CON GAMES: God Bless Jerry Falwell

May 16th, 2007 at 06:47am Michael Conniff 2

Was it just me, or did a quiet come over the earth on the news that televangelist Jerry Falwell was dead?

Televangelist is a funny word, a new word, a train wreck of two word that the man who founded Liberty University and the Moral Majority helped to define. And let's give the devil his due: Reverend Falwell went to his grave with no hint of scandal, no small feat for a Bible-thumping man of the cloth living in a world of carnal depravity.

Thump it he did in ways that went bump in the night: Falwell was as responsible for the rise of the Right as any politician because he made Christian activism not only permissible, but required. He forged the effective merger of the Republican party and the Christian movement in Conservatism that gave us a raft of Presidents who salute the flag even as they make the Sign of the Cross.

These are no small accomplishments for a man far larger than life even in death. But consider too that Reverend Falwell left the Conservatives adrift in the political desert.

I hope you're kneeling down: the marriage between the Fundamentalist Christian (Jerrry Falwell) and Libertarian (George Will) wings of the Conservative movement were uneasy bedfellows at best, like a lesbian and a gay man under the covers of the same bed. Though the more traditional Conservatives typically embrace Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, their personal beliefs are not per se a political statement. If anything, upon further review, faithful libertarians have to be seen as secular, with no inclination to let government tell them what to do in religion or other matters writ large or small. Now the two wings of the right wing are winging away from each other, with cataclysmic political results just now becoming evident.

Falwell's Moral Majority, disbanded finally in 1989, was in the face of liberalism for what the televangelist considered a coarsening of the culture. Of course, such coarsening did not include Falwell's post-9/11 conclusion that the disasters of that day were the fault of homosexuals and sundry heathens, a statement that the right Reverend rightly retracted post-haste.

Even for Jerry Falwell, it was over the line to blame an act of ungodly terrorism--carried out in the name of God--on men who like men and women who like women. These dunderhead pronouncements on gays and evolution will, of course, go the way of all flesh, as will all his televangelist preoccupations with the godawful fact that men have been known to have sex with women--and men with men, women with women, and all combinations thereof--before they are married.

The lasting legacy of this televangelist is nonetheless profound in his fight to the grave against abortion. The decision by the United States Supreme Court to deep-six partial-birth abortion is a triumph for what used to be the Moral Majority--and more abortion victories, large and larger, are almost certain to come.

So it's not as Jerry Falwell walked the earth and left no imprint. He was a man of God who knew just how to use Him.

Entry Filed under: Politics, Religion, Colorado, Homosexuality

3 Comments Add your own

1. Edward Troy | May 16th, 2007 at 8:03 am

"God," was frequently cited, as though draped in a white sheet, mumbling about miscegination by the KKK, as did Falwell. This kind of demographic
"Christianity" is possibly one reason so many "African-Americans" went Nation of heretic Islam. Liberty University was founded with segregation and miscegenation as major hallmarks. I have forgetten the results of the threat to their tax exempt status back in the early eighties. I see very little difference between him and Elijah Mohammed, the Nation of Islam founder. That bigotry is not considered a scandal speaks volumes about the body politic of this country.
2. Mitch.Mulhall | May 17th, 2007 at 12:34 pm

"If you gave Fallwell an enema, you could bury him in a matchbox."
~Christopher Hitchens
3. B Jon Traylor | May 23rd, 2007 at 10:37 pm

So, my editor wrote... "Though the more traditional Conservatives typically embrace Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, their personal beliefs are not per se a political statement."
Interesting comment, my friend. I think I must agree with the latter part of that sentence. I'm at a point now in this journey called life where I'm trying to understand all that it is which I can't control. I'm at a point where I'm truly beginning to accept and believe that there is more out there in this world than just me.
I'm at a point now where, perhaps through therapy and maturity, that I can accept that there's a God, and he allowed me to see some really nasty $#%^#$.... to deal with some really nasty stuff in life.... only to reveal to me the last 2 years or so, that its not about me anymore.
I think its all about what I can give back, given my experiences.
I am not perfect. I've made some bad choices, yet nothing illegal. I understand now how someone as intelligent and open as me could make those mistakes. But I also know now, and have always known... that if I did not believe in a Higher Power all these years, in this case, called believing in God, and his Son, Jesus Christ, I probably would have fallen for anything.
I think I could have wound up in a mental state like Lt. Dan, the character in the FORREST GUMP movie who had his legs blown off in Vietnam. He thought his destiny was to die in battle, as his predecesors had done. In the movie, he battled with what he thought was his own plan in life. He ended up basically on skid row, a drunk, in a wheelchair... blaming everyone else for his screwed up life.
Yet, towards the end of the movie, (if you've seen it, you will understand thiis....) -- he found his peace, both with himself, and with his God. That was one of many, many beautiful parts of that movie.
I get that. Completely. Thats kind of where I'm at. I'm figuring out how to play these messed up cards I was dealt. I'm playing them pretty damn'd good, too. (As a matter of fact, I won a poker tournament last night., seriously).
I think I'm just like everyone else out there. I'm searching for peace and love and understanding. I'M just a decent man, in search of God. Why? Because I've been around the world a few times, and I've seen nightmarish stuff,... stuff that I'd reilive in a dream, waking up screaming, in cold sweats, acting out, etc.... stuff that scared the @#$% out of my wife, and also me.... why?... because I was scared that I could relive that night, and I hated that fact.
My family was pretty messed up, perhaps due to my Father's messed up miltary experience... who knows.... but I do respect the fact that they always had me in church on Sunday.
I go to a pretty awesome church. I have some pretty awesome church buds. The preacher and I have had some pretty intense conversations in private. He knows and respects what I'm about to say..... :
I am not a traditional conservative, by any means. But I also do embrace Jesus Christ as my savior. That does not mean I'm a politically stereotyped neoconservative. Because I can assure you that I'm not even close to that. I'm a proud, independantly affiliated voting, tax paying citizen who generally votes a split ticket. Because I'm a Christian does not mean that I'm a Republican. Because I believe in God doesn't mean I'm a right wing, neoconservative Jerry Falwell follower... or even a Bush/Rove/Cheney supporter.
As a fundamental Christian, I can honestly say that I truly believe in our democracy. I believe in our Bill of Rights. And I believe that those theoretical institutions allow me to say what I'm saying now --
Where I disagree with Falwell is this... -- I have always refused to allow my personal religious beliefs to become attached to my personal, theoretical, philosophical ideas and persona.
I could write a completely separate column here, expanding upon what I'm introducing. Perhaps next week.
The point here is simple.... because I'm a Christian does not mean I'm a neoconservative. Because I'm a Christian doesn't mean the world came to an end when Jerry Falwell died and went to Heaven. Because I'm a Christian doesn't mean I can't weigh in on controversial topics.
Because I'm a Christian doesn't mean I'm perfect. Perhaps I accept that now, and thats kinda cool. But I think God gave me a mind, and intellect, and experiences, that perhaps He is inviting me to use, in a decent, moderate, way.
Screw the political system, and the two parties.... lets just do the dang'd right thing. Come on.... we are smart. -- B. Jon Traylor