I have been critical of Falwell on this website and others for his pompous representation of Christianity and for the Liberty University approach to science, if it can be called that. All Christians do not share Falwell’s views. His views on education, science and his apparent hotline direct to God are not universal Christian attitudes. God told me he will die in May of next year, but that doesn’t make it true.<\/p>\n
The concepts of Moral Right and having a culture that has it’s roots in faith are beautiful to me. But so is Marxism, in theory. When some of these ideas are played out in the real world they can become ugly.<\/p>\n
May 1979<\/strong>: Falwell, a televangelist and Baptist pastor in Lynchburg, Va., is recruited by March 1980<\/strong>: Falwell tells an Anchorage rally about a conversation with President Carter at the White House. Commenting on a January breakfast meeting, Falwell claimed to have asked Carter why he had \u00e2\u20ac\u0153practicing homosexuals\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on the senior staff at the White House. According to Falwell, Carter replied, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well, I am president of all the American people, and I believe I should represent everyone.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d When others who attended the White House event insisted that the exchange never happened, Falwell responded that his account \u00e2\u20ac\u0153was not intended to be a verbatim report,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but rather an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153honest portrayal\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of Carter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s position.<\/p>\n August 1980<\/strong>: After Southern Baptist Convention President Bailey Smith tells a Dallas 1980-81<\/strong>: After the election of Ronald Reagan, the Moral Majority begins advocating for September 1982<\/strong>: Falwell announces a drive to register 1 million new voters before the July 1984<\/strong>: Falwell is forced to pay gay activist Jerry Sloan $5,000 after losing a court battle. During a TV debate in Sacramento, Falwell denied calling the gay-oriented Metropolitan Community Churches \u00e2\u20ac\u0153brute beasts\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a vile and Satanic system\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that will \u00e2\u20ac\u0153one day be utterly annihilated and there will be a celebration in heaven.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d When Sloan insisted he had a tape, Falwell promised $5,000 if he could produce it. Sloan did so, Falwell refused to pay and Sloan successfully sued. Falwell appealed, with his attorney charging that the Jewish judge in the case was prejudiced. He lost again and was forced to pay an additional $2,875 in sanctions and court fees.<\/p>\n November 1984<\/strong>: Reports from the Federal Election Commission indicate that Falwell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I May 1985<\/strong>: Falwell apologizes to a Jewish group for seeking a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Christian\u00e2\u20ac\u009d America. From now on, he says, he will use the term \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Judeo-Christian.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n January 1987<\/strong>: Falwell holds a Washington news conference to announce that he is changing October 1987<\/strong>: The Federal Election Commission fines Falwell $6,000 for transferring $6.7 million in funds intended for his ministry to political committees.<\/p>\n November 1987<\/strong>: Falwell tells reporters he is stepping down as head of the Moral Majority and retiring from politics. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153From now on, my real platform is the pulpit, not politics,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says at a news conference.<\/p>\n February 1988<\/strong>: The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a $200,000 jury award to Falwell June 1989<\/strong>: Falwell announces that the Moral Majority will shut down its offices and January 1991<\/strong>: Siding with Americans United, the Virginia Supreme Court unanimously January 1993<\/strong>: In the wake of Bill Clinton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s election to the presidency, Falwell mails February 1993<\/strong>: The Internal Revenue Service determines that funds from Falwell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Old Time Gospel Hour program were illegally funneled to a political action committee. The IRS forced Falwell to pay $50,000 and retroactively revoked the Old Time Gospel Hour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tax-exempt status for 1986-87.<\/p>\n March 1993<\/strong>: Despite his promise to Jewish groups to stop referring to America as a September 1993<\/strong>: Falwell announces he will not reactivate the Moral Majority but will March 1994<\/strong>: Falwell announces the formation of a new group, Mission America, which he May 1994<\/strong>: Jerry Falwell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Liberty Flame newspaper runs an article calling TV preacher September 1994<\/strong>: Falwell endorses former Iran-Contra figure Oliver North for a U.S. Senate 1994-1995<\/strong>: Falwell is criticized for using his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Old Time Gospel Hour\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to hawk a scurrilous video called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Clinton Chronicles\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that makes a number of unsubstantiated charges against President Bill Clinton\u00e2\u20ac\u201damong them that he is a drug addict and that he arranged the murders of political enemies in Arkansas. Despite claims he had no ties to the project, evidence surfaced that Falwell helped bankroll the venture with $200,000 paid to a group called Citizens for Honest Government (CHG). CHG\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Pat Matrisciana later admitted that Falwell and he staged an infomercial interview promoting the video in which a silhouetted reporter said his life was in danger for investigating Clinton. (Matrisciana himself posed as the reporter.) \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That was Jerry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s idea to do that,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Matrisciana recalled. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He thought that would be dramatic.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n April 1996<\/strong>: Falwell hosts a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Washington for Jesus\u00e2\u20ac\u009d rally in the nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s capital where he holds a mock trial of America for engaging in seven deadly sins: persecution of the church, July 1996<\/strong>: Falwell announces a series of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153God Save America\u00e2\u20ac\u009d rallies in evangelical churches February 1997<\/strong>: Falwell sponsors a pastors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 briefing in Washington, during which he June 1997<\/strong>: Falwell announces a plan to urge fundamentalist churches to intervene in partisan August 1997<\/strong>: Falwell pleads for funds for a new group, the National Committee for the November 1997<\/strong>: Falwell accepts $3.5 million from a front group representing controversial February 1998<\/strong>: Falwell accepts a $70-million donation from insurance magnate Art April 1998<\/strong>: Confronted on national television with a controversial quote from America Can Be Saved!, a published collection of his sermons, Falwell denies having written the book or had anything to do with it. In the 1979 work, Falwell wrote, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I hope to live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Despite Falwell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s denial, Sword of the Lord Publishing, which produced the book, confirms that Falwell wrote it.