Free Republic

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...

This is a big one folks. In a Brody File exclusive, we've found out that Paul Weyrich, the former co-founder of The Moral Majority has endorsed Mitt Romney for President. The Brody File has the press release. Read below: Today, Paul Weyrich, Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, announced his support for Governor Mitt Romney and his campaign to be our country's next President. Paul Weyrich is one of the premier leaders in the conservative movement, having founded the Heritage Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council. "As he travels across the country, Governor Romney...

For months, social conservatives have viewed Fred Thompson as a Reaganesque savior in a dreary field of GOP presidential hopefuls. But the former Tennessee senator's early days on the campaign trail have left some prominent evangelicals underwhelmed. "I'm personally not that impressed," says Paul Weyrich, a veteran strategist who cofounded the Moral Majority. One sticking point: Thompson's stance on a same-sex marriage ban. On the trail, he has declined to endorse a constitutional amendment blocking gay marriage, instead backing a broader amendment that would bar states from imposing their laws on other states. "The [marriage ban] approach has been tried...

Megachurch Leader D. James Kennedy Dies By MATT SEDENSKY Wednesday, September 5, 2007 The Rev. D. James Kennedy, a pioneering Christian broadcaster and megachurch pastor whose fiercely conservative worldview helped fuel the rise of the religious right in American politics, died Wednesday. He was 76. Kennedy died at his home in Fort Lauderdale, said Kristin Cole, a spokeswoman for Kennedy's Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. The cause of death has not been determined, but Kennedy had not been seen publicly he suffered cardiac arrest Dec. 28. His retirement was announced last month. Kennedy's voice and face were known to millions through...

Jerry Falwell’s passing two months ago marks the beginning of the end. As the senior leadership of evangelical America fades from the scene, they will pass the torch to a younger ministry whose views on politics and social issues are very different. The role they will play in the Republican party will determine America’s political future for years to come. Evangelical leaders of Falwell’s generation oversaw the rise of political clout for fundamentalist Christianity. They founded the Moral Majority, the Christian Coalition, the American Coalition for Traditional Values, and Focus on the Family. Pat Robertson even ran for president in...

Ultimately, Jerry Falwell was a man who loved God and who loved people, one who tried to live out the greatest Commandment in his life. Comparisons have been made between Falwell and his contemporary (they both were in the spotlight in the early 1980's) President Ronald Reagan. Both men shared something in common from their early lives. They grew up in homes where their fathers were addicted to alcohol and their mothers were addicted to prayer. And they both went on to great achievement while being known as followers of Jesus Christ. Jerry Falwell's mother listened to a preacher on...

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...

May God Bless and thank you Rev. Falwell I wish to thank you for your courageous, unselfish, and unyielding, life of service, to all of us, not only those of faith, but from an entire nation.. Your leadership and moral guidance through times of tumult and tragedy has raised the bar, and served as an example to all men of good will.. Your sage advice will be surely missed, and your faith in God and your fellow man has left us all in your benevolent debt..

Jerry Falwell will be remembered as a man who strongly believed in his ideas and core values and acted upon them by dedicating his life. In the days when many politicians and leaders are putting their fingers to the wind maybe some of them will look at Falwell's example.

The Rev. Jerry Falwell was found unconscious in his office Tuesday and taken to the hospital. AP and internet reports are sketchy.

Editor's note: Jay Bakker, son of former Praise The Lord leaders Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Messner, is minister of Revolution Church and subject of a new documentary series, "One Punk Under God," on Sundance Channel. Marc Brown is a Revolution staff member. NEW YORK (CNN) -- What the hell happened? Where did we go wrong? How was Christianity co-opted by a political party? Why are Christians supporting laws that force others to live by their standards? The answers to these questions are integral to the survival of Christianity. While the current state of Christianity might seem normal and business-as-usual...

MANY have wondered if my invitation to Senator John McCain to deliver the commencement address next Saturday to our graduating class at Liberty University represents my support for his possible run for the presidency in 2008. It does not. The senator's speech does not symbolize an endorsement of an unannounced candidacy on my part, and it does not mark the quest for such an endorsement on his part. Mr. McCain has never sought such an endorsement, and I have not offered one. To understand the significance of Mr. McCain's commencement address, it helps to understand Liberty University. Since I founded...

True Conservatives Running as Independents against Anti-Family, Anti-Life ‘Conservative’ Candidates By Terry Vanderheyden OTTAWA, December 22, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – At least two conservative pro-family independents have decided to face-off with Conservatives who support same-sex “marriage” and abortion in the federal election. Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam, BC, Conservative MP James Moore riled a host of conservatives after he won his seat in 2000 while claiming that he was pro-family and pro-life, then later voted in favour of the Liberal Party’s gay “marriage” legislation. Now a former member of his riding executive, Greg Watrich, is running against Moore as an independent. “There is...

