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The Rev. Jerry Falwell said late Thursday he did not mean to blame feminists, gays or lesbians for bringing on the terror attacks in New York and Washington this week, in remarks on a television program earlier in the day...

Several dozen leading members of the Southern Baptist Convention, including its current President and several past Presidents, recently released a "Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change." I attended Liberty University, a school affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention and specifically affiliated with Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. Both the church and the University were founded and led by Jerry Falwell until his death last May. The school and church are now led by Rev. Falwell's two sons: Jerry Falwell, Jr. is the Chancellor and President of Liberty University, and Jonathan Falwell is the senior pastor of the...

(CNSNews.com) - In 1983, just days before he would travel to Cincinnati, Ohio, to make the now-famous speech in which he called AIDS "a gay plague," the Rev. Jerry Falwell was the subject of death threats that resulted in an FBI probe of the homosexual community in that city. At the time of the Cincinnati case, two anti-Falwell activists with two guns and 550 rounds of ammunition were questioned by police in Evendale, part of metropolitan Cincinnati. In another case, someone sent a live scorpion in a box to Falwell's office. According to files made available to Cybercast News Service...

LYNCHBURG, Va. -- Huckabee suggested the Republican Party could meet the same fate as 1976 if it elected a moderate candidate who does not inspire voters. Speaking at a press conference after addressing Thomas Road Baptist Church, Huckabee continued to compare himself to Ronald Reagan, who ran in 1976 against the party establishment, which led to a floor fight at the national convention. When reminded that the Republicans lost the 1976, Huckabee said it wasn’t because the party was divided, but because Gerald Ford did not energize the party. “He never championed himself as a conservative, not a pro-life person...

LYNCHBURG, VA. -- “I always cringe when I hear people talk about throwing away the vote when they vote their conscience,” Mike Huckabee told reporters today. “That’s what voting is – voting is voting with your conscience, it’s voting with your convictions.” Earlier, he spoke at Thomas Road Baptist Church, the pulpit of the late Dr. Jerry Falwell. Lacing together the relationship between religion and state, he delivered a short speech about how moral clarity decreases the need for more government and more law. “Frankly, we really don’t need a lot of law if we are people of morality,” he...

Liberty Chancellor Used School Resources To Promote Presidential Candidate, Church-State Watchdog Group Says BBSNews 2007-12-04 -- (AU) Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. violated federal tax law by using school resources to endorse Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, Americans United for Separation of Church and State told the Internal Revenue Service today. In a complaint filed with the federal tax agency, Americans United noted that Falwell hosted the candidate at Liberty University and then sent an email message on Liberty University letterhead endorsing Huckabee. In a "Liberty News Alert" dated Dec. 1, 2007, Falwell wrote, "Recently, Governor Mike Huckabee called...

A group that opposes interaction between religion and government Tuesday accused Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. of violating federal tax law by using the school's resources to endorse Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. The group also asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate. In a complaint filed with the IRS, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (AU) noted that Falwell hosted the former Arkansas governor at a university event last Wednesday in Lynchburg, Va,

No matter who becomes the next president of the United States, the American people have already won a great victory – with the total disintegration of the once all-powerful religious right. Starting in 1979, when Jerry Falwell founded the Moral Majority, Christian conservatives have been the most powerful voting bloc in the Republican Party. (snip) Today, the religious right has splintered into as many different factions as O.J. Simpson has alibis. Unable to find one candidate who fits the bill of being both true-blue on the issues and electable, America's ayatollahs have divided their loyalties. Indeed, in some cases, they've...

Had CNN's Christianne Amanpour's "God's Warriors" not be a propaganda piece Had it be a documentary: You would have seen: Muslim clerics calling to kill non Muslims for no reason at all, for Allah. You would have seen: Video clips of homicide-bombers shouting 'Allah Akbar' (Allah is great!), at each massacre the Islamists perform. You would have seen: Jihad camps where little kids are being taught how non Muslims are apes and pigs and should be eliminated. You would have seen: Non violent Christians protesting abortion clinics (stressing the usual 'non-violence' aspect NOT the isolated 'bombing' of a clinic). You...

