the illegal aliens” were responsible for infestations of bedbugs “in 26 different states” -- despite an Ohio State University study to the contrary.

Responding to Buchanan, Boyles complained, "[W]hen we speak about this ... you get called a racist. And I'm thinking, 'Wait a minute, which of us is the racist?'" He later stated, "[Y]ou know -- when Copernicus and Galileo -- and the church can't handle their truth, so they just call them heretics." Boyles concluded, “And it's the same -- the same model: 'I don't want to deal with what you're saying. I know it's true. However, it flies in the face of what I believe, so you are ...' And I'll fill in the blank, and there are these conversation stoppers.”

The Renaissance

On November 28, Boyles spoke with Brooklyn criminal court Judge John H. Wilson, author of the self-published children's book Hot House Flowers (BookSurge Publishing, October 2006). According to a November 27 AP article, the book has sparked controversy because it uses “an invasive dandelion as a metaphor to warn against the perils of unchecked immigration in the United States.” During the interview, Boyles compared anti-immigration advocates “with people like Galileo and Copernicus, when the church could only call them heretics -- and the fact is, they were speaking the truth. But the church couldn't handle the truth at that point in time, so they labeled them, and others like them, heretics.”

The Enlightenment

Boyles invoked Copernicus and Galileo yet again on December 4 during another appearance by Beck. After suggesting that he and Beck had been labeled racists for advancing their views on immigration and Islam, Boyles stated, “I've concluded that when the church was struggling ... finding its way ... the arrival of people, people like Copernicus and Galileo and others ... that all the church had to do was call them heretics.”

As Media Matters for America has noted, Beck has a history of making derogatory statements about Islam and Muslims, including the warning that if “Muslims and Arabs” don't “act now” by “step[ping] to the plate” to condemn terrorism, they “will be looking through a razor wire fence at the West.”

From the August 4 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show (with guest CNN's Glenn Beck):

BOYLES: And, again, it's fascinating to hear people deal with facts. Facts are either true or false; they don't carry with them politics. In other words, there isn't politics in mathematics. Two and two is four. If you're a communist, if you're a fascist, if you're a Klansman, if you're a Nazi, if you're a black nationalist, if you're believing in the divine right of kings, if you believe the moon is a balloon, two and two are four. It's a fact. Now, they're either true facts or they're false, and that's what social science is about. Certainly is what science is about. The best examples -- you can give all these different examples -- so, when -- and Dick Lamm is out of the country or, though, you know damn well he'd be here this morning. So, he was with us after -- you know, he's talked so much with us about issues on illegal immigration. So instead of dealing with Dick Lamm in the sound studies, the way to deal with that is just call him a racist. The way to deal with it: Just call him a xenophobe. The way to deal with it is just call him a nativist -- that's the new term. A hate speaker. Same things. Those are terms now used by people who have simply lost the argument.

So, last week and this week in The Denver Post, the -- I don't even know how you describe the Post anymore in these situations -- simply every -- every one of their columnists attacks Dick Lamm and calls him names. Fine. It's the equivalent of the church going back after Copernicus or going after Galileo. You don't know -- here's Copernicus, here's Galileo; they have done amazing discoveries. The church can't handle that, so they call them heretics. It stops everything. You know, Galileo, Copernicus are the two great examples of what I'm talking about. They were disproving all the belief systems of the Catholic Church at the time. So, instead of the Catholic Church coming to terms with it and saying, “You know what, they're on to something here,” they simply banned them as heretics. And I think one of the two recanted. Was it Galileo that recanted? I think Galileo went under house arrest. One of the two had to recant the truth. In other words, had to stand there and say, “You know what, the truth is -- it isn't the truth. So I can go back and live my life.” Now, we are at this moment again.

[...]

So, I can believe the moon's green cheese, and, as long as I don't look at the evidence that it isn't, I can go on with my life. And the best point I was trying to make was Copernicus and Galileo. Scientifically, in early science, in the beginning of the Enlightenment, they said, “Wait a minute. What the church believes about the universe is wrong.” So what the church, instead of dealing with the truth, simply labels them heretics. It's the same way -- labeling someone a racist. And it just makes no sense to me. And here's Dick Lamm pointing out, “Look over here. Look over here.” It's like, remember The Emperor's New Clothes? “Look at the king. Look at the king. The king has no clothes.” And remember they told people that if you're really, really, really smart, if you're smarter than anyone else, you can see the wonderful cloak that the king is wearing. So everyone pretended they could see the cloak, except the little boy. And the little boy, when the king walks by totally nude, and everybody's going, “Isn't that a wonderful -- oh, look how wonderful that is. Look at that great cloak. Oh, isn't it so beautiful?” And the kid's standing there saying, “Look at the king. The king doesn't have any clothes on.” That's this.

From the August 7 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show (with guest Los Angeles-based talk radio host Terry Anderson):

ANDERSON: I -- I'm not a Republican or a Democrat caller; I, I believe that a guy should, should go by his heart and by, and by his conscience. And I'll vote for the guy that I think is the right guy; I don't care who he's -- what he represents. But here's my point: Right, right now, the ideology of the Republican Party, to me, is the ideology that will save this country -- if it's, if it's stuck to the way it used to be.