Institutionally, there is no way for fundamentalism to overcome its schizophrenia. It must choose either comprehensive cultural retreat or comprehensive cultural victory, either pietism or Christendom. Three basic ideas are crucial for the success of any religious, social, intellectual, and political movement. First, the doctrine of predestination. Second, the doctrine of law. Third, the doctrine of inevitable victory. The fusion of these three ideas has led to the victories of Marxism since 1848. The Communists believe that historical forces are on their side, that Marxism-Leninism provides them with access to the laws of historical change, and that their movement must...

Due to a labour disruption, regular programming on CBC 1 and CBC 2 is unavailable at this time. We apologize for the inconvenience. Enough already with this %$#@ irritating apology every few minutes on CBC Radio. What, CBC, you think your listeners are so dumb that they have to be told over and over again? What an insult. Everybody knows CBC listeners are the self-proclaimed creme de la creme of the intelligentsia; if they don't know by now that their stratospherically intellectual dosages of regular programming have been deep-sixed by the labour disruption, our country is in serious trouble. Being...

The Conservatives say they won't drop the divisive same-sex issue this fall and promise to try to repeal it if they form the next government. The federal Conservatives are still committed to revisiting the controversial same-sex marriage issue when the House returns in nine weeks, even though Bill C-38 received Royal Assent last week and despite last week's public opinion poll suggesting that a majority of Canadians don't want to reopen the divisive political issue. Conservative MP Vic Toews (Provencher, Man.), his party's high-profile justice critic and a former Manitoba justice minister, told The Hill Times that the Conservatives will...

But some of the more aggressive Canadian activists are taking pages from the political strategies of the American religious right. Their campaign against the Liberal gay marriage bill has included provocative direct-mail campaigns, creation of policy think-tanks and lobbying centres, and the deliberate targeting for defeat of politicians they oppose.

Christian right sets up shop ANALYSIS / Welcome to post-SSM trench warfare Gareth Kirkby / Capital Xtra / Thursday, July 14, 2005 Something changed in Canada during the national debate over same-sex marriage. We now live in a new period of religious anger. Of extremist rhetoric. Of evangelical absolutism. Our community needs to get ready for US-style trench warfare as a new generation of religious Canadians start to flex their still weak, but growing, muscles in the public square. A sleeping giant has been awoken by Canada's debate about same-sex civil marriage rights: the Christian right. Their engagement in the...

Same-sex marriage bill passes in Commons CTV.ca News Staff Canada will become the third country in the world to officially sanction same-sex marriage. In a 158 to 133 vote, the House of Commons adopted Bill C-38 -- the controversial legislation legalizing same-sex marriage from coast to coast -- on its third and final reading Tuesday night. The Liberals had the support of almost all New Democrat and Bloc Quebecois MPs for the vote. The bill will become official once it receives approval in the Senate. An earlier Conservative motion to send the bill back to committee was voted down 158...

Christian activists capturing Tory races Some in party worry new riding nominees will reinforce notion of 'hidden agenda' By GLORIA GALLOWAY Friday, May 27, 2005 Page A1 OTTAWA -- Christian activists have secured Conservative nominations in clusters of ridings from Vancouver to Halifax -- a political penetration that has occurred even as the party tries to distance itself from hard-line social conservatism. At least three riding associations in Nova Scotia, four in British Columbia, and one in suburban Toronto have nominated candidates with ties to groups like Focus on the Family, a Christian organization that opposes same-sex marriage. But organizers...

Our Opinion: Politicians watch as heat rises North Bay Nugget Local News - Wednesday, May 25, 2005 @ 08:00 Judging by a rally at the Ontario legislature Monday, the religious community is starting to get organized in its opposition to same-sex marriage. Even though the number may appear small — 3,000 turned up for the event — it may be just the beginning of a larger, national campaign that may turn heads in Ottawa. One merely has to look south to the U.S. presidential election that saw the religious right become a political force that helped elect a president who...

THE screen's first official gay bar," as it was labeled by the film historian Vito Russo, appeared in the 1962 political potboiler "Advise and Consent." Its most prominent visitor was a conservative United States senator. As sheer coincidence would have it, Otto Preminger's adaptation of Allen Drury's best seller about a brutal confirmation fight was released on a sparkling new DVD last week just as the John Bolton nomination was coming to its committee vote. Like Hollywood's other riveting political movie of 1962, "The Manchurian Candidate," "Advise and Consent" is fallout from the McCarthy era: the controversial nominee for secretary...

Conservatives surge ahead Liberals in freefall after devastating Gomery testimony SUSAN DELACOURT AND ROBERT BENZIE OTTAWA AND TORONTO The poll, conducted by EKOS Research Associates, shows the federal Liberals are in a dramatic freefall, even in their usual Ontario stronghold. EKOS surveyed Canadians immediately following the release of devastating testimony last Thursday by former Montreal ad executive Jean Brault at the inquiry looking into the federal government's sponsorship scandal. Brault alleged gross misconduct in the Quebec wing of the federal Liberal party. The pollster found that only 25 per cent of respondents nationwide would vote today for the Liberals, compared...