Falwell's insurance policies pay off Liberty University debt Associated Press Staff Reports OneNewsNow.com August 26, 2007 LYNCHBURG, Va. - Dr. Jerry Falwell had life insurance policies worth $34 million and the money has been used to erase the debt of Liberty University, the school he founded. The televangelist's son, Liberty Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr., says his father named the university and Lynchburg's Thomas Road Baptist Church as beneficiaries to protect their future. The policies left $29 million to Liberty and another $5 million to the 22,000-member Thomas Road congregation, which Falwell had led, according to the News & Advance of...

The Rev. Jerry Falwell had life insurance policies worth $34 million and the money has been used to erase the debt of Liberty University, the school he founded. The televangelist's son, Liberty Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr., said his father had named the university and the Thomas Road Baptist Church as beneficiaries to protect their future. The policies left $29 million to Liberty; its debt had reached $82 million in 1992, but the school had succeeded in paying off a significant amount before the elder Falwell's death. Another $5 million went to the 22,000-member Thomas Road congregation, which Falwell had led,...

uslims and evangelical Christians are talking — at least behind closed doors at the Egyptian Embassy — according to several guests at a top-secret lunch last week. The July 2 gathering lasted two hours and featured ambassadors from nine Arab states plus their umbrella group, and several prominent evangelical leaders or their sons. "They were assessing the next generation," said Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and one of the participants. "The meeting was reflective of the generational changes that are happening, and everyone knew it." The meeting, which was orchestrated by...

Article published Jul 11, 2007 Evangelicals, Muslims meet July 11, 2007 By Julia Duin - Muslims and evangelical Christians are talking — at least behind closed doors at the Egyptian Embassy — according to several guests at a top-secret lunch last week. The July 2 gathering lasted two hours and featured ambassadors from nine Arab states plus their umbrella group, and several prominent evangelical leaders or their sons. "They were assessing the next generation," said Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and one of the participants. "The meeting was reflective of the...

On Monday, July 2, I attended what I can only pray may become a historic meeting. Several weeks ago, I received a call about attending a meeting at the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, D.C. I was told this meeting would be hosted by the ambassador from Egypt and might be attended by representatives of other Arab nations, as well as by 10-15 pastors, evangelists and Christian media representatives. My interest stirred, I agreed to attend the meeting even though I was not quite sure of its purpose. I asked Dr. Ron Godwin, Liberty University's executive vice president, to attend with...

This week, I read that Ann Coulter had said some pretty shocking things about Democrat presidential candidate John Edwards. I wondered why she would say such things. Then, as Paul Harvey might say, I read the rest of the story. Here's the gist: On ABC's "Good Morning America" broadcast, Ann Coulter was asked about some critical language she had used about Edwards. In her response, she recalled something that the often-coarse comedian Bill Maher once said about Vice President Dick Cheney. She said, "… you know, Bill Maher was not joking and saying he wished Dick Cheney had been killed...

Racism propelled Falwell's career Wednesday, May 30, 2007 3:55 AM In his May 17 Dispatch Forum column, "Rev. Falwell changed the face of politics," appraising the late minister's legacy, Cal Thomas disingenuously characterized the Rev. Jerry Falwell's 1965 sermon, "Ministers and marches," as a critique of religious political activism. The sermon was actually an expression of Falwell's white-supremacist ideology. Falwell was an outspoken segregationist. Racism, not "values," launched Falwell and the Christian Right into politics. In a 1958 sermon to his Lynchburg, Va., congregation, one of many decrying civil rights, Falwell said, "When God has drawn a line of distinction,...

In 1984, the United States rectified a diplomatic anomaly when it formally recognized the Vatican and agreed to exchange ambassadors with the papal mini-state in Rome. But when Congress held hearings on the measure, at least one discordant voice was heard in dissent. Rev. Jerry Falwell, by then already a familiar figure as the head of the "Moral Majority" group, hustled to the Capitol to testify against the move. One might have expected Falwell's position to be based in the sort of theological antagonism between Baptists and Catholics that had its roots in the Reformation. But the roly-poly evangelical had...