BOYLES: Yeah, but here's the problem T.A., we're -- the, the head of the party is the sitting president.

ANDERSON: There you go, and the fish stinks from the head.

BOYLES: And look -- and by the way, back to [caller] the caller, did you see the first person to come out and blast Owens after he said that?

[CALLER]: No.

BOYLES: Republican State Chairman Bob Martinez. And he's charging Lamm -- and he charges Lamm with bigoted remarks, inciting fear, suspicion, and distrust. Now, there's no love lost between Bob Martinez and Bill Owens. But he turns his guns on Lamm too and, and so -- I mean, all these kind of things. If I say -- I mean, I come back to this historically: Galileo and Copernicus -- they were, they were shaking up the entire way the world was viewed. It went against the church, so what did the church do? Called them heretics.

[CALLER] Right.

BOYLES: Now, they didn't deal with what Copernicus and Galileo said, or what their evidence suggested, or what their scientific findings led them to believe, it was simply heretic. It's a -- it's --

ANDERSON: Right. Now, now it's racist.

BOYLES: Now it ends the discussion.

From the August 11 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show:

CALLER: Islam is not a -- just a religion. The Christian religion, which you were talking about --

BOYLES: Um-hmm.

CALLER: They -- they have the ability to adapt and to change.

BOYLES: Well, they had a Reformation.

CALLER: They had a reformation and they were allowed to change. My --

BOYLES: Yeah, they were, they were forced to change, I mean, they weren't allowed. I mean that -- they -- Luther forced it.

CALLER: But, but the -- but the people forced themselves to change.

BOYLES: Absolutely, absolutely.

CALLER: And there are many versions of, of the Bible where, where they make changes to it to adapt. Islam is, is based on the Quran. The Quran itself says, “He who changes the Quran is an infidel --”

BOYLES: Well, but again, that, that --

CALLER: "-- and must be killed."

BOYLES: When the church was in sway, in other words, when we had divine right of kings and the rest of the things that went with it, the church supported all of that. Luther and Henry changed that. Henry not so much, certainly Luther and everybody comes behind -- John Calvin -- and everybody that comes behind it. And if my understanding of Islamic history is true, the Wahhabs change Islam, but their reformation goes the other way. It's as though, you know, there was this absolutism of, of, of the church -- and the church was only one church at the time. And the absolutism of that church, the infallibility of that church -- Luther challenges it. And enough smart, wise people take on the challenge and say, “You know what? Luther's right. The church is not infallible, the kings” -- you know -- “men do not have divine right to be above other men.” And so --

CALLER: But Peter, the Quran does not allow that.

BOYLES: Well, it does, I mean --

CALLER: Muhammad wrote into it specifically --

BOYLES: But again, again --

CALLER: You cannot change it.

BOYLES: But I can show you, I can -- again, I can demonstrate, I think, in our -- in history of Western Europe -- and the best example I can come up with are people like Copernicus and Galileo. And you, you see this again today, that, you know, what am I gonna -- what do I get called? A racist. That stops the show. They called Luther and Galileo heretics. It stopped the show. There are show-stopping terms. When you say, when you -- I mean, you gotta ask this question, it's a legitimate question: What is the linkage that you see -- the nexus, if you would -- between every one of these terror plots? They're young men; they are oftentimes -- listen, born in this country, or born in Canada, Great -- born in Great Britain, so they, they had all the gifts that come with a Western-style democracy. Agreed?

CALLER: Sure, they had all that, but where's their teachers?

From the September 5 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show (with guest Pat Buchanan):

BUCHANAN: Well what this -- what this new thing is about is simply an invasion by people who claim a -- claim a right to be here.

BOYLES: I'm going to bring that up. Now, because time, the -- this notion -- and again -- and people want to think that it's not true, but the Aztlan -- and it's called “the Aztlan plot.” Talk about that, if you would.

BUCHANAN: Well, I think that the Aztlan plot consists of about three strains. One of them is the government of Mexico openly wants to eliminate the border with the United States, and it is pushing the ends of illegal aliens into the United States. Vicente Fox calls them heroes.

BOYLES: Um-hmm.

BUCHANAN: And they want to use that leverage on the government of the United States, and they want, basically, America to be combined with Mexico and Canada into a North American union.

BOYLES: Yup.

BUCHANAN: And they would become, like the poorer countries of the EU, and get massive transfers of wealth and have the right to have their workers come into the United States. But a second aspect of it is the -- is the militants you see marching under the Mexican flags. And the Mexican folks at the grass roots -- 60 percent of whom believe that the Southwest belongs to them.

BOYLES: Um-hmm.