<\/p>\n October 1998<\/strong>: In a fund-raising letter, Falwell announces plans to expand his ministry and to January 1999<\/strong>: Falwell tells a pastors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 conference in Kingsport, Tenn., that the Antichrist prophesied in the Bible is alive today and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153of course he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be Jewish.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n February 1999<\/strong>: Falwell becomes the object of nationwide ridicule after his National Liberty Journal newspaper issues a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153parents alert\u00e2\u20ac\u009d warning that Tinky Winky, a character on the popular PBS children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s show \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Teletubbies,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d might be gay. (Americans United was responsible for releasing the information to the national press.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have been critical of Falwell on this website and others for his pompous representation of Christianity and for the Liberty University approach to science, if it can be called that. All Christians do not share Falwell’s views. His views on education, science and his apparent hotline direct to God are not universal Christian attitudes. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3C0LX-p5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nfar-right activists Howard Phillips, Ed McAteer and Paul Weyrich to form the Moral Majority, a vehicle for bringing fundamentalist Protestants into the Republican Party with the aim of unseating President Jimmy Carter. The move was an about-face for Falwell, who advised his congregation in 1965, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Preachers are not called to be politicians but soul winners.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\nReligious Right gathering that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Falwell gives a similar view. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I do not believe,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he told reporters, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153that God answers the prayer of any unredeemed Gentile or Jew.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d After a meeting with an American Jewish Committee rabbi, he changed course, telling an interviewer on NBC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Meet the Press\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153God hears the
\nprayers of all persons\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.God hears everything.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\nconstitutional amendments banning abortion and restoring school-sponsored prayer. The
\ngroup also demands tax aid to religious education.<\/p>\n
\nNovember elections.<\/p>\n
\nLove America Committee,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a political action committee formed in 1983, was a flop. The
\nPAC raised $485,000 in its first year\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut spent $413,000 to do so.<\/p>\n
\nthe name of the Moral Majority to the Liberty Foundation. The new name never catches on
\nand is soon abandoned.<\/p>\n
\nfor \u00e2\u20ac\u0153emotional distress\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he suffered because of a Hustler magazine parody. Chief Justice
\nWilliam H. Rehnquist, usually a Falwell favorite, wrote the unanimous opinion in Hustler v.
\nFalwell, ruling that the First Amendment protects free speech.<\/p>\n
\ndisband.<\/p>\n
\nrejects Falwell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quest for $60 million in state bonds for his Liberty University. During the
\nlitigation, Falwell tried to camouflage the school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rigidly fundamentalist character, telling the
\ncourt that the school would no longer discriminate in hiring or force students to attend
\nmandatory chapel (renamed convocation). All the while, Falwell assured his congregation that
\nLiberty had not changed, insisting chapel will be mandatory \u00e2\u20ac\u0153until Jesus comes.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\nfund-raising letters nationwide asking people to vote on whether he should reactivate the
\nMoral Majority. He later refuses to say how much money the effort raised and tells reporters he has no intention of reactivating the organization.<\/p>\n
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Christian nation,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Falwell gives a sermon saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We must never allow our children to forget that this is a Christian nation. We must take back what is rightfully ours.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\ninstead do political work through a group called the Liberty Alliance.<\/p>\n
\nclaims will mobilize like-minded clergy across the country. Falwell describes the group as a
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153personal ministry\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and says it will have no budget or staff. Nothing more is heard from it.<\/p>\n
\nJohn Hagee a heretic for saying Jews can be saved without accepting Jesus Christ. Falwell
\nurges every pastor to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153take this information to the podium next Sunday.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\nseat in Virginia. Falwell glosses over North\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s legal problems, saying they happened \u00e2\u20ac\u0153in the
\npast.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\nhomosexuality, abortion, racism, occultism, addictions and HIV\/AIDS (acronym:
\nPHAROAH). He declares the nation guilty \u00e2\u20ac\u0153of violating God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s law.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\nto stop the United States from entering a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153post-Christian\u00e2\u20ac\u009d era.<\/p>\n
\nthreatens to form a new political party if Republicans waver on abortion.<\/p>\n
\npolitics. He vows to send sample candidate endorsement sermons that pastors can read in
\ntheir churches and says he has already done this in the Virginia attorney general\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s race. Falwell drops the plan after being reported to the IRS by Americans United.<\/p>\n
\nRestoration of the Judeo-Christian Ethic. In a fund-raising letter, he promises to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153get back in
\nthe ring\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and be a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153spiritual George Foreman.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He pledges to register 4 million new voters and mobilize 50,000 pastors. After publishing a couple of fund-raising letters, the group is never heard from again.<\/p>\n
\nKorean evangelist Sun Myung Moon to ease Liberty University\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s financial woes. The
\ndonation, and several Falwell appearances at Moon conferences, raised eyebrows because
\nMoon claims to be the messiah sent to complete the failed mission of Jesus Christ, a doctrine
\nsharply at odds with Falwell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fundamentalist Christian theology. (In 1978, before the Moon
\nmoney started flowing, Falwell told Esquire magazine, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Reverend Sun Myung Moon is like
\nthe plague: he exploits boys and girls, and he should be exported.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d)<\/p>\n
\nWilliams, for his debt-ridden Liberty University. Falwell says the contribution will free him to
\nfocus on politics again.<\/p>\n
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153immediately rededicate myself to use my God-given skills as a national spokesman for
\nmorality and return to the moral\/political arena….[W]ith God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s anointing and your prayerful
\nsupport, you will soon think I am omnipresent.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n