While giving him credit (or in their secularist eyes, mostly the blame) for the rebirth of Christian political activism, most of the media commentary about the late Jerry Falwell centered around his so-called "controversial" remarks. Putting aside the fact that those remarks were solidly rooted in the Holy Bible and Judeo-Christian tradition, all of the emphasis should have been on his astonishing success in giving new meaning to that great old marching song "Onward, Christian Soldiers." Falwell was the marchers' chief recruiting sergeant. I keep hearing how Falwell was instrumental in electing my dad, Ronald Reagan. My reaction to that...

"Jerry Falwell hated gay people." "Jerry Falwell blamed abortions on promiscuous women." "Jerry Falwell wanted to lock up all the drug addicts in prison." In the past week, I have heard more misinformation, deceptive reporting and downright bias concerning Dr. Jerry Falwell than I could imagine. With a particular glee, these activists disguised as journalists spread salacious rumors. Christopher Hitchens, a Vanity Fair columnist, has taken great pleasure at brutally disparaging Dr. Falwell on every medium possible. He has not been alone. Yet the Jerry Falwell we on Liberty Mountain knew was far from this poisonous caricature. In fact, the...

I realize that the infamous pornographer Larry Flynt and Rev. Jerry Falwell were friendly adversaries. And I know they shared podiums while debating on college campuses. But that doesn't qualify the smut king to appear on national TV to comment on the life of the Christian leader who fought against immorality and most everything else Flynt represents. I agree with Dr. Judith Reisman, a former consultant to both the U.S. Department of Justice and the Ventura County (California) prosecuting attorney. It's appalling that CNN chose Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine, to appear on Larry King Live to discuss the passing...

The recent media tempest surrounding the passing of Reverend Jerry Falwell has blown away the mask of sublime compassion and tolerance worn by members of the mainstream left. Sadly – pitifully, really – the collective face exposed beneath the altruistic facade is one marred by ugliness and hatred – scarred by latent self-loathing. Anti-Christian activist and former John Edwards presidential campaign blogger Amanda Marcotte – whom Edwards defended prior to her resignation from his campaign – kicked off the dancing-on-the-grave hoedown on her popular Pandagon website. Upon news of Falwell’s death, Marcotte pronounced, “The gates of hell swing wide open...

HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” ran a show on May 18—repeated throughout this week—that began with an attack on the late Rev. Jerry Falwell and then devolved into an assault on Catholicism: “And it’s easy to start a religion! Watch, I'll do it for you: I had a vision last night! A vision! The Blessed Virgin Mary came to me—I don’t know how she got past the guards—and she told me it’s high time to take the high ground from the Seventh Day Adventists and give it to the 24-hour party people. And what happens in the confessional stays in...

The recent media tempest surrounding the passing of Reverend Jerry Falwell has blown away the mask of sublime compassion and tolerance worn by members of the mainstream left. Sadly – pitifully, really – the collective face exposed beneath the altruistic facade is one marred by ugliness and hatred – scarred by latent self-loathing. Anti-Christian activist and former John Edwards presidential campaign blogger Amanda Marcotte – whom Edwards defended prior to her resignation from his campaign – kicked off the dancing-on-the-grave hoedown on her popular Pandagon website. Upon news of Falwell’s death, Marcotte pronounced, “The gates of hell swing wide open...

Dr. Falwell was a significant American figure who deserves more than a media caricature. Those of us with first hand knowledge of him welcome the opportunity to provide a contrast to the one dimensional and simplistic images of Dr. Falwell that have presented. Jerry Falwell was above all else a family man. He was married for nearly fifty years to Macel, the church pianist. He flew home every night from wherever he was to be with her and their three children. He bragged shamelessly about them and later about his Grandkids. For those of us who observed him in Lynchburg,...