BUCHANAN: So you've got that aspect of it going on. And in the United States, you've got the actual Aztlan movement of these militant Hispanics who are talking about “the bronze continent” and “the bronze culture,” and they're, they're first cousins to what's going on in Bolivia where the Aymara Indians there and the person of Evo Morales are claiming that the occupiers here are from Europe -- the Europeans came 500 years ago, and we have a superior claim to this land. And it is very racialist in character.

BOYLES: Yeah.

BUCHANAN: And, and -- I mean, if David -- I mean, if David Duke had the kinds of numbers that are behind this sort of thing, I mean The New York Times woulda had a stroke.

BOYLES: What do you do?

BUCHANAN: And --

BOYLES: I'm sorry.

BUCHANAN: And uh -- but they, they all, all these guys come out and use this kind of rhetoric and language? I mean, you get the state chairman of the Democratic Party says, you know, “Prop 118 was the last gasp of 'White America' in California.”

BOYLES: Yeah, yeah.

BUCHANAN: And --

BOYLES: And I -- and I hear that, and yet, when we speak about this, and you get called a racist. And I'm thinking, “Wait a minute, which of us is the racist?”

BUCHANAN: Exactly. I was on with a lady last night and she said, “Well you, you know you quoted your friend Sam Francis.” And I quoted a line from which Sam Francis had lost his job at the, at The Washington Times. And she said, “Well, you're quoting -- this is just racist.” You know, she was from National Council for La Raza, which means “the race.” And I said, you know, “Listen lady,” I mean, all -- this is -- I mean, you get that kind of militant racism from these folks from the -- in the, in the barrios, and it's not responded to, and if you condemn it and you say, “Look, I want to secure the borders and I like the country I grew up in,” you're a racist.

BOYLES: And that's, and -- I've learned to adjust and say when the term “racist” flies, it's usually said by someone who is losing the argument.

BUCHANAN: It is exactly. It is -- someone once told me -- I read once that “the personal insult is the last recourse of an exhausted mind.”

BOYLES: And I, you know -- when Copernicus and Galileo -- and the church can't handle their truth, so they just call them heretics.

BUCHANAN: Sure.

BOYLES: And it's the same -- the same model: “I don't want to deal with what you're saying. I know it's true. However, it flies in the face of what I believe, so you are ...” And I'll fill in the blank, and there are these conversation stoppers.

BUCHANAN: Exactly, and --

BOYLES: “Your ideas are not any good anymore.”

BUCHANAN: Not only, not only does it smear you and you -- put you on the defensive so you have to prove you're not guilty of some terrible crime, but it signals everybody else -- if you listen to X, then you may be as guilty as he is, and it's a very intimidating factor, and frankly, it's the one reason why the Republican Party, especially the country club Republicans, are so intimidated. You know, as I've said, if you call the -- you know, the country club -- the board meeting of the country club and go in and call them a bunch of racists, they'll turn the place over to the caddies, you know?

BOYLES: And you look at the Kosovo model, now part of Albania, and I think you're right.

From the November 28 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show (with guest Brooklyn criminal court Judge John H. Wilson):

BOYLES: Do you know what the term “racist,” in my mind, when you hear the charge --

WILSON: Well go ahead, sure.

BOYLES: Well, my sense of it is, with people like Galileo and Copernicus, when the church could only call them heretics -- and the fact is, they were speaking the truth. But the church couldn't handle the truth at that point in time, so they labeled them, and others like them, heretics.

WILSON: Yes.

BOYLES: And --

WILSON: I sense that that is part of the problem here is that there's a lot of people who just don't want to hear the truth, and unfortunately it's coming from all ends of the political spectrum.

BOYLES: But it's more so, I mean, it -- do you get a sense -- and I have a mantra that it's the multinational corporation, the political party, certain groups and faiths, certainly political parties, and ethnicity. And those things, to these groups -- and they're separate groups speaking with the same voice -- are more important than the future of the country.

WILSON: Yeah, that's - that, unfortunately, is a very proper sense of the opposition. The left wing, as I call them -- I refuse to call them liberals anymore, they're just left wing.

BOYLES: No. Then explain to me George Bush.

WILSON: (laughing) -- That could take a whole --

From the December 4 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show:

BOYLES: I know you know quite a bit about what's happening here in the state and --

BECK: Sure. What you're going through is the same thing.

BOYLES: Yeah.

BECK. Racist.

BOYLES: Yeah, but you're a racist.

[...]

BOYLES: And, and I've concluded -- and we'll take a break and we'll take calls with Glenn -- I've concluded that when the church was struggling in a -- for finding its way, and the arrival of people, people like Copernicus and Galileo and others --

BECK: Sure.

BOYLES: -- that all the church had to do was call them heretics.

BECK: Um-hmm.

BOYLES: And that stopped the discussion. I think Galileo, Galileo was under -- or was it, was Copernicus that was under house arrest?

BECK: Um-hmm.

BOYLES: And I think the Galileo may have been as well.

BECK: Yeah, he was.

BOYLES: And they were threatened.

BECK: Um-hmm.

BOYLES: And the fact of the matter is they spoke the truth. But using the term “heretic” was a conversation