Know Your Opponent: The Return of Jerry Falwell

Jerry Falwell, founder of the now defunct Moral Majority, was active in energizing the evangelical base for the 2004 election. In just one week in October, he says he spoke to 2,000 pastors in four states in 15 meetings. He proclaimed, "We are getting people saved, baptized, registered to vote, informed and out to the polls." He fundamentally believes (no pun intended) that this is a Christian nation. Not just that it was founded on Christian principles, but that it is and should be a Christian nation.

Now he has relaunched the Moral Majority and is recruiting his first 1 million members. He's graciously decided not to charge those "charter members" for joining although he's asking for a $25 donation to fund a voter registration drive (I don't know if the new voters they plan to register have to be saved and baptized first). Despite the fact that his second press release makes the point that "values voters" aren't limited to Christians, their membership materials declare their beliefs:

Remember, Falwell is the man who said this after we were attacked by al Qaida:

And, I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way - all of them who have tried to secularize America - I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen."

Of course, he apologized later. In the past, he's called the founder of Islam a terrorist (he later apologized), stated that the anti-Christ is likely to be a Jewish man (says he meant no offense and isn't anti-Semitic), has advocated abolishing public schools and replacing them with church-run Christian-led schools (though he now denies saying it), thinks gay Republicans should join the Democratic party, is said to have labeled a teletubby a homosexual (though he denies this), indirectly funded and directly promoted a video claiming President Clinton was a drug addict and murderer, appeared at several Moonie conferences (you know, Sun Myung Moon, the one who thinks he's the messiah) after accepting a $3.5m donation from a Moonie front group, has claimed that AIDS is a punishment from God, has defined liberalism as a system of Satan, has called for "many amendments" to the Constitution to put 'important issues' out of the reach of judges, and believes that terrorism is in reality a frontal attack on Christianity.

That's the man launching the new moral majority. I say they're welcome to him.

The mission of the new Moral Majority Coalition is three-fold:

1. The confirmation of pro-life, strict constructionist U.S. Supreme Court justices and other federal judges;
2. The passage of a constitutional Federal Marriage Amendment; and
3. The election of another socially- fiscally- and politically-conservative president in 2008.

As I've prowled the sites of the politicized religious right, I've noticed that the emphasis these days is on the judicial branch.

I suspect that these folks will continue to use anti-abortion and homophobic rants to raise money, but their primary focus is on ending what they call "activist judges". And why are they so concerned about America? It's critical for their real mission of world evangelism.

"World evangelization is the ultimate goal of the Gospel. America alone has the resources, manpower and technology to deliver the saving Gospel of Christ to the 6.5 billion souls on this planet. But if America collapses internally from the moral corruption assaulting the traditional family, we will not be able to evangelize the world. America must be saved!!"

If you're not sated yet, feel free to browse the following quotes from sermons posted on the web site of Thomas Baptist Church, where Falwell is the pastor.

• This idea of America being a multicultural community has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national identity.
• "In God We Trust" is our national motto. This is not some Christian, right wing, political slogan.
• If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.

These quotes are from Falwell's sermons.

• I recently had a nightmare. I awakened in a cold sweat. I dreamed John Kerry was President, Hillary Clinton was Chief Justice and Al Sharpton was Secretary of State.
• We are still in peril of collapsing morally from within. The U.S. Supreme Court again put us on the slippery slope last year, a slope which could greatly damage the traditional and Biblical home in this nation. (Texas anti-sodomy law struck down.)
• There are no diverse family forms. Unmarried live-in couples do not constitute a family. Common law marriage does not meet muster.
• On both coasts, Atlantic and Pacific, a majority of the voters are wrong on about everything that is important. And they have huge numbers.
• We need to start impeaching some of these radical Federal judges. And we need to create many Constitutional Amendments to put the really important issues out of the reach of all judges and legislators forever.
• If Tom Daschle, Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and the Senate Democrats who are refusing to allow God-fearing men and women to be confirmed to the Federal Courts are to be stopped, Christian Americans must get informed, registered to vote and go to the polls.
• But, the "religious profiling" practiced by Senators Kennedy, Leahy, Schumer and others against John Ashcroft and many Bush-appointed Federal judge nominees means we have much work to do. Racial profiling is reprehensible... but so is religious profiling.
• The global warming fervor is a media-driven phenomenon that is greatly lacking in scientific evidence.... It's time Americans see this global warming frenzy for what it truly is - an anti-Capitalism, anti-American enterprise.
• I believe it is time to simply close our immigration doors - at least temporarily - in order to establish functional protections for our own citizens.
• This is not a war of Christianity against Islam, but a war of Christianity against the terrorists.
• What is the enemy really up to here in America? The ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, with the assistance of runaway Federal judges, the liberal media and other radical special interest groups are doing today what America's enemies have been unable to do in 227 years of American history..
  
  These deceivers are deceptively but methodically stripping America of her religious heritage. They are undermining America's traditional values, revising our children's history books and attempting to re-shape our nation into the secular image of China, Russia and other godless states.
  
  And they are accomplishing this slowly but surely under the pretense of reasonableness, fairness and honesty.

Comments

[zxzxzx]

I always heard something from my neighbor
شات الخليج
شات الحب
شات السعودية
I always heard something from my neighbor