To gauge the impact of Jerry Falwell--or, more precisely, the political realignment he was a central figure in precipitating--it is helpful to review the voting behavior of conservative white Protestants in the presidential elections between 1976 and 1984, the years when Falwell's political influence emerged from nowhere and reached its peak. Jimmy Carter's capture of the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976 was important on several levels. Above all else it was a step back from the McGovern nomination of 1972, which was seen by millions of socially conservative Democrats as not merely antiwar but countercultural. (The most memorable unofficial slogan...

LYNCHBURG, Va. — The Rev. Jerry Falwell was remembered by thousands Tuesday as a champion of conservative Christian values who fearlessly galvanized the religious right into a powerful force in American politics. The funeral returned Falwell to his roots — the Thomas Road Baptist Church, where he started as a young preacher in 1956 with just 35 parishioners in an old, abandoned soda bottling plant. More than 10,000 people attended the funeral, many forced into overflow seating. "He was a champion of the fundamental values that we hold dear," fellow Virginia evangelist Pat Robertson said as he entered the sanctuary....

Today, protestors from WBC protested the late Rev. Jerry Falwell's funeral in Lynchburg, VA. These are the same people who protest at soldiers' funerals.

Jerry Falwell's funeral is today, and now that he is being laid to rest, it is appropriate to dissect the vicious treatment he has received at the hands of his enemies since his unexpected demise. We might have guessed that Jerry Falwell's death would be the occasion for a nice little corpse-kicking spree, but that doesn't make it any more pleasant to witness. The San Francisco gays held an "anti-memorial" in light of Falwell's adamant opposition to gay rights (though Falwell was on record in his support for basic civil rights for gays). The posts at Democratic Underground and Kos were...

Bomb Plot Thwarted at Falwell's Funeral Student Arrested With Homemade Bombs, Three Other Suspects Sought May 22, 2007 — Even in death, the Rev. Jerry Falwell rouses the most volatile emotions. Authorities arrested a Liberty University student for having several gasoline-based bombs in his car. The student, 19-year-old Mark Ewell of Amissville, Va., reportedly told authorities he was making the bombs to stop protesters from disrupting the funeral service. Three other suspects are being sought, one of whom is a soldier from Ft. Benning and another is a high school student. No information was available on a third person being...

If the Rev. Jerry Falwell personified the Christian right in the past, then the Rev. Frank S. Page may represent its future.From his Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., where his funeral will be held Tuesday, Falwell gave evangelicals a strong political voice. But it was often the voice of a sure and angry prophet, as when he blamed the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in part on "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians," or described warnings about global warming as "Satan's attempt" to turn the church's attention from evangelism to...

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, in light of recent remarks regarding the religious right I wanted to urge my colleagues to read the following Review & Outlook article from today's Wall Street Journal. I found the article very interesting and believe my colleagues will also. Call it whatever they may--the Christian right, the radical religious right, conservative Christians--it's clear that word of a vast new conspiracy against freedom, democracy and, oh yes, tolerance, is getting to be big news. This process oozed to a peak of sorts last week when Rep. Vic Fazio, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, condemned...

The nation’s leading Christian conservative is dead. On CNN’s “Crossfire” and other shows, I debated Jerry Falwell many times. I’m still trying to recover from that fact that he once called me “his favorite liberal.” But I will say: He was a true gentleman, always tough, and always fair. Jerry Falwell was a true believer. It’s too bad his brand of Christianity was so narrow and so negative. As a Christian myself, listening to Falwell, I often wondered if he and I had read the same Scripture. Certainly the Gospel of Jerry Falwell was not the Gospel of Jesus Christ....

THE FIRST TIME the Rev. Jerry Falwell put his hands on me, I was stunned. Not only had we been archenemies for 15 years, his beliefs and mine traveling in different solar systems, and not only had he sued me for $50 million (a case I lost repeatedly yet eventually won in the Supreme Court), but now he was hugging me in front of millions on the Larry King show. It was 1997. My autobiography, "An Unseemly Man," had just been published, describing my life as a publisher of pornography. The film "The People vs. Larry Flynt" had recently come...

