Jimmy Kimmel offers to fight Roy Moore over Christian values, sexual misconduct allegations

After feuding with Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore on Twitter Thursday, late-night  host Jimmy Kimmel took Moore up on his offer to visit the Republican candidate's home state, where he would fight the 70-year-old over Christian values.

What's the background on Kimmel's comments?

Kimmel, in a scorching Thursday night monologue during "Jimmy Kimmel Live," criticized Moore over claims of sexual misconduct levied against the longtime Alabama judge.

The two tangled on Twitter earlier in the day, an incident that began when Moore accused the late-night host of mocking his "Christian values."

It escalated to the point of Kimmel addressing the Twitter spat during his evening monologue when Moore invited Kimmel to Alabama to face off "man to man."

Sounds great Roy - let me know when you get some Christian values and I’ll be there!

— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) November 30, 2017

Moore appeared to target Kimmel over a recent church rally incident where Tony Barbieri — a comedian who has appeared as a recurring character on Kimmel's show – called Moore "a man’s man" and, heckling the Senate candidate, shouted, "Does that look like the face of a molester?!"

What did Kimmel say in his monologue?

"I accept the invitation, I will come down there. I’m going to come down to Gadsden, Alabama, with a team of high school cheerleaders," Kimmel said during his evening monologue, and then pointed to reports that Moore was banned from a mall in the 1980s for approaching young teenage girls.

"We’ll meet you at the mall," he added. "Don’t worry, I can get you in. And if, when the girls and I show up, if you can control yourself and behave, if you can somehow manage to keep little Roy in your little cowboy pants when those nubile young cheerleaders come bounding in, you and I, we’ll sit down at the food court, we’ll have a little Panda Express, and we’ll talk about Christian values."

Kimmel justified his Christianity and described in detail just what his church condemns as sin.

"I don't know if it doesn’t fit your stereotype, but I happen to be a Christian too," he said. "I made my first Holy Communion, I was confirmed, I pray, I support my church, one of my closest friends is a priest, I baptized my children. 'Christian' is actually my middle name. I know that’s shocking, but it’s true.

"So if you’re open to it, when we sit down, I will share with you what I learned at my church," Kimmel explained. "At my church, forcing yourself on underaged girls is a no-no. Some even consider it to be a sin. Not that you did that, of course — allegedly. But when you commit a sin at our church, at our church we’re encouraged to confess and ask for forgiveness for the sin. Not to call the women you allegedly victimized liars and damage them even more. To confess."

Later in his monologue, Kimmel's tone turned away from mockery and more seriously addressed Moore's challenge to come to Alabama.

"Maybe when you say, 'Come down to Alabama and we’ll do it man to man,' maybe that means you’re challenging me to a fight, which is kind of what it sounds like," Kimmel said. "And if you are, I accept, by the way. I accept that invitation. There is no one I would love to fight more than you. I will put my Christian values aside just for you and for that fight."

Kimmel later noted that if the two were to engage in fisticuffs, he would donate any ticket proceeds to charity.

"My charity will be the women who came forward to say you molested them, OK?" Kimmel said. "All right, tough guy, with your little pistol? Roy Moore is never — he’s too scared to even debate the guy he’s running against, Doug Jones. With me he wants to go man to man. Maybe if he went man to man instead of man to little girl, you wouldn’t be in this situation — allegedly, allegedly!"