After years of decline, Christian church attendance soars in 21st century In a cramped church basement in Little Italy, the Roman guards are frantically looking for their robes, the Madonnas are in makeup and the Lady of Sorrows has yet to arrive. Outside St. James' Cathedral downtown, Ted May is panhandling with a paper cup while pondering when he'll take a shower at the drop-in centre nearby so he can head into the Good Friday service himself. While in Scarborough, Pastor Karl Lam welcomes a packed house to his Toronto Chinese United Church, including dozens of youth who will spend...

Jerry Falwell in Critical Condition U.S. National - AP By BOB LOWRY, Associated Press Writer LYNCHBURG, Va. - The Rev. Jerry Falwell was hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday, battling his second case of viral pneumonia in just five weeks, hospital and church officials said. Falwell, 71, was admitted to Lynchburg General Hospital shortly before midnight Monday suffering from "respiratory arrest," the hospital said in a statement. He was put on a ventilator and stabilized but remained in critical condition, the hospital said. "He's resting comfortably and in stable condition," said Ron Godwin, Falwell's executive assistant. "It's a recurrence of the...

A top official of the National Association of Evangelicals told reporters gathered at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary that the Moral Majority, a 1980s political movement dominated by Christian conservatives, was ''an aberration and a regrettable one at that," even though it drew evangelicals into the political process, because the organization was ''fatally flawed by a hubris that made the movement condescending and more than a bit judgmental." ''The Moral Majority lacked a servant heart of Christ born out of humility and compassion for a fallen humanity," said the official, Robert Wenz, who is vice president of national ministries for the National...

I Am A Conservative Christian, And The Religious Right Scares Me, Too -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Chuck Baldwin -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Covenant News ~ December 15, 2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For those readers who are unfamiliar with my biography, let me here provide a thumbnail sketch of my conservative bona fides: I attended, graduated, or received degrees from fundamentalist Christian schools such as Midwestern Baptist College in Pontiac, Michigan, Thomas Road Bible Institute (now known as Liberty Bible Institute at Liberty University) in Lynchburg, Virginia, Christian Bible College in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and Trinity Baptist College in Jacksonville, Florida. I am currently in my...

This is "must hear" interview. If anyone wants to discover how to forcefully and convincingly defend conservative principles against the continuous barrage of negative attention, most of it generated by the media mavens and their political cronies, they need to listen to this man. In my book, he was just as vital to the dissemination-and eventual acceptance among the American public-of bedrock conservative values as Paul Weyrich, William F. Buckley Jr., Russell Kirk and other pioneers in this field. Sit back and enjoy.

LYNCHBURG, Va. — What Debra Meador read disturbed her. It didn't seem right that schoolchildren were once barred from holding prayer groups after class. Or that the Ten Commandments couldn't be displayed in a government building. So at 34, the human relations specialist from Lynchburg made good on a longtime interest by enrolling in law school. But unlike most prospective lawyers, she applied to only one place. "I wanted to take it in a Christian setting," said Meador, a member of the inaugural law class at Liberty University, a Baptist college founded here in 1971 by the Rev. Jerry Falwell....

For decades, leftists have waged a relentless crusade against the faith. On November 2, they paid the price. Here’s one for Ripley’s Believe-It-Or-Not: The Democrats have spent decades making life miserable for Christians. On Election Day, Christians returned the favor. Since at least the mid-1970s, the Democratic Party and its allies have devoted themselves to alternately sneering at and savaging Christians. They’ve depicted the followers of Jesus – evangelical Protestants and traditional Catholics in particular – as superstitious degenerates, bigots, trailer-park misogynists, both sexually repressed and hypocritically lecherous, and a gang of Torquemada wannabes who constitute a clear and present...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 - Victory may have a thousand fathers, but if President Bush's triumph this week had a Big Daddy it was indisputably Karl Rove - the seer, strategist and serious student of politics and the presidency that a grateful Mr. Bush himself referred to as the architect of his winning campaign. And with Mr. Bush's re-election, Mr. Rove has not only cemented his reputation as one of the canniest campaign gurus in a generation but has also put himself in position to shape second-term policies that could help realize his longtime goal of consolidating a broad Republican electoral...

Tuesday, January 13, 2004, 12:00 a.m. Pacific Democrats try to forge a new moral majority CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa; Rep. Richard A. Gephardt is the bread-and-butter candidate who talks about lost jobs and trade. But in the middle of his stump speech at a packed rally in the public library here last Friday, a sermon broke out. Health coverage, he said, is not about economics. "It's a moral issue," he insisted. "It is immoral for people not to be covered by health insurance." And he closed by riffing with a preacher's rhythm on the refrain "We're all tied together" to evangelize...