LYNCHBURG, Va. - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told Liberty University's graduating class Saturday to honor the spirit of school founder Jerry Falwell by confronting "the growing culture of radical secularism" with Christian ideals. Gingrich, who is considering a 2008 presidential run, quoted Bible passages to a crowd of about 17,000 packed into the university's football stadium four days after Falwell's death. Despite the somber tone of the day, graduates who covered the football field chanted "Jerry! Jerry!" in tribute to Falwell. "A growing culture of radical secularism declares that the nation cannot profess the truths on which it was...

Commencement today marks new beginning for school he founded LYNCHBURG -- The Rev. Jerry Falwell planned to save America through his students, 3,598 of whom will graduate today from Liberty University inculcated with his evangelical, conservative vision. "The reason he built this place was to change the world," said Liberty student Mark Krom. "It's easy for me to buy into that. He was training champions for Christ." Falwell, 73, died from a heart condition Tuesday in his campus office. Thousands have come to the campus to view his body over the past several days. Falwell, in repose in a coffin...

The Rev. Jerry Falwell's passing seems to have traumatized the mainstream liberal press. Absent in its coverage of the event is even the normal pretense of objectivity. Take your choice. According to Newsweek, Falwell's "influence on American politics has been vastly overstated." His role, the article concludes, in the rise of the Christian right was not "significant." And according to Time, evangelical Christians are now moving into a big non-ideological tent, where all points of view are welcomed, and the evangelical movement has "left Falwell behind." I think a brief visitation with facts and reality might be in order here....

It's bad form to speak ill of the dead. Good thing this man's own vile words speak for themselves - You can eulogize. You can mourn and ponder and do a lengthy retrospective, a political analysis, a sociocultural examination of a career and a legacy and a rather remarkable life. When remembering the dead, the journalistic options are legion. But in the case of the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, the grandfather of the fundamentalist religious right and the foremost champion of the creation of a brutally homophobic, mysogynistic Christian theocracy in America, perhaps it's better to let the man's most...

The stand holding the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s coffin is the same one used for former U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s coffin at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., in June 2004. Known as a bier, the stand was received by Lynchburg’s Whitten Funeral Home from its parent company. “We thought it would be fitting,” said Jerry Falwell Jr., Falwell oldest son. “I think dad would be honored because he respected President Reagan so much.” Falwell Sr. often said Reagan was the greatest president he had known in his lifetime. Reagan died three years ago at the age of 93. Falwell passed...

Even in death, the Rev. Jerry Falwell on Thursday was clutching a Bible, which had been his centerpiece for most of his adult life. And to the thousands who filed past his body in the grand lobby of Liberty University’s Arthur S. DeMoss Learning Center, remembrances were deeply personal. They remembered the man who loved to laugh, lived to minister, or simply scared the daylights out of you with his loud truck horn. Beyond his résumé - which includes being the founding father of LU, Thomas Road Baptist Church and the Moral Majority - Falwell’s legacy is built on little...

IN MEMORIAM | Reverend brought others to God, but he also was a bully When doctors pronounced the Rev. Jerry Laymon Falwell Sr. dead at 12:40 p.m. EST Tuesday, I was sitting in the departures lounge of the Key West airport in Florida with a dozen other journalists who had just attended a three-day conference on religion and politics. As word spread -- a producer for National Public Radio got the first call -- my colleagues scrambled to their cell phones, BlackBerrys and laptops in preparation to write stories and, as was the case with a few, give live radio...

I was actually surprised to hear writer Christopher Hitchens' attitude toward Reverend Jerry Falwell's death, given the good sense this liberal has exhibited on the war issue. As a war supporter, I have been heartened by Hitchens' fervent and eloquent support for the Iraq war. I didn't quite understand how his war support could be reconciled with his liberalism considering liberals' near-uniform opposition to the war, but I was nonetheless grateful for it. Naively, I even speculated that Hitchens was on the verge of an ideological conversion. But after watching him on "Hannity and Colmes" about the departed Falwell, I...

No man in the last century better illustrated Jesus' warning that "All men will hate you because of me" than the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who left this world on Tuesday. Separately, no man better illustrates my warning that it doesn't pay to be nice to liberals. Falwell was a perfected Christian. He exuded Christian love for all men, hating sin while loving sinners. This is as opposed to liberals, who just love sinners. Like Christ ministering to prostitutes, Falwell regularly left the safe confines of his church to show up in such benighted venues as CNN. He was such a...

Why was the "mainstream" news media so negative toward Rev. Jerry Falwell? He stood up for God's Word He mixed religion and politics He was politically conservative He opposed homosexuality

Though he was the nation's most prominent evangelist since Billy Graham, the Rev. Jerry Falwell was best known for preaching a political gospel rather than a biblical one. In that respect, Falwell - who died yesterday at age 73 - accomplished something remarkable: Along with such figures as Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed, he gave powerful political voice to a sizable community, evangelical Christians, who long felt ignored by the national political leadership. To some, this proved a mixed blessing. True, his efforts in mobilizing these voters into a political force lay the groundwork for the election of Ronald Reagan...

JERRY FALWELL — SAY HELLO TO RONALD REAGAN! May 16, 2007 No man in the last century better illustrated Jesus' warning that "All men will hate you because of me" than the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who left this world on Tuesday. Separately, no man better illustrates my warning that it doesn't pay to be nice to liberals. Falwell was a perfected Christian. He exuded Christian love for all men, hating sin while loving sinners. This is as opposed to liberals, who just love sinners. Like Christ ministering to prostitutes, Falwell regularly left the safe confines of his church to show...

Even in his final years, the Rev. Jerry Falwell personified the religious right for many Americans. But the pastor, who died Tuesday at age 73, was from a generation of leaders that many evangelicals came to view as members of an "old guard" whose approach was outdated. Many conservative Christians active in politics today believe that the way Falwell confronted political foes made evangelicals seem hateful. The younger leaders also have been pressing for a broader policy agenda beyond abortion and traditional marriage by trying to include AIDS care, environmental protection and education. "It's a very important debate about the...

WBC to picket the funeral of Rev. Jerry Falwell - at Thomas Road Baptist Church, Lynchburg, Virginia - in religious protest and warning: "God is not mocked!,, Gal. 6:7. God Hates Fags! & Fag-Enablers! Ergo, God hates Jerry Falwell, Billy Graham, Pat Robertson, and all such Arminian heretic preachers - from fundamentalist evangelicals to openly gay Episcopalians and pedophile Catholics - all of whom have created the Satanic Sodomite Zeitgeist wherein America has irreversibly gone the way of Sodom. There is little doubt that Falwell split Hell wide open the instant he died. The evidence is compelling, overwhelming, and irrefragable....

In 2003, David Kuo resigned from the Bush administration's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and later wrote a book [published just before the 2006 mid-term elections] claiming that the administration was hypocritical in its dealings with religious conservatives. Liberals had a field day because according to them [as E.J. Dionne wrote here, for example], Kuo was a religious conservative himself. But is that true? What kind of religious conservative, the day after Jerry Falwell died, would go on MSNBC's Tucker Carlson show and say this about the late pastor?: DAVID KUO: In bringing the pulpit to politics in the...

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has issued a call to media outlets to stick to a script of liberal bias and emphasize "Falwell's history of denigrative comments and examine the cultural progress toward inclusion, acceptance and respect that he fought against." Their website even included a story from CNN’s Newsroom from Tuesday afternoon, in which CNN prominently included old protest video that placed a large illustration of Falwell’s face next to a large illustration of Hitler’s face. So much for GLAAD's "anti-defamation" pose. On "Anderson Cooper 360," CNN correspondent Randi Kaye, who raised eyebrows in December for a story worrying...

In 1979, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, then the head of a congregation he founded in Lynchburg, Va., with a popular television show, founded a group called the Moral Majority that would have a lasting effect on American politics. Mr. Falwell mobilized socially conservative Christian voters and turned them into an influential voting bloc, helping to elect Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984. Although the Moral Majority dissolved in 1989, the mobilized religious conservatives, the so-called values voters, helped carry President Bush to victory in 2000 and 2004. Mr. Falwell died yesterday after collapsing in his office at Liberty University, but...